Pride and Premeditation

by Samantha Silver

  “Well, stay quiet for a minute. Let’s make sure nobody heard what just happened and comes down to investigate.”

  Cat and I did as she suggested, and, when a couple of minutes later nobody had come down to investigate, we decided we were safe to try to make our way upstairs.

  “I hope she’s still here,” Cat said, as we made our way slowly up the stairs, trying to stop the old wood from creaking beneath our feet.

  “Me too, I think I broke something and it had better not be all for nothing.”

  “You’re such a whiner,” Cat said.

  As soon as we made our way through the door at the top of the stairs, Cat and I immediately stopped talking. I reached over and took her by the hand, just so that we would be able to tell where the other person was. We made our way down the hall, where we heard voices, and a moment later I realized one of the voices was Iris’.

  She was talking to Polly.

  “Look, I don’t like all of this hiding,” Iris was saying to Polly. “I don’t like having to lie to people, and I don’t like keeping the secret. I just had to drive to the village and pretend I was doing something else just to get those two nosy Nellies from the bookshop away from me.”

  Polly sighed. “I know. I don’t like it either, but I’m telling you, it’s what needs to happen right now.”

  “But why? I know you say your family are conservatives, but its 2018. Things are different now, and we shouldn’t need to hide just because of what people might think.”

  “Look, give me some more time, please. I’m just not ready to tell them, I know what they would say, and I definitely do not want them to find out about us through the Sapphire Village grapevine.”

  “Fine, but I can’t wait forever, Polly. It breaks my heart to hear you say we can’t go out in public, and that we can only meet when your roommates aren’t home. I don’t want to live a life in the shadows.”

  The pain in Iris’ voice was evident, and I couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking about. Could their secret have anything to do with the murder? No, Iris wanted to go public with whatever it was. It couldn’t be that.

  “Do you think I really want to live like this either, Iris? Of course I don’t, but I just don’t know how my family is going to react. They’re my family. I can’t just abandon them like that. But I promise, we won’t have to stay in the shadows much longer.”

  “I just don’t think it’s as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. Relationships like ours are normal now. I mean, even gay marriage has been legal for years now.”

  My eyes widened as I realized what this conversation was about. Polly and Iris were in a romantic relationship? And they were hiding it from everybody? All of a sudden I understood Iris’ evasiveness, and maybe her reluctance to talk to us had more to do with her relationship status then her involvement with the murder. After all, if we dug into Polly’s life or Iris’, she probably figured it was only a matter of time before Cat and I would come across this information. Which was a valid worry for Iris, seeing as we had just done so.

  “Can we talk about this after the funeral?” Polly asked. “I just have so much on my plate right now. Vanessa’s mom called me this morning, she wants me to speak at the funeral. Obviously, I’m going to do it. Vanessa was my best friend, and I just don’t want to deal with any more stress.”

  “Of course,” Iris said softly. “I’m sorry. I probably should have given you more space, but with the whole investigation going on, I guess I forgot that she was your best friend.”

  Polly nodded slowly. “You’re right. I just don’t know why she did that to you; it was so unlike her. Vanessa wasn’t the type to make something up, especially not get somebody fired. I’m sorry you only got to know her in such a negative way.”

  “I am too,” Iris said softly. “It’s too bad you never told her about us.”

  Polly just nodded sadly.

  “I’m going to go,” Iris said. “I’ll leave you to figure out what you’re going to say at the funeral. I’m sure whatever you come up with, it will be beautiful. You were her best friend, and I think it’s entirely appropriate that you should say something.”

  “Thank you so much for saying that,” Polly said with a smile. She leaned over and planted a kiss firmly on Iris’s lips. “Thank you for being so supportive, even though I know you didn’t like Vanessa.”

  Iris stood up with a smile, giving Polly’s hand a quick squeeze. “Absolutely. Even though I didn’t like Vanessa very much, I do love you, Polly.”

  The two women got up and made their way toward the front door, and Cat tugged at me, leading me in the direction of the front door as well. After all, with the window being as high as it had been, we definitely were not going to be able to get out of this house the same way that we came in.

  Polly said goodbye to Iris in the entrance hall, while Cat and I pressed ourselves against the wall in the corner, where it looked like it was least likely that any of the two women were going to go.

  As soon as Polly closed the door behind Iris, giving her another quick kiss before she went, I was startled to see that there were tears running down Polly’s face.

  “I wish I could tell you,” Polly started in a low voice, obviously talking to herself. “I wish I could tell you that I had told Vanessa about us, and that’s why I am so afraid of telling my family. If even my best friend didn’t understand, how are the rest of them supposed to?”

  A minute later she headed back into the house, and the sounds of food being made in the kitchen reached Cat and my ears. Figuring we were good to go, especially since Polly had mentioned none of her roommates were home right now, Cat and I slipped out through the front door and back out to the road.

  “Do you want to ride the broom back to the village?” Cat asked me and I scoffed.

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “The alternative is walking, and that’s going to take at least half an hour.”

  “Half an hour of walking is better than being dead because we fell off the broom.”

