Murder Between the Covers

Chapter 24

“More coffee, honey?”

Helen was a sucker for coffee shops where the waitresses called her “honey.” This one was the real thing, a neon-and-metal diner off the highway. At midnight, the place looked like that Edward Hopper painting, Nighthawks. The fluorescent lights turned Margery’s amethyst outfit a sickly purple and her skin an unhealthy yellow. Helen knew she looked equally exhausted. They both needed a caffeine infusion.

It was raining again and the diner’s air-conditioning was on full-blast. The place was freezing. Helen spent most of the summer shivering in the refrigerated indoor Florida air.

She wrapped her hands around her thick white coffee mug to keep warm.

“Maybe Astrid needed some records from the bookstore,” Helen said. “Maybe that’s why Gayle was there tonight.”

“How does Astrid usually get the store reports?”

Margery lit up a cigarette now that the surveillance was over.

“We send them by courier every Monday morning.”

“Not at eleven-twenty at night,” Margery said. “Not delivered by an attractive young lesbian. Who, by the way, wasn’t carrying anything.”

“Astrid can’t be gay. She was married to Page, who was this hot stud.” Helen let go of the coffee cup long enough to take a drink, hoping it would warm her insides.

“That’s what he said,” Margery said. “Ever ask any of the women if he was any good?”

“No,” Helen said.

“Ha. I thought so. John Kennedy was supposed to be a stud, too, but a lot of women said he wasn’t much of a lover. Don Juans rarely are. More interested in scoring than thinking about what a woman needs.”

Helen took another drink while she considered this. It made sense. She wanted to ask Margery how she knew these things, but didn’t dare. Her landlady probably had a fling with JFK. “I feel so Midwestern,” Helen said. “Astrid was married, so I didn’t expect her to have a gay lover.”

“You’d be surprised by the rich women who have female lovers,” Margery said. Helen really wasn’t going to ask how she knew that. “In the nineteenth century, lesbianism was tolerated, even encouraged, in certain upper-class circles. Appearances were all that mattered, and it was perfectly acceptable for a woman to have a female friend.”

“Even one as butch as Gayle?” Helen said. “In her Doc Martens, she could hardly mingle with Astrid’s country-club friends.”

“Astrid doesn’t want to play tennis with her,” Margery said. “I can’t think of a better way to get revenge on an unfaithful husband than to cuckold him with a woman. So much for his stud rep.”

“Do you think Gayle helped Astrid kill her husband?”

Helen said.

“I think it’s the best lead we’ve had so far. Let’s take one more swing by the house and see if Gayle is still there. It’s heading toward one a.m.”

Margery drove back to Palm Beach in a pounding rain.

Sometimes the road vanished completely into the wall of water. All Helen could see was the center line unwinding like a ribbon into the gray rain. She stayed silent while Margery handled the big Cadillac with considerable skill.

The rain stopped suddenly as they came over the bridge into Palm Beach. The shining moon lit the ragged clouds and turned the water into a sea of silver.

This time, the Turner mansion looked totally different.

The huge house was dark and silent. Gayle’s Honda was parked in the circular drive.

“Do you have to be anywhere tomorrow morning?”

Margery said.

“No, I have the whole day free.”

“Good. We’re spending the night at a motel. I want to see something,” Margery said. “Don’t worry. I’ll pay for it.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Helen said. “I have money.”

“I have more,” Margery said. “Besides, I want that damn squawk box out of my house.”

They got a no-frills motel room with two double beds in lower-rent Lake Worth. It was a smoking room and stank of stale tobacco. Helen didn’t complain.

Her pillow smelled like an ashtray, but Helen was asleep as soon as her head touched it. Margery shook her awake at five-thirty a.m. and handed her a cup of coffee made in the motel room’s little coffeepot. It tasted thin and bitter, but Helen was grateful for any hot caffeine.

“Throw on your clothes,” Margery said. “Let’s check something out.”

By six a.m., they were back at the Turner mansion.

Gayle’s car was gone. “She’s out before the day help arrives,” Margery said. “They’re hiding their relationship. I’d say we have a good, solid theory. Your work is cut out for you. Find out where they both were the night of the murder.”

Astrid was easy. Women like her had their lives chronicled in the society columns. Helen walked over to the Broward County Library that morning, and began combing the Florida magazines and newspapers. She found what she needed two hours later in the Florida High Life weekly.

