Cold Turkey

Chapter Eighteen

My work, at least, at the Still seemed finished. Sarkisian would now turn those papers over to someone who knew about distilling and bottling and whatever else went into the whole process, and confirm our suspicions. But no matter how much I turned it over in my mind, I still couldn’t figure out who was responsible.

It could be anyone, not just someone who worked at the Still. If Dave Hatter had made the alterations on the inventory sheets, he could have passed the bottles to a partner to sell. I had only his wife’s assertions about their financial ruin to explain his depression. It might have been Brody’s death that had him in such a state. He might have only pretended to be glad. If Dave panicked over Brody’s murder, his partner might have killed him to keep him quiet. I shuddered. If Dave trusted his murderer, he wouldn’t have put up a fight. He might have let him-or her-close enough. I felt sick.

Sarkisian drove me back to the school, but no cars remained in the parking lot. Everyone had gone home, which I hoped meant they had finished the decorating. The SCOURGEs really have good hearts, and an amazing capacity to work.

“Home?” the sheriff asked.

I nodded, too tired to speak. I still had to face making whatever dish Gerda had signed us up for. He dropped me off in front of the house, and I climbed out into the non-stop drizzle. “Coming for the dinner?” I asked.

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“What are you going to do next?”

“Get warrants so I can check bank accounts. If someone really was selling that stuff, they were pocketing a tidy little sum every month. They’d have to put it somewhere.”

“Switzerland?” I suggested. “The Caymans?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

I stared at him, noting the set of his jaw, the glint in his eyes, and my stomach lurched. “You know! You know who killed Brody!”

His mouth tightened. “Let’s just say I have a very strong suspicion.”

“Well?” I demanded when he said nothing else.

He shook his head. “There isn’t any solid evidence. Not unless…this person,” he said, carefully avoiding any use of a pronoun, “made regular deposits to a bank account. Without that, I haven’t one single shred of real proof. It’s all just logic and instinct, all circumstantial. And a good lawyer could make out a circumstantial case against every one of the other suspects, which would create enough reasonable doubt to get the whole thing thrown out of court. I’d never be able to make the charge stick.”

“So what do you do if no one’s made any illicit deposits?”

He gave an eloquent shrug. “Make sure no one else gets hurt. Come up with a brilliant trap. Call in Sherlock Holmes. God knows. I’ll come up with something.”

“I’ll help if…” I broke off.

He met my gaze. Slowly, purposefully, he shook his head. “I’m not putting you in any more danger. You don’t know anything, I never said a word about this, you just go on as normal.”

I let the rain pelt down on me. “I’m going to be upset, aren’t I?”

His mouth quirked. “You’ll be upset no matter who it turns out to be. It’s your nature. You want this all to be a big mistake and have a happy ending.”

I caught my lower lip between my teeth. I didn’t have to nod. He was coming to know me all too well. And I knew him well enough to know that deep down, he wanted to feel the same. But he was a realist, and he would arrest the murderer because it had to be done. People had to feel safe. I doubted he gave a damn about justice in its abstract sense. It was people that mattered to him. Tom had been that way. It was why I’d loved him so much. And why he’d been such a good sheriff.

“Tell me,” I said at last.

He shook his head. “If you knew, you’d never be able to act like you didn’t. You’d do or say something that would warn the murderer.”

I opened my mouth to protest, but closed it again. He was right. I’d never be able to interact with that person without giving the whole show away. “The curiosity will kill me,” I said at last.

“Better it than the murderer.” He held my gaze for a long moment. “Besides, if I’m wrong, you’d laugh at me. I’m not going to give you that chance.” He waved and drove off.

Well, I’d find out soon enough, I suspected. Sarkisian seemed the type who would accomplish what he set out to do. With a sigh, I forced the matter to the back of my mind and dragged myself up the outside steps. I didn’t dare let Gerda get so much as a hint that Sarkisian was closing in on the killer.

“Well, I see you managed to get yourself out of helping us decorate,” my loving aunt said by way of greeting.

I fell into a chair in the kitchen, folded my arms on the table and sank my head onto them. Teeth settled into my ankle, and I reached down to scoop up Furface. “Next time you want me to take part in a SCOURGE project, just shoot me instead, will you?”

A silence of several seconds stretched between us. Then, brightly, she said, “I’ve already made our cranberry salad, and it’s in the fridge, setting up. Now, we’ve got a full hour before we have to go back down there. Why don’t you go soak in a tub?”

My head came up slowly as if rising to a glorious scent on the wind. “You mean that? A whole hour to relax?” I got halfway across the living room, with thoughts of lavender bath salts, hot water and wine filling my mind, when the phone rang.

