Lisa Djahed - Bee Stanis 01- The Foolish Stepmom

by Lisa Djahed

  “Ray, what’s going on?”

  “I think there is something up with Pam. And maybe Bev too and I need your help sorting through it. I thought, given your perspective and relationship with Jesse you would know more than I would.”

  “Sure thing, I’ll do what I can. What’s been going on?”

  “As you know I spent a few days off the radar. I didn’t want to tell Bev too much, but I was following Pam, have been following her. Plus I went up to see Jesse.” ·

  “YOU saw Jesse” Ben’s surprise was equal to mine as I let a plate slip into the sink.

  “Yeah, I went to see the kid. I needed to know some things.

  Some things about Pam and some things about Bev. And how they know each other. And he told me some interesting things. Things that are important that he doesn’t even know he knows.”

  “You are talking in riddles. Back up a bit, I’m not following.” Ben was clearly having as much trouble as I was following where Ray was headed.

  “Jesse said that Pam and Drew were breaking up. That Pam had been to see Drew that afternoon and that they had argued, in fact had argued that whole weekend.”

  “He also said that Bev had been seeing Drew. I mean, not seeing, like dating, but seeing him still, from time to time. See things haven’t been that good with Bev and I. I think Jesse was all too glad to tell me that part of it.” Even from a distance I could hear the slight hurt in Ray’s voice at that one. When it comes to being inadvertently or even directly hurt by teen anger, you get attuned to picking it up in others.

  “What are you trying to say Ray? That you think Bev had something to do with Drew’s death?” Ben sounded skeptical. As was I. Why would Ray go out of his way, driving up to see Jesse, someone he clearly didn’t like, to get information on his own girlfriend?

  “No, I don’t think that, but I do think Bev knows more than she

  is telling me, and this is where I need your help. I want your wife to take Bev out shopping or something. I want her to grill, in a not so obvious way, Bev about Pam. I think Pam is hiding something and I think Bev knows what that something is.”

  “I need to ask you something Ray, before I agree to talk to my wife, why is this under your skin, what’s in this for you?”

  “Well, I don’t like Pam, I don’t like what happened to Drew, and let’s just say that it is in my best interest to figure out what really happened and leave it at that, okay?” Was that a hint about his past, of which, thanks to my sleuth husband, we were more than well aware. Or was there something more sinister behind his words.

  It was getting harder and harder to tell who were the bad guys and who were the good.

  Chapter Fourteen

  As wives do for their husbands, I obeyed my edict and scheduled a Saturday afternoon trip to the mall with Bev. Macy’s was having a sale and Yaz was over at a friends and it seemed like a good enough time to “find out” what I could about Bev and Pam. Although, I have to admit, having an assignment made my face burn. It was like the whole time I’d be thinking how can I bring this up, I have to bring this up. Hanging out with perfectly coifed Pam was going to be trial enough. Plus that and the guilt that I felt about not bringing her up to see Jesse was enough to keep my head all a-buzz. Both Ben and I decided that we would go see Jesse together on Sunday and so two trips in two days seemed a bit much, even to me.

  I picked her up and my awkward afternoon started.

  “Hey Bev, how are you, don’t you look nice.” She had decked herself out in tighter than tight jeans, a brown-puke-green daisy top that was both too tight and too revealing. But the effect, rather than over the top tacky, actually made her quite sexy. I envied her ability to flash her skin and reveal her curves. My curves tended to be too curvy and needed to stay a bit hidden. I tended to love the high-waisted tops that were in fashion, they hid my expanding waist line while highlighting my assets up top.

  “Oh my gawd, thank you so much for taking me, it is so nice to get out of the house and Macy’s I just love Macy’s I get all my nightgowns there, well, there and Victoria’s secret, do you get to Victoria’s secret much?” And thus my afternoon with Mrs. Hussy began. It continued pretty much the same way with her babbling and me

  nodding until we worked our way to the fragrance counter at Macy’s when she brought it up.

  “Oh, this is Pam’s scent.”

