Telling Tails

Chapter 11

We returned to the shop to find Rose using her considerable charm on a couple—a man and woman who looked to be in their early thirties.

“Thank you for accompanying me to the library, Sarah,” Mr. P. said. “I’m going to see what I can find out about our professor.” He headed for the sunporch, and since everything seemed under control, I went up to my office.

I spent the next while working on an estimate for a family that wanted us to handle the clearout of their mother’s house. Mom, it turned out, was on a South Pacific cruise and was moving into an apartment when she got back. After about forty minutes I shut off the computer and delivered a cup of tea and a butterscotch oatmeal cookie to Mr. P. in the sunporch office.

“Any luck?” I asked.

He broke the cookie in half and took a bite. “Not yet. Dr. Durand doesn’t appear to take part in any form of social media.” He reached for his tea. “However, there are still some more rocks to turn over.”

“I forgot to tell you earlier; I talked to my mom this morning,” I said. “I asked her to ask Dad if he could find out anything about Jeff and Nicole’s grandmother. I thought it might help if we knew a bit more about his background.”

“That’s a very good idea,” Mr. P. said.

“I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Avery came in the back door then. “Hey, Sarah, I’m done painting for now. What do you want me to do next?”

“Help Rose in the shop, and when you have time, change the tablecloth and the dishes on the round table, please.”

“Okay,” she said. “What do you want me to use on the table?”

“Whatever you decide,” I said. “I trust your judgment.”

She clapped her hands together like a little kid. “I know exactly what I’m going to do.”

“Can’t wait to see it,” I said. I headed outside. There was no wind and it seemed like a good time to work on my chairs.

I opened the big front doors to the former garage work space and put down a large tarp on the pavement in front of the building. Then I got out my homemade spray box, which was nothing more than the cardboard carton a commercial washing machine had come in with the bottom and front cut out. I’d scrounged three of the heavy cardboard boxes when the Laundromat one street over from Jess’s shop had been renovated.

I’d just set one of the wicker chairs in the box when Charlotte came walking up the sidewalk. I brushed off my hands on my old shirt and walked down to meet her. “Hi,” I said. “How was the gym?”

“Educational,” she said. “I learned I’m way too uncoordinated for aquacize.”

I slipped my arm around her waist. “I do not believe that,” I said.

Charlotte smiled. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but it’s true. That class was like the Rockettes’ kick line in water. I did learn a few things, though.”

“How to kick your foot up as high as your nose?” I teased.

“Heavens, no,” she said. “If I tried that—even in the water—I’d be in traction.”

I held open the back door for her and we went inside. Mac was on his way out.

“I think I found a pair of hinges that will work for that old hope chest,” he said to me. He smiled at Charlotte. “Yell if you need me.”

Charlotte waved hello to Mr. P., who was still bent over his laptop, and we headed for the shop. We walked in to find Avery high-fiving Rose.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I sold that dresser and bed that came from Edison Hall’s house,” Rose said. She looked pleased with herself, and for good reason. We’d been trying to sell that bedroom set for months.

“Rose is a selling ninja,” Avery said, nodding for emphasis.

“That’s good news,” I said.

“I got the full price,” Rose said tipping her head to one side to look at the heavy mahogany head- and footboards, which were resting against the back wall along with the side rails and dresser.

“Full price? Avery is right. You are a selling ninja,” I said, giving her a hug. “I’ll get a check ready and let Stella know it’s here.” We didn’t take many items on consignment, but the bedroom set was a special case. The money would go toward Stella’s niece’s medical bills.

“I saw Stella and Ellie at the grocery store last weekend,” Charlotte said. “Ellie is getting around with a walker now.” Stella Hall was the late Edison Hall’s sister. Ellie had been his daughter-in-law.

“That is good news,” I said. Ellie Hall had had surgery on her back about six weeks earlier. She had little ones at home. I was happy to hear she was doing well.

“Sarah, can I use some stuff in the boxes under the stairs?” Avery asked. Her eyes darted to Charlotte. “I mean, may I use some stuff in the boxes under the stairs?”

I nodded. “Go ahead.”

She headed for the storage space. Rose brushed her hands on her apron. “Alfred told me about your conversation with Dr. Durand.”

Charlotte looked from Rose to me. “Who’s Dr. Durand?”

Rose waved a hand at her friend. “I’ll explain later. What I want to know is, how was aquacize?”

“Remember when Maddie convinced us to try Zumba?” Charlotte asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rose said. I was clearly missing something, not the least of which was that I didn’t know Rose and Charlotte had tried a Zumba class.

“Maddie takes Zumba?” I said. “Maddie Hamilton?”

“Yes, dear. It’s very good exercise,” Rose said. She turned back to Charlotte. “What did you find out?”

“Nothing as far as another woman goes.”

Rose sighed.

“Jeff Cameron arrived at the gym to change and run, and that was it,” Charlotte continued. “No one saw him with a woman. Or anyone else, for that matter. He was pleasant, but he kept to himself for the most part.”

“They hadn’t been here that long,” I said. “It’s not surprising.”

Charlotte nodded. “The only thing anyone noticed about him was that he’s very competitive. He did some of the weekly timed runs the gym ran, and he always wanted to be the top person in his age group.”

“What about Leesa Cameron?” I asked.

Charlotte shook her head. “No one I spoke to remembers ever seeing her there. I think she pretty much kept to herself.”

“Maybe it was because she was doing Reece’s father,” Avery said. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the storage space under the stairs.

“Excuse me?” Charlotte said.

