I thanked him, and he and Charlie chatted for another minute about Charlie’s parents and his cousin Rick. I thought about Tina. I brooded about her back in the cafeteria, where I ate the sandwich Mrs. Wainwright had made me. Ashleigh was right. It was the best egg-salad sandwich I had ever tasted. It may have been the paper-thin slices of green onion. Or maybe it was the tiniest whisper of garlic.
“So, dead end with Tina, huh?” Ashleigh said.
I polished off the last bite of sandwich and wiped my hands on a paper napkin. “I need to talk to Brendan,” I said.
Ashleigh shook her head. “You’re like a dog with a bone. You’re not going to let go, are you?”
“Not until I check out Tina’s story. I want to hear what Brendan has to say.”
“Okay.” Something in her tone made me think she was humoring me. “I know where he lives. We can go there after school.”
We met up at my locker as usual and Ashleigh led the way. After a few minutes she said, “It’s in the next block.”
I noted that we were only a few blocks south of the woods where Alicia had been found.
Ashleigh came to an abrupt halt a few seconds later.
“That’s Paul de Villiers,” she said, pointing to a tall thin boy in jeans and a jean jacket who was raking leaves off an expansive front lawn. “Come on.”
Before I could protest, she was standing on Paul’s lawn, introducing me and asking after his little sisters, who, it turned out, Ashleigh also babysat.
“You remember last Wednesday, right, Paul?” she asked.
“I remember there was a last Wednesday. Why?”
“Do you remember anything funny when you left school that day?”
“Funny?” He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You left school with Brendan, didn’t you?” I asked.
Paul thought for a moment. “Yeah. I went with him to pick up Zak and walk him to the library.”
“Did you notice anyone behind you, anyone following you?” I asked.
Paul stared at me, then at Ashleigh. “What’s going on?”
“It’s about Alicia,” Ashleigh said.
“What about her?”
“Did you see Tina following you on Wednesday after school?” I asked.
Paul’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you said it was about Alicia.”
“It is.”
Paul’s frown deepened, but I guess he was curious because he said, “Yeah. I saw Tina.”
“Was she following you?”
“Yeah. She was trying to pretend like she wasn’t, but she was.”
“How long did she follow you guys?”
“Come on,” Paul said. “She was following Brendan, not me.”
“So you know about her crush on Brendan?”
Paul laughed. “Everybody knows. She stares at him all the time. Did I say stare? I meant drool. But she’s wasting her time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Brendan had a thing for Alicia. In fact, he looked at her pretty much the same way that Tina looks at Brendan.”
“Brendan had a crush on Alicia?”
“Yeah. I kept telling him to go for it, but Brendan isn’t that kind of guy. He’d never step on anyone else’s toes.”
“Whose toes do you mean?”
“That freak Simon. Alicia and Simon were a number. Brendan kept hoping they would break up, but it never happened. I told him to get in there and give it his best shot. Seriously, Brendan’s a great guy. And normal. Not like Simon and his creepy uncle.”
“Creepy uncle? You mean Mr. Todd?”
“Yeah. Mr. Musical Genius. At least, that’s how he likes to present himself. For all I know, maybe he is some kind of genius. I have a tin ear. All that old-fashioned music sounds the same to me. But I’ve heard how Todd screams at the kids in his class. I went out with a girl who plays flute. She was in tears one time when he humiliated her in front of the class. Said she didn’t practice enough. She practiced all the time. It was why we broke up. She never made time for any fun. It got so she was a nervous wreck from practicing, because she didn’t want him to scream at her. I don’t know how he gets away with it.” He paused. “Except that he’s supposed to have all this influence, and kids who are serious about their music want to get on his good side so he can write them a recommendation and help them get into a music program when they graduate.”
Whoa. I was reeling from all the information he was giving us. But none of it had to do with what I wanted.
“You saw Tina following you. Did she ever catch up to you?”
