Jess shifted her gaze to me.
I nodded.
“I’ll be back,” she said.
I ate a little more of my soup. Charlotte reached for the teapot. “We need more hot water,” she said.
“I’ll go,” Rose offered.
Charlotte shook her head. “Sit. You were on your feet all day.”
“So were you,” Rose said.
I pushed my chair back. “She wants an excuse to look at the cupcakes, Rose,” I said, picking up my cup. I looked at Charlotte. “I’ll come with you. I need more coffee.”
“Bring enough cupcakes to share with the class,” Liz said.
Charlotte and I joined the end of the line, which had gotten shorter in the previous five minutes. Jess was already at the counter, ordering.
“What is it?” Charlotte asked.
I made a face. “I don’t exactly know how to say this.”
“It has to do with Maddie, doesn’t it?”
I nodded. “Nick stopped by for a minute after you’d all left. He wanted to give us a heads-up that the police had found Arthur’s safe-deposit box.”
She pressed her lips together for a moment. “What was in it?”
I folded my hands around my empty coffee mug. “He couldn’t tell me, but I got the feeling they found something that belonged to Maddie.”
Charlotte’s gaze immediately went to the table. “But Maddie said she didn’t give Arthur anything.”
“I don’t think she’s being completely honest about that. Or about how long she was in the kitchen.”
Charlotte looked at me again. I could see the worry etched into her face. “I’ve been wondering about that myself. You don’t think she . . . ?”
“No. Maddie didn’t kill Arthur, but she is hiding something.” I exhaled slowly. “I think it’s time we found out what it is.”
Charlotte glanced over at the table where Rose was making room for Jess and another chair. Then she looked at me and nodded slowly. “Okay,” she said.
We went back to the table with a fresh pot of tea, half a dozen dark-chocolate cupcakes with mint green icing, and coffee for me.
I waited until they all had a fresh cup of tea before I spoke.
“I saw Nick just before I got here,” I said.
“Did he tell you anything about the investigation?” Rose asked, pausing with her cup halfway to the table.
“The police found Arthur’s safe-deposit box in a bank in Rockport.” I was watching Maddie out of the corner of my eye and I saw the color drain from her face.
Rose set down her cup “Did they find any of the jewelry that belongs to Jim Grant’s mother?”
“I don’t know what they found. Nick couldn’t tell me,” I said. I looked across the table. “Do you think there was anything of yours in that box?” I said to Maddie.
She shook her head. “No. I told you. I didn’t give Arthur anything.” Her face was very pale.
Charlotte reached across the table and laid her hand on Maddie’s. “The police are going to find out.”
Rose looked flabbergasted. “Charlotte!” she exclaimed.
Liz frowned. “What are you talking about?” she said.
Charlotte just looked at her friend and the color flooded back into Maddie’s face. Maddie’s gaze met mine across the table at me. “They’ll probably find my father’s railway watch in that box. At least I hope they do.”
“Oh, Maddie,” Rose said.
“How much money did you give him?” I asked.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars.” She looked away. “It’s true. There’s no fool like an old fool.”
“Balderdash!” Liz said. “You should be able to trust the people you love.”
“Liz is right,” I said, leaning forward and propping my forearms on the table. “You’re not a fool. You trusted the wrong person, who took advantage of that.”
“You could have told us,” Charlotte said gently.
Maddie looked up at us all again. “I was humiliated. I didn’t want anyone to know, and then once I lied I had to keep telling the same story.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “There’s something else I have to tell you, about the day Arthur died.”
“Go ahead,” Liz said. “We’re not going to judge you.”
Maddie managed a half smile. “Thank you. This is a little complicated because it involves someone else.”
“Just start at the beginning,” I said.
She nodded and took a deep breath. “I knew,” she said.
“Knew what?” Charlotte asked, although I think we knew the answer.
“I knew that Arthur was a con artist.”
“How did you find out?” I asked.
“It was after I gave him the twenty-five thousand to invest. I kept waiting for the latest financial statement to arrive and it didn’t. So I did some research into the fund.” She swallowed hard. “I should have done that in the beginning. The entire thing was a house of cards, and the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t see how Arthur could have been duped. So I did some research on him, too.”
“What did you find?” Rose asked. I could see the concern in her blue eyes.
“At first, nothing,” Maddie said. She was picking at a loose bit of skin on her index finger with her thumb. “He used different names, and most of the women he conned were too embarrassed to tell anyone. You saw the article in the paper. Then I was talking to one of the organizers of the fund-raising dinner where Arthur and I met. She asked me his name. She said she was talking to a friend of hers who thought she recognized him. And I knew. I just knew. I called the woman. Her name is Aleida Scott.” She paused, pressed her lips together and swallowed again. “I invited Arthur for lunch and the two of us were going to confront him. Together. We planned to tell him that we’d go to the police with our stories if he didn’t give the money back—not just ours, but everyone’s.”
“What went wrong?” I asked, reaching for my coffee.
Maddie continued to pick at her thumb. “At first nothing. Aleida arrived early. She seemed a little nervous but I didn’t think there was a problem. She stayed inside and I got Arthur settled on the patio. When I went back in she was gone. Her car was gone and she wasn’t answering her phone.”
Charlotte glanced at me. “That’s why it took so long to make lunch.”
Maddie nodded. “Yes. I was phoning every number I had for Aleida and checking the window to see if she’d come back.”
“She lost her nerve,” Liz said.
Maddie looked at her. “She doesn’t want her family to find out. She’s afraid they’ll make her give up her home and management of her money.”
Liz shook her head sympathetically.
“You have an alibi,” Rose said.
Maddie shook her head. “No.”
“Yes,” Rose insisted. “Did this other woman, Aleida, see you make the coffee?”
Maddie thought for a moment. “Yes. I poured her a cup and then I poured one for Arthur.”
“What did she do when you took it out to him?”
“She stood by the window and watched me. She wanted to see Arthur before she came out to the patio.”
Rose was smiling. “So, she drank the coffee after you made it and she saw you take it to Arthur—without making a detour into your garage for any pesticide. Maddie, you have an alibi.” Rose looked at me. “Sarah, am I wrong?”
“It’s not perfect,” I said, tracing the rim of my cup with one finger. “The police could argue that Arthur had a second cup of coffee after Aleida left and Maddie put the napthathion in that. But I think it’s more than enough reasonable doubt.” I turned to Maddie. “You need to tell all of this to Josh right away.”
Charlotte put both of her hands over Maddie’s. Liz pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “You can use my phone,” she said.
Maddie shook her head. “You don’t understand. I talked to Aleida. She still doesn’t want her family to find out.” Her voice was edged with anxiety. “She won’t vouch for me. I have an alibi that won’t be one.”