“I’m still coming. Is your dad okay with you doing that at the high school?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Aunt Elissa will be there, and that seems to make him feel better.”
That made me feel better, too. Then a thought occurred to me. “I hope we don’t have to work in the band room.”
“Oh, no,” Sherry said. “That would be awful. We’ll be in the auditorium behind the stage. I’ll meet you at the side door nearest the auditorium to let you in. Umm, but I have a favor to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
“Can you go by Ms. Gilbert’s house and pick up a few more costumes? We’re missing a couple of things. Somebody named April said she found what she thinks we need. Aunt Elissa is at some sort of meeting and will be coming straight here, and my car still isn’t working right.”
I agreed. I’d be perfectly safe going to Nettie’s house, since Connie wasn’t there. I promised to be at the school in an hour and a half.
At Nettie’s a flustered but smiling April opened the door before I could even knock. That was good. The wind was blowing something fierce, sweeping leaves across the overgrown lawn and whipping my already frizzy hair into a mop.
April grabbed my arm and pulled me inside. “Trish. I’m glad to see you. Just so I can talk to someone who makes sense. Can you stay and have coffee?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I have to get these things over to the high school.”
Her smile died. “This place is just creepy. I hate it here.” She glanced around. “I get out as much as possible. I left Granny Nettie here for a little while this morning to go pick up a costume from Connie’s storage unit. Granny can stay by herself for an hour or so.”
“I want a tuna sandwich,” a voice called from the parlor.
A flicker of irritation flashed over April’s face. “Granny, it’s too early to eat.” She looked at me. “She eats all the time. No wonder Connie gambled and Georgia acted like she did. And this house—I’ve never been anywhere in my life that’s so gloomy. There are so many weird noises.”
“Old houses are like that.” I took a deep breath and wondered why I could still smell Connie’s perfume. Then I heard one of the noises she was talking about—a distant, metallic-sounding noise. She shivered.
“I know what that is. Sherry was looking around last time she was here and said the hinges on the garden shed squeal. I’ll bet the door is blowing in the wind.”
Nettie shuffled out of the parlor. “I’m hungry.” She noticed me standing there. “Is that Trish?”
April turned to her. “Yes. Trish Cunningham.”
Nettie peered at me. “You were here before. Connie isn’t here. She was packing to go, and they came and got her. But sometimes I still hear her.”
April rolled her eyes. “I’ll go get the costumes for you. I’ve got them folded in a bag.”
She walked down the hall and disappeared into the back of the house. Nettie watched her for a minute then turned back to me. “People shouldn’t yell. I taught the girls better than that. I’m glad you’re not yelling.”
“Who’s been yelling at you?” I couldn’t imagine April raising her voice, despite her frustration with the situation.
Nettie shook her head. “Connie and that other woman. Georgia’s friend. Did you know Connie was packing to leave?”
April returned with a bag. “I’ll carry this to the car for you.” She turned to Nettie. “You stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“What is Nettie talking about. . .people yelling?” I asked while I held open the passenger-side door of my SUV.
April dropped the bag on the seat and shut the door. “I have no idea. I don’t know half of what she’s talking about. I guess Connie was arguing with someone.” She sighed. “I miss working. Being here is driving me up the wall. Connie got out of jail this morning, but she won’t be coming back here right now. I don’t know what the family is going to do.”
“How come she’s out of jail if she stole Nettie’s things?”
“The family isn’t going to press charges. And most of the stuff has been recovered. They just want her to get some help with her gambling addiction.”
“So they don’t think she killed Georgia?”
April shrugged. “She says she didn’t, but you’d better believe I’m not eating or drinking anything that I didn’t bring here myself.” She met my gaze. “I’m worried about being poisoned.”
That reminded me of my earlier conversation with the nurse at my doctor’s office. “Does Nettie take any medications for her heart?”
April nodded. “A beta-blocker.”
“Is it called Inderal?”
“I can go inside and look,” she said.
