Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) (23 page)

I looked out onto our backyard and beyond. It was pitch black out there and I felt certain this was when the killer came, under the cover of darkness with a trash bag filled with poison ivy. Coming during the day was too risky. They probably walked into the Kravec’s yard from the woods, emptied the bag, tossed some leaves on top and were gone in a few minutes.

What about Nena Connick? Did the killer sneak into her home while she was sleeping? Did she invite them in? Or had she had a few glasses of wine too many and passed out on the sofa. Was it even the same person who had also killed Maria Kravec? There were too many coincidences for it not to be.

Behind me, Henry stirred and I softly made my way back to my bed and for some reason I felt confident I would soon know who killed both women.

*****

“Auntie,” Henry began a few hours later, “if you get a dog like Riley then when I come over I could play with him and maybe I could bring Riley and they could be friends.”

I placed a piece of toast with strawberry jam in front of Henry and thought about this. “But who would take care of him while Uncle John and I were at work? Dogs like Riley need a lot of attention.”

“But I could come over after school and play with him.”

I slathered a piece of toast with butter and took a bite. “True. But then when would you do your homework, practice your piano, go to soccer, do your chores, and play with Scopes?”

“I have a busy life,” Henry said with surprise. “I guess I’ll just play with Riley for now and when Scopes goes to the afterlife, Mom can get me a dog then.”

“Sounds like a plan. Do you want some more hot chocolate?”

Henry nodded and I made him another cup and gave him another scoop of oatmeal.

With breakfast done, Henry helped me clean up the kitchen and then we folded some clothes I had left in the dryer yesterday.

“Okay. Get your things. I want to stop off somewhere first before we go to the park.”

I put all Henry’s stuff in the car and then made sure he was strapped in. I drove around the block until I came to an area where there was a path leading into the woods and looked around. The houses were spaced pretty far from each other and at the end of the road there was an area with a lot of trees where someone could park, especially at night, and not be seen.

“Come on, Henry, let’s go for a walk but pull these on first.” I gave Henry a pair of sweat pants. I kept a set of play clothes for him at my house and I grabbed the sweats before we left. I didn’t want either one of us getting poison ivy and Henry only had his soccer shorts on.

We walked for a while along a path worn by years of people hiking through here. Once we got into the woods it was very quiet and, I would imagine, very dark at night. We still couldn’t see any of the houses on my street yet. I had forgotten how deep the woods were. We continued our journey with Henry stopping now and then to pick something up that looked interesting. I spied him slipping a couple of rocks into his pants pocket. The kid loved rocks.

“Auntie, look! It’s your house. We walked all the way back to your house.”

Further on was a small clearing where you could get into the Kravec yard. From this position none of the other houses could see. This must have been the place the killer came into the yard. It gave me chills thinking that someone was out here while I slept, padding the pile of leaves with poison.

I started looking on the ground. Maybe the killer dropped something that would give me a clue to their identity. Of course, the police had probably scoured this area already and indeed it did look a bit trampled.

“Okay, I guess we better get back to the car or we’ll be late,” I said.

Henry turned and started making his way back. I stood there looking at the Kravec house. Since John had told me Nena Connick had been killed, I avoided thinking about Ellery’s outburst and how she said she wouldn’t be responsible for her actions. I didn’t want to think that sweet, young Ellery could kill someone because I felt certain both murders had been committed by the same person and that would mean Ellery killed her own mother. But as I stood here the reality of the situation hit me. Who knew Sergei was gone? Who knew for certain Maria liked burning leaves; had maybe even known Maria would be out here on that exact night? And who always had access to the house and yard and could come and go as she pleased with no one the wiser? There was only one answer and it made me physically sick to think about it and something else—angry. I had been played. Ellery Kravec sent me on a wild goose chase feeding me information slowly and all for one reason—to keep me from discovering that she had killed her mother.

