Privy to Murder

by Carol Shenold

  * * *

  The next day, errands, musings and etceteras kept me occupied until after I picked up Sean and his friends from vacation Bible school, grabbed a small pizza for the two of us (Mumsie was eating out with one of her cronies) and drove up to the house.

  Company waited on the front porch, in the form of my sweet daughter, Cass and what I could only guess was her boyfriend. Daughter waved her black fingernails at me, kind of like an unfriendly cat, ran her fingers through her tri-colored hair and unsuccessfully tugged at the black shirt that showed a pierced belly-button and either a real or henna tattoo. Assumed boyfriend wore a do-rag, longish greasy hair, spacers in stretched ear-lobes, black clothes. I spotted a cuff tattoo on his upper right arm.

  As we walked up Cass said, “Is that all the pizza you got? What are we supposed to eat? We’re staying for a while because Spike’s roommate kicked us out for some lame reason. He’s a real loser and he wouldn’t even give us our part of the food. Can you believe it?”

  This monologue continued as we unlocked the house and walked in. And, Brian was unhappy that Cass no longer lived at home?

  I took the pizza into the kitchen and set it down on the table, took out my big pot and filled it full of water. While the water boiled I dug out a jar of sauce and some pasta Mumsie just bought. I chopped onions and garlic, and refrained from mushrooms since I wasn’t ready to face the whining from the kids, both young and older, about fungus and about Mom cooking from scratch again instead of using the “good stuff from the jar.” But I decided to add zucchini because I liked it.

  Cass and friend wandered in so I put them to work setting the table and buttering French bread.

  “So, how long did you plan to stay?” I blurted out. No subtlety here.

  Cass looked up from the silver. “Does it matter? We can stay in my old room and Spike can look for a gig or two. It’ll work out all right for a few months.”

  “It might matter to you since Mumsie converted the room that you used to stay in when you visited, into a meditation room. Sean is in his old room and I’m in the old office. Tonight you’ll stay in the green room and Spike will bunk in with Sean, on the floor.”

  “We’ll just stay together. After all, we’ve been living together anyway.”

  “I realize that, but not in this house. You’ll show a little respect for your grandmother.”

  Cass threw the chopped veggies into the skillet to sauté, and I dumped pasta into boiling water.

  “Mumsie won’t care. you know,” Cass insisted. “She’s not as uptight as you are.”

  Changing the subject, I threw the next bombshell into the air. “How much rent do you think you can pay?”

  “Rent? For the green room? You’re kidding, right.”

  “Nope.” I opened the jar of sauce and added it to the onions and garlic and zucchini. Fresh onions and garlic made anything smell good. “If the two of you live here with us, you will help with expenses. I expect you each to have a job, even if it’s only bussing tables at the Feed Mill. You can’t just expect to be supported by everyone else.”

  I cut the pizzas into smaller slices and placed it in the middle of the table. Put a bowl of pasta and one of sauce next to it.

  “Sean, stop playing your games and come in to supper.”

  “But Mom, Spike has to work on his music and I have to help. We have to set up a web site and make a demo CD. We can’t have full time jobs and just let creativity go to hell.”

  “You won’t be able to afford a computer, internet access, studio time, or anything else without some money. You work to support your hobby until it becomes self-supporting and turns into a business. Then you work at that business.”

  Cass picked the zucchini out of her pasta and ate. “You’re not working full time while you work at your little party planning hobby. Why are we different? It isn’t fair. You’re living off Mumsie.”

  “I’m self-supporting at the moment, and if I can’t make enough money to continue, I will get a job. I do not live off your grandmother and never will. I pay my share of the expenses.” I heard my voice getting louder and more shrill and stopped before I said things I couldn’t take back. “Look, I know you feel blind-sided, but Mumsie is on a fixed income. I’m helping her. Any extra mouths make a difference in utilities, food and etc. We all have to help. If you want someplace to stay for a couple of days, not a problem, but you can’t move in even semi-permanently without contributing. You can always go stay with your father,” I offered.

