The Girl Is Murder (29 page)

“Oh, bother. What timing. All right, we’ll go.”

While she said her farewells to Randolph, we tracked down her pumps. We hit the stairs just as the clock chimed twelve. I hadn’t seen Pearl round up her crew, but knowing Suze they were already outside looking to hail a cab. She didn’t mess around with her curfew, not when the punishment was a hit to the mouth.

Just as we arrived outside, I spotted them. They were near the wall where we had waited the week before, already analyzing their night while Dino sang the songs everyone else had forgotten. Pearl spotted me. Before anyone else had a chance to eyeball me, I turned back to Josephine and Grace and whispered, “I’ll be back. I need to hit the ladies’ one more time.”

I missed the first five minutes of what came to pass, but Pearl was happy to recap it for me later on.

Right after I left, Pearl turned to a very drunk Rhona and remarked that Grace looked familiar to her. “Does she go to our school?”

Rhona said no, but immediately recognized that this was the girl Tom had been seeing. The others urged her to leave it alone, but Rhona, as Pearl had warned me, was breathing fire that night. Rather than attacking Grace with words, she walked right up to her and slugged her.

Grace’s nose gushed blood and she fell to her knees in shock. Rhona’s behavior must’ve stirred something in Josephine, because she immediately leaped to defend her friend’s honor. I came back outside right then, but stayed in the background, hoping no one would notice me.

“What is your problem?” Josephine screamed.

“I want to know where Tommy is,” said Rhona.

“I don’t know,” howled Grace from the ground.

“The hell you don’t. You did something to him. You made him go away!”

Grace began to sob in pain. Boy, howdy—I felt terrible. Never in a million years did I think Rhona would hit her. And while Josephine was doing everything she could to make sure Rhona didn’t do it again, the one thing she wasn’t doing was confessing to a crime.

So I stepped out of the shadows and tried to speed things up.

“Grace had nothing to do with it,” I said. I tried to help her to her feet, but she’d gone limp.

“What are you doing here, girl detective?” asked Rhona.

“You want to know what happened to Tom?” I said. “Ask her.” I pointed at Jo, who looked at me like the world had just gone topsy-turvy.

“What are you talking about?” she said.

“You’re the one who told Tom that Grace didn’t want anything to do with him anymore. And you’re the last one who saw him before he vanished. Why don’t you tell everyone here what exactly you did to make him go away?”

Even in the half light created by the neon sign, her eyes burned bright. “I told him what Grace told me to tell him. That she wasn’t interested. That military men were her thing now.”

The rest of the Rainbows formed a circle around us. “And then let me guess,” I said. “You had one of your boyfriends step in and teach him a lesson.”

“Is that what she told you?” asked Josephine.

“Never mind what Grace said or didn’t say. It’s true, isn’t it?”

“You’ve been had, little girl,” said Jo. “I liked Tom Barney. I liked him a hell of a lot more than your pal Grace did. Problem was, he was too good for her. She wanted danger, and he wanted a debutante who wouldn’t be embarrassed to take him to the country club. I told him that and everything else I thought he needed to hear to get out from under her. But what I didn’t do was force him to break up with her.”

“She’s lying,” said Grace from the ground. “She did something to him. I know it. Make her tell you where she took him that night.”

But I didn’t get a chance to. Just then a familiar voice called my name and I spun around in time to see Pop getting out of a taxi.

IT WAS AN UGLY SCENE. It always is when you’re caught somewhere you’re not supposed to be.

“Get in the cab,” said Pop.

He took in the sight of Grace on the ground and the blood still pouring between her hands. He saw the crowd gathered around her, just seconds from becoming an unruly mob. And among all those white faces he saw the residents of Harlem who just wanted to spend Halloween night celebrating with hot jazz and the best hoofing in town.

“Pop—”

“Get. In. The. Cab.”

There was no option. I slid into the backseat and joined him for a silent ride home.

CHAPTER

21

POP HAD TRIED TO START the same sentence four times, but the words wouldn’t come. I’d never seen him that angry before. Finally, the words made their way out of his mouth.

“What were you thinking? Lying to me like that?”

I desperately wanted to know how Pop had tracked me down, but it was clear it wasn’t my turn to ask questions. “I didn’t mean to lie.”

