Arsenic in the Azaleas Read online

A lot of the downtown parking you had to pay for, unless it was on a weekend. Today was Thursday. So she parked for free down by the beach, hooked Mugs on his leash and proceeded to walk toward the business district. Several blocks later and around a corner, she found the small insurance company. She glanced up at the second floor to see the company name written on the window. Lifelong Insurance, Inc.

  “Yeah, it didn’t do him so well, did it?” she asked Mugs. “His lifelong ended up being a pretty darn lifeshort.”

  As the words fell off her lips, the door opened and out stepped a balding redheaded mailman with more freckles than she’d ever seen. A big bag over his shoulder, mail in his hand, he smiled at her and moved out of her way. “Sorry,” he said cheerfully and, with a jaunty step, headed down the sidewalk.

  She pulled open the door, and with Mugs at her heels, they climbed the stairs to the small office. Lifelong Insurance was on the right at the top of the stairs. No lights appeared to be on inside. She turned the handle and pushed, but the door was locked. No Closed sign was on the door though. She knocked several times, but there was no answer. Did James Farley own Lifelong Insurance? Was he the only employee?

  With those thoughts running through her mind, she slowly made her way back downstairs, stopping at the first landing. And came face-to-face with Mack, who was on his way up.

  She smiled. “Great minds think alike,” she said gaily.

  “What are you doing here?” His tone was much less than happy.

  She stuck out her chin. “I wanted to see if I could find some answers myself. I don’t want you thinking that Nan had anything to do with James’s murder. And I know I didn’t do it, so, therefore, somebody else did.”

  “Oh, no you don’t. I don’t want you nosing around, asking any questions,” Mack stated in an unequivocal term. “You leave that to the police.”

  She’d perfected a flat stare a long time ago. But it seemed to have no effect on him. She gave up and smiled sweetly instead. Nan had always said honey worked better than vinegar. “Obviously I don’t want to step on any of your toes. I just wanted to know where Farley worked.” She glanced over at the door above and behind her. “It’s his own business, is it not?”

  Mack nodded. “Yes, he’s the owner and operator of Lifelong Insurance.”

  “Right.” She was pleased to find that out on her own. She tossed him a bright smile. “Have fun.”

  He probably had the right to go inside the office, even if locked and vacant. She watched as he carried on up the stairs, unlocked the door and entered Farley’s office. Unable to help herself, she tiptoed back upstairs and stood in the open doorway. And cried out.

  Mack stood in the middle of the destroyed office and glared at her. “Don’t come in here.”

  Immediately she shook her head. “I won’t. I promise I won’t. But look what they did.”

  “They?” he asked, suspicion coloring in his tone.

  She glared at him. “What? I didn’t do it.”

  “Didn’t you? Funny how I just came in as you’re leaving.”

  She pointed at the doorknob. “It was locked, remember?”

  This time his smile was less than pleasant. “Easy to lock it if you had already unlocked it to get in.”

  She glared at him. “I had nothing to do with this.”

  “Good. Keep it that way.” He made a motion with his hand to shoo her out of the doorway. “I’ve a forensic team coming in here. Don’t touch anything, and stay out of the way.”

  She backed away but went to touch the door.

  “What did I just say?”

  She pulled her hand against her chest. “I tried to open it earlier. So my prints will be on the doorknob. And I knocked, so my knuckle prints are on the glass,” she added in a rush.

  He shook his head and glared. “Great. Now you mucked it up with your prints too.”

  She winced. “I’m sorry. It just never occurred to me that trying to talk to someone at an insurance company would cause trouble.”

  “That’s because you didn’t think. Everything regarding James Farley is now a police issue. Please go home. Let the police handle it before your prints are everywhere and cannot be ignored.”

  She sniffed, turned on her heels and slowly walked back down the stairs. Trouble was, Mugs didn’t want to go. He stared at the top of the stairs, and short of dragging him all the way down, he wasn’t interested in leaving the office. Groaning, she stepped up a couple risers and said, “Mugs, what’s wrong with you?”

  “What’s going on?” Mack asked from the doorway.

  “I don’t know. I just asked him that,” she said in frustration, glaring at Mack. “He doesn’t want to leave.”

  Mack walked over, and in a mood completely opposite to the cold, irate cop from seconds earlier, he bent and scratched Mugs behind the ear. Mugs wagged his tail, sniffing all over Mack’s shoes. While Mack was busy scratching the dog, she hadn’t been paying attention, so when Mugs tugged on his leash, it fell from her fingers and he darted right between Mack’s legs. Right inside the insurance office.

  “Oh, no,” she cried out. “We have to get him.” She darted around Mack, dashing into the office.

  Mack was on her heels.

  Inside the office, she stopped and stared. There was no sign of the dog. She spun on her heels and cried out, “Where is he?” Turning back to the trashed floor, she called out, “Mugs! Mugs, come on, boy. Where are you?”

  No answer came.

  Mack searched the other rooms. She followed. There was a single small office, a bigger office and a private one that looked like another small office in the back. By the time they made their way to the bathroom and the storeroom, she found the office was larger than she’d initially thought, deeming it just one of those tiny seedy-looking single rooms with a bathroom. But it was set up to hold five to six staff offices.

