Organized to Death Page 2

  “So she was alive this morning.”

  “Oh, yes. Very much so. Determined to help me and Rachel clean up that, as she put it, godawful mess. Then Mrs. Morris, their mother, showed up. She was going to help, too.”

  “How did you handle that?” Lisbeth asked.

  “I tried to persuade them to leave, but they wouldn’t. We all went inside, and Rachel protested, but it didn’t do any good.”

  Tina stopped talking and took a sip of coffee. It was cold and she made a face, pushed it aside. She looked away from the two officers, remembering.

  “I began by telling Rachel the best way to clean up clutter using boxes and a trash bag. I went slow, easing her into the idea, telling her that she only had to get rid of what she didn’t need or really love. I told her she could put things she wasn’t sure about in a box to look at later. The idea was to get rid of what she knew she didn’t need or want, and to only keep, well, as I said, what she needed and loved.”

  John stirred in his seat and shrugged his shoulders several times as if to loosen them.

  Lisbeth didn’t even glance at him. “Then what happened?”

  “The other two got impatient. They began telling Rachel to just get on with it, it wasn’t hard, and she needed to toss most of it because it was junk. You can imagine how that made her feel.”

  “Tell us,” Lisbeth said.

  Tina hesitated. “She asked us to leave.”

  “Asked or demanded?”

  “More demanded, but she seemed more depressed than angry.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “We left. But I saw Crystal later at the Ocean’s Coffee Roasters—I’m sure you’ve been there? On Memorial Boulevard?”

  Lisbeth smiled, but John just stared at her. What a pill. He should take one and chill.

  “I was having a Bravo Blend when Crystal and her husband, Charles, walked in.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She actually said I’d been right, that she and her mother shouldn’t have interfered. Both Charles and I were pretty amazed.”

  “Charles is the real estate attorney with offices on Broadway?” Lisbeth asked.

  “Yes. We hoped Rachel would call me back. A while later she did, and I returned to help her. We worked in the bedroom for almost two hours, then we needed to find a place to put the boxes out of the way. The ones for charity would go directly into her trunk, but the ones to keep and to store needed to be somewhere in the house or garage. Rachel suggested the nursery, although she didn’t tell me the room was a nursery. Even the garage, attic, and cellar are crammed full, she said. She showed me the other rooms, then we went to the one… to the nursery.”

  “What did Mrs. Palmer do when she saw her sister?” Lisbeth asked.

  Tina rubbed the worry stone in her blazer pocket, hard. “She screamed and ran to her, knelt down. I rushed over and knelt beside her. Tried to find a pulse. I told Rach Crystal was gone, and she fell onto her, sobbing. She didn’t begin to collect herself until the paramedics left and the two officers came and searched the house. I imagine that took her mind off it for a few minutes, but she pretty much lost it.”

  “You believe her grief was genuine?”

  “Oh, yes. They were close—only a little more than a year apart. Crystal was critical, but she loved Rach, and Rach loved Crystal. They even bought houses next door to each other after Rach married Nicky.”

  “What did you touch in the house?”

  Distracted, Tina hesitated. Tried to remember. “I don’t think I can remember everything. I came in the front door, walked around. I don’t think I touched anything until we got to the master bedroom. Even there, I wouldn’t have touched much.”

  “What about in the nursery?”

  “I checked Crystal’s pulse—both wrist and neck. Do fingerprints show up on skin?”

  “Sometimes.”

  Tina shuddered. “I almost closed the patio door, stopped myself. I used the phone to call nine one one. I can’t remember anything else.”

  “Okay. We need a bit more background on you. You live in Newport? How long have you lived here?”

  “I’ve been back about five months.” Tina gave her address. “I grew up here, went away to college, then set up my psychologist’s practice in Virginia. Five months ago, I left Virginia and my practice and returned home. That’s my mother’s address I gave you.”

  “Why did you give up your practice?”

  “I don’t wish to talk about that,” Tina said stiffly. She let go of the worry stone and took her hand out of her pocket, clasping her hands together on the table. Forced herself to relax. Deep breaths.

