Kilt Dead (34 page)

“It could have been anybody.”

Liss held her breath.

“It could have been Jase. At the time I thought it was.
I didn’t try the door because I didn’t want to talk to him.
We’d quarreled earlier. He said I wasn’t doing much
lately to earn my keep. Jerk. I put on one of my best per formances over that damned kilt.” She gave a humorless
laugh when she saw Liss’s expression. “You didn’t guess.
Damn I’m good. It was all an act. Jase wanted to get a look
at the building, just as you said. He thought he could con
you into lending him the key. He didn’t know about the
one over the door.”

“And you didn’t tell him?”

“I would have if he hadn’t been so snarky. Then I
thought, why don’t I take a look around for myself. If I
found something we could use to convince your aunt to
sell cheap, he’d give me credit for it. I’ve got to say that
much for him-he’s fair with commissions.”

“Did he kill Mrs. Norris?”

“How would I know?”

Barbara’s perfume, Liss thought, wasn’t the only thing
about her that stank to high heaven. “You must have suspicions. He claimed he was with you, as if he needed an
alibi.”

She shrugged. “Could have been something else he didn’t
want people to know about. Maybe out at the ho-” She
bit off the word, then shrugged. “Oh, hell, I’ve said this
much. If he killed that old woman it won’t make much
difference anyway. He’d been talking about doing a little
sabotage out at The Spruces. Helping Joe Ruskin along toward failure so he could step in and scoop up the pieces. I
don’t know if he did anything or not, but he did talk to
some guy Joe’d fired”

Some alibi for the time of the murder if he did, Liss
thought.

“You need to go to the police,” she said aloud.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Think about this. If you don’t tell them your suspicions about him, what’s to stop him from pointing a finger at you?”

“I don’t know it was Jase in there. Could have been
anybody.” And with that, Barbara refused to say more.

In the middle of the night, Liss woke from an uneasy
sleep. No matter how she tried, she could not drop off again.
She kept going over what Barbara had said and what didn’t
fit.

Barbara wasn’t the murderer. Her perfume would have
lingered in the stockroom if she’d killed Mrs. Norris. And
if she’d broken into Aunt Margaret’s apartment, Liss would
have smelled it throughout the living room and kitchen.

Jason Graye was a more likely killer. She could imagine him pushing Mrs. Norris. What she couldn’t fathom
was why he’d return to the scene of the crime. It had not
been to steal the blue binder. Graye didn’t even know it
existed.

So who had searched the apartment and what had he
or she been looking for?

Whoever it was had to be the same someone who’d
taken Aunt Margaret’s key, and that was the murderer.
Wasn’t it?

For some reason, Liss found herself thinking about the
safe and what was in it. And what wasn’t. She’d found the
papers Aunt Margaret had said would be there, but not
her diamond ring. She’d meant to check her aunt’s jewelry box for it, but so much else had been going on that it
had slipped her mind.

Throwing back the covers, Liss padded barefoot into
the other bedroom. A quick search revealed that the ring
was not there, either.

Wrapped in an afghan, legs curled beneath her on the
living room sofa, Liss sat in the dark and considered what
that meant. There was no escaping the unpalatable conclusion.

She thought about calling the police to tell them what
she suspected, but there didn’t seem much point in it.
Twice burned, third time shy. She had a pretty good idea what LaVerdiere’s reaction would be to any suggestion
she made.

By the time the sun came up, Liss had already downed
three cups of coffee. She watched Dan head off for work.
She’d have called him after her return from Barbara’s if
he’d been home. He hadn’t yet returned by the time she
went to bed. This morning … well, he’d only try to talk
her out of what she wanted … needed to do.

At a little past seven, she left Aunt Margaret’s apartment, too impatient to wait any longer. She was halfway
to her destination, walking swiftly, before second thoughts
overtook her. She did not believe she would be in any
danger, but it wouldn’t hurt to take one simple precaution. As she continued on, she pulled out the cell phone
Dan had insisted she borrow and called the sheriff’s office in Fallstown. Sherri had just started her shift.

