Free Death Comes Silently by Carolyn Hart Page B

the table, wrote, paused, scratched out, added. Finally she nodded.
     
Henny believes Jeremiah Young is innocent.
If she’s right, Gretchen Burkholt was killed by a person or persons unknown.
Gretchen made four calls on her cell phone Monday afternoon from Better Tomorrow. She spoke to me and left two messages for me. She called the Hathaway house.
Gretchen found an index card in the tweed jacket worn by Everett Hathaway the day he died.
Gretchen left a message with the Hathaway maid.
Gretchen spoke of “scandal.”
    Agatha flowed to the top of the table, settled atop the legal pad.
     
    Annie looked into observant, watchful eyes. “You want attention and I may no longer write.”
     
    A faint purr indicated pleasure.
     
    Annie put down the pen. She petted Agatha and thought about a card in a dead man’s pocket. Was it possible that the discovery of the card signed a death warrant for Gretchen?
     
    Why?
     
    According to Gretchen, the card explained why Everett Hathaway had gone out in a kayak on a cold winter night. Was the explanation so incriminating that Gretchen had to die to keep the contents of the card secret?
     
    Everett had drowned in winter-cold water.
     
    What was incriminating about the reason he went out in the kayak?
     
    Slowly, an idea took shape.
     
    What if Everett Hathaway’s death was not an accident?
     
    Agatha rubbed her cheek against Annie’s hand.
     
    Annie looked into golden eyes. “Agatha, I’d think I was nuts except Gretchen’s dead and the only thing different about her day at Better Tomorrow was finding the index card in Everett’s pocket. Gretchen whining about Jeremiah wasn’t new. She complained every time she saw him. No, what was new was the card.”
     
    Cause and effect, card found, call made, woman dead.
     
    Annie knew everything seemed clear to her. Would anyone else believe her, most especially Billy Cameron?
     
    She reached into her pocket for her cell phone.
     

4
     
    B illy Cameron answered his cell. “Yo, Annie.” His tone held faint inquiry.
    She plunged straight to her point. “I’ve been thinking over everything Gretchen said, and I’m sure Gretchen was acting just as usual about Jeremiah and that he’s innocent. She wasn’t really frightened of him.”
     
    “I heard the calls.” Billy spoke in a level voice. “She sounded scared. Her purse is gone. He’s gone. No trace of him. We have to deal with the facts as they are. I wish they were different. So we’ll look for him until we find him. I’m leaving now for a search near the bluffs.”
     
    The bluffs were an eroding end of the island between the open sea and the Sound where heavy currents pulled at crumbling shoreline, a wild and uninhabited area and a good distance from Henny’s marsh.
     
    Annie was careful to keep the relief from her voice. “Has someone sighted him?”
     
    “We’ve had some reports.”
     
    As she’d expected, Billy was totally focused on Jeremiah Young. She picked her way as delicately as a cat through dewy grass. “Billy, what about the Hathaways? Gretchen was sure she’d found something shocking in the pocket of Everett’s jacket.”
     
    “From what you’ve told me”—his tone was dry—“she treated everything as high drama.
A Card From the Dead Man’s Pocket
.” He spoke in the hushed voice of the intro to an old-time radio show. Death on Demand carried CDs of the
Inner Sanctum
and
The Shadow
. Billy was a big fan. “The temptation to magnify the card must have been irresistible.”
     
    “Billy, I know Gretchen loved high drama. But she did find a card.”
     
    “Right.” He was calm, a man who followed procedure. “I followed up on it. I talked to Mrs. Hathaway this morning. Since I spoke with her yesterday, she’d asked everyone in the house. No one saw a message on the telephone pad. She says someone must have thrown it away.”
     
    Annie asked quietly, “How do you know no one saw her message?”
     
    There was a pause. “What are