The Girl Is Murder (26 page)

“I’m fine. The fire and blanket are warming me up. This is Pearl Levine.”

Pearl leaped to her feet and offered Mrs. Mrozenski her hand. “Is this your house? It’s lovely.”

They made small talk that I struggled to ignore. Unlike Grace, Pearl was sincere, her questions genuine inquiries. It turned out Mrs. Mrozenski knew her mother. Her daughter, Betty, had sat for Pearl and Paul when they were small.

“I was so sorry to hear about your brother. Is tragedy. There is no other word.”

“Thank you,” said Pearl.

Mrs. M left to make us cocoa, a rare treat since rationing had started. Pearl returned to her seat.

“So how did you mess up?” I asked.

“Monday. After school. I ran into Suze. She was looking for you. I told her that you’d left before your last class and she asked me if you’d left because you’d gotten more news about your father.”

I could see the writing on the wall: Pearl didn’t know that Suze thought Pop was overseas. And so, innocently, she’d corrected her, not realizing that by doing so she was also branding me a big fat liar.

Pearl acknowledged that this was exactly what had happened. “As soon as I said that your pop was fine, you could see all the blood rushing out of her face. I wanted to fix it, so I said that he
had
been injured in the war, he’d lost his leg at Pearl Harbor, but that just made things worse.”

“Oh God.”

Her face was bright red with excitement and fear. She’d had to wait two long days to tell anyone this story. “Rhona and Dino showed up just as I was telling Suze this. And then Rhona asked me your last name.” The leg had tipped her off. Who knew Rhona was that observant? “I told them—I didn’t think it was a big deal—and Rhona tells Suze that it’s the same surname the detective with the bum leg had. They asked me if your dad was a cop. I said I didn’t know, and right then Paul shows up, wanting to know if I was coming to the journalism office …”

I was going to throw up. “He told them, didn’t he?”

“I know my brother’s a drip, but he honestly didn’t know what was going on. And by then they were laying it all out, all the questions you’d asked about Tommy—they would’ve put it together eventually, Iris.”

It was worse than I could’ve imagined. Not only did they know I’d lied about Pop, but now they knew I was the detective’s daughter. There was no coming back from this. My cover was blown and so was any hope I might have had of being friends with Suze and anything more with Benny.

“I didn’t know what to do, Iris. I was really afraid they’d hurt you. Not Suze, but Rhona was so angry. I needed to distract them and so I decided then and there to become a double agent.”

I didn’t think I’d heard her right. Had she snapped? Gone goofy? Was her grief over her dead brother so pronounced that she thought she was living in a Humphrey Bogart film? “What are you talking about?”

“I knew I’d messed things up for you, that you weren’t going to find out anything else about Tommy from them, so I thought I would try to become their friend and maybe they’d tell me.” Her voice droned on. As soon as Paul left, Pearl told Rhona and Suze that I’d been using her to get information from the attendance office and that I’d pretended I was her best friend until other people began talking. “I cried,” said Pearl. “I just stood there in the hall and bawled about how you were the first friend I’d had since my brother died and how much it hurt to find out you were using me. Suze invited me out then and there—we went for milk shakes at Normandie’s. And then yesterday Rhona took me shopping and helped me pick out this.” She plucked at her sweater. “I felt so bad at lunch today. I wanted to warn you, but there was no way I could without them seeing me talk to you.”

I was shocked Pearl had it in her. Who knew she could be so duplicitous? “What about Rhona?” I asked.

“I apologized to her.”

So Pearl
had
started the rumor? At least that question was answered once and for all. “So why didn’t you fix my attendance record on Monday?” I asked.

“They told me not to. They said I had to stop letting you use me.”

The funny thing was, they were right.

Since the beginning, I had been taking advantage of Pearl, seeing her first as a way to stop being thought of as the strange, friendless new girl and later relying on her access to information to get me what I wanted. Yet for all my selfishness, I don’t think Pearl saw things that way. Even as she cried to Rhona and Suze about the way I’d mistreated her, I had no doubt she really believed she was inventing my misbehavior.

Mrs. Mrozenski appeared with twin cups of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies and disappeared just as quickly. I wrapped my hands around the hot mug and finally felt the chill start to leave my body.

