Class Reunion of Murder

by Vanessa Gray Bartal

  “Hold it,” Jason yelled and now everyone turned to look at him. “No, just no. You are not dragging Lacy into this and pinning her between you two. And no one is bringing up that weasel-faced loser again in my presence. In fact, get out.” He strode to the door and held it open. “Go back to your own room and act like a twenty-eight-year-old pastor and his twenty-four-year-old mature wife. Or don’t. I don’t care, just leave Lacy out of it. Go!” he thundered when everyone remained staring at him. He said it with so much authority that Lacy almost ducked out, too. Tosh and Riley filed silently from the room with their proverbial tails tucked. Jason slammed the door behind them, as much as one could slam a solid oak hotel door.

  “Your money would be better spent buying an island,” Jason said.

  “You are the most spectacular…” she broke off, hesitating. Boyfriend, was the first word that popped into her head, but she didn’t want to be the first to define them. “Human. You’re the most spectacular human ever.”

  “Thank you, Earthling. Now, I believe someone mentioned a rain check. With interest.” He reached for her and the door opened again. “Geez,” he breathed, dropping his arms and jumping aside to avoid being hit by the door.

  Kimber breezed in, yawning. “Hey.”

  “Kimber, where have you been?”

  “Hanging out,” Kimber said. “I thought I texted you.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Lacy said.

  “Sorry,” Kimber said. She saw Jason and flinched. “Lurk much, Jason?”

  “I don’t always hide behind the door, but when I do, it’s because I can’t get a minute alone with Lacy.”

  Kimber laughed and shrugged off her shoes as she slipped into her bed. “Boy, if you want a minute alone, you better move her out of this town. Everyone still knows everyone’s business. I was in the diner this morning, and some old lady asked me if I thought the hotel was going to make a profit when you resold it. I’ve never talked to that woman before in my life.”

  “What did she look like?” Lacy asked.

  “Tall and a yeller.”

  “Rose,” Lacy said. Now that Tosh was safely off the market and Lacy’s love life was more settled, her grandmother’s group of friends had moved on to bestowing financial advice. They had even formed a committee on her behalf to meet weekly and research investments. When they tried to get Lucinda to become a day trader, Lacy and Mr. Middleton had put their collective foot down.

  “Speaking of breakfast, there’s a brand new box of cereal at my house with your name on it. It has a lot of sugar and no nutritional value whatsoever. And my house is empty, so very, very empty,” Jason said.

  “Sounds perfect,” Lacy agreed.

  “No, I can’t make it, but thanks for asking,” Kimber said, her sleepy smile giving way to a yawn.

  Jason opened his mouth to retort when his phone buzzed. “Ah, geez,” he mumbled as he pulled it out and answered. He listened while someone else spoke for a while. “I’ll be there in a minute.” He closed his phone and stuffed it away. “That was dispatch. Brady is in a coma. Someone found him unconscious in Grigsby’s parking lot this morning, beaten and strangled. They’re not sure if he’s going to make it.”

  “Uh-oh,” Lacy said. Was she the last person to see Brady conscious?

  “Did anyone see your altercation with him?” Jason asked.

  “Not the one outside. Everyone saw the thing with the bull. Do you want me to write a statement?”

  “No, not yet. Let me see where things stand. I need to figure out how this relates to Summer.”

  “What if it doesn’t?” Lacy said. “Summer was drowned. What kind of killer drowns one victim and beats another?”

  “A really angry one,” Kimber volunteered.

  Jason took Lacy’s hand and led her to the hallway, making sure the door was closed soundly behind them. “We’re not sure Summer drowned,” he whispered. “There was a lesion on her head and ligature marks on her neck. The coroner is supposed to figure out today if there’s water in her lungs.”

  “You mean someone bashed her on the head, strangled, and then drowned her?”

  He nodded.

  “Wow, they were really thorough.”

  “Yeah, so I need to take a look at Brady and see if his wounds match hers, and I don’t want to bring you into this until I have to.”

