The April Fools' Day Murder (26 page)

“Will was working on something in the garage. The door was open and I saw him as I pulled into the driveway. I might have parked on the road but I saw that the red flag was up for the mailman and I didn’t want to block his access to the mailbox.

“I got out of the car and Will turned around and saw me. I said hello and he kind of nodded and stopped working at whatever he was doing. He had the hood of his car open. He took good care of his car. He took good care of things that were important to him.

“I said, ‘Will, you know what day this is,’ and the smile left his face. I said, ‘You’re a father, Will. You have such a good son. Couldn’t you manage somehow to get back together with him? It would mean so much to everyone in the family.’ ” Her eyes were tearing as she recalled the painful conversation. “I promise you,” she said to me, “I spoke in a conciliatory way. I didn’t threaten him; I pleaded with him. It didn’t do any good. He said something like, ‘What do you know of my relationship with my son?’ I almost laughed at that. ‘I’ve been his wife for almost a quarter century, Will,’ I told him. ‘Of course I know. How could I not know?’ ”

I watched her almost reenact the dialogue. Her voice told the whole story.

“He became angry, nasty. He said the problem wasn’t with him, it was with Roger. I listened to this man who had never given his son a fair hearing telling me how Roger had failed him. What he wanted was for Roger to come to him and beg forgiveness for his sins. He didn’t put it in those exact words, but that was what he was saying.
I think if Roger had decided to do that, if he could have demeaned himself the way his father wanted him to, they might have been able to renew their relationship, but on what terms? Roger would have spent the rest of his life walking on eggshells, wondering every time he opened his mouth whether he was saying the right thing, whether he might accidentally be offending his father. There was no way, and I knew it at that moment. All the anger I had suppressed for all the years that I knew Will came to the surface. I said, ‘You’re a nasty, mean old man. You have a wonderful son and you can’t acknowledge it.’ ”

“That couldn’t have gone over very well,” I said.

“It didn’t. It enraged him. And you know what enraged him the most?” She smiled. “It was the word ‘old.’ He said, ‘You bet I’m nasty. You bet I’m mean. I live in a world where you can’t let people take advantage of you.’ It was ‘old’ that got to him. He couldn’t acknowledge that he was old, and maybe he wasn’t. Maybe I just threw that in to be nasty myself. I said, ‘It’s your loss, Will. I feel sorry for you.’ That got him even madder. He picked up the cane and swung it at me, shouting at me to get out, to leave him alone. He hit me with the cane and I grabbed it, the bottom of it, hoping to pull him over, hoping to hurt him just a little for what he had done to his son. As I held it, he unscrewed the top, and when the two parts separated, I kind of fell backward because I was still holding the bottom of the cane so tightly. I looked at him and he was standing there triumphantly, holding the curved top of the cane, a long knife protruding from it, pointing it at me. I was terrified. I thought he would kill me. It was one thing to whack me with the cane, but here he was pointing a dangerous weapon at me.”

“I can understand how you felt,” I said.

“Can you? Here was a man filled with hate coming after me with what looked like a sword. I took my half of the cane in both my hands, as if it were a baseball bat or a golf club, and I ran toward him till the cane pushed into his chest. He went backward, dropping the cane handle, and I grabbed for it and launched at him again, this time with the knife aiming for his chest. I was so angry, I was so furious. It wasn’t just Roger anymore. It was Eric. That man killed my son, Chris. It was his fault. He was at the wheel with liquor in his system and his glasses on the kitchen counter. If Winnie had been driving, Eric would be alive. I felt it all through me and I just plunged that blade into him again and again. I didn’t know how many times till I heard the report from the Medical Examiner.”

Four times, I thought. She had run at him four times. “Then what did you do?”

“Will was bleeding and I was shaking, just absolutely shaking. I grabbed up the other half of the cane, tossed both pieces in the back of my car, and backed out of the driveway. As I got to the curb I saw the red flag up on the mailbox and I got out and put it down, hoping if there wasn’t any mail, the mailman would just drive on and not look in the garage. Then I went home.” She seemed exhausted. She breathed deeply a few times and wiped at her eyes. “I didn’t know if Will was dead or alive and I couldn’t call or Winnie would know I was responsible. I took the pieces of the cane into the house, wiped them off to remove my fingerprints, screwed them back together, and stuck them under my bed. I thought it was safe enough there until I decided what to do with it.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I had the key to Winnie’s house.”

