A Spoonful of Murder (13 page)

L
UCKY BRUSHED OUT
her hair and let it flow over her shoulders, adding a touch of lipstick and a little blush. She was worrying far too much about this dinner. She needed to keep things in perspective. No matter what Elias said, he was being kind and trying to be a friend, maybe the only friend she had in town other than Elizabeth and Jack. And she sorely needed friends.

For all she knew, Elias could already have someone in his life. She was sure he must have dated many women in the past several years—women who were undoubtedly far more sophisticated than she. If so, he had been discreet, since she hadn’t heard a word of gossip about him since she’d been back in town.

She slipped on a long winter coat and wrapped a scarf around her neck. His house was only a few blocks away. It was silly to take the car. She grabbed her purse and headed down the stairs to the sidewalk. Outside, the temperature had dropped and the air was dry and crackling. She tucked her scarf closer to her neck and turned north toward Hampstead Street, her boots crunching in the freezing snow.

When she reached the house Elias had described, the one she remembered, she stood for a moment admiring it. An old brick path, cleared of snow, curved up to the front door. Lilac bushes, her favorite, lined the side of the property, now blanketed with mounds of snow like melted marshmallow. Their bare branches poked out from under and glittered with encrusted ice in the moonlight. She imagined them in May, their heady scent filling the air and bursting with voluptuous purple blooms.

The house itself was white, its doors and shutters painted a soft grayish lavender. She wondered if the color had been chosen to match the lilacs in bloom. The house was three stories tall and topped with a peaked roof. Narrow front double doors held long panes of etched glass. Each window was rectangular except the one window at the top just under the eaves. It was curved in a half-moon shape, and below that on the second floor was a rounded window of stained glass that probably overlooked the staircase. The side porch had been enclosed at some point in time with large windows in keeping with the architecture of the house. All in all, it was lovely, more beautiful than she had remembered.

Lucky hurried up the path toward the front door and ducked into the vestibule, protected from the cold night air, and rang the bell. A figure approached, outlined against the etched glass of the inner doors. Elias opened one side, a broad smile on his face.

“You made it. I was feeling very ungentlemanly for not picking you up.”

Delicious cooking smells filled the hallway. Lucky smiled. Why, oh why, did he engender such warm feelings in her? “That’s quite all right. I’m a big girl.” She almost said,
It’s better that you didn’t
.
It would have been the talk of the town and I wouldn’t have been able to keep a straight face.

“Come right in. Here, let me take your coat.” He slipped it off her shoulders and hung it on a mirrored coatrack by the front door. Lucky looked around the entryway. To the right was an old-fashioned parlor, a formal dining room to
the left. “Let’s get back to the kitchen before I burn everything or we’ll have to go back to the Spoonful for food.”

She followed Elias through the swinging door into the kitchen and stared in awe. “This kitchen is huge. It must be the largest room in the house.”

“Now you see why I need company. It’s too big for just one person. I had it partially remodeled to bring it up to date, but kept the original oak cabinets and as many fixtures as I could.”

“I really like what you’ve done.”

“Let me get you some wine.” Elias reached into the refrigerator and uncorked a chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio, pouring a small amount into a crystal wineglass.

“Tonight,
mademoiselle
, we’re having wild salmon with grilled red potatoes and an arugula salad. I hope you like all of this.”

“It sounds divine. I can’t remember when I last had a complete home-cooked meal.”

“Just happy to have a free night. My on-call schedule varies from week to week, but I’m off the hook tonight.” Elias separated the salmon onto two plates already warmed in the oven. He carried the dishes to the kitchen table. The salad was dressed and chilled and the potatoes were hot in their serving bowl. “Please have a seat.”

“You work Monday through Friday?”

“And half a day on Saturday—it varies. We’re closed on Sunday, but we switch days off. Friday’s my day off this coming week. But that’s a lot easier than your schedule. I’ll bet there are no days off in the restaurant business.”

Lucky laughed. “Absolutely right.” She sat at the round kitchen table and spread a linen napkin over her lap. Elias turned off the overhead light and struck a match, lighting two candles that stood in holders on the table.

