Losers, Weepers Page 11

Sonny said that for openers he used the excuse of asking Larry how the Catlett family was holding up under the strain of Zoe’s disappearance. Larry thought they were doing pretty well, considering. His main concern was about Marie, because of her age. The ongoing nervous tension wasn’t helping, naturally, but he felt Reed was a pillar of strength.

  When Sonny told him of Reed’s verbal threats to Sonny, and physical threat to me, Bartles was flabbergasted. Then Sonny said he told Bartles of Merrilou’s weird behavior all along. By now, Bartles was thoroughly rocked.

  Then Sonny said he casually added, “Of course, Merrilou could be behind the whole thing, feeling she needs to stash away every dollar she can.”

  Bartles looked confused, “Reed is rich, isn’t he? Merrilou should have no money worries.”

  “Except one.” Sonny drank some of the iced tea Larry had poured for them, and looked meaningfully over the rim of his glass to watch Larry turn pale, as Sonny opined, “I don’t understand why the prenuptial agreement was worded that way, it was worse than insulting, it made her sound like a whore. And I don’t understand why she accepted those terms. Do you?” Sonny said he just kept staring at him.

  Finally, Bartles gave in. “Look, Sonny, I shouldn’t talk about this, but maybe it will help you understand Merrilou a little better. Her actions may be a little cold and self-serving, but I cannot believe she is criminally involved.”

  He stood and put his glass in the sink, then leaned back against the counter as he explained to Sonny, “Merrilou comes from a lower middle-class family. By gosh and by darn she managed to get herself through college. While there, she met a young man who became a minister, and they married. We all thought it was a mistake to begin with, but what can you do? Nobody who thinks he’s in love is going to listen to friends warning him about his fiancée. Bob was assigned to a small church in a rather wealthy community on Lookout Mountain, just outside Chattanooga.”

  “Did she know Bob was going into the church when she married him?” Sonny had asked.

  “Sure, he was already ordained. Anyway, Merrilou kind of put on airs around the ladies of the parish. Spending way too much money on clothes in order to ‘keep up,’ suggesting the church give Bob and her a complimentary membership to the golf club, a new car every three years. I don’t know what all. I know there was some bad feeling, including the general opinion that she had a lot to learn to be a preacher’s wife. Then the other rumors started.”

  “Like what?” As if my beloved brother wouldn’t have already guessed.

  “Men. Or at least, the golf pro. Maybe Merrilou figured it was okay, now that they were members.” Sonny said that Larry actually gave a man-to-man grin, along with the surprising remark.

  Then he looked genuinely pained as he continued. “One of the church ladies saw them come out of the motel where the pro lived for the summer. Merrilou always swore they had just stopped by to pick up some clubs needed for her lesson. I don’t know what was true. But divorce was the result, and I’m sure she got no alimony.”

  I couldn’t resist adding my bit to the gentlemen’s gossip hour. “Helluva lot of clubs they picked up if she had to go in and help the pro carry them out,” I put in.

  Sonny nodded and went back to his drumstick.

  “Well,” Cindy added, “she’s apparently scared to death of finding herself penniless for the second time, poor woman. Even if you don’t like her—and I don’t either—you can’t blame her for wanting some kind of nest egg. Right or wrong, she came out of one marriage without a cent. She wouldn’t want it to happen again. She should never have accepted that last prenuptial clause from Reed.”

  “How could she not?” I grinned. “Should she have said, ‘Darling, you know I would never cheat on you, but if you should catch me in the act, I want more than a lousy ten thou’?”

  Cindy stuck to her guns. “She had a reasonable need of money, even if she took unreasonable steps to get it.” She moved to another point in the discussion. “Do you suppose Emily Bartles knew the combination to the safe or knew the hour at which it would be open?”

  “Presumably not.” Sonny answered. “It was a confused morning all around at Tellman’s. The two owners left around seven o’clock that morning. Cassie flew them over to pick up a Philadelphia flight out of Boston. Emily Bartles and Charlie opened the gallery at nine thirty as usual. Emily got there first by a few minutes and had to wait outside for Charlie. Charlie arrived by cab, and mentioned to Emily that her car battery had gone bad overnight.” Sonny loosened his tie and collar and looked happier.

