by Nicole Ellis
At two o’clock, I walked the few blocks over to the BeansTalk carrying Ella in her front pack. The temperature was in the low seventies—not too hot, but pleasant with the breeze coming off the water. People strolled the paved pathways around the lighthouse, and a bicyclist rode past me.
“Hey,” Desi greeted me when I walked through the door. “Coffee?” She held up a mug.
I nodded. “Yes, please.” I perused the bakery case and selected a double-baked almond croissant.
She rang up my order, put the croissant on a plate, then scanned the café. “I think it’s time for my break too.”
I looked around. “Where’s Lina?” Desi usually took her infant daughter to work with her.
“Tomàs has the day off, so he’s got her for the afternoon.” She plucked a blueberry muffin from the case and brought it and her coffee over to a table. Immediately, she took a huge bite, inhaling her food so fast that if I hadn’t eaten dinner with her the night before, I’d worry she hadn’t eaten for days. “It’s been so busy this morning that I didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast or lunch.”
I joined her at the table and used the front pack to prop Ella up in a high chair. She babbled at me and reached for my food. I set a few pastry crumbs in front of her, and she picked them up, rolling them between her fingers. “I can’t get my mind off finding Louis’s body.”
“I know.” She put her muffin on the plate, and the corners of her mouth turned down. “I tried to get information from Tomàs about it, but he said they don’t know anything yet.”
“He probably had a heart attack.” I said it to reassure her, but his eyes and lips had been horribly swollen, so I wasn’t sure of that.
“So what do you think about the gift basket from Brenda? Do you think she knew he was married?”
I shook my head. “I doubt it. Her ex-husband cheated on her. I can’t imagine she’d ever be ‘the other woman.’”
“Good point.” Desi sipped her coffee, which was heavily laced with cream.
I sighed, then glanced at the clock. “Preschool is almost over. Do you want me to pick up Anthony? We walked today, so I can get him and bring him to the café for you. That way you don’t have to leave.”
“That would be great, thanks.” She beamed at me.
I was finishing the last few crumbs of my croissant when my phone rang. With sticky fingers, I gingerly plucked it from my bag and checked the caller ID. “It’s Brenda,” I hissed to Desi.
Her eyes widened. “Are you going to ask her about Louis?”
I shook my head and answered the phone. “Hey.”
“Jill?” Brenda’s voice quivered, instantly setting me on edge.
“What’s wrong?”
Desi shot me a “‘what’s going on”‘ look.
“Would you be able to pick up my girls and take them home with you?”
“Sure,” I said slowly. “Why?” Although we’d been friends for a while, she’d never asked me to do that before.
“I’m not going to be able to get there in time. Can you please do it?”
“Of course.” I hesitated. “Is something wrong?” A vision of Brenda being held hostage flitted across my mind, and I pushed it away. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah.” The sounds of other people in the room with her echoed through the phone.
“I’ll take them home with me—just let me know when you want to pick them up. The girls are welcome to stay as long as you’d like.”
“Thanks, Jill. I appreciate it.” She disconnected.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the phone even after she’d hung up. Something was very wrong.
Desi stared at me. “What was that about?”
“I don’t know. Brenda wants me to pick up the girls from school and take them home with me.”
“Maybe she got hung up at a real estate showing or something.”
“I don’t think so. I got the feeling she was worried about something.” I picked at my paper napkin.
Desi picked up our plates and cups, and carried them behind the counter. “I’m sure she’s ok. Maybe she heard about Louis’s death and is upset about it?”
“Maybe.” My brain spun with worry about Brenda, and I wanted to call her back and press her for the truth, but I had to get moving or I wouldn’t get to the preschool in time for pickup.
I pushed my chair back and stood. Desi picked Ella up from the high chair and snuggled her while I wriggled into the front pack. Ella pulled at her aunt’s hair, and Desi laughed while disentangling the baby’s fingers. She held her out to me, and I situated her on my chest, where she immediately focused on trying to yank my hair.
