Out of Tune

by Norah McClintock

  “Tina had a job last summer doing data entry at the office where Marion works. She says she heard Marion on the phone to Edward one day. She was complaining about Carrie. She told him that if she’d had any idea how Carrie was going to turn out, she never would have agreed to be her guardian, much less tell everyone Carrie was her daughter. She asked why Carrie couldn’t have turned out more like Alicia. Tina told Carrie.” She sighed.

  “Up until then, Carrie and Alicia were friends. They had the same music teacher after school. They were both in the school orchestra and the youth orchestra. They even practiced together sometimes. But all that stopped as soon as Tina told Carrie what she’d heard. Seriously, if Tina had kept her mouth shut, I don’t think Carrie would have had such a big problem with Alicia getting the position. But Tina kept running down Alicia, and all of a sudden Carrie saw Alicia as a rival instead of a friend. If you ask me, Tina knew what she was doing. She’s the one who had a problem with Alicia, not Carrie. Tina was the one who was really jealous.”

  “Why are you telling me this, Desiree?”

  “Tina and Carrie passed notes back and forth in music class all the time. I saw them. Sure, they were totally juvenile, and I don’t doubt Carrie wrote that note the cops found. But Tina wrote notes too. And they were just as bad. Maybe even worse.”

  “What did they usually do with the notes after class?”

  “I don’t know. Put them in their pockets, I guess. Or threw them in the garbage.”

  That’s what I would have thought too.

  “So how do you think Carrie’s note got into some kid’s music?”

  My thinking was that someone must have put it there, because it sure didn’t crawl in there all by itself.

  “I don’t know.”

  The note had gone from Carrie’s hand to Tina’s. It was Tina’s to dispose of. Instead of throwing it away or slipping it into her pocket, had she slid it between the pages of a music score? It was the only explanation I could think of for how it had gotten there. But why would Tina do that to a friend?

  “If you see Carrie again, tell her to be careful of Tina, that’s all,” Desiree said.

  “Do you think Tina could have had anything to do with Alicia’s death?”

  “Tina?” She looked at me with troubled eyes. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” She bit her lower lip. “The cops say Carrie doesn’t have an alibi. Well, neither does Tina. I texted her that afternoon after school. I had forgotten to write down our English homework assignment. She didn’t answer me until late that night.”

  “Maybe she didn’t get the text right away.”

  She was shaking her head before I finished talking.

  “Tina always has her phone on. Always. She checks it constantly. And answers right away. And never with just one text. You text her a simple question and all of a sudden you’re in this whole long text conversation with her. But she didn’t answer right away that day. I thought maybe her phone was out of power, so I called her house. No one answered. There was no one home.”

  “Did you ask her about it?”

  “She said she took a nap after school.”

  “You don’t believe her?”

  “Tina take a nap? Are you kidding? She’s practically hyperactive. If she’s not texting, she’s on Facebook or Instagram. She likes to check up on what everyone else is up to. Especially Brendan.”

  “Desiree, did the police talk to you about Alicia?”

  She nodded.

  “Did you tell them what you just told me?”

  “No way. I’m not going to accuse Tina of anything unless I’m one hundred percent sure that she did it. And I’m not. She wouldn’t do it. She’s not a murderer.”

  “But you think Carrie isn’t either.”

  She hesitated, but finally shook her head. “They’re both my friends. I just don’t know.”

  When we rejoined the rest of the guests in the refreshment room, the place was abuzz with whispers. Ashleigh waved at me from the sweets table. She made her way toward us. She was carrying a couple of chocolate-frosted brownies on a paper napkin.

  “Where were you?” she demanded. “I looked for you everywhere.”

  “What’s going on?” The buzz was turning into a hubbub. Over by the coffee urns, Mrs. Allen was clinging to Mr. Allen as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “They made an arrest,” Ashleigh said.

  “Who?”

  “Who do you think? Carrie.”

  EIGHT

  Desiree’s face turned chalk white.

  “Where’s Tina?” she asked.

