Kilt Dead (31 page)

So much for welcoming the prodigal home.

She hadn’t left. She’d run into Margaret Boyd at
Patsy’s and ended up with the offer of a job and a temporary place to stay. Within a month, she’d landed full-time
work as a dispatcher and corrections officer at the jail
and, with her mother’s help, bought a second-hand mobile home. They weren’t living in the lap of luxury, but
they were getting by … without any help from her father.

So why was she here now? Because she owed Margaret Boyd a debt of gratitude and Margaret’s niece needed
help. Swallowing a lump in her throat that was the size of
Cleveland, she went the rest of the way into the store.

“What do you want?”

Sherri ignored the surly tone and ferocious scowl and
studied his eyes. The haunted look she saw there floored
her … and made her remember the affectionate father of
her early childhood, before constant quarreling between
her parents had turned their home into a battleground.

“I need your help,” she said.

“How much?”

“Not money. Answers” She glanced around the store.
No customers wandered the aisles. For the moment, at
least, they had privacy.

“Liss MacCrimmon came and talked to you. You said there had been `shady characters’ hanging around the
Emporium. Who did you mean?”

Someone pulled up to the gas pumps, but for once
Ernie Willett ignored a customer. “That real estate fella.
Graye. And the bimbo he hangs out with.”

Sherri let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been
holding. She’d been afraid her father would refuse to talk
to her.

“Never did like that fella. Didn’t vote for him when he
ran for selectman. He wants to buy the whole block of
Pine between Ash and Birch and tear down the old
houses”

The impatient blare of a horn interrupted them. “Go,”
Sherri said.

He hesitated. “You’ll still be here when I come back?”

“If you want”

A curt nod conveyed his satisfaction with her answer.
Sherri wiped her hands on the sides of her jeans, wishing
she could relax. She didn’t know where she stood with
her father, but she hoped she was about to find out.

Once again seated in Jason Graye’s office, Liss studied
the Realtor with a new intensity. He was up to no good.
Of that she was certain. What she couldn’t tell was just
how big a villain he really was.

If he’d killed Mrs. Norris, she was foolish to have come
here. On the other hand, the plate glass window looked out
onto the main street in Fallstown. Surely someone would
notice if he tried to strangle her or inflict other bodily harm.

“I have some time this afternoon,” Graye said.

“I just don’t know.” Liss didn’t have to fake her distress. “It’s so soon after Mrs. Norris’s murder.”

“A walk through the place. That’s all I need. I can’t set
a price until I’ve seen what shape it’s in.”

Did he expect mold and carpenter ants? He’d already
mentioned the possibility of dry rot at their last meeting.
Did any of those things actually need to be present for
him to claim he’d spotted them?

“This is all so upsetting. And just think-if I’d loaned
you the key to the shop when you asked for it, you might
have been there to prevent what happened to Mrs. Norris.”

“My dear Ms. MacCrimmon, surely that’s unlikely.”
Graye looked genuinely taken aback by her observation.

“When I was here before, you said you’d never met
Mrs. Norris. But you made her an offer for her house. A
very low offer, as I understand it.”

Graye hit the intercom button. “Barbara, get in here”

When she entered the office, he waved her into the second client’s chair. His own, behind the desk, was higher
and arranged so that he was slightly in shadow while full
sunlight fell on whomever he faced. He didn’t miss a trick
when it came to getting the upper hand.

“Ms. MacCrimmon was asking me about her poor
neighbor. Did I ever meet her?”

“I don’t believe so.”

Graye tented his fingers on his chest and looked properly solemn. “And the day she was killed-back me up,
please, Barbara-we thought it worth a try to stop by
Mrs. Boyd’s little shop to see if anyone else might be around
to let us in. You were most anxious to get a look at that
cloth, weren’t you, my dear?”

Liss slanted a look at Barbara. The woman nodded
warily but seemed a bit anxious about what Graye might
say next.

“Naturally, we found the shop locked, so we went ahead
with our plans for the evening. We spent it together, at my
place.”

Only a slight start gave away Barbara’s surprise at this
statement.

“I don’t think that’s quite true,” Liss said.

They both stared at her, but neither gave any more
away.

“You stopped in at the clothing store. The owner was
quite pleased to have made a sale.”

Barbara flushed a deep red. “I don’t ordinarily buy secondhand clothes. I was just trying to help her out. Small businesses have such a hard time of it these days”

“And you asked her if she had a key to the Emporium,”
Liss continued, shifting her gaze to Graye.

His expression bland, he nodded. “I had forgotten that.
Yes, you’re right, of course”

“You seemed so anxious to get in. I wondered if you
might have gone back again later. Perhaps you saw something on your second visit that-“

“I told you. Barbara and I spent the rest of the day together. The night, too. At my place. We didn’t go out”

Again Barbara gave a slight start, but she didn’t contradict him.

Was she just embarrassed to have her private life discussed with a stranger, or was she trying to hide something? Liss couldn’t decide.

“Thank you, Barbara. That will be all.” But she’d no
sooner left the room than he was on his feet and going
after her. “Excuse me a moment, Ms. MacCrimmon. I’ve
just remembered an errand I have for Barbara. Not something that can wait, I’m afraid.”

He closed the door between his office and the reception area, making it impossible for Liss to hear more than
the murmur of voices, but he was quick to return. She had
no chance to snoop in his file cabinet or among the papers
on the desk.

