When dessert was served, Skye asked, “Aunt Mona, do you remember going away with Aunt Minnie when you were in high school?”
“No.” Mona arched an eyebrow. “What was the occasion?”
“Aunt Minnie wasn’t feeling well and needed a rest.” Skye looked Mona in the eye. “A nurse from Chicago came and got you and took you somewhere.”
“Out of respect for your Aunt Minnie we won’t talk about that.” A tic was visible under Mona’s eye. “I hope you aren’t going to drag all of that out.”
Neal pushed a little away from the table and crossed his legs. “I don’t remember you ever telling me about that trip, darling. Something I should know?”
“It was nothing. Just one of Minnie’s spells. My parents panicked.” Mona rose from the table.
Skye also got to her feet. “Thank you for dinner.” She moved to the foyer. “Sorry to eat and run, but I just remembered. I left the iron on.”
When Skye looked back, Neal was shaking his finger at Mona, while the older woman stared at Skye.
It was a relief when the alarm clock rang. Skye had barely dozed all night. Every time she had managed to quit thinking of Simon, Wally’s anger popped into her mind. And when she finally forced herself to stop agonizing over the men who weren’t in her life anymore she thought of Miss Prynn. She wondered if the police had taken her anonymous call seriously, or if they’d blown it off and marked the nurse’s death as arising from natural causes. Or worse, was there an APB out with her description?
After removing Bingo from her stomach, Skye dragged herself into the shower, hoping the water would clear her mind. She pulled on a pair of denim shorts, a white T-shirt, and tennies, then went to feed Bingo. She had heard his yowls through both the closed shower and bathroom doors.
The weather matched her mood. Dark clouds rolled past, releasing sheets of rain. Occasional bangs of thunder and jolts of lightning enlivened the morning.
Skye barely choked down her toast, and could feel a headache starting to form behind her temples. She lay down on the couch.
Now that she knew that Hap Doozier was behind all the pranks, she could clear them from her mind. She was sure she had enough clues to her grandmother’s murderer, if only she could put them together in the right way. She closed her eyes and visualized a list of her relatives. Dante was a lousy farmer who liked to spend cash he didn’t have, and had been in charge of his mother’s money for a long time with no one checking up on him. He would gain little, and actually lose control of the trust, by killing Antonia.
Hugo had met with a housing developer, and his wife claimed she had a job with this same developer. He and his wife spent money like it came free in the mail. But they had no way to get at the Leofanti land except through Dante, who wasn’t selling.
Mona? She was a sanctimonious witch, at her husband’s beck and call, and so self-centered she would do anything if she thought it was in her own best interest. How would killing Antonia profit Mona?
Minnie was a prime suspect if she had really tried to kill herself. But her motive was pretty weak. If she was tired of caring for her mother, she could have stopped. No one had held a gun to her head. And if Miss Prynn was murdered by the same person, it couldn’t be Minnie.
The twins seemed to be short of money and they were disappointed with their inheritance. Nothing there to kill about.
Skye drifted between sleep and wakefulness. The twins might not be happy with what they had inherited, but Skye had gotten the table she wanted. She could still see it under the big window at the farm. Sighing, she turned on her side. Wait a minute. There was something odd under that window last time she was in the house. What was it? A brown mark on the freshly painted wall. What did that mean?
Skye had placed the table in her own cottage a few feet from her sofa. She got up to examine it more closely, kneeling to look underneath it. She ran her hands along the legs and studied the surface. Okay, this table was always under that window. How could it have made that mark on the wall? She remembered when Vince had picked it up to carry it out to her car. He hadn’t knocked it against the plaster.
She sat on the floor and rested the back of her neck on the table’s edge. Her head slipped farther backward. She straightened and turned around. The top of the table was slightly askew. Pushing the rim with her palm, she was able to nudge the top into a twenty-five degree angle from the base.
A small orifice was revealed. Skye slipped her hand into the hole. At first all she felt was the grain of the wood, but her fingertips soon closed upon something smooth.
As the object came into view she could see that it was an envelope. The stationery was pink and smelled of her grandmother’s lavender sachet. Skye slid out a single sheet. Her grandmother’s faint handwriting filled the page.
It was addressed to Annamaria Boggio, Antonia’s sister, but the stamp had never been canceled.
Dear Annamaria,
Today has been the worst day of my life. Once again I have been weak and allowed Angelo to overrule me. Will my daughter ever forgive me? Her look of panic when we told her she had to go away will remain with me always. She was not comforted by her sister’s presence as I had hoped.
The nurse he hired to do the wicked deed and take care of her afterwards seems passable, but she has no warmth and makes it clear she does what she does for money.
I hear Angelo’s key in the lock. I will have to mail this when he is not around as he has forbidden me to write of this matter. Please pray for your niece as her father forces her to get rid of her child.
Your loving sister,
Antonia
Skye’s heart pounded. This certainly put a whole new light on things! Since neither of her aunts had appeared pregnant in the photo and they had been gone for only a month, her grandmother must have been referring to an abortion. So who had the abortion, Minnie or Mona? And did the other sister know what was going on?
Skye grabbed the phone and called the hospital. She was in luck. Minnie was allowed to speak on the phone.
After polite chitchat Skye got to the point. “Ah, Aunt Minnie, please stop me if this upsets you, but I was wondering if you remember that time you and Mona stayed with a nurse in Chicago?”
“Sure,” Minnie answered readily. “Why would that upset me? Mona needed to have her appendix out. Mom and Dad sent me to keep her company.”
“But you were all right?”
“Sure.” Minnie’s voice reflected her memory of a good time. “It was sort of fun to be in the city. And Mona recovered real fast. It was almost like being on vacation. I even took some pictures . . .” Minnie’s voice trailed off. “I wonder what happened to them?”
“I’ll see if I can find them,” Skye promised. “Thanks, Aunt Minnie; get well soon.”
So Mona had had the abortion. Did that mean she had killed Antonia? After all these years, why would she kill her mother? If it wasn’t to gain something, what else was accomplished by her death?
The family history. Killing her stopped Antonia from talking about the past and thus revealing Mona’s abortion. Would her aunt kill to keep that secret?
Skye thought about her aunt and uncle’s marriage, about his position in the Knights of Columbus. Mona might kill to protect that.
Skye suddenly leaped from the couch. She reached for the phone and dialed. No one answered at her parents’ house.
She swore in frustration. She had to talk this over with someone. What if she was wrong? She tried Charlie and Trixie. No one was home.
Great, I guess I’ll have to talk to Wally. Probably should have been my first choice anyway, but he’s still so mad at me about going to the survivalist camp. Oh, well, this isn’t something I can put off.