Chest of Secrets Read online

  It was Allie who waved a book in her face after breakfast one morning.

  “The book you’ve been waiting for is out, Brenda,” she said.

  Brenda snatched it from her without apology. She flipped through the table of contents first. The chapter heading that caught her eye was “The Truth About Azul,” followed by one called “The Real Sadie.” Brenda took the book into her office and sat down. The beginning chapter started with a gruesome murder of a respected couple in a town named Harbor Village. The couple was described as guardians of family histories and contributed generously to historic site upkeeps. The author did not speak of their wealth but it was easy to read between the lines.

  Phyllis stuck her head in the doorway and started to ask Brenda a question. Brenda held up her hand, signaling she was otherwise engrossed. Phyllis backed out and she and Allie looked at one another.

  “She’s really into that book,” Allie said. “I wonder what has her so captivated.” Phyllis asked her what the book was about and when the reservationist told her, she nodded her head knowingly.

  “That’s the one she is sure will help solve the cold case she and Mac are working on.”

  “Are you saying Annette Pickard may have written a true story?”

  “I don’t know for sure,” Phyllis said, “but I do know that Brenda feels strongly it holds some vital information. Leave her alone to find what she wants and then we’ll get her to tell us.”

  The two employees were confident their boss and friend would have plenty to say. Phyllis crossed her fingers, hoping the answers were there. Brenda had the ability to read and absorb content faster than anyone Phyllis knew.

  Lunch time arrived, and Brenda read on. Allie asked Phyllis if she should take a tray to her. They agreed it was a good idea and when Allie brought it into the office, Brenda glanced up and thanked her before returning to the novel.

  Brenda nibbled on the watercress sandwich and chips. Finally, she stood up and stretched. When she emerged, Phyllis came from the gathering room where she had been tidying up. Allie turned expectant eyes from her computer.

  “I’m going to take a long walk down by the ocean,” Brenda said. “I feel the need for some fresh salty air.”

  Phyllis had no intentions of letting her off that easily. “We’ve been waiting all day for you to finish that book, Brenda. Tell us something, at least. You can’t keep us in suspense like this.”

  Brenda chuckled. “I did find some things I feel certain describe how things unfolded back in 1982. She doesn’t give the year, but the details of what the police know mesh. I have to think things out and then call Mac. I promise I will tell you when I know more.”

  Both knew that was all they were going to get for now. Brenda didn’t go down the rocky path to the waters. She chose to sit on the lower end of the wall that separated Sheffield Bed and Breakfast from the drop below. She listened to the ever-faithful waves lapping below her and thought about Annette’s writings. Brenda and Mac had read and reread the entire findings on the case to date. The author not only spelled out those discoveries but had also answered questions about the case that could tie up all loose ends.

  There was no mistake that the character Azul matched a former guest of hers who was now on the run. As for Sadie, Brenda decided there was an unknown in the cold case that no one had thought existed. She called Mac.

  “I finished the latest novel Annette Pickard recently put on the market. I have to talk with you right away. Is Chief Ingram in today?”

  “He’s right here in my office. I’ll call Bryce in, too.”

  When Brenda arrived at the precinct, she walked in with the novel in her hand.

  “Logan Clark must be found as soon as possible,” she said. “He is the most important person involved in this case.” She continued to explain the writings. “Hal Pickard stole those valuables the day before the murders. The Mackeys were out for the evening at the local museum. It had received rare artifacts, some of which were traced back to the Mackey family. Logan had developed quite a friendship with Bridgett and Thomas Mackey. Bridgett was eager to talk about the history of her husband’s family tree. Logan paved the way for Hal to enter and take them. They had a pact they would divide the items one day and equally share in the money they brought in. Hal jumped the gun and broke in the day before without Logan’s knowledge.”

  “Brenda, I thought this novel was fiction,” Mac said.

  “It is out there as fiction but too many facts we already know are spelled out. There are some things that only this department is aware of, other than the perpetrators. I don’t know how Annette gathered so much information, but she hit it all on the head.”

  The chief encouraged her to continue.

  “The biggest mystery is Sadie. I can’t figure out exactly who she is but I do know she and Logan, aka Azul, were having an affair. She knew everything that transpired. I know Logan is married to Jane, but I don’t believe they knew one another until he turned his life around.”

