“Shouldn’t let her in the house with Benjamin until she’s been checked over,” Mary said. “She could have picked up something, ‘specially if she’s been loose a while.”
“We can’t just leave her out here,” Carol objected. “I don’t want her to run away again. Did you see how scared she was of the car? Probably’s had some narrow escapes.”
Charlie provided a solution to the dilemma by coming up with a dog collar and a leash from his vehicle. “All part of the emergency equipment I carry,” he explained, securing the Westie to the driver’s door handle. “She should be okay here.” As if bewildered at being tied up and left, the dog sat looking anxiously at the group. With her pert, triangular ears standing up and her dark eyes going from face to face, she lay down and rested her little black nose on her paws.
“We won’t be long.” Charlie said to the dog before he turned to the women. “Shall we have that cup of coffee?”
When they were finally seated around the kitchen table with drinks in front of them, Mary was the first to speak. Narrowing her eyes at the detective, she said, “So, who is he?”
He returned her gaze and laughed. “I’m surprised you haven’t already found out, Mary.”
She made a face of mock frustration. “My sources haven’t called me back yet.”
“Would you two please stop teasing each other? Charlie, tell us what you know,” Edna’s desire to learn the man’s identity had put a bite into her tone.
“Guy’s name is William Kailey,” Charlie said, turning his gaze to her.
Mary had been going to take a sip of her coffee, but stopped with the cup halfway to her lips. She stared at the detective for several seconds, as if absorbing the news. Then, as if a spell had been broken, she set her cup back on the table and said, “You don’t mean Billy Rob Kailey, do you?”
“Could be. The name I have is William Robinson Kailey. Do you know him?” Charlie raised his eyebrows at Mary, but Edna knew he wouldn’t be surprised. Mary seemed to know everyone in and around the community.
“Knew of him.”
“And?” Charlie prompted.
Mary shook her head. “Can’t be him. Billy Rob died ten years ago.”
Chapter 7
“Obviously, it’s not the same person,” Edna said. “The man I saw hadn’t been dead for ten years.” She knew the statement was ridiculous, but so was the idea that a man could die twice. “Is this a case of William Kailey, Junior?” she wondered aloud.
“Might be,” Charlie speculated, pulling a small notepad and pencil from his breast pocket.
Mary shook her head. “The Billy Rob I’m talking about’s father was killed in the Korean War and his son can’t be more than twenty-one or so. Daughter must be eighteen by now.”
“How do you know so much about this guy? Who was he?” Charlie asked.
Edna wondered the same thing, but had decided not to voice the thought since Mary had a wealth of knowledge stored in her memory bank about the townsfolk, partly from having lived in South County her entire 56 years. Once Charlie asked, though, Edna focused on Mary’s answer when the lanky redhead spoke.
“Went to school with his older sister.” Mary shrugged as if her knowing about the family was no big deal and the single fact about being classmates was all the answer necessary.
“She live around here?” Charlie looked as if he were about to add her address to his book, but Mary shook her head.
“She married and moved away years ago.” Then probably realizing Charlie’s silent stare meant he wanted more of an explanation, she added, “We swap Christmas letters. Hers are always full of family news.” Mary shrugged again and looked into her coffee cup. “I keep in touch with people,” she said as if defending her actions.
“Could there be two men with the same name?” Carol said, seeming anxious to get on with the story at hand.
“Doubtful,” Charlie speculated, shifting his gaze to Carol.
“What about the man who died ten years ago,” Edna said to Mary. “Can you tell us some more about him? How old was he? How’d he die?”
“Billy Rob,” Mary said, nodding. “He was probably forty at the time.”
“The medical examiner figures our recent victim to be about fifty, so they’d’ve been about the same age,” Charlie said.
“Hmmm.” Mary glanced thoughtfully at the detective and raised her eyebrows as if absorbing the information before turning back to Edna. “Remember I told you about Pieter Resnik testifying in court?”
Edna frowned as the vague memory tugged at the back of her mind.