“Are you sure you can manage walking back here by yourself with all four of the preschool kids?”
“I’ll be fine,” I said with more confidence than I felt. I pushed the door open, causing the bells over it to chime. “I’ll see you in a bit with Anthony.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Jill.”
I walked past the ferry landing and Elmer’s Sea of Fish. The ferry was at the dock, and I had to wait a few minutes to cross with all the traffic coming off the boat. I climbed the few blocks uphill toward the preschool, marveling at how heavy Ella had become in the last few months. It wouldn’t be much longer that I could comfortably carry her in the front pack.
I quickly walked past the tall chain-link fences guarding the condos, not wanting to think of the last place I’d seen someone dead. At Busy Bees, I paused in front of the door, taking a deep, calming breath. I’d gone from picking up my one kid to taking three extra kids on our walk home. In addition to that, I really didn’t want to deal with Nancy today and having four kids to wrangle instead of one would make it much more likely I’d run into her.
Parents were already signing out their kids when I went inside. I said hi to a few of them that I knew from the auction committee.
“Hey,” Lindsay Lee said. “I procured a huge gift basket from the sporting goods store. Is it all right if I drop it off at the Boathouse?” Her hair was wrapped up in a neat bun, and she wore a bright turquoise shell under a black blazer. On her feet were spiky designer high heeled shoes. I felt like a slob in comparison, although I’d been at work earlier and was wearing a nice gray skirt and navy blouse. With shoes like hers, there was no way I could have made the trek around town with the kids.
I nodded. “I’ll be there tomorrow morning, but if you want to drop it off earlier, just ask for Beth or Lincoln and they can show you where to store it.”
“Thanks!” She flashed me a smile, revealing pearly white teeth, grabbed her child’s hand, and breezed out the door.
I made my way into the three-year-olds classroom and found Mikey and Anthony playing Legos together on the colorful alphabet rug.
“C’mon, boys. Time to go.”
“Do we have to?” Mikey pleaded.
Anthony stared at their Lego castle with disappointment. “Yeah, Aunt Jill. Do we have to leave? We’ve been working hard on this.”
Their teacher, Ms. Shana, swooped in, beaming at the boys. “Wow, you have been working hard on it. I love it!” She knelt in front of them and gestured at an empty white bookcase. “How about I put the castle up on the shelf over there? Then you can play with it tomorrow afternoon, ok?”
Mikey cast a glance at the shelf. He pursed his lips and opened his mouth as if about to complain.
I grabbed his hand. “That sounds like a great idea.”
He shut his mouth and relented. “Let’s go, Anthony.”
I helped Ms. Shana carry their creation over to the shelf.
“There you are.” Nancy entered the room, followed by Brenda’s girls. “Brenda called and said you were going to get the girls.”
She turned to the girls. “Go get your backpacks. You’re going to go home with Mikey’s mom today.”
They looked up at her. “Where’s Mommy?” one of them asked.
“She got stuck at work and asked me to get you guys. You’ll have a play date with Mikey this
afternoon, ok?” I had no idea what was going on with Brenda, but I wasn’t going to tell her kids that. They scurried off to get their backpacks from their cubbies in the other room.
Nancy huffed. “That figures. Brenda can’t even be bothered to pick up her own kids. Probably off wrecking some other home.” She looked at me defiantly.
I stepped back. Whoa. Apparently she knew about Brenda and Louis. She didn’t seem that broken up about her brother-in-law’s death, but was oddly concerned about him committing adultery.
I gestured for the boys to pick up their backpacks, which lay on the floor next to the Legos. I glared at Nancy. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Brenda is a great mom, but I’ll be sure to pass on your sentiments to her.”
Her nasty expression wavered. Apparently the bully wasn’t so confident about talking behind someone’s back when it would get back to her victim. She pursed her lips and spun on her heels, rushing out of the room.