“Elias, this is absolutely wonderful. I had no idea you were so talented.”

“You should see what I can do in the lab! But then again, you might lose your appetite.”

Lucky smiled at the witticism and dove into her meal, embarrassed that she was so hungry.

“There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you.”

Lucky, surprised, looked up. “What’s that?”

“Your real name. What’s Lucky the nickname for?”

Lucky suppressed an embarrassed laugh. “It’s not a nickname. Jack named me. It’s my real name.”

“You’re lying. Tell me.”

Lucky burst out laughing, almost spilling a potato on her lap. “No!” She had no intention of telling Elias how her name came to be.

“Why? It can’t be that bad!”

Lucky shook her head.

“Come on. What is it? I promise not to laugh.”

“Not a chance.” Lucky flashed on a memory of Jimmy Pratt from grade school, a bully who terrorized every kid he could. For a solid year, he taunted her mercilessly about her real name, following her all the way home from school, laughing and hollering out her name, just to annoy her. One day a crowd followed them and the rest of the kids joined in on the joke. Her given name was old-fashioned, but it wasn’t so horrible that Jimmy Pratt should make her the butt of a joke.

She had spent months ignoring him, but on that day, something inside her snapped. She turned and decked him with a terrific right hook. Blood spurted from his nose and poured over his shirt. The crowd fell silent. She hit him again for good measure and heard a sickening sound. She had broken his nose. Jimmy’s nose never healed right. It stayed lopsided, and Jimmy never teased her again. In fact, he never spoke to her again, which was just fine with her. Her parents were horrified, but when Jack heard the story, he gave her a thumbs-up and said the kid deserved what he got. He would honor her by calling her Lucky, after a Navy boxer he admired. She had no intention of recounting the real story to Elias. No way.

“Okay. Okay. Truce. I promise not to hound you.” Lucky
thought for a moment that it might be quite nice to be hounded by Elias.

His expression became more serious. “How are you adjusting?” He watched her carefully.

Lucky’s smile faded. She thought for a moment before answering. “It’s as if everything is exactly the same, and yet nothing is the same. I feel like Dorothy, swept up by a tornado and deposited in a very strange country. The hardest part is dealing with the loss of my parents. I still…I have to struggle with that every day. It’s just so unfair for them to end like that. Unfair for them and unfair to me.”

“That’s a pretty normal reaction.”

“I look around and sometimes feel as if my life in Madison was something I imagined and sometimes being here feels like the dream. I suppose it will get better, at least that’s what I keep telling myself.”

“It will. The old adage is true. My personal belief—when the tornadoes hit, whatever may have caused them, they put you down on the path that you’re supposed to be on.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” She chewed thoughtfully on a grilled potato. “You sound like you’ve had a few tornadoes yourself.”

Elias smiled. Lucky did her best not to stare at the dimples in his chin. “I suppose you could say that. I certainly could have ended up in some specialty practice at Tufts or one of the bigger institutions in New England.”

“Didn’t appeal?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that. That was my original plan, but I realized I wanted the type of practice that would give me more of a connection to a community. And when I first saw Snowflake, I fell in love with the place. It was just luck that the opportunity fell in my lap when Dr. Stevens retired. And then the practice grew, so we added Jon.

“I know I’ve never met him. How long has he been here?”

“Let’s see, when Dr. Stevens retired—you remember him, I’m sure—that was eight years ago, so Jon moved up about a year and a half later.”

“Where from?”

“His practice was in Boston—family medicine. I think he and Abigail, his wife, both felt they needed a change of pace, and they loved it up here, so when he heard about the position, he was eager to take it. Frankly, I’ve been afraid he might become bored, but he seems very happy with his work.”

“Kind of easing into retirement for him and his wife?”

“Oh, hardly. He’s only in his midfifties and certainly not ready to retire. I think the pace of the city and big hospitals got to him. Wanted to enjoy life a bit more before hitting the speed limit. Everyone loves him at the Clinic. You’ll meet him soon.” Elias held out the bowl of potatoes. “More?”

“Mmm.” Lucky shook her head. “You finish them.”

