Till Death Do Us Bark (18 page)

“And you’re positive Tomas arrived home only an hour before Martin’s death?”

Arlene took another hit of coffee. “Rosa said so, and I believe her. I still can’t understand why she wanted to save me pain by covering up what Martin tried to do to Maria. He was despicable.”

“Despicable enough for someone in the Suarez family to want him dead?”

“They’re good people,” Arlene said, shaking her head. “I just can’t see it.”

Ellie had a final question, one she’d been thinking, but hadn’t voiced out loud. “What about Julio?”

“What about him?”

“He’s Maria’s father. I imagine he was upset with Martin, too. Could he have gone to the doctor’s office and gotten into a scuffle with Dr. Kent and killed him?”

“I know he’s strong, but Julio is also gentle and soft-spoken. I don’t believe there’s a mean bone in the man’s body. Rosa said he was with Tomas in the house, and I believe her.”

“Maria was his baby. What if he called Tomas home and talked him into helping him avenge the wrong Martin had done?”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“I haven’t seen Julio for almost twenty-four hours now,” said Ellie, carefully broaching her next question. “Rosa told me he’d been at church making something called a
manda.
Do you know what that is?”

When Arlene raised her head, her eyes were filled with tears. “I have no idea.” The hand holding her coffee cup began to shake. “All this questioning has worn me out. I can’t talk any longer. I need to go upstairs and lie down.” She stood before Ellie could say another word. “Come on, babies. It’s time to go up with Mommy.” She pushed through the kitchen door, held it open for the Bostons, and disappeared.

 

“I haven’t seen Adrianne since we finished breakfast,” said Viv as she and Ellie shared space under a beach umbrella on the shore. “Mother said she was around somewhere, but she hasn’t answered the cottage phone or her cell, and when I asked Dad he said she wasn’t up there.”

Ellie had spoken with Vanessa McCready immediately after lunch, but had no luck garnering any more information than she did from Arlene. According to Vanessa, she’d been on the porch entertaining the McCready relatives, not paying attention to where any one person was. She figured Arlene had everything under control. It was her daughter’s night, after all. What else was a mother supposed to do?

Viv had kept Adrianne busy during the time Ellie spoke to Vanessa, but the middle sister had somehow still managed to escape just as Ellie was about to sit her down for a talk. They’d searched high and low and eventually given up, deciding instead to spend time in the late-afternoon sun.

Now that they’d been on the beach for about an hour, Ellie decided to make a careful inspection of her legs. After doing so, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her traffic cone orange extremities were almost back to normal and had, in fact, turned a decent shade of brown. Maybe tomorrow, she could again sit in the sun and leave the Hamptons looking as if she’d actually enjoyed a week at the shore.

Glancing to her left, she noted that Viv was still using the same expensive bronzing gel, and turning a beautiful shade of gold in the process.
Stop fussing about your skin and Viv’s and get back to business
, she told herself.

“Strange how Adrianne never seems to be around when she’s needed, isn’t it?”

“I know,” said Viv. “Then again, she always was a bit of a Harry Houdini. Whenever the three of us got into trouble, Adrianne always took off right before we were caught, and in the end only Arlene and I would get punished. She’d turned her disappearing act into an art form by the time she was eight.”

“I imagine she’ll show up for dinner, don’t you?”

“Of course. And if she doesn’t I’ll make Mom confess to what’s going on with her. They were all willing to be questioned this morning, so what’s changed since then?”

“She’s your sister,” said Ellie. This vacation had opened her eyes to Viv’s smart-ass comments about her family. While Vivie was agreeable, witty, and real, the rest of her family was dour and sarcastic in the way they treated others. “Though it’s hard to believe you were swimming in the same gene pool.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” said Viv. She stood and stretched, then slipped her cover-up over her bikiniclad body. “How about we make a quick stop before we go to the house?”

Ellie gathered her towel, shook out the sand, and stuffed it into her bag. Then she commandeered Viv’s tote bag while Viv took charge of the umbrella. “I can only hope you want to go where I want to go.”

Viv plodded through the sand in the direction of the guesthouse with Ellie beside her. “Am I getting warm?”

“You’re on fire. I’ve wanted to see the inside of his office all day, and not to belittle your father, but I’d like to see for myself if Adrianne is there.”

They reached the rear of the cottage, and propped the umbrella at the back door. “Your mother said the cops have given permission to leave the place unlocked, correct?”

“Yep, and guess what.”

Ellie opened the entrance door. “What?”

Viv reached into her bag, and pulled out a key.

“That will get us into Dr. Kent’s office?” Ellie asked.

“I’ve been carrying it around, hoping you’d want to stop in, but I figured that would be useless now that the cops and Mr. Bond have tramped around inside.” She stepped to the door that led to the second-floor apartment. “And just to show how much I love you, I’m willing to check the guest quarters while you inspect the doc’s office. What do you think of that?”

“You’re a pal,” said Ellie.

She held out her hand and Viv dropped the key in her palm. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes to join you.”

She unlocked the office door, then peered into Dr. Kent’s waiting room. The decor, a mixture of beach casual and antique oak, was comfortable yet had an air of money about it. Glass-topped tables held groupings of magazines and clusters of seashells, while wicker baskets and framed seascapes blended perfectly with the cream-colored walls and ocean blue drapes.

She started in the kitchen, happy to see that the usual grit left behind when a crime scene was dusted for fingerprints was gone. No wonder Maria and Terry had been missing for the entire afternoon yesterday. It must have taken hours just to clean the place after the cops had made a thorough search.

She first opened the cupboards and moved glassware and dishes, then checked the fridge, which was empty, and peeked inside an equally empty dishwasher. She gave a final inspection of the pantry and headed for the bathroom, where she found things to be in order, as well.

