AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once Charlie sat down, Daniel said, “Are you aware that a suspect is in custody for the murder of Hester Tomlinson?”
To give him credit, Charlie’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open in shock. “No. Who?”
“My sister,” Mick bit out from between clenched teeth.
Daniel shot him a glance telling him to stay out of it, as he and Caro had both agreed to do. That was the only way Daniel would let them stay. Silenced, at least for the moment, Mick crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
Charlie looked around the room at them all, finally resting his gaze on Caro. He looked defeated, sad, even apologetic. Then he spoke to Mick. “Your sister didn’t kill the woman…Miss Hester, you say? I didn’t know her by that name.”
“You knew her as Esmerelda Devane,” Daniel said.
Charlie nodded. “I did.”
“And you killed her.”
“I did not.” Charlie’s spine stiffened. “She killed herself. It was an accident, but as God is my witness, she was the one who pulled that trigger.”
Caro gasped, unable to help it. The junior officers stared at each other, bug-eyed as two cartoon characters.
“Explain. Start with the blackmail,” Daniel ordered.
Caro held her breath, waiting to see if Miss Hester had been blackmailer or blackmailed. An innocent or a victim of her own greed.
Charlie set that to rest immediately. “She recognized me from the old days. She thought she had something on me. Something ugly and awful. So, she started sending me notes. They came to the Shin house, where I’ve been rooming. Never saw who slid them under the door.”
“And they mentioned Victoria Lynn?”
Charlie nodded. “They did.”
“Hester’s former colleague in the, er, movie business.”
Charlie started to rise from his seat. For the first time he looked angry, rather than forlorn.
“Victoria Lynn is mywife.”
That silenced them all. And they remained silent while Charlie told them his whole sorry story.
THAT NIGHT AND the next day, Mick spent a lot of time with his parents and sister. Sophie had been released from jail once Charlie came forward with the truth of Hester Devane’s death. They’d all been a little shocked by the story, but Mick, at least, had no doubt it was true. It wouldn’t surprise him at all that Miss Hester would try to blackmail someone who she thought had murdered her best friend and former roommate.
Apparently, Hester, as Esmerelda, had fallen in with a serious drug and porn crowd in California in the early ’70s. She and her roommate, Victoria, had starred in a few bad movies.
Then Victoria had disappeared. And Hester had believed that Charlie, a cameraman and Victoria’s sometime lover, had been involved in her death.
“She’d heard talk of snuff films and believed that’s what happened to Victoria,” Mick explained to Jared and Gwen Monday night as they sat on the front porch of his house. His parents had gone home, and Sophie and Daniel had decided to leave town for a few days to get over what had happened. Sophie was already plotting to work in a false murder charge in her next book. “That’s what scared her away from California and her secret identity.” He shifted on the porch swing. “In reality, Charlie had spirited Vicki away to get her in rehab. He has the pictures and marriage certificate to prove he and Victoria have been married for nearly three decades.”
“Why didn’t he just tell Miss Hester about his wife?” Gwen asked.
Caroline came out of the house in time to overhear. “He was protecting Victoria. He had no idea who was blackmailing him. At first, he didn’t even recognize Miss Hester once he saw her. He wanted more than anything to keep his wife’s past a secret from their children and grandchildren.”
“Sad,” Gwen murmured.
Beside her, Jared appeared unconvinced. “And when he appeared at the drop-off spot, the third-floor suite, he claims Hester was the one with the gun?”
Caroline sat down with Mick on the porch swing, curling up against him for warmth in the cool evening air. Dropping his arm over her shoulders felt as natural as breathing.
“She was,” Mick said. “Hester had the gun all along. She’d taken it from Louise.”
“Plausible,” Jared said, conceding the point as he thought it over. “A blackmailer would want a weapon for defense.”
