Threads of Deceit (Vineyard Quilt Mysteries Book 1) (23 page)

Julie cleared her throat, drawing their attention back to her. “You tracked down the whole Meyhew line?”

“It wasn’t a particularly complicated one,” Louisa said. “Laurence had a son, Nathaniel, who had a son, William. William then had a son, Jackson. Apparently, male babies ran in the family. I haven’t been able to find out what happened to Jackson. Technically, he might still be alive, though elderly. He apparently left Mississippi, but I haven’t tracked him down. I have, however, traced the family tree of both your senators and the lawyer. Jackson Meyhew is not lurking in it.”

Julie felt a wash of disappointment. She’d really hoped there was a clear link tying one of her suspects to the shipwreck itself.

“It was a long shot anyway,” Daniel said, his voice reflecting Julie’s gloom. “I can’t imagine why anyone today would care about such an old scandal anyway.”

Louisa smiled as they walked closer to the excavation. “On the bright side, if Mrs. Meyhew did come aboard
The Grand Adventure
with the family jewels, you might have some interesting things yet to discover down in that mud pit.”

T
o Julie’s enormous relief, the gorgeous genealogist couldn’t stay long.

“I have to leave in the morning to get back,” Louisa said with a pout. “I have classes to teach at the university on Monday.”

“An academic’s life is always busy,” Daniel replied cheerfully.

Louisa obviously didn’t share any interest in the muddy artifacts that excited Daniel so much, though she did talk him into a dinner date.

“That would be great,” Daniel said. “We can talk more about the history of the wreck. I’d like to show you what I have on the ship’s captain.” He glanced toward Julie. “You might find this interesting as well. Do you want to have dinner with us?”

Louisa looked at Daniel with irritation. “I’m sure Miss Ellis is far too busy with her innkeeping.”

“Actually, Millie has encouraged my involvement in the excavation. She’d love it if I learned more about the captain for the nightly treasure talks I’ve been giving.”

Daniel clapped his hands. “Fantastic! That’s set then.”

Julie didn’t know if Daniel’s obliviousness was more endearing or frustrating, but she liked the scowl that marred Louisa’s pretty face.

One of the men in the excavation pit yelled up, “I’ve found a crock!”

“Excellent!” Daniel raced toward the pit, and the two women trailed him. “I’ve been looking forward to the first
crock. The contents will be airtight, so we could see the best preservation of artifacts so far.”

A mud-caked workman handed the big crock to Daniel. From where Julie stood, it looked as much like a giant wad of mud as a crock. Daniel carried it carefully out of the excavation ditch and scraped the mud from the ceramic. It ended up being a little bigger than a traditional butter churn. Julie gasped when she saw a dull blue mayapple wildflower stenciled on the side of the crock.

Daniel carefully broke the seal on the crock. He reached into the crock and pulled out a small leather bag. He looked up at Julie, his eyes full of wonder. “The leather is still supple.”

He opened the bag and poured gold coins into Julie’s hand. The metal was cold against her skin, and the coins shone in the autumn sun. Daniel picked up a coin and turned it over. “These are Spanish.”

“Amazing,” Louisa said, her voice a little breathy. She had crept a bit closer, though she eyed the muddy ground with distaste. “Are there more bags of coins in there?”

Daniel handed Julie the leather pouch, and she carefully put the coins back in. He turned back to the crock and thrust his hand in. “There’s a bottom, but it is set way too high.” He pulled his knife out of the sheath and carefully wedged out the false bottom made from wax. With the false bottom out, he stuck his hand back in.

He pulled out a skull.

Louisa shrieked, backing away so rapidly that her stylish shoes slipped in the mud and she fell, sliding down the muddy bank until she was halfway to the bottom of the excavation trench. Several workmen rushed to help her back out.

Meanwhile, Julie and Daniel remained riveted on the
skull. “The Meyhew treasure isn’t quite what I expected,” she said, studying the vacant holes.