  I could practically feel Cat rolling her eyes at me. “Right. Whatever, I could use the exercise. Come on, let’s go hide behind that tree where I left the broom and we’ll make ourselves visible again.”

  Two minutes later Cat and I were walking back toward the village, discussing what we had just learned.

  “I absolutely would have never guessed that Iris and Polly were both in the closet,” Cat said.

  “Me neither,” I replied, shaking my head. “What Iris told us makes a little more sense now. She’s probably worried about being outed.”

  “Especially if Polly doesn’t want to make their relationship public yet,” Cat agreed.

  “Do you think she really would have killed her girlfriend’s best friend for making her lose her job?” I asked. Cat shook her head.

  “No, I don’t think so. Especially since, as we heard, Iris didn’t know that Vanessa knew about their relationship.”

  I had to admit, I agreed with Cat’s reasoning. Things were definitely frustrating. It seemed like the more we discovered about this case, the more questions there were.

  Chapter 15

  As we walked back toward the village, Cat and I decided to make our way straight to Frank’s post-election party–hopefully a celebratory one–rather than back to the bookshop. We made a pit stop at her car to drop off the broom, first.

  “I wonder why Vanessa still went after Iris if she knew that Polly was dating her,” Cat mused as we walked, now empty-handed, back toward the conference center.

  I shrugged. “Who knows? People are weird. Maybe she was jealous of Iris or something? Like, if Iris had shown up dead, this new information would probably put Vanessa at the top of my suspect list, but she didn’t. If anything, after today I think Iris was less likely to be the murderer. I feel like she’s just been evasive and weird to try to hide the fact that she’s in a same-sex relationship.”

  Cat nodded. “I think you’re right. Unfortunatel
y, that means the person who had been our best suspect is now one of our worst suspects.”

  I let out a long sigh. “Well, I vote we just let ourselves enjoy this party and try to forget about the case for the time being. We can try and find the murderer tomorrow, but for now, let’s just enjoy some free pizza and hope that Frank was just elected as mayor.”

  “That sounds like a good idea to me,” Cat replied. “Maybe this will be one of those moments where you stop thinking about something, and then a stroke of genius comes to you.”

  “Hey, is that Peaches?” I asked, grabbing Cat by the arm. Sure enough, as I looked closer, the woman standing in the lobby of the conference center was definitely Peaches. I would have recognized that hair anywhere.

  “Maybe she finally saw the light and is coming back to Sapphire village,” Cat said, dragging me toward her sister. “Peaches, Peaches over here!”

  Peaches turned and looked toward us; as soon as she got a glimpse of us her face lit up and she waved.

  “I was hoping the two of you were going to come here,” she said. “I heard that the election was tonight, and I figured the party would be a safe enough place with enough people around that the Others wouldn’t come to find us.”

  “Absolutely,” I nodded.

  “So does that mean you’re going to stay in Sapphire village?” Cat asked.

  Peaches shook her head. “I’m just trying it out again. I’m just not sure that I’m ready to live here permanently again, especially not knowing that those things are around.”

  “Well, at least this is a start,” I said. “But I really do agree with Cat. I think you should join us in our attempt to defeat them once and for all.”

  “We’ll see,” Peaches replied. “But for now, baby steps, ok?”

  “Sure,” I replied, shooting Cat a look. I didn’t want her to pester her sister too much. After all, I could understand where Peaches was coming from. I didn’t exactly blame her for not wanting to take on soul-sucking creatures that reminded me way too much of Dementors from Harry Potter.

  “At least there’s no chance of them being around here,” I said. “There’s got to be at least four hundred people in this place.”

  Apparently, a good chunk of Sapphire village had come out to support Frank. Hopefully that boded well for his election chances. Polls were still open for another 90 minutes or so, which made for a little bit of an interesting dynamic, as the election officials tried to keep people here to celebrate with Frank from influencing voters.

  “Hey, is that Olivia?” Cat asked, pointing to the far end of the room. Sure enough, I recognized the woman’s graying hair.

  “We need to go talk to her,” I said. Cat grabbed Peaches by the hand, and dragged her over to where Olivia was standing, by herself, sipping a small cup of water.

  As soon as she saw us, Olivia gave us a polite smile. “Why hello there, it’s so nice to see you again.”

  “You too,” I replied with a smile of my own. “Are you here to vote, or you here to celebrate with Frank?”

  “Oh, I’ve known Frank for years and years. I think he would be a wonderful mayor, and I only hope that the rest of Sapphire Village sees that as well.”

  Cat nodded enthusiastically. “We absolutely agree. Frank is a really good guy, and I’m sure he’ll make a great mayor. There is no way Denise is going to win; I just can’t allow myself to believe that.”

  “Well, you never know. Politics is an interesting game, and there are never any guarantees.”

  “That is true,” I started. “If the last few days have taught me anything, it’s never to take anything for granted.” Okay, so it wasn’t the greatest segue ever. But it would have to do. Olivia’s face crumpled.

  “Oh, I know. That poor girl. She may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but I’m sure she didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

  “We heard that you were her professor, at the community college.”

