Wilmington, NC 03 - Murder On The Ghost Walk

Europe. We checked into a hotel near the airport for the night. Mother didn't want anyone here to see us return to our house that night. The next day, we took a cab to the river, then walked home as if we'd been down at the waterfront."
    The rope was slackening.
    "Stop that!" Teddy yelled. "Get your hands away from her!" He lunged to his feet, waved the gun wildly at me, probably as crazily as his mother had waved it at Shelby on another October night in this very house six years ago.
    "Oh, my God! He's going to kill us," Melanie squealed. "We're going to die!"

3 5

    I raised my palms and backed off. "Just satisfy my curiosity about one thing, Teddy." I prayed for a miracle, divine inspiration that would enable me to save myself and Melanie. "Why did you kill Mirabelle?"
    Teddy was staggering, openly sobbing, and waving the gun threateningly. "I'm not a killer by choice. I'm not an evil person. I never wanted to kill anyone or to see anyone die. I hated putting Reggie and Shelby in that wall. I loved them. But that Mirabelle . . . "
    "She was blackmailing you, wasn't she?" I guessed.
    "Yes. She was evil. She was going to tell if I didn't give her my house. The only thing I had left or cared about."
    "So you never meant to sell it!" Melanie huffed.
    Now that Teddy was confessing, his words tumbled out as if he had no control over them. "I'd never sell. But Mirabelle threatened me that if I didn't sign it over to her, she'd tell the police I was in Wilmington that October when Reggie and Shelby were murdered, instead of at NYU like I told Detective Yost. She'd give them the key. Then they'd have been suspicious of me, and start ed nosing around."
    I kept my voice neutral when I said, "But you didn't start college until January." That's what I had seen on his college transcript.
    Teddy seemed to sag momentarily, to shrink. "I was stupid to ever give that transcript to Mirabelle! Naturally Miss Busybody Morgan picked up on it right away. Then she came over to my house, acting just so sweet, and I was so lonely I thought she was my friend. When I went out to the kitchen to make us iced tea, she must have snooped around in Mother's room and found the key to Campbell House there."
    I nodded sympathetically.
    Teddy seemed to be talking to himself. "I never g ave th at key a second thought. But Mirabelle recognized th at large brass key immediately and knew what it meant. She took it and tried it in the door. When it fit the lock, she brought it back and waved it under my nose. That's when she blackmailed me."
    Teddy's eyes were filled with pain. "She was a monster. I did the world a favor by getting rid of her. Besides if I hadn't killed her, someone else would have. Everyone hated her."
    "You're right on that score," Melanie said. I'd succeeded in loosening her bonds. She was twisting her wrists in the ropes.
    Teddy chuckled. "Yeah." He looked at Melanie with admiration.
    She pleaded, "Teddy, please untie me."
    "Yeah," Teddy said again, not looking at either of us, "everybody hated her." He bent down to stuff the file folders into his duffel bag. Outside thunder crashed with a bang. He jumped. He looked insane. His eyes flashed around the room desperately. "I've got to get out of town for a while."
    "Will you go back to New York?" I asked, hoping to encourage him to get on his way.
    "Yes. A person can lose himself in New York if he knows how. I do. I never should have left."
    Melanie's hands were almost free.
    Teddy rambled, needing to be understood. "That's where Mother took me after she killed Reggie and Shelby. She left me with an antique dealer friend of hers while she went to London on a buying trip. Just like nothing had happened. As if she hadn't just killed the two dearest people in the world to me.
    "It took me a long time to get over the tragedy of that night. Eventually I did. I discovered people like myself in New York. I made friends. I was happy there. Then Mother died and I inherited our house. It was the one thing I cherished. I wanted to live in it again. You saw for yourself, Ashley, how I was fixing it up."
    "Yes, Teddy, and you were doing a splendid job. Your mother would have liked what you were doing. She paid the property taxes on Campbell House, didn't she? And sent those postcards?"
    "I didn't know until you found Reggie and Shelby, and everything came out, that Mother had been paying their property taxes while she was alive. If I knew , I would have found a way to continue paying them. I never