Randal was reluctant to answer, but did. “I don’t know. I know that at first she stayed with her husband’s family in the house they owned together.” He raised his hand. “But I know nothing else. After a while, I quit keeping track of her.”
“That’s one person,” Jack said. “What about the others?”
“Billy said that Greer passed away,” Kate said sadly. “I remember her. She was odd, but I liked her a lot. She was my friend.”
“Odd enough to murder someone?” Sara asked.
“No,” Randal said quickly. “She was quite young, a teenager, and she lived with her grandmother. It was her first job out in the world. She wasn’t pretty and now that I think about it, she might have been autistic. Derek bullied her.”
“The more I hear about that man,” Sara said, “the more I dislike him.”
Randal nodded in agreement. “Maybe Billy knows where the family lived. Someone might know how to contact Reid.”
“What about Rachel?” Kate asked. “Should we just search all of Connecticut, as Billy suggested.”
“Billy’s lawyer brothers might know,” Sara said. “When I talk to them, I’ll ask.”
“You want to get permission to do this?” Kate asked.
“No,” Sara said. “I plan to hit them up for money.”
They looked at her in surprise.
“That place is a mess,” Sara said. “We can’t invite people to return when we don’t even know if the toilets are working. And what about sheets, and dishes, and all the furniture we’re going to need?”
“They won’t pay for that,” Randal said.
Sara gave a little smile. “They will if I tell them that if they don’t pay for it, I’ll make sure the house is held up in court as a murder scene. It’ll be years before they can sell it. And as Kate pointed out, was it legal for them to sell off pieces of land? And to denude the house of its contents? I bet there were some antiques in there. I’ll point out that if they pay, they’ll get the murder solved quietly and discreetly. And if Jack and his crew repair it at rock-bottom prices, maybe no one will mention what’s missing. It’s a win-win for them.”
Jack was the first to laugh. “I feel sorry for them. I hope they don’t argue too long so you don’t have to raise the price.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Sara said.
“Dora!” Kate said. “She has cleaning friends who have retired. I bet they’d like a special job.”
For a moment they all thought of the big house in Southwest Ranches, where Dora lived. It was inhabited by people they’d met while solving crimes. Ava was back in Chicago with her brothers, while Everett and Arthur were in Arizona researching their next murder mystery. Only Dora and Lenny were there now.
“What about Lenny?” Sara asked. “He could use a job.”
“He’d scare people,” Jack said. Lenny had a deep scar across the side of his head from a gunshot he’d survived. It had been remarked more than once that Lenny could play the villain in a horror movie.
“Did you know that he can cook?” Randal was a champion of people who were down-and-out. “Billy had caterers but I had to make midnight sandwiches and scramble eggs at 5:00 a.m. Lenny could do that.”
“That leaves us with The Lady herself,” Jack said. “Miss Adair.”
“My L.A. agent can contact her,” Sara said. “I can’t imagine that she’ll come.”
They turned to Randal as though to ask him if she would.
“Don’t look at me. She was a nobody back then. Married to a big deal producer, who she left at home.”
“Didn’t she fool around with Roy?” Sara was being sarcastic after Billy’s many mentions of the fact.
“I believe there were a few motorcycle rides—and before you judge, her husband was much older than she was. And don’t forget thatallof these guests were being blackmailed by Derek Oliver.”
Sara frowned. “If Miss Adair was being blackmailed for having an affair, it doesn’t make sense that she’d have another one while hanging around her blackmailer.”
“Could have been a two-for-one deal,” Jack said. “With my father, who knows?”
