“He put me in touch with Ned’s second wife.”
The answer was so unexpected, I squinted. “Phyllis?”
“I met her for coffee. He said it would be good for me to talk to a woman who was sure of herself and strong. One who’d gotten away from him.”
“That sounds like Phyllis,” I said. “I haven’t met her, but I talked to her on the phone.”
“She was great. She could tell I was scared to death of Ned and she tried to set me straight. She says everyone’s vulnerable somewhere and she thinks photography is Ned’s Achilles’ heel. She’s an accountant and when they were married she was on him all the time about keeping better records. She told him if he could show a profit from his photography, he could deduct ordinary and necessary expenses. He’d have to hang on to his receipts, but how hard is that? He didn’t like the idea. Most of the time, he’s paid under the table and he doesn’t want to declare the income. He says as long as he keeps his mouth shut, the government won’t find out.”
“A lot of people feel the same way until they’re caught.”
“She said if he’s falsifying his tax returns, I can put in a call to the IRS and let the Feds take care of him.”
“No offense, Celeste, but if he’s willing to kill his own dog, Ned’s not worried about the IRS.”
“That was Pete’s response as well, but he thought it was a starting place. Ned’s secretive. I’m not supposed to touch anything of his. In particular, I’m not allowed in his darkroom. He keeps it locked and he’s warned me a hundred times I’m not to go in there.”
“Please tell me you had the gumption to disobey the man.”
Her smile wasn’t expansive, but it was the first time I’d seen the real Celeste peek out of her eyes. “I did. Pete pushed me to do it. Ned’s job keeps him on the road part of every month. The next time he went off on a business trip, I searched the house. I found a key in an old floor register under the wall-to-wall carpet in the hall. Once I knew where he’d hidden it, I could let myself in anytime I wanted.”
“Good for you,” I said.
“Not really, but Pete thought I was doing great.”
“And Ned didn’t catch on?”
“It didn’t seem to occur to him. It was the first time I realized he wasn’t all-seeing and all-powerful. Next chance I had, I went into the darkroom. That was disappointing. Most of what he has in there is standard photographic supplies: cameras, film, chemicals, developing tanks. Things like that. File after file of photographs, proof sheets, negatives. One file cabinet he kept locked, but by then I understood how his mind worked. He’d hidden that key and a smaller one in a film canister on the shelf above the sink in there. In the bottom drawer, there was a locked metal box that the smaller key fit. Inside, there were receipts and some other stuff.”
“Receipts for what?”
“Motels, restaurants, gasoline.”
“You think he decided to play by the rules?”
“Maybe he’s beginning to think of photography as a real business instead of something he does on the side. He says he may be making a big change.”
“What do you think that means?”
“I don’t know and I wouldn’t ask.”
“What else was in the box? You mentioned other stuff.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know; ticket stubs, a couple of parking passes for the wilderness areas he visits. He likes camping in the back country, which is where he does some of his photo shoots.”
“What did you do with the box?”
“I took everything out and put it in an envelope for Pete and then locked the box in the drawer. Pete said he’d do an inventory so we’d know what we had. What happened, though, was someone offered him a job that he felt he had to take. He hadn’t worked in months because of the research he was doing on Ned.”
“Does Ned know what happened to the stuff in the box?”
“He does now. I told him I gave it to a friend of mine for safekeeping and if anything happens to me, it’ll all be turned over to the police. That really made him crazy. At first, he thought I was lying, that maybe I’d hidden it here, so he tore the house apart. I don’t know what he’s doing now. I know he hasn’t given up. He wants that envelope.”
“Is he aware Pete was helping you?”
“Probably. He heard Pete was asking questions about him up in Burning Oaks. You can imagine how popular that notion was. Once Pete got killed, it was like Ned went underground. I think he was trying to figure out if his precious stuff was still out there somewhere. In the meantime, I can’t say he’s nice to me, but at least he doesn’t threaten me so much.”
I stared at her. “Do you know how crazy you sound?”
“I was crazy all the years I put up with his abuse. Now I’ve got him right there.” The gesture she made would have been appropriate for pinching a bug between her thumb and index finger.