Class Reunion of Murder

by Vanessa Gray Bartal

  “You’re doing great,” Jason coaxed. “Almost there. There.” With a final tug of her hair, she was free. Jason shepherded her quickly away. The sucking motion of their hasty departure caused the body to follow them a while, like Mary’s little lamb. Eventually they were far enough away that it stopped moving. Lacy dared not look at it again. Jason lifted her out of the water, practically propelling her onto the punishing concrete, but she was glad for the friction that scraped her knees and brought a sting of mental clarity. He was beside her in no time and somehow her shirt was back on and she was wrapped in a towel. He sat her on a lounge chair and knelt in front of her.

  “I didn’t bring my phone, per our agreement. I need to go to the front desk and call this in. I hate to ask, but I need you to stay here with the body to make sure no one disturbs the scene.”

  “I can do it,” she nodded vigorously. She vowed to be an asset and not a liability. “Are you sure she’s beyond help? Is there nothing we can do?”

  “She’s been gone for hours,” Jason assured her with a squeeze of her shoulder. “I’ll hurry.” He stood and sprinted away. Lacy was left with the quiet slap of water against the edge of the pool and the sucking sound of the filter. Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look, she warned herself, but her eyes traveled helplessly to the center of the pool. The body bobbed peacefully on the surface. Even though it was facedown, she had no trouble identifying the once-stylish long blond hair. Summer Ridgefield. Lacy shuddered. She had made an idle threat the night before, but of course she hadn’t meant it. Now Summer was dead. Was she cosmically responsible? No, of course not. She hadn’t meant the words; they had been mere frustration on her part. She would never wish anyone dead, not even Summer. What had happened to her? How had she drowned?

  Summer was a social creature, one of those women who believed it was impossible to go to the bathroom by herself. It seemed unlikely that she would swim alone at night, especially because she wasn’t wearing a bathing suit. Lacy frowned at the body, perplexed. She was still wearing the same dress she had worn at the party. Why would she swim in that? As a lark, obviously, but she wouldn’t have done that alone. No one went swimming in her clothes by herself. There was always the possibility that she had fallen into the pool on accident, but why would she have come to the pool room in the first place? If she hadn’t fallen in by accident, then that left one startling possibility. Had Summer been murdered? Yes, Lacy felt certain that Summer hadn’t gone into the water of her own accord. But who would want to kill her? Who wouldn’t, she thought, feeling immediately guilty. A woman was dead. Couldn’t she muster one kind thought? No. Summer had been cruel and vindictive for as long as Lacy had known her. Her earliest memory dated back to second grade when she pushed Lacy down in the mud, ruining her tights on picture day. Their relationship had never advanced past that point; Summer had always been the aggressor and Lacy her hapless victim.

  Now, enclosed in a room with Summer’s lifeless body, Lacy felt all the old anger and frustration drain away. Who cared that Summer had been a mean girl? She was dead; she would never get the chance to grow old or have children. In death, Lacy found that it was easy to wipe the slate clean and forgive her old tormentor. Letting go brought peace, or as much peace as she could muster when a dead body floated a few yards away. Reliving past pain made her wonder who else Summer had hurt. Had the wounds been deep enough to seek vengeance? Jason returned before she could find an answer to her question.

  Lacy shot to her feet and faced him, trembling with cold and emotion. She wanted to blurt out the fact that Summer had been murdered, but then she saw his evidence bag. He had probably deduced immediately what it took her a few minutes to work out. Why else would he have had her guard the scene if he didn’t think there had been a crime?

  “Hey, babe.” He set the bag on a chair and pulled out a clipboard. “I need you to fill out a statement before you go. You know the routine.” He handed her the clipboard and rifled in the bag for his camera. Lacy sat and wrote while he snapped a few dozen pictures. She was always amazed at his ability to compartmentalize things. He and Summer had been friends. Now he snapped her lifeless body without emotion, as if he didn’t know her at all.

