by Dave Cravens
“Okay,” said Heller, trying to follow.
“The problem is, no one knows what ADMIN-MISC is. Do you?”
“No,” Ken’s posture slumped. “No one at school knows what that is?”
Parker recalled her efforts to find answers proceeding the night’s dinner. She had first called Holly, who confirmed she had no idea what ADMIN-MISC was but presumed it must be to supplement the cost of administrative office supplies. As last year was Holly’s first year of being president, the PTA budget was handed to her directly by Karen Heller. Holly was told “this budget is how it has always been done.” Not wanting to upset the apple cart, Holly never questioned it. Parker tried to follow up in person with Mendez, but the Principal was tied up at a district meeting all day. Mendez did confirm in an email that all administrative office supplies came from the school’s budget, not the PTA’s. Mendez also did not know of any item that ADMIN-MISC could have accounted for. Nor did the Silver Fox, who when pressed on the matter tersely informed Parker that “the only person who could possibly know for certain is Karen.”
“No one living,” answered Parker. She pointed to the statements again. “There’s more. Roughly two weeks after each $2500 deposit was made into your account, a corresponding check was written to someone else who cashed it just days later. See? Check 3178, check 3259. In the Fall and the Winter. But the name of the casher isn’t listed here.”
Ken’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no third check in the Spring?”
Parker shook her head. “No, but your wife did withdraw $2500 in cash precisely one week before school started this year.” Also, exactly one week before I arrived on my mother’s doorstep.
Ken took off his glasses to rub his eyes. “I had no idea about any of this.” He looked at the statements again. “But I don’t think those payments had anything to do with my medical expenses.”
“You’re sure?”
Ken pointed out a few other ledger lines. “These checks here? They were cashed by my insurance company. These other ones were to drug stores and the like. It’s a lot of money, but between my social security and Karen’s salary we managed it.”
“How is your money situation now that Karen’s gone?”
“My life insurance issued a modest check,” stated Ken. “It’s more than I need.”
Parker noted Ken’s drop in voice. This man was clearly hanging on to the hope of finding his wife’s killer before he died. “So, if it wasn’t to cover medical expenses, what was it for? Because it wasn’t for the school.”
Ken rubbed his eyes again. “I don’t know.”
“Would anyone have any reason to blackmail you or your wife?”
Ken coughed out a laugh. “Blackmail?”
“Karen wasn’t exactly popular,” explained Parker. I, for one, considered her to be a nasty demon-bitch of the highest order.
“That was never a secret,” explained Ken. “Isn’t blackmail used to protect secrets?” He looked toward the corner of his eye as if to loosen at a blurry memory. “Unless--”
Parker’s eyes lit up with hope. “Come on, Ken, whatever it is, just to tell me.”
“You say she withdrew the last of the money a week before school?”
“That’s what your statement says.”
Ken rubbed his chin. “That was about the time two men came to our door one night.”
Parker straightened her posture. “Two men?”
“It’s hazy, I was having a—” Ken paused. “A bad night, if you will. There was a knock at the door. I was in my recliner, when Karen looked through the peephole and decided it was safe to answer. She opened the door and found two men dressed in dark suits.”
“They wanted money?”
“No, they were agents of some kind. They were looking for someone. A man had gone missing. They were going door to door.”
“Do you remember who? Did they give a name?”
“It was rather unusual,” Ken squinted. “Downing. No. Darling.”
“Darling?”
“Yes. Karen told them she didn’t know a man by that name, so they went on their way.”
“Did you believe her?”
Ken gave a tired smile. “She was my wife. Why wouldn’t I?”
The response made Parker wonder about her own relationship with Kurt. She was surprised, almost offended to learn he had called Valerie for parenting advice whenever he felt overwhelmed with the kids. Here was Ken, staring at strong evidence his wife may have laundered money from the PTA before she was brutally murdered, yet he appeared oddly unfazed. “You’re taking all of this incredibly well.”
