Bones of a Feather - Carolyn Haines [98]
We had our answer. “Thanks, Cece. You’re the best.” I hung up and relayed the info to Tinkie.
“Why would Gunny pretend to be the ghost of Barthelme Levert?”
“I don’t have a definitive answer.”
“Shall we pick up Barclay or not?” Tinkie asked.
Barclay would serve a purpose. “Let’s find him. If we have him with us, he can’t make trouble. Besides, if we’re standing on the bluff with Eleanor, it might be good insurance to have a compatriot in the house. A fallback. A witness to whatever transpires.”
“You’re smarter than the average bear, Sarah Booth.” Tinkie flipped down her visor as she angled toward the golden flow of the Mississippi River. Again I was struck by the water’s placid appearance, but I knew beneath the surface, the currents were treacherous.
* * *
Barclay was surprisingly complacent. We found him at the Eola, and he got in the Cadillac without a complaint or even a question.
“Are you okay?” Tinkie asked him.
I rode in the backseat so I could watch him. His brow looked like a thundercloud. Heathcliff, in the flesh.
“The whole thing with Millicent is unreal. She was going to help me, and now I’ll never know how. She was my cousin.” He seemed bemused by the blood tie. “We have to find her body. We can’t just leave her out there for the bugs to eat.”
Tinkie drove and talked. “Eleanor has agreed to call the police as soon as Monica is returned. She’ll admit to insurance fraud. Chances are, you’ll end up in the catbird seat, Barclay. For right now, the only thing we can do is get through this ransom exchange.”
“That night in Bennator’s, you and Marty Diamond almost tied up. Why?” I was curious if Kissie was the source of their animosity.
Barclay twisted so he could see me. “He hates me. He refuses to believe Kissie and I are friends. Nothing more. She put me up when I first got to town because I didn’t have money for a hotel. I told her I was a Levert, and she believed me. Even though she’s fond of the sisters, she said I deserved my inheritance. I had to clear out of her place or Marty threatened to make a scene, so she let me into Briarcliff for a couple of weeks.”
“If you didn’t have money when you came to town, care to explain how you can afford to stay at the Eola?”
Barclay straightened in the front seat. “I’d rather not, but I know you won’t let it drop.” He paused. “I’m not proud of my actions.”
He was hedging, and I caught a whiff of important information. “I think you’d better tell us.”
“My clever mother has never walked hand in hand with the truth.”
“Meaning?” I wanted to thump him the back of his head, but I refrained.
“Monica pulled a double cross on a rich man before she ended up in the Tampa area. The boat she arrived in wasn’t hers. She’d … essentially, she stole it. Took it by deception. The elderly man came out from under the spell she’d woven and realized he’d been fleeced. So he called the law and said she’d stolen his boat, a fifty-foot schooner.”
“She had a bit of her ancestor in her, didn’t she? Barthelme was a river pirate.” A week ago this tale might have shocked me, but not now. The Levert sisters were capable of any degree of theft.
“What happened?” Tinkie asked. “Was she arrested?”
“My father intervened. He knew the sheriff and convinced him not to arrest Monica. He said Monica was a confused young woman who thought the boat had been loaned to her. He made it out to be a misunderstanding.”
“And then she stayed with your father.”
“For almost a year.” Barclay’s fingers dug into the back of Tinkie’s seat. “And what she stole from him was far more valuable than a boat. She took his future. She broke his heart.”
“How does this relate to earning money?” I asked.
“John Hightower paid me for this insight into Monica’s character. Handsomely. The story of my conception brought in enough money for me to rent a room at the Eola and dress for success.”
He spoke with such bitterness I felt sorry for him. “Monica was very young then. She was, what,