Murder in Tranquility Park

by J. D. Griffo

  “Maybe her husband, David, finally found out about her affair and they’re having it out,” Jinx whispered.

  “Possibly,” Alberta replied in the same hushed tone. “Or maybe Vinny found out what we found out and he’s beaten us to the punch.”

  “I didn’t see a police car in the parking lot, did you?”

  “No, but he could’ve parked out back,” Alberta said, silently cursing herself for not checking the back parking lot before entering. Oh well, she thought, if Sharon already had company, what’s two more?

  But when they opened the door to the principal’s office, holding on to each other like two frightened freshmen, they were dumbfounded to find Sharon was alone. And on her hands and knees looking through the bottom drawer of her desk. Sharon didn’t even look up when they entered, but continued to mutter to herself and rummage through the confines of the drawer, pulling out files and tossing them to the side. It was only when Alberta spoke that she noticed she wasn’t alone in her office.

  “Hello, Sharon.”

  Still consumed with her search, Sharon didn’t look up instantly, but mumbled, “Be right with you.”

  Alberta and Jinx ventured a little farther into the room and looked around to make sure the office truly was empty. Could the woman have been shouting at an unseen person? The empty air? The vision of the two dead men that she murdered?

  “Sorry to bother you, Sharon,” Alberta said again. “But the front door was unlocked.”

  This time, Sharon acquiesced to her company and stood up, running her hands down her black and tan plaid pencil skirt to smooth out any wrinkles her previous position might have imposed on the fabric. She was wearing a tan silk blouse and a vest that matched her skirt, and she finished off the outfit with classic black patent leather pumps. Her outfit, combined with the fact that her blonde curls had been straightened into a classic pageboy, reminded Alberta of one of her grade school teachers. It was a much more refined look than her usual wardrobe. Possibly without a young lover to tease and arouse, Sharon no longer felt the need to dress so alluringly. This outfit made her look like she had stepped out of a memory or an episode of an early 1970s sitcom, perhaps playing the role of guest teacher in Room 222. Nothing about her appearance resembled the colorful girl from her yearbook portrait or for that matter a woman who was able to kill two men in cold blood. Even though she was clearly a bit frazzled, she looked professional, chaste, and, unfortunately, innocent.

  But when Alberta looked closer she detected something in her face that made her realize the woman wasn’t as innocent as she liked to pretend. She had seen the look before, but she wasn’t quite sure if she was creating fiction or had finally landed on fact. She would have to choose her words carefully in order to find out which it was.

  “We didn’t mean to interrupt you,” Alberta said.

  “No, you’re not interrupting anything,” Sharon replied. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to continue speaking, but instead she ran her finger along the rim of a blue and white porcelain vase that was identical to the one that crashed to the floor the last time Alberta was in Sharon’s office. It was exactly the clue that Alberta was looking for. Suppressing a smile and trying very hard to be inconspicuous, Alberta stretched her left foot to the left until it tapped Jinx’s right shoe to let her know that she should follow her lead. She wasn’t sure if Jinx understood her unspoken order, but Jinx didn’t respond in any way so at least she wasn’t going to interfere.

  “It sounded like you were having an argument with someone when we first entered the school,” Alberta continued. “Is anyone else here?”

  “No,” Sharon replied quickly. “I was just looking for something, still am, and what you heard was me yelling at myself for being so absentminded.”

  Laughing, Alberta inched a bit closer to the woman. “Wait until you get to be my age, you’ll start losing things on a daily basis. Trust me, you’ll get used to it.”

  Looking around the room, Sharon shook her head and was obviously not yet at the stage in her life where she would accept forgetfulness as part of her daily regime. “It makes me crazy though because it was right here on my desk and now I can’t find it.” Her annoyance at her inability to find what she was looking for was starting to grow in intensity. Luckily, Alberta was able to put her out of her misery.

  “Is this what you’re looking for?”

