by Sarah Hualde
Lydia smiled reassuringly, though she herself felt no such emotion. The police watched the women cross the street and head toward the townhouse plaza before they got in their cars and sped away.
Lydia allowed Joan to get a few steps ahead of her, before asking Maude, “Was there security footage of the night of the murder?”
Maude shivered and pulled her coat closed. “Yes, but nothing unusual happened. The police have a copy of it. The original will remain on the security hard drive for the next few days. “
“Have you watched it?” Lydia asked.
Maude nodded. “Yes, but nothing happens. The timeline is the same. “
“Do you recall anyone spending any odd amounts of time in the freezer?”
Maude slowed down. “Now that you bring it up, there is something. But I can’t remember what it is.”
Lydia’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and noticed it had been an entire hour since she’d last heard from Ethan.
“Hey babe, we’re nearing the courtyard. How’s Harrison and the boys?” Lydia paused in her steps and grabbed Maude by the forearm. Maude strained to hear Ethan's side of the call. “Send it to me. Yes, thank you. I love you, too.” Lydia shut off her phone and shoved it into her coat pocket. She turned to Maude. “Harrison found something at Ashton Station. Let’s go tell the girls.”
Chapter 32
JOAN HAD THE DOOR TO Maude’s open and the girls ready at attention when Maude and Lydia walked in. They shed their coats, like snakes shed their skins, and settled down to fresh coffee.
“Flora, will you man the board?” Lydia said.
“Right-o!” Flora hopped up and gathered her markers.
Lydia took a long sip of coffee and took up residence on the couch beside Maude. “Harrison and the boys went down to the police station. They had something to tell the police about Vikki. And the police had more to tell them. Apparently, her fingerprints brought up a backlog of case files. They had a whole board worked up for Vikki Winters. And her many aliases.”
Kat gasped. She leaned down, elbows to knees, and focused on Lydia’s every word. “What was her angle?”
Lydia swallowed hard. She didn’t want to tell her brother’s story. But to get to the bottom of what happened to Vikki and possibly free Scooby, Calvin, and Charles of suspicion, she had to tell all. “Vikki Winters, as we knew her, has a past history of working cons. She doesn’t work alone and definitely has a pattern.”
Maude sipped on her coffee and tucked her feet under her throw pillows. “Which was?”
“She found a young man, usually under eighteen, and seduced him. Sometimes the boy had a family that fought back. If so, she’d seduce the father. Most of the time, the boys were loners. But they clung to her. She manipulated them to do her bidding,” Lydia explained.
“Which was what?” Ivy asked.
“She’d teach them just enough tricks to help her con an older man. They’d drain the man out of whatever she could get from him. Then, if the boys got too clingy or too old, she ditched them. She’d move on to a new accomplice and a fresh mark.” Lydia hated the visualization. Her brother and his boys had almost been one of each. Calvin an accomplice. His father the mark. Her hands went clammy with the thought.
“That’s awful,” Flora said and fanned herself. A hot flash was about to set in.
“Worse,” Lydia said. “According to what Ethan found, usually she’d take her young men on one last getaway. Treat them to an amazing weekend out of state. Make them believe they’d hit the big time.”
Lydia forced sadness from her tone. If she started sympathizing with the victims, she’d definitely lose her focus. She plunged ahead. “They’d wake up Monday morning to a hotel manager banging on the door and waving a bill in their face. Police were called. Arrests were made. Reports were filed. But it was too late. Vikki would have taken off, usually with a new name and a new young man.”
“Sounds like she has a string of young men livid with her. Any one of them might have killed her,” Kat added.
Lydia shook her head. “Only three of them escaped her—and jail. That the police know of, that is.”
“Too bad we don’t have their names,” Maude said. “That might have been helpful.”
“Who says we don’t,” Lydia said as she waved her phone in the air. “Ethan took snapshots of all the boards at the police station, regarding Vikki Winters. They’re a little fuzzy, but we’ve got them.”
Flora shook a green whiteboard marker at Lydia. “What does this have to do with anyone at your party?”
