“If she got this money legally, then why was she hiding the financial records?” Ivy asked. “And if she got it illegally, then why wouldn’t she burn these records as soon as possible?”
“This is so confusing,” Zasha complained. “We get one clue, but it opens up a whole bunch of new questions. It’s one step forward, ten steps back. I knew Mrs. Turner; she wouldn’t do anything illegal. She hated talking about business, and always let Mr. Turner handle things on the farm. She was content with being a housewife and doing her chores.”
“Yes, but from all accounts it seems that once upon a time that wasn’t enough for her,” Ivy said thoughtfully. “Something turned her into the Mrs. Turner you knew, but she wasn’t always like that. I’m guessing that she had a bad experience with her independence and decided to give it all up when she had the chance.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Zasha declared.
“If you stopped being stubborn then we might get somewhere,” Ivy said with a hint of irritation in her voice. “Stop looking at this like a small-town girl and put your thinking cap on. You’re being arrogant by assuming your view of things is the only valid explanation. Mrs. Turner had a whole other life that you never knew about. You knew her your whole life? What’s that? Twenty years? She was most certainly more than double your age. That’s a lot of time. Things happen, and she probably dealt with her troubles the best way she knew how.”
Zasha jerked back as if she’d been slapped and looked away. Ivy had a point. She had been looking at this entire case under the assumption that everything she knew was right.
“Okay,” Zasha said, furrowing her brow in concentration. “I’ll try and pretend she was a stranger. Let’s look at the facts. I can do this.”
“That’s much better,” Ivy said, nodding in approval. “Now maybe we can get somewhere.”
“Mrs. Turner was facing financial ruin,” Zasha said, narrowing her eyes. “She knew that she could lose the farm if she didn’t come up with cash. The drought cost them their harvest, and they needed the money if they were going to plant again. She couldn’t ask Mr. Turner for help because he was away fighting a war. If she asked him for help, then she might cause him anxiety. She didn’t want to do that in case he got distracted. Distraction equaled death.”
“She also had two little girls who were relying on her,” Ivy pointed out. “I can only imagine how scared and overwhelmed she was feeling. No one can go on like that without talking to someone. She must’ve confided in someone about how she was feeling. Did she have any specific friends?”
“I don’t remember,” Zasha admitted. “I never paid much attention to her back then. She was just my best friend’s mother. She always seemed busy. Besides, she didn’t have much time to leave the farm. There was always something to be done. Even the girls had to pull their weight. They were always tired when they got to school. I remember that mama didn’t want us to come over as much because she didn’t want to put any pressure on Mrs. Turner.”
“I see,” Ivy said slowly. “I mean no offense, but I don’t think we can rely on your memories of that time. We need to focus on finding people who remember what happened. Do you know if she has any close friends now? Maybe they’ll remember something.”
“Well,” Zasha said. “I’m not sure. I think she’s close to Dorothy. They didn’t spend much time together, but Dorothy is everyone’s friend. If Mrs. Turner confided in anyone, it would be Dorothy.”
“I’ve heard a lot about this woman,” Ivy said, “she sounds very popular. Why haven’t we spoken to her before?”
“Everyone loves Dorothy,” Zasha said with a soft smile. “She’s great. It’s a bit of a tragic story though. She got married right before the war, and her husband had to go off to fight. He never came back, and they say that she never really got over it. Otherwise she would’ve gotten remarried. It’s so sad, he was the love of her life.”
“How romantic,” Ivy said wryly.
“It is!” Zasha insisted. “Don’t tell me you don’t believe in true love. Dorothy is the perfect example. She actually found her soulmate and he died. There’s nothing more tragic than that.”
“Soulmates aren’t found, darling, they’re made,” Ivy said kindly. “I’m sure she was traumatized by what happened though, and I’m sorry about that. If she got married right before the war, that means she’s quite a bit younger than Mrs. Turner.”
