A Groom With a View

explain it. We'll help you. We really will. Officer VanDyne is a friend of mine. He'll listen to what I say.”

Errol was crouched down, creeping up behind Kitty.

Kitty tossed her head. She didn't have the gift for doing it gracefully. 'You won't help me. You're just a couple of dried-up old prunes. You don't know anything about me. Anything about Dwayne. Anything about love.”

Errol was making a motion with his thumbs telling them to move apart as far as they could.

They tried to obey — oozing away from each other without appearing to move.

“But we do know, Kitty,' Shelley was saying, easing away from Jane at an almost glacial pace.

“Quit looking behind me like there's somebody there,' Kitty said. 'I'm not stupid. I won't fall for a dumb trick like that. You bitches think you're so damned smart! Well, I'll show you who's the smart one—”

Errol nodded, then shouted, 'Move!”

He grabbed the end of the braided throw rug and jerked it hard.

Shelley and Jane flung themselves in opposite directions and Kitty came down like a load of bricks.

The butt of the gun hit the floor, blowing a hole in the roof.

Twenty-three

“Did he pay you?' Shelley asked as Jane carne into the room.

Jane tossed a check down on the bed so it showed up beautifully in the shaft of morning sunshine. 'He not only paid me, he gave me an extra five hundred dollars. I think Livvy and her father had a little talk.'

“Perhaps being married, widowed, and nearly arrested in the same afternoon gave the girl a bit of a spine,' Shelley said. 'If it didn't, nothing ever will.”

There was a tap on the door. 'Come in,' Jane called.

Layla and Eden crowded into the tiny bedroom. 'We just came to say good-bye,' Layla said. 'This was the most awful few days of my life, but you ladies made it bearable. And you solved the murders as well. If I ever have occasion to get married again, I'll call on you.'

“Don't you dare!' Jane said, hugging Layla. 'Go home to your babies.”

Layla ducked out, but Eden sat down on the end of the bed. She glanced at the check, not even bothering to disguise her interest. 'That's all he paid you? The old skinflint.'

“It's the final payment,' Jane said. 'The second half.”

Eden nodded. 'Then it's not so bad. You earned every penny. And more. You kept poor Livvy from going to jail. Kitty actually had me convinced for a while that Livvy might be a murderer.'

“We considered it, too,' Jane said. 'But Shelley hit the nail on the head without knowing it when she said Kitty had an amazing capacity for fooling herself. But we had no idea until we saw that scrapbook that it was a pathological ability. If you'd seen that book, it would have been obvious to you, too. And if Errol hadn't literally yanked the rug out from under Kitty, we'd have been shot.'

“What was Errol doing up there?' Eden asked.

“He said he saw Kitty go upstairs and wondered why,' Shelley said. 'Then he started thinking about what a sneak Dwayne was, and how if Dwayne and Kitty really had been an item, she might be the same sort of person. Or worse, as it turned out. Anyway, he got worried about us and crept upstairs to see what was going on.'

“Do you suppose she really was pregnant?' Jane asked. 'Not by Dwayne, but by someone else.”

Eden looked at her in astonishment. 'And I was thinking you were such a good snoop. Didn't you think to look in her bathroom wastebasket? Lots of little wrappers that tampons come in. I assure you, she's not pregnant. But she sure is loony. I suspect she thinks she's expecting and poor old Mrs. Crossthwait yapping about how she'd gained weight made her think the old dear knew her 'secret.' “

Shelley said, 'I've heard of false pregnancies. Didn't Bloody Mary Tudor have one of those? Really believed she was pregnant and even swelled up and looked like it?”

Jane said, 'Yes, I've read that, too. Kitty did look like she was about five months along, come to think of it. I bet you're right. Isn't it amazing what your mind can do to your body?'

“Has your boyfriend learned anything more?' Eden asked Jane.

“Enough to convince him that Dwayne, sleazy as he was, had nothing to do with Kitty,' Jane said. 'Livvy says she met him when they both were present at a minor car accident and they stood around waiting and chatting until the police could get their statements. So Kitty's story of introducing them when she was out on a date with him was a lie.

“Officer Smith called Thatcher's attorney, with Thatcher's permission, who confirmed that there was a prenuptial agreement signed and he had a copy. If they had divorced, Dwayne wouldn't have gotten cut off without a penny. He'd have had a modest alimony for three years. And whether they had children or not, he would not inherit her estate if she died first. It also allowed for a generous allowance for him as long as they were married.'

“Tell Eden about the landlady,' Shelley said.

“He also had an officer in Chicago interview Kitty's very snoopy landlady,' Jane said obediently. 'She says Kitty never went out at night. Never got phone calls. The police are convinced that the whole affair with Dwayne was made up.'

“But she believed it,' Shelley said. 'I think she was so far around the bend that she honestly convinced herself he was in love with her. That they were having an affair and he'd dump Livvy before saying their vows.'

“And when the ceremony was over, and he was officially married to Livvy, it must have been a horrible assault on her whole elaborate fantasy — which she refused to recognize as a fantasy,' Jane added. 'I suppose she thought if she killed him she could maintain it.'

“And she nearly got away with it. Her story, as I heard it, was pretty convincing,' Eden said. She stood up, gathering her purse, sunglasses, and car keys. 'Well, I'm off, ladies. I'm glad I got to meet you both. You did a great job in terrible circumstances.”

After hugs were exchanged and Eden departed, Jane looked around the room one more time to see if there was anything she'd forgotten to pack. If she missed it now, it was going to begone forever. She wouldn't come back to the lodge for any amount of money. 'Okay, I think I've got everything,' she said. 'Shelley, what's in that big paper sack?'

“Sheets,' Shelley said smugly. 'Linen sheets. I found a moment early this morning to chat with Jack Thatcher and learned that his father left the building and land to him, but the contents of the lodge to Uncle Joe. So I spoke to good old Uncle Joe. Money changed hands. And I now have a nice collection of antique linen sheets and pillowcases. Larkspur overheard us haggling and talked him out of a bunch of old vases he'd found somewhere. By the way, Larkspur said to tell you goodbye and he'd get back in touch when we all escaped this place.'

“So you got a treasure. Larkspur got a treasure. But nobody got The Treasure,' Jane said, putting the check from Jack Thatcher into the zippered compartment of her purse. She slung the purse strap over her shoulder, and took a last look in the bathroom. Their suitcases and Jane's collection of notebooks were already in the station wagon. They walked out of the room and Jane allowed herself the luxury of pulling the door closed hard enough to qualify as a good, solid slam.

The doorknob came off in her hand and fell on her foot. The door bounced back open.

Jane screeched, dropped her purse, and sat down on the floor, hugging her foot and whimpering.

“Oh, come on. Don't be such a sissy,' Shelley said. 'You're getting soft in your old age.”

Jane drew a long breath and said, 'It weighed a ton. I think I've broken a toe!'

“Jane, don't be silly. You can't break a toe with—' She'd picked up the doorknob and was hefting it in her hand. 'This is heavy. Too heavy.”

Shelley went back in the bedroom and held the doorknob in the shaft of light that had so recently illuminated Jane's check.

“Stop sniveling and come look at this,' Shelley said.

Jane got up, tested her foot, and limped over. 'Look inside the back of it where the shaft went in. Get the light in there.”

Jane gazed at the doorknob for a moment. 'It can't be—'

“Oh, yes, it can,' Shelley said. 'I believe what we've got here is your average solid gold doorknob that's been painted black. Close your mouth. You look adenoidal.'

“The box of doorknobs in the attic…' Jane muttered. 'Uncle Joe kept them, so he could put them back