“Then why is a car registered in your name also parked out front?”
“Because when I got here my car sounded funny. It was making this CLACK CLACK WHOOSH sound, so I shut it off. When I tried to restart it, nothing. I couldn’t get the car to start again, and I have class later and need to get back to campus shortly. I knew Marlee lived nearby, so I walked to her house and asked to borrow her car. She was nice enough to let me, so I drove back here to chat with Bridget for a bit and then I was going to leave. That’s it.” The lies rolled off Abby’s tongue with such finesse that Bridget stared at her in awe.
“Let’s see if your car is working now,” suggested the female officer, giving Abby a stern look.
“Fine,” Abby said as she grabbed her coat and keys, ambling outside toward her car. She put the key in the ignition and it started without a problem. “Well, that’s strange. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything wrong at all now. I better get a mechanic to look at it to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Abby closed her car door and drove off toward Marymount College, a sly smile appearing as she drove away.
“Yeah, right,” grumbled the female officer to another officer standing next to her. They walked back to Kathleen’s house, where Bridget stood just inside the opened door rubbing her arms to keep away the January chill.
“We’ve called the probation office and someone is coming over to search your house, per the conditions of your release,” snapped the blond officer at Bridget who was now visibly shaken. “And when we find her, you’ll be going back to jail.” She shoved a long, bony finger in Bridget’s face as she spoke.
Anything Bridget could think to say would just get her deeper into trouble, so she chose to remain silent until the probation officer came to search Kathleen’s house and inevitably found Marlee downstairs. A white car rolled up and parked across the street and Vince Chipperton walked toward Bridget and the officers.
“Bridget, these officers think you might be in violation of your release and asked me to search the residence. As you know, a condition of your release was that you would submit to any search conducted by our office. Another condition was that you were not to have any contact with your cousin, Marlee. If you’re in violation of those conditions or others, I’ll take you back to jail, and the judge can decide if you get another chance, or if you’ll sit in jail until your case is decided.” Vince was all business as he stated Bridget’s conditions of release from jail and the consequences of violating them.
Bridget nodded as she stepped away from the door, allowing Vince to enter. He started with a search of the bedrooms, peering under beds and in closets. Then he moved to the bathroom, the living room, a hall closet, and finally the kitchen. Vince made his way down the stairs and began his search of the basement.
The dank basement seemed drearier than usual as Marlee cowered beside the water heater in the far corner. She was crunched into a ball against the cold cement wall, stifling a scream as a spider web dislodged from the corner and swung against her face. Imaginary needles and pins poked at her legs from lack of circulation. Marlee had no idea how long she could remain in this position. It won’t be long now before they find me, she thought as she heard footsteps on the stairs.
Doors opened and closed in the basement and the footsteps got louder. Marlee, who was hiding her head in her arms, glanced up just as Vince peeked around the water heater. His eyes met hers for a second, and he moved on. Marlee’s heart stopped in mid-beat.
“Nothing down here either!” Vince yelled up the stairs, concluding his search of the residence. He sprinted up the steps and after a brief chat with the officers, sent them on their way.
Two minutes later, Vince appeared at the top of the basement steps. “Okay, Marlee. You can come out from hiding. The cops are gone.”
Marlee let out a sigh of relief, shocked that Vince had let her go undetected. She rolled onto her knees and pulled herself up to a standing position, shaking her legs to resume the blood flow. After regaining full feeling in her lower limbs, she climbed the stairs and came face to face with Vince Chipperton. Bridget stood behind him, her mouth agape.
“Why didn’t you tell the police I was here?” Marlee astounded that her ex-boyfriend, the ultimate rule follower, had breached his duties as a probation officer.
“I’ll tell you why,” Vince growled. “It’s because I don’t think Bridget should get punished because she has a bonehead for a cousin. That’s why! Do you have any idea the trouble I could get in to for not reporting Bridget’s violation? I could lose my job.”
