Secret Sisters

by Tristi Pinkston

  The girl brightened, and Ida Mae stifled a sigh. She was trying to be facetious, but Hannah had taken her seriously. Were they all so starved for something to do that espionage seemed like a fun afternoon activity?

  *

  Ren drove, on Arlette’s insistence, and the minivan pulled up in a clearing not far from the Dunns’ house.

  “We’ll walk from here,” Ida Mae explained. “If Mary looked out the window and saw all of you sitting here, we’d have a hard time explaining ourselves.”

  “Do you have the new card?” Arlette asked.

  “Right here,” Tansy said, patting her oversized shoulder bag.

  Ida Mae reached out to open her door, but the crackling sound of a speaker interrupted her movement.

  “It’s just not right.” Mary Dunn’s voice filled the van. “You can’t do it anymore.”

  “It’s not that big of a deal,” Nick said. “Really, it’s not.”

  “I don’t like it, Nick. I don’t like it at all.”

  The voices moved away from the bug, and the people in the van weren’t able to hear anything else. Then a children’s television show began to play, and Ren clicked his laptop off.

  “Well, what do you make of that?” Ida Mae asked.

  “Something is definitely not right in that house,” Arlette proclaimed.

  “I knew we were dealing with something fishy,” Ren added.

  Tansy, for once in her life, was silent.

  Ida Mae tapped her lips with her finger, thinking. What had they just overheard? Mary was obviously displeased with Nick’s new line of work. She said it just wasn’t right. That meant morally wrong, didn’t it, and that generally meant illegal.

  “It’s time to go see the sheriff,” she said after thinking it over.

  *

  Sheriff Ricky Shelton leaned forward and put his massive elbows on his desk. “Let me get this straight, Ida Mae. You overheard Mary Dunn tell her husband . . .” He checked his notes. “That it wasn’t right and she didn’t like it.”

  “That’s right.” By tacit agreement, the ladies had decided not to tell the sheriff about the bug and the camera unless they absolutely had to.

  “And Nick came home with money last week.”

  “Correct.”

  Ricky leaned back and let out a gust of air that fluffed his bangs. “Ida Mae, I don’t know what to tell you. Nick’s been looking for work and has apparently found a way to earn some money. I should think you’d be happy for him.”

  Ida Mae bristled. “Of course I’m happy for him. I just wonder—”

  “Furthermore,” Ricky continued over Ida Mae’s response, “Mary could have meant anything by what she said. My wife gets on me all the time for playing too many computer games. She tells me I should stop and that I’m neglecting her and the kids. If someone were to overhear us, you might think I was having an affair. But when you know the whole story, there’s nothing sinister going on at all.”

  “But Sheriff—”

  “Ida Mae, I think you ladies should go home and tend to whatever Relief Society business is waiting for you and just stop worrying about this. I would need a whole lot more evidence of wrongdoing before I could even start an investigation. If you happen to find some, let me know.” He turned to Ren. “Keep an eye on these ladies, all right?”

  “That was so disheartening,” Tansy said as they climbed back into the van. “I thought the law was there to serve and protect.”

  “You have to admit, we didn’t have a lot to tell him,” Arlette pointed out. “I imagine we sounded pretty foolish.”

  “But that’s what we brought Ren for. To give us an air of credibility.” Tansy nodded at the young man in question. “And he didn’t even say anything!”

  “What do you think, Ida Mae?” Arlette asked.

  Ida Mae clicked her seat belt while she contemplated her answer. “There’s something going on in that house,” she said at last. “I’m sure of it.”

  “And it’s not computer games,” Tansy interjected. “About three months ago, Mary wanted to track a package from her mother online and asked if she could use my computer to do it, since they don’t have one.”

  “The sheriff didn’t mean computer games specifically,” Arlette said. “He just meant there could be any number of reasons why Mary is upset with Nick right now.”

  “If I know anything about women, they’re upset most of the time,” Ren said, breaking the silence that had descended upon him as they entered the police station. Ida Mae looked at him sharply. There was a story linked to that statement—she was sure of it. She’d have to squeeze it out of him later.

