Telling Tails

Chapter 14

“Dead,” Rose repeated, and not in the form of a question.

I saw Nick’s gaze flick in her direction.

“The poor man,” she said quietly. I was probably the only one who saw the knowing gleam flash for a moment in her gray eyes.

“I have to go,” Michelle said.

“Thursday?” I asked, referring to Thursday night jam at Sam’s.

“I’ll try.” She pushed past Nick. “See you there?” she asked.

He nodded. “I just need a second.”

She nodded and left. Nick caught my arm and drew me out by the back door. “I have to go. Are we okay?”

“Yes,” I said. “Go.”

He hesitated.

“Go,” I repeated. This time he went.

I rejoined Rose and Mr. P.

“Johnson’s Reach is a couple of miles from the Camerons’ cottage,” Rose said. “How did his body get there?”

“I don’t know,” I said, scraping a couple of spots of sage green paint off the back of my hand. “Michelle will figure that out.” I couldn’t help thinking that it was a heck of a lot closer to Clayton McNamara’s house, which added credence to Glenn’s recollection of having seen Jeff on Thursday.

“Sarah’s right,” Mr. P. said, sitting back down and opening his laptop.

I had a feeling Michelle wouldn’t be the only one working on how Jeff Cameron had ended up at Johnson’s Reach.

“Before I go, did you find out anything about Michael Vega?” I asked.

Mr. P. shifted in his seat to look at me. “As Jess told you, he’s a massage therapist and he has several clients that he trains.”

“Leesa Cameron was one of them.”

“Yes,” Rose said.

“All of Mr. Vega’s clients are women,” Mr. P. added, “not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“Anything”—I struggled to think of the best word to use—“improper happen with any of his clients?”

“Oh no,” Rose said. “Mr. Vega is by all accounts a gentleman.”

“No one has an ill word to say about the man,” Mr. P. said. “He’s so clean he squeaks.”

He and Rose exchanged a quick glance.

“But,” I said. I pointed my finger at them. “You found out something.”

“Maybe.” There was caution in Mr. P’s voice. “Michael Vega ordered a woman’s BodiBudi last month.”

I frowned. “A what?”

“A BodiBudi,” Rose said. “A fitness tracker.”

“You think he bought it for Leesa Cameron.”

“We know he did,” Mr. P. said. “The online account associated with that particular BodiBudi is registered to her.”

“How do you know all this never mind,” I said, running the words together. I pulled a hand over my neck. “Do you think they were involved?”

Mr. P. looked at Rose. “I think we need to talk to him.”

She nodded.

“Me, too,” I said. “Let me know when.”

* * *

Mac and I were looking at paint after lunch, trying to settle on a color for the rocker, when Avery stuck her head around the door. “Hey, Sarah, Nonna just called me. She wants you to call her. She tried your cell but you didn’t answer.”

“What does she want?” I asked.

Avery gave me a blank look. “I don’t know,” she said.

“Go call Liz,” Mac said. “We can figure this out later.”

I went up to my office and called Liz back. “Hi,” I said. “Avery said you called.”

“Nicole Cameron called me,” she said. “She wants to see us.”

“Us?” I said.

“Rose. You. Me.”

“Why?”

“Don’t have a clue,” Liz said. “I think it has to have something to do with her brother’s body being found, though.”

“It probably does.” I looked at my watch. “I could bring Rose and meet you there later this afternoon.

“Nicole suggested four o’clock. Will that work?” Liz asked.

“I can make it work.”

“Thank you, darling girl,” she said. Elvis had come upstairs and jumped onto my desk. I hung up the phone and reached over to stroke his fur. “Something’s up,” I said.

He wrinkled his nose and looked up at me.

“I don’t know, either,” I said.

* * *

Rose and I pulled to the curb in front of Nicole Cameron’s house about five minutes before four o’clock. The kids at the house across the street appeared to be making another movie. “Is the little boy wearing the two bath mats supposed to be Bigfoot?” I asked Rose.

“I think so,” she said, “although I think one of his feet just fell off.” She pointed at a large fuzzy slipper at the edge of the driveway. “Ask Alfred what they’re doing.”

“How does he know?”

Rose indicated a woman who looked to be in her late thirties sitting on the front steps of the house. “Because he talked to the mom to see if there was anything useful on their security camera. He wanted to confirm Leesa Cameron’s alibi.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” I said.

She shrugged. “There was nothing to tell, dear. The camera wasn’t aligned properly. All it recorded was some blurry footage of the peonies.”

Liz pulled in in front of us then and we got out of the car. “Let’s get this show on the road,” she said.

Nicole must have been watching for us because she opened the front door before we reached it. She was pale and serious in a gray T-shirt and black walking shorts. “Please come in,” she said, holding the door open.

“I’m so sorry about your brother,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said. She seemed a little nervous, rubbing her right wrist with the other hand.

“Is there anything we could do for you?” Liz asked.

