by Diane Hoh
Margaret leaned against the counter, facing her mother. “No, you didn’t. Remember, you didn’t know. You said you called the house —”
Adrienne interrupted her. “That was the first time I called. The housekeeper answered. But after you went upstairs, I called again, and this time Beth’s mother answered. I didn’t tell her why I was calling, because I didn’t want to alarm her. I simply said that you needed to see Beth about something, and she told me where Beth was. Then I went to the rest room and told Caroline. I wanted you to know that Beth had been located. I thought it would set your mind at rest. The door was halfway open, so I called out the name of the salon. I know she heard me, because she said, ‘Okay, thanks.’ She was putting her contacts in. Then I called the police again and gave them the name of the salon.”
“You mean she was taking them out.” Caroline had known all along where Beth was? Then why had they gone on that stupid wild goose chase all over East Toomey?
“No. She was putting them in. I have contacts myself, Margaret. I know the difference between putting them in and taking them out. Caroline was definitely putting hers in. I know she has trouble with them. I just assumed she’d taken them out to rinse them, maybe to make sure they’d be okay while she was driving.”
“But she said …”
“Margaret, what’s the matter? You have a very strange look on your face.”
“Nothing.” Margaret’s mind reeled dizzily. She had to think. Impossible to think now. Too bewildered. Why would Caroline lie? “Is Scott working today?”
“No. I didn’t need him. Why?”
“I have to talk to him. I’ll go up to the Sweatbox and call him. Are you leaving now?”
“No, you and I are leaving together tonight. Maybe Beth did those things and maybe she didn’t, but I’m not taking any chances. I’ll take you home and then meet Sam at the restaurant. As soon as you’ve called Scott, we’ll go.”
Good thinking, Margaret thought heavily as she hurried up the narrow staircase. Better to be safe than sorry. Especially since, after what her mother had told her, there was a chance that Beth was as innocent as a newborn baby.
Caroline had lied. She had known the name of the salon all along, and she was wearing her contacts. Had she hit Beth’s car on purpose? Did she already know what was in the trunk? Had she guessed correctly that slamming into the Acura would pop the lid? She had to know the accident would bring the police. And they would see the evidence in the trunk. Then Beth would be taken away.
There was only one way Caroline could possibly have known what was inside Beth Andrews’ trunk. She could only have known if she had put the things there herself.
Margaret had no idea how Caroline could have done that. Stolen Beth’s keys, maybe, made copies, and then returned them.
The depressing truth was, it made far more sense that the attacker be someone like Caroline, who had never been invited to a prom, including this one, than someone like Beth, who only wanted to be queen.
Margaret dialed Scott’s number. How could your best friend be completely insane without you knowing it? But Caroline herself had explained that, hadn’t she? “The people you would least suspect,” she had said.
Scott answered. “The night the dresses were stolen and destroyed,” she said bluntly. “What time did Caroline get to the library?”
The answer he gave was not the one she wanted to hear. “We were supposed to study together. But Caroline didn’t get there until ten or fifteen minutes before the library closed. Then you showed up. Luckily, I’d done enough studying before she got there.”
“She didn’t get there until right before the library closed?”
“Nope. Said she had to go home and take her contacts out. Couldn’t study with them in. Had to get her glasses.”
The contacts again. So convenient. “Was she wearing her glasses when she got there?”
“Yeah, I think so. If she hadn’t been, I would have said something about it. I was ticked that she was so late. So I think she was. Why?”
Margaret couldn’t tell him. He’d find out soon enough anyway, and he’d be crushed. The girl he adored. Who might be very ill. If nothing else, she’d been lying like crazy lately. Crazy … was Caroline really insane? Was that why she’d been doing so much reading about mental illness, because she was afraid she had it? “People you would least suspect.” Well, that certainly included Caroline.
Caroline had been moved around a lot as a child. For the first nine years, she had never stayed in one place more than a year. Had never made any friends, had no roots, no stability in her life until she’d moved to Toomey and met Jeannine and Lacey and Margaret. Could all that instability make someone mentally ill? And could they really hide it all that time?