Something whirred behind me, and I turned around to see the gerbils in their cage, running side by side on a pair of wheels. They seemed to be enjoying the gerbil playground we’d bought for them. Mikey came up next to me.
“Now can we take them home, Mommy?”
I stared at him like he’d grown wings. “Honey, we can’t take them home with us because we already have Goldie and Fluffy.” I congratulated myself on the perfect excuse. Our dog and cat were a convenient reason to not take the gerbils home, but the truth was, I hated rodents and the class pets were never coming home with us. Even though they’d once saved my life, I had to draw the line somewhere.
“But everyone else gets to take them home for the weekend,” Mikey whined.
Brenda’s girls came back in with their backpacks and slowly approached me. “Are we really going home with you?” one of them asked.
“Yes, honey.” I patted her blonde head, grateful for the distraction. “Now, you girls look so much alike that I’m not sure who I’m talking to.”
“I’m Sara,” said the girl in front of me. “That’s my sister, Dara.”
“Well, I’m excited you’re coming home with us, and so is Mikey. Right, Mikey?” I eyed him.
“Yeah,” he grumbled. “Can Anthony come over too?”
Just what I wanted—four preschoolers and a baby at my house. My furniture would never be the same again. “Uh, I think his mom misses him. We’ll take him to the café first.”
I whispered to the kids, “Maybe Anthony’s mom will have cookies for you when we drop him off.”
“Cookies?” Dara asked, with a gleam in her eyes.
“Yeah!” Anthony made a beeline for the door as I signed them all out. “My mom makes the best cookies. Let’s go!”
I tried to hold on to as many hands as I could, but unfortunately, I wasn’t an octopus. “All right, everyone grab the hand of a buddy and follow me.” I walked out the door and herded them onto the sidewalk. “We’ll drop Anthony off at his parents’ café, down by the ferry.” The girls nodded and held hands while skipping along the sidewalk. Mikey stopped to examine something along the side of the road, attracting his cousin.
“Is that a dead slug?” Anthony asked.
“I think so,” Mikey said gleefully.
The girls stopped and made disgusted faces. “Eww,” they said in unison.
I put my hands on the boys’ shoulders and led them back over to the girls. “Focus, boys.”
We finally made it the few blocks to the café, the kids getting more and more excited about getting a treat the closer we got to the café.
“I hope Anthony’s mom has chocolate chip cookies. I love chocolate chip,” Dara said.
“I told Mommy I wanted chocolate chip cookies yesterday, but she made peanut butter cookies instead,” her sister complained.
“Yeah. They were gross.”
They pressed their noses into the glass door of the BeansTalk Café, and I had to thread my hand through their eager hands to push on the door handle. They burst into the room in a torrent of high-pitched voices.
Desi looked up from her perch behind the counter, as did the other patrons. She jumped off the chair and came over to us.
“I may have promised them all cookies,” I said, only feeling slightly guilty about it.
She raised her eyebrows and grinned. “Ok, kids, what kind of cookies do you want?”
“Chocolate chip!” they answered with resounding enthusiasm.
With a pair of metal tongs, Desi bagged cookies individually and handed one to each child.
“Thanks, Anthony’s mom,” Sara said, her mouth already streaked with melted chocolate.
“Yummy,” Dara said.
Mikey hugged Desi. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Have fun,” Desi said as I led the other kids to the door.
I shot her a pained look. “Thanks.”
With one less kid, it was slightly easier to walk through town, but by the time we arrived at our house, I was beat. I had no clue how the preschool teachers managed to make it through a day with twenty kids without having a nervous breakdown.
5
When I opened the door to our house, Goldie tried to push past me, and Dara screamed when she saw him. I quickly shut the door.
“Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you,” I said.
She cowered behind Mikey and Sara, and didn’t respond.
“A dog growled at her one time, and now she’s scared of them,” Sara explained.
