Out of Tune

by Norah McClintock

  “She wouldn’t have asked me if she wasn’t desperate.” That, of course, was no guarantee that she hadn’t done it. But she’d seemed sincere to me. Sincere and scared and alone. “I just couldn’t say no.”

  Ashleigh sighed. “I guess I’m not surprised. But seriously, Riley, who else besides Carrie would have wanted to kill Alicia? Everyone knows she was insanely jealous when Alicia got the last spot in the youth orchestra.”

  That was, of course, the jackpot question. I gazed out over the athletic field, which was when I saw them. I shoved my half-eaten sandwich back into my lunch bag and ran down the bleacher steps. “Meet at my locker after school,” I called back to Ashleigh.

  If she answered, I didn’t hear her.

  I caught up with Tina and Desiree just as they stepped off the athletic field and onto the ancient asphalt tarmac that surrounded the rear half of the school. I had to call Tina’s name three times before I got her attention.

  “What?” She spun around to see who was harassing her.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Well, I don’t need to talk to you.” She turned away, grabbing Desiree by the elbow and dragging her along.

  “Carrie asked me to help her,” I called after them.

  Desiree stopped to face me. “You talked to Carrie? I keep trying her cell, but I don’t think it’s turned on. When I called her house, no one answered. I left a message, but she never called me back. Is she all right?”

  Tina shot her a scornful look. “She didn’t talk to Carrie. She doesn’t even know Carrie. Don’t you know who she is? Her aunt is that new lady cop.” She turned vicious eyes on me. “Did your aunt send you to pump us for information? Because if she did, you’re wasting your time. We’re not going to help you send Carrie to prison.”

  “I spoke to her this morning.” I focused on Desiree, who seemed more open to listening to me. “She asked me to help her. She says she didn’t do it.” I glanced at Tina. “You told the police about the shoving match between Carrie and Alicia, didn’t you?”

  Tina’s face turned scarlet.

  “What shoving match?” Desiree asked. “What are you talking about?” She turned to Tina. “What did you do, Tina? What did you tell the cops?”

  “Nothing. I didn’t tell them anything.” Her eyes zeroed in on me. “If anyone ratted Carrie out, it was your friend Ashleigh.”

  “Ratted Carrie out?” Desiree’s eyes brimmed with concern. “You’re talking like you think she did it.”

  “Of course I don’t think that.” Tina glowered at me.

  “What do you know about the note?” I asked.

  “What note?” Tina said. “A fictional note she might have written to me?”

  “You know what note. Everyone’s been talking about it. The note that was found in the music room.”

  “I just know what I heard,” Tina said.

  “Did Carrie ever write you a note that said she wanted to kill Alicia?”

  “So what if she did? Notes are notes.”

  “Did you tell the police about any of those notes?”

  “I never saw a note like the one you’re talking about.”

  “Who else did she pass notes to?”

  “You’re assuming she even passed that note,” Tina said. “Maybe she wrote it and decided not to pass it. Maybe she was just fooling around.”

  “Do you and Carrie write a lot of notes?”

  “They do in music class,” Desiree said. Tina shot her a nasty look, which Desiree ignored. “Mr. Todd makes everyone shut off their cell phones and put them at the front of the room. A lot of people write notes in his class.”

  “Yeah.” Tina crossed her arms over her chest as if that ended the matter. “A lot of people write notes in that class.”

  This was getting me nowhere. I tried another tack.

  “Did either of you see Alicia after school the day she disappeared?”

  “No.” They said it in unison.

  “What about Carrie?”

  “I saw her at her locker after school,” Tina volunteered, albeit grudgingly and only after Desiree turned to her to hear her answer.

  “Did she say anything about where she was going or what she was going to do?”

  “No. But she was in a hurry.”

  “You told me you saw her, but you didn’t tell me that,” Desiree said, frowning.

