Cut Off His Tale: A Hollis Grant Mystery (9 page)

What to wear? Wrapped in a terry robe, she moved hangers in the closet. Although she favoured dramatic bright outfits
and large flashy jewellery, she thought a more conservative outfit would be appropriate. She reached for black leather pants and paired them with a white cable knit sweater. Dressed, she moved to her studio and picked up the race list. It was great to have a job, especially one that might help the police catch the killer.

At nine thirty, Elsie knocked, opened the door and slipped inside. “Detective Simpson is here. Where would you like to talk to her? How about coffee?”

“Right here will be fine and coffee or tea, if the detective's a tea drinker, would be great. I'll come down and bring up a tray.”

Elsie rocked back on her sensible shoes. “Nonsense, I'm here to make your life easier. Betty Erickson brought over a loaf of her apricot banana bread and a tin of chocolate chip cookies. They're still warm. I'll send the detective up then bring a tray.”

Hollis disregarded Elsie's implicit instruction to stay put and followed her downstairs.

Detective Simpson waited inside the front vestibule.

As she descended the oak stairs, Hollis watched MacTee, plumed tail wagging, move in on Simpson, who obliged with a pat and a kind word while simultaneously skillfully avoiding the string of saliva hanging from the dog's mouth.

If she liked dogs, she couldn't be all bad.

Upstairs in the studio office, the sun flooded through the wall of windows in what originally had been the sun porch. The bright light intensified the colours of the pink geraniums and magenta cyclamens crowded together on the white bookshelves and gave Hollis's huge flower paintings an almost neon vividness.

Simpson chose an overstuffed chair slip-covered in blue ticking, adjusted the blue and white patchwork cushions and
removed the race list from her capacious shoulder bag. She laid it down on the round white painted coffee table, dug in her bag and retrieved a pen.

Hollis collected her program from the desk, moved the worn but glowing wedding-ring quilt from a second overstuffed chair and sat facing Simpson. Neither had yet said anything.

Elsie burst the bubble of silence when she bustled in with an oval silver tray loaded with thermos jugs of coffee and tea, mugs, a plate of sweet things and paper napkins.

“I'd pour for you, but I'm sure you'd rather do it yourself and get on with your work. I'll leave everything here on the table.”

After they'd filled their cups, Hollis thumbed through her race book. “I've marked the names I recognized.” She reached for her red wire-rimmed glasses parked on top of her head and anchored in her hair. “Are we going over the names, or is the annotated list okay?”

Simpson placed her cup on the table before she opened her program. “The annotated list is
not
okay. If that was all I wanted, I would have sent someone to collect your copy. I want you to tell me how each person you've marked was connected to your husband.”

Her tone of voice wasn't pleasant.

Hollis wanted to throw the cup at her and scream that she was doing her best, that she wanted the killer caught as much as Simpson did, but she only sighed. What good would a temper tantrum do?

“Sorry. I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Please go ahead,” Simpson said.

The two women eyed each other warily.

Hollis opened her program, identified one person after another and told Simpson what she knew about each one.
When she reached Marcus Toberman's name, she chose her words carefully.

“Marcus was a spokesperson for the City Church, the homosexual Christian congregation. Before Christmas, they applied for permission to conduct their services at St. Mark's. Decisions like that are made at a congregational meeting. I wasn't there, but I heard it was horrible, and their application was rejected.”

“Did you know Mr. Toberman?”

“We've been friends for years, ever since we took a course together at the University of Ottawa.” Hollis paused. Was this the time to mention Marcus's visit to the manse a week or ten days after the meeting and the shouting match he'd had with Paul? Marcus had enough problems without Madam Inquisitor having a go at him. She'd talk to Marcus herself. If she had even the tiniest suspicion he might be involved, she'd tell Simpson.

“How did Toberman take the congregation's decision?”

“I don't know; I wasn't there.”

The next underlined name on her list was Tessa Uiska. “She's the wife of Kas Yantha, the doctor who was with me in the medical tent. Tessa's a doctor and a good friend of mine.”

