Josie Tucker Mysteries Box Set 2
Page 21
Rather than risk knocking on the wrong door, Josie texted Sarah, who promptly swung open the front entryway as if she’d been waiting for them to arrive. They indeed had the correct house—their GPS hadn’t led them astray, as she’d heard could often happen.
“This is bizarre having you here,” the girl said by way of a greeting. “You know, when you see someone out of context and it feels all wrong… Never mind. Hi and stuff. Come on in. You can meet my mom if you want. My dad is at work—he’s a city planner.” She stepped back, allowing them to step onto the shiny hardwood inside the entryway.
Sarah did the introductions, presenting them as friends of hers from school, which in a manner of speaking was true. Kind of. Sarah’s mother seemed normal, a robust woman, red-haired but freckled like her daughter. She was rockin’ a pair of high-waisted mom-jeans and a striped boat-necked sweater in primary colors like a preschool teacher’s paint set.
“Sarah mentioned she was home schooled,” Josie said, serving an opening volley after they’d settled on the couches in what was a comfortable living room. “You’re a teacher?”
They lounged on overstuffed couches amid tables full of artfully arranged pieces of handmade pottery—large, irregular-shaped vases that had been shaped by an artist’s hands and fingers and not by a machine in a factory. The whole room displayed signs of care and comfort, but style as well. Across the mantle of a modest fireplace was a row of picture frames full of smiling kids, most of whom were fair-to-red-haired and freckled.
“I have a Master’s in Education,” Sarah’s mother told them. She was a big hand-talker, waving her fingers as she spoke, her gestures often crossing over into her daughter’s space. “And I just…I’m freaked out by the violence in public schools. Both on a day-to-day level, like bullying and so forth, and the potential for terrorism and gun violence. You see it on the news all the time now, and it just frightens the hell out of me. So I decided to keep Sarah at home along with her siblings and cousins. College, of course, is another thing. I can’t provide that level of education, needless to say, but I can hope that I’ve protected the kids long enough for them to be strong people with their own opinions and… as for gun violence…well, I can’t control everything.”
“Did Sarah finish high school early?” Josie glanced at the girl, who was sitting next to her mother, not saying a word, content with letting her mother dominate the conversation. She’d need to separate the two if she wanted to hear Sarah’s own words.
“She just turned seventeen, so yes, a bit early.”
“That’s impressive,” Drew said. Josie said nothing—she’d been a young college student herself.
“Anyway,” Josie said, “we just wanted to drop in and say hi. Let you know we were thinking about you, Sarah. Leah really misses you, of course. She wanted to come, but she had to work. And there’s Brandon and Tiffany and Tyshawn, too. They all say hi, and they wanted to let you know they’re still working on that group project.” Josie kept feeding her mouth pointless chit-chatter, letting it pour out until everyone’s eyes started to glaze over, herself included.
Sarah’s mother’s smile faded and her gaze drifted toward the door, then toward the kitchen, which Josie could see through a doorway. More small talk, and Sarah’s mother shifted her legs, changing which crossed over the other.
Good lord, the woman had stamina when it came to conversation. Was she practicing deep breathing? I need more yoga, Josie told herself for the hundredth time. Look into it asap.
Yet, Josie kept at it. Drew, at one point, received a non-emergency medical call, which he stepped outside to answer. When he came back, Josie was still filibustering in the family room.
At last, Sarah’s mother stood up. “You know what, I need to start dinner. I’ll just let you kids do your thing. You don’t need me hanging around.” No one objected, but they said their polite nice-to-meet-yous as she excused herself.
Finally. For crying out loud, Josie was dying. She’d passed and probably doubled her record for small talk. She would need a jaw massage and a muscle relaxer at this rate. She surreptitiously moved her chin from side to side and got a loud crack behind her mandible for her efforts.
“So, I guess I’m missing the big talk tomorrow with Ida Mae,” Sarah said when they were alone. “At least I won’t have to work—I was on the schedule to serve lunch afterward.”
