Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 122, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 745 & 746, September/October 2003

“About one o’clock that day. I went there every Friday, though usually later in the afternoon. One of my regulars had canceled that morning, so I was early. I walked to the back of the house, heading for the laundry room, where the cleaning supplies are kept.”

“Before you saw the bodies, did you see anything out of the ordinary?”

“The sliding door was open.”

“Did you see anything on the floor between the end of the counter and the plant?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t see the gun. Believe me, I would have noticed a gun.”

“Then what?”

“I came around the end of the counter. From the corner of my eye I saw something on the floor in front of the sink. I looked down—” She grimaced. “I saw two people lying there, covered in blood. I didn’t even realize who it was. I just saw all that blood.”

“What did you do then?”

“I backed away. I had my hands up, like this.” She held her hands up as though warding off a blow. “I backed into the plant. It scared me. It was as tall as me. When I felt the leaves brush against the back of my head and my face, I screamed. I thought someone had grabbed me from behind. I panicked. My foot kicked something. I thought it was the pot. But it must have been the gun. I looked down and saw something moving across the floor toward the table. I didn’t stick around to see what it was.”

That explained how the murder weapon wound up in the breakfast nook.

“I ran out the front door,” Mrs. Mejia continued. “The gardener was next door. He called the police. Later I gave my statement. Then I came home.”

“How long had you worked for the Terrells?” I asked.

“The whole time they were married. And before. I used to clean for Mrs. Terrell before she married Mr. Terrell.”

“So you knew Martha Terrell fairly well?”

“As well as you can know someone you work for.”

“Had you seen or heard anything that might indicate that Mr. and Mrs. Terrell were having marital difficulties?”

“No, it was a good marriage. Mrs. Terrell once told me she was happier with Mr. Terrell than with her first husband.”

That might cover Martha’s feelings, I thought, but it didn’t account for Claude’s perspective.

“Did they have disagreements about money? Or about their children from their previous marriages?” I asked. Finances and offspring were two of the biggest frictions in any marriage.

She hesitated.

“I know you don’t want to speak out of turn, but anything you overheard might be important.”

“Well, there were arguments. About money.”

“Between Mr. and Mrs. Terrell?”

“Sometimes. But it wasn’t disagreements between the two of them. It was mixed up with their children.”

Now we were getting somewhere. “How so?”

“Mr. Terrell didn’t like it that Mrs. Terrell gave money to Colin. He said Colin should learn to stand on his own two feet.”

Mr. Terrell may have had a point. But I didn’t have enough information yet to make that call. “So Colin had money troubles, and Mom kept bailing him out.”

Mrs. Mejia nodded. “Mrs. Terrell told me some of it. The rest I overheard. Colin can’t decide what he wants to do with his life. He dropped out of college, then he went back. He got a degree and a teaching credential, like his sister. After teaching for a few years he signed on with a dot-com company. He hadn’t been there very long when the tech boom went bust and he was out. Then it was law school. He stuck with that for a year before he quit. Since last summer he’s been working temp jobs. He couldn’t afford to pay rent on his apartment, so he moved in with his girlfriend. He has trouble making ends meet.”

“So there was some tension,” I said. “Did you overhear any arguments between Colin and his mother?”

“Yes, several months ago. Mrs. Terrell said Colin should settle on something, either teaching or law school. Colin got defensive, they argued, and Mr. Terrell got involved. Colin stormed out of the house. Later Mrs. Terrell told me she probably shouldn’t keep helping Colin, but he was her son. I understood. I’d do the same for my kids. She said Mr. Terrell got upset because she gave Colin money, but it was her own money. Besides, he wrote lots of checks to his own son.”

“Same situation?” I asked. “Eric has trouble deciding what he wants to be when he grows up?”

“Not quite the same. Eric knows what he wants to be — the boss. He started his own business, but it failed.”

“His father bankrolled him?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Mejia said. “Mrs. Terrell told me Mr. Terrell lost a lot of money when Eric’s business went under, about a year ago. Eric wanted to start another business.”

“How do you know that?”

“I overheard another argument, a couple of weeks before the Terrells died. Mr. Terrell and Eric had a big fight, words mostly. I was upstairs cleaning. They were in the backyard and the windows were open. I looked out and saw them shouting at each other. Eric said his father was being selfish, he had plenty of money. Mr. Terrell said that wasn’t the point. He wasn’t going to give Eric any more, because Eric didn’t have a head for business, and he wasn’t going to throw good money after bad.”