by Ada Madison
My best chance was if my call had gotten through to Bruce and he’d heard what was happening. Unfortunately no police sirens accosted my ear.
I tried another bluff: Assume Gil was through with me. She could go back out the window and I could be on my way. I took a breath and started toward the table with the binder and handwriting material.
“Well, I need to pick up something—” I said.
Gil grabbed me by the arm.
It was worth a try.
She put her other hand in her pocket. This time she came out with a needle.
“If only you’d minded your own business, Sophie,” Gil said, seeming honestly broken up about the fact that she had to kill me.
With great effort, my adrenaline winning temporarily over Gil’s muscle and skill, I twisted my arm and pulled away. The unnatural movement sent my shoulder into a spasm. Small price to pay for freedom.
I backed up as far as I could in the crowded space, aiming for the beaded curtain. In the brief tussle, Gil had moved between me and the curtain and I found myself practically sitting on the worktable I’d sat at such a short time ago, blithely stringing beads into a little key chain.
Gil held the needle as if it were a dagger, waving her arm, ready to thrust.
“What would killing me accomplish?” I asked, holding my arms tight across my chest. “Bruce knows all about the handwriting and Hal’s false confession. And it’s going to be so obvious if you use that needle.”
What was I saying? Was I asking Gil to shoot me or stab me instead?
Gil didn’t bother to answer my question. It was clear that she’d lost it and wasn’t thinking past the moment. She lunged at me. I swung away and the needle ended up stabbing a large bag of cotton balls meant for the crafts section. I hoped it could be that easy; that the poison threat was over. There were still two pockets in her vest with unknown weapons, however, and even a weaponless Gil could knock me out in a heartbeat.
She lowered her arm. Had I managed to talk a killer out of a second murder? I didn’t trust her.
I revisited the idea of making a run for it, through the curtain, through the shop, and out the front door.
The curtain.
At last, I had a way to slow Gil down.
I knew I’d suffer Ariana’s wrath if my plan worked, but it was my only chance of survival.
I took a breath and made a sudden dash for the beaded curtain. I arrived there with my arms up. Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I crossed the threshold into the sales area. I turned quickly to face the curtain and pulled down with all my might, grabbing the strings of beads and wrenching the heavy curtain from its mooring at the top of the doorframe.
As I hoped, the curtain came crashing down, the strings broke, and thousands—a million?—of tiny purple and green beads rained behind me.
By the time Gil could react to my flight, she was fighting off an avalanche of beads. I heard her slip and fall and crash into a counter, knocking more beads to the floor. The sound as the beads splattered behind me was sweeter than that of a cool summer rain.
I was almost at the front door. I heard Gil scramble behind me to regain her footing. I opened the door to the sounds of police sirens and the screeching brakes of two Henley PD squad cars outside.
Bruce had figured it out. Who said cell phones were an unnecessary luxury?
A moment later a female officer caught me as I fell into her arms and the other three ran into the store.
When the officer patted my back to assure me I was safe, tiny purple and green beads fell out of my shirt, onto the ground.
CHAPTER 26
The romantic dinner for two turned into a midnight potluck with Bruce and me joined by Ariana and Virgil. We stretched the pasta and mushroom sauce with a large salad provided by Ariana and an extra large pizza ordered by Virgil.
“I really like pepperoni better than steak,” Virgil said, reminding me of my promise to cook him a better dinner some day.
“What a relief,” I said, swiping my hand across my brow.
We ate as though we’d been lost in the desert for a week, which, in a sense, was true.
As hard as we tried to avoid conversation about what had put Henley College on the front pages of Boston newspapers and YouTube, we strayed now and then.
We talked briefly of the tortuous route Gil Bartholomew had traveled on the weekend of the murder. She had to take measures to get what she needed for a lethal dose of a chemical that otherwise was stocked in small medicinal quantities. She had to murder Keith at a time when everyone else was busy partying. She worked hard to frame Rachel, then deepen the frame by adding to the crime scene. Who knew how long ago she’d retrieved yellow pages from the trash. She had to track down the files from Keith’s office, steal them, remove what she wanted, and take them back to Franklin Hall.
“Why did she return the boxes, again?” Ariana asked, confused by the timeline of people in and out of the deceased Keith Appleton’s office. “And what happened to Sophie’s usable discards?”
Virgil shrugged. “I’ll bet you’ll see those discards down at the Main Street Thrift Shop. As for the boxes of files, she probably just didn’t want to get caught with them. Otherwise she’d have to destroy all those files and boxes and that would take time, and also attract attention. A midnight drop at the school was an easy disposal method. One time, back in Boston, this bank robber took a briefcase—”
“Virge.” Bruce interrupted his friend in an attempt to get us off the crime tack.