“Sort of. I saw her, but I don’t think Brendan did. We went to get Zak, and we took him to the library, where he freaked out because Alicia wasn’t there. He was really upset. We took Zak home. Tina followed us there too. But she went away after we got inside. It wasn’t like she was going to ring the bell or anything like that. She was just trying to accidentally on purpose run into Bren.”
“Did you see where she went?”
“Nah. I just saw she was gone.”
“You didn’t see Alicia, did you?”
“If Alicia had been around, Brendan would have found some way to talk to her.” He shook his head. “I kind of wish she had been. Maybe she’d still be alive.”
“Do you remember what time it was when you noticed Tina was gone?”
“Sure. It was about four thirty.”
That left plenty of time for Tina to find Alicia and kill her.
NINE
“It’s not Tina,” Aunt Ginny said. She was home, but just barely, with heavy bags under her eyes and a grayish tinge to her complexion. I knew she’d had a long night and probably wanted nothing more than to tumble into bed for a few hours’ sleep, but I had to tell her what I suspected.
“But Aunt Ginny, she had a motive. She followed Brendan Mitchell, who lives a couple of blocks from the woods. She had plenty of time to kill Alicia. And she doesn’t have an alibi.”
“It’s not Tina. She was at home at the time Alicia was killed.”
“That may be what she says, but she’s lying. She lied to me more than once, Aunt Ginny. She’s like that.”
Aunt Ginny flashed me a look of disapproval.
“If you’re mixed up in this case somehow, Riley, stop right now.”
“But Aunt Ginny, Tina had as much motive for killing Alicia as Carrie did. Maybe more. She was insanely jealous of her. And—”
“I interviewed her neighbors myself. Two different people saw her go into her house a few minutes after five o’clock. That means she couldn’t have done it. If that boy is right about the last time he saw Tina, then it means she would have had to get to the woods, bludgeon Alicia to death at five o’clock, get rid of the murder weapon and somehow get home five minutes later.”
“Maybe she ran.”
“It’s a twenty-five-minute walk, Riley. I timed it myself. There’s no way she could have done it. In fact, I don’t even know why we’re discussing this.”
“Because Carrie didn’t do it.”
“And you know this how?”
I didn’t dare tell her that Carrie had told me. Aunt Ginny would be furious if she knew I’d been in touch with her. Instead I said, rather lamely, “She doesn’t seem like that kind of person.”
“No one seems like that kind of person until they actually are.” Aunt Ginny’s eyes narrowed. “And how do you know what kind of person she is anyway? I thought you didn’t know any of those girls.”
“I don’t. Not really. But Tina is at least as good a suspect as Carrie, and I don’t think Carrie did it. What if Tina called or texted Alicia and arranged to meet her in the woods…”
“We have Alicia’s cell phone. She didn’t make any calls that day, and all the messages she got came in after she was already dead. Her parents called her dozens of times before the cell phone went dead. But there were no calls or message chains at all that day between Alicia and Tina.”
“Can’t you at least talk to Tina again? You know, interrogate her?”
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“Why would I do that? Like I said, there’s no way she could have been at the scene on time. End of discussion.”
“But—”
“End of discussion, Riley.”
“I told you so,” Ashleigh said. We had stopped by her house on Friday afternoon after an early closing at school. Ashleigh wanted to get changed before we set off for the library. I had just finished telling her about my conversation with Aunt Ginny.
“I hate to say it again, but I told you so.” Ashleigh pulled a sweater over her head. “It was Carrie.”
“It wasn’t Carrie.”
“Why not? Because she says so?”
I didn’t feel like talking about it anymore. But that didn’t stop Ashleigh.
“Because it sounds like your aunt has done her job. The timing doesn’t work. You said it yourself. Alicia was killed at five, but neighbors saw Tina arrive at home a few minutes after five. It seems like a dead end to me.”
“Aunt Ginny is assuming that Alicia was killed at five. I think she’s assuming that based on Alicia’s watch.”