“What do you think about Ida Mae?” Josie asked. “Isn’t it weird that someone like Professor Sanborn would be the one to sponsor her talk? It doesn’t seem very forward-thinking of him.”
Drew cast her a puzzled look, clearly wondering where she was headed with her line of questioning. She didn’t stop to reassure him she knew what she was doing—mostly because she had no clue if she was on the right track. She was following her gut as usual.
“I don’t know. It’s kind of weird, yeah.”
“He did it to get his wife back,” Josie said, blunt and to the point. She was done shilly-shallying around.
Josie studied the girl’s face—long enough, apparently, that both Sarah and Drew became a uncomfortable as the silent grew into an awkward deadness. Sarah picked at her fingernails, and Drew fiddled with his phone, flipping it back and forth between his hands.
“Sarah,” Josie said, looking the girl straight in the eyes, “I know you wrote the letters.”
Part 5: Finals
Look at these gorgeous vine-ripened tomatoes, warm and fresh from the farmer’s market. Red, yellow, orange, even dark ruby red and purple skin in a variety of shapes and sizes, from tiny jewels perfect for popping into your mouth to robust globes that overflow the palm of your hand. Colors you wouldn’t expect to find in nature, vivid and eye-popping. Flavor from sweet to tangy to mouth-puckeringly tart.
I’ll get out of lecture mode for now. You’ve had enough prep to ace this final. It’s multiple choice. Choose wisely.
Josie Tucker, Will Blog for Food
Chapter 39
The sharp intake of breath came not from Sarah but from Drew, whose head swiveled toward her in surprise.
“That’s ridiculous,” Sarah said, her freckles getting lost in the bright red flush on her face. “You all know I have a thing for Professor Sanborn. I can’t hide it because it’s completely obvious, but there’s no way I wrote those totally illiterate, goofy notes. And stick a knife in his office door? Seriously?”
Drew looked at Josie for explanation. She was buoyed up by the fact that his expression didn’t show signs of disbelief or skepticism, just pure astonishment.
“Not those letters. The other ones.” When Sarah didn’t respond, Josie added, “The ones in President Olsen’s office. The ones asking for a lot of money—a hundred thousand dollars altogether.”
Sarah stared at her with clear but unblinking eyes, and Josie recognized the look of being caught between telling a lie and coming out with the truth. It was a major hesitation, and it gave the girl away the longer it stretched out. Sarah was a freckle-faced bunny about to be mowed down by the inevitable Mack Truck of fate.
Even Drew’s fidgeting hands stilled, waiting for Sarah to respond.
“How did you know it was me?” the girl said finally.
Josie breathed a sigh of relief. She’d known Sarah was involved…but had taken a massive leap of faith, hoping she was guessing correctly. She’d thought Sarah’s play-acting of her crush on Professor Sanborn had been overdone. Combined with the fact that Sarah had been in the right place at the right time for every incident…if she was responsible for the dean’s death, it might help that she was still seventeen and just a minor in the eyes of the law.
“Tell us about it,” Josie said. She wanted to hear it in the girl’s own words—she wanted all of the missing pieces of the puzzle filled in.
Because, honestly, Josie’s theories still had a lot of parts missing.
Sarah stared at her hands for a minute, opening and closing her fingers. Finally, she said, “That girl that you heard about—the one involved with Profes
sor Sanborn—Alyssa is my cousin. My mom home-schooled us together. I thought someone at the Bader admissions office would figure out that we’re related, but it never came up. And before I tell you anything more, you need to know that my parents don’t know about any of this. My mom would be totally devastated if she knew what we’ve been doing.”
We? Josie’s thoughts stuttered. Sarah and Alyssa were writing the notes together? Of course they were. Alyssa was the whole reason behind wanting the money. Being dumped was strong motivation for revenge.
And another thing…if Sarah thought Josie and Drew were going to keep this information from reaching Sarah’s parents—among other people—she had another thing coming.
