“I’m going to call Wolf.” I pulled out my phone and pressed his number on the keypad.
He answered right away.
“I think Abby may have left a message.”
“Like a note? You’re just now finding it?”
“It’s complicated. I think you should see it.”
“I’ll be by shortly.”
I cleaned up the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. When he didn’t show up right away, I busied myself by creating an apple tart using store-bought puff pastry. While it baked, I whipped sweetened cream to spoon on top of each slice.
Mars sat at the banquette, concentrating on a computer search.
Wolf arrived just as I was taking the tart out of the oven. He took a deep breath. “I smell cinnamon.”
“You’ve timed your visit perfectly,” I said, getting out vintage dessert plates and matching coffee cups, which were white in the center with a scalloped blue edge.
I placed a slice on each plate, poured the coffee, and brought it all to the table with a bowl of sweetened whipped cream. I added napkins, dessert forks, spoons, cream, and sugar.
“It’s not often I receive this kind of service when investigating a murder,” said Wolf.
“I’m surprised you came at all after Sophie’s ill-thought-out request to check the blood in Abby’s house against Charlene’s blood,” said Mars.
I sat down to join them.
Wolf’s mouth twisted to the side. “Turns out I may have been hasty about that. We did the comparison in a four-hour DNA tester that we’re trying out, and Sophie was right. They’re a match. Unless Charlene bled at Abby’s house some other time, it’s likely she was present when Mia was murdered.”
Mars’s eyes met mine.
“Do you think Charlene murdered Mia?” I was having trouble wrapping my head around that development.
“Last night your theory was that Fred Conway beat up Charlene and that Abby is in hiding.” Mars ate a bite of the tart.
“To be honest, it complicates matters.” Wolf held his coffee cup and looked at me. “Where’s this message you found from Abby?”
Mars and I showed him the codes Abby had written and explained how they worked. “And it spells out Peyton Poulon, who was kidnapped at age two while she was in Abby’s care.”
Mars opened his laptop and turned it so Wolf could see the screen.
Wolf laid his fork on his dessert plate. Silently, he read the brief articles about Abby being arrested and released. He ate the rest of his apple tart and gulped coffee.
His phone buzzed. He glanced at it and grinned. “There are a lot of sleuths in your neighborhood.”
“Nina or Francie?” I asked.
“Both.” Wolf looked from me to Mars. “Think you two can keep this under your hats for the time being? If, and I emphasize if, Abby discovered Peyton and her kidnapper living among us, we don’t want said kidnapper to find out and bolt. And there’s the issue of the kid finding out. We would need a DNA confirmation and a psychologist to break the news to her. This isn’t something we can blab about. Understood?”
Mars held his palms up in the air. “No problem here.”
“Sophie?” asked Wolf.
“Of course. The kidnapper did a great job staying under the radar for thirteen years. We don’t want that to happen again.”
“I’m sorry to run, but I need to check out a few things and I have to stop by Francie’s place. Good work, you two!” He rose from his chair. “Thanks for lunch.”
He wasn’t looking as tired anymore. Peyton Poulon, whoever she was, had invigorated him. “Do you think they would mind if I came with you?” I asked.
“Probably not. It’s something about a suitcase.”
We left Mars in the kitchen and departed through the French doors in my living room. Outside, we used the gate in the fence that surrounded my house.
Francie opened the kitchen door, where we found Benton Bergeron looking bereft.
He sat at the farmhouse-style table between Eunice and Sam. The suitcase lay on top of the table, open wide so the contents could be seen.
Eunice introduced Sam to Wolf. I hung back, staying quiet so I wouldn’t interfere.
Benton said bluntly, “It’s hers. There’s no question.”
Wolf eyed the clothes. “How do you know?”
“I recognize some of the contents. And I carried this suitcase for Abby many times. The silk scarf was a birthday gift from me several years ago.”
Eunice reached over and clutched Benton’s hand. “I’m sorry, Benton.”
“Sorry for what?” asked Wolf.
I was surprised by his question. Didn’t the suitcase in the water confirm that something terrible must have happened to Abby?
Benton licked his lips. “It’s not good news in any event. Either Abby threw her suitcase in the river or someone else did. Either way, it won’t end well.”
“Why would Abby throw her suitcase in the river?” asked Francie.
Wolf remained mum. I thought he was watching Benton.
Sam finally said, “Perhaps it’s not as ominous as you think. She might have meant to throw us off. To make it look like someone else did it so she could start a new life and we would all assume that she was deceased.”
A tragic silence filled the room.
I tried to break the gloom by asking a question that had been on my mind. “Benton, Tilly told me that she overheard Abby asking if ‘the squirrel had landed’ on a phone call. Does that mean anything to you?”
He bowed his head for a couple of minutes as if he was composing himself. “She was talking to me. It was a silly joke between the two of us. We watched a movie once where someone used the line ‘the eagle has landed’ and we laughed about it. We thought in our lives it would have been a squirrel. It was just a silly thing we said. My nephew had returned from a math competition in Florida. So in this case, he was the squirrel who was back home.”
Wolf excused himself to make a phone call. He returned quickly. “Please refrain from touching the suitcase or its contents. A crime scene investigator will be by this afternoon to collect it. Thank you for assisting us in this case. I’m glad you didn’t throw the suitcase out, Sam. Good call.”
I left with Wolf through Francie’s front door. He was solemn as we stepped outside. Just before I turned left to my house, Wolf said, “Be careful, Sophie. Someone went to great lengths to prevent us from knowing about Peyton.”
He was right. Just because we had unraveled Abby’s message didn’t mean we should let our guard down. When I walked into my kitchen, the dishes had been washed and put away, and Daisy pranced around me, letting me know that she was due for a walk. I grabbed the halter and was in the process of fastening it when Mars whooped from the den.
Daisy and I flew in to see what was going on.
Mars was grinning ear to ear. Mochie, who was curled up next to him on the sofa, had opened one eye.
“I found the connection between Jericho and Wesley. It took a little digging, but I’m onto something now.”
“Does it involve Peyton?”
“No.” He scowled at me like I had ruined his fun. “But they went to the same college at the same time and they were fraternity brothers.”