by Leona Fox
“Ida,” Mrs. Simpson said, “Ms. Barnett is one of our sisters.” She placed a hand on Sadie's shoulder.
“Oh! How do you do?” Ida held out her hand proceeded to shake, but she kept her head down and her eyes on the floor.
“Ida,” Sadie said, “do you know a boy named Curtis Beaudry?”
“No ma’am, I don’t talk to boys much. May I go now?” She shot a furtive look at Mrs. Simpson.
“Yes dear,” Mrs. Simpson said, and Ida shot up the stairs. Lucy, Betty and Sadie all shook Mrs. Simpson’s hand and headed out to the car.
“There is something seriously wrong with that girl,” Betty said.
“Maybe she’s just shy,” Lucy countered. “Some people are crippled with shyness.”
“She seemed off to me, too,” Sadie said. “But who knows?”
They headed back toward Main Street and Sadie’s shop, but as they were passing the admissions building, they saw the dean on the sidewalk. She waved them down. Sadie rolled down her window.
“I forgot to tell you,” the dean said, leaning in on Sadie’s open window. “Curtis and Professor Ives had a bit of a disagreement, which ended with Professor Ives on probation. I’d hate to think one of our professors could be involved in the death of a student, but I thought you should know.”
“What was the disagreement about?” Sadie asked.
“It was unfortunate, really. After Curtis was cleared of cheating Professor Ives was certain someone was cheating in his class and accused Curtis. Professor Ives is not always the most circumspect and he accused Curtis in front of the entire class. Curtis threatened to sue him for defamation of character and they ended up in the dean of students’ office. Professor Ives continued insisting Curtis was cheating. Curtis insisted he was not and his name had been cleared. It ended badly for Professor Ives. He could not prove anyone was cheating, and the fact he accused Curtis without proof…Well, let’s just say it was frowned upon. I thought you should know.”
Sadie thanked her and the women drove back to the shop in silence. As they turned onto Main Street, Sadie said, “Justin Ives is the biggest train wreck I’ve ever met.”
“What do you mean?” Betty asked.
“He’s up to his eyeballs in every murder case this town has ever seen. He’s never guilty of anything, except maybe abject stupidity, but how he finds himself in the middle of every mess is beyond me.”
Chapter Four
Sadie sucked in her breath as they turned the corner onto Main Street and she saw a group of cop cars parked near her shop.
“Dang it!” she said and Betty looked at her in surprise.
“What’s the matter?” Lucy asked.
“Look,” Sadie said pointing. The closer they got the clearer it was that the cops were in her shop. Oxford Ludlow was standing outside the door keeping watch.
“If they ruin anything…” Sadie left the sentence unfinished. She was too hopping mad to be coherent.
The three women got out of the car and approached Oxford Ludlow. He reached into his pocket and handed her a piece of paper, which she ignored.
“What are you doing in my shop?” she asked. Rather than wait for his reply she stepped around him and got a glimpse into the interior where a team of police officers were clearing the shelves.
“What the hell?” She started in but Ludlow grabbed her arm. Mr. Bradshaw growled and Sadie shook off Oxford’s arm and picked up the dog.
“You can’t go in there right now,” he said.
“What are you doing with my inventory?” She had to breathe deep to keep herself under control.
“Were tagging it as evidence,” Oxford said, “as well as your sorority necklace and a few other things from your apartment.”
“How can you possibly justify impounding my inventory? It’s my livelihood. It could be months before you get it back to me.”
“I’m sorry Ms. Barnett, but until we are certain the initial investigation was not botched, we will be holding these items as evidence. It’s just the items from the shelves in the aisle where Curtis Beaudry’s body was found.”
“Those are my best selling items,” Sadie said clenching her fists.
Lucy and Betty flanked her, peering into the shop. They saw a policewoman come out of the stairwell that led to the apartment. She had her hands full of evidence bags.
“That’s my favorite scarf,” Sadie wailed and Betty gave her a big hug.
“It’ll be okay, hon. I’m sure they will not keep it long,” she said.
“What is going on here?” Zack’s voice came from behind them.
“You’ve been asked not to interfere with this investigation, Chief Woodstone,” Oxford said. “I suggest you turn and walk away.”
“I suggest your idiotic preoccupation with Sadie is causing you to mismanage this case,” Zack said to Oxford.
“And impounding her inventory borders on criminal. You are negatively impacting her income.”
“If she’s innocent,” Oxford said, “we will return her belongings in a reasonable amount of time. If she’s not, she won’t need the income.”
“They have my favorite scarf,” Sadie whispered to Zack. “Why does he need my scarf?”
“Sadie, I think you should lodge a complaint,” Zack said. “This is harassment.”
