by Lee Hollis
And she also happened to be Dustin’s homeroom teacher.
“Hayley! Get down here now!” Randy called from the first floor.
Hayley pounded down the steps and joined Randy in the living room where he sat on the couch with a stack of papers spread out on the coffee table.
“I found this inside a filing cabinet in Karen’s library,” Randy said. “It’s a life insurance policy she took out years ago when she first started working at the Herald.”
Hayley sat down next to Randy and studied the papers.
“Look here. Martin is the beneficiary,” Randy said.
“Of course he is,” Hayley said. “They were married at the time. I’m sure she’s changed it since then.”
“No,” Randy said. I went through her mail and found an annual statement the insurance company sent her just a few weeks ago. Martin is still listed as the beneficiary.”
“But Karen loathed Martin,” Hayley said. “She would never have left his name on the policy after they divorced. Unless she just forgot about it.”
“And maybe Martin found out he was still the beneficiary of a million dollar payout if anything ever happened to Karen. Like a rival kitchen diva poisoning her clam chowder.”
“Don’t call me a kitchen diva,” Hayley said. She began pacing back and forth in the living room. “But wait a minute. Martin is loaded. What’s a million dollars to him?”
“Maybe not so loaded. I had breakfast at Jordan’s coffee shop the other day and I heard his new girlfriend saying the only reason she couldn’t quit waitressing was because Martin’s investments had taken a big hit lately. He could be overextended and just making it look like he’s financially secure.”
“Which would be a strong motive to knock off Karen,” Hayley said, suddenly excited.
Hayley ripped the life insurance policy out of Randy’s hands, folded it up, and put it in her pocket along with Bradley’s Mother’s Day card.
A treasure trove of clues.
And they were just getting started.
A passing light flashed across both their faces, and Hayley and Randy dropped to the floor to avoid being spotted.
The light disappeared and it was dark again. Hayley lifted her head and peeked out the window. She saw the red taillights of a car driving down the road past the house.
“It was just a car going by,” Hayley said. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
They slipped out the back door again, secured the bolt, and placed the silver key underneath the waving gnome.
As they made their escape into the darkness of the woods, Randy turned to Hayley and smiled. “You were right. No one will ever know we were there. Maybe Older Sister does know best.”
“You’ve just got to learn to trust me,” Hayley said.
Famous last words.
Chapter 20
When Hayley walked into her house after Randy dropped her off around nine-thirty, Gemma and Dustin were still up and they were both very excited.
“You were just on the news again!” Gemma squealed.
“What for?” Hayley asked, as if she had to.
“What else? For murdering Karen Applebaum!” Dustin said, sitting at the kitchen table in front of his laptop.
“I did not murder Karen Applebaum!” Hayley insisted.
“They showed your mug shot and everything. Oh, Mom, I recorded it, but you really don’t want to see it,” Gemma said, putting a comforting hand on her mother’s shoulder. “I mean, your hair is so frizzy you look like the Joker.”
“And apparently I commit as many crimes,” Hayley said.
“I just Googled you and you’re all over the Net,” Dustin said.
“Well, don’t worry, when this is all over, you can write a book about this whole scandal and it will be a best-seller and we’ll be rich and I won’t have to worry about taking out any college loans,” Gemma said.
Hayley closed her eyes, hoping she would wake up and find out all of this was just a horrible dream.
“You know what’s funny?” Gemma asked, pouring herself a glass of milk.
“No. I really don’t see anything funny about this,” Hayley said as she removed the papers from her sweat jacket pocket and sealed them in a manila envelope for safe keeping.
“I was so mortified at the thought of going to school today. I didn’t know how people were going to treat me. Was I going to be shunned for being the daughter of a homicidal maniac?”
“Alleged homicidal maniac,” Hayley offered helpfully.
“Right. Alleged homicidal maniac. Would people at school think ‘like mother, like daughter’? Would an angry mob drive me out of school like some leper?”