  Then he continued, “Emily does not have keys, according to her. Oh, yes, Dana was supposed help out part of the day, but had to drive her grandmother to an eye doctor’s appointment in Hyannis. And with the Tellmans away, Emily and Charlie would both have to work a full day.”

  I began to put the remaining food away. “I didn’t know Dana spent so much time there. Did Emily Bartles hear a shot? Is that how Charlie was found?”

  “Apparently Dana fills in from time to time. After all, she is the Tellmans’ niece.” Sonny stretched. “Nice meal, thanks. No, Emily did not hear any gunshot, and the morning went smoothly in general. Around ten, Charlie told Emily she’d better take her lunch hour from twelve to one. Charlie had a tooth bothering her. It was getting worse, and she had managed to get a one thirty dentist’s appointment. She thought it might run a little long.”

  “Did she really have an appointment?” Cindy asked.

  “Yep. Emily left at twelve and returned about ten of one, to find the front of the gallery wide open. She was surprised Charlie wasn’t working at the front desk, which someone always covered when the gallery was open. Otherwise, anyone could have strolled in and carted out pictures and statuary or whatever. Emily shrugged it off, figured Charlie may have been in pain and nervous about the dentist, and assumed Emily would be back shortly. So Emily just began her work of dusting and straightening, taking care of the few potential customers who dropped in and answering the phone. When Charlie wasn’t back by three, Emily called the dentist to see if she was all right. She thought maybe Charlie hadn’t felt well, had gone home, and the dentist was supposed to have called the gallery.”

  “But Charlie had never been there,” I guessed.

  “Right. When Charlie was twenty minutes late for her appointment, they had marked her off as a no-show. It had happened before. After they explained this to Emily, she then walked down the hall to the back of the building and into the office and ran out screaming . . . called 911 . . . and was in the parking lot sobbing when the uniforms got there.”

  I lit a cigarette and didn’t even pretend to count. “So if she did know the combination, or if Charlie had the safe open for some reason when she was shot, Emily could have emptied it and put the money in her car, or called Merrilou to meet her in the lot and given it to her before she even called the cops.”

  “Yes, but think, Alex. Did Charlie just sit there quietly while Emily or Emily and cohort robbed the safe, took her gun out of the desk and shot her with it?” Sonny gave me a wry grin.

  “Maybe Merrilou lured Charlie out into the gallery on some pretext while Emily swiped the gun—she probably knew where it was kept—and shot Charlie when she returned to her desk. And the safe was already open for some reason. Maybe Charlie planned to combine the dentist with the bank. And that suicide note sounds like Emily.”

  I held my hands spread in front of me in a won’t-that-work? gesture.

  Sonny shrugged. “It could be. By the way, Larry Bartles sent you his best. He also said to keep your eye out for Catlett. Larry now thinks there may be more there than just stress. And it could be violent.”

  “Swell. Did Larry have any specific information?”

  “Apparently not. He didn’t elucidate.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Any time.”

  “You two are not funny,” Cindy snapped. “Is Alex in danger or not?”

  “Oh, I doubt it,” I said. “The entire family
has been strange from the start. I mean, who wants to be a forensic geologist—playing with bones a thousand years old? And why would the wimpy little kid want to place himself in with a bunch of Marines who would have him for lunch and spit out the seeds? Why would Reed and Merrilou send Grandma out to get someone she knew as a nine-year-old kid to investigate Zoe’s disappearance? And Zoe herself sounds a bit wacky. I think they all just need a good psychiatrist.”

  “Sounds like the all-American family to me,” Sonny stated and left.

  Chapter 14

  Thursday Sonny stopped by to update me on Charlie and Zoe. What update? No news was not good news.

  He had asked me to stop by his office this morning and let him swear me in as a deputy. He wanted the Tellman sisters to be interviewed as soon as possible and thought I might have more rapport with them than Jeanine or Mitch or even Sonny himself.