Crap. Josie had forgotten to set her phone to record this conversation. She froze for a minute, mentally flailing for an excuse to get her phone out of her jeans pocket. As she nonchalantly scratched her neck, she looked at Drew for ideas…and noticed that his phone was aimed directly at the girl.
He was recording them now. Thank goodness he’d come along with her.
Give that guy a raise. Maybe a bonus. No, she’d double his salary.
“So last year, Alyssa started seeing Professor Sanborn, as you all know. Then at the end of the year, his wife found out about it and asked him for a divorce. Alyssa thought everything would be so much better after that.” Sarah shook her head. “But no. It didn’t work out the way she thought at all. Professor Sanborn broke up with her because he decided to go back to his wife.”
“Is that when Alyssa transferred to Mills College?”
Sarah gave her a funny look that stopped Josie in her tracks.
“She’s not at Mills?” Who was the person who had said Alyssa had transferred to Mills?
“No, she lives at home with her parents.”
Now it was Josie’s turn to blink stupidly. “She lives here in Needham?”
Searching back through all the he-said, she-said junk she’d collected in her brain over the last couple of days, Josie discovered it was Professor Sanborn himself who had told her that Alyssa had transferred to Mills College in California.
Josie had seen Mills mentioned somewhere else, too, come to think of it…but it was evading her at the moment.
“Yeah, here in Needham,” Sarah said. “She didn’t think she could be on her own at a time like this. She needed a lot of support after he broke it off with her.”
Josie guessed so. Moving to California, while being a great distance from Joshua Sanborn, would also isolate her from her family.
“Tell me about the money,” Josie said.
Sarah gave a big, well duh shrug. “Well obviously, raising a baby on your own isn’t easy…or cheap.”
Holy crap. An affair of the heart? What a load of crap. Their relationship was apparently an affair of other parts of his lying body as well if a baby were the result. Josie wanted to kick herself for having believed the massive lie even for a second. Professor Liar-Liar-Pants-on-Fire had struck again. This time, he had bamboozled Josie.
Sarah had dug out her cell phone and was scrolling through some screens. Then she turned the phone to face Josie and Drew. “See?”
The photo she showed them was of a smiling, cherubic infant, maybe a couple months old—Josie was horrible at guessing anyone’s age, never mind a baby’s.
Cute kid, though.
Gummy smile. Fuzzy blonde hair. Big turquoise eyes.
#
“Did you try to kill Professor Sanborn?”
At first, Josie thought Drew had said it, but from the way he was gaping at her, she knew the words had come from her own big mouth. Yeah. Might as well go with a direct, frontal attack. Especially since I’ve already plunged down the path.
“No way,” Sarah said. She looked genuinely surprised by the question. “I just wanted the money for my cousin and her baby. I’m not trying to hurt people. Joshua Sanborn already did enough harm on that front.”
“How did you know Professor Sanborn falsified his resumé?”
Sarah snorted. “That was the easiest part of this whole thing. Everyone knows it. I’m the first one who’s ever come right out and accused him of it.”
When Josie was silent, pondering her next approach, her next line of questioning, Sarah added, “There’s a lot of bad things going on at that place, but I’m not involved in it. It was horrible what happened to Dean Handley. Whatever kind of jerk he was, he didn’t deserve that, and whoever did it…Well, they really need to find out whoever did it.”
Drew shifted in his chair as if he could sense Josie’s lack of direction. Her silence was probably draining his phone’s battery, using up all the space on his phone with a video recording that wouldn’t prove much. Mind racing, Josie tried to find a hole in Sarah’s story.
“What about the knife?”
Sarah’s eyes flicked to the side. “What knife?”
Aha.
Josie titled her head but said nothing. The silent strategy had worked well for her before. Why not try it again?
Sarah cleared her throat and looked at Drew, who shrugged. Turning back to Josie, the girl’s eyebrows rose.
Do not crack, Josie told herself. Hold steady. Let the mountain come to you.