Nicole shook her head. “No. Thank you for suggesting the funeral home to handle things on this end. I wouldn’t have known who to call. I . . . uh haven’t been able to get in touch with Leesa. I’m not even sure she’s still in North Harbor.”

“Why did you want to see us?” Rose asked.

Nicole stared down at the ground for a moment, then lifted her head. She glanced at Liz and me but focused her attention on Rose.

“I have to apologize to you,” she said.

Liz gave me a knowing look.

“I lied,” Nicole continued. She was still rubbing her wrist as though she was twisting a watch or a bracelet around her arm. “Leesa left earlier than I told you she did.” She swallowed hard. “The truth is, Jeff and I didn’t always get along, especially after our grandmother died, but the last six months things had been good. Then Leesa showed up here Wednesday night and said he was gone. She showed me the text he sent her and the statement she’d gone online and printed out from their investment account.”

She made a helpless gesture with both hands. “I know I shouldn’t have, but all I could think of was how he left me to deal with everything after Nana died and now here he was doing the same thing to Leesa. I was signed in to the hospital server, doing some in-service training. I just figured, who would know if I said she was here. Stupid, I know.”

Rose reached over and laid a hand on Nicole’s arm. “It’s understandable that you would feel that way,” she said. “Try not to be so hard on yourself.”

“That’s nice of you to say that when I protected the person who assaulted you,” Nicole said.

“You didn’t know that,” Rose said.

Nicole shook her head. “It doesn’t make what I did right.” She looked at me. “Leesa called me after you and the detective went to see her. I . . . I offered her an alibi because my first thought was that Jeff had cut out on her.” She swallowed hard. “My brother was dead and I was so quick to think the worst of him.”

“Rose is right,” I said. “You couldn’t have known that something had happened to your brother.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I should have given him the benefit of the doubt. He was my brother.” She looked at Rose again. “And I should have done the same to you. I am so sorry.”

“Thank you,” Rose said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Nicole Cameron got to her feet. “I wanted to apologize and explain to the three of you first. Now I’m going to call the police and explain what I did to them.”

She walked us to the door and Liz reminded her to call if there was anything we could do to help. Rose was quiet as we walked down the driveway, seemingly lost in thought. Finally she looked at Liz. “You said she wasn’t telling us everything. You were right.”

Liz raised an eyebrow. “It happens.” She looked at me. “At the risk of Rose swinging her purse at me, I think she should go home and maybe take it easy. This is a lot to digest.”

“I wouldn’t hit you with this bag,” Rose said, patting the wicker roll bag with tan leather handles she was carrying. “Alfred bought it for my birthday. Your big melon head would probably leave a big dent in it.”

“I agree with Liz,” I said. “Can you just humor us for once and take it easy?”

Rose glanced at Liz and then looked at me. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll go home and take it easy, but this is a onetime thing and should not be construed as setting a precedent.”

Liz rolled her eyes.

“Don’t give me that look just because I like to watch CNN,” Rose said.

“Go back to the store,” Liz said to me. “I’ll take Rose home.”

“Are you sure?” I said.

“Go.” She made a move-along gesture with one hand. “I’ll be there later to get Avery.”

“All right,” I said. I leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

They got into Liz’s car and I waited until they had pulled away from the curb before I walked back to my SUV. I looked at Nicole Cameron’s house again as I unlocked the driver’s door. By now Michelle would know that Leesa Cameron’s alibi was fake. Rose had been vindicated.

I wasn’t even halfway back to the shop when my cell phone rang. It was lying on the seat and I glanced sideways to see who was calling. Rose. I put my blinker on and pulled over to answer.

“Hello, dear,” she said. “Could you please say hello to Liz? She’s right next to me.”

“Hi, Liz,” I said, wondering what on earth was going on now.

There was some kind of noise in the background I couldn’t identify. Then I heard Rose’s voice, seemingly a distance away from the phone, say, “There. Are you satisfied?”

“Rose, what’s going on?” I asked.

She came back on the line. “I was just showing Liz that I had in fact called you because she didn’t believe me.” She raised her voice at the end of the sentence.

“And why did you call?”

“I think I might remember something—something from the night I saw Jeff Cameron’s body.”

I leaned my arm against the door and propped my head on my hand. “What did you remember?”

“It doesn’t exactly make sense,” she said. “Do you remember when we cleared out the Cooper house?”

“I remember,” I said. It wasn’t likely I’d forget that.

As I’d told Glenn, we’d developed a bit of a side business at the shop, clearing out apartments and houses, most of the time for the families of seniors who needed or wanted to move but were just overwhelmed by dealing with everything they’d accumulated over a lifetime. The Cooper house was a rambling farmhouse with more rooms than was apparent from the outside. And every one of them filled with stuff. I wasn’t sure how the house was connected to Jeff Cameron.

“When we were at Nicole Cameron’s house I was going over what happened that night, and those tea chests we found in the attic at the Coopers’ kept coming into my mind. I don’t understand why.”

