The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder (19 page)

She nodded. “I did. I had a younger cousin who had a hard time with Serena and her gal pals. She had a breakdown and her parents took her out of St. Jude’s as a result, so when Serena showed up here, I was vehemently opposed to having her volunteer. I took it up with the executive director.”

I waited.

Bella hesitated and glanced around. She lowered her voice. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. I know there are confidentiality issues, but I could tell by your face that you knew Serena’s history.”

“I sure did. I’m sorry. I was kind of mining you for information. I regret not standing up against her and the others at the time. The people here are terribly vulnerable. If Serena was up to her old—”

“She isn’t. I am absolutely certain of that. This volunteer work is one of the ways she’s chosen to make amends.”

I couldn’t stop myself from snorting. Bella said, “I know how you feel. It took me a long time to come around too. We had some pretty lively meetings about her being here. I even got in touch with my cousin about it.”

“What did she say?”

“To my surprise, she’d forgiven Serena. Serena contacted her when she moved back here. She said she had to make amends. She expressed remorse and they talked it through. Maybe part of it is that my cousin did well at her new school, and her parents supported her and worked hard to help her get over it.”

“Hmm. I am glad for your cousin’s sake that she’s worked past it, but what about your residents here? They’re not in a position to work through anything. Or even explain what’s happening to them. What do we know about Serena’s motives?”

“I understand that Serena has a baby who almost died of meningitis last year. And when the child was at death’s door, I guess she made a bargain with the Almighty. Changing herself in return for the child getting better and making amends to people she’d harmed.”

“That might explain it, but I’m still suspicious.”

“With good reason and so was I. And I think that having a husband who is committed to making the world a better place makes a difference. They haven’t been married all that long, maybe three or four years. He is a wonderful man. He’s done a lot to establish schools in Africa. He set up scholarship funds for underprivileged youth. He sponsors a big fund-raiser for the food cupboard. The hospital—”

“Oh fine,” I said.

Bella met my eyes. “To reassure you, Serena is never alone with any of our people. There’s always someone with her. And more to the point, everyone likes her. The patients and staff seem to light up when she shows up for her shift.”

After a pause, I said, “You know, back at St. Jude’s people always lit up when she was around, with the exception of the miserable kids she singled out for torment. She was so gorgeous and powerful. I don’t know if lighting up at the sight of her is a good indication.” I sat there wondering what Serena was up to. I stared at Bella’s soft, kind face. “You keep an eye on her all the time?”

“We always will in a subtle way. On the off chance that I’m wrong. People do change, Charlotte, and I think we all deserve a second chance. Don’t we all need that in some way?”

“I guess. But I hope you’re right. Serena was so cruel and dangerous, I am surprised that they would take the risk.”

“Her pastor came with her. She’s been getting counseling for her . . . issues. He stands behind her and this is part of her work in the community to reclaim her goodness.”

I barely stopped myself from snorting.

“Charlotte, don’t you believe that people can change?”

“Sure, I think that lots of us can improve ourselves, learn to live better lives, but Serena? The things she did were horrible. I’m sorry; I’d like to believe it, but I just can’t buy that.”

Bella said, “I believe you’re wrong. And I hope you come to realize it, Charlotte.”

I didn’t doubt her sincerity. I just hoped she was right, for everyone’s sake.

On my way home, I took a slight detour down Spruce Street to Mona’s place. I didn’t plan on contacting her. I parked and sat there worrying. As I did, the garage door opened and a dark-blue sedan pulled out. From the window of number 18, Caroline waved to the driver. Must have been the other tenant There was still no small red car inside the garage and no lights showing from the small windows of Mona’s basement apartment. Wherever Mona was, she still wasn’t home. I confirmed that by tromping over to her door and knocking. I followed up by having a quick conversation with Caroline. She was worried too because there still hadn’t been a word or a sound from Mona. She and Tony were taking good care of Mooch and Pooch, she assured me.

I knew that Pepper would probably haul me in if she knew I’d done that, but I was also well aware that Serena wasn’t the only person who needed to make amends. I had to make a lot up to Mona for not standing up for her at St. Jude’s. I didn’t want to mess up this time, but it was hard to figure out what to do.

Next I drove by the police station. Pepper hadn’t mentioned that I shouldn’t do that. I found no red Aveo parked in the staff parking area.

So. Mona wasn’t at home, wasn’t at work. Where was she? And was she all right?

Jack chugged up the stairs before five. “The roads are crummy. I closed early. It’s not bike-buying weather. Not even snowboard weather. I thought you were babysitting at Sally’s tonight.”

“I am, but not until six thirty. Her yoga class is at seven.”

“Okay. Want to eat together?”

This was a ridiculous comment, as we eat together every night that we’re home.

