Band Room Bash

by Candice Speare Prentice

  She grinned. “Does Max know you’re investigating?”

  “Yes. He said he can’t stop me.”

  “I believe that.” She leaned back and studied my notebook. Then she laid it on her lap and steepled her fingers. “To sum it up, Marvin might have just had a heart attack and it wasn’t a murder attempt at all. He’s possibly involved in a drug scheme. He’s also in love with Connie. Connie stands to inherit Nettie’s farm now that Georgia is dead. Oh, and her boyfriend is dead, too, so maybe she murdered two people. Either Georgia or Connie was pawning Nettie’s belongings, and Marvin might have been in on it. Maybe he and Connie murdered Georgia with poison.

  “Then there’s Coach Smith. Besides giving kids drugs, he was dating Georgia, and she dumped him. Carla is a selfish control freak who wants to be better than she is.” Abbie flicked the pages with her fingernail. “I wonder how many of them knew about the drug and/or cheating scheme?”

  “That’s a good question.” I sighed.

  “Love and greed are powerful motives,” Abbie said.

  An hour later, we were seated at my dining room table finishing up a meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and corn pudding. That wasn’t going to help my waistline, but I enjoyed it. Since I came downstairs, Sammie had been glued to my side and insisted on sitting next to me at dinner. Charlie had been eyeing me while he continued his usual chattering. Tommy and Karen were at work.

  Ma was beginning to clear the table with Abbie’s help when someone knocked at the front door. Charlie scampered to get it.

  I heard a familiar man’s voice and Charlie’s higher pitched one jabbering excitedly.

  “Hey, look. It’s that policeman,” he announced as they walked into the dining room.

  At that moment, Abbie entered the room through the kitchen door holding an apple pie. Her eyes connected with Detective Scott’s. I was afraid she would drop the plate.

  He broke eye contact first, shifting his gaze to Max and then to me. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I’d like to talk to you, but I can wait outside until you’re done eating.”

  I had visions of him huddled in a dark, cold car while we sat inside eating apple pie and drinking coffee.

  “I’m done.” I stood slowly to my feet. “Let’s talk now. How about we go into the living room?”

  Ma burst out of the kitchen with coffee mugs, which prompted Abbie to plunk the pie on the table. She whirled around and went back into the kitchen.

  “What is he doing here?” Ma asked nobody in particular. “Trish has to rest. No more cops and robbers for her today.”

  Detective Scott smiled. “I won’t keep her long.”

  Ma’s fisted hands rested on her hips. “Well, I should hope not. I’m sure she’s already helped you plenty. You need to solve the crime so she can have some peace before this baby comes.”

  I looked over at Max, whose expression was resigned, then I looked at the detective. “Let’s go get this over with.”

  Max accompanied us with his hand on the small of my back. When we got to the family room, Detective Scott eyed me with drawn cheeks and a wrinkled forehead. “How are you?”

  “Doing well. Everything is fine.” I pointed to one of the overstuffed chairs.

  “Thank you.” He settled into the chair’s depth, reached into his shirt pocket, and pulled out his small notebook and a pen.

  I sat on the sofa, and Max sat next to me.

  “I was very concerned about you earlier today,” Detective Scott said. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Me, too,” Max breathed.

  I put my hand on his leg, and he put his arm on the sofa behind me.

  Detective Scott shifted in the chair. “I want to know what happened from the time you walked into the school.”

  I told him. Then I mentioned running into Tommy in the hallway.

  As I spoke, Max’s body stiffened. He looked down at me. “Tommy was there?”

  “Don’t worry,” Detective Scott said quickly. “Tommy is no longer a person of interest. Neither are any of the other students. In fact, after the first day or two, they weren’t suspects. We just needed information from them.” He paused and eyed me. “That’s between you and me.”

  I felt like a load of bricks was lifted off me. Max did, too—I could feel his body relax.

