"Do you think one of them knows who she is?" I stared at Evelyn. It had never occurred to me to find out if the parents knew her. My spycraft skills were seriously slipping.
"Until I'm done here, they're all suspects."
I thought about that for a moment. Were any of these women capable of murder? Seemed unlikely, but if so, my money was on Carol Ann.
"The girls didn't know who she really was," I said. "Remember? I told you they insisted they'd never seen her before."
"That only rules out the kids." Rex shook his head.
"You weren't really considering that one of my girls did it?" Because that would be kind of awesome—having a diminutive little assassin in my troop. Okay—that would be all kinds of awesome.
Rex was staring at me. I wondered what expression was on my face.
"Well, with the things your girls have been exposed to, I wouldn't rule it out." He looked very serious. But after a second he broke into a grin. "I'm joking."
"Uh, duh, I knew that." Now.
"Let's start with you," Rex said. "Tell me what happened here."
I told him about the cookies and milk. How we'd all been in this room.
"I moved from table to table, mixing with the parents," I admitted. "I didn't really pay attention to whether or not anyone was by the door."
"It was probably noisy and chaotic," Rex said.
I nodded. "As usual. Kids and cats were racing around the room. I'm pretty sure Kelly was holding the baby the whole time."
Was Kelly capable of holding Finn and murdering a woman and dumping her outside at the same time? The woman had mad skills, and she was hormonally crazy enough to do it. But I was pretty sure she'd been in the kitchen the whole time.
"I don't see any blood," I said. "She wasn't shot. We turned her over because Kelly wanted to revive her. There weren't any stab wounds or bullet holes."
Rex pulled the collar away from the woman's neck. "No ligature marks so she wasn't strangled." He studied her arms, "No bruising or defensive injuries."
"Poison? Maybe?" I asked, trying to be helpful.
Officer Kevin walked over, holding a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. At the mention of poison, the man looked at his plate before shrugging as he sat down at a table and proceeded to eat.
"It's possible," Rex said. "We'll know more when Dr. Body gets here."
"Dr. Body?" I asked. Was that some sort of code name?
"The new coroner." Rex grinned. "Her last name really is Body."
I tapped my chin. "Now I have a full set."
Rex's eyebrows went up.
"My eye doctor is Dr. Blink. My dentist is Dr. Toothacher. Now the coroner is Dr. Body. It's a complete set."
My boyfriend shook his head. "Never heard of anyone who collected doctors before."
I would've responded. Probably with something witty. Except that I was distracted as the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen walked into the room. She was Asian—my guess was Korean with a little Polynesian blend. Her long, silky black hair cascaded around her shoulders in perfect waves. Her plump, pink lips drew back over a dazzling smile. And she had a Cindy Crawford beauty mark just to the right of her mouth.
"Ah," Rex shook the woman's hand. "Dr. Soo Jin Body, this is Merry Wrath."
I was right. Soo Jin was a Korean name. I just didn't feel like celebrating because this woman was dazzling. And she worked with my boyfriend. I wasn't sure I liked that.
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Wrath." Dr. Body extended a slim, pale hand.
I shook it. "Likewise. So, you're new? Welcome to Iowa."
She nodded. "I just moved here from San Francisco." She put her hand on Rex's arm. "Rex has been so helpful. It's a wonderful town, but I'm used to a much larger city. There wasn't much in the way of real estate here. I don't know how I would've gotten my house if Rex hadn't helped me."
I narrowed my gaze at my boyfriend. "Yes. He's super helpful."
Oh…we were definitely talking about this later. If he blushed in the next few seconds, I might be breaking out the thumbscrews as well.
Rex flushed red. "I didn't do anything." He avoided my eyes. "One of the officers was moving away, and I suggested his place. That's all."
Dr. Body smiled at him, and I toyed with punching her in the face.
"So…the corpse…" I said, trying to take the woman's attention away from my boyfriend. "Tell us what killed her."
And then, I'll follow you home to see this house Rex helped you with. True, she hadn't done anything wrong. But I find it's helpful to be prepared. Just in case.
