Stirring Up Murder

by P. D. Workman

  “Tomorrow is Sunday,” Vic said. “So, thank goodness, it’s not a regular work day. If you want, we can just stay closed. If not, you could call Bella and see if she can manage it herself. It’s just the ladies’ tea. They all know where everything is and can help her get set up. There are enough cookies and treats in the freezer that she can put a couple of platters out and no one will be the wiser.”

  “Those are for an emergency,” Erin protested.

  Vic raised an eyebrow. “Uh… yeah,” she agreed.

  Erin’s face warmed. Running for their lives didn’t constitute an emergency? Exactly what was she saving them for? “Okay. I guess we can call Bella. She hasn’t had to handle it on her own before, but she’s been there enough times… and it’s not like serving the rush crowd on other days.”

  Vic nodded in agreement. She followed Erin’s example and pulled off her shoes. She lay down, and Willie stretched out behind her, spoon style. Erin didn’t close her eyes. She was tired and hyped up at the same time. Vic looked back at her across the gap between the two beds, not closing her eyes either.

  “Tell me about when you were a kid,” Vic told Willie. “Since I know where you come from now, you don’t have to worry about giving yourself away.”

  “You already knew where I was from,” Willie said, his voice gravelly. “Bald Eagle Falls, just like I said. None of that has changed.”

  “What was it like growing up as a Dyson?”

  “I don’t imagine it was so different from growing up as a Jackson. My parents left Moose River before I was born. Wanted to get away from the clan. Be their own people and not have to worry about the politics or about having the cops on their case all the time.”

  “What did the family think about that?”

  “No big deal, I don’t think. Not everyone stays involved in family matters. Not everyone is made for it.”

  “Your dad was a trucker; what did your mom do?”

  Willie grunted. “Dad was a trucker when he was employed, which was not very often. Mom did what she could from home. Sewing. Laundry. Going out and cleaning houses when we could be left alone for a while. When we got old enough, we picked up after-school jobs to try to contribute to the household.”

  “How bad was it?” Vic asked. “Were you really poor?”

  “Grindingly poor. We didn’t have many clothes, always got made fun of for that. Why people think it’s okay to make fun of those who have less, I’ll never understand. Like poverty was a crime or a choice. Believe me, we didn’t choose to live that way.”

  Vic shifted, reaching behind her to pat his cheek. “In a way, your parents did. If they’d chosen to live with the clan, you wouldn’t have been poor. You would have had everything you needed.”

  “At a cost.”

  Erin closed her eyes, thinking about the hollowness in Willie’s voice. Just what had he suffered in his life, first living without enough food or clothing and being bullied by Trenton Plaint or boys like him? Then leaving Bald Eagle Falls to strike out on his own.

  “What did you do when you got out of school? You left Bald Eagle Falls?”

  “Yes. I figured my parents had made the wrong choice. That they didn’t know what they were talking about. So I went to the Dysons.”

  Vic caught her breath sharply. “You went back?”

  “Technically, I didn’t go back because I’d never been there before. But yeah, I went back to what my parents had abandoned, thinking that they were just naive and out of touch and I knew better than they did.”

  Erin closed her eyes. She wanted to block out the pictures and to see them at the same time. She didn’t want to look at Willie, but to give him his privacy. Even though he was her friend, it seemed like a more intimate moment, one that he should have shared with Vic alone.

  “How could you do that?” Vic asked. “You knew they were… criminals. Bad guys. That’s not the kind of person you are.”

  “I was a teenager,” Willie said. “Teenagers know everything. I wanted the money. I wanted the power and the respect. I didn’t want to be looked down on anymore.” Erin cracked her eyelids briefly to see him shaking his head. “I didn’t want to be hungry anymore.”

  Vic turned over to face him. She put her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. She rubbed his back comfortingly. “I’m so sorry…”

  “I learned pretty quick that there were worse things than being poor. And that being part of the clan didn’t get me the respect I wanted. I was the lowest man on the totem pole. I knew nothing about the family or the way things worked. There were twelve-year-olds with more skill and experience than I had. People outside the family didn’t respect me. Fear, yes. Plenty of people who would look away or kowtow to me. But real respect for me and my skills… no.”

  “How long before you decided to go back home to Bald Eagle Falls?”

  “I had committed to… something like an apprenticeship or internship. I had to do my time so they could see what kind of an asset I was and how they could use me.”

  “For how long?”

  “Five years. And after that, I was allowed to decide what I wanted to do. It wasn’t easy, but I left it all behind. I decided my parents had been right in the first place. Better to be poor and be your own man. Better not to be a slave to the organization or to have to give up your standards and beliefs for theirs. I didn’t come back to Bald Eagle Falls. Not right away.”

  Vic murmured a sympathetic sound. She continued to rub Willie’s back and to hold him close. “What did you do, while you were apprenticing? Was it hard? Was it…?”

  “I can’t talk about it. I can’t tell you what things I did or what I was involved with. You know the kind of people who run the family. You know what kind of organization they are and what they’re involved in. An apprentice doesn’t get to avoid anything. He has to learn the organization from the ground up.”