Gerda caught it on the second ring. “Annike? It’s Ida.”

I considered running for it, but instead reached for an extension. “What’s up?”

“I forgot to tell people to bring chafing dishes.” It came across as a wail. “How are we going to keep things hot?”

I closed my eyes. “Lukewarm’s fine with me.” Before she could protest, I hung up.

Gerda settled in a chair, and three of the cats pawed for her attention. The black tom Clumsy scrambled into the coveted place in her lap. The rotund Siamese Olaf leapt up and pushed Clumsy aside to make a few inches of room for himself, although his haunches and a considerable portion of his stomach overlapped onto the padded arm. That left orange Mischief to curl himself around her feet. I looked away from the yellow police tape that still hung across the study door and dove for my room before anyone else could call.

Vilhelm greeted me with a round of furious cheeping. I opened his cage for his afternoon flap-an exercise he’d been forced to miss for the last couple of days-and changed into my bathrobe while he circled the room. He landed in my hair, and it took a minute to disentangle his feet and convince him not to bite my fingers. Leaving him to his own devices, I closed the door firmly, pushed away Birgit and Furface, and went to prepare my sanctuary.

I didn’t have much time, and I was going to make the most of it. I started the water running, threw in handfuls of herbs and a few drops of almond oil, lit candles, poured a glass of white zinfandel, then turned to the bathroom CD player. I hesitated over Gilbert and Sullivan, but that made me think of Sarkisian. I didn’t want to think about the sheriff right now and especially not about whom he believed to be the murderer. Instead, I selected Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. I sank into the steaming water and closed my eyes. I was going to make this last every second I could.

I was only taking my fourth sip of wine when Gerda pounded on the door. “Time to dress,” she called.

“No it isn’t,” I called back, but without much hope.

“We have to leave in fifteen minutes. We’ve got the key, remember.”

I considered telling her what she could do with the key. I also considered telling her that she could go down alone and I’d come along later, like maybe tomorrow or the day after. Instead, I released the plug on the bath and felt all that beautiful relaxation draining away. If only we’d set the starting time for the dinner at five o’clock. But four o’clock it was, because that allowed people to arrive while it was still light. In the park, that mattered more than it did at the school, where floodlights illuminated the parking lot and overheads hung along the walkway leading to the lit-and well heated-cafeteria. Maybe we ought to see about holding the Dinner-in-the-Park at the school every year.

I drove slowly, not wanting to arrive, not wanting to face all those people. Sarkisian had decided one of them was a murderer. He was right. I didn’t want it to be any of them. But no matter how hard I tried to ignore the matter, niggling doubts and fears kept intruding into my mind. Suspicious little details haunted me that had never been explained. Like the fact Cindy Brody could not have tolerated losing all her husband’s money. How had she planned to get it away from his clever hiding tricks-unless he somehow died before the divorce was final? Well, Sarkisian was looking into bank accounts.

Simon Lowell’s violent streak troubled me, too. I doubted very much that only Adam Fairfield brought it out. A man with that much money, with his flair for defying convention, with his unorthodox views of law and politics, might also have a warped view on the value of human life. Nancy, I suspected, would be better off without him. Which led me to Adam Fairfield’s delight in baiting Simon, his obsession with winning back his ex-wife, and the frustrations and fury that raged within him. Did he need more than the occasional fistfight with Simon to vent his feelings?

For that matter, what about Tony Carerras? I had a lot of unanswered questions about his sealed past. Tom had arrested him for gang activities, that was all I knew. That had been county and sheriff business. I had no idea why the Meritville police had dragged him in and sent him to juvenile hall. He could have been up to just about anything at the Still, and Brody might have caught him. And then there was his abject loyalty to Peggy, transferred to her, I suspected, from his former gang. Some of the gangs considered murder as a rite of passage or a duty. I couldn’t dismiss the possibility he might commit murder if he thought it would help Peggy.

Which brought me to a particular unanswered question about Peggy, herself. I shot my aunt an assessing glance. She looked tired. Maybe tired enough to break down and finally tell me the truth. “Gerda?”

“Mmm?” She stared out the window into the rain.

“Time for confessions.”

That brought her head around. “I did not kill Brody,” she informed me in cold accents. Which let me know her thoughts had been following a similar trail to mine.

“Of course not. But you lied to Sarkisian about how Peggy’s cigarette lighter got on your desk.”

She said nothing for a long moment. Then, “Oh. Do you think he realized that, too?”

“He doesn’t seem to miss much. So, how-and when-did it really get there?”

