The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder (29 page)

I stood there for a while, watching the car drive out of sight. Then I climbed into my frigid little car and drove off slowly. Where was Mona? What had she done? And worse, what would she do? I wanted to believe that one of the others was responsible, but I had nothing at all to go on. Mona was the one that Lydia was sure had been in the neighborhood. The point was, had she been in the house too? And which of the cabal had been by, perhaps to see Dr. Partridge when he was alone in the house? With Lydia gone, there was no way to know. Or was there?

I circled by again and stared at the buildings across the street. The late afternoon was gloomy because of the endless snow, and lights gleamed from the front windows of three of the houses. Some people were home during the day. Maybe they looked out those windows.

The first neighbor refused to open her door to me. The second one didn’t even come to answer it. I could sense the presence of someone hiding in the back of the house to avoid me, whoever I was. I was chilled and stiff by the time I pounded on the third door.

A small, round Hispanic woman, with a moon face and black hair in an updo, answered. She flinched at the snow. “Is it ever going to end?” she said.

“Hello,” I said, my teeth chattering. “My name is Charlotte Adams and I wanted to ask you some questions about what happened to Dr. Partridge.” I turned and pointed to the white Cape Cod across the street.

“Oh! I recognize you from the television,” she said.

Was that going to be a bad or a good thing?

Turned out to be good. Her name was Maria and soon I was in her very warm living room, being served steaming hot chocolate and empanadas. I couldn’t believe my luck, although my waistband was already beginning to feel tight.

“I will never get used to this country,” she said. “I dream of Venezuela all through the winter, but it’s not enough, is it? I stay inside all day.”

I shook my head. “I have some photos. I’d like to know if you recognize any of these people.”

She took her time, staring at the photos, much as Lydia had done. Nodding to herself and uttering soft Spanish comments.

“These are old photos.”

“Yes, but I think most of them are still recognizable.”

“This one,” she said, pointing. “She has been here yesterday.”

“Yesterday?”

“Last night.”

“I knew it! Serena.”

That said it all. I was going straight to the police.

“And this one,” she said, fingering Mona. “I saw her, but not at the house. She seemed to be behind the other one, watching from the car.”

“Could you tell that from the window?”

“My husband noticed. We were coming home from Hannaford’s and he noticed the car was still there after all the time we were gone. The windows were clear of snow. It struck him funny.” She offered me another empanada. They were spectacular. Who could refuse?

“What kind of car?” I asked.

“A small red one. So much tragedy in that man’s life. Losing his wife so young. Now this other terrible accident.”

“The other woman,” I started to say.

“The beautiful one?”

“Yes.” It bugged me to say it. “Was she in the house long?”

“I would say at least forty-five minutes. She seemed upset when she left.”

“You could tell that?”

“She came out just as we arrived back. My husband noticed the little red car. I noticed the woman. She’d been crying. She got into her car.”

“What kind of car?”

“A big yellow one. You know the ones like some kind of army machine. A zinger?”

“Hummer, maybe?”

“Yes. My husband loves them. I think they are horrible.”

“And she drove away?”

“Yes. Very fast, right down the middle of the road. And the little red car followed her.”

My tactic of letting Pepper know met with the usually deafening silence. I’d given up hope that she’d call me back. I added Mona to the hopeless list too. No one answered at Haley’s. That worried me. As one of the remaining bullies, Haley was unlikely to be killed by a car if she stayed inside her cozy cabin, but what if she’d ignored my warnings and headed out on errands? She was high-strung and jumpy, not overly logical, and she’d be an easy target on those lonely country roads.

It was late afternoon when I decided to head out to check on Haley. I found myself yawning. I hadn’t had much downtime this week and it was starting to catch up to me. The Miata was bumping and grinding along the packed snow on the backcountry road to Haley’s home in the woods. I pulled up in front of the house and sniffed the wood smoke. The van was there. I was glad I caught them before they left for work.

Randy arrived at the door, yawning. He seemed surprised to see me. I figured Haley didn’t get a lot of friends dropping in. He opened the door and gestured for me to come in. “I’ll get her,” he said. “She’s doing laundry. That coffee’s nice and fresh if you’d like some. I just put it on for her.”

The coffee smelled heavenly. If it tasted half as good, it would be wonderful.

I accepted a nice full mug. The coffee didn’t disappoint. Randy was apparently much better at making it than Haley.

Randy called, “Honey, you got company again. Leave everything and have your coffee with your friend.”

A full three minutes passed before Haley appeared at the top of the basement stairs, her face even paler than usual. Relief washed over her features when she saw me. Randy noticed it too.