Ken’s smile faded. “No, it bothers me greatly. I won’t pretend to understand why Karen took that money, and I don’t know who she would have given it to. But I do know, she wouldn’t have done something like that unless she felt it was vitally important. A matter of life or death.” Ken bowed his head. “I guess, in the end it was a matter of her death, wasn’t it?”
78.
Long after Ken Heller had left…
and agreed to have the bank pull digital scans of checks 3172 and 3269, Parker once again found herself wide awake at midnight, in her darkened bedroom staring up at the moonlit ceiling, going over every detail in her head. To her surprise, there was a gentle knock at her door. She sat up in her bed to watch the bedroom door creak open. Maddy stood at the threshold, her slender form backlit by the nightlight in the hall.
“Maddy?” asked Parker. “What are you doing up? It’s a school night.”
“I couldn’t sleep,” said Maddy. “Can we talk?”
“That depends on your definition of ‘talking’,” answered Parker. “Lately all I’ve gotten from you is attitude.”
“I know.” Maddy stared at the floor. “I’m sorry.”
Parker felt a warmth ignite inside her. She knew moments like this with a pre-teen were rare. She scooted over to make room on her mattress and patted the pillow next to her. “Come on up.”
Maddy slowly sidled up to her mother and lay next her. They both stared at the ceiling blankly. Maddy couldn’t help but to immediately wince. “O-M-G, mother, how much time did you spend on that?” She pointed to intricate yarn strings that connected all of Ally’s crayon drawings of suspects that Parker had apparently migrated from the kitchen wall onto her ceiling.
“Oh that?” asked Parker innocently. “An hour. Maybe two. It’s literally the last thing I see before I go to bed every night.”
“Mother, you are obsessed!”
“I know.” It was Parker’s turn to apologize. “I’m sorry.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I just can’t see the big picture yet. And it’s driving me nuts.”
“Why can’t you?”
“There are too many pieces missing.” Parker opened her eyes again. “And honestly, my mind is a wreck these days. Between this, the PTA, the fundraiser and trying to be a parent to you guys – it’s a lot. I don’t know how your dad did it. He managed you kids way better than I ever could.”
“Yeah, he did.” Maddy agreed. “But that’s all he did. He gave up everything to be our dad.”
Parker smirked. “Kurt gave up a lot, Maddy. But he never gave up music. That was always a part of him. It’s a part of you too.”
“Maybe. But it’s what killed Dad.”
Parker sat up in bed. “Why do you say that?”
Maddy sat up to look at her mother. “Well, it’s true isn’t it? He was trying to start his music career again. He died on the way to the show, right?”
Parker sighed. “Maddy, a drunk driver killed your father. You can’t blame music. Or Dad for chasing after something he loved doing.” Parker finally put two and two together. “Are you afraid that’s going to happen to me?”
Maddy swallowed. “I don’t want you to die, Mom.”
Parker took her daughter into her arms and hugged her tightly. “Oh, Maddy. That’s not going to happen.” She hugged Maddy tighter. “I’m going to grow really, really old so that I can drive you eve
n more crazy.”
Maddy pulled away. “How do you know? What you’re doing is really dangerous!”
“Maybe. But I’m not dying any time soon. For starters, if I did, who is going to write the best-selling novel of what’s happened in this crazy town and turn it into a Hollywood screenplay?”
Maddy rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide her grin. “Whatever.”
“I’m serious. Momma needs to make it rain.” She brushed a strand of Maddy’s hair away from her forehead, just as Valerie had done to her the other day. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree does it? “So, are we cool? At least, for the next twenty-four hours until I do something else crazy?”
Maddy shrugged before plopping her head back onto the pillow. “I suppose.”
Parker’s phone buzzed to life.
There is motion in your backyard.
The security light popped on outside the window.
“What’s that?” asked Maddy.
“Oh, something keeps triggering the sensor in the yard.”
Maddy sprung up again on full alert. “Shouldn’t we check it out?”
“I promise you, your grandmother is all over it.”
Maddy turned to look out the window. She grinned mischievously. “Though you should know, in your novel? It would probably sell much better if your main character met some tragic end.”