  “Sure, and with his boyfriend too. That’s going to happen. We’ll see what we can do but I’ll talk to Mumsie too. She might not feel the same way, and it is her house after all.”

  My blood pressure shot up above two hundred. “You’re my child and will do what I say as long as you expect to be under this roof. I will not let you try and play me and my mother off of each other.”

  During the entire exchange Mr. Personality sat at the table in perfect silence, slurping pasta and watching as if we were a drama unfolding for his entertainment. I excused myself and went out the sliding glass doors onto the deck, closing the door behind me. The sun hung just above the horizon, as if deciding whether or not to take the plunge. The evening was still bright. It wouldn’t be dark for another couple of hours.

  I plopped down at the picnic table, my appetite gone. Honeysuckle sweetened the air. Cicadas sang. The high school football team had begun two-a-days. They ran and did jumping jacks, dying in the heat, I was certain.

  A yellow jacket zoomed by. A cardinal sang in the distance. I always felt at peace here, even when Mumsie and I fought. If it weren’t for the circumstances, I could be happy to be back home.

  It wasn’t home that bothered me. It was dealing with all the unfinished things, murder, unwanted visitors, an ex-husband who hated me, thought I was crazy and wouldn’t hesitate to take the kids, or at least Sean if he thought he could, just to cause trouble.

  The phone rang. Sean banged through the door. “Mom, Rusty wants me to go to VBS with him tomorrow night. They’re going out to LakeBonham and do s’mores. Can I go? I’ll take my inhaler. I won’t swim unless everyone does. Could I, please?”

  “Okay, what are the chances you will stay within sight of the adults if you do swim?”

  “I’m not six anymore, Mom. I’ll be all right, you know.”

  I grabbed him for a hug, finding comfort in the gesture, in spite of all his sharp, bony angles. “I know, squirrel. And you know I’ll do the Mom thing anyway.”

  He made a face but then grinned.

  * * *

  I went in to clean up the dishes, which waited for me on the table and in the sink. So much for hoping someone had done something useful. Cass and Spike had gone somewhere in their rusted, ratty Mustang. If I changed the locks, would they stay away? I knew better.

  I remembered when I was my daughter’s friend. In the old days, before we moved back, before life fell apart. We did scouts, camped, went shopping, and to movies. Then the music got louder, the clothes turned black, the lipstick blacker, and the pretty blonde with the sweet disposition changed into the gothic bitch that still used my daughter’s name.

  I turned into the witch of a mom who lived only to make her daughter’s life miserable. In some ways it was a relief when she moved out, but then I always waited for that phone call or knock on the door that meant something had happened to her, or because of her. Brian blamed me, maybe because of the “fortune telling” as he called it. Or because he just couldn’t face watching Cass grow up and away from us.

  After I did a load of laundry and warned Mumsie that Cass could be after her, I went to the office to look at party ideas for the Calf-roping Ball. What on earth was I going to do for that? I started the search engine looking for dance ideas and got prom ideas. Staring at the computer, I saw Mag’s party, Frank and Betty Ann, Reneé’s murderous expression, Mag’s body, her ghost. How did I figure into all of this? How the hell did I get involved with a ghost? My mind was so busy that I
lost track of time, dozed off.

  I jerked awake and shivered. What on earth had the kids set the air conditioning on? I could see my breath. Something grabbed me around the ankle. I leaped out of the chair before I realized Chaos had joined me. I picked her up.

  “Baby, I almost smashed you.” Her body shook and she buried her head into the crook of my arm. Something scared her but I didn’t see or hear anything. I opened the door into the kitchen and heard noise from the back part of the house.

  When I stepped out of the kitchen into the hall Spike nearly ran me down. He actually carried his own bags and his guitar as he pushed by me.

  “I’m not staying in this house, dude. Noises and floating chairs and weird, just weird. I’m out of here and Cass better hurry if she’s coming with me. You people are nuts. This house is radically wrong.”

  I tried to suppress a grin as Cass raced behind him, dragging more bags. “What’s going on? What happened?”