“Did your brother know about Vikki?” Kat’s voice rattled with the question Lydia was dreading.
It was Ivy’s voice that answered it. “No, he didn’t.”
“How could he not know?” Kat asked.
“Because he was her last mark, ” Ivy stated. All eyes fell on Lydia’s face. Her lack of response said it all.
Joan took a sharp and startling inhale. “Calvin,” she whispered. “Dear Jesus, poor Calvin.” Joan’s hand shot to her mouth like she hoped to erase her words from existence. Ivy wrapped Joan in a hug and let her cry for her cousin.
Ivy had been in Calvin’s place. She would have given anything to have a cousin like Joan to care for her while dealing with her grief and confusion.
Calvin would be okay. He had many people who loved him nearby. They were all ready and willing to step in and help him heal. Maybe even the rift between Charles and Harrison could repair itself.
Flashes of Mema and her mother rumbled through Ivy’s stomach. The pain inside her squeezed like a vise around her throat. Instead of letting it pour out, she shoved it back down. Joan needed her. Lydia and her family needed her. She couldn’t let it all ooze out now.
She pulled Joan closer. Joan nestled into the sisterly embrace. Ivy hoped she didn’t notice her distress. She took a brief second to let her eyes track through the room. Lydia was watching her girls. She knew something was up. Ivy could tell.
Ivy watched Lydia swallow back her worry over her and Joan. She turned her attention back to Flora. “Get ready,” Lydia said. “We’re going to make a list.”
Flora clapped. “Green for young men,” she said. “Red for older ones.”
“Sounds great,” Maude said.
“The first three are easy to read. Carlos Swanson, Jeff Tibbs, and Dino Esteban.”
Maude’s cup trembled in her hands. She set it down slowly.
“Read the last name again, please,” Maude said.
“Dino Esteban,” Lydia said.
Maude’s voice broke. “Dino is Scooby’s real name.”
Chapter 33
KAT SAT AWKWARDLY BESIDE Maude on the couch. Physical affection with anyone other than her family gave Kat the chills. It made her sick to her stomach. Still, there were moments when a friend or a stranger just needed a hand to hold. A long time ago, Kat made the decision to be that hand to whoever needed it. Her discomfort was a small price to pay to serve someone else. Maude took Kat’s offered hand with hearty acceptance and thankfulness.
Lydia sat on the opposite side of Maude. She perched on the edge of the couch. Maude needed a minute to process the newest chunk of information. Lydia empathized with her. Hadn’t she needed space and time after hearing about Calvin’s misleading lady?
Ivy retrieved Maude’s cup. She cleaned up where her coffee splashed on the table. Joan pulled out Maude’s specialty creamers and took a wild guess which one Maude would prefer. Together Joan and Ivy refilled Maude’s coffee and returned it to her.
Maude released Kat’s hand and wrapped both palms around the cup.
“Thank you,” Maude said after three long minutes of silence. “List the rest of the names. Maybe they’ll get my mind going.”
Flora was happy to help. Lydia expanded the picture on her phone and squinted. “Okay, there’s three more for the green marker. Dale Evergreen, Samuel Parks, and Dustin Suds. The picture fuzzes out after that. Flora’s beautiful penmanship squiggle
d. “I know,” Lydia said. “It’s hard. These were hurting young men that an older woman took advantage of.”
Maude’s voice thickened with her forced down tears. “Imagine if one of those names was someone you loved.”
“Does your list mention which ones are accounted for?” Kat asked.
Lydia nodded. She scrolled through her messages finding the more detailed one Ethan had sent her. The information only got uglier and more discouraging. “Samuel Parks is dead. Dustin Suds and Jeff Tibbs are in jail. Carlos was her first puppet, they believe. He’s started a new life somewhere else. Only Dale Evergreen and Scooby seem to have escaped unscathed or at least sort of.”
Lydia shivered and ran her hands together to warm herself. The truth bit her more than a blast of winter wind. “Let’s move on to adults.” Flora nodded when she was ready. “Gary Grouper, James Mercy.” Lydia’s voice broke. She handed her phone to Flora. “You can read the rest.” Flora went to work.
