by Alexa Steele
The one outlandishly expensive item she owned—a hunter green Proenza Schouler bag, a thirty-fifth birthday present from Ryan—hung over her shoulders. He had given it to her as they sailed around the Hudson on a spectacular clear, warm summer evening, a surprise he had taken painstaking steps to keep secret. Gliding over the Hudson with him, the lights of New York City sparkling around them, had been magical enough—the bag had meant little to her in comparison.
Yet Ryan had wanted her to have the kind of gift he knew she would never buy for herself; and, though she normally didn’t do flash, today flash was just what she needed. She hid her badge and gun inside, next to her cell, and looked more like a pretty Greenvale resident than a sex crimes detective from the Bronx. Exactly the look she had aimed for.
A bell chimed when she walked through the door and three curious heads lifted at once, and stared. Jenna was the first to crack a forced smile, but the other two did not seem to recognize her.
“Good morning,” Bella exclaimed cheerily as she walked over to their table. “Just the girls I wanted to see. May I join you?”
The question was rhetorical—before they could answer she pulled up a chair to their small, round, Mediterranean-tiled table and sat down.
“How’s it going?” Bella asked, smiling. “You must be Kim,” she said, extending her hand.
“Hi?” Kim replied, suspiciously and snootily. “Do I know you?”
Jenna smiled, but her eyes did not. She was pretending not to care, but Bella could tell she was not happy to see her.
“I’m Detective de Franco. Please call me Bella though,” she said chattily. “I am investigating the murder of your friend Joslyn Freed. I am so sorry for your loss. I stopped by your home yesterday but you weren’t there—this morning too. I left my number with your maid.”
Kim had ginger red hair, an angular face, and small, unblinking blue eyes that peered at Bella suspiciously. She seemed rattled.
“Dede told me you stopped by,” she replied, fidgeting with her straw. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. It’s been crazy…” Her voice trailed and her eyes looked downward.
“How are you holding up?” Bella asked with fake concern, getting the same phony vibe she got from the other two. Bella deliberately dropped her bag on the table so they all could get a look.
Stephanie, who had been staring at her, now shifted her eyes to the bag.
“Is that a Proenza?” Stephanie asked before Kim could answer. “Oh my god, that’s such a good knockoff,” she chirped as she sipped her smoothie.
“Knockoff?” Bella cocked her head and smiled. “No knockoff. It’s the real deal.” Bella feigned hurt and Stephanie looked embarrassed.
“I have that color, but green is really more winter, I think,” Jenna joined in disparagingly.
“Hmm. I was told military green is year round,” Bella said.
“Whatever,” Jenna replied casually in a high-pitched tone. “Just saying.”
Jenna certainly wasn’t trying to ingratiate herself like yesterday; but then again, Mack wasn’t around.
The server came over and Bella ordered a chocolate milkshake with extra whipped cream and a chocolate croissant. The three women looked at her like she was crazy.
“Do you have kids?” Kim asked, checking her out.
Bella took this out-of-the-blue inquiry in stride.
“No, I do not have children,” Bella replied, smiling. Here we go again, she thought.
“Aww…too bad.” Kim looked crestfallen for her.
“She’s a detective, Kim. Do you know what her life is like?” Stephanie admonished subtly.
“So? Last time I checked there was no law against detectives having kids.”
Kim shot Stephanie a fake smile, and Stephanie returned the favor with one of her own.
“Hey, it’s OK, really,” Bella intervened. “My life’s not set up for children. Kids would be way too much work from what I hear.”
The three of them looked at one another and Jenna spoke:
“That’s what full-time help is for.” She laughed. Kim and Stephanie joined her.
“Ahhhh, yes, if you can afford it,” Bella said carefully. “Not everyone can.”
She pictured all the young, single mothers she knew who worked all day, used day care, and came home at night only to bathe, feed, and care for their children, by themselves.
“Well, I would have been dead if it weren’t for Chandra,” Jenna dismissively observed.
“Oh my god. There’s no way,” Stephanie laughed.