  “Oh, just forget it, Mom. Stuff hovered above our bed and he just freaked and now we have to go and I’ll just call you later. It’s all your fault, being involved in that murder and all. Now he might leave and I’ll be stuck here. Thanks a lot.”

  She stormed out behind him and I followed them through the den and down to the living room. Spike turned, went pale, and pointed to something behind me.

  “See. Like I said…” He slammed the door.

  I turned to see a transparent Mag in front of the bay window. I refuse to see this, I thought. This is just what I vowed not to be pulled into.

  I had a quiet heart attack when Mumsie spoke up from the den. “She wants you to do something, and you’re not doing it.”

  I went into the den in time to see Sean coming to find me. I led Sean back to bed and sat with him for a few minutes.

  “Mom, are we weird like he said?”

  “Honey. Did you see him and how much metal is sticking out of his body, his ears, nose, eyebrows, neck and other parts we won’t go into? He’s not someone who can call other people weird.”

  “Can you make the ghost go away? She scares me.”

  Me too, I thought. “We are not going to worry about what Cass’s nutty boyfriend thought he saw. Now you go to sleep and everything will be fine in the morning.”

  After Sean went to sleep, I left his room, not completely convinced by my own words. What if the spirit refused to go away, and I had to confront it? What if my life continued to be more and more complicated? I couldn’t answer my own questions.

  Chapter Five

  Drums pounded through the house. My right arm was gone, or numb. I gasped and my eyes flew open, only to close again at the bright light. Morning sun smashed in through the windows. I still heard drums. No, someone was knocking at the front door. Why wasn’t Sean or Mumsie answering it? I wasn’t dressed. Oh. Yes I was. In the same clothes I’d slept in.

  I stumbled to the door and opened it, squinting my eyes against the morning sun and the sight of JT. I pushed tangled hair out of my eyes.

  He carried a Starbucks bag which meant caffeine so I’d have to let him in. His raised eyebrow said he noticed the slept-in, rumpled look. He only said, “Hi.”

  “Hello, to you. This is kind of an unexpected visit, especially after the interesting City Council meeting. Come in. Have a seat. Let me make a quick change and I’ll be back before the coffee loses steam.”

  In the bedroom I threw off the shorts I’d slept in, pulled on jeans and a clean shirt, put a tie around my hair and went out to join JT in the living room.

  “To what do I owe the visit? And, by the way, thanks for the almost vote of confidence.”

  “Tali, I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”

  “You mean you don’t think I can carry off the ball?”

  “No. I didn’t say that. I didn’t mean that any idiot, rocket science thing. Laurel makes me crazy some times. She thinks everything is a big deal and needs to be done like someone in Dallas society might do it. She forgets we’re in a small town. She also doesn’t realize you lived in the city and know what you’re doing. I don’t know what she’s thinking, never did.”

  I looked at his perplexed expression and suddenly everything made sense.

  “You’ve been seeing Laurel, haven’t you? And not just around town. No wonder she’s been so nasty. She thinks I’m a threat. You could have warned me.”

  “I have not, did not. Oh shit.”

  “See? I thought so. Now, let me at that coffee.” I grabbed for the sack which JT immediately held out of my reach.

  “Please would be good, and not abusing the officer of the law. I have Danish too.”

  “Please and I’m sorry. Now what are you bribing me for? Don’t you bribe with money?”

  “I knew coffee works better with you.”

  “You know,” I said, inhaling then sipping my latte with extra espresso. Scary how he still knew me. “You’re right. Coffee has an edge over money, almost.”

  “How bad is it?” JT settled back with his coffee, black and strong.

  I raised an eyebrow at JT and the coffee he said he gave up but kept my mouth shut.“You don’t live with your Mom, do you?”

  “Well, nooo.”

  “How well do you know Mumsie?”

  “I’ll take the fifth on that one.”

  I told him just enough about Brian to make him agree that leaving was good, leaving out the magic. If I were lucky, he would never find out about that. I couldn’t have him thinking I was crazy. “I don’t want to use all my savings and have to live off Mumsie at this time in my life. Now you understand. Okay, I know you didn’t come over first thing on a Tuesday work morning to ask about my living or financial arrangements.”

