Page 100 of Echoes of a Silent Song
“Yeah, well, don’t leave town just the same,” Stanton said as he passed.“We’ll be in touch.”
Blair’s hands were shaking.How thoroughly Vic had duped her.But now he’d taken off the mask and she’d seen what was underneath, and she was utterly repulsed.
Chief Stephens patted her shoulder, then walked into the interview room and addressed his detectives.“Sounds like we need to track down Flora.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
SOVICNelson didn’t kill Iris?”Joy stared at Blair across the table in the faculty lounge the next afternoon, eyes wide, brows arched over her glasses, a sandwich halfway to her lips.
Blair shrugged.“That’s what he says.”
“Do we believe him?”
“I don’t believe anything that man says anymore.”Blair reached for a carrot stick.“But the police are talking to Flora.Apparently she’s still alive.”
“Huh.”Joy took a bite of sandwich.“I thought for sure Nelson did it.”
“I thought so too.Part of me—most of me—hoped he hadn’t.”
Joy met Blair’s gaze.“But part of you hoped he had.”
“Does that make me an awful person?”
“Absolutely not.He lied to you.Lied to everyone.Pretended to be a decent human when he was anything but.And he stole Iris Wallingford’s work.”Joy shook her head.“Too bad they can’t arrest him for that.”
“Afternoon, ladies.”Callum’s voice was at Blair’s back, and she turned to greet him with a smile.
“Hi,” she said.
“I just got a call from Detective Valentine.”Callum leaned against a vacant chair at their table.“Detective Stanton will be calling you, but I wanted you to hear this from me.”
Blair’s shoulders tightened.“Okay ...”
“Flora confessed to Iris’s murder.”Callum’s jaw was tight.“She told the detectives that she saw the note and the pills and thought Iris had tried to take her own life.But when she checked on Iris, she was stillalive, so rather than call for help, Flora decided to ‘end her suffering and be merciful,’ as she put it.She smothered Iris with a pillow.”
“In what universe is that merciful?”Joy burst out.
“Flora’s misguided one, apparently.But now they’re reopening the deaths of Iris’s parents.I guess in the original police report someone noticed that the boat looked like it had been tampered with, but the case went cold right away.No leads.”
Blair stared at Callum.“Do they think Flora killed the Wallingfords too?”
“Valentine says he and Stanton are in touch with police in North Carolina, who are handling that case since it’s their jurisdiction.One way or another, though, she’ll be brought here to face charges in Iris’s death.”
“Will there even be a trial, since she confessed?”Blair asked.
“Probably not,” Joy piped up.“Just a prison sentence.”
“Why would she wipe out the entire family?”
“Maybe Mr.and Mrs.Wallingford didn’t treat her well.”Joy shrugged.“Not a justification, of course, but if they were abusing her, she may have felt like she had no choice.”
“But why kill Iris?”Blair pressed.“She wouldn’t have mistreated Flora.”
“According to the North Carolina police, after Iris died, the Wallingfords named Flora their heir,” Callum said.“Maybe Flora knew that would happen.She must have been an excellent maid, and they must not have had family members to leave their fortune to.So that could’ve been her motive for killing Iris too.”
“So she killed a whole family and inherited millions?”Joy spat.
“Sounds like it,” Callum replied.“Apparently Flora’s been living it up in Hawaii the past fifty years.”