  “Well, she was. I don’t tell you every little thing, do I? Besides, I just remembered it now.” She thought for a few seconds. “I saw Carrie at her locker after school. She was jamming stuff into her backpack. I waited for her, but she said she was in a rush and she was taking the back stairs.”

  The back stairs led to the athletic field. The road on the other side of the athletic field led, eventually, to the woods where Alicia had been found.

  “That’s all I know,” Tina said. “I told the cops that same thing I just told you.”

  “She didn’t say where she was going or what the rush was?”

  Tina shook her head.

  We were all silent. I glanced at Desiree, whose mouth hung open. She looked as if someone had just smacked her on the head.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “Did I see Carrie or talk to her?” She shook her head. “I do Reading Buddies on Wednesdays, same as Alicia. I left school as soon as the bell rang so I could get to the library on time.”

  I’d heard of Reading Buddies. The whole school knew about it. It was a program run by the library. It recruited high school students to help kids in elementary school with their reading. Each volunteer met with their little charges twice a week. A lot of kids volunteered so they could get the community-service hours they needed to graduate.

  “So Alicia was at the library that day?”

  “She was supposed to be.”

  “Did you see her?”

  Desiree shook her head. “But that doesn’t mean anything. She could have been in a different room from me.”

  They had nothing else to tell me. Desiree asked me to say hi if I saw Carrie again. Tina just grunted. I wondered where Carrie had been going in such a rush. She’d told me she’d gone home to do her homework. Had she lied to me?

  Ashleigh was leaning against my locker, checking her phone, at the end of the school day. She pocketed the phone and moved aside when she saw me.

  “Well?”

  “Tina says she didn’t tell the police about the shoving match. But they knew, Ashleigh.”

  “I swear I didn’t tell them. Honest.” She raised one hand as if she were taking an oath. “Although I’m not going to lie to you. I thought about it. Remember Monday when your aunt and Taylor’s dad were at school all day, talking to all of Alicia’s friends? I must have walked by the office ten times. I mean, you’re supposed to tell them what you know, right? But I didn’t, and I don’t even like Carrie, so go figure.”

  “Tina says she didn’t tell them either. But someone sure did. Was there anyone else around, Ashleigh? Did you see anyone watching besides Tina?”

  Ashleigh shook her head. “And I’m pretty sure I would have noticed. The school was practically empty when it happened.”

  I wondered what my chances were of getting Aunt Ginny to tell me who that witness was.

  “If you were going to kill someone, wouldn’t you at least make sure you had an alibi?” I asked. “Carrie doesn’t have one. She said so to the police.”

  “Maybe she doesn’t have an alibi because she didn’t know she was going to do it. Maybe it was a crime of passion. She found out that Alicia got the position, and she got angry and killed her without thinking.”

  “It’s possible.” When you came right down to it, almost anything was possible. “But seriously. Killing someone because they got a spot in a youth orchestra and you didn’t?”

  “Carrie wants to get into a good music program at university. She wants to be a professional musician. She already has the diva personality for it. Getting that spot in the orchestra would have given her a big advan
tage in getting accepted to the program of her choice. I hate to admit it, but the word is that she’s pretty good.”

  “But Alicia was better.”

  “According to Mr. Todd she was. I guess he would know.”

  I made a mental note to talk to him too. He knew both girls from school and from the orchestra. He might have observed something between them that might help Carrie. Or that might hurt her. I knew Ashleigh thought I was crazy to believe Carrie, but I couldn’t understand why she would ask me to help her prove her innocence if she had really done it.

  I finished gathering my things and closed my locker.

  “So, where are we going?” she asked.

  “To the library. Alicia was supposed to volunteer the afternoon she disappeared. I want to find out if she showed up.”

  The Moorebridge Public Library was a fairly large and well-stocked building, considering the size of the town. A lot of people used its computers for Internet access, and the library building hosted a wide variety of hobby clubs and associations. It was one of the town’s social hubs.

  I went straight to the information desk to ask about the Reading Buddies program and was directed to Mrs. Burns in the children’s department on the lower floor.

