Pick up the Pieces

by Flo Fitzpatrick

  I gasped, “Oh my God! What type? I mean . . .”

  “Soprano.”

  Blonde. Blue-eyed. Petite. Soprano. Like Marigold. Like Daria Black.

  Oddly, I could now recall hearing Arianna’s voice. Nic had escorted me to Dusty’s car and Arianna had laughingly remarked something on the order of, “Well, she has all the luck. Voice of a goddess and she gets one of the gods, too.” I had come close to turning around and stating, “Not so lucky, since the god here and I haven’t spoken to each other for ten years before last night.”

  Reece Harrison stared at me. “Yes?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing important.” But I told him what I’d overheard. “Her comment tells us who Arianna was thinking about but not who might have been thinking about her, I guess.”

  Unless “the god” decided to take advantage of those feelings. I shuddered and refused to allow those thoughts to take root.

  “Is there anything else you recall? Anything Arianna might have said to indicate she was meeting someone?”

  “No. Nic, Dusty and I all left the ballroom at the same time, then I hitched a ride with Dusty. I didn’t notice who’d stayed behind or was chatting with the pledges inside the ballroom. Cam was talking business with Glenn when Nic, Dusty and I took off so he might know. He still lives in Austin. Cam does,” I added, which I doubted was any help in finding out what had happened to Arianna.

  Nic appeared in the doorway. “Detective? Sorry to intrude, but this could mean something. Believe it or not, I was back at the Palace Ballroom around two a.m. I saw what must have been Arianna’s car in the lot but of course I didn’t register anything unusual at the time. I left rehearsal around eleven or so and walked Bebe to Dusty’s car. I met up with a friend at a bar over in Taylor, then came back to campus to pick up my own vehicle.”

  Harrison quickly asked, “Can you remember anything else? Was there another car? Something out of sync with the other vehicles? Loud voices? Something or someone unusual?”

  Nic closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the scene. He finally said, “I can’t recall anything out of the ordinary. There were still a bunch of cars in the lot. There’s free parking all the time so some of the kids who have apartments on campus use it if they don’t own a college sticker. At least ten years ago that’s how it worked. As to last night, I drove to my parents’ house in Austin, which is where I’m staying this week. I’d been home about fifteen minutes when you called and asked to meet here.”

  Reece nodded. “I need to talk to the others. Would you ask Stone to join me?”

  Nic and I walked back to the breakfast room without saying a word. Nic nodded at Stone.

  “Detective Harrison wants to speak with you now.”

  Stone kept shaking his head. “Unbelievable. This girl was at my table. Seemed very sweet. Glenn and I were chatting with her and the other pledges during rehearsal. She was super enthused about the band.. She even had the first Pieces cd and was excited about another one being released. Said all she’d ever wanted was to be a rock singer. I told her she should let Pieces hear her sometime, especially since they’re considering getting a soprano to help with the harmonies. Glenn told her he’d heard her sing down in Austin at an Open Mic Night and thought she was amazing.”

  I wanted to crawl under the table. The girl was Marigold 2.0. And it appeared she’d vanished the same way. No reason. No trace.

  Detective Harrison addressed Stone. “I’d’ ve preferred to ask in private, but since you’re telling everyone anyway, do you remember anything else she said or anyone who might have come up and spoken to her more than to any of the other girls?”

  Stone said, “No. Nothing stands out. I must have left right before the girls did. Walked over to Ben’s 24-7 down on Main and grabbed a soda and some chips, then back to the Palace, then I headed home.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “In Hudson Bend. Close to Lake Travis. I own Stone’s Auto Repair not far from the Marina.”

  Junie glanced at her son. I remembered Cam’s remark about Stone not entering the Blume house in years. From what I’d heard from the guys in the band, he and Junie had met for lunches or dinners at his place or in Austin and Stone kept up the maintenance on Junie’s vehicles, but he’d always refused to come inside his mother’s place. Until tonight. It had taken another tragedy to make Stone face the demons he feared still haunted his sister’s old residence.