  “You’re right.” JT started to put his feet up on the coffee table and stopped himself mid swing. “I have questions, as usual. And I think you have answers that I don’t even have questions for yet.”

  I sipped the latte, enjoying the feel of caffeine in the blood. “Where do you get this nonsense. All I know is that I gave my first party in this county and I served up a body in the freakin’ outhouse. My ex is an asshole. My daughter is a witch and I’m begging for jobs. Does any of that give you answers? What do you think I know, anyway?”

  “What do you know about Betty Ann and Frank’s relationship? I know you guys have been buddies, so what’s going on? Also, what about Reneé and Frank? He seems to have been a busy boy.”

  “What are you talking about? I just moved back here. I haven’t seen Frank in years, not since senior prom, I don’t think. Haven’t heard from him either. I didn’t know he and Betty Ann were an item until the party, although it seems to me he’s trading one pack of trouble for another.” My latte was gone and I still needed a jolt. “Come into the kitchen and I’ll make some espresso. We can heat up the Danish and add butter.”

  “How many calories are we talking about here?” JT asked, looking at the butter container.

  I shrugged. “Hey, buddy, you brought the Danish.”

  “I know, but Laurel is after me about the health thing.”

  “Any chance I get to help out Laurel.” I looked up at him with my most evil grin and hit the button on the microwave. Tantalizing smells came through the kitchen. The espresso machine burped out dark liquid and I poured it into cups, added milk and foam so we could have Danish and cappuccino.

  “I’ll be high for the rest of the day, you know.”

  “Since when do you care as long as it’s a legal high?”

  “Ouch. Hit me where it hurts.”

  Yeah, he was still cute and the old flutter could start up if I let it.

  Mumsie spoiled whatever might have been when she wandered in for a cup of coffee in one hand. How she could look so put together in a robe, first thing, I didn’t know, but I could hate her for it if she wasn’t my mother. I could hate her for it because she was.

  “JT, would you be a dear and fetch me the paper, then I’ll let you two talk about old times, or new times?” She even
batted her eyelashes at him. Shameless.

  JT just raised an eyebrow and grinned. He fetched.

  “Mother, fetching the paper? He is not a dog you know.”

  “Just you be careful. Amen Ka doesn’t exactly trust him and neither do I. Besides he’s a copper and you know how they can be.”

  I winced. “Have you been reading British mysteries again? Copper indeed.”

  JT came in with the paper. “It’s already a scorcher out there.”

  I steered him back to the couch. “OK, let’s finish this. You asked about Frank and Betty Ann. I heard gossip the last couple of weeks, saw them at the party but really don’t know anything concrete. Just the usual rumor mongers, nasty gossip kind of thing.” More along the line of how Mag drove him away with her temper and drinking.

  “As far as Renée and Frank, can’t even imagine it.” Actually, it might account for her attitude at the party, especially if she saw him with Mag and Betty Ann. Nah, she was smarter than that. She doesn’t need second-hand goods for God’s sake, not that second-hand. I finished my coffee. “Now, even though I appreciate the caffeine and goodies, I have things to do and people to see and I know you do too.”

  JT stood up. “There you go again. Just when I think we can maybe be a little civil you go and give me the bum’s rush.”

  “Have you and Mumsie been reading the same PI novels? Good Lord. I’m not trying to be rude but I really am pressed for time and,” looking at my watch, “I have ten minutes to get Sean to day camp in Denison.”

  I almost shoved him out of the door then ran in and headed for Sean’s room. He met me in the hall.

  “Forgot to tell you, Mom. Rusty’s Mother is picking me up for camp and I’ll go to his house after. You won’t have to take me.” He rushed by me. “Gotta go to the bathroom. Lucky my ride’s late because I overslept and then Gram’s made me eat and change clothes. I’ll call you when I get there.” He paused and looked back. “At least I won’t have to worry about the ghost lady there, will I?”

  With that zinger he went into the bathroom and closed the door.