  “Hey.” Ashleigh came to an abrupt halt on the step in front of me. I almost fell over her. “That’s Brendan Mitchell,” she whispered. “Isn’t he gorgeous? I babysit his little brother during the curling season.” She waved and called out “Hi, Brendan. Hi, Zak” as she breezed over to them.

  Brendan Mitchell was, as advertised, gorgeous—thick brown hair, wide shoulders, tall, lean and fit in blue jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket. He was squatting in front of a small boy, whom I took to be his little brother. The boy was crying. Brendan held him by both shoulders and spoke softly to him. Ashleigh crouched down beside Brendan.

  “Hi, Zak.” Her voice was soft and soothing.

  Zak kept his chin where it was, on his chest. He gazed stubbornly at the floor.

  “Hey, what’s the matter?” Ashleigh asked him.

  No answer. At least, not from Zak.

  “Zak is sad,” Brendan said. He squeezed his little brother’s shoulder again. “I’m sad too, Zak. So is Ashleigh. Everyone who knew Alicia is sad. But you know she would have wanted you to keep reading. You know how important that was to her.”

  Zak shook his head. “I don’t want to read without Alicia.”

  “Mrs. Burns has someone else who is going to help you. Her name is Shawna. I know her. She’s in my chemistry class. She’s nice. You’ll like her.”

  The little boy shook his head again. He crossed his arms firmly over his chest and looked down at the scuffed toes of his Velcro-sealed sneakers.

  “Please, Zak?” Brendan said. “Just give it a try?”

  The boy was a compact block of grumpy determination. He refused to budge.

  “What if Ashleigh comes with us?” Brendan said, glancing at Ashleigh to see if she would agree.

  Zak looked up tearfully at Ashleigh. She took one of his hands in hers. Brendan took the other and opened the door to the children’s library. They were almost bowled over by a woman who rushed out without watching where she was going. Maybe she couldn’t see properly. She was wearing dark glasses and a big floppy hat with a brim that fell over her forehead. Her head was bowed. She muttered, “Sorry” as she hurried past us.

  Ashleigh clucked in disgust. “Well, excuse me, I’m sure,” she muttered.

  I stepped aside to give the woman clear access to the stairs and then followed Ashleigh and Brendan into the children’s library.

  Brendan went first to a woman at the service counter, Ashleigh a step behind, still holding Zak’s hand. The woman at the counter, who I assumed was Mrs. Burns, bent down to speak to Zak. She pointed out a girl sitting at one of the library tables. I recognized the girl from school, but she was ahead of me, so I didn’t know her. I’m not sure how Mrs. Burns did it, but she managed to convince Zak to meet Shawna. Brendan and Ashleigh walked him over, and Shawna either knew what she was doing or was just lucky, because after a couple of minutes Zak sat down at the table with her and the two of them started to talk. Brendan and Ashleigh came back to the desk.

  “I think you can leave him,” Mrs. Burns said. “It looks like he might be willing to give Shawna a chance.”

  “I think I’ll wait outside,” Brendan said. “Just in case.”

  Ashleigh looked longingly at Brendan as he left his brother and walked to the door, but she stayed with me. I introduced myself to Mrs. Burns.

  “Are you interested in being a Reading Buddy?” she asked.

  “Not exactly. I wanted to ask you about Alicia Allen.”

  Mrs. Burns sighed. “Dear Alicia. The children adored her.” She nodded at a crayon drawing on her desk. “See this? One of the mothers dropped it off just a minute ago.” I wondered if it was the woman in the floppy hat. “Her little boy did it. It’s for Alicia, and as far as I know, that child was with her just the one time. That’s the kind of impression she made on her little readers.” She gazed at the picture and sighed. “I think I’ll give it to Alicia’s parents. And Alicia was doing a marvelous job with Zak too.” She directed this to Ashleigh. “She really drew him out of his shell. I hope I can convince him not to give up.”

  “Was Alicia here last Wednesday, Mrs. Burns?”