“Yes,” Zasha said. “I think she’s only in her thirties now. She’s still young enough to make a life for herself.”
“It sounds like she’s perfectly happy with the way that things are now,” Ivy said with a shrug. “She might not have a husband and children, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a life. What does she do now?”
“She opened a café after the war. It’s the best place to get coffee in town. Well, the only place. But it still counts. Everyone loves going there. She’s such a good cook. Unfortunately, that doesn’t count around here,” Zasha said with a shrug. “People get married and have children. After all, what’s life without family?”
“Is that what you’re going to do?” Ivy asked curiously.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to marry Tom and have children as soon as possible? Is that why you don’t want to go to New York? Is it because you think you won’t have a life until you do all that?”
Zasha was caught off guard by this line of questioning and wasn’t quite sure how to react. She opened and closed her mouth as her mind fought for something to say.
“This isn’t about me,” Zasha said after a few awkward moments. “We’re here to talk about Mrs. Turner.”
“Okay,” Ivy said with a shrug, turning her intense gaze back to the financial records.
“Besides, what would be so wrong about doing all that?” Zasha asked. “Tom’s a perfectly nice guy. And if we had children, they would be adorable. Our parents would get us a nice house. And Tom would work for his family’s company. It would be safe. And nice. Very nice. We could take family vacations to the beach.”
“Has Tom ever gone to the beach before?” Ivy asked curiously.
“No,” Zasha said after a moment’s hesitation.
“Then what makes you think he’d take the step to do something like that if he hasn’t done it before.”
“He’d do anything for me,” Zasha said confidently.
“If that’s what you want,” Ivy said absently, all her attention absorbed by the financial record.
“It is,” Zasha said firmly. “I think. I mean, it’s what I’ve decided. After all, what more could I want from life?”
“Adventure? New experiences?” Ivy suggested. “How about leaving New Hope for a start. Look, I’m not going to judge your choices. All I’m saying is that before you decide to make such a big decision, maybe try leaving town just once. There’s a whole world out there, and how could you possibly know what you want if you haven’t experienced anything different? All I’m saying is that you wouldn’t want to wake up one morning and find that it’s too late. Nothing eats at the soul like regret.”
Zasha pursed her lips and looked away. She missed the way Ivy’s eyes widened as she looked over the financial record.
“I think I know what was happening,” Ivy said breathlessly.
“What?” Zasha asked curiously.
“Look, there are more recent records here,” Ivy pointed to the paper. “I think Mary was trying to save up to pay off the five hundred dollars. That’s why she kept the financial record.”
“That still doesn’t explain how she got it all,” Zasha pointed out peevishly. “And who would lend her that money and not bring up paying it back?”
“Unless someone killed her because of that money,” Ivy said quickly. “What if that’s the motive? Perhaps Mary made a bad decision back when she was desperate. She could’ve borrowed money from the wrong people, and they threatened her when she couldn’t pay it back.”
“If we were in the city, I’d say tha
t was a brilliant theory,” Zasha said in a deadpan tone. “Unfortunately, we’re in New Hope. No one has that kind of money lying around. And if we had loan sharks swimming about, they would be chased away. I think we’re missing something obvious.”
“I keep forgetting I’m in the middle of nowhere,” Ivy said dejectedly, her shoulders slumping.
“We may be a small town, but people still have the same emotions,” Zasha pointed out. “Look, Mrs. Turner got this money at the same time she was working for Mrs. Bleeker. Wasn’t that the same time Mrs. Bleeker was robbed? And look at the amount.”
“The sale of the stocks would’ve amounted to about a thousand dollars,” Ivy said with a frown.
“It all works out if we assume that Mrs. Turner wasn’t working alone,” Zasha said with a frown. “Mrs. Turner might have been desperate, but she would never have done something like that on her own. Besides, how would she know to sell the stocks and get their full value? If she had a partner, then they could’ve worked together to get the money. Once they sold the stocks, they could’ve split the money halfway and gone on their separate ways. And who do we know that was also in town around that time? And who had a prior connection to Mrs. Turner?”