So disturbed by her thoughts that her hands and knees were shaking, Margaret went back downstairs. “Why don’t you go ahead and meet Sam?” she said to her mother. “I’ll close. Like you said, Beth’s safely in the hospital, under police guard. Nothing can happen tonight. And” — grabbing at the first garment she saw, which happened to be pink, a color she loathed — “I want this blouse to wear, but I’ll need to press the wrinkles out of it. I’ll do it upstairs, so I can change before Mitch gets here. Go on. I’ll be fine, I promise.” She needed to be alone, to think.
“You hate pink.” Her mother peered over the cash register at her. “Margaret, has something else happened? Something I don’t know about? You would tell me, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course I would. I think it’s all catching up with me, that’s all. I need to get out with Mitch and have some fun, and I need this blouse, too. So, can I close?”
Adrienne hesitated. “Isn’t Mitch picking you up at the house? I told you to tell him I wasn’t leaving you here alone tonight, that he should go there instead of here.”
“I’ll call him and tell him there’s been a change in plans.”
“Fine. But I’m calling the hospital first to make sure Beth is still under police guard.” Which she did. She nodded as she hung up. “She is. I guess that means the police still think she’s the one. She must be very, very ill. Well, all right then, honey, I guess you can lock up. If you’re sure …”
“Really, Mom, it’ll be fine. Now, I’ve got to go iron this blouse. I’ll pay for it on payday, okay? Here are the tags.” If her mother noticed Margaret’s trembling hands as she placed the tags on the counter, she said nothing.
“All right,” Adrienne said with some reluctance. “But I’ll just be across the alley at the restaurant if you need anything, anything at all. Margaret?”
But Margaret was already on her way upstairs.
Her mother came to the foot of the stairs just once, to call a good-bye. “You be sure and call Mitch, okay, and tell him you’re here?”
“Right. Have fun!” But Margaret had no intention of calling Mitch. Not yet. She began ironing the pink blouse.
As soon as she heard the door slam after her mother, she placed the iron on its heel on the ironing board and went to the telephone.
She sank into a leather chair beside the open window and, with trembling hands, dialed Caroline LaSalle’s number.
Chapter 25
STUPID MICHAEL, GOING OFF to Utah. Stupid David, taking some dumb old cousin, when he could have taken me. And Beth’s mother informed me when I called the hospital, pretending that I didn’t know everyone in town considers her daughter a homicidal maniac, that Lucas won’t be going to the prom at all. I slid that question in there so subtly, so cleverly, she didn’t even seem aware that asking was totally tasteless. He is not going. Not without Beth. Jerk. I am not going to ask him just so I can be told no. I should have known.
That only leaves Mitch. He’s the best one, anyway.
All I have to do is get Margaret out of the way.
What do I do about Beth? If I finish off Margaret while Beth is under police guard, they’ll know Beth couldn’t have done it. Then it will all have been a waste of time. Meeting her at the mall to pick
up the prom candles, offering to take the boxes out to her car, borrowing her car keys, then moving the dresses and all that other stuff from my trunk to hers, planning it so carefully. All of it for nothing.
Its hilarious, when you stop and think about it. I made that anonymous call to the police, telling them to search Beth’s car, and then bang! the accident happens and the trunk pops open and that officer comes along just in time to see a trunk full of incriminating evidence. Perfect! A sign that all of this was meant to be.
Anyway, when this is over and I’m dancing in Mitch’s arms, someone else has to take the rap, and Beth is perfect. At this point, I think she’s not even sure she didn’t kill Stephanie. Beth is so easily rattled.
I haven’t felt this good since the night I sneaked up that fire escape and did a number on those stupid prom dresses. Driving over them felt so satisfying. I think that’s when I made up my mind that I would go, no matter what. But it wasn’t until Stephanie died that I figured out how.
