Part 22 (1/2)
When Max finished summing up, Kelly moved her hands, and Annie was reminded of seaweed swaying in water.
”Oh, yes. I can see it happening. Emma is quite capable of a carefully conceived, excellently executed plan. If she decided her second husband was a mistake-and she couldn't see any way of divorcing him without losing a great deal of money-I don't believe she'd hesitate for a moment to murder him. I find it quite revealing that she told you she had wanted to see him early the next morning about some investments.
She was clearly thinking about him in terms of money. And it's very suggestive that she immediately a.s.sumed Annie's intention in bringing up the matter was blackmail. I consider that significant, too. I would almost feel certain she was already the victim of blackmail.”
”If she can plan so well and won't stop at murder, why wouldn't she get rid of the blackmailer?” Max asked.
”But she did,” Annie jumped in. ”That's why she killed Elliot. He was blackmailing her, so she set it all up, stole the poison, killed Jill because she interrupted that, then hid the dart in my store and fixed the lights.
It sounds reasonable to me.”
”No, no,” Kelly objected calmly. ”You are misreading Elliot's persona entirely. My dear, he sought power, that was his overriding desire-to manipulate and coerce, to inflict punishment.” A tiny smile rippled over her pond-smooth face. ”He was not a very attractive person, dear Elliot.”
”What's blackmail but a clear exercise of power?” Annie demanded.
”In a limited sense. Do you think, in Elliot's mind, that the receipt of money could compare in any way with the power and pleasure he would take from standing up in front of the Regulars and publicly stripping each person there emotionally naked?”
”By G.o.d, you're right,” Max declared.
Where had Max acquired his perverted weakness for blond anacondas and redheaded vipers?
”So you think he meant every word of his threat to reveal all Sunday night?”
”Of course. I have no doubt that, had he lived, we would all have learned some fascinating particulars about each person there.” Was there a touch of regret in her voice? Viper, indeed.
”So you agree that the motive for his murder must lie in his actions that night?”
”I have no doubt about it.”
”How about his ex-wife? How about Ambrose Bailey?”
Neither of them even glanced Annie's way. Max was crinkling his eyes at Kelly, and she was responding on cue. Annie knew she would do well to remember his expertise in the future.
”You've certainly thought this through very thoroughly. Who are the other candidates?”
Max was spilling all to their new confederate. ”The next person we talked to was Hal Douglas.” Then his face abruptly went blank, and Annie knew he'd remembered her own comment that she suspected a romance between Hal and Kelly.
Kelly waited.
With Max struck dumb, Annie explained about Hal's emotional outburst.
Kelly was unruffled. ”His wife could have run off with someone.”
”Did you know he had a wife?”
”I knew there was an emotional block.”
Annie stopped short of announcing her belief that Lenora was in an unmarked grave near that Lake Tahoe cabin. Instead, she skirted.
”What do you think about Hal? Could he kill someone?”
”Hal is pa.s.sionate. I can see problems if he loved someone deeply and discovered infidelity, but I have trouble imagining him cold-bloodedly killing Jill-or Harriet.”
”Jill's death may not have been intentional,” Annie suggested. ”The autopsy revealed she had a very thin skull-and she was only hit once.
Perhaps the killer simply intended to knock her unconscious.” Annie reached up and touched the sore spot, still a little swollen, behind her ear. ”As for Harriet, n.o.body really knows what happened. Maybe she saw someone go into Elliot's house and followed them. She may have accused that person of being the murderer and something happened to convince her she was right. The killer had no choice.”
”That seems possible.” Max nodded.
Kelly was skeptical. She stood and walked slowly to the mantel and lightly touched a piece of painted tinware. ”Hal would do things in a rush. He might knock Elliot down or shoot him, but I can't imagine he would plan and carry out this complicated murder.”
An attack on Hal made her uneasy. What might she do to protect Hal?
Were she and Max naive? Did Kelly know all about Lenora, and was she determined to protect Hal at all costs? She'd already revealed that she would go to great lengths if she cared for someone. Witness her determination to s.h.i.+eld her sister.
i ”Hal writes pretty complicated books.”
Kelly merely smiled patronizingly and shook her head.
”How about the Parleys? Solo or together.”
Kelly leaned back against the mantel, very much at ease now that Hal wasn't the subject. ”They're possible, quite possible.” Her dark red hair swung as she nodded. ”There is repression there, and violence.”
She wasn't at all surprised to learn of Jeff's attacks or Janis's protective response. But again, she thought outright aggression would be more likely for Jeff than the carefully premeditated death by dart.
”I wouldn't rule them out, though, psychologically speaking.”
”What about Fritz Hemphill?” Did Max have to look as if he awaited a guru's p.r.o.nouncement?
Kelly reached out and traced her fingers over the raised pattern in the upholstery of the small Queen Anne wingback. ”Fritz is a dangerous man. What did Elliot have on him?”
”Apparently he blew away his best friend so he could inherit a valuable beachfront cottage at Carmel.”
”Fritz is a planner, the kind of person who takes what he wants.”
”Then there's Capt. Mac.” Max's voice was as curdled as sour milk. ”A paternity suit.”
”At least he didn't kill somebody,” Annie exclaimed protectively.
Kelly's green eyes darted from Annie to Max, brightly, perceptively.
Annie was getting pretty d.a.m.n sick of perception.
”So Capt. Mac's libido caused him some difficulty. Not surprising. But he's capable and intelligent. A cool customer. Of course, that's what you would expect from someone who's headed a police force. Tough.
Ruthless. Very savvy.”
”Capt. Wonderful,” Max said sarcastically.