“A big yellow one. You know the ones like some kind of army machine. A zinger?”
“Hummer, maybe?”
“Yes. My husband loves them. I think they are horrible.”
“And she drove away?”
“Yes. Very fast, right down the middle of the road. And the little red car followed her.”
Everyone needs to take time to unwind and get enough sleep. If you fail to make this investment in your rest and recovery, you’ll be far less efficient, plus prone to burnout.
14
My tactic of letting Pepper know met with the usually deafening silence. I’d given up hope that she’d call me back. I added Mona to the hopeless list too. No one answered at Haley’s. That worried me. As one of the remaining bullies, Haley was unlikely to be killed by a car if she stayed inside her cozy cabin, but what if she’d ignored my warnings and headed out on errands? She was high-strung and jumpy, not overly logical, and she’d be an easy target on those lonely country roads.
It was late afternoon when I decided to head out to check on Haley. I found myself yawning. I hadn’t had much downtime this week and it was starting to catch up to me. The Miata was bumping and grinding along the packed snow on the backcountry road to Haley’s home in the woods. I pulled up in front of the house and sniffed the wood smoke. The van was there. I was glad I caught them before they left for work.
Randy arrived at the door, yawning. He seemed surprised to see me. I figured Haley didn’t get a lot of friends dropping in. He opened the door and gestured for me to come in. “I’ll get her,” he said. “She’s doing laundry. That coffee’s nice and fresh if you’d like some. I just put it on for her.”
The coffee smelled heavenly. If it tasted half as good, it would be wonderful.
I accepted a nice full mug. The coffee didn’t disappoint. Randy was apparently much better at making it than Haley.
Randy called, “Honey, you got company again. Leave everything and have your coffee with your friend.”
A full three minutes passed before Haley appeared at the top of the basement stairs, her face even paler than usual. Relief washed over her features when she saw me. Randy noticed it too.
“Who’d you think it was, honey? The IRS?”
She rolled her eyes. “Charlotte. This is a surprise.”
“Sorry to keep dropping in uninvited, Haley. This won’t take long.”
She watched me, her watery eyes worried. “What is it?”
“I wondered how you found out that Serena was back.”
Her mouth tightened. She glanced at Randy, then back at me. “Didn’t I tell you? She called me. I guess I’m not that hard to find.”
“What did she say?”
“Just that she was coming back and she’d been looking forward to seeing me and how my life turned out. She wanted us to get together again. Get our groove back. All that. It was awful. I didn’t want to go back to that relationship, like I said.”
She was being vague and all of a sudden it hit me. Except for the incident with Mona, Jack had been pretty much unaware of the mean girls’ cruelty. What if Randy had no idea what a bitch his wife had been? Haley wouldn’t want him to know. She was very much ashamed of herself. I imagined she wouldn’t want her daughter to find out either. I sure wouldn’t have if I’d been in her shoes. Even so, I thought she would be better off coming clean with both of them. Otherwise Serena would continue to have power over her.
“She called Mona Pringle too.”
“Oh, poor Mona.”
“What’s going on, honey?”
“Nothing. I’ll explain later. Can you let me talk with Charlotte in private, please?”
“Sure thing. Time for me to get dressed anyway.” I thought Randy seemed offended as he shuffled up the stairs and disappeared. A door closed softly.
I said, “And she called Kristee too.”
Haley gasped. “But why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“She made Kristee’s life hell too. We all did. A fat girl like that. Serena found it irresistible. I am too ashamed to ever go near her candy shop just knowing the things we did to her. The cruel things we said. I could shrivel up and die. I guess she’s calling all the people she made suffer.”
“I wonder who else she called. Do you think she truly wanted to make amends?”
