A Star-Spangled Murder Read online

  “You know about Humphrey …” Ted began in the ensuing silence.

  Susan nodded. “That he’s dead. And that he died five years ago. Right?”

  Ted Taylor looked down into the surprised faces of his daughters and began his tale. “It’s a long story, but I guess everyone here has the right to hear it from the beginning.” He took a deep breath and started. “Humphrey was my older brother—my only brother. There were just the two of us. When my parents died in an automobile accident, all the money in their estate went to Humphrey. It was assumed that he would help me out when I needed it—or divide up the money in some way that was agreeable to both of us. We were very close as children, and Humphrey had always taken care of me. Under the circumstances, it was the logical way for my parents to deal with their estate.

  “At the time of my parents’ deaths, Humphrey was involved in an important project in the Mideast and couldn’t get home. I saw to all the details of the funeral service. Then I flew out to Egypt, with a briefcase full of papers from my parents’ attorney for him to sign.

  “We hadn’t seen each other in years. Humphrey wasn’t particularly close to my parents. Even as a child, he’d been extremely independent. But I’d always loved him and looked up to him. And after the papers were signed, we settled down for a nice visit. Only—” he looked at his daughters and continued more slowly “—something dreadful happened. We were coming home from a restaurant one night, returning to my brother’s apartment, when … when there was a terrible accident. A car jumped the curb, hit two pedestrians on the walkway, then sped off. One of the injured was a young man, a native, who got up, dusted himself off, and vanished into the night. My brother was the other—and he was killed instantly.

  “I was frantic. I was in a foreign country, a country not on especially friendly terms with the United States. There was no one to help me. So when a man who claimed to be a friend of my brother suggested that we bury Humphrey quietly, privately, that we should allow his death to go unrecorded and that I should leave the country as soon as possible, I agreed. You have to remember that I was very aware that we were in a part of the world where my own country’s influence was limited. In a state where I could be locked in a prison under false pretenses and never be seen again. Humphrey and I had been talking about that the night before he died. I thought … I thought I had no choice. I did what was suggested.”

  “You did the right thing.” Titania spoke up in a firm little voice.

  “I did the wrong thing, honeybunch,” he answered. “And I’ve paid for it.”

  “But the money. It was yours,” Susan said.

  “Yes. I didn’t have to wait or tell anyone that Humphrey was dead to get hold of my parents’ estate. Humphrey had signed papers before he died that very generously offered me as much of the estate as I wanted, whenever I wanted it. Humphrey had no family, and his business was doing very well. The money was mine—whether he was dead or alive.”

  “Lucky you.” Judy Briane slurred her words.

  “But you didn’t spend it right away,” Susan suggested, ignoring the woman.

  “No. I was terribly upset, as you can imagine, and I just didn’t want to think about it. And I didn’t—not for years. I put the money in the bank and tried to pretend it wasn’t there. Sometimes I’d dream about what had happened and wake up wondering if the whole thing was real or not. And sometimes Trish would mention the money … but most of the time I was able to forget that it existed,” he added quickly. “And then I found this land and decided to build my house. Building that house had always been a dream of mine.” He looked down at his daughters, patting Tierney on the head. “And I guess I used the fact that you girls were growing up and I wanted to give you summer vacations that you would always remember to get what I wanted for myself.…” He stopped speaking and looked away from his family.

  “So you decided to use that money to buy the land and build your house,” Susan prompted.

  “Yes. There was nothing illegal about it. The money was mine absolutely. Morally … Well, that’s another story. I felt guilty about my brother—the way I had buried him anonymously, the way I had ended up with my parent’s estate. I think my guilt was the reason that it was so easy for me to be blackmailed.…”

  “By the man that we’ve all been accepting as Humphrey Taylor …”

  “Yes. He appeared right after the work was begun on the house’s roof—right before the bad weather came last fall. I still don’t know how he found out about Humphrey. We got a letter in the mail—from Egypt—and it spelled out a list of conditions—mainly that he wanted to be accepted as Humphrey Taylor and to share in the inheritance, otherwise he would reveal the truth about my brother’s death. And, of course, he claimed that I had killed Humphrey.

