Upstate Uproar (17 page)

Wendy glanced at Vivian, then asked Tracy,
“Did they identify the body already?”

“Yeah. Well, at least they think they did.
Brandon had to go to the police station today because they found a
ring. They showed Brandon a picture of the inscription. It was
hers.”

“Oh no, I’m sorry,” Vivian said. “How
terrible for him. And you.”

“I didn’t know her. And they had only been
married about a year, but still. He’s sad.”

“Yeah,” Wendy said. “I’m sure.”

“It’s nothing like his first wife, though. He
was even sadder about her.” Tracy took another long drink and
sloshed a little on her jeans. “Mary Beth did no wrong in his eyes.
They were high school sweethearts, you know. Personally, I think
she cheated on him while they were married.”

“Really?” Vivian asked. “With whom?”

“I don’t have any proof, but I heard it was
with a student. Some kid who played football. I can’t even remember
his name.”

The screen door burst open, startling all
three women. Brandon stepped out. “I think it’s time to go to
bed.”

Vivian looked at Wendy, who looked back at
her.

Tracy stood up slowly. “Okay, I’m beat.”

Oh my god, maybe she’s trying to tell us
she’s abused?

“Good night,” Tracy said, walking past
Brandon, who held the door.

“Good night,” Vivian and Wendy said in
unison. They looked at each other, eyes wide, and said nothing for
a while, waiting for Tracy and Brandon to get out of earshot.

“Holy crap, what do you make of that?” Wendy
whispered.

“Do you think he heard us?”

There was a bang from inside, like something
heavy fell or a door slammed. Raised voices came from the
house.

“He must have,” Wendy said.

“I wonder if Kate’s asleep,” Vivian said.

“If she is, she may not be for long.”

The yelling continued for a few minutes.
Wendy and Vivian sat on the porch, not saying a word. An engine
started and tires squealed, then a vehicle raced down the
driveway.

“Somebody’s in a hurry,” Wendy said and
stood.

“Probably a good idea,” Vivian said, then she
stood and tossed the remainder of her wine over the porch railing.
“Let’s go to bed.”

They crept upstairs and found Kate snoring
away.

“Guess they didn’t bother Sleeping Beauty
over there,” Wendy giggled.

“I feel kinda bad,” Vivian said, “like it’s
our fault Tracy and Brandon are fighting.”

Wendy contemplated that. “He’s under a lot of
stress, I’m sure. Maybe it just touched a nerve that
short-circuited, then went haywire.”

Vivian shrugged and started to walk into the
bathroom.

“Let me hop in here real quick,” Wendy said.
She emerged five minutes later in hot pink pajamas and wearing her
glasses. “Goodnight.”

“Night.” Vivian went and brushed her teeth.
Her tongue was a deep shade of purple from the wine. She ran hot
water on her washcloth, squeezed it out, then lay it on her face to
steam. She repeated the process two more times, then gave her face
a good examination in the mirror.

A tiny little wrinkle marred the right side
of her nose.
I’ve got to start sleeping on my back.
She was
convinced it had developed because she slept on that side of her
face most of the time.
I know that’s it,
she thought and ran
water in the tub. She soaked for 20 minutes, then got out and dried
off. She considered pajamas but then decided against it since Lucy
wasn’t there. She crawled into bed naked, scooted to the middle and
spread out.

She lay there for a while, thinking about the
day. The alarm of Lucy being gone, the fall festival and seeing
Larson, meeting Nicole, the print shop, Tracy and Brandon fighting.
She went back to thoughts of Larson and how sexy he looked at the
pumpkin drop. He was right up her alley.
I bet he knows the
intricacies of putting out all sorts of fires.
Her hand slid
down to her waist and lingered on her tummy.
I’ve got a bit of a
fire going on.

Lights passed through the bedroom and an
engine sounded below the window. Vivian got up and peeked through
the lace curtains.

To her surprise, Tracy stepped out of a Honda
Accord and headed toward the house.

A cold breeze passed through the room, the
chill causing Vivian to jump back into bed. She laid there, covers
pulled to her eyes, listening to every step Tracy took, from the
back door to the bedroom. Low murmurs passed through the walls, and
soon after, the rhythmic thump of hard sex.

Vivian snickered as she rolled over and
settled into her pillow. After a good half hour of listening to
pants and moans, she grabbed Lucy’s empty pillow and shoved it over
her head.

