by Mary Bowers
“The point is, he never even asked if I was all right, having to get home by myself.”
“I’m sure he realizes you’re not completely helpless,” Michael said mildly.
“Far from it,” I added, earning another look from Myrtle.
Coco picked at her food without bothering to thank Myrtle for it. “And to top that off, I had to go back to the Anastasia Resort. Weren’t you wondering why I was so late?”
“Uh, we have a lot to catch up on around here,” I said. “After all, you two did pop in on us unexpectedly, not that I’m complaining, and I ran around with you all last week. I need to catch up.”
Apology not accepted. She gave me an, “Oh, please,” look and ate some mac and cheese.
“Why did you have to go back to the condo?”
“Not the condo, the real estate office. I’d rinsed out a bustier in the bathroom sink and hung it up to dry in the shower. I forgot about it and left it there. The maid found it. She turned it in at the office and I needed to go pick it up. It’s a fancy little thing. I figured they’d pull it out and show it around for laughs until I went and got it again.”
“At least the maid put it in a bag,” I said, looking at the plastic Publix bag with something red in it that was sitting on the tall chair beside her.
“No she didn’t. Darcy in the real estate office did that. The maid must have paraded through the development twirling it in the air, because as I drove through, Candy and Betty were standing by the gate to the pool laughing about something, and when they saw me driving by they waved me down and asked if I was there to pick up my bra.” She speared a broccoli floret. “Very funny.”
We thought so. Michael and I shared a look, but managed to hold it in. We’d laugh about it later.
Myrtle set a glass of iced tea on the counter next to Coco’s plate and tactfully melted away. Coco continued to pick at her food.
“How did you like Darcy?” I asked.
“The girl should be put in a home. She’s an airhead, and besides that, she’s a blabbermouth. People who work in offices are supposed to be discreet.”
“You’re just unhappy with the whole world right now,” Michael said
“Was Terri there?” I asked, sitting down beside her – on the other side from where she’d slung the bag. I wasn’t going near the red bustier. I can only control myself for so long.
“Not at first. The stud was there. Jason. He was making moves on Darcy when we came in.”
“Really?”
“Well. They were talking about something. They were close together. He was leaning on the desk, and come to think about it, Darcy didn’t look comfortable, which she would have if he’d been hitting on her. I know I would. Anyway, he left, and then Terri came in as we were leaving.”
“We?”
“That kid was there. Kate. She was sitting in a chair swinging her legs and watching with bug-eyes while Jason hit on Darcy.”
“Are you kidding? He was flirting with a woman with a kid sitting right there?”
“Oh, well, maybe he wasn’t flirting, exactly. Maybe it was business after all. He was pointing at something on the desk. You know how it is with kids; you forget they’re there, especially if they’re quiet for a while. I thought Kate would follow Jason out. She’s in love with him, you know. But when she saw me, she came over and started screaming at me about a duck pond.”
“She was screaming?”
“Not hysterical-kind-of screaming. You know that kid. She’s loud. I told her I was too busy to go feed the ducks, and when Terri came in, she switched channels immediately and started trying to get her to go feed the ducks. What is it with that kid and ducks?”
“She was probably just bored. And she thinks Terri’s wonderful,” I added. “She wants to grow up to be just like her.”
“Well, the feeling’s not mutual. Terri managed to shoo her out as I was leaving, and then I was stuck with her. She walked to my car with me and wouldn’t stop talking.”
“About Mokey?”
Coco frowned. “No. She was telling me that her Daddy thinks Darcy’s a dunderhead. She thinks so too. She was telling me all about what Jason was saying to Darcy. Apparently, he caught a big mistake she made, and he was trying to explain how to fix it when Kate came in. She actually said Jason was threatening Darcy, but I doubt it. The kid’s a drama queen.”
I snapped to attention. “What kind of mistake?”
“Something about a check. An overpayment. I didn’t get it all. Kate’s not exactly a sequential thinker, and I don’t think she really understood what she heard.”
“And Terri didn’t come in until after Jason left? She doesn’t know?”
“That he was giving Darcy something to do? No. I don’t think she even knows he was there. She was too busy yelling at Darcy herself. I heard it from the parking lot while Kate was jabbering at me.”
“What was she yelling about?”
“I couldn’t make it out; I told you, Kate was talking. But then Terri started tearing something up, and Kate got interested and shut up for a minute. I tried to get in my car and get out of there, but Kate was blocking me, staring into the window with her mouth hanging open.”
“What was she staring for? Did she say anything at all?”
“Oh. Come to think of it, she did. She said Terri was tearing up Jason’s check. That couldn’t be right, could it? I mean, why would Jason bring back his paycheck, and why would Terri tear it up? Oh. The damn dunderhead probably made it out wrong. Anyway, who cares?”
“What happened then?” I asked tensely.
“Nothing. I tried to see what was going on in the office, but Terri noticed us staring in the window and glared at us, so I told the kid good-bye and got out of there. What’s going on there, anyway? Why are you looking like that?”
“Oh, lord,” I muttered, standing up compulsively.
“What?”
Myrtle had left, but Coco and Michael were staring at me.