  “I didn’t know what to do. I thought about calling the police. I knew we shouldn’t accept his demands, but—” he stopped and looked down at his daughters, seeming to get the courage to go on from their presence “—I couldn’t prove what had happened to Humphrey. And I have no idea what happened to the man who helped me bury Humphrey. I was stumped.

  “Tricia thought we should go along with the charade. Just until we met this man, was what she said at the time. She said it was for the good of the girls, and she reminded me that I was building the house for them. I … I think she was wrong, but she was trying to do the right thing. And I’m not blaming her; it was my decision,” he added more forcefully. “I agreed to let this impostor into our lives because I didn’t want to give up the house I was building, and that’s all there was to it.”

  “And then your wife fell in love with this man?” Janet Shapiro asked.

  “I don’t know that Trish was in love with him. Trish was so selfish, so self-centered, that she may not have been capable of love. I think she saw marriage to the impostor as a way to get her hands on my parents’ estate—to spend it any way she wanted. Our marriage had been in trouble for some time—and it was mainly my fault. I had been so depressed after my parents and Humphrey died that I was almost impossible to live with. And, in truth, Trish and I had always had problems. We wanted to live different life-styles. Trish wanted to be part of society, to travel and see the world. And I, of course, wanted to be at home in the houses that I built. The fact that Tricia and I didn’t agree about this crisis was sort of the last straw. She was fed up with me and our marriage, and she was ready to do something else with her life.”

  “Did you know that she was planning to marry the fake Humphrey when you two decided to get a divorce?” Ryan Harter asked him.

  “His name was Arthur Deed,” Ted explained. “I don’t know much about him, but he did tell us that much. And no, I was as surprised as anyone at her marriage. In fact, I might not have agreed to the divorce if I had known that was coming. I would have wanted to spare my girls that man for a stepfather. But I couldn’t. So there I was, with that man living in my house, with my wife and, worst of all, with my daughters.”

  “So you killed him.” Judy Briane spoke matter-of-factly.

  “No. I didn’t kill him. I wanted to, but I didn’t.”

  “But you need to tell us something else,” Susan insisted. “You have to explain why you invited the Brianes and the Harters to the island. Both Paul and Ryan said the invitation came from you, not Trish. That is right, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. Tricia was worried that someone would realize that Humphrey wasn’t exactly like he had been. Not that there was much risk that anyone would recognize him as an impostor. Being five years apart in age, we didn’t have many friends in common when I was growing up. My parents’ friends are all dead or living someplace where they weren’t likely to meet Arthur Deed impersonating my brother. But, of course, Paul had known Humphrey well, and Sally had met him a few times. And, more significantly, they were both going to be seeing the new Humphrey a lot. Sally because, due to her husband’s job change, she was moving to Boston, and Paul because he was opening a clinic nearby. This holiday week was to be a test
to see if the new Humphrey would pass. And he did—except for you,” he added, looking at Susan. “You were suspicious, but I sure don’t know why.”

  “Because of Karma,” Susan explained, as the dog peeked around the corner of the couch at the sound of her name. “Paul kept telling this story of camping with a wet dog, and even your mantel has a carving of you, your brother, and your dog. But Titania said that Humphrey was terribly allergic to Karma. She even thought that you had given her the dog to irritate Humphrey’s allergies. It struck me as unusual that he would have changed so much from child to adult. Most adults with terrible allergies have some sign of them as children. And, in fact, Tricia said that Humphrey (or Arthur Deed pretending to be your brother) had said that he had suffered from terrible asthma since birth. The two stories didn’t fit, and the only explanation was that there were two different men. Judy complained that Humphrey had lived in exciting, glamorous parts of the world, but all he would talk about was growing up with Ted, probably because he had never lived in the Mideast. But he made a mistake when he told Tricia too much about his own childhood,” Susan explained. “The other reason is that I knew a little more about Arthur Deed than you do. I knew that he had spent time on the island before. You see, there’s a picture of him on the wall of my house. He had stayed in the house as a renter. And he knew about the picture.”