“He testified the day before the hit-and-run that killed his wife and crippled him,” Mary prompted.
“Oh, yes,” Edna said, light dawning as the image of Resnik leaning heavily on his cane filled her head. “I remember.”
“Tell me,” Carol urged. She’d gotten up to fetch the coffee pot to refill mugs and had just resumed her seat. “What’s this trial and the accident you’re talking about?”
“Doctor Resnik,” Mary said, sitting back in her chair to watch Carol’s face from across the table. “He’s the periodontist who fixed Edna’s tooth yesterday morning.”
“And what about him?” Carol wrinkled her brow, looking more confused than enlightened. “What’s he got to do with the dead body?”
Mary sighed deeply. “It’s what I’m trying to tell you. He testified in court, at a trial.”
“Whose trial?” Edna felt more confused herself.
Charlie held up his pencil. “Okay. Look. I suggest we let Mary tell her story without interruption.” He shifted in his seat to face the redhead sitting beside him. “I’m also going to ask that you refer to your ten-year-old corpse as ‘Billy Rob’ and we’ll call our current-day body ‘William.’ That okay with you?”
Mary nodded and then grinned. “And I’ll call Doctor Resnik ‘Pieter.’ Okay?”
Everyone laughed at that, agreed in unison, and visibly relaxed.
“I have a suggestion, too,” Edna said, rising from her chair. “If we can hold these thoughts for a few minutes, I’d like to make a pot of tea. I’ve had enough coffee, and I think I can also find a few muffins to help take the caffeine edge off.”
“Sounds good to me,” Charlie said, dropping his pad and pencil on the table. “While you do that, I’m going outside to check on your little pal.”
“Edna, can I grab some paper and a pen from your office?” Carol said, jumping up as the detective left the kitchen. “I’d like to take some notes. It sounds like there’s a story worth investigating here.”
“Sure thing,” Edna said, reaching for the tea canister. “Take some paper out of the printer tray. Pens are in a cup on the desk.”
While Carol hurried across the hall to Edna’s office, Mary helped Edna prepare refreshments. Charlie returned to report that the terrier seemed to be content, and soon everyone was back around a table ladened with tea cups, two tea pots, a napkin-wrapped bread basket of warm blueberry muffins and a plate of raisin-oatmeal cookies.
Reaching for a cookie with one hand and his pencil with the other, Charlie flipped open his pocket notepad with a finger. “Okay, Mary, let’s hear what you know about our first Kailey corpse.”
“Billy Rob,” Mary reminded him. She poured herself a cup of tea as she cleared her throat, ready to begin. She was obviously enjoying the attention.
“Ten years ago,” she began, “a body was found in Salt Pond, washed up near Upper Pond Road. Couple o’ fishermen, out early, discovered it. The guy’d been in the water a while. Not much left for identification purposes.” She looked across the table at Edna. “I’ll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say, because of the amount of time he’d been in the water and the extent of broken bones, scrapes and scratches, the body was unrecognizable. Fingerprinting was impossible, too.”
“Had he been killed?” Carol asked, pen poised over a large sheet of paper she’d folded in half.
“No interruptions,” Charlie reminded. He sm
iled at Carol to assure her his comment was only a friendly reminder.
“Right. Sorry,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “My investigative self takes over sometimes.”
“Go on, Mary,” Edna prompted. She was fascinated by the story and also wanted to know the answer to Carol’s question, since she wondered the same thing.
“Medical examiner couldn’t tell the exact cause of death,” Mary said. “Autopsy didn’t come up with anything definite, mostly because of the condition of the body. Best they could figure was the guy’d been severely beaten about the same time he drowned.”
“So identification was based on dental records, and Doctor Resnik was the expert who provided the information?” Edna guessed.
“That’s right,” Mary said.
“What was this trial you mentioned?” Edna wanted to know.
