by Jeff Shelby
“We haven’t even started yet,” she practically hissed.
A wave of embarrassment washed over me. Vivian had told me what she was going to do at the meeting: ask Sophia for the password to the bank account. If I’d been smart, I would have waited at home for her to call me. I knew she would; if there was anything I could count on, it was phone calls from the ladies in this town.
But instead, I’d decided to head on over myself, to see what I was missing. This was me being nosy taken to a brand new level.
I didn’t much care for it.
Someone cleared their throat behind me.
I swiveled and saw Sophia standing behind me. She looked as fragile and as delicate as a flower. Her blonde hair was piled into a loose chignon, and her slender body was swallowed up by a voluminous red swing coat. Her skin looked pale, especially with the splash of red lipstick on her lips.
She offered me a weak smile. “Are you coming to the meeting, too?”
Vivian answered for me. “No.”
I shuffled my feet, feeling incredibly out of place. “I was just leaving.”
A frown marred her pretty features. “Could you stay? Or do you have somewhere you need to be?”
“Sophia, this is a society meeting,” Vivian began, but her friend interrupted her.
“Friends are always welcome at our events,” she said. “Remember?”
“This is an emergency meeting.”
“I don’t believe we’ve ever had an emergency meeting before,” Sophia said slowly. “And I’m pretty sure we don’t have a specific set of rules for that type of meeting; at least no rules that are currently in place. Am I right?”
Vivian said nothing, just nodded her agreement.
“I would like for Rainy to be my guest tonight,” she said, looking expectantly at me. Her voice was firm, and I quickly reassessed her. There was nothing fragile or delicate about the woman standing in front of me. Nothing at all. “Are you game?”
I hesitated. Vivian clearly had reservations about me being there, and I wanted to be respectful of that.
But I also felt obligated to stay for Sophia’s sake. As much as I felt I’d turned a corner during my conversation with Vivian that afternoon, something still niggled at the back of my mind. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.
“Sure, I’ll stay,” I said, averting my eyes so I didn’t have to see Vivian’s reaction.
I didn’t need to. She let out an audible sigh before swinging the door open and allowing us entry.
“What time does the meeting start?” I asked, glancing at the time displayed on my phone.
“Seven o’clock.”
“It’s ten minutes ‘til,” I said.
Vivian nodded. “Yes, but everyone arrives to these things early.” She said this as if it were common knowledge, something I should have known. I filed it away for future reference.
Vivian’s living room was packed with women. Elena and Savannah were already there, along with a few other women I recognized but didn’t know. This always surprised me. Latney felt like a small town, and it was, but there were still people who were new to me.
“Let me take your coats,” Vivian said, holding out her hand. “The coat closet is full but I can put yours in the kitchen.”
I shrugged out of mine as Sophia and I followed her down the hall. There were a couple of coats draped over the chairs surrounding her kitchen table, and she hung mine over one not already in use. She did the same with Sophia’s.
“You can leave your purse here, too,” she said, motioning to the pile of bags on the table. “And your phone.”
“Excuse me?”
She smiled. “Society rules. No distractions while in meetings. Each member is allowed a pen and a pad of paper. Everything else has to be put away.”
“But I’m not a member,” I reminded her.
“It doesn’t matter. Rules are rules. We want people to be focused on the meeting, not on texts or Facebook.”
It sounded a little bit like a junior high rule, but then again, an all-girls society sort of sounded like that, too. I dumped my purse on the table along with all the others, and followed her back to the living room. Sophia did the same.
I stopped in my tracks, halfway between the kitchen and the living room.
Sophia bumped into me, pushing me forward a few steps.
“Ouch!” I turned around in time to see her rubbing her ankle. “What are you doing?” she asked, irritated.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
Vivian had continued walking, unaware that we’d stopped.
I leaned close to Sophia’s ear and lowered my voice to a whisper. “Do you always leave your purses in there?”
Sophia’s brow furrowed. “There, or on the side table in the living room. It just depends how many people are at a meeting. Why?”
I stared at her. “Don’t you get it?”
She cocked her head, clearly not getting it. “Get what?”
“The purses.” I paused. “Your purse.”
She quirked a brow. “What are you talking about?”
For a woman who ran her own business, she was remarkably dense. “Sophia. Your purse is unattended.”
“So?”
I sighed. “So you do this at every meeting, right?”
She nodded.
“And the society checkbook is in your purse, correct?”
“Yes. And so is my personal checkbook. Really, Rainy, I don’t see wh—” Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened. She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my gosh.” Her voice was muffled. Slowly, she pulled her hand away. Her lipstick, I noticed, still looked perfect. “Do you think someone…?”
I cut her off. “I don’t know.”
It was the truth. I really didn’t know if someone at a prior meeting had stolen the checkbook from her purse.
But I did know one thing.
It felt like the biggest breakthrough yet.
THIRTY FIVE
“I call this meeting to order at seven-oh-one pm.”
Savannah slapped her hand against the coffee table, using it as the gavel to bring the meeting to order.