“I don’t see the connection, either,” I said. “I’m sorry.” We’d found several vintage wooden tea chests from Indonesia with the original wooden strapping, and in the case of one of them the original foil lining with bits of tea still clinging to it, in the attic of the old house. One of them contained several bolts of silk that Jess had bought and used to make beautiful robes for her clothing store.

“I need to go over there,” Rose said. “I don’t know why this matters, but I know it does.”

I knew she meant the cottage, not the Cooper house. “Bad idea,” I said.

“You sound like Liz.”

“Great minds think alike, then.”

“And fools seldom differ, dear,” Rose countered.

“I heard that,” Liz said in the background.

“Well, obviously I meant you to,” Rose retorted.

I knew how this was going to play out. “Okay, hang on,” I said. “Let’s just skip the step where we argue back and forth and go right to the bottom line.”

“I need to go over there, Sarah,” Rose said. “I could have just let Liz take me home and then headed over once she was gone, but I didn’t.”

She had me. I closed my eyes for a second and tried to exhale quietly so she wouldn’t hear me sigh.

“How about this? You and Liz drive over and park in front of the Clarks’. I’ll be right behind you. Then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.”

“Hang on a minute, dear,” Rose said. I heard voices again just far enough from the phone that I couldn’t make out the conversation. Then Rose came back on. “Liz wants to talk to you,” she said with what sounded like a touch of self-righteous indignation in her tone.

“Fine,” I said.

After a moment Liz’s voice came through the phone. “Are you crazy?” she asked.

“It’s a possibility,” I said lightly. “I’ve never been officially tested.”

“Well, maybe you should be so we can get confirmation.”

I laughed. “I’m right behind you. Less than five minutes, I promise. If Rose tries to do anything rash, get the dog to sit on her.”

“Easy for you to say.” Liz gave a snort of skepticism.

Rose came back on the phone. “Thank you, darling girl,” she said. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

When I got to the Clarks’ I turned in the driveway and parked behind Liz. She and Rose were standing in the driveway with Ashley Clark and Casey. The big Lab was sitting beside Rose and her hand was in his fur. It was pretty clear she had a friend for life.

I walked over to join them. Ashley smiled. “Hi, Sarah,” she said. “It’s good to see you again.”

“You, too,” I said. Casey turned to look at me and I reached over and scratched the top of his head.

“Ashley says she just saw Leesa leave about forty-five minutes ago,” Rose said.

Liz pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes at me but didn’t say anything.

“Okay,” I said, gesturing with my sunglasses. “We’ll go down there for five minutes.” I held up five fingers. “If it doesn’t trigger any kind of a memory, that’s it.”

Rose nodded. “That’s fine.”

“Do you want to take him with you?” Ashley asked gesturing at the dog. “He’s a softie, but people who don’t know him don’t know that.”

“Will he go with us?” I asked.

The big Lab was leaning his head against Rose’s leg.

His owner laughed. “I think he’d happily live with Rose.” She walked over to the front steps and picked up the braided leather leash that was lying on the top one. She snapped it on the dog’s collar and handed the end to Rose. “He knows how to heel and sit and stay,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said. “We’ll only be a few minutes.”

Ashley reached over and patted the dog’s head. “Take care of Rose, boy,” she said.

We walked along the road to the Camerons’ cottage. Casey stayed by Rose’s side and I got the feeling that if anyone gave her any trouble the dog would cheerfully chew their arm off.

There were no signs that anyone was home at the small green cottage. Nonetheless, being there made me antsy. Rose stood in the middle of the driveway. “Sit,” she said to Casey, who did as he was told. She looked around the yard and then she closed her eyes for a moment.

Liz and I waited. “This is a waste of time,” she muttered.

“Do you have a train to catch?” I whispered back.

Rose opened her eyes. She looked at us and shook her head. “I’m just going to stand on the steps,” she said.

I glanced back down the road. There was no sign of any cars coming. I walked the rest of the way up the driveway looking for anything that might have made Rose think of those old tea chests. Nothing twigged.

Rose stood on the steps and, just as she had on Wednesday night, peered through the window. She sighed. “I don’t know why I thought of those old tea chests,” she said. “I guess it doesn’t mean anything after all.” She came down the steps, and she and Casey started down the driveway toward Liz, who was standing in the shade of a tall maple tree.

I climbed the stairs and took a quick look in the sunporch. There wasn’t anything in it or the kitchen beyond that looked like a wooden tea chest. I turned, and as I did something on the small deck on the other side of the porch caught my eye. I stopped and took a second look.

Someone seemed to be sitting on a wooden Adirondack chair looking out toward the water. Something about the angle of the person’s head made the hairs come up on the back of my neck.

“Just stay there a second,” I called to Liz.

“Why?” Rose asked.

I was already on my way down the few stairs. “Just please stay there for now and I’ll explain in a minute,” I said.

I started around the side of the house. I only went far enough so I could see what I already suspected. Leesa Cameron was slumped in the chair. And it was clear she was dead.