I said, “Sorry to have to trouble you again on this. I know you talked to Morley Shine several months ago. I suppose you heard about his death.”
“I spotted his obituary in this morning’s paper. I called Lonnie’s office first thing and he said you’d be in touch.” She moved over to the small tiled kitchen peninsula that served as both a work surface and a breakfast bar, with two wooden stools tucked under it. She hooked the cane over the edge of the counter and took out a clear glass pitcher, which she filled with tap water. She bunched the flowers nicely and stuck them in the makeshift vase, then set the arrangement on the windowsill and dried her hands on a towel.
“Have a seat,” she said. She pulled out one stool and perched on it while I took the other.
“I’ll try not to take too much of your time,” I said.
“Listen, if it helps convict the shitheel, you can take all the time you want.”
“Isn’t it a bit awkward, your living on the property just a hundred yards away from him?”
“I hope so,” she said. The depth of bitterness in her voice seemed to affect its very pitch. She looked up in the direction of the big house. “If it’s awkward for me, think how it must feel to him. I know it galls him that I refuse to be driven off. He’d love nothing better than to force me out.”
“Can he do that?”
“Not as long as I have anything to say about it. Izzy left me the cottage. It was part of her will. She and Kenneth bought the property many years ago. They paid a small fortune for it. When that marriage folded, she got it as part of the financial settlement. She had it listed as her sole and separate property when she and David got married. She also made him sign prenups.”
“Sounds very businesslike. Did she do that with the others?”
“She didn’t have to. The first two had money. Kenneth was number two. With David, it was different. Everybody told her he was after her money. I guess she thought the prenups would prove he wasn’t. What a joke.”
“So he’ll never get title to this place?”
Simone shook her head. “She rewrote her will, leaving him a life interest. When he dies—which I hope is real soon, I might add—it goes to her daughter, Shelby. The little house is mine—as long as I’m alive, of course. When I die, it reverts.”
“And you’re not afraid?”
“Of David? Absolutely not. He got away with murder once, but the man’s not a fool. All he has to do is sit tight. If he wins this civil suit, it’s all his, isn’t it?”
“It looks like it.”
“He could come out of the whole deal smelling like a rose. So why in the world would he jeopardize that? Something happened to me, he’s the first place they’d look.”
“What if he loses?”
“My guess is he’d head straight for Switzerland. He’s probably salting away money in a secret bank account. He’s too clever to kill again. What would be the point?”
“But why did Isabelle set it up like that? Why tempt the Fates? As I understand it, between the prenuptial agreement and the terms of the will, she might as well have gone ahead and stuck her head in the noose.”
“She was in love with the guy. She wanted to do right by him. She was also a realist. He was husband number three and she didn’t want to get ripped off. Look at it from her perspective. You marry some guy, you don’t think he’s going to kill you. If you really thought that, you wouldn’t marry him in the first place.” Her eyes strayed to her watch. “Jesus, it’s nearly one. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Have you had lunch?”
“You go ahead,” I said. “I shouldn’t be too much longer. I’ll grab a bite on the way back to the office.”
“It’s no problem. Please join me. I’m just making sandwiches. I’d like the company.”
The invitation seemed genuine and I smiled in response. “All right. That’d be nice.”
5
She moved into the tiny kitchen area and began to take items from the tiny fridge.
“Can I do anything to help?”
“No, thanks. There isn’t really room enough for two of us to work. Guys love it, unless it turns out they have a passion for cooking. Then they take over here and I sit out there where you are.”
I half turned on the stool, checking out the room behind me. “Great house,” I remarked.
She flushed with pleasure. “You like it? Isabelle designed it . . . the start of her career.”
“She was an architect? I didn’t know that.”
“Well, she wasn’t really, but she passed for one in some respects. Look around if you like. It’s only three hundred square feet.”
“Is that all? It seems bigger.” I stepped out onto the front porch, curious to see how the general layout related to the interior. Since the windows were cranked open, I could talk to her easily as I rounded the structure. The cottage felt as if it had been miniaturized, scaled down from human-size dimensions to a little playhouse for grown-ups. Every comfort seemed attended to, without flourish or wasted space. There was even a small chimney. I stuck my head in the window so I could peer at the compact fireplace. Many interior surfaces, including the hearth, sills, and countertops, were covered with hand-painted blue-and-white tiles in a flower motif. “This is wonderful.”
Simone flashed me a smile.
I withdrew from the window and circled the perimeter. Herbs had been planted in every sunny spot. I could smell rosemary and thyme when the breeze whiffled through. The house was situated on an apron of grass that spread out in a half-moon. Below, the hillside fell away steeply into a tangle of live oak and chaparral. The view was to the mountains across the town of Santa Teresa. I reentered the only door, which opened into the kitchen. “You’ll have to see my place sometime. It has a similar feel to it. A perfect little hideaway.”