“Her watch? I don’t get it. What does her watch have to do with it?”
“Aunt Ginny wouldn’t tell me. But I’m pretty sure there must have been a struggle, and Alicia’s watch got broken. I saw it when I saw the body. I can’t think how else she would be so confident about the time.”
“The miracle of modern forensic science?”
I shook my head. “That can give you a time range. But for an exact time of death they still rely on things like the last time the victim was seen or things like that.”
Ashleigh frowned. “But if her watch was broken when she was killed…” Her eyes widened. She stared at me. “Are you saying the killer changed the time on Alicia’s watch to trick the cops?” She frowned again. “But if the watch was broken, how could the killer change the time?”
“She—or he—changed it before it was broken.”
“Illogical,” Ashleigh said. “How do you even see that happening? Tina follows Alicia into the woods…”
“Or lured her into the woods.”
“How exactly would she manage that?”
“Maybe she asked to meet her there. Maybe she said she had to talk to her about something.”
“In the woods? That doesn’t make sense either, Riley.”
“If you ask me, nothing makes sense.”
Ashleigh ran a brush through her mass of hair. “Come on. Library.”
We had a huge history assignment that we wanted to get a start on.
The route from Ashleigh’s house to the library took us along wide, tree-lined streets with large square Victorian houses, most of them with gingerbread trim and wraparound porches, sitting on large lawn-covered properties. In several of the yards, people were raking leaves or preparing their flower beds for the coming winter.
“Hey,” Ashleigh said. “There’s Brendan and Zak.” She waved at a tall figure raking the front yard of a yellow-brick house with blue shutters and a bright blue door. A small boy played in the enormous heap of leaves piled in the middle. “Hey, Brendan! Zak!”
Brendan paused and waved back at her.
Ashleigh hurried ahead to greet him. Zak, in a better mood than he had been the last time I saw him, called, “Watch me, Ashleigh!” as he took a running jump into the leaf pile. Ashleigh watched and applauded enthusiastically before turning to Brendan.
“You’ve met my friend Riley, right?” Ashleigh said.
Brendan nodded at me.
“Hi,” I said. I don’t know why, but I suddenly felt shy, which usually I’m not. Not even remotely. Ashleigh was right. Brendan was hot, and for some reason that intimidated me. Not only that, but he was staring intently at me.
“Ashleigh! Ashleigh!” Zak jumped up and down in the huge heap of red maple, ash and oak leaves. “Come and watch! Come and watch!”
“He’s sure feeling better,” Ashleigh said to Brendan. “Back in a minute.” She jogged across the lawn to Zak. Brendan watched them for a few seconds.
“Tina tells me you’re trying to help Carrie,” he said finally. “She says you don’t think she did it.” His large hazel eyes were trained on me.
“And I heard that you and Alicia had recently become an item.”
“So?”
“So I was wondering about Alicia and Simon.”
“What about them?”
“You heard what happened at the memorial. Do you think he might have been in love with Alicia or obsessed with her?”
“He’s a case, isn’t he?” Brendan said. “A case of what, I’m not exactly sure. He’s like that guy Glenn Gould—you know, the pianist? He was kind of strange. Hummed while he played his music. Called people late at night, and I mean really late at night, to talk to them. Dressed weird. Simon’s like that. A little off, you know, but a complete genius at what he does. Alicia said all she ever talked to him about was music, because that was all he ever wanted to talk about. I saw them together all the time. They were always in the music room at lunch or after school. She was at his house all the time. He gave her a necklace, and she wore it. They acted like a couple, so I figured they were a couple. Some people confirmed it for me.”
I couldn’t help asking who had confirmed.
“It was Tina,” he said. “She knew Alicia, so I asked her.”
“And she said Alicia and Simon were a couple?”
Brendan nodded.
“Is that why it took you so long to ask her out?”
“Yeah. I wish I hadn’t waited so long.” He cast a glance over his shoulder at his little brother.
