Twenty-Three
As soon as Mike walked away, Millie charged towards the kitchen door.“Any idea where we could find Gail this time of day?”
“Why are you so sure the recorder is from her?” Mom asked.
“I’m not, but she’s the only one who wasn’t in the foyer when the noises were made and she’s mysterious. No background in the business and lurking behind Madame Zenda in that cruise photo. I say we question her first.”
Mom hesitated at the door.“You did tell Mike—”
Millie cut her off.“I told him we wouldn’t do anything rash. This isn’t rash. This is calculated. And besides, there are three of us and only one of her.”
We checked around the house and found Gail in the back parlor staring into a dainty blue teacup. She must have gotten that one out of the china cabinet, another one of the items that had come from Millie’s family and been included with the sale of the guesthouse. I hoped Millie wouldn’t be mad that the guests were helping themselves to the use of her family heirlooms.
Gail looked up, her eyes wary as we approached. Maybe she sensed our purpose, or perhaps the tea leaves had warned her.
Mom was making pointed glances at Gail’s shoes and I looked down to see that the white fabric of her tennis shoes was stained dark from mud. Gail had been at the gazebo. I looked around the room for a weapon, just in case.
She smiled nervously and held the teacup in front of her as if for protection as we each took a seat. Mom sat on the sofa next to her and Millie and I each took one of the wingback chairs across from the sofa.
“Good afternoon, ladies.” Gail glanced out the window. A gray twilight had descended and she amended her greeting. “Or should I say good evening.”
“Evening.” Millie was sitting so that the tape recorder was hidden. Probably saving it so as to have the element of surprise. It seemed quite obvious to me that she was taking pains to hide something and it must have been obvious to Gail too, if the way her eyes kept flicking to Millie’s sidewere any indication. “I suppose you heard about the excitement.”
“Esther told me about the ghostly moans.” Gail huffed. “Probably that pompous clown Victor staged it as more drama to his big announcement.”
Though I wouldn’t put it past Victor to do that, I’d seen the look on his face in the foyer and he had appeared genuinely frightened. Of course, that could all just be part of his act.
“Yeah, funny thing though,” Mom said. “We were wonderinghow he did that.”
Gail shrugged.“Who knows? They have all kinds of gadgets these days that can produce such sounds.”
“You should know about that, dear,” Millie said.
At Gail’s confused look, Millie whipped out the recorder and shoved it in front of her face.
Gail took a nervous sip of her tea.“That one doesn’t seem suitable for the noise that I heard described.”
“Ha! You would say that.” Mom leaned closer to Gail. “That device is yours. Admit it!”
“Well… I don’t know that it’s mine… I do have one similar.”
I was surprised at her curious reaction. I’d expected extreme denial or some kind of fight. Maybe she was thinking she could outwit us. I guess she didn’t know Mom and Millie very well.
Millie leaned closer to Gail, she was practically out of her seat. Gail shrunk back into the couch, her eyes darting between Mom leaning close on one side and Millie leaning close on the other.
“Fess up. We know you were the only one not in the foyer when we heard the noises, and we found this recorder in the gazebo,” Millie said.
“And you have mud stains on your shoes.” Mom pointed at Gail’s feet. “I bet that’s the same mud that’s out near the gazebo.”
“And we know you were on that cruise with Madame Zenda. You have a previous connection!” Millie said.
“Yeah, one that might hide a motive for murder,” Mom added, with a knowing nod.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Gail said. “Esther and Victor were on that cruise too.”
“But you are the only one who wasn’t upfront about your purpose there. We saw a photo, and Esther and Victor were front and center as featured mediums and you were lurking in the background,” Millie said.
Gail fidgeted.“I’m not hiding anything. I wasn’t a medium on that cruise.”
Millie tapped the recorder.“So you’re saying you didn’t hide this in the gazebo?”
Gail was silent, her eyes darting between the three of us as she gnawed her bottom lip. Finally, Gail slumped back on the sofa.“You’re right. I am hiding something.”
“I knew it!” Millie whipped out her cell phone. “I’ll just call the sheriff now. Won’t he be surprised to find that we’ve gotten the confession from Madame Zenda’s killer!”
“Confession? No!” Gail put her cup down on the coffee table and I quickly shoved a coaster under it. Not for nothing, because the coffee table was antique mahogany and it was almost impossible to get those white rings out. I’d heard Flora complain about that plenty of times.
Gail continued,“I didn’t kill Madame Zenda. That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because of Victor.”
“You were planning to kill Victor?” Mom must have taken a dim view of Victor, because she looked as if she was considering letting Gail go.
“No. I was here to prove he was a fraud. That’s why I put the recorder in the gazebo.” Gail gestured toward the device in Millie’s hand. “I didn’t put it in there toplayghostly noises, I put it in there torecord Victor.”
Millie raised a brow at her.“You did?”
“Take a look at it. You’ll see it’s onrecord. And it’s blank, so you won’t find any ghostly noises.”
Millie, Mom and I looked at each other. We’d already messed up the original setting, but that would explain why all that was on it was the recording of our conversation.
“But what were you going to record?” Millie asked.
“I was going to prove once and for all that Victor was a fraud. He said he’d talk to Jed’s ghost and mentioned the gazebo and the cemetery. I put recorders in both places hoping I could pick up something that proved he was a phoney. They are voice activated,” Gail said.
“So you have a beef with Victor. I admit he is obnoxious. And those stupid velour suits. But what about the cruise?” Mom asked.
“And why is there no record of you being a psychic?” I gestured toward the teacup. “Most everyone has a website or some kind of ad, but you have nothing.”
Gail looked down at the floor.“I’m not really a tea-leaf reader. I came out here on that pretense to trap Victor. Mary Chambers was my best friend. We were on that Dreams Divinity cruise together. That’s where she met Victor.”
It all clicked. I should have realized it before. Anita had said Gail was from Ohio and so was Mary.“Mary was the woman that Victor bilked out of money, claiming he could talk to her dead husband, wasn’t she?”
Gail nodded, her eyes moist.“Yes. She was a lovely person and sheso wanted to talk to her husband again. She died broken-hearted when her daughter convinced her that Victor was cheating her and she hadn’t really been talking to her husband.”
That explained why I’d seen her staring out the window at Victor and why Anita had seen her following them when they’d talked to the movie producer. If Gail’s story was true, she’d been looking for dirt on Victor all along.
“Well then, who killed Madame Zenda and made the ghostly noises?” Mom asked. “Someone had to hide something somewhere to make them. Unless there really is a ghost.”
Millie gave Mom an annoyed look at her suggestion that there might actually be a real ghost, then narrowed her gaze at Gail.“Maybe you killed Zenda by mistake, thinking she was Victor?”
“Hardly. There was no mistaking one for the other, and besides, I wasn’t going to kill Victor, just prove he was a fraud so the whole world would know.” Gail tapped her fingers on her lips. “But I did see one person doing something odd on the grounds when I was putting the tape recorder in the gazebo. I was sneaking around so no one would see me and so was the other person.”