Leslie Meier - English Tea Murder

Table of Contents

MISTLETOE MURDER
TIPPY TOE MURDER
TRICK OR TREAT MURDER
BACK TO SCHOOL MURDER
VALENTINE MURDER
CHRISTMAS COOKIE MURDER
TURKEY DAY MURDER
WEDDING DAY MURDER
BIRTHDAY PARTY MURDER
FATHERS DAY MURDER
STAR SPANGLED MURDER
NEW YEARS EVE MURDER
BAKE SALE MURDER
CANDY CANE MURDER
ST. PATRICKS DAY MURDER
MOTHERS DAY MURDER
WICKED WITCH MURDER
GINGERBREAD COOKIE MURDER
ENGLISH TEA MURDER

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

I t was about a month later when Lucy received a call from DA Phil Aucoin.

I need to clear up a few things, he said. Can you come in today around three?

Lucy understood that while the time of the conversation might be negotiable, there was no way she was going to get out of the meeting. She knew she would have to testify about the attack, and Aucoin would want to make sure he knew what she was going to say; he wouldnt want any surprises in the courtroom. She wasnt eager to relive the fear shed felt when that necktie had tightened around her throat but figured she might as well get it over with as soon as possible. Sure, she said.

Aucoins office was in the county complex in Gilead, a small boxy brick building dwarfed by the massive jail, with its razor-wire fence, and the stately nineteenth-century courthouse built of gleaming white granite. He didnt look up from his cluttered desk when she entered, so she took the one available chair and looked around. Every surface in the small room, including the floor, was covered with stacks of paper. The one window had a fine view of the Civil War memorial that stood on the green lawn in front of the courthouse, but she couldnt see it because of the pile of thick manila folders that threatened to slip off the sill any minute.

Just a mo, he muttered, reaching for the phone. He listened a few minutes, then spoke. Best I can do is six months served and two years probation, he said.

Lucy could hear the outraged protest coming from the other end of the line.

Aucoin shook his head and rolled his eyes. Your client assaulted an eighty-two-year-old woman who was on her way to a nursing home to visit her one-hundred-and-one-year-old mother, just like she does every Sunday after church. You wanna go to court with that and take your chances with a jury?

The sound effects continued, and Aucoin rolled his eyes again. Im well aware that your client ended up with a concussion, but believe me, juries love that stuff. Little old ladies who fight backtrust me, weve got an aging population. Most of the jurors are going to be on the far side of forty, and they dont like young punks.

The outraged squawks ceased, Aucoin nodded a few times, said, Okay, and ended the call. He looked at Lucy. One down, he said, making a notation on the folder, closing the file and reaching for another, much thicker one. Quentin Rea wants a deal, he said, locking eyes with her. Hes alleging that the members of a Winchester College tour to England last spring conspired to kill the tour leader, a professor named George Temple. He says you can corroborate the whole story.

Lucys first reaction was outrage. What a worm! But the more she thought about it, the more typical it seemed. If Quentin Rea was going down, he wasnt going down alone. Biting her lip, attempting to control her emotions, she studied Aucoins face: the deep grooves that ran from his nose to his mouth, the bags under his eyes, the wiry hair that refused to be tamed and shot up from his forehead in an unruly, oversized pompadour. He was a man who knew only too well that people were capable of doing terrible things to each other; nothing surprised him anymore.

What exactly is he saying? asked Lucy.

Aucoin began reading from five or six pages that were clipped together. He says he was approached in his office last December by a student named Caroline Smith who was in a special support group for freshmen who were having trouble adjusting to college life. Shed figured out that three other students, and herself, had all come from families that had been defrauded by George Temple in the 1990s. These students were the late Autumn Mackie, who Rea is presently under indictment for killing; William Barfield; and Jennifer Fain. Apparently theyd all recounted their tales of woe during the group discussions, and Caroline recognized certain elements that led her to conclude theyd all been wronged by this George Temple, who was now an instructor at the college. She was able to confirm this in subsequent private discussions.

Lucy listened, thinking this might well be true. Carolines parents, Tom and Ann Smith, had probably talked about Temple a lot through the years, making it quite clear to their surviving child that he was the source of all their troubles. Tom, she knew, had nursed his anger toward Temple. Of the four, Caroline probably was the one who was most aware of Temples crime. And if she had initiated the plot, she might well have felt guilty enough to try to kill herself by jumping off the Brighton Pier.

Aucoin continued. George Temple was convicted of fraud, served time, got hired by Winchester thanks to some social connections. Stayed clean.

Lucy nodded. I understand he was quite a success at the college. Popular with students and faculty. He was even being considered for a tenure position.

Aucoin made a note. Not according to our boy, Quentin. He says Temple was unqualified, called him an academic bottom-feeder. But even so, he says he was shocked when this Caroline said she and the others wanted his help in getting back at Temple. He says he absolutely refused to get involved in any way.

That would be the proper thing to do, said Lucy, who was willing to bet that Rea had chosen to do the exact opposite. He would never pass up an opportunity to get rid of his rival, especially when someone else was willing to do the dirty work.

However, Rea says he was troubled that the four might go ahead without him and kept an eye on the situation, continued Aucoin.

That was clever of him, thought Lucy. It gave him a reason for knowing about the plot without admitting any responsibility for Temples murder.

He claims the four kids and their families got together at a tailgate party at the Polar Bowl on New Years Day and worked out a plan to kill Temple.

Over the bratwurst? asked Lucy.

Aucoin smiled, enjoying her little joke. He didnt say. I guess he wasnt keeping that close an eye on things. He claims he just happened to see them in the parking lot.

Right, thought Lucy. Like Rea hadnt organized the meeting himself, probably cooked the bratwurst and mulled the cider and sent out the invitations. Temple died on the plane, she said. I was sitting across the aisle from him. It was an allergy attack.

Thats what Rea says. The kids knew he had severe allergies, and one of the parents, a Dr. Cope, figured out how they could set off an attack.

Grandparent, corrected Lucy. Dr. Cope is Jennifers grandfather.

Aucoin made another notation, then resumed his narrative. To make a long story short, they all signed up for Temples trip to England, took turns waving around mildewed scarves and peanut trail mix, and when he started wheezing, this doctor rushed forward with a fake EpiPen and finished him off.

That would be a violation of his Hippocratic oath, said Lucy. I happen to know that Dr. Cope took that very seriously. We talked about it in St. Pauls. He told me he wished he could have saved Temple. She pressed her lips together, remembering the rest of the story, how Dr. Cope had later told her his son-in-law had committed suicide when he learned Temple had impoverished him and that his grief-stricken daughter had turned to drugs for consolation, leaving him to raise Jennifer. She thought of the Smith family, who trusted Temple to invest all their money and when hed ruined them, lost their precious baby boy in a car accident. An accident they believed could have been avoided if theyd been able to afford new brakes. She remembered sitting in Bath Abbey and listening to Laura Barfield tell how her mother had suffered in that dreadful nursing home, because it was the best she could afford after Temple had lost all her money. She thought of Lauras all-enveloping guilt that she wore like one of those suffocating black chadors Muslim women wrapped themselves in. And then there was Autumn, whod survived the loss of her home and her parents and years in foster care only to be murdered by Quentin Rea when she posed a threat to his professorship. She came to a decision. She was certainly not going to cause these people any more grief. But she didnt want to lie to Aucoin either. She was going to have to be very careful about what she said.