“What?” Oxford was outraged. “If you hadn’t assumed your girlfriend wasn’t a murderer we wouldn’t have to be doing this now.”
“I didn’t assume she wasn’t a murderer, I knew it. And we did a very thorough job, there just wasn’t anything here.”
“A hundred dollars says I find something you missed,” Oxford said. “Or are you just blowing smoke?”
Sadie wasn’t sure that metaphor made sense, but it didn’t seem to bother Zack.
“You’re on,” he said. “And I want it in cash.”
“Better go to the bank, Woodstone, because you are going to owe me.” Oxford smiled and it made Sadie’s blood run cold.
“I pulled the things you asked for.” The woman who’d exited from the staircase handed a cardboard box full of evidence bags to Oxford.
“Do you need anything else?” She looked guiltily at Zack.
“Thank you, Officer Wilson,” he said and put the box at his feet.
He turned to Sadie. “Don’t worry, everything is being documented. If you turn out to be innocent, it all will come back to you.”
“Who is doing the documenting?” Sadie asked.
“How do I know my inventory isn’t leaving without anyone knowing what is in those boxes?” She gestured to the stacks of boxes growing by the door.
“You can be assured we are following proper procedure,” Oxford said frostily.
“None of these items will go astray.” Sadie turned and looked at Zack questioningly.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll keep my eye on them.”
“You shouldn’t even be here,” Oxford said. “You can be arrested for interfering.”
“Go ahead, if you want to shoot yourself in the foot. I was trying to help.” Zack turned on his heel and left.
Sadie felt bereft. She was hoping he would stay and give her moral support. Eventually, the boxes were cleared from the shop and the officers filed out.
“You may go in,” Oxford said. “I’m tempted to leave an officer to keep an eye you, but I won’t. You’re too smart to let anything slip in front of them anyway.”
Sadie, Betty, and Lucy stepped into the shop. The last officer out had flicked off the lights so Betty stepped over and turned them on. Sadie fought back the urge to cry. Not only was an entire aisle bare, but there was also debris from their packing job left on the floor. Bits of paper and tape and bubble wrap lay scattered throughout the shop.
And it looked as though every item had been picked up and turned over and moved. Many things were on the floor instead of on the shelf.
“What were they doing here?” Sadie asked. “It’s like they were scouring the place for nonexistent clues.”
“But why? We were friends when we parted. He told Zack he should snap me up. And now it’s like I’m some sort of, I don’t know, criminal.” She seized upon the word. “Criminal. Someone is trying to frame me for murder. Now that really is criminal.”
“Go on upstairs,” Betty said, “and I’ll go next door and get some coffee. This mess can wait until tomorrow.”
Then she saw the upstairs was even worse. Her clothes had been pulled from her closet and drawers and dumped on the bed.
“I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t just toss everything on the floor,” Sadie said and went to work putting things away.
In the kitchen, all the drawers had been turned out onto the counter. All the cupboards had been searched. And in the living room, all the books had been taken from the bookcases.
Sadie surveyed the mess and gave up cleaning. She scooped the CDs and DVDs out of her favorite chair and set them on the coffee table. She sat, slipped her feet out of her shoes and pulled them up underneath her, curling into the chair. Lucy sat on the couch opposite her and a moment later the door opened and Betty came in with coffee.
She set the cups on the coffee table next to the DVDs and looked around. “Oh my,” she said. “What have they been doing up here?”
“Searching for incriminating evidence, apparently. I don’t know what I did to piss off Oxford, but he certainly has it in for me.” Sadie put her forehead on her knees.
“Maybe his boss thinks he got it wrong last time, that you pulled the wool over his eyes, and now Oxford has to prove he didn’t play favorites last time,” Lucy reasoned.
“Maybe he feels like a fool, and that’s why he’s behaving like… I’m sorry, there’s no other word for it, he’s behaving like a bastard.”
“Or a man who feels he’s been played,” Betty said.
“But I didn’t play him,” Sadie wailed.
“And I haven’t killed anyone. And meanwhile, the heinous creature who killed Curtis is getting away scot free.” She slammed her hand down on the arm of the chair.
“And why did they take my necklace? What possible good could it do them?”
“I think he’s just trying to rattle you,” Betty said. “To show that he has the upper hand.”
Lucy sat bolt upright on the couch. “I totally forgot I have a trunk party tonight! I’m going to be late.” She jumped up and headed for the door.
“Can we help you get ready?” Sadie asked. “We could pack things up for you.”
“No,” Lucy said. “It’s okay. I’m all packed. I just need to get there. See you later.” She clattered down the stairs.
Betty looked at Sadie. “Well then,” she said, “that leaves you and me to go talk to Professor Ives.”
