The Marsh Madness

“And all that would be gone. And you asked for it, didn’t you?”


I hadn’t asked for anything, but I needed to keep playing along. “What made you think of me, Lucas, after all this time?”

“I saw your name in the local paper when Shelby dragged me to this area to meet her stupid parents. There you were. Little Miss Hero. Solved a murder, saved her boss. Full of herself. It gave me a great idea for making you pay.”

“I’m beginning to understand. And that bouquet of dead roses? Was that just a finger in my eye?” I wondered how much of his connection to Harrison Falls was a coincidence. He’d obviously burned with anger at what he saw as my betrayal. Had he picked Shelby because of that?

“Got to you, did they? That was the idea.”

“I see you went to quite a bit of trouble to make it creepy. What happened to you, Lucas? What changed you from a charming scoundrel to a murderer?”

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“That’s right. I did say ‘murderer.’ Did Chadwick show up unexpectedly?”

His nostrils flared.

I needed him to talk, not nod, shrug, smirk or flare his nostrils. “Did Miranda let you down? She had it bad for you, didn’t she?”

He smirked.

“She had access to Chadwick’s keys. It was easy for her to get a copy made. She could find out the code. Of course, she knew when he’d be away.”

“Stupid girl. She told me he’d gone to Manhattan for a meeting. She claimed the house was empty.”

“But she lied. Why did she do that? Had she found out about Shelby? Did she realize you were just using her?”

“Yes, she lied, and it’s on her that he died.”

“And Chadwick died because he found you on his property?”

His mouth twisted.

“Oh,” I said, “let me think how that could have happened. You had to be there, of course, watching your production. You wouldn’t have been able to resist being at Summerlea during the luncheon. Must have been fun. Did Brent Derringer and Tom Kovacs—your old acting buddies—depart the minute their parts were played? Did you pay them? Are they a couple of scam artists too? Or did you have something on them?”

“You always did think you were smarter than everyone.”

I kept talking. “When they took off, did that leave you with the new woman in your life here in this grand house to celebrate your windfall? Were you ‘celebrating’ with Shelby in one of those luxurious bedrooms upstairs?”

He actually blinked. “How did you know that?”

“It wasn’t hard to figure out. Chadwick must have been attacked upstairs. Not many people would be strong enough to have carried his body up that staircase. Therefore you must have been upstairs first to attack him. If he’d felt he needed help, he’d have picked up the phone and called the police.”

“He came charging like a lunatic, waving that statue at me.”

“Oh really? Chadwick never waved that statue. His prints would have been on it if he had, and there was only one set of prints: Uncle Kev’s. And we both know that Kev didn’t kill Chadwick. You did.”

“Clever girl.”

“That’s right. Thomas—or should I say Tom Kovacs—spotted Kev fondling it and told you before you left. My guess is that, for some reason, you took that statue, wearing gloves, of course. Maybe you were thinking of planting that somewhere too. Then what happened? Did Chadwick show up?”

“I liked that little statue. I thought I’d keep it as a souvenir of our afternoon. But then, that old fool went for me. I was just defending myself.”

“Oh please. Self-defense? But Chadwick was killed while you were committing a felony, so naturally that won’t be worth anything to you during your trial. Did he find things a bit off and go looking to see if someone was in the house?”

“I won’t be on trial, and I’m starting to get bored,” Lucas said with a yawn.

You’re going to keep talking, I thought.