Daniel turned the skull over carefully. “Someone flayed all the flesh off this before putting it in the crock.”

Julie winced. “Maybe it’s some kind of ancient artifact?”

He shook his head slowly. “If it is, the person didn’t die so nicely.” He turned the skull over to show the backside where a spiderweb of cracks made it clear the original owner of the skull had been struck in the head—hard.

The crock contained more bones—lots more bones—but not enough to make up a full skeleton. Since any finding of human remains technically had to be reported, Daniel called the police. While they waited, the team unearthed two more crocks. Each held valuables and bones.

All excavation stopped as soon as the police arrived. Once again, Daniel’s excavation became a potential crime scene. “I won’t close the scene long if these really are old,” Detective Frost said. “But I’m going to have an officer here for the rest of your excavation. If you turn up any more dead people, I want to have someone on site.”

Julie called the inn to tell Millie she’d need to postpone her treasure talk for a night. She explained about the discovery of the skull. “At least this murder wasn’t someone you know,” Millie said sympathetically.

“I’m going to have supper with Daniel, and we’ll wait to hear what the coroner has to say about the bones.”

“That’ll be fine,” Millie said. “I’m going to have to start taking reservations for your talks. I’m not sure we’re going to have a room big enough to fit everyone who will want to come. I could put you in the breakfast room, but do we really want murder associated with that room?”

“Probably not,” Julie said, feeling a little overwhelmed.

Louisa returned to her hotel room to change as soon as the police said she could go. She reminded Daniel about their dinner plans. “We could meet in the hotel restaurant,” she said sweetly. “It seems nice.”

“That will be fine. Julie and I will meet you there.”

Louisa gave Julie the stink eye, then stalked across the mud to her car. Hours later, Julie and Daniel were ready to call it a day. Daniel looked down at his dirty clothes. “How fancy is the hotel restaurant?”

“I don’t know,” Julie answered.

“I’m afraid if I stop to change, I’ll collapse. We should just go.”

“Sounds good.” Julie smiled, certain Louisa would be less than thrilled that Daniel didn’t dress up for her.

They’d barely sat down in the restaurant before Daniel got the call from Detective Frost. He said “yes” and “uh-huh” several times before hanging up. Then he announced, “The excavation can resume the day after tomorrow. The coroner placed time of death at over a hundred and fifty years ago, so the excavation can’t exactly be considered a crime scene. Also, the coroner said the bones belonged to a woman.”

“So you may have found Meyhew’s runaway wife,” Julie said. “What kind of man kills his wife, flays off her flesh, and ships her bones away with the family jewels?”

Louisa sipped her glass of water, eyeing Julie sharply over the edge. “It would certainly explain why no one ever saw the woman again.”

Julie sighed. “We get more and more information, but none of it connects. Even if Laurence Meyhew shipped his dead wife along with the family treasure, there’s still no link to any of our suspects.”

Louisa shrugged. “Maybe you haven’t looked at the right suspects.”

That’s a depressing thought
. If none of their suspects was the killer, Julie had no idea where to turn next—and no idea why anyone would have threatened her, threatened Hannah, killed George, and tried to kill Daniel. The whole thing made her head ache.

The rest of dinner consisted of good food and lots of tension. Louisa took veiled digs at Julie at every opportunity. Daniel seemed oblivious as he rattled on about the dig. On the positive side, Julie went home certain that Daniel had no real interest in Louisa. The
only
thing he seemed interested in was the excavation.

“I’ve been thrown over for a mud hole,” she muttered as she drove back to the inn, but then she reminded herself that she didn’t want the complication of a romance anyway. And she’d gone to great lengths to make that clear to Daniel.

The next day at the inn passed in a blur. A large group finished their stay, and a small one checked in, bringing with them dozens of questions about area attractions. Julie suspected they wouldn’t be doing much quilting as the list of things they wanted to see grew. With so much coming and going back-to-back, Julie offered to help Inga make up rooms.

