Curl Up and Die

by Sophie Sharp

  Molly thought her niece might be acting convinced, but her voice suggested otherwise. Still, during the course of a restless night, Molly had persuaded herself that checking on the mayor’s alibi before going to Moat was the right thing to do. Her only hesitation about the whole plan was that she didn’t have a chance to tell Doug. He’d come home late and slept in the guest room again. She’d have lot of making up to do when all this was over, looking like she hadn’t learned anything.

  They stopped at the bulletin board with flyers, signs, and room assignations. There were only two signs that could work. One printed with an arrow and large fonts said, Friends of friends of Bill W. There was a second that said SA.

  “What’s ‘SA’?” Mia asked, pulling out her phone.

  “Shopaholics Anonymous?” Molly took a guess.

  “That makes sense. Well, Google says that Friends of Bill W. is code for recovering alcoholics, so we’re in the right place,” Mia said.

  Molly moved out of the way of a man walking in and turned to follow him. Maybe it wasn’t fair of her to judge him so quickly, but she assumed he was headed to an AA meeting and wasn’t a shopaholic. “Let’s do this.”

  When they got to the door, there was a nice blond woman about Molly’s age to greet them. “Come on in. We are always happy to help a new face. Just pick a seat.”

  Mia took a flyer without looking at it and headed toward the coffee table. “I’m desperate. I’m so tired and I have a hang—” She blushed. “I can’t believe I almost said that here. I meant an ice cream hangover.”

  Molly almost wished she had finished saying hangover because it made them sound legit. Now they were here, Molly was having serious second thoughts about being in a meeting where they didn’t belong.

  Didn’t matter though because a petite old man turned and said, “You can say anything here. We don’t judge.”

  Mia took a sip of coffee from the Styrofoam cup. “Mmm. Yes, I needed this.”

  They looked around the room together. Some people were mingling and smiling, others looked more serious. “How far do we take this?” Molly asked.

  Mia nibbled her lips. “I don’t know. I mean, we can’t let it go too far. These are private issues,” she whispered. “We just need someone to confirm he was never here.”

  “Because if he was never here, he had time to do the crime.”

  “Did I hear someone say crime?” the woman who had been at the door slid up behind them. “The first thing you’ll learn here is your addiction is not a crime.”

  I’m an impostor, thought Molly. This is not right.

  The woman was just turning to greet another arrival when Mia gasped. Molly turned to look at her and Mia shoved the flyer into her hands: Sexaholics Anonymous: Twelve Steps to Sexual Sobriety.

  Holy no no no. They were in the wrong meeting. Molly grabbed Mia’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They raced to the door where their greeter was frowning. “You’re leaving already? Please don’t quit yourself.” Her genuine concern made Molly cringe with guilt.

  “I’m so sorry,” Molly said, feeling safe being honest now, since Mayor Tully was openly a recovered alcoholic. “We are at the wrong meeting. Our mayor is a friend of Bill W. and he referred us to his chapter here. We just confused the meeting rooms.”

  “Mayor Tully?” the woman asked. She smiled and shook her head. “Oops. We aren’t meant to say names. But of course, I know him well.”

  Molly stared at her, trying to understand exactly which bit of this exchange was the most confusing.

  “I think he’s played a prank on you. Sounds like him,” the woman said, laughing to herself. “Bill W. is for alcoholics. But don’t you ladies worry. He got you where you need to be, so grab a seat. We’re about to start.”

  It was Mia who gathered her wits first. “I’m sorry. We’re so confused. We’re supposed to meet Mayor Tully at his weekly meeting, are we in the right place?”

  “You’re in the right place, or you would be normally. Mayor Tully has a work commitment. He won’t be here this week.”

  “Oh, silly me,” Mia said. “I think I have the dates mixed up. It was supposed to be last week.”

  Molly fought the urge to smile. Maybe Mia had inherited her mother’s acting skills after all.

  “Well, it’s a good job you didn’t come last week because he missed that meeting too. That’s really not like him to miss two weeks in a row. I hope he’s not relapsing.”

