The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder (32 page)

“Like I said, soon. Any minute.”

“I’ll get dressed,” I said, pivoting on my heel and heading for the bedroom. “I also need to figure out what Dr. Partridge’s wife has to do with all this.”

I may have slammed the door behind me. Served him right, carrying on with a contractor right under my nose.

My insurance agent was on the ball. He watched the WINY news and reached me first. I didn’t even have to call. A rental car had been arranged and—Can you believe this?—dropped off at my house. Of course, I’d had all my cards and information photocopied and on file and I was able to arrange for replacements without too much aggravation, if you don’t count sitting on hold. At least it kept me in the office and away from Jack and his contractor. With any luck, the dogs would give them a hard time.

I’d watched the news too and learned that a brown delivery van had been found abandoned in an alley on the opposite side of town from where it had been stolen two days earlier. Had I been almost killed by some idiot joyrider? Somehow I doubted that.

I headed out to do a string of errands, including replacing my cell phone. My new streak of luck held as the library was open that morning and, even better, Ramona was working. I’d heard nothing back from Dean and figured I should have started with Ramona in the first place. Some of the usual crowd was hanging around reference. I got my share of dirty looks when I came flying in. I was a little bit nervous as I’d been driving a rental car. In this case, a Hyundai Santa Fe, a large SUV. With the burgeoning accident rate, they were low on choices. I was glad to have something big and heavy with the roads in their current condition, although I felt like a toy driving it.

I spotted Ramona before she saw me. “Quick, I need to find out whatever you can about the death of a doctor about fourteen years ago. Hit-and-run,” I said.

“Hello to you too, Charlotte,” Ramona said. “Sorry about your car. I know you two were very close, but you should greet your friends before you demand special treatment.”

“Sorry. I’m getting too caught up in this craziness and I’m losing it.”

“Think nothing of it. So this query is related to what’s happening now?” She smacked her own forehead. “Hit-and-run? Stupid me. Of course it is.”

“A Dr. Janelle Partridge.”

“I’m on it. I have a vague recollection of that. What am I searching for?”

“Details. Connections. I don’t think they ever found the driver of the car that hit her. That has to be linked to the fact that her husband almost died this week, and I am sure both incidents are connected to these hit-and-run deaths.”

“You think?” Ramona was already heading off to begin her quest. “I’ll call you. As soon as I have something.”

“I’ll wait.”

While Ramona went fact-hunting I sat at one of the solid-wood reference tables and tried to get my head together. I had left the house for the first time in my adult life—maybe in my entire life—without checking my To Do list. I was losing it. But I didn’t want to go home and run into the contractor who was plotting to eliminate my home and refuge. I felt a lump in my throat. I grabbed a piece of the library’s scrap paper and a pencil and scrawled down a few thoughts. What else to do? My cell phone was gone, my agenda with it. But something that Mona had said was nagging at me. She had said, “They’re almost all taken care of.” Mona meant the bullies, for sure. But they weren’t “all taken care of.” Haley remained. If it really was one of Mona’s alters, what did that mean? Haley of all of the bullies was the most distressed by Serena’s reappearance, the most remorseful. On the other hand, she was definitely not dead.

“Not yet, she isn’t,” Mona had said.

I stood up suddenly, knocking over my chair. That earned me at least four dirty scowls from the regulars. Ramona was nowhere to be seen. I needed to check up on Haley. I glanced around furtively and took a big chance. I snatched up the phone at the reference desk. I only needed it for a minute.

“Charlotte?” Haley’s breathy voice wafted over the phone. “I just left a message at your house! I have such good news. You won’t believe it.”

I hoped that perhaps there was some positive update on Randy’s health. That family could have used a break.

“It’s about Mona.”

Mona hadn’t been such good news lately, so this took me by surprise.

“She’s agreed to meet me, to hear me out. I think she is willing to forgive me. I want to make her understand how much I regret everything I did in the past, how ashamed I am of the person I was back then.”

I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Don’t meet with her, Haley!”

Haley plowed on, apparently not hearing. “We’re going to get together, for lunch. This will be such a huge weight off my mind. You have no idea how much it bothers me. She picked neutral territory. She picked a spot, more private than the local café, but it’s out of town a bit. It’s a small family restaurant about ten minutes from my place on Burnt Road. I expect to be pretty emotional and I don’t want half of Woodbridge watching me lose it. That diner is such a rambling place; they have booths and they just leave you alone. A lot of people meet there when they want to have private chats without running into half the town.”

I supposed this made sense, but not for Haley, not with everything that was going on. “Haley, I don’t think you should meet with Mona alone. Those years at St. Jude’s and even before, back in the playgrounds, they’re all very . . . unresolved for her. She may be a lot angrier than you expect. Why don’t I go with you? Mona knows me and she realizes that I understand what she’s been through. She’d be all right with that, I am absolutely certain.”

“That’s real sweet of you, Charlotte, but I have to do this. Anyway, I’m not going to be by myself.”

“Yes, but Mona isn’t—”

“Not just Mona, but Randy. He’s going to drive me in. I am so keyed up that I don’t think I could drive. It’s snowing out and I’m not real good in that anyway. Told you he’s a sweetheart.”

“Didn’t Mona object?” Randy was linked to the enemy. If Mona wanted to confront Haley and to hear Haley’s regrets, she would want to do it in an equal setting. If that was what she wanted.

“To tell the truth, I never mentioned it to her. Randy just offered right now. It won’t matter anyway; he’ll just sit outside and listen to his music and relax. He knows what I did now, some of it anyway and he’s already told me what he thinks of it. He’d be on Mona’s side, not mine.”

