Schooled In Lies (20 page)

Audrey took one look at me and burst into tears. The little girl clinging to her was so startled she stopped crying and stared up at her mother.

“Mommy’s sad. She and daddy had a fight,” lisped Cassidy, who’d finally looked up from her coloring book and noticed me.

“Cassidy!” said Audrey so sharply the little girl jumped. “Take Colleen into the kitchen to watch cartoons.” Cassidy sulkily did as she was told and led away her little sister who had started wailing again.

“I’m sorry, Kendra, but as you can see, I’m in the middle of a meltdown. Is there a reason you came by?”

Before I could reply, Cassidy’s shrill little girl screech of, “Mommy! Chris flushed his diaper down the toilet again!” caused Audrey to shove the other little boy she was holding, whose named turned out to be Cory, into my arms and go tearing off down the hall.

I followed her back to a large kitchen with dirty dishes pilled high in the sink. The kitchen opened into an even larger, messier family room. Cassidy, Colleen, and Chris, who had pulled his juice-stained shirt over his face in an attempt to hide, were standing in the doorway of a small bathroom right off the kitchen. The floor was flooded and when we looked into the toilet, we could only see part of the diaper. The rest of it was wedged deep into the toilet. There was also a sock in the toilet, along with what I first thought was a brown crayon, but turned out to be poop. Eew! Audrey lost it.

“Christopher Grant! How many times have I told you to stay away from this toilet?” She bellowed.

Colleen ran and hid under the kitchen table, Cassidy started sucking her finger; the infant, Callie, whose name I deduced by process of elimination, started crying again. I looked over at the bassinet on the floor by the couch and saw her little arms flailing. Cory, the kid I was holding, had miraculously fallen asleep with his little head resting on my shoulder. As for the culprit, Chris, he pulled his undershirt down from his face and started babbling, “I sorry, Mommy. I sorry.”

“I can’t take this anymore,” Audrey said, looking hopelessly lost. She walked into the kitchen, leaned against the counter, and sobbed. I laid Cory on the couch.

“Come on, Audrey. I don’t have anyplace to be this morning. Let me help you out.” It was as if I’d said the magic word:
help
. Audrey instantly straightened up and gave me a grateful look.

During the next couple of hours we managed to get the toilet unstopped, all five kids bathed and dressed, the family room straightened up, and the breakfast dishes washed. There was little conversation, as Audrey was clearly still upset, which is why I didn’t bother pointing out the smiley faces drawn on the wall behind the couch in magic marker, for fear of another meltdown. Was this how she spent every day? How did she do it? What would have happened if I hadn’t shown up to help her?

By ten o’clock, Cassidy had been picked up for day camp, Chris and Colleen were intently watching
The
Lion King
on DVD, Cory was happily playing with a set of blocks in his playpen, and baby Callie, who was two months old, was asleep. I, on the other hand, besides wishing I’d taken my ass to work, was exhausted. I sat down on the couch next to Audrey.

“Thanks for helping me. You saved the day.” She put her feet up on the coffee table.

“I don’t know how you do it. I’m worn out and it’s only ten o’clock.”

She laughed. “Believe it or not, it’s not always this bad. I usually have a better handle on things. It’s been a bad morning. Glen, my husband, and I had a huge argument this morning and it was downhill from there.”

I’d never met Audrey’s husband. I looked over at the family picture on the side table by the couch and saw that Audrey’s husband was a serious-looking, short, stocky man with thick brown hair and glasses. He was the only one in the picture not smiling. I knew he was an electrical engineer. He wasn’t the pretty-boy type Audrey had favored in high school, though if Joy was right, then apparently her taste had changed dramatically, which brought me back to why I had come over in the first place.

“Have you had time to follow the news?”

“You mean about Ms. Flack?” She got up from the couch. She opened the fridge and pulled out two cans of diet pop and handed me one. I hate diet pop but popped the tab and took a drink anyway.

“I still can’t believe it. You know, I don’t mean to be insensitive, but this is the second time the head of the reunion committee has died in a freak accident. I was supposed to be the head of the committee this time around but I’d just had Callie when they were talking about starting up the committee again. I’m so glad I said no.”

“If people knew what I knew about Ms. Flack, they might think she got what she deserved,” I said bluntly. No need to beat around the bush. Her eyes got big for a few seconds then she looked away.

“Why?” she asked lightly, glancing over at her children to make sure they weren’t listening. They weren’t.

I toyed with the idea of just telling her I’d figured out Ms. Flack was blackmailing her but decided she probably wouldn’t confide in me unless she thought I’d been a victim, too.

“Someone contacted me about a week ago. This person told me they knew about something I did years ago, something I don’t want anyone to know about. They wanted five thousand dollars to keep quiet about it.” I looked over at Audrey. She looked like she’d stopped breathing and all the color had gone out of her face.

“What did you do?” she finally asked in a whisper.

“Well, since I didn’t have five thousand dollars, I decided to do a little detective work to see if I could find out who this person was. It was Ms. Flack.”

“What!” she said so loudly the kids turned to stare at her. “Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent,” I replied.

Audrey angrily jumped up from the couch and started frantically pacing back and forth and talking to herself, “That bitch! I can’t believe it!”

“Audrey, calm down; you’re scaring the kids.” Colleen and Christopher were staring at their mother with wide eyes. Baby Callie stirred in her sleep but didn’t wake up. Cory was picking his nose and eating the boogers.