"Right." She knelt beside Evelyn's body and proceeded to examine the dead woman.
My eyes would've been on her, but I'd decided to watch Rex instead. If he was going to leave me for this woman—I wanted to know—because the venomous centipedes I'd have to order would come all the way from Vietnam. Maybe I should order them just in case…
"It looks like she's been dead about four hours." Dr. Body frowned at her watch as she got to her feet. "My guess is heart attack. But I won't know for certain until the autopsy is done."
"Thanks, Soo Jin." Rex smiled and winked.
He winked at her!
"Kevin." He turned to the dimwitted officer who was starting on his second plate of cookies. "Take the deceased out to the coroner's van."
Yeah, Kevin. And while you are out there, use that van to back over Dr. Body once or thirteen times, please.
Once the officer, the corpse, and the coroner were out of the room, I turned on Rex.
"Really? You winked at her?"
Rex laughed it off, but he was obviously blushing. "I didn't wink. Are you jealous?"
"Of course I am!" What was the point in denying it?
He shook his head. "You have nothing to worry about. I only have eyes for one woman who has lots of corpses around her."
"You mean me, right?" Yes, dead people seemed to swarm to me like flies. But I wanted to make sure he didn't mean the good doctor.
Rex nodded, but he didn't take me into his arms and kiss my fears away. Sure, I knew he was working, but still…
"And why is a medical examiner called a doctor, anyway?" I grumbled. "I mean, doctors make sick people better. A medical examiner just works with the dead. It's not like they can heal them or bring them back to life or anything."
My boyfriend ignored me. "Go and send the mothers in, please."
"Fine," I said. But he hadn't heard the last of this. Not by a long shot.
"Rex is ready," I said to Kelly once I found her in the gym with the others.
She was standing in the corner with the parents. The girls were sitting on sleeping bags and looking worriedly at their mothers. Kids always seem to know when something bad has happened. Although, if my girls knew there was a dead body on the premises, they would've been the first ones to bug Rex to see it.
"Go ahead," Kelly said to the women.
They moved in a cluster toward the door. When they'd cleared the gym, Kelly turned to the girls, while holding a sleeping Finn.
"We have permission to tell them what happened." Kelly nodded toward the kids.
"The moms said it was okay?" That was a surprise.
"Yes. And they don't want to call off the lock-in either."
I glared at her. "You are lying." What did I have to do to get out of this sleepover? Kill someone else? How many bodies would it take for Kelly to send us all home? If I found out—I'd have to write that down for future reference.
She shook her head. "No. They said as long as the body wasn't here anymore, it was okay. What did the coroner say?"
I decided not to tell her about Dr. Body and how she was intent on stealing my man.
"It could've been a heart attack. She doesn't know for sure."
Kelly walked over to the kids and sat down on Inez's sleeping bag. She set the baby in her lap.
"Girls, I have to tell you something." Kelly hesitated for a second. "Remember Mrs. Trout—the one who went to Washington, DC with you?"
Betty nodded. "You mean the spy in disguise?"
Kelly frowned. "The spy? No, she wasn't a spy."
I thought about interrupting. After all, technically speaking, we didn't know that she wasn't a spy. But I decided not to. The girls had finally found out about my past when we were in DC. I kind of wanted to keep that intel on the down low.
Lauren winked. "Oh, of course she wasn't." Her voice had that over-exaggerated tone usually reserved for sarcastic cartoon characters.
I chose to say nothing. I wanted to see how Kelly did with this.
"Well, she wasn't. She was just a normal woman who lived here…somewhere…"
Inez shrugged. "I've never seen her around." This prompted solemn Me neither/I haven't all around the group.
"You'll just have to take my word for it," Kelly demanded. She was getting a little fried around the edges.
The girls all looked at each other, communicating silently like mind-reading ninjas.
"If you say so," one of the Kaitlins said.
I could tell that the girls didn't believe Kelly. And I'm pretty sure she knew that.
"Anyway, Mrs. Trout had a heart attack," Kelly continued.