“I was getting to that,” Mary said, trying everyone’s patience by selecting a muffin before she began to speak again. “Things happened first that were important to what brought about a trial. Billy Rob’s wife reported him missing about the time the body was found. Then an investigation into Billy Rob’s disappearance uncovered the fact that his company’s bank accounts had been closed and all liquid assets vanished. Lotta townsfolk lost a bunch of money, so by the time the police got around to questioning Billy Rob’s business partner, seems everyone wanted blood. When Pieter came forward with dental records to prove the dead man was Billy Rob, people were looking for someone to punish. Even though the money was never found and the cause of death never determined, Billy Rob’s partner George Baxter was arrested and tried for murder and embezzlement. He denied everything, but the jury found him guilty and sent him to prison.”
“Sounds like you were at the trial.” Carol suddenly pressed her lips tightly together and slid her eyes toward the detective, obviously expecting a reprimand.
Charlie, busy jotting information in his notebook, seemed not to have noticed.
“Along with everyone else,” Mary answered after a few seconds when Charlie didn’t lift his head or object. “Baxter’s conviction was all anyone talked about for months. That and speculation over where he might have hidden the company assets.”
Having gotten away with one question, Carol ventured another. “And that’s where this Doctor Resnik comes in,” she stated rather than asked as she scribbled the name on her paper.
“Pieter,” Mary confirmed, rolling her eyes at Charlie and chuckling when he swatted her arm with his pad. He finally seemed to be paying attention.
“Children, children,” Edna scolded good-naturedly. Wanting to know how relevant the old case was to the body she had found less than two days ago, she turned to Charlie. “What about William then? You can check his teeth, obviously, but what would that tell you? It would be awfully peculiar if his dental records were identical to those of someone who died ten years ago.”
Charlie briefly studied his notes before securing the pen above his ear as he glanced over at Edna. “Good question. I think my next stop will be the office of Doctor Pieter Resnik. Maybe he can provide the answer.”
“Another puzzling thing about the case,” Mary said, putting a restraining hand on Charlie’s arm as he rose from his chair, “besides the missing money, is why wasn’t Billy Rob found sooner. The investigating officers couldn’t figure out how the body got so destroyed unless it’d been tossed about in the sea. That being the case, how did it get all the way to Salt Pond? At the time, a series of squalls were followed by a strong nor’easter that rocked the coast. That storm alone did considerable damage over the three days it lasted. Even so, there are narrows and all sorts of places a body can get hung up before washing up as far as Upper Pond Road.”
“The partner never confessed?” Carol asked, seeming to be more intrigued with the old case.
“Nope. Far’s I know, to this day, he’s never admitted to either murder or embezzlement. Claimed Billy Rob had to have stolen the money.”
Carol’s face was flushed with excitement when she turned to Charlie. “I hope you won’t object to my snooping into this old mystery or talking to the partner.”
Charlie shook his head and was about to speak when the sound of frantic barking pulled him toward the hall.
“There’s your first investigation,” Edna said to the young reporter, getting up and following Charlie out of the room. “You need to find your dog’s owner,” she called over her shoulder.
When she stepped outside, Edna saw a woman standing by the hood of Charlie’s car. Dressed in a camel coat and high black boots, she had dark, shoulder-length hair that was lightly streaked with gray. She’d parked her black Audi “nose to nose” with the police vehicle and had moved between the automobiles to reach the house, which had apparently upset the terrier. The stranger was flapping a large brown envelope at the little creature, adding to the canine’s frenzy.
Charlie stepped between the two adversaries, taking hold of the woman’s wrist as he did so. “Calm down,” he ordered above the din.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pulling the envelope into her chest and securing it with both forearms. She peered around Charlie as if to make certain the mutt wasn’t coming for her.
Having settled the woman, Charlie stooped to quiet the dog.
“May I help you with something?” Curious, Edna approached the new arrival, but before she could say more, Mary’s voice sounded from behind her.
“Hey, Vera. What’s up?”
“Hi, Mary.” The woman frowned as if confused. “What are you doing here?”
