by Kate Bell
He looked at me. “Who? And how do you know this?”
“Rudy Gallo’s daughter. Mr. Winters told me,” I said, sitting back in my chair. It was freezing in his office and I regretted putting my hair up.
“How would Mr. Winters know this?”
I shrugged. “He’s not big on details sometimes. He said he couldn’t remember who told him.”
He began twirling the pencil in his hand, deep in thought. “That could be why Rudy was so happy that Todd was dead.”
“That could be why Todd’s dead,” I added.
He slowly nodded his head. “I suppose it could be.”
“So? Good info?”
He looked at me again. “I don’t want you doing anything with this, do you understand? I need for you to stay out of this. And don’t talk to anyone about it.”
“Well,” I said slowly. “Remember, I said Lucy was with me when Mr. Winters told me. So she already knows.”
He sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. “Is anything a secret in this town?”
“Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of secrets in this town. It’s just that sometimes they leak out.”
***
“Hi, honey, it’s Mama. How are you?” I asked when Jennifer answered the phone.
“Hi, Mama, I’m fine,” she answered.
“Honey, the reason I’m calling is, I was wondering, do you know a girl from high school with the last name of Gallo?”
“Sure. There’s Trisha, Sandy, and Amy. Trisha and Sandy are sisters and cousins to Amy. Why?” she asked. I could hear water running in the background.
“Are you taking a bath?” I asked.
“Yes, I am,” she said.
“It’s dangerous having the phone in the bathtub,” I said. “Why do you insist on living dangerously like this?”
She sighed loudly. I could imagine her rolling her eyes at me. “Mom, I’m going to finish my bath. I’ll talk to you later.”
“No, no!” I said. “Which one of those girls is a cheerleader and seventeen?”
“Why do you want to know?” she asked. Kids. They never answer a question without asking a question.
“Which one?” I asked.
“Amy and Sandy are both a year behind me in school, so are probably both seventeen. But only Amy is a cheerleader.”
“Have I met her? The name sounds familiar. I know her father because of the plumbing shop, but what about her?”
“Yes, she came to the ‘80’s party I had at the roller skating rink last Halloween. She dressed like Pat Benatar.”
“Awesome, honey. Thank you!”
I hung up before she could ask me any more questions. I trotted down the hall to her bedroom and looked over her bookcase. The girl read too many romance novels. No wonder sometimes she didn’t have much sense. After another minute, I found what I was looking for. Last year’s Sandy Harbor High yearbook.
I flipped through it, looking for the junior’s section, then looked at the G’s. And there she was, alongside her cousin. Mr. Winters was right. She was very pretty. Now I vaguely remembered her as Pat Benatar. She also looked older than her age and I wondered if she played that up. Maybe she was a teenage vixen and had seduced Todd Spellman. Then I remembered how many people had said Todd was a jerk and decided he had most likely pursued her.
I flipped through the book, looking for candid shots of Amy. She was a cheerleader, so I wasn’t disappointed. She had blond hair and fine features and displayed the prerequisite cheerleader smile in each picture. Except for one. In that one, she was sitting at a table by herself, nose buried in a book. Was it my imagination, or did she look sad? Maybe it was a sad book she was reading.
I tried to imagine this little wisp of a girl breaking out every window on Todd’s house. Alec was right in that he had a lot of large windows. Even if she had a baseball bat, I doubted she could have done it on her own. If she had a boyfriend with a baseball bat, that could explain it, but I didn’t see many pictures of her with boys. Only two, and it was a different boy in each picture. They weren’t touching, so I doubted either was her boyfriend. Maybe Daddy Rudy didn’t allow his princess to date.
That could explain some things.
Chapter Sixteen
“Hi, Amy, I’m Allie McSwain. Do you remember my daughter Jennifer McSwain from last year?” I asked, holding my hand out to shake hers. The poor thing had a deer-in-the-headlights look. I may have startled her when I ran to catch up with her. Lucy had been driving us down Center Street and I saw her walking toward Fancy Pants, one of Sandy Harbor’s dress shops.
She stuck her hand out automatically, and I shook it.
“Sorry for startling you. My daughter Jennifer and I were just looking at her yearbook last night, reliving her senior year, and she saw a picture of you. She mentioned how sweet you were,” I said, thinking fast.
“She did?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“Yes, she did. She said you were the best cheerleader Sandy Harbor High has,” I said. I was laying it on thick, but I didn’t care. I needed to ask the girl some questions.
“Hey, Allie, wait up,” Lucy called, trotting through the snow covered sidewalk to catch up. Lucy had gone to park the car after letting me out.
“Oh, there’s my friend Lucy. Lucy, this is Amy, Amy, Lucy,” I said. I was aware that I probably sounded a little insane and told myself to tone it down.
“I really have to be going. My mom’s expecting me to get home as soon as I find a dress for the winter formal,” she said, heading into the shop.
“Hey, Amy, sorry again if I startled you,” I said, following her into the shop. “I wondered if I could ask you a question?”
“Sure,” she said, glancing at me. “Oh, I remember you. You were at the Halloween party last year and you brought all those cupcakes to the cheerleader meeting that one time. The little pompom frosting was cute!” she gave me a genuine smile.
