The Edge

Chapter 33

Devine drove Palmer back home and headed straight to Bing and Sons after checking something on his phone. He found Françoise Guillaume coming out of her office.

“I’m sorry, I really don’t have time to talk. I have a body to embalm,” she added brusquely.

“I only had one question.”

“What?”

“How could Earl have seen the body on the rocks below if he’s totally incapable of moving his head to look down?”

She froze and then placed one hand against the wall seemingly to steady herself. “I don’t... what are you talking about?”

“Earl mentioned that you helped him get a surgery he needed some time back. Why do I think it was cervical spinal surgery? The sort of work he did all those decades would certainly cause some problems there. I had a buddy in the Army who suffered a malfunction on his parachute. He lived but he had to have several spinal fusions, one of which caused limited range of motion in his neck. But he was young and strong, so he was able to bounce almost all the way back. So, I’ll ask again, how did Earl see a body over twenty feet below his eye level when he can’t even look down at his shoes?”

“Can we... can we go to my office?”

“Sure, if you’ll answer my question.”

He sat down across from her in her office and let her take her time.

“Earl had an accident out on a lobster boat once and was badly injured. He underwent cervical spinal fusion surgery by a specialist that I thought was a good one. However, the surgery went poorly and there were complications. Foremost was Earl having a lot of built-up scar tissue and arthritis from the work that he did. A follow-up surgery not only didn’t correct the problem, it made it worse. He had to retire because of it. And Earl has, over the years, lost more of his range of motion.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But then how could he see the body?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he got down on his knees, which would have him facing down.”

“Why would he have gotten down on his knees? How could he have managed it? And then how would he get back up?”

“I don’t know. Did you ask him?”

“By the time I do, why do I think a story will have been prepared?”

She looked both offended and flustered. “A story? Prepared by whom?”

“What is going on in this town, Dr. Guillaume?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“I think you know far more than you’re telling me.”

“I thought your job was to find out who killed Jenny,” she said.

“To do that I have to get the facts right. Lies do not help me.”

“Who do you think is lying to you?”

“Pretty much everybody,” replied Devine.

She rose. “I have to get to work.”

He stood. “I do too. And let me just be straight with you. I will get to the truth. I don’t care how many obstacles are thrown in the way.”

She looked at him with a mixture of sadness and defiance. “I wish you luck.”

Devine ran into Fred Bing as he left. He looked busy and preoccupied, but he stopped and said, “Mr. Devine, did you need something?”

“I already spoke to your sister.”

“Was she helpful?”

“Not particularly.”

Bing did not look surprised by the response, which intrigued Devine.

“Can I help?” asked Bing.

“Do you know Earl Palmer?”

“Earl, oh yes. Everyone knows Earl. I heard he found Jenny’s body.”

Maybe or maybe not, thought Devine. “You said before you didn’t know she was in town this time. So when was the last time you saw Jenny?”

Bing thought for a few moments, running his hand through his hair. “Maybe last year, or the year before. I assumed she was busy with whatever she was doing.”

“And what do you think she was doing?”

“Serving her country in some capacity. The actual details of what she did have made for some lively discussions at the local watering holes up here, I can tell you that.”

“Dak said that the remote workers have really turned the prospects of the town around.”

“They’ve certainly helped.” He grinned wryly. “Although most of the recent influx are too young to have much need of my services. Yet.”

“Do you have any thoughts on who might have killed her?”

Bing leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his slender chest. “I think I just assumed that it had something to do with her work. I mean, why would anyone up here want to kill her? She wasn’t really part of our lives anymore. The only real connection was her brother and sister and all that property.”

“Property that some may want to develop. And pay a pretty penny for it.”

Bing looked surprised. “Really? Who told you that?”

“Does it matter?”

“I guess not,” said Bing, looking confused and, to Devine’s mind, nervous.

“I assume you handled Mrs. Palmer’s funeral arrangements?”

“Yes, yes we did. It was terrible. Bertie’s death stunned all of us. And the fact that no one was held accountable? It just makes it even more horrible.”

“And I understand her son and daughter-in-law died in a house fire?”

“Yes. That was about, let me think, fifteen years ago now.”

“What happened?”

“No one really knows for sure. Steve was a smoker, so that’s what we all thought had happened. At least initially. It was early summer but we had a cold snap and turns out they’d been having trouble with their furnace. So they were using one of those old portable heaters without any safety or cutoff features, you know the kind that if they tip over and catch something on fire your whole house can go up in about a minute? So maybe it wasn’t his smoking. I wasn’t working at the funeral home then, but my uncle told me that it was a challenge making them viewable. Ended up being a closed casket. No one wanted to remember them that way. Their daughter, I think, was away or something.” He paused. “But why are you asking about that?”

“Because it has loose ends. Like the person who hit Mrs. Palmer and fled the scene.”

“But those two events were fifteen years apart. And one was a tragic accident and one was a hit-and-run.”

“And now Jenny.”

“Again, I don’t see the connection.”

“Well, I don’t either, to tell you the truth. Maybe there is none.”

“I wouldn’t think so. I mean, stuff like that does happen.”

“Yeah, but this little town has had more than its share of ‘stuff,’ don’t you think?”

Bing just shrugged. “Well, good luck with your investigation. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“I will.”

Devine left, got into his SUV, and drove back to the inn. And all along the way he was wondering why Earl Palmer had been offered up as the one to find Jenny’s body when he could not have possibly seen it. Whoever was behind this had not thought that one through. But then again, until Devine had come along, everyone had just accepted what the old man had said at face value.

Maybe I am good at this. Or maybe no one else really wants to find out the truth.