“Thanks for giving me a ride,” Meme said as we drove along the Post Road headed for our favorite store,
Target
. “Theresa’s at her daughter’s for dinner and Francis’ car is in the shop.”

“No problem. I can always find something I need at
Target
,” I said, which was unfortunately true. I spent a lot of money at that store.

“That was a good game. Those kids got lots of energy. I don’t remember having all that energy when I was a kid,” Meme laughed.

Henry’s team had won with him successfully blocking the last ball from making its way to a winning point for the other team.

I pulled into a packed parking lot and found a spot not too far from the entrance. “Do you want to tell me what you need and I can go in and get it for you,” I said to my grandmother.

“Half the fun is looking around at stuff. Just get me a cart to lean on and I’ll be okay.”

I got Meme a cart and off we went. Meme was right. It was fun looking. Most of the time I came in for two things and after looking at all the good stuff would leave with at least ten items.

“What’s bothering you? You were quiet all through the game,” my Grandmother asked. “You and John get into a fight over this murder?”

“No, nothing like that,” I said as I tossed a bag of white cotton socks into the cart. “It’s Ellery. The daughter. I think she must have killed both women.”

Meme pushed the cart into the pajama section and I helped her try on a couple of robes. “Why would she kill her own mother? You gotta have a lot of hate in you to do something like that. Does she have a lot of hate toward her mother?”

I thought about this for a moment. Maria Kravec was over protective and obsessive about her only child to be sure, but did it turn the kid into a killer? I didn’t think so. I shook my head at Meme. “No, not especially. No more than the usual mother-daughter angst.”

“And I bet you think the same person killed both ladies.”

“I do. The trouble is I could see Ellery killing the girlfriend but not the mother.”

“And the only reason you think she killed the lady with the big hair is because she got all mad at her and said some threatening things.”

“Right.” I helped Meme take off a too-tight robe she had pulled on over her dress and grabbed a bigger size.

“That’s nothing. You and Sam used to say mean stuff to each other all the time. People say stuff in anger, that’s all. Mable and I got into it a few times and you and your mother sure had it out too.”

“So you’re telling me it’s not the daughter?”

“No. I’m just saying if it is then you’re going to need more proof.”

I leaned against one of the large support structures with a price scanner attached to it and banged my head a couple of times as several people looked at me and then turned quickly away.

“But if it isn’t Ellery then who would kill both women? None of the other suspects knew Nena Connick.”

“That you know of,” Meme said. “And you’re forgetting there is a person who knew both women. Intimately.”

I sighed. “Sergei. Oh my gosh. What if it was him all along? What if he set everything up? The trip to the butcher convention in Boston so he would have an alibi. Having his daughter hire me to help throw suspicion off of him. And I only have his word for it that he took the poison ivy he pulled up to the shop and tossed it out there. Maybe he was storing it there in the freezer or something along side all the meat and then put it under the poison ivy right before he left for Boston. Geesh, Meme, was it him all this time and once Nena started bugging him about a divorce and wanting to get married he killed her too?”

“See? Your old grandmother can teach you a thing or two once in a while.”

“
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught
,” I quoted.

“Winston Churchill or that deli guy?” Meme asked with a laugh.

We made our way over to the pharmacy area after picking up a couple more things Meme needed and a couple I didn’t. There was a bench off to the side and we sat down. Meme could only walk so long, cart or no cart.

“Maybe Nena killed the wife and then the husband found out and killed the girlfriend? Have you thought of that?’

I gave my grandmother a sideways glance. “No. Thanks. Just what I need, one more theory.” We sat there in silence watching the shoppers walk by. “You know for the last couple of days I’ve been feeling like there’s something I’m missing. Like I saw something and just didn’t realize its significance at the time.”

“Like a clue?’

“I’m not sure. Just like I saw something and it hasn’t quite registered yet. I don’t know. I’m tired. I’ve been running around for the last two weeks, plus trying to keep up my end of things at the office. John and I need a nice weekend away.”

