A Vicious Cycle

by Eliza Brookes

  “Keep dreaming,” Bud snorted, “I haven’t been on holiday in years.”

  With that, Bud ended the video call and Allegra was left to dream about taking a holiday. Unfortunately, she was sure that Bud wasn’t going to give her any time off soon. The poor editor already had to deal with her frequent sleuthing, but he drew the line at extravagance. As much as it pained her to say it, Bud was a businessman. If the deal didn’t suit him, he didn’t make it.

  Her stomach growled loudly, pulling her out of her thoughts. She knew that time was running out, Sarah’s strict deadline was looming, but that didn’t mean that she was about to starve herself. She crept down to the kitchen, wondering if Red had left any food behind or if she would have to cook for herself. Allegra grimaced as she contemplated eating her own cooking.

  The kitchen was quiet when she walked in, the only light came from a single bulb near the fridge, so she had to squint to find the light switch. Eventually she found it, after uncomfortably trailing her hand along the wall. The lights flickered on, and she let out a frightened yelp when she saw that someone had been sitting in the dark.

  “Sarah,” she gasped, clutching at her chest, “I wasn’t expecting to see you down here.”

  “Oh,” Sarah said quietly, blinking at the harsh light. “Sorry to frighten you, I just do my best thinking down here.”

  “I also like to think on a full stomach,” Allegra joked, making her way to the fridge. She nearly cried in relief when she saw that Red had left a container with her name on it. She made a mental note to give the chef a massive hug the next day.

  “That’s the nice thing about having such a big home,” Sarah said thoughtfully, “there are a lot of places to think.”

  “Was this your favorite place as a child too?” Allegra asked, trying to keep the conversation going while she heated up her food.

  “Oh yes,” Sarah said with a fond smile. “My mother was always so concerned. She thought it was healthier for young children to go outside and play. She said that it was good for us to get some exercise. Ruby was always outside.”

  “I think that balance is good,” Allegra said diplomatically, taking the container out of the microwave and looking around for a plate.

  “Second cupboard to the right,” Sarah told her. Allegra smiled thankfully as she pulled out a plate for her food. “I agree. Balance is important. I’m afraid that neither of us were very balanced. Ruby spent all her time outside while I spent all my time inside. She had a slim figure, but was always sunburned, while I was always pudgy with pale skin. My mother wasn’t very happy with either of us.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Allegra said sincerely once she had stopped chewing. She had to ask Red for this lasagna recipe. As soon as she got home, she wanted Eleanor to make a massive batch so that she could eat as much as her stomach could handle. “My mother was never happy with me either.”

  “Well,” Sarah said with a wry smile, “we have more in common than we thought. Do you have any siblings?”

  “No,” Allegra smiled ruefully, “my mother never wanted any children.”

  “That’s very lonely,” Sarah commented sadly.

  “Not really, all the siblings I ever met always fought with each other.”

  “I suppose you can’t understand it unless you have some. Ruby and I always fought, but once she was gone, I felt impossibly alone. I see you were at the tree today. Tell me, did you find anything?”

  “Not much,” Allegra lied slowly.

  “Don’t be afraid,” Sarah said comfortingly, “I need to know eventually.

  Allegra sighed and looked down at her food, contemplating what she should tell her. She had one suspect for each murder but didn’t want to share such sensitive information. On the other hand, Sarah did mention knowing about a boy who followed Ruby around.

  “Ruby was going to run away,” Allegra said bluntly. She watched her words sink in and carefully tried to gauge Sarah’s reaction. After a brief silence, Sarah smiled and shook her head.

  “I don’t know where you heard that, but Ruby would never. She knew what it would do to our family.”

  Whatever reaction she had been expecting, this was not it. It felt like the family members in this house were living different versions of the same story. Sarah believed one thing while Ruby lived a different reality. What was the truth?

  “Apparently she was ready to go,” Allegra explained. “She was in love with a man named Mark Smith, did you know him?”

  “Know him?” Sarah asked, her expression darkening, “I thought I did, but I was wrong. Ruby never loved him. I told you that there was some thug who couldn’t take no for an answer, didn’t I?”

  “A few people seem to believe that the feelings between the two were mutual.”

  “Well, that’s nonsense. If they knew the truth, they would hate him as much as I did.”

  “May I ask what the truth is?”

  “Mark went to school with us. He got a scholarship to our private school and my father was kind enough to let him drive with us. In the front, of course, with our driver.” Allegra thought that it would be difficult to get the truth out of her, but Sarah was all too happy to spill everything. It sounded like the story had been festering in her mind ever since her sister disappeared.

  “Ruby was always a beautiful girl, and so it was only natural that he would develop a crush on her. We all thought it was harmless, but we underestimated the boy. He was always writing her letters, sending her gifts and walking her to class. I begged Ruby to tell my parents, but she didn’t want to get him into trouble. She thought that his feelings would fade when school was finished.”

  “Did they?” Allegra asked when Sarah paused angrily.

  “No,” she spat, “he began stalking her. Climbing up the trellis and peeping through her window. He would throw stones at her window during the night. She was a mess, she wasn’t eating or sleeping. Eventually, she told my parents the truth. They decided that it would be good for her to get away for a little while, so she left for Switzerland. It was only supposed to be six months, but she loved it so much that she decided to stay longer.”

