account, and she was right.'
'And?' said Quill. 'Baumer was in on it. I knew it!'
Myles shrugged. 'My guess is he's guilty of something. Just what that is, is anybody's guess. His savings account showed regular deposits of amounts varying from three to five thousand dollars, ever since he left Doggone Good Dogs. But I have no official knowledge of this. Baumer doesn't appear to have committed any crimes here. I don't have jurisdiction anyway, so there's no way for me to follow up. I did suggest to Eddie that he have breakfast at Marge's diner this morning. It may be that Baumer was a co-conspirator with Mrs. Hallenbeck - and that Eddie can prove it after he talks to Marge. But the money must have come from somewhere else.'
'What do you think, Myles?' said Meg.
Myles hesitated. 'I believe that Mavis was blackmailing Baumer, just as she was blackmailing John and Tom Peterson. I don't believe in coincidence. Baumer, Marge, John, and Tom were all connected through Mavis. There are some people who are natural catalysts. Mavis was a catalyst for disaster.'
'You put dough into the oven, and heat turns it to brioche,' said Quill. 'Mrs. Hallenbeck was the heat. Mavis was the yeast.'
'Come again?' said Myles.
'Meg.' Quill gestured at her sister. 'She said murder's like a recipe. The same set of ingredients don't guarantee the same dish. Everyone who came into contact with Mavis ended up with a motive to murder - but only one killed her.'
'Thank you, Dr. Watson,' said Meg.
'You're Watson,' said Quill. 'I'm Holmes. If I'd had a little more time...'
'But it was Doreen, there, who provided the hard evidence in the case,' John interrupted loudly.
'You did?' said Quill. 'Doreen, how clever of you!'
'That there Willy Max,' grumbled Doreen. 'I din't call him.'
'She got Dina to call the phone company and check the outgoing calls,' said Myles. 'Tracked the call to Rolling Moses to Mrs. Hallenbeck's room.'
'Old witch!' said Doreen. 'Lied and made me out a fool. Searched her room proper. Found the makin's of them stupid drinks Mavis liked.'
'The mint juleps?' said Quill. 'Of course! She fed them to Mavis before they walked down to the Pavilion.'
'Tied the glasses and the bottles up in a Baggie and turned them over to Davey,' said Myles. 'Andy Bishop had them tested for Seconal right there at the hospital. I sent the glasses on to the state lab for fingerprinting. I expect that both Mavis' and Mrs. Hallenbeck's will appear all over them.'
'So that's the link to the murder in the Pavilion,' said Meg.
'Only piece of hard evidence we have,' admitted Myles, 'and it's circumstantial. There was such confusion the day of the play that no one remembers seeing Mrs. Hallenbeck going around to the back of the shed, much less pulling the hood over Mavis' face.'
'Did she confess?' asked Meg.
Quill winced. Myles reached up and covered her hand with his. 'Yes. She did.'
'What'd she say?' Meg persisted.
Quill answered the question in Myles's eyes with a reluctant nod.
'There's nothing wrong with her intellect. That sets her apart from most murderers I've known.' He grimaced. 'Almost all of them are borderline intelligence. Of course, my experience has been with street crime. But she shares one characteristic with them. She's proud of the result. Confessions are easier than the public thinks. Most killers can't wait to tell you, once they know we know.'
'So she boasted about it?' said Doreen.
'She wouldn't talk to me with witnesses present and until she was sure I wasn't wired. When she knew, for certain, I couldn't do anything with the confession, she told me she'd decided to kill Mavis as soon as an opportunity presented itself - a decision she'd made before she met you, Quill. 'That first night, she and Mavis had planned an 'accident' on the balcony, and as we suspected, Mrs. Hallenbeck tried pushing Mavis over the edge. Mavis was a lot younger, and a lot tougher, and Mrs. Hallenbeck lost that round, as we know.
'After the rehearsal at the duck pond, she took a walk while the others were making plans for the dinner that evening, and removed the bolt from the front loader of Harland's tractor. 'No one really pays attention to the old,' she said. 'We're overlooked, ignored, discounted. I just took advantage of that.'
'She shrugged Gil's death off as an 'unfortunate circumstance.' She knew her next good opportunity would come at The Trial of Goody Martin. She poured doctored mint juleps into Mavis. When Harland came around to the front of the stage, she nipped around the back. Mavis was passed out on the sledge. She pulled the hood over her face, hid the dummy, and came around to the bandstand in the space of three minutes.'
'It was so chancey,' complained Meg.
'She said she'd try until she did it,' said Myles.
'That ought to help you sleep better, Quill,' said Meg. 'Good grief.'
'Pretty single-minded,' said John, 'But then, she always was.'
Quill sipped at her coffee and said nothing.
'She did give me enough evidence to convict Tom Peterson on several counts of Federal violations.' He looked at his watch. 'Couple of the boys should be pulling up to that warehouse now.'
'And Mrs. Hallenbeck?' said Quill. 'Where is she now?'
