Death by Association

by Paula Darnell

  “Wish I could claim credit, but I’m not nearly as crafty as you are. Mimi, the lady who owns the boutique where I bought the scarf, wrapped it for me when I told her it was for a special occasion. I hope Bessie likes the scarf I picked out for her.”

  “I’m sure she will, Liz. You have exquisite taste. Thanks for getting it. Let me just drop this off to Luke and I’ll be right back.”

  I found Luke chatting with a man I recognized as one of the HOA board members. Except for Edna Elkins and Luis Cardoza, I couldn’t match names with the faces of any of the other board members I’d seen at last week’s meeting, but when Luke introduced us, I knew that the name of this man wasn’t on the list I’d found on the HOA’s photocopier.

  Leaving the gift with Luke, I detoured past the tables where we’d set up the desserts and assembled a plateful of cookies to take back to our table.

  “Cookies, anyone?” I offered as I set the plate in the middle of the table. “These cookies aren’t from the store. Cynthia made the raspberry chewies herself, and Amy made those pinwheel cookies,” I said, helping myself to a chocolate and vanilla pinwheel.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” the colonel said, taking one of each.

  “I’ll have a couple, too,” Tracey said.

  “Might as well make it unanimous,” Liz said.

  “Anybody need some coffee or something else to drink?” I asked.

  “Let me go get the drinks, Laurel,” the colonel said. “You’ve had a busy day. Why don’t you sit down here and relax for a while.” The colonel pulled out the chair beside him, and, thanking him, I plopped down in it. “What would you all like to drink?” We gave the colonel our drink orders—coffee for Tracey and me and iced tea for Liz—and he headed off to fetch them.

  Before the colonel could return with our drinks, the squeal of feedback and electronic screeching signaled Luke’s first attempt to use the microphone that was set up in the front of the room for board meetings. After a few seconds of testing, Luke managed to adjust the microphone so that the sound came through loud and clear. Luke beckoned Bessie to stand next to him as he gave a short, but flowery speech, wishing her well, thanking her for her ten years of service to the community, and saying that he was sorry to lose such a valuable member of the security team. He presented her with the certificate I’d made in recognition of her ten years of employment at Hawkeye Haven and then gave her the gift as a “small token of our appreciation.” Preserving the lovely gift paper, Bessie carefully unwrapped the present, and she seemed genuinely thrilled when she saw the scarf that Liz had selected for her. Draping it around her neck, she petted it as though it were a soft cat’s fur. Her voice quavering, she thanked Luke and everyone for coming to the party. The crowd clapped, and Bessie started to step away when Luke called her back and asked her son Tom to come up. Luke reached under the draped table next to him and pulled out a huge plant, which he presented to Bessie. She grinned and gave Luke a hug, and her son was left with the task of carrying the heavy plant out to his car as several of the partygoers gathered around Bessie to chat.

  “Here we go, ladies,” said the colonel, who had returned to our table balancing a tray holding our drinks. “Sorry I took so long, but I didn’t want to disrupt the proceedings.”

  “Thanks,” Tracey said, taking a sip of coffee. “That hits the spot.”

  “Mind if I join you?” I hadn’t noticed Luke making his way over to our table until he spoke.

  “Have a seat, Luke. How about some cookies?” I picked up the platter and put it in front of him as he sat next to me. He selected one of Cynthia’s raspberry chewies, and began to munch it.

  “Laurel, I want to thank you for all the work you did to put this party together. You too, Tracey. I know it was a lot of work on a tight budget.”

  “We’re happy to do it, Luke. I think Bessie’s having a good time, and I can tell she really appreciates the recognition,” I said. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Liz’s hands trembling, but they were in her lap, so I doubt that anyone else noticed.

  “You’re right, Laurel. Ms. Dawson, I wanted to make sure I thanked you, too, for selecting Bessie’s gift. My wife can tell you I don’t have a clue when it comes to picking out something appropriate for the ladies.”

  “Thank you, Luke, and please call me Liz.” Liz paused. “Is your wife here with you tonight? You showed me her picture the other day, and I’d like to meet her.”

