Fit to Die (21 page)

James felt the pieces of the puzzle come together. “Was the nurse’s name Trudy Axelrod?”

“Actually, no. It was Stacy Weeks.” Lucy shrugged. “And neither I nor Murphy could find out anything about this Stacy. It was as if she never existed as far as the databases containing Floridian records are concerned.”

“But if we’re assuming Ronnie or whoever she was back then was that nurse, Dylan would have only been a boy when he knew her. I’d say she was in her mid-twenties when that photo was taken.”

Lucy popped half a cookie in her mouth. “That’s true. Dylan would have been in high school. Still, I have more proof to tie him to the murders.”

Fred cleared his throat and looked around. “That’s where I came in. Miss Hanover phoned and filled me in on the latest murder. She then asked me about Mr. Shane. Once I had confirmed his identity, this astute young lady requested that I do something highly irregular. Basically, she required that I become a snoop.”

Fred abruptly stopped speaking as another elderly gentleman wearing a white and green argyle sweater vest over a pink golf shirt settled himself into a nearby chair at one of the glass-topped tables. Within seconds, two rambunctious boys joined him and began to set up a portable Chinese checkers board. As the trio began to play, the noise of their chatter swept over the entire porch, allowing Fred to continue in a more audible tone.

“Miss Hanover asked me to discover whether sleeping aids were a part of Mr. Shane’s list of medications. In order to do this, I had to access the confidential records, an office at Wandering Springs that is carefully monitored and in which residents are not allowed.” He grinned mischievously. “Suffice it to say. I was able to gain entry during the wee hours of the night and found out that Mr. Shane had indeed been prescribed Valium to relieve anxiety, though not recently. However, each of the times he had been issued the pills occurred on a Saturday and by request of a visiting family member.”

“Saturday. The same day of the week when Dylan regularly volunteers.” James shook his head in disbelief. “But he is such a kind and positive person. I can’t see him plotting to poison two people, let alone drowning one of them and setting fire to Willy’s building. That sounds like the work of someone who has become completely unhinged!” He released Lucy’s hand and rubbed furiously at his temple. “Can a person really conduct an exercise class and then run out and kill someone minutes later?”

“We’ll see what caused him to act like a madman when we confront him.” Lucy pointed off in the distance to where a figure pushing a wheelchair could be seen heading toward the mansion. “His exercise class has been done now for almost an hour.” Lucy’s eyes grew misty. “I wanted to give him a few more moments with his daddy before his life changes forever. That old man may never see his son again.”

James gaped at Lucy. “But we don’t have any hard evidence, do we?”

“Nothing that will hold up in court without Dylan’s confession, no. That’s why we need to corner him and pretend to know the whole truth.”

“I still insist that this is a foolhardy arrangement, Miss Hanover,” Fred cautioned.

“I firmly believe that Dylan Shane acted out of a desire for vengeance,” Lucy stated calmly. “I don’t think he’s going to get violent with us.”

Fred lifted a pair of binoculars from the empty seat next to him. “I’m going to call the authorities if I see the slightest indication that your brazen plan has gone amiss.”

“Thank you, Fred.” Lucy planted a kiss on the man’s lined brow and stood, resolutely dusting crumbs from her lap. “Coming, James?”

Mutely, James followed Lucy as she strolled up the gravel garden path. It seemed surreal to him to be in this tranquil setting, with monarch butterflies hovering above clusters of bachelor’s buttons and slow, fat bumblebees lazily settling onto the feathery heads of golden yarrow, with the goal of accusing a man of murder. The gravel crunched pleasantly under their feet and the twitter of wrens and finches visiting the feeders and bathing in the shallow cement birdbaths filled the air with an orchestrated harmony that served to increase the dreamlike atmosphere. Turning back to the house, James saw Fred Wimple raise his binoculars and fix the lenses of his apparatus upon Lucy’s quarry.

Something in her bearing must have alerted Dylan that she was not approaching him in order to simply offer a quick greeting and he slowed his pace until he and his father came to rest next to one of the wooden park benches bordering the path.

“Hello Dylan,” Lucy began almost sadly.

“Hi there folks.” Dylan attempted to adopt his customary light tone, but the cautious look in his eyes betrayed his wariness.

