“It’s important,” Annette added.
“Let me get dressed,” Josie said, and hurried back to her bedroom.
When she returned to her guests a few minutes later, the room smelled deliciously of coffee. “Who…?” She spied her son near the coffeemaker watching the fresh brew drip into the pot. “Oh, Tyler, thank you so much. That’s just what I need.” She reached for a mug and then remembered her manners. “Can I get you both some?”
“Tyler already offered us some, thanks,” Chad answered. He and Annette were still standing by the door.
“Come in and sit down,” Josie suggested. “I know Tyler is going to leave in just a few minutes. He… runs a couple of miles every morning,” she lied, inspired. “Thanks for making the coffee, but we don’t want to keep you, sweetie.”
“Sweetie’s just leaving. Nice meeting you two,” he said to Chad and Annette. “Bye.” With a wide grin on his face, Tyler left the apartment.
“Does he run in plastic flipflops?” Chad asked.
“His running shoes are downstairs,” Josie explained, ignoring the fact that a pair of size-ten Nikes lay in the middle of the living room floor.
“We need to talk to you,” Chad explained again.
“We’re here to tell you the truth,” Annette added.
Josie sipped her coffee. “About what?”
“We…” Annette looked at Chad and didn’t continue.
“We were together on the property next to the house you’re remodeling.” The young man spoke up.
“Together? You mean you were… making love? Outside? On the ground? In the middle of the day?”
“No, of course not. We had only known each other then for a day or two,” Chad explained.
“And we wouldn’t do something like that outside… in the middle of the day…” Annette was becoming flustered. “Would we?” She looked at Chad for confirmation.
“No.” He took her hand again.
Josie thought they were charming, but it was taking quite a bit of time to tell their story. “So what were you doing? What did Cheryl and Howard have to complain about?”
“It wasn’t what we were doing, Ms. Pigeon. We were just kissing. Really. It was perfectly innocent. But we talked about it and, well, we were afraid that we might have been on the next-door neighbor’s property.”
“And yesterday we checked, and… we were. Josie, we’re really sorry. When we told you we hadn’t been there, we really didn’t think we were lying!”
“I believe you.” Josie took another sip of coffee. “I hope Cheryl and Howard didn’t see you on their property again.”
“We were very careful,” Annette said.
“Well, actually they may have seen me the day before yesterday,” Chad admitted. “Remember I told you I was going to check it out?” He looked at Annette, who nodded lovingly. “Well, I did. I went over to where you and I had been sitting and realized that, in fact, we were probably off the work site.”
“When did you go?” Annette asked.
Josie seemed a bit preoccupied.
“In the afternoon sometime. I wanted to check it out before we went to dinner.”
“And that’s why you told me we should look at it yesterday morning!” Annette beamed, apparently proud of Chad’s forward thinking.
“Exactly.”
Josie realized they were expecting a comment from her. “So you went back together yesterday morning.” She suspected that Howard and Cheryl had been given a perfectly adequate excuse to complain about all this trekking back and forth across their property line, but she appreciated that Chad and Annette were trying to help and so didn’t mention it.
“Yes. And Chad was right. Where we were sitting was right over the property line! Josie, do you think we should go over and apologize to them?”
“For what?”
“Trespassing!”
“I wouldn’t bother. Every time we see or speak to them, they just find something else to complain about,” Josie said.
“But we’re really here to apologize to you. For putting you in such an uncomfortable position,” Chad asserted.
“Yes.” Annette nodded vigorously. “We’re sorry. We really are.”
“It’s okay.” Josie put down her mug, thinking it was time for them to leave. But they didn’t seem to agree.
“We’re really sorry,” Annette repeated.
But Chad had other things on his mind. “Ah, Ms. Pigeon…” He stopped and looked over at Annette. “I’m going to tell her,” he said.
Annette sighed. “I will. I did it.”
“Did what?” Josie asked, hoping they would get to the facts as soon as possible.
“I told Chad about Courtney.”
“What about Courtney?” Josie asked, suspecting that she knew the answer.
“That she’s dead. And gone. I mean, that her body is gone.”
Josie sighed. She should have known this was a secret that wasn’t going to be kept. “So?”
“I’m so sorry-”
Annette was going to begin another round of apologies when Chad interrupted. “I’ve been thinking about all this quite a bit,” he began.
“Really?”
“Yes. I don’t know if Annette told you, but my mother has investigated many murders. And actually solved them.” Josie thought he sounded a bit amazed by this fact. “So I’ve had some experience with this sort of thing. And I’ve taken both Introduction to Psychology and Sociology 101 at Cornell and have some limited knowledge of human behavior.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And I have some thoughts.” Chad plunked himself down on the couch, rested his elbows on his knees, and rested his chin on his knuckles.
“Really?”
“Yes. You know, I think murder is usually committed for one of two reasons. Either personal gain or revenge.”
“Really?”
“Yes, Chad’s been explaining it all to me,” Annette jumped in enthusiastically. “You see, the person who killed Courtney either benefited from her death or hated her so much that he or she could not bear to live in a world where she lived, too. So…”
“So we need to look at the people Courtney knew. Someone either had something to gain from her death or else hated her. Gain or hate,” Chad said. “Gain or hate. That’s what I think causes most murders.”
Josie looked at the earnest young man and nodded slowly. “You may have a point there. But it might have been the result of a combination of those things. Not gain or hate, but gain and hate. And you know what? I think those two things got Courtney killed. And I think I know who killed her.”
THIRTY-ONE
JOSIE WENT STRAIGHT to Sam’s store. As she turned the corner, she spied his little MGB parked on the street and sighed with relief. She knew who had killed Courtney. But she didn’t know what to do now. She sure hoped Sam would.
Sam was in the store, but it wasn’t open for customers until nine-thirty. Josie had to hammer on the door to get his attention.
“Josie, I didn’t hear you. I was back in my office.” Sam looked at her face as he unlocked the door and let her in. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“Sam, I’m so glad to see you! I know who did it! I know who killed Courtney! I-”
“Josie, maybe you don’t want to-”
“Sam, didn’t you hear what I said? I know who killed Court… Oh, damn. What is he doing here?”
“I tried to tell you,” Sam said as Chief Rodney walked down the aisle between cases of expensive wine and English gin. He was grinning.
“Miss Pigeon. You were saying something I would be interested in hearing, I believe.”
Josie looked at Sam. “What is he doing here?” she asked again.
“Your boyfriend and I have been making plans for the Island Police Association Benefit. Now what’s all this about our emcee?”
“You mean Courtney?”
“Yes.”
Josie was silent for a few minutes. “She’s dead.”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw her dead. I mean, I saw her when she was dead. Her body.”
“You saw a dead body and you didn’t bother to call the police, Miss Pigeon?”
“I… It… I mean, she disappeared before I could do that.”