by Leigh Perry
“All that means is that that woman’s death didn’t have anything to do with what Sid heard. Pennycross is a small town, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility to have more than one person die in the same week. I don’t blame the cops for thinking my call was a crank—I just assumed the body found was the one Sid heard being murdered. Now we know differently. As soon as the second body is found, the police will realize that my call had useful information, even if there wasn’t any physical evidence in the auditorium.”
Deborah looked aggravated, but she does that a lot around me anyway. Madison’s reaction troubled me more. She wouldn’t meet my eyes or Sid’s, so she was clearly having doubts. I was disappointed but I understood. She hadn’t known Sid as long as I had. She’d come around.
As for Sid, his bones were right back where they were supposed to be.
7
There was no more discussion of the murder that night. Instead we watched DVDs until Deborah started snoring in the middle of an episode of Leverage and I sent her home. Then I did a cursory kitchen cleaning and booted up my laptop to jot down some lecture notes for the next week’s classes while Sid and Madison watched more of Doctor Who. In other words, it was a typically festive Saturday night at the Thackery house.
Eventually Sid headed upstairs to catch up with his ever-increasing number of Facebook friends, and Madison and I started getting ready for bed.
When I went into her room for a good night kiss, I saw from the look on my daughter’s face that she had something on her mind.
She said, “Mom, why didn’t you tell me about what Sid said he heard at school?”
“Ah. Mind if I have a seat so we can talk about it?”
She pulled Byron onto her lap so there would be room for me to sit down.
I said, “That’s a fair question, but I’m afraid I don’t have a very good answer. Sid and I were still discussing the murder when you came home from Wray’s, and my knee-jerk reaction was not to tell you. At least, not yet.”
“When were you going to tell me?”
“As soon as the story had an ending. I really thought that calling the police last night would give them what they needed to find the killer and arrest him, and then I could explain it to you once it was a fait accompli, and you wouldn’t be scared about going to school.”
“I’m not scared of going to school.”
“It doesn’t bother you that there was a murder committed in the auditorium?”
She hesitated and picked up the stuffed pig that she still keeps on her bed. “Do you really believe Sid heard what he says he heard?”
“Yes, I do. But you don’t, do you?”
She shook her head.
“Do you think he’s lying?”
“Not exactly lying. But could he have misinterpreted? Made it sound worse than it really was?”
“Sid’s not the kind of person to make something up just to get attention.”
“I guess not, but—”
“But you still don’t believe him. Okay, I accept that. But you have to accept that I do believe him. I’ve known him most of my life—I trust him completely.”
“But Aunt Deborah said—”
“Aunt Deborah has her own issues with Sid. Don’t forget that she spent years not even speaking to him.” Around the time Deborah graduated from high school, she’d decided that Sid was too ridiculous to exist and therefore she wouldn’t acknowledge him directly in any way. I suspect that she still thought he was too ridiculous to exist, but some events the previous fall had convinced her to revisit her interactions with him.
“That was uncool,” Madison said, “but it must have been kind of weird for her. Having Sid around, having to keep him hidden, and never being asked about having him in the family or anything.”
Okay, I thought I knew what was going on. It wasn’t an issue that had ever shown up in any parenting article I’d ever read, so I was going to have to play it by ear.
“You’re right, nobody asked Deborah if she was okay with Sid joining the family, but you have to remember that Deborah was only ten years old when Sid showed up at our door, and it was a very different time. Though our parents were pretty open-minded, they didn’t always consult us kids before making big decisions. You, on the other hand, are significantly older than ten and you and I do discuss decisions. Usually. But maybe I blew it with Sid. I mean, I’d never get married or adopt another kid or even let a roommate into the house without talking to you, but I did spring Sid on you.” It hadn’t been planned that way. I’d wanted to introduce Sid to Madison for years, but when the time finally came, it had been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“No, you didn’t. I mean, you did kind of surprise me with Sid’s . . . Sidness, but once I knew him I wanted him to stay with us. And this is his house anyway. I just hadn’t known he was living in the attic until then.”
“True, but now that you do know, Sid has really inserted himself into our lives. Does it bother you that we’re a threesome now and not a duo?”
“No, of course not.”
“No, not ‘of course.’ I want a real answer.”
This time she took a moment to think. “Okay, it is different. I mean, you and he have a lot of history, and you and I have history, but he and I really don’t have much. Except that he knows so much about me from talking to you.”
“He always loved hearing about you, if that makes you feel any better. Did you know he has a photo album of pictures of you?”
“He does? That’s kind of sweet.”
“He’s a sweet guy, which you wouldn’t expect from somebody without a heart.”
She halfway smiled. “That whole skeleton thing is taking some getting used to, I guess. I feel awkward inviting people over to the house.”
