Chapter 15
I called 911 and we waited for the police at Ashley Clark’s small house. She took one look at Rose and Liz and invited them inside for iced tea.
“Go,” I said. “I’ll wait out here for the police.”
I leaned against the SUV and wondered if I should call Michelle. Or Nick. Ashley came out with a tall, frosted glass of tea for me. “Thank you,” I said, taking it from her and taking a long drink.
Ashley looked over her shoulder down the road. “You . . . um . . . you found Leesa, didn’t you?” she asked. Her hair was loose around her face and she wasn’t wearing any makeup. She didn’t look any older than Avery.
There wasn’t any reason not to tell her the truth. I nodded.
She blanched and swallowed a couple of times. “She’s dead, isn’t she? I mean, she has to be because otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
“She’s dead. Yes.”
Ashley shivered even though the sun was warm and wrapped one arm around her midsection. She shook her head. “I would have sworn that was her who drove by barely an hour ago.”
“And maybe it was,” I said. “The police will figure all of that out.” I gave her a smile I didn’t really feel. “Thank you for the tea and for taking Rose and Liz inside. Why don’t you go in and wait with them? The police won’t be very long. I’ll come and get you.”
“Okay,” she said, and she headed back across the lawn to the house.
The police arrived less than five minutes later, a patrol car followed quickly by the forensic van, Michelle’s small sedan and Nick’s truck.
“Bring me up to speed,” Michelle said. Nick stood silently beside her, his hands in his pockets.
I gave them a brief rundown of our visit with Nicole Cameron and how we’d ended up at the cottage. “I took a quick look through the porch window, thinking maybe I’d see something that might explain Rose’s memory. I caught sight of . . . Leesa Cameron on the deck. There was uh . . .” I stopped and cleared my throat. “The angle of her head and neck seemed wrong. There was an empty bottle of vodka on the table beside her.” I had to stop again for a moment. “And a pill bottle.”
Michelle said nothing; she just nodded as I recited how I’d called 911 and we’d come back here to wait. After I finished I took her inside and she talked to Rose and Liz and Ashley Clark. We waited maybe another twenty minutes while she went down to the Cameron cottage before she came back to tell us we could leave. Nick had stopped long enough to put a hand on my shoulder and ask if we were all okay before he’d headed to the cottage as well.
We ended up back at Rose’s apartment. I’d called Mac and he’d taken care of closing up the store. Jess had been there picking up the tea towels that she was going to make into pillow covers for me. She drove Charlotte, Mr. P. and Avery over, and when Rose urged her to join us, she’d come in and seamlessly started helping, washing lettuce in the sink and clipping chives from the pot in Rose’s kitchen window.
Rose had coached me through the recipe for rhubarb crumble and it was cooking in her toaster oven. I sat down next to Liz at the table. Elvis was sitting on the chair next to her as though he expected one of the places to be his. Charlotte and Avery had gone to get extra chairs from my apartment.
“I can’t believe that young woman killed herself.” Liz shook her head.
“Maybe once her husband’s body was found she felt the walls were closing in on her,” Mr. P. said.
“I still don’t understand why she killed him in the first place,” Rose said. She kissed the top of Avery’s head. “Will you put out the knives and forks for me, please?” she said.
Avery smiled at her. “Sure.”
Rose went back over to the counter and I got up to peer in at my rhubarb crumble. “It’s going to be fine,” Rose said quietly in my ear.
I wasn’t sure if she meant my dessert or everything associated with Jeff Cameron’s death.
We all squeezed around the table for Rose’s Chinese chicken salad. “I need the recipe for this dressing,” Jess said, gesturing with her fork. “It’s so much better than the one I’m using.”
“The secret is a good balsamic vinegar and a bit of Dijon mustard,” Rose said. “I’ll write it down for you.”
Rose came to help me when I dished out the rhubarb crumble. “Does it look all right to you?” I asked.
“It looks delicious,” she said. “I’m so glad we discovered that patch of rhubarb in the backyard before you dug it all up.”
“It wouldn’t have happened if that birch tree hadn’t come down in the middle of that windstorm,” I said, carrying the first two bowls over to the table. “There was no way I could move it by myself. It was way too heavy. If Cleveland hadn’t come over with his chainsaw to cut the tree up and haul it away, I never would have known I was digging out rhubarb and not some weed that looked like red celery.”
I turned around, and Rose was staring into space, holding up the serving spoon like it was a magic wand. She shook her head and looked at me. “Say that again, please.”
“I never would have known I was digging up rhubarb.”
She shook her head. “No, the part about the tree.”
I frowned at her. “There was no way I could move it by myself?”
She smiled. “Exactly.” She walked over to the table. “How did Leesa Cameron move her husband’s body? We still don’t have an answer to that question. It was found at Johnson’s Reach. It’s the other end of town from the Camerons’ cottage. There’s no way she could have done that by herself. I couldn’t.” She looked at me. “Could you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“So she was having an affair with Michael Vega and he helped her,” Jess said.
“Convenient, isn’t it?” Rose said.
“What are you suggesting, Rosie?” Mr. P. asked.
“Leesa Cameron killed her husband, and when his body is found she kills herself.” She looked at us all. “All the loose ends are tied up in a neat little bow. Whoever else was involved—whether or not it’s Mr. Vega—just walks away.”
“You think there’s something we missed,” Charlotte said. “Something that will help us find that person.”
Liz sighed loudly.
“Yes,” Rose said, ignoring her friend.
“What?” I asked.
“Why was Chloe Sanders so gung ho about working for Jeff Cameron?”
“She needed a summer job?”
“Why that particular job?” Rose said. “She had a professor who was very much her advocate. Why did she put so much effort into getting Jeff to hire Chloe?” She folded her arms over her chest. “And why did Michael Vega buy an expensive fitness tracker for Leesa Cameron?”
“So we keep digging,” Mr. P. said.
Rose nodded. “We keep digging.”
Chapter 16
The Angels spent most of Tuesday morning checking out Michael Vega. The more they found out, the harder it was for any of us to believe he’d been having an affair with Leesa Cameron. Everyone, it seemed, said the same thing about the man; he was a good guy and a straight arrow.
“I talked to Ann at the library,” Charlotte said when she arrived for her shift, referring to the head librarian at the North Harbor Public Library. “Michael Vega built the new puppet theater in the children’s department. Not only did he volunteer his time on a Saturday; he had the kids helping.”
“He sounds like a nice guy,” I said.
“If you’re talking about Mr. Vega, it seems he’s pretty much perfect,” Liz said. She’d just come in the front door and she walked over to us, her high heels clicking on the wooden floor.
“What did you find out? What did Elspeth say?” Charlotte asked.
“I haven’t talked to her yet,” Liz said. “It occurred to me that maybe Jane Evans might know the man.” She looked at me. “Jess said he was a sports massage therapist. Remember? Jane injured her back last winter when she fell on the sidewalk. I know she went to someone for a massage.”