Heart Beat

by Lynne Waite Chapman

  “Deloris? I didn’t think she’d ever speak to us again.”

  “The poor thing was in tears, thinking Mallozi would get into trouble. She said she didn’t sleep all night for the worry.”

  I shook my head to clear the hairball “I don’t understand why she called you. How’d she even get your number?”

  “Don’t know. She probably asked someone at Beaver Creek. But she spoke to Mallozi and they figured out how the mix-up happened. It turns out we have it wrong. The hair color on her site was off-brand and came from a swap meet or rummage sale Mallozi found in Indianapolis. He knew she’d love to sell it so he picked up a whole crate.”

  “But remember we saw the products in the pictures. They were professional products. Just like yours.”

  “Oh, Deloris explained that too. Mallozi couldn’t take clear photographs of the actual items he brought, so he gathered pictures from the Internet. You know, being the sweet boy he is, he put in the extra effort. Deloris promised to have him change all the photos to those of the actual bottles.”

  I pushed Mason off the bed and slid my feet into sandals. “Sounds sort of convenient to me. But you believe their story?”

  “I do. Let’s let the whole thing drop. You saw how upset the poor woman was when we left. I was afraid she’d had a heart attack.”

  “Okay. Whatever you say.”

  I was not convinced, but Rarity had already jumped to another subject. “I’m calling a window washer today. I think our front display needs to be updated for the late summer season, don’t you?”

  “Mmm. Sure.”

  “And I’m interviewing a hairdresser, too. On the phone, she sounded like she’d fit right in.”

  My brain was ticking away, even without coffee.

  “You know, Rarity, it could easily be proved.”

  “What could be proved?”

  “About the hair color. If Deloris would supply names of her customers. We could contact a few of them and ask to see the bottles.”

  “Lauren Grace. We must show mercy to this poor woman. I know you mean well, but let’s not bother her again. I refuse to distress Deloris any more. Promise me you’ll forget all about it. I know you just want to help me, but you’re mistaken about this.”

  “Okay. I promise I won’t question Deloris.”

  “Wonderful. I knew you’d understand. Well I must get on with my day. You have a pleasant morning.”

  I hung up.

  Mallozi was lying. He was a crook, and he’d deceived his mother. Why didn’t Rarity see it? It would be better for Deloris to remedy the situation quickly and get it over with. What might Mallozi do next? What if he stole from someone not as nice as Rarity? Deloris would wind up in jail along with her son. Now that would distress the woman.

  I stomped to the kitchen, pulled out a can of coffee and began measuring the grounds into the pot.

  Mallozi might fool his mother, but he didn’t fool me. I couldn’t believe Rarity fell for his story.

  How many scoops of coffee had I added to the pot? I threw in another, to be safe.

  While the coffee brewed, I leaned on the counter. “There must be a way to contact Deloris’s customers. Where do I find her records? I don’t remember a file cabinet in her room. What do you think, Mason?”

  Where was the cat?

  Talking to myself again. No surprise.

  I took my coffee to the living room, but did an about-face when I passed the computer. Mason lay curled up on the keyboard.

  “Mason, the computer is not a bed. Off you go.” I gave him a nudge with two fingers.

  After a complaining meow, he stepped from the keyboard to an open spot on the desk.

  “Yuk.” Black and white hairs were strewn through the keys. They filled the air when I blew on them.

  That’s when I noticed the screen. An assortment of Internet sites had been opened. “Mason, what did you do?”

  I began clicking the little X on each web page. A social network site—closed. A news site—closed. My email account—closed. An auction site.

  “Mason, what a dunce I’ve been. Deloris’s customer records would be kept on the site, not on paper. All I have to do is discover how to get into her account. How do I find her account log-in information?”

  The cat leapt from the desk and left the room, tail held high.

  “Some friend you are.”

  I stared at the monitor. What would an old lady use as a password? If she was anything like me, she would have written it down somewhere. I’m young—comparatively—and all my passwords are written on a pad of paper I keep hidden away. The point being that even though we have been warned not to write down passwords, we do.