  “Done,” Lacy said after a few minutes. Outside, she heard the wail of a siren and knew the cavalry had arrived. “Do you want me to stay?”

  “Do I want you to stay? Yes. I always want you nearby. Do I need you to stay for any official reason? No. Go shower and get warm. I’ll talk to you when I can.” He used one arm to draw her close and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. The kiss was filled more with comfort than romance. She smiled and patted his cheek, offering up her own reassurances.

  “I guess my day off is sort of over. Sorry,” he said.

  “Forget about it,” she said. “Anything I can do to help, let me know. I have to go to the dentist, and then I’ll be around.”

  “Maybe I could sneak away for lunch. Actually, I’ll probably be tied up until supper.” He paused, frowning. “Maybe we could grab coffee at some point.”

  “I’ll see you when I see you,” Lacy said. “I understand. Don’t worry.” She stood on her toes, kissed him, and quickly dashed out of the room before his coworkers could arrive. Not only did she not want to get in their way, she had also been avoiding Detective Arroyo since the last not-so-pleasant encounter when he threatened her life. She hadn’t told Jason all the details of what occurred when he was in the hospital, preferring instead to keep it to herself. He had to work with the detective every day. Lacy had no evidence except for her memory which meant Jason would have to choose between them. She didn’t want to make him choose, and she didn’t question her motivation. Was she being altruistic, or was she too afraid that he wouldn’t choose her? It was better not to know.

  She let herself into her room, popped out her itchy contacts, and stepped into the shower. Kimber was still asleep. She took the longest, hottest shower she could stand, until her shivering gave way to raw, red skin and shrunken fingertips. The sight of her wrinkled, pruny skin was what finally compelled her to turn off the water; it was too reminiscent of the dead woman a few stories below.

  When she was finished with her shower, she tried to put in her contacts to no avail. They burned. Either they had absorbed too much chlorine or her eyes were irritated from the chemicals. Instead she reached for her glasses and began a frantic search of her bag. Where was her pomade? There was one brand of hair product that worked to tame frizz. She had been using it faithfully since college. How was it possible that she had not included it in her bag? She would have to stop by her house and pick it up, but by then the damage would be done. Outside the air was thick and humid, the perfect recipe for frizz. Her hair was somewhere between straight and curly. Without the pomade, it would never behave.

  She stared at herself in the mirror, scowling at her reflection. Glasses, frizzy hair, and a red, bumpy chin. If she added twenty five pounds, she could be staring at her senior picture. “Why, yes, I am dating Jason Cantor,” she whispered and then turned away with a groan. No one would ever believe her, and why should they? She could hardly believe it herself.

  Chapter 5

  For once the sound of the dentist’s tool was blessed relief. The high-pitched whir was so loud and piercing that it drowned out any of Lacy’s thoughts. She was thankful for the reprieve, but it was over too soon. The dentist smoothed the rough edge of her tooth and gave her a stern look.

  “Your wisdom teeth are about to erupt,” he declared.

  “Will there be lava?” Lacy asked. She didn’t understand his grave tone.

  “They’re pushing your teeth. Do you still wear your retainer?”

  “No,” she mumbled, feeling thirteen all over again.

  “Wear it until we get these teeth out, or you’ll have to get braces again,” he warned.

  She had used Kimber’s car to drive to the dentist because it was on the opposite edge of town. Now she drove to her grandmother’s house and let herself in. Tosh
and Riley were on the couch, making out like the world was about to end. Lacy slammed the door and they jumped apart.

  “I would tell you to get a room, but you already have one at the hotel, and you’re not using it,” Lacy said. “Also, gross. What is wrong with you two?”

  “I stopped in to check for some mail I was expecting,” Riley explained. “And Tosh stopped by and…wait, why am I explaining this to you? We’re married. It’s none of your business. Why do you look like you were caught in a cyclone?”

  Lacy pushed the mass of frizz off her face. “I forgot my hair product. And I need my retainers, apparently.”