She cleared her throat. “This is an emergency meeting of the Latney Ladies Society,” she announced.
Her announcement was met with silence. There were eight women gathered in Vivian’s living room. She’d brought in chairs from her formal dining room and Sophia and I sat next to each other in the last remaining open ones. Savannah was ruling the meeting from her spot on one of the couches. She was flanked by Elena and another younger woman I didn’t know. Vivian sat on the other floral couch, squashed in between a gray-haired woman I’d seen at St. Simon’s—Cora, if memory served correctly—and Becky, a woman I’d met once before. Her dark hair, once cut short, had grown to her chin and was styled in a fashionable bob. She shot me a curious look and gave me a somewhat frosty smile.
Savannah’s gaze landed on me. “It looks like we have a guest in attendance.” Her tone was flat. “Does everyone here know Rainy Day?”
There were murmurs and nods, and a few cursory smiles. I tried not to shrink in my chair.
“Normally, I would discourage guests at this type of meeting,” Savannah said. “But I think, under the circumstances, she is the perfect person to have here.”
Becky raised her hand and Savannah gestured for her to speak.
“I’m just curious…why are you leading tonight’s meeting? Doesn’t that fall to the president?”
Savannah scanned the room. “I don’t see Megan here tonight.”
Megan. The name sounded vaguely familiar.
Becky’s cheeks colored. “She’s out of town, remember? Her brother is getting married this weekend in Cancun.”
“Oh, right.”
“So, since she’s out of town, the vice president usually leads the meetings,” Becky continued. “And, well, I’m the vice president…”
Savannah gave her a pointed look. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want to lead the meeting?�
� She gestured for Becky to stand up. “Great. It’s about the missing money.”
Becky blanched. “Uh, I thought we were going over last-minute details about the festival.”
“Oh, we will be.” Savannah narrowed her eyes and scanned the crowd of ladies surrounding her. “But we need to talk about the money first. You all know about the missing money, right? The money that was stolen from our organization? By one of our own members?”
Titters and nervous chatter filled the room.
Savannah slapped her hand against the coffee table again. “Come on up, Becky. Feel free to take over.”
Becky leaned back against the couch cushion, as if she might somehow be able to Velcro herself against the fabric. “Oh…” she stammered, her cheeks turning scarlet. “I…maybe it’s best if you go ahead.”
Savannah smiled. “Are you sure? I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes here.”
Becky waved her hand. “No, no. Go ahead.”
Savannah upped the wattage of her smile before making it disappear altogether. “We are gathered here tonight to discuss the money that was stolen from the Latney Ladies Society. For those of you who don’t know, three thousand dollars, the entire savings of our organization, was stolen late last week.”
A collective gasp filled the room and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. There was no way these women had been kept in the dark about this; half of them absolutely knew—Vivian, Sophia, Savannah and Elena—and I didn’t think all four of them would have kept this information to themselves.
“Now, as you know, the money was taken in the form of a check. A LLS check that was cashed in Richmond last Friday.” She waited a beat, making eye contact with every woman in the room. “A check signed by Sophia Rey. A check written out to Sophia Rey.”
This announcement was met with silence.
Sophia sucked in a breath and I stole a glance in her direction. Her arms were crossed, her hands fisted into her shirtsleeves. I felt a pang of sympathy for her and a swell of anger toward Savannah. She didn’t need to perform these theatrics, especially since there was very little hard evidence that Sophia was truly the culprit.
“Now hold on.”
I looked up in surprise.
Vivian was standing, her hands on her hips.
Savannah glared at her. “What?”
“We don’t know what happened to the money.”
Savannah’s laugh was incredulous. “What in the world are you talking about? We know she made out the check to herself and then cashed it. How much clearer does it get? What we need to decide tonight is what we’re going to do about it.”
“I think you’re jumping the gun,” Vivian began, but Savannah cut her off.
“Responding to a crime in our organization is not jumping the gun,” she said. She glanced at the crowd of women in the living room for support. “We need to make sure we deal with this now, that we respond in an appropriate way so that our reputation as an organization is not sullied in any way. Now, Rainy has generously loaned us money so that we can go on with our Fall Festival, and for that we owe her our gratitude. But we must stand firm in our response to what put us in that situation in the first place. We must deal with the perpetrator of this crime to ensure that this never happens again.”
“Am I allowed to defend myself?” Sophia asked. Her voice was soft but firm, and I felt my heart swell with emotion.
Savannah looked at her. “What could you possibly say in your defense? The evidence points to you, Sophia, and only you.”
“Stop being so dramatic, Savannah,” Vivian snapped. “This isn't an episode of Law & Order.” She turned her gaze to Sophia. “Yes, Sophia. You can say anything you need to.”
Savannah frowned, but kept her mouth shut.
“I didn’t take the money,” Sophia said calmly. “But I am willing to reimburse the society the entire amount that was stolen, and will, in fact, double it to show my dedication and commitment to our organization.”
Another collective gasp filled the room.
I turned to look at her. “But you don’t have—” I whispered, but she shook her head.