  I figured this was as good an opening as I was going to get. “How well do you know Pam?”

  “Oh, I’ve known her for ages, we used to hang out together at Crossroads back in the day, but then she found God and I had kids and we stopped all that, but then Iran into her after I left Drew and she was single too and had that place and so I was actually the one to urge her to see Drew you know.”

  For a short speech, there was a lot packed in there. I have to say my jaw must have been dropped the whole time. I hadn’t realized that they had been life long friends or at least acquaintances.

  “So you fixed Drew and Pam up?” I asked, a bit incredulously.

  “Well, it wasn’t like that, I was just trying to get Drew off my back and Pam said she’d help and they went out a few times and she got a kick out of him like I knew she would and that was that.”

  “And you were ok with them seeing each other?” Thinking my gosh we are different, I would never want my ex anywhere near any of my friends.

  “Well, at first I thought it was a hoot but then it got weird because I’d go over and see Drew, to talk, you know, when Ray and I were not doing good, and Pam would get upset, that’s how it started to get weird.”

  I could only imagine that it would cause tension, hanging out with your friend’s boyfriend who was actually your own ex-husband. Oh vey. Complication upon complication.

  “How are things with Ray?” I asked curiously. Wanting to know. “Things are only ok.”

  And with that she wouldn’t elaborate anymore on her situation with Ray and we moved onto Estee Lauder’s makeup counter (they have the only foundation that stays on all day) and I relaxed for the first time all afternoon being that my ‘assignment’ was complete. Or as complete as I could do. I’m sure my sleuth husband would have done better, but I at least figured out how and to what extent Pam and Bev knew each

  other.

  We discussed all of this the next day as Ben and I made our way up to see Jesse.

  “What do you think Ray was hinting at honey?” I asked. Both of us were still perplexed by Ray’s involvement in trying to solve Drew’s murder. He clearly did not like Jesse, and yet had taken the time to go see him. In our book, Ray was one of the people who stood most to gain by Drew’s death, being that Bev would get the majority of Drew’s estate and thus Ray by osmosis. And the more I hung out with Bev, the more she dropped on the list, she was just too dumb to think of anything original.

  “I dunno, there’s something fishy there.”

  As we pulled into the visitor’s trailor at Sharp’s we saw Taylor and Taylor’s mom up ahead of us. Oh great, we’ll have to wait, is all I thought. The truth was, I had totally forgotten about Taylor and her mom and Taylor’s impending belly-explosion. I don’t even think I remembered to tell Bev she was going to be a grandmother. Dang. How could I have forgotten that, just to see the look on her botoxed face would have been worth the price of admission. I could have called her “grandma” all afternoon. What was I thinking? As I stood there kicking myself for a perfectly missed opportunity, Taylor’s mom approached us.

  “Jesse doesn’t want to see you so you both can just turn around go back home.” Mrs. Fluffometer said all huffily.

  “What, what are you talking about?” Ben said in a very agitated voice.

  “We told Jesse that you’ve had the cops after us, and we know it was you” she said with her eyes getting smaller “and he wants nothing to do with RATS.” Mrs. Fluffometer nearly spat the last sentence at us.

  “Oh my god, that’s ridiculous. Honey, we’re going in.” I started to usher my husband in just as Mrs. Fluffomet
er put her body in between the door and us.

  “This is ridiculous.” I went to side step Mrs. Fluffometer but she blocked me on the left and on the right, it wasn’t hard for her since her girth was well, so girthy.

  “Step out of our way.” Ben said in his most authoritative voice. “Is there a problem here?” said a very tall, very large security guard.

  “No officer, no problem, we were just going in.” I said, carefully sidestepping Mrs. Fluffometer.

  “What was that about?” I whispered to Ben as we were shown to the visitor’s pen.

  Jesse was called to the box and he seemed much more down than previously.

  “Why have you guys been talking to the cops?”