“Don’t!” I said. “Sid won’t mind spending an evening or a whole weekend up in the attic. I can sneak up there if he wants company, but now that he’s got his computer—plus books and movies—he’s fine with it. Your aunt and I had company when we were growing up, and it didn’t bother him. It gave him new people to spy on, which he loved. But even if he did mind, he’d be willing to stay out of the way so you could have friends over. He doesn’t want you to miss out on anything. Okay?”
“Okay. I guess it has been kind of weird, but mostly it’s good. I love Sid, I really do.”
“I’m glad you feel that way. And I’m even more glad that you’re willing to talk to me about the situation. Because it would be really hard for you to go to the guidance counselor at school with this particular problem.”
She snickered. “Yeah, Mr. Carabello is great, but I don’t think he’d be prepared for helping set up a family meeting with Sid.”
“Exactly. And while we’re at it, there’s something I want you to know. My first priority is and always will be you. I love Sid, I love my parents, I’m pretty fond of Deborah—”
“Mom!”
“Okay, I love Deborah. But I love you most-est of all!”
“Most-est? They are so going to kick you out of the English professor club.”
“All English professors have a creative license, with special dispensation for amphigory.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Anyway, as I was trying to say, you are the most important thing in my life. If you’re not happy with our living arrangements, then we will rearrange them until you are. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Okay. Now it is past bedtime.”
Hugs and kisses were exchanged, and I headed for my room. A couple of seconds later, I heard tiny sounds from the attic stairs.
I was really going to have to talk to Sid about eavesdropping, but maybe it was just as well that he’d overheard that particular discussion.
8
After she swore that she’d finished her homework for the weekend, I took Madison and her dog to spend Sunday a
fternoon at her friend Samantha’s house. Once I got home, I took my laptop up to Sid’s attic room to keep him company.
The place was looking much brighter than it had when I’d first moved back into the house. His furniture was still used, but I’d replaced some of the more obvious castoffs. Sid might be completely secure in his masculinity, but no grown man—not even a skeletal one—wanted to have to rely on Deborah’s old Hello Kitty flashlight.
Sid was typing away enthusiastically when I came into the room and got settled on the couch. Finger-bone typing is considerably louder than any other kind of typing, but I can filter it out well enough to do my own work. In fact, I filtered it so thoroughly that I didn’t notice at first that Sid had stopped, and when I did, I looked up and saw him looking at me with an air of expectation.
“So what’s our plan?” he asked.
“Um . . . I’m going to grade papers, and you’re going to play on Neopets?”
“No! Well, yes, but I mean what’s our plan for solving the murder.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“We’re not going to just let a killer get away with it, are we?”
“I didn’t realize we had a choice in the matter, Sid. We told the police what we could, which should help as soon as they find the real body—I mean, the second body— Or have they found it?”
“Nope. I’ve scoured the Web, and the only body found was that woman Deborah was talking about. The overdose.”
“Well, when the other body is found the police can take it from there.”
“But what if they don’t find it? Or what if the physical evidence has deteriorated by the time they do? The first few days after a murder are key to solving the crime, Georgia. Key!”
“And that’s very important for the police to keep in mind, but considerably less so for us. I’ve got plenty on my plate already.”
“But you said you believed me.”
“I do believe you. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get myself into a mess like I did last time. You do remember what nearly happened, don’t you?” Being knocked out and tied up wasn’t nearly so much fun as it looked in the movies, and though I wasn’t a hundred percent sure my death would have been next on the list, I didn’t want to chance it a second time.
“We’re more experienced investigators now. We’ve learned from our mistakes.”
“Exactly. I learned not to make the mistake of getting mixed up in a murder investigation again.”
He just looked at me.
“Sid, stop making Bambi eyes! You know it’s completely impossible for you to make Bambi eyes, so stop it!” I pointedly looked at my computer screen, but I could feel his Bambi eyes boring into my brain. After an eternity—which translated to about ten minutes of my reading the same paragraph over and over again—I said, “Besides, I have no idea how to start.”
“Me, neither,” he said cheerfully. “That’s why I thought we should brainstorm.”
“Don’t you need a brain for that? Because your skull is noticeably empty.”
He ignored that. “I’m thinking that we can assume the murder was unplanned.”
“Since you seem to be assuming we’re doing this,” I muttered, “what’s one more assumption?”
He ignored that, too. “If the killer had planned the killing, he’d have had a way to get rid of the body without making an emergency call for help with the cleanup. Right?”
“I guess, but where does that get us? We don’t even know who the victim is, let alone the killer. There was no evidence the cops could spot, so we’re not going to be able to find anything, either. All we’ve got is what you heard, which was just enough to convince us that it was murder. What can we do with that?”
“I don’t know,” Sid said, “but we’ve got to do something.”
“Why?”
“Because if we don’t . . .” He paused dramatically. “Madison could be in danger.”
“That’s not funny!”