The housekeeper stood at rigid attention when Julie made the offer. “Is my work inadequate?” Inga asked stiffly.

“No, of course not. But we’re in a crunch to get the new group into rooms.”

Inga seemed to shudder as she considered this, but she nodded curtly. “You may remove the used bedding and carry it down to the laundry room. I will make up the beds with the fresh.”

Julie almost saluted but decided the older woman wouldn’t
appreciate the snarky gesture. She headed into the first room and began removing the bed linens. From the corner of her eye, she caught movement out in the hall, but the doorway was empty when she turned to look.

Stripping the beds didn’t take long. Julie bundled in the used towels and hauled all the dirty linens down the back stairwell to the laundry room. Unlike the beautiful kitchen, the laundry room was in need of a fresh coat of paint and a new floor. Still, the chipped tile was clean, and the appliances sparkled. Apparently Inga didn’t believe in letting dirt touch any area where she went regularly.

After Julie got the two washers loaded, she decided not to offer Inga any more help. Clearly, sharing her domain was stressful for the housekeeper. Julie cut through the kitchen to head back to the front desk. She found Millie and Hannah discussing food.

Millie beamed at Julie. “Your talk tonight will be in the breakfast room. I simply cannot fit all the people in the dining room. And since we’re using the breakfast room, we’re going to offer snacks and drinks—at a nominal fee, of course.”

“Of course,” Julie said. “You do realize yesterday’s excavation was rather gruesome.”

“I heard all about it on the news.” Millie’s smile didn’t slip a bit. “People have been calling to get a seat for your talk ever since the story broke. You know, you probably should write up notes before tonight. People will be expecting something interesting.”

“Right. Daniel’s friend gave me a book yesterday with information on the Meyhew scandal. I suppose I could read through that.”

“Marvelous. Let me finish up here with Hannah, and then I can take over the front desk so you can prepare.”

Julie settled into the library to try to work, but excited guests popped in frequently, asking her questions and chatting. She barely made it through the story of the Meyhew scandal in the book.

Later that evening, as Julie stepped into the breakfast room, she felt uneasy as she faced the crowd. The whole thing had gotten too big. Too much potential for exposure. She looked over the crowd and nearly stumbled when she recognized several people seated among the group who definitely weren’t guests at the inn.

At one table, Steven Needlemeyer sat with his arm around an attractive blond woman. He caught Julie’s eye and gave her a friendly nod. She managed a weak smile and nodded back. The woman leaned slightly toward Needlemeyer and whispered. This move drew the attention of the man on the other side of her, Randall Cantor, and his already fierce scowl grew darker.

Julie took another step toward the podium Millie had set at one end of the room and continued her visual sweep of the room. From what she could tell, all of the guests at the inn were present. Her gaze landed on Mrs. Parson, seated at a table with Inga and a man Julie didn’t recognize. She could guess his identity easily enough. The man had the carefully styled look of a politician, part distinguished and part slick.

Julie noticed that Inga had changed out of her normal gray attire and into a simple black dress that was more suitable for a funeral. For once, the housekeeper’s expression wasn’t grim. She gazed at the senator and his wife with a look of near adoration.

Surrounded by sharks
. Julie forced a smile and launched into her story of the treasure hunt and the possible murder of Meyhew’s wife—a murder he covered up with his tale of her running away with the family fortune. Borrowing some
of Shirley’s usual storytelling style, she made the story as lurid as possible.

As she spoke, Needlemeyer looked pleasantly interested, as did Cantor’s mother. The lawyer’s reaction was the polar opposite. His face grew red, and Julie actually saw him clench his fists before he hid them under the table. She half expected the man to make a run at her.

She looked over at the senator’s table and was surprised to see him blinking sleepily and taking not-so-subtle glances at his watch. His wife kept her attention fixed politely on Julie, but her face looked melancholy.