Peony Street (21 page)

Claire filled out the necessary paperwork for a wire transfer, signed several documents, and Amy notarized the paperwork.

“I’ll run these over to your mother to sign later on,” Amy said. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and see her anyway to thank her for helping my mother while she was recovering from surgery last month.”

Claire thanked her and shook her hand after she rose to leave.

“By the way,” Claire asked. “Who did write this mortgage?”

Her friend lowered her voice to a whisper.

“Knox’s secretary,” she said. “Her name’s Courtenay but we all call her Knoxlay behind her back.”

Claire felt her face get hot as she considered this new information.

“Where’s Knox’s office?” she asked.

“It’s on the second floor,” Amy said, “but you can’t go up there without someone using a special key in the elevator.”

“Do you have that key?”

Amy grinned and produced it out of her desk drawer.

There was no one in Knox’s outer office, and his office door was closed and locked. Claire could hear voices inside, so she pounded on the door.

“Police!” she shouted. “Open up!”

The voices were instantly silent and then there was the distinct sound of a heavy door swinging shut, a door that needed to have its hinges oiled. A flustered and red-faced Courtenay fumbled with the lock on the office door before she opened it to the outer office.

“Hi Slutney,” Claire said. “Bonk any of my ex-husbands lately?”

“You!” she said. “What do you want?”

Knox came around from behind his desk, his white face quickly flooding with color.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked her.

Claire pushed Courtenay aside and didn’t stop until she was right up in Knox’s face.

“That mortgage your girlfriend wrote for my parents was criminal,” she said. “I’m going to file a complaint about it with the Federal Reserve; then I’m going to put an ad in the Sentinel and find out if anyone else in this town has been swindled by your bank. I bet there’ll be plenty. We may band together and file a class action suit.”

“I said I would fix that,” Knox sputtered.

“Oh, it’s fixed alright,” Claire said. “I just paid it off.”

“You what?” he laughed. “I didn’t think beauticians made that kind of money. Been selling more than haircuts, Claire?”

Claire reared back and walloped Knox in the jaw and he fell backwards against the desk. She had never hit someone before. She didn’t realize how much it could hurt a hand to do so. It felt broken.

“Yeow!” Claire cried and clutched her aching fist while Knox cursed at her.

“Knox!” Courtenay cried. “Your face!”

“Call security!” Knox yelled to Courtenay.

“Better yet, call the police,” Claire said.

“Don’t call anyone!” Knox shouted to Courtenay. “What is it you want, Claire?”

“I want to know what happened to my friend Tuppy,” she said.

Knox was still rubbing his jaw.

“Don’t just stand there, you idiot; go get me some ice,” he said to Courtenay, who ran out of the office.

“He was already dead in the road when Meredith found him,” Knox said. “I thought we’d better stay out of it, considering we’re just seven months out from the election. Meredith was so upset by what happened she’s experienced a lapse in her sobriety. She left earlier today to admit herself to a private rehabilitation facility, just as a precaution.”

“If she didn’t hit him, why did you pay Pip’s mother to keep quiet about the car?”

“Meredith was so hysterical I had to drive her home. When I returned to retrieve her car it was gone. I discovered your do-less ex-husband had stolen the car when he tried to blackmail me for its return. His mother was much more reasonable to deal with.”

“What did you do with the car?”

“I sold it to a dealer who will break it down into parts and sell it to multiple body shops. Since I reported it stolen it would be very inconvenient for it to be found. There would be questions.”

“Why destroy the car if she didn’t kill him?”

“When it comes to damage control,” Knox said, “I prefer a scorched earth approach.”

“What did you do to Pip?”

“I suggested that he might want to leave the country for awhile.”

“You didn’t kill him.”

“I’m ambitious, Claire,” Knox said, “but I’m not a monster.”

“I’d like to speak with Meredith.”

“That’s not possible,” Knox said. “No one can speak with her.”

Something about the way he said this sent a chill down Claire’s spine.

“When did she leave?” Claire asked.

“Early this morning,” Knox said. “I had someone drive her.”

“And she went, just like that, gentle as a lamb.”

“She didn’t have a choice,” Knox said, and the look in his eyes was mercenary. “I’ve told you everything, Claire. He was dead when she found him. You can call the police and turn me in for leaving the scene of an accident, but in return it will be very easy for me to implicate you in Pip’s car theft and blackmail.”

“If neither you nor Meredith killed Tuppy then I don’t care what any of you people did or didn’t do,” Claire said. “As far as I’m concerned our business is concluded.”

“Let’s bottom-line it,” Knox said. “I can give you five figures in cash but if you want more we’ll have a paper trail to contend with.”

“I don’t want your money,” Claire said. “I want to know who killed Tuppy.”

“Then let me share this,” Knox said. “There was a dark sedan with New York plates driving around Rose Hill the night your friend died.”

“That doesn’t help me much.”

“I saw the same car parked at the Eldridge Inn this morning,” Knox said. “The driver looked like a thug and the passenger looked like the type that employs thugs.”

“Three piece suit?” Claire asked. “Rolex, slicked back hair, and a goatee?”

“That’s the one.”

Claire met Courtenay coming up the back stairwell as she went down.

“He has a press conference this week,” Courtenay said. “How is he going to explain that bruise on his face?”

“He told me what happened,” Claire said. “I’m not going to tell the police.”

“How much did he pay you?” Courtenay said.

“Nothing,” Claire said. “As long as he doesn’t try to pin it on Pip or me I’m not going to make trouble for him.”

“He had the tar beat out of Pip,” Courtenay said. “I bet he didn’t tell you that.”

“No,” Claire said. “What a jerk.”