Enough of the makeup sex already!

T
he squawk of perky
birds once again woke Vivian and she rolled over, pulling the
covers over her head. She glanced at the clock, 8:12 a.m. She could
just hear Lucy yammering at her to get up and get moving. She
rolled over again and grabbed Lucy’s vacated pillow and stuffed it
between her knees
. Ahhh, that’s better.

The pillow helped align her back, which
hadn’t been the same since the twins.
Lucy’s not here so I can
steal her pillow. Damn… Lucy’s not here.
The revelation
propelled Vivian out of bed. She threw on pajamas, then shuffled
into Kate and Wendy’s room and started clapping her hands.

“Up and at ’em! Time to rise and shine!”

Kate threw off her covers and padded to the
bathroom. “Mornin’! I’m already awake and hungry. I’ll be ready for
breakfast in 20.”

Wendy pulled her eye mask down further and
snuggled into her covers. “What’s the rush? What are we doing
today?”

Vivian leapt onto the bed and started jumping
up and down. “In honor of Lucy, we should grab a quick,
semi-healthy breakfast and then go carry rocks around or something,
get some exercise.”

“If Lucy wanted us to do that, she shouldn’t
have left us,” Wendy said and made no move to get up.

Vivian hit her with Kate’s pillow. “Wendy,
get up!” Pow! She smacked her again. “You need to call sexy-beast
Wade first thing.”

Wendy threw off her eye mask, snatched her
pillow and hit Vivian. “You sure we should call Agent Nelson and
not Antonio’s FBI contact?”

Vivian was tempted to smack Wendy again with
the pillow, but grabbed Wendy’s phone off the nightstand and handed
it to her instead. “I saw the way Wade looked at you. He really
cared about you. Antonio may have some pull, but Wade would be
willing to help you more than some random FBI agent that’s super
busy.”

Wendy sat up and cleared her throat before
dialing. She put the phone on speaker when Wade answered. Vivian
could picture his broad shoulders, green eyes and dark brown
hair.

“Nelson.”

“Hey Wade, it’s Wendy Schreiber.”

He paused. “Good to hear from you. How’ve you
been?”

They chatted for a minute before Wendy got to
the purpose of the call. Wade already knew she and Jake were
engaged and now she filled him in on Jake’s disappearance, the
other cellphone, fake name and the bio behind it.

“I asked a cop friend of mine in New Orleans
to look into this yesterday and he suggested I contact the FBI for
help. I don’t want to get you into any trouble, but could you look
into any of this for me? Something is really wrong and I’m sick to
death with worry. Jake is not the kind of man to just up and
disappear, leave his family,” she paused, “or me.”

“There are a few avenues I can look into.
I’ll call you back as soon as I know something.”

“Thank you, Wade.”

“Of course, anything for you.” Click.

Wendy set the phone on the nightstand and
swung her feet off the bed but didn’t get up. She gazed at the
ground, then looked up at Vivian with misty eyes. “What if he can’t
find anything?”

“He will. I just know it. Now let’s get ready
to kick butt today.” Vivian opened Wendy’s drawer and threw a bra
at her.

Wendy caught it with one hand and smacked
Vivian with a pillow in the other. Wendy ran into the bathroom
before Vivian could really get the pillow fight going. Wendy’s
feistiness was good, but Vivian wanted the last smack.

The girls got ready and went down for
breakfast. Brandon greeted them in the dining room wearing an apron
with flames on it that read “Hot! Hot! Hot!”

“Good morning,” he said, spatula in hand.
“We’re serving up waffles with locally bottled maple syrup, sausage
and bacon. Be ready shortly.” He set down the butter dish and went
back into the kitchen.

Wendy made herself and Kate a cup of coffee
while Vivian dunked a tea bag in hot water. They sat down at the
table and looked out the window at the lake.

“Y’all up for a walk after breakfast?” Vivian
asked. “Maybe not up to Lucy standards, but still get us
moving?”

Wendy nodded but Kate said, “I didn’t sleep
so good. I might want to take a nap after I eat.”

“But we just got up!” Vivian noticed dark
circles under Kate’s eyes. “Why didn’t you sleep?”

“I had a visit from my grandmother last
night. She gave me a cryptic message.”