“I – I – oh! I have his number. My cell phone. Where’s my cell phone?”
“In your back pocket,” Coco said. “Whose number?”
“Jason’s.”
I jabbed at my cell phone then stared at the floor, waited through the rings, only to hear his voicemail message. When it stopped, I said, “It’s Taylor. I’ve got it all figured out, and if any harm comes to Darcy, I’m holding you personally responsible, you got that? I know everything. She may be a dunderhead, but even dunderheads deserve to live, and if she’s harmed in any way, I’m throwing you to the wolves. Got that?” I came to a halt, worked up and shaking. “Call me,” I barked before hanging up.
“Darcy?” Michael said. “She’s in danger?”
“She knows too much, and she’s a threat to a killer. Yeah, I’d say she’s in danger. The whole thing must have unraveled around the time Coco was there.”
“Jason?” Michael said. “But you didn’t get ahold of him. If she’s in danger –“
“You’re right. I’m calling Detective Bruno.”
I couldn’t explain everything over the phone, but I told him the important things as quickly as I could. He suddenly seemed uncharacteristically alert. He snapped to it, said he’d get help over to Darcy’s house, and ordered me to meet him at the Resort’s real estate office.
“Get there and stay there,” he told me. “Understand? I do not want to see you at Darcy’s place. Wait for me at the Resort. You and I are going to have a long talk.”
“Get your car keys, Michael,” I said as I hung up. “We’re on the move.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the Resort. Thank God. If I had to sit here and wait, I’d go out of my mind.”
I ran back to my office to scoop up the paperwork I’d left next to my computer. Bastet was standing on the desk, energized, like I was, but she showed no desire to accompany us. Her eyes were lit like green fire, but as I glanced back from the doorway, she lay down stiffly, tucked her paws and stared until I left.
“Not on your life.” She was on her feet and right behind me. “I’m coming too.”
“I don’t have time to argue with you.”
“Then just get yourself moving. I’m coming, and that’s all there is to it.”
“Oh, all right.”
* * * * *
It was a good thing Michael was at the wheel. You can’t take the dirt road out of Cadbury House at a high rate of speed, and I would’ve broken all our necks tearing down the road, spinning the wheels and kicking up dust, and not getting there any faster than Michael did.
While we were in the car, I tried to call Jason again and got his voicemail again. I stared out the window into the darkness, hollow-eyed, and tried to picture everything.
Darcy would have left work for the day not long after Coco had driven away. I tried to nail Coco down on what time it had been, and of course she didn’t know. “Sixish,” was all I could get out of her. Late, for an office worker, but I didn’t know Darcy’s hours, and Jason may have kept her there late. But it was getting close to 7:30 and Darcy was surely home by now. Lots of people knew Darcy’s home address: Jason, Terri and probably a lot of the homeowners as well. She was a friendly girl. If they’d asked, she would have told them. Like Coco had said, she was a blabbermouth.
After what seemed like about three years, we finally pulled up to the real estate office by the front gate of the Resort. I had expected an interval of waiting, slowly going insane, but as soon as we entered the gate we could see something was happening. There were lots of cars scattered around as if they’d been parked carelessly, and three of them were squad cars. I slumped in my seat. Before we could even get out, an ambulance came in, followed closely by another squad car.
Standing up and talking to me over the hood of his car, Michael said, “I thought you said Darcy would be attacked at home.”
“I figured she’d have gone home by now. Bruno must have sent his people here just in case.”
The action seemed to be behind the real estate building, and after looking at one another, Coco, Michael and I started to walk around to the back.
There were a lot of people between the backside of the real estate office and the first row of townhouses, and whatever was happening was going on down at the end, by duck pond. I stopped. Then I started to run, murmuring, “No, no, no, no, no.”
Not Kate.
Chapter 22
“Jason saved my life,” Kate yelled to me. She’d picked my face out of the crowd as she preened, sopping wet but spunky, from the arms of her father. He was clutching her to his chest, and his face showed a raw desperation that was hard to look at. He went by us blindly and headed for home with a medic running after him, trying to reason with him. He needed to check her over. But Jerry was in the grip of humanity’s most primitive instinct, and he wasn’t processing spoken language any more. He was taking his child to safety, even though the danger was over.
I stood back, looking on solemnly as the next little group came along and passed us. It was Terri Jones, bedraggled and wet, staring straight ahead as a cop walked her toward a squad car. No raw desperation there. She had her head up and her shoulders back, and was wearing a light gloss of defiance.
Back down the lane, in the wet gloom of the night, I saw Jason standing under a grotto of live oaks with a medic working on his face and a cop hovering very close. Nobody tried to stop me as I went over to him. Patches of light filtered thinly through the trees from Route A1A, behind us, showing deep, bloody scratches down Jason’s left cheek and on both of his forearms. He looked exhausted, defeated.
“What happened?”
He shrugged. “I got your message.”
“Okay. And?”
“I called Darcy right away. She was fine, but you know how she is. She started to babble, telling me of course she was all right, Terri would never hurt her, even if she was mad, but she wasn’t even mad, although she did tear up my check and seemed like she was mad at me, but she never stays mad for long. To prove it, Darcy told me that as she was getting into her car to drive home, she’d looked down the lane and seen Terri hand-in-hand with little Kate, walking toward the duck pond, and wasn’t that sweet?”
