Part 24 (1/2)

”There's something I'm missing, something I heard over the past few days that I'm not getting. It's the key, I just know it.”

”Well, think, Jennifer! What is it?”

”That's not helping,” I said.

”Maybe if you take a walk, it will come to you,” Lillian said. ”I don't mind watching the card shop.”

It was true that there were two things that always got my juices flowing: either a walk or a shower. Since I didn't have a shower handy, a walk made perfect sense. ”You're right, I need to jar loose whatever is lodged in my head. I don't know how long I'll be,” 1 said as I headed for the door.

”You're not on a schedule,” she said. ”You own this place, remember?”

I was nearly outside when Lillian added, ”One thing before you go. If it does come to you, don't do anything without me, Jennifer.” ”I'm not crazy,” I said.

”That's a discussion for another day,” Lillian said. ”But you can't deny you're rash at times.”

”I like to think of it as active,” I said. ”Call it what you will. I just don't want you taking any chances.”

”Fine, I'll behave myself,” I promised as I left the card shop. Since I had no destination in mind, I decided to start up Oakmont toward Sara Lynn's shop. At Greg's Pottery, I paused to look inside. He was having an earnest conversation with Stephanie, and I could swear it looked like he was proposing! Though he wasn't down on one knee, there was something the size of a ring box in his hand, and she kept looking at it as he spoke. I knew Greg had a tendency to ask women to marry him-after all, he'd asked me twice himself-but it was all I could do not to bust through the door and tell him he wasn't ready for such a big step. My hand was on the doork.n.o.b before I jerked it away. If Greg wanted to marry Stephanie, there was nothing I could do about it, and more important, there was nothing I should do to stop him. He had his life to live, and I had mine. If he believed Stephanie was what it would take to make him happy, then more power to him. Now if I could only convince myself of that.

I left the storefront and tried to put what I'd just seen out of my thoughts. I had something more important to deal with. As I walked, I thought about everyone involved with the murders. Eliza had plenty of enemies, but poor Bailey hadn't had any, as far as I'd known. Addie and Luke had been off base with their belief that Sara Lynn was the murderer. I knew my sister didn't do it, and no amount of proof would convince me otherwise. So how about the two of them? Addie inherited a business and was probably going after Eliza's ex-husband. She was basically taking over her partner's life before she was even in the ground. That smacked of motive. Then there was Luke. He'd professed his love for his ex-wife often enough. Would her scorn be enough to drive him to murder? Polly and Kaye had their own reasons to dislike Eliza, but again, did they hate her enough to murder her?

And there was Reggie. He was the dark horse in all of this. I didn't even have any proof that he'd been having an affair with Eliza. And even if he had been, why would he kill her? The most he had to lose was his relations.h.i.+p with Gail, and it was pretty obvious it f hadn't been that important to him-not by the way he blew her off earlier. That left me with a ragtag collection of suspects, with conflicting motives to want Eliza dead.

I was at the park bench at the square, and I decided to stop walking to see if I could sort this mess out. I knew motive was the key, but what if I had the wrong one for one of my suspects? Eliza also ran an accounting business on the side-nothing too big, but she did taxes for several of the shop owners in town. Could her murder have been committed to cover up something else-a crime that had nothing to do with jealousy or anger?

Then I remembered what had been nagging at me all along, and it all fell into place. I started toward the business where I knew the murderer was working, forgetting all about my promise to Lillian to come get her when I figured it out.

Chapter 15.

Wouldn't you know it? The business was deserted when I walked in. Why couldn't this have happened in the full swing of tourist season, when there was no place in town that wasn't crawling with visitors? I took a deep breath at the door, then moved toward the counter.

She looked up at me as I approached. ”Jennifer. Don't you ever stay at your shop anymore? I don't know how you do it.”

”My aunt's watching the place.” I looked around. ”Where is everyone?”

”Thad's on break,” Kaye said. ”He won't be back for a while. Was there something I could help you with?”

I took a deep breath, then said, ”You could save us all a lot of trouble and confess,” I said, the words sounding insane even as I spoke them.

”Confess to what?” She held steady, but 1 could see her face blanch slightly at my prompt.

”You killed Eliza, and then you got rid of Bailey and tried to do the same thing to me when you thought we both knew what you'd done. You want to know the funny thing? I didn't put it all together until just a minute ago.”