  Or she might have the computer remember her password for the site. That would be much easier for an old lady to handle. All I had to do was get to her computer. If she was out of her room and the door wasn’t locked, no problem.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  T he corridors were empty. I’d made a point of walking into Beaver Creek at lunch time in hopes Deloris had chosen that day to eat her meal in the dining room. If she had, I’d have an hour. Easy to get in and get out without being seen.

  I’d also counted on her still being logged in to her computer. It occurred to me that I depended on a lot of sheer luck to make this work.

  First, I took a leisurely stroll past the dining room and peeked in. Deloris sat a table on the far side of room with a full plate. I congratulated myself on my first bit of luck.

  I hurried back past the door and trotted to her room. The door wasn’t locked. Second bit of luck.

  The computer was open.

  “Yes!” I was doing well in the luck department.

  If she was still logged in to the auction site, I’d do a happy dance.

  It took me a few minutes to find the website. Her information automatically filled the blanks. I clicked the log-in button and I was in. I almost shrieked, “Hooray.” But I clasped my hand over my mouth and settled into the desk chair.

  Opening tabs and clicking buttons, I navigated the site and found her buyer files. I’d reached for her notepad when I heard voices in the hall. The voices weren’t soft and pleasant. They were the voices of a mother and son in heated conversation.

  “Mallozi, I don’t know why you had to come right at lunch time. We had chicken pot pie. I wasn’t finished.”

  “Ma, you had plenty to eat. We needed to talk and I don’t have much time. Have to get back to work.”

  I sprang up from the computer and hurried to the door. Too late to slip out unseen. Deloris and Mallozi had turned the corner and would reach the room within seconds.

  Now what did I get myself into? I looked toward the bed, picturing the dust bunnies that would probably be under it.

  The bathroom was the only other place large enough for me to hide. I ran in and pulled the door closed.

  After realizing there was only one way out of my hiding place, I knew I hadn’t made the best decision. How long could I stay there? I prayed they would finish their argument and Deloris would go back to her chicken pot pie.

  Mallozi’s bellowing was loud enough to vibrate the door. “I told you. You weren’t supposed to sell to anyone in this county. You had plenty customers in other states, even other countries. You only had to follow a couple simple rules. Don’t sell close, and keep your mouth shut about it.”

  Deloris replied and I knew where Mallozi got his temper. “Don’t yell at me, I’m your mother. Besides, I followed your stupid rules, and you know it. You sent all of my deliveries. Didn’t you look at the addresses? I didn’t give anyone in Evelynton any product. Even though I could have made a lot of money right here at Beaver Creek. All these old, gray-haired people. Could’ve have been set for life. But you wanted privacy.”

  “Then you must have told someone. How did they know? You should’ve listened to me, Ma. All you had to do was keep your lips sealed.”

  “Don’t you accuse me. I brought you into this world.” Ah, the mom
card.

  Their argument was entertaining, if I overlooked my own predicament. But the row sounded like it could last for a while, so I closed the lid on the bathroom toilet and sat down.

  Mallozi’s frustration seemed to be growing. “No disrespect, Ma, but you messed up somehow. I kept everything straight on my side. I even taught Melody exactly what to say.”

  “Ha. Told you she was too young. Maybe she told.”

  “No, Ma. She didn’t know what was going on, so I know it wasn’t her. She didn’t have anything to tell. Think about it. Who’d you tell?”

  “I did everything right. The mistake was on your end.”

  Heavy footsteps approached my hiding place. My heart pounded, and I stared at the door and held my breath, waiting for it to open. The sound of the steps receded, and I sucked in oxygen.

  The argument seemed to be wearing on Mallozi. His voice lowered. “I’ve done everything for you, even took care of Camden.”

  “Camden? Oh, that nice friend of yours. I liked him. Where’s he been? He used to come see me once in a while.”

  “Don’t kid me, Ma. You know where he’s been.”

  Deloris’s voice took on an almost girlish quality. “I don’t know what you mean. I miss him, but I suppose he’s been too busy to visit an old lady.”