I continued my survey while she cut several slices from a loaf of wheat bread. The place was so small I could tour without moving far. The furnishings were antique: a crude pine table, two cane-bottom chairs, a corner cabinet with wavy, blue-tinted glass panes, a brass bed with a patchwork quilt, white on white. The bathroom was small, the only portion of the house that was fully enclosed. The rest was essentially one large room, with areas defined according to function. Everything was open, airy, tidy, full of light. Every detail was perfect, like a series of illustrations for a glossy household magazine. There were views from the front and side windows, but none from the back, where the slope rose again sharply to the main house above.
I pulled a stool up to the counter and watched her make sandwiches. She’d assembled plates, cutlery, and blue-and-white cloth napkins, which she passed to me. I set two places at the table. “If she wasn’t an architect, how’d she do this?”
“She was like an unpaid apprentice to a local architect. Don’t ask me how she managed it or why he agreed. She sort of went in when it suited her and did what she pleased.”
“Not a bad deal,” I said.
“That’s where she met David. He came to work for the same firm. Her boss’s name was Peter Weidmann. Have you talked to him yet?”
“No, but I intend to, as soon as I leave here.”
“Oh, good. He and Yolanda live close by. About a mile from here. He’s a nice man, retired now. He really taught Isabelle a lot. She was an artist by nature, but she didn’t have the discipline. She could do anything she wanted, but she was always such a dilettante—full of great ideas, but lousy at development. She lost interest in most things—until she started doing this.”
“This, meaning what?”
“She designed tiny houses. Mine was the first. Somehow Santa Teresa Magazine heard about it and did a big photo spread. The response was incredible. Everybody wanted one.”
“For guests?”
“Or for teens, in-laws, art studios, meditation retreats. The beauty is you can tuck one into any corner of your property . . . once you get past the zoning sharks. She and David pulled out of Peter’s firm when this whole thing took off. The two of them
went into business and made a fortune overnight. She was written up everywhere, from the snooty publications to the mundane. Architectural Digest, House & Garden, Parade. Plus, she won all these design awards. It was astonishing.”
“What about David? How did he fit in?”
“Oh, she had to have him. She was such an airhead about business. She originated the designs, did preliminary sketches, and roughed out the floor plans. David had a degree and he was AIA, so he was responsible for drafting, all the blueprints and specs, things of that sort. He also did the marketing, advertising . . . the grunt work, in effect. Hasn’t anybody told you this?”
“Not a bit,” I said. “I met Ken Voigt last night and he talked about Isabelle briefly. As I said on the phone, I’ve read all the files, but this is the first time I’ve heard the particulars. How did Barney feel about her getting all the glory?”
“He probably resented it, but what could he do? His career had gone nowhere. The same was true of Peter Weidmann.”
Simone moved to the table with a pitcher of iced tea and a plate of sandwiches. We sat down to eat. The coarse-textured bread was thinly sliced and lightly buttered. Leaves hung out of the sandwich like the trimmings from a garden.
“Watercress,” she said when she caught my expression.
“My favorite,” I murmured, but it turned out to be good—very peppery and fresh. “You have a picture of her?”
“Oh sure. Hang on and I’ll get it.”
“No hurry. This is fine,” I said with my mouth full, but she was up and moving over to the bed table, returning seconds later with a photograph in an ornate silver frame.
She passed me the picture and sat down again. “She and I were twins. Fraternal, not identical. She was twenty-nine when that was taken.”
I studied the picture. It was the first glimpse I’d had of Isabelle Barney. She was prettier than Simone. She had a softly rounded face with glossy dark hair that fell gracefully to her shoulders, silky strands forming a frame for her wide cheekbones. Her eyes were a clear brown. She had a strong short nose, a wide mouth, muted makeup, if any. She seemed to be wearing some kind of scoop-necked T-shirt, dark brown like her hair. I found myself nodding. “I can see the resemblance. What’s your family background?”
I passed the picture back and she propped it up at one end of the table. Isabelle watched us gravely as the conversation continued. “Both our parents were artists and a bit eccentric. Mother had family money so she and Daddy never really did much. They went to Europe one summer on a six-week tour and ended up staying ten years.”
“Doing what?”
She took a bite of sandwich, chewing some before she answered. “Just bumming around. I don’t know. They traveled and painted and lived like Bohemians. I guess they hung out on the fringes of polite society. Expatriates, like Hemingway. They came back to the States when World War Two broke out and somehow ended up in Santa Teresa. I think they read about it in a book and thought it sounded neat. Meanwhile, money was getting tight and Daddy decided he’d better pay more attention to their investments. He turned out to be a whiz. By the time we were born, they were rolling in it again.”
“Who was the oldest, you or Isabelle?”
She took a sip of her iced tea and dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “I was, by thirty minutes. Mother was forty-four when she had us and nobody had a clue she was carrying twins. She’d never been pregnant so she assumed she was in menopause when she first stopped having periods. She was a Christian Scientist and refused to see a doctor until the last possible minute. She’d been in labor fifteen hours when she finally agreed to have Daddy take her to the nearest hospital. They barely got her upstairs when I arrived. She was all set to hop off the table and go home again. She figured that was the end of it and the doctor did, too. He was expecting the placenta when Isabelle slid out.”
“Your parents still living?”
She shook her head. “Both died within a month of each other. We were nineteen at the time. Isabelle got married for the first time that year.”