“Look, let me tell you why I’m here,” Marlee said as she hastily recounted her suspicion that Abby was there to hurt Bridget, and she had only come to save her cousin.
Vince calmed down when he heard the story and realized that Marlee was the one who called the police. “It still wasn’t a good idea for you to come here,” Vince chastised. “What would you do if Abby had a gun or a knife?”
“I don’t know, but I had to protect Bridget. Then I got here and Abby wasn’t doing anything threatening, but by then I had already called the police.” Marlee felt like a fool. She had almost sacrificed Bridget’s freedom based on a faulty assumption.
“But why Abby? What made you think she would hurt Bridget?” Vince asked. Thankfully, he had not yet thought far enough ahead to ask how Marlee knew Abby was visiting Bridget in the first place.
“Abby has told me so many lies that I can’t even keep them all straight. I don’t think she can either. Plus, she’s Conrad Thayer’s niece, and as if that isn’t enough involvement in this case, she’s having an affair with Sean Yellow Tail.” Vince and Bridget looked on in disbelief as Marlee ticked off the reasons she distrusted Abby.
“How do you know this?” Vince asked.
“Abby finally admitted it after I kept questioning her and catching her in lies. She said she didn’t want anyone to know she’s related to Thayer because she might be treated differently by the Art Department. Abby also told me she’s known Sean for years and had a crush on him. Their affair supposedly started just a few weeks ago. She thinks they’re in love and that Sean will leave his wife for her.” Marlee took a deep breath and continued. “Given the connection between Conrad Thayer, Abby, and Sean, I suspected the three of them might be working together on this scam.”
“And as long as Bridget kept her mouth shut and took the blame for the whole thing, they wouldn’t hurt her. But if she told the cops how she was coerced into taking the urn, then the plan started to fall apart so Abby, Sean, or Conrad might try to silence Bridget,” Vince said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
“That’s what I thought, but obviously I was wrong if Abby’s visit today was purely social.”
Marlee and Vince both turned to Bridget as she began to speak. “Abby just came over to show me some photos of the new additions to The Showcase. They came in at the last minute, and I never got to see them. She thought I’d like to keep up to date on it.”
“She never threatened you?” Vince asked.
“No. She even helped cover for us as to why Marlee’s car was parked outside.”
“I’m not even going to ask about that.” Vince sighed, realizing every question led to more information he didn’t necessarily want to know.
“I had no idea that Abby was Mr. Thayer’s niece,” said Bridget. “She never said anything to me about it, and her last name is Swenson, so I never would’ve guessed.”
“How about the thing with Sean Yellow Tail? Did you know they were having an affair?” Marlee wondered if their flirtation had been visible to others at Marymount.
“No, I never noticed anything between them. Abby was always very professional with everyone she worked with.” Bridget struggled to get her mind around the new information she’d received about her former assistant.
“So you think Abby, Conrad, and Sean conspired to steal the urn from Marymount?” Vince asked Marlee.
“Yep. All they needed was someone to carry out the dir
ty work of actually stealing and stashing the urn. Conrad is a computer whiz, so it would’ve been easy for him to hack into your bank’s computer and manipulate your mortgage payment records,” said Marlee with a nod toward Bridget.
“What I don’t get is who turned me in. Who saw me take the urn into your house? I had it covered, so whoever reported me knew what I was doing. It doesn’t make any sense that Abby, Conrad, and Sean would set up this elaborate plan and then turn me in while the urn was still in my possession.” Bridget shook her head from side to side as she spoke, as if the rhythmic movement would dislodge some piece of the puzzle she had not yet figured out.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Vince agreed as he turned to look at Marlee. “It defeats the purpose of collecting the insurance money if the urn is recovered by the police.”
“I haven’t exactly worked that part out yet,” Marlee acknowledged with a grimace. “Maybe one of the three involved got cold feet or had a falling out with the other two and decided to foil the plan.”
