“It was Cole Richmond, the biology teacher.”
“Exactly. He was quite chilled about that sort of thing.”
“He said she would have to do community service.”
Mick snorted. “See what I mean? It wouldn’t have been community service for the rest of us. We were looking at expulsion or worse.”
“Because of your involvement in the club?” Eulalie asked.
Mick jerked backwards as if she had been hit. “I’m telling you, there was no club. I don’t know what you heard, but it was wrong.”
“Was it the club that got her killed, Mick? You were instrumental in bringing her into it, and a few months later she was dead. The new term had barely begun when she disappeared forever.”
Mick jumped to her feet. She leaned her face in close to Eulalie’s and said clearly, “There was no club.”
Then she turned and marched to the back of the comic book store where she disappeared into a storeroom.
After the gloomy interior of the comic book store it was good to get into the sun again.
Eulalie walked a little way down Finger Alley to where Mo’s Bar was throwing its doors open for lunch. On impulse, she went inside and sat at the bar. Within a minute, the owner wandered through from the back, drying a glass.
“What’s up, Eulalie?”
“Hey, Mo. I came in to ask if Jimmy will be around tonight. I need to talk to him.”
“I haven’t heard that he won’t be. You come in here any time after nine and you should find him right here.”
“Thanks, Mo. Do me a favor? Don’t tell him I’m looking for him. He might do a runner, and I’m not in the mood to chase him down.”
Mo smiled and picked up another glass.
“You here to eat or drink, or just shoot the breeze?”
Eulalie looked at her watch. It was only twelve-fifteen. On the early side for lunch, but she might as well kill two birds with one stone.
“What’s the safest thing on the menu, Mo?”
“The grilled chicken mayo sandwich,” he said without hesitation. “I have it for lunch myself every day.”
“That sounds fine. I’ll have one of those and a bottle of Evian. I’ll open it myself.”
Unoffended, Mo went to the kitchen to deliver her order. When he came back, he put the Evian down next to a cleanish glass. Eulalie decided to forego the glass and drink straight from the bottle.
“Say, Mo. Do you know a man by the name of Odysseus Pryor?”
“I know him, sure. He’s not a particular friend of mine, but I know who he is.”
“He’s a friend of Jimmy’s, isn’t he? Have you seen Odysseus around recently?”
“I know he’s on-island, if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t know where he’s staying or what he’s doing here, but he’s definitely around.”
“What would you do if you knew he had been inside your house in the middle of the night?”
“I’d count my teaspoons and check my safe. That guy is bad news.”
A bell rang behind the bar and Mo went to fetch Eulalie’s sandwich. She was relieved to find that it was perfectly fresh and tasty, as advertised. As she ate, the bar filled up with regulars. They were all locals. Tourists hardly ever found their way into Finger Alley, and when they did they tended to turn around and go straight out again.
“What do you know about Mick Sorenson from the comic book store?” Eulalie asked.
“Not much,” said Mo. “She comes in here for happy hour every now and then. Seems righteous enough.”
“Not one to go looking for trouble?”
“She likes to pick fights when she’s had a few, but apart from that, no.”
“Substances?”
“I’m pretty sure she’s doping at the gym to build bulk.”
“Does she ever talk about the past? About her school days, for example?”
“Funny you should ask. She once said that she doesn’t like to live in the past. It was the place where bad things happened.”
“What did you think she was talking about?”
“Growing up gay in the nineties, I guess. What else?”
Chapter 13
After lunch, Eulalie texted Mrs. Belfast and asked her to get an appointment with Cole Richmond at Head Start corporate training. Her secretary called back almost immediately.
“He can see you at two o’clock. They book training sessions at thirty-minute intervals.”
“Did you make it clear that I’m not interested in a training session?”
“I did, but the secretary seemed to think you’d be so impressed by their operation that you’d want to stay for training anyway.”
“She’s mistaken. You didn’t tell her what it’s about?”
“Just that you wanted to ask Mr. Richmond some questions relating to an ongoing case.”
“Perfect. Thanks, Mrs. B.”
“She kept talking about ‘they’. She said that ‘they’ would see you at three o’clock. I said you were only interested in speaking to Mr. Richmond, but she ignored me. She said Mr. Richmond does his training with a partner.”
“That’s fine. I’ll find a way to ditch the partner during the interview.”
“By the way, your computer located the IP address that the virus originated from in the insurance fraud matter.”
“Oh, yes? What does it say?”
“It’s a string of numbers, dear. It means nothing to me.”
“I’ll look at it when I get back to the office. I might be able to trace it to a physical location. And how’s…?”
Eulalie stopped herself. She had been about to ask how the cat was. What was happening to her? Mrs. Belfast was a bad influence.
“He’s perfectly fine, dear. He is sprawled out on my desk as we speak. I’m stroking him right now. Would you like me to put him on the line, so you can hear him purr?”
“What? No! I wasn’t going to say that.”
“Just as you like, dear.”
Eulalie could hear from her voice that she was laughing.
“Goodbye, Mrs. Belfast.”
“Goodbye, dear.”