Lucy sat down at the opposite end of the bench and James stood behind her, trying to be as tall and erect as a soldier. “How’s your daddy doing today, Dylan?”

Dylan’s lips narrowed and then sprang back into a smile. “Who?”

Lucy turned to Mr. Shane who was gazing happily out across the sweeping lawn. “Good afternoon, Mr. Shane.”

“He’s not my father. I told you before, he just gets confused.” Dylan put on a show of being offended. “It’s not nice to mess with folks who have memory loss.”

“When did his memory loss first occur?” Lucy asked gently.

“Randolph’s?” Dylan issued a covert look of tenderness at the man in the wheelchair. “I believe he was quite young. Still in his forties. It was a case of early onset dementia. Pretty rare, but very debilitating. Folks who are stricken with his condition at that age deteriorate faster than older people do. They forget stuff at home, at work. They end up being laid off from work. Take Randolph. He couldn’t even remember how to make simple meals for u—” He checked himself and then continued, “for his two kids.”

“You were going to say ‘us’ weren’t you? You are one of his two kids.” Lucy spoke quickly, giving Dylan no chance to continue his denials. Softly, she said, “I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like for you. It must have been really hard, Dylan. Especially with the passing of your mama and then some nurse called Stacy Weeks taking off with all of your family’s money. After all, you were just a kid,” she added softly. “That’s a lot for any person to bear.”

Dylan stared at his hands and said nothing. The minutes dragged slowly by. James shifted his weight and wiped the perspiration gathering at the nape of his neck with the back of his hand. He wished he had another limeade and that they had chosen to sit on one of the benches in the shade. Finally, Dylan sighed and his shoulders sagged heavily. “What do you want?” he asked, suddenly sounding deeply weary.

“I know Ronnie and Stacy are the same woman. How did she succeed in ruining your future, Dylan? How did she get away with that kind of … treachery?”

Still staring at the crisscrossing lines etched into his palms, Dylan began to speak. “My father’s illness was already beginning to show itself even before my mom died. He was an electrician. You can’t make the kind of mistakes he started to make doing that kind of work. He almost fried himself a few times and his co-workers more than once before he was finally fired. Stacy knew right away what was wrong with him. She said she saw the signs when she was first hired as a live-in nurse by my mom.”

He touched his father’s shoulder and slowly continued. “Stacy volunteered to stay and help after mom died. She said she felt like part of the family and would stay with us until she could arrange for the insurance to pay for a substitute—someone from her nursing school program who could live with us and watch out for Dad while my sister and I went to school.”

“I’m assuming she never contacted the insurance company.”

Dylan shook his head. “Nope. She was too busy plotting how to get the right legal documents signed by my clueless father so that she could get her hands on his retirement and our savings accounts. They were both kept at the same bank. She just showed up with power of attorney and all these other official papers, had the money wired to a different account, withdrew every cent, and BAM! She was gone.” Dylan balled his hands together and James watched nervously as the fists trembled violently.

Lucy gave Dylan a moment to get both his voice and hands under control. “How old were you?”

“I was a senior in high school. Had a full ride to U of Miami come the next fall, but there would be no college for me. That was the end of school and basketball forever. I went straight to work. I’ve been a garbage collector, a shirt presser, a short-order cook, you name it. I kept moving around like I was the one on the run. I couldn’t settle down for long in any place or at any job. Then I started managing a gym in a little town in Tennessee. That’s when I saw Stacy again, by total coincidence.”

“In Tennessee?” Lucy was surprised by this revelation.

“Yeah, except her name was Kelly Davies and she ran a business called A Leaner You. It was just like Witness to Fitness. Same food scam. She made a tidy profit for about six months and then split. I had only lived there a few weeks, but I was pretty sure Kelly and Stacy were the same person. I followed her—even as far as Quincy’s Gap. I guess someone was getting wise to her scam in Tennessee and Stacy was planning to set up shop all over again here as Ronnie Levitt. Since I wasn’t worried about her recognizing me, I applied for a job so I could get close to her.”

“You mean, so you could get even with her,” Lucy stated.

Dylan turned to her, his eyes blazing. “There was no getting even. She destroyed the lives of three people. Me, my father, and my kid sister. She took everything from us and right after we had just lost my mom to cancer!” He slammed the bench with his open hand. “We couldn’t even mourn for her, my sister and me. We were too busy figuring out how to pay bills or make macaroni and cheese or keep my father from wandering around the neighborhood like some total lunatic!”