  “Well, Ida Mae? What should we do?”

  Arlette’s question gave Ida Mae the opening to say what she’d been pondering for the last five minutes. “I think we should keep investigating and come up with some of this evidence the sheriff asked for.”

  “He did give us permission to keep digging, in a round-about sort of way,” Tansy said.

  “Yes, he did. And we’ve done our civic duty—we went to the police, just as we should, and we were told to keep looking. That makes it our job to keep looking.” Ida Mae hoped she wasn’t justifying their actions too much, but someone had to look into the situation, and this was the only way she could come up with. If the sheriff didn’t believe her, she doubted the bishop would, if she told him, which she wasn’t going to do.

  “What should we call ourselves?” Tansy asked a moment later as they turned onto Arlette’s road.

  “What do you mean?” Ida Mae asked.

  “Well, we should have a name for our organization. How about . . .” Tansy hummed thoughtfully for a moment. “The Relief Society Secret Service!”

  “No, we can’t use that,” Arlette said.

  “Why not?”

  “The Relief Society is an organization of the Church. If we used it as part of our name, I’m sure there would be copyright issues somewhere.”

  Ida Mae sighed inwardly, struggling to make her voice gentle. “But hopefully, the Church will never know. That’s why we’re doing this in secret.” She didn’t see the need to name their covert operation, but Tansy seemed so thrilled by it, she would go along.

  “But Arlette does have a point. What if someone wrote a book about us? They could get in trouble.” Tansy thought another minute, not seeing Ida Mae’s eyes roll. “How about Secret Sisters?”

  “Much better,” Arlette said, and Ida Mae nodded. Now with that small issue resolved, they could concentrate on more important things.

  “What should we do first?” Tansy asked.

  “We need to get some surveillance going,” Ren said. “I don’t work today at all. Why don’t I take the first shift? Aunt Ida Mae, you come along with me. Tansy and Arlette, you can watch tomorrow night. I’ll show you how to work all my gizmos.”

  “Why are we only watching at night?” Tansy asked.

  “Most evil takes place at night,” Arlette informed her. “Evil loves darkness.”

  Tansy shook her head. “It was daylight when Nick brought home the money.”

  “And when the man came to deliver that envelope,” Arlette said.

  Ida Mae pursed her lips. Tansy and Arlette made good points. But they couldn’t bring anyone else in to help them—they were taking enough risks already, and it would be best if the entire Second Ward didn’t end up in jail. Who would staff the nursery?

  “We’ll take random shifts,” she said at last. “And just hope something incriminating happens while we’re watching.”

  “I wish my camera had a longer range,” Ren said, sounding rueful. “It would be so nice if we could just kick back at home and keep an eye on things.”

  “I’m sure your next model will be much more powerful,” Tansy consoled him, and he perked up at the thought.

  They pulled into Arlette’s driveway and separated to get into their individual vehicles. “Let us know what happens tonight,” Tansy called out, and Ren lifted a hand in acknowledgement.

/>   “I honestly don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into,” Ida Mae confessed as the engine in Ren’s car sprang to life. “One minute I’m coordinating visiting teaching, and the next, I’m jail bait.”

  Ren started to laugh. “You’re jail bait, are you?”

  “Well, aren’t I?”

  “Um, not exactly. I’ll explain later.”

  He directed the car into the Walmart parking lot. “I think we need to stock up on snacks,” he said. “What should we get for our stakeout?”

  “On TV, they always have coffee and donuts,” Ida Mae said. “We could do hot chocolate and donuts, or a nice herbal tea to keep us warm.”

  They ended up with a dozen donuts—half of them filled, for Ren—a bag of Doritos, and a six-pack of A&W root beer. Ida Mae insisted on some baby carrots, although she was sure neither of them would open the package.

  They put their loot in the trunk of the car, preparatory for that night’s hijinks, and went about the rest of their day as if they weren’t planning something nefarious. Ida Mae visited a few ladies on her list, arranged for meals to be brought in to a sick woman and her three children, and made a call for the upcoming service project. Ren sent some emails, took a nap, and played Tetris for an hour. All in all, it was a productive day.

