by Nicole Ellis
“See you.” I got into the truck and drove it back to Lincoln’s house, parking it next to his car in the driveway, before getting back into my own vehicle. My minivan felt tiny in comparison to the big truck, but it was pleasingly familiar. After the day I’d had already, any sense of normalcy was a big plus.
5
Desi arrived at our house for dinner a little after six. As soon as I opened the door, Anthony brushed past his mom and ran into the house, shouting Mikey’s name.
“Sorry I’m late. Lina just woke up from her nap.” She held the baby out to me. “Can you take her so I can go back to the car and get the taco fixings? I swear, mothers should have been blessed with eight arms like an octopus.”
I smiled at the image. That would have been helpful.
“No problem.” I took Lina from her and snuggled her against me.
When she returned with an armload of containers of freshly cut veggies and shredded cheese, I handed Lina off to Adam and we took everything into the kitchen and set it down on the counter. Our kitchen smelled strongly of taco seasoning and ground beef. Goldie was sniffing the air from the living room.
“We’d better eat before Goldie downs it all,” Desi said, laughing.
We brought everything over to the dinner table and called for the kids to wash up and come sit down.
Desi knelt down by a bottom cupboard in the kitchen. “Where are the plastic cups for the boys?” She looked up at me with a puzzled expression on her face. “Aren’t they usually down here?”
I rolled my eyes. “Adam has been doing some rearranging in his spare time. He felt they’d be better up there.” I pointed at an upper cupboard.
She smirked. “Ok …”
“I know.” I laughed. “I keep having to search for things, but at least he’s taking an interest in things at home.”
The boys bumbled into the dining room, followed by a toddling Ella and Adam carrying Lina. He helped the girls into their high chairs at the table and we all sat down. Mikey and Anthony each placed two taco shells on their plates and piled them high with beef and cheese.
Desi appraised their choices. “I want to see some veggies on there, boys.”
“But, Mom! I hate veggies,” Anthony whined. Mikey tossed some tomatoes on his plate and his cousin’s plate, then smiled at us.
“Lettuce too,” I said. He begrudgingly followed my request.
I had just taken a bite of an amazing smelling burrito when my work cell phone rang. I eyed it. Should I answer, or let it go? I didn’t want to offend any of our clients by not answering, so I folded the napkin in my lap and stood from the table.
“Jill. It’s dinner time,” Adam said. “Can’t they wait until later?”
My eyes darted to the phone. “I’m just going to check and see who it is.”
He sighed.
By the time I got to the phone on my desk, the caller had hung up, but they’d left a voicemail. I peeked at my family, but they’d gone back to eating, so I pressed play to hear the message.
“Hi, Jill. This is Drew Laveaux, Angela’s husband.” He sighed. “I’m calling because Angela’s been arrested for Mindy’s murder.”
I gasped, causing Adam and Desi to stare at me. I held up a finger and finished listening to the message.
“She didn’t do it, of course, but the police think they have evidence against her.” He sighed again. “Anyway, she wanted me to call you and let you know that the police said they’ll deliver all of the decorations to the Boathouse in a few days. This is so important to Angela—until she’s released, I don’t want any planning to get behind.”
He hung up and I stared at my phone for a moment.
“Jill! Who was that?” Desi asked.
Adam regarded me with concern. “Are you ok? You look pale.”
I plopped down in my chair at the table, still a little shell-shocked. “That was Angela’s husband. She’s been arrested for the …” I looked over at Mikey and Anthony, who were now looking at me wide-eyed. “… M-U-R-D-E-R of Mindy Danvers.”
Desi gasped. “Whoa.” She glanced furtively at the boys and said in a lower voice. “Do you think she did it?”
“Wait. Is this the same Angela that’s been driving you crazy for months?” Adam asked. “She’s involved with this?”
I nodded. I’d told him that Desi and I had discovered another body today, but I hadn’t given him many other details.
I looked over at Desi. “I don’t know. I guess she could have done it. She’s not the nicest woman in the world, but if I’d been placing bets on who would be killed, it would have been her, not her assistant.”