“And yet you’ve done it again and again over the last few weeks. Is it so awful here, Iris? Is that it? Are you punishing me for moving us here?”

“No.”

He paced the parlor floor as he spoke, his limp growing more prominent with each lap he took around the room. “I can’t help that we don’t have the money for Chapin.”

“I don’t care about that.”

“Apparently you do. Otherwise, why would you go back there? Why would you lie to your aunt?”

And that’s when it dawned on me: Miriam had called him. That’s how he’d found out that I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

“Do you have any idea how foolish you made me look? Not only was it clear to your aunt that I had no idea what you were up to, I had to spend ten minutes assuring her that we weren’t so bad off that I was asking my child to work for me.”

So that was why she’d called. “I wanted her to know you were doing okay.”

“By claiming I needed a fifteen-year-old’s assistance?”

“Maybe you do. One of those girls was with Tom Barney right before he disappeared. That’s why I was there tonight. She knows what happened to him.”

All movement in the room stopped. Even the mantel clock ceased its ticking. “What do you know about Tom Barney?”

“I went to school with him, Pop. I know his parents hired you and I know you hit a dead end.”

A flash of maroon started at his chin and pooled up his face. “I told you I didn’t want you involving yourself in anything having to do with my business.”

“I wanted to help. I know you didn’t have any other work. You said yourself that if you didn’t come up with something fast they weren’t going to pay you.”

“That wasn’t an invitation for you to meddle.”

“I was careful this time. I got to know his friends—the group who wouldn’t talk to you.” There was no point in explaining how I’d blown that. “I followed leads. I asked the right questions. And I’m telling you, that girl Josephine knows what happened. If someone did something to him, Pop, shouldn’t they pay for that?”

Something in his face changed. Had I struck a chord?

“No one’s done anything to Tom,” he said.

“How can you say that? I have a witness. Grace was dating Tom. Josephine didn’t like that and so she did what she could to get rid of Tom permanently.”

“According to Grace?”

I didn’t understand why he kept going back to her. Of course it was according to Grace. “Yes.”

“That’s not proof, Iris. That’s one person’s imagination.”

“I know. That’s why I was trying to get Josephine to confess.”

He put his fingers to his eyes like Mama used to whenever she was starting to get a headache.

“Something’s happened to him, Pop. It’s not right. She needs to pay.”

“Go to bed, Iris.”

“So that’s it? You’re just going to let his parents believe he ran away when we know otherwise?”

“I know you think I’m not capable of doing this job, but I know what I’m doing.” He sighed heavily. “I don’t think he just ran away.” His voice softened, his anger at me no longer important. “I know Tom’s dead.”

For the second time the room stood stock-still. Had I heard him right? “Someone found his body?”

“No. Iris, Tom wasn’t murdered. He was killed during an Army training exercise.”

I didn’t understand. Tom Barney had joined the Army? “But he wasn’t eighteen.”

“He lied to join up. I spoke with a recruiter several days ago who remembered meeting him. After that it wasn’t hard to track down where he went.”

He’d lied, like the boy I’d danced with at the Savoy. But why? “You knew he joined up a while ago?”

“It was an avenue to pursue, like checking hospitals and morgues. It just so happened this one panned out.”

“It can’t be true. Grace told me—”

“I know what Grace told you. And I’m sure she believes it’s the truth, but nothing nefarious is going on. He was just a boy who made a bad decision and paid for it with his life.”

I was going to be sick. All these weeks, all this work, and Tom really was missing by his own hand. And now this: dead because of the war, only not really, since he’d died before ever seeing a battle.

“I’m sorry, Iris.”

Grace was going to be devastated. I should’ve stayed out of it. “So what are you going to do now, Pop?”

“There’s nothing to do. I’m going to write up my report and tell his parents what I learned. Then the case is closed.”

“But won’t they want to know why he joined up?”

“They have a son in jail and one they were pretty sure was fast on his way there. They’ll probably assume Tom wised up and wanted to turn his life around. So he enlisted.”

I could see why the Barneys might want to believe that, but I just couldn’t see Tom leaving everything behind to join the Army. And Grace had been so certain Josephine was behind his disappearance—there had to be a reason for that.

“It’s over, Iris,” said Pop.

