The Good Die Twice (17 page)

“I only have one word of advice,” Dagger
cautioned. “I’ll give you the phone number for the retreat. Act as
if you are aware they purchased the property. And don’t let Eric
know that you found out about the retreat.”

“May I ask why you are interested in The
Abbey?”

“Not yet. Let me know what you find out
first.” Dagger hung up.

“Good cookies,” Simon mumbled as he washed
down the chocolate chips with milk. “Sara is some cook, Dagger.
Gotta watch yourself. She’s going to be a good catch for some
guy.”

Einstein could be heard in the aviary
screeching, “AWK. WANT A COOKIE. AWWWKK.”

“Thanks for that reminder. But that’s why I
have a locked gate by the street—to keep the suitors out.”

“Yep,” Simon winked. “Gotta keep her for
yourself.” Simon cocked his head to one side and sized up Sara’s
body, which was alluring even in the sundress. “Good set of hips
there for childbearing.” His eyes twinkled. Sara gasped.

“Ease up, Simon. Sara isn’t used to your
gutter mentality yet. Now how about telling me what you’ve
found.”

Simon wiped crumbs from his grinning face.
“Well, old Eric has a bit of a gambling problem. He likes to play
the ponies and is a regular at those private poker parties they
have at the downtown hotels in Chicago. They move ‘um around, you
know, so the cops can’t find them. He also frequents those casino
boats under a fictitious name. Bets five thousand bucks a hand.
Rumor is his debts at one time totaled five million.” Simon
chuckled, took a sip of coffee. “Between his gambling and his
wife’s expensive taste, they were in some dire straits.”

“How long ago was that?” Dagger asked.

“He’s been a good boy for a while. Must have
won some of it back. His worst financial problems were about six
years ago.”

“Six years ago?” Sara asked.

“That would make sense,” Dagger said. “Eric
sells one of the Tyler resorts without his father’s consent. He
uses the money to pay his debts.”

“And you think the old man’s wife might have
found out about it and college prep boy Eric bumped her off?” Simon
chuckled. It started deep in his thick middle and erupted into a
roaring laugh. “Yep. Those rich people sure do have their
problems.”

Worm heaved the file box onto the coffee
table. “This is really exciting.” He pushed his glasses up on his
nose and beamed proudly.

From the aviary, Einstein stared curiously at
the visitor. His head dipped and swayed as if sizing up Worm.

“Wow, is he beautiful.” The reporter made a
move toward the aviary.

“Don’t get too close,” Sara cautioned. “He
won’t bite but he tends to nip strangers, which might startle you.”
Sara turned to the macaw. “Einstein, this is Sal Wormley.” She
handed Einstein a Brazil nut. “Try to be quiet.”

Einstein wrapped his toes around the nut and
flew off to the top of the tree.

“So Einstein was Sheila’s competition? Dagger
made a wise choice.” Worm laughed. He settled in on the couch and
started pulling papers and a book from the box. “Where is
Dagger?”

“He had to go out of town for a few
hours.”

“I have copies of all the press clippings
during Rachel’s modeling career. I also went through her high
school yearbook which you gave me. They didn’t come any sweeter
than Rachel Liddie. She was prom queen, sweetheart queen, Miss
Teen, you name it.” Worm’s eye’s drifted up to the catwalk and the
skylights spanning the ceiling.

“Was there ever any negative publicity about
Rachel?” Sara sifted through some of the copies Worm had laid out
on the coffee table.

“Nothing. She wasn’t a temperamental artist,
always sweet, caring. No nude photos, no scandalous affairs.” Worm
dug down to the bottom of the box and pulled out a file folder.
“Her parents still live in Indianapolis, but Dagger told me not to
approach them.”

Sara closed the door to the aviary. Einstein
immediately flew to the door and clamped onto the bars. He
screeched his dislike for being imprisoned. It was an ear-piercing
clatter of bird-eze. “Einstein, we have company.”

Einstein wrapped his feet around the top bar
and hung upside down, training one beady eye on Worm. A sound crept
from Einstein’s throat, sounding much like a purr.

Sara reached through the bars and stroked
Einstein’s head. “Asking him to keep quiet is like telling a fish
to stop swimming.”