Back in the living room, she looked under the sofa, took stock of a bookcase, and shoved a few chairs around. Then she sighed. She was terrible at running a search. All she knew was what she’d seen on cop shows, and she hardly ever watched those. Why in the heck did she think she’d find anything after professionals had done their job?

Opening another door, she found herself in an examining room, complete with a raised table topped with a roll of white paper and a pillow. Looking into an empty glass-fronted cabinet, she guessed it had contained the drugs that the police confiscated; then she checked the drawers and a smaller cupboard, but all she saw were cotton swabs, tongue depressors, and other bits she expected belonged in a doctor’s office.

Growing frustrated, she opened the next door, pleased to find Dr. Kent’s actual private space. A massive mahogany desk sat against one wall, complete with a beautiful leather chair. Hanging on the wall behind the desk were the usual diplomas giving his credentials: Princeton University, a medical degree from Johns Hopkins, and an internship at Beth Israel, plus a few more framed documents from a variety of hospitals around the country.

A credenza sat below the wall of diplomas, and she opened it. One side had the innards for hanging file folders, but there were none. The other side was a shelved cabinet, which was also empty, and she decided it was probably another storage area for his giveaway drugs.

Steps on the stairs told her Viv was on her way down, so she continued her perusal. Rounding the desk, she scanned the room, but stopped short when she saw what was on the wall opposite the desk.

From where Dr. Kent sat during his working hours, he would see this picture every time he raised his eyes.

“Find anything?” asked Viv, entering the office.

Ellie swallowed. “How about you tell me?” She jutted her chin toward the wall holding a painting of a woman in profile.

Viv glanced in the direction of Ellie’s gaze and gasped. “Holy hell. How did that get there?”

“Looks like the painting was hung with a particular purpose,” said Ellie.

“Ya think?” Viv’s tone dripped sarcasm.

“Is that who I think it is?” Ellie continued, still in shock.

“See that tattoo, the butterfly on her lower back?”

“It’s pretty hard to miss, and it appears to be more on her upper right buttocks, if you ask me.”

“Whatever. All I know is she got that the summer she left for college. Dad never saw it, but Mom had a fit. There’s no doubt in my mind. That’s Adrianne.”

“She’s completely naked,” said Ellie, still surprised by the painting.

“No kidding.”

“Why do you think it’s here?”

Viv
tsk
ed. “Check out the view in this room.”

Ellie turned and again zeroed in on Dr. Kent’s desk. “Maybe she did it for practice? Like she was supposed to submit a self-portrait to a contest and she had to do a mock-up, and she wanted the doctor to be the judge.”

Viv looked at her as if she had three heads. “You’re joking, right?”

“Well, what other reason would she have for putting a naked self-portrait on her future brother-in-law’s wall?” The question made perfect sense to Ellie.

Viv put her hands on her hips. “I never thought I’d say this, but I think Sam is right. You truly are a Little Mary Sunshine.” She looked around the room and focused on the barge-sized leather sofa. “Want to hear my theory?”

“Ah . . . sure.” Ellie continued to stare at the painting. Adrianne’s long dark hair swung down her back, her profile perfect, her figure lithe. She was beautiful in a look-at-me sort of way, though Ellie felt it was all superficial. To her, the truly attractive women were the ones who had no idea of their striking appearance or, if they did, wouldn’t let it get in the way of their being a nice person. It was one of the reasons she liked Vivie so much.

“I think she did it to get back at Arlene,” Viv pronounced.

“To get back at Arlene? What did her older sister ever do to her?”

Viv turned, grabbed one of the chairs in front of the doctor’s desk, jerked it around to face the painting, and plopped herself down. “Jealousy, for one thing.”

Ellie pulled the other chair in place and copied her friend’s actions. “She’s jealous of Arlene? But why?”

Shaking her head, Viv rolled her eyes. “Because Arlene has money and Adrianne doesn’t. Plus, she’s had a husband and was on her way to number two.”

“Adrianne’s never been married?”

“Nope, and I doubt it will ever happen. And before you ask why I think that—” Viv crossed her arms. “It’s because she’s a bitch, plain and simple.”

“That’s not a very nice thing to say about your sister, Vivian.”

“That kind of truth rarely is. Adrianne’s always been jealous of Arlene, and me, if you want to know.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Don’t make a decision until you hear my reasoning. Before each of my divorces, I called Mother to let her know what was happening in my life. I’d hear from Adrianne a week later, and she’d ask me how things were going. I’d fill her in and she’d sound so sympathetic I’d break down. Once I even cried. I found out later from Mom that Adrianne knew all about the divorces before she phoned me.” Viv blew out a breath. “She called me because she wanted to bask in my misery and feed off my lousy luck. It made her happier with herself.”

Ellie couldn’t understand why any sister would be glad to hear that another sister’s marriage had failed. She’d been through each of her mother’s divorces and knew it was a terrible time for a woman. And even when she’d known that divorcing her dickhead ex had to be done to save her mental well-being, it had been a trying and miserable experience. “Have you discussed it with Arlene?”

“I told her, and she started out talking just like you, but when it happened after my second divorce, and I clued her in, she had to agree.”

“I still don’t get the reason for this portrait.”

“Think, Ellie. It’ll hit you in a minute.”

It only took her about thirty more seconds to see the light. “Oh.”

The corners of Viv’s mouth turned up, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Oh is right. How else could you hurt a sister you’re jealous of without doing her physical harm? Even if Arlene never came to the doc’s office, and it’s obvious she hasn’t, Adrianne would know that she’d had an affair with her sister’s husband, and he would be reminded of her every day. The ultimate slap in the face, if you ask me.”