“I know.”

But despite the fact that the case was over, I couldn’t let it go. I needed to know the end of the story, starting with what happened at the Savoy after I left. Pearl would let me know. And if not her, then Grace.

SUNDAY POP REMAINED locked in his office. Lunch was a silent affair, despite Mrs. Mrozenski’s best efforts. At one, Pop left the house. He didn’t say where he was going, but I could guess: he was going to see the Barneys.

While he was gone, I performed one last act of disobedience. I headed uptown to Grace’s apartment to break the news about Tom. As I walked the forbidden Upper East Side streets I heard a deep laugh that sounded oddly familiar. I turned toward the sound and saw a woman with her arm intertwined with a soldier’s. She laughed again and kicked up one of her scuffed high heels. It was Mrs. Wilson, the woman I’d photographed all those weeks before. But her companion wasn’t the man I’d caught her with. This was someone new.

She didn’t look any worse for wear. In fact, from the way she was carrying on it seemed like she was having the time of her life. She looked my way and smiled. If she recognized me, it didn’t show on her face. I was just another Upper East Side kid, going about my business.

As I made it to Fifth Avenue I couldn’t shake the image of her out of my head. She didn’t look like a woman who’d been destroyed by my photos. Maybe I’d been incorrect in thinking she was the one being wronged. Like Pop said, sometimes it’s not so easy to know who’s good and who’s bad. We really never know the whole story.

Mrs. Dunwitty greeted me at the door when I arrived. Grace was in her room, resting, I was told. She’d been attacked by a mugger the night before.

I feigned shock and outrage. Wasn’t anyplace in the city safe? Then I waited for the inevitable questions about why I hadn’t been at Grace’s side when she was attacked, but they never came. Grace had already prepared my alibi.

“Is your father better? Grace was so disappointed you had to leave last night. She was so looking forward to spending the evening with you. And of course all this nastiness probably could’ve been avoided if she’d stayed in as you girls intended. I told her that Josephine was nothing but trouble.”

“My pop’s going to be fine,” I said. “Can I see Grace?”

I was escorted to her room, where I found her sitting up in bed, her face swaddled in white bandages. A lunch tray sat at the end of the bed awaiting retrieval, and the radio was tuned to WEAF for
Parade of Stars.

We waited until Mrs. Dunwitty left before speaking.

“How are you?” I asked.

“Sore. They set my nose last night, but who knows if it’s ever going to be the same. Your pop looked fit to be tied.”

“He was. In fact, I can’t stay.” I knew I needed to break the news about Tom, but given what Grace had already gone through, I wanted to delay it as long as possible. “I really just wanted to get my things and check on you. What happened after I left?”

“Not much. Jo huffed away, calling me a liar. Your friend Pearl got me a cab.”

“So no confession?”

She shook her head. “I know it’s terribly disappointing. And that was our one chance, too.”

There was no point dragging this out any longer. “Actually, I don’t think we’re going to get anything out of her. They found Tom.”

“Really?” Grace’s face was a mixture of surprise and something that I couldn’t quite read. Could that be relief? “Where is he?”

I took a deep breath. “He’s dead, Grace.”

The life drained from her face. “Oh.”

“That’s what you expected, right?”

Her fingers trembled like keys on a piano. “Of course. I just hoped that it wasn’t true. How did you find out?”

“Pop told me.”

Her mouth formed a small O. “So then he must be going after Josephine.”

I put my hand on hers, hoping to comfort her. “Josephine didn’t do it. It turns out he enlisted. He was killed during a training exercise.”

“Well, then, she must’ve convinced him to enlist.”

“That’s my thought, too. Unfortunately, Pop doesn’t think his parents will care. Either way he’s dead.”

She winced as pain worked through her face.

“Are you all right?”

“I don’t know. I need a moment alone. Would you help me to the bathroom?”

I did as she asked, lending my arm for support. I left her there and returned to her room. Poor Grace. Like me, she’d been led to believe that something darker was behind Tom’s disappearance. And then, to make matters worse, Tom had done this thing no one understood. Why did he enlist? What motivated him? Had Josephine convinced him to do it? Was there something about him that none of us had been able to uncover, something that made him want to defend his country? Or were his parents right that joining up was his way of making a fresh start?