A Parfait Crime by Maya Corrigan

Author:Maya Corrigan [Corrigan, Maya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Half an hour before the rehearsal was due to start, Val moved her car out of the driveway and parked it around the block so the Rilkes and the Dernes would have no reason to think she was in the house when they arrived. Granddad shooed her into the study and closed the blinds to block anyone on the street or the path to the house from seeing her. He also cracked open the door between the study and the sitting room.

While waiting for the early-bird cast members to arrive, Val printed recipes for various smoothies so she and Bethany would have them handy at the open house. Then she searched for information online about Nigel Derne. Not that she expected to find any mention of a CIA background. The only references she found were from recent years and related to his position on the county council. She couldn’t rule out that he had indeed been an intelligence officer.

When the doorbell rang, she closed the search window on the computer. She could hear Granddad, Millicent, and Cassandra talking in the sitting room.

“I’ll be in the kitchen finishing up the snacks for tea,” Granddad said. “Make yourself comfortable. If you need anything, give me a holler.”

“I’ll open the door for the others as they arrive,” Cassandra said.

Though Val couldn’t see into the sitting room, she pictured Millicent in Granddad’s chair, leafing through her notes, and Cassandra scrutinizing the bookshelves, as they had before other rehearsals.

The doorbell rang again a few minutes later. She heard Nanette’s and Nigel’s voices when they went into the sitting room.

Millicent greeted them and added, “I haven’t seen you two at the Village the last two days. Have you been away?”

Nanette said, “We visited my mother in Baltimore for her ninety-fifth birthday. We wanted her to move into the assisted-living part of the Village here, but her gerontologist says she’d find the change disruptive. He says people her age get disoriented when their surroundings change.”

“She’s happy where she is, Nanette,” Nigel said. “That’s what counts.”

“Did you get to see your daughter in Baltimore?” Cassandra’s words hung in the air for a while as if she’d asked an embarrassing question.

“Yes, we saw her, but sadly not our grandson.”

Remembering how emotional Nanette had been the last time she’d talked about her grandson, Val pictured the older woman holding back tears and clinging to her husband.

Millicent broke the silence that followed Nanette’s statement. “I hope you’ve changed your mind about going to the spa’s open house.”

“We have not.” Nanette now sounded combative. “You want to confront a killer? That’s your business—but remember what happened to Jane after she did that.”

“We don’t know who’s responsible for Jane’s death.” Nigel’s quiet, calm voice contrasted with his wife’s.

His comment got a rise out of Cassandra. “But we know who belongs in jail right beside Doctor Lazarin.”

Val jotted down Lazarin, her best guess at spelling the name she’d just heard. She missed the first part of Nigel’s response and strained to hear the rest because his voice was so low.

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