Caterina's eyes grew larger. "Is she dead?"
"Was it murder?" Hannah asked.
"Can we see the body?" Betty shouted eagerly. The others looked at her, then at me, nodding.
I was about to tell them that she was dead, and no, they couldn't see her, when Kelly spoke up.
"I'm sorry to say that she did die," Kelly announced. "The police are talking to your mothers right now and will want to talk to you afterwards."
"Wow!" Another Kaitlin shouted. "Do you think one of our moms did it? Cuz that would be awesome!"
The girls launched into a loud discussion of which mother was the murderer. My money was on Carol Ann, but several of them thought it was one of the Ashleys. Even the Kaitlins thought their mothers made good suspects.
Kelly looked horrified. Maybe she was concerned that one day, Finn would have no problem thinking that her mother may also be a murderer. It was probably also the absolute glee in the girls' voices as they discussed whether or not one of the Ashleys would "get the chair" for the murder.
I finally spoke up. "We don't know that she was murdered. That's what the police are here to find out. The coroner thinks it could be nothing—like a heart attack. So don't get your hopes up."
Kelly shot me a look. I shrugged. After all, the girls would be disappointed if it wasn't foul play. That wasn't my fault.
"Is Dr. Body the one doing the autopsy?" Inez asked. How did they know her? How did they know about autopsies?
I nodded. "Yes. How do you know about Dr. Body?" Okay—so maybe I was hoping for a little dirt or scandal here from a bunch of eight-year-olds. Sue me.
Lauren said, "She came to our school to talk about her job."
Well, that seems a little gruesome for elementary kids.
"You know," a third Kaitlin said, tapping her chin. "It could still be murder. There are poisons that create heart attacks."
"Yeah," Betty agreed. "There's cocaine or quinine."
Caterina nodded. "She could've eaten rhubarb or blood root."
Where were these girls when I was in the field? Kelly thought differently, as she covered the sleeping Finn's ears. I wonder what she thought a two-month-old would pick up from this conversation.
"Or," Hannah piped up, "she could've been stung by a stingray or jellyfish."
The fourth and final Kaitlin shook her head. "Don't be a moron. This is Iowa. We don't have an ocean for her to get stung in."
"What's a moron?" Betty asked. Really? They knew about toxic poisons but not what a moron was?
Lauren pointed at me. "It's an imbecile, a stupid person. Like Mrs. Wrath."
Hey!
"Or," Kelly yelled, which had a quieting effect on the girls, "she just had a normal, average, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety heart attack."
"Well, you're a nurse, aren't you?" Hannah asked. "What do you think?"
Kelly looked startled. On the one hand, she didn't want to talk about this…but on the other, she was probably flattered that they knew her occupation and wanted her opinion.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Kelly said. "I can't tell you what killed her. We have to wait to see what the medical examiner…"
"Dr. Body…" Caterina interrupted.
"Yes. We have to wait to see what Dr. Body says." Kelly was starting to turn a little green.
The girls once again launched into a lively discussion over whose mother killed Evelyn Trout. I probably should've proven my level of responsibility and stopped them, but I found the whole thing fascinating. I never would've accused my mother of murder. And certainly not with so much glee.
Officer Kevin appeared in the doorway. "Okay girls. Come with me." He had smeared Oreo crème filling on the left breast pocket of his uniform, and his lips were black with cookie crumbs. How much of our food had he eaten? And did he think we wouldn't notice?
We followed him down to the nursery where each girl was united with her potentially murderous mother. Kevin took the first duo—Lauren and her mother, Bobbi—away first.
Philby and her kittens were asleep in the corner on a large pillow. At least I didn't have to worry about them killing anyone.
Kelly followed the direction of my gaze. "Hey, I meant to tell you, don't forget to take your litter box home tomorrow when you go."
Litter box? Uh-oh.
"I will," I lied as I promised to take home something I hadn't brought. There had to be something somewhere in the church I could use.
"Don't worry—I'll take care of it," I repeated.
And somehow, I would.