  The detective poured another cup of tea for himself, stood, then began to wander around the room, cup in hand. He did not carry a notebook. I wondered if he’d taped the statements and if it were legal to not mention doing so, but I honestly didn’t mind. If I could say even one tiny word that would help find Arianna Prentice, I’d give up my rights to counsel, incrimination and anything else required. And of course, Nic the brilliant attorney, wouldn’t allow anything that wasn't strictlykosherlegally speaking to take place.

  Reece smiled at me, apparently reading my mind. He stated, “Believe me, Ms. Becerra, I’d ask permission before using a recording device. But I have an excellent memoryand lousy handwriting.”

  I smiled back at him. I’d been blessed or cursed with both of those traits as well. Reece placed his empty cup back on the table. “All right. This now may get a bit rougher on everyone’s emotions. I’m going to need your recollections from the night Marigold disappeared. Then we’re moving on to Daria Black.”

  Chapter 8

  I again took the lead in providing Detective Harrison with recollections about the night Marigold disappeared. I told him how odd Marigold’s behavior had been for at least a month before the dance, and how astonished and concerned we’d all been when her performance was less than stellar during the first part of the dance. I even relayed details of the horrible conversation we’d had outside the ballroom during intermission.

  “The only non-personal comment Marigold made was when she was pointing out one of the posters for the Beta Zeta Spring Fling dance. It had this ghastly photo of some unknown actor’s portrayal of Dracula and she’d pronounced it the tackiest thing she’d ever seen. I agreed. We were laughing and for a second I thought things might be okay. But then she did another about face and began talking about ‘scattering her oats’ across half of Texas, including all the boys in the band. She had this horrible insidious tone in her voice when asked if I’d mind if she took what she phrased ‘ a sample of Nic Jericho’ and the tone turned totally loathsome when strongly implied she already had. I was furious. I told her Nic wasn’t some boomerang.”

  I carefully avoided meeting Nic’s eyes even as I revealed what Marigold had said. When I did glance in Nic’s direction I saw a mix of shock and anger. I determinedly continued my story about our fight.

  “She just kept repeating, ‘it’s all in the music, Bebe; all in the music’ but she wouldn’t tell me what she meant. I was so angry with her. I remember shouting at her to leave the guys alone and something about how she seemed bent on destroying Cam and how aggravated and plain fed-up everyone was because she’d been moody and nasty. Which she had. She’d been acting as though she didn’t give a damn about anyone or anything and I told her so. I yelled that she had no right to drag every one down into some funk of despair with her.” Tears were dripping down my cheeks.

  Reece gently urged me to continue. “How did she respond to all this?”

  I swallowed and quietly said, “Her face twisted like some Medusa head. It was like watching beauty turn into the beast. She said, and I’m quoting because I never forgot it, ‘Screw you! All of you. I can bloody well do as I please and some stupid eighteen-year old virgin isn’t going to lecture me about relationships.’ It was as if she’d physically slapped me. And I . . . I got furious with her and told her no one would care is she packed up and moved to Arizona or New Mexico with some real adult. Then I said that she should excuse the pun but all of us were more than capable of picking up any pieces if she disappeared into oblivion.”

  It hurt. Ten years later and
it all hurt like hell. I still couldn’t believe I’d said those words to Marigold in what had turned out to be only moments before she’d vanished.

  Nic softly stated, “Bebe, it’s okay. You didn’t cause whatever was tearing her apart the month before. You didn’t cause her to go missing. And honestly? She deserved much harsher words than you’re capable of.” He nodded at Reece. “I’m serious. Marigold was nuts the whole month. None of us could get her to tell us what was wrong. It sounds like Bebe came closest but even Marigold’s cryptic ‘all in the music,’ didn’t provide an answer.”

  Reece agreed. “It seems she wanted to tell you something but couldn’t bring herself to reveal whatever she must have believed was unforgivable. It may or may not have anything to do with her disappearance. Bebe? What happened after you finished talking with Marigold?”