“I’m so happy you were able to find a way to make this all about you, dear,” Hayley said, shaking her head.
“I know, right?” Gemma said, the sarcasm not quite registering. “But people thought it was totally cool! All my friends are dying to come over so they can tell everybody they were in our house. And Danny Forbes sat next to me at lunch! Danny Forbes! He’s so hot and he has this sexy artistic side that is so deep and inspiring. I’ve been working up the nerve to talk to him since freshman year! He told me he’s working on a new documentary he wants to post on YouTube.”
“What about?” Hayley asked.
“Us! He wants to record our family and show how we’re coping with all these false accusations like in The Crucible, which we’re reading in English lit right now. He wants to come over tomorrow after school and start filming us,” Gemma said.
“Absolutely not,” Hayley said.
“But, Mom, if I spend enough time with Danny and he sees just how smart and witty I am, he’ll ask me to the prom.”
“I thought this was a documentary, not a fantasy film,” Dustin said, howling.
“Zip it,” Gemma said, her eyes boring into her younger brother.
“This is enough of a circus already, Gemma, and I need to keep a low profile. At least until they find who really killed Karen. I’m sorry, but no. Danny Forbes can’t come over.”
“You’re ruining my life!” Gemma wailed, downing her glass of milk and neglecting to close the refrigerator door.
“You know, you’re both forgetting a woman has died!” Hayley said, a stern look on her face as she slammed the refrigerator door shut. “Doesn’t that affect you in the slightest?”
“No,” Dustin said. “I mean, I never liked her. She always yelled at me for cutting across her lawn.”
“That’s right,” Gemma said. “And when I’d pass her on the street she always told me to button the top button of my shirt because I looked like a slut.”
“She did?”
“She was a mean bitch, sorry, I mean witch, Mom, so stop pretending you feel bad now that she’s gone,” Gemma said.
“Okay, so maybe Karen had personality issues and she wasn’t the nicest person in town, but we don’t know her whole story. Maybe she suffered a lot in silence. I just think that at the end of the day she was a human being with real feelings and real passions, and it’s a shame we belittle that just because we didn’t get along with her.”
Gemma twisted her mouth and thought about what her mother was saying.
Hayley began to smile. She knew she had raised her daughter right.
“Sorry, Mom,” Gemma said. “You’re right. I get it.”
Hayley smiled at her daughter proudly.
Dustin piped up. “Hey, I found an online forum discussing who should play Mom in the Lifetime TV movie!”
Okay, one out of two wasn’t so bad.
“No way! Seriously?” Gemma said, racing over to hover behind her brother.
“Mom, come see,” Dustin said, waving her over.
“I’m not the least bit interested in who people think should play me in some stupid movie. This is a real life tragedy,” Hayley said, walking out of the kitchen toward the living room.
“Forty-two percent voted Valerie Bertinelli,” Dustin said.
“What? Really? She’s li
ke fifty years old now,” Hayley said, spinning around and making a beeline back to the kitchen.
“But, Mom, she’s lost all this weight and even appeared on the cover of People magazine in a green bikini a few years ago. She looks really good,” Gemma reassured her.
Hayley squeezed in behind Dustin to glance at the computer screen. “Terror in a Small Town? That’s what they’re calling it? They couldn’t think of something more original?”
“Who’s Meredith Baxter Birney?” Dustin asked.
“An actress who is way too old to play me!” Hayley screamed. “This is ridiculous. Can’t we write in our own names, like Scarlett Johansson?”
Dustin rolled his eyes.
“Natalie Portman?”
“Now you’re just deluded, Mom,” Dustin said, laughing.
Hayley tapped Dustin on the back of his head with the palm of her hand to show her annoyance.
“Okay, okay. But I can’t live with who they’re picking,” Hayley said. “Wait. Someone once told me I look like Blake Lively’s mother on Gossip Girl! She’s attractive. Let’s find out her name and get her on that list.”