  “She left a few minutes ago,” Ashleigh said. “With Brendan Mitchell.”

  “I have to find her.” Desiree looked around wildly. “I have to tell her.” She hurried away. Ashleigh was ready to go too.

  “I talked to the parents. I signed the book. I sat through the speeches. My work here is done,” she declared.

  “What about Charlie?” I asked.

  “He was just here.”

  I looked around but didn’t see him anywhere. I texted him. He was already at home. I called my aunt next. When I told her I was ready to go home, she said she was tied up at work and asked if I could stay overnight with Ashleigh.

  “I probably won’t be able to get away for hours,” she said.

  I guessed it had something to do with the arrest.

  Ashleigh and I decided to walk to her house.

  “So,” Ashleigh said, “it looks like Carrie did it after all.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.” I filled her in on everything Desiree had told me.

  “What are you saying?” Ashleigh said. “Do you think Tina did it?”

  “Tina had a motive,” I said. “She was insanely jealous of Alicia, especially when Brendan Mitchell got interested in her.”

  “You scratch just about any female in school, and you’ll find someone who was insanely jealous of Alicia but won’t admit it,” Ashleigh said. “Who isn’t jealous of perfection?”

  “As far as we know, you and Tina were the only people who saw the shoving match between Alicia and Carrie. The police knew about it, and since you didn’t tell them, Tina must have. Then there’s the note. Carrie wrote the note to Tina. Tina was the last person to have it in her hand, yet it conveniently ended up in some sheet music where someone was bound to find it.”

  “The sheet music is in the music room. It’s in big stacks, and everyone takes one when they get to class,” Ashleigh said. Unlike me, she took music.

  “Tina must have planted that note. She wanted someone to find it.”

  “You’re saying she framed Carrie?”

  I was definitely leaning in that direction. “I’m saying that she’s as likely a suspect as Carrie is. She was jealous of Alicia. She egged Carrie on. She poisoned Carrie against Alicia.”

  “I don’t suppose she has an alibi for the day Alicia disappeared, does she?”

  “Not according to Desiree. And you saw the way she acted while we were out searching for Alicia that morning. She was chattering about fashion! She wasn’t paying much attention to what she was supposed to be doing. And from what Desiree told me, she made nasty comments about Alicia all the time. She wanted Carrie to get all worked up just like she was. She wanted an ally against Alicia. And, Ashleigh, both Desiree and Tina know I’m in contact with Carrie, but Desiree is the only one who’s asked me how Carrie is doing and who wanted to send a message to her. Tina hasn’t approached me at all.”

  “That sounds like motive to me,” Ashleigh said.

  “Sounds like? It is motive.” It was all so clear.

  “Did she talk to the cops?”

  I nodded. Tina had told me so the first time I spoke to her.

  “I bet she told them how Carrie felt about Alicia. But I bet she kept her own feelings to herself,” I said. It was obvious. The police had arrested Carrie and left Tina alone. “Tina’s alibi isn’t any better than Carrie’s. She says she was taking a nap.”

  “So
what are you going to do? Talk to your aunt?”

  With Carrie under arrest, it was going to take more than guesswork to get Aunt Ginny to look at a different suspect. I was going to have to do better than that. I was going to have to break Tina’s alibi.

  I tossed and turned all night on the fold-out bed that Ashleigh’s father had set up for me. It had nothing to do with the bed, which was surprisingly comfortable. What kept me awake while Ashleigh snored gently in her bed nearby was Carrie and Tina and what Desiree had told me.

  Given her past, it wasn’t hard to see Carrie as insecure and eager to be liked and admired, to be accepted by her friends if not by her so-called parents. Nor was it hard to imagine her being manipulated by Tina into seeing Alicia as an enemy and an obstacle to achieving what she wanted. But would she have killed Alicia to get her out of the way? And was she scheming enough to beg me for my help if she had really done it? She’d been cooperative too. She had answered all of my questions. She’d volunteered the information about the quarrel with Alicia. She’d admitted to writing the note. She’d confessed her envy of Alicia and attributed her success to favoritism, even though everyone else felt that Alicia was simply the more talented of the two. And what about the day of the search? If she had really killed Alicia, would she have called attention to herself by coming to see why Charlie had stopped? Would she have reacted the way she did, practically going into shock, if she’d been the one who had killed Alicia?