  “I thought she didn’t go to college so that the two of you could go together?” Allegra questioned, recalling an earlier conversation.

  “That was always the plan,” Sarah told her without missing a beat, “but the original plan was for her to stay here while she waited for me. My father wanted to show her how the family business worked. He always hoped that she would change her mind about becoming a lawyer.”

  “That must have been hard for you,” Allegra said sympathetically.

  “It was,” Sarah said angrily. “That boy began to follow me, pestering me about where she was. It was horrible. I can only imagine how bad it must have been for her. He was obsessed. She said no. But he couldn’t accept that.”

  “Did his obsession stop when she came back?”

  “No,” Sarah said bitterly, “it only got worse. She was so sophisticated after her year abroad, and she had all these wonderful stories to tell. That last summer was the best time of our lives. It would have been better if he had just stayed away.”

  “I’m sorry to hear this.”

  “It’s alright,” Sarah said casually, but it was obvious that the exchange had left its toll on her. “I’m sorry, dear, but I’m tired now. I’ll speak to you in the morning.”

  Before Allegra could say anything, the old woman swept away, her eyes stormy as she remembered one of the most difficult times in her life. Allegra quietly got up and washed her dishes. She stared at her reflection as she wondered what Ruby’s last days must have been like. The sound of her ringtone echoed through the empty kitchen, magnifying the sound and causing Allegra to accidentally spill dishwater on herself.

  “Hello?” she greeted hurriedly, patting herself dry with a dish cloth.

  “We were wrong,” Greta said seriously.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I got so curious about this Mark guy t
hat I quickly looked through some old newspapers that Bud has here.”

  “Greta,” Allegra said in amusement, “you could have done that tomorrow.”

  “No,” Greta protested, “listen, Mark was in nearly every edition of the Gazette in 1956.”

  “What?” Allegra asked in shock, “I thought most people didn’t even make it into one.”

  “Yeah, well,” Greta said urgently, “he made it onto the cover nearly every week. He was a nasty piece of work. Here, it says that he got drunk and vandalized a store. Wait, this one accuses him of crashing his car into someone’s house. This guy did everything in the book and more. Hold on, Bud wants to talk to you.”

  “Allegra,” Bud said quickly, not wanting to waste too much time. “Remember what I told you about the editor during that time being biased? I know this sounds bad, but it looks like overkill to me.”

  “I hear what you’re saying,” Allegra agreed, “when I was a kid, everything that went wrong was blamed on me, even if it didn’t make much sense. The people of Llewes Cove aren’t kind once they think you’re a bad seed.”

  “You hit the nail on the head,” Bud congratulated. “One or two news reports might have made sense, but this is ridiculous. It looks to me like someone really wanted to make Mark Smith look like a bad guy.”

  “That might be true,” Greta piped up, “but he didn’t have an alibi for the night of Ruby’s disappearance.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Allegra!” James knocked insistently while calling her name. “Wake up!”

  “What is it?” she asked, crawling out of bed, blinking blearily. She had stayed up late the previous night going through all the pictures Greta took of the newspapers. The couple was going to look for more in the archives when they went to the office.

  “One of those policemen is downstairs,” James said in annoyance, “he woke me up.”

  “Tell him to come back when the sun comes up,” Allegra groaned crawling back into bed once the door was open.

  “Sorry sunshine,” he said with an aggravated scowl as he pulled her blankets off, “he woke me up, so this better be life or death. Get downstairs, now.”

  “I don’t want to,” she mumbled, covering her face with a pillow.

  “Now,” he growled angrily, “get down there. I don’t care, I’ll pour water over you if I have to.”

  “Fine,” Allegra yawned, “I’m coming.” She got up unsteadily and wrapped the blanket around her. Thankfully, he had not thrown it too far.

  “Oh no,” he shut the door behind him, “house rules, no walking around in your night clothes.”

  “This is the worst house ever!” she yelled to the closed door.

  “Why do you think I’m so angry?” he yelled back.

  Allegra was not a morning person, especially if she just had two hours sleep. This state of sleep-deprived anger caused her to pull on the closest clothes she could find. She chose to ignore the fact that she just pulled them over her pajamas. James didn’t say anything when she stepped out wearing a pair of sweatpants with her pajama top. He did point to her hair, though, and she snarled at him.

  “What do you want?” she asked when she got into the foyer, glaring at the person who had yanked her out of a pleasant slumber.

  “We’re going on a road trip,” Matty announced enthusiastically.

  “I hate you,” she told him sincerely.

  “Cheer up, it will be fun!”

  “I thought you were going to the campus alone,” she groaned, sitting down on the bottom stair and hugging the railing for dear life.

  “If I’m going to get fired, I might as well have you by my side. You could persuade an Eskimo to buy ice. So, I decided that I’m not taking any chances. You’re coming with to talk to the illustrious jerk-professor.”

  “No.”

  “So, go on, get dressed, let’s go.”

  “No.”