“Never mind,” Virgil said, grabbing a few circles of pepperoni from the pizza, still in its box.
I couldn’t help apologizing over and over to Ariana about the mess I’d left in her shop. Between the undoing of the beaded curtain and the counter of bead trays Gil had knocked over, it would be many days before the inventory at A Hill of Beads was back in place.
Ariana waved away my mortification. “I’ve been wanting to reorganize anyway,” she said. “And I’m going to order this neat velvety, shimmery curtain that I’ve had my eye on for the back room.”
I felt a little better.
I checked my email before going to bed. I read one from Rachel with the subject, “Confession.”
“In police custody,” it read. “Kidding. But I’m happy to be assigned to community service all next semester.”
I smiled as I opened similar messages from Pam, Liz, and Casey, with the same general sentiment.
The community would be well served next semester.
By the end of the week, the heat wave had finally ended and cool breezes blew through the campus and the town of Henley. The weather was even better on Cape Cod when Bruce and I finally checked in to a cottage at a beach in Hyannis for a long weekend.
Bruce eventually stopped beating himself up for being miles away while I was being held hostage. Reminding him that he was exactly where I’d sent him that evening—looking for samples of Gil’s handwriting—and that he had sent the Henley PD to the shop, helped a little.
“A lot of good I was, camping out to protect you.”
“You could sign up for more shifts,” I said.
By Monday I was back in my office, filing some and tossing other material from the summer program. One thing I passed through the cross shredder was the difficult puzzle Gil had solved and returned to me. I wanted no reminders of the deadly weekend.
All my students had turned in their papers early. I guessed they were as eager as I was to put the summer session behind us.
Courtney called right before lunch. “I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“I took a few days off.”
“I know what it was.”
“You know what what was?”
“You know, the urgent matter you had to talk over with the dean the other night.”
I’d nearly forgotten and now I started. “You know?” Had the dean told Courtney about her son? That surprised me. Who else knew?
“Yeah, she came in the next day with the agenda for the
faculty meeting. I’m not supposed to tell anyone. Big LOL here, ’cause I know you know you got your promotion. Full Professor. I’m so excited for you.”
In what corner of the world, academic or business, were administrative assistants not the first to know the latest news?
“Oh, that,” I said, containing my own excitement.
“So, of course that’s what your meeting was about the other night,” Courtney said, triumphant.
“Of course.”
“Awesome!” she said.
I had to agree.
BRAIN (TEASERS)
Sophie Knowles doesn’t expect that everyone will be able to unwind with arithmetic, but she feels that doing puzzles and mental arithmetic keeps you sharp, and improves your memory and your powers of observation. Here are some samples of puzzles and games that exercise your wits.
Browse in your bookstore and library, and online for more brainteasers and have some fun!
MATH RIDDLES
1. Why is 6 afraid of 7?
ANSWER: Because 7 8 9.
2. Try solving this classic riddle.
As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives
Each wife had seven sacks
Each sack had seven cats
Each cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St. Ives?
ANSWER: Only 1, the narrator. There’s no indication that the others were going to St. Ives.
Another interpretation, that all were going to St. Ives, requires a considerable amount of arithmetic:
1 narrator
1 man
7 wives
49 sacks (7 x 7)
343 cats (49 x 7)
2401 kittens (343 x 7)
Total = 2802
MENTAL ARITHMETIC
Multiplying a 2-digit number by 11
There are several shortcuts for this case. Here’s a two-step device for multiplying a 2-digit number by 11 without using paper.
1. Take the number (we’ll use 52) and imagine a space between the two digits:
5_2
2. Now add the two numbers together and put the sum in the middle:
5_(5+2)_2 = 572.
That’s it!
If the numbers in the middle add up to a 2-digit number, just “carry 1 over”—that is, insert the second number in the middle, and add 1 to the number on the left. For example, for 99 x 11, the steps are:
9_(9+9)_9
9_(18)_9
(9+1)_8_9
10_8_9
1089 is the answer!
Another way to multiply by 11 is to multiply the number by 10, then add the original number:
52 x 10 = 520
520 + 52 = 572
For the second problem, 99 x 11:
99 x 10 = 990
990 + 99 = 1089
The correct answer, again!
WORDPLAY PUZZLES
The doublet, attributed to Lewis Carroll, involves transforming one word into another by changing only one letter, with each intervening change being a word.
Example: Transform HEAD into TAIL.
ANSWER: (the letter in bold is the letter changed on the way to the final word):
HEAD
HEAL
TEAL
TELL
TALL
TAIL
Try turning WHEAT into BREAD!