Part 14 (1/2)
”Of course, if. But how can we know unless they question him?”
She pressed her lips together. ”I don't want Erin to think her father is a thief.”
”She already thinks he's a thief. Can it be that much worse if it turns out he really is?”
”But...
”But nothing. If d.i.c.k stole my stuff I'm not letting it slide. I know you want to protect Erin. But she's not stupid, far from it. It might be better if she knew what her father is really made of.”
Meghan rubbed her face with both hands. ”G.o.d, I hate this.” She looked over her fingers at me. ”You really think he did this, don't you?”
”Well, I don't have a better candidate. He'd know we were at the funeral, and he knew where we kept the key. Which we don't keep there anymore, by the way,” I said, taking the key out of my pocket and handing it to her. She dropped it in the front of the silverware drawer.
”I could have left the door unlatched,” Meghan said.
”But the key was moved. I saw the old indentation where Erin put it.”
”We saw Richard right after the funeral.”
”But we didn't see him in the chapel. He could have been here during the service.”
”What about Debby or Jacob, or both of them? They didn't like it when we were going through Walter's things the other day. Maybe they thought we took something.” She paused. ”Which we did.”
I shook my head. ”They were at the funeral, right where we could see them”
”They came in late.”
”Okay. You're right. Who else?” I asked. I didn't point out that Jacob and Debby didn't know where we kept the spare key. But we hadn't hidden it in the most original spot, now that I thought about it, and it was possible that they, or someone else, could have found it.
”A stranger. Or someone who reads the obituaries and plans burglaries for when friends or family will be attending the funeral.”
”They'd have to know we were friends.”
”What about someone from the funeral home? I'd like to know if there've been any other break-ins when someone was at a funeral,” Meghan said.
”I'm sure the police would track that kind of thing.”
”Oh, fine. Now you think they're perfectly competent.”
”Sure,” I said, ”except when they're accusing me of murder, arson, or stealing my own jewelry. Then I think they're d.a.m.n incompetent. But seriously, in case you're right I'll be happy to ask about other funeral-related crimes when I tell them about d.i.c.k tomorrow.”
Meghan sighed. ”Okay. I can't stop you. But you won't be paying the price if you're wrong. I will. And so will Erin.”
”I don't think I'm wrong,” I said.
”You never do,” she said, and got up to try and salvage some dinner for Erin to eat.
I headed upstairs. Might as well haul Walter's paperwork downstairs so I wouldn't forget to take it to the police station in the morning. Oh, by the way, Detective Ambrose, here's a bunch of Walter's stuff I forgot to mention. Now, would you mind running out and finding my wedding ring?
Opening the door to the spare room, I flipped on the light. A moment later I was back in the kitchen.
”I was wrong,” I announced.
Meghan turned from where she was slicing an apple. ”What?”
”I was wrong. It wasn't Richard. Someone else used the key. And the jewelry they took was just icing on the cake.”
”The cake being?” She looked like she didn't really want to know the answer.
”Walter's papers. They're gone.” It hadn't occurred to either of us to look in the junk room after discovering the burglary.
Her face cleared. ”Richard wouldn't want those. Why would someone else take them, though? I thought you told me they were useless.”
”But whoever took them couldn't know that. Maybe they thought there was something incriminating in those boxes.”
”But you didn't find anything?”
I shook my head. ”Huh uh. But there's something they don't want discovered. That has to be why they burned down his house.”
She took a bite of apple and chewed it slowly, swallowed. ”Ambrose won't be very happy about the papers being missing.”
”I'm not going to tell him,” I said. ”If we hadn't brought them over here they would have gone up in flames. So it's a moot point.”
”You know, I bet he'd disagree with that.” She walked to the doorway with a plate of food for Erin, then turned. ”How could anyone know we had the papers?”
I shook my head.
But I thought about it while I did the dishes. At least two people might have noticed the files had been removed. I'd already hauled the boxes over to the house before Debby and Jacob had shown up at Walter's that day. They'd both seemed upset, Debby especially, and with good reason as Walter's fiancee. But I couldn't quite get a handle on either of them. And I wanted to know more about the relations.h.i.+p between her and Jacob.
My head had begun to throb, but I made a cup of tea and went down to my workroom anyway. I'd thought of a couple things I could do to try and find the thief-and Walter's murderer if they were one and the same. I had to finish the soap for Kyla to wrap when she came after school because I wouldn't be around tomorrow afternoon.
I released the bars of glycerin soap from the PVC half-pipes I used for molds and was slicing them into generous slabs when I realized I'd have to check with Meghan to see if she'd be here when Kyla came. The spare key wasn't outside anymore. I'd told my helper where it was, and she'd actually used it once or twice.
Kyla wasn't behind the theft. I was sure of it. She wasn't that kind of kid, and besides, she wouldn't have any more reason to take three boxes of paperwork than Richard would. And I didn't think she'd have told anyone about the key. Or would she? I reminded myself to ask her tomorrow, just to make sure.
The soap looked good. Streaks of blue swirled in pure white in the peppermint, and I'd mixed a little copper metallic soap colorant in with the red that swirled in the cinnamon, so it glittered when turned in the light. If these proved popular with customers, maybe I could add green and white bayberry, or orange and white sandalwood.