Homicide by Hamlet (Cozy Mystery) Book #3 (Chubby Chicks Club Cozy Mystery Series) (13 page)

“Dwight, put that broom down,” Gerald’s voice boomed.

Dwight, shaking, set it down. “She’s a nuisance, a pest!”

“Seriously?” I raised my hands.

“You’re a nasty old bag.” Dwight glared at me.

“Dwight, I apologize for making you mad. But you don’t need to resort to name calling,” I said.

Gerald walked over to me, and placed a hand on my back. “Are you okay, Annie Mae?”

“Great,” I said.

“What about me? I’m not okay! I want to press charges against her, for aggravation.” Dwight moved toward me and stuck a finger in my face.

“Then I want to counter. I’ll press charges that you threatened me with a weapon,” I said.

We stood face to face, like in a stand off in an old western movie. Neither of us budged as we waited for the other to make the first move.

Gerald grabbed Dwight’s shoulder. “You need to calm down, young man. Why don’t you take a walk?”

He huffed and stomped off.

“I was, sort of, provoking him,” I admitted to Gerald.

“You were? Why?” He folded his arms over his chest.

“To get him to crack,” I said. “You see, I think that he might have killed Priscilla, perhaps in a jealous rage.”

“Over another man?” Gerald asked.

“No,” I continued. “Over her daughter.”

“Priscilla’s? I thought she was childless.” Gerald grinned. “Unless you include Dwight.”

“Right, they had quite an age difference.” I laughed.

“Hey if it worked, then more power to them.” Gerald shifted his stance. “Dwight was totally out of line with the name calling.”

“Yes, but I can’t blame him for getting mad at me. Although, I appreciate you stepping in and defending me. You’re always the gentleman.”

“So, you planned to have him all worked up, enough that he almost hit you?”

“I didn’t know he’d try to hit me, but I guess in hindsight, I did aggravate him a bit too much.” I paused and looked away, kind of embarrassed of my tactic which, in retrospect, seemed a bit immature.

“Oh.” Gerald shifted his stance.

I tried to explain my method. “When people get angry, they lose control, and say things they normally wouldn’t say. I’d hoped he’d confess and tell me what he did to Priscilla and Winona.”

Gerald inched forward. “You really do think he killed Priscilla, don’t you?”

“Possibly.” I added, “He’s the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. And apparently they won’t pay his claim yet, or maybe ever, because Priscilla’s death is being investigated as a murder.”

“I see. So you think he has motive for killing her?”

“And opportunity. You told me that he was here the night Priscilla was killed.”

“Also, remember, Winona and I were here too. As well as two of your team members.”

“Yes.” I held a hand up. “But my students were cleared. I’m positive they had nothing to do with it.”

“Right.”

“And Priscilla couldn’t have cracked her own cranium with the skull prop. So that leaves Dwight.”

“And Winona.” Gerald rubbed his chin.

I laid my hand on his arm. “You’re right. That leaves Dwight and Winona.”

He massaged the back of his neck.

“They both had motive. If Winona was her daughter, then being left out of Priscilla’s life and her inheritance would be a big deal.”

Gerald ran a hand through his hair. “That would hurt a lot. Can you imagine a daughter not being acknowledged by her own mother?”

“No kidding, that would be terrible. And cause so many issues.” I stopped. My thoughts flooded with Umika’s vision. “Oh my goodness. A small angry hurt child or spirit. Like in a person’s spirit!”

“Now you think a ghost had something to do with it?” His forehead creased.

I told Gerald about Umika’s vision. “You see, Umika’s dream was right. Because Priscilla hadn’t acknowledged Winona as her daughter, Winona must’ve been wounded and angered beyond belief. A child, no matter how old, would never get over that, ever.”

“You’re right. You think that gave Winona motive enough to kill her own mother?”

I shivered at the thought. “Perhaps. But I still think Dwight could’ve done it too.”

