Page 4 of A Secret Message
There were no hard and fast rules in solving a mystery. That much she learned after reading her first Perry Mason novel, and while Claire's case seemed more like a treasure hunt than a whodunnit...
Vixen:Are there any other beneficiaries aside from you and Scott?
It took only a few moments before her friend texted her back.
Claire:Just Uncle Jorge. He's Great-Aunt Joy's son.
Vixen:What did he think about the letter?
Claire:He had this funny look on his face. Like he didn't believe his mother would just leave me a letter. He asked if he could see it, so I gave it to him. And here's something funnier...
Vixen clicked on the video message Claire sent.
'He took my letter and went to the window and raised it up like this..."
Vixen's friend raised up an imaginary letter towards an imaginary sun and squinted at it.
'Isn't that weird? He's acting like the letter's forged or something. Is it so hard to believe that his mother would want to write me a letter before she..."
Claire's face suddenly crumbled, and tears slowly ran down her friend's cheeks.
"I'm sorry. I think it's my hormones. I cry a lot these days,"Claire said with a sniff."And I think it's only starting to hit me that she's gone. I'll never see her again."
Claire was still crying when the video message came to an abrupt end, and Vixen's heart ached for the other woman. A text message popped on her inbox then, also from Claire.
Sorry I got emotional. And I really appreciate that you're taking this seriously. Whatever happens, even if you don't find anything—-I'll always be grateful.
Vixen's resolve grew after reading this, and she played the video again to study Claire's reenactment of her uncle's response. It wasn't the most reliable piece of evidence, but one had to work with what was available.
Claire's uncle - suspicious reaction to the letter. Does he know something? Or hiding something?
Vixen felt a mixture of guilt and pleasure as she wrote her first entry under the Questions column. As much as she enjoyed solving fictional mysteries in her spare time,thiswas why she would never make a good detective in real life.
It might be SOP to treat every party as a suspect until proven guilty, but Claire's uncle was a real person with real feelings, and she would feel so terrible if he were to find out he was on her list of suspects.
In the meantime, however...
'Uncle' Jorge was a suspect still, and Vixen reached for the letter to study it for thenthtime.
Letter - Black ink. Beautiful cursive writing. Proper grammar and punctuation. Impeccable spelling. Heartfelt message.
She listed the words under CLUES, but none of it was in any way indicative of Uncle Jorge's innocence or guilt.
Vixen looked around as she racked her mind for ideas. The restaurant had quickly filled up in the past half hour, the tables mostly occupied by couples enjoying the sunset views that onlythe Lighthouse's outdoor dining area could offer. Many of them were gazing into each other's eyes, smiling over thecandlelight...
And that was when it hit her.
Vixen managed to catch the eye of one of the servers, and Patty's eyes widened at her request. "You're joking, aren't you?"
"Why would you think I'm joking?" Vixen was genuinely bemused.
"Oh, uh, nothing." Patty started grinning, and Vixen's bewilderment grew. Patty grew up in Lavender Cove while Vixen had only moved here a few years ago. Maybe this was a joke that only locals would get, but she hadn't been around long enough to understand?
Patty came back and carefully placed the candle holder at the center of the table before lighting the candle. "I'm so happy for you," the other woman gushed.
"Um...thanks?" She wasn't exactly surewhyPatty was happy for her, and the other woman had already hurried away to attend to another customer before Vixen could ask her about it.
Weird.