Bubble Chum

by Wendy Meadows

  I kick one of the shelves in annoyed spite. How am I going to get out of here? For all I know, I’m too far away from anything to get to safety even if I could escape.

  All at once, I hear voices above my head. “I know, sweetie, but I don’t think it’s a good idea at this time of year.”

  “But I have to go!” I freeze when I recognize Ariel’s youthful cry. “It’s the most important event of the season, and everyone is working hard to prepare. Why can’t I go?”

  “I already explained this to you, darling.” It’s a woman answering. “I don’t want you spending a winter’s night on the beach in all kinds of weather. No social occasion is worth your health. Do you want to wind up in the hospital?”

  “David says it’s okay,” Ariel grumbles, “and he’s my father.”

  My mind whizzes. I must be in Pauline and Ariel’s house in Hartford. That’s the only explanation, and I know Ariel didn’t knock me over the head and tie me up in the basement.

  The clues slot into place one after the other. Pauline. If Ariel didn’t leave the candy in David’s car for someone to pinch, then she must have brought the box home with her. That gives Pauline opportunity to do something with it. If she…..How else would the candy have gotten into the victim’s hotel room? So why did she kidnap me? I barely know the woman.

  Her voice comes all mixed up with footsteps on the ceiling above my head. They must be in the room directly over me. “I know he’s your father, Ariel, but I’m still your mother and your legal guardian. Why do you think he hasn’t tried to get full custody of you yet? He knows I’m doing a good job of raising you—maybe even a better job than he could do. He’s a single man living alone.”

  “He’s not alone. He has Margaret.”

  In desperation, I fling out my foot to kick the shelf again. If I can only attract someone’s attention, maybe someone will come and help me. I lay into the shelf support again and again. I have to make some noise. I have to alert Ariel that I’m here.

  Quick drumming footsteps pound the floor overhead. The next minute, a deep bass voice joins the conversation. “I know it’s short notice, but I need to talk to you about something. It’s important.”

  My heart leaps when I recognize David’s voice. I freeze to listen. Please, God, let him hear me. Let him realize how that candy got from Ariel’s possession into the victim’s hotel room.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Pauline replies. “I was just explaining to Ariel that I don’t think it’s a very good idea for her to go to the Winter Carnival.”

  “We can discuss that later,” David booms. “I have something more important to talk to you about.”

  “Oh? What is it?” Pauline asks.

  Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please, I pray.

  “The candy I bought for Ariel before we went on that hike,” David replies. “I gave it to her, and she had it with her when I dropped her off here that night.”

  “So?” Pauline asks.

  “So the box wound up at the Overlook Hotel,” David goes on. “It turned up in the room of a man who was murdered. The serial number on the candy wrappers traces back to my credit card. It was the same candy.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re implying.” Pauline’s voice goes tight and strained. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

  “It proves,” David booms through the floorboards, “that either you or Ariel was in the victim’s hotel room before he died. How do you explain that?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pauline snaps. “This is ridiculous. I don’t have to listen to this.”

  My heart leaps. He knows! He’s onto her. I fly into action harder than ever. I have to alert him where I am. I have to get his attention somehow.

  I flip over on my side and lock both my ankles around the nearest shelf. I wrench at it with all my might. Tugging at it hurts my shoulder digging into the concrete floor, but I don’t give up. I shake the shelf back and forth until one of the decrepit wooden crates slides off.

  I hear David and Pauline arguing upstairs, but I can’t make out the words. None of that matters now. Only the crate matters. I watch in breathless anticipation as it creeps close to the edge of the shelf. All at once, it topples over the side and smashes to the floor with a splintering crash. I suck in my breath. Please, God, let David hear me.

  Silence reigns upstairs. Then David’s voice echoes through the floor again. “What was that?”

  “It was nothing,” Pauline clips. “It must be mice.”

  “It didn’t sound like mice,” David rumbles. “It sounded like something in your basement.”

  In desperation, I try yelling. I scream and bellow for David, but the gag muffles all sound.

  “While you’re here,” Pauline continues, “I’d like to get this Winter Carnival business figured out so Ariel has a firm answer. I don’t want to continue justifying myself to her when you’re telling her one thing and I’m telling her something else.”

  “I’m not talking about the Winter Carnival,” David thunders back. “If you don’t explain how and why you took that candy to the Overlook, I’ll have no choice but to consider you a suspect in the murder.”

  “That’s nonsense,” Pauline snaps. “I never killed anybody.”

  “Where were you the afternoon of December 14th between two and five PM?” he asks.

  Holy smokes! He’s checking her alibi. He really thinks she’s guilty! I have to get out of here. I have to make some sound. That’s all there is to it. I can’t let him walk out of this house without finding me. If he does, Pauline will stop at nothing to get rid of me.

  I leap into a panic and attack the shelf harder than ever. I smash the supports and bend all my muscle power to pulling the shelf over. I don’t hear the rest of their conversation. I’m too intent on making as much noise as I can.

  The shelf rocks. The old wood buckles and parts of it tear loose from the wall. Bottles roll off and crash onto the floor. I close my eyes against the shards, but I don’t give up on that shelf. I’ll tear the whole house down before I give up.

