Chapter 13

September 18, 2007
Salem, Massachusetts

“Julie. Wake up, Julie.” said Joan.

“Hmm?” Dreaming, Julie tried to orient herself. It’s not Marc; he’s gone. It’s Joan.

“I’m sorry to wake you, hon. It’s late; you must have needed the sleep. There’s a phone call for you. It’s Joe Garrett. Here’s the phone. I’ll be downstairs.”

“Thanks, Joan,” said Julie, taking the phone and rubbing her eyes. “Joe?”

“Hi, Merlin. Sorry. Guess I’m waking you up. I got the number from Luz…you weren’t answering your cell…”

“Oh, that’s okay. Did you find out something else?”

“Yes, and no. Jake said the police still think it’s a suicide; there was no forced entry into the house. But there’s been some artful reporting in the local papers that you may not have seen up there. Jake said that if it became necessary, he’d represent David Harris.”

“David? That’s ridiculous! He loved Marc!”

“Julie. They found an empty syringe in Marc’s hand. Even though the police only found Marc’s prints on the needle, there’s a lot of speculation about David. Some have gone so far as to suggest a ‘mercy’ killing. And of course, they’ve checked the Key West public records about the house. The fact that David has survivorship rights to a mortgage-free, waterfront home worth $2 million…well, that’s definitely more grist for the rumor mill.”

Julie was wide-awake now.

“That’s crazy. David already owned half the house. None of this makes sense, Joe. Marc just didn’t seem that sick to me. Not for any of these stupid scenarios.”

“I know. It’s only sensationalism, Julie. Key West is a small place; the local media are trying to hang on to the spotlight. Jake and I thought you should know, in case the story heats up beyond Florida. And we thought you might see your friend at the funeral…”

Of course. Poor David, thought Julie.

“You’re right, Joe. I haven’t talked to David yet. Frankly, what you’ve just told me, what they’ve suggested, that was the furthest thing from my mind. I can’t imagine what David must be feeling. Especially if he knows about this.”

“Yes. Well, that was one of the reasons I called. How are you doing?”

“I’m doing okay, I guess. Thanks for asking. We met up here, Marc and I. Being here is bringing back a lot of memories.”

“Well, concentrate on the good things.”

I’m trying to, thought Julie.

“Listen, Merlin. You’ve got my cell number. Call me if you need me, all right?”

“Okay, Joe. Thanks. I will.”

They hung up, and Julie sat there for a while, thinking about that. No. There are other investigators…maybe in the Keys.

Shaking her head with resolve, she got up and pulled on her jeans and a sweatshirt. She twisted her hair up into a ponytail, brushed her teeth and headed downstairs. Joan was by herself in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher. It was a cozy room, filled with sunshine and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and bacon.

“Hey, sleepyhead, welcome up! Want some breakfast?”

“Maybe some coffee and toast? Guess I missed everyone this morning.”

“Yep. Pete’s gone to work, and the boys have gone to school. But that’s good. We can catch up on old times.”

“Joannie, speaking of that,” said Julie, sliding into the breakfast nook, “it’s been a long time since I’ve been up here. I thought I’d go for a drive later. Would you mind if I met you and Pete at the wake?”

“Of course not.”

“Good. Thanks,” said Julie, accepting the coffee Joan set in front of her.

“So, how do you like being a stay-at-home Mom? Do you miss work?”

“Not at all. I haven’t worked since Pete got transferred. Frankly, I was glad to get out of there, you know? I just hated working for Avram Solomon when he took over our payroll department.”

“Why?”

“Well, we’d expanded to two dealerships at the time. There’s three now, of course. But there’s only one central payroll department, Julie. It’s still at our old place, you know? So, for one thing, my workload had doubled. And you know Milton Solomon! He doesn’t like to spend ‘unnecessary’ money, so of course they didn’t enlarge our space, or hire extra help. So I was really overwhelmed, you know?

“And then Avram, well, he thinks he’s always right, you know? Well, get this… on more than one occasion, we actually had paychecks bouncing! Can you believe that? With all the money the Solomons have?”

“How could that happen?”

“Well, it was just a matter of them, you know, putting a reserve into the payroll account. But, no, every month we’d have just enough. So if there were an error, even a small one, the checks would bounce, you know? Can you imagine how embarrassing it was for me, as payroll manager? People like Bill and Red that have been there for years, you know, friends of ours, coming in to tell me their checks bounced? Of course, we honored them right away. But, there was just no need for it, you know?”

“Did you talk to Avram about the reserve?”

“Yes, and you know what he said? He said it was ‘none of my business’ how they handled their money; that my job was, you know, ‘just to cut the checks”! He did apologize the next day, but it was humiliating, you know? Anyway, Pete got promoted to GM of the Lynn store right after that, and we moved here to Salem. I wasn’t going to commute all the way from the North Shore to Boston…especially to work for Avram.”

“Marc never got along with Avram,” Any idea why?” asked Julie.

“No, I don’t. But it sure didn’t help for Miriam Solomon to leave everything to Marc and put Avram in charge of it, you know?”

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