“Daniel,” Ivy said immediately, her eyes widening. “He could’ve stolen the stocks, sold them, and split the money with Mary.”
“And maybe he ran out of money and decided to come collect an old debt,” Zasha said thoughtfully.
“Unless…” Ivy said slowly. “When Daniel got tired of waiting for his inheritance, he decided to take out Mrs. Bleeker. Mary, who obviously planned on paying Mrs. Bleeker back, decided to come forward.”
“He could’ve tried to threaten her while her daughters were around, but things went wrong and he ended up killing them,” Zasha said grimly. “Everyone knows that those girls were Mrs. Turner’s life. She would’ve done anything for them.”
“So, if he wanted to get her to do something, he knew he would have to threaten them. Those poor girls. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I think we need to see Daniel again. It looks like we might’ve just solved this whole thing,” Ivy said. “Let’s see him try and talk his way out of this one.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
When Zasha and Ivy got home, it was already dark. As they got out of the car, Zasha was surprised to see a figure waiting under a tree in the front yard. From the living room, he would be unnoticeable, and it was clear that he didn’t want anyone in the house to see him.
Ivy and Zasha exchanged worried looks and slowly approached the dark figure. When they got closer, he turned to look at them and Zasha’s breath caught in her throat.
“Sebastian, what are you doing here? Why didn’t you go in?”
Sebastian was watching Zasha with a nervous expression, and Ivy immediately took a step back.
“I’m going to leave the two of you to talk,” Ivy said quickly. “I’ll go and see if Yelena needs any help getting dinner ready.”
“You don’t have to…” Zasha started, but Sebastian cut her off.
“Thanks, Ivy,” he gave her a grateful smile. “Zasha, is it okay if we talk? I won’t take too long.”
She hesitated, but before she could refuse, Ivy hurried indoors, and she was alone with him.
“What do you want, Sebastian?” she asked in annoyance.
She was tired and hungry after a long day. The last thing she needed was to get into an argument with Sebastian Black. Besides, if she stayed out too long, her father would get curious and come get her. She didn’t want to have to explain to him what she was doing with Sebastian in the dark. Worse still, Mrs. Grey enjoyed taking evening walks in the area. If she saw them together, Zasha would never hear the end of it.
“I was wondering if you made any new headway on the case,” he said, scratching the back of his head nervously. “Jeremy’s been distraught all week. He can barely focus on work. I’m hoping that if we catch the killer, he might be able to buck up.”
“He won’t get better until Evelyn wakes up,” Zasha said, raising her eyebrow at him. “And we haven’t found the killer yet. So, thanks for stopping by. It’s been great.”
“Zasha, wait,” Sebastian said in exasperation. “Why do you always run away when I try and talk to you?”
“I don’t want to do this right now,” Zasha complained. “Can’t you choose a decent hour to harass me? Honestly, this is getting old now.”
“I’m not doing anything wrong,” Sebastian said, looking hurt. “I came here to tell you something important.”
“Get to the point,” Zasha said with a sigh. “I’ve had an awful day, Sebastian. I don’t have time for your antics. I want to wash up and have dinner.”
“I don’t know where things went so wrong,” Sebastian muttered to himself, shaking his head as he looked at her.
“What?” she asked, scrunching her face up in confusion.
It was clear that he hadn’t meant for her to hear his words, and he blushed in embarrassment. Zasha frowned at him. He was acting strangely, and she couldn’t figure out why. She looked up at the branches of the tree up ahead to see if he had hidden something there. Was he trying to prank her?
Once when they were thirteen years old, he had called her out of the house while she and Evelyn were having a sleepover. He claimed that he wanted to make peace and bury the hatchet. Evelyn had been eager to see Jeremy, so she convinced Zasha to give Sebastian a chance.