“Ouch!” Parker’s heart skipped a beat. “Are you saying you want me to die now?”
“No,” Maddy shoved her mother playfully. “I’m just saying, it would probably sell more copies. You remember that summer super-hero movie? Where the bad guy won? He destroyed half the universe!”
“Your point?”
Maddy threw her hands up in the air as if surrendering. “Just saying. No one saw it coming. It sold a lot of tickets.”
“Maddy! I’m not killing my own character. Nobody’s dying,” insisted Parker. “Certainly, not anytime soon.”
Suddenly, a loud booming noise exploded in the backyard. Parker and Maddy’s eyes widened to the size of golf balls. They’d heard that sound before.
Valerie had fired her shotgun.
79.
“I saw a man,”
explained Valerie to Sheriff Bill. She rested her shotgun on her left shoulder, the barrel aimed safely up. “On my property. So, I shot him.”
Bill squinted as he aimed his flashlight through the large hole torn open by buckshot in Valerie’s wooden fence. “Whatever you saw, it’s gone now.”
“I saw a man,” Valerie insisted. “Dressed in black. With a ski mask. He was hopping over the fence.”
Bill turned to Parker. “Did your cameras catch anything?”
Parker shrugged. “It’s hard make anything out other than some movement on the fence line.”
Valerie frowned. “I know what I saw.”
“Maybe it was a ghost!” a small voice yelled from behind.
Parker joined her mother to look up and spot Drew at his opened bedroom window on the second floor. “Drew!” Parker shouted. “Go back to bed! Maddy? See that he goes back to bed!”
Maddy emerged from the darkness behind Drew to tug at his arm. “Come on, cowboy.”
Drew saluted his grandmother. “I believe you, Grandma! I hope you shot him good!”
Bill turned to Valerie. “Your neighbors called this in. You freaked them all out. You can’t just go shooting at whatever moves out here!”
“I most certainly can,” retorted Valerie. “This is my property. I will defend it as I see fit.”
Bill waved his hands. “Listen. There’s a lot of crazy stuff going on right now. If I’m going to station a deputy outside your home, I need to know that you’re not going to accidently shoot one of them.”
Parker stepped forward. “You can do that?”
“Accidents happen all the time.”
“No, I mean, you can station a deputy at our home?”
“Yeah, well, I’m the sheriff, right?” Bill pulled up on his buckle. “I don’t know what’s going on, here, but I don’t like it. So, let’s just play it safe.” He pointed to Valerie’s shotgun. “And play it cool, okay? In fact, maybe I should just take that for now.”
Valerie clutched her shotgun tightly. “Over my dead body.”
“Valerie, I need to know my deputies are safe.”
Valerie offered a gentle smile along with the most calm and charming rendition of her voice. “As long as they don’t invade my home they will be.”
Parker tugged at Bill’s arm. “Sheriff, a word?”
The Sheriff grumbled as Parker pulled him to the opposite side of the patio. “Parker, I won’t put my men in danger.”
Parker lifted her cell phone so that Bill could read its screen. “Look. She’s not making it up.”
Bill’s eyes scanned the text message sent from Heller’s phone:
Missed me!
“This was sent shortly before you and your deputies arrived,” explained Parker.
Bill rubbed his chin. “I guess there’s no point in tracking the phone this time. We obviously know where he or she was.” He nodded to Valerie who eyed him like a hawk. “Does she know?”
“Who, Grambo? I’m not sure if it would make her more trigger happy or less. To be honest, I’m not sure if more trigger happy is bad thing.”
Bill scratched the back of his head as if weighing all his options. “Okay,” he decided, stepping back to Valerie. “Here’s how its going to work. For the next few days I’m going to have a patrol car keeping your house and the surrounding area under surveillance. My deputies will not step foot on your property, even if it’s to check something out, without your permission. They will always identify themselves. They will always knock first or call first. You will never shoot first – at all. Nor will you meet any of them at the door with a shotgun.”