“Oh, lord,” Wendy said. “Two strange death
dreams and now a visit from a dead relative. There’s something’s
strange about this house.”

Tracy walked in carrying a big plate stacked
with waffles. “Hi, there. Who’s hungry?”

Vivian hoped Tracy hadn’t heard that. “I’m
starting to think we’re the strange ones, especially Kate with
those dreams!”

“This dream didn’t make any sense, so I don’t
know why it kept me up, but it did.” Kate stabbed a waffle and put
it on her plate before continuing, “I wrote it down.” She pulled
out an old receipt from her pocket. “ ‘Water and dirt make mud, but
flames singe the heart. The book holds the key to the senior
moment.’ See. Complete nonsense.”

Vivian politely waved off the waffles and
spooned fruit onto her plate. Tracy fumbled the plate as she tried
to put it down in the middle of the table. Vivian grabbed it and as
she did noticed that Tracy’s two middle fingers on her left hand
were taped together. “Did you jam your fingers?”

“I tripped in the kitchen early this morning
and bent them backward. Don’t think they’re broken. I’ve done that
before and it sure hurts.” She scurried toward the kitchen.

Vivian leaned across the table toward Kate
and Wendy. “I wonder if that’s true.”

“She and Brandon don’t seem to have the best
relationship,” Kate said. “Do you think he pushed her and she
fell?”

“They sure did let each other have it last
night,” Wendy said, “but then there was the
boom-chica-bao-bao
going on.”

Vivian snickered. “I heard that, too.” She
opened a yogurt and dropped three grapes into it. “That would be
some pretty rough lovin’. Maybe it was an accident.”

“I’d accidentally break a few of his fingers,
and his face, if he did that to me,” Kate said.

“Back to your dream, Kate,” Vivian said.
“What was it exactly? Let me see that note.”

Kate repeated the message and handed over the
receipt. “Best I can figure, she’s talking about Brandon’s first
wife’s drowning with the water and his second wife being buried
with the dirt, but I don’t understand the rest of the message at
all.”

“I agree with you,” Wendy said. “What flames
have we seen on this trip?” She took a sip of her coffee as Brandon
walked into the room. Wendy spewed coffee everywhere, then
coughed.

Brandon grabbed a couple of napkins and
handed them to her. “You okay?” He patted her on the back.

She coughed a few more times and gave a
thumbs up.

“We haven’t had a guest croak on us yet. I’d
rather you not be the first.”

Vivian’s eyes got big and she mouthed ‘Oh my
god’ to Kate as Brandon set down a plate of bacon and sausage.

“How is everything?”

The girls all nodded their approval, no one
able to say anything.

Vivian waited for him to return to the
kitchen before busting out laughing. “There were some flames!”

Kate picked up a piece of bacon. “I actually
like that apron.”

Wendy blotted the coffee off of her waffle.
“He’s awfully cheery for a guy who just received confirmation that
his wife is dead.”

“Maybe it’s a relief to finally know for
sure,” Kate said. “I mean, he’s been living in limbo for
years.”

“Unless he knew all along,” Wendy countered.
“It’s not too late to check out, you know.”

Brandon walked back into the room with a
pitcher of milk. “I always like milk with my pancakes. Any
takers?”

Vivian nodded yes.

Brandon poured Vivian a small glass of milk
and set the pitcher beside her and walked out.

“Holy shit, he almost walked in at the wrong
time,” Vivian said. “Think he heard us talking?”

“He didn’t act like it,” Kate said. “Tracy’s
the one with broken fingers and bruises.”

“If we’re staying, we need to search this
house,” Wendy said. “Something strange is going on here. Two dead
wives and a bruised and broken third? It ain’t right.”

Kate looked at her. “Do you think…?”

Wendy shrugged. “I don’t know what to think.
Brandon seems nice enough to us, but he was an ass to Tracy last
night, and then what’s with the other two wives?”

Vivian talked around her final bites of
yogurt. “I can see an accident, like a drowning, happening, but the
missing wife turning up dead and buried, that is beyond weird. We
can’t put Little Plum into jeopardy.”

Kate shoveled another piece of sausage onto
her plate. “Like I said, if I felt like we were in danger we’d be
out of here. Something’s strange, but I don’t think we need to
leave.” She sniffed the air. “Y’all smell that?”