Murder by Yew (12 page)

“
Do you think Walt would kill his wife’s father? Should I add him to our suspect pile?” Starling flipped a clean card to the top of her stack.

“
Well,” Edna hesitated “from what I gather, he’s a bully, and he drinks too much, but I don’t see his type of person being sneaky. I think of poison as the work of a devious person. A tyrant like Walt uses a gun or even his fists, but not poison.”

“
Okay, but I’m going to keep him as a suspect. I’ll note your objections on his card. Who else could it be? What about the money angle? Who inherits?”

“
I don’t have any way of knowing Tom’s net worth, but I don’t think he was wealthy enough for anyone to kill him for money. I assume his daughter will inherit whatever he had.”

“
Mom,” Starling sighed, “you need to be more hard-nosed about this. Putting someone’s name down on a card doesn’t mean they’re guilty, but you should investigate all possibilities.” She giggled when she added, “We’re turning you into a grade A, class one detective.”

Edna smiled, appreciating her daughter’s attempt to lighten the conversation. “Okay, make a card for Nancy, too, and a question as to whether or not she’s Tom’s sole beneficiary. I’ll check into it when I get home.”

When Starling completed the task, she said, “Who else could have wanted him out of the way? Any angry husbands out there? Could he have been killed for love?”

The image of a tear-stained face popped into Edna’s head. “I think Mary Osbourne was very much in love with him, probably since childhood.” She saw again the pain in Mary’s eyes. “She’s the last person I’d suspect of hurting Tom, though.

“
Now, Mom, think again.” Starling raised an eyebrow. “Could she be a woman scorned?”

“
No. Mary doesn’t seem to expect attention from anyone. I think if Tom had made a pass at her, she would have scurried off to hide. As odd as she might be sometimes, I like Mary. She’s a gentle soul who needs someone to care for.”

“
Well, I’m going to make a card for her. According to you, nobody you’ve mentioned is capable of murder. So far, the only one mean enough seems to be this cousin, but he may be too obvious. You really need to look deeper and be less sympathetic.”

As she said this, Starling took a blank card from the bottom of the stack, but Edna had had enough. The thought of someone she knew being capable of murder was giving her a headache, and she felt unbearably tired.

“
This has been a big help, dear.” Her voice sounded weary, even to herself. “I’ve had enough for tonight. How about we start fresh in the morning?”

But that night did not bring much rest to Edna. Falling asleep shortly after crawling beneath the warm blankets, she woke two hours later to the sound of wind and rain rattling the window beside her bed. She thought of Albert, which made her wonder why he had called Dr. Isaacs Phil instead of Phyllis, and then spent the next several hours tossing and turning, her mind switching between what Albert might be doing and who could have poisoned Tom. Sometime before dawn, she must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew, Starling was shaking her.

“
Wake up, Mom. The weather bureau has issued a severe storm alert—hurricane force, they’re saying.”

Startled awake, Edna sat up too quickly and immediately felt light-headed. “Wha …” She stared, dazed, toward the window. Rain cascaded down the panes while nearby tree branches whipped and cracked in the wind. “I’d better get home,” she said, tossing the covers aside.

“
Maybe you should stay here until they know what the storm is going to do. You could get stuck on the highway.”

Still slightly groggy, Edna swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Have they closed the roads?”

“
Not yet. So far, it’s just an alert.”

“
Which is why I must leave for home as soon as possible. I’ll feel better knowing everything is battened down.” She reached for her slacks, talking more to herself than to Starling. “I’ll need to fill the bathtub with water and get out candles and the kerosene lanterns.”

“
Do you really think you should?”

“
Yes, dear.” Edna cut her daughter’s protests short, then smiled, giving Starling a quick hug. “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I have my cell phone, and if I get into any trouble, there’ll be other cars on the highway. People always help each other in these kinds of emergencies. Besides, I’ll only sit and worry if I stay here, and there’s Benjamin to think about. I know Mary will take care of him, but he’ll feel better if I’m home. Now, would you please go make some coffee while I take a shower?”