  When I asked why, he said that A. I was female, as was Jeanine, but B. I was interested in art—an artist myself of sorts, and C. I could, if I tried hard, be more subtle than his other detectives. There was no point in antagonizing the women at this stage. After all, they had been miles away when the murder happened. It was a matter of what or whom they might know or suspect. But he did want me to be able to say I represented the police, not that I was simply Lieutenant Peres’s curious sister.

  It was quickly done, right hand raised, brief oath repeated, badge in its carry case slipped into my pocket. We had both done this before. And I was soon out and on my official way.

  I realized it was a bit early to call on the Misses Tellman, so I swung by Mom’s to see how she was faring after her happy-turned-sad homecoming. As I pulled into the driveway, I had a great view of two jean-clad bottoms in the air. Mom and Aunt Mae were catching up on the weeding. They seemed quite content to take a break, so Mom and I sat on the wall, while Aunt Mae pulled up a lawn chair.

  “Where are you going at nine a.m., dressed so nicely and wearing makeup? Surely you didn’t go to all that trouble just to avoid pulling a few weeds.” Aunt Mae grinned. Then she turned serious. “I hope to heaven no one else has died.”

  “So do I. As it is, I am on my way to interview the ladies Tellman about this mess, and I thought perhaps I should forego the jeans and sweatshirt. I wouldn’t want to upset the butler.”

  Mom laughed and brushed an errant strand of hair off her cheek. “Betsy and Jan Tellman may be aristocratic and just a teeny bit artsy, but they are basically quite nice and down-to-earth, and there hasn’t been a butler since their father finally passed to the other side.”

  “I’m surprised the other side didn’t pass him right back.” Aunt Mae chuckled. “He was one miserable character. Forever doing ‘the right thing,’ but talking about it so endlessly and egotistically, it was much worse than if he had done the wrong thing and had to keep it a secret.”

  I smiled at Aunt Mae’s gentle character assassination, and then noted that my mother was looking thoughtfully into space.

  “You still with us, Mom?”

  “Hmm? Oh, yes, I was just thinking. I’ve always assumed that Jan and Betsy were lovers.”

  “Mom.” I leaned around to look at her and waved my hand in front of her face. “Hello, this is Earth calling. The Tellman sisters are . . . are . . . sisters,” I finished lamely.

  Aunt Mae shook an admonitory finger. “Legally, yes. Physically, no. If they were a man and a woman, they could marry with no comments about consanguinity at all, and not worry about their children having no chins. They are actually very distant cousins.”

  “My God, are you sure? How did they get to be sisters?”

  “Not complicated, really. Mr. and Mrs. Tellman had two daughters, Betsy and another girl several years younger, named Margo. One year their cousin Jan, who was about Betsy’s age, came to stay with them for the school year. Jan’s parents were going to the Philippines as missionaries, and they thought it better to leave their daughter in the States. They were concerned about the volatile political situation and various tropical diseases, as well as available schooling. So the Tellmans volunteered to keep Jan with them.”

  “Because it was ‘the right thing?’” I teased.

  Mother gave me a dirty look and Aunt Mae went blithely on. “Most probably. At any rate, her parents were both killed in some accident over there. Was it a plane crash, Jeanne?”

  “No.” My mother shook her head. “I think it was one of those crowded inter-island ferries that are forever going down in the slightest bad weather. Whatever it was, poor Jan was suddenly an orphan. And the Tellmans adopted her.”

  “Because it was the right thing,” Aunt Mae and I chorused.

  “If you both insist.” Mom shrugged and smiled dryly. “But when you look at the Tellman family, I sometimes wonder if they didn’t inspire that comment: no good deed goes unpunished.”

  “Why do you say that?” I wiggled into a new position. The wall was getting hard.

  “A few years later the three girls were out horseback riding. Margo especially loved horses, and Betsy liked them, too, but Jan wasn’t very good at riding. Her mount shied at a piece of blowing paper or something and threw her. For one thing, Jan was a lightweight. For another, the saddle may not have been properly maintained. Whatever the problem was, the emergency stirrup release didn’t work. The horse panicked and ran away, dragging Jan by the leg.”