Simpson raised her hand. “Hang on. How did they both get along with Paul?”

“They didn't. They had very little to do with him.”

“How can that be when you say she's a friend?”

“It's not complicated. Three years ago, after our wedding, I arranged for the four of us to have dinner together. As I said, Tessa and I have been friends since we were undergraduates, and when Kas and I met, we hit it off right away. I thought it would be natural to have the four of us together. But, at our one and only dinner, Paul made it clear we wouldn't be a foursome. He wasn't unpleasant, but he discouraged any
suggestion of future socializing.”

“Would they connect with him in any other context?”

“Not socially, but Paul wasn't shy about using anybody who had information he required. Because he was familiar with Kas's expertise on deviant behaviour, he was paying him to vet his manuscript.”

“That was a first draft of the manuscript for the new book.”

“No, Paul respected my editorial abilities, and I'd gone through it. He wouldn't have wanted anyone else to see it until it was nearly perfect.”

“I'll be talking to you about the book later. Please continue.”

“Roger Workman is the husband of Elsie, the woman downstairs. Roger and Paul got along fine.”

Three more names and they reached the end. Simpson laid the booklet on the table.

Hollis sat back, wondering what else Simpson would ask.

“Would you describe your husband's personality?”

Where to start? Could she even say he had a single personality? The more she found out, the more she wondered if he had had multiple personalities. Hollis twisted in her chair, tucked her feet under her, clutched her coffee cup and peered into its depths. When she'd seen him lying on the road, she'd felt terrible, but now anger had replaced pity. Her eyes filled with tears of rage.

Simpson dug in her bag and handed Hollis a small package of Kleenex.

Hollis put the cup on the table, pulled a tissue from the pack and blew her nose.

“Let me ask you specific questions. How long had you been married?”

“Three years.”

“How did you meet?”

“I'm a social historian. I teach at a community college.”

“I'm not sure I know what a social historian does, and I certainly don't know how that explains how you met.”

“I'm getting there,” Hollis said. There was a note of annoyance in her voice. This women was so pushy. She could at least listen without interrupting. “A social historian collects and writes the history of common people, their customs and way of life. When male historians predominated, they wrote of politics and wars, but there's much more to history. I guess you could say I'm one of the experts. I've published three books and many articles.” Hollis heard the enthusiasm in her voice. This was one of her favourite topics.

“I repeat, what does this have to do with meeting your husband?”

“In July and August I do field work in my specialty—folklore and music. Helen Creighton pioneered the work more than fifty years ago when she traveled the Maritimes making notes and later, when portable recording machines appeared on the market, recording songs, superstitions and folk tales. Three summers ago, I followed her trail around the Maritimes. With her information as a base, I drove the back roads talking to old people and recording their generation's memories. I also took millions of reference slides for my paintings.”

Simpson's legs were crossed, and one cowboy boot jerked faster and faster.

Time to speed up. “Later in August, after I'd worked for six weeks in Lunenburg County, I drove to Halifax to catch an art exhibit of Linda Climo's animal paintings.”

Simpson's toe tapped more quickly.

“I spent the weekend with an old school friend who's
married to a United Church minister. Paul was teaching a course at the Pine Hill Divinity School, and my friends invited him to dinner. The next day, we went sailing on the Arm . . . the rest is history.” And it's not the sort of history I want to write about, Hollis thought, and realized her teeth were clenched, her shoulders lifted, her whole body expressed her rage.

The tapping toe slowed. “But it didn't end happily ever after?”

“No.” Should she confess Paul had accused her of presenting a false image, of hoodwinking him into marrying a fictitious woman? Tell her she'd acted impulsively her entire life and married Paul almost as a lark. “Maybe we were too old, too set in our ways. Paul was difficult, complicated.” Could she say he was a deceitful, lying son of a bitch? Maybe if she was a suspect, that wouldn't be wise.

“Ms Grant, telling me unpleasant truths about your husband does not make you disloyal or show lack of respect for the dead. Familiarizing myself with the good and bad aspects of his character will provide me with clues to uncover the motive for his murder.” Simpson's sharp tone warned Hollis to get on with her story.