  “I just got off the phone with Missy Hopkins,” Ida Mae said. “She’ll tend Hannah’s kids so she can come with us.”

  “You were serious about getting her a sitter?” Ren’s voice sounded incredulous.

  “I wasn’t serious when I made the promise because I thought this would all be over,” Ida Mae explained. “But a promise is a promise.”

  Next came the task of deciding what to wear. Ren was of the opinion that they should wear brown capes, like Jedi knights, but neither of them owned a cape, let alone a brown one. Then he suggested they wear camouflage, but they encountered the same problem. Ida Mae thought they should dress warmly, and that’s what they settled on.

  Two hours later, their snacks secreted in the trunk and Hannah sitting in the back seat, they parked in “their” clearing, and Ren set up the equipment. Ida Mae had to admit that even though she was opposed to everything they were doing, it did carry a certain amount of excitement—possibly even better than making funeral potatoes.

  They sat still at first, afraid they might miss something, but the Dunns’ house was fairly quiet—just the normal noises of putting children to bed and cleaning up after supper. When they realized Nick wasn’t even home yet, they started talking amongst themselves. Ida Mae was surprised to find out just how talkative Hannah could be, given half a chance.

  “And have you found anyone to take your basement apartment?”

  Hannah shook her head. “It’s just a one bedroom and has a tiny kitchen, so we’ve been having a hard time getting it filled.”

  Ida Mae nodded. Even if a young couple took it, soon they’d start a family and have to move. There didn’t seem to be such a thing as permanence anymore. She’d been in the same house for over fifty years, which was completely abnormal by today’s standards.

  Silence fell in the car again. After several long moments, Ren said, “I’ve got some CDs in that case by your feet, Auntie. Why don’t you pick something out?”

  Ida Mae zipped the case open and flipped through Ren’s collection. “You like Tom Jones?” she asked.

  “Why are you surprised? It’s not unusual.”

  “Well, I was in the mood for some Glenn Miller.”

  They compromised with Harry Connick Jr., and listened until Nick’s car passed them and turned into the drive.

  “Here we go,” Ren said.

  Nick’s voice filled the speaker. “Hi, honey.”

  “Hi,” Mary replied. “I saved you some tofu meatloaf.”

  “Tofu?” Ida Mae interjected. “I knew the girl was health conscious, but gracious! Whoever heard of a tofu meatloaf?”

  “Thanks,” Nick said.

  Neither Nick nor Mary said one more word to each other the rest of the evening.

  “Now, that’s not normal,” Ida Mae said as they decided to wrap things up. “What couple goes an entire night without talking to each other?”

  “Sometimes I don’t talk to my husband,” Hannah said.

  Ida Mae pressed her lips together to keep herself from saying something sarcastic. She could believe Hannah would go for long periods of time without talking to her husband—she hardly spoke as it was.

  “Why?” Ren asked, which, Ida Mae had to admit, was a pretty good question.

  “Sometimes I’m upset with him, and sometimes I’m mad at someone else and I don’t want to take it out on him,” she explained. “And then there are days when I’m so tired from dealing with the kids, I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

  “Well, that gives us three things to think about,” Ida Mae said.

  “But you notice, Nick didn’t talk either,” Ren pointed out. “If Mary was the only one who was upset, Nick would have said something, wouldn’t he?”

  “And he called her ‘honey’ when he came in the door. He wouldn’t do that if he was mad at her,” Ida Mae said, feeling very pleased with herself.

  “I don’t know,” Hannah said. “I’m so used to calling my husband ‘sweetie’ that I call him that automatically, even when I’m angry.”

  “So, we’ve basically just determined that we know nothing,” Ida Mae said, feeling her hope deflate like a leaky balloon. “I thought we were on to something.”

  “And you just might be,” Hannah consoled. “I think it’s safe to say they’re both mad at each other and we’ll find out why soon enough.”