“I told him if he killed Pip I was leaving him and I meant it. Pip’s going to call me every night, and if he misses one call I’m outta here.”

“I didn’t realize you cared that much for Pip.”

“I love him,” Courtenay said. “And the only way to keep him safe is for me to stay with Knox until after the election is over. Then I’m leaving Knox and going to be with Pip. We’re going to get married.”

“Pip’s lucky to have you,” Claire said, although she doubted either party was going to feel very lucky after the sexual attraction wore off and Courtenay discovered Pip was already married with a bunch of kids and some very serious money problems.

“He’s lucky Knox didn’t kill him the night we all got caught,” Courtenay said.

Someone opened the door to the stairwell on the floor below.

“You mean when he caught him outside your condo?” Claire said quietly.

“No, stupid,” Courtenay said. “When Knox ran over your friend thinking he was Pip.”

“Did you see him do that?” Claire asked.

“No,” Courtenay said. “Meredith told me.”

Courtenay ran up the stairs past Claire, leaving her stunned and speechless.

Claire got back to the salon just in time for her next customer. Despite a swollen hand that hurt like hell she was able to perform the required services, but was preoccupied with what Knox and Courtenay had told her. Knox claimed he and Meredith found the body, but Meredith alleged Knox hit Tuppy thinking it was Pip. This didn’t make sense. According to Pip, on the night of the accident Meredith left Courtenay’s condo first and then Knox left. If that was true they both must have assumed Pip was still with Courtenay. It made more sense if Meredith was the first to arrive at Tuppy’s accident and Knox followed, unless Pip lied.

‘How can I believe anything any one of them told me?’ Claire thought.

A tall, thin, older woman came in and Claire did a double-take when she saw how this woman was dressed. At first she thought the woman might be homeless, based on how many tattered tote bags she was carrying and the multiple layers of worn, faded clothing she was wearing. Anticipating a request for a handout Claire opened the cash drawer, thinking she would give her a five dollar bill and send her on the way as kindly as possible.

“Can I help you?” Claire said, glancing outside, expecting to see a shopping cart piled with all the woman’s worldly goods.

“Rodefeffer,” the woman said, glaring at Claire in an imperious manner through her dirty cat-eye glasses. “Mamie Rodefeffer. I have an appointment.”

Now Claire recognized the woman as the oldest living heir to the Rodefeffer Glass fortune, probably the richest woman in town, and Knox’s aunt. It had been so many years since Claire had seen Mamie, and she had seemed old then. Claire estimated she must be close to ninety now.

She leaned forward to examine Claire through her thick lenses, which magnified her eyes to an unnaturally large size, and said, “You’re not Stephanie.”

Claire explained the situation and Mamie said, “I guess I’ll have to make do with you. Try not to muck it up.”

“I’ll do my best,” Claire said.

“Your teeth are so white,” Mamie said, getting even closer to Claire’s face. “Are they your own?”

“Please take a seat in the shampoo chair,” Claire said as she backed away. “I’ll be right with you.”

“I washed it this morning so you can’t charge me for a shampoo,” Mamie said. “Just wet it with the spray bottle and cut it. I’ll set it myself at home.”

Mamie was known for her miserly ways; Claire knew her tip would be a quarter at most. Mamie put all her tote bags down and pealed off several layers of cloth coats and cardigans.

Claire wanted to get Mamie to talk about Meredith but she needed to get there in an indirect way.

“I saw Ann Marie recently,” Claire said. “She told me to tell you hello when I saw you.”

“That gal doesn’t have the brains God gave a goose,” Mamie said. “Drank like a fish, liked to sniff the drugs up her nose, plus she chased after anything in long trousers. Knox kept sending her somewhere to dry out but she would start right back where she left off. She almost died in a car accident, you know; flying down Pine Mountain Road in a snowstorm with no clothes on, probably late for an orgy. She was in a coma and was never right in the head afterward. Knox was well shut of her.”

“And then he fell in love with Meredith.”

“Hah!” Mamie said. “Fell in love with her family’s political connections is more like it.”

“Meredith certainly has a nice tea room,” Claire ventured.

“She can’t wait for me to die,” Mamie said. “She’d like to get her hands on my glass collection but she won’t. I’m not leaving a single thing to those spoiled brats. I don’t cotton to Knox’s politics and Richard can’t keep his Johnson in his pants. No, I’m leaving it all to someone who will knock their socks off. I wish I could be there to see their faces when the will is read.”

“Does Knox know what’s in your will?”

“I told him there was no point in trying to do me in like he did Ann Marie because he wasn’t getting a penny. He tried to have me declared incompetent but the judge laughed him right out of the courtroom. ‘I’ve never met anyone saner in my life,’ the judge said. That put the bucket of lard in his place, I’m telling you.”

“You don’t really think Knox would hurt you,” Claire said.

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Mamie said. “And I wouldn’t turn my back on that new wife of his, either.”

“What makes you say that?”

“First her father dies, then her husband dies, and each time she inherited a fortune. So how come she’s trying to borrow money from me behind Knox’s back? Said all her money was tied up in trust funds. Poppycock! She’s going to poison the soup one of these nights and then Knox will find out just how her husband and father shed their mortal coils. I made sure she knows not one penny will come to her if something happens to me. I’d rather leave everything to the lowest common guttersnipe; in fact, I did.”

Mamie cackled like a witch and Claire couldn’t help but enjoy her dark sense of humor.

“Does the guttersnipe know?” Claire asked.

“Heavens, no,” Mamie said. “I wouldn’t trust that floozy as far as I could throw her.”

Claire wondered who the lucky heir was. Mamie tipped her a quarter, just as she anticipated.