by Jennie Marts
“Oh.” She pursed her lips as if the suggestion had a sour taste. “Surely you can miss one class. Just this once.”
Cassie was suggesting she miss a class? Who was this woman? Not the task-master PTA President who considered an absence a mark on your character. “No, I can’t.”
“I have the day off tomorrow,” Fitz said. “I can walk you to class in the morning then wait for you and walk you back home.”
Why would he do that? Why would he give up his morning to babysit her? “I appreciate the offer, but what are you going to do, stand in the hall and guard the door while I’m in class?”
He shrugged. “If I have to. If it will make you feel safer.”
The thought of Fitz standing guard over her both appalled and appealed to her. “I can’t ask you to do that. I’ll be fine. I’ll be on campus with lots of other people around me.”
“You’re not asking me. I’m offering. And it’s no big deal for me to wait. I can bring a book and study while you’re in class.”
“Just let him do it,” Claire said. “It will make us all feel better.”
“Fine,” she grumbled.
“And I’ll feed you lunch for your trouble,” Cassie said, then picked up her and Edna’s purses. “Now we’re all going to get out of here and let you get some rest.”
“Fine.” Edna snatched her bag from Cassie, her tone just as sulky as Piper’s had been a second ago. “But first, I have a question. Who is Kyle Hammond?”
Fitz paused, his arm partway in the sleeve of his jacket. “That’s Brittany’s boyfriend. The guy we went to high school with. Why?”
“Because Mac had his name circled in his notebook.”
Claire grabbed another sheet of paper and wrote Kyle’s name at the top then taped it to the wall next to the others. “What do we know about this guy?”
Cassie sighed. “We know we’ve done enough investigating for one night. You can all look into this Kyle kid tonight, and we can share what we find out tomorrow at lunch. But for now, we’re leaving and letting Piper get to bed.”
She wrapped an arm around Cassie’s waist and rested her head on her aunt’s shoulder. Piper loved the way Cassie took charge of a room and could be both dictatorial and maternal at the same time. “Thanks, Cass.”
Her mom busied herself picking up the plates and cups, and Piper wondered if her daughter’s closeness to her sister actually bothered Claire. Too bad if it did. She should have thought of that before she’d dumped her in Cassie’s lap and taken off to live her own life.
Fitz kept his word and walked Piper to and from class the next morning. They didn’t talk much as they walked, but she was okay with that. She was just happy to walk beside him, content in the feeling that he cared enough about her to give up his morning to spend chaperoning her to campus.
A couple of times, the back of their hands brushed as they walked next to each other, sending a thrill racing up Piper’s spine, but he never took her hand or linked his fingers with hers.
He did press his hand to the small of her back as he guided her into the building in front of him, and she felt the heat from his hand, as if it had branded her skin, all through her class.
Fitz did it again now as they walked through the door of her apartment building. She’d spied her aunt’s minivan out front and also recognized Sunny’s practical blue compact SUV.
The Page Turners had arrived.
Fitz had experienced a small measure of the book club the night before, but she wasn’t sure he was ready for the full impact of the Page Turners when they were all together.
The sound of their laughter could be heard in the hallway as she unlocked the door and entered the apartment.
The little dog raced across the room, and Piper scooped it into her arms. She laughed as it licked her face and squirmed its body to snuggle closer to her chest. She really needed to come up with a name for it. Add that to the list right after figure out who killed her roommate.
Priorities.
Scents of grilled meat and fresh bread filled the room, and her stomach let out a growl. She glanced at Fitz. “You sure you’re up for this?”
He grinned. “Bring it on.”
Sunny and Edna were at the table, paper and markers spread out in front of them. The sheets of paper from the night before had been replaced with poster boards, color-coded for each suspect. Sunny was a teacher, and Piper was sure the new system was her doing.
Claire and Cassie were in the kitchen setting out plates and glasses.
“I brought pulled pork for sandwiches, and there’s chips, and potato salad,” Cassie said, pointing to the counter full of food. “Grab a plate and something to drink.”