“Killed?” Mikey’s eyes were as round as plates.
Oops. I’d let too much slip. “Honey, someone died today, but don’t worry, the police will find out what happened, ok?”
“Uncle Tomàs will figure it out?” he asked.
“Uncle Tomàs and his friends at work.” I spooned some salsa onto my plate with shaking hands and then changed the subject. “How was school today?”
The boys jumped over themselves telling us about their latest projects in Creative Arts at the preschool.
“And the Harvest Carnival is in only a month,” Anthony said solemnly. “I’m going to win a goldfish this year.”
“A month?” My eyes met Desi’s. Were they having it in November?
She smiled. “I think you mean a week, honey.”
“Yeah. A week, that’s what I said.” He went back to eating his taco, racing his cousin to see who could finish first.
“Are you volunteering at the carnival this year?” Desi asked.
I groaned. “I should probably get in touch with Danielle or Nancy about it.” I tried my best to stay away from Nancy Davenport, my archnemesis at Busy Bees Preschool, but Danielle, the school’s owner, had very kindly allowed me to register Mikey after I forgot to fill out the paperwork on time, so I owed her. “I’m not running the goldfish booth though.” We’d had a bad string of goldfish deaths since the last Harvest Carnival and I didn’t want to deal with any more death. At that thought, the memory of Mindy’s cold eyes staring out at me flashed through my brain. I pushed the image out, refusing to let it spoil our family dinner.
“Let’s ask if we can run the bounce house. The boys will spend most of their time in there anyway.” Desi bit into her taco, the shell crunching beneath her teeth.
“Sounds good.” I ate my meal and the boys finished theirs.
“Can we go play?” Mikey held up his plate, which was empty save a few streaks of sour cream. “See, I’m a member of the clean plate club.”
I smiled. “Yes, you can both go play. But don’t wake up the babies.” Ella had finished her dinner and both of the girls had fallen asleep in the living room. Neither of them was very happy when woken up prematurely from a nap.
When the boys were out of earshot, Desi turned to me.
“Do you think Angela killed her?”
“I don’t know. I never got a crazy vibe from her the whole time I’ve been working for her, but you never can tell about people.” I felt Adam’s eyes on me. I’d been in danger too many times recently and I knew he worried about me. Suddenly, something occurred to me. “No. I don’t think she did it. There’s no way.”
“Why are you so sure?” Desi asked.
“Because Angela wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the haunted house.” After uttering it out loud, I realized how true that was. “If she was going to kill someone, it wouldn’t be at Halloween.”
Desi pressed her lips together, contemplating what I’d said.
“You’re probably right. Anyone who put that much effort into Halloween would never want to be locked up in jail instead of out decorating for it.” She fiddled with her fork. “But if she didn’t do it, who did?”
The three of us stared at each other.
“I don’t like you being involved with this.” Adam folded his napkin and leaned back in his chair without taking his eyes off of me.
; “I know, but this is my job. I have to manage the haunted house event at the Boathouse. Other than that, I don’t really have anything to do with this Mindy person.” I smiled at him tentatively. “Believe me, I don’t want to be in danger either.”
“And the only connection I have with this is being the new treasurer for our MUMs group. So I suppose I would have had more interactions with Mindy eventually, but so far I’d only corresponded with her via e-mail. Neither of us had ever met her in person.” Desi stood to clear the plates from the table.
“But you know Angela and it sounds like she’s in the middle of this. Did her husband say why the police suspect her of murdering Mindy?” Adam stood too, collecting everyone’s water glasses and bringing them into the kitchen.
I shook my head. “No, he didn’t say why. Just that he didn’t know when she’d get out and she wanted me to continue with the haunted house preparations. Like I said, there’s no way she would have done anything that could cause the haunted house to fail. She’s obsessed with it.”
“Ok,” he said finally. “But promise me, if anything happens that makes you feel in danger, get out of that situation.”