“Amends?” Haley barked with laughter, although there was no humor in that laugh. “You must be kidding. She just wants to wield that old power again, to watch people squirm, to know they probably won’t sleep well just knowing she’s back. They’ll be looking behind them, jumping when the phone rings. Tossing and turning in bed. She’s getting high on that. I told her I have a new life now and I’m busy with my family and I don’t have any spare time. She told me what she thought of my ‘pathetic little life.’ But you know what? I got off lightly. I might be feeling nervous and jumpy, but those other girls will be panicked. I realize that’s what’s happening with me and I wasn’t even one of her victims. I was one of the bullies. When I think that I actually locked Mona in that locker intending to leave her there all weekend, I can’t—”
A small noise from the second floor caught our attention. We both glanced up at the source. Near the top of the staircase, a plump teenager stared down at Haley and me.
Haley said, “Brie!”
With her dark hair and broad face, Brie took after her father, Randy, not Haley. She stared openmouthed for a minute before turning and rushing back to her room. The door slammed behind her, the sound reverberating. What had the expression been on her face? Horror, mixed with contempt?
Randy stepped out of the next doorway, a sweatshirt in his hands. He stared down the hall in the direction I took to be his daughter’s room. Then he turned to regard his wife, the first of many questions starting to rise on his lips.
Haley couldn’t hold back the tears. “It’s starting. Everything’s starting to go wrong. Serena won’t rest until she ruins everyone’s life again. I wouldn’t have thought she could cause problems in my own family, but now—”
I waited until she pulled herself together. I said in a low voice, “Perhaps you have to level with them, if they don’t know.”
Her voice wobbled. “I don’t want them to know what I did, what I was. What I did to—”
I knew she was thinking about what she had done to kids like Brie.
Haley said, “I did terrible things. I am sorry for my actions, but I can’t undo them.”
“Maybe you can make a start,” I said. “You can’t undo those terrible things, but you could do some good.”
At the sound of Randy’s heavy footsteps heading downstairs, Haley began to sob. “Stay with me,” she said, reaching over and grabbing my sleeve.
“What the hell are you doing to her?” Randy bellowed.
Haley turned her tear-streaked face to him. “She didn’t do anything. I have to tell you something. Something that’s been bothering me a lot.”
“I knew something was wrong. You’ve been so mopey lately.”
She nodded and took a deep, ragged breath. “I am not the person you think I am, Randy.”
“’Course, you are, honey. Who else would you be?”
She shook her head and the stringy curls swayed. “Not who you think, for sure. Not that person.”
“I’ve known you all my life. We went to school together. I love you, honey. You are my beautiful girl. My prom princess. Why are you so upset?”
I was conscious of a scuffling on the stairs. I turned to see Brie had returned and was now crouched near the bottom stair, listening intently to her mother.
“I did terrible things to people. You have no idea. Cruel things.”
“No, you didn’t, honey.”
Haley wailed. “Yes! I did! I am so sorry. I hurt people. I humiliated them. People who didn’t deserve it. I was under Serena’s thumb and I would have done anything she told me to do. I never thought about how much it would have hurt . . .”
“Mona,
” I said. “It hurt Mona.”
“Who’s Mona?”
“Now she’s a 911 operator. Then she was a skinny awkward kid who was put through hell.”
“Honey, it’s a long time ago. People get over stupid kids games. It’s one person and she must have turned out all right to be a 911 operator.”
“She’s pretty messed up over this,” I said. “She was holding it together until Serena called her.”
“But that’s Serena, not you. Even I knew she had a mean streak.”
“It wasn’t just one person,” Haley hiccupped. “And I was just as involved as Serena.”
“Not just Mona. Kristee too,” I said.
“What did you girls do to them?”
“Not Charlotte. She wasn’t part of it.”
I said, “I didn’t step forward to help Mona or Kristee when they needed me. That’s why I need to do something now.”
“Kristee? She that gal with the chocolate shop? Kind of . . .” His voice trailed off and his eyes darted to his daughter’s round face.
“Fat?” Brie said from her place on the stairs. “Was she fat, Mom?”