”I don't know what you're talking about,” she said. ”You're not well.”

”You're the one who's sick,” I said. ”You're a murderer, Kaye.”

”Why on earth would I kill Eliza?” she demanded. ”We weren't friends, but I had no reason to hate her.”

”I'm guessing that you did,” I said. ”Between her two businesses, Eliza had more money at her disposal than you could dream of. You never could stand the fact that Thad relied on his dad's income to keep you two solvent, could you? Everybody in town knows that you married him for money he didn't have. That's not the only reason you killed Eliza, though I'm certain it was a contributing factor in the end.”

She looked more angry than fl.u.s.tered, but I knew I was right. ”So what? Even if she did flaunt her money in my face, that didn't mean I wanted her dead.”

There was just one thing for me to do. I had to press her harder until I got her to confess. ”Like I said, it wasn't the only reason you killed her, but I've got a strong idea what your original motive was. Eliza found out you were stealing from the business when she started doing the books, didn't she?”

That hit home. She jerked her head back as if I'd smacked her. ”You're just guessing, Jennifer.”

”Kaye, the last time I was here, you didn't ring up a big sale as you made it. You told the customer the register was broken, but it was working fine, wasn't it? I watched you do it, and it never occurred to me what you were up to until later.”

She shook her head back and forth vigorously. ”I remember that. The register really was broken that day,” she said, but the conviction in her voice was gone.

”It's a good way to steal, isn't it? But you had to know that you'd get caught as soon as your husband or father-in-law took an inventory. You decided to worry about that later, though, didn't you? I'm guessing you were trying to make up for the money you stole outright from the business before anybody else found out what you were up to. How did you get Eliza to keep quiet? I'm just curious, though it's really not that important. My brother will be able to figure it all out once he gets the state police and their team of forensic auditors in here.”

I started for the door, and Kaye asked, ”Where do you think you're going?”

”I'm getting Bradford,” I said. ”Don't leave until he gets here.”

She laughed in such an odd way that it made me look closely at her. I don't know why I was so surprised, but Kaye had a gun pointed at me.

I couldn't believe the woman's audacity. She really was out of her mind. ”What I don't understand is why you had to kill Bailey? Did he see something he shouldn't have?”

Kaye shook her head. ”He denied it, but I know he saw me stab that witch. I couldn't let him turn me in, could I?”

”I don't understand why he didn't just call Bradford if he knew something.”

Kaye gave me a smile, but it was devoid of warmth or pleasure. ”I told him I'd kill Sara Lynn if he whispered a word about what he'd seen, and then the fool went and told you on the loading dock. I can't believe I missed. I had you both in my sights.”

”He never told me anything that night,” I said.

”Why should I believe you?”

I stared at her, and said, ”Why should I lie?”

”My mistake, then,” she said as she appeared to take it in. ”You know it all now, though. Sorry, but that means that you've got to die ”Kaye, do you honestly think you can get away with killing me now?”

She narrowed her eyes, then said, ”Jennifer, you came in here today to rob me, and I had to defend myself. Your business can't be doing that well. I'm willing to bet I can get the state police to believe it, and after I have them on my side, your brother won't have any choice but to go along with their conclusions,”

There was a wild look in her eyes that shook me to the core. I had to find a way through her fog so she'd know how delusional she was. ”There is no way on earth that anyone is going to buy that, especially my brother. I had to wonder if the woman truly was insane. brother. I had to wonder if the woman truly was insane.

She appeared to consider it for a few seconds, then asked, ”Okay, if that's no good, how about this? Yon came in to chat and I was cleaning my revolver by the counter. You wanted to see it, and it accidentally went off as I handed it to you. Those things happen all the time. I'll be able to sell that story to your brother, once I have it staged.”

And knowing her, she just might be able to pull it off. I only had one chance, and I had to take it quickly before she squeezed that trigger. I knocked over a display with my foot, and as her crazed glare s.h.i.+fted toward it, I picked up a large bottle of perfume off the counter and threw it at her. As Kaye ducked, I dove behind one of the aisles as a bullet shattered a vase near my head, ”There goes your accident theory,” I shouted. ”You might as well give up now. You're not getting away with it.”

The gun barked again, and a lamp exploded into a thousand pieces, stinging my face and my right arm with shrapnel.

”I don't care what it looks like now” she screamed. I just want you dead.”