  Whoa! Molly didn’t want to jump to more conclusions, but the way the woman said it, it sounded like the mayor’s absence had been unexpected the previous week. “Maybe the mayor went to an AA meeting last week instead at this time and place?”

  “No.” The woman shook her head. “The AA chapter meetings moved a year ago to give us this space and time. It was the mayor’s idea.”

  Molly thanked the woman and guided Mia from the room. She was almost shaking with nervous excitement.

  “See you next week,” the woman called after them. “And do bring the mayor along. We’re worried about him.”

  Molly waved at the woman. But if their suspicions were right, the mayor wouldn’t be attending this meeting for a long time. Maybe not for the rest of his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Mia all but pushed Aunt Molly out the door. Clearly her aunt was in shock. If she was anything like Mia, picturing how Mayor Tully had come to end up at a Sexaholics Anonymous meeting was too much to process. They’d come looking for answers, but this was definitely TMI.

  Now they knew the truth about the mayor’s private life, his slogan took on new meaning: “The Sober Mayor Who Gets Real People.” The mayor had been so open and proud about his alcohol sobriety, but apparently not his other addictions.

  “I’ll drive, Aunt Molly,” Mia said. She took the keys from her aunt’s hands. “You’re in too much shock. Drink the rest of your coffee.”

  She guided Aunt Molly into the passenger seat and set off for the drive back to San Cosmas. As she pulled the car onto the southbound 101, she tried to fit the piece of the puzzle together.

  “My mouth’s so dry,” Aunt Molly said.

  Mia offered her a pack of natural gum, even though she knew her aunt couldn’t stand the stuff. To Mia’s surprise, Aunt Molly grabbed two pieces and began chewing nervously, with an annoying smacking sound.

  “I don’t think the mayor ever left San Cosmas on the day of Veronica’s murder,” Mia said. “I think he used his AA meeting—the one that’s actually an SA meeting—as a cover, because he knew Nell would vouch for him.”

  “You think he planned to kill Veronica?”

  “I don’t know. Veronica was blackmailing everyone who stood in her way, so why not the mayor? Maybe that’s why he changed his mind about the lot. And we all thought Nell was following his lead, but we now know Veronica had dirt on her too.”

  “Okay,” Aunt Molly said, taking another sip of coffee. She was starting to sound better already.

  “What if Nell left Opal May’s funeral early to confront Veronica about the blackmail? Nell being Nell, or at least the Nell we know, she wouldn’t want to make a scene in public, so she chose the funeral because half of San Cosmas would be there, and the town would be quiet.”

  “Nell being Nell, she probably realized Veronica would take advantage of the funeral to do something dastardly.”

  “Like drop off blackmail photos. Exactly. What if the mayor saw Nell and followed her to the lot? He saw Nell argue with Veronica, saw her push her, or whatever she did, and saw his opportunity to get Veronica out of the picture.”

  “And pin it on Nell?” Aunt Molly said.

  “And pin it on Nell.”

  “That’s not very nice,” Aunt Molly said. “But why would the mayor want to kill Veronica? He’s been open about addiction, and this wouldn’t look great, but it’s not bad enough to warrant murder. What could she have on him that he wouldn’t want anyone to know, ever?”

  Mia looked over at Aunt
Molly and Aunt Molly looked back at her.

  “The safe room,” they said in unison.

  “Nell said she saw the mayor and Veronica leave the safe room the night before the murder,” said Aunt Molly. “Whatever the mayor keeps in there, he doesn’t want anyone to know.”

  Mia felt herself blush. When she was a teenager, she’d found a trilogy of books on her mother’s nightstand. She hadn’t realized her mother was a reader, so she’d flipped open the black and silver covers to see what had caught her mother’s interest. Mia had kept reading long into the night, until she’d acquired a full education about the bedroom antics of Mr. Grey and Ms. Steele. As such, she had a pretty good idea what the mayor might keep in his safe room, but she was too embarrassed to talk about it with Aunt Molly. From the confused look on her aunt’s face, she wasn’t familiar with the Fifty Shades books.

  “Maybe we should find out. The mayor will be away at the conference all day. Maybe we can peek through a window.”

  “I’m not sure a safe room is going to have a window, Aunt Molly.”