  “Because you hatched a new plan to drive all the eligible men away like St. Patrick and the snakes of Ireland?” Riley guessed. Tosh gave her a high five for the St. Patrick reference.

  Lacy ignored her, went into the bathroom, and retrieved her hair product. She kissed it and clutched it close. “Tomorrow,” she promised. There was no way she would let the anti-frizz agent out of her sight again. She also opened the medicine cabinet, rinsed her retainers, and popped them in her mouth. They hurt. Her teeth had moved more than she realized because the pressure was intense. A headache started at the base of her jaw and quickly spread to the rest of her cranium. She stuffed a couple of aspirin in her mouth and drank from the faucet to wash them down, drooling a little because of her retainers. She turned away from the mirror before she could catch sight of herself; she didn’t want to know how bad she looked.

  “I need to go to work,” Tosh said as Lacy left the bathroom. He looked and sounded reluctant.

  “Why don’t you tell Attila that you’re spending the day shopping for furniture with your wife,” Riley suggested.

  “Because Pearl refuses to accept the reality of our marriage,” Tosh said.

  “Then I’ll tell her,” Riley said. “Or, better yet, let Lacy tell her. She likes Lacy.”

  Somehow between Pearl’s incarceration and Tosh’s marriage, Pearl had decided that Lacy was her new best friend. She greeted her with suffocating, bosomy hugs at every sighting. Riley was now public enemy number one in Pearl’s quagmire of a mind. Lacy should have been relieved. Instead she spent too much time trying to get the stench of Pearl’s perfume out of her nose after every smothering hug. Her phone buzzed with a text from Jason.

  “It’s about to be a moot point anyway,” Lacy said as she read her phone. “Jason needs us back at the hotel for a briefing.”

  “What for?” Tosh asked.

  They didn’t know. How could something so cataclysmic have occurred without their knowledge? “Summer is dead; she was murdered last night. Everyone who was staying at the hotel needs to be at the meeting.”

  “Summer is dead?” Riley repeated. “But she was so pretty.” She sat back, deflated. Tosh eased his arm around her, and Lacy shuddered. Summer hadn’t looked so pretty last time she saw her. How long would it take to get that image out of her head?

  “Are you okay, Lacy?” Tosh asked.

  “She’s fine,” Riley replied as she pulled away and stood. “We should go before his royal constable gets cranky and issues arrest warrants for all of us.”

  Lacy held her tongue with effort. Her patience with Riley was wearing thin. Why was she picking on Jason? Then again, why did she do any of the things she did? She was an enigma. “I have Kimber’s car. You can ride with me, if you want. I didn’t see your car in the drive, so I assume you walked.”

  “Sprinted, actually,” Tosh said with a secret smile for Riley that made her laugh.

  I don’t want to know, Lacy thought. The more distance she kept between herself and their sham of a marriage, the less pain she would feel when it inevitably fell apart. How long would Riley wait to tell him about the money she owed? Or had she already and that was what all the fighting was about? That might explain the fighting, but not the making up. Unless Riley was trying to cajole the money out of Tosh. Riley wasn’t above using her wiles to get what she wanted, and Tosh was easy prey for a sob story and pretty face. Together, they were toxic. As much as Lacy expected their “relationship” to implode, she dreaded the fallout. Tosh would need her, but for all their differences, Riley was still her sister. She was already torn, and the end hadn’t even arrived yet. How much worse would it be when it actually happened?

  Tosh plucked the keys from her fingers. “You’re in la-la land,” he said. He herded her toward the back seat and opened the passenger door for Riley who beamed at him. A light bulb went off. Was that what this was about? Maybe being with Tosh wasn’t about the money; maybe it was about hurting Lacy. Maybe for Riley it was another notch in whatever sick, twisted, sisterly competition had been going on since birth. Jason hadn’t given her a glance, but Tosh had fallen like a hollow tree. Had that been Riley’s plan all along?