  James let out a long-suffering sigh before he pulled her up by her armpits and frog-marched her to the door. This didn’t improve Allegra’s mood, and she kicked at his shins to get him to drop her. As it turned out, James was even less of a morning person than she was and dropped her on the driveway.

  “Come back when the sun’s up!” he shouted at them as he slammed the door shut behind him.

  “Cheer up,” Matty turned to her as she levelled an evil glare on him, “this will be fun!”

  Two hours, five coffees and a whole lot of arguing later, Allegra stood on the university campus, glaring at everyone and everything. The campus was still relatively quiet, but there were still a few students milling about, some looking worse than she did.

  “I was worried we were going to stand out,” Matty commented as he watched the students hurry by, “due to your fashion choices, and all. But these kids look worse than you do.”

  “It’s morning,” Allegra pointed out grumpily.

  “What does that matter?” he asked innocently.

  “You obviously never went to college,” she said broodingly.

  “Nope,” he said with a happy smile, “I didn’t need to.”

  “Well, my annoying friend, welcome to campus life.”

  “Looks glamorous,” he said sarcastically.

  “Yeah, whatever.”

  “So, how do we find this professor guy.”

  Allegra shrugged as she sipped on her coffee. With her hunched shoulders and weary expression, she looked like a homeless person with a thousand sad stories to tell. Matty shrugged and walked up to the first student to walk past.

  “Hi there,” he said with a friendly smile.

  The student hissed at him and scurried away, clutching his books to his chest and sporting an impressively dark pair of sunglasses. Matty looked after him in confusion, more than a little concerned.

  “Way to go,” Allegra congratulated, choosing to sit down on the ground instead of continuing to stand.

  “There’s a bench over there,” he pointed out looking a little embarrassed.

  “Nah,” she said with a faint smile, “this is the best seat in the house. What are you going to do next? Wake them up before dawn?”

  “Allegra,” he said in annoyance, “I’ve got to get back before Crane asks about me. Are you going to help or not?” She sighed and put down her coffee cup, groaning like an old woman as she got up.

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “Wait, that won’t work,” he protested when she walked up to a student who happened to be walking by.

  “Where is Professor Brand?” she asked loudly.

  “Over there,” the student pointed to a group of distinguished looking buildings, “just tell Martha you’re there to see him. She’ll let you through.” The young man walked away without saying anything else, and she walked back without thanking him.

  “How did you do that?” Matty asked in shock. “I was so polite!”

  “It’s too early for manners,” Allegra pointed out, picking up her coffee. “Let’s go.”

  “Alright,” Matty said, jogging to keep up with her, “but promise you won’t kill him?”

  “No.”

  Martha turned out to be the secretary, and true to the student’s word, she let them through after a friendly chat with Matty. He was so happy to be able to use his manners and he was annoyingly happy as they made their way to the professor’s office.

  “We should probably work on a strategy,” Matty told her when they got to his door. She gave him a wry look and knocked on his door. He rolled his eyes at her behavior.

  “Come in,” a booming voice commanded. She winked at him and walked in without waiting for his response. It quickly became apparent why young women were so drawn to the professor. He was a suave figure in his stylish clothes and handsome looks.

  “Hello, professor,” she said with a knowing smile. Matty winced slightly as he walked in and closed the door behind him. Nothing good ever came from those smiles. He suddenly wondered if he should have left her behind.

  “Hello,” he said with a
pleasant smile, “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t expecting you. How can I help you?”

  “My name is Matty and this is Allegra,” Matty jumped in before Allegra could retort. “I’m from the Llewes Cove Police Department and Allegra is a consultant working with us on a case.”

  “Oh,” Brand said with a smile, “I see. You need some help. Well, I’m an expert in my field and I would be happy to help in any way. Tell me what you need.”

  “That’s so kind of you,” Allegra said with a sweet smile.

  “Well,” Brand spread his hands out in a gesture of modesty, “I try and help where I can. Now, what footage do you have for me?”

  “Footage?” Matty echoed.

  “Yes,” Brand said, looking taken aback, “I’m a film professor. I’m guessing you need me to look at some footage of a crime scene.”

  “My partner doesn’t listen when I speak,” Allegra interjected with an apologetic smile, “I’m so sorry. Of course, we know who you are. You’ve helped on previous cases.”

  “I see my reputation precedes me,” Brand told her knowingly.

  “Oh yes,” she giggled slightly, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “All good, I hope,” he joked.

  “Something like that,” she assured him, “here, I have some photos for you. Can you tell us what this is?” Allegra passed her phone to him. He smiled at her, ensuring that their fingers brushed as he took the phone.

  “It looks like a hole,” he said in confusion.

  “Excellent,” Allegra praised him. “Now, I have a short video for you.” She quickly swiped a few times before handing him the phone. He smiled, a little less enthusiastically, but took the phone from her. His face drained of color when Penny’s voice filled the air.

  “When I confronted him, he went ballistic and threatened to kill me if I ever told anyone about us. He threw a camera at me,” the video stopped as Penny lifted her shirt to reveal the nasty bruise that spread over her skin.

  “What is this?” he hissed, tossing the phone away from him.

  “It’s a little something I edited last night,” Allegra answered. “So, can you help us?”