“Can ask you the same,” was the reply as Mary stopped beside Edna. “Not working today?”
“On my way,” the woman said, returning Mary’s pleasant greeting. “I thought I’d drop this off for Miz Davies, since it wasn’t very far out of my way.” She unfolded her arms and held up the envelope. As she did so, she glanced furtively at the small dog who was now being petted by Charlie and fussed over by Carol. “I don’t like dogs,” she sidled closer to Mary as if to use her as a shield, in case the tiny pooch should attack. “I’ve been afraid of them ever since I was bitten as a child.”
Ignoring the remark, Mary put a hand on the woman’s shoulder and turned to Edna. “Do you know Vera Baxter?”
Edna reached to shake the calf-skin-clad hand that Vera extended. “Vera Baxter?” she repeated, wondering why the name sounded familiar.
“I’m Doctor Resnik’s assistant,” she said, giving Edna’s hand a quick, firm shake.
Seemingly distracted by the terrier, the woman said nothing further, so Edna prompted. “And you’ve brought me something?”
“Oh, yes.” Vera extended the packet. “Doctor Resnik forgot to have you fill out this paperwork. If you could just …” She waited a breath while Edna accepted the envelope. “… mail it to the office as soon as possible. I’ll contact your insurance company once I have the information.”
Edna noted the address of the dental office had been hand-written on it. “I would have been glad to drop by the office, if you’d phoned,” she said, curious as to the personal attention she’d received before dismissing the gesture as typical of small-town residents.
“Hate to interrupt, but I’ve got to go,” Charlie cut in as he rose from his haunches and came toward the women. “Did I hear you say you work with Pieter Resnik?” At the woman’s nod, he introduced himself and followed with, “Actually, I’m on my way to see the doctor. Will he be in the office this early?”
Vera shook her head. “Not today. Actually, he’ll be away for the next few days.”
“Away?” Charlie repeated with a frown. “Conference? Vacation?”
“No. Neither, really,” Vera said, hesitating as if she didn’t like revealing her employer’s plans.
“Well, wherever he is, I need to speak with him,” Charlie insisted.
Again seeming to delay in answering, Vera said, “Perhaps if you could give me your card, I can call you after I get to the office and have a chance to check his appointment
book.”
“Why don’t I follow you and we can look at it together,” Charlie replied, clearly not pleased at being put off.
Edna guessed that Charlie was thinking the same thing as she. If Vera Baxter was half as competent as she appeared, she would know exactly what Pieter Resnik’s calendar would show and precisely how to contact him.
“What’ll we do with the little miss?” Striding to remove the leash that had tied the terrier to Charlie’s car door handle, Mary broke the silence that had settled over the others as Charlie and Vera faced off.
Her motion and the question served to break up the group. Getting to her feet, Carol reached for the lead, promising to return Charlie’s property once she’d found the dog’s owner. She and Mary then headed across the lawn to the Osbourne property with the Westie happily prancing between them. Charlie and Vera drove off in opposite directions around the circular driveway. At the foot, Charlie waited for Vera’s car to move onto the road before following her toward town.
Once her guests were gone, Edna went into the house and placed the brown envelope on her desk. “This can wait until the kitchen’s been cleaned,” she said to Benjamin. The cat had jumped expectantly onto the guest chair, ready to settle down for his morning nap while his mistress spent some time on the computer. Stopping to rub his ears for a second, Edna stared at the envelope as she made up her mind to return it personally. All she had to do was find out when Pieter Resnik would be back in his office. His participation in the drama ten years ago piqued her interest. The patient information form gave her a good excuse to meet up with him again.
Chapter 8
While Edna cleaned her kitchen from the morning’s impromptu meeting, the image of her two neighbors walking on either side of a tail-wagging puppy occupied her mind and made her smile. She wondered if she, Mary and Carol would be such good friends if it hadn’t been for a couple of escapades that had drawn them together. Anyone would think the differences in their ages and backgrounds would create barriers.