  “What are you talking about? Some of the loonies in this place have lost their memory, but yours is as sharp as it ever was.”

  Deloris’s voice exuded exaggerated sweetness, even through the bathroom door. “Oh, I remember. He died, didn’t he? Poor boy. That’s what you meant when you said you took care of him.”

  Deloris’s tone changed. No more girlish voice. “Ha. As soon as I read it in the newspaper, I knew what you’d done. How could you leave him just lying there in the woods? Why didn’t you bury him?”

  “I don’t like to dig, Ma. You know that. My bad back.”

  “Yeah, you were never built for physical labor. But I thought you were smarter. Left him in the open. You had to know they’d find him. And now it’s only a matter of time until they link Camden to you. You two worked for the same company.”

  It sounded as if Mallozi’s fist hit the wall, or maybe it was his head. Either way, he was becoming frustrated with his mother. “I didn’t leave him out in the open. Pulled him all the way into the woods. It wasn’t easy. I thought out there in the briers, he’d be buried in sticks and leaves by winter. How did I know those women would stumble on his body before all the leaves came down? What were they doing, snooping around out there? I hate snoops.”

  Snoops? I’m not a snoop. I’m curious.

  All I heard for the next few minutes was the sound of footsteps pacing in the next room. Then there was a loud squeak I attributed to Deloris sitting in the recliner.

  Deloris’s voice turned soft. Was the argument almost over? “You know I love my business. Now that that newspaper woman is on to you, I’ll lose my source of income.”

  I wanted to storm out of the bathroom to tell her I’m not a newspaper woman.

  “Ma, you won’t lose your business. I’ll fix it.”

  I sucked in a breath. Fix it? Like he fixed Camden?

  The room was quiet once more. I got up and pressed my ear against the door, straining to hear past my own breathing.

  Then there was sound, but not what I wanted to hear. A squeak from the recliner, and the sound of shuffling feet. I knew Deloris approached the door on which my ear was pressed.

  Uh-oh. Now what?

  Wildly searching for another place to hide, my eyes stopped at the only sanctuary. I climbed into the bathtub and slipped behind the shower curtain. My knees shook so badly I thought I’d collapse. Fortunately, there was a shower chair sitting in the tub, so I took a seat and waited.

  The bathroom door creaked as it opened.

  I closed my eyes and prayed to be invisible.

  Deloris’s voice bounced off the ceramic walls. “Mallozi!”

  It was both deafening and disheartening.

  The next sound was worse. Heavy footsteps brought Mallozi into the room.

  The shower curtain flung back, revealing my sanctuary. I peered out like a frightened deer.

  Mallozi loomed over me. “It’s you. What’re you doing in here?”

  It’s difficult to appear innocent while sitting on a shower chair in a bathtub belonging to someone else. “Um. This is embarrassing, but I had to go to the bathroom and ran in here. It was the closest because Louise was using hers. Then I heard you come in. And you were having a serious conversation, so I didn’t want to interrupt so I sat down here to wait.”

  “Ma, she heard everything we said.”

  Deloris squeezed in beside Mallozi at the open shower curtain. The two of them took up most of the space, and nearly all of the oxygen in the bathroom.

  Trapped in the bathtub. No place to run. I’d have to talk my way out.

  I shook my head. “Oh no. I didn’t mean I listened to you. You were having a serious conversation so I made a point of not listening. ” I looked from one to the other. Were they buying it?

  Deloris pointed a finger at me. “That isn’t true. You’re a newspaper reporter, and you were snooping.”

  “I’m not a reporter, I’m...”

  Mallozi interrupted me. “The walls in this place are paper-thin. You heard every word. I hate snoops.” He swiveled his head to his mother, who was glaring down at the snoop sitting on her shower chair. “Ma. Now we’ve got trouble.”

  The air thinned so much I felt dizzy.

  To my great relief, Mallozi backed up and pulled Deloris from the bathroom. “Turn on the TV and turn up the volume. Then check the hallway to see if anyone’s around.”