“The knife from the kitchen?” Sarah asked.
Josie nodded. Because of course any knife on campus was probably from the dining hall kitchen. The other cafeterias didn’t require chef’s knives to heat up their prepackaged pseudo-foods. And all the chef’s knives matched—they all had the same mountain icon from the German manufacturer. But which knife would Sarah confess to taking? The one that had first been embedded in Professor Sanborn’s office door, gone into an envelope in his desk, which Tiffany and Tyshawn had then stolen and given to Josie? That same knife which had been taken from her penis-carved desk and had been used to stab Professor Sanborn?
That was the knife in question.
“I guess that knife is still in the kitchen,” the girl said. “You mean the one Linda cut herself with, right?”
No, not that knife, dammit.
Chapter 40
“Want to get something to eat?” Drew had looped his finger in his keyring and was flipping his keys around and around. They’d texted Benjy, and he had just jogged up the hill from the Bader administration building to join them.
“No. You two go ahead. I’m not hungry,” she told them. Truth be told, her stomach was in knots. Between frustration and a lousy diet the last few days, Josie needed a lie-down. Or a hunch-over, whatever the whim of her midsection.
She didn’t notice the concerned looks that passed between Drew and Benjy until a couple minutes had passed, with neither of them making a move to leave.
“She’s not hungry?” Benjy asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Shoo,” she said, waggling her fingers at them. “This is normal. I’m using all of my bodily resources to figure this out. All the blood is being diverted from my stomach to my brain. I can’t think about food right now.”
“This is definitely not normal,” Benjy said. He stood with his hands on his hips, staring at her.
“We’ll bring you something,” Drew told her. He looked nonplussed as well, a crease appearing on his forehead.
“Seriously. I love you guys, but go away.” She didn’t think she could say it any clearer—though her doormat at home said the same thing, and they ignored that, too.
As he and Benjy drove off, she gave them a wave. Truth be told, she needed some alone time. Having a Scooby gang was fun and all, but the novelty had worn off. She couldn’t concentrate with all the extra bodies stomping around her, talking, laughing, adding their input…breathing her air.
#
Josie spent the rest of the evening pacing back and forth on her dorm room floor, raking over the details. What had she missed?
She’d been almost a hundred percent sure that Sarah had been the person who had taken the knife from the dorm room desk drawer, but the girl had passed Josie’s gut-reaction test. No hesitation in Sarah’s den
ial. No twinge in Josie’s midsection. She had been telling the truth.
Parking herself in her desk chair, Josie got out a notebook at made a list. Because, when in doubt, write crap down.
She made a chart, and across the top, she wrote the names of who she thought were her suspects:
Sarah (with Alyssa)
Sanborn
Jane
Aimee Kohler-Rowski
Lydia Blaine
Linda the cook
That was pretty much the extent of it. If the person who poisoned Dean Handley was the same person who stole the knife out of Josie’s room and stabbed Professor Sanborn, that left a much shorter list.
Sarah
Sanborn
And if Josie ruled out Sarah based on gut instinct—which was generally not too far off the mark—that left an even shorter list.
Sanborn
Sitting back in her chair, Josie scratched her head and frowned. Really? Was it that easy?
Back up a minute, she told herself. Maybe she’d eliminated someone too quickly.
What about Jane? The admin had arranged the luncheon. She had motive, according to the two other women professors—anger at being passed over for a teaching job as well as possible romantic frustration, according to Aimee. Could Jane sneak into the dorm, steal the knife from Josie’s room, stab the professor, and remain invisible, according to the surveillance cameras outside the dorm entrances?
Ridiculous. Josie had to admit she didn’t like the woman, but it seemed impossible to pin both events on her. Just the same as all the other names on the first list…Jane had to be eliminated. The cameras didn’t lie.
So, back to Joshua Sanborn.
Father Michael had warned them about his brother’s addiction to lying, and Sanborn had clearly been bending the truth about his affair with Alyssa. Where else had the bastard been spreading lies?