  “How long does the silent treatment usually last?” Ren asked.

  “It all depends.”

  “Well, let’s get you back to your family,” Ida Mae said. “I’m sorry nothing more exciting happened.”

  “That’s okay. It felt good to be involved for a little while.”

  They took Hannah home and tried to pay Missy, but she refused, saying she’d had a good time and couldn’t take money. The drive home was silent, Ida Mae mulling over everything that had happened, and Ren no doubt thinking up some new invention.

  “How long do you think we’ll have to keep this up?” Ida Mae asked as they walked into the house.

  “I hope not long,” Ren said. “I’m as eager as all get-out to get to the bottom of this.”

  “If there’s a bottom to get to,” she replied. “We really don’t have much to go on.”

  “But what do your guts tell you?”

  “They tell me the Dunns are in over their heads,” she said. “This is more than just marital discord. Something illegal is going on, I’m sure of it.”

  Chapter Seven

  The presidency took turns keeping an eye on the Dunns. For a whole week, nothing much happened. Tansy reported that the baby had a diaper rash, but it cleared up quickly.

  Ida Mae was beginning to wonder if they had imagined the whole thing. She concentrated on her other tasks, helped arrange a canned food drive, and kept an eye on Rose Hunter, who was due to be released from the hospital in a few days. She’d recovered nicely from her fall, and the doctors were pleased with her progress. Rose credited it all to Ida Mae’s cookies.

  Ren had added some new gadgets to his laptop. As they took their turn at the Dunns’ that evening, he plinked away on the keyboard while Ida Mae immersed herself in the latest Whitney Award-winning novel. Their heads snapped up as they saw a black car drive past, then slow and turn at the Dunns’ gate.

  “That was a Jaguar,” Ren said, accentuating the “u” like a radio announcer. “Those things don’t come cheap.”

  “I’ve never even seen one before,” Ida Mae said.

  Since the evening was unseasonably warm and bright, they decided to get out and take a little stroll to stretch their legs, but also to see what was going on. As they neared the turnoff to the Dunns’, they slowed and took to the trees. Ida Mae was starting to give serious thought to Ren’s previo
us suggestion of camouflage.

  The Jaguar wasn’t parked at the house.

  “That’s weird,” Ren said. “Where’d the car go?”

  “This is the only house down this lane,” Ida Mae said. “They couldn’t have been heading somewhere else.”

  “Stands to reason they’d have to come back this way. Why don’t we watch for a minute and see what happens?”

  They didn’t have long to wait, as it turned out. Within minutes, the Jaguar was back, coming from behind the house and up the lane. Ren and Ida Mae tried to see the driver from their concealed spot in the trees, but couldn’t make out anything but a dirt-spattered license plate that lost a chunk of wet mud as it drove past them.

  “What was the car doing behind the house?” Ren wondered.

  “I think there’s an old shed or something back there.”

  “Can we get to it if we keep to the trees?” Ren asked.

  “I think so.”

  He checked his laptop—handy thing fit right under his arm. “Mary’s in the living room right now, and Nick just came in. They’re talking to each other finally. They’re going to sit down and watch a movie. If they stick to the living room and kitchen, we can’t be seen. If they go into the bedrooms and happen to look out a window, we may be sunk.”

  “Well, let’s get a move on while they’re in the front part of the house.”

  They eased through the trees to the back of the property, the old shed placed much as Ida Mae remembered. They slipped out of the tree line and made their way to the door of the shed. Ren opened it slowly. Ida Mae shut her eyes tight, worried that the hinges would let out a screech and give them away, but the door opened silently.

  It took a moment for Ida Mae’s eyes to adjust to the dim, dusty light inside. Old rusty tools hung on the wall, and a push mower stood in the corner. Nothing else was in there.

  Well, almost nothing.

  Ren’s shoe crunched as he stepped down. He backed up and stooped, picking up a foil hamburger wrapper between two fingers.

  “This is from Wendy’s,” he said. “We don’t have a Wendy’s in Omni.”