  “No, she was planning to come, but our babysitter cancelled at the very last minute, and it was too late to find someone else to watch the girls.”

  I could tell that Liz really wanted to talk to her grandson, so I suggested that Tracey and I were needed in the kitchen, and we left Liz and the colonel at the table with Luke.

  “What’s up this time?” Tracey asked me.

  “I can’t go into the details because I promised Liz I wouldn’t say anything to anybody, but, trust me, you’ll know about it soon.”

  “Hmmm. Very mysterious. I thought you told me everything.”

  “I do. Well, unless I’ve promised to keep a secret.”

  “Ah, ha, so it’s a secret?”

  “It is, but not for long.”

  “Guess I’ll just have to wait to find out,” Tracey grumbled but without irritation. I could tell that she was more intrigued than annoyed. As we passed through the crowd, I spotted Edna Elkins leaving the group that had gathered around Bessie.

  “There’s Edna. Let’s go talk to her and see what we can find out.”

  “Find out about what? Oh, no, you’re not going to ask her about that list, are you? I thought the cops were going to handle that.”

  “I doubt that she knows that a list exists, but I am going to ask her about the reason her name appears on it.”

  “Lo-lo, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. What if she freaks out?”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Ooh, you’re making me very nervous.”

  “Don’t worry, Trace. Nothing’s going to happen in the middle of the party, but maybe I should talk to her alone. Why don’t you stay here for a minute? I’ll be right back.” Before Tracey had a chance to answer or talk me out of what was probably going to be a disastrous encounter, I hurried over to Edna, leaving Tracey anxiously standing next to the dessert table.

  “Hi, Edna.”

  “Hi, Laurel. Nice party. Rachel told me that you helped Luke put it together.”

  “Yes, but I had a lot of help, too.”

  “Oh?”

  “Tracey, Cynthia, Amy, and Liz all lent a hand.”

  “Well, that’s nice. Be sure to thank them on behalf of the board members, although I can’t say I was consulted about it in the first place. Rachel agreed to the party without mentioning it to anyone else. I just hope she doesn’t turn out to be as high-handed as her predecessor.”

  “I guess nobody liked Victor.”

  “You can say that again. I don’t know how he managed to get elected as board president.”

  “Maybe he used some of the same tactics he used to sway the board members his way.”

  Edna’s smile was instantly replaced with a frown. “What would you know about that?”

  “I’ve heard rumors.”

  “Just exactly what are you implying, Laurel?”

  “I’m not implying anything. I heard that Victor coerced some of the board members into voting the way he wanted them to. That’s all.”

  Edna eyed me suspiciously. “And where did you hear that?”

  “I’m really not at liberty to say.” I certainly wasn’t going to tell her about Luke’s suspicions or about my finding the list.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I know that it would have been easy for Victor to resort to blackmail. He knew things about people that they didn’t want to be made public. Like losing your nursing license and your brush with the law.” I knew I was pushing it with Edna. Her face contorted with anger, but her rage didn’t stop her from trying
to turn the tables on me.

  “Really, Laurel, you should be ashamed of yourself for spreading gossip.”

  I ignored her remark, which was laughable given that the Hawkeye Haven grapevine was so active, and Edna had never before objected to participating in some juicy gossip about her neighbors.

  “So you deny that you injected a patient with a dirty needle?” I was on thin ice, and I knew it. Although Edna’s secret had been listed on the paper I found, there had been no notation about where the incident had taken place, and I hadn’t been able to find any information about it when I searched online. I suspected that Edna had probably changed her name and moved to Iowa sometime after the lawsuit had been settled, but I really had no proof.

  “Laurel McMillan! You have no right to accuse me of anything. You’d better watch yourself, missy, if you want to keep teaching those silly little classes of yours. The board could cancel them at any time, you know.”

  Her face flaming, Edna turned and stalked out of the party. It didn’t escape me that she had maintained her the-best-defense-is-a-good-offense strategy right to the end of our conversation. I’d noticed something else, too. Edna had never denied that she’d gotten into legal trouble or that she’d lost her nursing license. I’d hit a nerve, and I’d made an enemy, but I still had no idea how far Edna would have been willing to go to keep her secret. Far enough to murder Victor?