“Not very, I suppose, but we tormented her.”
“She’s another one doing okay now though,” Randy said. “People have to rise above these things.”
I didn’t want to say what had happened to Kristee, the pig nose, the food dumps, the other torments. There was no point in rubbing it in about Brie’s mother’s crimes. But I was pretty sure Brie knew firsthand what Kristee had gone through.
“I didn’t realize,” Haley sobbed, “but now I do. I want to make it up to people. I am so afraid of what Serena will do.”
“What could she do?” Randy and I said practically in unison.
“Randy’s right,” I said. “She doesn’t have any power over you now. Just don’t associate with her. You asked me for forgiveness and you did far less damage to me. Maybe you can make amends to Mona and Kristee.”
“They’d never forgive me.”
“Maybe not. I don’t know. It’s too late for Bethann Reynolds, but you can do the right thing for Kristee and Mona. Talk to them. Tell them you truly regret what you were part of and why. Even if they don’t forgive you, that can help you break free from Serena and let you move on.”
“That makes sense to me, honey,” Randy said.
A soft voice broke in from the stairs. “They’ll never forgive you. Never, and there’s no reason why they should. Why should you end up happy with a family when their lives were practically ruined? I know what it’s like to be one of them. I hate you. I wish you weren’t my mother.” Brie turned and stumbled up the stairs.
“Brie, baby,” Randy lumbered after her. “You don’t mean that.”
“The hell I don’t.”
It took a couple more minutes for Haley to stop weeping. “I never wanted my family to know what I did. Randy will forgive me anything, but Brie will never trust me again.”
“If you do the right thing now, Brie will come around in time. It sounds to me like she’s had her share of bullying to deal with.”
“She has such a pretty face and she hardly eats a thing, but she’s like Randy’s mom and sister—they’re just round people. She’s artistic. She doesn’t have many friends outside of her books. I should have been on the lookout. No wonder she’s so angry at me.”
“Maybe you can get some counseling for her, and for yourself.”
“Thanks, Charlotte, but I can’t even afford that.”
“There are some community resources that could help you both. I’ll check into that. But I don’t know if you should thank me. I think I made things worse. I was just trying to figure out who else she would have contacted to make amends. She got Mona and Kristee both into a state. Mona’s panicked and Kristee’s mad as hell. Could there be anyone else?”
Haley bit her lip. “I wonder if she called Bethann too. She was also a target, as well as Mona and Kristee.”
“Do you think she might have?” This reminded me that I hadn’t heard back from Bethann’s brother-in-law. I could hardly pressure the grieving family, but I was still hoping he’d find out something for me.
Haley said, “Sure. Bethann was such a little rabbit. She’d cry as soon as Serena walked by her. She’d panic and run away. I bet Serena missed having all that impact on people, even though she’s pretending to be so nice. She always loved it when someone was suffering. It was probably fun for her to revive all that, to make them miserable again.”
I thought about it. “Bethann’s dead, not just miserable. Anyway, I heard she’d learned to fight back. Won a harassment suit against her employer. I wonder if she would have been as intimidated by Serena this time around.”
Haley shrugged. “I don’t understand what’s going on. I wish I did.”
I had been wondering if Mona was responsible, but now another idea was starting to form. I said, “Bethann had changed. What if she wasn’t willing to put up with this anymore? What if she decided to go public about Serena too? What if she threatened her? Serena would have had plenty to lose this time.”
Haley’s jaw dropped. “You mean Serena might have killed Bethann? Oh my God. That’s . . .”
I raised an eyebrow. “Possible?”
She frowned. “It would explain a lot. But it doesn’t explain Tiffanee and Jasmin.”
“Maybe they weren’t keen on her coming back any more than you were. If there’s any truth to the suggestion that Tiffanee had completely changed, that would make sense.”