Eulalie programmed the location of Head Start corporate training into her GPS and clicked her phone into its holder on the Vespa. It was a Dockside address. There were still cheap office rentals to be had there, so several start-ups had their headquarters in that neighborhood.
She maneuvered her Vespa carefully up the narrow part of Finger Alley and out onto Lafayette Drive. She stopped at a food truck for coffee. It wasn’t that Mo’s Bar didn’t serve it, but Eulalie knew from experience that they only had instant, which was frankly a disgrace on an island that prided itself on its French heritage.
The café au lait she got from the food truck tasted as though it had come from a bistro in Paris. She smiled as she inhaled its bouquet.
Shortly before two, Eulalie trundled down the avenue known as The Docks and turned into Sugarbeet Road. The office she was looking for was at number three. It was a four-story building that played host to multiple businesses. The ground floor consisted of shopfronts, including a drycleaner, a car rental agency, a convenience store, and a Chinese takeaway.
This was far removed from the glass and concrete buildings closer to the harbor that housed multinational companies, luxury apartments, and high-end boutiques. There was no doorman and no lobby - just a row of buzzers with the name of each company typed next to it. Eulalie buzzed Head Start.
“Can I help you?” said a voice over the intercom.
“I have a two o’clock with Cole Richmond.”
There was no answer, but the door clicked open, so Eulalie went inside.
Head Start was on the third floor. Here at least there was a receptionist-secretary to greet her.
“Please take a seat, Ms. Park. They’ll be out shortly.”
Eulalie allowed herself to be led to a small couch where a collection of out-of-date magazines had been piled on a coffee table for her perusal. She picked up a copy of Popular Me
chanics and began to read.
“Ms. Park?”
Eulalie looked up to see Cole Richmond standing in front of her, holding out his hand. She stood up and they shook hands. There was no flicker of recognition in his eyes, but she would have known him anywhere. At forty-seven, he was still a good-looking man. His figure was trim, his face interestingly crinkled around the eyes, and he had all his hair, even if it appeared to be a shade darker than she remembered. He was wearing a department store suit, but it was neatly pressed, and he looked professional.
“Come through to my office. I’d like you to meet my training partner and spiritual advisor - soon to be yours too, I hope.”
Spiritual advisor?
He ushered her into a medium-size corner office. It had been furnished on a budget but was neat and tidy.
“Eulalie Park, I’d like you to meet Pastor Ellie.”
Eulalie couldn’t help doing a double-take when she saw who was sitting at the desk. It was a short, square woman with a scrubbed, makeup-less face. She wore an orange tunic that was belted at the waist with a soft rope sash. Her face was pale and unmemorable, except for a pair of piercing green eyes.
She rose to her feet and came to greet Eulalie. She enfolded the investigator’s hand in both of hers and looked deeply into her eyes.
“It’s good to see you again, my child.”
“Hello, Eleanor.”
“You know each other?” said Cole.
“We do,” said Eulalie. “Earlier this year, I investigated the death of one of Pastor Ellie’s parishioners.”
“How upsetting for you, Pastor.”
Pastor Ellie clasped her hands in front of her chest and lowered her gaze.
Eulalie fought the urge to roll her eyes. “Mr. Richmond, I need to speak to you alone. These are questions that only you can answer. Some of them are confidential. I’m sure Pastor Ellie will excuse us.”
Cole glanced at his spiritual advisor as though asking for advice. She responded with a tiny shake of her head.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Park. Pastor Ellie is my spiritual mentor. I rely on her for guidance. We will conduct this interview in her presence or not at all.”
“Fine.”
It might be interesting to see what she contributed to the conversation.
When Eulalie had first met her, Pastor Ellie had been the leader of a church called The Blessed Redeemer. The congregation met at the Scout Hall several times a week. Eulalie had thought from the name that they were a Christian church, but she was wrong. It was a strange, made-up religion, cobbled together from various popular faiths. The purpose of the church, as far as Eulalie could see, had been to separate the congregants from their money.
Pastor Ellie’s gimmick was to persuade her congregation that they would only get into heaven if they were unencumbered by material possessions. She got them to sign their worldly goods over to the church under a contract that came into effect when they died. They could then go to meet their Maker in a state of purity – free from their sordid possessions.
As a scam, it should never have worked, but Eulalie had watched Pastor Ellie in action. She had a way of preaching that got into your head and under your skin. Before you knew it, you were reaching for your checkbook and pen. She had a strange gift of persuasion that had turned her into a wealthy woman.
What she was doing teaming up with Cole Richmond was a mystery.
Cole smiled and sat at his desk. He indicated that Eulalie should sit opposite him.
“What is this all about, Ms. Park?”
“I need to ask you some questions. I presume you’ve heard about the recent hatching day…”
“I feel strongly moved to pray right now,” said Pastor Ellie.
“But…”
“Let us bow our heads.”
“Yes, Pastor.” Cole dropped his chin to his chest.
With a sigh, Eulalie did the same.