Meme stood up. “Let’s go pay for our stuff and you can come have dinner with me. I got some homemade vegetable soup and a loaf of that crusty bread you like.”

We followed the crowd to the checkout stand, paid for our stuff and walked back to the car and the entire time I tried as hard as I could to figure out what it was that I wasn’t seeing.

By time I got in to work the next morning I still couldn’t remember the thing, whatever it was, that I felt certain was a clue and would break the case wide open. I planned on working for a few hours, if I could concentrate, and then I wanted to talk with Maria’s brother again. He was the only one I could think of besides Sergei and Ellery who might have known about Nena Connick. Maybe his sister told him Sergei was having another affair and being a good brother wanted to help his sister out. But he wasn’t a good brother and why would he kill the girlfriend after his sister was dead? Nothing made any sense. I could still see George as the killer of Maria but not Nena. So what now?

The phone on my desk rang scaring the heck out of me.

“Good morning, this is Alex.”

“Alex, hi. Shelley Regal from Patterson Engineering.”

“Hi, Shelley. What can I do for you this morning?”

“I looked over those two resumes you emailed over last week.”

For a moment I had no idea what she was talking about and then I remembered the student resumes Deanna Moffet had brought over. “Oh, right. Thank you for taking the time.”

“No, thank
you
,” Shelley said. “We have a new project coming up and I didn’t want to recruit any permanent staff until we see if the project will be renewed. But it would still be good to have some extra help on the first phase, so I’d like to talk with the two people who belong to these resumes. Can you set something up for Wednesday at two and three?”

I promised Shelley I would set up the appointments and then I sent Deanna an email. Ten minutes later she emailed back saying everything was set.

I reached for my tea feeling good I had actually accomplished something. Of course, there was no commission in it for Always Prepared but once again we helped a client solve a problem and that was half the battle and what kept us in business. Sam had told me on Saturday that another one of our clients had returned to our books after two months of trying the other place, We’re Just Your Type.

Things seemed to be going well for my business despite my recent lack of participation in the running of the place. If I were a different kind of person, I could take this as a sign I wasn’t needed, but instead I congratulated myself on picking good people who could be trusted to handle every aspect of the business while I was detecting.

I got up and walked to the kitchen for my second cup of tea and found Millie getting an apple.

“All settled?” I asked.

“Just about. I have the kitchen and bathroom sorted out. Now I just have to finish organizing the closet.” Millie started to leave and then turned. “Alex, thanks for the pep talk. I know I made the right decision. I’m just so darned happy! Oh, and thanks for helping with all the boxes.”

A light went on in my head. “Millie! The boxes.”

“What about them?”

“What did you do with them?”

“We broke most of them up and put them outside for recycling pickup today. Why?”

“Darn. I think those boxes might be a clue. Darn!”

“I have a couple in my car. My mom wanted me to drop them off today so she and Gran can pack up some stuff to store in the basement.”

I grabbed Millie and gave her a hug. “Can you go get one and bring it in here?”

A few minutes later Millie brought one of the boxes to my office. Sam and Marla, having heard my yells, had come in to see what was going on and everyone gathered around my desk.

“Okay. I found some emails Maria archived and there was an exchange with Ryan about cheap products that didn’t quite meet Maria’s standards. It seemed to me he was trying to find stuff for the online store at discount prices, mostly stuff coming from China.”

“And she didn’t like that?” Marla asked.

“No. Not at all. He said he would return everything and order from a reputable manufacturer.”

“Okay. So what does this box have to do with anything?” Sam asked.

I sat down trying to gather my thoughts and sort everything out. “Look at the date on this box.” Everyone leaned toward the desk and took a look. “It’s stamped with a date, most probably when it arrived at the office. I’m guessing Nadine logged them all in or maybe even Maria. Yeah, probably Maria because I’m not sure Nadine would take the time. These boxes are the ones Maria wanted sent back. They must be based on the date because it’s from a couple of weeks before she died.”