  “Jess, we haven’t, just one, who is helping, he’s a good guy Jess, I don’t know what Taylor’s mom told you, but we met with this guy once, off duty and he wants to help catch whoever did this.”

  Jesse looked thoughtfully away for a while before he answered. “It is okay, Taylor’s mom said you guys sent the cops after them and I thought you did and that you were helping make a case against me.”

  “Jess,” I pleaded. “If anything, we’re the good guys, we are trying as hard as we can to help figure this thing out and to help you, you have to believe us.”

  The majority of our remaining time with Jess was spent on trying to bolster his morale, us telling him it will all be ok, when in truth I wasn’t sure if it would be, if it ever would be. Would he father his kid from prison? Would he be convicted? It was so disheartening, I nearly forgot to be angry at Mrs. Fluffometer and her baby making daughter.

  “How dare they lie to Jess like that?” is what I said to Ben as soon as we were back in the car.

  “I came nearly close to be thrown in for assault on an elephant, ” Ben chuckled at his own joke. I couldn’t help but smile. I know my Ben would never hit a woman, but surely Mrs. Fluffometer didn’t count, did she?

  Luckily our routine won out over the brouhaha that had been the last few weeks and the next few days (without Jules in the house) were the most peaceful and restful and simple days we had had in a long time. Dinnertime was quite, porch time, peaceful, mornings, a breeze. I felt guilty for saying it, but having a vacation from Jules and from our mystery-hunting felt quite refreshing. It lasted all the way until Wednesday afternoon when we were confronted by the most unlikely of duos.

  Standing at our front door, with Bear barking up a storm, was Officer Krumpke and Ray. Together. Now that was a strange pairing.

  “Officer Nunez, Ray, come on in.” Said Ben in the most pleasant of voices. I struggled with Bear to contain him enough to get him into the bedroom. As we showed them to the back porch, Ben gave me a look that said “WHAT?” Just what I was thinking myself.

  “What can we do for you?” Ben asked first.

  “Can I get you anything, tea, a beer?” Ray indicated he would indeed take a beer and I poured tea for Officer Krumpke.

  “Well, we have some interesting developments.” Officer Krumpke started out.

  “A few days ago, Ray came forward to me and confessed some things and we’ve been kind of working together ever since.”

  Sounded intriguing, I thought. I could see Ben raise his eyebrows in probably the same thought.

  “Ray broke into Pam’s house and stole a bottle. A prescription bottle. It was a prescription bottle of sleeping pills.”

  Gulp. I thought, I knew exactly where that prescription bottle was at this very minute. In my top drawer.

  “What most people don’t know, and what I’ve shared with Ray and now with you two is that Drew didn’t take the sleeping pills himself that afternoon, they were crushed up and ingested along with some food.”

  Officer Krumpke let that one sink in a bit as both Ben and I looked at each other.

  “If we could locate that bottle, Ray has agreed to testify that it he stole it from Pam’s.”

  “Excuse us for a moment.” I thought Ben was going to ask me to leave the porch but he beckoned to Ray.

  As Ray and Ben went inside, and amidst the jumbles in my own stomach, I tried to make small talk with Officer Krumpke. But luckily Bear came running out and started barking at him. Thank goodness for loud little animals some times. I had quite a time getting him under control and was able to usher him into Yaz’s room to keep her company. As I made my way out, I saw Ray and Officer Krumpke speaking in the corner of the porch and Ben was urging me to be quiet with his eyes.

  “I want to thank both of you for your hospitality but we really must be on our way, there’s something or someone we need to check on.” And with that Officer Krumpke and Ray headed out the door.

  I was left reeling. “What did you do?” Knowing exactly what my husband had done.

  “I gave Ray the bottle and told him where we had gotten it.” “What? How did he take it?”

  “He was fine with it, he seemed to know.”

  Lordy-loo, I thought. How did Ray know that we had that bottle,

  had he seen us that day, did he see me getting my DUI and decided to wait and see what happened? Why was he now working with Officer Krumpke and what were they working on together.