Seeing that Dylan was getting worked up, Lucy quickly asked, “Where’s your sister now? Is she doing okay?”

Dylan exhaled a long breath through his mouth. “Julie’s still in Florida. As soon as she turned eighteen she married an old rich guy. She’s had four older husbands and never loved any of them, but she told me once that she never wanted to feel as insecure as she did after our mom died.” He gestured toward the mansion. “She’s the one who pays for this place.” He sighed again. “From the outside, we seem like such lucky people. Good-looking and friendly. Julie’s loaded, I’m popular with the ladies, but both of us are haunted. We can’t get close to anybody because we trust nobody. We’ve just been drifting through life.”

James and Lucy both let their eyes rest upon Mr. Shane. He had said nothing during the entire exchange but seemed to be extremely content following the haphazard flight of a pair of bumblebees. For a few moments, no one spoke.

“So you know all about my motives now,” Dylan said as he also watched his father. “You here to arrest me?”

Lucy handed Dylan her cell phone. “I’m going to let you turn yourself in. It will go easier for you that way. Just press down on the ‘send’ key and your call will go right through to the Sheriff’s Department.”

Dylan accepted the phone and nodded grimly. “I want you to know that Pete’s death was an accident. Ronnie did start that fire but it’s my fault Pete couldn’t get out of there alive. The spiked whiskey was meant for her and I had no idea she had given it to Pete until I read about the presence of drugs in his body in the local paper.” He abstractedly rubbed the surface of the cell phone. “I’m glad this is all over,” he said, smiling weakly at Lucy and James. “I searched for that slime of a woman for years and I have used up so much time and energy seeking revenge. Now that I’ve got it, I just want to sit still for a while and not feel anything.” He leaned back against the bench and lifted his face to the sun. “Right now, I think I am older and more tired than most of the residents here.”

“I’m sorry about your daddy,” Lucy replied and took Mr. Shane’s hand in her own. “It will be hard for him not to see you.”

Dylan pressed a button on the phone. His eyes grew watery as he looked at his father. “He hasn’t recognized me for weeks. He won’t even know I’m gone. I guess I can count that as a small mercy.”

“We’ll check up on him and so will our friend, Mr. Wimple,” James spoke for the first time, pointing at Fred, who lowered his binoculars and waved hesitantly.

“Thanks.” Dylan glanced up at the sun porch and then turned his attention to the speaker on the phone. “Yes,” he began, his gaze locked onto his father’s serene face. “I’d like to make an appointment to see the sheriff.” He paused. “Well, I think this is a priority. It’s about the death of Ronnie Levitt. See, I’d like to make a confession.”

The first Friday evening in June was a bit on the hot and humid side, providing the residents of Quincy’s Gap with a glimpse of the uncomfortable summer Mother Nature had in store for them. Willy had requested that the five supper club members, Carter Peabody, and Phoebe Liu attend a special “unveiling” ceremony and of course, they all
agreed to come.

Lucy invited James to a casual dinner at her house prior to the evening’s mysterious event. As the afternoon grew late, James showered, put on a bit too much aftershave, and drove to the closest florist where he deliberated over bouquets for a full twenty minutes.

“Why not just get red roses?” the saleswoman asked, growing frustrated with James’s dillydallying.

“Too cliché.” James looked around. “I want something vibrant, with lots of blues and purples.” He smiled happily and mused aloud, “My Lucy has the most beautiful eyes. They’re like cornflowers.”

The saleswoman was unimpressed by his simile. “We don’t carry cornflowers. After all, those kinds of flowers are like weeds. They grow in fields all over Virginia. We offer a more sophisticated selection of blooms.”

Normally, James would have been put off by the woman’s snobbery, but he was feeling too buoyant to allow her sourness to affect him. “Then I’ll take a mixture of irises, statice, white lilies, and those cream-colored roses.” He paused and cast his eyes around the shop once more. “With some greens and Queen Anne’s lace mixed in. And I’d like it tied up with a lavender bow please.”

Although the woman grudgingly gathered the stems, James was pleased to see the care with which she assembled the bouquet. After he paid, he whistled his way to the front door and then stuck his nose into the bouquet. The scent created by the lilies immediately made him sneeze. He sneezed three times consecutively while reaching for the door handle.