“Now, then, Ms. MacCrimmon, if you’ve satisfied your
curiosity, shall we set a date for me to go through the house?
It is essential, I assure you, that this be done as soon as
possible.” If he’d been insulted by her implication that he’d had something to do with Mrs. Norris’s death, he
wasn’t about to let that keep him from earning a commission.

“It will have to be in the evening. I’m tied up with my
aunt’s store during the day.” And in the evening, she could
make sure she was not alone with Graye. Dan or Sherri
could watch her back.

“Wednesday?” Graye was nothing if not persistent.

“Yes. Fine. Wednesday at eight?” Suddenly she wanted
nothing more than to get out of there. She felt claustrophobic in the office and the cloying scent of Barbara’s
perfume lingered, making her slightly sick to her stomach.

Graye delayed her for another ten minutes, hunting for
and finding various bits of paperwork he wanted her to
have. Barbara was just coming back into the building as
Liss fled. Graye’s lady friend couldn’t meet Liss’s eyes
and her cheeks turned a bright, betraying pink as she
rushed past.

This entire visit had been a wasted effort, Liss decided, except for that tell-tale blush. Barbara was nervous. But what did that mean?

Liss went directly back to her car, parked in the quiet,
tree-shaded parking lot behind the real estate office, momentarily distracted by the realization that she’d forgotten
to lock it … again. She didn’t suppose it mattered. She’d
also left the sunroof open to take advantage of the cooler
temperature. If anyone had wanted to steal the CD player
badly enough, they could have gotten to it that way. She
hadn’t left anything else of value in the car.

Sliding in behind the wheel, Liss started the engine
and headed for home. Her thoughts circled back to Barbara Zathros. She was certain Graye had lied, and the best
way to prove it was to talk to his lady friend when he wasn’t
around. That would have to wait until evening. She knew
where the other woman lived. Hermione Biggs’s house was exactly one block away from the Emporium, on the
corner of Ash Street and Maple Avenue.

Liss had driven less than a mile before she decided
against confronting Barbara on her own. Much better to
have back-up. She pulled onto the shoulder of the road
and punched Sherri’s number into her cell phone.

“I want to question Barbara Zathros,” she said when
her friend answered, “but on the off chance she’s the one
who killed Mrs. Norris, it would be pretty stupid of me to
confront her by myself.”

“That’s easily fixed. We’ll do it together. This evening,
after she gets home from work?”

“Come by the apartment. I’ll feed you first”

“No scones”

“No scones”

“Liss? I talked to my father today. I was wrong. One of
the `shady characters’ he mentioned to you was Jason
Graye. The other was Barbara.”

“Well, well.”

“Yeah” Suddenly her voice went up an octave. “Adam!
Take your hand out of the toaster! Got to go” And the
line went dead.

Satisfied that she’d done everything she could for the
moment, Liss eased back onto the road. A short time later
she turned onto the hilly, twisting byway that was the
time-honored shortcut to Moosetookalook and increased
her speed. There wasn’t much traffic and she made good
time, cresting the first of two long, curving hills five miles
south of the town line fifteen minutes after leaving Fallstown.
She applied the brakes as she started down the other side,
nervous about taking the descent too fast, but when she
let up, the PT Cruiser accelerated on its own. She tapped
the brakes again, relieved when the car slowed. It had been
running perfectly. She couldn’t think what the matter might
be. She’d have to get it checked out.

For another mile, nothing happened. Then, without warn ing, the throttle stuck again. The first tendrils of alarm
made Liss’s hands tighten on the wheel and had her heart
doing a step dance. This time when she touched her foot
to the brake and let up, the car seemed to leap forward.
Reacting out of panic, she slammed both feet down on
the brake pedal. It was a mistake. The engine was still accelerating. She’d crested the second hill. Her action sent
the car spinning out of control just as it started to descend
a treacherously curving slope.

Disbelief slowed Liss’s response time. This couldn’t
be happening. By the time she jerked at the emergency
brake, she was flying down the hill. A horrendous sound,
a grinding and squealing, told her the brake was trying to
do its job, but the car didn’t slow. And then, to her horror,
she saw that an SUV was coming the other way. She
jerked the wheel, desperate to stay on her own side of the
road, but she overcompensated. The next thing she knew,
she was heading straight for the guard rail.

Impact came a moment later as her car struck with
bone jarring force. Metal screamed as the barrier gave
way. Her airbag deployed, smacking her in the face with
enough force to make her wonder if her nose had been
broken. It brought with it a smell and a cloud of fine powder that had her choking. And while she sputtered and
coughed, her car continued on, bumping over a few feet
of gravel before it reached the edge. Dimly, Liss realized
she was airborne … and headed straight for a hard landing in the middle of the Kenebscot River.

i - f you feel yourself start to fall, go limp.
“

The long-ago voice of a ski instructor came back to
Liss as her car plummeted. The air bag was already deflating. Big help that was going to be! The skiing hadn’t
gone well either. She’d taken a total of five lessons before
deciding she didn’t like being out in icy cold weather on
the top of a mountain.

Relax! Her mind screamed the message in her own
voice this time, and she willed herself not to tense up in
the split-second before water geysered up on all sides.
Liss’s seat belt jerked tight, knocking the breath out of
her. For a moment she felt as if she were still suspended
in space. Then her stomach settled, her heart dropped back
out of her throat, and she realized that the car had landed
right-side up. It was moving sluggishly downriver.