“Yes.” Judith nodded solemnly. “And you were about to
do the same thing. How, Ava? With a broken glass to slash
your wrists?”
Slowly, Ava’s hands fell away. “How did you guess?”
“There aren’t any more lethal medications around—that I
know of—and I didn’t think you could wrest Margo’s gun
away from her. You might have had better luck with Mannheimer’s rifle, though it would have caused a scene.” Judith
paused, waiting for Ava to regain some measure of calm.
“Do me a favor, will you? May I see your neck?”
Ava’s hands flew to the big collar of her blue sweater. “Oh!
How…? You couldn’t have…” She saw the determination
on Judith’s face and slowly pulled the collar down to reveal
dark bruises.
Judith nodded. “When you loaned me your clothes, you
insisted that I take the red outfit, which had a much lowercut neckline than either the blue one you’re wearing now or
the green one you wore earlier. It was a small but curious
point. Then I remembered that Friday, in the conference
room, Renie and I overheard something. We thought it was
lovemaking, but that was far from the truth. You were being
strangled by the same person who killed the others. At that
point, you suspected that Barry Newcombe was dead even
though we hadn’t yet found the body. You had a good idea
about who had killed him. Tell me, Ava, how did you get
Frank Killegrew to stop?”
For a long, tense moment Ava didn’t answer. At last she
got up and went to the honor bar where she took out a can
of fruit juice. “I told him OTIOSE couldn’t survive without
me. That meant he couldn’t survive, either.” Ava turned a
dreary face to the cousins, then sat down again. “I had my
informants, I not only knew the changes OTIOSE would
254 / Mary Daheim
have to make in the future, but what WaCom and many of
the other companies planned to do to beat the competition.
Most of all, I could accomplish these goals for OTIOSE. I’d
also learned about the pending WaCom merger, and while
I didn’t tell him outright then, I’d hinted that it might come
up soon. Frank realized I was indispensable.” Ava made a
rueful face.
“None of the old-line telephone types have my background
in computers,” she continued. “Russell deals with ideas for
applications and products, what customers need and want,
rather than the actual means of making these things possible
through technology. Frank’s never understood the whole
computer concept—he’s still living in the sixties. Anyway,
he tried to pass off his attack as a fit of temper. Maybe he
heard you outside the conference room—I had no idea anyone was there, I was too horrified. But something suddenly
stopped him. That was when he promised me Ward’s job.”
Renie, who had settled into the other armchair, nodded.
“A bribe. But what about Ward?”
Ava leaned her head back in the chair. “The implication
was that Ward would succeed to the corner office. But I knew
better. Frank wasn’t going anywhere, he had no intention
of retiring. His whole scheme was to get the by-laws changed
and stay on for at least another five years. Frank, you see,
couldn’t let go of OTIOSE. It was his company, he’d founded
it, he’d staked everything he had on its survival.”
“And something he didn’t have,” Judith said wryly. “Money.
He’d used his wife’s fortune to bankroll OTIOSE, hadn’t
he? Is that why Patrice was going to divorce him?”
Ava sighed. “I’m not sure about that. Andrea and Patrice
were rather close. They’d gotten together several times lately,
apparently so Patrice could vent her rage.”
Judith thought back to Andrea’s daily planner noting the
luncheon and dinner dates with the boss’s wife. Though
SNOW PLACE TO DIE / 255
Patrice Killegrew was a shadowy figure, Judith could imagine
the woman’s fury.
Ava continued. “Andrea told me that Patrice only recently
discovered how little money she had left. Mrs. Killegrew was
the kind of corporate wife who did nothing for herself. A
housekeeper, cook, maid, chauffeur—the whole bit, including,
of course, financial advisors to handle her fortune. The Killegrews could afford all the help they wanted, because in the
beginning, they relied on her wealth, and later, when Frank
became a CEO, his base salary was around three hundred
thousand a year. But Patrice’s mistake was letting Frank hire
the advisors in the first place. In effect, he handled her
money, and ended up robbing her blind. When she found
out—I think it was at the end of the year when she actually
got off her elegant behind to talk to their accountant—she
went crazy. Patrice couldn’t bear to be poor. It was one thing
to have Frank be unfaithful to their marriage, it was something else for him to steal from her. I guess she threw him
out.”
“I guess she did,” Judith said. “We found some notes Nadia
had written to herself. There were references to someone
moving. It wasn’t her—she’d lived forever in an apartment
above downtown, and still did, according to the address on
the sleeping pill prescription. Thus, I assumed that Frank
was the one who was moving, and the logical conclusion
was that his wife had given him the thumb. He also had an
appointment with a law firm that specializes in divorce. Gene
knew about that, didn’t he?”
Ava, who had taken a sip of her juice, looked startled.
“Yes, I told him. How did you guess?”
Judith gave a modest shrug. “The slip of paper I mentioned
that belonged to Nadia had been left in the women’s restroom on purpose. I thought at first it was used to jam your
stall. You recall that I asked how long you were in the bathroom?” Seeing Ava nod, Judith went on. “Then it occurred
to me that someone had purposely put the note on
256 / Mary Daheim
the floor of the restroom. It needn’t have been a woman. My
guess was Gene, because he’s an attorney and would realize
the significance of Frank’s appointment with Hukle, Hukle,
and Huff. Gene wanted everyone to know that Frank’s marriage was on the rocks, but because he’s such a cautious man,
he felt compelled to act in a covert manner.”
Ava looked impressed. “My God, I didn’t realize we’d
hired a sleuth as a caterer!”
Judith eschewed the compliment—if indeed that was what
had been intended. “Identifying the killer shouldn’t have
been too hard. In fact, I’m kicking myself for being so slow.
Everything pointed to Frank all along. But so many bits and
pieces only fell into place in the past few hours. Like Rudy
Mannheimer.”
“Rudy?” Renie and Ava both echoed the name, like a shrill
Greek chorus.
“That’s right,” Judith replied. “Frank’s personnel records
showed he was a Ranger in Korea. That was the old name
for Special Forces, which utilizes all sorts of dirty tricks, including a garrote. Sad to say, the Rangers were trained to
be ruthless killers. In fact, if I recall correctly, they themselves
suffered tremendous casualties in Korea. I suppose some of
them never quite got over the killer instinct—and the fear of
being killed.”
“Paranoia?” Renie put in. “Or self-defense? Bill would say
that in cases like Frank’s, where killing is not only legal, but