  He removed his arm from around me. “In that case, perhaps I should go get the kids ready for bed. Will you be okay, Trish?”

  I nodded.

  When he was gone, I focused on the detective. He was studying his notes, then he looked up. “Did you speak with anyone else?”

  Sherry. I felt panicked, wondering how he was going to react when he found out that his daughter was still trying to solve the mystery. My foot starting wiggling in response to my nerves.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Sherry and I talked before we went to the band room.”

  We were interrupted by Abbie, who walked into the room carrying a tray on which were two mugs and two plates holding thick wedges of pie.

  “We thought you guys might need something.” She set the tray on the coffee table then straightened and met his gaze. “You look tired.”

  “I am.”

  “I know this has got to be difficult.” She took a deep breath. “When you get done with this case, why don’t you give me a call?” She quickly leaned down and kissed my cheek. “I’m going home now. I’m glad you’re okay.”

  As she walked from the room, Detective Scott followed her with his eyes. They shone with a mixture of hope and anxiousness like a teenage boy’s. However, once she was out of sight, the expression disappeared, and he turned to face me.

  “So, what about Sherry?”

  “She was looking for Tommy. He’s avoiding her because of you. It upsets her.”

  The detective’s jaw tightened. “What did she say?” I told him, leaving out the part about Sherry wanting to kiss Tommy. That fell under the topic of too much information and meant nothing to the investigation. He didn’t seem surprised by what Sherry told me, which made me wonder if she was correct. Elissa was helping her brother.

  He tapped his pen on his leg. “I’m going to walk through the whole thing with you again. From the time you pulled into the parking lot.”

  I nodded and felt a sudden admiration for him. His personal feelings and obvious weariness weren’t deterring him from his job. I could learn a lot from his self-discipline. I took a deep breath and answered his questions as he prompted me. He was particularly interested in the conversations I’d had.

  When I was done, a tiny grin played on his lips. “Now, is there anything in that notebook of yours that you’d like to share with me?”

  I couldn’t believe he wanted to know what I thought. I retrieved it from my bedroom. He flipped through the pages and even jotted something down. I tried not to let my sense of satisfaction show, but when he smiled at me, I think he knew how I felt.

  A few minutes later, after he left, I went in search of Max. He was talking to Tommy, who had just returned home, so I went upstairs and got ready for bed. After I got under the covers, Max walked into the bedroom. “After my shower, we need to have that talk.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  I leaned back against the headboard, picking my nails and listening to the water run in the bathroom. I knew what I had to do. Apologize. But first, I needed to get one other thing cleared up. By the time Max walked back into the room, I had worked myself into a minor dither.

  He sat on the bed and grabbed my hands. “Stop picking. You’ll make yourself bleed.”

  I sat up straight. “Max, I’ll never live up to your family. I’m a redneck through and through. I’m afraid you’re going to wake up one day and wish you hadn’t married me. Your mother always insinuated I forced you into it. Did I? I didn’t do anything but fall in love with you. In fact, I tried not to fall in love with you. But if I hadn’t done that, then I wouldn’t have Sammie. Or Karen, Tommy, and Charlie. And this one.” I rubbed my big tumm
y and felt my lower lip tremble. “That would be awful.”

  “Where is all this coming from?” Max let go of my hands and put his fingers under my chin, forcing me to look at him. “I’ve never regretted being married to you. You’re my balance. You keep me from becoming what my family is.” He paused. “Well, at least my mother.”

  “Don’t you think I’m a bad influence on the kids?”

  He smiled. “You’re the best mother our kids could have.”

  I blinked back tears. “Really?”

  He brushed my hair from my face. “Yes. Your spontaneity and daring is what I love the most about you. You’ve helped them not be afraid of things. Especially Tommy. Remember how he was when I first married you? The nights you insisted on sitting up with him?”

  I thought about the skinny little boy Tommy had been then, tormented by nightmares. “Yes. I love him,” I said softly. “I love all our kids.”