  And then there was Tina. Tina who whispered nasty things about Alicia in Carrie’s ear all the time. Tina who claimed it was favoritism, not talent, that led to Alicia winning a spot in the national youth orchestra. Tina who had lied to me about telling the police she had witnessed a fight between Carrie and Alicia. Tina who had been the recipient of the damning note written by Carrie. Tina who had not disposed of the note as she usually did, so that somehow it had been found and used against Carrie. Tina who had a crush on Brendan Mitchell, who himself had eyes only for Alicia. Tina who had been dogging Brendan ever since. Where exactly had Tina been the day that Alicia disappeared?

  I borrowed an outfit from Ashleigh the next morning, which wasn’t easy because she’s taller than me, with narrower shoulders. She also wears clothes that aren’t my style. I ended up in rolled-up jeans and a slouchy powder-blue sweater.

  “It looks better on you than it does on me,” Ashleigh said as she appraised me.

  We had a quick breakfast and left for school. The walk from Ashleigh’s house wasn’t long. It took ten minutes. I wished that Aunt Ginny had rented a house in town instead of a couple of miles outside of it. It would have made my life easier. We met Charlie on the way. I wished there was some way I could find out where Tina had been the day Alicia disappeared, and I finally said so the third time Charlie asked me what was bothering me.

  “It’s like you’re a million miles away,” he said.

  “She still thinks Carrie didn’t do it.” Ashleigh’s tone made it clear that she did not share my faith in someone who had just been formally arrested.

  “I know Alicia didn’t show up for Reading Buddies that afternoon. She had already arranged for a replacement. A permanent replacement, which means she had decided to quit the program. But so far I haven’t found anyone who knows why. So if she didn’t go to Reading Buddies and she didn’t go home, where did she go?”

  “Um, to the woods,” Ashleigh said, as if I had forgotten.

  “What if Tina followed her?”

  “Followed her and killed her?”

  I nodded grimly and wondered what Aunt Ginny did when she was faced with situations like this. Probably she talked to everyone she could think of, anyone who might have seen the suspect that day. In this case, that would mean every single teacher, student and staff member who was at school that day. That was what she was paid to do. That was what her job and her badge gave her the authority to do. But it wasn’t something that I could easily manage. It seemed like an insurmountable obstacle.

  I barely paid attention in class all morning. Was I right to believe in Carrie? Was Tina the instigator I believed her to be? How could I find out where she’d gone after school the day Alicia died?

  At lunch, I sat in the cafeteria with Ashleigh and poked listlessly at the egg-salad sandwich Ashleigh’s mother had kindly made for me.

  “Hey, my mom makes the best egg sandwiches ever! And this bread? Omigod, you have to taste it.” Ashleigh took a huge bite of hers.

  I was lifting my sandwich to my mouth, more out of consideration for Ashleigh and her mom than because I was hungry, when someone shouted my name.

  It was Charlie.

  He wove like a dancer through the maze of tables and kids.

  “Come on.” He grabbed me by the arm and started to drag me to my feet. “Come on, hurry up.”

  “What the—” Ashleigh began.

  Charlie, red-faced and covered with a sheen of sweat, was breathing faster than usual. I deduced that he had been in a big rush to find me. Whatever he wanted to show me—and it seemed pretty clear he wanted to show me something—was pretty important.

  “It’s okay,” I said to Ashleigh. “I’ll be right back.” I glanced at Charlie. “I will be back, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now come on.” He grabbed my hand and hustled me out of the cafeteria and through one of the rear exits. He didn’t stop when we got outside. If anything, he sped up, moving fast toward the rear of the athletic field. He didn’t stop until we reached a gray-haired man in work overalls who was preparing the frame for what I could now see was going to be a walkway that joined the back of the school to the street behind it. A broad, shallow trench had already been dug, and the man was hammering wooden frames into it with a heavy mallet. He paused when he saw Charlie and wiped his brow with the sleeve of his work shirt.