  Erin thought about some of the skills Willie had shown in the time she had known him and how Terry was so wary of him, never fully trusting him. He’d run away, a teen starving for attention as much as for food. He’d returned a man, with years of knowledge and experience in things he should never have had to witness or participate in. Erin was glad that he and Vic had connected. Vic was still way too young for him, but maybe he needed her inexperience and non-worldliness to balance his own cynicism and weariness. It shouldn’t have worked between them, but it did.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  E

  rin had apparently fallen asleep sometime during the night or the early hours of the morning. She couldn’t remember all that they had discussed during the night or when she had fallen asleep, but by morning they were all snoring away, exhausted by the emotion and the events of the night.

  Erin was the first to awaken, and decided to take advantage of the fact to have a shower. The hot water felt good and the white noise of the droplets was soothing. She really needed it.

  And whatever the reason for it, she was going to have a day off. A full day off, away from the bakery and thinking about how to keep it solvent.

  But before long, her mind went to Charley and she lost her zen state, returning to full worry mode. They had to find Charley. They have to figure out how to help her. There had to be a way.

  By the time she got out of the bathroom, all dried off and dressed again in her pajamas, Erin could feel the frown lines creasing her forehead. They couldn’t afford to just let the hours drift by without doing anything. Vic shifted in her sleep, and Erin shook her arm.

  “Vic. Vic, we should get up and figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “Five more minutes.” She sounded like a child trying to avoid getting up for school.

  “No more minutes. You’re getting out of bed right now, young lady.”

  Vic squinted in the bright light of the hotel room. “Are you channeling my mother?”

  “That’s right. Up and at ’em. Time’s a-wasting. The early bird gets the worm.”

  “You are evil,” Vic g
roaned. She stretched and sat up, rubbing both eyes with her fists. “What time is it?”

  “Later than we ever get up for the bakery, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting up. You got to sleep in.”

  “I barely got any time,” Vic objected. “I just barely got to sleep.”

  “We need to figure out what to do.”

  “Okay.” Vic elbowed Willie none-too-gently. “Hey. Willie. Time for action.”

  “Five more minutes.”

  He’d obviously heard Erin getting Vic up. Vic laughed and attacked him, tickling and kissing him while he played possum, pretending he was still asleep. Eventually, Willie put an end to it, pulling Vic into a bear hug and kissing her firmly until she stopped struggling. He released her, and Vic got to her feet, face red, giggling at Erin. She disappeared into the bathroom.

  Willie yawned and stretched. He cracked his fingers and his neck joints and ran his fingers through his close-cropped hair.

  “I know you said you don’t know where they have Charley,” Erin said. “But can you find out? Can we figure out some way to help her? We can’t just leave it up to the clan to decide that she was responsible for Bobby’s death and execute her for it.”

  Willie ran his hand briskly over his head, back and forth, like he was trying to warm up his brain.

  “Let me think about it. I need caffeine.”

  “I would offer to go down and get you some from the breakfast buffet, but I need some clothes.”

  Willie looked at Erin’s pajamas as if seeing them for the first time. “Oh. Yeah, I guess we’d better get you something more appropriate. Did Vicky bring anything?”

  “We didn’t have time to pack,” Vic said, coming out of the bathroom. “I barely stopped to throw on clothes myself. All we brought is what we’ve got on.”

  Erin lifted up her purse. “And this.”

  Vic looked at it. “Somehow, I doubt you’ve got a change of clothes in there.”

  “Uh… no.” Erin dug around in it. “I do have breath mints.”

  They both looked at her.

  “No toothbrush,” Erin explained. “So…”

  Vic laughed. “At least if we have to face down the Dysons, we’ll have fresh breath.”

  “We are not facing down the Dysons,” Willie said.

  “I hope not,” Vic agreed. “But how are we going to help Charley? I think we’re going to have to talk to someone.”

  “Coffee first.”

  “And clothes,” Erin added. She pointed at the in-room coffee maker. “We can start some coffee brewing here. But someone is going to have to pick up some real clothes for me before I leave this room.”

  Vic and Willie looked at each other. Vic looked down at herself, getting pink. “And I didn’t do anything more than pull on the closest things I could find. I don’t even have on a bra.”

  Willie shifted uncomfortably. “You want me to go out and buy Erin an outfit and you a bra?”

  “No, I won’t make you go bra shopping.”

  Vic was getting pink and Erin suspected that Willie would be too if she’d been able to see his natural skin color.

  “You and me will go together. We’ll check the gift shop first. See if they had some souvenir t-shirts. And hopefully some pants. Then we can all go together to get the sundries Erin and I need.”

  Willie nodded. “Okay.”

  “We can’t spend too much time shopping,” Erin worried. “Popping down to the gift shop is fine, but going to the department store or mall for other things… I don’t want to waste any more time than we have to. They could decide that Charley is guilty at any time. And then she could be gone before we have a chance to do anything.”

  “We won’t waste time,” Vic promised. “And Willie will be working the phone while we’re getting what we need. Right?”

  Willie raised an eyebrow. “Maybe if I can figure out who to call to get some help with this… situation.”

  “Charley called someone named Dwight. What about him?”