  “I have nothing to hide,” Lacy said.

  “Yes, but there are some on the force who might see things differently.”

  Detective Arroyo, she knew, would love nothing more than to nail her to the wall, but would he be willing to try and find a crime when there was no crime, just to pin something on her? She had tried hard not to put Jason in the middle of her feud. Apparently her efforts were for naught. “I’m sorry, Jason,” she said.

  “It’s not that big of a deal,” he replied. “I need to go. I’ll see you when I can.” He gave her a perfunctory kiss, waited until she was safely inside her room, and then he was gone.

  “Are we sure he’s not a superhero of some sort?” Kimber said. “He disappears with alarming frequency whenever there’s an emergency.”

  “No, he’s definitely flesh and blood,” Lacy said, shuddering as she remembered his too-close call with a stray bullet. The sight of his ashen face as it lay in his hospital bed would never leave her memory, and she never wanted to repeat the experience.

  Chapter 9

  “Are you going back to bed?” Kimber asked with a yawn.

  “Can’t,” Lacy replied, suppressing a yawn of her own. “Someone from the governor’s office is coming today for a final walk through of the centennial presentation, and they want to see the StakelyBuilding.” She meandered into the bathroom and put paste on her toothbrush before remembering she had already brushed her teeth. Figuring that a double dose couldn’t hurt, she started to brush and walked back to the bedroom. “You didn’t say where you were last night,” she said, hoping Kimber would be able to interpret her brush-stuffed mumble. It was a moot point, though, because Kimber was already asleep.

  She continued to sleep while Lacy showered, dressed, dried her hair and applied makeup. This morning she applied her precious pomade. She thought she had probably gotten to her wild hair just in time. One more day of absorbing the universe’s energy and it might become sentient. Her mouth ached to remind her that she had forgotten to wear her retainers the previous night. She would have to wear them today. A few days of retainers was better than a few more years of braces, or so she tried to tell herself as she cleaned them and stuffed them in her sore mouth.

  At least her chin was better today. She could almost cover the sidewalk rash with makeup. One had to look closely to see the marks. Jason was the only person who ever got that close to her, and he didn’t care. She smiled stupidly at her reflection. He doesn’t care, she thought. He doesn’t care that my hair might try to take over the world if left to its own devices, he doesn’t care that I had to revert to glasses, he doesn’t care about the retainers, he doesn’t care that I am and forever will be a band geek. What he did care about was her, of that she was certain, and that certainty brought a new kind of peace and reassurance she had never experienced before. He likes me; he really likes me.

  She was still on cloud nine as she made her way to the Stakely building. The representative from the governor’s office was set to arrive at ten. Lacy arrived with a half hour to spare. In her personal life, she was often running behind. In her professional life, she liked to be early. What did that say about her? She had no idea, and she pushed the thought away, not wanting to delve too deeply into her psyche on such a splendid day.

  Michael intercepted her as soon as she arrived, but he was holding doughnuts, so she smiled. “The lady from the bakery dropped these off for you. I think she knows your grandmother is out of town and is hoping for a financial boost in the interim,” he said. “She was worried these wouldn’t make it to you, but I told her we’re all aware of the consequences if you find out the doughnuts have disappeared before
you’ve had your share.”

  “I won’t be baited into annoyance with you today,” Lacy said. She picked up a chocolate-covered, custard-filled confection, her favorite. The day kept getting better and better.

  “Pity,” Michael said. “Do you want me to carry the rest of these up to your office for you so we don’t have to pretend not to see you sneak back to the box eleven times?”

  “No, I’m not going to be here for much longer. Give them away.” She eyed the box with something like possessiveness. Lacy had no problem sharing her wealth; doughnuts were another story.

  “You sure?” Michael said. “Because the way you’re looking at these makes me think you’re going to attack me as soon as I turn my back with them. I’ve seen feral dogs with friendlier demeanors.”