“Oh, God.”
“Yeah. I was still here at the Resort, putting things away in the shed when I got your message, and what Darcy said scared the hell out of me. I headed right down to the pond. I couldn’t convince myself that Terri would actually hurt a child, but I couldn’t shake the feeling. After all, she killed Fred and Edith. I knew it as soon as it happened. But a kid? It’s like I didn’t believe it, but I believed it. I guess I’ve known all along. That’s why I wanted your help. But I didn’t think she’d hurt me, and I didn’t think she’d hurt a little girl. I just wanted to be sure. And then . . . well, I – was just in time.”
“You caught her trying to drown Kate.”
“Yeah. Back at the office, I was so worried about getting Darcy to deposit the check without asking any questions, I forgot that Kate was sitting there. And Kate tells everybody everything. I swear to God, I never meant to put her in danger, but when I realized that Terri knew about it . . . .” He gave me a level stare and quirked a smile. “After I pulled them out of the pond, I had to use her cell phone to call the cops while I sat on her. She’d left it high and dry while she went to get the job done. Cool and calm, and covering all the bases, that’s Terri. My phone is in the water somewhere. I told Kate to go home, but she wouldn’t. Said she wanted to help. I couldn’t do anything with her until the ambulance guys got there, and then her father came, and then the cops. I guess it’s over now.”
I shrugged. “You knew it was over as soon as Fred died. You were afraid of Terri after that.”
“When I got myself into this mess, I didn’t know what she was capable of. I thought I was in love with her, and she was the smartest woman I’d ever known. She had this scheme to make us rich, and I just wanted to go along for the ride.”
“Were you still going to go away with her?”
He shrugged. “I decided not to think too far ahead. Anyway, thanks. I may be a thief, but I’m no murderer. And I kinda like that kid.”
“You’re a hero now. Maybe that will help, come sentencing time.”
“I’m not looking for any miracles.”
“You do know that now Kate is never going to get over you?”
He chuckled. “I’ve had worse girlfriends.”
You sure have, I thought. The medic was finished, and the cop decided it was time to go. “Good luck,” I said.
“Thanks.”
I turned and found Coco standing right behind me, so close I should have felt her breath on the back of my neck.
“Okay, Taters, what was that all about?”
“Didn’t you hear?”
“Yeah, I heard, and none of it made any sense. Explain yourself.”
I looked to Michael, who was standing behind her, and then Bruno walked up, looking exhausted again. Deploying cops to protect Darcy had taken all the energy he’d mustered up in that phone call I’d made to him.
“Shall we retire to the office down there and you can explain all this?” he asked me.
“Sure,” I said, “but I have to get some papers out of my car first.”
Chapter 23
The office was locked, of course.
Harold Foote had materialized out of the darkness that had fallen, and since his wife had been one of the victims, I decided he had a right to know, and I only wanted to go over this once. Over some mild objections from Bruno, we went down the road to Harold’s condo. Candy came out and stood on her porch as we came by, but we left her standing there and shut the door behind us. There were enough of us for one small condo anyway. Coco and Michael were there, of course, and Detectives Bruno and Carver, and Betty Everson, who’d been standing behind Harold when he’d shown up, and walked along wit
h him protectively as we went back to his condo. Coco made predictable remarks about that later, but at the time, I was just glad that Harold had a friend with him.
Harold didn’t try to play host as we seated ourselves around the dining room table. His only contribution was to motion me to the head of the table, where I could spread out my paperwork. Bruno sat beside me on one side while Carver sat on the other, and they both started looking over my notes without even asking permission.
“All along I knew we had to find the motive before we could get at the truth,” I started. “Anybody at the party, with few exceptions, could have poisoned Fred’s drink while the Zachary children ran around with their dog, distracting everybody. And anybody could have waited for Edith behind that bush.”
“Even me,” Harold said. “In fact, especially me. I’m one of the few people who knew she’d be coming back from the beach.”
“Oh, everybody knew she’d be coming back from the beach,” Betty said. “You and Edith always went for a walk at sunset, and you usually came back without her. She liked to watch darkness fall on the water, and you usually wanted to get home to watch some show. In a development like this, all the neighbors know your habits, whether you realize it or not.”
He smiled at her.
Bruno transferred his mild gaze to me, and I went on. “We needed to find out why, not how. So I tried to figure out why anybody would want to kill Fred. I figured Edith was killed because of something Fred told her at the party. I knew that Fred was one of those community watchdog types, always stirring up trouble at community meetings, so I started there.”
I pointed to the minutes of the meetings and began to wonder how I was going to dance around the next part without bringing up Victor.
Harold glanced at the paperwork and nodded. “He was suspicious about the large amounts being built up in the maintenance reserve. He was always buttonholing people about it and trying to get things stirred up. He even got Candy Cutter involved. She never knew what was going on around here, unless it involved an eligible man, but because Fred was always haranguing her about it, she brought it up at a homeowner’s meeting. Terri knew darn well that Fred had got that started, even though Candy was the one asking about it.”
