Chapter 19 #2
“How are things going with you and Mack?” Maisie asked.
“Fine,” Doreen replied, her heart sinking as she realized this could have all been a ruse to get her here in order to talk about the wedding. “But, before you jump down my throat, I still haven’t set a wedding date.”
“That’s fine,” Maisie noted, with a shrug. “When the time is right, you’ll get there.”
Doreen looked at her and raised one eyebrow. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Maisie just nodded as she took another bite of the cookie, the look of absolute bliss that came over her face making Doreen realize that the cookie was probably a better choice. The croissant was very good, but if Maisie’s expression was anything to go by, the cookie was way better.
Doreen sat here quite comfortably, with everybody enjoying their tea and treats, until, out of the blue, Nan ordered, “Now, let’s get down to business.”
Doreen felt herself straighten up, as if she were in a classroom. “And what business is that?”
“You’ll update us so we have a good idea of what’s going on so far with the investigation,” Nan explained, “and then we’ll share some news on our side.”
“Oh, good,” Doreen said in delight. “I’m always happy to hear you have news.”
“We have some news, but I’m not so sure it’s any news that you necessarily want to hear, but, hey, let’s start with yours and get everyone on the same page.”
Doreen frowned at that but then agreed. “Not that I have a whole lot, so don’t go expecting miracles.” She shared her unfortunate encounter with Alice’s husband, her phone call to Cleavis’s grandson, and her meeting and interview with Jillian.
“Interesting.” They all sat back and stared at her.
Doreen nodded. “So, we still have as suspects potentially anybody who was in the restaurant industry and would know what the kitchen layout was. The killer also needed to know when Barry and Alice were working at the Rocking Horse. That’s the trick, and, so far, I don’t have very many people on that list,” she admitted, “and that can stop the investigation cold.”
“Even if somebody did know, did they tell anybody else?” Nan asked.
Doreen sighed. “We can’t just assume that somebody was told, say, Uncle Zev, for example.
He may or may not have known Jillian was working late that night.
” Doreen shook her head. “I’ll ask her about that, and I’ll keep that door open and see if we can get some more questions answered.
She was willing to talk, even though she was crying.
She’s pretty wrecked over the loss of her fiancé, not to mention the fact that she’s afraid she’s looking good for this murder to the local police, even though, according to her and Uncle Zev, Jillian had nothing to do with it. ”
“I like how you say, according to her,” Cleavis noted, eyeing her shrewdly. “Do you not believe that she’s innocent?”
“Initially, I don’t believe anybody is innocent,” Doreen stated. “Not yet at least. I haven’t got a good feel for this, and I certainly don’t have a good understanding of what’s going on,” she acknowledged, shaking her head. “Still, I feel as if some tomfoolery is happening.”
“Tomfoolery?” Nan’s eyebrows shot up, a very happy smirk on her face and a twinkle in her eye.
“Not in that way,” Doreen clarified, with a laugh. “I always find myself thinking people are trying to pull the wool over our eyes and getting away with murder.”
“Which they haven’t successfully done yet,” Nan pointed out.
“It’s even more than that,” Doreen shared, looking at them.
“Poor Jillian just lost her fiancé and her Aunt Alice this week. Yet the murder of Jillian’s mother from ten years ago has never been solved.
That was back in Alberta.” They all frowned at her, and she nodded.
“So, take that into consideration. According to Uncle Zev and his niece Jillian, her mother’s murder has nothing to do with these two recent ones.
But Katie—Jillian’s mom—was alone in her home and stabbed with her own kitchen knife, just like both of these current murders.
However, her mother was stabbed three times from the front, so she faced her killer, like Alice, whereas Barry was stabbed in the back. ”
“But you don’t believe Zev and Jillian on this point, right?” Nan stared at her granddaughter.
“Do you really think three murders in the same family are unrelated?” Doreen asked Nan, looking around at the others too.
“That seems to be a bit of a stretch, doesn’t it?” Richie noted. He shrugged, sharing a look at her and Nan. “It is a really terrible scenario for the family, yet not so hard to believe that the killer isn’t one of the family.”
“Which makes it worse, yet it’s not impossible,” Nan agreed, “especially given the way these murders were all so similar.” Nan sighed.
“We’ve certainly known people who seemed to be cursed with terrible luck in life.
One family member dying of cancer, and the next one dying of this, and the next one dying of that. You do have to wonder.”
