Page 90 of The Summer Guests

“She’s also an opportunity,” said Ben.

That made Jo pause. She put down the phone and looked at him. “I’m not sure I like where this is going.”

“You can try investigating them, but we can almost guarantee you won’t get anything useful out of Elizabeth or Arthur,” said Ben. “Which means we need a different strategy. It requires the hospital’s cooperation.”

“I take it you have a plan?”

Ben looked at his friends, and they all nodded. “We have a plan.”

Chapter 41

This was starting to feel like a mistake. A very bad mistake.

Elizabeth Conover sat facing Jo across the interview table, her lips in a perpetual half smile, clearly unruffled by any of the questions Jo had asked her. If indeed Elizabeth had once worked for the Agency, then she’d been trained to resist even the harshest of interrogation techniques. No wonder Jo was finding it so difficult to drag the truth out of her. They’d been at this for half an hour, and while Elizabeth had been cordial and seemingly cooperative, she’d denied knowing anything about the identity of the lady in the lake. Jo wondered if Detective Alfond, who was interviewing Arthur Fox in the room next door, was having any better luck.

“Really, Chief Thibodeau,” said Elizabeth. “I have absolutely no idea who those bones belong to. I don’t know why you think Iwouldknow anything.”

“You spend every summer on Maiden Pond.”

“So do any number of other people.”

“In a house that you and your husband have owned since 1968.”

Elizabeth smiled. “To you, that probably seems like the Stone Age.”

“The woman’s bones were found just a few dozen yards offshore from Moonview.”

“It doesn’t mean I know who she was, or how she got there.”

Jo sat for a moment, tapping her fingers on the table. Decided, what the hell, just hit her with it and see how she reacts.

“It’s interesting, that you and your husband came to Purity the same year that Arthur Fox and Dr. and Mrs. Greene did.”

“Is it? Interesting?”

“That’s also the same year that Vivian Stillwater moved here.”

A beat. “Is that so?”

“You know it’s so, Mrs. Conover. Because you were all part of the same team.”

Elizabeth’s lip twitched. At last, a visible reaction. The air in the room suddenly seemed charged with tension. Surely Elizabeth realized her past was about to surface.

“In fact,” said Jo, “you all came to Purity for a specific reason. Didn’t you?”

“The same reason a thousand other tourists come every summer.”

“But you weren’t tourists. Neither were Arthur Fox or Dr. Greene. Or, for that matter, Vivian Stillwater. Within a year or two, you and the Greenes and Arthur Fox all bought property in Purity. And you weren’t here just for the summer. Those first few years, you stayed year round, because you weren’t here just to enjoy our fine summer weather. You were here to work.”

Elizabeth’s face tightened, and she broke off eye contact. Instead, she seemed to focus on a point above Jo’s shoulder. It appeared the Martini Club had indeed reached the correct conclusion.

“You were an interesting collection of people. Dr. Greene was a pharmacologist. Vivian Stillwater was a neurochemist. Then there was your husband, George, who claimed to work for a pharmaceutical company, which never really existed. All of you living quietly and privately in our little town.”

“Where are you going with this?” Elizabeth looked down pointedly at her wristwatch. “This has taken far too long already. Over the phone, you said this would take just a few minutes. While you ask all these irrelevant questions, my son Ethan’s been sitting out there, waiting to drive me home. You’ve disrupted the evening for my whole family.”

“Just answer my questions, Mrs. Conover.”

“No.” Elizabeth straightened in her chair. Only a moment ago, she’d played the part of the cooperative grandmother, ready to assist in the investigation. Now a different Elizabeth stared back at Jo, cool and unyielding. “We’re finished here. I don’t know why you’re asking these questions, or what you think you know about me, but you have clearly been given some wrong information. Unless I’m under arrest, I would like to go now.” She stood up and turned toward the door.

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