“Dear Blessed Redeemer. You sense the conflict in this room, and we beseech you to relax us all and eliminate the tension. We will breathe in… and out. In… and out. We will concentrate on my voice. We will feel all the tension in our bodies dripping out through our fingertips. We will concentrate on our breathing. In… and out…”
Eulalie lifted her head. The woman was trying to hypnotize her, probably to make her more biddable and open to suggestion. It had nearly worked. Eulalie had been hypnotized before and knew she was a susceptible subject.
“That’s enough!”
She said it loudly, making Cole’s head jerk upwards. She could see in his eyes that he had been slipping into a trance too. She clapped her hands in front of his face.
“Mr. Richmond! Please focus.”
She turned to glare at Pastor Ellie, who winked at her when Cole wasn’t looking.
“He’s half gone. Wake him up, Eleanor. I need him to concentrate.”
“I’ve done you a favor. You should be grateful. He’ll be much more responsive like this.”
“It’s against the law. If there’s any suggestion that a witness has been hypnotized during questioning, everything he says can be excluded from evidence. I need him awake.”
“Oh, all right.”
Pastor Ellie got up and went over to Cole. She whispered in his ear and clicked her fingers in front of his face. His eyes came back into focus.
He turned to Eulalie. “What were you saying, Ms. Park?”
“I asked if you were familiar with what happened at the hatching day ceremony at Queen’s Town high school a few days ago?”
“Of course. It’s been all over the media. That poor girl. Rochelle Chirac. I taught her, you know.”
“How well did you know her, Mr. Richmond?”
“Quite well, actually. That was back when I still allowed myself to get drawn into the students’ personal lives. I used to think I could help them. Then I realized that teachers have no power to fix an unhappy home – none at all. I knew she was troubled. I tried to provide a sympathetic ear, but all I did was make things worse. I had no idea what I was doing.”
“How did you get to know Rochelle, Mr. Richmond? Did she come to you with her troubles?”
“No, it was more dramatic than that. In those days, the headmaster sent us to patrol certain known hangouts where the students went to drink and do drugs. He knew their favorite spots. I walked into a warehouse one Saturday night and caught Rochelle there with an empty bottle of vodka and some drug paraphernalia.”
“Was she on her own?”
“By the time I got there she was. She had been with friends, but they had run away. The poor child was so high she could hardly stand.”
“What was the procedure when you caught a student red-handed like that?”
“It was clearly laid out. We had to present our evidence to the headmaster and the student would be expelled. There was a zero-tolerance policy to drugs and alcohol, even if it happened off school grounds. No warnings, no second chances.”
“Rochelle Chirac wasn’t expelled.”
“Correct. Because I didn’t follow procedure. That was when I started trying to fix her, heaven help me. I gave her community service hours to work off, in the hope that it would be a distraction for her. I listened to the long, sad story of her parents’ divorce. I did everything in my power to help her, not realizing that she didn’t want to be helped. She started getting into trouble more regularly and I did what I could to protect her from the consequences. I felt sorry for her. I still do.”
Pastor Ellie patted his hand. “It reflects well on you, Cole.”
“What do you know about an organization called the club, Mr. Richmond?”
If Eulalie hadn’t been watching his face closely, she might have missed him flinch. He recovered quickly.
“What club? Queen’s Town High had several clubs.”
“This was a secret club. Rochelle’s friends knew about it, but she didn’t. They wanted her to join.”
“I have no idea what that might have been about.”
Pastor Ellie’s eyes flickering back and forth between their faces. “I have a lot of experience in working with the youth. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about teenage girls, it’s how secretive they are. Whatever this club was, they wouldn’t have confided in a teacher about it. The whole point of clubs like that was that the adults didn’t know about them.”
It made sense. Eulalie could remember those days when secrets were like oxygen.
“Here’s the thing, Mr. Richmond. When I mentioned the club, you seemed to react. I saw it on your face.”
He opened his mouth to answer, but Pastor Ellie spoke over him. “What you saw, Ms. Park, was Cole’s natural dismay at the realization that the student he tried so hard to help was leading some kind of double life.”
Cole nodded. “I feel like a failure every time I think of Rochelle. Her behavior got worse and worse despite my best efforts. And then one day she wasn’t there anymore. We all thought she had run away. She used to talk about it. She would fantasize about taking off alone and starting over somewhere new. I didn’t think she would ever do it, until suddenly she was gone.”
“You never thought that something had happened to her?”
“Only later. As the years passed and nobody heard from her, it occurred to me that she might have had some kind of accident. Still, it was a shock to see that someone had taken credit for killing her. When you mentioned a club, all that guilt came flooding back as I realized I never really knew her at all. They say the note was written in a schoolgirl’s handwriting, but I can’t bring myself to believe that one of the students did this to her. I know their feuds were intense, but still. They were just young girls.”
“Can you think of anyone who was feuding with Rochelle?”
“By her senior year, there were two girls that she really didn’t get along with - Mikayla Sorenson and Sheena Macintyre. They had all been friends once, but there was a lot of conflict just before she died. I never knew the details, but I got the impression Rochelle might have treated them badly. They definitely resented her.”
“It sounds like you should be speaking to them,” said Pastor Ellie.
The Complete H-Series of The Eulalie Park Mysteries Page 128