“He’s smart. No wonder Dagger named him
Einstein.” Worm showed Sara several photos of a tropical beach with
tanned women in floral skirts and bikini tops, another scene of a
market square with the women holding up straw purses. “See anyone
familiar?”

Sara studied the photos. The blonde was
definitely Rachel, with her long legs and blue eyes. “Was this a
photo shoot?”

“Yes, in Australia. This was about a year
before Rachel met Robert Tyler. I found the others in a French
magazine called Shutter. It’s comparable to our People magazine. It
catches the celebrities at play. One of the photos was from Monte
Carlo and another from the Riviera. I’m trying to get the originals
so we can get a better enlargement.”

Sara studied what seemed like two vacation
photos. A blonde woman was standing beside Rachel, but Sara didn’t
recognize her. The woman could pass for Rachel’s sister.

CHAPTER 27

Dagger felt an eerie presence in the room, as
if the Carmelite Retreat were haunted by years of unsettled
spirits. He had learned by browsing the framed newspaper clippings
in the lobby that the hotel had been built on an old Indian burial
ground.

The ornate décor had been tamed down since
its resort days. The walls were a muted color, the crystal
chandeliers replaced by wall sconces dimly lit. The furniture was a
drab brown, matching the robe of the monk who had greeted him at
the front desk.

Dagger had accepted the offer to use the
Tyler jet and had been assured the pilot could be trusted to not
inform anyone of their destination. Even the flight plan had stated
they would be flying to Detroit, not Boyne, Michigan.

Robert had confirmed that The Abbey had been
sold six years before. He had been unsuccessful at convincing
Dagger to let him tag along. Dagger felt it best if Robert didn’t
arouse any suspicions on the homefront.

Outside the windows, Dagger could see
patients being walked or wheeled through the gardens. The only
thing that added color to the lobby were the fresh floral
arrangements on the tables.

“Mr. Dagger, I’m so sorry to keep you
waiting.”

Dagger turned to see a round-faced man, a
lone curl brushing the top of his otherwise balding head. He
introduced himself as Duncan, stuck a pudgy hand out, and shook
Dagger’s fingers. Duncan spoke in a whisper so when Dagger
responded in a normal tone, his voice seemed to echo off the lobby
walls.

“I have only about a half-hour before my
flight leaves,” Dagger admitted.

“Of course. Follow me.”

Duncan led Dagger to a room on the third
floor overlooking the gardens. It was the size of a suite, probably
one of the more expensive rooms. It had been Rachel’s for the last
five years. Sunlight streamed in through the tall windows, giving a
warm glow to a room draped in yellow-flowered curtains and
bedspread. There were no photos on the dresser, no keepsakes,
mementos. Only a book of poems by the bedside. In the closet hung a
few dresses, sweaters, some canvas flats.

“Nurse Reynolds tended to Ada Matthews,”
Duncan said.

When Dagger had shown Rachel’s picture to
Celia Flaherty, the guest services manager, she had identified the
woman as Ada Matthews, a woman brought in by her brother, Sean,
five years before. Supposedly the brother had her in a hospital for
a few months. When she lapsed into a coma, the doctors recommended
she be placed in a private home. Calls were made weekly by the
brother for an update on his sister’s condition, but when he had to
go out of town, Ada’s sister, Pamela, made the weekly calls. Six
months later Ada had come out of her coma but didn’t recognize her
sister or even know her own name. After several more months of
visits and attempts at hypnosis, her sister stopped visiting. They
had only left instructions to be contacted if there were any signs
of change in Ada’s condition.

Dagger had also shown the guest services
manager the pictures of the three goons who had broken into Sara’s
house, but the manager couldn’t be sure if any of them was the
so-called Sean Matthews.

“Father Duncan? You were looking for me?”
Nurse Reynolds had graying hair that was pulled back severely in a
tight bun. Her eyes sagged at the corners, though her mouth was in
a continuous smile, pleasing, grandmotherly.

“Yes, Mr. Dagger has a few questions about
Miss Matthews.”

Once Duncan left, Nurse Reynolds opened the
curtains wider and straightened the bedspread as if expecting
company. She appeared jittery, opening and closing the dresser
drawers, flitting from the dresser to the table.