On the night her husband died, Astrid had hosted a benefit for the You Gotta Have Heart Association in Vero Beach, a hundred miles north of Fort Lauderdale. The newspaper photos showed Astrid at the head table, next to a well-upholstered gentleman shoving a forkful of food in his mouth. Good thing he was a major donor. The guy would need the heart association’s services soon.

The photos accompanied a column called “Samantha’s Society Rambles,” which Helen thought was a remarkably accurate description. It was headed by a photo of Samantha, who looked like Dick Cheney in drag.

Astrid was wearing a black strapless Gucci gown, according to Samantha, who pronounced her “stunning.”

Helen wouldn’t go that far, but Astrid was regal-looking.

Her dress must have cost a fortune. More than I make at her bookstore in a year, Helen thought.

Samantha the society columnist had a positive mania for reporting the designers of all the women’s dresses. Helen wondered if the charity would have made more money if the women had stayed home and donated the price of their dresses.

Samantha kept rambling, but Helen followed her to the bitter end, slogging through designer and guest names. In the last paragraph was the information she needed. Astrid had “danced till dawn to the music of Peter Duchin’s Orchestra.” There was a photograph to prove it. She and the well-upholstered gentleman were holding each other at arm’s length, as if they were coated with anthrax.

Helen didn’t know if Astrid actually stayed until the sun peeped over the horizon, but one thing was clear. She was there late. Astrid could not have slipped out for an hour to kill her husband in Fort Lauderdale. It was a two-hundred-mile round trip.

Astrid did not put the pillow over Page’s face, but she wasn’t off the hook. Not after what Helen saw last night.

Astrid and Gayle were in it together. Astrid, as the most likely suspect, had established her alibi. Meanwhile, Gayle did the dirty work.

Suddenly, all Gayle’s odd behavior made sense.

Gayle knew Peggy had threatened to kill Page. She’d been at the store when it happened.

Gayle knew where Helen lived because she’d been to the Coronado before. She took Page Turner there and dumped his body in Peggy’s bed to throw suspicion on her.

Gayle was strong enough to move the body.

Gayle knew the Coronado was being tented. Helen had talked about it and asked for the weekend off.

Gayle could go into a building filled with poison gas.

She had a firefighter brother with access to SCBA gear.

Gayle hated Page Turner so much, she broke his Bawls.

Gayle had golden hair and a silver car.

Gayle told everyone that Peggy was guilty. Helen was sure she steered the police her friend’s way.

When Page’s office was broken into, Gayle said nothing was missing. If something vital was indeed stolen, something that cleared Peggy, Gayle would never tell the police.

All Gayle cared about was that the break-in would upset her precious Astrid.

And what about poor Mr. Davies, dead in his favorite chair? Gayle could have easily slipped back from her errand to hear Mr. Davies was about to spill the beans. She could have smothered him anytime during the mommy riot.

She certainly didn’t seem upset at his death.

Gayle stayed with the police when they were investigating Mr. Davies’ death, “helping” them. She made sure Denny and Helen weren’t anywhere near the scene. She could easily hide or cover up anything suspicious.

And what part did Astrid play in this? She was safely in Vero Beach, dancing till dawn in front of the photographers, while her lover made her a rich widow.

She had the money so they could live happily ever after.

Helen did not get more than four hours’ sleep that night, but she didn’t mind. She didn’t even care that she had to go into the bookstore on her day off. Today, she would confirm Gayle’s role in the murders. She would solve this case and save her friend. Peggy would be reunited with her pal Pete and live happily ever after.

Brad usually took his lunch hour at one o’clock. It was a short walk from the library to the bookstore. On the way, Helen stopped at a drugstore and picked up the latest magazine tribute to Jennifer Lopez. J.Lo! it said. Twenty-four fabulous new photos! Learn her beauty secrets.

The little bookseller was munching Miami Subs takeout when Helen walked in the break room. She had no idea how he stayed so skinny on junk food.

“I brought you a present,” Helen said, and handed him the magazine.

“Is this a bribe?” he joked.

“Sort of,” Helen said.

“I owe you for Albert,” he said, biting into a sandwich oozing lettuce and mayonnaise sauce. “Since you recited his poem, he hasn’t even mentioned J.Lo’s name.”