Fitz’s eyes widened. “You made all this food this morning?”
Cassie beamed. “It was nothing. This is what I do. I also made a chocolate cake and some oatmeal cookies.”
“Cassie’s chocolate cake is so good, it’s to die for,” Piper said, then immediately regretted her words. That’s what they were all here for, because someone literally had died. And it hadn’t been due to chocolate cake.
The group filed through the kitchen, piling food onto their plates then settled at the table where Sunny had pushed their work to the center.
“It looks like you all have been busy,” Piper said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. The dog jumped into her lap, and she absently stroked its back. “Have you found anything out?”
Edna nodded. “We’ve found out plenty. But not enough to figure out who the killer is.”
Sunny tapped the papers. “We did find some correlations between the girls, though.”
“How? We don’t even who the second girl is. Mac wouldn’t tell us her name.”
“Mac’s not the only connection we have in this town,” Edna said. “I’ve got a friend whose grandson works at the police station, and he gave us a few details of the murder, including the girl’s name.” She spoke with her typical dramatic style, doling out the information with the flair of a circus master introducing each act. In this ring, we’ve got one college freshman recently suffocated with a plastic sack, and in this ring…
Piper sighed. “Just tell us. What was her name, and how was she related to Brittany?”
Edna harrumphed, obviously insulted her showmanship was going unappreciated. “Fine. Her name was Lisa Clark.”
“Lisa Clark?” Piper repeated the name, turning it over in her mouth as she searched her mind for any recollection of it. She shook her head. “I don’t know her.”
“You should,” Sunny said. “Because apparently, you went to high school with her.”
“I went there for like a month and a half. And that school has hundreds of kids in it. There’s no way I could know all of them.”
Even though the town of Pleasant Valley was small, the school served a number of the surrounding small towns, and each class had several hundred kids in it.
Cassie pointed a finger at Fitz. “You went there too. Do you know this girl?”
He shook his head. “The name doesn’t sound familiar. But maybe I would recognize her if I saw her. Do you have a picture?”
“Not yet.”
“I can get my yearbook and bring it over later. If she went to our school, there should be at least one picture of her in there.”
“Good idea.” Edna tapped the poster board titled with Kyle’s name. “I think we need to focus more on this kid. There’s a reason Mac had his name circled in his notebook. Besides being the victim’s boyfriend, he also went to both high school and college with the girls.”
“I don’t think that’s reason enough to kill them, though,” Piper said.
“No, you’re right. And that’s what we’re missing. Motive.” The older woman wrinkled her brow in concentration. “The motive for murder usually boils down to a few key reasons—passion, money, revenge, lust, greed.”
“I don’t think she had much in the way of money, and our apartment wasn’t robbed,” Piper pointed out. “And I can’t im
agine anyone wanting revenge on Brittany. She was super nice. Everyone liked her.”
“Not everyone. And if this guy was her boyfriend, then maybe this was a crime of passion.”
“Then he would’ve had to have some kind of passion with the other girl, too.”
“Unless these girls are just a substitute for what he’s really passionate about. Like a vendetta against his mother.”
“Oh Lord, Edna,” Claire scoffed. “Where do you come up with this stuff?”
“I watch television. A lot of television. And I stay informed.”
“Let’s stay focused,” Sunny said, using her teacher voice. “We need to figure out a way to talk to this kid. To get him to let his guard down and open up to us.”
“How are we going to get him to let his guard down to us? Invite him to our book club and get him drunk on Moscato?” Piper scoffed.
“I don’t know what Moscato is,” Fitz said. “But if you’re looking to get him drunk, I can probably help with that. His uncle runs this dive bar on the south side of town, and we go over there sometimes because we don’t always get carded. I could call him, and see if he wants to meet up there tonight. He’s probably pretty broken up over Brittany already. Maybe I could get a few beers into him and get him to talk to me.”