  “Then we’ll have to get inside.”

  Mia was feeling nervous, all of a sudden. “If it’s a ‘safe’ room, how are we going to get in?”

  “I don’t know,” Aunt Molly said, “but if the mayor’s away at his conference all weekend, we’ll have plenty of time to find out.”

  Mia said nothing. She had a bad feeling they wouldn’t like what they discovered, but if they were going to save Nell and clear their own names in San Cosmas, she could see no other option but to go to the mayor’s house.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  As Mia drove down the street past the mayor’s house, looking for a place to park where Aunt Molly’s car wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb, Aunt Molly yelled, “Stop here.”

  Mia slammed on the brakes and Aunt Molly jumped out.

  “Hi Rose,” Aunt Molly called.

  Mia turned to see a maid lugging a vacuum out the mayor’s front door. She lurched the car into the first spot she saw and ran after her aunt, who’d just caught up with the maid.

  “Is the mayor home?” Aunt Molly asked Rose, as Mia joined them.

  He better not be, Mia thought. So much for their discreet surveillance plans.

  “He is gone until tomorrow,” Rose said as she dragged cleaning supplies to the front porch.

  Mia looked at Aunt Molly as if to say, What do we do now?

  “Let us help you with that,” Aunt Molly chirped, as she slid in to the mayor’s foyer to hand a large bucket to Mia. What was she up to? As Aunt Molly grabbed a cleaning caddy off the floor, she said, “I’ll lock the door behind me.”

  Rose led Mia toward her car and Mia glanced back just in time to watch Aunt Molly pluck the gum from her mouth and stick it on the inside of the door, so the latch wouldn’t click. She pulled the door closed behind her.

  By the time Rose went back to lock up, Aunt Molly was pretending to have turned the deadbolt with Rose’s key. “All locked up. Here you go.”

  “Thank you, Molly,” Rose said.

  “Are you done for the day?” Mia asked, as they walked her to her car with the last of her supplies.

  “Yes, it should be a nice Friday. Since the mayor’s gone, I can have a long weekend.”

  They pretended to continue on their walk until Rose was long gone, then they turned around and ran back to the house and snuck inside.

  The safe room wasn’t hard to find. Aunt Molly said Uncle Doug had let slip that it was in the basement, but the real giveaway was the heavy door protected by a keypad lock.

  “Now what?” Mia asked.

  “I guess we take a guess at the code,” Aunt Molly said.

  “But if we’re wrong, we’ll trigger the alarms.”

  “How many attempts do you think we’ll have?”

  Mia shrugged. “Two, maybe three?”

  Aunt Molly mumbled to herself, thinking out loud. “I’d use Doug’s birthday or our anniversary, but the mayor’s not married. He doesn’t have kids or pets. Maybe he’d use his own birthday.” She drummed her fingers on the keypad.

  Mia willed her aunt to be sure before she started pushing buttons. Getting caught trying to break into the house of the San Cosmas mayor wasn’t going to win them any brownie points with the community. It might get them community service, though.

  “Of course,” Aunt Molly said at last, and poked at the keypad.

  Mia held her breath. Beep, beep, beep, beep. A green light flashed, and she heard a faint click.

  Aunt Molly grinned at Mia and pushed open the door. “He used his sobriety anniversary.”

  Mia grinned and followed Aunt Molly down the narrow stairs. Her aunt was wicked clever sometimes.

  Mia wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting to find, but she was still surprised that the safe room appeared to be nothing more than a secret office. Its walls were clad in rich oak paneling, and it contained a round table for meetings, and a big old-fashioned safe that presumably held all the mayor’s dirty little secrets. On one wall was a bookcase full of thick leather-bound books. A quick inspection showed the most boring array of laws, ordinances, and civic dullness.

  “Rats,” said Aunt Molly. “There’s nothing here.”

  “Well, we got this far. Let’s look around.”