Starling looked doubtful, but she nodded, and Edna hurried off to the bathroom with an armful of clothes. By the time she’d showered and sat for a minute to have a cup of coffee and a piece of toast, the wind had picked up, blowing the rain almost sideways.

“
I’d go with you, Mother, but I have a really important photo shoot tomorrow that I can’t cancel.“

“
I’ll call you as soon as I get home,” Edna promised and headed for the foyer, lifting her coat from the rack by the door. “Stop worrying. Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

Thirteen

Phyl-
lis
, Phyl-
lis
, Phyl-
lis
,” the windshield wipers seemed to taunt her.

As she left Boston, Edna had been preoccupied by traffic and lights and detours until she reached the interstate. Then, trying to plan how to secure the house against a major storm, she thought about Albert and what he would do. This made her remember that she had forgotten again to phone him last night. Did he miss her as much as she missed him? Was he thinking about her, or was he having too good a time with Dr. Isaacs
? I’ll call as soon as I get home,
she thought. It was about then that the wipers began their ceaseless chant as rain beat down on the car.

The weather got worse as Edna neared the Rhode Island state line. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel as she fought to keep her Buick on the road. Momentarily blinded each time a passing car or truck sprayed the windshield, she began to wish she had stayed with Starling.
Too late now,
she scolded herself.

For a moment, she thought about turning on the radio to find out what the storm was doing, but she decided not to take her hands from the wheel or her eyes off the road, not even for a second. Sticking to the far right lane, she made slow but steady progress, reaching home two hours later after a drive that should have taken no more than forty-five minutes. It was nearly noon, but the rain and dark clouds made it seem more like late afternoon.

Pulling into the detached garage on the north side of the house, Edna grabbed her overnight case and tote bag and hurried along the path to the back of the house, entering through the mudroom. Puddles of water formed on the wood floor from rain dripping off her coat as she shrugged out of the wet wrap. She sat on a small bench to tug off her overshoes and was tousling the water from her hair when a sudden, loud banging on the door beside her made her jump.

Who on earth would be out in this weather?
she wondered, reaching over to turn the knob. Mary blew in with a gust of wind and a sheet of water, holding something tucked into her raincoat. Jumping to her feet, Edna grabbed for the door as a large, black dog slipped into the house and, shaking his lustrous coat, proceeded to spray everything and everyone around him.

“
Hank?” Edna said, shouldering the door shut against the raging gale. “What’s Hank doing here?”

As Edna was exclaiming about the dog, Mary opened her wet slicker, and Benjamin jumped clear, leaped onto the bench Edna had just vacated, and began to straighten his own coat with long laps of his tongue.

Edna laughed, trying to take it all in. “Don’t tell me you’ve been out walking in this storm.”

“
Nope. Saw your car pull in. Thought you might be worried about Benny, so I brought him home.”

“
Benjamin,” Edna corrected automatically. She was grateful but protested, “You should have called. I would have driven over to pick him up.”

“
Phone’s out.”

“
Oh, no.” Edna moved to the electric switch beside the door to the kitchen and flicked it up. “The lights are on. The electricity isn’t out.”

“
Not yet.” Mary seemed to be enjoying herself. “It’s only the phone lines so far. I don’t know if we got flooding or if a car hit a pole or what, but the phone’s been out for almost an hour.”

“
What’s Hank doing here?” Edna reached down to pat the dog’s wet head.

“
Nancy brought him over yesterday. She’s asked me if I would keep him for a few days. She says he’s upsetting Danny.”

Edna frowned. “Upsetting Danny? I would have thought he’d be good for Danny. Hank’s a connection to his grandfather.”

“
Actually, I think it’s Nancy who’s bothered by having the dog around. She told me that Hank keeps wandering around the house looking for Tom. She can’t get him to settle down, and I think it’s making her edgy.”