“I hope your girlfriend isn’t allergic to lilies, too,” the woman chided in farewell as he opened the door.

“Or to these Queen Anne’s lace,” he said, sniffling on the threshold, “which grow in fields all over Virginia.” Pleased with his departing retort, James stepped out of the shop and recommenced his whistling.

When he arrived at Lucy’s, James was relieved to see that her three dogs were safely penned in the backyard. Lucy threw open the front door before he had the chance to ring the doorbell and upon seeing the flowers, threw her arms around James so forcefully that he nearly fell backward down the porch steps.

Once they were both inside, Lucy filled up half of the double kitchen sink, plopped the stem end of the bouquet into the water, and continued to show her appreciation to James. The pair engaged in passionate kisses until Bon Jovi, Lucy’s largest male Shepherd, raked at the screen door leading from the kitchen to the back deck and whined. When he was ignored, his whine turned into frantic barking until Lucy finally broke away from James, laughing.

“I guess we’ll have to close all the blinds whenever you come over,” she nudged James playfully. “My dogs might think that you’re attacking me instead of … well, what we were just doing.”

“They’re going to have to get used to me, because I plan to spend a lot of time here, if that’s okay with you,” James replied, tenderly stroking Lucy’s hair.

“That’s more than okay with me.” Lucy gestured toward the kitchen table. “Um, shall we eat? We’ve got to be back in town by seven.”

James looked at his watch and then pulled Lucy to him. “We’ve got a few more minutes yet. After all, I’m a very fast eater.”

Outside the back door, Bon Jovi resumed his mournful howling.

Willy’s unveiling ceremony was held in the parking lot adjacent to the site where the Polar Pagoda once stood. By seven o’clock, all of the other businesses had closed and the only other living creatures in occupancy were the gnats swarming beneath the parking lot lights and a few hundred ravenous mosquitoes.

Willy greeted his guests warmly with hugs and handshakes all around, his face glowing with anticipation. Once everyone had arrived, he asked his friends to take a seat in one of the folding chairs Phoebe let him borrow from the Witness to Fitness storeroom. Apparently, Phoebe was one of Willy’s regular customers and had been sneaking over to the Polar Pagoda during her lunch hour ever since Witness to Fitness opened.

Facing his seated audience, Willy held out his arms and began by thanking Phoebe for the use of the chairs. “Phoebe told me that she’s movin’ on to greener pastures. There’s a Weight Watchers center over in New Market and she’s gonna be one of the counselors there.” Willy gestured for Phoebe to stand. “Tell ’em all about it, Phoebe.”

Phoebe smiled shyly and smoothed down the front of her meticulously ironed white cotton blouse. “I am moving, but I am not abandoning my Witness to Fitness clients. All of you will be given a free month’s membership at Weight Watchers so that you can continue with the excellent work you’ve begun. I’ve also spoken with the Membership Director at the YMCA and he has agreed to let you try out their exercise classes for the same period of time.” She held out a copy of The Star Ledger. “I’ve placed an ad in this weekend’s paper to tell all of the Witness to Fitness clients this information, but I’d really appreciate it if you five could help spread the word about my leaving and the two offers. No one’s weight loss success should be halted by … um … the unpleasant events centered around Witness to Fitness. You five alone have lost between fifteen and twenty-five pounds each. I hope you realize how incredible that is and I hope to see you at future meetings. Thank you.”

Exhausted from providing such a long speech, Phoebe sank gratefully into her chair. Willy led the group in a round of applause for the taciturn and gentle nutritionist, and then opened the lid of a large cooler with a flourish. Reaching inside, he cupped his hands around a pint-sized Styrofoam cup and held it aloft before his friends.

“I’d like to help all of those folks who are fightin’ the good fight to get in shape by givin’ them a special treat to enjoy this summer. Y’all have had some mighty big stumblin’ blocks with all the goings on around here, so I’ve created a new flavor of custard to keep your spirits up as the numbers on the scale keep goin’ down.”

“What’s the flavor?” Bennett wanted to know.