“So what happened?” I asked. “What changed your mind?”
His hazel eyes were laced with menace. “And I should tell you this why? So you can help Alicia’s killer get off?”
“You really loved her, didn’t you, Brendan?”
“She was the nicest, kindest, smartest, most talented, most—” His voice cracked. He brushed away a tear with the back of his hand. “You should have seen her with Zak. She was amazing. Before Alicia, Zak was doing terribly. He was falling behind. My mom worried all the time. Then he joined Alicia’s Reading Buddies group, and you wouldn’t believe how much progress he’s made. She didn’t just put in her time and then leave either. She always had great ideas about how to get him reading at home. Every time I went to pick him up, she’d given him a book or had a list of suggestions from the library or a bunch of ideas for games to play with him to make reading and spelling fun. She was a natural. I think that’s why she decided to make such a big change in her life.”
“What do you mean, a big change?”
“Alicia always had musical ability. That’s what she told me, and I know it’s true because I’ve heard her play. Have you?”
I nodded. “But not as a soloist,” I added.
“She was unbelievably good. And apparently she was that good at an early age. She was one of those teeny tiny kids carrying a violin case and going to music lessons a couple of times a week. Her parents encouraged her. They encouraged her in everything she did. This tutoring, that was something new, something she only did because you have to put in volunteer hours if you’re going to graduate from high school. I finished my volunteering a couple of years ago, but Alicia was always so busy with her music. Back then, if you weren’t taking music or in the school orchestra, she didn’t know you and you didn’t know her. She didn’t have time for anything but music. Then she had to get her volunteer hours, and I don’t know, I think she really surprised herself.”
I still didn’t know what he meant.
“She loved it,” he told me. “She loved teaching. She said she loved the look in a person’s eyes when that person finally made a connection. Like when Zak figured out a new word or when he made his way through a long sentence and then suddenly realized what the string of words he’d just read really meant. She said it was even better than the way she felt when she played a piece perfectly, because when she was teaching someone, it made thin
gs better for them instead of just for her. She got all excited about that. She was looking at where she was going to go to school next year. We all are.”
I knew from the buzz around school that college applications had to be in by the beginning of January. All the kids who were set to graduate were agonizing over what they were going to do next. If they were going to continue their education, they stressed about what they were going to take and where they were going to go.
“She was going to study music, wasn’t she?” That’s what everyone had been saying. They said she was a shoo-in for a big scholarship, maybe even one that would pay her whole way.
“That was the original idea,” Brendan said. “But she changed her mind. She decided that she wanted to be a teacher. And not a music teacher. She said she wanted to either teach little kids or teach literacy. She hadn’t made her mind up about that, but she definitely wanted to be a teacher.”
“Nobody mentioned that,” I said. “Even her parents seemed to think that she was going to study music.”
“That’s because she hadn’t gotten around to telling them that she’d changed her mind.”
“Was she afraid they wouldn’t approve?”
“Alicia’s parents not approve of something she did?” He shook his head firmly. “They would have done anything for her. If she wanted to be a teacher, they would have done whatever it took to make it happen. They adored her. They had to wait a long time for her to come along, you know. But she hadn’t gotten around to telling them.”
“Is that why you broke your own rule and asked her out, even though you thought she was with someone else?” I asked. “Because she helped your little brother?”
“I broke my own rule because she was Alicia.” A smile tickled his lips. “We were at the library, and we were talking about Zak, and all of a sudden she was asking me about hockey.” Like a lot of guys in town, Brendan played hockey regularly, although he wasn’t on the professional track. He just did it for fun. “I didn’t know that she knew the first thing about hockey, but it turned out that she did. And then—” He shrugged. “Things just kind of took off from there, and the next thing I know, she’s telling me about what she wants to do with her life, and it isn’t at all what I thought it was.” His eyes grew misty, and he looked away from me for a second.
Out of Tune Page 9
