This Old Murder

THIRTY

JOSIE AND SAM waited patiently for Bobby Valentine to recover his composure. Then…

“Why did you call me?” Josie asked.

“I didn’t know what else to do.” Bobby Valentine glanced over at Sam. “Did you hear about what Courtney said about Josie?”

“That if something happened to her, I would know about it-or something like that,” Josie explained.

“Yes. Yes, exactly. Do you know what she meant by that?”

“I haven’t the foggiest.”

“Are you under the impression that she meant something sinister?” Sam asked.

“What do you mean?” Josie asked him.

“I’m asking if it was a ‘If I’m found dead, Josie Pigeon is the person who killed me’ type of comment,” Sam explained.

“Yes, it was,” Bobby Valentine answered.

“Wait a minute! How did that subject come up? Do you chat about murder during casual conversation? Or was Courtney obsessed with her own death?”

“It was weird,” Bobby Valentine admitted, walking over to the wig and looking at it carefully. “I mean, you’re right, Courtney was not the type of person to contemplate her mortality. It was the first day we were here on the island. She was slightly hyper-”

“What sort of hyper?” Sam interrupted to ask.

“You know, excited. Frankly, I thought it was this place.”

“The trailer?”

“Yeah, she’d been wanting a customized trailer for years and years. She’d planned it and talked about it. Everyone who knew her had heard about how much she wanted something like this. And then it was finally hers.”

“It meant that much to her?” Josie asked.

“Yes. This type of stuff meant the world to Courtney.”

“So you were talking about the job or whatever,” Sam prompted again.

“Yes, and somehow the conversation turned to people dying.”

“Like accidents on the job?”

“No. Maybe. I really don’t remember. I was surprised.”

“I should hope so. After all, Courtney was accusing Josie of a future murder, after all,” Sam said.

“Well, that’s true, of course. But I was surprised that she knew Josie Pigeon. It was the first I’d heard of a connection between the two of them.”

“Really? She didn’t mention knowing Josie when this whole thing began?”

“No way.”

“Do you happen to remember when you first heard about Island Contracting?”

“A few months ago.”

“From whom?”

“Courtney, I think.”

“Do you think she could have known about Josie for a while without mentioning her?”

“Definitely. Courtney only told me what she wanted to tell me.”

“And who did Courtney hear about Josie from?”

“No one seems to know the answer to that one.” Josie answered Sam’s question.

“Maybe we could go through her papers and find out?” Sam suggested.

“Ha. You didn’t know Courtney. She was a disaster when it came to keeping records. Drove me nuts,” Bobby Valentine said.

“Josie has the same problem. Must have been something in the water when they were growing up,” Sam said with a smile.

Bobby Valentine looked as though he didn’t believe it. “You two don’t seem to have all that much in common. That librarian lady said you’ve always been different.”

Josie frowned. She had just had a thought that seemed significant. But the idea of Naomi Van Ripper talking about her like that had driven it right out of her mind.

Everyone stood around without saying anything for a few minutes. Then Sam asked another question.

“Do people ever pay or give things to get on the show?”

“No way. We’re not a sleazy operation. If that has happened, I can promise you that I knew nothing about it.” He looked over at Josie. “You didn’t offer anyone anything to be on the air, did you?”

“Of course not! I wouldn’t do that even if I could afford to, which I can’t.” She yawned. The adrenaline was subsiding and she was beginning to realize just how exhausted she was. “I’ve got to get up early tomorrow. And I’m only going to get…” She glanced at her watch and gasped. “Four hours of sleep if I leave right now. Which is what I’m going to do!”

“God, I had no idea it was so late,” Bobby Valentine said, looking down at his Swiss watch.

“I gather that wig is significant,” Sam said.

“Courtney never appeared without one of them on.”

“If no one objects, I’ll just take it home with me,” Sam said, using one finger to pick up the wig.

“Fine with me-” Josie’s comment was interrupted by a yawn. “Sorry.”

“Are you awake enough to drive home?”

“I’ll be fine. And I’ll be home in less than ten minutes.”

In fact, with a little late-night speeding, ten minutes later she was in bed. She fell asleep wondering what had been said tonight that had seemed fleetingly significant.

She woke up with a horrible ringing in her ears. She really had to find the time to replace the doorbell. By the time her feet hit the floor, Tyler was doing his bit to increase the noise level.

“Ma! You’ve got company.”

Josie grabbed a robe and pulled it over the T-shirt she slept in. She ran her hands through her hair to smooth it down, vaguely expecting Sam. But Annette and Chad stood in her living room, holding hands, nervous expressions on their faces.

“Hi.”

“We’re here too early,” Annette said.

“We wanted to talk to you before work started,” Chad explained.

“It’s important,” Annette added.

“Let me get dressed,” Josie said, and hurried back to her bedroom.

When she returned to her guests a few minutes later, the room smelled deliciously of coffee. “Who…?” She spied her son near the coffeemaker watching the fresh brew drip into the pot. “Oh, Tyler, thank you so much. That’s just what I need.” She reached for a mug and then remembered her manners. “Can I get you both some?”