Avery turned to look at us over her shoulder. “Sorry,” she said. “Maybe because she was sleeping with Reece’s father.” She made air quotes around the words “sleeping with.”

“Sweetie, who’s Reece?” Rose asked.

“She goes to my school.”

“Why do you think her father was involved with Mrs. Cameron?” Charlotte said, frown lines forming between her eyebrows.

Avery shrugged. “I saw them, two or three weeks ago, maybe. I didn’t know who she was until I saw the photo of her that Mr. P. had.”

“Saw her where?” Rose said.

“Running.” Avery made a face. “She pretty much sucked at it, by the way.” She looked over at Charlotte. “I know, I know, you hate the word, but she did suck. Her arms and legs were going all over the place and she had to keep stopping.” Avery looked at me. “She didn’t look like you when you run.”

“Thank you,” I said. She seemed to have meant the remark as a compliment. “When exactly did this happen?”

“Sometime between five thirty and six.”

“In the morning?”

“I like mornings,” Avery said with a shrug.

Charlotte and I exchanged a look. Avery had to be the only teenager in town who willingly got up at five thirty during the summer.

“I like to get up and make a smoothie and sit in the elm tree in the front yard. I like it there. I saw Mrs. Cameron and Reece’s dad go by a bunch of times—at least five or six. When she had to stop, she’d be all bent over like she couldn’t get her breath and he’d rub her back. Seemed kind of personal to me.” She looked up at Rose, who had walked over to the stairs. “I’m sorry. If I’d known it was important I would have said something sooner.”

Rose leaned down and put her arm around Avery’s shoulders. “It’s enough that you said something now.”

“What’s Reece’s last name?” I asked.

Avery turned to look at me. “Vega.”

I nodded. The name, Vega, soundly vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why.

My cell phone rang in my pocket. I held up a finger. “Hang on a second.” I pulled out the phone. It was Dad.

“I need to take this,” I said. “Excuse me.” I walked over to stand by the front door to the shop.

“Hi, Dad,” I said.

“How’s my favorite daughter?” he said. I could hear his smile.

“I’m your only daughter.”

He laughed. “Well, didn’t that work out well for everyone?” He and my mom had gotten married when Liam and I were both in second grade. Dad had always treated me as though I was his biological child. I’d heard someone ask him once if he had any children of his own. He’d given the woman a blank look and said, “But Sarah is my child.”

I hadn’t just gotten a father. I’d also gotten a big brother. There was a month between Liam and me, him being the elder. He could be a pain-in-the-butt, overprotective big brother when I wanted to date someone he thought was a scuzzbag, but he could also be my biggest ally.

“Your mom gave me your message,” Dad said.

“What did you find out?” I asked, leaning both elbows on the counter.

“I prowled around the archives at the paper. They’re online now. I couldn’t find any obituary for a Catherine Cameron. Not with a ‘C’ or a ‘K’ or several other spellings I tried. I went back a year and forward a year.”

“Crap!” I said.

“I did find a death notice for a Catherine Hennessy. It was three years ago and she was survived by her two grandchildren, Jeff and Nicole Hennessy.”

“That’s a weird coincidence,” I said.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, Sarah,” Dad said. “Are you sure the woman’s last name was Cameron?”

I shook my head even though he couldn’t see me. “No. But Cameron is the last name the grandchildren are using.”

“This has something to do with what happened to Rose, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Jeff Cameron—or whatever his name really is—bought a pair of candlesticks for his wife. Now no one can find him.”

“Maybe you should start looking for Jeff Hennessy instead.”

“Maybe we should,” I said.

I thanked him for his help and said good-bye. Rose and Charlotte were in deep discussion about something, probably the trip Mr. P. and I had made to the library. We’d discovered a lot of information, but I had no idea how it fit together.

I went out to the sunporch to find Alfred. I explained what Dad had discovered and what Avery had told us about Leesa Cameron and her running partner.

“Interesting,” he said. “I’ll see what I can discover about the Hennessys and about Mr. Vega.”

“Let me know what you find,” I said, heading back outside.

The paint sprayer was being temperamental, and it took me the better part of the next hour to get it working properly. I went inside for a cup of coffee before starting on the chairs. I had just come down the stairs with a mug in my hand when Mr. P. came in from the back.

Rose took one look at him and immediately said, “You found something.” She glanced at me. “Alfred told me what your father discovered.”

Mr. P. had a satisfied smile on his face. “I did,” he said. “Jeff Cameron changed his name. I couldn’t find much about him beyond about three years ago, so I did a little digging into his sister. Nicole Cameron got her RN as Nicole Hennessy. Northeastern Medical Center issues her paychecks in that name. Although she goes by Cameron, she didn’t actually change her name.”

Mr. P. looked at me. “Don’t worry, Sarah,” he said. “I didn’t do anything illegal.”

“I appreciate that,” I said.

“Both of the Camerons were raised by their grandmother,” Mr. P. continued. “Their parents were killed in a car accident.”

“That’s awful,” Charlotte said, shaking her head.

“Jeff left New Hampshire when his grandmother died and moved to California. He changed his name from Jeffery Cameron Hennessy to Jeff Cameron—no middle name.”

“Why would he do that?” Rose asked.

“Maybe he was running away from his old life,” Avery offered from across the room. She was still sitting cross-legged on the floor and didn’t even look up from the box she was investigating.

“That’s as good an explanation as any,” I said. “And if he walked away from a life before . . .”

“Maybe he was going to do it again,” Rose finished.