She seemed to gloss over Dagger’s appearance.
He wondered if his all-black clothes, ponytail, earring, and the
grunge-looking stubble made her uncomfortable. It wouldn’t be the
first time he had that effect on the older generation who still
remembered the Capone days. Dagger’s choice of dress seemed to
grant him all the best tables in Italian restaurants.

“Please, have a seat,” Dagger coaxed. He took
a seat on the bed.

“I’m told you are with an insurance company?”
She sat down on a yellow love seat near the window and clasped her
hands.

“I’m trying to determine how Ra... Miss
Mathews got from the retreat to Cedar Point, especially since she
had no recollection of who she was or even that Cedar Point was her
home.” Dagger fanned the poetry book looking for notes, some hint
of when Rachel might have begun to get her memory back.

“I really can’t say. She made casual
conversation but would always seem puzzled and confused when we
tried to encourage her to remember. Since it caused so much
distress, we tried not to pressure her.”

“You were her nurse during the entire five
years?”

“Yes. I was her physical therapist.”

Dagger showed her the pictures of Joey,
Mince, and Luke. “Do you recognize any of these men?”

She lifted the reading glasses, which were
hanging from a beaded chain around her neck. “Oh, my, it’s been so
long; I really can’t be sure.”

“Take another look,” Dagger urged.

Nurse Reynolds studied each of the pictures
intensely. Shaking her head, she said, “Definitely not them. But
Celia saw him more than I ever did.”

“Unfortunately, her memory isn’t too keen.”
Dagger wanted to say that her memory wasn’t too great either but
pissing off Nurse Reynolds wasn’t going to win her over. “Maybe you
remember specific features. Was he short, tall, scars?”

“He was tall, that much I remember.”

Dagger handed her a picture of Eric Tyler.
“What about this man?”

She lined all the pictures up in front of
her. After a few moments she confessed, “If you were to put these
men in a line up, I wouldn’t be able to swear to anything.” As an
afterthought, she added, “But don’t give up on Celia. She’s one of
those whose light bulb comes on at the most unusual time. Two weeks
from now at four in the morning, she’ll jump out of bed with the
answer.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t wait that long.”
Dagger handed her his business card and asked her to keep it handy
should she remember anything else.

Nurse Reynolds sighed heavily. “Ada was a
beautiful young woman. It was a pity her family couldn’t visit her
more often.”

“No one came to claim her belongings after
she left?”

Nurse Reynolds shook her head. “When she was
first brought in her sister supplied her with a few summer and
winter things, a coat, perfume, nothing more.”

“Was there any time before she disappeared
when she seemed to remember her past?”

“No.”

“To your knowledge, did she write to anyone
prior to her disappearance?”

She thought a moment, “No. That is one thing
I would have noticed since I’m the one who sifts through the mail
before it is picked up. Ada didn’t even have a diary.”

“What did she talk to you about?”

“Normal things. The weather, the flowers. She
liked thumbing through catalogs, looking at clothes. And she liked
poetry.”

Something didn’t seem right, Dagger thought.
Rachel had to have remembered. How else would she know to call
Robert? How else would she know her way back to Cedar Point?

“When did you first notice she was missing?”
He placed the pictures back in his pocket.

Nurse Reynolds pulled her glasses off,
leaving them to dangle again. “She usually went to her room right
after dinner to watch television or read but the next morning she
didn’t come down for breakfast.”

“How would someone get off the grounds if
they wanted to leave?” Dagger gazed at the property outside the
windows. There weren’t any fences. Vendors came and went. Cleaning
vans, produce, groceries. Visiting hours ended at eight o’clock at
night. “What time does the last vendor leave?”

The nurse shrugged. “Could be laundry, which
leaves around midnight each day.”

“And what company is that?”

“Sierra. We contacted the sister when we
first discovered Ada missing but her sister told us Ada had arrived
home safe and sound.”

“Can you describe Ada’s sister?”

“Why,” Nurse Reynolds smiled, “she looked
just like Ada.”

CHAPTER 28

Dagger rubbed the sleep from his eyes and
staggered to the kitchen. He didn’t get back into town until after
nine, then stopped over to see Padre in the hospital. Having missed
dinner, he wasn’t in the mood for breakfast. Instead, he grabbed
two pieces of cold pizza and a can of Pepsi and took a seat at the
kitchen table.