“I’ll get it,” she murmured. “I’ll talk to Walter. I’m sure we can figure out…an arrangement.”
I swallowed. An arrangement.
A baby.
“Six thousand dollars?” Elena asked. Her eyebrows had disappeared above her hairline. “You’d donate six thousand dollars? That’s an awful lot of money.”
“It is,” Sophia admitted. “But that’s how much this group means to me. Ladies first, remember? I want you all to know how much I value you, and the work we do together. If that means I need to do something to prove my love and loyalty to our organization, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Savannah gave her an incredulous look. “So, what?” she said, raising her voice so she could be heard above the whispers and murmurs. “You think you can buy your position in this group? You think you can do something wrong and then simply bribe us into bringing you back into the fold?” She gave each of us a pointed look. “Can we be bought, ladies? And if we can, what’s our asking price? Are we really ready to sell ourselves to the highest bidder?”
“I’m not trying to buy anyone!” Sophia cried. “I…I just want you to believe me. I didn’t steal the money. I swear I didn’t!”
“I think you doth protest too much,” Savannah remarked, feigning a British accent, and I squirmed in my seat. It had been the exact thing I had thought only a few days earlier.
Sophia’s face crumpled and she lurched from her seat. “I can’t do this!” she said, breaking into a sob. She fled the room, her feet soundless as she sprinted across the carpet and down the hall.
I hesitated for only a second before hurrying after her.
She was already slipping back into her coat when I caught up to her in the kitchen.
“Don’t,” I said, positioning myself between her and the hallway. “Don’t leave.”
“What’s the use?” she wailed. Her eyes were bright with tears. “No one believes me! They all think I took the money. And even though I offered to pay it back—and then some!—they will always think I took it, that I’m guilty. I can’t live with that!”
“Sophia.” I reached for her arm. “Stop. Savannah is upset; everyone is. We just need to sit down and talk this through.”
“No one will listen,” she said. Tears streamed freely down her face. “They’ve all made up their minds. Even Vivian thinks I’m guilty. I know she does.” She sniffled. “I’m pretty sure you think I am, too.”
I tried not to flinch at her announcement. I’d convicted and vindicated her countless times in my own mind, so much so that I had no idea where I stood anymore.
“I don’t,” I told her gently. “I don’t think you did it.”
She looked at me with watery eyes. “You don’t?”
I shook my head.
She gave me a small smile. “Thank you for that,” she whispered. She brushed away a few tears. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t help me here.”
She reached for her purse.
“Wait. Don’t go.” I didn’t know what staying would accomplish, but I knew what would happen if she left. Everyone in that house would think she was guilty, and she’d never live it down.
And she’d lose something that was important to her. It was something I didn’t understand, and something I couldn’t relate to, but it was something that meant the world to Sophia Rey.
The Latney Ladies Society.
“I can’t stay.” Her fingers wrapped around the leather strap of her purse and she pulled it toward her.
I grabbed her arm to stop her, trying to stop her forward motion. She yanked away from my grasp and her purse sailed across the table, catching the strap of another bag. It lifted into the air and sailed to the floor, a tan leather parachute that crashed into the tile floor, sending its contents scattering.
“Oh, no,” Sophia muttered. She stooped to collect up a lipstick and a package of spearm
int gum that had spilled out.
I stood there, frozen in place.
Because on the floor, right next to the tan purse, was a white, business –sized envelope.
With several thousand dollars in cash poking out of it.
THIRTY SIX
“Rainy, are you okay?”
Sophia was still crouched near the floor, her hands holding a package of tissues, lipstick, gum, and two wrapped tampons.
“Rainy, what on earth is wrong?”
With a shaking finger I pointed at the purse and the envelope next to it.
“Tell me that isn’t a mirage.”
Sophia turned to look where I was pointing. She let out a small gasp and the items she was holding clattered back to the floor.
“Is that…is that money?”
I nodded. I got to my knees and reached for the envelope. Slowly, I turned it over.
Kwik-Kash. Richmond, Virginia.
I let out a shaky breath. “Whose purse is this?” I asked.
Sophia shook her head. “I have no idea.”
I thumbed through the cash, counting up the hundred dollar bills.
Three thousand dollars.
No more, no less.
“This is the missing money,” I said.
Sophia didn’t get a chance to respond because the kitchen was suddenly filled with people.
“What happened?” Vivian asked, pushing through so she could see us. “We heard something fall and—”
I got to my feet and held up the envelope. “We found the missing money.”
Another collective gasp.
It was a pity collective gasping wasn’t an Olympic sport, like synchronized swimming. The Latney Ladies Society could have been gold medal contenders.
Vivian clutched her throat. “Where did you find that?”
“In this purse.” I held up the tan bag on the floor. It was a smallish purse, the flap adorned with leather fringe. “Who does this belong to?”
No one responded.
“Seriously?” I scanned the faces of the women crammed into the kitchen. They were all staring at me, wide-eyed. “No one is going to claim this purse?” I sighed. “Well, I guess we can just find the wallet and look inside that.”