“Can you? And call me on my cell phone, okay? I need to get going or I’ll be late.”
When I arrived at the school, I parked in a side lot. As I got out of my car, Carla drove past me in her Volvo. That was odd. I thought that Sue, the school secretary, had said that Carla was leaving for vacation. And Sherry had just mentioned that Carla left this morning. I must have misunderstood.
Sherry was waiting by the side door to let me in. “Hey, Mrs. C. I’m glad you’re here. Aunt Elissa just got here. Mr. Slade showed up at the door awhile ago, but I couldn’t let him in. I’m under orders from Dad not to let anyone in except for you.” She glanced at me with a happy grin. “Tommy talked to me for a little while before he went to work.”
We passed through the double doors of the auditorium and walked down the red-carpeted aisle, then up the wooden stairs to the stage. Sherry held the red velvet side curtain back for me, and I walked past her into the cavernous space where Elissa sat in a molded plastic chair holding a clipboard, her cane hanging on the chair back. The two boxes of costumes we’d gotten from Connie the previous weekend were at her feet.
“Hi, Trish,” she said.
“Hey Elissa.” I put my purse and bag on a table.
Sherry hung a suit on a hanger and slipped it onto one of two racks. “We’ve been sorting through the costumes, checking them against the list Aunt Elissa got from Ms. Bickford.”
“Oh,” I said. “I wonder how Carla got that. I thought Connie was supposed to get it from Marvin the day we found him in the band room. . .but, I guess she didn’t.”
Sherry picked up a man’s dress jacket. “This is one of the things that Tommy is going to wear. Isn’t it cool?”
I nodded, noting the proprietary way she held the garment and spoke about my son. This was taking some adjustment on my part.
Elissa caught my eye and smiled as if she could read my mind. Then she shifted in her chair. Her cane slipped off the chair back and clattered to the floor.
Sherry scurried over to pick it up before I could try.
“Do you mind if I ask what happened to your leg?” I asked Elissa.
She shook her head. “Stupidity. I was running after a kid who had stolen a car. I blew out my knee.”
“Is it going to get better?”
She shrugged. “I hope so, but it’s a long process.”
We were interrupted by ringing from my cell phone. It was April.
“Trish? Sorry. Everything’s going crazy. Connie is missing.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Anyway, that medicine? You were right about it. It’s called Inderal.”
“Thanks,” I said. “Be careful.”
“I will. I gotta go take care of the garden shed. That noise is driving me crazy.”
I folded my phone shut and shoved it back into my purse then glanced up at Sherry and Elissa. “Did you guys know Connie was in jail, but she was let out this morning?”
“Yeah.” Sherry slipped the man’s dress jacket on a hanger. “Aunt Elissa told me a little while ago.”
“That means all the suspects from my list are on the loose.” I could help but feel a bit nervous. “I guess the high school is the safest place to be. Even Carla is gone. I saw her leaving the parking lot when I arrived. I guess she’s lea
ving for her vacation.” I frowned. “You know what? Something just occurred to me. Why is Carla allowed to go on vacation? Isn’t she a suspect?”
Elissa nodded. “You’re right. She shouldn’t be allowed to go.”
“I thought she was already gone,” Sherry said as she reverently brushed imaginary dust from Tommy’s jacket. “She took off at lunch today from what I heard.”
Elissa glanced at her watch then handed her niece a black jacket. Sherry slipped her arms into the sleeves and twirled around. “This is the one that I’m going to wear in the scenes where I’m dressed to go on my honeymoon with Mortimer Brewster. Isn’t it great? You know, we get to kiss at the end, when he carries me off the stage.”
I ignored that and began to pull things out of the bag I’d gotten from April, laying them on the table.
Elissa’s phone rang, and she yanked it from her pocket. “Yes?” She listened for a moment then said yes again and hung up. “Listen, ladies. I’ve got to go do something for a few minutes. I’ll be back.” She turned to Sherry. “You have your cell phone?”