Stealing the replacement dresses was a piece of cake. Nice of Adrienne to leave a key ring right there by the cash register. No one even noticed they were gone when I slipped them into my jacket pocket and ran down the street to have copies made. Put them right back, easy as pie, a few minutes later. Then I could go in and out of the store any time I wanted. Still can.
We took an oath, the four of us. We were supposed to stick together, that’s what we promised each other. We always spent prom night together. But that wasn’t going to happen this year, was it? Margaret was going to ruin the whole thing. Every other year it happened the way it was supposed to. But not this year.
I know it can never be the same again. I’ve accepted that. Even with Margaret out of the picture, it’s too late now. It won’t be the same.
But at least I’ll have what I want. And wasn’t that the goal all along?
I will have to take Beth with me when I deal with Margaret. No choice there.
How am I going to get rid of the cop guarding her?
I’ll think of something.
Nothing’s going to stop me now.
Chapter 26
“BECAUSE, MARGARET,” CAROLINE SAID in answer to Margaret’s question about why they had driven all over creation that afternoon when Caroline knew where Beth was all along, “it was nice to be doing something with you for a change. I know it was stupid. But it felt so much like the kind of stuff we used to do, I didn’t want it to end. So I stretched it out a little, that’s all. Is that such a crime?”
Was it? Maybe it was just one part of a crime? “You said you didn’t have your contacts in. You said that was why you hit Beth’s car, Caroline. But Mom said she saw you putting them in at the store.”
Caroline sighed with what sounded like impatience. “I never said I hit the car because I didn’t have my contacts in, Margaret. I said the police would ticket me if they knew I didn’t have them in. Because it says on my license that I need them. I hit Beth’s car because you shrieked at me and I panicked and misjudged the distance between her car and mine. I didn’t have them in. Why would I lie about that?”
“But Mom said —”
“Your mother’s right,” Caroline interrupted. “When she saw me in the rest room, I was putting them in. But they started driving me crazy again, so I took them right back out. In fact, they’re on the sink in the store’s rest room because I forgot to stick them in my purse. They should still be sitting there. If I’d had them with me, Margaret, I’d have stuck them in before that police officer got there.” Caroline’s voice cooled. “If you’re at the store, go look in the rest room.”
Margaret didn’t need to. She knew Caroline was telling the truth. The accident had been just that, nothing more. And Caroline LaSalle wasn’t any more insane than Margaret Dunne was.
“What I want to know,” Caroline continued, “is what’s going on here? Why the third degree? You didn’t find my car trunk full of souvenirs, did you?” When Margaret remained mute, squirming uncomfortably in her chair, Caroline said softly, “Oh, Margaret. This doesn’t mean what I think it means, does it? You thought that I …”
“No, no,” Margaret said hastily, feeling her cheeks burning. “Not really. I know you’d never hurt me, Caroline. It was just … well, Mom said you knew about the salon, and she said you had your contacts in, and none of it made sense, so I just thought I’d call and find out, that’s all.”
“Are you at the store?” Caroline asked sharply.
“Yes.”
“I’m coming over there. Do not go anywhere!” Click.
Oh, man, Margaret thought despondently, how am I ever going to make this up to her? She knows I suspected her. She’s never going to forgive me.
Caroline lived on the other side of town. It would take her a while to get to the store. Maybe I’ll think of something, Margaret told herself anxiously, turning on her stereo. Something to make my best friend forgive me for thinking the unthinkable about her.
The blouse she had just ironed slid to the floor.
Margaret was bending to pick it up when a pair of feet in blue flats appeared in front of her eyes. Her head shot up.
Beth was standing over her, her face pale and strained, her eyes wide. She was wearing a long, tan trenchcoat, and Margaret could see that her hands were trembling.
Margaret stood up. “How did you get in here?”
“A key,” Beth whispered, standing perfectly still. “She has a key.”
“Hello, Margaret,” Liza Buffet said then, moving out of the shadowed staircase to stand beside Beth, smiling. “What are you up to, all alone in this hot little room? Ironing your prom dress?” Still smiling, she shook her head. “Not necessary, Margaret. You won’t be going.”