  As Aunt Molly pulled books from the shelf and riffled their pages, Mia tested the safe door. She wasn’t surprised to find it locked. She checked a small filing cabinet but couldn’t see anything besides the kind of legal documents she’d expect to see. She was just about to suggest they give up when she heard a squeak from Aunt Molly, a grinding of gears, and the scraping sound of something heavy moving. She looked up just as the bookcase swung to a halt, leaving Aunt Molly gaping into a hidden room.

  “Oh my,” said Aunt Molly, her cheeks coloring.

  “A hidden room behind a bookcase?” Mia laughed. “That’s so cheesy.”

  But Aunt Molly wasn’t laughing. She looked like she’d really seen Opal May’s ghost this time.

  “What the …” Mia added, as she stepped up to look. Now she understood why Aunt Molly had been so shocked.

  The hidden room contained a circular bed covered in red satin sheets, a black leather couch, and an uncomfortable-looking straight-backed wooden chair. From the ceiling hung a harness of some kind and a variety of ropes. It looked like a cross between a tacky motel and an obstacle course. But on one wall was a rack, hung with a neat row of leather whips in every length and color, some with tassels, some without. They left no doubt in Mia’s mind as to the use of the room.

  “Well,” Mia said, her voice a little shaky. “If Veronica knew about this, it would certainly give her something to hold over the mayor’s head.” She glanced up at the harness, suddenly regretting her choice of words and getting an image she tried hard to blink away.

  “But how would she know about it?”

  “Aunt Molly,” Mia said, patiently, “the mayor, his addiction. The meeting, SA. It’s just a guess, but I think Veronica knew this room … intimately, if you get my drift.”

  Aunt Molly blanched. “Well, now we’re here, we’d better look for evidence.” But she didn’t move. She stood on the threshold, staring into the room, her lip curled up in a mixture of skepticism and distaste, and maybe a little curiosity.

  Mia pulled out her phone and started taking pictures. She moved around the room, being careful not to touch anything. It wasn’t just a fear of destroying evidence; she was afraid of catching something nasty. She’d need at least three showers when she got home. People were free to do as they wanted as long as everyone was consenting, but she did not want these details in her mind.

  As she circled the bed, something caught her eye. On the floor was a long, pink ostrich feather, just like the one she’d noticed missing from Veronica Corsello’s disgusting boot. She moved in closer to snap a shot, then heard Aunt Molly suck in a breath.

  “What is it?” she called, turning to look.

  Aunt Molly was
pale. In her hand, she held a piece of paper.

  “Aunt Molly?” Mia asked.

  “It’s nothing,” Aunt Molly said, crumpling the paper in her hand.

  “Aunt Molly! That’s evidence.” Mia hurried around the bed, but her aunt held the paper behind her.

  “You don’t want to see this,” her aunt said.

  “Yes, I do,” said Mia.

  “Trust me. You don’t.”

  Mia grabbed for the paper, certain it would be an incriminating photo of the mayor. Instead, she unfurled a picture of her mother—fully clothed, thank goodness. Beside her was the shadow of a man whose features had clearly been grayed out. Above, someone had typed: Molly, forfeit the lease or I go public with the identity of Mia’s father.

  Mia stared at the picture. Her father? She peered at the gray blob, looking for anything that might identify the man she’d wondered about her whole life.

  “Mia, sweetie,” Aunt Molly said. “Baby, it’s not real. You know that, don’t you?”

  “You don’t know that,” Mia said, trying to keep her voice level.

  “How could Veronica know this when even your mother isn’t sure?”

  “Isn’t she?” Mia asked. “What if she’s been keeping it from me? What if she does know?” She didn’t add that, if Veronica had lived and been able to go through with the blackmail, Mia might have learned her father’s identity.

  “It’s a hoax,” Aunt Molly said, stroking Mia’s arm. “It’s her cruel way to get to me. But it’s just a lie, like everyone else’s.”

  “Except Anthony’s.”

  “Mia, we’ll find out the truth later, but right now, we have a murder to solve and I think we’re getting closer.” She pointed to the back of the photo. When Mia turned it over, she saw a bloody fingerprint. It had to be the mayor’s. “It’s my guess that Mayor Tully took this away from Veronica after he killed her.”

  “Why would the mayor keep this?” Mia asked. “It only proves he was there with Veronica at the time of murder.”