He said, “Shall I send out for Thai? Hey, your table’s set.”

“Don’t pass out, but I actually have the makings of a stir-fry. I am just about to whip that up.”

“Right. I forgot you owned a recipe. That would be good. Want me to chop?”

“I actually have two recipes, Jack. Don’t minimize. And I have rice cooking, and I am not counting that as one of the recipes. But anyway, I already chopped red and yellow peppers, zucchini, celery, and garlic. We’ll have to eat pizza for a week to get all these vitamins out of our systems.”

As I heated the wok and dropped in some oil to sizzle, Jack entertained Truffle and Sweet Marie. He called out to me from the living room. “What got into you?”

I dropped some finely chopped garlic into the sizzling oil. “I was trying to get into a Zen mood after all this worry about Mona and Serena and who knows who else. It helped quite a bit.” I watched the dogs frolicking with Jack as the veggies hopped in the hot wok. It was more fun than television. I tossed in a pile of shrimp and then some black-bean sauce to finish off.

Jack was suitably impressed. It doesn’t take much and that’s a good thing. The dogs were impressed too and hung around, full of hope. As I served up the fragrant results on my white square plates, Jack said, “Hey. I’ll do the dishes.”

“I was going to volunteer you. And by the way, you were right, Jack. You did see Serena and she actually is a volunteer at Riverview Manor.”

Jack’s fork paused midway to his mouth. “Now, that’s scary. Those people are very vulnerable. What if Serena hasn’t really changed her ways? Do the people in charge know about her history as a bully?”

I shrugged. “They do know. At least they’ve heard a version of her past, although maybe that’s been sanitized. They think that she is trying to make up for the evil things she’s done in her life, and they believe her. Bella didn’t agree with taking her on as a volunteer, but apparently it’s all working out.”

“Did you mention that you’d trust her as far as you could throw a Buick?”

“I made my point, but Bella says it seems to be sincere. She says Serena is never alone anyway. I am not sure what to do about it. It’s not like we have any standing at Riverview. Serena has them bamboozled for sure. Bella insists that she’s keeping an eye on Serena just in case.”

“That girl never did anything without an ulterior motive. So what would be her motive there? I don’t get that.”

“From what I can figure out she has a new husband. He’s a wealthy philanthropist and a man who is into ethical behavior.”

“Sounds like a guy who would be very disappointed to learn about the kind of person Serena is. Maybe that’s why she’s trying to build bridges.”

“She called a relative of Bella’s to ask forgiveness for her actions as a teenager. She called Mona.”

“I can’t see anyone falling for that.”

“Most people fell for it when we were at St. Jude’s. Bella says the staff and residents like her a lot.”

“Maybe she’s trying to get at their money.”

“The new husband is loaded. So I don’t think that’s it. Serena’s always had money. I think she enjoyed power. That’s her motivation. I wonder if that’s why she called Mona.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ostensibly to get forgiveness, but wanting to bring all those bad memories back to Mona. The girl’s gone off the deep end. Perhaps Serena is enjoying the knowledge that she can cause a person to disintegrate. Especially a person like Mona who’d worked so hard to overcome that tough time, to build a life and make a contribution.”

Jack scowled. “I guess we’d better try to find out what’s going on.”

For Christmas, I’d given Sally two hours of babysitting every Tuesday night so she could hurry off to the yoga class that was saving her sanity this extended winter. Her husband, Benjamin, was too busy with hospital activities, committees, and his medical practice to give her much time off. With four children under five, Sally crashed into bed by eight many nights. I’d actually found her asleep on the rug once. My babysitting was a big hit. Jack had given Sally the same gift on Friday afternoons. If you haven’t gathered this already, he is crazy about small children and wild about babies. I love kids too, for about an hour and fifty-eight minutes.

’Nuff said.

I was armed with a stack of books and some wind-up toy frogs that seemed nicely unpredictable. On her way out, I’d asked Sally to subtly inquire about Tiffanee and find out what people in that yoga community were saying. As the door closed behind her, I took a deep breath, turned, and faced the darling rug rats.

When she got home, Sally had the post-yoga boneless glow that people seem to get. She sank into her leather sofa and smiled dreamily at me.

I wasn’t quite so glowing, although I did have peanut butter in my hair.

“How did it go?” she said, eying my hair and suppressing a smirk.

“Books were a hit. Frogs were so-so. Snack was a disaster.”

She glanced past me into the kitchen. “I can see that.”

Three preschoolers were out like lights under a blanket on the sofa. The baby was already asleep. Sally had given them their baths before I arrived. Bath times for Sally’s kids have not been among my most glorious moments.

Sally said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love them so much, but I need to get away from the little beasts from time to time.”

“Hey, no need to explain to me.”