James, Miranda - Out of Circulation (CAT IN THE STACKS MYSTERY)

If she were their full sister, Vera might have some claim to her father’s estate—worth millions, if rumors about the Ducote fortune were accurate.

That was not a crazy motive for murder.

TWENTY-NINE

Slow down, Charlie, I told myself. Vera was the half sister of An’gel and Dickce, but only half, and it was because they shared the same mother. As far as I knew, Vera’s father was Jedediah Hobson, not Richard Ducote, and I couldn’t see Richard Ducote allowing a child of his to be passed off as the child of another man.

There was a simple way to settle this. I knew Richard Ducote died in an accident while Miss An’gel and Miss Dicke were very young. If his death occurred long enough before Vera was born, that would settle the issue. All I had to do was find out the exact dates of Richard Ducote’s death and Vera Hobson’s birth.

The former was simple enough. The archives kept a file of information about notable citizens of Athena, and the Ducote family figured prominently in it. Digitized a couple of years ago, it was accessible via computer.

In less than five minutes I had the information I needed. Richard Ducote died in a hunting accident seventy-five years ago, when Miss An’gel would have been about nine and Miss Dickce seven. I also checked Cecilia’s death date. She outlived Richard by nearly forty years. I recalled someone telling me that Vera’s mother died when Vera was about thirty, and that meant that Cecilia had outlived Essie Mae, more than likely.

Now to find out exactly when Vera was born. I checked an online genealogical database but that yielded no results.

That meant I would have to go to the courthouse and check the public records. As long as I was going to do that, I reckoned I might as well look up Richard Ducote’s will. It would be interesting to see whether there was any provision for Essie Mae. Come to think of it, I should also check for wills for Cecilia and Essie Mae. I remembered that Vera had inherited money from her mother, money that Essie Mae in her turn had allegedly inherited from a relative. Could the money have come from the Ducote estate?

My head ached from trying to sort out who died when and the possible implications of wills and inheritances. I’d better get down to the courthouse as soon as possible.

I checked the time. Too late to go today; it was already seventeen minutes after five. The courthouse would have to wait until tomorrow morning.

“Come on, Diesel, let’s go home.” I shut down the computer, put the journal away in my desk and locked it, thought about it a moment, unlocked the desk, and pulled the journal back out. Maybe I should take it home with me to finish reading tonight.

No, that wouldn’t be right. Materials from the Ducote Collection were not supposed to leave the archives. Back into the drawer went the journal again, and this time it stayed there.

Diesel, impatient to be on the way, meowed loudly at me. He was already by the door, and I didn’t linger.

On the walk home my head buzzed with questions. A new one that occurred to me was whether I should share the revelations from Cecilia Ducote’s journal with Kanesha. If one of the Ducote sisters did turn out to be the killer, then the information about the relationship with Vera would have to come out.

But if they were both innocent, there was no point in anyone else knowing the story. It was a private family matter, and I felt guilty enough as it was for having pried into it myself.

I couldn’t share this with Kanesha yet. If I found some proof that either Miss An’gel or Miss Dickce pushed Vera down those stairs, I would have to. But until then I would keep quiet about what I’d learned.

That one decision made, I felt better. Diesel and I turned into the driveway and headed for the back door. I let him open the door, and while he did, I pulled my ringing cell phone from my pocket.

Kanesha. That was eerie. I had just been thinking about her, and now she was calling. I stepped into the empty kitchen as I answered.

“I’m about five minutes away from there. Okay if I stop by?” she said after barely giving me time to say hello.

“Sure, come on by.”

I had just enough time to shed my coat and read a hastily scrawled note from Laura, informing me that everyone would be out for dinner tonight and I was on my own, when the doorbell rang.

“Thought it would be good to check in with you, share information,” Kanesha said without preamble the moment I opened the door.

I stood aside for her to enter and then followed her into the kitchen where Diesel was waiting. He meowed loudly three times, and I understood the message.

“Please have a seat, and I’ll be back in a minute,” I said with an apologetic smile. “His Majesty has informed me that the Royal Food Bowl is empty and in need of filling.”

Kanesha scowled as she pulled out a chair and sat.

I hurried into the utility room to take care of Diesel’s needs. He watched anxiously as I added fresh dry food to his bowl—not completely empty, by the way—then warbled to let me know I was dismissed now that I had fulfilled my duty.

Smiling, I went back to the kitchen to join Kanesha. “Can I offer you something to drink?” I asked. I went to the fridge to fetch a can of diet soda for myself.

“No, thank you. Have you turned up anything else?”

“I’ll get to that in a minute. First, how is your mother? She didn’t come to work today.” I explained about the note I’d found this morning.

Kanesha frowned. “When I talked to her, she was fine, or so she said. She didn’t say anything about not coming to work today. That’s how she is, though. She won’t ever tell me when she’s not feeling good, because she doesn’t want me to worry.”

“Aunt Dottie was the same way,” I said. “I hope Azalea got some rest.” I decided to start with the reenactment as I sat down across the table from her. She leaned forward in her chair as I told her what we’d done.

“That was a good idea,” she said when I finished. “Any conclusions?”

“Mostly that Azalea would have had a hard time seeing much. It was even darker in there than I realized.”

“Do you still think there’s something she’s holding back?”

I nodded. “It’s a feeling I can’t shake. I know it doesn’t sound rational, but there was simply something about her manner the first time I talked to her. And the second time as well. I want to talk to her again, and this time I’m determined to find out what she’s not telling us.”

“Good luck.” Kanesha leaned back in her chair. “Anything else you can tell me?”

“I went to visit Sissy and Hank Beauchamp today, too. Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce came by again this morning and asked me to go see the Beauchamps to collect the money they promised for the fund-raiser.”

“Did you actually get money from them?”

“A check from Sissy,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

“I wish Miss An’gel luck in getting it cashed. I’ve been doing some checking into people’s money, trying to see what the financial angle could be in this case. The Beauchamps are in bad shape. There’s actually a mortgage on the house, and they’re behind three months already. Hank’s law practice isn’t doing well, and Sissy has never worked a day in her life.”

“Any idea why they’re so short of money?” I asked. “I thought the Beauchamps were wealthy.”

“They used to be,” Kanesha replied. “Their father was rich, left them a lot of money from his own law practice. But Sissy has expensive tastes, and so does Hank. He also has a gambling problem.”

I nodded, remembering again what Helen Louise had told me. That was a fast way to run through a fortune. I felt sorry for them, but I realized that, in terms of motive, they had to be considered prime suspects in Vera’s death.