“Who’d you think it was, honey? The IRS?”

She rolled her eyes. “Charlotte. This is a surprise.”

“Sorry to keep dropping in uninvited, Haley. This won’t take long.”

She watched me, her watery eyes worried. “What is it?”

“I wondered how you found out that Serena was back.”

Her mouth tightened. She glanced at Randy, then back at me. “Didn’t I tell you? She called me. I guess I’m not that hard to find.”

“What did she say?”

“Just that she was coming back and she’d been looking forward to seeing me and how my life turned out. She wanted us to get together again. Get our groove back. All that. It was awful. I didn’t want to go back to that relationship, like I said.”

She was being vague and all of a sudden it hit me. Except for the incident with Mona, Jack had been pretty much unaware of the mean girls’ cruelty. What if Randy had no idea what a bitch his wife had been? Haley wouldn’t want him to know. She was very much ashamed of herself. I imagined she wouldn’t want her daughter to find out either. I sure wouldn’t have if I’d been in her shoes. Even so, I thought she would be better off coming clean with both of them. Otherwise Serena would continue to have power over her.

“She called Mona Pringle too.”

“Oh, poor Mona.”

“What’s going on, honey?”

“Nothing. I’ll explain later. Can you let me talk with Charlotte in private, please?”

“Sure thing. Time for me to get dressed anyway.” I thought Randy seemed offended as he shuffled up the stairs and disappeared. A door closed softly.

I said, “And she called Kristee too.”

Haley gasped. “But why?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“She made Kristee’s life hell too. We all did. A fat girl like that. Serena found it irresistible. I am too ashamed to ever go near her candy shop just knowing the things we did to her. The cruel things we said. I could shrivel up and die. I guess she’s calling all the people she made suffer.”

“I wonder who else she called. Do you think she truly wanted to make amends?”

“Amends?” Haley barked with laughter, although there was no humor in that laugh. “You must be kidding. She just wants to wield that old power again, to watch people squirm, to know they probably won’t sleep well just knowing she’s back. They’ll be looking behind them, jumping when the phone rings. Tossing and turning in bed. She’s getting high on that. I told her I have a new life now and I’m busy with my family and I don’t have any spare time. She told me what she thought of my ‘pathetic little life.’ But you know what? I got off lightly. I might be feeling nervous and jumpy, but those other girls will be panicked. I realize that’s what’s happening with me and I wasn’t even one of her victims. I was one of the bullies. When I think that I actually locked Mona in that locker intending to leave her there all weekend, I can’t—”

A small noise from the second floor caught our attention. We both glanced up at the source. Near the top of the staircase, a plump teenager stared down at Haley and me.

Haley said, “Brie!”

With her dark hair and broad face, Brie took after her father, Randy, not Haley. She stared openmouthed for a minute before turning and rushing back to her room. The door slammed behind her, the sound reverberating. What had the expression been on her face? Horror, mixed with contempt?

Randy stepped out of the next doorway, a sweatshirt in his hands. He stared down the hall in the direction I took to be his daughter’s room. Then he turned to regard his wife, the first of many questions starting to rise on his lips.

Haley couldn’t hold back the tears. “It’s starting. Everything’s starting to go wrong. Serena won’t rest until she ruins everyone’s life again. I wouldn’t have thought she could cause problems in my own family, but now—”

I waited until she pulled herself together. I said in a low voice, “Perhaps you have to level with them, if they don’t know.”

Her voice wobbled. “I don’t want them to know what I did, what I was. What I did to—”

I knew she was thinking about what she had done to kids like Brie.

Haley said, “I did terrible things. I am sorry for my actions, but I can’t undo them.”

“Maybe you can make a start,” I said. “You can’t undo those terrible things, but you could do some good.”

At the sound of Randy’s heavy footsteps heading downstairs, Haley began to sob. “Stay with me,” she said, reaching over and grabbing my sleeve.

“What the hell are you doing to her?” Randy bellowed.

Haley turned her tear-streaked face to him. “She didn’t do anything. I have to tell you something. Something that’s been bothering me a lot.”

“I knew something was wrong. You’ve been so mopey lately.”

She nodded and took a deep, ragged breath. “I am not the person you think I am, Randy.”

“’Course, you are, honey. Who else would you be?”

She shook her head and the stringy curls swayed. “Not who you think, for sure. Not that person.”

“I’ve known you all my life. We went to school together. I love you, honey. You are my beautiful girl. My prom princess. Why are you so upset?”

I was conscious of a scuffling on the stairs. I turned to see Brie had returned and was now crouched near the bottom stair, listening intently to her mother.