Edna nodded. “Not that I condone underage drinking, but in this case, I’ll make an exception. Only because it’s the only plan we’ve got. But it can’t just be hearsay of what you tell us. You’ve got to record the conversation.”
“I can do that with my phone.”
“Good idea. But I still think we need to be there as well.”
“What do you mean? You all want to come and have a drink with us? I don’t think he’d talk to all of us.”
“No. We won’t be at the bar with you, but I think we need to be in the bar with you. You know, undercover.”
Sunny groaned. “Oh no. Not another Edna Undercover Idea. Why do we have to be there?”
“I want to be there,” Piper said. “I want to see his face and hear what he has to say.”
“Well, if Piper’s going to be there, I want to be there too,” Claire said. “That police officer told us last night we needed to keep an eye on her.”
“We can all be there,” Edna said. “It’s not that big of a deal to go into a bar and have a drink.”
“It is with this bar,” Fitz said. “It really is kind of a dive. It’s not the kind of place where a group of middle class women would stop into for a glass of wine.”
“Then we won’t look like middle class women. That’s the point of going undercover,” Edna explained. “We wear disguises. This isn’t our first rodeo, young man.”
“Exactly what kind of clientele does usually frequent the place?” Sunny asked, chewing on her bottom lip.
Fitz shrugged. “All sorts, I guess. But usually a little more of a rougher crowd. Mainly bikers and some construction worker type guys, you know, the kind of people who all have concealed carry permits and actually carry. Or have multiples guns in their trucks but aren’t planning on going hunting. The kind of guys who think the word ‘militia’ sounds like summer camp.”
“Oh yeah, it sounds like we’ll fit right in,” Sunny said. “I didn’t much like actual summer camp.”
“This sounds too dangerous,” Cassie added.
“Really? It sounds like fun to me,” Edna said, a familiar mischievous twinkle sparkling in her eye. “And what could be safer than being surrounded by a bunch of armed men?”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “My living room. That sounds much safer.”
“You don’t have to come,” Edna said. “But I’m going. I’m not afraid of a little riff-raff.”
“Count me in, too,” Claire said. “I’ve been to plenty of bars like this, and I’m not worried about me, but I’m not letting my daughter go into one on her own.”
Now she gets maternal.
“What about the women?” Edna asked. “What are the women like? How do we need to dress if we want to fit in?”
“Like bar-flies,” Claire said. “I don’t think any of you could pass as biker chicks, unless you have some secret stores of leather, but you might be able to pass for bar-flies if you cake on some makeup, wear some faded jeans, high heels, and show some cleavage.”
Sunny peered down at her boringly B-cupped chest. “I’ll have to rely on the makeup and tight jeans. My cleavage department is somewhat lacking.”
“That’s what push-up bras are for,” Edna told her, palming her bra cups and giving her chest a little lift.
“We all know you carry more in your bra than your meager amount of cleavage,” Sunny replied.
“Darn tootin’. And you know my brassiere will be fully loaded tonight. I’ll have mace, brass knuckles, and I’ll make sure my stun gun is charged.”
Fitz’s eyes went wide. “I feel a little like I fell down a rabbit hole. Or have been allowed behind the curtain of the ‘woman’ club. Is this the kind of stuff all women talk about?”
“You have no idea, son,” Edna said with a chuckle. “This is a tame night for us.”
Piper lifted her shoulders. “I tried to warn you.”
“I like it. Well, not the cleavage comments so much.” His face pinked with the mention of cleavage. “But the rest is kind of funny. Where do you even get brass knuckles?”
“Oh, you can order anything online these days,” Edna said.
“Before we get all worked up creating our disguises, why don’t you text Kyle and see if he’ll even agree to meet you,” Piper said.
“Good idea.” Fitz pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a quick text.
The room was uncharacteristically quiet as the women watched Fitz’s phone.
It buzzed a few seconds later with a message from Kyle agreeing to hang out. Fitz messaged back a time and the place, and Kyle replied with a simple ‘K’.