“The sooner the killer is caught . . .” The sound of the closing door in the supposedly empty church echoed in her mind. She'd give this woman all the help she could. “Paul liked power. He was narcissistic and viewed people around him only as they reflected him. His religion came from the Old Testament. He judged sinners harshly.” And he certainly had firsthand knowledge of a variety of sins.

“Probably not an uncommon trait among the clergy.”

“No, I suppose not.” Before she revealed the worst of Paul, she'd at least give him credit for what he had done. “On the other side of the ledger, he did measurable amounts of good. He didn't
support an issue or cause unless he was prepared to give a hundred and ten per cent of his energy. Two examples: his enthusiasm and work for refugee resettlement and his commitment to raising the profile of the Christian homosexual community.”

“I understand he wrote about the gay community and its treatment by society in his most recent book. Are you familiar with the manuscript?”

“Yes. As I said, I edited the most recent draft before he passed the manuscript to Kas.”

“Tell me about your husband's . . .” The detective paused and didn't quite look Hollis in the eye as she finished the sentence, “extramarital affairs.”

No quarter from this woman. No sympathy for the newly widowed. However, other than her, who would be more likely to kill Paul than a cuckolded husband? “I think it's time for me to be frank. Paul was not a good man. Last night Marguerite Day told me,” she paused and looked down at her hands, wishing she didn't have to share this information. “Paul had sex with one of the women he was counselling.” She raised her eyes and met the detective's steady gaze. “That is
so
despicable, but it gets worse—the woman killed herself.”

“I can understand how painful it must have been to hear that. And what about his affairs?”

“Sally Staynor was the current one.”

“Did you know her?”

“No. Marguerite said you were in church yesterday when Sally, who was with her son Dan, had hysterics. Poor Dan.” Hollis fiddled with a strand of wool hanging from the bottom of her sweater and thought how awful his mom's scene must have been for him. “But you want to hear about Sally. She and Paul worked together on St. Mark's most recent project—resettling a Salvadorian family.”

Simpson picked up the marathon program and flipped through it. “Would the JJ Staynor, Oneida Drive, Ottawa, be her husband?”

“How did I miss his name?”

“I can't imagine.”

Hollis thought Simpson's tone implied that Hollis had done it deliberately but she could be wrong.

“Do you know him?” Simpson asked.

“Only that he owns The Annex Chop Shop.”

“What about other women?”

“I haven't got a clue. You'll have to ask Barbara Webb or someone else.” She met Simpson's gaze, “I'm sure if there was one, there were many, many more. I'm having a hard time adjusting to what I've heard and facing the fact that I didn't know my husband at all.”

Simpson raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“Barbara Webb said Reverend Robertson took his private papers to the manse. Where are they, and what volume of paper are we talking about?”

Did she have to admit her ignorance? “I'm not sure.” She hazarded a guess. “Two, maybe three filing cabinets.”

“How many drawers in each one?”

Time to own up. “Actually, I haven't any idea. This is going to sound bizarre, but Paul keeps his clothes and personal papers and belongings in a locked bedroom, and I've never been inside. I could have—his keys are in his downstairs study—but we'd made a deal, and I respected his wishes.”

Simpson eyebrows rose, and she peered over her tortoiseshell glasses. “You can show me or give me the key. I'll arrange to have the papers moved to the police station. Two more questions. Did your husband leave a large estate, and who benefits from his death?”

Ah-ha. The key questions: was there enough money to motivate murder and who would inherit? Her hands trembled again. Simpson would think she was guilty. She crossed her arms and tucked the offending hands out of sight. “His mother left him a sizable amount when she died more than twenty years ago. The invested income allowed him independence from the church. Since we were in the process of divorcing, I imagine if I was the beneficiary, I no longer am.” Time to clarify her position. “I'm aware money is a motive for murder, but I earn a good salary and someday . . .” She unfolded her arms, reached forward and superstitiously touched the wooden table, “someday, I'll come into a sizeable amount from my mother, who's a very successful chartered accountant.”