Away in a Murder (2 page)

“Well, do you think it would be ok if I asked him out?”

“Hell, yea! I mean, yes, I think it would be good for him. He needs to go out and be social.”

And I could finally have a night to myself. I loved my son, but we have spent almost every evening together since we got here. It was time for him to cut the umbilical cord and start having a life of his own. Time for me to have a life of my own.

“Thank you, Misty. Well, I’d better get back to work. We open soon. I’ll see you later.”

As she walked away I decided that I really liked her and that she just might make a good daughter-in-law. Maybe I should ask HR about our dating policy. Probably should have done that before I gave Melanie my advice. Oh, well too late now.

Funny, it never even occurred to me to check with Frankie first. Maybe I should have done that as well. Too late for that too. Oh, well, let the chips fall where they may.

I finished my rounds and went to my office.  My secretary, Della Sitron, was at her desk. I loved her name. Sitron could actually be translated to lemon. I wanted to address her as Ms. Lemon, with a French accent, like Hercule Poirot did to his secretary Miss Lemon in Agatha Christie’s books. I wasn’t sure Della ever read a Christie novel however, so I never said it to her. What if she was insulted?

Instead I greeted her by her first name. This was new for Della, and I knew she didn’t like it. She would prefer to be called Ms. Sitron. She would much rather call me Mrs. Summer than Misty as well. Technically, since I was single I guess I should be Ms. Summer, but I’ve been called Mrs. Summer since I was eighteen. I was used to it.

I went in to my office and turned on my computer. While I waited I grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the mini fridge in the corner of my office. I opened it and took a long, slow drink. And then I checked my e-mail. I had one from Nigel, our PR guy, requesting an emergency meeting with me. I accepted his request and scheduled the meeting. I wondered what was going on. What kind of PR emergency could we possibly have? I headed over to Frankie’s office to ask him.

“Yea, I got the same e-mail. I’ll be at the meeting,” he said. “I heard he scheduled someone to interview you. Maybe that’s what he wants to discuss”

“To interview me?”

“Yea, Mom, you’re going to be on TV.” Frankie smiled at me as if it were a good thing.

A feeling of dread came over me. I didn’t want to be on TV. I didn’t want my face to be seen. Not by all those people. I mean, I guess as the park’s CEO it was going to happen sooner or later, but I thought that’s what Nigel was for. Shouldn’t Nigel be the one in front of the camera? Or even Frankie, he’s a good looking kid. And he’s done a lot of interviews for the park already.

Frankie saw my face and understood that I was panicked. He had no clue what the real reason was behind the panic, but at least he understood that I was panicked.

“It will be ok, Mom. I’ll be there to support you. I know you don’t like this sort of thing.”

“No, Frankie, I hate this sort of thing. I am not the face of the company. I thought this was Nigel’s job. Or even better, yours. You should do the interview. You’re good at it.”

“I was told that the guy requested you.”

“Requested me? Why me? What guy? Who is he?”

I was really starting to panic. In fact I was glad I was wearing a strong deodorant.

“Mom, it will be ok.”

He thought I was afraid of being on TV. No, I’d been in front of a camera and even live audiences lots of times. This was not my issue. If only I could tell him, but I made a promise a long time ago. Instead I promised to be at the meeting and let Frankie get back to work.

When it was time for the meeting Frankie and I walked down to Nigel’s office together. I was filled with dread. I wondered if maybe I could become so sick over night that I had to be hospitalized. It could happen. There had to be a way.

We entered Nigel’s office. I really liked Nigel. He and his office always smelled so good, so inviting. (The smell of the office was inviting not the smell of Nigel himself. Don’t get the wrong idea.) The coolest thing about him was his British accent, I loved it. His housekeeping skills, however, left a lot to be desired.

His office was decorated with pictures of himself posing with different celebrities. There were also several small hand carved knives scattered about. I wasn’t in to knives, but one of them had a handle that was shaped like an empire penguin. Nigel and I shared a passion for penguins so I always noticed that particular knife. Nigel’s office was cool, but things that should have gone on the shelves were thrown on the chairs and even on the floor. The knives and photos took up all the space instead. I cleared a chair off and sat down. Frankie did the same.