“We’re on. He’ll be there at nine.”
“Nine? I’m usually in bed by nine,” Sunny said. “Or at least in my pajamas and headed that way.”
“You don’t have to go,” Edna said.
“I’m not going to miss this. I can stay up if there’s a chance I’m going to get to see Edna going incognito as a bar-fly.”
The group planned to meet at Piper’s around eight, but Cassie had arrived earlier and Claire had spent the last thirty minutes turning her into a bar-fly. Well, a middle class suburban mom kind of bar-fly. Claire had darkened her makeup, giving her eyes a smoky shadow effect with deep tones of purple and gray. She’d poofed out her hair a little with extra spray and product and slicked a thin layer of red gloss on her lips.
“It wasn’t hard for me to find a pair of tight jeans,” Cassie said, patting her ample rump. She held out her foot, now encased in a black high-heeled boot. “But I haven’t worn these boots in years. Thankfully Matt and the kids are at the movies tonight. Otherwise, I never would have been able to get out of the house in this.” She smoothed the black jersey knit Henley she wore. “And this has been in my closet for years. I should have gotten rid of it. It’s way too tight. I feel like everything I have is on display.”
Claire reached out and popped the top button of her shirt. “There. Now everything you have is on display.” She laughed at Cassie’s horrified face, then slapped her on the rump. “You look great, Cass. Men love curves. I wish I had your body.”
Piper had been watching her mom and her aunt, and she glanced at her mom’s thin frame. She’d put on a little weight since she’d moved in, at least she didn’t have that unhealthy half-starved gaunt look to her, but her mom still looked pretty great for her age.
She’d put on a faded pair of jeans, thick-soled black boots, and a snug white tank top with the word “Angel” surrounded by a set of wings emboldened across her chest. She had her hair plaited in two braids and captured the look of an authentic biker chick.
That’s right. Because for the last six months, she’d been an authentic biker chick.
But Piper
hadn’t seen this side of her mom since she’d been back. She’d mainly worn jeans and loose sweaters and sensible little tennies, or yoga pants, T-shirts, and flip-flops if she were hanging around the house.
The sight of her mom in this get-up was a hard reminder of the life she’d abandoned Piper for.
She swallowed the hurt burning her throat and was thankful for the distraction of the knock at the door. “Who is it?” she called before opening the door.
“A bar-fly and a biker babe,” came the muffled response.
Piper opened the door, and her mouth dropped open at the sight of Edna Allen decked out in full leather, from the cute hat perched on her fluffy green and blue-tinted curls to the set of full leather chaps wrapped around her legs.
Piper clapped a hand over her mouth and pinched her lips together to keep from busting out laughing.
“Oh. My. Gosh,” her mom said as Edna sashayed into the room, followed by Sunny, who wore a zipped-up sweatshirt and carried a large tote bag over her shoulder. “What in the world are you wearing?”
Edna spun in a circle worthy of any runway model. “This is what all the well-dressed biker babes are wearing. I Googled it.” She had on a pair of pink sweat pants under the chaps, the word “Juicy” visible across her petite rear-end.
“Please tell me you didn’t have those chaps in your closet,” Cassie said, her eyes wide and blinking at Edna’s outfit.
“I’m not telling you all the things I have in my closet,” Edna declared, with a lewd wink and a racy lift of her shoulder.
“Ew.” Piper gave a shudder as she covered her ears. “I do not want to know.”
“If you must know, I got this outfit at a costume shop,” Edna explained. “The bag said ‘Authentic Biker Babe’ right on it.”
“I’m not taking any responsibility for this,” Sunny said. “She looked like that when I picked her up.” She dumped the over-stuffed tote on the sofa and unzipped her sweatshirt, revealing a tight T-shirt with an American Flag printed across her chest. Her hair was more curly than usual and hit her shoulders in bouncy waves. Long, feathered earrings hung from her ear lobes and a thick silver bangle bracelet circled her wrist.