  “Let me walk away first. That might be easier.” She turned and put her hand up to block her view of the doughnuts. She had to be especially careful the next few days because she foresaw no time to exercise. Lacy liked to think that it was low metabolism that made her gain weight so easily; in reality, it was probably her raging sweet tooth and penchant for using food as a solution to her problems.

  To balance the doughnut, she took the stairs. Just because Jason liked her as she was didn’t mean she could be complacent. She still needed to watch what she ate a little better and keep up with her exercise, something that was becoming harder to do as he pressed her to run with him. She hadn’t jogged much since they started dating. She needed to start again, and she was running out of excuses to keep him at bay. Somehow it felt like the last test of their relationship, and she wasn’t ready for it. Everyone everywhere made fun of her for the way she ran. She didn’t want Jason to join those ranks. Though he already knew she wasn’t much of an athlete, there was something about him seeing her clumsiness in action she found disconcerting. He liked to say that there was no way he would lose his attraction to her if he saw her run, but Lacy wasn’t sure. She was pretty certain she knew how bad she looked while doing it, especially after she heard a toddler tug her mother’s hand, point at Lacy and say, “Mommy, what’s wrong with that lady?” When the mother replied, “I don’t know, honey,” Lacy had stopped running in public for a while.

  Now she reached the third floor and bit into her doughnut as a reward. It was highly probable that three flights of stairs didn’t equal the calories of one chocolate-covered, cream-filled doughnut. Lacy tried not to dwell. Today wasn’t the day for rational thinking. A former schoolmate was dead, another was in a coma, Lacy might be a suspect, and her retainer-filled mouth throbbed. But all that paled in comparison to the fact that she was finally comfortable in her own skin, Kimber was home for a visit, and things with Jason were going well. The StakelyBuilding was thriving, and the Heritage Inn looked great. This was her time, the pinnacle of her life so far. No matter what happened today, she was determined to have a good attitude and enjoy it.

  She rounded the corner and saw a man standing outside her office door. He was dressed in a suit and tie, a briefcase at his side. He straightened when he saw her and offered up a smile. “Miss Steele, sorry I’m early. It took less time to get here from the capital than I thought.”

  Great, just great. The representative from the governor’s office had beaten her to the punch. Not only did she now appear late and two steps behind, but a half-eaten doughnut hung from her mouth. She probably looked like a dog with its chew toy. She couldn’t answer with a mouth full of pastry. She bit down in a haste to swallow. Custard oozed out of the doughnut, dribbled down the front of her shirt, and plopped on her shoes. She made an unintelligible, garbled exclamation of mortification. The masticated doughnut and her top retainer flew out of her mouth and landed at the man’s feet.

  He looked down at it and paused, mouth agape. When he looked back up, there were no traces of disgust or pity on his features. He wore a pleasant smile as he jutted his hand between them. “I’m Ben Montgomery, the governor’s aide. Thanks for meeting with me today. We’ve been hearing a lot of good things about you.”

  She shook his hand, a wad of doughnut still dangling from between her lips. As soon as her hand was free, she unlocked her office door. As she hoped he would, he turned to go inside, and Lacy dived for the doughnut/retainer combo, wrapping them in the napkin Michael had given her. She spit the remainder of the doughnut from her mouth to the napkin and used the back of her hand to wipe her lips. The cleanup was accomplished in record time. She shoved the wadded napkin mess into her purse and stood, smoothing down her skirt with a smile. If he was willing to overlook the doughnut spit-up incident, then she was more than happy to play along.

  “You’ve heard about me? This must be that political schmoozing I’ve heard so much about. I’m fairly certain you’re joking. It’s nice to meet you, nonetheless. Welcome.” Her cheeks were probably magenta, and her eyes were watering. With effort, she took a few deep breaths and tried to stuff down the extreme embarrassment. Someday all the humiliation she had stuffed down over the years would erupt and she would never leave the safety of her house again. But not today. Today she pretended she was suave and sophisticated and hadn’t just spit a doughnut and her retainer at the governor’s right hand man.

