I rolled my eyes. Deuteronomy again. ‘Since Pastor Eva’s not here, you’ll have to help me out a bit, Laurie.’
She stared up, as if reading the words off the ceiling. ‘“He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.”’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake.’ Frankly, I was getting sick and tired of Deuteronomy. Surely there was some book in the Apocrypha we could replace it with. The Book of Judith, for example. I made a note to ask Eva about it.
Laurie placed her empty cup on her tray. ‘That Melanie was one crazy, mixed-up little bitch, but she sure as hell could dance.’
I grinned. ‘My husband says the same thing about you, Laurie, but not the crazy, mixed-up part.’
‘He does? Sweet boy. I probably should thank him.’
To my amazement, Laurie raised an arm and began jangling her bracelets. I twisted my head to see Paul ambling in our direction, carrying a tray of half-eaten barbeque. ‘I didn’t want to interrupt the gab fest,’ he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down to join us. ‘But, have you picked out a fresh, spring color for your hair yet, Hannah?’
I popped him one on the side of his head with the flat of my hand. ‘You were spying on me. Admit it.’
‘Never.’
I gave him a peck on the cheek. ‘Thank you.’
‘Well,’ Laurie said, rising from her chair. ‘Are we going to go look for shoes or not?’
‘We are.’ I stood up, too, and looked at Paul. ‘Will you take care of our trays, sweetheart?’
‘Of course, darling.’
I waggled my fingers at him. ‘Toodle-loo!’
As Laurie and I strolled up the ramp from the food court in the direction of Nordstrom at the opposite end of the mall, Laurie said, ‘Your Paul’s a great guy. You should keep him around.’
‘I intend to,’ I said with a grin. We paused for a moment in front of Borders’s window to check out a display of cookbooks. ‘Do you mind if I ask you what your name was before?’
‘You’ll laugh,’ Laurie said as we moved on.
‘No, I won’t.’
At Hot Topic Laurie stopped to admire a spaghetti-strapped black dress with white polka dots and red buttons. After a moment she said, ‘Oscar.’
I stared at my friend, sputtered, giggled, and finally laughed until tears ran down my cheeks.
‘I told you so,’ Laurie said. ‘Now, stop laughing, girl, and let’s go get those shoes.’
Thirty
I’d hoped for a quiet day, but it wasn’t to be.
I fed Don Fosher breakfast, supplied him with a house key, then waved him off to the police station where he had an appointment to turn over the printouts I’d helped him make of Melanie’s email. After he finished at the police station he had an even sadder mission: reporting to Kramer’s where he would pick up Melanie’s ashes and carry them home with him to Massachusetts on a flight out of BWI later that evening.
With no evidence to the contrary, the county police were treating Melanie’s death as accidental. At least that’s what was reported on the front page of the Capital. I hoped the information Don provided would help the police reconsider.
Ruth called at ten, in tears. Hutch had officially withdrawn from the Shall We Dance? competition. A stand-in for Melanie was against the rules. ‘Maybe next year,’ the producer growled. Ruth downed two Excedrin and took herself to bed.
Hutch stopped by at eleven on the way to his office. I gave him some coffee and half a pan of home-made cinnamon rolls. He seemed remarkably unruffled about Shall We Dance?, perhaps even relieved. ‘Since I’ve blocked out the time,’ he said mysteriously, licking sugar off his fingers, ‘perhaps I should do something constructive with it.’
Ten minutes after Hutch left, Paul popped home for a tuna fish sandwich, then headed back to the Academy to teach a one thirty class.
I was just thinking about Kay when she rang through on my cell. ‘Hannah? Is this a good time to talk?’
Fearing the conversation might be a bit tricky, I took a minute to stall. ‘Can I call you back in ten minutes? I’ve got somebody with me right now.’
I hung up the phone and called Paul, but I could hear his cell phone chirping away on the entrance hall table. Absent-minded professor had forgotten it again. I left a message on his office phone, then called Eva, who picked up on the first ring.
‘Eva, Kay called. I may need you. Where are you right now?’
‘Standing in the checkout at Safeway.’ I could hear the beep as each item passed over the scanner. ‘As soon as I’m done here, I’ll be right over. Can you store my chicken in your freezer?’
‘First your cat, now your chicken! I’ll store a whole side of beef, if you have it.’
I returned Kay’s call. She must have been waiting by the phone because she picked up on the first ring. She was leaving soon for Texas. Would I be a dear and bring Jay’s gym bag over now?
While her tongue dripped with honey, mine was abject with apology. Mannered, stilted, overly-polite, like conversation in a bad novel. ‘Golly, I’m sorry, Kay, but I’m dog-sitting this afternoon, and my car’s in the shop. It’s inconvenient, I know, but can you come to me?’
‘I’ve got a very small window, but I think that can be arranged. Where shall we meet?’
‘I’ll be walking Coco at Quiet Waters Park. Do you know it?’
‘Near Hillsmere. Where the symphony plays in the summer?’
‘Exactly. I’ll meet you at the Blue Heron Center. Is three o’clock good for you?’
‘Ideal. See you then, Hannah. Goodbye.’
Then I made a second phone call and invited somebody else to the party.
While I was still on the phone, Eva let herself in the back door and leaned against the door jamb, listening to my half of the conversation.
‘Are you out of your mind!’ she cried when I hung up the phone.
‘Maybe.’
‘Shirley Douglas?’
‘If Melanie’s right about Jay abusing Tessa, maybe I’ve been barking up the wrong tree all along. Maybe Shirley poisoned Jay. If she found out about it, who would have a better motive for murdering an abuser than an enraged mother?’
I invited Eva to sit down at the table and shoved a plate of chocolate chip cookies at her. ‘Thallium, the perfect revenge. A slow, agonizing poison, just atonement for the long-term sexual abuse of her little girl.’
Eva waved away the cookies as if they were laced with thallium. ‘But why would she keep coming to J & K Studios, exposing her daughter…?’
‘You’d have to be there to see it, right? To witness the man’s deterioration inch by painful inch, to revel in the gradual loss of his ability to dance.’
‘That’s sick.’
‘So’s pedophilia.’ The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them, but Eva didn’t flinch.
We sat silently for a while, listening to the icemaker shuck cubes into the bin. After a bit, I told my friend, ‘I’m having a hard time processing the idea of Jay as a pedophile,’
Eva smiled grimly. ‘They don’t come ready-made with a big red “P” branded on their foreheads.’
‘I know,’ I said, remembering Eva’s late husband who in his own way had been just as charming as Jay. But then, charm had to be an essential part of any successful pedophile’s toolkit.
‘Hannah,’ Eva began in a tone she might use with a wayward child, ‘what do you hope to accomplish by throwing Kay and Shirley together in the same pot?’
‘I hope to stir things up a bit, and arrive at the truth.’
‘An admirable goal, truth. But the path along the way could be dangerous.’
I smiled. ‘That’s why I invited you along.’
Eva frowned, apparently considering her options. When she spoke again, I knew I’d have her support. ‘Who’s going to be around Quiet Waters Park in the middle of February?’