She patted her pocket. “Was that Dad?”
Elissa nodded, stood, and grabbed her cane. “I’ll be calling you to make sure you’re all right.”
She turned and disappeared through the curtain as Sherry hung the black suit up on the rack. “I know she’s helping Dad. Maybe they’ve found Connie.” She turned and faced me. “Did you know that Dad was going to meet that book author today for coffee?”
I looked up at her. “Abbie? Really?”
“Yeah. He likes her, I think. I like that she writes books.” Sherry was very still, watching my face.
“I think she likes him, too.”
“Do you know her well?”
I smiled. “Yep. She’s my best friend.”
Sherry relaxed. “Well, in that case, she must be all right.”
My smile widened. “That’s a nice thing to say.” I turned and pulled a garment from the bag I’d gotten from April and held it out. It was a familiar-looking blue linen jacket. “This doesn’t look like a costume.”
Sherry reached out and touched it. “Smells like perfume.”
She was right. It smelled like Connie’s distinctive scent.
“I don’t think this should be here.”
Sherry grabbed the bottom of the jacket and held it out to look at it. Something rattled in the pocket. She reached inside and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper.
My mind snapped back to the day Georgia was murdered. Connie had been wearing this jacket and slipped a piece of paper into her pocket. She’d also looked scared.
“What does that say?” I asked.
Sherry glanced through it. “It’s an e-mail from that guy who died. You know the one in the article you and Aunt Elissa found? He says his family is coming around to the idea that he wants to marry Connie. He wants her to move back to Charlottesville to live.”
I heard footsteps on the stairs to the stage. Elissa must be back.
“Oh wow.” Sherry gazed at me with wide eyes. “Then he says that Carla had been to see him and accused him of giving Connie a family heirloom watch that should have been hers.”
The puzzle pieces fell together. I knew who the murderer was. I just didn’t know why.
“What’s his name?” I asked
The curtain swung open. I looked up, expecting to see Elissa. Instead, Carla Bickford stood there.
“His name was Aaron Bryant,” she said. “Ronnie.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Sherry and I were frozen in place.
“Well, I’m glad I came back to check on things,” Carla said. “I couldn’t find you at home, Trish.”
“You were looking for me?”
She didn’t answer, just held out her hand. “I’ll take that paper, please.”
Sherry glanced at me with raised brows, and I nodded. Carla snatched the letter from Sherry’s outstretched hand, balled it up, and stuck it in her pocket. “I knew you were snooping around the school.” Her eyes were hard and dead like marbles.
I watched in horrified disbelief as she took a gun from her pocket and pointed it in our direction.
“I don’t understand,” Sherry said. “Are you the one who killed Georgia?”
“Not on purpose, but it’s just as well. She had turned against me. The day before she died, she actually had the nerve to tell me I was crazy.”
As she waved the gun, I thought Georgia’s words hadn’t been too far from the mark.
Sherry’s phone rang.
Carla jumped. “Don’t even think about getting that,” she said.
“Sherry is a cop’s daughter,” I said. “You kill her, and he’ll be after you the rest of your life.”
She shrugged. “They won’t know it’s me. They all think I’m on vacation.”
“No, they don’t,” Sherry said. “Aunt Elissa knows that Trish saw you in the parking lot.”
Carla narrowed her eyes. “Then I guess Trish will be mistaken, won’t she?” She glanced at me. “And your mother knows I was leaving. I stopped to get coffee.”
“I don’t think they’ll believe you,” I said.
“Sure they will. You’ll be dead, so no one can argue with me. You are going to leave a note saying the two of you have gone out to Connie’s house to return this jacket and pick up something. There, Connie is going to kill you two and kill herself. I intended to kill her to begin with, anyway.”
“You want Connie to die?” I asked.
“Of course. She took what was mine—Ronnie.”
Sherry’s eyes rounded and her mouth fell into an O.
“How did Georgia die?” I asked.