  “No, I’m serious,” he said as he took the chair she indicated. “Downtown revitalization is all the rage these days, and what you’re doing here has reached our ears. The governor is very interested in you.”

  Lacy blinked at that, still sure he must be joking. “I didn’t even vote for him,” she blurted and immediately wanted to crawl under the desk. What was wrong with her?

  He couldn’t quite maintain his polite mask at that. He snickered a laugh before quickly clearing his expression again. “No one’s perfect,” he said. “I seriously doubt he’ll hold it against you.”

  Lacy took another breath. “I would like to tell you that this morning is a blip in my otherwise cool exterior, but I’m afraid this is a fairly typical morning for me. It’s probably best if the governor stays away, for his own safety and the security of our state.”

  He laughed again and cleared his throat. The look he was giving her told her he was trying to figure her out. “Maybe it’s better if I act as a go-between,” he said. “Sort of like the guy who tastes his food for poison first.” He smiled.

  Was he flirting with her? She thought he was, but she had never been good at reading those types of signals. Then she remembered her doughnut-covered retainer and thought he was probably being a gentleman and trying to put her at ease. No one was desperate enough to flirt with a woman after seeing the complete contents of her mouth. Except maybe dentists. Lacy realized her mind was going off in a self-protective tangent, and she worked to pull herself back to the present. “I can’t guarantee your safety,” she said. “I once broke a toe while standing perfectly still.”

  Again he laughed before pushing it quickly away. She wondered if maintaining a serious demeanor was part of his job or if he wasn’t sure what to make of her. With a sigh, she thought it was probably the latter. All chance at making a good impression was over, and she was now completely herself with him. That was a good thing for her because it meant she didn’t have to try so hard to keep it together. But it was probably a bad thing for him because he was being exposed to too much too soon. Lacy had found it was better to ease people into her personality rather than confront them with all of it in the beginning. For some reason when they saw her, they expected her to be one of those women who had it all together. She didn’t think she put up a front, but people often had trouble reconciling her appearance with who she really was. She was confused by that because she so often saw herself as the chubby, gawky girl with her head in a book. What did others see when they looked at her? She truly had no idea.

  “I think I’m willing to take my chances,” he said.

  He was definitely flirting with her, and Lacy was flustered. She didn’t want to flirt with him, but what if she did it accidentally? Joe Anton hovered in the door, saving her a moment of awkwardness whi
le she made the introductions. Ben stood and shook Joe’s hand with a friendly smile. He was the consummate politician, even though he wasn’t actually a politician. Did he aspire to be or was he content to be the man behind the man? Lacy stood and latched on to Joe’s arm. He would make a handy buffer as they took their tour.

  As they made the rounds in the StakelyBuilding, Lacy felt more at ease. Not only was Joe by her side, but she was talking about her passion. She forgot the retainer incident and the possible flirting. Instead, she talked about her plans for the building and the entire community. Ben listened with practiced interest. He nodded his head and asked insightful questions. He seemed as interested in the downtown as she was, and that was heartening. If someone in the state’s highest level shared her vision, then she didn’t feel quite so alone in what sometimes felt like an uphill battle. At town meetings, it seemed all she heard were complaints about how much things were changing and all the new people who were disrupting the status quo. Ben’s enthusiasm was a confirmation that she was on the right track.

  They reached the end of their tour. “That was fascinating and insightful, thank you. We have some time before I meet with the head of the reunion committee. Can I take you to lunch?”

  Lacy’s mind was blank and Joe was nowhere to be found. He had pulled one of his trademark disappearing acts, and she felt a little bereft without him nearby as a buffer. “I…” How could she say no to the governor’s aide when it might someday help their town? She didn’t want to offend him, but neither did she want to give him any other signal. “Sure.”

  “Would you like to take my car or yours?” Ben asked.

  “I don’t have a car,” Lacy said.

  For some reason that made him smile, but the smile made Lacy uncomfortable. “Can I meet you outside? I just have to check on something.”