  “You mean fighting?”

  “Well, if you must. Yes.”

  I smiled wryly. “I stomped back inside the ballroom and rested by myself in the dressing room before rejoining the band for what was supposed to have been our second set. When Marigold didn’t show up we figured she must have been hurt or become ill. She was never late for a set. Ever. So we decided to hunt for her and each of us took off in different directions.”

  I finished my recollection of the night by painting a picture of the pile of seeds and cigarette butts I’d found in the parking lot followed by my instant and certain knowledge that Marigold had been abducted.

  “I left about two days later for my grandmother’s home in Laredo. I was accepted to Princeton for the fall. I finished my degree and stayed in New Jersey and am ashamed to admit I didn’t keep in touch with anyone apart from Junie, and even there we’re talkin’ cards at Christmas. I didn’t know about Daria until Clifford told me the other night because I wasn’t around the cleanup at the ballroom. And I’m so sorry because most of what I’d said is just junk which doesn’t seem related to where Marigold or Daria might have gone or who could have taken either of them.”

  The hint of a smile flickered over the detective’s face. “You’ve helped. Little bits of information, even if they don’t seem relevant at first, are usually what end up solving a case.”

  He turned to Cam. “What about you? Anything?”

  The pain of ten years was stamped in Cam’s every word and expression. “Much of the same stuff as Bebe. Like Marigold being wackier than usual the whole month before the dance. Almost manic. She kept refusing to name a wedding date and she was constantly picking fights with meactually with everyoneover nothing.”

  Reece quickly asked, “Anyone in particular?”

  Cam shook his head. “No. It was if she was generally mad at the world. I do remember she was almost abnormally focused on her writing. She’d been working on the lyrics to at least five songs in one month, but wouldn’t let anyone else see them. Now, I have to admit that wasn’t all that unusual. But the week before the Beta dance, she actedmorealmost panicky and angry. She kept muttering about not being able to finish the songs before we recorded the cd. As if . . . as if she knew she wouldn’t be around.”

  Cam began to pace. “I was furious with her the whole day but especially during the dance. Bebe nailed her mood exactly. Marigold missed words in numbers we’d performed practically in our sleep, which was totally unlike her. I started wondering if she was drunk or high. She came up to me while we were setting up and frantically yelled she was going to sing this new song we’d never seen before. She claimed the words were dangerous, then she spent the rest of the time ignoring me. I’d told her ‘no way’ and I walked backstage to be by myself and try to calm down. When she didn’t show up for the second set even though we were already late, we all began searching any place we could imagine she might have gone to hide out. I remember Bebe racing in from outside, literally screaming Marigold’s name.”

  “I was screaming?”

  Cam stopped moving. He nodded. “You were. It was almost the worst thing about the whole night. You were always the stable force in the band, even though you were a kid. The only one who wasn’t into some drama twenty-four/seven. To hear you screaming sent chills through every bone in my body.” He turned his attention back to the detective. “Anyway, I wandered over to the campus hoping Marigold would jump out from behind the science building or somewhere and yell ‘surprise!’ After about two hours I was sure this wasn’t a prank. She was gone. I talked to this one cop and I remember being furious because he strongly implied she’d taken off for a lark. Just one more crazy stunt by Marigold Blume. And for one brief moment we all got excited and hopeful after someone in one of the search parties found her chain. She always wore this gold link chain with a turquoise heart in the center.” He blinked too rapidly. “I gave it to her and she never took it off. It was like . . .”

  Nic finished his sentence. “I was the one who found it. It was lying on top of a bush in the back of the Palace, as if she’d managed to toss it there for us. A clue. But the officer said it didn’t help much. Just proved she’d been back there, which we already knew anyway after Bebe found the seeds.” He added almost absent-mindedly, “Marigold loved seeds. Pumpkin, sunflower, sesame.”

  “She used to say seeds connected her to the earth,” I commented.