“Did you get in trouble?” asked Pearl.

“No,” I said. “It’s fine. It wasn’t fair of me to ask you to do that to begin with.”

“Why didn’t you come to school yesterday?”

I told her about the break-in. I didn’t stop there. I also told her about my visit to Chapin on Monday, about my old friend Grace Dunwitty and her new pal Josephine O’Hara. She listened intently, picking at the cookies with enormous restraint.

“Wow,” she said when I’d paused in my recitation. She honestly didn’t know what to tackle first. “You don’t really think he’s dead, do you?” Her eyes started to water.

Dead? Hearing the word said out loud shocked me. But it was what I was thinking, wasn’t it? It was the only explanation for his absence that made any sense.

“I don’t know what to think,” I told Pearl. “It doesn’t make sense that he would’ve stayed away this long unless something is keeping him from returning.”

“Bu … but there must be loads of other reasons for that.”
Like what
, I wanted to ask, but it was clear that wouldn’t help things. “What does your pop think?”

If Pearl and I were going to be friends, I needed to be honest with her. About everything. “I don’t know. Look, I kind of lied before. I’m not working with my pop. He won’t let me. Everything I’ve been doing I’ve been doing on my own. We’re broke, Pearl. I don’t know what’s going to happen if Pop doesn’t solve this case.” That wasn’t all I told her. I also told her about Mama, about the rumors of the affair, and what Suze had said to calm me down.

“I’m so sorry, Iris. I think Suze is right, though. People make up awful stories for the dumbest reasons.” I could tell she was itching to say more, but wanted to hold back for my sake. “Do you think Josephine and the break-in at your pop’s office are related?”

“Definitely.”

“So what are you going to do about Josephine?”

I checked to make sure Mrs. Mrozenski wasn’t about to appear in the room. “I don’t know yet. For Pop to convince the Barneys that Tom didn’t run away, I need proof, which means I need her to confess. The question is—how?”

Pearl thumped her forefinger against her cocoa mug as she pondered the problem. “If she’s as awful as Grace claims, do you know who I’d love to see her get cornered by? Rhona.”

“That’d be a scream.”

“Think about it—Rhona’s not scared of anyone. She’s tough. She could be Josephine’s match.”

The more I thought about it, the less absurd the idea seemed. If we somehow let on to Rhona that Josephine was the last person to see Tom alive, she might be able to force a confession out of her.

“But how would we ever get those two together?”

“Josephine likes dangerous places, right? What if you invited Grace and her to go with you to the Savoy Ballroom?”

There would be a lot of witnesses at the Savoy—not just Rhona and Suze, but a whole dance floor of people who could observe what was being said. “But if Rhona and Suze see me there, they’ll know something’s up.”

“So we make sure they don’t see you.”

“We?”

“I could get Suze and Rhona to take me to the Savoy. We synchronize things to make sure your friends and mine run into each other.”
Her
friends. Would Benny be there, too? Would he dance with Pearl and kiss her right before the evening ended? “Rhona knows what Grace looks like, right? And that she used to be your friend?”

“Yeah. So she said. But how are you going to get them to take you to Harlem?”

Pearl shrugged. “I got them to invite me to lunch, and I never thought that would happen. How hard could it be to wrangle an invitation to go dancing?”

CHAPTER

19

I USED THE TIME before Pop got home to call Grace. I told her Pop couldn’t do a thing without more evidence and then explained how I proposed to get that evidence. She didn’t seem thrilled with the plan, but when I explained it was the only way I could think of to convince the Barneys to go after Josephine, she gave in.

The next afternoon I met up with Pearl at my house, far from prying eyes, and reviewed her progress on getting an invite. She was being very careful with how she played things, making sure not to drop hints that would be too obvious (I was impressed that she was aware that she had a habit of doing this). Unfortunately, that gave Rhona and Suze no reason to even make the offer. By Friday we were in a panic: the weekend was upon us and no invitation was in sight. I decided I was going to have to do something to force their hand.