“Handgun?” asked Valerie.
“No guns!”
Valerie playfully waved the Sheriff off. “Oh, I’m only kidding, Bill. Lighten up.” She winked at Parker. “Or am I?”
“That’s not helpful.” Parker turned back to Bill. “If we’re done, here, I’ll walk you out.”
“We’re done,” said Bill. He followed Parker to the side gate that led to the alley of the house. “I worry about your mother.”
“She’s the one person I don’t worry about,” stated Parker. “Did you follow up with Bernstein?”
“I tried calling,” answered Bill. “Then I took some guys down there this morning to have a look around. He wasn’t there.”
Parker flung her finger at Bill. “Ha! See? He’s probably digging buckshot out of his ass right now.”
“So, I called him again in the afternoon,” Bill added. “And he picked up. He said he’d been out. I went down to his place and met him. Imelda made lemonade. They introduced Pedro. Nice kid. I told him about your car incident, and he seemed gravely concerned about your safety.”
“Shit!” Parker snapped her fingers in disappointment. “And I suppose you believe him?”
Bill hunched his shoulders. “I’ll keep any eye on him. But he wasn’t hiding anything about Pedro. That says something.”
“I’m telling you,” Parker shook her head. “I don’t know how, but somehow he’s involved in all of this.”
“He’s involved in something.”
“Thank you again for such a quick response tonight.”
“Well, your neighbors did call 911.”
Parker let out a chuckle. “What I’m trying to say, is that you’ve been really fantastic these past couple days,” said Parker. Especially considering you thought I was being overly paranoid when all of this started. “I feel like I should buy you a beer. Yes. In fact, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll buy you a beer. Tomorrow night, at The Dive.”
“Ms. Monroe are you asking me out on a date?” asked Bill sheepishly.
Parker let out a hearty laugh. “Ha! You’re funny! A date!” She wiped away her smile when she noticed Bill wasn’t laughing with her. “Oh hell. No! So
rry. I thought you were joking!”
“Awkward.” Bill tried to take it in stride as he opened the next gate to the front driveway. The red and blue gumballs of his squad car washed the odd couple in their flashing lights.
Parker patted Bill on the back. “No, no, it’s a PTA thing! There’s a Bon Jovi cover band playing at the bar. I’ve invited a bunch of PTA-er’s to check them out. I’m thinking they might be fun for Boo Fest. 8pm. Join us. I’ll buy you a beer.”
Bill tried to smile. “You think that’s a good idea?”
“Bon Jovi and beer are always a good idea.”
“No, I mean, things are heating up, Parker. And you’ve said so yourself, whoever killed Heller was probably at your last PTA meeting.”
Parker gently grabbed Bill by the shoulders. “Why do you think I invited all of them to come?”
Bill looked up to the night sky as if praying to the god of reason. “Oh, boy. So, this isn’t just some PTA gathering. You’re going to try and shake things up to see what happens.”
“Oh yeah, baby.”
“That is such a bad idea.” Bill shook his head. “The killer is going to see right through this.”
“Yeah, but that’s exactly why the killer is going to show up tomorrow night.”
Bill ruffled his brow. “I don’t follow.”
“He won’t be able to resist. If it’s one thing these dumb-ass texts from Heller’s phone are proving, it’s that Heller’s killer is a narcissist a-hole who thinks he’s way smarter than everyone else.”
Bill looked directly at Parker with wide eyes. “Yeah, those people are really annoying.”
“Right?” Parker waved off Bill’s sarcasm. “The point is, he won’t be able to help himself trying to prove how smart he is by standing right in front of me tomorrow night without me knowing. Which is when he will totally fuck up.”
Bill rubbed his chin. “So, the killer’s a he?”
“Sorry, force of habit. Most a-hole narcissists I’ve met over the years have been men. Though Karen Heller is a notable exception.” Parker shrugged. “I don’t know. Though Mom was certain she shot at man tonight. And if she knows anything – she knows men. But it was dark. I guess, I can’t rule out either sex yet.”