“You had a key too?” I had never thought to ask. I knew Roger had one but he had moved out.

“Roger gave it to me years ago, in case one of his parents had an emergency and I couldn’t reach him. I waited till I knew Toni was taking Winnie out and then I drove over, let myself in, and left the cane in the basement room where they found it. The window was already open, so I just made it seem it had been thrown inside. I actually got up on a stool and stood near the window and pushed it in the right direction. Then I left. I didn’t know when they’d find it, but I knew I wasn’t going down to that basement till someone had seen it. I wasn’t going to be the one who found it.”

“Did you tell anyone you’d done it?”

“No one. I came home that day, two weeks ago this afternoon, and you know what? I felt light. I felt as if all my cares had been taken away. For a while I wondered if that was what it felt like to be on drugs.”

“I think you should turn yourself in, Doris.”

“I know I should.”

“You can get a lawyer first if you want.”

“Yes.”

“Will you do that?”

She thought for a moment. “Yes, I will. I’ll call our lawyer now.” She got up and went to the kitchen.

I followed and stood where I couldn’t see her but I could hear. She dialed and then had a brief conversation, telling the lawyer she needed to see him right away and would he come over? When she hung up, I said goodbye and went out the front door.

29

There were two cars across the street from the house. One was Jack’s and he was at the wheel. The other I didn’t recognize, but as I crossed the street, Joe Fox got out of it.

“Get a confession?”

“I think someone will be turning himself in at the police station,” I said, using the grammatically correct form of the pronoun that did not disclose the gender of the unknown person.

“That’s all you’ll tell me?”

“That’s all. I don’t think you should question anyone till a lawyer arrives.”

“They already call a lawyer?”

“They did,” I said, smiling.

Jack had joined us. “You’re not talking?”

“Not at the moment. You know, it’s lunchtime. Why don’t we all go out and have a nice lunch? It’s over and I’m really hungry.”

“I think I’ll just wait till the lawyer arrives,” Detective Fox said.

I didn’t want to leave him alone, afraid he might ring the doorbell before the lawyer arrived. It wasn’t that I
didn’t trust him. I just wanted to make sure that Doris had representation.

About ten minutes later a car pulled into the driveway and a man in casual clothes got out and hurried to the front door. Doris opened it quickly and the man went inside.

“It’s all yours,” I said.

“The killer gonna turn himself in?” Joe Fox said.

“That’s the plan. If he doesn’t I’ll give you a name. Lunch?”

He seemed to think about it. “I’ll just wait,” he said. “I’m a detective. Waiting is the name of the game.”

Jack took me up on the lunch idea and we went to the diner, to Eddie’s delight, and had a good lunch.

“So why didn’t I think of Doris?” he asked.

“Because everything pointed to Roger or Winnie. Or even Mr. Vitale. And plunging a knife into someone’s chest doesn’t strike us as a woman’s crime.”

“You said it.”

“But I thought about Harry’s story, how Will had pulled a gun when he found Amelia and Harry together. Harry tried to protect himself and Will got himself shot by accident. This was the same kind of thing. I could see Will using his cane to intimidate someone who angered him. After all, that was the reason he always carried one. And if someone got it away from him, as Harry had gotten control of that gun fifty years ago, that would be the beginning of the end for Willard.”

“So she went to the house to be a peacemaker.”

“That’s what she said, and I believe her. It was a very
important day in all their lives, and she thought she could make Willard see the light.”

“But she couldn’t and he got sore at her for trying. Any hard evidence around?”

“She tossed the cane in the back of her car. Maybe there’s some blood on the upholstery. That’s pretty hard.”

“Sure is.”

“I think Doris was trying to get Roger to come back home. That’s what it was all about. And he may have been thinking about it.”

“Won’t happen now.”

“We don’t know. She was defending herself against a very angry armed man. She didn’t go there with a weapon. She used one that the victim used against her.”