“Are you married?”
“Not me. I feel like I’ve been married, watching her go through hers.”
“Voigt was the second?”
“Right. Number one was killed in a boating accident.”
“What was it like being twins? Were the two of you alike?”
“Unh-unh. No way. God, we couldn’t have been more different. She inherited the family talent and all the vices that went with it. Artwise, she excelled, but it all came so easily she didn’t take it seriously. The minute she mastered a skill, she lost interest. Drawing, painting. She did a little bit of everything. She made jewelry, she sculpted. She got into textiles and did incredible work, but then she got restless. She wasn’t satisfied. She always wanted to do something else. In a way, the tiny houses saved her, though she might have gotten bored if she’d lived long enough.”
“I gather, from what Ken says, she had a problem with low self-esteem.”
“Among other things. She had all the inclinations of an addict. She smoked. She drank. She took pills any chance she got. She toked two or three joints a day. For a while, she dropped acid.”
“How’d she get any work done? I’d be a basket case.”
“It didn’t affect her in the least. Besides, she could afford all that stuff, which is too bad in a way. She never really had to work because we inherited money. Fortunately, she never got into cocaine or she’d have gone through every cent.”
“Wasn’t that hard on you, her being out of control?”
“It was hard on all of us. I was always the heavy—parental, responsible. Especially since we were so young when our parents died. Isabelle got married, but I still felt like her mother. I admired her tremendously, but she was difficult. She couldn’t sustain a relationship. She had nothing to give on a day-to-day basis. She was very self-involved. It was ‘me, me, me.’ ”
“Narcissistic,” I supplied.
“Yes, but I don’t want to give the wrong impression. She had some wonderful qualities. She was warm and witty and she was terribly bright. She was fun. She had a good time. She really knew how to play. She taught me a lot about how to lighten up.”
“Tell me about David Barney.”
“David. That’s a tough one,” she said and then paused to consider. “I’ll try to be fair. I’d say he’s handsome. Charming. Trivial. He and his wife moved up here from Los Angeles when he joined Peter’s firm.”
“He was married?”
“Not for long.”
“What happened to his ex?”
“Laura? She’s still around someplace. After David dumped her, she was forced to go to work, like every other ex-wife in town. God, women are getting screwed in divorces these days. For every guy who claims he’s been ‘taken’ by some babe, I can show you six, eight, ten women who’ve been ‘had’ financially. Anyway, I’m sure she’s in the book.”
“Go on.”
“Yes, well, David was a snob. He didn’t want to work for a living any more than Isabelle did, except she was loving every minute of the work, not surprisingly. I mean, she had this sudden celebrity status and she ate it up. He was pushing her to sell the business while it was hot, before it peaked. He had some cockamamie scheme about prefabs and franchises. I’m not really sure what his idea was, but she hated it. By then, she was disenchanted with the marriage anyway, feeling bullied and suffocated. She wanted out from under.”
“If they’d divorced, the business would have been considered community property, wouldn’t it?”
“Sure. It would have been divided in half and he’d have lost really big. What’d she need him for? She could find half a dozen guys to fill his slot, but that wasn’t true for him. Without her, he had zip. On the other hand, if she died, the business came to him intact . . . more or less. Her portion would go to Shelby, but he didn’t have to worry about a four-year-old. At that point, Isabelle had already come up with so many preliminary sketches he could afford to coast and s
urvive on the proceeds. Plus, with her dead, he must have counted on collecting the insurance. Again, some would go to Shelby, but he’s still going to rake in a bunch.”
“If he wins,” I said. “Where’s the house he leased when they separated?”
She flapped her hand toward the ocean. “As you leave the drive you turn left and it’s down half a mile. A big white monstrosity, one of those contemporary houses made out of glass and concrete. It’s so ugly, you can’t miss it.”
“Within easy walking distance?”
“He could have crawled it’s so close.”
“Were you here at the cottage the night she was killed?”
“Well, yes, but I didn’t hear the shot. She’d phoned down here earlier to tell me the Seegers would be arriving late. They’d called about the car trouble and she didn’t want me to worry if I saw lights on in the house. We chatted for a while and she sounded great. She’d been such a mess.”
“Because of his harassment?”
“And the quarrels and the threats. Her life was a nightmare, but she was excited about San Francisco, looking forward to a little shopping, the theater, and the restaurants.”
“What time did you talk to her?”
“About nine, I guess. It wasn’t late. Isabelle was a night owl, but she knew I was usually in bed by ten. The first time I realized there was something wrong was when Don Seeger came down. He said they were worried because they couldn’t get Isabelle to answer the door. They could see the fisheye was missing from the door and the hole looked burned. I grabbed a robe, got my key, and went up to the main house with him. We went in through the back door and found her in the foyer. I felt like a zombie. I was absolutely numb. So cold. It was awful, the worst night of my life.” I could see tears for the first time and her face was suffused with pain. She fumbled in her pocket for a Kleenex and blew her nose. “Sorry,” she murmured.
I studied her for a moment. “And you really think he killed her?”
“There’s not a doubt in my mind. I just don’t know how you’re going to prove it.”