  “I know that.” Max stroked my hair. “I didn’t even consider my mother’s suggestion to put Charlie in a private boarding school. The idea was absurd. The kids need you—they need us as a family. That’s why I didn’t say anything to you. Besides, you didn’t need another reason to dislike my mother.”

  “But Charlie knew, didn’t he? He threatened once that maybe he should go to private school.”

  Max grimaced. “Unfortunately, my mother said something to him. But I straightened it out. He doesn’t really want to go.”

  He kissed me. Then he got up, walked to his side of the bed, and got under the covers.

  I rested my head on his shoulder.

  We lay in silence for a few minutes. I inhaled the scent of soap on his skin and felt the slow thump of his heart.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been acting like I have been. So grumpy you couldn’t even tell me about the housing development. I’ve been very selfish.”

  He sighed. “I should have told you. I’m sorry.”

  “Have you talked to the board about stopping the project?”

  “Not yet. I haven’t had time.” He pulled me closer. “Come to think of it, I think that housing development is one of the reasons that Georgia had it in for Tommy.”

  “What?” I lifted my head and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “She wanted to sell the property badly. Nettie was in no condition to make decisions. Dad and I heard about it and approached her. She must have gotten her hopes up. When we determined that the property didn’t meet our criteria, she was furious.” He sighed. “Connie didn’t want to sell. That’s why I talked to her that day at Self-Storage. To make sure she understood we weren’t going to buy it. She was happy.”

  “Maybe that’s because she was pawning stuff. Someone in the house was.” I put my head back on his shoulder. “But if it was her, then why?”

  “That’s a good question.”

  Lying with Max in the dark, hearing his soft breathing and feeling his protective embrace, reminded me again how much I loved him.

  I took a deep breath and steeled myself. “Max, don’t stop the housing project. I know you were doing that just for me. You don’t have to. I’m fine.”

  He inhaled sharply.

  “I mean it. Like you said, it’s going to happen. It might as well be you and your dad first.”

  He turned onto his side. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Thank you.” He kissed me and pulled me tight. “I’ve missed spending time with you like this. Time alone.”

  “Really?” I backed out of his arms so I could see his eyes. “You haven’t tried to spend any time alone with me lately. Cuddling used to be such a big part of our lives. Now you barely look at me.”

  He frowned.

  “It’s because I’m fat, right?” I moaned. “My ankles are fat, too. My pants are tight. I just can’t help it. And I eat like a horse. I—”

  “Baby. . .”

  “Well, I do. And I feel so ugly and—”

  He grabbed my hand. “Trish, hush.”

  “It’s true,” I whispered.

  He pulled me close again. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t reading your signals right.”

  “What do you mean?” I tried to pry myself loose again, but he wouldn’t let me.

  “Well, you keep telling me how bad your body hurts and how tired you are. I’ve just assumed you don’t want anything to do with me—that you just want to be left alone.”

  “But you were acting like you were avoiding me.”

  “No.” He groaned. “Not at all. I didn’t want to bother you. You have no idea how hard the last month has been.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  I finally untangled myself from his arms. “So you don’t think I’m the fattest, ugliest thing you’ve ever seen in your whole life?”

  He laughed. “No. Not at all. I’m nuts about you. I always have been. And I think you’re beautiful.”

  I didn’t go into work on Tuesday or Wednesday in an effort to rest as ordered. That meant no excuses for not completing sewing for the baby’s room. But, by midday Wednesday, I thought I would go insane. The only thing saving me was knowing I was going to help Elissa and Sherry begin to sort through play costumes that afternoon.

  Yellow fabric slid under the needle of my whirring sewing machine as I finished a seam on the last set of curtains. My mind was whirring as fast as the machine. I’d tried to call Marvin at the hospital, but he didn’t answer his phone. I couldn’t find out from anybody what had really happened to him. I kept running all my clues over and over in my head.