  “I tried to find that,” Titania said. “I looked and I looked—I even thought there might be something in all those photos at the island historical society exhibit, but it wasn’t open yesterday.”

  “The photograph is in the wooden trunk on the front seat of my car—the one Theresa and Tierney knelt on during the parade. How did you know about it?”

  “I heard Uncle …”

  “Don’t worry about what you call him,” her father suggested. “It doesn’t matter now.”

  “Well, a few days ago, I overheard that man talking to someone. I didn’t know who,” she added, glancing around the room. “And he was saying that the truth was going to be discovered if anyone saw that picture of him in the house—and that would ruin him. I didn’t think much about it until he was killed, and I began to think that whatever he had been talking about might be important. But I didn’t connect it with this house. I just assumed it had something to do with our house—with the mantel. I looked and looked at that thing, but it didn’t make any sense.”

  “A lot of people were looking for that picture. I think Tricia even realized that it might be at this house—that’s why she was wandering around in the middle of the night, trying to break in when Halsey tripped over her,” Susan suggested.

  Titania nodded. “I guess that might be who that man was talking to,” she continued reluctantly. “Then yesterday, I remembered the photographs that Halsey had told me she was going to help Mrs. Henshaw put up on the walls, and I realized that Uncle Humphrey might not have been talking about the mantel, and that’s why I asked Nathan to bring me here. I had explored most of the house before you came up, and I had seen those photographs in the attic. I’d even looked at some of them, thinking about what funny clothing people used to wear, but I didn’t recognize anyone.…” She looked at Susan. “I still don’t know how you knew I’d been here after the parade, though.”

  “Because you brought your shadow,” Susan said. “And she left some of her fur behind.”

  “What I don’t understand is what Mr. Briane has to do with all this,” Tierney said.

  “I think,” Titania said slowly, “that he was in love with Mommy.”

  “I think so, too,” Susan agreed.

  “So Paul Briane killed Humphrey?” Halsey asked, sounding excited at the discovery. “Of course—he did it because he was in love with Tricia Taylor, right?”

  Theresa looked up at her father. “Is that what happened?”

  “I think it would explain the gunshots at the kayak race,” Sally Ryan said slowly. “Judy was the target, wasn’t she?”

  Everyone in the room looked at Judy Briane, who was napping, a tiny line of drool dripping down her chin.

  “Probably,” Susan said, getting up to fetch a doughnut. Karma hurried to the table, hoping for a crumb or two, which she decided to retrieve by tugging on the tablecloth. Halsey rescued one of the platters. Janet rushed to keep the orange juice from spilling, and succeeded only in soaking herself.

  “Maybe you and your sisters could take Karma down to the cove now that you know who the murderer is,” Ted suggested.

  “Okay,” Titania agreed, but Susan noticed that she had a puzzled look on her face. “Come on, Karma.”

  “What I don’t understand,” Halsey began as they heard the girls step off the porch, “is why Paul Briane would try to kill his wife—or why he would kill the man pretending to be Humphrey Taylor. Couldn’t Tricia get another divorce? Or couldn’t Tricia and Paul just live together without getting two divorces?”

  “Yes,” Ted agreed, speaking very quietly. “But it wasn’t Paul who killed Humphrey or who shot at his wife. It was Tricia, wasn’t it?” he asked Susan.

  She had walked to the window and saw that the girls were out of hearing range before she answered. “Yes. But maybe it really isn’t necessary for your daughters to know.”

  “You’re right. Thanks,” he added quietly. “She always was greedy. Always wanted everything. But how did you figure it out?”