“Misty, I’m sorry,” was the first thing Nigel said to me.

“For what exactly,” I asked.

“I agreed to this interview without really knowing who this guy was. Normally I’d do a thorough check before agreeing to an interview. But his name seemed familiar so I thought it would be ok. It’s just that we need publicity so bad that I jumped at the chance for the park to be on national TV.”

Ok, he was really nervous. He was talking too much for Nigel. How bad was the guy who was going to do the interview?

“Nigel, who exactly am I being interviewed by?” I asked afraid of the answer.

“Al Learner,” Nigel said as quietly as he could.

“What?” Frankie yelled. Standing up “Are you insane, Nigel?”

Nigel just shrunk down even more into his chair. I had no idea who this Al Learner guy was, but judging by Frankie’s reaction, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“Frankie sit down,” I said. He obeyed.

“Mom,” Frankie said, “Al Learner works for one of those tabloid TV shows. His specialty is turning people into mince meat. He loves to embarrass people. Reduce them to tears if possible. Ruin their career. Their lives.”

“That’s right,” Nigel said. “Although lately he’s been focusing on tracking down long lost famous people. Celebrities in hiding, things like that. I can’t imagine why he wants to talk to you. But he did request you by name.”

I could imagine why. I knew why he requested me. A feeling of panic overcame me. Suddenly my chest hurt and I found it hard to breath. All I could think was that maybe I was having a heart attack and it would get me out of the interview. I felt the blood drain from my face. I looked at Frankie.

“Mom!” Frankie got out of his chair again and knelt down on front of me.

Nigel was talking to someone on the phone. He hung up and said, “They’re on their way.”

Who? Who was on their way? Tell me!

“Just breathe, Mom. It’s ok.”

I could see the panic in Frankie’s face. I was sure he could see the panic in mine. I just stared into my son’s eyes hoping it would calm me down.

At that moment both Marlowe and Frank burst through the door. Great now I had the Police Chief and the head of security here. Not to mention, the first was a potential new boyfriend and the latter my ex-husband.

They both tried to examine me to see what was wrong. At the same time. This only made it worse.

“Stop it!” I yelled, much to their surprise judging by the looks on their faces. “Frank, you examine me. Marlow you get out of the way.”

At this point I was more comfortable having my ex-husband touch me than a man I had barely known. Besides, they both had the same qualifications. They had even trained together over the years. Frank asked me questions about numbness, tingling, pain, that sort of thing. I answered his questions as best I could.

“Well, I think it was just a panic attack. Not a heart attack,” he said finally.

That’s when the EMT’s arrived and kicked everyone out of the room.  After doing as thorough an examination as they could do in the office, they declared it was a panic attack. They recommended that I go to the hospital, but I agreed with their diagnosis and I declined. With that they left and everyone else came back in to the room.

“Mom, are you ok?” Frankie said.

They were all standing by the door as if they came any closer they would catch whatever it was that I had. I smiled and almost started to laugh. But I couldn’t. All I could do was concentrate on breathing.

“Frank, please get everyone out of here,” I said between the deep relaxing breaths I was trying to take.

Frank cleared the room and closed the door. He sat down in the chair next to me. “Misty what happened? You don’t get panic attacks. Nothing scares you.”

I looked at him. Right now he was the only one who could truly tell me what I should do. He was the only one who knew my life’s story.

“Frank a guy named Al Learner is coming here to interview me tomorrow,” I told him.

“Fantastic. Why would that make you panic? You can handle a camera.”

“Frankie and Nigel said his specialty is turning people in to mince meat.”

“You can handle that. You’re tough. Still don’t see the problem,” he said.

I explained a little further about the interview and the reason for my panic.

”Oh, shit,” was all Frank had to say.

I looked at him and shook my head. “Help me, Frank. I don’t think I can get out of it. What will I do?”