She sighed. “I’ve no idea. I don’t remember seeing it, but you know what my desk’s like. You could probably hide an elephant in all that clutter. For all I know, it could have been there for weeks.”

Or it might have been there for no more than an hour.

“Oh, no.” Gerda glared at me. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop it right now! She couldn’t-wouldn’t-have killed him. Be reasonable. Why on earth would she be taking out her lighter if she were stabbing him? The sheriff himself admitted there was no smell of cigarettes in the room, so she hadn’t stopped to smoke to settle her nerves.”

That was true. But if Peggy had murdered Brody, she might well have been stressed enough to want a cigarette, taken out both it and her lighter, remembered she was in Gerda’s house, and put the cigarette away again. She was so scattered she could easily have set down the lighter and forgotten it.

We reached the school, so I let the matter drop. We’d arrived only a few minutes later than planned, but Peggy was already in the lot, waiting. I greeted her-I hoped-as if I had not just been considering the possibility that she was a murderer. Apparently she found nothing amiss or suspicious in my manner, and as a threesome we trooped along the hall to the cafeteria. We’d barely opened it and switched on the lights when Art and Ida showed up, followed by Sue Hinkel.

“Dumping all this on you was a rotten thing to do,” Ida told me as we arranged main dishes at one end of the table and salads at the other. Side dishes, drinks and desserts would occupy a second table.

“Damn right,” I agreed.

She grinned. “Well, this is the last event. It’ll all be over in a few hours.”

I nodded. Did that, I wondered, include the murder investigation, too? Damn, Sarkisian was right. I wanted it all to have been a mistake. I loved happy endings. But there wouldn’t be one to this awful affair. Unless-and I clung to this possibility-he’d been wrong, and Dave Hatter had committed suicide after killing Brody. Well, I could dream, couldn’t I?

Peggy disappeared, but came back a few minutes later carrying a boom box. She turned on its radio, and out blared Christmas music. Christmas. On Thanksgiving weekend. I couldn’t face it.

“Can’t they let us finish one holiday before assaulting us with another?” demanded Ida, echoing my feelings.

Peggy switched channels, but the next three she tried also blared Rudolph and Santa Claus at us. She tried again, and this time located a talk show. Her next attempt brought up salsa music, which won by an overwhelming vote. We left it there.

The first of our community diners began to arrive, bearing their own plates and utensils as well as their offerings. The SCOURGE elite squad took up places behind the serving tables, directing the newcomers where to place their casseroles and vegetables and cakes. The variety of foods impressed me, and I could only pray that no one got food poisoning from dishes left out too long, whether here or where they were made.

Nancy arrived with Simon, who still looked smug. She greeted us with a weary smile as they deposited their offering of a cranberry tart on the second table. “Dad’s found someone to spell him at the Still,” she announced. “He’s getting off duty at four-thirty, then he’ll change and come on over.”

“We’ll make sure there’s food left,” Art told her.

Already people filled plates and found themselves places to sit. A few of the smaller kids danced to the music. I heaved a sigh of relief. We just might make it through this. I might survive the weekend.

Nancy and Simon sat at a table near us. She slumped in her seat. She really ought to go home to rest. Apparently Simon thought the same thing. He frowned at her, pushed his plate away and stood up. She shook her head at whatever he told her.

His voice rose. “I said we’re going.”

“But I’ve barely started…”

He took her arm. “Come on. You’re too tired to be here. I’m taking you home.” Leaving their plates where they lay, he hauled her from the room.

I’d been right to think him controlling, and wondered if he’d kept this side of himself hidden from Nancy until now. I could only hope she noticed this disturbing trend in his behavior and thought better of marrying him. And his millions.

They almost collided with Sarkisian in the doorway. He stepped aside, waving them on with a hand that grasped a can of cranberry sauce. Four more cans peeked out from where he clutched them against his chest with his other arm. I hurried to meet him.

“Find anything out?” I honestly couldn’t contain my curiosity-and fear.

His grim expression answered my question even before he spoke. “Nothing unusual in deposits, and all as it ought to be in checks written. The money-if there ever was any-is well hidden. Or in someone else’s account.”

“How many-” I began.

“I’ve only had time to check the one, so far. Guess how I’ll be spending the rest of the evening. And night, with my luck.”

I nodded. “Have time for some dinner, first?”

“I could use-” The radio crackled at his belt, and he broke off, swearing. He thrust the cans of cranberry at me and strode from the cafeteria.

“A policeman’s lot is not a happy one,” I murmured, and the quote from the Pirates of Penzance brought back the memory of only a few nights before when we’d stood in the rain outside my aunt’s house watching Peggy drive off in a huff.