  “It was the only conclusion that made sense. The only person who had a lot to gain was Trish. And she manipulated the situation from the beginning to the end trying to gain everything.

  “I think the story goes something like this. Your parents and Humphrey died around the same time—five years ago. And that’s also the time that Paul Briane came back into your life. You admitted that you were devastated at the time. So it isn’t surprising that you didn’t notice when your wife became involved with your old friend. She was probably disappointed that you weren’t going to use your parents’ estate to provide her with the life that she desired, and Paul Briane’s business was beginning to grow.… She was very, very vulnerable.”

  “And then, when Arthur Deed appeared—” Kathleen began.

  “I’ve been giving this a whole lot of thought, and I don’t think Arthur Deed’s appearance was a surprise for Tricia,” Ted Taylor interrupted her.

  Susan nodded. “I’d have to agree with you,” she said to him. “This whole thing must have been set up by Tricia. I don’t suppose we’ll ever find out how she ran into Arthur Deed or how she talked him into posing as a dead man and taking part in her blackmail scheme. She may have promised him half of her divorce settlement or she may have convinced him that she was in love with him. But it’s obvious that she prompted Arthur Deed about the details of Ted’s childhood and then insisted on inviting the Brianes and the Harters here to Maine to see if he could fool people who had known Humphrey as a young man. It must have shocked Arthur Deed to discover that he was now living with his new wife on a cove where he had stayed as a young man, but he had a job to do convincing the Brianes and the Harters that he was Humphrey, and he went ahead and did it.

  “It must have been a lot of work for everyone,” Susan continued, talking to Ted. “But to Tricia, it was worth it. She got the entire divorce settlement and both houses. And then she intended to get rid of Arthur Deed and run off with Paul Briane, a man she had been in love with for five years. All she had to do was push you into agreeing to accept Arthur Deed as your dead brother. And that was probably easier to do because you were so guilty about the way you had covered up Humphrey’s death in the first place.”

  “There are no excuses,” he said sadly.

  Susan agreed, but she didn’t say anything. “Trish married the man claiming to be Humphrey, and then after she had the house and all the money, she was going to kill the impostor and marry Paul.…”

  “And, just in case Paul wanted to stay married to his old wife, she’d kill her, too,” Kathleen added. “She shot at her, and Paul knew it.”

  “Yes,” Susan agreed
, looking at Ted Taylor. “But you suspected all this earlier, didn’t you? That’s why you were so relieved when I told you about Paul and Sally meeting in the middle of the night on the other side of the cove.”

  “Yes, but then I got to thinking.…”

  “And you realized that Tricia had driven in late that night and had immediately picked a loud fight with you—before she even got in the house. Right?”

  “Yes. It occurred to me later that she must have left Paul, driven around the cove, gotten home, and provoked that fight outside—so that you would hear it on your way back home. Right?”

  “I think so. And I’m afraid that it worked for a while. But then Janet was talking about how Paul could have kayaked back to the start of the race and run across the island to the yacht club, and it occurred to me that I was being stupid. It’s different traveling on land and on water. It was Tricia who was in love with Paul. It was Tricia who met him on the other side of the cove. I missed that completely.”

  “But a lot of things still don’t make any sense,” Kathleen began. “Are you saying that your house being half-open and half-closed by Burt Jamison had nothing at all to do with the murder?”

  “It had a lot to do with it. But we shouldn’t blame Burt. I think he did exactly what he was told to do, and the house should have been open and waiting for us when we arrived—and it would have been if Titania hadn’t half closed it up again and relocked the driveway. I should have suspected her earlier, of course. After all, she admitted to being in the house—it was logical that she would be the one person who knew that the key to the driveway was kept hanging on the wall. So she was the one person who would lock up the driveway—or unlock it later when she realized that she had inconvenienced us like she did.”

  “Why would she do that?” the girl’s father asked.

  “Because she was protecting Theresa. She thought that her sister was the murderer.”