  Alberta took the yearbook out of her pocketbook and placed it onto Sharon’s desk but didn’t take her eyes off the woman’s face. She wanted to see her expression and how it changed when she realized that the reason she couldn’t find what she was looking for was that it had been stolen. Sharon didn’t disappoint.

  Her soft, feminine features slowly took on a flattened, menacing glow. This was not a woman who was used to being duped, nor was it a woman who was used to being put in a position where she was caught off guard. She also turned out to be a woman who did not like to mince words.

  “I hope you have a good reason for having stolen my property,” Sharon stated, her voice suddenly shifting to an authoritative tone.

  “Actually my sister Helen was the thief,” Alberta said, smiling and allowing her eyes to twinkle. “Which really is so unlike her because she used to be a nun.”

  Sharon smiled back at Alberta, but there was absolutely no twinkle in her eyes, only malice. “I know your sister and I know she can be quite the thorn in someone’s side if she chooses to be.”

  “You know sisters,” Alberta replied. “They do what they want to do and we’re left to pick up the pieces.”

  “Luckily I don’t know what that’s like,” Sharon said, her words practically seething out of her mouth. “Now why don’t you tell me why your sister felt compelled to take something that belongs to me since she of all people should be familiar with the phrase, Thou shall not steal.”

  Feeling more at ease knowing that she was making Sharon incredibly uncomfortable, Alberta started to walk around the room stopping only when she got to the window and looked outside. She had an unobstructed view of Nola’s classroom and could still see the brown patch of grass just outside her window. There were two school chairs in the corner of Sharon’s office, there either because the school didn’t have sufficient storage space or because they were used by students if they had detention, but Alberta realized she hadn’t sat in one of those chairs in decades. It would be fun to give one a try now.

  She placed her purse on the desk and sat in the chair, and was immediately flooded with memories from her own high school days. She enjoyed those days, but wouldn’t relive them if her life depended on it. The thought snapped her out of her reverie because she realized Nola’s life could very well depend on her next comments.

  “I asked you a question, Mrs. Scaglione,” Sharon barked, sounding very much like a stereotypical harsh schoolmarm.

  “Please don’t take that tone with my grandmother,” Jinx replied, sitting in the seat next to Alberta.

  Sharon clenched her fist and shook it at Jinx. “Don’t you get all self-righteous with me! I know why the both of you are here!”

  A bit startled by Sharon’s outburst, but hardly undeterred, Jinx spat back, “Then why don’t you share that piece of information with us instead of trying to be all holier-than-thou?”

  “You’re here to try and save your friend!”

  “Don’t you mean your daughter?”

  Alberta’s question, quietly asked, seemed to suck all the air out of the room. Sharon’s fist fell to her side, her hand limp, and it looked for a second as if her body was going to continue on and fall to the ground, but she found the strength to remain standing. She wasn’t yet ready to reply though.

  “Thanks, in part, to my sister swiping your yearbook when we were last here,” Alberta explained. “We were able to deduce that Sharon Rose Inchiosa, Rose Wood, and Sharon Basco are all one and the same: Nola’s mother.”

  Pressing her fingers onto the edge of her desk to steady herself, Sharon seemed to be fighting against the
energy swarming throughout her body. She looked like she wanted to run from the room, but something kept her stationary. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “We have proof, Sharon,” Jinx said. “We know that you gave up your baby to Catholic Charities in Ireland and we know that your child was then adopted by the Kirkpatricks in New Jersey. Nola is your daughter.”

  Sharon’s face went white and she opened her mouth to speak, but Alberta beat her to it.

  “Don’t try to deny it,” Alberta said. “The date of your baby’s birth and Nola’s line up so it’s really easy to connect the dots.”

  “Even if that were true,” Sharon said, each word sounding as if it were pulled out of her mouth against her will. “That information is classified.”

  “You are right about that,” Alberta agreed. “And we don’t plan on sharing it with anyone. As long as you agree to admit to your crimes so your daughter can be set free. You don’t have to reveal that you’re Nola’s mother if you’d prefer not to, you can keep your secret, but you need to tell the police that you killed Jonah and Kichiro.”

