Odelia and Chase had entered the room, and bent over Henry to study the man. Odelia then glanced down at us, then at the door, and gave us a wink.“I should have known I’d find you here,” she said.
“We didn’t do it,” Dooley was quick to say.
“Do what? According to the doctor he died of natural causes,” said Odelia.
“The members of the murder club think he was murdered,” said Dooley.
“Murder club? What’s a murder club?” asked Odelia.
But Brian walked in and that was the end of our conversation. He was followed by Abe Cornwall, the county coroner, whose presence Brian didn’t seem to enjoy.
“What’s he doing here?” he asked. “I thought this was simply a routine visit?”
“Just making sure everything is on the up and up,” said Abe, not bothered in the slightest by Brian’s attitude. “Now where’s the stiff?”
And while Abe did his thing, Odelia and Chase quickly checked Henry’s room, opening drawers and cupboards here and there, much to Brian’s visible annoyance.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “Why are you here? And why are you rifling through Mr. Kaur’s things?”
“Like I said, just making sure everything is in order,” said Chase curtly.
“I think Odelia told Chase about Kirsten’s mom’s complaint,” said Harriet. “And so when they heard Henry died, they figured there might be something fishy going on.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said. Though if the doctor had declared the man’s passing death by natural causes, there wasn’t much they could do here. People did die in their sleep all the time, and there was nothing suspicious about that.
“Better take a look at this,” Chase grunted. He and Odelia had both donned plastic gloves and Chase was now holding up a letter.
“What’s that?” asked Brian nervously. “What did you find?”
“Can you please wait outside, sir?” asked Chase. “Thank you.”
Brian was quietly fuming as he left the room, but still did as he was told. On his way out, he caught sight of the four of us, and frowned in confusion. He probably thought he was seeing things. And he did see things: four cats everywhere he looked. Sneaking into his office, watching him through his window, and now sitting there, cool as dammit, while the police were rifling through a dead man’s things.
Odelia was frowning, then when she saw that Brian had left, and that Abe was busy with Henry, crouched down and whispered,“Henry’s will. He left everything to Desmond Palka.”
“Desmond!” cried Harriet. “But that’s impossible!”
“Well, it looks as if it’s very much possible. It says so right there in black and white.” She got up again, and continued her perusal of the deceased man’s things.
“Why leave everything to Desmond?” asked Brutus. “I didn’t even think Henry and Desmond got along very well.”
“The last time we saw them together they certainly didn’t get along,” I said. “But of course we don’t know when this will was made up. Maybe they used to get on fine, until Desmond started hitting on Kirsten, and that must have got Henry very upset.”
“Maybe it’s an old will,” Brutus agreed. “And Henry was going to change it to favor someone else, but died before he had the chance.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions here,” said Harriet. “We don’t know a lot at this point, and already we’re speculating about what must have happened. Let’s keep an open mind, you guys, and wait until all the facts are in.”
Wise words, I thought. And not just in this case but in all cases.
Abe now rose from his examination of the victim.“Looks like our boy died in his sleep,” he said, pushing his glasses up his bulbous nose. “Between two and three last night I’d say. No obvious signs of foul play, but I’d have to get him on my slab to tell you more.”
“Are you sure you need to do an autopsy?” asked Odelia. “Only if it’s natural causes…”
“You said yourself that his death is awfully suspicious,” Chase pointed out. “So let’s have Abe do the autopsy so we can rule out murder.”
“Yeah, I guess,” said Odelia.
“Okay, I’ll call in my team, shall I?” said Abe. He cocked an eye at Chase. “And I can rely on you to keep this busybody off my back? This Brian fella?”
“Of course,” said Chase. “You do what you think needs to be done, and I’ll square things with Mr. Brooks.”
And that’s how the investigation began: inauspicious and tentative.
27
When we told Gran that Henry had left everything to Desmond, she thought this was so suspicious that she and Scarlett promptly decided to join Liz’s murder club and investigate Henry’s death!
“That’s too much of a coincidence,” she told Scarlett. “Desmond was here last night, we know that for a fact, and as a certified nursing assistant he probably knows how to kill a person without making it look like murder.”
“And so what? He faked that will?” asked Scarlett.