“I love that show!” Gemma said.
Hayley watched her son google Gossip Girl for a moment before she noticed an official-looking piece of paper sticking out of Dustin’s knapsack, which he had flung on the kitchen table.
She went to pull it out to see what it was just as Dustin saw her.
“Mom, no!”
He tried to snatch it out of her hands, but she was too fast for him and stepped out of his reach.
Hayley skimmed the page, her eyes narrowing.
“An incomplete on your first history assignment of the semester?” Hayley asked in her sternest motherly voice.
“I can explain ...”
“Keep reading. Science, too,” Gemma added.
Hayley turned to her daughter. “You knew about this?”
“Well, yeah, but I wasn’t going to rat him out,” Gemma said. “I’m no snitch.”
Gemma then picked up the phone to call one of her friends.
Hayley slammed the paper down on the kitchen table and glared at Dustin. “This letter is dated over a week ago. Is that how long you’ve been hiding it from me?”
“I haven’t been hiding it. I just kept forgetting to give it to you,” Dustin said in a chastised tone. “Sort of.”
Hayley headed for the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Dustin asked.
“I’m taking the Xbox out of your room and locking it in the hall closet,” Hayley said.
“What? No!” Dustin cried, jumping up from the kitchen table and chasing after her.
“I’m also putting a lock on your computer except for monitored sessions when you do your homework,” Hayley said, pounding up the steps. “And first thing in the morning I’m going to call the school and make an appointment to go in and talk about this.”
“Mom, Parent–Teacher Conference is next week,” Dustin said. “You might as well just wait until then. There’s no point in making two trips.”
“Fine. But you’re grounded until then,” Hayley said as she marched into Dustin’s room to unplug the Xbox.
Dustin, standing at the foot of the stairs, sighed. “At least that’s one less time I have to get balled out by Mrs. Cornbluth.”
Hayley scurried back out of Dustin’s bedroom and shouted down from the top of the stairs. “Mrs. Cornbluth?”
“Yeah, didn’t you read the whole letter? She signed it at the bottom.”
Hayley came scrambling down the stairs. “Gemma, get off the phone! I need to call Mrs. Cornbluth and get an appointment to see her tomorrow. Her home number is right here on the letter.”
“Mom! It’s almost ten o’clock at night! You said it could wait until next week,” Dustin cried.
Gemma huffed loud enough to show Hayley how inconvenient her order was, and said into the phone, “I’ll call you back on my cell. My mother’s having another one of her crazy spells.”
Gemma clicked off her call and handed the cordless receiver to her mother.
Hayley checked the letter and began punching numbers into the phone.
“You’re making too big a deal out of this!” Dustin said.
“A week is an eternity when it comes to your education. I don’t want you falling behind, dropping out, robbing a convenience store, and spending the best years of your life behind bars,” Hayley said.
“At least we’ll be together,” Dustin said, smirking.
Hayley threw him a look and waited for Winnie Cornbluth to answer. Of course she was concerned about Dustin not completing his school work. Any concerned mother would be and she was anxious to resolve the situation with Dustin’s teacher. But if Hayley could also get Winnie Cornbluth to open up about that nasty message she left on Karen Applebaum’s voice mail, well, then that would be a win-win.
Chapter 21
Dustin squirmed in his seat as Winnie Cornbluth read through the student evaluations from all of his teachers. Hayley squeezed his arm tightly to get him to sit still. The reports weren’t a total disaster. He excelled in art and creative writing, and was for the most part well-behaved. He also scored exceptionally high on his IQ tests. But when it came to the basics like math and science and history, he was lagging behind.
“It seems whenever there is a pop quiz, Dustin goes to the nurse’s office with a migraine, promising to make up the test later. Which he never does. Seems he only gets migraines in three of his classes,” Mrs. Cornbluth said, lowering her glasses to the tip of her nose in the most admonishing manner possible. “Remarkably, his health improves just in time for lunch and recess.”