They all nodded.
“That’s the thing, when you get to be our age,” Maisie added, “it’s pretty hard to surprise us.”
“Exactly,” Doreen agreed. “Even with the number of cases I’ve worked on, I’m continuously surprised, yet not surprised, at the things people will do to get something they want—in this case, potentially a restaurant.
And, from everybody I’ve spoken to, the restaurant business itself wasn’t thriving, so it didn’t have a whole lot of value, except for maybe the actual buildings, the pub and the restaurant itself, plus the real estate involved.
Yet I don’t know to what level that it’s financed.
If they own it outright, then it could be a fair chunk of money, as the real estate prices in Kelowna have gone sky-high. ”
A few people nodded.
“That is very true,” Nan stated. “So, the real estate value alone, if they were to sell the property, not so much the existing business, could potentially be in the millions.”
Doreen nodded. “That’s a very recent angle that I was considering.
I need to find out more about that particular location and its market value now.
I didn’t bring it up with Zev and Jillian, as I seemed to have worn out my welcome with her uncle Zev.
Maybe it was just because Jillian was in tears again.
Yet we did discuss the other Burgon brother, Danny.
Apparently nobody gets along with his wife.
She doesn’t work, even though she doesn’t feel they have enough money, yet she is not terribly supportive of her husband’s artwork either. ”
“I don’t know what kind of art he does, but it’s bound to be a hard living,” Nan noted, shaking her head. “Particularly in this town. It’s not as if we have high-end art galleries in Kelowna.”
“We do though,” Cleavis countered, nodding at her. “To you they may not be high-end because art hasn’t necessarily been your thing.”
“They were my thing,” she declared, a bit cross, “but more so in the Vancouver scene.”
“Ah.” Cleavis nodded. “Well, art has come a long way in this town. I’ll admit that there’s room to grow, but an awful lot of really lovely artists have come out of this region. I don’t think I know this particular man though,” he added, turning to look at Doreen.
She nodded and moved the conversation along.
“There’s no doubt that owning a restaurant, if it were profitable and if they could hire a manager to run it, would help provide Danny with some much-needed income,” she shared.
“He’s in a wheelchair, so I don’t think he’s capable of killing anyone himself, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have arranged it.
The police always look to a spouse first as a potential suspect,” she noted, frowning.
“I need to talk to Danny, but I’m not sure that would be so easy to do. ”
At that, Richie nodded. “As you told us, Alice was married. So she had a husband. I wonder why he wasn’t mentioned as a potential suspect. Have you spoken to him, Doreen?”
Before Doreen could answer him, Maisie interjected, “You’re a pretty young thing. He might be quite happy to talk to you.”
Doreen grimaced. “I suspect Randol Biscott would refuse to speak to me, especially after meeting Mugs the other day. Mugs did not like him, and, when I say, he didn’t like him, I mean he hated him at first sight. And Randol threatened to shoot Mugs for acting that way.”
Nan gasped. “He was so angry. I hope you told Mack about that man.”
Doreen nodded. “I did.”
Nan continued. “On the other hand, maybe Randol’s our killer, and we can only hope that he’s in jail somewhere soon.”
Doreen had to smile at that thought. “Randol won’t talk to me, not after the way he behaved in response to Mugs barking at him. I can’t take Mugs with me, even if I did try to talk to him,” she noted, “because he immediately disliked Mugs.”
“And he was going into the Rocking Horse restaurant?”
“He had a key and was going into the now-closed restaurant,” she confirmed. “So I’m pretty sure that’s Alice’s husband.”
“Or her ex-husband,” muttered Nan. “Maybe they were separated.”
Doreen pulled out her phone and contacted Zev.
When he answered the phone with the usual irritation in his tone, she began with an apology.
“I’m so sorry. I’m trying not to be a bother, so I didn’t phone your niece, but I have a couple of questions.
Was Alice still married to Randol, were they separated or maybe involved in a divorce proceeding? ”
Zev groaned. “That marriage was on the rocks from the very beginning. However, I don’t know the legal status of it.”
Doreen asked, “So, if your sister Alice was still legally married to Randol, you still thought that your brother Danny would inherit from Alice, right?”
“The restaurant has to stay in the family,” Zev explained, “so Alice’s husband can’t have it. … Jesus, I wonder if he did it.”
“If who did what?” Doreen asked.