“Aye, aye.” I saluted him and laughed, trying to lighten the mood.
He frowned at me. “Jill, I’m serious.”
I sobered. “I know. And I swear I’ll be careful.” I glanced at Desi. “Both of us will.” Beside me, she nodded.
“Ok then. I’ve got some work to do in my study. Do you need any help with the kids tonight or is it ok for me to sign off now?”
“Nope, I’m fine.”
“We’d better get going anyway,” Desi said, gathering up her food containers. “Anthony’s bedtime is fast approaching and I think I hear Lina waking up. She’s going to want to eat soon.”
I helped her out to the car with the kids and food, lingering outside by the open sliding side door of her minivan.
“Are we still going to the MUMs meeting tomorrow?” I held my hand on the door, while I watched as Anthony fastened his car seat restraints.
“Yep. It’s going to be weird though.” Desi grimaced. “Lisa will be there and it was like she just vanished earlier today. I wonder if the police caught up with her to ask her questions too.”
“Yeah. It was strange how she disappeared.” I thought about when I’d arrived at Angela’s house this afternoon. “You know, I didn’t mention this before to you, but when I got to Angela’s house, her husband was inside and Lisa was standing in front of the unlocked shed door. Drew had no idea she was there.”
“What does that mean? That she could have done it?” Desi stopped what she was doing and looked at me.
“Done what, Mommy?” Anthony asked.
“Nothing, sweetie.” She tousled his hair, then turned back to me. “We’ll talk tomorrow, ok?”
I nodded and she got in her vehicle and drove away. Back in the house, I helped Mikey get ready for bed and gave Ella a bottle and bath before placing her into a warm sleep sack in her crib. I carried out all of the bedtime routines on autopilot. Something wasn’t adding up here. Had Mindy arrived before everyone else and been attacked by some random person? Or was it someone else? Angela? Lisa? Drew? Who had unlocked the shed anyway?
I gave up thinking about it and, with the kids taken care of, ran a bubble bath for myself. I lay back in the warm water, trying to wash away the day. Rain pattered onto the skylight above me, providing comforting background noise for relaxation. The water swished under my fingertips as I lazily waved my hands back and forth under the surface.
Once Halloween was over, the mad holiday rush would swoop in and take over my life. Thanksgiving meals, family, Christmas trees, and gifts. A rush of guilt came over me. Here I was worrying about holiday stress and a woman had died today.
The water had chilled and I rose from it, drying off with a fluffy towel. I got into bed and turned on some easy listening music to fall asleep to, hoping that sleep would come just as easily. Instead, thoughts of Mindy swirled through my brain, making sleep hard to achieve. Sometime during the night, exhaustion took over my body, but my dreams were full of terrifying mummies coming alive to terrorize the town.
6
The next day, Desi and I stood outside the library with our hands in our pockets and our babies in their strollers in front of us. It was only two o’clock, but the temperature had dropped since morning and now we and our babies were bundled up, ready to go on our first stroller walk with the MUMs group.
“Hello, girls!” Lisa said as she arrived, pushing her son in a stroller that probably cost as much as my first car. “Lovely day, isn’t it?” She wore brand-name yoga pants and a form-fitting jacket, with colorful sneakers rounding out her ensemble.
“It is.” Desi looked around. “Where is everyone else?”
“Oh. Everyone’s always late.” Lisa frowned. “I swear, I’m the only one in this organization that can tell time.”
I cocked my head to the side. Our ever-peppy friend had a touch of negativity. I wasn’t sure whether that made me like her or dislike her more. At least it made her more human.
Lisa’s son stirred in his seat and she fussed over his crocheted Spiderman hat.
A few more moms arrived and, at a quarter after the hour, Lisa led us out onto the sidewalk at a brisk pace. “We’re going to head over to the park today,” she said. “The trees there will be beautiful.”
She was right. I’d thought the MUMs outing would be one more stressor in my life, but I had to admit, I was enjoying the walk with the other moms. High above us, gold and orange leaves clung persistently to the tree branches, occasionally letting go and floating down to the ground. The general mood at the park was upbeat, with people taking their dogs out for a run or their children to the playground.