  Suddenly, Sharon let go of any remaining professional or proper façade and lunged at Alberta like an animal who had finally been uncaged and was ready to confront its malicious captor. She slammed her hands down on the student desk with such force that Alberta’s purse toppled to the floor. Despite her attempt at remaining stalwart and tough, Alberta leaned back as far as she could to put distance between herself and the rage that was emanating from Sharon’s eyes.

  “Are you insane?” Sharon screeched.

  Against her better judgment, Alberta toyed with the tigress. “No, but you’re a murderer.”

  Infuriated, Sharon grabbed the desk and actually lifted it and the seat containing Alberta about an inch off the ground before letting it crash down back onto the floor. Alberta had to hold on to the side of the chair or risk falling onto the floor. Just when she thought the altercation was about to get physical, Sharon retreated back to her desk. Alberta thought it was because Jinx had gotten up and was about to join in the fight, but it was because Sharon was trying to control her frenzied anger.

  “The two of you need to leave now.”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” Jinx asserted. “You’re not getting off that easy after what you’ve done.”

  “The only thing I’ve done . . . look, you should both go now before it’s too late,” Sharon ordered ominously.

  “Are you threatening us?” Jinx asked.

  Sharon’s eyes hardened and lost any sign of life almost as if rigor mortis had set in on only one part of her body. “I’m warning you.”

  “Sorry to tell you, Sharon, but we’re Sicilian so we don’t scare that easily,” Alberta scoffed.

  “And we’re not leaving until you confess,” Jinx retorted.

  “The only thing I’m guilty of is . . . having an affair,” Sharon said, choking on her own emotion. “Of loving Kichiro and being a coward not to leave my husband. That’s it, nothing more!”

  “And making your daughter cover up for you!” Jinx shouted. “How disgusting is that? How evil are you?”

  “If you know what’s good for you . . . leave!”

  “Your daughter is rotting in a jail cell and will probably be convicted for life for killing two people that you murdered!” Jinx bellowed, unable to contain her own fury.

  “I told you I didn’t kill anyone!”

  “And we believe you.”

  In response to Alberta’s unexpected comment, both Sharon and Jinx looked at Alberta wild-eyed and suspicious. Jinx took a step back from Alberta as if afraid to become contaminated by whatever spell she must be under to give voice to such an absurd thought. Sharon stood behind her desk clutching the vase as if she were getting ready to throw it at Alberta’s face.

  “Gram, what are you saying?”

  “Trust me, lovey, no mother would let her daughter rot in jail if she were able to change things even if the mother never held her child a day in her life.”

  Appalled by her grandmother’s change of heart, Jinx was reluctant to agree. “Gram, I know that you wouldn’t allow your daughter or any member of your family to take the fall for you, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s like that.”

  “Il sangue non è acqua,” Alberta said. “Do you know what that means, Sharon?”

  Before answering, Sharon quickly glanced to her right, and Jinx thought she was looking for a way out of the room, but Alberta knew exactly what she was doing.

  “Yes, Alberta, blood is thicker than water,” Sharon replied. “And if you understand that, you’ll understand that it’s best that you leave. Right . . . now!”

  “Do not try to bully us the way you bullied Nola,” Jinx seethed.

  “She’s not bullying anyone, Jinx, she’s protecting someone,” Alberta said as calmly as possible.

  “Yeah, herself!”

  “No, she’s protecting her sister,” Alberta replied.

  “Her what?”

  Jinx couldn’t believe what Alberta was saying and thought for sure that her grandmother was joking, but she looked deadly serious. She sounded as serious as she looked.

  “Why don’t you come out of the closet now?”

  Sharon and Jinx looked at Alberta like she had officially gone crazy, but when the closet door opened, it revealed Lori looking at Alberta like she was the smartest woman she had ever met.

  Unfortunately, when Alberta saw that Lori was aiming a gun directly at her, she felt like the dumbest.