“I don’t mean it to be funny. What if the killer is the principal or one of Madison’s teachers or one of the cafeteria workers? What if he’s at the school every single day with Madison?”
“Come on, you said yourself that it sounded like a spur-of-the-moment thing. Even if it is somebody at PHS, he’s not going to start attacking people at random.”
“We don’t know that.”
“What do you expect me to do, Sid? Take Madison out of school? Homeschool her? She’d never go for that, not even if she did believe—”
“Not even if she believed me?”
“You were eavesdropping last night, weren’t you?”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—I just wanted to get a book I left downstairs. But I heard my name, and, well, old habits die hard.”
“I get that.” Before Madison had learned about Sid, eavesdropping had been his way of being part of the family. “I’m sorry Madison doesn’t believe you. Just give her time.”
“I can do that; I will do that. But for now, her not believing me means she won’t be careful the way she should be with a killer on the loose.”
“I just don’t see why she would be a target. And I have no idea what we can do to find the killer anyway.” He started to speak, but I interrupted him. “So this is what I think we should do. I want you to keep going to school with Madison, and I want you to eavesdrop like you’ve never eavesdropped before. If you hear anything that will give us a starting point, we’ll go from there. Okay?”
Sid wouldn’t have been the skeleton I know and love if he hadn’t argued, but he finally had to agree because he couldn’t think of anything more proactive to do, either. If he did hear something, he would be able to let me know right away because instead of just sending his skull to school, we were going to put one hand and an old cell phone in his bag so he’d be able to text me if he heard anything important. During classes, he’d eavesdrop from Madison’s locker, and during rehearsals, he’d be listening from backstage.
Despite having recently fussed because I hadn’t told her everything, Madison did not seem enthused by being let in on the plans that evening. In fact, she rolled her eyes when we explained the idea to her. The expression reminded me far too much of Deborah, which was probably why I played dirty and pointed out that if Sid had had a hand and phone the Thursday before, he would have been able to remind her to come get him. She wasn’t happy with me, but she agreed to carry out her part of the scheme.
None of us brought up the fact that Madison didn’t believe Sid’s story.
Even though I still did believe, I didn’t really think Madison was in any danger at school, even if Sid hadn’t been there to keep an eye out. Or at least an eye socket. But apparently my subconscious had other ideas—that night I had one bad dream after another.
9
For once, I was glad to see Monday morning. Normally I greeted it with dread. That semester I was teaching five sections of freshman composition at McQuaid University, and since there’s an unwritten rule that adjuncts get the most inconvenient schedules imaginable, I had classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at eight AM, nine AM, ten AM, and eleven AM. Naturally I had to change classrooms for each of those—adjuncts don’t get permanent classrooms. If I survived that, I had enough time to run by the adjunct office to check messages and go grab lunch before keeping office hours from one thirty to three thirty, which was always a mob scene on Monday because that was the day I handed back the previous week’s assignment—usually either reading response papers or essays—and announced that week’s assignment. That meant I usually didn’t shake loose from anxious freshmen until after four, which gave me an hour or two to catch up on accumulated paperwork and get home. By that point Madison was usually starving, so I’d throw together dinner, eat, clean up, and collapse. I sometimes skipped the cleaning part.
I only had one McQuaid class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was stu
ck with the eight AM slot again, but at least it left me time for grading and doing paperwork.
The routine was complicated enough that I lived in fear that I’d forget which day it was. The only good thing to be said for my schedule was that it would only last another month and a half until the semester ended. Of course, I had the added pleasure of not knowing whether or not I’d be hired for another semester. I could make out fairly well if I didn’t get anything in the summer, but if my “vacation” lasted into the fall, I’d be sunk, financially speaking.
At least my life wasn’t boring.
I made it through my Monday morning classes and headed for the adjunct office. My mailbox, one of a rack outside the office, was halfway filled with McQuaid internal memos, notes from students, and a few pieces of actual mail. First up was a reminder that parking passes were not to be given or sold to students. “If you paid adjuncts enough, we wouldn’t be selling them to the highest bidder,” I muttered as I tossed it into the conveniently located recycling bin.
Next was a postcard announcing the date of the next Northeast Popular/American Culture Association conference. It was being held in Providence in October, and I would have given my left arm to attend. Well, Deborah’s at least. True, I had no paper to submit, but I knew of a dozen New England schools that would be screening prospective hires there.
Most colleges began their hiring process for tenure-track positions at conferences, and some even provided grants for graduate students to attend and get a shot at those carrots of employment. Adjuncts like myself, on the other hand, only got grants when we had papers to present, which we rarely did because we didn’t have time to write papers. And of course we didn’t make enough money to pay our own way.
I’d been hoping to take advantage of living at my parents’ house to scrape up enough money to attend a conference or two, but now that Sid had joined my household permanently, I had to plan for the future expense of a third bedroom once my parents returned and wanted their house back. That didn’t leave enough in my budget for conferences.