Gerald asked, “How are you going to find out who did it, now that you’ve narrowed it down to two people?”

“I was in the process of interrogating Dwight when you arrived,” I said.

“I’m sorry, did I interrupt you?” He lowered his eyes. “You looked like you were in trouble.”

“No, its okay. You were trying to be a hero. That’s sweet and kind of cute.” I touched his arm. “But you have to know something about me, I can save myself.”

“I know you can, and that could make a guy, like me, feel unwanted,” he said.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“I’m the type of guy who needs a princess that I can rescue from the fire breathing dragon. To be the hero in her life,” Gerald said.

“And I’m the type of woman who likes being a heroine alongside a man; like superheroes.” I felt warm and comfortable because were talking again as friends with a hint of romance.

He chuckled. “You’re an independent woman—I agree with you.”

“Yes, and I can save myself. I planned on doing a self-defense move on Dwight before you showed up. But that doesn’t mean I don’t need anyone,” I said. “Having a partner who thinks of me as an equal is important.”

“I don’t think you’re equal.” He brushed his hand along my arm. “In a whole lot of ways, you’re better than me.”

Winona approached me, interrupting us. “Excuse me, can I talk to you Dr. Maple?”

“Don’t mind me, I was just leaving,” Gerald said. He whispered in my ear. “I’ll be close by in case you need me.”

“Remember, I have my own cape,” I said to him before he left. “Did the aspirin help?” I asked Winona.

“What?” Her eyes widened, as if surprised by my question.

“Your head injury?” I said.

She looked away. “Oh that? I’m fine.” She touched her forehead. “The aspirin worked.”

I had a feeling that something was wrong. Why did she hesitate? It was as if she’d forgotten she’d been clunked on the back of her head.

Could Winona have faked the accident in order to draw attention away from her and onto Dwight?

“When I cleaned out Priscilla’s office, I found an envelope marked Theater Camp,” Winona said. “It had this year’s date on it.” She handed me a large manila envelope.

“What’s in it?” I asked.

“I didn’t sort through it.” She chewed on the inside of her cheek.

“Why are you giving it to me?”

“I thought you might be interested, or pass it along to someone who might need it for next year’s camp.”

“Thank you. I wonder if there could be anything in there that’s related to her death.”

Winona shrugged. “If there is, I’d appreciate it if you passed it along to the police.”

“Will do.”

“I thought you’d know if it might be helpful for someone else, since you won’t be here next year.” She slid her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Regardless, you can have whatever’s in there. I was just going to throw them out anyway.”

“I’ll take a look.” I placed the envelope in my purse. “But I have to know something first, and I’d appreciate it if you were honest.”

Winona raised her eyebrows and clutched her purse in front of her. “Well, it depends on the question.”

I held up my hand. “No, you have to agree that you’ll answer it truthfully, no matter what I ask.”

“Why should I?”

“Because it could matter a lot to you.”

She bit her bottom lip. “Fine.”

“Are you Priscilla’s daughter?”

Tears welled in Winona’s eyes. She whispered. “Yes.”

I reached out and laid a hand on her forearm. “I’m so sorry about what happened to your mother.”

She sobbed. “It’s been awful. She told me that I could never, ever tell anyone. But now she’s gone, and I’m still not sure if I should tell anyone.”

“Why did she keep your relationship a secret?” I asked.

Sniffing she said, “Because she had me when she was eighteen years old. I was born in June, right after her high school graduation. She hid the pregnancy because she was so ashamed.”

“Prom is usually a month or two before graduation. That meant that she was pregnant with you in the picture on her poster,” I pointed out.

“I noticed that too.” She put on a faint smile. “I’m glad that she decided to have me. I mean, my adoptive parents were wonderful. Old, but wonderful. They’re both gone now.” She wiped her eyes.

“You poor thing. Do you know who your biological father is?”