Lydia sunk to the carpet near Maude’s feet. “We need to pray,” Maude said.
After leading a simple desperate prayer, Maude downed her steaming coffee and shook off her mood. “Time to get to work,”she said.
“All we’ve done is figure out why the police are so interested in Scooby,” Lydia said. “But other than that, I’m not sure where to go with this list.”
Maude leaned forward, elbows to knees. “I don’t know, either. But I’m certain we’ll figure something out.”
“We’ve got the timeline set. Scooby did have access to the drink and to the rat poison,” Kat said with a question dangling in her tone.
Maude’s eyebrows pinched together. “We don’t use poison inside the restaurant. Only by the dumpsters.”
“Which Scooby had access to when he went for his run,” Lydia said.
“I guess, but he made the first drink with Dave, spilled it, and then Dave made another. Scooby would have needed to carry the poison inside the restaurant and find a way to get it into the second drink. All without us noticing,” Maude said.
“Hold on,” Lydia said, sitting up suddenly. “Tell me again, what Dave said to Scooby that made him so upset?”
Maude shrugged. “The same old boyish barbs. Something about him not being able to keep a girl.”
“Why would that even come up?” Kat said.
“Did Scooby confide in Dave? Would Dave know anything about his past?” Flora absentmindedly clicked the lid to a marker as she thought.
“I don’t think Dave and Scooby talked to each other enough to bond at that level. Dave mostly picked on Scooby. At least, when Santi and I weren’t watching.”
“Why would he do that?” Joan swiveled on the barstool. She was anxious to get to the chasing villains part of the mystery.
Maude pursed her lips. “Why does anyone attack anyone else?”
“Jealousy,” Ivy sighed.
“What if Scooby got upset when he saw Vikki?” Lydia said, knowing it only made Scooby look more guilty. Still, they had to get to the bottom of what was going on. Even if that meant sifting through past pain to do it.
Maude clenched her fists and trembled like an enraged fairy. “I know that if I’d known Vikki Winters was the lady who had hurt Scooby, I would have had a hard time not having a fit!” She took a long controlled breath. “I can’t fathom being forced to serve someone who had hurt you so badly. Can you?”
The room grew cold with mutual gloom. Ivy sheepishly whispered, “I can.”
Maude got Ivy’s declaration. “Then, Ivy, you know what Scooby’s going through. He must be so scared.”
Lydia cast a loving smile toward Ivy. Ivy turned away, afraid too much compassion might break her. She couldn’t start blubbering. They had a murder to solve and a hopefully innocent victim to find.
Joan stiffened at Ivy’s deflection of her mother’s affection. She simmered for a second before understanding walloped her in the gut. Ivy had gone through what Scooby was going through. It wasn’t an act, and it wasn’t mistrust keeping Ivy at arm’s length. It was self-preservation.
Unlike Joan’s little African girls, who relished the sudden compassion, Ivy needed space to process her past and determine her future. Joan wondered if the girls she’d left at the orphanage carried similar scars. Wounds that didn’t surface right away, but took years of semi-safe conditions to take hold and unleash their pain. Joan determined to cut Ivy some slack. Maybe Ivy’s tears at night were a signal that her body and soul were finally settling in enough for her spirit to cry.
Joan decided she’d be there for Ivy when the time came for Ivy to talk, but she wouldn’t force the issue any longer. Though she wasn’t sure how long her patience would hold.
Chapter 34
MAUDE STARTED THE STORY off with a bang. “Scooby came to us through Stefan. He was digging in Stefan’s dumpster every night until Stefan discovered him. Stefan had his crew leave out fresh food for Scooby in takeout boxes. But Scooby would still dig in the dumpster.”
“Why didn’t he take the food?” Kat asked.
Maude choked on her sadness. “He did. But he handed it out to kids that were younger than he was. Mothers with babies were always first on his list. He helped at least two that I know of. He fed them his set out meals for months until they found help. In fact, Scooby would track down shelters especially for women and lead them there.”