Liss was standing in front of Ned’s building by the
time she’d filled Sherri in on what she’d decided to do and
why. “Promise you won’t say anything yet,” she added.
“If I’m wrong, I don’t want to embarrass myself or my
cousin. If I’m right, Ned deserves the chance to do the
right thing.”

“Liss, you’re making a mistake. A big one”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll call you back in a couple of hours and
let you know what happened”

“Liss-“

“Relax. This is Ned.”

As she returned the phone to her purse, clicking “end”
as she did so, she thought she heard Sherri say, “That’s
what worries me”

This time Ned didn’t see her coming. Everything else
was the same. His disheveled appearance, the piles of discarded clothing, the miasma of neglect about the entire
apartment.

Suddenly feeling awkward, Liss said the first thing
that came into her head: “You need a cleaning lady.”

“Can’t afford one” He sounded testy. “Look, Liss,
can’t this wait? You got me out of bed. I haven’t even had
coffee yet”

She hung a left into his tiny kitchen. “I’ll make you
some” Wrinkling her nose in distaste at the sight and
smell of dirty dishes in the sink, she foraged for the makings. It surprised her a little to find a fancy French press
instead of a coffee pot. The coffee blend she found in the
refrigerator had been fresh-ground at Patsy’s within the
last few days.

Ned disappeared while she was filling a glass measuring cup with water. He returned just as it came out of the
microwave. He’d washed his face and combed his hair,
but hadn’t bothered to change from the baggy sweats and
t-shirt he’d slept in. Well, why should he? She was family,
and uninvited, besides.

“Ned, we need to talk.” Keeping one eye on him and
one on what she was doing, Liss poured the boiling water
over the coffee in the French press and gave it a stir with
a long-handled spoon.

“Sheesh. Why do women always say that?”

His attempt at humor fell flat. Liss set the microwave
timer for five minutes and turned to face him. “You were
the one in Aunt Margaret’s apartment the other night.”

Ned was not awake enough to hide the flash of guilt
that accompanied his automatic denial. Liss felt as if
she’d just taken a body blow. She’d had her suspicions,
but she’d kept hoping she was wrong. This was going to
kill Aunt Margaret.

“You can’t lie your way out of this one, Ned. I know
what you did. I even know why. The only thing left is to
decide where we go from here”

The timer dinged. Automatically, she finished making
the coffee and poured two cups, adding sugar and cream to Ned’s. She knew how he liked his coffee, but until now
she’d had no clue what he was capable of. Abruptly, Liss
sat, wrapping both hands around her mug, but she didn’t
want more coffee. She wanted something much stronger.

Ned took the chair opposite her. “What do you think
you’ve figured out?”

“You knew Lumpkin bit ankles. But you also claimed
you hadn’t been in Mrs. Norris’s house in years. So how
did you know that? Lumpkin is an indoor cat. The only
place you could have encountered him, and his teeth, was
in your mother’s apartment in the middle of the night”

His smile was more of a sneer. “That’s your logic?”

“There’s more. I know what you were after. When I
talked to Aunt Margaret, she told me what was in the safe.
She wasn’t sure about one item-her engagement ringso when it wasn’t there, I wasn’t too concerned. But then
I got to thinking.” She gestured at their surroundings. “You
were short of cash, out of a job. Maybe you decided to
help yourself to something you expected to inherit one
day anyhow. You didn’t find it in the safe, so you tried
again later and took it from her jewelry box.”

“Think you’re smart, don’t you?”

“I think there was a terrible accident on the the day
you broke into the safe. Obviously you didn’t intend to
hurt Mrs. Norris.” If he’d only admit the truth to her, turn
himself in to the authorities, she’d help him all she could.
He was family. She couldn’t abandon him just because of
one terrible mistake.