“
I can only imagine how much he misses his master.” Edna stooped to scratch Hank’s ears and rub beneath his collar. “It’s hard for all of us, big fella, isn’t it?” Straightening and turning to Mary, she said, “Come. Take off your coat. I’ll heat up some soup and make a pot of tea.” The words were scarcely out of her mouth when she heard the front doorbell and looked at Mary with a frown. “Who could that be?”

“
One way to find out.” Mary shrugged off her coat and hung it on a peg beside Edna’s.

Grimacing at the obviousness of Mary’s remark, Edna hurried to open the front door, then immediately wished she hadn’t. Dee burst past her, shaking a partially collapsed and dripping, bright-red umbrella. “Wow, what a storm. I thought I saw you driving through town.” She looked at Edna from beneath the hood of a black rain cape. Edna’s face must have reflected her feeling of unwelcome surprise because Dee said quickly, “I was going to call first, but the lines are down. I came by to invite you to have lunch with me.”

“
Hi.” Mary had come up behind Edna, bent over as she held Hank by his collar.

After the two women had been introduced, Mary said with a smile, “And this is Hank.”

Ignoring the redhead, Dee spoke to Edna. “What about lunch?”

“
Lunch?” Mary seemed oblivious to Dee’s slight as she looked from her to Edna. “We were just going to make lunch, weren’t we, Edna?”

Edna felt trapped. There seemed nothing to do but invite Dee to join them. Relieving her unexpected guest of the black cape and red umbrella, Edna led the way to the kitchen, deciding to shed her annoyance and make the best of the situation. Dee and Mary sat at the table while Edna reached into the cupboard for her supplementary supply of store-bought tea. Orange pekoe would taste good today, she thought.

Mary turned on the radio so they could all hear news of the storm while Edna fixed lunch. Gale, the appropriately named weather reporter, announced that southern New England could expect heavy rain and gusty winds to last off and on for the next three days. The storm, with winds nearing hurricane force, was coming out of the northeast.

While the women ate a simple lunch of hot tomato-basil bisque with oyster crackers, Edna regaled her visitors with a harrowing tale of her drive from Boston, purposely making it sound more exciting and dangerous than it had been. Since Dee and Mary seemed to have little to say, particularly to each other, Edna entertained them with Starling’s story of the out-of-town brother-in-law, ending with the identification of Bev Lewis in the photographs on her daughter’s wall. “Now, what do you think the odds are of that happening?” she asked as Mary exclaimed and Dee murmured over the coincidence.

Throughout the meal, Edna noticed that Mary kept looking furtively at Dee and thought it might be because Dee looked so lovely with her mass of curly blond hair pulled up and away from her face, falling in a cascade behind her ears. Or was Mary studying the gold filigree necklace that Dee wore with her black turtleneck jersey?

Between Dee rudely ignoring Mary and Mary surreptitiously studying Dee, Edna felt her tension grow as the little impromptu party progressed from soup to cookies. She had almost run out of energy to keep the conversion going when Dee stood abruptly and announced that she must get on with her errands before the storm got any worse. Much to Edna’s relief, Mary also left, claiming she wanted to get Hank back home and check on her emergency supplies in case they lost electricity.

Free of company, Edna spent the next few hours preparing her own house for the worst. She filled the bathtub with water, hunted for candles, and checked the oil levels in her hurricane lamps. Knowing how capricious nor’easters could be, she even braved the growing storm to bring in a few more logs of firewood from behind the garage. The wood had gotten wet, but not soaked, and it would dry out before the supply in the basket beside the hearth could be used up.

Her easel was still standing in the middle of the living room, and she decided to leave it up. One more botanical sketch would complete the illustrations she wanted to use for her speech, and if she had to keep walking around the frame, maybe she would be motivated to finish her project.

Now and then, during her chores around the house, Edna stopped to pick up the phone, hoping to hear a dial tone so she could call Starling or Albert. Her cell phone was in the car, but she didn’t feel like going back out in the rain to get it. She should have thought of it when she’d gone for the firewood, but she hadn’t and didn’t want another soaking just to fetch the thing. Surely, it wouldn’t be long before the phone was back in service. The utility company was very good about repairs. Besides, the wind, sounding like a locomotive about to ram the house, had her nerves on edge, and exhaustion was taking hold of her entire body. Shortly after four that afternoon, the lights blinked, blinked again, then went out completely.