  CHAPTER 22

  Per nascondersi a vista.

  “Sisters?” Jinx shrieked.

  Sharon looked almost as stunned by Alberta’s proclamation as Jinx did, but her silence was all Alberta needed to confirm her assumption. That and the bemused expression on Lori’s face. But even though Lori appeared to be impressed with Alberta’s clever deduction, she was curious that the woman was able to discover her secret.

  “I guess you’re not the dumb old broad I thought you were,” Lori remarked.

  Alberta wasn’t sure if she should be slightly insulted or slightly appreciative. “Thank you . . . I think.”

  “I mean it,” Lori added. “How did you figure it out when the rest of the stunods in this town, cops included, don’t have an inkling?”

  “Yeah, Gram, I’d like to know that, too.”

  “There were a few clues along the way that by themselves meant nothing, but together they started to create a picture that was filled with one too many coincidences,” Alberta explained.

  Moving into the room and closing the closet door shut behind her with her foot, Lori sat behind Sharon’s desk, leaned back, and propped her feet up on the desk, never dropping the gun from its aim, which was directly at Alberta’s chest. “We have some time, why don’t you elucidate?” Lori said. “You do know what ‘elucidate’ means, don’t you?”

  “There’s no reason to be a bitch, Lori,” Sharon admonished.

  “Why not, she’s already a murderer!” Jinx cried. “Twice!”

  “And you’re a lousy investigative reporter,” Lori snapped. “Let’s hear how Grandma Moses figured out I’m Sharon’s sister and maybe you’ll learn something.”

  Waving the gun in Alberta’s direction, Lori gave the floor to her so she could describe how she uncovered a secret the two women clearly wanted to keep buried.

  “First, I noticed that you both wear your watches facedown, with the face of the watch on the inside of your wrist and not on top,” Alberta started. “It’s uncommon in women so when I saw that both of you wore your watches that way it stuck out in my mind.”

  “Good eye,” Lori said. “Continue.”

  “Then, I noticed that you both have the same blue and white porcelain design in your offices,” Alberta resumed. “Lori had a vase filled with roses and so did you, Sharon. You even have an identical replacement vase with the same kind of flowers. And Nola also had a porcelain bowl in her office that she said was a gift; I assume it was from
you, Sharon.”

  “So what if it was?” the woman replied.

  “The design itself isn’t unusual and can be bought at any home decorator store, but it stuck out in both your offices and seemed to go against the rest of the design,” Alberta elaborated. “I’m guessing that the blue and white design holds some sentimental value for you both.”

  “Our mother collected Chinese porcelain,” Sharon offered. “Both those pieces were from our mother’s large, but far from expensive, collection.”

  “I knew it,” Alberta said. “You were very upset, Lori, when the vase almost broke in your office and when yours broke, Sharon, you burst into tears and had to leave the room.”

  “Our mother didn’t leave us very much when she died,” Sharon said.

  “Except a mountain of debt,” Lori added.

  “That wasn’t her fault, Lori, and you know it,” Sharon spat.

  “She allowed Daddy to live beyond their means, cash in his insurance policy, get a reverse mortgage,” Lori rattled on. “It’s entirely her fault. I don’t want to talk about her, I want smarty-pants to continue. And I’m not being arbitrary, Alberta, you really are much smarter than I gave you credit for.”

  “Even though the two of you really don’t look anything alike, there are some minor similarities that can’t be missed,” Alberta said. “Like some characteristics that my sister Helen and I share.”

  “Such as?” Lori asked.

  “You both have the odd habit of signing your name by writing out the first letter in cursive, but printing the rest, I noticed that when you signed the toxicology report and it’s how Sharon signed her name underneath her picture in her yearbook,” Alberta pointed out. “Like I said, physically you really don’t resemble each other, but you share some identical characteristics like your noses. They’re both quite small. On Sharon it isn’t so noticeable, but on Lori it stands out against the rest of her features.”