Pickled (An Alex Harris Mystery) by Elaine Macko

Author:Elaine Macko [Macko, Elaine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: An Alex Harris Mystery
Published: 2014-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 38

I felt an adrenaline rush. Had I just solved the crime? I thanked the gallery owner and headed back to the station, catching a return train by just a few minutes.

I still needed to talk with the lovely Suzanne, but I didn’t want to do that with Mr. Hildebrand around. I’d have to find her in Pirates Cove through the Internet or the good old phone book, and then I remembered I didn’t know her last name. Damn. I guess I could have Millie call the gallery on some pretense and ask for the names of the gallery owner and assistant.

I took off my coat and placed it on the seat next to me. As soon as the train started to move, I reran the conversation with Mr. Hildebrand in my head. Once a scam artist, always a scam artist? Or had the man truly been changed by his time in prison? I would imagine English prisons are no better than ones in American except maybe they have afternoon tea. I wondered if that included scones with clotted cream.

I only had the gallery owners word for it, but for some reason I believed him. If Humphrey hadn’t died, I’m not sure Mr. Hildebrand would have been able to hold out—not because he wanted to return to that life, but because so much was at stake—but Humphrey did die, leaving Mr. Hildebrand to continue on with his business. I was not so blind as to not see how very convenient Humphrey’s demise was for the gallery, but I still felt Mr. Hildebrand really did want to make a legitimate go of it here in the States and would have turned Humphrey away once again. But that left Suzanne. The gallery was presumably her life and main source of income as well. Was she the type to tell Humphrey to take a hike or would she have begged her lover to do what Humphrey wanted in an attempt to get rid of him? Given her personal relationship with Mr. Hildebrand, she probably held a certain amount of leverage over him and could bring him around to Humphrey’s demands. I definitely needed to have a talk with her and the sooner the better. With any luck, she would return to Pirates Cove tonight rather than stay in the city with Mr. Hildebrand at his loft. Maybe I could just hang around the train station this evening and see if she got off one of the commuters coming in from the city? But there had to be a better way to find out where she lived.

The train slowed and I got off and walked to my car. I pulled out my cell phone and found the business card Shirley had given me. She answered after a couple of rings and said she wasn’t home, but we could meet for a late lunch at a café in Westport. I told her I could be there in about twenty-five minutes and headed out.

The restaurant Shirley suggested was one of those new trendy places with a name derived from the street address.

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