  Lacy sat in the back and studied them through narrowed eyes. She was missing something, but what? What was Riley’s master plan? Lacy had no doubt that she had one. Her sister had never made an impetuous, uncalculated move in her life. Lacy felt a desperate, gnawing need to discern her strategy before she revealed her final move. If she knew Riley’s game, maybe she could protect herself and everyone else from the inevitable mess when it was over.

  They arrived at the hotel in minutes. Tosh parked and leaned over the console to kiss Riley who returned it with a smile. They turned to look at Lacy who must have been scowling because Tosh’s smile faltered, and Riley’s grew.

  “Coming?” Tosh said.

  Lacy nodded and slid out of the car, stalking ahead of them while they meandered hand in hand. She was so distracted by them that she forgot her appearance until she entered the ballroom and Jason did a double take. He beckoned her with a jerk of his head. She ignored him and tried to blend into the crowd on the opposite side of the room. Once properly wedged between an overweight teacher and a potted plant, Lacy studied Jason. He must not have shaved that morning because a thick mass of stubble covered the lower half of his face. Even so, there was no disguising the lush fullness of his lips or the way his long, thick lashes fanned on his cheeks when he blinked. He was beautiful. Meanwhile, she had reverted to her high school self. At this moment, her hair was soaking up all the humidity in the atmosphere and was taking on a life of its own. As if she needed confirmation of how bad she looked, Kimber sidled up and shook her head.

  “Girl, that hair could put an eye out. I should have brought you one of my scarves. Your eyes are red. Are you wearing your retainers?”

  “Yes to all of it,” Lacy said, wearily tearing her gaze from Jason’s perfection. Kimber dodged to the side to avoid being smacked by The Hair.

  “It looks like everyone is here. Let’s begin,” Jason said in his cop voice—cool, composed, authoritative. Usually the voice filled Lacy with all manner of flutters. Now she wanted to run away from it. “If you haven’t heard by now, I’m sorry to inform you that Summer Ridgefield passed away last night.” Some people hadn’t heard because there were several loud gasps and exclamations. In the corner, her group of friends sat huddled together, crying. “The cause of death is still under investigation. We’ll be speaking with each of you eventually. Most of you are staying the next few days for the reunion. Please make sure I have personally spoken with you if you need to leave before that time. I’ve obtained a list of guests and their room numbers from the front desk. They assured me the hotel’s owner would arrive shortly.” He scanned the crowd.

  Lacy sighed and raised her hand. “Present,” she said.

  Jason blinked at her, whether from shock over her appearance or statement she didn’t know. “You own the hotel,” he clarified.

  “It’s a recent acquisition,” she said.

  “How recent?” he asked.

  She paused. “Three weeks.”

  His lips pressed together in a grim line. She looked away from his intense scrutiny. The spell was broken when someone else captured his attention with a question. Lacy released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. People asked questions th
at Jason wouldn’t or couldn’t answer, detailed questions about how Summer had died, where she had been found, and how long she had been gone. No one seemed to realize yet that she had been murdered. The common thread weaving among the group was that she had met with some sort of accident, such as a fall. Lacy’s eyes scanned the crowd and paused on a familiar face. Across the room and hidden in almost the same manner was Tony Rico, their class’s notorious recluse. They made eye contact and a surprising thing happened: he smiled. Lacy suppressed the urge to turn around and make sure he was smiling at her. She and Tony hadn’t been enemies in high school, but neither had they been friends. They had both just been there, swirling on the fringes, never quite fitting in. She returned his smile, and the meeting was adjourned.

  Lacy beat a hasty retreat. Not only did she have hotel business to attend, she didn’t want to risk facing Jason’s wrath until he’d had a chance to calm down. If she could make it to her office, the one she had commandeered when she bought the hotel, then she would be safe. She was almost there. The room was in sight, the door was open, when a hand shot out and dragged her into the closet. The door closed with a bang, the lock slipped into place, and Lacy was in the dark.

  Chapter 6

  “Are there any more properties you want to declare, Ms. Hilton?”

  “This is a very dramatic display,” Lacy said. “What’s with the darkness?”