  Willie shook his head. “I don’t have an in with Dwight. He’s way higher than anyone I have any connection with. Maybe someone on his staff would know something…”

  Erin moved over to the coffee maker. “Okay, caffeine coming up. Get ready for it, because once you get this, you’re not going to want to stop until everything is sorted out.”

  “That must be some magical coffee.”

  With coffee on board, Willie was functioning a little better, and was able to start putting together some plans.

  “Dwight is Bobby’s dad. He’s also sort of the boss of the Dysons in Moose River.”

  “Like the Godfather?” Erin suggested.

  “Well, more like one of his capos,” Willie said. “But close enough. All you need to know is that he’s important, high up in the organization, and he’s dangerous. You can’t mess around with this guy. Understood? There’s no trying to trick him or lie to him. He won’t take it.”

  “But Charley—”

  “Charley went for broke. I don’t know whether she was telling the truth or playing the biggest bluff ever. But we can’t do that. We can’t bluff our way into anything, but especially not into Dwight Dyson’s inner circle.”

  “How are we going to—”

  “Dwight has another son. Not a bigwig like Bobby was. Not wild and flamboyant like Bobby. Quiet and studious.”

  Erin and Vic nodded, listening intently, trying to memorize every word as if their lives depended on it. Because they probably did.

  “Nelson, I can probably get in to see. I’ve helped him out with his computers. Other projects. Dwight wouldn’t know me from Adam, but Nelson does.”

  “Nelson,” Erin repeated. “That sounds good. And would he be able to help with Charley? Telling us where she was or even getting her out?”

  “One step at a time. He’s still living at home with Dwight, so there’s a chance he would have heard something about what has been going on. For sure, he’ll know that Bobby is dead, even if he’s had his head in the sand about everything else. We’ll start with that. Find out if he knows about Charley.” Willie sighed. “I want to be able to play this like a chess game, staying four moves ahead of them. But I can barely even see what’s on the board. It’s frustrating.”

  “So how do we get in to see Nelson?” Vic asked.

  “I’ll call him… I’m going to need to offer him something of value. He’s not going to let us just march in there and do whatever we want to.”

  “What’s he into?”

  Willie shook his head. “Computers, sound systems, drama. He’s mostly a loner, but he gets together with some friends for gaming or putting on little plays.”

  “Kind of a geek, huh?”

  Willie shrugged. “I’m not going to judge. If he’s managed to keep himself separate from the family business, then good for him. Whatever it takes. If he had to lock himself in his room for the first twenty years in order to avoid it, then good for him.”

  “How about a double-date?” Vic suggested. “If he’s kind of awkward, then maybe if you just told him the four of us wanted to go out to dinner together…”

  “No one said he was awkward. Being a geek is not the same thing. He doesn’t have a steady girlfriend as far as I know, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know any girls. The drama clubs include a lot of women.”

  “Say we have a play we want to get produced and we want him in it?”

  “I told you, we can’t bluff our way into this. We have to have something of value to offer him.”

  “A way to avenge his brother,” Erin said. “To impress his father and do something for Bobby.”

  Willie pursed his lips and raised both eyebrows as he considered this. “Not bad. And what do we actually offer him when we get there? We can’t exactly say that we know what happened or that we can offer him anyone in place of Charley.”

  “No… we tell him we can get the truth from Charley.”

  “How are we going to do that?”

  �
��She wanted the chance to tell Dwight her story. I don’t know if he heard her out. We could get Nelson to listen to it, and then he’d be able to offer something to his dad. An alternate version of what happened. Even if Charley doesn’t know who did it, if she could tell what she knew…”

  “You’re putting an awful lot of faith into the idea that Charley didn’t do it. Are you really that sure?” Willie challenged.

  “I can’t understand why she would go to Dwight if she did. Why would she do that? Wouldn’t she just run? Isn’t that what you would do if you had this family after you?”

  “What I would do and what some girl I’ve never met would do aren’t necessarily the same thing. This kind of business attracts and rewards big egos. And people who have big egos think they can talk their way out of anything. What do you really know about Charley?”

  Erin sighed. She scratched at a spot on her pajamas. “I wish I could get a chance to know her better. I really don’t think she did it, Willie. She just wants to live her life. Why would she throw everything away like that?”

  Willie didn’t answer immediately. He took a sip of his coffee. “I think you just want to live your own life. You’re putting your own motives on her. She wasn’t raised in the family. She didn’t just fall into it naturally. She had to join up. And this wasn’t something that was planned. If she killed Bobby Dyson, it was in the middle of a big blow-up. If she was smart, she’d be arguing self-defense.”

  “But if she really didn’t do it…”

  “Then she should definitely be arguing self-defense and trying to get a deal.”

  Erin frowned. “No, if she didn’t do it—”

  “If she doesn’t want to spend the next few years in court, and to be able to get off without prison time, she should be working a deal.”

  Erin felt a lot better once she had on real clothes, even though they were new and a little stiff and didn’t quite fit her the way that her own clothes did. She might look a little juvenile in her touristy gift store t-shirt and pants, but they were better than walking around town in her pajamas.