So rather than clean up the depressing mess in her apartment, Sadie and Betty took Mr. B to the park for a walk before loading him into the car for the ride back to the college. They found Justin Ives locked in his office and had to pound on the door before he would let them in.
“What are you doing locked up in your office?” Sadie asked when he had let them in and cleared places for them to sit. Mr. B put his paws on Justin’s knees and was rewarded with a scratch behind the ears.
“Word’s out that I’m on probation,” Justin said. “And I don’t feel like dealing with gawking students. I don’t know which is worse, the young women who feel sorry for me, or the younger men who feel contempt. I’m thinking of quitting.”
“And what would quitting do for you?” Betty asked.
“It would get me away from an administration that can’t be bothered to support me,” he snapped. “I can’t believe they came down on the side of that little cheater.”
“That ‘little cheater’ is dead,” Sadie snapped. “And he happened to be a friend of mine. So have a little respect.”
“You know him?” Justin sounded surprised.
“Wait. What did you say? He’s dead?” He dropped his head into his hands. “Oh my God. Why does this always happen to me?”
“It didn’t happen to you,” Sadie said. “It happened to him. And at the moment, I am the main suspect. But once they figure out I didn’t do it, they might get around to you.”
“People aren’t killed for cheating,” Justin said. “You probably think he’s innocent.”
“I do,” Sadie said.
“And Betty does too, don’t you Betty?” Betty nodded her head solemnly.
“The thing is, Justin,” Sadie said, “I think Curtis was framed for cheating. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how, but I do know I’m being framed for murder. To me, one thing follows the other.”
“But how do you know he wasn’t a cheater?” Justin asked.
“For one thing, I’ve known him since he was a freshman in high school. He’s worked for me every summer and every school holiday in the last six years. You get to know a person’s character when you work with them for that kind of time. But besides that, the college conducted an intense investigation, and they found Curtis innocent of cheating. And it wasn’t just that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. They found nothing to indicate he was involved in the cheating scandal.”
“So you’re convinced I’m wrong?” Justin looked depressed.
“And that means I accused an innocent student of cheating in front of all his peers. And now he’s dead. I will have to quit my job.”
“Justin,” Sadie said, exasperated, “this is not about you. It’s about finding the person who killed Curtis. I want you to keep your eyes open and let me know if you see anything unusual.”
“I guess I can do that,” Justin said.
“Also, did you have a girl in your class who just stopped showing up?” Sadie asked.
“That’s not unusual,” Justin said. “Kids withdraw all the time.”
“She didn’t withdraw. She just stopped showing up,” Sadie said.
“That happens, too. It’s really not that unusual,” he said.
“But this girl was an enthusiastic student,” Betty said. “She had a four point zero GPA.”
“Eliza?” Justin looked interested. “I thought she was ill and had gone home. I can’t see her dropping out of school.”
“That’s what we are going to find out,” Sadie said. “Why would Eliza slip off home without telling anyone when she was doing so well?”
Sadie and Betty went to the Admissions Building, but it was closed. They went back to the sorority house to talk to the sorority mother, but she couldn’t give them Eliza’s home address. It was against policy. Sadie called Zack. He couldn’t interfere with the investigation, but as Oxford wasn’t investigating the disappearance of a co-ed, there shouldn’t be a problem. Right?
Luckily, Zack agreed and he arrived at her apartment later that evening carrying a slip of paper.
“This is for you,” he said.
“But before you use it, please tell me why you need it. Or, actually, what you are going to do with it?” He crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to look stern.
“When I was talking to the house mother at my sorority she mentioned a girl had packed up in the night and gone home. She didn’t say goodbye to any of her sorority sisters, or her sorority mother, with whom she had a fairly close relationship. It seemed unusual. When I asked at admissions, they didn’t know anything about it. And Justin Ives said he heard she was ill and went home. He was surprised to hear she may have just quit. She said it wasn’t like her.”
“So you are contacting her to find out what went on?” Zack asked.
“I wondered if she’d been involved in the cheating scandal, or somehow affected by it. And had gone home rather than admit she’d been involved. Not that I would ask that,” Sadie said.
“I was going to ask why she went home, and if she’d known Curtis, or that other girl, Ida.”
“Do yo
u mind if I listen in?” Zack asked, smiling.
“Not at all, Chief,” she said returning his smile.
But the call didn’t go as planned. When Sadie asked for Eliza, her mother said she was away at college. When Sadie asked if she meant the Seagrove College, Eliza’s mother said yes, of course, what other college would her daughter be attending? In the end, Sadie handed the phone over to Zack who explained to the woman that her daughter had gone missing from her sorority house and the assumption was she’d gone home.