She shook her head. “On my birth certificate it said ‘Angelo Cayman.’ I researched it and couldn’t find anyone with that name in Savannah. In the end I guess, it didn’t really matter. He wasn’t a part of my life. I assume either she told him and he decided that he wanted nothing to do with me, or that she never told him at all.”

Poor kid. “How did you end up working for Priscilla?” I asked.

“After my adoptive parents died, I did some research and found Priscilla. But that was a disaster. She wanted nothing to do with me, until I told her she was all I had left.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Me too.” She looked down. “Anyway, she took pity on me, paid my rent and gave me a job. But I had to promise her that I’d never tell anyone that she was my mother. Ever. This year, it was more important than ever to keep the secret because she let me work with her at theater camp, and I couldn’t breathe a word about our true relationship. To the world we were boss and dutiful assistant. But it didn’t matter, I just wanted to be in her life.”

Did having to keep such a painful secret become so overwhelming that it enraged Winona enough to commit matricide? I shook my head. “That must’ve been difficult for you.”

“Yes. But it was good that I got to spend so much time with her, not that it made up for all the years she wasn’t in my life.” Winona sniffed.

“She missed out on so much, I can’t even imagine.” I sympathized.

“But all the same, I understand why she felt she had to do it. At the time, her parents refused to acknowledge her pregnancy. She told me that after I was born, and given to my adoptive parents, her parents acted like nothing happened. Like I never happened. I always had this deep longing to be a part of my real family. Too bad that’s never going to happen.”

“What a shame.” I added, “But why continue to keep it a secret after all these years?”

“She had a reputation in the community to uphold. And a young fiancé.” She scowled when she said fiancé.

“You don’t like Dwight, do you?”

“No,” she said. “And it has nothing to do with him being closer in age to me than he was to her. It had to do with him being a conniving parasite.”

“Please tell me how you really feel, don’t hold back,” I joked, attempting to lift her mood.

“He took advantage of her, and she was too blinded by his looks and youth to see it,” she said. “She was all about keeping up a façade.”

“Then why are you helping him now?”

“You know the saying, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer?’ Well, I have to find her prenuptial. She mentioned that she’d had one done because she was afraid he’d leave her for a younger woman.” She paused. “One his own age.”

“So that’s why she seemed obsessed with her appearance,” I added.

Winona nodded. “Do you know the worst part? She wanted to leave her family home to me, so that I would have that as a legacy, as a part of her family. It’s like she was attempting to right some wrongs. Of course she thought I’d get it when she died, like decades from now, not…. ” Tears filled her eyes.

I touched her arm. “But instead, she left her family home to Dwight?”

She bowed her head. “He convinced her to put him as beneficiary on everything she owned.”

Would that give Dwight enough reason to kill her and claim all of her assets? “Why did she allow him to do that?”

“He insisted, and she gave in.”

Why would a strong woman like Priscilla, buckle under the pressure of a man? “That’s too bad.”

“I know. But the prenup would’ve overruled it. I haven’t found it yet. As long as I stay by his side, helping,” she grumbled the last word. “Maybe I’ll get a hold if it, and honor my mother’s wishes.” Winona stopped, wide-eyed. “You know that’s the first time I called her mother out loud?”

“Did it feel good?” I smiled.

“Too bad I couldn’t say it when she was alive.”

“Yes, too bad. I can’t imagine how you must have felt having your own mother not publicly acknowledging that you’re her daughter.”

“It was our arrangement. I didn’t like it, but I got used to it.”

“Did Dwight know?”

Winona shifted her stance. “I think he had his suspicions.”

“Oh.” If he knew that she was Priscilla’s daughter, a daughter who could be entitled to her inheritance, maybe it was enough for him to kill Priscilla and harm Winona.

“Listen, I’ve got to get going. I have a million things to do. Dwight is running me ragged. I’ll see you at the ceremony tonight.” She waved goodbye.

Was Winona sincere? Innocent?

Or had she provided me with all the information to further throw Dwight under the bus as a suspect, in order to divert the attention away from her?