  I was done with the curtains and had started the ruffle for the bottom of the crib when my home phone rang. I grabbed the portable off the wall in the kitchen.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re home and not risking my grandchild’s life by going to work today.”

  “Hi, Ma. I can be taught.”

  “I have my doubts about that. What are you doing?”

  “Sewing. Then I have to help Sherry and Elissa Scott with costumes for the play.”

  “You’re going to drive?” she demanded. “You know we’re having high winds. Where are you going?”

  “To the high school. It’s not a long drive. It can’t possibly hurt anything.”

  “That place is a bastion of murder and mayhem,” she said. “You should pull the kids out.”

  “Everything is locked down now. During the day only the front door is open, and the resource officer sits there at a desk. After school you can’t get in unless you have an appointment. It’s safe.”

  “Well, locks don’t stop bad people. In fact, seems to me it would just encourage them to break in. And what if the bad guys are in the school already? We’re surrounded by all sorts of criminals, you know.” Ma paused. “That’s why April is on leave for a few days.”

  “We’re surrounded by criminals, so April’s on leave?”

  “Yes.”

  “So, what’s the crime?” I asked.

  “Just like I said. Gambling. See? People should listen to me.”

  As usual, my mother’s conversational technique made me feel as if I had brain whiplash. “April is gambling?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Not April. You should know I’d have better sense than to hire someone who gambled.”

  I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t ask the obvious question: How can you tell when people are gambling—do they have it written on their heads? “Well, who then?”

  “It’s Connie. She’s been gambling. Online.”

  “Connie’s gambling online. . . . What does that have to do with April being on leave?”

  “She’s got to take care of Nettie, of course.”

  “Where is Connie? And why can’t she still watch Nettie?”

  “Connie’s been stealing stuff from Nettie to pay off her gambling debts.” Ma huffed indignantly. “Can you imagine? The family had her arrested last night. Today they’re having a big family meeting to figure things out.”

  Pieces of the mystery puzzle began fa
lling together in my head, but I wasn’t sure they were making a complete whole. This did possibly explain April’s comment that Nettie was misplacing things. Perhaps it hadn’t been Nettie at all. Instead, Connie was taking things to pawn. And was Connie gambling online in the school library? If Georgia had discovered what Connie was doing, that would explain Georgia’s anger and their fight in the library. Was Connie the murderer? And that brought up Marvin. He had a copy of a pawn shop receipt on his desk. Was he in on this with her?

  “Have you heard anything about Marvin Slade?” I asked.

  “Oh, that one,” Ma said derisively. “Yes. This morning Gail’s cousin’s wife came by. Her husband is on the school board. She told Gail that Marvin was out of the hospital today, but they think maybe he was involved in the drug scheme. You know what they’re saying, don’t you?”

  “No. That’s why I asked.” I tapped my fingers impatiently on the kitchen table.

  “Don’t get smart or I won’t tell you,” she said.

  I doubted that. She could never stand not sharing a juicy tidbit of gossip, but I apologized anyway.

  She sniffed. “The drugs Coach Smith used were for performance all right, but not just sports. They were supposed to help the kids take tests better. Something called Inderal. People take it for their hearts. Can you imagine? What will they think of next? Coach Smith claims Marvin knew all about it and was helping kids pass tests by cheating.”

  Now I was really confused. Cheating. Gambling. And a drug called Inderal.

  “That principal woman was here this morning to get coffee. Oops. I have to go. We have customers.” Ma hung up before I could even say good-bye.

  I needed more information. I picked up the phone and called my doctor’s office.

  Chapter Twenty

  A half hour later, my cell phone rang. Sherry’s name popped up on the screen, and I hit the Talk button.

  “Hey, Sherry.”

  “Mrs. C., are you still coming to help with costumes this afternoon? Ms. Bickford told me this morning before she left for vacation that she didn’t think you’d be coming because you’d been in the hospital.”