Flora turned away from the crowd and retreated to the kitchen. She hunkered over the sink. Maude’s attention followed her. “Do you need more coffee? Please help yourself.” Flora shook her head. Her back rattled with tears. Joan came around and held her.
Ivy took Maude up on her offer and started a fresh pot of coffee. Maude continued, “Once Stefan knew his restaurant was failing, he reached out to Scooby. They’d talked before but never for more than a minute or two. He begged Scooby to find help. But Scooby refused. He didn’t want to be a burden to anyone, and he felt like he was just taking up someone else's space.”
Ivy turned from the coffee pot. “That and he was underage, right?”
“And he had a record,” Kat added.
Maude nodded. “You’re right. I just hadn’t thought of that before. He was too scared to get help,” Maude said. She began to vibrate with frustration but was able to calm herself more quickly. “It’s a good thing I didn’t know who Vikki Winters was. I don’t know what I would’ve done. My Scooby has battled so much and overcome so much.”
“We’re all mamas here. We all know the feeling,” Lydia said.
Joan choked. She wasn’t a mother, not even a foster mother. But she figured her mother was talking in generalities. There were girls at the orphanage that she was very attached to. Even though she was happy to be home, she did miss her girls.
“He was a little younger than sixteen when he met Vikki. He didn’t call her by her name, of course. And he never mentioned how much older she was than he was at the time. I always pictured her as a confused nineteen-year-old. I never thought she was twice his age.”
“No wonder he doesn’t like Harold and Maude.” Joan chuckled sarcastically.
“That does make sense now,” Maude said. “Though Maude was eighty and Harold was twenty.”
“And both were suicidal,” Kat said. “Where did he meet Vikki? Online?”
“He met her at a counseling center,” Maude said.
“What?” Kat said livid.
“Yes, I know. She wasn’t a counselor. She was just there. Scooby said she was grieving the death of her husband. Of course, as tenderhearted as he is, Scooby tried to help her out. He’d bring her little gifts. Nothing big. He really didn’t have anything to offer her. He was living at a teen home at the time. Vikki told him he reminded her of her husband when he was young. Then suddenly, she was taking Scooby out. Nothing lavish, at first. Pizza. Bowling. Movies. But to a kid who has nothing,”
“Attention is everything,” Ivy said as she came around, refilling everyone’s mug.
Maude reached out and patted her hand in recognit
ion. Ivy swallowed hard. She had to keep it together, just a little while longer.
“Within a matter of months, she had him running away with her. They left the state and moved into an apartment in a middle-class neighborhood. Scooby thought he’d woken up from a nightmare. He didn’t know, for months, that he’d just stepped into one.” Maude paused. She caught her breath and took another drink of coffee. “He said they started stalking guys the instant they set up house. The deeper they got the worse Vikki treated him. She made him do horrible things to help her attract her next mark. Scooby said he always believed her when she said it was the last time.”
“We always believe that,” Ivy said.
“Until you don’t. There’s always a moment. A pause that gives you a way out. By the look of things, you took your way out,” Maude said to Ivy. “So did Scooby. He ran away. Though he felt guilty, he took what cash and jewelry Vikki had on hand and fled.”
“Did you and Santi ever try to get Scooby to turn Vikki in?” Flora returned from the kitchen, her eyes still red from crying.
“Several times. He refused. He just wanted to let the past die.” Maude’s words floated, like a guilty sentence in the air.
Lydia didn’t know how Scooby’s story could do anything but condemn the young man. In her gut, she knew Scooby wasn’t guilty of killing Vikki. He was hurt enough and mad enough to do so, but Lydia doubted Scooby was capable of murder. She doubted he had enough inner venom boiling inside of him to slip poison into someone’s cup and then watch as that person slowly drank it down. There was no way. But she had no idea how to prove it.
Chapter 35
SANTI WALKED THROUGH the door of his townhouse to a group of women huddled around a whiteboard and sipping coffee. A crooked smile showed off a deep dimple. “I see Maude has recruited you all,” he said as he planted a soft kiss on Maude’s neck. His wife blushed. “Anything?”