“Yes, I did. I had so much fun making them,” I said. “Let’s come over here and look at these dresses.” I pointed to a rack that was close to a corner of the store. There were only two other people in the shop, but I didn’t want anyone to overhear our conversation.
“These are cute,” Lucy said, pulling a purple dress off the rack.
“I like that,” Amy said, touching the taffeta.
“Do you have a date for the dance?” I asked.
“No. My dad won’t let me date,” she said, and then looked around the shop. “But I’m meeting Brian Jones at the dance.”
I smiled. “Well, your secret’s safe with me. Listen, Amy, I have a question. Did you know Todd Spellman?”
Her face clouded over and she looked away from me. That gave me my answer.
“No,” she said, and started looking through the rack of dresses.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She turned back toward me, her face red with emotion. “He was a dirty old man!” she hissed. “He would park across from the school and watch me come out when school was over.”
“How did you meet him?” Lucy asked gently.
“He came into my dad’s shop to buy plumbing parts. I work there a few hours on Saturdays and he kept asking me questions. I didn’t really think anything of it at first. He seemed really nice. He was friendly.”
“Did you tell your dad?” I asked.
“Not at first. I didn’t even think about it. But then he started following me home and no one’s at my house in the afternoon. It scared me.”
“I don’t blame you. I would be scared too,” I said. “What did he do?”
Her face clouded over again. “I told him to go away, or I’d tell my dad. He did stop for awhile. But then he came back. One day he came to my door and asked to come in. I told him no, and he put his foot in the door so I couldn’t close it. I’ve never been so scared before.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“My dad came home. I don’t know why, he never comes home before he closes the shop. If he had been a few m
inutes later, I don’t know what might have happened,” she said. Her voice cracked when she said it and I thought I’d cry.
“What did your dad do?” Lucy asked. She had lowered her voice when the middle-aged woman working in the shop approached.
“Is there anything I can help you ladies with?” she asked. Her voice was shrill and the happiness in it sounded forced.
“No thanks, we’re just looking,” I said, sounding just as fake as she did.
“All right, let me know if I can help you with anything,” she said and wandered off.
“My dad got mad. Really mad. He asked him what he was doing there, and when Mr. Spellman said he had rung the wrong doorbell, my dad got mad. He knew he was lying. He threatened him and told him he better not ever come around me again.”
“Did he stop?” I asked.
“For awhile. But then he started again. He kept sending me friend requests on Facebook, so I blocked him. But then he made fake profiles, pretending to be girls from my school. I told my dad, and then he didn’t bother me again for about a month.”
“Wow,” I said. “I had no idea he was crazy like that.”
Tears formed in Amy’s eyes. “He tried to hurt me,” she said, her voice cracking. “I was at a football game and he was under the bleachers. I walked by on my way to the restroom, and he jumped out and grabbed me and pulled me under the bleachers.”
“Oh, my gosh, what happened?” I asked, afraid of what the answer would be.
“I fought with him. I scratched him and hit him, and then I screamed for help when he took his hand away from my mouth. Then I ran.”
“Did you tell your cheerleading coach? Or your dad?” Lucy asked.
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Oh, Amy, you shouldn’t have been afraid to tell,” I said. I could feel tears forming in my eyes and I blinked them back.
“You don’t know my dad. He can get so mad. I was afraid of what he would do,” she said, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
I put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Amy, don’t ever be afraid to tell when someone is hurting you. Please. You need to let someone know.”
She looked at the floor and didn’t answer me.
I put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “I’m going to give you my phone number. Will you call me if you ever need anything? If you just want to talk?”
She nodded, and I got a piece of paper from my purse and wrote my phone number down. “Program that into your phone. Please don’t hesitate to call me, okay?”
She nodded, but I doubted that she would. She was one of those quiet, shy girls, in spite of being a cheerleader.
I needed to talk to Alec. I would get a lecture, but he needed to know. This would explain the scratches and bruises on Todd’s face and chest. It also might explain who killed him if Amy’s dad had as bad a temper as she said he did. And I believed her.
Chapter Seventeen
I saw Alec driving down Maine Street, and I followed him. I had a hunch as to where he was going, and I was right. He pulled into a parking spot at RG Plumbing Supply, and I pulled into the parking spot next to his.
“Allie?” he said when he got out of his car.
“Hey, Alec, fancy meeting you here,” I said with a big smile. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”
He sighed loudly. “Really? It’s such a mystery to you, isn’t it?”
“Uh huh,” I said, and closed my car door. “I have a leaky faucet and I need to see if Rudy has thingamajigs to fix it.”
He shook his head at me, but he had a smile on his face.
“Hey,” I said, hurrying over to his side, and whispering. “Rudy’s daughter is a cheerleader at the high school and I happened to run in to her yesterday afternoon. Todd Spellman was a real class A creep. He had a thing for her and was stalking her. She said he grabbed her under the bleachers at a football game and they struggled. That explains the scratches and bruises on Todd’s face and neck.”
Alec leaned back against his car and thought about it. “Do you think she was capable of murdering Todd?”