“Tyler already offered us some, thanks,” Chad answered. He and Annette were still standing by the door.

“Come in and sit down,” Josie suggested. “I know Tyler is going to leave in just a few minutes. He… runs a couple of miles every morning,” she lied, inspired. “Thanks for making the coffee, but we don’t want to keep you, sweetie.”

“Sweetie’s just leaving. Nice meeting you two,” he said to Chad and Annette. “Bye.” With a wide grin on his face, Tyler left the apartment.

“Does he run in plastic flipflops?” Chad asked.

“His running shoes are downstairs,” Josie explained, ignoring the fact that a pair of size-ten Nikes lay in the middle of the living room floor.

“We need to talk to you,” Chad explained again.

“We’re here to tell you the truth,” Annette added.

Josie sipped her coffee. “About what?”

“We…” Annette looked at Chad and didn’t continue.

“We were together on the property next to the house you’re remodeling.” The young man spoke up.

“Together? You mean you were… making love? Outside? On the ground? In the middle of the day?”

“No, of course not. We had only known each other then for a day or two,” Chad explained.

“And we wouldn’t do something like that outside… in the middle of the day…” Annette was becoming flustered. “Would we?” She looked at Chad for confirmation.

“No.” He took her hand again.

Josie thought they were charming, but it was taking quite a bit of time to tell their story. “So what were you doing? What did Cheryl and Howard have to complain about?”

“It wasn’t what we were doing, Ms. Pigeon. We were just kissing. Really. It was perfectly innocent. But we talked about it and, well, we were afraid that we might have been on the next-door neighbor’s property.”

“And yesterday we checked, and… we were. Josie, we’re really sorry. When we told you we hadn’t been there, we really didn’t think we were lying!”

“I believe you.” Josie took another sip of coffee. “I hope Cheryl and Howard didn’t see you on their property again.”

“We were very careful,” Annette said.

“Well, actually they may have seen me the day before yesterday,” Chad admitted. “Remember I told you I was going to check it out?” He looked at Annette, who nodded lovingly. “Well, I did. I went over to where you and I had been sitting and realized that, in fact, we were probably off the work site.”

“When did you go?” Annette asked.

Josie seemed a bit preoccupied.

“In the afternoon sometime. I wanted to check it out before we went to dinner.”

“And that’s why you told me we should look at it yesterday morning!” Annette beamed, apparently proud of Chad’s forward thinking.

“Exactly.”

Josie realized they were expecting a comment from her. “So you went back together yesterday morning.” She suspected that Howard and Cheryl had been given a perfectly adequate excuse to complain about all this trekking back and forth across their property line, but she appreciated that Chad and Annette were trying to help and so didn’t mention it.

“Yes. And Chad was right. Where we were sitting was right over the property line! Josie, do you think we should go over and apologize to them?”

“For what?”

“Trespassing!”

“I wouldn’t bother. Every time we see or speak to them, they just find something else to complain about,” Josie said.

“But we’re really here to apologize to you. For putting you in such an uncomfortable position,” Chad asserted.

“Yes.” Annette nodded vigorously. “We’re sorry. We really are.”

“It’s okay.” Josie put down her mug, thinking it was time for them to leave. But they didn’t seem to agree.

“We’re really sorry,” Annette repeated.

But Chad had other things on his mind. “Ah, Ms. Pigeon…” He stopped and looked over at Annette. “I’m going to tell her,” he said.

Annette sighed. “I will. I did it.”

“Did what?” Josie asked, hoping they would get to the facts as soon as possible.

“I told Chad about Courtney.”

“What about Courtney?” Josie asked, suspecting that she knew the answer.

“That she’s dead. And gone. I mean, that her body is gone.”

Josie sighed. She should have known this was a secret that wasn’t going to be kept. “So?”

“I’m so sorry-”

Annette was going to begin another round of apologies when Chad interrupted. “I’ve been thinking about all this quite a bit,” he began.

“Really?”

“Yes. I don’t know if Annette told you, but my mother has investigated many murders. And actually solved them.” Josie thought he sounded a bit amazed by this fact. “So I’ve had some experience with this sort of thing. And I’ve taken both Introduction to Psychology and Sociology 101 at Cornell and have some limited knowledge of human behavior.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And I have some thoughts.” Chad plunked himself down on the couch, rested his elbows on his knees, and rested his chin on his knuckles.

“Really?”

“Yes. You know, I think murder is usually committed for one of two reasons. Either personal gain or revenge.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Chad’s been explaining it all to me,” Annette jumped in enthusiastically. “You see, the person who killed Courtney either benefited from her death or hated her so much that he or she could not bear to live in a world where she lived, too. So…”

“So we need to look at the people Courtney knew. Someone either had something to gain from her death or else hated her. Gain or hate,” Chad said. “Gain or hate. That’s what I think causes most murders.”

Josie looked at the earnest young man and nodded slowly. “You may have a point there. But it might have been the result of a combination of those things. Not gain or hate, but gain and hate. And you know what? I think those two things got Courtney killed. And I think I know who killed her.”