“Could you come down to the sunporch? Alfred may have found something.”
“Just let me shut down the computer,” I said. Elvis jumped down from my desk and went over to Rose. It seemed that he thought he’d been invited to come, too.
I followed the two of them downstairs. Charlotte was showing a wooden rocking chair to a man in his twenties with a thick mass of brown hair and a couple of days of stubble. I noticed him eyeing one of the guitars on the wall, his right hand tapping against his leg, and wondered if he’d look at it.
Mr. P. was at his desk in the Angels’ sunporch office. Mac was with him, leaning back against the wooden table.
“What did you find?” I asked. I could see the tension in Mac’s arms and shoulders. Rose patted his arm as she moved past him.
“There’s a five-million-dollar life insurance policy on Leila with her sister Natalie as the beneficiary.” Mr. P. nudged his glasses up his nose.
“I told Alfred that’s because of the business partnership,” Mac said.
Rose shook her head.
“No,” Mr. P. said. “I’m sorry, but I think you may be wrong. The policy pays out to Natalie personally, not the business, and I can’t find any record of a similar life insurance policy on Natalie that would have paid out to Leila in the same way.”
Mac looked away for a moment then looked at Alfred again. “I see your point but you didn’t know Leila. That’s exactly the kind of thing she would do. Her father kept Natalie a secret until she was almost seventeen years old. Leila thought Natalie had been cheated out of all the things she’d gotten herself—vacations, clothes, social connections.” His mouth twisted into a semblance of a smile. “It wasn’t her job to fix any of that, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try. So if that’s it—” He stood up.
“It’s not,” Mr. P. said. He glanced at me and then his eyes shifted to Rose.
“Go ahead and tell us whatever you’ve found,” Mac said. “Like I told you, I don’t have any secrets from Sarah—or any of you. Not anymore.”
“Du Mer is being sued over the quality of some of their products.”
Mac frowned in confusion. “That doesn’t make any sense. Leila always used quality products. I told you that she purchased sea salt and seaweed here in Maine. Natalie was running things the same way. Nothing changed.”
Mr. P. cleared his throat. “At the time of Leila’s accident the Federal Trade Commission had just opened an investigation into the company for deceptive advertising practices. You didn’t know?”
I didn’t need to hear him say no. It was clear from the expression on his face.
“Could Leila have known?” Rose asked.
Mac shook his head. “There’s no way Leila knew because she would have told me. We talked about the business pretty much every day. She wouldn’t have kept that kind of thing to herself.”
“I’ll see if I can find out a little more information,” Mr. P. said. He and Rose exchanged a look and I made a mental note to ask them later what they hadn’t said.
I put a hand on Mac’s shoulder. “Do you have a minute to look at that table I’m working on?” I asked. “I could use a second opinion on the casters I’d like to use.”
“Umm, yeah, sure,” he said.
“Let me know if you find anything else,” I said to Mr. P. He nodded.
Mac and I went out the back door and started across the parking lot to the garage workshop. He squinted at me in the sunshine. “Do you really want a second opinion or were you just trying to get me out of the Angels’ office before Rose told me I didn’t know my wife as well as I thought I did.”
I stopped walking. “Rose would never say that, Mac.”
Silence hung between us like a curtain, then Mac exhaled softly. “You’re right. I guess I’m the one who’s wondering if Leila was keeping secrets from me.”
“She didn’t say anything to you about the insurance policy?”
He shook his head.
“Maybe she forgot to tell you.” I tipped my head to keep the sun out of my eyes. “Maybe she’d just gotten the policy and didn’t get a chance to tell you. Don’t jump to conclusions. Let them find you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s something Rose said to me once. I think it means just wait and see how things work out. It was the only thing that I could think of that was vaguely appropriate.”
He gave me a genuine smile then. “I appreciate the thought.” His expression grew serious once more. “I’m sorry you got tied up in all of this.”
I bumped him with my shoulder and we started walking again. “How many times have you gotten tied up in one of the Angels’ cases because I got tied up in it? Think of this as me returning the favor.”
Mac smiled again. “I’ll try.” He pointed at the garage. “So do you really want my opinion on the casters?”
“I really do,” I said, stopping to unlock the door to the former garage. “Because I don’t have a clue which ones to use or how I’m going to attach them.”
“In other words you were hoping that I’d say I’ll do it for you.”
I gave him a sheepish grin. “I was and I guess I wasn’t nearly as subtle as I thought.”
“It’s just because I know you,” Mac said. “Let me see the bottom of those table legs.”
He laid the small metal table on its side and crouched down to study the legs.
Mac did know me well, but I couldn’t help wondering if he’d known his wife nearly as well as he thought.
Chapter 6
We got to Josh’s office about five minutes before the scheduled appointment time. Josh was waiting. His suit jacket was off and he was wearing purple suspenders with his gray trousers. “Hi, Sarah,” he said. He turned to Mac. “Come on in. Michelle should be here any minute.”
Mac hesitated. “Is it all right if Sarah joins us?”
“I don’t need to,” I said.
“I’d like you to.” Mac looked at Josh. “Is there any reason she shouldn’t?”
“It’s fine,” Josh said. “Everything you say will be on the record so there’s no problem with Sarah being there if you want her.”
“I do,” Mac said. He looked at me again. “Please. I want you to know everything that’s going on.”
I nodded. “All right.”
We followed Josh into his office. The entire space was painted a soft white and the room was flooded with afternoon sunshine, which made it seem less intimidating. The office had high ceilings and the wall behind Josh’s desk was a bank of tall, wide windows with the original detailed trim from when the building had been built over a hundred years ago. To the left of his dark wooden desk were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a rolling library ladder to reach the highest volumes. To the right was a wall of exposed brick. In front of the desk an oriental rug in shades of navy, red and gold covered part of the pickled oak floor and there were two chocolate brown leather chairs for guests.
“Michelle asked for this meeting because she says she has some new information about Ms. Fellowes’s death,” Josh said. “She’s always been straight with me so I don’t have any reason to disbelieve her, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t looking for more information.”
The phone on his desk buzzed then. Michelle had arrived. Josh’s assistant showed her in. She was wearing a black skirt with a short-sleeve lavender blouse, and her hair was pulled back from her face. “Hi, Josh,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for fitting this in today.”
“I’m happy to accommodate the police department whenever I can,” he replied.
I knew that Michelle had wanted the meeting at the police station and Josh had insisted it be at his office. Her comment and his response made it sound as though she’d asked for a small favor instead. If Liz had been with us she would have called it “territory marking.” Actually she would have made a comment more appropriate to dogs and fire hydrants.