Desi sidled up to me, jarring me back to reality. “Did Lisa say anything to you about yesterday?”
In all of my musings about peace, I’d completely forgotten how odd Lisa had acted the day before.
“No. I didn’t mention it either. The police must have talked to her, right?”
“I’d assume so. I could probably ask Tomàs, although he won’t be able to tell me much about an active investigation.”
“Plus, then he’d know you were involved with it.”
“Good point. Ok, that’s out. With any luck, that police officer I met yesterday won’t have said anything to him.” She narrowed her eyes at Lisa as she pranced along the sidewalk about twenty feet in front of us. “You said she was the first person there, right?”
“Well, yeah, except Mindy must have beaten her there and whoever killed her, of course.”
“Hmm.” She wiped at her dripping nose with a Kleenex. “And Angela was nowhere to be seen. So either of them could have killed Mindy. But why?”
“I have no clue. But the only thing connecting them to each other was MUMs, right?”
We both eyed the other moms with suspicion. If Lisa or Angela had killed Mindy for a reason having to do with MUMs, any of these women could be a suspect as well. Suddenly, things in the group didn’t seem so peaceful.
“We’re being ridiculous, right?” Desi asked. “Mindy’s death probably had nothing to do with MUMs.”
“Probably.” I stopped to tie my shoe, causing Desi and me to fall further behind the rest of the group. “We could leave them all right now,” I whispered.
She put her hands on her hips. “Jill! We can’t do that. Plus, I’m the treasurer now. I can’t just ditch them.”
“Ok, ok. It was just a fleeting thought.”
“Yeah, well, send it away.” She wrapped her hands around her stroller’s handle. “But in all honesty, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.”
I stood and brushed dirt off of my knee where I’d knelt on the ground. “Let’s just try to have fun today.”
“Agreed.” She smiled at me and we hurried to catch up with the rest of the group, which had stopped in a circle in front of us like a miniature wagon train.
We joined
the circle and performed leg lifts and squats while holding on to our strollers. It was a surprisingly effective workout, but not very exciting, leaving me plenty of time to look at all of the babies in the group. My eyes flitted between the strollers. What was with the crocheted hats? I’d thought the Spiderman hat Lisa’s son was sporting was cute, but each baby had an ornately crocheted hat. Ella and Lina’s knit caps were plain in comparison.
“All right. Everyone on the ground for five push-ups. And I want to see all of you ladies try,” Lisa shouted.
I nudged Desi as we lowered ourselves to the ground to do push-ups.
“Do you see all of their hats?” I whispered, supporting my weight with my knees. Carrying two little kids around all the time had given me some upper body strength, but I’d never been able to do a proper push-up.
“No, why?” she asked through gritted teeth. Her arms trembled as she completed her fifth push-up. She stood and surveyed all of the babies. “Oh. I see what you mean.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’s the newest craze and we’re late to the party.”
I jumped up from the ground and shook my arms out. Lisa had broken the circle and we now followed her as she jogged down a trail. “Maybe. Sheesh. I’m out of shape.”
“Yeah, me too,” she said, huffing and puffing as we came out at the parking lot and Lisa announced that the class was over. “Maybe I should add some salads to the BeansTalk’s menu.”
“Did you say the BeansTalk?” a woman in black just ahead of us said, not in the least bit out of breath. She swiveled her stroller around to face us. Her daughter sported a crocheted Minnie Mouse hat with ear warmers.
Desi nodded. “I did. I’m the owner.”
“Oh, I love that place!” she exclaimed. “It’s so cute with the little play area in the back. My toddler loves it.”
“Thanks,” Desi said warmly. “I try to make it a welcoming place for parents. I know how difficult it can be to find places to take the little ones when it’s raining.”
“Definitely. I’m already getting sick of staring at the walls of our house.” She glanced at our babies. “Do you have any other children? My mother is watching my older one.”