  Only there was still no sign of Mugs. “Where could he be?”

  Behind her was a muffled bark. She spun around to see Mugs underneath a large boardroom table, but with all the chairs pulled up around it, she couldn’t see him there. She pulled out a couple chairs to find Mugs lying on his belly, panting. A mess of papers was on the floor in front of him. She grabbed his leash and tugged, but he wouldn’t move. He stretched his neck forward and barked at the papers.

  “No, Mugs, you can’t have those papers. I know you love to rip apart paper, but you can’t have these papers.”

  Instead of listening to her, he lunged for a big stack, growled and backed up under the table. Mack grabbed the leash and brought Mugs out from underneath. By then Mugs had a mouthful of paperwork.

  She gently opened his jaw, telling him, “Who’s a good boy, Mugs? I promise I’ll find you a newspaper at home. You can rip that up.”

  He gave her one of those hangdog looks, as if to say, “Sure you will.”

  “Wait.” Mack dropped to his knees beside the dog. Using a pressure point in the back of the dog’s jaw, Mack forced Mugs’s mouth open. The stack of papers dropped. Mack snatched them up but not before she saw the top page.

  “That’s got Nan’s name on it.”

  “Yes, it does.” He patted Mugs. “Thanks, Mugs. This is a great lead.”

  Chapter 14

  Doreen moved closer to read more, but Mack removed the papers from her sight.

  He glared at her. “Official police business, remember?”

  She shoved her chin out front and forward. “Official family business, remember?”

  He chuckled. “You’ve got a point.” He laid the papers on the table, and together they searched through them for Nan’s name.

  Doreen tapped three different sheets. “These relate to Nan.”

  Mack pushed the first one off to the side. “This is her personal history, medical, etc. You always get that done when you make an insurance claim or when buying insurance coverage. This one appears to be his notes about Nan’s family history. Your name is on it too.” He tapped the center of the page.

 
She peered closer, and there was her name. She tapped the mention with her fingernail.

  He set those two sheets beside each other, then pulled out the third one and studied it. “And this is a copy of a life insurance policy on Nan… until she reaches age 95.”

  Doreen focused on it and snatched it from his fingers. “Why would she do that?” She studied the document. “This is for half a million dollars!”

  “Yes, but this was taken out a long time ago. And it’s not from Lifelong Insurance. So he found an insurance company that had a policy for Nan. And it lists you as the sole beneficiary.”

  She stared at him. “Does this mean it’s still in effect?”

  He turned his gaze from the paper to her. “It appears to be. You didn’t know anything about it?” he asked curiously.

  She shook her head. “No. I had no idea.” She stared at the paper in wonder. “She had no money. This must be important to her.”

  “Do you know for sure she had no money?” Mack asked delicately. “Because, many times, older people just can’t spend their money or don’t feel like they should spend it or aren’t interested in spending money. They like the comfort of all the old things they have around them.”

  She pulled out a chair and sat down hard. “I honestly don’t know. And I feel very invasive having that conversation with her. She used to travel a lot when she was younger. Then she stopped. I figured it was because the money ran out. Plus, look at her run-down house and gardens. If she had money, wouldn’t she have renovated her house and the yards?” Doreen shook her head. “I’ve never asked Nan for any money or for anything else for that matter. I thought she was broke. Why buy a life insurance policy?” she muttered under her breath. “I always thought they were just scams.”

  “Lots of people believe the whole life policies are, and yet, lots of other people believe the term life policies are a good investment. Plus these term policies are the cheapest, so it may not be the hardship on Nan that you think. Then there are equity insurances and too many other combinations to list.”

  “How can it be a good investment if it only pays off after you die?”

  “So true.” He laughed. “But it also goes to show you that Nan loves you.”

  What a lovely thought. She stared at the sheet of paper and thought about how much her husband didn’t love her and then thought about how Nan was in the background doing something like this for Doreen. And never telling her. “I’d never have known about this if I hadn’t come here.”

  “Maybe it’s not a good thing for you to know.” He shuffled the rest of the papers. “If she runs out of money and can’t maintain this, then you might have the expectation of money when she dies, but it won’t be there.”

  “If she needs the money, I’d be happy for her to cancel it. She doesn’t get any money back, does she?”

  “Not on a strictly term policy. Not any way of knowing that without reading the policy. Some of them are structured differently.”

  “My soon-to-be-ex-husband is paying for one on me. I didn’t know about it until he flung that information at me during a fight in our last year. It still makes me cringe, even after the first few months of our separation. Just the thought that maybe he’d knock me off somewhere. But, since I wasn’t the one paying the premiums, I didn’t have a copy. So I have no idea what the details are.”

  He shook his head. “You have every right to go to the insurance company and say you fear for your life, and you want the policy canceled. I don’t know what they’d say, but, if you are seriously worried, then you should do something about it.”

  “And that’ll likely involve a lawyer or cops. And lawyers are not people I trust.” She forgot who she was talking to.

  He straightened and focused on her again. “Lawyers get a bum rap. But they are not all bad.”