They seemed very pleased with themselves for needing and using full-time help, and the three of them shared a laugh as though only they could understand the unique difficulty of raising one’s child on one’s own. Not that any of them had ever done so. Time to end the giggle fest.
“So Jos’s funeral is tomorrow?” Bella remarked to the table in general, changing the subject to one more appropriate for the occasion.
They quieted down, nodded, and, for a moment, seemed like they might be ready to talk seriously, finally. When Jenna spoke, however, it was only to ask Stephanie what she planned to wear.
“The black Chanel suit I got from Patricia Reynolds with my Miu Mius,” she replied without missing a beat. “You?”
“My black Prada jumpsuit,” Jenna answered.
The girls looked surprised.
“A jumpsuit?” Kim asked.
“Yes, it’s Prada and it’s black and it’s silk, and I really don’t have anywhere else to wear it, so rather than have it sit in my closet, I figured why not?” Jenna answered defensively.
“With what shoes?” Kim piped up, clearly engaged.
“Either my red Louboutins or my blue Manolos, depends on whether we go back to Jamie’s afterwards. Haven’t heard the plans. Have you?” Jenna asked the two of them.
“He told me last night to come over afterwards. I mean, us all to…” Stephanie faltered, then spit out, “Come over afterwards.”
Jenna jerked her head back a little and Stephanie looked stricken, as though she had said something wrong. Bella caught it.
“So you spoke with Mr. Freed last night, Stephanie? How is he holding up?” Bella asked sweetly.
“He, he called the house…to speak to Jack, but Jack was at the gym.”
Just then the bell chimed and Erika walked in, looking like she was about to sit down for a root canal. She glanced their way and ambled over to the table. The women said hello casually and blew kisses, except Jenna, who looked out the window.
No one offered to make room for her at the cramped table or to get her a chair, so Bella stood up and, in an overdramatic display of kindness and manners, gave Erika her chair and insisted she sit. Erika did so as Bella went to find another seat and, a few seconds later, came back with a small iron chair in her arms. She squeezed it between Stephanie and Kim, making the small table just a bit tighter. None of the women looked happy. Erika was stoic, Stephanie and Kim were cramped, and Jenna’s artificial smile remained plastered on her face.
“Well, now that Erika’s here, I can begin more formally,” Bella started with a smile. The women looked at one another, realizing this meeting had not been accidental after all.
CHAPTER 21
“When I work a homicide, it is very important I learn as much as I can about my victim,” Bella began. “I’m hoping, as her closest friends, you can help me with the kind of information I am looking for.”
There was silence.
“OK. So let’s talk about Jos.”
The women looked miserable.
“She was a really good tennis player. And mom,” Kim answered. “Just a sweetheart. She and Jamie have two beautiful daughters. They are a very wealthy family,” she whispered, shaking her head side to side.
Erika rolled her eyes. Bella could see why.
“How did Jos seem to you at the gala?” Bella asked Kim.
“She seemed OK. I mean, she wasn’t her usual bubbly self.”
Kim looked at
Jenna and Stephanie for approval when she said this. Neither made eye contact with her.
“I didn’t see her much now that I think of it,” Kim added.
“I heard you all hung out together most of the night?” Bella asked.
“Not me,” said Kim. “I had to help run the auction. I saw Jos during the speech, but not afterwards. It was soooo crowded it was ridiculous. They have to come up with a better venue for next year.”
“Are you kidding? The Yacht Club is perfect,” replied Stephanie. She looked offended.
“Weren’t you in the restroom with everyone after the speech? I thought that’s what I heard,” Bella redirected her.
“Was I?” Kim chirped.
“Duh,” said Stephanie, condescendingly. “Remember the attendant didn’t have any wash cloths left and you had a fit?”
“OHHHHH, yes. I do remember now. Yeah, what was up with that? You know you are having hundreds of guests and you don’t bother to check whether the bathroom is fully stocked?” Kim asked no one in particular. It was more of a statement.
