Chapter 46
I
saac and Mina's house was located five minutes away from the Riverview Motel in a cul-de-sac off Broad Street. The two-story light green colonial sat on the end of the street, rendered semi-invisible by evergreen plantings that had been allowed to grow up over the years. There was a car parked a little ways down from the house, but the driveway was empty and Libby pulled into it.
She and Bernie got out of the van and walked to the garage. The door to it was down, but Bernie grabbed the handle and pulled and the door slid up. She could see the freezer snugged up against the wall, underneath the small window that had been built to let in the light but was now covered over with ivy. Bernie swallowed and started walking toward it.
“I think I'll stay here,” Libby said. She'd meant it when she said she didn't want to see what was inside the freezer.
“I'm probably wrong,” Bernie responded, trying to convince herself to have a look. Now that she was here she was having second thoughts.
Libby was about to tell her she hoped she was when a shot rang out.
The sisters looked at each other, turned, and ran to the front of the house. The door was open and they raced inside. They heard moaning coming from the rear of the house and ran toward it, through the hall ending up in the kitchen. As they entered the room, the first thing they saw was a spray of blood on the wall behind the kitchen table.
Jeremy Stone looked up when he saw Bernie and Libby come in. “Call an ambulance,” he cried. “Cole tried to kill himself.”
Bernie walked over, while Libby dialed 911. Cole was lying in the middle of the floor with half of his head blown off.
“I think he succeeded,” Bernie observed.
“He confessed just before he shot himself,” Jeremy said, his voice cracking. “It was awful. He called me up and told me he had something to tell me. Then when I walked through the door, he told me how he killed Manny and Miss Randall. He said he did it for the money. Then he took out a gun. I was terrified. I thought he was going to shoot me, but he shot himself instead. It all happened so fast.” Jeremy sucked his breath in. “It was the guilt. I guess Cole couldn't live with things any longer.”
He bumped into Libby as he turned to go out the door and she stiffened in shock. Suddenly, she recalled what she'd been trying to remember.
“Excuse me,” Jeremy told Libby, noting the look on her face. “I'm feeling a little shaky. I need some fresh air.” And he started for the door.
Without thinking about it, Libby reached down, picked up the gun lying by Cole Webster, and pointed it at Jeremy. “I think you should stay.”
“What are you doing?” Jeremy cried.
“I think the question is what are you doing, or more precisely, what have you done?” Libby replied.
“Libby?” Bernie said. “What's going on?”
“He shot Cole,” Libby explained.
Jeremy smiled sadly at the accusation. “Libby, Libby,” he said. “I realize this is a lot to take in. Maybe you and your sister should go home and let me deal with the police.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I'm feeling fine,” Libby replied. “Wearing Canoe aftershave was a big booboo on your part,” she told him. “If you hadn't, you might have gotten away with the murders.”
Bernie shook her head. “I don't understand.”
“Dad's aftershave, Canoe,” Libby explained. “The one Mom bought him for Father's Day that he wouldn't wear, so she started wearing it on Mother's Day and kept on wearing it. Don't you remember?”
Bernie smiled. “Yes. I do.”
“Okay then. We smelled it in the motel room when Manny was killed, we smelled it in Miss Randall's house, we smelled it in the office of the Riverview just now, and I just smelled it on Jeremy. It's very distinctive.”
“Yeah, we did, didn't we,” Bernie replied. Libby's sense of smell never ceased to amaze her.
Jeremy made a dismissive noise. “Lots of men wear it.”
“No. They don't,” Bernie told him. “It's an old-fashioned scent. Anyway, aftershave has pretty much gone the way of the typewriter.”
“You call that evidence?” Jeremy sneered.
“I call it a start,” Libby said. “I think that putting the blame on Cole for Manny's and Miss Randall's murder is a really good idea, but your choice of aftershave, not so much. The question is why did you kill Manny?”
Jeremy contrived to look bored. “I can't answer that because I didn't,” he said.
But Bernie watched him fidget. She watched the slight trembling that had developed in his hands and the sweat breaking out on his brow and she decided that Libby was correct after all. A few seconds later, Bernie remembered the e-mails she'd read on Manny's laptop and what Brandon had said about Jeremy being involved in a big land deal, and everything came together.
“It was the land, wasn't it?” Bernie asked. “The land that the motel is sitting on. Someone wanted to develop it and you had the inside track. I bet you were counting on making lots of money. You probably expensed money you didn't have, because you were positive you'd be making double, even triple the amount. And things would have been fine if only Mina and Isaac would have done what you wanted.