I got up and headed into the kitchen and gestured for her to follow me. She practically stepped on the backs of my shoes in her haste to get out of hearing range of her kids.

“So, I guess I wasn’t the only one she was blackmailing?” I watched her closely. Audrey hesitated. I could see the uncertainty in her eyes and decided to put her out of her misery.

“Look. I don’t want to know what she had on you. I don’t care. I just want to know if there were other people besides me she was blackmailing.”

“The person who called me was disguising their voice. But I could still tell it was a woman. I just thought it was an old girl—” she stopped abruptly and looked flustered when she realized what she’d almost said. She was going to say an old girlfriend. Joy had told the truth for once in her life. I gave her a blank look and pretended not to notice.

“I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me,” she concluded.

“Would you be willing to tell the police?”

“Are you insane? If my husband finds out about any of this, he’ll kill me. I’m already trying to figure out how I’m going to replace that money before he notices the account is short. Promise me you won’t tell anyone, please.” She’d grabbed my arm and was squeezing so hard I knew I’d be bruised.

“Okay,” I said, shaking off her hand. “Okay. I won’t say anything. But if the police find out Ms. Flack was blackmailing people, then who do you think they’re going to be looking to arrest for her murder? You didn’t pay her with a check, did you?”

“Murder? They said it was an accident on the news.”

“I’m the one who found her body. Believe me. It was no accident and I wouldn’t want the police looking at you if it gets out she was a blackmailer. You didn’t pay her with a check, did you? ”

“No, I gave her cash.”

“Good. There’s nothing to link back to you unless—” I said, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Unless, what?” she asked looking frantic. I leaned in close. I was aware that I was getting carried away with this little game I was playing but I couldn’t stop now.

“Unless you killed her. Audrey, you didn’t kill Ms. Flack, did you?”

In retrospect, looking down at my torn shirt on the drive home, I was lucky she hadn’t blacked my eye. The moment after the words had come out of my mouth she’d grabbed me by the front of my shirt, dragged me wordlessly to the front door, opened it, pushed me out, and slammed the door behind me. I was standing on the porch in shock when the door opened again and she threw my purse at me. I hurried to my car with my ripped shirt hanging open and exposing my bra, oblivious to the stares of a couple of the neighbors who were working in their yards. She was damned lucky it had been an old shirt.

After I went home and changed, and not wanting anyone from work to see me out when I was supposed to be home sick, I had an early lunch at Wendy’s. I sat in my car and ate trying to figure out my next move because I was fairly certain Audrey hadn’t killed Ms. Flack, not that she wasn’t capable of it. Anybody who’d almost had a nervous breakdown over a diaper that had been flushed down the toilet might be upset enough to kill over being blackmailed. But she’d seemed genuinely shocked when I told her Ms. Flack was the blackmailer. I was rummaging around in my purse for an extra napkin to wipe up some spilled Frosty when I came across the pink message slip from Clair Easton that I’d swiped from Gerald Tate’s wastebasket. I’d forgotten all about it. The message was in regards to her account. On a whim I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number on the slip. A woman’s voice answered on the third ring.

“Ms. Easton this is…” I struggled to quickly come up with a name. My eyes latched on to my empty fast food bag. “This is Wendy Burger. I’m with the stock regulatory commission of Ohio and I’d like to ask you a few questions about Gerald Tate if—”

“That bastard! I’ll tell you everything I know. When can you come over?” I certainly wasn’t expecting an invitation. And because I usually I had to pry info out of people, I was at a loss for words.

“Hello? Ms. Burger, are you still there?”

“Yes. Sorry, Ms. Easton, I was consulting my calendar. I’m free this afternoon at 2. Are you available then?”

Clair Easton agreed to meet me later that afternoon and gave me her address. I recognized the street as one of the more expensive neighborhoods in the affluent Pine Knoll area of Willow. I’d have to change into something more professional looking than the shorts and tank top I was wearing before the meeting, which was still almost three hours away. I couldn’t wait to hear what she had to tell me about Gerald. Until then, I wondered what other trouble I could get into. It didn’t take me long to think of something.

Chapter Fifteen

THE KINGFORD COLLEGE STUDENT union was where I found Dennis Kirby, who had just settled down to a lunch of a chili cheese dog and greasy fries. I’d gone to the bookstore to see him but was told by one of his coworkers that he was at lunch. His coworker also warned me that he didn’t get the trainer job he’d applied for and was in a foul mood. Dennis was oblivious to anything other than the plate in front of him and didn’t notice me until I sat down at his table. He didn’t look especially thrilled to have company and reminded me of a dog who thought his food was about to be taken away.

“You accused her of murdering Ms. Flack. Yeah, I know. She called Gerald and me after she threw you out of her house. That’s pretty wack. Audrey’s really upset.”

I had to press my lips together to keep my mouth from falling open. Audrey had called Dennis and Gerald and told them about my visit? An unnerving sense of déjà vu caused my spine to stiffen with apprehension.

“Wow. I didn’t realize you and Audrey were still so close. You two have been giving each other dirty looks at every reunion committee meeting.”

“Audrey can be annoying as hell, but we’re still friends. She told us all about your little visit, about how you helped her out with the kids and then turned around and accused her of murdering Ms. Flack.”