He drank more coffee, watching her intently over the
rim. “You’re right about a couple of things,” he said at last,
“but not all of it. I spent an hour or more going through
the shop and the apartment looking for cash. Mom used
to stash twenties all over the place-for emergencies.”

“I remember finding one in the cookie jar once.” Liss
almost smiled.

“Yeah. Well, I came up empty there and everywhere else I looked. I didn’t dare take any of your stuff. All that
was left was Mom’s jewelry box. She only has a couple of
good pieces and I figured she’d notice if they went missing, but I needed rent money. I was all set to take them
and hock them down to Fallstown, even if she would figure out I took them, when I found a slip of paper in the
bottom of the jewelry box with the combination to the
safe on it. That’s when I remembered her diamond ring.”

“Wait a minute. The ring was in the safe? I thought
that’s what you were looking for when you came back”

“I had the ring.”

“Then why were you in the apartment the other night?”

He shrugged. “You’re a list-maker. Always have been.
Just like my mother. After you said you were going to
snoop around, I figured you’d be keeping track of what
you found. I wanted to see if my name was on one of your
little lists. I couldn’t find any,” he added in an accusatory
tone.

“I had them in the bedroom with me”

“Figures” The look he sent her over the rim of his coffee mug was full of resentment and something else she
could not quite identify.

Increasingly uneasy, Liss kept her eyes on her cousin.
As long as he was willing to talk, she’d listen. She wasn’t
prepared to give up on him quite yet, although it was getting harder not to be judgmental. He didn’t seem to be
sorry for anything he’d done, just angry that she’d found
out too much to be put off by his lies.

“I’d just taken the ring out of the safe when Amanda
Norris walked in the back door, bold as you please. She
had the nerve to ask me what I was doing there”

“She saw the ring box?”

“Of course she did.” Ned sounded disgusted. “That
eagle-eyed old bat never missed anything.” He took another swig of coffee.

“But why did she come in just then? If you’d been in
the house for hours-“

“Said she saw someone snooping around outside and
wanted to check on things.”

Barbara, Liss thought.

“Probably just made that up as an excuse to snoop. I’d
left the back door unlocked and she just waltzed right in.
Caught me red-handed. I was ticked at myself for being
so careless. I’d put the key in my pocket and never given
it another thought. Well, I never expected anyone to question my being there. It’s my mother’s place, after all.”

He was still irritated that Mrs. Norris had challenged
him, Liss realized. Surely that wasn’t a normal reaction.

“Anyway, there she was in the stockroom, acting like I
was still in third grade. Said I’d better put that ring back
or she’d tell on me. I said, `Get out of my way, old woman,’
and I started to leave. I wasn’t about to put up with a lecture from an old busybody like her. She stepped right into
my path, like she thought she could stop me. I swear,
Liss, I just meant to shove her out of my way, but I was
pretty mad” He raked his fingers through his hair, the
first outward sign of agitation Liss had seen from him. “I
guess I pushed her too hard, because the next thing I
knew, she’d bounced off the shelving and was lying on
the floor and bleeding.”

On the last word, his bravado evaporated. His face
suddenly ashen, he shuddered convulsively. “She hit real
hard, Liss. Her head made an awful sound when it struck
the shelving.”

Liss covered his trembling hand with one of hers. “It
was an accident, Ned. You didn’t mean to kill her.”

“She was dead. She was dead and if I’d stayed there
everyone would have known I was the one responsible.”

“It was an accident,” Liss repeated. “If you’d turned
yourself in, the authorities would have seen that right away. Manslaughter at worst. Not murder. That will still
be the verdict if you contact them now.”

“You can’t be sure of that. I can’t be sure of that. I did
the smart thing, the sensible thing. I got the hell out of
there before anyone else came along.”

He was sweating and his eyes had a glazed look. He
was remembering. Liss had no respect for the choice he’d
made, but she felt sorry for him.