“You mean, maybe they rejected Serena too? And Bethann wasn’t a frightened little mouse anymore and said something to set her off?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. And maybe Serena didn’t like that much. If they pushed back, perhaps that’s why they’re dead.”
Haley hugged herself tightly and said, “I guess that just leaves me.”
“Promise me you won’t go anywhere alone until this whole terrible situation is resolved.”
“Resolved! How can it ever be resolved? My life is in the toilet now.” She turned an anguished glance up the stairs to where Brie could be heard loudly weeping.
I called out to Randy. I could tell by his narrowed eyes that he blamed me as he thudded down. But he did commit to making sure Haley went nowhere by herself. I hoped that was going to be enough.
Jack had his monthly dinner meeting of the WAG’D executive committee, so I dropped into the house first to put the dogs out and feed them. I changed into my new jeans and my favorite hoodie, in soft turquoise cashmere, for my casual dinner with Dean Oliver. I ramped it up a bit with dress boots and silver hoop earrings. I promised the pooches lots of cuddling later. They were already back to sleep, but I hoped I’d reached them at some level.
“New relationship?” Dean said as we settled into a brushed metal table for two at the crowded café. Jalapeño was one of the most popular and relaxed new gathering spots.
“What?”
“Last night, at Al’s, you were—”
“Oh no. A friend of a friend. He works at 911. And that’s connected with what I want to talk to you about.” Dean had absolutely no expression as he listened to my story about Mona and how distressed she was. I suppose they learn to deal with us demented types when they’re in the police academy. I launched into my theory of the three hit-and-runs being connected.
When I drew my first breath, he interjected, “If you don’t mind me saying so, Charlotte, you’ve been known to get things wrong.”
“I know. I got it wrong when I talked to Pepper and now she won’t give me the time of day. But sometimes I get them right too. I’ve thought this one through. You’re the person that can help me. People are dying in this town and the deaths are connected in some way to the bullies who made Mona’s life hell when she was in school. I think you’d be surprised at how attractive and personable those bullies were. And are. Bethann was a bullying victim. Tiffanee and Jasmin were bullies. I think the perpetrator is a woman called Serena Redding, no
w married to Jerome Zeitz. She was the worst of all the bullies. I know what she was capable of. She’s married to a powerful man and she’s back in the area. I believe she contacted all the victims. And I have reason to believe that either she, or one of her collaborators, was being treated by Dr. Partridge. I went to him and I explained the problems Mona is having and I could tell that he knew about these incidents back in high school.”
Dean’s eyebrows were up by this time. “Did he tell you anything?”
“You and I know that a professional counselor wouldn’t do that. Serena drives a yellow Hummer and one was seen parked by his house the day of the medication mix-up. Can you make inquiries about exactly what substances were found in his system? Can you—?”
Dean Oliver ran his hand over his forehead. “I can make ‘inquiries,’ but right now let me tell you, results from the tox lab take months to come back and that’s when there’s an active investigation. And a body, which there isn’t. This is a live person. So no open case and no more than a hunch from a person who is not on the police force. In fact, I’d get my butt kicked for talking to you about it. First of all, it’s probably too late to get any uncompromised samples from Dr. Partridge, Charlotte. Second, even if we did, by the time any results came back from the lab, your Dr. Partridge would have died of old age.”
“What if it could be an active investigation? What—?”
“Give it up. I’ll talk to the principal investigator of the hit-and-runs and—”
“Right. Pepper Monahan.”
“Pepper’s the best, Charlotte, and you know that. She’s under a lot of pressure, but she’s one hell of a cop so let’s leave it with her.”
“I know that, but she’s not returning any of my calls. Maybe you could convince her that Dr. Partridge might be in danger. And see what you can find out about his wife. She was killed in a hit-and-run about fourteen years back.”
That got his attention.
“Really?”
“I just found that out today. It would be the same time he was seeing one of these bullies.” I paused and decided not to leave out key information. “He may have been seeing Mona too.”
The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder Page 19