She still wanted to inspect the doors and windows to make certain everything was securely fastened, but now she would need a flashlight, and the only one she could think of was in the lower drawer of her bedside table. After dragging herself up the stairs, she decided to lie down on her bed just for a minute. The last thing she remembered was pulling the cranberry-and-rose colored afghan up to her chin.

Warm breath and a gentle tap on her cheek brought her awake. Benjamin was sitting beside her pillow, a front paw extended to touch her again ever so gently. She glanced at the battery-operated clock beside the bed, amazed to discover it was past seven.

“
Oh, Benjamin,” she said, tossing aside the blanket and swinging her feet to the floor. “It’s way past your dinner time, isn’t it? No wonder you came to wake me.” She groped in the drawer beside the bed for her flashlight and swayed unsteadily to her feet, still groggy from sleep.

As she descended the stairs, holding onto the banister and shining the flashlight before her, Benjamin scurried past, then waited impatiently for her to light one of the oil lanterns before spooning food onto his plate. After the cat was fed, Edna forced herself to eat a piece of toast and drink some hot tea. The house was cold, and the small meal did nothing to lighten her sense of deep fatigue. Rather than light the logs in the fireplace to keep warm, she decided to go back to bed and huddle beneath her quilt.

Perhaps it was her late-afternoon nap or the food in her stomach, but despite her weariness, Edna slept badly. Tossing and turning in a fog of half sleep, she dreamed that Starling kept lobbing questions at her. Where had Tom gone? Who had been with him? Who had poisoned him? Was it a man or a woman? Why had they done such a thing?

In her dream, she tried to write down the questions, but Starling was talking too fast.
Slow down,
Edna tried to say, but the words would not come out. She needed more cards to write on. Starling began to throw large scraps of paper at her. Oversized, white index cards floated in the air around her as Edna flailed her arms and woke suddenly, entangled in her sheet, a pillow on top of her head.

She sat up, feeling hot and clammy. The clock beside her showed a few minutes past three. Outside, the wind howled, and rain slammed against the windows. She knew the clamor outside would keep her from going back to sleep right away, so she decided to check the downstairs. As she got out of bed, the cold air chilled the dampness on her neck and made her shiver. Reaching for her fleece robe, she slipped into warm, woolly moccasins and, guided by her small flashlight, went down to the kitchen. Benjamin padded into the room from his bed in the mudroom, blinking and yawning as Edna briefly shone the light on him. When she sat at the kitchen table, he jumped into her lap, and she hugged the furry body to her. His warmth felt good against her chest. He rubbed his head on her shoulder, and she felt the vibration of his purr. Absently stroking his back, she viewed the storm through the window above the sink.

As she watched, a sudden beam of bright light flashed through the glass. Bushes between the source of the light and the window mixed with streaks of rain on the glass to make strange dancing shadows across the ceiling and over the cupboard doors.

She froze. Benjamin struggled in her arms and jumped free, landing on the floor with a soft thud. Staring up at the window, he emitted a long low whine. Edna’s blood turned cold at the sound.

As suddenly as it had appeared, the light was gone.

“
Hush, Benjamin.” She rose from the chair and moved quickly to the sink.
Who could be out there at this time of night and in this storm?
she wondered.

From the window, she saw two lights. She thought for a minute it was a car in the driveway until the beams moved off in different directions. One came toward the front door, and the other headed south. Flashlights, high-powered lights from the looks of them.
Who was outside her house?
The sheets of water on the window made it impossible to see clearly.

White heat swept through her chest as she remembered Tuck lying on the floor of the Tucker mansion. A thought leaped into her head, and she turned toward the mudroom. Had she locked that door? She couldn’t remember securing it after Mary and Hank left earlier that afternoon. Both she and Albert had gotten careless about locking up. They had felt safe in this neighborhood.