CHAPTER FIVE
When everyone had been interviewed, Rex sent Kevin for me. I could've pointed out that the man had a milk mustache, but decided not to.
"How did it go?" I asked Rex once we arrived in the kitchen.
"Well, in spite of an alarming and universal belief that Ashley Maitlin killed our victim, I don't have anything." He snapped his notebook shut.
Maitlin! I had no idea which of the four Ashleys that was, but at least now I knew a last name.
"Any word from the coroner?" I asked, avoiding saying the stunningly gorgeous doctor's name. No point in reminding my boyfriend of this woman's assets.
He shook his head. "Not yet. It'll be a day or so. We don't move as quickly as they do on television."
I folded my arms over my chest. "Why not? Evelyn has to be the only body in the morgue. You'd think a professional could identify the cause of murder faster than that."
Rex rolled his eyes. "It's Soo's job. Not mine. And not my business on how fast she does it."
I sighed. "What do you think?"
"Well, I certainly have had a lot of suggestions from your troop. From poisonous plants to a tiny blue-ringed octopus found only near Australia, there are quite a few theories on what could've induced the dead woman's heart attack—if that's what she had."
He looked tired. "You should go home and get some sleep," I said as I put my arms around him.
Rex smiled. "Thanks for thinking of me."
"Of course!" I kissed him briefly. It was lovely. "And when you get home, could you bring over that spare kitty litter box?"
Rex gave me a look. "You forgot that?"
"Maybe…and text me when you get here so I can sneak it in without Kelly noticing."
"What have the cats been using this whole time?" Rex asked.
I shrugged. "No idea." I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
After one more kiss, Rex left, promising to bring back the litter box and stash it in the kitchen. That way I wouldn't have to leave under suspicious circumstances.
I rejoined my fellow lock-in attendees in the gym, where things were quieting down. Kelly had dimmed the lights, turned on the second movie (yay!), and Finn was asleep in her car seat. I scooped up the cats, telling Kelly I had to feed them, then met Rex already
in the process of covert litter box activity. After showing the cats where they were supposed to go and saying good night to my boyfriend once more, I carried the animals back to the gym.
Everyone was laid out on sleeping bags, their eyes glued to the screen. I made my way to my sleeping bag and, fully clothed, lay down to enjoy the movie and immediately fell asleep.
"She looks awesome!" a little girl said in what seemed to be the immediate vicinity.
I was too tired to open my eyes and too afraid to find out what they were talking about.
"Do you think she'll like it?" another familiar voice asked.
"Who wouldn't like pink hair?"
I sat straight up, eyes open, to find myself surrounded by my troop. I smelled something chemical-ish, and my forehead felt wet. The girls laughed as I grabbed my cell phone, turned the camera to face me, and looked.
I had pink hair. Really pink. Like punk rock pink.
"What did you do?" I asked the girls as I got to my feet.
Lauren grinned. "We thought you'd like it."
"It's only your bangs," Betty said.
But I wasn't listening. Instead, I was running for the bathroom, where I stuck my head under the faucet and rinsed frantically. Rivers of neon pink poured off my forehead and circled the drain. When the water finally ran clear, I stood up and looked in the mirror.
Nope. I still had pink bangs.
"Whoa!" Kelly walked in the door, stopping dead in her tracks when she saw me.
"You know…" She stepped forward, cocking her head to one side. "It kind of works on you."
I just opened and closed my mouth. Like a fish. Then I looked into the mirror again. I'd be angry, but it didn't look too bad. Instead, it looked edgy—like the kids in that techno bar I was staking out in Berlin once.
"Yes," Kelly said, nodding. "It definitely suits you."
There were two ways I could go with this. I could freak out and throw a huge fit, promising to get even with a bunch of little kids. Or, I could embrace it.
"I don't think the girls were doing it maliciously," Kelly said.
"Are you sure about that?" I asked as I stepped closer to the mirror.
"It's kind of a professional job, too," my best friend murmured. "I mean, they didn't get any on your skin or clothes."
Movie Night Murder Page 4