No one responded.
“Kim, did you speak to Joslyn in the bathroom?” Bella pressed.
Kim searched her memory.
“Briefly,” Kim replied haltingly. “She was drunk, that was pretty clear. But she was quieter than normal. She kept looking at her watch.”
“What kind of watch?” Bella asked. Joslyn’s wrist had been bare.
“Her rose gold Rolex,” Kim answered, as though it were obvious.
“Where did she go after the bathroom?”
Bella spoke quickly and Kim looked flummoxed.
“I, I don’t know actually,” Kim replied nervously. “Steph, do you remember?”
“Remember what?” Stephanie asked.
“Did Jos leave before we did? I don’t recall.”
“Neither do I,” Stephanie answered.
“Well, did anyone talk to her in the bathroom?” Bella pressed.
They all shrugged their shoulders as though they didn’t remember.
“Was it crowded in there or just the three of you?” Bella asked.
“Just us, I think?” Kim answered uncertainly.
“Right,” Stephanie nodded.
Trying to get substantive answers from these women was quite a task.
“What can you tell me about Jamie?” Bella asked the table, switching gears.
“We LOVE him!” Kim said in a hushed voice. “Jos and Jamie are, I mean, were, like, the perfect couple.”
Stephanie looked dismayed. Bella watched Jenna eye Stephanie.
“So there was no trouble brewing in paradise that any of you knew about?” Bella winked in a conspiratorial way, as though she were one of the girls. But she wasn’t. Stephanie and Kim looked turned off and Jenna was not amused.
“Absolutely not.” Kim reacted as though she had been personally insulted.
“How could you be so sure?”
Kim looked confused.
“I just am,” Kim replied in a snarky tone.
“How close would you say the two of you were?” Bella had her hooks in and didn’t want to let go.
“As close as two friends can be. Like a sister,” she said sadly.
There was that phrase again. Some sisters.
“OK. Can you tell me a little about her job at the Gazette?” Bella continued.
“Not really,” Kim hedged.
“Do you know what she was working on lately?”
Kim shook her head and shrugged. “Not really.”
“You were in Mexico Christmas?” Bella asked.
Kim looked nervous when she nodded and Bella wondered why. Her cheeks flushed discernibly as she darted her eyes toward Stephanie.
“How did Jos seem to you that week?”
Kim was reluctant to answer, Bella noticed. She looked down in her lap, took a sip of her smoothie, and looked at her watch. She was starting to look uncomfortable.
“She seemed fine,” was all she said. Her cheeks remained red.
Stephanie’s eyelashes fluttered as she pushed her hair behind her ears and fiddled with her hands in her lap.
Bella turned her attention toward Stephanie.
“OK. Stephanie, I remember your saying Jos was very happy because ‘she had won’?”
By the look on Jenna’s face it seemed Bella had stepped on a land mine. And she had. Purposely.
“Won what?” Erika asked, confused.
Jenna looked away from the table as though she saw someone she knew on the sidewalk, but there was no one there. She redirected her gaze back toward the group.
“Yes, she had won, Steph. You are absolutely right,” Kim chimed in, apparently knowing exactly what Stephanie had meant. “It was such a brutal year.”
“Ohhhh, Vanderbilt…” said Erika, now realizing the context.
“It was our girls’ senior year,” Kim said to Bella, “so we spent the year applying to colleges and waiting for results. There is so much competition and pressure to get into a top school—it’s just insane! Forget about the Ivies. Perfect scores aren’t even enough anymore,” Kim fretted. Bella nodded in fake sympathy as Kim continued:
“You need straight A’s, all APs, varsity letters—plural—perfect test scores, a TON of extracurriculars, honors, awards, yada yada yada, on and on…it’s just crazy,” she sighed.
Erika jumped in with an irritated tone. “If you need your kid to attend one of the top-tiers then yeah, senior year sucks.”
“Who doesn’t?” Kim shot back.
“Plenty of normal parents still around, Kim. You just don’t know many of them,” Erika informed her with a grin.
