The Final Reveille: A Living History Museum Mystery (7 page)

“I'm not going to help you without knowing your connection
to Maxwell.”

He removed his forage cap and ran a hand through his blond hair. The hair stuck up in all directions and gave him a boyish quality that I did not trust. His playful appearance was misleading. I knew nothing about this man. He could be a stone cold killer. He was the one I found looming over Maxwell's body after all.

He sighed. “Okay, you win. All I will say is that I knew Maxwell. We were not friendly.”

“I wouldn't say
that
cryptic history is winning my support.” I stepped backward. “Why did you act like you didn't know who the body was?”

“I panicked. You found me in a very awkward position, and I knew Candy would be called in. She's always called in when there is a suspicious death anywhere in the county.”

“Sounds to me like Detective Brandon has it out for you.”

“You met her,” he said. “That's a very scary position to be in.”

“That's your problem, not mine. And I can't say I blame her since you were standing over a dead body and all.” I watched him closely. “How did you know Maxwell?” I pressed.

“From business.”

“Business? I thought you were an EMT.”

“I am.”

I waited. He said no more. I shrugged as if it didn't matter to me and kept walking. We were on the edge of camp now; much closer and reenactors would begin to overhear our conversation.

He stepped beside me. “Now I'm in a worse spot because the chief will think that I purposely misled him by claiming I didn't know Maxwell.”

“Didn't you?” I asked.

“You aren't making this easy either.” He slapped his cap back onto his head.

“I see no reason to.”

“So you don't want my help? You're willing to try to solve this case all on your own. What about your son?”

“What about my son?” I snapped, jabbing him in the chest with my index finger. “Don't you dare bring him into this!”

He held up his hands as if in surrender. “Whoa, I'm sorry, Mama Bear.”

“I think we've talked about this long enough.” I stomped away.

Twelve

I pulverized pebbles on
the path as I marched back to the visitor center. How dare that cocky EMT bring Hayden into our conversation? I suddenly had a desperate need to see my son. I picked up my pace and ignored reenactors who tried to wave me down with questions. I couldn't deal with their need for gossip at the moment.

I passed the visitor center as my phone beeped in my pocket, telling me I had a new text. It was from Justin.
I'm here
was all the message said.

I made a sharp turn toward the visitor center as my former brother-in-law came of the sliding glass doors. Justin blinked in the early morning light. He was probably out late the night before at a night club or trendy bar trying to impress the ladies with his bright, shiny new law degree. Many times I wondered if Justin would ever settle down and stop being a playboy. He was handsome and smart. There was no reason he couldn't find
a decent girl who had the ability to balance her own check
book.

My pace slowed because Justin wasn't alone. My ex-husband, Eddie, was with him, and so was a young woman who I didn't know. Betraying me, I felt my heart beat pick up. Eddie, with his
Gregory Peck good looks, was as handsome as ever. He was a physical therapist with his own practice in New Hartford. He wore freshly pressed chinos and a pink polo shirt with his company logo on it. But it wasn't Eddie who made my pulse race. It was the woman ten years my junior holding his hand. A ring with a dime-sized diamond on it encircled her left ring finger. Krissie. I wished I could say this was the first time I had seen Eddie holding another young woman's hand, but it wasn't. The last time, we were very much married. If hand holding was his only indiscretion I might have still been married to him.

“Suck it up,” I whispered to myself. “Justin,” I waved.

“Kel, there you are.” Justin's face broke into a grin. The younger of the two Cambridge men was as handsome as his brother. Jus
t a year younger than Eddie and I, Justin had taken seven years to get through law school. I tried not to dwell on that, as I now required his legal advice.

“Wow,” Justin said. “This is crazy. Are you really letting all these actors walk around with guns and swords?”

“The guns aren't loaded. The swords are blunt,” I said. “And they are called reenactors not actors.”

“Huh.” His eyes scanned the scene. His mouth fell open. “Is that Abraham Lincoln?”

“Yep,” I said as if that wasn't unusual at all. “Walt Whitman should be here somewhere too.”

“Who?” Justin asked.

I sighed.

He shook his head. “Cripes, this place is out of control. I had to tell the dragon lady at the window four times that I was your lawyer before she would let me in. Thankfully, your assistant Ashland happened by and recognized Eddie.”

My eyes slid to my ex-husband. “What are you doing here?” I knew my tone was frosty, but it had been a trying morning and the reenactment hadn't even opened up yet.