  Detective Bryce Jones spoke up. “I spent a lot of time researching Jane. I didn’t find anything that told me she did anything against the law. That is, if we’re not counting the life she led while in college. She was a bit wild then, but nothing criminal in her background.”

  The knock on Mac’s door interrupted them. “We got him, Detective Rivers,” the young officer said. He handed Mac the notice that Logan Clark had been apprehended in Newfoundland. “He made it into Canada without getting caught. Seems he was staying in a hotel there. The manager had been notified, as all hotels throughout Canada had been, to be on the lookout. He had looked over the roster of guests and Logan used his real name. It was the manager who engaged him in a conversation. He called the local police right after that.” The officer told the group their fugitive was on his way back to the United States.

  “I think Logan Clark will tell us who this Sadie is,” Bob said. The chief told his staff their persistence paid off.

  After the chief left, Brenda asked Mac his thoughts of how Annette had gotten so much information. “She maintains Hal stole the items the day before the murders. The Mackeys hadn’t missed them until the next day when Bridgett looked into their safe to find a document they were going to donate to the museum. That was also the day they were murdered.”

  “Logan Clark wanted more,” Mac said. “I think he was greedy and had already weaseled his way into the Mackeys’ lives. I think Bridgett showed him more items of value and he wanted them for himself.”

  “Annette writes that Sadie was introduced to the Mackeys that fateful morning,” Brenda said. “Apparently, Bridgett trusted Logan enough to not fear Sadie’s knowledge of the items. It was Logan who went to Hal’s apartment when he wasn’t home. He took the items Hal stole and supposedly buried them on our grounds to protect Hal from the law.” Brenda explained the complicated story Logan concocted.

  “After all of these years, we know Hal Pickard is no murderer,” Bryce said. “Logan must have returned for more and murdered the couple in the process. I wonder what else he took.”

  “This Sadie probably was his accomplice,” Mac said.

  Brenda smiled. “According to the novel, Sadie engaged Bridgett in a conversation in the sunroom while Logan murdered her husband in the upstairs sitting room. Annette states Bridgett didn’t know Logan was there at all. Sadie pretended to be there to ask for a housekeeping job. After Thomas was killed, Bridgett and Sadie went upstairs where Logan grabbed Bridgett before she had time to realize what was going on. That is when she was killed.”

  Mac shook his head in wonderment. “I think we now have enough questions for Annette Pickard. I’ll have someone go to her house in Pennsylvania and give her a ride back up here. I want to know how she knows all of this and I want to know if what she knows is the truth.”

  Brenda’s mind raced with the discoveries spelled out in the novel. This was no fiction, she thought. That evening, she picked up the newspaper to read blaring headlines that read, “Logan Clark app
rehended and charged with the 1982 murders of Bridgett and Thomas Mackey.” When Mac got home, they gave themselves respite with a walk along the seaboard.

  Annette willingly came back with the two officers and admitted the novel was a true story. She confessed she and her father were close over the years and she always knew he didn’t have the intent or whim to kill anyone. “He has been a thief, but he is no murderer,” she said. “My mother is the Sadie in my book. She was in on it all to help Logan carry out the crimes of murder. My mother talks a lot when she is drunk.”

  Mac told her he would send word for her mother to be picked up. Annette Pickard finished her statements and left. She had an unused plane ticket in her purse and now was the time to use it to get home.

  Brenda read something of interest on the second page of the next evening’s newspaper. “Mattie Pickard, former wife of Hal Pickard the notorious thief, was found dead of natural causes slumped over her kitchen table.”

  Brenda was tempted to call Annette and offer her sympathy. Mattie Pickard’s death must have occurred while she was in Sweetfern Harbor undergoing interrogation. She wondered how the daughter would take the news of her mother’s sudden death. After knowing all she did, Brenda surmised she probably had little feelings on the matter at all. In fact, Annette Pickard may be relieved to know the woman was gone. Or perhaps she would feel regret her mother didn’t have to pay for crimes she committed before death.

  She told Mac the news. “I just got that word, Brenda. The police discovered her body when they went to her home to pick her up. It looks like the alcoholism finally won. They are saying she died of natural causes, but I suspect her liver was eaten away. The police chief there has promised to let us know the autopsy results when they get them.”

  “I don’t know if I should think she died naturally or if foul play entered into it. Annette was here, so we know she didn’t harm Mattie. Hal is in prison. Logan is in a jail cell right here in Sweetfern Harbor. I’m interested in hearing the autopsy report as soon as you get it.”