  Chapter 13

  “What did you say to Edna, Lo-lo? She took off out of here like her hair was on fire,” Tracey said as she joined me.

  “Oh, not much. I just suggested to her that Victor may have been trying to coerce her votes on the board, and she didn’t like that very much. Then I asked her about the dirty needle incident, and she threatened to cancel my classes.”

  “Oh, no!”

  “Not to worry, Trace. Edna may think she can cancel my classes, but she’s wrong. I have more than two years left on my contract to teach the DIY classes, remember?”

  “That’s right. I’d forgotten about the contract. Your lawyer looked it over, if I remember right.”

  “Yes, and he said it’s ironclad, so I’m not too worried. I doubt that Edna even realizes that I have a contract with Hawkeye Haven because she wasn’t a member of the HOA’s board when I signed it. Edna may think she frightened me, but she’s wrong.”

  “Well, I hope she drops the matter.”

  “So do I. I guess she figures the best defense is a good offense. It was pretty bold of Edna to threaten me, though. I think she’s scared.”

  Tracey nodded. “Maybe you should back off. You’re not going to talk to the others on the list, are you?” Reading my expression, Tracey exclaimed, “You are!”

  “Maybe I’m thinking about it. Tonight the opportunity just seemed to present itself.”

  “Be careful, Lo-lo. You could be talking to a killer. Why don’t you let the police ask the questions?”

  Why, indeed? At first, my interest in Victor’s murder had stemmed from mere curiosity, but when I realized that there might be a link between Bessie’s attacker and the murderer, and that the killer was very likely one of my neighbors, I had been drawn into the puzzle. I felt uncomfortable in my own community, and I knew that my friends did, too.

  “I guess I should, but after finding that list, well, I can’t help but wonder whether one of our HOA’s board members could be the killer,” I said.

  “I suppose they hated Victor as much as anyone, maybe more since he was blackmailing them.”

  “Four of them, anyway, including Rachel, the new HOA president. I guess Victor couldn’t come up with anything on the other two.”

  “Rachel seems like a nice lady. After all, she agreed to let Luke have this party for Bessie, and she backed him up when Patty objected to it.”

  “Hopefully, her life of crime is over. She’s the one who was convicted of embezzlement.”

  “Didn’t you tell me that she went to prison?”

  “A two-year sentence, according to the info on the list. Not exactly something she’d want to include on her résumé when she ran for the board and probably not something she’d especially want her neighbors to know.”

  As we talked, Tracey and I had drifted toward a corner of the room. We’d kept our voices low so that nobody could overhear what we were talking about. I’d been so engrossed in our conversation that I hadn’t noticed that the crowd had begun to thin out.

  “It looks as though the party’s winding down,” Tracey observed. “Look at the buffet tables. They’re practically empty.”

  “I’d better pop into the kitchen and touch base with Cynthia and Amy, but it looks as though we can probably start cleaning up now.”

  “Right. Say, maybe we should send the leftovers home with Bessie,” Tracey suggested.

  “That’s a good idea.”

  I looked around the room and saw Bessie talking to Al, the security guard, she’d greeted earlier.

  “There she is,” I told Tracey. “Let’s check with her and find out if she wants to take the rest of the food home.”

  After confirming with Bessie that she’d be happy to have any leftovers, I went into the kitchen to let Cynthia and Amy know, and Tracey began clearing some of the trays from the buffet tables. Because we’d used disposable plates and plastic utensils, only the serving trays, pitchers, and the huge coffeemaker needed to be washed. I set to work at the sink, washing the serving pieces while Tracey continued to clear the buffet tables. Cynthia and Amy packaged the leftovers so that Bessie could take them home with her.

  With only the coffeemaker yet to wash, I thanked Cynthia and Amy for their help and told them that Tracey and I would finish cleaning up and that they might as well go home. They didn’t object, and we waved good-bye as they went into the meeting room to wish Bessie good luck.