  That night in bed neither Ben nor I said much we just held each other and held our dog. The effect of the last two weeks was getting to both of us. Our promise to help Jesse was starting to be too high a price to pay when it interfered with our own safety and security. If someone was threatening us with dead fishes, there were two breakins next door, with two injuries, how much more was it going to take for us to see that this was getting too close for comfort. Ben did say he was going to beef up our own security system. We had the option of having every window and door alarmed at night and we hadn’t yet chosen to use that option but I wanted it, I wanted the most security we could get. From time to time Ben even talked about putting in a video surveillance system. It was expensive but not as expensive as you might think. And it would be worth it, if it helped us feel more safe. We fell asleep in each other’s arms thinking of such things.

  That next day, Thursday, was Jules return to our happy home. I was due to pick her up from school and I was determined to be sickly sweet. Sickly sweet, no matter what vile thing she threw at me. And why was I convinced that she would? It was part of my problem, one that I would have work on, I needed to expect decent things from her and work on my own troubling level of discontent with her. At least that was my homework from my therapist.

  “Hey Jules, you look nice, how are you?”

  “Fine.”

  Well there goes my best effort, I thought. The rest of the night seemed fine, Jules pouted here and there but I paid extra attention to Yaz and just let it slip off my back. Like water on a duck’s butt.

  Luckily the next day was quiet too. But Saturday was spent with my strong husband installing our brand new video surveillance system. He went right out on Saturday morning to Best Buy and came home with it, as a surprise and present for me. He was always doing that, he loved bringing home little surprises for me. As long as I could be happy with a steam cleaner and various hardware, it was always a happy surprise. We ended up with the Lorex Edge System that gave us both remote computer access (meaning we could log into it from work) and in-home surveillance. It was top of the line and I danced around him as he installed it, clapping my hands and cheering on my all too protective husband.

  Little did we know just how essential our new system would become.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Coffee. Is. Brilliant. Coffee, when you need it, like I do in the early morning, is such an essential thing, I couldn’t begin my day without it, and literally can’t talk some mornings without my first cup. I kind of mumble my way through various good mornings until I feel that sweet, warm brew work it is way through my veins.

  It was one of those mornings. With the new alarm system in place, plus our new surveillance system, Ben bounded out of bed like a kid in a candy store, he had all sorts of new toys to play with. We had adjusted one of the cameras to poin
t at Drew’s house to see if we could catch anyone trying to break in again and there were the nights tapes to review. Ben was all about checking out his new toy. Me. I wanted coffee.

  “Honey, come here, look,” I heard him yell out from the computer room. It was much too early for any sort of human-like interaction. I mumbled and took myself and my coffee cup into the room to see what he had seen.

  “See this, at 2:30 last night, you can see a car drive up slow across from Drew’s house, does that look like a white car to you?” It was hard to tell, since our surveillance system only recorded in black and white, and this was kind of a muted light grey. It was hard to see in the first place, plus add the non-color of the black and white and it made it extra grainy.

  “I dunno honey.” Is all Iwas able to muster. “You know what we need to do, right?”

  I couldn’t begin to imagine.

  “We need to catch this guy.” Uggh. My heart dropped at that one. I knew Ben was all jazzed up, with his new high tech equipment, but staying up all night, especially in the fog of my lazy morning, he’d definitely have a hard time convincing me this was necessary.

  “Can’t we just call Officer Krumpke, I mean Nunez?” “Maybe” is all he would agree to.

  Luckily my coffee had kicked in by the time I got to work and I was able to finish the projects I needed to, while spending time “checking” on our home via the internet. I have to admit, logging on to your surveillance system via my work was a hoot. I could get used to this.

  I was happily preparing dinner in the kitchen when Ben surprised me, again. This time I wasn’t too happy with his surprise. It was Ray and Bev.

  What is it with this Ray anyhow?

  “Honey, look who I’ve invited over.” It was a statement, not a question. As in, couldn’t he have asked me if I wanted these two over for dinner. But it turns out, dinner was the last item on the agenda for the night.