“This the gig?” yelled a determined voice over the babble of small talk that filled the room.

I looked up, jolted back to the present. And a rather unexpected one, at that. A teenager, with spiky purple and orange hair and more piercings than I would have thought the human body could tolerate, stood in the doorway. He clutched the neck of an electric guitar, the body of which rested on his shoulder.

“Where do you want us?” he asked. Conversations broke off as people turned to stare.

“Anywhere but here,” I moaned.

Gerda turned a bemused stare on me. “Did you…”

“No!”

The teenager strode further into the room, followed by four more, all spiky-haired, all in too tight jeans, open vests over T-shirts, and black army boots. One pushed a handcart on which rested the largest set of amplifiers I’d ever seen. Another bore a portable drum set, while a third lugged a keyboard. The fourth carried a bass over his shoulder. Their leader looked around, then headed for the stage with his cohorts following. That all-too familiar sinking sensation attacked my stomach.

“Annike…” Gerda began.

“Not me,” I protested.

The first teenager looked up from where they’d begun to hook up their equipment and surveyed the staring crowd. “Hey, Aunt Cindy! Want to check the bass?”

Aunt Cindy. That explained everything.

Cindy Brody hurried into the cafeteria from the kitchen, beaming. “Go ahead,” she called.

The first notes blasted out the hall. Fortunately they turned the volume down on their own-they never could have heard my screaming for them to do so. Unfortunately, they didn’t turn it down enough. Nor had they tuned up, yet. The resulting cacophony of sound made me whimper.

Cindy strolled over to us. “Isn’t it great having a live band?” she yelled over the din.

“Your nephew?” I inserted as much accusation into those two words as I could muster.

She nodded, but seemed to think I’d just paid her a compliment. “They’re just getting started. I thought this would give them a boost.”

“Did she say ‘boost’ or ‘bust’?” demanded Peggy.

“Have you…have you ever actually heard them play?” Sue Hinkel managed, barely audible over the dis-chords that emitted from the speakers.

Then the band-to use the term in its broadest sense-started the first song, punk rock as expected, obscene lyrics as feared. It was so awful, so off-key and out of sync, I couldn’t decide whether to cry or laugh. I chose the latter and sank against the wall to support myself. I was going to strangle every single member of the SCOURGE elite, beginning with Cindy and going on until I’d killed every last one of them. And then I was going to beg Sarkisian to lock me up in a nice quiet jail cell for some much needed peace. Or maybe I’d plead for a padded cell.

“Do something!” Gerda shouted at me.

Already, several parents gathered up their young children and headed for the door. I couldn’t blame them. But I also couldn’t let the dinner collapse like this. I strode forward, shouting at the band to stop, waving my arms to get their attention. They merely brandished their instruments around wildly in the air and struck even worse-sounding chords. I have nothing against punk rock. I’ve heard some really good bands. But this was stretching the definition of music too far.

Art Graham solved the problem for me. He pulled the plug. Literally. The amplified sound shut off. The so-called musicians stopped one at a time as they realized something was wrong, with the drummer winning the slowest-to-catch-on award by continuing for a good ten seconds after the others had quit.

“Hey, whatcha do that for?” the leader demanded in the sudden and blessed silence.

“Sorry. We’re rated G,” Art explained.

“Yeah. Whatever. Like, it’s up to you. Just so long as we get paid for the whole gig.”

Paid? I looked around for Cindy to demand an explanation, but she had faded away. Probably a strong streak of self-preservation. Definitely, I was going to begin my murder spree with her.

I’d hoped the band would take the hint and pack up, but instead they jumped down from the stage. They fished cards out of their pockets, and it took me a few seconds to realize they actually had the gall to solicit for more gigs among the diners. Most of the recipients either tore or crumpled up the slips of cardboard. No one bothered to put them anywhere for safekeeping.

With peace mostly restored, newcomers who had turned away at the door began to come back in. There seemed a lot of people, a lot of relieved laughing and talking, a lot of milling and filling of plates. Time slipped comfortably by, and everything actually ran smoothly, the only disturbance coming over who would get the last piece of a turkey, artichoke and mushroom quiche that I’d had my eye on, as well. That quarrel ended amicably, with the combatants cutting the slice in half and sharing it, and good will once more filled the cafeteria.

“We just might survive this,” I said to Peggy, then realized she no longer stood beside me. I had no idea how long she’d been gone, it wasn’t as if we were really doing anything other than standing here. I looked down the line but couldn’t see my aunt, either. That explained it. They’d probably retreated to the kitchen together for a break. Or, knowing them, a dish of yams swimming in marshmallows. I considered joining them, but that would leave only Sue behind the tables to receive any new offerings.