“I see,” Hayley said. “Dustin, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“Maybe you should pack an Advil with my tuna sandwich,” Dustin offered meekly.
“Don’t get smart,” Hayley warned. She then turned back to Mrs. Cornbluth and smiled. “Dustin would be more than happy to make up all the tests he missed at your earliest convenience, preferably a Saturday so it doesn’t interfere with his other classes.”
“What? A Saturday?” Dustin cried.
Hayley squeezed his arm again. This time real tight. “How about we spread it out over a few Saturdays so you don’t get overwhelmed?”
Dustin heard the threat loud and clear. He knew he wasn’t going to win this one. “No. One is good.”
“He’ll have plenty of time to study because I am making it my personal mission to see to it that he has absolutely no distractions so we can deal with his teetering grades,” Hayley said.
“I’m sure he’ll be back up to speed in no time,” Mrs. Cornbluth said.
“Well, I certainly appreciate your understanding and support, Mrs. Cornbluth. Dustin was right. You are a wonderful teacher. He’s told me so on numerous occasions that you’re his absolute favorite.”
Dustin sat up in his chair, surprised. “I have?”
Another quick squeeze to his arm and Dustin quickly shut his mouth.
This news was so shocking to Mrs. Cornbluth, she actually removed her glasses completely. “Why, thank you, Dustin.”
Dustin was totally confused but followed his mother’s lead. “Sure. No problem.”
“With so many people criticizing our public school system, it’s so nice to be able to hold a teacher up as a shining example of someone who truly makes a difference,” Hayley said.
“I’m flattered,” Mrs. Cornbluth said, beaming.
“With teachers like you around, I don’t have to worry about him flunking out and winding up in jail ... like his mother!” Hayley joked.
Mrs. Cornbluth’s smile faded.
“Oh, don’t worry, Dustin knows all about my arrest,” Hayley said. “Being completely honest with your kids is a crucial part of parenting, as you well know.”
Mrs. Cornbluth didn’t know how to respond. So she just sat there with a frozen smile on her face.
“I’m sure it will all get straightened out. R
ight, Dustin?”
Dustin nodded.
“Well, I guess we’re just about done here. Thank you again for coming in,” Mrs. Cornbluth said as she began to shuffle some papers.
“Okay, then,” Hayley said, standing up and steering Dustin toward the door. She leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Wait for me outside.”
Dustin shrugged and left the classroom. Hayley pretended to follow him but stopped just short of the door and turned around.
“We missed you at the bake sale,” Hayley said.
Mrs. Cornbluth stopped rustling papers. “Oh, yes. I couldn’t make it that day. But I heard it was a rousing success.”
“I can’t remember a year when you weren’t there sharing a table with Karen Applebaum and making a killing with your delicious apple fritters and those delectable lady fingers.”
“Well, as I said, I was otherwise engaged.”
“I see. They corral you to do Saturday detention duty here at the school?”
“No. It was a personal matter. I’d rather not talk about it.”
“I understand completely,” Hayley said, turning around and pretending to leave again, but then stopping. “You and Karen always seemed so close. I’m curious. Did the two of you have a falling out recently?”
“Who told you that?”
“I heard something at the bake sale. You were so conspicuously absent and you know how people talk.”
“Did Karen say anything?”
“Just that you were angry with her and she didn’t know why.”
“Of course she knew why!”
“So it’s true. You two did have a falling out.”
“How much do you know?”
“Well, I heard about the threatening phone message you left on her voice mail.”
Mrs. Cornbluth fell back in her chair, stunned, her mouth hanging open. Then she tried to compose herself. “I already explained everything about that message to Chief Alvares. He heard it when he was at the crime scene. He knows exactly why I left it. Now, I have a class to teach, so if you don’t mind ...”
Hayley knew if she left the room now she would never get the answers she so desperately needed.