“Why would one rat out the other two? And which one? And why would Abby cover for you today when, according to your theory, it would’ve been in her best interest if you were discovered here and Bridget went back to jail?” Vince countered.
“I don’t know, Vince! Like I said, I don’t have all the details worked out yet,” Marlee snapped. She took a deep breath, realizing that she was deeply indebted to Vince for not turning her in to the cops. Had it not been for his cover-up, Bridget would be sitting in the county jail right now. “Sorry, Vince. I’m a bit tense.”
“A bit tense? That’s the understatement of the year! So what do we do now?” Bridget moved to the living room and plopped down on the couch. The overstuffed furniture enveloped her slim figure, making her look even more vulnerable and child-like.
“The first thing we do is get Marlee out of the house without being seen,” Vince said, taking charge of the situation. “If the cops are watching the house, they’ll see her leave and we’ll all be in deep shit.”
“I should probably wait here until dark so I can sneak out,” Marlee said.
“Yeah, I think so too. Plus, you’ll have to leave your car here and walk home,” Vince said.
“That’s right. My car is out front. I forgot about that,” Marlee groaned. “At least it’s only a few blocks to my house. I’ll wait until it’s dark and then slip out the side door and take back alleys to my place.”
Bridget and Vince both nodded in agreement. With a final caution not to get caught, Vince left the house to go back to his office.
“Whew! That was too close for comfort. I can’t believe Vince lied to the police about seeing you here. That shows that he really does love you, Marlee. I think you should give him another chance.” Bridget was more concerned about her cousin’s love life than the near-miss by the police.
“Vince is the least of my concerns right now, Bridget. I just need to lay low here for a few hours, and then I can put the next phase of my plan into action,” Marlee said as the wheels in her head turned a mile per minute.
Freedom was always something I took for granted. Not anymore.
Chapter 22
Marlee made it home with only a small incident along the way. She alerted two dogs in a back yard that were out for their evening constitutional. Her heart raced as the barking increased, and she hurried her pace past the fenced-in yard and down the alley.
The empty, darkened house made Marlee feel unsettled as she fumbled with her keys getting in the back door. Flipping on the lights provided no relief. Since all sorts of people tended to turn up at her house or be waiting for her when she came home, Marlee surveilled the dining room and living room. Pippa sat on the dining room table in her cat bed, pretending to be asleep. She opened a sleepy eye as Marlee walked by, but didn’t bother to make any other unnecessary movements.
Although relieved to be alone in her home with her cat, she also felt a bit lonely. She wanted to talk over the case with Hector. He was easy to talk to, and they made a great team in deciphering the ins and outs of human behavior. Marlee hadn’t talked to him since he stormed out of her house early that morning when he saw her wrestling with Vince over a breakfast sandwich. Hector hadn’t returned any of her calls that day. For all she knew, he had given up on her and gone back to Chamberlain to resume his life. His life without her in it.
I never had this kind of trouble when I was on my own, Marlee thought, reminiscing about the simplicity of life before she became involved with Vince and Hector. She continued along this line of thought as she rummaged through a refrigerator that was devoid of any quick fix items or junk food. Several green and low carb options peered out from the crisper, but none of them held any appeal at the moment. Marlee was stressed and confused. That meant that she needed fat and carbs. And nothing in the fruit and vegetable category.
She put her coat back on, thinking a mushroom and swiss burger with fries sounded like the best option for her meal. Nearing the back door, she remembered that her car was still parked in front of Bridget’s house and that the cops might be watching it. Instead of slinking though alleys, Marlee decided she would walk down the street in full view of anyone who happened to be watching. Her story, if questioned, would mirror Abby’s explanation from earlier. Abby had borrowed her car and left it at Bridget’s house. Now she was just walking to Bridget’s to retrieve her vehicle. She hoped the plan sounded more solid if she had to speak it out loud than it did in her head.
