The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder (35 page)

Jack shook his head. “The truth, Charlotte. Open your mind to the truth. Do you believe for even one minute that’s what happened?”

“Well, it’s not totally impossible.”

“It is highly unlikely. There wasn’t any mention of it.”

“With all the snow and the condition of the road, they may never be able to tell exactly what happened. That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“They are looking for that small red car.”

“Why are you so down on Mona, Jack? You should want to help her.”

“Well, I don’t want to help her get you if she turns out to be the person behind these deaths. Or if, as you say, one of her alters is. She has to be stopped. Don’t you realize that? You are putting yourself at risk, maybe because you feel guilty, maybe because you have this savior complex. Mona needs to be saved from herself, not from the police.”

“Thanks for kicking me when I’m down.”

“I’m not trying to kick you. I’m trying to keep you from being the next victim.”

“We’re out of victims. With Serena’s death, all the bullies are gone, except for Haley, and she’s injured and had her husband die right in front of her. There’s no more reason to kill anyone.”

“Except—”

I gasped. “Except you think someone will go after Haley again? It’s not enough she’s been left alone with a resentful teenager and a failing business and without her husband? You think someone still wants her dead? You’re right. We have to warn her.”

Jack put his hand on my shoulder. “Charlotte! It’s not only bullies who are dying. Bethann wasn’t a bully. Randy wasn’t. You definitely weren’t and yet someone tried to kill you. Something else is going on.”

“We all graduated in the same year. Except for Randy, but I think Haley was the target there and Randy was—”

“Collateral damage.”

“Like Dr. Partridge. He has a connection, but it’s not because he was in our class.”

“Face it, Charlotte. There’s a terribly angry soul out there who doesn’t care who gets caught up in all this. You can’t keep stirring things up.”

“Someone has to get to the bottom of it.”

“Let the police do it. In the meantime, I’m not going to let you out of my sight. Two people are harder to get rid of than one. I’ll close up the store or I’ll leave the part-timers in charge, and I’ll stick by you. Whatever you decide to do. Wherever you plan to go, I’ll be there.”

“Why?”

Truffle and Sweet Marie both took that moment to snuggle up to Jack, indicating that in any argument they’d be voting with the guy who first rescued them. Jack stroked them absentmindedly and stared at me. Truffle stretched up and kissed Jack’s nose. “Because I don’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want to be without you. Ever. I can’t imagine a day without you. I’m surprised you would even ask that, Charlotte.”

I blurted out, “Then why are you trying to change the house back to a single unit? Displacing me.”

Truffle and Sweet Marie snapped to attention. Truffle uttered a cautionary bark as he does when voices are raised. Jack stared at me. “What do you mean?”

“What
could
I possibly mean? You are talking to contractors about converting the house back to a single family home again. Where is that going to leave me?”

We both jumped as the phone rang. BLOCKED NUMBER. I let it go to message. Before Jack could answer my question, it rang again. BLOCKED NUMBER. I still figured our conversation was much more important.

“So, Jack, my question was, where does that leave me? Looking for a new home?”

Sweet Marie whimpered. Probably a coincidence, but still. I felt like whimpering myself.

Jack said, “But—”

The phone trilled again.

At that moment, I felt that Jack’s response would be more important than anything else in the world. I did
not
want a phone call from anyone to interrupt it. I said, “Still blocked number. Answer the question. She’ll keep calling.”

“Just take the call. It must be important to your old friend Blocked Number.”

What was that? A lame joke to disguise the fact he didn’t have the courage to answer my question? I took the call.

Mona Pringle shouted in my ear, “I knew you were there. I knew you were avoiding my calls.”

Defensively and not quite truthfully, I said, “You’re blocking your number, Mona. How could anyone ever figure out it was you calling?”

“Well I
am
in hiding. Do you think I’m going to rent a billboard that says ‘find me here and arrest me while you’re at it’?”

“You have to turn yourself in, Mona. Too many people have died. This has to end. You must realize that.”

“They all had it coming.”

“They didn’t deserve to die and Randy didn’t have
anything
coming. He was an innocent bystander, a decent man, and now his daughter will grow up without support from her father. And what about Dr. Partridge? Such a kind person. He could have died.”

“I know, that was bad. It’s not me really. I would never have done that. It has to be one of my alters. I can’t control them. I can’t reach them to reason with them.”

“Then your alters have to be stopped. You are the only person who can do that. Go see Pepper. She likes you. And Margaret will make sure you get help. She’s a terrific lawyer and she is your friend.”

“There’s more to do.”

“What more? Serena’s dead. She was at the heart of it. Don’t you understand that it’s over now?”

“Yeah, right. Did you see a body?”

“I saw the police pull her vehicle from the water. I saw the divers.”