“I am so glad you asked that question, my friend. It’s a light-as-air, sweet cream vanilla with a hint of honey and a fairy dusting of cinnamon. I’ve named it Sweet Lucy Light in honor of the brave and intelligent lady that I am proud to number among my friends. Without you Lucy, things would still be right messy around this town and I would have never gotten a check outta those tight-fisted insurance folks. Now that I have, I can start rebuilding my dream and it’s all thanks to you.”

Willy handed out quarts of his new flavor of frozen custard to all. Lucy accepted hers with tears in her eyes. After one taste, James couldn’t believe the custard was the sugar-free, low-fat mixture that Willy claimed it was.

“It’s just too rich to be light!” he exclaimed to Willy.

“Oh, it tastes like it just fell out of heaven.” Gillian congratulated the ice cream man on his invention. “And what a tribute to our Lucy!”

“Too bad that mutt Donovan took all the credit for solving the murders,” Bennett said dourly after swallowing a bite of custard. “You did all the legwork and confronted a murderer all by yourself. You should be gettin’ a medal.”

“I’ll stick with the ice cream name, thanks,” Lucy replied graciously. “I felt pretty sure that Dylan was only after revenge. I know it sounds screwed up, but once he had accomplished that, he kind of lost his whole purpose in life. Besides, James was with me, so I had no reason to be scared.”

Lindy caught the warm smiles exchanged between James and Lucy and put her hands on her hips. “Say, is there some hot romance going on with you two that we should be aware of?”

“Maybe,” Lucy said enigmatically and winked at Lindy.

Carter was too impatient to learn about all the details of Dylan’s arrest to allow for any other subject to intervene. Stepping in front of Lindy, he pointed his plastic spoon at Lucy. “Just how did the other deputy steal your thunder?”

Lucy shrugged. “Simple bad luck. I had the Sheriff’s Department’s central number programmed into my cell phone, but the weekend dispatch operator on duty that Saturday patched Dylan through to Donovan instead of Huckabee. Dylan assumed he was talking to the sheriff so he just began to spill the beans about both deaths. Donovan told Dylan to stay where he was or he’d be in some seriously hot water. As Donovan was driving out to Wandering Springs, he called every reporter he knew so that they could be at the retirement center with their cameras loaded in order to get shots of him taking Dylan into custody.”

“Where were you and James when this happened?” Lindy asked.

James put a hand on Lucy’s shoulder. “We promised to look after Mr. Shane, so we wheeled him inside so he wouldn’t witness his son’s arrest. It’s true that he doesn’t even recognize Dylan these days, but we didn’t want to take the chance.”

“Of course, Donovan tore up the driveway with his siren going full tilt.” Lucy rolled her eyes in disgust. “Dylan was just calmly sitting on the same bench where all of us were sitting when he made the call. There was no need for that kind of display by Keith. Those poor old people! Huckabee wouldn’t have approved of frightening them half to death. So like I said, it was just a matter of bad luck.”

“But that red-headed limelight hog is now the town hero!” Carter spluttered. “His picture’s been in every paper from here to the Mississippi and he got free meals at Dolly’s for a week! It’s just not right.”

Lucy laughed. “Well, that kind of food would be bad for my diet. Besides, I don’t want the publicity. The sheriff knows what my contribution was and he is really starting to see me in a new light. That’s what I really want—to break into the All Men’s Club and fit in. I’m going to take the deputy exam this summer ’cause now I know that I’ve got what it takes.”

Carter frowned. “There’s still something that I don’t get. How did Ronnie end up with the bottle of tainted Jack Daniels? The one with the drugs in it that knocked out Pete?”

“Even before Witness to Fitness officially opened, Dylan pretended to be interested in Ronnie romantically,” Lucy explained. “He went to her house and snooped around one night while she was fixing them dinner. He saw a bottle of Jack Daniels in her wet bar and figured that he had found an easy way to kill her. He bought a bottle of the same whiskey in Waynesboro, where no one would remember him, steamed off the black label sealing the cap to the neck of the bottle, put the Valium inside, and glued the label back into place. The next time Dylan was at Ronnie’s he switched bottles, removing hers and throwing it out. He expected Ronnie to drink the liquor and die quietly at home, with no one the wiser. Unfortunately, Ronnie brought that bottle to Pete. I guess she got him drunk enough on the drugged Jack Daniels to be able to pump him for info. I guess whatever whiskey was left over she poured on the T-shirts and started the fire.”