To this Jenna rolled her eyes. “Here we go,” she said under her breath.
“What was that, Jenna?” Erika asked.
“Nothing,” Jenna sang in a little girl voice.
“What was Jos’s attitude about all of this?” Bella asked, interested.
“She was like the rest of us—plugged in. I don’t know how you can be a good mom without being super plugged in though. I mean, what are ya gonna do, just leave it all to your kids? Like they know how to package themselves?”
“Was Joslyn stressed about any of this?”
“Not particularly, no. I think whatever college Carly ended up in for the most part she would have been fine,” Kim replied.
To that Jenna snickered. “Please, Kim, Jos wanted Carly into Vanderbilt as much as the next person. Don’t kid yourself.”
“I am not saying she didn’t. I just think she would have been fine if it didn’t happen,” Kim said defensively.
“I don’t think she really had much to worry about,” Jenna said a bit sarcastically. “It was obvious Carly was getting in to Vandy. It kind of helps when you can write a big fat check to the development office, don’t you think?”
“Well, who of us can’t?” Kim countered. They all avoided looking at Erika.
“Money alone is useless without connections,” Jenna pointed out nastily. “Jamie knows everyone. Which is fine, don’t get me wrong, but let’s call a spade a spade. Jos acted like Carly did it on her own. We all know she didn’t.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“Anyway, Jos usually got what she wanted so no big surprise,” Jenna added in an offhanded way, twirling her straw.
“Well, she didn’t get what she wanted Wednesday night, did she, Jenna?” blasted Erika.
Everyone at the table looked shocked, except Jenna, who glared icily at Erika.
“That’s a horrible thing to say, Erika,” said Stephanie. Her eyes were saucers, as though she had seen a ghost.
“Hey, girls,” Bella interrupted. It had become heated way too fast. “Come on, listen, everyone’s on edge here. Your best friend was murdered for goodness’ sake. Let’s all take a breather and calm down.”
It wasn’t in Bella’s interest to have an explosion at the table. Not yet. She needed to hear and see more.
“No one was talking badly about Jos,�
�� Kim pouted, looking at Erika. “What’s wrong with getting whatever you want? That just means you’re lucky, that’s all. It’s a compliment.”
“Oh yeah?’ Erika challenged.
Kim looked at Jenna for approval, but Jenna wouldn’t look her way.
“We can debate that if you like, Kim,” Erika added.
“It is a very competitive world and parents just want the best for their kids,” Stephanie chimed in, trying to defuse the tension.
“What does that mean?” Erika blurted with frustration. “The best college so they can get the best job so they can get the best house in the best town? I mean, why such desperation to have and be the best?”
“What’s wrong with having and being the best, Erika?” Jenna confronted.
“Because ‘best’ is a relative term, Jenna—it means different things to different people. You’ve managed to reduce your daughter to a bunch of numbers, grades, test scores, and achievements. All that matters is whether she gets into a top-tier school. Either you really think that will be a cure-all for her life or you’re desperate for bragging rights. Either way, I think it’s sad.”
“What would you know about it?” Jenna sneered.
“A lot more than you realize,” Erika answered.
Jenna looked at Erika like she had two heads.
“Honestly, Erika, I don’t even understand what you just said. I mean, what world do you live in? My head is spinning. Wouldn’t you want the best for Perry? Do you really want Perry to be mediocre her whole life?”
Jenna’s tone dripped with pity. Kim and Stephanie looked nervous.
Erika was disgusted. “What does mediocre mean?”
The table was quiet. Jenna fiddled with her straw.
“Mediocre means nothing special.”
“So if Jesse doesn’t get into Vanderbilt you will consider her to be nothing special?”
Erika looked like she was holding herself back from leaping out of her chair and strangling Jenna.
Jenna looked brazenly at Erika and smiled.
“Acceptance to one of the best schools does make you special. I am sorry, Erika. That’s just the way it is. It gives you status, power, and options. There’s a reason everyone wants to get in to these schools.”