  Her gaze went flat, and she stared at him. “My lawyer completely screwed me over on the separation and upcoming divorce and is now my husband’s current fiancée. According to her, I wasn’t entitled to anything. And I, fool that I am, believed her.”

  He stared at her. “Oh, shit.”

  “Oh, shit, indeed.” She turned her focus to the papers atop the table. “Are you taking these? What about the stuff on the floor?”

  “I need to spend a few hours going over some of these papers. It’s hard to know exactly what’s been going on here, but with the vandalism, I have to consider somebody was looking for something.”

  “How can you tell if they found it?”

  He shook his head. “With a mess like this? The only person who knew for sure is dead. So likely we’ll never know.”

  For her that wasn’t good enough. She needed answers, not more questions. “It doesn’t make any sense that he’d have copies of Nan’s old insurance papers. If he was trying to sell her insurance, he would know she wouldn’t need another policy.”

  “Perhaps he was hoping to get her to transfer it or to create a new policy or to sell her something else.”

  “That’s possible. I don’t know what Nan is like with business. She always kept that to herself. In fact, I can’t ever remember her talking about money.”

  “Is that why you believe she doesn’t have any?”

  “Yes, plus everything in the house is in disrepair and seriously in need of updating. Lots of canned food but no fresh food or new furniture and the bed…” She closed her eyes, a shudder rippling down her spine at the reminder of the night. “That bed is something else.”

  “Maybe she has many happy memories of all that furniture. The house is worth a fair bit. It’s in a nice little area. The whole of the Mission has skyrocketed in real estate prices. She could’ve sold her home at any point in time if she needed to. Instead, she gave it to you. That, in itself, means she obviously felt she had enough for her own needs without selling it.”

  She stared out the window. The Okanagan area—including a lake, a valley and a river—was well known for its resort-like location and balmy weather almost every day of the year. And, true to form, a blue sky and sunshine were out there today.

  The talk of her grandmother made her homesick to see her again. She’d stop off on her way home for a visit. Maybe she’d bring up this insurance policy.

  “Was it that tough?” Mack asked, pulling her back to the conversation.

  “Between my husband and my lawyer, I get nothing.” She said it in a brisk tone, hating to let him know just where she was at financially. But there was no point in putting on airs that she was anything but completely destitute. “My lawyer explained how I had signed all my rights away.”

  “How long were you married?”

  She looked at him. “Fourteen years. I helped him build his business, clear off his debts, yet somehow ended up with nothing.”

  “How long have you been separated? Have you actually divorced yet?”

  She frowned. “Separated for months, almost six now. He told me right before the holidays. And, no, we can’t file the divorce papers until one continuous year of separation later, but I’ve already signed everything. I just didn’t realize I had other options when I was signing. Obviously. I let my lawyer handle it. But, of course, I didn’t know my lawyer was on my husband’s payroll and had screwed me over.” Her laugh was bitter. “And apparently screwing him at the same time.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even think things like that could happen.” She turned and strode from the room. “Believe me. Some lessons you just can’t walk away from.”

  “But there might be something you can do about it.”

  She froze, turned and looked at him. “And just what would that be?”

  “You could see another lawyer. Yours obviously did not have her client’s best interests in mind.”

  “She only had her own interests in mind. And a lawyer means more money. Remember that part about being cleaned out and not having anything?”

  “Another reason to have the garage sale.”

  Doreen shook her head. “I’m buying a bed first. Everything else w
ill have to wait.” She picked up Mugs’s leash. “Come on, Mugs. We’ve had enough of a bad trip down memory lane for today. Let’s stop at Nan’s and see if we can find a little sunshine in her life today.”

  “And consider letting me and my brother take a look into that separation agreement before the divorce goes through,” he said. “My brother is a practicing lawyer, and he’s a good, fair man.”

  She looked over her shoulder at him. “I don’t have any money, so your offer, although generous, still requires some form of payment. I don’t have anything to give. Maybe later.” She nodded at the forms on the table. “I’ll ask Nan about James and the insurance policy. Maybe she can shed some light on this.” She headed down the stairs.

  When she got to the front door, Mack called out to her. “You didn’t even ask how much he’d charge.”

  She looked up the stairs to where he stood. “Doesn’t matter. My last one got every drop of money out of me. So it doesn’t matter how much he charges. Even your idea of a garage sale, if I pull that off, is only a one-time thing. I need money coming in monthly. If I don’t find a job soon, I’ll be heading to the food bank.” She turned and walked out.

  As the door slammed behind her, she smiled. There was something freeing about stating the truth about her current situation.

  Instead of depressing her, the action made her feel better. If there was one sentiment Nan had impressed on Doreen repeatedly throughout the years it was, When you’re down, look up. That’s the only place left to go.

  She glanced up at the bright blue sky and the sunshine beaming across the small town. “You know? I’ll be totally happy to go up for a change. Being down really sucks.”

  She walked to her car, loaded Mugs into the back seat and went around to the driver’s side. She closed the door and buckled up her seat belt to find Mack standing at the front of the car. She rolled down the window and called out, “Now what? Did you find something?”

  “You mean, besides a very frustrating, irritating woman?” he asked. “No.”

  She glared at him. “Then what do you want?”