“I bought coffee for the three of us and doctored Connie’s with Inderal.” Carla smiled as though she were proud of herself. “Both of them always drank those herbal concoctions with lots of ginseng, which was giving Connie heart palpitations. She also had low blood pressure. I figured the Inderal would finish her off. I wanted Kent Smith to be blamed. Unfortunately for Georgia, she drank Connie’s coffee, as well as her own.”
“Why blame Coach Smith?” Sherry breathed.
“Because he was threatening me. We were supposed to be working together. Now, that’s enough!” Carla waved the gun at us. “One of you get a piece of paper.”
Sherry turned and pulled a spiral notebook from her backpack.
My mind was whirling, trying to put everything together.
“Write the note,” Carla ordered Sherry.
“So this is all because of Aaron?” I asked.
Carla smiled, but it was more like a grimace. “He was mine. She took him. I thought when she moved here she’d lose interest. Then he’d take me back.”
Sherry finished writing the note.
“Let me see it.” Carla held the gun on me while she snatched the note from Sherry’s hand. She read it slowly then shoved it back at Sherry. “Put it on the table.”
Sherry obeyed, then Carla held the curtain back so we could walk through.
“Where is Connie now?” I asked, even as I tried to figure out how to get away.
“Right where I left her.”
I felt a sharp twinge in my abdomen. A contraction. I doubled over as much from the pain as to give myself more time to think. Perhaps I could appeal to her for mercy.
“Get up,” Carla ordered.
“Can’t. Starting labor.”
She swore. “I’ll just have to shoot both of you here then plant the gun on Connie, which I was going to do, anyway. Then she’ll be guilty of four murders.”
I straightened. Sherry’s face was ashen.
“Four murders?” I asked.
Carla smiled. “My dearest Ronnie. I shot him with this very gun.”
My heart thumped. If she could kill someone she loved, there would be no appealing to her mercy.
“My aunt will be back any minute,” Sherry said.
“No, she won’t.” Carla smiled.
“What did you do to her?” I as
ked, thinking the worst.
“I watched her drive out of the parking lot. I phoned in an anonymous emergency call. I told them Connie was threatening Marvin—at his house across town. I knew Elissa was helping the cops. And I knew she’d want to be there if they found Connie.”
Prickles of anger began to replace my fear. No way was I going to let some monster truck principal kill us.
I met Sherry’s gaze and narrowed my eyes at her. She did the same. We would figure out something.
Carla held the curtain aside, keeping her gun trained on us. “Let’s go. Close together, please.”
Before we could move, the phone in my purse behind us began to ring. Carla jumped, but it didn’t distract her. Then Sherry’s phone began to ring in her pocket. Perfect. In the cacophony of noise, Carla’s gaze and aim wavered just long enough for me to slam her gun arm. Then Sherry slugged Carla in the stomach with a strength that surprised me. The gun clattered to the floor.
Carla lost her balance and fell, but she recovered quickly and scrabbled on the floor for the gun. I kicked it to the back of the stage. Sherry tackled Carla and knocked her to her back.
Carla screamed like a banshee, limbs flailing like she was a bug trying to get up. Sherry boxed her ear then pulled her hair, making her scream louder.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. My son had picked the perfect girl.
“Good job,” I said.
Carla tried to topple Sherry, and I wondered how we were going to subdue her. Then we heard the doors to the auditorium.
“Dad?” Sherry said. “Aunt Elissa?”
“Sherry?” I’d never been so happy to hear Detective Scott’s voice.
“We’ve got Carla down,” I said.
Footsteps thundered down the aisle. The curtain blew open, revealing Detective Scott, who sprinted to Sherry. Corporal Fletcher followed, surprising me by how fast he could move. Another deputy leaped up on the stage, jerked Carla to her feet, and handcuffed her. Elissa followed behind them, limping on her cane.
“Are you both okay?” Detective Scott asked, even as he snatched Sherry into his arms.
“We’re fine, Daddy,” Sherry said.
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