  Lisbeth glanced away, then looked back. “All right. Is there anything else you can tell us?”

  “No. I’ve been away a long time.”

  “Okay.” Lisbeth stood up. John put his notebook in his pocket and turned off the tape recorder.

  “Thank you for your cooperation,” Lisbeth said and held out her hand.

  Tina stood and shook it. Even shook John’s on the way out.

  “John will drive you to your car. If you leave the island, please let us know where to reach you in case we have more questions.”

  “All right,” Tina said, happy to get away. Delighted to get away.

  She didn’t see Rachel or Nicky on the way out. “Where did the Palmers go?” she asked John.

  “They said something about going to Mrs. Palmer’s mother’s house. Will probably stay there until they can go back to their own home.”

  “How long with that take?”

  “Awhile. A lot to search.”

  “You’re going to open all those boxes?” Tina stopped walking and stood in the gray-walled hallway, staring up at John.

  “Murder investigation. Yes, we’ll open them all.”

  “You’ll put everything back?” Tina asked, her voice faint.

  “Won’t have time for that,” John said and started walking toward the door again.

  Tina followed slowly. Rachel would need her more than ever. But was Tina herself up to the task of cleaning all that away ? She guessed she’d find out. They rode to the Palmer’s house in silence.

  John pulled up in front, behind Tina’s new yellow VW with moon roof. Except for the crime scene tape and a few extra cars on the street, everything looked the same as it had when Tina had driven up the two other times that day.

  She thanked John for the ride and climbed into her own car, shivering again. Even for late fall, it seemed colder than usual. Maybe that was because she’d been in Virginia so long. She put the heat on blast, turned on the seat warmer, and drove the few blocks back to her house. The house she grew up in. The home she’d come back to. Maybe that had been a mistake.

  CHAPTER 4

  When Tina arrived home, she found Uncle Bob in the kitchen, making cookies. She hid her grimace behind a cheery hello. Uncle Bob was the world’s second worst cook. His niece, Tina’s mother, was the worst. The cookies would either be hard as a rock or dry as dust and crumble to bits in their hands.

  Princess looked up at Tina and wagged her tail from where she sprawled in front of the refrigerator. Since Uncle Bob was home alone, Tina knew the retriever was working, so Tina ignored her. Princess worked at hearing for Uncle Bob what he couldn’t. Without his hearing aids, he heard very little, and with them, he had trouble understanding speech, although he heard some environmental sounds and was an excellent lip reader.

  “You’re home, Kumquat” he said, grabbing his aids from the top of the refrigerator and putting them in his ears—he said it gave new definition to the saying “Stick it in your ear.”

  Uncle Bob was short, balding, trim, and even-featured. Quite pleasant to look at. His hazel eyes regarded Tina with affection, and she realized she’d been holding back her emotions when she looked at him and began to melt.

  “Hey! What’s wrong?” He took her arm, settling her into a chair.

  “We found Crystal, shot, in the nursery.” A feeling of di
sbelief washed over her.

  “Huh? What nursery? I thought you were at Rachel’s house.”

  “Yes. She has a nursery.”

  Uncle Bob sat down. “Oh, that kind of nursery. I thought you meant the garden type. Is she expecting?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Hmm. Is Crystal all right?”

  “What? Oh, no, Uncle Bob, she’s dead.” Saying the words, it didn’t seem so unreal anymore. Tina began to cry.

  “What?”

  “Dead. D-E-A-D,” she managed to get out.

  He shook his head. “I heard you.” His voice was impatient, something he rarely was with her. Usually he wasn’t sensitive about his hearing loss. He could understand pretty well with the two hearing aids in place when they sat at the kitchen table quietly. But it became hard when the topic was important or Tina was excited and didn’t speak clearly enough.

  Her mother came down the back stairs and into the kitchen, looking shocked. “I just heard on the radio that Crystal has been murdered! You were right next door at Rachel’s about the time it happened. I told you this job wasn’t a good idea.”

