The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder (30 page)

“I did terrible things to people. You have no idea. Cruel things.”

“No, you didn’t, honey.”

Haley wailed. “Yes! I did! I am so sorry. I hurt people. I humiliated them. People who didn’t deserve it. I was under Serena’s thumb and I would have done anything she told me to do. I never thought about how much it would have hurt . . .”

“Mona,” I said. “It hurt Mona.”

“Who’s Mona?”

“Now she’s a 911 operator. Then she was a skinny awkward kid who was put through hell.”

“Honey, it’s a long time ago. People get over stupid kids games. It’s one person and she must have turned out all right to be a 911 operator.”

“She’s pretty messed up over this,” I said. “She was holding it together until Serena called her.”

“But that’s Serena, not you. Even I knew she had a mean streak.”

“It wasn’t just one person,” Haley hiccupped. “And I was just as involved as Serena.”

“Not just Mona. Kristee too,” I said.

“What did you girls do to them?”

“Not Charlotte. She wasn’t part of it.”

I said, “I didn’t step forward to help Mona or Kristee when they needed me. That’s why I need to do something now.”

“Kristee? She that gal with the chocolate shop? Kind of . . .” His voice trailed off and his eyes darted to his daughter’s round face.

“Fat?” Brie said from her place on the stairs. “Was she fat, Mom?”

“Not very, I suppose, but we tormented her.”

“She’s another one doing okay now though,” Randy said. “People have to rise above these things.”

I didn’t want to say what had happened to Kristee, the pig nose, the food dumps, the other torments. There was no point in rubbing it in about Brie’s mother’s crimes. But I was pretty sure Brie knew firsthand what Kristee had gone through.

“I didn’t realize,” Haley sobbed, “but now I do. I want to make it up to people. I am so afraid of what Serena will do.”

“What could she do?” Randy and I said practically in unison.

“Randy’s right,” I said. “She doesn’t have any power over you now. Just don’t associate with her. You asked me for forgiveness and you did far less damage to me. Maybe you can make amends to Mona and Kristee.”

“They’d never forgive me.”

“Maybe not. I don’t know. It’s too late for Bethann Reynolds, but you can do the right thing for Kristee and Mona. Talk to them. Tell them you truly regret what you were part of and why. Even if they don’t forgive you, that can help you break free from Serena and let you move on.”

“That makes sense to me, honey,” Randy said.

A soft voice broke in from the stairs. “They’ll never forgive you. Never, and there’s no reason why they should. Why should you end up happy with a family when their lives were practically ruined? I know what it’s like to be one of
them
. I hate you. I wish you weren’t my mother.” Brie turned and stumbled up the stairs.

“Brie, baby,” Randy lumbered after her. “You don’t mean that.”

“The hell I don’t.”

It took a couple more minutes for Haley to stop weeping. “I never wanted my family to know what I did. Randy will forgive me anything, but Brie will never trust me again.”

“If you do the right thing now, Brie will come around in time. It sounds to me like she’s had her share of bullying to deal with.”

“She has such a pretty face and she hardly eats a thing, but she’s like Randy’s mom and sister—they’re just round people. She’s artistic. She doesn’t have many friends outside of her books. I should have been on the lookout. No wonder she’s so angry at me.”

“Maybe you can get some counseling for her, and for yourself.”

“Thanks, Charlotte, but I can’t even afford that.”

“There are some community resources that could help you both. I’ll check into that. But I don’t know if you should thank me. I think I made things worse. I was just trying to figure out who else she would have contacted to make amends. She got Mona and Kristee both into a state. Mona’s panicked and Kristee’s mad as hell. Could there be anyone else?”

Haley bit her lip. “I wonder if she called Bethann too. She was also a target, as well as Mona and Kristee.”

“Do you think she might have?” This reminded me that I hadn’t heard back from Bethann’s brother-in-law. I could hardly pressure the grieving family, but I was still hoping he’d find out something for me.

Haley said, “Sure. Bethann was such a little rabbit. She’d cry as soon as Serena walked by her. She’d panic and run away. I bet Serena missed having all that impact on people, even though she’s pretending to be so nice. She always loved it when someone was suffering. It was probably fun for her to revive all that, to make them miserable again.”

I thought about it. “Bethann’s dead, not just miserable. Anyway, I heard she’d learned to fight back. Won a harassment suit against her employer. I wonder if she would have been as intimidated by Serena this time around.”

Haley shrugged. “I don’t understand what’s going on. I wish I did.”

I had been wondering if Mona was responsible, but now another idea was starting to form. I said, “Bethann had changed. What if she wasn’t willing to put up with this anymore? What if she decided to go public about Serena too? What if she threatened her? Serena would have had plenty to lose this time.”

Haley’s jaw dropped. “You mean Serena might have killed Bethann? Oh my God. That’s . . .”

I raised an eyebrow. “Possible?”

She frowned. “It would explain a lot. But it doesn’t explain Tiffanee and Jasmin.”

“Maybe they weren’t keen on her coming back any more than you were. If there’s any truth to the suggestion that Tiffanee had completely changed, that would make sense.”

“You mean, maybe they rejected Serena too? And Bethann wasn’t a frightened little mouse anymore and said something to set her off?”

“That’s exactly what I mean. And maybe Serena didn’t like that much. If they pushed back, perhaps that’s why they’re dead.”

Haley hugged herself tightly and said, “I guess that just leaves me.”

“Promise me you won’t go anywhere alone until this whole terrible situation is resolved.”