During lunch, which I now ate alone, I approached their table. I lingered on the sidelines for a little while, listening as Pearl laughed at their jokes. My heart ached at how easily she fit in with them. It was so strange how she could go from being the girl they all made fun of to being one of them. Sure, I had made the transition just as swiftly, but until I left Chapin, I’d always had oodles of friends. This was a new experience for Pearl and as badly as I envied her, I admired her, too. I didn’t want her to have to go back to the way things were once we got the information we needed. Pearl deserved this. Even if it meant I was alone and friendless from here on out.

“You need something, girl detective?” asked Rhona, snapping me out of my reverie.

“I wanted to talk to Pearl.”

“So go on and beat your gums,” said Maria.

Everyone at the table stared at me, waiting for me to make the next move. Everyone, that is, except Benny.

“I was hoping I could talk to her alone.”

“And I was hoping to be a natural blonde,” said Rhona. “Looks like neither one of us is going to have our wishes come true.”

“What do you want?” asked Pearl. Her voice contained a snappishness that sent me off balance. Even though I knew she was acting, it still hurt.

I shuffled my feet, making it clear exactly how uncomfortable it was to have to talk to her in front of everyone. “I was wondering what you were doing this weekend. I thought maybe you could come and stay at my house.”

Pearl rolled her eyes. “And what made you think I would want to do that?”

“Because we talked about it last week.”

“Last week was last week. Seems to me a lot’s changed since then.”

She was good at this. Too good. “So what are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to the Jive Hive tonight.”

“So you’re free on Saturday?” I asked.

Pearl’s mouth dropped open, but no sound came out. She had rehearsed this nicely. Her tough exterior melted away as she came to realize that in fact she had no plans.

Suze picked up on it immediately. “As a matter of fact, Pearl’s going out with us tomorrow,” she said. I wished it were Rhona who was speaking up. Having Rhona and Maria be mad at me was nothing new, but knowing how hurt and sore Suze was made me sick to my stomach.

“I am?” said Pearl.

“Of course you are,” said Rhona. “You’re coming to Harlem with us, remember?”

“I’m going to teach you how to jitterbug,” said Dino.

At least it wasn’t Benny who’d made the offer. I had that to be grateful for.

“All right,” I said. I backed away slowly, like I was hoping they’d change their mind and invite me along, too. And the sad thing was, I really was hoping that. I would much rather spend the evening with them than trying to worm a confession out of Josephine. “Have fun,” I told Pearl. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

I increased my speed, but I wasn’t fast enough to make it out of the cafeteria before they started laughing at me.

GRACE CALLED ME that night to make plans. We would meet at her house at seven to get ready for the Savoy. It would be a whole lot easier to sneak out of her house than to try to justify to Pop why we were leaving mine so late.

I just needed to convince Pop that me going anywhere was a good idea.

“Is it all right if I stay over at Pearl Levine’s tomorrow night?” I asked him that evening.

“Will you really be staying at Pearl’s this time?” he asked.

“Yes.” And I would, too. As soon as everything was over in Harlem, I’d go home with Pearl to her house. So it wasn’t really a lie.

“It’s Halloween, Iris. I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. Who knows what sort of mischief will be going on?” Mayor La Guardia had appealed by paper and radio for people to keep the peace that weekend. There was enough blood and gore happening abroad; we didn’t need even the pretend stuff cluttering our streets.

“We’re not doing anything. We’ll just be at her house.”

He pondered this. I should have said we were going to a movie, just in case he tried to check on me again. “I want to talk to her parents,” Pop said.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. You’ve been making some bad decisions lately, and I think it’s my right. It’s either that or an automatic no.”

I was close to laying into him for that, but I knew it would get me nowhere. “All right,” I said. “I’ll have her mother call you tomorrow.”

“Then you’ll have your answer tomorrow.”

I obviously couldn’t get Pearl’s mother to call him. My only option was to take a page out of Rhona’s book and have someone impersonate Pearl’s mother. I didn’t feel comfortable asking Pearl to do it, not after everything else she’d done for me. Instead, I turned to someone who was bound to be much less conflicted about lying to an adult: Grace.

She called Pop late Saturday morning, posing as Mrs. Levine. She apparently has quite a future as an actress, because when he hung up with her he didn’t hesitate to give me permission to spend the night.