  Nic chuckled. “She also kept claiming they were better for weight control than giving in to her desire for double dip cones at the Dairy Barn. Which was a crock since she’d eat dozens of them and the caloric content must have been in the ‘way high’ category.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. Talk about completely irrelevant.”

  Chapter 9

  Stone abruptly jumped up from the table, and shouted, “It’s all irrelevant! Totally useless crap. We told this to the police ten years ago at the Palace Theatre. Nothing happened then. Nothing will happen now.” He grimaced, and then lowered his volume. “Yeah, yeah, I sound pessimistic and angry. But I can’t help feeling this is dredging up a lot of pain without results.”

  Reece Harrison asked, “I get it. I do. But if there’s the slightest thing you can add, I’d love to hear it.”

  Stone shrugged. “I agree with everyone. Marigold was wacky and especially way-off-the-wall the whole night. Acting like the Wicked Witch of the West and East rolled into one—which sounds unkind and she was my sister and I adored her but it’s true. She was insane and mean the entire month before the dance. She didn’t want me to come to the recording sessions because one afternoon I’d tried to pull a joke on the band the way she and Cam always did. I’d loosened the music stands so the tops would fall off. But Marigold’s fell on her foot and she screamed at me for being a stupid klutzy kid. She didn’t want to talk to anybody. Not even Bebe. It was like she was playing super sex queen with every guy around while dissing all of them at the same time.”

  Nic nodded. “Stone’s right. She kept coming on to all of us. But it was jittery. Not serious and also not a bit sexy. I’m not sure how else to describe her so-called seductions, and I have no idea if they had anything to do with her disappearance.”

  I looked down at my feet. Nic hadn’t mentioned Marigold’s visit to his apartment a few nights before the dance. I kept silent.

  Reece pulled a chair away from the table, and then shoved it against the breakfast room wall away from everyone. He sat down, looked at each of us in turn, and then asked, “What about Daria? Clifford Black’s niece? Were any of you around the night she was helping clean the ballroom?”

  Cam answered with “I never met her, and like Bebe, I left town pretty quickly after Marigold disappeared. I went to live with some cousins in Houston, then I kind of bummed around the country for a while. I moved back to Austin five years ago but I didn’t even know about Daria until I talked to Clifford the other night. Sorry.”

  “Nic?” Reece asked.

  “I stayed in Austin for the summer, finishing law school, then I moved to Dallas in the fall. With the band dissolved and Bebe . . . well, there wasn’t any reason to hang out around the Southwestern campus
all summer. I did hear about Daria on the news right after she went missing and I remember thinking, ‘Oh crap, is there some nutcase snatching co-eds?’ but I didn’t know anything about her actual disappearance. I didn’t return to the Palace after the night of the Beta dance and wasn’t involved in the cleanup so I never met Ms. Black. I did contact the Georgetown police and suggest they consider that the girls’ disappearances were linked. I was politely told to mind my own business and they had it covered.”

  “Stone?”

  “I moved to Hudson Bend and stayed with a friend and worked at what eventually became my own auto repair shop.” He glanced at Junie, who was sitting at the head of the table in silence. “I couldn’t handle coming inside the house. I kept wanting to believe Marigold would come walking in the door any moment but I knew she wouldn’t and it made me a little nuts each time I even looked at the house. This is the first time I’ve been back inside in ten years.”

  I felt exhausted. “Detective? Is this helping or are we all basically rehashing useless information? Shouldn’t we be focused on searching for Arianna? As in physically being out there checking everywhere from here to campus and for a hundred miles? Whatever it takes.”

  Reece Harrison rose. He carefully moved his chair and tucked it neatly under the table. “What you’ve all told me could end up being invaluable information. I realize it doesn’t seem so now but we’ll sift through it all and look for coincidences concerning the girls. Marigold wasn’t even listed as a missing person until Daria vanished too. Only then were the similarities between the girls given a good look and their backgrounds taken into consideration.”