The Undertaker's Daughter (Ilka #1)(39)

He paused for a moment, giving her time to grasp the situation. He smelled of aftershave, and she looked directly at him so long that he finally lowered his eyes. “We’ve tried to contact him, so far without any luck.” He looked up at her again with a glint in his eye that she couldn’t read. “So that’s why we have to ask if you can tell us what Howard Oldham was doing here last night.”

Ilka gave him a puzzled look before shaking her head. “If you think he was with me, you’re wrong; he wasn’t. I haven’t seen him either.”

Officer Thomas’s hands were in the side pockets of his jacket, as if that helped him rest his sizable body. “You’re sure about that?” He looked at her expectantly.

She stared back at him as if he was joking. True, she had a healthy and natural appetite for men, but Howard Oldham wasn’t on her to-do list.

“If that’s the case, it’s going to be interesting to find out why he was on your property last night.”

Once again she felt like she was on shaky ground, and she wished Artie was there. She simply nodded when he said they would know more when they had Howard Oldham’s DNA and compared it to what was found in the garage.

“Do you think he might have killed Mike Gilbert?” she asked. In her mind’s eye, she saw the well-dressed undertaker. The nice suit, tie, the folded handkerchief in his breast pocket.

“No comment on that,” Doonan said, a bit sharply. “We’re interested only in his possible connection to what happened in the garage.”

Ilka nodded wearily. She couldn’t imagine what could make that gentlemanly man break in and haul a dead man out of the refrigerator.

“I’ll have to ask you not to tell anyone who we’ve seen on the recording,” Officer Thomas said, his voice leaving no doubt that this was an order.

She nodded again, and soon the two policemen were driving away for the second time that morning. She watched them disappear, then went over to Sister Eileen’s door.

“I don’t have the strength to carry the furniture out,” the pale, red-eyed woman said after letting Ilka inside. “That little bureau was my mother’s; I would be terribly unhappy if I can’t get it out before the deadline.”

“You don’t need to pack; we’re staying. Artie and I have found a solution. The IRS is being paid now, and as soon as he comes back I want all three of us to meet in my father’s office.”

A large suitcase was standing in the living room, and two travel bags were almost full. A stack of newspapers lay on the table; the sister had been packing her porcelain. Ilka recognized two pairs of shoes on the floor, identical to the practical ones she wore, and a pair of Adidas, which was so far from the nun’s usual style that Ilka thought she must have borrowed them.

“So shall I unpack?” She sounded confused. She looked over at the full suitcase.

Ilka nodded and tried to smile.





16



Ilka had set out the cups and filled a bowl with chocolates. The coffee was almost finished brewing out in the kitchen when Sister Eileen and Artie walked in.

“I paid, and I just got a receipt from the IRS that confirms it,” he said. He collapsed onto a chair on the other side of the desk. “So this is when we breathe a sigh of relief.”

Was it really so easy? Ilka wondered. Throw a little money at them and everyone was happy. For the moment, maybe.

She poured the coffee ceremoniously and pushed the chocolates over to them. She’d taken a notebook from the shelf, and now she pulled her father’s oversize office chair closer to the desk. “I think it’s time to review the situation.” She considered thanking Artie officially, but honestly, she thought, she had done just as much to save the day by letting him pay the sixty thousand dollars. She concentrated on what they needed to discuss.

“We have Mrs. Norton’s funeral service tomorrow. What do we need for that?” She looked across the desk.

“The coffin was supposed to come today, but I haven’t checked to see if it’s been delivered,” Artie said.

“But she’s already in a coffin,” Ilka said. She was in the cold room beside Ed McKenna and the dog.

“She’s not in the one we ordered. I had to lay her in another one until it came. I finished working on her; she’s ready. I was thinking that later we could use the coffin for Mike Gilbert, so I used the cheapest one we have in storage. We need to move her over into the right coffin today, so it’ll be ready tomorrow morning, in case the family shows up early to decorate.”

“Did they arrange for music?” he asked Sister Eileen. She shook her head.

“I informed them that they can use CDs or connect to an iPhone over our sound system,” she said. She added that a choir would be singing at the chapel.

“What should we do if the coffin doesn’t arrive?” Ilka asked. “Do we have another one we can put her in?”

Artie shook his head. “They’ve paid for a glossy black coffin with glitter. If that’s not what she’s in, we’ll have to give a refund. And anyway, it’s too late to tell them we can’t deliver, so that coffin has to come. It might be a good idea for you to call the supplier, if you don’t already have a tracking number. Then we can follow it on the Net and see how far away it is.”