“Resolved! How can it ever be resolved? My life is in the toilet now.” She turned an anguished glance up the stairs to where Brie could be heard loudly weeping.

I called out to Randy. I could tell by his narrowed eyes that he blamed me as he thudded down. But he did commit to making sure Haley went nowhere by herself. I hoped that was going to be enough.

Jack had his monthly dinner meeting of the WAG’D executive committee, so I dropped into the house first to put the dogs out and feed them. I changed into my new jeans and my favorite hoodie, in soft turquoise cashmere, for my casual dinner with Dean Oliver. I ramped it up a bit with dress boots and silver hoop earrings. I promised the pooches lots of cuddling later. They were already back to sleep, but I hoped I’d reached them at some level.

“New relationship?” Dean said as we settled into a brushed metal table for two at the crowded café. Jalapeño was one of the most popular and relaxed new gathering spots.

“What?”

“Last night, at Al’s, you were—”

“Oh no. A friend of a friend. He works at 911. And that’s connected with what I want to talk to you about.” Dean had absolutely no expression as he listened to my story about Mona and how distressed she was. I suppose they learn to deal with us demented types when they’re in the police academy. I launched into my theory of the three hit-and-runs being connected.

When I drew my first breath, he interjected, “If you don’t mind me saying so, Charlotte, you’ve been known to get things wrong.”

“I know. I got it wrong when I talked to Pepper and now she won’t give me the time of day. But sometimes I get them right too. I’ve thought this one through. You’re the person that can help me. People are dying in this town and the deaths are connected in some way to the bullies who made Mona’s life hell when she was in school. I think you’d be surprised at how attractive and personable those bullies were. And are. Bethann was a bullying victim. Tiffanee and Jasmin were bullies. I think the perpetrator is a woman called Serena Redding, now married to Jerome Zeitz. She was the worst of all the bullies. I know what she was capable of. She’s married to a powerful man and she’s back in the area. I believe she contacted all the victims. And I have reason to believe that either she, or one of her collaborators, was being treated by Dr. Partridge. I went to him and I explained the problems Mona is having and I could tell that he knew about these incidents back in high school.”

Dean’s eyebrows were up by this time. “Did he tell you anything?”

“You and I know that a professional counselor wouldn’t do that. Serena drives a yellow Hummer and one was seen parked by his house the day of the medication mix-up. Can you make inquiries about exactly what substances were found in his system? Can you—?”

Dean Oliver ran his hand over his forehead. “I can make ‘inquiries,’ but right now let me tell you, results from the tox lab take months to come back and that’s when there’s an active investigation. And a body, which there isn’t. This is a live person. So no open case and no more than a hunch from a person who is not on the police force. In fact, I’d get my butt kicked for talking to you about it. First of all, it’s probably too late to get any uncompromised samples from Dr. Partridge, Charlotte. Second, even if we did, by the time any results came back from the lab, your Dr. Partridge would have died of old age.”

“What if it could be an active investigation? What—?”

“Give it up. I’ll talk to the principal investigator of the hit-and-runs and—”

“Right. Pepper Monahan.”

“Pepper’s the best, Charlotte, and you know that. She’s under a lot of pressure, but she’s one hell of a cop so let’s leave it with her.”

“I know that, but she’s not returning any of my calls. Maybe you could convince her that Dr. Partridge might be in danger. And see what you can find out about his wife. She was killed in a hit-and-run about fourteen years back.”

That got his attention.

“Really?”

“I just found that out today. It would be the same time he was seeing one of these bullies.” I paused and decided not to leave out key information. “He may have been seeing Mona too.”

“But promise me you will not mess around in this thing. If you are right, you could be the next person in the hospital or worse. I’ll make a point of checking. I’m on evening shift tomorrow. ”

Evening shift tomorrow? I wasn’t sure I wanted to wait that long. “I doubt that. Unlike him, I have no idea who’s behind all this.”

“Maybe they don’t know that you don’t know. Whoever they are. Thought of that?”

“Two of them are dead already. I’m worried about Haley and I’m terrified that Mona is going to have a complete collapse.”

He said, “I know this is hard to accept, but there may be nothing sinister going on. Even with your Dr. Partridge. And a fourteen-year-old hit-and-run? Not much chance. This isn’t television. But I’ll do what I can.”

I must have slumped in defeat. Dealing with this police department was like hurling yourself at a brick wall over and over again. It just stayed unresponsive. A good thing in a brick wall, but a bad attribute when your goal was to prevent more deaths. As much as I liked him, my session with Dean had wasted time I could have used to try to find Mona.

I think we were both glad to say good-bye.

I decided to return Rose’s cookie container, which I’d remembered to put in my car earlier. I was tired and worried about Haley and Mona and didn’t feel much like making that stop, but I don’t let myself procrastinate. That’s just asking for trouble. Unfortunately, there was an unlikely traffic jam on Long March Road. From the blinking lights, it went on for miles, so I made a U-turn and I took the back route, turning at the library. This wasn’t the brightest thing I’d ever done, because the hills in that neighborhood were slippery from the new layer on the packed surface. Woodbridge city services were definitely falling down on the job. I finally got the little Miata up to the top of the hill, slowing to make the right angle turn at North Elm Street. The delivery truck behind me had even more trouble getting traction up the hill. The road was so treacherous I was regretting not waiting for the morning. I should have said to hell with the rules and procrastinated my head off. The Miata may not be built for snow, but because it’s a stick shift, it’s good on hills and has better control than many heavier cars. I geared down and slowed nearly to stop. I wasn’t taking any chances.