  Tina groaned inwardly and wiped away her tears, which her mother ignored. “Not quite next door. Rach and I found her in a bedroom in Rach’s house.”

  “What? Omigod.” Laura fell into a chair and put her head in her hands.

  “Don’t you dare say you told me so,” Tina said. “I know you’re happy my first job is over before it really began.”

  Her mother looked up. “How can you say such a thing? Start from the beginning, slowly, please, and tell us what happened.”

  Rubbing the worry stone in her pocket, Tina began. “When I got to Rachel’s, I admit, I was a bit intimidated and appalled. Boxes were stacked everywhere, and what most of us would call junk was on top of the boxes and on tables, chairs, in cabinets, on the floor, and anywhere there might have been a bit of space. The whole house smelled of damp cardboard and staleness. Not that the boxes were wet, but the humidity here in Newport must have made that smell. They only have one window air-conditioner in the bedroom.”

  Uncle Bob frowned and shook his head. Laura fingered her diamond pendant silently.

  “I could see into the living room and dining room and we went to the kitchen, then the master bedroom, an addition off the kitchen. I decided we should start there because Nicky kept his side neat; it wouldn’t take as long as any of the other rooms I’d seen. Then Rachel could feel good about having a clear spot. She could go into that room, admire it, bask in it, lay down on her side of the bed and relax.

  “Sounds reasonable,” Uncle Bob said.

  “I went out to get some boxes and supplies, and Crystal came down the walk and told me she was there to help.”

  Uncle Bob groaned. “Only thing worse could be their mother showing up.”

  “Right. Which she did.”

  Uncle Bob and Tina laughed a little. “Oh, no,” Uncle Bob said.

  Laura sat stone-faced. Tina said directly to her, “I told them to help me carry stuff in.” Laura’s lips twitched. Tina smiled. “And they did.”

  Tina turned to Uncle Bob. “I tried to persuade them that it would be better if they left. You can imagine—they wouldn’t. Rachel looked upset when she saw them. They said they’d cleared their calendars to help her, but she did not look the least bit grateful. Mrs. Morris said we should start in the kitchen, as she put it, the most important room in the house because of hygiene—I hadn’t heard that word since I was in high school. I told them we had already decided to start in the bedroom. Then when I began to explain the art of organization, how to separate things into different boxes and put unwanted stuff in the trash bag I’d brought in, Mrs. Morris interrupted me and said to just get on with it.”

  “You think I’m bad sometimes,” Laura said. “I’m a pussycat compared to Nora.”

  Tina laughed.

  Uncle Bob chuckled and said, “Yes, kitty.”

  “So, I handed them some boxes to assemble, hoping to keep them quiet.”

  “Did it?” Laura asked.

  “Of course not. When Rachel hesitated, they harassed her, saying she was silly, to just get rid of the junk and so on. Finally, she told them they were not helping and demanded we all leave.”

  “What?” Uncle Bob said.

  “She asked us all to leave.”

  “Yeah. I heard you. I’m just surprised. The Timid Turns. Could be a soap opera.”

  “So you all left?” Laura asked, ignoring Uncle Bob.

  “Yes, but then I saw Crystal again. What’s that burning?”

  CHAPTER 5

  The cookies! The smoke alarm sounded and Princess jumped up to press her head against Uncle Bob’s knee to alert him. Tina rushed to punch the button on the alarm, then sat down again. Everyone was used to this, and Tina smiled as Uncle Bob grabbed a pot holder and took the cookie sheet out of the oven.

  “Crispy critters, for sure,” he said. Princess looked at him, then sat down by his chair. Did she really shake her head and give Uncle Bob a condescending look, or was it Tina’s imagination?

  Uncle Bob scraped the cookies into the trash, to Tina’s relief. Sometimes he tried to save burned food by scraping off the blackened parts. He’d invented blackened foods before they became all the rage.

  When he sat back down, Laura asked, “When did you see Crystal again?”

  “At Ocean’s. I was drinking my coffee, reading the Daily News, and in she walks with Charles.”

  “Not at all embarrassed, I’m sure.” Uncle Bob adjusted his right hearing aid.

