Had Dale killed Greta? Had Bill?
Setting the pencil down, I remembered that Bill’s blackmail letters hadn’t been signed. Did he even know who had sent them?
If not, then there was no link between him and Greta’s death except for the accounting books.
But Dale Hathaway was a different story. I’d heard him threaten Greta myself. And it made me wonder how he’d found out Russ was his blackmailer. Had he confronted Russ?
The phone rang. Brickhouse answered.
I went back to coloring.
I loved designing bird gardens of all kinds, but especially hummingbird habitats. There was just something so special about them.
The habitat itself was going to be an island in the middle of the Alonzos’ backyard. I listed materials on a separate piece of paper as I created.
The intercom on my desk crackled. “Call on line one.”
“Who is it?” There were certain people I was actively avoiding today. My mother, for one. I couldn’t take one more construction disaster. My sister, for another. Her plans 186
Heather Webber
had included so much froufrou-ness, my bathroom had ended up looking like a high-priced French spa.
I was not a froufrou kind of girl.
Kevin was someone else I didn’t particularly want to talk to. I needed some space to decide how I really felt about him. Plus, since I found those letters, I felt like an idiot for suggesting that the Lockharts might have purposely planned Russ’s heart attack.
“It’s Noreen Pugh.”
I only knew one Noreen. “I’ll take it.” After a second, I picked up the phone, hit the number one on the console.
“Nina Quinn.”
“Nina, this is Noreen, Greta’s sister?”
“I’m so sorry about her death.”
I heard a sniffle, followed by a watery “Me too.”
“Do the police have any ideas what happened?”
It was wrong to pry, but I couldn’t help myself.
“No, not yet.”
“I’m sorry,” is all I could say.
She blew her nose, then said, “The police had me go through her things, but I couldn’t see anything missing. I spent quite a lot of time there so I know the place well.”
I didn’t mention the accounting books.
“I’m calling because while I was there, going through the house, a neighbor stopped by.”
“Oh?”
Had it been Dale?
“Kate Hathaway.”
“Oh?” Had Kate known Dale was being blackmailed by Russ?
“She informed me about the lawsuit, how it was still in effect. That’s why I’m calling. Did you know Russ and Greta have a daughter?”
187
Conversation from the day Russ died came back to me.
I caught myself twirling the purple pencil. I was picking up bad habits from Deanna. Back in the jar it went. “I didn’t know, no.”
“Well, it was always Greta’s dream to leave this house to Francie. That’s why she took such good care of it. The yard . . . it always embarrassed her, but Russ . . . he was cheap.”
Just reinforcement that Russ had been the one to blackmail Bill. And that Greta might have known about it.
“I’d like you to come finish the yard.”
I leaned forward. “Really?”
“As soon as possible. I don’t want Francie to lose the one thing her mother had wanted her to have. And Greta really wanted her yard done right. Pretty.” She sniffled. “You’d have made it pretty, right? Lots of color? Trees?”
