When She Dreams (Burning Cove #6)(14)

“If I’m supposed to call you Margaret, you had better call me Sam.”

“Maggie, not Margaret. My ex-fiancé called me Margaret. You do not want to remind me of him.”

“Okay. Right.” The conversation had lurched violently off topic. Sam forced himself to focus on the case. “I understand you think someone is pretending to be Aunt Cornelia.”

“It’s quite obvious a fraud has discovered the real Aunt Cornelia is out of the country and is now impersonating her in Burning Cove.”

“Why?” he asked, grasping at a frail strand of logic that appeared to be dangling in midair.

“I have no idea,” Maggie said. “But we have to do something about this immediately.”

It was the we have to do something that alarmed him.

“Don’t worry,” he said, trying to sound professional and reassuring. “If you’re prepared to pay for a trip to Burning Cove, I’ll drive there and talk to the woman who is claiming to be Aunt Cornelia. But maybe you’d like to hear my report on the death of Virginia Jennaway first?”

“What? Oh, yes, of course. I was so shocked by the Celebrity Confidential piece about Aunt Cornelia I almost forgot the Jennaway situation. What did you find out?”

“I just got off the phone with a detective who works homicide in Keeley Point. He said Jennaway’s death was ruled accidental but afterward there were rumors.”

“Of what?”

“Evidently Virginia Jennaway ran with a fast crowd of bored socialites. They were rumored to use drugs. A relative found the body washed up on the beach one morning. The gossip was that Jennaway most likely died of an overdose and the family covered it up.”

“And now, four years later, someone blames Aunt Cornelia for the tragedy?”

“No, someone is looking to make a profit. Blackmail is about money, not justice or revenge.” Sam paused, thinking. “Does Lillian Dewhurst have any connection to Keeley Point?”

“I have no idea. Lillian has never talked much about her past. All I know is she is the last of her family line and she inherited a great deal of money. The important thing is that whoever wrote the extortion letter obviously knows Lillian Dewhurst is Aunt Cornelia.”

“Not necessarily,” Sam said. “If the blackmailer knew Dewhurst was Cornelia, the letter would have been sent directly to her address here in Adelina Beach. You said it was delivered in a bag of reader mail that came from the editor of the Courier.”

“That’s right.” Maggie’s voice brightened. “An excellent observation, Mr. Sage.”

“Believe it or not, this isn’t my first investigation.”

She ignored that. “You’re saying the extortionist has reason to believe that the woman who is Aunt Cornelia was involved in Jennaway’s death but doesn’t know Aunt Cornelia’s real identity.”

“Yes.”

“Seems rather odd, don’t you think?”

“Not necessarily,” Sam said. “It indicates the blackmailer may have come by the incriminating information secondhand. Knows something about what happened but doesn’t know the players personally.”

“Hmm. I see what you mean.”

“Mind if I ask how you got the job as Aunt Cornelia’s assistant?”

“We met at a seminar on lucid dreaming,” Maggie said. “We both have an interest in the subject. Why?”

More screwy dream stuff. Sam suppressed a groan and reminded himself it still beat divorce work.

“Here’s what strikes me as strange,” he said. “Miss Dewhurst has been a near recluse for years, but she suddenly decides to go on a long ocean voyage where she will be stuck on a ship with a lot of other passengers.”

“Your point?”

“It’s hard to be a recluse on a ship.”

There was another beat of silence on the other end of the phone.

“Several weeks ago Lillian began to come out of her shell,” Maggie said.

“Was there a reason for the change?”

“That is none of your business, Mr. Sage.”

“Did you perhaps suggest she throw out a perfectly good piece of furniture? A nice chair? A lamp? A coatrack?”

“We are not going to discuss the matter,” Maggie said. Icicles hung on each word. “You have made it clear you are not a student of metaphysics. Let’s return to the subject of the investigation I hired you to carry out.”

“Sure. I’ll leave the physics to you.”

“Metaphysics.”

“Moving on. I assume that, as Dewhurst’s assistant, you handle her correspondence. Has she received any unusual mail addressed directly to her lately?”

“Nothing of a personal nature. She gets bills in her own name and bank statements. She also subscribes to some magazines and scientific journals.”

“What kinds of scientific journals?”

“Journals that focus on metaphysics.” Maggie’s voice was glacial now.

“Forget I asked.”

“That won’t be difficult.”

“Notice any long-distance calls on the latest phone bill?”

“No.”

Sam thought for a moment. “Any chance she might have an anonymous mailbox at the post office?”