  After I washed the coffeemaker, Tracey dried it and returned it to its usual place on the kitchen counter. For good measure, we wiped all the kitchen countertops one last time before calling Bessie’s son to carry the big box of leftovers to his car.

  The rest of the crowd had departed, leaving only Bessie, her family, Luke, and Rachel in the meeting room. Kenny was supposed to help Luke move the tables and chairs to set up the room for the next meeting, but I didn’t see Kenny. I suspected that he was hanging out in the janitor’s closet, puffing on a cigarette, just as he had been when I’d needed to find a key to enter my locked classroom on Saturday. I figured that the only reason Rachel was staying was that she was waiting to give her son a ride home.

  I heard Luke tell Rachel that it was time to move the furniture, and he left in search of Kenny. Although I was tempted to talk to Rachel, as I had Edna, Bessie had rushed to thank me and Tracey for our help with the party, so I couldn’t speak with Rachel alone. Just as I was giving Bessie a good-bye hug, Luke returned with a reluctant Kenny in tow.

  “Hurry up, Kenny,” his mother commanded. “You still have homework to do, you know.”

  Acknowledging his mother’s admonition with a grunt, Kenny slunk into the room. Dressed in a black sweatshirt and worn jeans, he wore a red baseball cap pulled so low over his face that it hid his eyes. Luke directed him to one of the tables we’d used for the buffet, and as the two of them reached down to fold the metal legs of the table, the right sleeve of Kenny’s sweatshirt rode up, revealing a hideous-looking tattoo of a fire-breathing dragon. Suddenly, Bessie gasped and pointed to Kenny.

  “It’s him! He’s the one who attacked me!”

  Everybody froze as Bessie’s trembling finger continued to point at Kenny, but the teenager didn’t wait to hear any more. Kenny sprinted from the room, leaving his wide-eyed mother sputtering in confusion. Luke took off after Kenny, and although the teenager had the advantage of youth on his side, Luke managed to grab him before he ran too far, and he hauled Kenny back into the room. Hanging his head, Kenny refused to look in Bessie’s direction.

  “Bessie, how do you know it was Kenny?” I asked.

  “It’s his tattoo. I reme
mber it now—that red dragon tattoo.”

  “What do you have to say for yourself, Kenny?” Luke demanded, a scowl on his face. He was still panting from the chase to catch up to Kenny.

  “Answer the man, Kenny,” Rachel demanded.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt the old lady,” Kenny said. “I was just after the gun.”

  “Oh, no, Kenny,” Rachel said. “Whatever possessed you?”

  “I couldn’t be a Dragon without a gun.”

  “Are the Dragons a gang at your high school?” Luke asked.

  Kenny hung his head and nodded.

  “Where’s the gun now, Kenny? Did you give it to someone else in the gang?”

  “No, after the old lady fell and cracked her head, I got scared and dumped it. So I still couldn’t join.” Incredibly, Kenny appeared to continue to covet membership in the Dragons even though he’d committed a felony in the process of trying to obtain the price of membership.

  “This is serious business, Kenny,” Luke said. “I’m going to have to turn you over to the police, and you’re going to stay right here until they come to pick you up,” Without releasing his grip on Kenny, he turned to Rachel. “I’m sorry, Rachel.”

  While Luke pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and called the police, Rachel sobbed openly. Kenny, eyes downcast, at least had the decency to look ashamed for disgracing himself and his mother.

  “Uh, Kenny, you said you dumped the gun. What exactly did you do with it?” I asked.

  “Threw it in a trash can on the way home.”

  “Kenny, that’s enough. Don’t say anything else,” Rachel cautioned her son. “I’m going to get you a lawyer. Don’t say another word, do you understand?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I mean it, Kenny. You’re in big trouble. Don’t make it any worse,” Rachel reiterated.

  Although I could understand that Rachel wanted to protect her son, I wished she hadn’t thought of it quite so soon. Once Bessie had identified Kenny as her attacker, he hadn’t tried to deny it. Maybe we could have found out more about precisely where he’d disposed of the gun if Rachel hadn’t switched into mama-bear mode. That is, if he really had disposed of the gun, and that was a big “if.”