“But they didn't. They wouldn't. They had other ideas, ideas that involved your sister. What did you think? That if you killed Manny your sister would go completely bonkers and Isaac and Mina would turn back to you?” Looking at Jeremy, she knew she had the right answer. “But why kill Miss Randall? What did she have to do with anything?”
“You're so smartâyou tell me,” Jeremy challenged.
Bernie tapped her fingers against her leg while she thought. “Let's see. Manny was living in her house. So maybe you killed him there and she saw? No. That wouldn't be it. The timing's wrong.” She snapped her fingers as she remembered what her dad had said about Clara Randall being collateral damage. “I know. I bet you were looking for Manny's computer and Miss Randall caught you coming out. Maybe she grabbed you and you pushed her and she fell.”
“That's a nice story,” Jeremy told her.
“It works for me,” Bernie replied.
“Good, because I'm going home. I need a drink.”
“I don't think so, Jeremy,” Libby said.
“I do,” Jeremy replied.
“So how did you get Cole involved in your scheme?” Bernie asked him. She remembered the watch Libby had seen and Cole had claimed. “I bet he was the one who put Manny on the bed. How'd you get him to do that?”
Jeremy smirked. “Too bad you can't ask him. Now if you ladies will excuse me.”
Libby raised the gun. “I think you're staying here until the police come.”
Jeremy laughed. “Don't be ridiculous.”
“I'm serious. We'll let them sort everything out.”
“Are you going to shoot me if I try and leave?” Jeremy taunted.
“As a matter of fact, that's precisely what I'm going to do,” Libby surprised herself by saying.
Jeremy chuckled. “That's a good one. Don't make me laugh.”
“I will,” Libby reiterated.
“You wouldn't dare,” Jeremy said, and he turned and started walking away.
“Really?” Libby said, and she pointed the gun and fired.
Jeremy grabbed his ass. “Oh my God,” he screamed. “You shot me. You shot me in the butt.”
“I guess I did,” Libby said, feeling secretly pleased with herself, never mind that she'd been aiming at the ceiling.
Bernie was trying not to laugh when Mina walked through the kitchen door.
“You're alive,” Bernie cried. “Thank God.”
“Of course, I'm alive,” Mina snapped. “Why wouldn't I be? Now what is going on here?” she demanded as she surveyed the scene in front of her.
A moment later Bernie heard a door open and close and Isaac saying, “Mina, Mina, this time those dratted neighbors stole all our fish. They even took the lock. We are getting a new garage door and that's final.”
Chapter 47
T
wo weeks later, when all the commotion had died down, Bruce, Ellen, their three sons, and Libby, Bernie, and Sean were having a picnic at Skylar Park. The weather was perfect. It was seventy-five and sunny with a slight breeze rippling through the trees. Sean, Bruce, and the boys were down at the dock going over Bruce's new sailboat while Ellen, Bernie, and Libby were gathered around the grill.
“I still don't believe it,” Ellen said as Bernie took the corn out of the bucket of water she'd been soaking the ears in and placed them on the grill.
“About Jeremy?” Bernie asked absentmindedly. She was trying to calculate when to start cooking the pork she'd marinated in Pernod, thyme, olive oil, and garlic.
“The whole thing,” Ellen said. “I can't believe the whole thing. It's like our own private
Dallas
. You know,” she said to Libby, “I'm glad you shot Jeremy where you did. He deserves it.”
“He deserves a lot more if you ask me,” Libby said, giving the charcoal a vicious poke.
“And he's going to get it,” Bernie declared. “He killed three people.” She held up her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Three. Manny, Miss Randall, and Cole.”
Ellen shook her head. “All of this because Mina and Isaac wanted to hang on to their motel and not turn it over to a developer.”
“But then Jeremy would have lost all that money he invested,” Bernie said.
“And it wasn't even his money,” Ellen said. “It was Lisa's.”
“I didn't know she was rich. I thought the money came from him,” Bernie said.
“I think that's what Lisa wanted everyone to think,” Ellen replied. “It's certainly what Jeremy thought.” She sighed. “I feel so bad for her. She told me that as soon as she can she's leaving for her sister's place in Colorado and staying there.”
“That's what I would do,” Bernie said.
The women were quiet for a minute. They watched a group of sparrows twittering on a low-growing bridal wreath hedge. A moment later, a little girl came running by and the birds flew up in the air and landed on the next bush.
“Jeremy just hated Daisy,” Libby said, remembering what Clyde had told her. “Hated her. He thought she always got all the attention. I guess thinking he might lose all the money because of her pushed him over the edge.”
“Maybe being crazy runs in the family,” Bernie said to Libby as she moved the corn to make room for the pork loin. She found that timing was always tricky when one was cooking outside.
