Winter's Child

elaborated.

“The hairwork is absolutely fabulous. Elizabeth had dark brown hair when she died at sixteen, but as a toddler it had been quite long and golden yellow. Her mother had saved several strands from babyhood, so that when the light and dark were braided together, the result was really striking. I had almost forgotten we have it. Is someone keeping an eye on eBay?”

Mayhew’s brow wrinkled. “eBay?”

“To make sure they aren’t being sold online. The pieces were photographed, weren’t they?”

“Well . . .”

“We don’t have photographic documentation of all our holdings?” asked Benton. “That’s outrageous!”

“I have a digital camera,” Angelo said briskly. “I’ll be here first thing in the morning if anyone wants to help.

I’m no professional, but at least we could get everything onto the computer and start keying the pictures to the inventory list.”

“The police don’t know that Jonna took those things,”

I said, trying to herd them back to the question of her death. “Her killer could have planted the ring. And where are the rest of the bullets? They aren’t at her house, they weren’t in the car.”

“Did anyone check her desk?” asked Benton.

“The police were quite thorough,” Mayhew assured him.

“Was she worried the last time you saw her?” I asked.

“In fact, who did see her last? You, Mr. Mayhew?”

He frowned, as he removed his glasses and began polishing them with a napkin from the tea table. Without them, he looked younger and less sure of himself. “It was last Monday, a week ago tomorrow, and she did seem a bit distracted. I had to ask her twice for last year’s attendance records.”

“We spoke on the phone on Wednesday,” Benton said crisply. “She wanted to know how to list the perfume bottle I presented to the house today. Its provenance and maker. From the marks, I am quite certain that it’s jasperware. Wedgwood, pre-1820. Unfortunately, there’s no provenance because I bought it in a flea market in Winston-Salem from a seller who rather thought it might be an Avon bottle from the 1970s. I had no desire to disabuse him and even bartered him down from ten dollars to eight.”

It was a story that gave him obvious satisfaction to tell, but I moved on to the two women.

Suzanne Angelo had also spoken to her on Wednesday about today’s installation of officers and they had discussed food and drink for the public reception. “She sounded perfectly fine to me.”

Betty Ramos was looking troubled. “Was I the last, then? I was supposed to help with the inventory on Thursday, but that morning an elderly relative slipped 26 and broke her hip and I had to drive up to Roanoke to see about her. I stopped by here around ten on my way out of town to run off a few more of the letters and to tell her I’d definitely be here the next day. I warmed up the copier while she found the letters I wanted, then we ran them off and I left.”

“What did you talk about?” I asked.

“The weather mostly. It had snowed the night before and I was a little worried about the roads. And we talked about today.” She gave a self-conscious smile. “She and Dix had already hung the drapes in the Rose Bedroom but she wanted me to wait about putting the coverlet on the bed until we’d shown it to our members. Some of them can’t climb steps anymore.”

“You really must go up and see the room,” Mayhew told me, “only I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Closing time was at five.”

“I was hoping to stay and check out Jonna’s papers and her computer,” I said. “I can’t help feeling there must be something that the men have overlooked. Besides, my husband’s meeting me here after he interviews Dix Lunsford.”

Mayhew’s eyes narrowed behind his polished glasses.

“Major Bryant’s interviewing Lunsford? Whatever for?”

“Didn’t you tell him that Lunsford was devoted to Jonna?”

“Was, Judge. They had quite an argument on Monday and he huffed around the rest of the day.”

“Argument? What about?”

“I’m sure I can’t say. They were on the third floor hanging Betty’s drapes. I could hear their voices all the way down here, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. When Jonna came down and I asked her what all that was about, she said that Dix was being stubborn about following her orders and that maybe it was time we looked for someone else to clean here.”

He paused as if struck by what he was saying. “Heavens! You don’t suppose that Dix—? I mean, he does know his way around this house. He knows where the keys are and I wouldn’t be surprised if he knows how to disarm the alarm and where the safe combination is written.”

“Don’t be silly,” said Betty Ramos. “Dix has known Jonna since she was a baby. He may take advantage of his status as an old family retainer, but he would never hurt a Shay.”

Nathan Benton looked skeptical and Suzanne D. Angelo looked at her watch. “I’m sorry to rush you, Frederick, but the Schmerners expect us for cocktails at six.”

Benton glanced at his own watch and stood. “I have a dinner engagement as well.”

“Well, I don’t,” said Betty Ramos, “so why don’t I stay a while, put away the rest of the food and punch, copy off some more letters, and keep Judge Knott company while she looks at the computer? I have my key and I’ll lock