  Mac sighed. “Just when I thought things were coming to an end on this case, something like this happens. Brenda, I sincerely hope she died a natural death.”

  “If she didn’t, the problem will be handled in Scranton. That’s one thing we won’t have to deal with.”

  Mac knew Brenda had a good point. Still, he felt uneasy about the sudden death of a woman involved in a cold case in Sweetfern Harbor. “She would have been a good witness against Logan Clark for us. I planned to offer her a good deal if she testified against him.”

  Brenda understood how Mac felt. She didn’t like loose ends either, but there was nothing they could do now about Mattie Pickard. She searched for words and realized they had a sure way of getting a guilty verdict against Logan Clark.

  “Logan confessed on tape to the murders. He even gave details. I’m surprised he didn’t hold back on details.”

  “I think he confessed like that because he knew about the hard feelings Mattie held against him,” Mac said. “He knew she would tell everything. And then the book came out and Logan probably guessed that Annette wrote the truth in it. His chances of proving innocence dwindled considerably.” Mac paused. “We have DNA that proves he was involved.” Mac sat up straight. “You don’t think Logan had anything to do with Mattie’s sudden death, do you?”

  “I don’t think he had time to make it to Pennsylvania and then manage to get into Canada in so short a time.” Mac agreed with his wife.

  “I don’t mean to change the subject so abruptly,” Mac said, “but how did the key get separated from the metal chest?”

  “We may never know that,” Brenda said, “but perhaps it was carelessly thrown away and Randolph found it.”

  Annette took the third exit and finally reached home again. Things were coming together, and her father would be exonerated from all suspicion regarding the 1982 murders at last. It was too bad her mother wasn’t alive to testify against her former lover, but Annette knew her fickle nature. One look at Logan could easily have returned her persistent hope of a future with him. All reason would have left Mattie as soon as she laid eyes on the man. The cops didn’t have a reliable witness in her to begin with.

  She unlocked her door and went inside. Everything was ready to finish packing up and she could be on her way. Her publisher told her book sales were already going better than any of her other books sold. To date, she had not told him the book was anything other than fiction. She had no intentions of ever divulging that fact. Let everyone think she made it all up. The cops had to be allowed to carry through until Logan Clark was behind bars for the rest of his life. The lucrative royalties would be more than enough to allow her to live wherever she wanted.

  Annette thought about her father. She would love to have him live with her once he got out of prison again, but she couldn’t risk that. Knowing his nature, he would continue to live the life he knew so well. She couldn’t tarnish her good name by being connected with him. No one understood that better than Hal Pickard. He loved his daughter and that was why he lived all these years keeping his distance from her.

  Two days later, Annette left her home fully furnished. The realtor she contacted already had it listed. She arrived at the airport and found the gate where her plane would take off for Naples, Italy in three hours. She passed security and sat alone to call her father. He expected the call and told her congratulations on her book. He had heard it was selling well. Neither mentioned the authenticity of her words; they didn’t have to, nor was it safe to discuss it. She had a quick message for him, but before she delivered it, she told him she would call him once in a while to make sure he was fine.

  “My number may be different, but I’ll let you know if I do change it. I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you, too,” he said. “Will Sadie go with you?”

  “I had to take Sadie to the veterinarian for care. As it turned out, she had a terminal illness and had to be put to sleep.”

  She ended the call before either of them tripped up.

  Dear Reader,

  Hi there. Thank you for reading.

  I hope you’ll leave a review and/or rating at the retail website where you purchased it, I appreciate you and your feedback.

  Thanks again,

  Wendy Meadows

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  About the Author

  Wendy Meadows is an emerging author of cozy mysteries. She lives in “The Granite State” with her husband, two sons, two cats and lovable Labradoodle.

  When she isn’t working on her stories she likes to tend to her flowers, relax with her pets and play video games with her family.

  Get in Touch with Wendy

  www.wendymeadows.com

  Also by Wendy Meadows

  Maple Hills Cozy Mystery Series

  Nether Edge Mystery Series

  Chocolate Cozy Mystery Series

  Alaska Cozy Mystery Series

  Sweet Peach Bakery Cozy Series

  Sweetfern Harbor Mystery Series

  Candy Shop Mysteries