  “My God.” I could picture the accident in my mind, and it was a horror.

  “Margo was the youngest, but she was very brave and quick-witted and an excellent horsewoman,” Aunt Mae put in. “She managed to catch up with Jan’s horse, somehow reached over and got the reins and managed to stop him. Even so, Jan’s leg and hip were appallingly damaged.”

  “I can imagine,” I said. “She’s lucky to be walking . . . even to be alive. Her adoptive parents must have been shattered. First the poor kid loses her family, then she almost dies herself.”

  “Her mother was heartbroken.” My mother nodded. “Her father managed to be quite stoic as I recall. Of course, it was only right that he send her to some famous hospital that specialized in that type of rehabilitation. For months, they were afraid she would lose the leg, but they managed to save it, and as you know, she now has only a slight limp.”

  “Again, she’s lucky.” I lit a cigarette and Aunt Mae frowned. “You’d think Jan would have fallen for the brave Margo, not Betsy,” I mused.

  “Margo was considerably younger.” Mom stood and propped her foot on the wall. “Jan and Betsy were about the same age. And of course, before too long, Margo had her own troubles.”

  “Yes.” Aunt Mae crossed her legs comfortably. “A year or so later, Margo had the difficult job of telling her parents she was pregnant . . . with no potential husband in sight. And single mothers were not so casually looked upon in those days.”

  “How did you know? About the pregnancy, I mean.” I asked, startled. “Were you two pals?”

  “No, not really close. I had just married your Uncle Frank, and he was then a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. Margo came to me, hoping I might be able quietly to get some drug through Frank that would cause a miscarriage. I didn’t even know if the company made such a drug, but I knew darn well Frank wouldn’t hand any out without medical supervision. It could have been dangerous to Margo—and to Frank—if anyone found out he was suddenly in the abortion business.”

  I had to laugh. “This sounds like a serial on the women’s cable channel.”

  “It wasn’t funny,” my aunt snapped. “Margo’s mother was adamant against abortion. Her father wouldn’t consider letting her keep the baby, and Margo would not agree to give it up. She finally told them who the guilty man was. I don’t know what kind of pressure the old man used, but shortly, there was a quiet wedding, and about six months later Dana Portman was born.”

  “Dana. So Dana is Betsy’s and sort of Jan’s niece.”

  “Yes, and they’ve been great to her. Old man Tellman disowned Margo and Dana, although I don
’t see how he reconciled blaming a baby for anything. Dan later divorced Margo and got custody of Dana on some trumped up morality charge against Margo.” Aunt Mae yawned. “I’m going to go heat up the coffee. Excuse me for a moment.”

  I was confused and turned to my mother. “I don’t get it. How could Dan Portman divorce Margo on a morals charge when it was him she’d been sleeping with, and Dana was his kid?”

  Mom shook her hands from side to side. “It wasn’t that way. Dan traveled almost constantly on business. Margo’s only real companion day after day was Dana—barely potty trained and speaking about three understandable words. Margo naturally got bored, probably feeling trapped by the baby, even though she loved her. Dan was no fun when he was home. He either worked or slept, according to Margo. She started drinking quite a bit and going to parties with her old gang. At some point Dan came down with the flu and took an early plane home. The nanny told him Margo was at a neighborhood party, and for some reason Dan waited up for her. It was unfortunate, of all the nights he usually went to bed at nine, he picked that one to stay up.”

  Mom shook her head rather sadly. “Margo came in late that night, much the worse for booze, and she had obviously been with a man. She never would tell Dan who it had been, because she didn’t want to hurt the man’s wife. She told a friend it was the only time she had slept with Reed, and it only happened because he got her drunk and more or less date raped her.”

  “Reed Catlett,” I said flatly. “Here we are with all the same people involved in some sort of disgraceful tangle again. And how do you know all this?” I gave her a raised eyebrow look.

  She looked at me for a long moment. Finally, she answered. “Your aunt. Don’t let her bifocals and apple pie fool you. When she and Frank were first married, they traveled at a pretty high speed.”