Love Can Be Murder

Capistrano and Roxann. We know you're in there, and we know what happened. Come out and we'll work through this together." He backed away from the door.
    A few seconds later, Nell emerged, her pallor gray, and her eyes red-rimmed. She had her hand to her mouth, coughing so violently, her entire body shook.
    She gasped for air, and pointed a bony finger at Roxann. "I tried to protect you," she said. "I loved Carl, too, but I was protecting you when I sent you away."
    Roxann swallowed, unable to reconcile the wild-eyed woman before her with the nurturing mentor Nell had once been. "All those years ago...you made up the story about Carl being investigated because you knew I'd leave."
    "Yes. He was crazy about you, but I knew he'd never change. The man unzipped his fly for any pretty girl who walked by."
    She looked to Capistrano who gestured that she keep Nell talking. "You were sure he wouldn't come after me once I left South Bend?"
    "No, I wasn't sure. But I told Carl if he didn't stay away from you, I'd reveal that Tammy Paulen was pregnant with his baby when she died."
    Roxann blinked as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. "You killed Tammy, didn't you?" she asked softly.
    She smiled. "You're smarter than Carl."
    "He didn't know until Angora told him."
    Nell lapsed into another coughing fit and sagged against the door. Roxann started to go to her, but Capistrano held out his arm. "Do you need to sit down, ma'am?"
    Her next inhale expanded her frail chest. She shook her head. "No, I want to have my say before they take me away." She swallowed, then wiped her mouth with her hand. "Carl called me the night that Angora was at his house. Said if I even thought about revealing the Paulen girl's pregnancy, he could prove that I'd killed her. He said he was still in love with you, Roxann, and that now I couldn't stop him from pursuing a relationship with you."
    A bittersweet revelation. "So you sent over Frank Cape, with the scarf you took from my room?"
    Nell made a regretful sound. "That's where things went bad. I told Frank that if he did me a favor, I could find out where Melissa was hiding."
    Bile backed up in Roxann's mouth that Nell was willing to betray a woman who took refuge in the program she had created.
    "The idiot was supposed to make it look as if Angora killed Carl. Later he told me the scarf was already in the library, and he thought it was hers. I could have killed Frank myself for incriminating you."
    "Carl was at the restaurant where you and I dined," Roxann murmured. "I must have lost my scarf and he must have found it."
    Nell's smile was rueful. "An unforeseeable mix-up."
    "How did you meet up with Cape?" Capistrano asked.
    "Elise was screwing him in Biloxi."
    Roxann wet her lips. "Elise is dead, you know."
    Nell's laugh was punctuated with a hacking cough. "Oh, yes, I know. Elise and I were close when she went to school here. Carl nearly destroyed her, too, so I took her under my wing. She was strung too tightly to cope with any disappointment. Over the years she called me when she was in the midst of one crisis or another. I tried to help her when I could, find jobs for her."
    "You sent her to Biloxi," Roxann said in sudden comprehension.
    Nell nodded. "When your picture ran in the alumni newsletter, I could tell Carl was getting restless. He asked me to let him off the hook—he wanted to see you again." She smiled sadly. "I told him no, that you were still off-limits. He'd poisoned enough women with his wickedness, me included."
    Roxann couldn't believe what she was hearing. "So you sent Elise to spy on me?"
    "I was trying to protect you, don't you see?" Nell's bottom lip quivered. "I never had a child, Roxann. You're like a daughter to me."
    She set her jaw to hold back her emotion. Nell's love was so twisted, it was inconceivable. "B-but why did you kill Elise?"
    "I didn't plan to, but I listened in on her call to you at my house. I went to see her, to stop her from telling you everything. She wanted pills in return for her silence. Those pills wouldn't have hurt her if she hadn't taken more than one."
    But anyone who knew Elise knew that one of anything was never enough. Anger stirred in Roxann's stomach. "Angora had better live," she whispered. "She's innocent in all of this."
    Nell's ghostly face suddenly turned malicious. "Because of her, I had to have Carl killed." Then she narrowed her eyes. "And I finally figured out your little secret. How can you say that Angora is