  I’d clambered out of the tub and made it as far as the door when Mallozi blocked my exit. I attempted to raise my voice above the blaring television. “No, really. I only heard a word here and there. Don’t know what you were talking about. I felt terrible being there. So embarrassing.”

  Maybe I could change the mood by appearing casual. I crossed my arms and leaned on the door frame.

  Mallozi and Deloris stood between me and freedom, and they didn’t buy my innocent routine.

  Deloris wrung her hands and whined. “This is terrible. My business.”

  “She’s the only one who knows. You can keep your business if she goes away.”

  I shouted. “Goes away? That’s what I’m doing right now. I’ll be going. I really have to find Louise.”

  Would anyone hear me above the television noise?

  Mallozi leaned forward and stared at me with his beady eyes. He took a step closer. From his posture, I might be in for a head-butt.

  I prayed for intervention—any kind of intervention. Right away would be good.

  There came a loud rapping at the door, causing all three of us to jump. Hallelujah, someone very large—maybe a security guy.

  Mallozi looked at his mother and then at the door. He grabbed the knob and inched it open only far enough for him to see out. I crept forward and squinted through the crack to see a tiny, white-haired lady in a pink dress. Louise had come to the rescue. My spirits crashed. I’d have to practice being more specific in prayer.

  I was wrong. The little old lady leaned into the door, and shoved with all the might her four-foot-tall, ninety-pound body could muster. Caught by surprise and thrown off balance, Mallozi stumbled backwards. The door flung all the way open, sending him to the floor.

  Louise brightened. “Oh, there you are, Lauren. I’ve been looking for you. Why don’t you come down to the dining room with me? I’d love the company.”

  Mallozi rolled around on the floor, attempting to get to his feet. He stammered something about me staying, but I’d leaped over him, and was at the door.

  I looped my arm around Louise, lifting the tiny woman off the floor. We crossed the corridor where I deposited her in her room. “Lock the door and don’t open it!”

  After I’d pulled her door shut, I took off at a run.

/>   At the reception area, I searched for a nurse or an aide. None in sight. A few elderly residents sat in the hallway. Not wanting to upset them, I pulled up and quick-walked to the front door. As soon as I pushed through the exit, I launched into a full run. There seemed to be no one around to help. I ran down the sidewalk and turned the corner at the end of the building. There, I slammed into an immovable object, knocking the air from my lungs. I tipped up my chin and looked up into dark, smoldering eyes that held a tinge of surprise. Jack.

  My plea was weak. “Help.”

  Within a few seconds, Mallozi barreled around the corner after me, only to become acquainted with the afore-mentioned immovable object. Jack raised his right arm and grabbed the shorter man by his shirt collar.

  Mallozi struggled, but Jack easily detained him. I relaxed and leaned against Jack.

  His voice, stern but calm, would have frightened the worst of criminals into submission. “Why are you chasing Ms. Halloren?”

  While he tried in vain to release Jack’s fingers from his shirt, Mallozi sputtered. “Hey, that woman broke into my mom’s room, and was rummaging through her things.”

  Jack looked at me.

  I shook my head.

  “What’s going on, Lauren?”

  “He’s the killer. The body Clair and I found in the woods. Mallozi killed him. I heard him admit it to his mother. Um, I was in Deloris’s room searching for clues to the thefts at The Rare Curl. You see, Mallozi stole the merchandise and gave it to Deloris to sell in online auctions. Anyway, they surprised me while I was searching, so I hid in the bathroom. While I was in there, I heard him admit the murder.”

  Mallozi reached out to grab me, but his hand fell short. I shifted closer to Jack’s other side, under the protection of his left arm.

  “Tell the police to check on a man named Camden, who worked with Mallozi. They’ll find out, he’s missing and they have his body in the morgue. It was him we found on the trail.”

  Jack blinked. “Go on.”

  “I bet Camden and Mallozi committed the thefts at The Rare Curl and gave the stuff to Deloris. Then Mallozi killed Camden.”