father’s professional reputation had been ruined by a kidnapping and murder that had taken place at the estate during Brian’s senior year in high school. As the family doctor for Darrel and Sybil Sheldon, his dad had attended their newly adopted baby and the ill-fated nursemaid, Heather Fox. When the missing baby showed up on Dr. Donovan’s doorstep, and the nursemaid he’d befriended was found strangled, ugly speculations had targeted Brian’s father as a likely accomplice. The police failed to turn up any leads to the ransom money or the parties responsible for the nanny’s death.
When insidious suspicions destroyed his father’s reputation and the town turned against him, Brian had felt the backlash in his own life. His father decided to uproot the family, and in the move, Brian had lost touch with all his high school friends. His boyhood had been a happy one, living in the house where he’d been born, hanging out with his buddies and growing up with a sense of belonging. He’d never recovered from the isolation of the move, and had tried to protect himself from that kind of loss ever again by becoming pretty much a loner.
“You must have heard of me,” the injured man insisted. “Heavyweight boxer? Made big money, I did.”
Joe Keller. Suddenly, the name snagged a memory. Brian remembered that a lawyer friend of his father, John Parker, had bought the Stoneview Estate cheap from a prizefighter whose career had hit the skids. Before Joe Keller had sold it, he’d rented the place out as a questionable resort until the authorities closed it down for suspected gambling. Obviously, the fighter’s good fortune had gone downhill since then. Brian found it hard to believe this wasted old man had once been a force in the boxing ring.
“What about your family, Joe?” Brian asked. “Have the authorities notified anyone about what happened to you tonight?”
“No one to notify,” he answered in a tight voice.
Brian checked the bedside drawer, which the nurse had said contained Joe’s personal effects: a pitiful pile of change, a lighter, half pack of cigarettes and a white envelope. Not much to go on.
“If anyone handled any of these things besides you, we may be able to match some fingerprints,” Brian told him hopefully.
“Just mail that envelope for me,” Joe said tiredly. “Tell ’em I’m not up to that kind of shindig. It’s an invitation. A hundred-year-old birthday party for a house. Doesn’t that beat all?”
Brian didn’t answer. He removed the invitation and bagged the envelope with everything else. After leaving the hospital, he drove to his small apartment in a modest Boston neighborhood. Since most of his time was spent on the job, or working out at a nearby gym, the apartment was hardly more than a place to sleep and eat. Occasionally he enjoyed feminine company, but never for very long.
His telephone was blinking with a couple of messages. The only personal one was from his mother, asking him to call. His parents had moved to sunny New Mexico several years earlier after his father had retired from medical practice. The dark cloud that had forced Dr. Donovan to give up his practice in Chataqua had never dissipated. The unsolved kidnapping and murder seemed to lodge in the doctor’s mind like a curse, and even moving across the country had not seemed to help.
Brian returned his mother’s call, and she told him that she was really worried about his dad. “Nothing seems to be physically wrong, but he’s slipping into a deep despondency and brooding about the past. He’s dredging up everything that happened in Chataqua.” Her voice wavered. “It breaks my heart.”
“I know, Mom. He probably has too much time on his hands.”
“He’s not interested in making new friends or taking up a new hobby. You know how stubborn he can be.”
Brian tried to console her as much as he could, but there was very little comfort he could give her. It was a damn shame that what had happened eleven years ago could still destroy the last few years of his father’s life.
Too keyed up to sleep, Brian slumped down in his chair, sipping a beer and staring out the window. His thoughts centered on the unexpected encounter with Joseph Keller, and the invitation the boxer had received. What kind of nonsense was that? A birthday party for a damn house!
Even as Brian dismissed the idea, a startling possibility presented itself. The urge to investigate the crimes that had cast suspicion on his father had always been at the back of Brian’s mind during his career as a detective. As long as the matter remained in Cold Case files, Brian knew no one was going to spend any time or energy on it. As he thought about the invitation that had come into his possession, he began to realize he’d been handed a viable undercover identity.
Joseph Keller wouldn’t be attending the celebration at the Stoneview estate, and no one would be going to represent him. Brian could accept the invitation as a distant relative of Joe Keller.
For a welcomed guest at the Stoneview mansion, Brian knew, on-the-spot investigation would be possible. Attending the event would be invaluable, not only because of access to the crime scene, but because of contact with people who might have pertinent information that had gone unnoticed when the crimes occurred.
He knew he’d never get official approval. The department was stretched just covering day-to-day investigations. This undercover job would have to be done in secret and on his own. He had vacation time coming, and the opportunity to spend it at Stoneview was worth the gamble. He checked the calendar. The celebration was less than three weeks away, and he ought to be able to get free from his duties about ten days before that.
As Brian weighed the deception from all perspectives, the advantages made his decision an easy one. His mother had pleaded with him to do something to help, and what better thing could he do than try and clear his father’s name once and for all?
He decided to wait until the next morning before making a decision, but the idea was only more firmly planted in his mind the next day.
He read the invitation again carefully, filled in the requested information and boldly identified himself as a distant relative of Joseph Keller. In a place for comments, he expressed his pleasure in representing the Keller family at the “one-hundred-year-old birthday celebration.”
With deliberate deception, he signed his name “Brian Keller.” In most undercover situations it was better to use a familiar first name than to suddenly try to relate to a brand-new one, he knew. Besides, most people in Chataqua had known him as Buddy Donovan during his school days.
Brian sealed the envelope, affixed the proper postage, and early the next morning mailed the RSVP to a Ms. Robyn Valcourt at the designated return address.
Finally, he’d get the answers he sought—no matter what.
Chapter Two
Brian arrived in Chataqua a little more than a week before the festivities at Stoneview were scheduled. The bustling small town hugged the northern side of a large lake, and impressive homes like Stoneview overlooked the water on the opposite side. Brian had been on Chataqua Lake numerous times when he was growing up, but he’d never set foot on the exclusive Stoneview property.
He wandered briefly around the town, visiting familiar places of his childhood. Brian remembered his disappointment at having to move away just as his high school baseball team was competing for the state championship. He’d helped bring home a regional trophy the year before, and had never replaced the friendships or sense of belonging in the unfamiliar Boston school where he’d graduated.
When he met people in the bustling resort town