“I don't think Jeremy meant to kill Manny,” Libby said. “At least not in the sense of planning it out.”
“That's what he told the police,” Bernie said, “although there is the minor fact that he did cut the fishing line. Frankly, I'm not buying it.”
“On second thought, that whole doing it in a blind frenzy of rage doesn't work so well for me either,” Libby allowed. “But according to Jeremy, he'd just offered Manny twenty thousand dollars to go back to where he'd come from and Manny got furious and told him that not only wasn't he taking his money, he was telling Daisy and Isaac and Mina. Jeremy claims he doesn't even remember strangling him with the fishing line. He just remembers coming to and seeing Manny on the floor. He says he panicked and hid his body in Isaac's freezer until he could figure out what to do with it.”
“I get that,” Ellen said. “But why put the body on my bed like that? Why not just hide it in the woods? Or bury it?”
“That was Cole's decision,” Bernie told her. “At least that's what Jeremy is saying. Who knows if it's true? The nice thing about having a dead partner is you can blame anything you want on him.”
“That makes even less sense than having Jeremy do it,” Ellen said.
“Well, again according to Jeremy, Cole had found Manny's body, figured out what was going on, and was holding Jeremy up for a percentage of the take. When the money was slow in coming, Cole decided to give Jeremy a little nudgeâhence Manny on the bed.”
“Kind of like the horse head in the bed in
The Godfather
,” Ellen observed.
Bernie nodded. “Clyde said Cole thought it was funny.”
“That boy never did have a lick of sense,” Mina said, joining in the conversation. “Sorry we're late.”
Isaac was right behind her. “It's lucky we're still alive.”
“Pshaw. You're exaggerating,” Mina said.
“Am not,” Isaac snapped back. “That boy had a history. A criminal history.”
“I didn't know that when he looked us up, did I?” Mina retorted. She touched her bun to make sure everything was still in place.
Isaac snorted. “It was obvious from the get-go,” he said, appealing to Bernie, Libby, and Ellen. “We kept on coming up short on the count. On top of everything else, the boy couldn't even follow a simple direction. I told him to call up Thelma and tell her we were going away.”
Mina patted Isaac's arm. “I think he did. She probably forgot.”
“She forgets everything,” Isaac said, playing to his audience. “Everything. I don't know how she remembers her lines.”
“Which is why you should have written the message down like I asked you to,” Mina told him.
“So,” Ellen said, interrupting the conversation. “How long have you two been married?”
Isaac and Mina looked at each other.
“Forty years,” Mina said.
“Thirty-nine,” Isaac replied.
“No. It's forty.”
“It's thirty-nine.”
Bernie interrupted. “And you're still bickering?”
Mina and Isaac smiled.
“Oh yes,” Mina said. “It keeps us young.”
Ellen laughed. “I guess Bruce and I are going to be together for a long time then.” She turned to Mina. “I know this is none of my business, but why were you giving the motel to Daisy?”
Mina looked at Isaac.
“Go on, tell her,” he said.
Mina nodded. “Isaac and I never had any children,” she began. “Over the years, we unofficially adopted Daisy. She used to come wandering over to the motel and we'd sit and chat and knit, especially after her parents died. I felt bad for her. She was like a lost soul. She was still coming over when she was a teenager. Then she met Manny and we didn't see her so much anymore. He was her first real boyfriend and she loved him.”
Isaac squeezed Mina's hand and she squeezed it back.
“Maybe they would have broken up on their own,” Mina continued, “but Jeremy decided to do something about the relationship. In hindsight, I realize that even back then Daisy was showing signs of her illness.”
“So he paid the two girls to accuse Manny of raping them,” Bernie guessed.
Mina nodded. “It was effective. Manny got out of town, but unfortunately for Jeremy, Daisy went after him. I think she was pregnant at the time, though I'm not sure. Anyway, she lost the baby and things fell apart with Manny. She was never the same when she came back. We, Isaac and I, thought we should do something nice for her.”
“She always loved the Riverview,” Isaac said. “Which is why we're leaving it to her. I'm hopeful with the correct meds and competent help she'll be able to take the place over. She's coming to live with us next week, so hopefully we'll be able to sort everything out.” He smiled. “Now,” he asked Libby and Bernie, “exactly how did you figure out it was Jeremy? What is this I hear about aftershave?”
Libby laughed. “It's kind of strange,” she said, at which point she proceeded to relate the saga of her dad, her mom, and the aftershave.
Ellen smiled. “So I guess you could say that your mom helped solve the case.”
“I guess you could say she did,” Libby agreed.
Half an hour later, the food was ready and everyone started to eat.