So where were the Grahams? I looked around the crowded room and spotted Art and Ida sitting in a corner, eating. When they reported back, I decided, I’d fill a plate for myself. I realized, with a touch of consternation, I’d been waiting for Sarkisian. But he’d never returned from answering that radio call. And that was more than half an hour ago, probably longer. I wondered what could have happened. Not, I prayed, another body.

“Annike?” Art nudged my elbow. “Where did you stow the liqueurs? We’d better trot them out before people start to leave.”

The liqueurs. I stared at him in dismay. “Dave Hatter was going to bring them,” I said. “Oh, God, and we promised everyone they could taste them!” We stared at each other for a moment. “Oh, hell. All right. I’ll go get them. Make an announcement that we’ll have them here within half an hour.” I dragged my purse from under the table, unhooked my keys, and ran for the parking lot.

“And you,” I told the turkey as I climbed into Freya, “are moving out. First thing tomorrow morning.” It ignored me, which was typical.

The rain didn’t even have the decency to let up and make the trip easier on me. I turned onto the road leading to the Still and took the slick curves at a snail’s pace. Adam would no longer be on duty. That meant I’d have to convince his replacement I had every right to take away bottles from the experimental batches. If it were someone I knew, I might have a chance. If it wasn’t…I wouldn’t even let myself think about that. I probably should have asked Gerda to have another word with Hugh Cartwright. With a sigh, I reached a short straight stretch and gave the car a little more gas. The latches holding up the flip-top rattled, but the duct tape I’d slapped over them still held.

The parking lot stood empty. I swore in frustration, then remembered shipping and receiving. I headed down the hill, and to my relief-and surprise-I spotted Sarkisian’s borrowed Honda. No sign of any other car. So where was Adam’s replacement? Unless Sarkisian had somehow gotten stuck with that job. That would delight the sheriff, being reduced to a security guard. Unless he was taking the opportunity to search for that solid evidence he’d been talking about.

And that brought me back to fretting over who, of all those people I knew, could have murdered Brody. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the worry out of my mind. It was terrible, suspecting everyone, knowing nothing for certain. I only hoped I could survive the suspense without throwing a screaming fit. And I prayed, once more, it would prove to have been Dave, acting alone, with none of the others involved.

Well, Sarkisian’s presence provided one bright spot. I’d have no trouble getting the bottles. I might even have help carrying the damned things.

The huge garage-like doors that allowed the paneled trucks to drive inside for both shipping and receiving remained firmly closed, but the smaller entry, which stood at the top of the ramp and led to the catwalk that ran around the bay, stood ajar a few inches. I ran up the ramp, shoved the door wide and stepped inside, out of the cold and wet.

A single fluorescent light cast a dim glow over the cement floor area below. The walkway encircled it, with several offices and storerooms on the side opposite me. One of the doors stood open, and a light showed within. Boxes and handcarts lined the wall below, but no trucks awaited loading. Only Tony’s motorcycle stood in a corner, out of the rain. I stared at it, surprised. Tony? Had he been promoted to night watchman? With his background? Or was he cleaning that office?

I started around the walkway toward the light. No one emerged, even as I rounded the end of the bay and circled back on the other side, nearing the room. “Tony?” I called, “Ow-Sheriff?” I’d nearly called Sarkisian by his first name, and that was something I was not going to allow myself to do. “Anyone down here?”

The light in the room snapped off.

“Tony?” I called again, and was annoyed that my voice sounded a bit shaky. The complete silence was giving me the creeps. Why didn’t he answer? If, in fact, it was Tony in that little office. If not-or for that matter, if it was- My suspicions-and uneasiness-surged to the forefront.

A dark shape emerged, and fear, like a rod of icy steel, shot through my chest and stomach. I held my ground simply because I had frozen where I stood, unable to move.

“Annike?” Adam’s voice. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the dinner?”

“I didn’t see your truck.” Relief flooded over me and I swallowed. I’d let my damned imagination get the better of my common sense. Still, I wanted to get out of here as quickly as I could. With an effort, I focused on the matter at hand. “I forgot about the liqueurs. Dave was going to bring a few bottles. Do you know if he ever set them aside?”

Adam shifted, bringing something on the floor behind him into my line of sight. Something large and dark. Something…

“I’ll check.” He eased himself through the narrow opening.

His movement allowed the dim light past him. A small area of the office’s linoleum floor glistened. Liquid? Then the whole shadowy shape resolved itself into a person-at least, I prayed it was a person and not another body. I could just make out the pepper-and-salt curling hair of Owen Sarkisian.

And that dark, glistening puddle was blood.