  “No. She sat down and started in about how Rach’s been such a trial to her mother all these years. I told her I thought Rachel was depressed. Crystal wanted to know if that was my professional opinion, in her usual haughty way.”

  Laura drummed her fingers on the table.

  “I ignored her and asked if Rachel had received any counseling, and she said she had, since high school. Said she never had any get-up-and-go, any ambition. Crystal said she seemed better when she met Nicky, and for the first few years of their marriage, but then she found out she couldn’t have any children.”

  Tina caught the look on her mother’s face. Did she already know about Rachel’s infertility? She and Mrs. Morris met once a month for lunch with several other women, called themselves the Lunch Bunch. Tina bet Mrs. Morris had told the group about Rachel.

  “Rachel just find out? Fixed up the nursery before that?” Tina asked Laura.

  “Yes. It’s very sad.” But Tina thought her mother looked more frightened than sad. The Lunch Bunch had always been a mystery to her, but she’d long since learned not to ask questions about it. Made her mother testy.

  “Anyway,” Tina continued, “Crystal seemed really annoyed with Rachel, but then she said I’d been right, that she and her mother shouldn’t have shown up. I almost fell out of my chair.”

  The phone rang, and Laura went to answer it. Uncle Bob stood and began to put the cookie ingredients away and wiped down the counter tops.

  Tina remembered Brandon walking into Ocean’s. She wasn’t going to tell her mother and Uncle Bob about her conversation with him. She had smiled when she saw him, feeling some of the tension leave her. He spotted her and walked over. Brandon was the perfect match for her. Everyone said so. A criminal defense lawyer, he was super-responsible, respectable, made good money, had a nice office, and lived in a condo on Bellevue Avenue while he renovated an old Victorian house near the hospital. And she did love Brandon. But the idea of marriage made her itch. She wasn’t sure if it was the thought of marriage to Brandon that did that, or if it was the thought of marriage, period. All she knew was that every time Brandon said the word “marriage,” she got a rash on her left arm. She took this as a bad sign. Even though she kept turning him down in the marriage department, he kept taking her out. He was good in bed, attentive, could be charming, and made a wonderful escort.

  “Hi, all. Goofing off, Charles?” he’d said at O
cean’s.

  Charles grinned. “I’ll ask you the same question, Brandon. The criminals all decide to go straight?”

  “Naw. But I needed a break. How’s it going in real estate law?”

  “A bit slow. Prices have gotten so high on the island. People either can’t afford to buy, or the sellers are hoping the prices will go higher, so they hang onto what they have.”

  Brandon nodded. “I’m going to get some coffee.”

  Tina watched him walk over to the counter. He’d been in love with her since high school, and she thought she loved him, too. He was so patient. Sometimes she wondered about that. If he were really passionate about her, wouldn’t he push her more?

  She didn’t know. He was good-looking enough, in an average sort of way. No outstanding features. Brown hair, brown eyes, shaved clean every morning, eyes, nose, mouth all attractive enough. He stood just over six feet, so they fit comfortably together, and he worked out enough to have a nice body. She sighed. Would she think this dispassionately about someone she truly loved?

  Hank entered her mind, but she pushed him away. She had no clue what she really felt about Hank, either. Better to not go there.

  Brandon returned with a coffee and put it down, shucked off his coat, and sat. Turning to Tina, he said, “I thought you had your first job today.”

  “It didn’t go as planned. I’m afraid Rachel got upset and sort of threw me out.”

  “You upset her?”

  “No,” Crystal said. “Mother and I did.”

  Crystal saw Brandon’s expression and laughed. “You look so surprised. You’re not surprised Mother and I upset her. You’re surprised I’d admit it. Well, after Tina and I had that dustup the other day at the country club, I got to thinking a bit about how I come across to other people. I should have realized that this morning, but I can’t seem to help myself.”

  The three of them stared at her. They sat in awkward silence.

  Brandon cleared his throat. “I’m sure Rachel will call Tina back.”

  “I hope so,” Crystal said. “It took a lot to persuade her … “