  The children’s librarian shook her head. “The police asked me the same question. I wish she had been here. Then maybe what happened to her wouldn’t have happened at all.” She wiped a tear from the corner of one eye.

  “Did she say why she couldn’t make it?”

  “That’s the odd thing. Alicia was one of the most conscientious volunteers I’ve ever had. She almost never missed a session. She understood how important it was to show up regularly if she expected her reading buddies to take the program seriously. The one and only time she ever missed was when she was sick. She called that time to let me know. She called all of the kids’ moms too to let them know.”

  “Did she call last week?”

  She shook her head again. “But she sent a replacement.” She nodded to Shawna, who was still talking to Zak. “It turns out she’s a permanent replacement.”

  “You got her to agree to fill in for Alicia for the year?” I said.

  “I didn’t get her to agree. Alicia did. Apparently, Alicia recruited Shawna to take over for her. It’s almost as if she knew something bad was going to happen to her.” She shuddered.

  “Did Alicia tell you why she decided to leave the program?”

  “No. She never said a thing. It came as a complete surprise when Shawna showed up and told me she was subbing for Alicia. I kept expecting Alicia to call me and let me know what was going on. It didn’t seem like her not to explain why she was quitting—and so suddenly.” A few more tears appeared, and she blotted them with a tissue. “I’m going to miss her. She was great with the kids. She knew how to draw out the shy ones and keep the wilder ones under control. Her Saturday-morning story time was really popular. The children are really going to miss her.”

  Another little boy had joined Shawna and Zak, and the two boys were coloring a picture from one of the books on the table. Shawna stepped away from them long enough to tell me that she’d agreed to take over for Alicia. “I still need my community-service hours for graduation,” she said. “Alicia told me all about Reading Buddies and said if I had a kid brother, which I do, then I’d be fine. She made it sound like fun. And, like I said, I need the hours to graduate.”

  “When exactly did Alicia ask you to take over for her?”

  “Last week sometime.”

  “Do you remember which day?”

  She thought for a moment. “Tuesday, I think.”

  “Are you sure it was Tuesday?” The day before she’d disappeared.

  “Pretty sure. I was on my way to the dentist when she stopped me. I hate going to the dentist. You ever see that movie where the bad guy is a dentist who’s really an
ex-Nazi, and he tortures this guy by drilling holes in his teeth?” She shuddered at the thought.

  “Did she say why she was quitting?” I asked.

  Shawna shook her head. She obviously didn’t know anything else.

  So what did I know now that I didn’t know before? The day before she’d been murdered, Alicia had decided to quit volunteering for Reading Buddies permanently. But why? And why hadn’t she explained either to Mrs. Burns or to the girl she’d recruited to replace her?

  I rejoined Ashleigh, and we left the children’s library. Or, rather, I was following Ashleigh out the door of the children’s library when she stopped dead in front of me—again.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “Look.”

  Brendan Mitchell was out in the hall waiting for Zak, just like he’d said he would. But he wasn’t alone. Tina was with him. They were talking. Or, rather, Tina was talking and Brendan was looking at the library door, probably worrying about how his brother was doing.

  I nudged Ashleigh. She started moving again, and when we reached Brendan she stopped and said, “It looks like Zak is settling in fine.”

  “I’m glad we ran into you, Ashleigh,” Brendan said. “I wasn’t making much progress until you showed up.”

  Ashleigh shot a triumphant look at Tina. “I was glad to help,” she said.

  Tina glowered at her.

  Brendan flashed a smile of gratitude that seemed to buckle Ashleigh’s knees. No doubt about it, he was a hot-looking guy. I bet a lot of girls were interested in him.

  The children’s library door opened. Mrs. Burns searched out Brendan.

  “I don’t know what happened,” she said. “Everything seemed to be going smoothly when all of a sudden Zak started crying. He says he wants his brother. He says he wants to go home.”

  Brendan dashed into the library. Tina scowled.