The meeting had been arranged while they were at school. For the whole week, Zasha had lived in nervous anticipation of the Friday night. She was determined to put the childish feud behind her and looked forward to having a real friendship with Sebastian. She would never admit it to herself, but when she was younger, she thought that he was kind of cute and maybe even let herself dream of him as a prince charming figure.
When the night came, Zasha felt breathless with anticipation. She and Evelyn snuck out at the appointed time, and Zasha even wore her prettiest dress. Zasha wasn’t clear on what happened next, but she remembered heading toward the tree. The next thing she knew, Evelyn was pulled away from her side, and Zasha was drenched in sticky molasses. Before she could react, Sebastian ran up to her and tipped a bucket full of feathers over her.
The result was that she had to explain to her parents why her best dress was ruined and when she arrived at school on Monday, everyone already knew what happened. It was the single most humiliating experience of Zasha’s young life, and it was the day she vowed that she would never trust him again.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sebastian said with a sigh, gesturing with his hand that he wanted her to drop it. “Listen, I came to talk to you about something serious. I didn’t know who else to tell, but I need you to be careful. This person isn’t messing around. They’ll kill you if you get careless.”
“Sebastian,” Zasha said with a frown. “Spit it out, what’s going on? You’re starting to worry me.”
“Do you remember the night the library was vandalized?” Sebastian asked, tilting his head at her.
Sometimes she forgot how tall he was. She remembered the days when he had been shorter than her, and then the same height, until he sprouted like a weed and towered over her. Now, she had to tilt her head backwards if she wanted to see his face. He made her feel tiny, unlike Tom who was only a head taller than her. That was a comfortable height difference. Thoughts of Tom made her feel guilty and she looked around suspiciously. How would she explain herself if he caught her out in the night with Sebastian? Things were already tense between the two of them because of their fight.
“I guess so,” Zasha said with a shrug. “I don’t remember much, if I’m being honest. It was a normal night. We only found out the next day what happened.”
“Exactly,” Sebastian said, nodding quickly. “It was a normal night. I was out…”
“We all know what you were doing,” Zasha said, levelling him with a distasteful glare.
“You don’t get to judge me,”
he told her in amusement. “I have to make money somehow. And I’m not going to be a farmer. We have enough of those around here.”
“There’s plenty of things you could do besides be a bootlegger,” Zasha hissed. “You’re lucky there isn’t an active police force around here, or else you’d be in jail already. That’s your problem, Sebastian, you never think further than your nose. What are you going to do when they finally catch you?”
“There’s more to life than following rules the neighbors made up because they were bored,” Sebastian told her, his eyes blazing with emotion. “I intend to live a full life, and just you watch, I’m going to get out of this town somehow. Just you wait.”
“We’re getting off topic here,” Zasha said, waving her hand dismissively. “What did you see while you were out there?”
“Yeah, well,” Sebastian said with a huff. “Sometimes I have to leave some product out there. I heard something happening in the library and decided to check it out. I mean, sometimes Vera’s there. She’s a nice lady. The lights were off, so I knew something strange was going on.”
“Hold on,” Zasha held up a hand to stop him. “You knew about this the whole time and you’re only saying something now? What’s wrong with you? The whole town’s been in a frenzy ever since all this began.”
“Yeah, and at first it was entertaining,” Sebastian said with shrug.
“You’re joking,” Zasha groaned, shaking her head at him. “You had valuable information, but you kept it to yourself because you were having fun at our expense? I don’t know why I expected better from you.”
“Zasha,” Sebastian said exasperatedly. “Can you give me a break? Just until I’m finished talking. Look, if you were there you probably would’ve done the same thing. It was dark and confusing. Besides, I had no idea what I’d actually seen. I wasn’t about to admit what I was doing there. You know everyone would’ve blamed me for what happened.”
Zasha rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest but stayed quiet.
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