“Ok, I’ll lock him up. Wait here and don’t move.” They nodded. I grabbed Goldie’s collar and led him into Adam’s study.
I opened the door and, miraculously, all the kids were exactly where I left them. Dara peered around the door, as if suspicious that Goldie was going to lunge at her from behind the couch.
“He’s locked up in a room back there.” I pointed down the hall. Dara nodded and smiled faintly. “Mikey, why don’t you get some of your toys out for the girls to play with?”
He shot me a withering look but disappeared upstairs for a few minutes and returned with some Fisher-Price Little People toys.
After I had an hour to wind down at home, I got the kids a healthier snack of peanut butter and apple slices. Brenda still hadn’t called, and I was getting more worried as the afternoon dragged on. Mikey had begrudgingly shared his Legos with the girls, and they had all been playing nicely. Ella had fallen asleep in her crib, and the house was almost quiet as the kids ate their snack. I leaned back to relax on our comfy couch. Of course, right then, my cell phone buzzed on the coffee table in front of me. I lunged for it, thinking it was Brenda.
“Has Brenda come for the girls yet?” Desi asked without even a hello first.
I swung my legs back up on the couch and glanced at the kids sitting on the kitchen stools. Mikey was entertaining his guests by holding apple slices up in front of his eyes and smiling menacingly at them. Both girls laughed at his antics and imitated him.
“No, I haven’t heard anything yet.” I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Nancy knows about the gift basket that Brenda gave Louis.”
She gasped. “Already?”
“Apparently.” I sighed. “I knew we should have taken the note.”
“You know we couldn’t do that, right?”
“I know, but when I picked the kids up, she made some nasty remark about Brenda being a home-wrecker.”
“Sheesh. In front of the kids?”
“The girls were in another room at the time, and the boys were playing Legos, oblivious to anything going on around them.”
My phone beeped, alerting me to an incoming phone call. I held the phone away from my ear to see who was calling.
“Desi, I’ve got to go. Brenda’s calling.”
“Ok. Let me know what you find out from her.”
“I will.” I clicked over to Brenda.
“Jill?” Her voice sounded a little stronger than it had earlier.
“Yes. Hi.”
“Thanks for getting the girls. Brad is
out of town, or I would have asked him to get them.”
“No problem.” I knew I was lucky to have my in-laws around to babysit for me. Not everyone was that fortunate. I didn’t want to ask her when she was coming to get her kids.
“I’m done here.” She sighed. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
“See you then.”
I turned to the girls. “Dara, Sara—your mom will be here in a few minutes.”
“Yay!” they said.
Disappointment crossed Mikey’s face. “I wanted to show them my Jake and the Never Land Pirates tree house.”
“You probably have time. Why don’t you show it to them now, before their mom gets here?”
The kids all ran off upstairs.
Brenda rang the doorbell a few minutes later, and I let her in. She wore a black sheath dress with a trendy matching silver bracelet and necklace set. On her feet were heels that were probably designer made. Although her overall appearance was put together, her makeup couldn’t hide the fact that she’d been crying, and I could see the tenseness in her neck. She glanced around the living room. “Where are the girls?”
I pointed to the ceiling. “Mikey wanted to show them something in his bedroom upstairs. Can I get you a cup of coffee? He has enough toys up there that it could be a while.”
Her mouth twitched. “I should probably get going.” She looked longingly at the kitchen. “But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stay for a cup.”
I pulled two mugs down from the cupboard and set them on the counter next to the coffee pot, while she sat down on a barstool. “Do you want room for cream?”
“No, I’m trying to cut back.”
I nodded and filled both of them almost to the brim with the freshly brewed coffee I’d made when I got home.
“Here you go.” I set the mug in front of her on the bar and perched on a stool across from her. “So what’s going on? Are you ok?”
She stared into her cup.
“Not that I mind getting the girls from school, but you sounded odd when I spoke with you earlier.”