Eddie frowned, and I noticed the flash of annoyance cross his face. Someone who didn't know him well would have missed it, but I knew Eddie better than anyone. He had been my next-door neighbor and best friend as a child. We started dating in high school and we got married after college because that's what was expected, and I think it never occurred to either of us that there was another option. Our marriage was rocky, and we realized that we wanted different things out of life. Eddie wanted money, success, and prestige for his business; I wanted to preserve history and return to school, which I eventually did without his blessing. We might have gotten through it with time, work, and counseling, but then he had an affair with one of his clients. She was also married, so ours wasn't only the marriage ruined. That was three years ago, and I was over it … sort of. Hayden was two when we divorced, so he didn't know about the affair. As far as I was concerned, he never would.

Eddie forced a smile. “Kelsey, I'd like to introduce you to Krissie Pumpernickle.”

Krissie couldn't have been more than twenty-two. She was small like me, but her build was more athletic, as though she'd grown up doing gymnastics or cheerleading. Her hair was trimmed in a short pixie cut that was perfect for her tiny head and gave her a fairylike quality. She was beautiful, and I tried not to hate her for it.

“Nice to meet you, Krissie.” My eyes slid over to Eddie. “I got the email. I so appreciate learning that you are getting married in a mass email. That was so kind after knowing you my entire life.”

Eddie's jaw twitched.

I smiled at Krissie and reminded myself that what had happened between Eddie and me had nothing to do with her. I also felt sympathy. The poor girl didn't know what she was getting herself into. “I'm happy to finally meet you, Krissie, since until this morning, I didn't even know you existed.”

“I thought you said you told her months ago,” Krissie said under her breath.

Eddie pursed his lips together.

Ahh, trouble in paradise. I can't say that I wasn't the tiniest bit pleased by that. If Krissie was going to marry Eddie, she would have to get used to it—he was notorious for keeping information to himself. It was something that we argued about on a regular basis.

“A
re you guys interested in touring the encampments? You've never shown an
interest in history.”

Eddie frowned. “Justin told us about the situation.” He paused. “I don't think this is a safe atmosphere for Hayden, so Krissie and I wanted to take him home.”

This was just what I was afraid of when I saw the email about their engagement. Krissie,
the-wife-to-be, was looking for ways to start building a custody case against me. I would not have it. I would not let some other woman raise my son.

“Why?” I asked through gritted teeth.

“Justin told us Maxwell Cherry is dead, possibly murdered. You have to agree with me that this isn't the best place for a five-year-old.”

“Hayden isn't in any sort of danger. My father is with him and he doesn't even know what's going on. He wants to be here for the reenactment. Are you going to be the one who tells him that he has to leave?”

Eddie frowned. “If I know your father, he's out there showing Hayden the crime scene.”

I glared at Eddie. As much as I knew about him, he knew just as much about me. It was terribly annoying.

Krissie patted her pixie hair. “As a mother, I would want to be one hundred percent sure that my son was safe.”

“Are you a mother?” I snapped.

“I'll be a stepmother very soon.”

I closed my eyes for a brief moment and counted to ten.

I held up my hand. “I'm far too busy to stand here and fight with you about this. I'll find Hayden for you, and you can ask him if he wants to stay here or go with you. You're welcome to stay here at the reenactment if you want to keep an eye on him.”

“Maybe being here during the day is fine, but at least let him stay the night at my house,” Eddie said.

I bit my lip. As much as I hated to admit it, Eddie was right. I wouldn't have time to watch over Hayden between the reenactment and the murder. My father meant well, but he was easily distracted and consumed with his play.

The reenactors had a bonfire planned for that night for Farm staff. I knew Hayden would be heartbroken to miss it, but I'd rather he be safe. And for all his faults as a husband, Eddie was a good father.

My shoulders sagged. “All right.” I hated the thought of Hayden spending any time with Krissie, but I guessed it was something I would have to get used to. She would be his stepmother after all. It was so hard to me the fathom. But then, if I didn't want Eddie to remarry, I shouldn't have divorced him. “Does Hayden even know about Krissie?”

“I've met him several times,” she said in answer to the question I had asked of Eddie. “We went to the Indians game last weekend.”

I ground my teeth. Eddie had introduced my son to this new woman and hadn't even told me about her.

“You're doing the right thing for Hayden, Kel,” Krissie said.

The way that she said “Kel” put my teeth on edge. Yes, Justin and Eddie used my nickname, but they had known me all my life. I just met Krissie two minutes ago.

“It's Kelsey,” I said. “And I am so glad that I have your approval.”

Krissie frowned, and Eddie sighed. Maybe this is why he hadn't mentioned her to me yet. Eddie knew me well enough to know how I would react.

Krissie gave me a sympathetic smile. “We understand you're under a lot of stress right now.”

She didn't know the half of it.