“Big deal. You know the Woodbridge Police. Do you think they couldn’t be fooled by a manipulator of Serena’s caliber?”

Of course, I knew very well that the Woodbridge Police could be remarkably thickheaded. “Are you suggesting that Serena isn’t dead?”

Jack’s head jerked. “Not dead? How?”

Mona raised her voice. “I’m not suggesting anything. I am
telling
you that woman isn’t dead. She’s far too smart and sneaky to get killed that way.”

I would have completely dismissed that as more Mona nuttiness, except for the fact that prior to this week, Mona had always been a decent citizen while Serena had been a devious and sadistic witch. But still, it was off the wall.

I interjected, “What way was that, Mona?”

“By having her vehicle run off the road and into the river. Didn’t you see the footage?”

“Yes, but—”

“But what?”

“How could she escape? The river is freezing. If she didn’t drown, she would have succumbed to hypothermia in minutes.”

“I repeat: Did you see a body?”

I said, “They haven’t found it yet. But the divers are searching.”

“Plenty of current at that point of the Hudson. She’ll be counting on that.”

“But why would Serena stage her death, if that’s what you are suggesting?”

“So she’ll be free to go about her evil business. Why else? If she’s dead, no one will be watching her, will they?”

“What evil business, Mona?”

“To get rid of everyone who is still around and connected with her rampage back at St. Jude’s.”

I was worried that my head would explode at this point. “I thought one of your alters was behind the rampage.”

“So what? I still don’t trust Serena. Even if it was one of my alters, she’s still the one who got that whole alters business going. All that trauma messed up my head. She’ll want to finish me off now.”

Mona needed a lot more help than I could give her. “Mona. Whether it was one of your alters or Serena, it’s over. They’re all dead.”

“Haley isn’t. You’re not. I’m not. Kristee’s not. Think about it. Lots of scope left.”

My heart was beating fast. This was crazy, but was it also true?

“Here,” I said. “Explain your theory to Jack.”

Mona was squawking that it wasn’t a theory when I handed over the phone. I sat there trying to analyze everything she’d said. Could Serena have staged her own death? I didn’t know and would have to talk to the cops to get details about the so-called accident. If it was true, would her death give Serena free reign to continue to wipe out people who had the potential to reveal the truth about her? Logically, yes, but there were big holes in the idea.

I took the phone back from Jack. He had a totally stunned expression on his face. It was sort of cute in a defeated philosopher way.

“Mona. If Serena appears to be dead, what difference will it make to her if people damage her reputation? She’s ‘dead.’”

“So far. I haven’t got all the details worked out yet.”

Conversations with Mona were challenging at the best of times, which this definitely wasn’t. I rubbed my temples. The dogs were back to snuggling with Jack. Jack continued to look puzzled, confused, and, yes, defeated.

“So far? Oh. You think she’ll surface later?”

“Sure she will. She could claim to have been kidnapped by me. Or perhaps she’ll be found wandering, suffering from amnesia, poor pretty thing. That will be because of something that I’ve done. You watch.”

Was this any more bizarre than the things that actually had happened? One thing I knew, we couldn’t leave Mona on the loose.

“You have to give yourself up, Mona. It can all get sorted out afterward. Call Pepper. Or let us meet you before—”

“I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid,” she yelled before she hung up.

Our game plan included “stay alive” ourselves. First I needed to check with a member of the police force to see if there was any way that Serena could have survived in that Hummer. On WINY we’d heard about witnesses who had seen her zoom by. Wouldn’t someone have seen a woman walking away from something like that? Of course, it had been in the night. Even so, I told myself that Serena had to be dead and Mona had to be paranoid and dangerous. That was the only thing that made sense. I had been deluding myself that I could help Mona.

Pepper wasn’t going to cooperate, but I knew two who might. Make that three. I called Margaret and asked her to sound out her husband, Frank, on Serena’s tragic end. “Sure,” she said. “And I’ll even attempt to sound broken up about it. By the way, anything new on my ‘client’?”

“I still don’t know where Mona is and if I find out, I’ll get you on the line right away. Thanks for digging around about the witnesses. Let me know. You’re a bud. I’ll call you later.”

Next I contacted Dean Oliver at home. Before I could ask him anything, he said, “Listen, I can’t help you out with Mona anymore. I have explicit orders from Sergeant Monahan not to encourage you.”

Jack insisted on following me to the scene of Serena’s so-called fatal accident. Neither one of us was staying on top of work this particular week. Jack slipped a winter jacket over his parrot-festooned shirt and I managed to bite back any comments about his baggy, all-season shorts. I was glad to have him with me. I didn’t want to find myself in the river like Serena. It hadn’t been long since someone had tried to kill me. I noticed the police seemed to have forgotten about that.