Gingerbread Dead by Kirsten Weiss

Author:Kirsten Weiss [Kirsten Weiss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: misterio press
Published: 2022-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Hyperion emerged from the mist. He came to a halt beside me on the sidewalk outside Merry’s home. “Your turn.” Expression bleak, he nodded toward Baranko. The burly detective waited outside the fairytale home’s lead-glass windows, lit from within.

I studied my partner for a long moment, then nodded. Limbs heavy, I walked across the lawn to the house. Maybe it was the fog clutching its turrets. Maybe it was the sickening strobes of red and blue emergency lights across its front. Maybe it was just me, but the house now seemed a gothic nightmare.

Baranko glowered down at me. “You saw Mrs. Callum today?”

I hugged myself against the chill. Keep it brief and accurate. Don’t embellish. Don’t get defensive. “Yes, she came to the tearoom sometime between twelve-thirty and one. She left about thirty minutes later.”

“Did you speak?”

“A little.”

“How did she seem?”

“Tense. She told us her husband’s will or trust was confused. Mrs. Henderson was on the trust. Emery’s ex-wife was still a beneficiary on one of his brokerage accounts.”

“Was it a will or a trust?” he asked sharply.

I shifted my weight. The grass was damp, chilling my feet through the canvas shoes. “I think she said a trust.” But what did my opinion matter? He could find out easily enough on his own which it was.

“Was it a living trust?” he demanded. It wasn’t quite a shout, but his tone was enough to make me start. “In California,” he continued, “a will goes through probate. A living trust doesn’t. There’s a big difference. Which I’d think you’d know, since you were raised by a CPA. Don’t they deal with estate law?”

Heat flushed my face. Why was he taking this out of my hide? “Ask Merry...” I bit my bottom lip. He couldn’t ask her. Merry was dead.

My anger shifted to shame. “Her nephew, Gino Redmond, was helping her with the estate. He’d know the details.”

“And you know this because...?”

“Gino told me he was helping her. We’re dating.” Or we were. I glanced across the lawn at him, talking to a policewoman. I wasn’t so sure we were staying together after tonight.

“When you say she was upset, what do you mean?” the detective asked.

“Upset. Confused. Worried. Angry.”

“Depressed?”

“She lost her husband. Of course she was—” Don’t guess. “I don’t know.”

He grunted. The detective asked me more questions. It was clear he thought my responses were sub-par. Finally, he let me go.

I trudged across the lawn to a waiting Hyperion and Tony. The Texan adjusted his hat.

“How’d it go?” Hyperion asked.

I glanced over my shoulder at Gino, still talking to the cop. “He asked a lot about Merry’s state of mind.” I kicked a weed growing through the sidewalk crack. “I don’t know. I didn’t think she would do something like this.”

Hyperion’s head dropped. “Me neither,” he said in a quiet tone.

“I hate to bring this up now,” I said, “but it’s possible she didn’t commit suicide.”

“It’s also possible she did,” Hyperion said bitterly. “That Merry was more overwhelmed by the loss of her husband than I thought.

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