Crowned and Moldering

“Home? Oh, I’m so glad. I thought the police might . . . Well. I’m glad she’s home.”

“You thought they might arrest her for attacking that blackmailing scumball?” He touched my arm. “I’m sorry for that. Pardon my language. It’s not very charitable of me. But no, she’s not being arrested. The police believe she hit him in self-defense. And fortunately Hogarth is still alive, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

I’d never heard him utter a harsh word before, so I knew he had to be upset. “If she needs a character reference, I’ll be happy to talk to Chief Jensen.” I gave a slight shrug. “Not that I’m anyone special, but every little bit helps.”

“That’s not true. You’re very special, Sha

“Okay.” I gazed out the window again. “Well, I guess I’d better go back to work. Maybe my friend meant to meet me at the parking lot. That’s where I can usually be found most days.” Another fib, but I didn’t feel bad about it.

“I have a free period, so I’ll walk with you.” He pushed open the door and we strolled down the stairs together. The wind had picked up and I zipped my vest closed.

“I was going to stay home with her,” he said, “but Denise told me to go back to work because I was driving her crazy. I think I’m more nervous than she is.”

“I don’t blame you. It must have been terrifying to hear what happened.”

“Yes, that’s the perfect word for it.” He shook his head as if to shake off the bad vibes and gazed around at the beautiful campus. “You’re making excellent progress on the parking lot.”

“It’s coming along pretty well.”

“It’s nice to see Sean Brogan hard at work every day,” he said. “He always says hello.”

“He’s a great team player,” I said, pushing my windswept hair off my face. “I’m lucky to have him on my crew.”

“The Brogan children overcame a lot of obstacles,” he murmured. “Their father was a real brute.”

“Did you ever have to deal with him?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” he said, his eyes narrowed in thought. “I had a few run-ins with Hugh Brogan. The man was a true bully. He considered his children his property, his chattel, really. He refused to take advice from anyone else.”

“You tried to talk to him?”

“Yes, about Lily.” His jaw tightened. “It didn’t go well.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Me, too.” He stared across the greenbelt and I wondered if he was looking into the past. “I just . . . I just wish Lily had been given the chance to get that scholarship and go to college as she’d always dreamed of doing.”

“I wish she had, too. She was so smart and talented, she could’ve done anything she wanted with her life.”

“True.” Mr. Jones checked his wristwatch and sighed. “I’d better get back to the classroom.”

“Thank you for walking with me. Please let Denise know that my thoughts are with her.”

“I will.” He smiled. “Thank you, Sha

*   *   *

I came home from work a grungy mess, covered with dirt from head to toe. I jumped into the shower to wash my hair and scrub myself clean, and when I’d dried myself off and put on fresh clothes, I felt so much better. I was filling the animals’ bowls with water and wondering what to do about di

“Hello, Sha

“Me? I don’t think so.”

He took a step closer and said, “Something about a conversation you had with Cliff Hogarth?”

Understanding dawned. “Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.”

I held up both hands in a sign of capitulation. “I can explain.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Okay, look. My crew guy Douglas had just told me that Cliff had offered him a bunch of money to leave me and go work with him. And I freaked out. That was the last straw. I was going to read Cliff the riot act, so I tracked him down to the I

“An eyewitness says you threatened him.”

“Maybe a little.”

Eric shook his head. “So where’d you go after that?”

“I, um, drove out to the Gardens and talked to Denise.” I frowned. “Why? We just talked. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I didn’t say you did. I just have another question or two.” He glanced over my shoulder at the front door. “May I come in for a minute?”

“Oh, sure.” I held the door open until he was inside, then shut it securely. “Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thanks.”

I gestured toward the two chairs by the bay window. “Have a seat. How can I help?”

He took off his jacket and tossed it on the couch before sitting down, then pulled a small notepad from his pocket and opened it. “I wanted to know if Denise Jones said anything to you yesterday that made you think she might have a grudge against Cliff Hogarth.”

“A grudge? But you can’t think she actually pla

“We only have her word that it happened that way.”

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to remember our conversation, then looked over at him. “I won’t pretend we didn’t talk about Cliff, because I drove straight from my confrontation with him to the Gardens, where I ran into Denise.”

“Why did you go to see her?”

“I didn’t. I just went to stroll around the Gardens. It’s pretty and peaceful out there, and I go sometimes when I need to think or unwind. And I needed to do both yesterday.”

“So you walked around for a little while and then you ran into Denise?”

“That’s right. I wasn’t going to say a word about Cliff, but we got to talking and I ended up telling her what had happened. She basically admitted that Cliff was always a troublemaker, even back in high school. He was always pushing people’s buttons.”

“Guess he pushed a few of yours.”

“You could say that. Denise agrees with me that Cliff’s timing is interesting. Why did he suddenly move back to town barely two months before we discovered Lily’s body?”

“Did she think the two events were co

“She did. And I’ve been thinking about this. Cliff was in real estate. He could’ve heard that the lighthouse mansion had been sold and that someone would be moving in soon. He knew Lily’s body would be discovered and he decided he’d better be nearby when it happened.”

“Did Denise say that?”

“No. I’m saying it now to you. It’s just something to think about.” I glanced at him. “Also, just so you know, all the time I was talking to Denise, I was thinking I’d have to call and tell you everything she said.”

He was scribbling rapidly. “But you didn’t.”

“You didn’t give me a chance.” He shot me one of his looks, and I quickly added, “It’s only been a day since I was out there talking to her. So much has happened since then, I’ve lost track.”

As he wrote something down, I added, “Did Denise tell you we talked?”

“She mentioned it.”

“So you were hoping I’d corroborate her story.”

I got another of his looks.

“One thing you should know,” I continued, “is that I was the one ranting about Cliff, not Denise. She was the one who calmed me down and changed the subject. She didn’t want to feed my anger, as she put it. So we talked about cooking. And rats. Nothing that would interest you.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You talked about rats?”

“Mm-hmm.” I smiled. “We talked about Dismal Dain and how he used to take care of Mr. Jones’s biology-class rats during school vacations. Just one more disturbing aspect of Mr. Dain’s odd personality.”

*   *   *

A little while later, after Eric left, Callie went to the library with her girlfriends—and, yes, they were actually going to the library to study, she insisted. Mac and I stayed home and grilled steaks. We had potatoes baking in the oven, and while I prepared a salad, we talked more about Aldous Murch and his tale of the housemaid who was assaulted.