Frank reached over and took my hand. He might be my ex-husband, but he still knew me better than anyone else in the world. And I trusted him and his opinion. We had a sort of love and respect between us. We talked and we came up with a plan of action. Both he and Frankie would be in the room with me. He would be in full security uniform and perform body guard duties for me if necessary.

In addition, we decided to have one of the company lawyers in the room. And we would record the interview ourselves on the security cameras that were already in the room. Frank would ensure the cameras were operational and he would try to find a way to record the audio. I felt better with a plan in place. I knew Frank would not let me down.

Once we worked out the details as much as he and I could we let everyone else back in to the office. Frank and I explained our plans to the assembled team.

“I’ll be happy to be there in full uniform, too,” Marlowe said.

I smiled at him. “Thank you, but that might be an abuse of tax payer dollars.” I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I felt like I didn’t know him well enough to have him there. Maybe after we had a date or two. Or ten.

“Ok,” Frank said, “I’m going to get with my security team and make sure we are all set to record tomorrow. Misty, I’ll call you if I need anything.” He kissed me on the top of my head and he left.

“That was weird,” Frankie said.

“He knows how worried I am. That’s all. So, back to business.” And back to CEO mode. “Nigel, I need you to get me some background on this guy. Footage would be most helpful.  I need to learn all I can about him and how he operates. I think that will help me plan my defense.”

“I will e-mail you everything I find,” Nigel said.

“Good. Frankie, you do the same. You’ll probably come up with something Nigel didn’t. Marlowe, you take me home. My day here is over. I need to get home and start prepping for tomorrow. We need to prepare for battle. I’ll keep my computer on all night. I’ll see everyone at the theater tomorrow. Be on time. No, be early.”

I stood up and walked out the door. Nigel started tapping away at his computer. Frankie followed Marlowe and I out the door. We said goodbye to Frankie. I stopped in Della’s office and told her that I wasn’t feeling well and needed to go home. She told me that she knew about the ambulance and had already taken care of everything. Marlowe and I left and went outside to the front of the building and his car. Marlowe took my arm and led the way. I had to admit that his touch felt nice. It even gave me chills.

He didn’t have the police cruiser with him. Instead he had his Honda Civic. Not a bad car, or anything, but he never washed it or cleaned it out. He had to wipe the fast food wrappers off the seat before I could sit down. At least he apologized for the car being such a mess. One point in his favor. He even closed the door for me before walking around to his side and getting in. When he got in and started the engine, however, whatever was in his CD player came on at full blast. I jumped and yelled at him. He pressed the power button and turned it off.

“What the hell was that? Why was someone stabbing that lady?” I said.

He looked offended. “That,” he said with a bit of attitude, “was Maria Callas. One of the greatest opera singers of all time.”

Opera? Ok, one less point in his favor. I was not a fan of opera or classical music to say the least. Could I really date a man who listens to it? I looked at how handsome he was. Sure, we could work around it. Frank and I listened to very different music and we were together for a very long time.

“Sorry, Marlowe, she just scared me.” I said.

“It’s ok. I’ll work on your love of opera later.”

“It’s going to be a tough job, I have never liked it. Ever. And yes, I’ve been to several.”

“You’re kidding? I’d pegged you for a music lover,” he said.

“Music, yes. Opera, no. Music must have a guitar. Preferably electric. Preferably sung in a language that I can understand.”

“Wow, you’re in to rock, then? I like rock.” He didn’t sound convincing. “I was into it a lot more when I was younger. In fact once I even had a crush on this heavy metal singer.”

Now we were speaking the same language. Heavy Metal was one of my favorite genres of music.

“Really? Who was it?” I asked smiling.

“Really. In fact I still have a poster of her on my wall. She was hot. No idea where she is now. Her name was Misty Breeze.”

I tried to show no reaction. He had or has a crush on someone I once knew. In fact she and I were good friends once. Almost like sisters.

“I’ve heard of her” I said. “In fact, I’ve met her. When Frank and I were younger we had a little business helping young performers.”

“Oh, wow, that’s so cool. Where is she now?”

“She died. When I was in my early twenties. She had overdosed while on the road in Europe somewhere.”