  Voices rise upstairs, but I can’t understand the words. I pull back one foot and kick the shelf with all I have. It wobbles one more inch, and the anchor bolt holding it to the wall rips free. The shelf lists forward. More crates and bottles rain around my head. I cower as best I can, but I can’t protect my head.

  I give one more almighty kick, and the shelf leans all the way forward. It tilts and falls flat on its face next to me. The basement trembles with breaking wood and glass. I cough dust out of my throat and almost gag on the fabric in my mouth. I can’t see anything around me through the fog when two hands come to rest of my cheeks.

  “Margaret!” David calls. “Margaret, are you okay?”

  He pulls the gag free and pets my hair back from my face. “I’m…..I’m okay,” I stammer. “Get me out of here!”

  He gets busy on the ropes holding my arms. When he frees me, he helps me to my feet. “Thank goodness you’re all right.”

  I can’t believe he’s here. My heart pounds in relief that I’m safe at last. David dives forward and kisses me, and I laugh in heartfelt happiness. Everything’s okay now.

  Just then, his phone pings. He glances at the screen and smirks.

  “What is it?” I ask.

  “It’s Kyle Davidson. He says he saw someone hanging around your garden earlier, and he thinks he saw them putting something in the trunk of their car. He must have seen Pauline taking you away.”

  The phone plings again. “Now what?”

  He chuckles. “It’s Zack telling me you’re missing.” He taps the screen. “I’m telling him I found you.”

  Before I can say anything, the unmistakable sound of a car engine starting upstairs vibrates through the floor into the basement.

  David takes my hand. “I think we have a killer to catch. Come on.”

  He leads me up the stairs into a very nice, immaculately white kitchen. He conducts me through a fancy house to th
e front door. Outside, he positions us in the driveway. The car motor comes from inside the garage.

  David holds my hand and we barricade off the driveway. “What are you going to do?” I whisper.

  At that moment, the garage door purrs open. A large white Cadillac occupies the space inside the garage. Steam billows around it when the door opens. I catch just a faint outline of a woman behind the wheel.

  David lets go of my hand and draws his sidearm. “Turn the car off, Pauline. It’s over. You’re not going anywhere.”

  She doesn’t move in the driver’s seat.

  David raises his gun and aims it at the windshield. Is he really going to shoot her? I still can’t bring myself to accept that she killed Mr. Tripp and kidnapped me. Why would she do something like that?

  “Turn the car off,” David roars. “You’re under arrest for murder, kidnapping, and attempted murder. Don’t make it more difficult on yourself than it needs to be. Think of Ariel. Don’t do this to her.”

  Pauline doesn’t budge. I can’t see her features through the steamy windshield, but I don’t like facing down a running vehicle. All she has to do is hit the gas and she could flatten both of us without even trying. Then she can drive off into the sunset. I only hope she doesn’t have Ariel in the car, but I can’t see the girl from here.

  David brings up his other hand. He takes hold of his gun with both hands and locks his elbows at Pauline. He doesn’t warn her again. The two of them confront each other in a standoff out of some bad movie. I want to run and hide. I almost wish I was still in the basement where I would be safe.

  All at once, with no warning, Pauline hits the gas hard. The car screeches out of the garage heading straight for us. I dive out of the way to save myself, but David doesn’t move. He takes aim and fires into the engine block. Four bullets thump against the hood. The car makes it halfway down the driveway when something pops inside it. A cloud of steam hisses through the grille and the motor dies.

  David steps out of the way, and the car rolls to a halt right in front of him. Through the passenger window, I catch sight of Pauline pounding the steering wheel with her fists. Her mouth moves in silent, furious curses.

  David regards her through the driver’s window. The car stops and he taps his gun against the glass. Pauline thumps both hands against the wheel and sits still. She stares straight in front of her until David opens the door.

  “Get out of the car, Pauline,” he tells her. “It’s all over. You’re not going anywhere except to jail.”

  He takes hold of her arm, but she yanks it free. “Don’t you dare touch me.”

  He tightens his grip and wrestles her out of the car. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

  “You can’t do this to me!” she shrieks as he turns her around and shoves her down on the hood. “I’ll pay you back for this, Margaret! Don’t think you can get away with this!”

  I gasp out loud. “Me! What did I ever do to you?”

  “You got in my way!” she snarls. “You think you’re so innocent and good and helpful. You’re nothing but a speedbump in my way. I’ll get rid of you one of these days, and then you’ll never be able to interfere in my happiness again.”

  “A speedbump!” I exclaim. “I never wanted to interfere in your happiness, Pauline. You have everything in the world you could want. You have a beautiful home and a lovely daughter and a husband who loves you. What more could you want?”

  She jerks her head away, but that’s as much as she can do with her hands cuffed behind her back. She shuts her mouth and refuses to answer me.

  To my surprise, David answers my question. “She wanted me. Isn’t that right, Pauline? Isn’t that the one thing you wanted that you couldn’t get?”

  I stare at Pauline. The agonized expression on her face confirms it. She was jealous of me. She framed me to get me out of the way so she would get unfettered access to David.