Margaret stared at Beth. “Beth?”
Beth burst into tears. There was an ugly, quarter-sized bruise on her forehead from the accident. “She made me come, Margaret! She got rid of the police officer, I don’t know how, made me put this raincoat on over my hospital gown, and dragged me over here. She’s … she’s crazy, Margaret! She killed Stephanie and attacked you and Kiki and now …”
“Shut up!” Liza said coldly.
“I don’t get it …” Margaret began, but in the next second, Liza had her arm in a tight grip, Beth’s arm in another grip, and was dragging both of them to the long, narrow, open window leading to the fire escape.
“Beth is going to push you, Margaret,” Liza said matter-of-factly, “and then she’s going to jump because she is overwhelmed with guilt.” She shook her head again, mournfully this time. “Such a tragedy. So sad, too bad, but … can’t be helped.”
Margaret was strong and, except for her stiff knee, healthy. But Liza, just as Adrienne had said, had the strength of madness and her fingers held on like giant pliers. She pushed both girls through the window at the same time, and then joined them on the fire escape, never letting go for an instant.
Below them, a car door slammed, then another. Two people got out of one car, a lone driver from the second car. The driver called out to the pair. Margaret recognized the voice. It was Mitch’s. Her knees caved with relief. Adrienne must have told him to pick her up here. Thank God!
She would have called out to him then, if Liza hadn’t sucked in her breath, muttered, “Damn!” and said through her teeth, “Make one sound and you die this very second, do you understand?”
Margaret clamped her lips together. But at least he was down there. She felt a little less alone. Even if he did happen to look up, would he be able to see what was going on?
“Hey, Brandon,” Mitch called, “didn’t know you were back in town.”
Brandon? Liza’s brother! Right down there in the courtyard, unaware that above him stood his sister, preparing to kill two people. “Got in last night. Took my last final on Wednesday. Great to have that over with. So, what are you doing out here in the dark?”
Their voices lowered, and Margaret had to strain to hear. But she picked up bits and pieces. The boy with Brandon was from
his school, someone named “Greg.”
Margaret heard Mitch say, “So, you’re here in Toomey to take Liza to the prom, right?”
Brandon’s friend laughed. “Me? Are you kidding? I’m here to visit a girl I met through Brandon, and trust me, it’s not his sister. I was her prom date last year. Never again! And believe me, no one else from our school will be taking her, either. I spread the word. That girl is a loose cannon. Something seriously out of whack there, take my word for it.”
Liza’s own brother agreed. “Not her fault though. She’s always had every single thing she ever wanted. Never learned how to deal with life not going exactly the way she wants it to. She has no concept of that at all.”
Mitch said to Brandon, “I guess I got it wrong. Thought she was going with you. She asked me, just a few days ago.” He uttered a short laugh. “At a funeral, actually. I thought that was pretty weird. Had to tell her no, I was going with someone else. When I talked to her the next day, she said she was going with a friend of her brother’s. I thought she said his name was Greg.”
Margaret turned to stare at Liza. Liza had asked Mitch? At the funeral?
She remembered, then, the look of stupified shock on Liza’s face at the cemetery. That hadn’t been because of Stephanie. It was because she couldn’t believe that Mitch had refused to be her prom date.
Liza’s mouth was grim, her eyes narrowed. She stared back at Margaret as if daring her to say what she was thinking.
Margaret took the dare. Looking Liza full in the face, she said slowly, her words tinged with awe, “You don’t have a date for the prom, do you?”
Chapter 27
LIZA DIDN’T ANSWER MARGARET.
But below them, Brandon said, “The thing is, I can’t keep up with who Liza’s prom date is. First she told me she was going with you, Mitch. Then she called me later to say she wasn’t, that Michael Danz was taking her. That was before I heard about what happened to Stephanie. The next time she called, she said she’d changed her mind again and was going with David Goumas.”