think it will be easy to get Rudy to open up.”
“Barry,” Ava murmured. “It’s strange how we keep forgetting him.”
“Not really,” Judith said with a touch of irony. “Barry
wasn’t in upper management. That made him a nonperson.
But last year when he was hired as caterer, this whole series
of tragic events was set in motion. Barry must have swiped
Andrea’s private personnel files. I’ve no idea what he intended to do with them—blackmail, perhaps? Or just a bit of
clout to get some financial support to start his own catering
business?”
“I don’t know.” Ava’s response seemed candid. “I wasn’t
lying when I said I didn’t know Barry very well.”
“Whatever the reason,” Judith continued, “it was a terrible
mistake on his part. He must have told Frank, who looked
at the files and saw certain things that could never be made
public. Barry might not have recognized their significance,
but Frank did, especially the part—which has turned up
missing—about using Patrice’s personal funds to help set up
the company. Leon Mooney knew all about it, he had to as
chief financial officer, and no doubt altered the books under
duress. But Barry had signed his own death warrant. Everyone knew he was a notorious gossip and wouldn’t hesitate
to barter his juicy tidbits. Unlike Andrea and Leon and the
rest of you, Barry couldn’t be manipulated by threats of losing a prestigious position. So Frank killed Barry and hid his
body by the creek. He also hid the files there.”
Renie’s head swiveled. “What? You never told me that!”
Judith gave her cousin an apologetic look. “Sorry. It didn’t
dawn on me until you mentioned that I should piddle in the
library wastebasket. Then I remembered you found an empty
plastic garbage bag in Andrea’s wastebasket. Why would
she have such a thing? It was incongruous. Andrea wasn’t
the type to carry her belongings in a garbage bag. But more
to the point—why had we uncovered Barry’s
body so easily? The answer had to be because someone had
already been rooting around in the snow by the ice cave.
Frank had disturbed the hiding place earlier in the day when
he went to retrieve the files.” Judith gazed at Ava. “But you
already knew that. That’s why Frank tried to strangle you.”
Ava nodded. “I saw him go out to the creek. I couldn’t
figure out what he was doing, so I followed him partway.
He was digging around in the snow, and then he had
something in his hands—the garbage bag—and I kept
watching while he tried to cover up the place where he’d
been searching. Suddenly I had this sinking feeling. Since
we’d only arrived an hour earlier, I knew whatever Frank
had found must have been there much longer. Like from last
year. I thought about Barry, and after our afternoon meeting,
I confronted Frank. That’s when he tried to kill me.”