“Good,” Helen said. “You remember the night Page Turner died?”

“How could I forget? He was a bastard to the end.”

“Was it busy here that night?”

“Nonstop. It was a full moon, too, and every weirdo in South Florida was in the store. I was working the register. I had to call Gayle up front because some wacko wanted to order a book on devil worship, but wouldn’t give us his name, phone number, or address. He was one scary dude.

Dead-white skin, black clothes. Looked like he slept in a coffin. Gayle told him no phone or address, no order. I’m convinced he put a curse on us. In fact, that would explain everything that’s happened to this store since.” Helen thought Brad was only half kidding.

“Is that the only time Gayle came up front?”

“I think so. I handled the other crises myself. She stayed in the office the whole night, working on the accounts and the new schedule.”

“Did she go out for lunch?”

“She ate an eggplant sandwich from the café at her desk,” Brad said. “I saw her buy it.”

“But you didn’t actually see her in her office the whole night,” Helen said. “You were at the front cash register. She could have easily slipped out for an hour.”

“She could have, but she didn’t,” Brad said. He’d dripped a spot of mayo on his chin. “I hope you aren’t trying to pin Page’s murder on Gayle. You obviously haven’t worked as many shit jobs as I have. She’s a good manager.

She’s too decent to murder anyone. I don’t really feel like reading, thank you.”

He handed Helen back the J.Lo tribute. She did not think anyone could look so dignified with mayonnaise on his chin.

Helen should have felt ashamed. But she didn’t. She couldn’t wait to get back to the Coronado with her news.

“The wife had to have an unbreakable alibi,” Helen said.

“She would be the logical suspect. Gayle did the killing.

She has no alibi for that night. She was alone in the office.

She could have slipped out the back door and no one would have seen her.”

“Now all we have to do is prove it,” Margery said. “We are going back to Palm Beach tonight, aren’t we?”

“You bet,” Helen said. “I’ve stirred things up at the store.

I think we might see something interesting tonight.”

This time, there was no rain on the hour-long drive. Even the traffic seemed saner. But the stakeout was just as boring. They parked in the same spot. Helen and Margery kept the same routine, watching for an hour, then driving around, then returning to their post. They encountered a security patrol, but no one questioned the formidable Margery.

After eleven p.m., they looked up hopefully every time a car came down the street. But Gayle did not arrive until twelve-thirty. The house lights went off about one a.m.

At one-ten, a hand yanked open the passenger door and pulled Helen out by the collar. She landed on her knees and found herself staring at a pair of shiny black Doc Martens.

Helen could hear Margery say, in her best grande-dame voice, “Young woman, what do you think you are doing?”

“You!” Gayle said, pulling Helen up. “What are you doing here? Why is an employee spying on me?”

“I ...”

Margery batted her eyes at Gayle and said, “We needed some privacy. Some quality time together. Surely you understand.”

Helen was always astonished at how boldly and easily Margery could lie. Now she was pretending to be Helen’s lover.

Gayle wasn’t buying it. “Nice try. But you forgot I work with her. I got nothing on my gaydar. She’s straight as an arrow. Explain yourself.”

“I ...” Helen tried again. But nothing came out. Even Margery seemed flummoxed now. Helen knew she’d be fired.

“Let me guess. You think if you can blame Page Turner’s murder on me, your friend Peggy will go free. Brad told me you asked him where I was that night. It’s easy to blame the gays, isn’t it? We’re already doing something unnatural.

Why not murder?”

“It’s not like that, Gayle. I like you. I respect you.”

“You like me so much you think I murdered Page. That worthless shit deserved to die, but I didn’t do it.”

“You have good reason to be angry, Gayle. I’m desperate, and I did something dumb. But I know Peggy is innocent. I just can’t figure out who did it.”

“I thought it was Peggy,” Gayle said, her voice calmer.

“If it’s not, I haven’t a clue. Don’t you think I’d go to the police if knew? I want the killer in prison. Astrid and I will have to sneak around until Page’s murderer is convicted.”

Gayle’s voice turned soft. “If Peggy is innocent, then this is a miscarriage of justice. I’m glad you’re doing something about it. You’re looking at the wrong person, but you’re at the right place. Page Turner was his bookstore. In some way, that bookstore killed him.”

Then she turned and left them, her black clothes and bright hair vanishing into the rich darkness.