Twenty minutes later, Marlee sat in her car in the Hardee’s parking lot, wiping mushroom sauce from her chin. “Damn, that was delicious!” Marlee said out loud. The giant burger was so filling that she couldn’t finish her large order of fries. She threw the cardboard container with the remaining French fries into the paper bag and tossed it into the back seat.
Glancing at her watch, Marlee decided it wasn’t too late to go to Conrad Thayer’s house and rattle his cage. He was a pompous ass, and that could be his undoing. All she had to do was figure out a way to appeal to his enormous ego and then he might accidentally reveal information about the urn and the conspiracy to steal it.
Marlee drove to Thayer’s house and parked in the driveway. To her relief, the dogs were not outside. Even if they were contained by an invisible fence, she still felt unsafe around them. Her track record with dogs was horrible. The deep ring of the doorbell echoed through the front foyer and Rita Thayer answered the door in her maid uniform.
Rita didn’t offer a greeting as she peered at Marlee, standing under the illuminated doorway. She just raised her eyebrows.
“Uh, hi. I’m here to see Conrad,” Marlee said, deciding to keep her comments to Rita short and sweet.
“He’s not here,” Rita answered without further commentary about her brother’s whereabouts or when he might return.
Unsure of her next step, Marlee asked, “Can I come in and talk to you?” She had no idea what she was going to ask Rita, but the professor was sure she could think of some things on the fly. This might be the best way to suss out information on Conrad that he wouldn’t have revealed himself.
If Rita was surprised by the request, it didn’t show. Without uttering a word, she stepped back from the opened door, allowing Marlee to enter. Rita led the way to the same room where Conrad had entertained Marlee and Vince a few nights before. She motioned for Marlee to sit, and she did the same.
“I don’t know how much you know about your brother’s urn that he loaned to Marymount College…” Marlee let the statement hang in the air. Sometimes all it took for people to start talking was an opening.
“Yes, I know your cousin was arrested, and you’ve been trying to get her cleared,” Rita said matter-of-factly.
“That’s right. I don’t think she did it. I mean, she was forced to steal the urn, and I’m trying to find out more about it. I was wondering if you had any insight into this.” Marlee held her breath as she waited for Rita to speak.
“I suppose you think Conrad is behind all
of it?” Rita remained emotionless as she smoothed her white apron over her black uniform dress.
“I have no idea who’s involved. It crossed my mind that your brother would have something to gain by coercing my cousin to steal his urn. It also crossed my mind that your niece, Abby, might be involved, since she was my cousin’s assistant at Marymount and had some access to the urn.”
“Both are strong possibilities,” Rita said. “Although I doubt Abby is involved. She’s a sweet kid, but not very bright, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
Marlee furrowed her brows. She hadn’t ever thought of Abby as a dimwit. A compulsive liar for sure, but not dumb. “Why do you say that, Rita?”
“Abby has always been a bit scattered. She’s an artist, so of course some of that is expected, but she flips back and forth between reality and her fantasy world so much that Conrad and I have seriously considered having her mental well-being evaluated.”
“So you think she’s below average intelligence and mentally ill?” Marlee asked.
“Yes, and I think if you spend any amount of time around Abby you’ll come to similar conclusions.” Rita made her statement with such conviction that Marlee began to doubt her own observations about Abby’s intellectual abilities. Compulsive lying was a behavior associated with mental illness, so Marlee had no problem believing Rita’s theory about that. But her assertions about Abby’s intelligence just didn’t ring true.
Marlee decided to switch to another topic, seeing that Rita wasn’t going to budge on her theories regarding Abby. “So how long have you worked for your brother as his maid?”
For the first time, Rita’s face reflected her feelings. A look of disgust passed over her features, her eyes narrowing and her nostrils flaring. “Why do you ask?”
“Just curious, I guess. It’s not unusual for one sibling to employee another, but I’ve never seen the employee required to wear a uniform. Was that Conrad’s idea?” Marlee asked, sensing she had hit a nerve.
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