  He pulls her off the car and marches her to his cruiser, where he puts her in the back seat. He slams the door and turns to face me. “I’m sorry it took me so long to pull my head out of the clouds.”

  “You got here eventually,” I tell him. “How did you know she was after you?”

  He cracks a broad grin. “I’ve known for a long time. A guy doesn’t have to be a detective to know when a woman is interested in him.”

  “You never told me,” I remark. “You kept it a secret all this time.”

  “You were jealous enough as it was without knowing you might actually have been right. Besides, I didn’t want anything to get in the way of spending time with Ariel.”

  “But she’s married,” I point out. “How could she turn her back on her husband?”

  “She hasn’t loved him in years. She told me so. When the three of us hung out together, she found a new sense in living. I could see it in her eyes. She wanted the three of us to be a family, and the only way she could do that would be to get you out of the picture.”

  I shake my head and take another look around. The enormous white house towers over the neighborhood. When I glance up, I see Ariel peeking out of the upstairs window. “What are you going to do about her?”

  “I have to take Pauline to the station. Will you stay with Ariel for a little while? When I finish, I’ll come and pick you both up and take you home.”

  I cock my head. “Home? You mean….?”

  “Home to West End. Ariel’s my daughter. She’ll come and live with me now.”

  “All right. I’ll take care of her until you come back.”

  He squeezes my elbow. “Thank you.” I start to turn away, but he holds me back. “Margaret?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I mean…. thank you. I mean, really thank you. Thank you for trying to protect me and Ariel.”

  “Of course!” I reply. “You know I would never let anything happen to you two.”

  “You let yourself get arrested for murder rather than expose me to any suspicion,” he points out. “I can never thank you enough for that.”

  I shrug his compliments away. “Never mind. We both have a job to do, and right now, Ariel needs us both. Go take Pauline to the station and I’ll be waiting here for you when you come back.”

  He doesn’t leave. He draws close to me and puts his arms around me. “I never want to lose you.”

  He kisses me and I wilt into his embrace. I never want this to end, either. I never want him to look at me as a suspect again, but it’s nice to know that, if he does, I can trust him to uphold the truth, no matter how unpleasant it turns out to be.

  I get lost in the magical warmth of his arms and his lips. I don’t want to let him go, but all too soon, he backs away toward his car. He gets in and drives away with Pauline.

  So I was right to guard myself against her. I didn’t imagine it. She really was trying to come between me and David. Maybe I should listen to my instincts more often.

  13

  After the cruiser vanishes around the corner, I turn to Pauline’s house. Now I face a much bigger challenge. I go inside and climb the stairs. I hunt around until I find Ariel’s bedroom.

  She sits on the bed working on an iPad. She looks up when I enter. “Is she gone?”

  I nod and sit down on the bed next to her. “David is taking her to the Police Station. She’s under arrest for killing that man at the Overlook Hotel.”

  “The man you were accused of killing?”

  I nod down at my hands in my lap. “She tried to frame me. She injected him with poison and hid the syringe in my house. She wanted to get rid of me so she and David could be together…. with you.”

  She gazes out the window. “I’m glad she’s gone. I’m glad I won’t have to live with her anymore.”

  “Don’t be glad about that,” I tell her. “She did a good job of raising you. She worked hard for a long time to take care of you before David came back into your life.”

  Ariel shakes her head. “She’s the on
e who is poison. She’s been poison in all our lives for a long time. She was a good mother on the outside, but inside, she was rotten.”

  I don’t say anything about that. She knows Pauline better than anyone. I guess that’s why Ariel wanted to live with David in the first place. “Well, you probably won’t see her again for a very long time. In a little while, David will come and take you home to his house. You’ll probably live with him until you leave for college.”

  She brightens up. “That’s what I want.”

  “I guess there is one good thing about it,” I remark. “You’ll be able to go to the Winter Carnival after all.”

  She breaks into a brilliant grin. “I’ll be able to see you all the time, Margaret. That’s another good thing.”

  “Yeah.” I clasp her hand. “You will.”

  “You know, Margaret,” Ariel tells me, “you’re really good. I can see that as well as anybody else. Mom is poison, but you’re good. You’re nothing like her.”

  “I hope not,” I reply. “I try to do good for people, and I would never hurt someone to try to get their man away from them.”

  Her face falls. “What about my dad? What’s going to happen to him, now that Mom is gone?”

  “Are you worried he will try to keep you away from David?” I ask. “Are you worried he’ll stop David from getting custody of you?”

  “Oh, no,” Ariel exclaims. “He wants David to take me back. He feels the way I do, that I belong with David and the whole adoption was a colossal mistake.”

  I have to smile while I press her hand. “It wasn’t a mistake. Not even David thinks that.”

  “You might be right, but I still want to be with David. He’s my father—my real father. I don’t want to waste any more time.”

  “Well, you won’t. Now show me what you’re working on.”

  I scoot in next to her on the bed. She makes space for me, but she doesn’t show me her iPad. “You know, Margaret, my mom said you were no good for David.”

  “Really? Why did she say that?”