“It’s been less than interesting for me, but I can assure you that you are not going to go, so you may as well stop inching toward the door. I may have only begun my new exercise regime, but I’m stronger than most women I’ve met. You included.”
“You… You’re a murderer,” Susan said, trying to hide the panic she felt.
“No, I’m not. That is,” he added with a nasty smile, “not yet.”
“Not ever.” The voice came from the hallway and Donald swung around as Brett Fortesque entered the room, gun drawn.
Susan’s first thought was that after all the murders they had investigated together-or perhaps simultaneously was the more accurate word-she had never seen Brett with a gun in his hand. The sight, under these circumstances, brought her considerable relief.
Until she realized Brett wasn’t the only armed person nearby. Sophie Kincaid was standing right behind him and she, too, was armed.
“Sophie, where the hell have you been?” Donald said, obviously furious. “I’ve been waiting for you for damn near half an hour!”
It was no way to talk to a lady, but even Susan was shocked when Sophie pulled the trigger and shot Donald Baines in the chest.
THIRTY
“ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG.”
“Donald is neither good nor young, and he is going to live.”
“Would you like some more champagne?”
“I would love some more champagne.” Susan offered her glass for her husband to fill.
“Mother, we don’t drink alcoholic beverages in front of the babies!” Chrissy protested, apparently shocked by her family’s behavior.
“Then perhaps you and Shannon should take them up to their nursery, honey, because your mother and I and our guests are planning on opening another bottle,” Jed said gently.
“I… well, we’ll do just that.” Chrissy gathered her daughter to her breast as if to protect her from the sight of her grandparents’ corruption and left the room.
Shannon picked up Ethan and started to leave, too. “I’d better take this little guy up as well.”
“Once the babies are asleep, you could come back down and join us,” Susan said.
Shannon smiled. “I might do that. I’m really curious to know what happened today,” she added as she left the room.
“As are we,” Kathleen spoke up.
Her husband and Jed nodded their agreement.
“Brett knows more than I do and he’s going to be here in a bit,” Susan said.
“Well, we have lots of champagne,” Jed said. “And I’d like to thank Brett for saving your life.”
“I’m not sure Sophie would have shot me-”
Jerry held up his hands. “Susan, I know you’re going to think I’m dense and I swear that I hang on my wife’s every word so I thought I’d been keeping up with your investigation into your neighbor’s death, but, damn it, I can’t remember anyone named Sophie.” He glanced over at the pile of canines sprawled in front of the fireplace. “Unless she’s one of Clue’s new friends.”
“The mastiffs are named Rock and Roll,” Kathleen informed her husband.
“And Sophie is Sophie Kincaid. She was one of Donald and Nadine’s neighbors before they moved to Hancock. She was also involved with Donald romantically… well, sexually. She didn’t strike me as a very romantic person to tell you the truth.” Susan paused to sip from her flute. “She was involved in his business as well as his personal life.”
“She worked for him? What did she do?” Kathleen asked.
“Paid killer?” Jerry suggested.
“I don’t think she was paid for anything she did. Not directly at least,” Susan added, remembering Sophie’s reference to gifts. “And she didn’t have an official job, but she looked for properties for Donald to develop and, I suspect, one of the ways she benefited was by ending up with a premier property in those developments.”
“So she had something do with Donald’s Perry Island project?” Jed asked.
“No, she didn’t. And I think that’s the reason she came to Woodwinds with a gun. After all, she had killed Blaine Baines. She probably thought she should benefit from her death at least as much as her son planned to do.”
“You’ve lost me,” Kathleen admitted.
“Me too, but we’ve been married so long that I’m used to it,” Jed said.
Jerry just reached for the champagne, refilled his flute, and sat back to listen.
“Donald and his mother-” Susan began.
“You are starting at the beginning, aren’t you?” Jed asked.
“Yes. So stop interrupting and I’ll explain.
“As I was saying, Donald and his mother were in the same business-real estate. For Blaine it was a case of being in the right place at the right time. She started out selling homes on Perry Island in the winter and tapping into the lucrative rental market in the summer. Not that Perry Island is the Hamptons, but real estate has been an excellent investment for the past three decades and that’s how long Blaine ’s been involved. She’s probably made a very, very nice income and certainly has become one of the largest real estate agents in Connecticut. She was smart, hardworking, and ambitious, and her business expanded from Perry Island to some of the most expensive suburbs in the country.”
“And Donald followed in her footsteps,” Kathleen added.
“As much as she allowed him to,” Susan said. “At least that’s my guess.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, think about it. Donald always worked in a branch office in an area not quite as prestigious as where his mother’s office was located. She kept the best properties, the most expensive properties, the most profitable properties for herself.”
“That must have been hard on him,” Jerry said.
“Emasculating,” his wife suggested.
“Probably both, but Donald is his mother’s son and he figured out a way to get some of the big money for himself. He kept selling houses, but he also began developing properties-buying up big chunks of land, subdividing, and then building lots of homes. He did it in the town he lived in before this and he was going to do it again on Perry Island.”
“By shutting down the nursing home and building there, right?” Kathleen asked.
“Yes, but Blaine had her own plan for Perry Island,” Susan said. “She was going to build matching developments on either side of the Sound, one where P.I.C.C. is located and one where Woodwinds is now. Which is where the problems began that led to all the murders. You see, Donald had his own plans for the same properties.”
“So they were in competition,” Jed said.
“I don’t think they were at the beginning. I think they were in agreement when it came to shutting down P.I.C.C. and developing that plot of land. They probably both bear the guilt for the deaths out there.”
“Which of them killed those elderly people?” Jed asked.
“Probably neither of them directly. But I’m sure they caused the deaths to happen. Let’s ignore that for a moment because Brett will know more about it and he can tell us when he gets here.”
“So go ahead,” Jerry said.
“Well, Donald and Blaine didn’t have the same vision. Blaine was interested in building large homes.”
“Executive homes and estates, her ads call them.”
Susan nodded to her husband. “Right. But Donald had done that and was interested in mixed-use developments-hotels and conference centers surrounded by those executive homes and estates.”
“And then?”
“And then his mother bought Woodwinds. Donald, of course, saw immediately that its location made it perfect for an extension of their development on Perry Island. And that fact probably made him furious.”
“Why?”
“She bought it in her own name and she was going to develop it her way. She had even drawn up plans for the project-plans Donald made sure no one would find after her death.”
“How did he manage to do that?” Jerry asked.