  Olivia nodded sadly. “I was, yes. The sad thing is, I didn’t even realize it at the time. After all, the new semester had only just started, and so I had only had that class two times before the night of the book club. It was only when one of the college administrators came to me and told me that one of my students had been killed that I made the connection.”

  “Oh, so you had absolutely no idea that she was your student?” Cat asked.

  “None at all.”

  Great. If Olivia hadn’t even known that Vanessa had been in her class, then there was absolutely no reason for her to have wanted her dead. There went any chance of a motive.

  “Have you heard whether or not the police have any leads as to who the murderer was?” Olivia asked. “After all, I hear that you, Alice, have a bit of an inside line on police information,” she added with a wink.

  I felt the blush creeping up my face, not being used to people actually caring about my personal life. Back in Miami, you could date whomever you wanted, and as long as it wasn’t one of the players on the Heat or the Dolphins the information certainly wouldn’t make it around town. I did my best to ignore Cat grinning at me, and cleared my throat before I answered.

  “Unfortunately, Chase takes his job very seriously. He doesn’t tell me what’s going on, especially since I’m involved in this investigation,” I lied. “I’m sure that as soon as he figures out who the murderer is, he’ll have them arrested. And he’ll find them. He’s a very good cop.”

  “That he is,” Olivia agreed. “I know when he came back and took over a lot of people were uncertain about having such a young man in charge, but he has been wonderful for the town. And frankly, how are young people supposed to get the experience they need to run things when my generation is dead and buried if they aren’t given the opportunities?”

  “He is a very good cop,” Peaches chimed in. “I definitely feel a lot safer in town having him in charge.”

  Just then, the wafting aroma of pizza crust, tomato and cheese made its way toward my nostrils. “Oooh, I think the pizzas are here,” I said with a little bit more enthusiasm than I had planned.

  Cat laughed. “That’s the most excited I’ve seen you about anything in weeks,” she said. I stuck my tongue out at her, but still said goodbye to Olivia and joined the throngs of people making their way toward the table where boxes upon boxes of fresh Pickles’ Pizza were being laid out by workers. I gave a very harried looking Michelle a quick wave, which she returned just before a stampede of people trying to get to the pizza rendered her invisible to me.

  Fifteen minutes later, Peaches, Cat, and I were happily munching away on our third slices of free pizza when I noticed that the election officials were all gone. Looking at the clock, the evening had absolutely flown by, the polling booths were closed, and it probably wouldn’t be too long now before the election winner was announced.

  A burst of applause began from somewhere at the other side of the hall, and I craned my neck to see Frank making his way toward the podium at the front of the room. It probably wouldn’t have taken him quite so long if it wasn’t for the fact that he was stopping every two seconds to shake hands with somebody, have a quick word with others, and just generally celebrate the end of a long, and hard-fought campaign.

  Cat, Peaches and I joined in on the cheering as Frank stepped up to the podium and waved to the whole crowd, a huge smile on his face. I hadn’t really noticed before, but it appeared that the election had aged him, and he definitely looked like he was the proud owner of a few new wrinkles in the last few months. I really hoped this was going to be worth it for him.

  “Thank you, thank you,” Frank said as the crowd’s cheers became even louder. “Please, I have some big news to announce, and you’re going to want to hear it.”

  My heart began to beat faster in my chest; could this be it?

  “First of all, I want to thank everybody involved in my campaign, but especially my family.” Frank went on to thank his wife, his kids, his campaign manager and a few other people who were apparently pr
etty instrumental in getting the word out. Then, after another round of applause for everybody involved, Frank held up his hands once more.

  “Just before coming up here, I received a telephone call from the woman in charge of overseeing the ballot counting. She has happily informed me that after tallying all of the votes, I have been elected the new mayor of Sapphire Village by 720 votes.”

  The sound in the room was absolutely deafening. I was surprised the windows that led outside weren’t actually trembling in their frames. I clapped and stomped my feet as I hollered along with everybody else, celebrating the win that I knew Frank deserved.

  “I’m honored and humbled to have been chosen by all of you to serve as your mayor,” Frank continued when the applause had finally died down enough for him to be heard once more. “Together, we’re going to make sure that Sapphire Village keeps its quaint village atmosphere, while also bringing it into the 21st century and ushering in a new era of prosperity.”

  Another burst of thunderous applause broke out, and I looked over at Peaches and Cat and laughed. This was definitely a good night.

  Chapter 16

  Two hours later, the party at the conference center had begun to die down, and Cat, Peaches, and I made our way back through the village to the bookshop.

  “Why don’t you stay upstairs with me?” I asked Peaches. “After all, I have the extra bedroom, and the apartment is protected from the Others. They can’t get to you as long as you’re here.”

  Peaches broke out into a smile. “Would that be okay?”

  “Of course,” I said as we got close to the door.

  “I think that’s a good idea too,” Cat added. “I’ll see you in the morning?”

  “Sure will,” I nodded. Peaches and I went into the bookshop while Cat continued down the street to get to her apartment.

  “And what, pray tell, have you spent the day doing that was so much more important than transcribing my poems?” Archibald asked, accosting me as soon as I walked through the door. Muffin, too, had immediately come to investigate what was going on.