Elias ladled the last few potatoes onto his plate. “So now it’s just the two of us, one medical assistant, one RN, two receptionists and a records clerk. Oh, and we have an orthopedic specialist we can call in if need be, just in case we end up with casualties from the Resort.”

“Doesn’t the Resort have resident doctors?”

“Yes. Very good ones—two orthopedic surgeons, and a trauma specialist, which is mostly what’s needed at a ski resort, unfortunately.” Elias grimaced. “And I have some other duties as well. I’m the official…” Elias stopped himself in midsentence. His face flushed slightly and he popped a piece of potato into his mouth.

“You’re the official…what?” Lucky asked.

“Nothing. Tell you some other time. More salad?” He reached over to the serving bowl.

Lucky stopped with her fork in the air, suddenly understanding. Her face grew pale. “You’re the coroner for the County.”

Elias nodded in return. “I’m sorry. That was careless of me.”

Lucky sighed. “I don’t know what’s worse, knowing exactly what happened to my parents in the car that night, or imagining what might have happened.”

“Lucky, I am truly sorry. I wanted to cheer you up and get your mind off of that, not dredge it up.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s never far from my mind anyway.”

“If you ever decide you want to talk about this, you just let me know. I will tell you one thing—if it’s any help—it all happened very quickly. They did not suffer.”

Lucky felt her shoulders relax. She took a shaky breath. She realized she had been bracing herself in case she heard details she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s something. Thank you.”

Elias nodded in response. “I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to come down to the Spoonful in the past couple of days. My schedule’s been so tight. Have people been staying away?”

“You’ve heard about Sage, I’m sure.”

“Yes, but do you know why he’s been arrested?”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Nate yet. Not that he’d confide in me, but I can at least try. And I tried to talk to Sage at the station.”

“What did he have to say?”

“Nothing. He was completely closed down. Upset, really—that I went to see him. I just wish…” Lucky trailed off. “I just wish I knew more about this woman—this Patricia Honeywell. Somebody obviously had a motive to kill her, but I cannot believe it was Sage.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Lucky speared the last piece of salmon on her fork. She was quiet for a moment before speaking. “I saw him a few seconds after he discovered the body. He couldn’t even talk, he was so upset. And just before that, he had been his usual self, quiet, in good spirits.”

“I hate to say this, but how do you know he isn’t just a very good actor?”

Lucky shrugged. “I don’t. I guess I’m just trusting my instincts, and Jack’s opinion of him too. He’s known him well for the past few years while I’ve been gone. He has good insight when it comes to people.”

Lucky remembered the card for the Clinic that she had found in the murdered woman’s bedroom. “Elias—I have to ask you something. Do you happen to know if she was a patient at the Clinic?”

“Who? The victim?” Elias stared into space, lost in thought. “I was about to say ‘no,’ but it’s perhaps possible she was. I can check with our receptionists. To tell you the truth, I just assumed she was a tourist, but she might have come to the Clinic for some reason and I never knew about it.”

“How did she die?”

Elias put down his fork. “She was hit right here,” he said, pointing to the left side of his head just above the temple. “The blow caused a fracture and internal bleeding. Look, I don’t mean to cut you off, but I really shouldn’t be talking about this.”

“Come on, Elias.” Lucky persisted. “What was she hit with?”

Elias sighed. “This is between you and me, okay? I have no idea, but I’d guess a heavy object with maybe a rounded edge. What it was I can’t say for sure unless the object is found.”

“So—no chance this was an accident?”

“No.” He shook his head. “She was hit with a great deal of force.”

“I just want to know how and why she ended up behind the Spoonful. I’m thinking she wasn’t killed there, and worse yet maybe she was still alive and left there to freeze and die in the storm.” She shuddered involuntarily. “Nate was there with a technician, and I suspect they were looking for something to indicate one way or the other whether…if that was where it happened.”

“We’ll know eventually, and in her condition—” Elias stopped in midsentence.

Lucky looked up from her dinner. “What did you say? What condition?”

“Nothing. I’m sorry. Let’s change the subject—this is no conversation for dinner.”