  “You back again?” He smiled good-naturedly at Charlie.

  “This is my friend Riley,” Charlie said between gasps for air. “Riley, this is Mr. Dvorak.”

  “Riley, huh?” He shook my hand with a firm, dry grip. “Not the famous Riley Donovan who makes headlines in the Pioneer.” The Moorebridge Pioneer is the weekly newspaper. “Pleased to meet you, young lady.”

  “Tell Riley what you told me.” Charlie’s eyes were glistening with excitement. He started talking again before Mr. Dvorak could speak. “Mr. Dvorak is working on a walkway. He’s been working on it for nearly two weeks.”

  “Seven school days so far,” Mr. Dvorak said.

  Seven school days ago was last Wednesday. I looked at him with new interest.

  “He was out here after school the day Alicia disappeared.” Charlie’s whole body thrummed with excitement. He couldn’t seem to keep still. “He saw all the kids that came out the back way that day.”

  Seeing a bunch of kids was one thing. Remembering them all with certainty was another. I looked skeptically at the man. He was in his sixties at the very least. How reliable was his memory? How good was his eyesight?

  “Go ahead, Mr. Dvorak,” Charlie urged. “Tell her what you saw.”

  “What part in particular?”

  “The part about seeing Tina.”

  “You saw Tina after school on Wednesday?” I asked.

  “I sure did.”

  “She came out the back way? She went past you?”

  He nodded again.

  “He saw her.” Charlie puffed up with pride. “He saw Tina go out the back after school on Wednesday. She could have been headed for the woods, Riley.”

  “Nah, I don’t think so,” Mr. Dvorak said.

  Charlie stared at him, stunned. I guess he’d been so excited about finding someone who had seen Tina that he had come to get me without asking any more questions.

  “Are you sure it was Tina?” I asked.

  Mr. Dvorak’s eyes twinkled. “Sure I’m sure. I’ve known Tina most of her life. I’ve known most of these kids most of their lives. I’m in charge of both the elementary school and the high school, so I see kids from the time they s
tart school until they graduate.”

  “And you’re sure it was last Wednesday?”

  He exchanged glances with Charlie before he said, “I’m sure as rain in April. I was out here measuring and setting my stakes, and I saw her.”

  “But you don’t think she was headed for the woods,” I said. “How come?”

  “Because of what she was doing.”

  “Which was?”

  “She was following someone. She was trying hard to look like she wasn’t, but she was. She definitely was.”

  My heart fluttered. Maybe I was right about Tina after all.

  “Did you see who she was following?”

  “Sure did. It was the Mitchell boy. Not the little one, but the older one. Brendan.”

  “Tina was following Brendan Mitchell?” That wasn’t the answer I’d expected, and it was no help to me and my theory. Unless…“Was Brendan alone, or was he with someone?” Like, say, Alicia?

  “He was with someone.”

  I felt another surge of excitement.

  “Did you see who it was?”

  Mr. Dvorak nodded without hesitation. “It was Paul de Villiers.”

  “Brendan and Paul hang out together,” Charlie said.

  “That’s what I just said, isn’t it?” Mr. Dvorak said.

  I felt completely deflated. Another dead end.

  “Did you see where they went?” Charlie asked.

  “Sure did.” It was Mr. Dvorak’s standard answer. “They cut across the field and through the gap in the fence. They were headed north.”

  “How can you be so sure they weren’t headed to the woods?” I asked.

  “Because it was Wednesday. Because Brendan cuts through the back way every Wednesday so he can pick his brother up at the elementary school a couple of blocks over.” He nodded toward the north. “Takes him to the library for a reading program. I expect that’s where they were headed.”

  “And Tina followed them all the way?”

  “Don’t know. Lost track of them once they were through the fence,” Mr. Dvorak said.