“Not really. I could be wrong, but she’s a tiny little girl, and pretty timid. I always thought of cheerleaders as being self-confident, but she doesn’t seem to be. She did say that her father has a pretty nasty temper, and he knew Todd was stalking her.”
“There weren’t any police reports concerning Todd Spellman in the system. Could be her father decided to handle it on his own,” he said.
“Exactly,” I said. “But to be honest, if he did do it, I think you should let him go.”
He looked at me, wide-eyed. “What do you mean?”
I shrugged. “He did the community a favor. A teen girl stalker and all around jerk? I’m not usually in favor of murder, but good riddance.”
“I never would have expected to hear that coming out of your mouth, Allie McSwain.”
Now I felt bad. “Sorry. I guess that is horrible. But the murder has already been committed. If you said someone was going to go and murder a teen girl stalker and all around jerk, I’d say arrest the stalker and all around jerk, and save everyone the trouble. But the murder has already been committed. Does that make me a bad person?”
He shook his head. “No, I think that makes you one of millions that would feel that way. I try not to take anything criminals do, personally. It’s easier if you don’t have an opinion and just do your job and arrest the bad guy. Todd may have been a bad guy. But if Rudy Gallo killed him, so is he.”
“Okay. I’ll try not to take things personally, but it’s hard to do when you have a daughter only a year older than Amy Gallo. Jennifer is a little timid herself, and I guess I was imagining the same thing happening to her.”
“Understandable,” he said and stood up straight. “Now, why don’t you go shop for your thingamajig and I’m going to see if I can have a word with Rudy Gallo.”
I headed into the shop, and Alec stayed behind. It was good thinking. I could shop for whatever it was I was looking for and he would look like he wasn’t with me. Which, technically, he wasn’t. Maybe I would be able to overhear part of the conversation.
“Good morning, Allie,” Rudy said from one of the far aisles. He had a cart stacked with small cardboard boxes and it looked like he was putting stock away.
“Good morning, Rudy,” I called, and went down the aisle next to where he was working. The shelves were high enough that he couldn’t see me and I hoped he would forget I was in there.
“Can I help you find something,” he called.
“No, that’s okay. I think I got it,” I answered.
I heard the bell above the door tinkle and I knew Alec was here. I just hoped he got what he needed from Rudy.
“Good morning, Rudy Gallo?” I heard him say.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Rudy answered. I could hear a reserve in his voice.
“I’m Dectective Blanchard with Sandy Harbor Police Department. I need to ask you a few questions.”
“What for?” Rudy asked.
“Mr. Gallo, how well did you know Todd Spellman?”
Rudy swore under his breath. “He was a piece of trash.”
“I see,” Alec said, as calm as always. “Did you have many dealings with him?”
“As few as possible,” he answered.
It looked like Rudy wasn’t going to volunteer anything. I leaned in closer. The aisle I was in had toilet parts. The dust was thick on some of the items and I suddenly felt a sneeze coming on. I pinched my nose to stop it.
“Can you be more specific?” Alec asked. I could picture him over there with his notepad and pen in hand, calmly making his notes.
“I tried to take out a loan to buy a new house. He said he recommended that I not get the loan. I asked him why, and he said he didn’t think I should have a new house.”
“Why did he say that?” Alec asked.
“How should I know? That guy was nuts,” Rudy said.
>
“And this made you angry?” Alec asked.
“Yeah, it made me angry. Who the hell is he to say if I should have a new house? My business is the only plumbing business for miles around. Everyone comes here for plumbing parts. I do all right and I wouldn’t have a problem paying for a new house. I went over to the Wells Fargo in Bangor and got approved right away,” Rudy said bitterly.
“It seems odd that he would want business to go to some other bank in another town,” Alec observed.
“He was an idiot. I don’t know how he ever got to be bank manager,” Rudy said. “He should have been fired for the way he treated people, but you know, people like that always manage to get ahead. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Did you have any other contact with him?” Alec asked without commenting.
“Yeah. Yeah, I did. He had a thing for my little girl. I came home from work one day and he was at my door. He had his foot in it so my daughter couldn’t close it. He was a piece of work!” Rudy was getting louder. I could hear the anger in his voice and I hoped there weren’t any other people in the store. I hadn’t thought to look when I first came in.
“What did you do?”
“I told him if he ever came around my daughter again, I’d kill him!” he said angrily. “Oh. Now wait a minute. I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t you go gettin’ any ideas. That was just a figure of speech,” he said, now trying to soften what he said.
“And did you have any other encounters with him?” Alec asked as if he hadn’t heard what he said about killing Todd.
“No. I kept my distance and told my daughter to do the same. I didn’t mean it about killing him,” he said in a calm tone.
“I understand, sometimes things get heated and things are said that you don’t mean. Say, there was a rumor going around town that someone went and busted out all of Todd’s windows back in September. You didn’t hear anything about that, did you?” Alec asked.
“Wh-what? No! No, I don’t know anything about any busted windows. I never heard a thing.”
Rudy sounded flustered now, and I thought we knew who had broken Todd’s windows. I didn’t really blame him much.