“Maybe you should get a law degree.”

I reached over to where Eddie was sitting and moved his glass of milk so it wouldn’t tip. “You’ve said that before. I don’t think so.”

“So Vitale had nothing to do with all this.”

“Nothing at all. Not that he didn’t have a motive. Eddie, be careful.”

“I want some ice cream.”

“Well—”

“Good idea,” Jack said. “Let’s all get some ice cream. Any objections?”

I valued my life too much to say anything.

“So what about the second will?” Jack asked after he had ordered our desserts.

“I have an idea. I think Winnie didn’t destroy it. But I can’t be sure. I expect with Doris confessing to this, Winnie will be happy to have the will reappear.”

“This is a very sad case,” my husband said.

“It is. I hope she can convince a jury the way she convinced me.”

“You think she was telling the truth?”

“I do. She wanted her husband back, she wanted to get rid of the secrets in their lives. It just couldn’t happen. Willard had a personality defect, if you will. He needed to lord it over his son. As you said, it’s very sad. Even if Doris is acquitted, or better yet, if no charges are filed against her—”

“Unlikely.”

“Right. That family is forever destroyed. A child gone. It breaks my heart. Oh Eddie, look what’s coming.”

His eyes were as wide as his smile. “Ice cream!”

“You bet. I can’t wait to dig in.”

Nor could he.

Our little tree had been planted on the front lawn and I saw it when we got back. It looked delicate and lovely on a background of grass that was now greening up. The men who planted it suggested to Jack that we think about enlarging the planting site with a few low-growing shrubs, and we talked about it and decided to do it.

Eddie, stuffed from our lunch out, went up for a nap, and I took the opportunity to drive up to Winnie’s house. She opened the door, her face tearful, and let me in.

“You’ve heard,” I said.

“Doris called me before she went to the police station. I couldn’t believe it.”

“She didn’t mean to kill him,” I said.

“I know that. I know what was going on inside her. It was going on inside me too, but Will wouldn’t listen to me. I tried to talk to him many times. I suppose I could
have saved him that day if I’d heard them out in the garage, but I didn’t hear anything.”

“You thought Roger did it, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what I thought.”

I walked over to the bucket of canes in the living room and took one out. “Do you mind if I open this?” I asked, not waiting for her reply. She mumbled something as I pressed a button on the top of a beautiful silver-topped walking stick. As I pulled out the sharp knife within, I saw a curled piece of paper in the empty bottom.

“Chris—”

I ignored her and pulled that out too. It was page seven of a legal document. “You hid the pages in the canes,” I said.

“Just in case you found a killer that wasn’t my son. And you did.”

“I’m glad you didn’t destroy it. Roger deserves whatever his father left.”

“He’ll get it,” Winnie said, “but not for a while. I’m still a young, healthy woman.”

I smiled. “I’m glad to hear it. I feel the same way about you.”

“Thank you,” Winnie said.

“You’re very welcome.”

30

A lot of things did and didn’t happen over the next several months. Doris was charged with a lesser degree of manslaughter, and I felt confident she would be acquitted or get a suspended sentence. Roger took a long trip and came back to try to live with his wife. Winnie offered me an acre of land near her house and I turned her down very firmly.

The Saturday after Doris’s confession, I came down to breakfast to find a large box tied with pink ribbon. “This better not be a belated April Fool’s Day prank,” I said suspiciously.

“Open it,” Jack directed.

Inside was a cordless phone for the kitchen. I was thrilled. It goes to the family room and all the way out to the backyard. If ever I decide to be a lady of leisure, it will help.

After the summer months were over, Mr. Vitale sold his land to a builder. He got over two million for the acreage and kept one acre for himself. They intend to break ground next spring. Before he closed down, we had him plant some wonderful shrubs near our red Japanese maple, which is the most beautiful tree on the street.

Willard Platt’s second will was filed not long after Doris confessed to the killing. It had a bequest to leave a nice sum to the high school to be used for a modern, state-of-the-art auditorium, which they will build next year. It will be named the Willard Platt Theater, and they are planning a festive opening ceremony to which the whole town is invited.