“I'm heartbroken for Cynthia too,” she said.

“Do you know her?” I asked.

“Of course. I would never have made it through college without Cynthia. Her foundation gave me a scholarship. Cynthia treats all the scholarship recipients like they're her own children. Maybe it's because she doesn't have any children of her own.” Tears gathered in Krissie eyes. “I hate to think of her grieving for her nephew, even if he was one of the most disagreeable people I had ever met.”

At least Krissie and I agreed about something.

Eddie wrapped an arm around his fiancée. “I really have Cynthia to thank for meeting Krissie.”

The young girl gave her husband-to-be a watery smile.

“How's that?” I asked. I really didn't want to know the answer. Maybe I just liked to torture myself.

Krissie beamed at Eddie. “I'm a physical therapist too, and I had a college internship at Eddie's office. That's how we met.”

While we had been talking, Justin wandered away. He now stood with a young woman in a mid-nineteenth-century floral dress. The girl laughed at something Justin said. Eddie and I shared a look. It was amazing how his brother could sniff out the prettiest girl in every situation.

“Why don't I go rescue that poor girl from Justin's clutches, and he and I will find Hayden for you? You can check out the camps while you wait. It won't take long.”

Eddie looked as if he wanted to protest, but Krissie said, “I would actually like to take a look at the camps while we're here.”

“All right,” he finally agreed, folding his hand around hers.

I walked up to Justin and smiled at the girl. “Justin, let's go.”

He smiled at me. “I've just been having a wonderful conversation with Maggie here. Did you know that she's been to thirty-one reenactments?”

“Maggie, how old are you?” I asked.

She bit her lip. “Sixteen.”

“Well, Justin is almost thirty. I think this conversation is over, don't you?”

Maggie's face turned bright red, and she hurried back to her camp. I started in the direction of my cottage. “Come on, Justin.”

Justin caught up with me. “Cripes, Kel, I was just talking to the girl.”

“Then it's not a big deal that I interrupted you.”

He met my stride. “Am I in trouble?”

“Yes,” I hissed as we passed a reenactor washing tin dishes in a wooden tub. “What is Eddie doing here?”

He rubbed the back of his head. “Aww, Kel, he called me right after you did, and I may have let it slip about Maxwell Cherry buying the farm.” He grinned as if to see if I enjoyed his pun.

I glared back.

“When I got here, he and Krissie were already in the parking lot. I couldn't get into the Farm because of your dragon lady at the front. He was able to get us in.” He held up his hands as if in surrender. “And before you ask, I didn't know that he was going to bring Krissie. She's new to me too. I just met her last week.”

My brow wrinkled. Even though I didn't like it, I could guess why Eddie kept his girlfriend-now-fiancée secret from me; but why wouldn't he have told his brother, his best friend? When Eddie and I were married, there was rarely a day that went by when I didn't see my brother-in-law. Justin even lived with us for a couple of years while he took his time through law school.

We stepped into the sugar maple grove, and I stopped. We could still hear the rumbling of conversations and practice shots from the encampments, but we could no longer be seen by any of the reenactors. “Before we reach Hayden, let me tell you what's going on.” I gave him a brief description of the morning's events. I ended with, “So now the chief thinks I killed Maxwell because he threatened to remove funding from the Farm when Cynthia gave him control over the foundation's money.”

He kicked a stone from the middle of the path. “You are in big trouble.”

“I don't see how that observation helps me in any way.”

“From that one semester in law school when I took criminal law, I would say we need to build some reasonable doubt in the chief's mind about your guilt.”

“I've been trying to do that. There's another excellent suspect.” I told him about Chase.

Justin nodded. “He sounds promising. I like it that the detective seems to hate him. That helps. But you lose points since he's the police chief's nephew.”

“I need you to have my back on this.”

He gave me a sideways smile. “I always have your back, Kel. You know that, even where my brother is concerned.”

I started walking again. My cottage was set far back in the su
gar maple grove. Another plan I had for the Farm was to produce and sell maple syrup. That had been one of the main agriculture operations for the Barton family, and most of the trees in the grove were ones that Jebidiah Barton planted himself. There were so many opportunities to make the Farm self-sustaining, and I could feel all those plans slipping away with Maxwe
ll's murder.

The cottage came into view. It was a little bit larger than the traditional cottage and built in a Cape Cod style with white-washed siding and navy blue shutters. One of Jebidiah's descendants built the cottage around 1930 and used it strictly as a hunting cabin during the summer before the surrounding woods became a state park. At that time, the cottage had the bare essentials: a potbelly stove, dry kitchen, and feather mattresses on rope bed frames.