“Haley, please don’t—”

“Sorry, Charlotte. Look at the time. I’ve got to go. Wish me luck.”

I didn’t have a chance to do that before she hung up. I paced, fuming.

I was in the library, but even that didn’t help me find the address of the restaurant without a name. I headed home for reinforcements and burst through the door just as Jack thundered down the stairs. He said. “I was hoping I could talk to you about the reconversion. Because I want to—”

Right. The reconversion. That was the last thing I could deal with. “I have to go out. I need your cell phone. I didn’t have a chance to replace mine and I have to drive out to the country. It could be an emergency.” I filled him in on Mona’s date with Haley and my worries about it. “I think it would be better if they met up with some neutral, professional intervener. Don’t you?”

I added, “A shrug is not an answer.”

“True, but it’s not my business and it’s not your business either.”

I was outraged enough to stamp my foot. Of course, then I felt like an idiot. Foot stamping at Jack? I was definitely losing it. “It is my business. Mona called me and shared her fears and anger. Then Haley told me they were meeting at some restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I feel responsible for them. I don’t want either of them to do any more damage to the other.”

“Mona never did any damage to Haley that I ever heard of.”

“No, she didn’t, but Haley was damaged by her own behavior. She’s having a struggle with this. I suppose it’s only fair that she suffers some too, but she is having a hard time and I feel for her. I’d like to see them have their meeting in a safe place.”

“So you’re just going to drive around and see if you can find them?”

“I’m sure I’ll find the place. She said it’s on Burnt Road about ten minutes from her place. Burnt Road is only a few miles long. Randy’s truck’s pretty big and so is the sign on it.”

“It could be ten minutes in either direction. I’ll get my jacket and go with you. Think of me as reinforcements.”

I wanted to throw my arms around his neck, but I didn’t want him to know how much I wanted to be with him, especially considering his current plans. “I appreciate that, but it’s better if I go alone. There’s already a crowded scene. I just need your phone.”

“I know Mona. She might be reassured.”

“Tell you what, if I find her, I’ll ask if she wants you to come over.”

Another shrug. “Someone’s got to stay here and eat your Ben and Jerry’s before it melts. Here’s my cell. I’ll be here with a landline.”

“While you’re here, I’d appreciate it if you’d walk Truffle and Sweet Marie. You can work up an appetite that way.”

Truffle and Sweet Marie, hearing the word “walk” on a day that should have been too cold to snow, yet it was snowing, immediately attempted to burrow behind the sofa cushions. The idea was that I couldn’t see them if they couldn’t see me. As strategies went, it needed work.

Jack said, “Don’t worry. I’ll airlift them.”

I bundled myself into my puffy parka, picked a pair boots with more grip than style, and pulled a woolly hat down over my ears. I added a scarf just in case. I hurried downstairs and out to the Santa Fe. The country roads would be worse than usual in this weather and I was glad that I was driving this heavy vehicle.

Fifteen minutes later, I was cruising along, very high off the ground and starting to feel in control of my environment. I was asking myself if it made any sense to show up at this meeting between two old adversaries, if you could call Mona an adversary. She’d certainly been a victim in the past. She might be in full battle mode now, but in my mind she was still a victim. I couldn’t believe that a simple apology from Haley, however tearful and remorseful, would be enough. Mona wanted retribution. The positions were reversed now. I didn’t want Mona to harm Haley and harm herself by doing that. I figured if I showed up, I could broker a bit. The worst that could happen was that everyone would be mad at me. I could live with that.

I left the twinkly lights of Woodbridge behind and took the interstate. Even that was slippery and I saw three vehicles fishtail before I exited. I hated to get off and drive along gloomy, less traveled surfaces. The snow tires helped and I was glad the Santa Fe was an automatic. Even with this vehicle, I found myself in a skid more than once. My shoulders were aching and my hands stiff from gripping the wheel too hard for too long. I tried not to let my mind wander back to my cozy apartment with Jack and two cuddly dogs and a supply of chocolate. This wouldn’t take long and it was the right thing to do. I drove through the gloom with my high beams on. Usually snow brightens and cheers a drive. Not this dreary afternoon. The naked trees cast bizarre and slightly creepy shadows. You could barely see.

I slowed as I approached a small family restaurant. The windows were dark. No cars were parked in the lot. A sign was stuck on the glass of the door. CLOSED FOR THE SEASON. I guess not everyone knew that.

What now? Had Haley and Mona already met up and gone on to some other location? Had I missed them?

I hadn’t passed anyone on the road in from the interstate, so Mona hadn’t turned around and gone back in that time. Haley would have come from the opposite direction. Had she returned home? Maybe Mona had gone with her. That would have been good. Mona would see Haley’s life as a wife and mother in her small, simple home. Mona would realize that it wasn’t all roses for the former bully. If Brie was still in her sour mood, Mona might even take some pleasure from that.

I made the choice to drive on and reassure myself that everything had turned out all right. If anything, the winding road got twistier as I made my way to Haley’s. I knew it wasn’t more than a ten-minute drive, but it would feel a lot longer. I kept my speed down. I turned off Burnt Road and followed the route to Haley’s house. The road followed a steep wooded ravine and I didn’t care for the idea of sliding off the road and into that. I’d slowed to a crawl when I saw the skid marks ahead. Someone had slid straight off the road and knocked over a wooden guardrail. The local guardrails were not holding up well. I stopped, my heart thundering. What a place to have an accident. There probably wasn’t a house for miles. Was anyone hurt down there? Injured? Dead?

Ahead of me, I saw a figure limping along in the dim snowy mist, and then it stopped to lean against the guardrail. I drove forward and slowed. I blew the horn and the figure turned. Haley?

I stopped and jumped out.