If Mashed Potatoes Could Dance (31 page)

Leroy Norton, the bus driver, sat in another chair. I knew Cliff was looking for him. If he got my message and got out here, he’d get to talk to him. I hoped that would happen.

“I am,” I said to Eloise. “And I’m glad to know you are both all right. Lots of people have been looking for you,” I said. “We should let everyone know.”

Eloise laughed. “We haven’t been here the whole time, but most of it, haven’t we, boys? Good place to hide people.”

The two big guys nodded, but Leroy turned away when she glanced at him.

“Feeling bad, are we?” she said to Leroy.

“Shut up, Eloise. I’ve done whatever you’ve asked. That doesn’t mean I liked it,” Leroy said.

“Touchy, touchy. Well, brace yourself, there’s more to take care of. We didn’t get the money, and now it seems the whole stupid town is looking for us. Take the two women and get rid of them. Take him, too.” She pointed at Ash. “The rest of us will get out of here.”

“I’m not killing anyone else,” Leroy said. “I’ll be your errand boy, but no more killing. Let’s just leave, all of us. I’ll take them and drop them off in Mexico or something.”

I cringed. If he really felt that way, why didn’t he just lie? He could have pretended to take us away to kill us and then let us go. He’d just missed a great opportunity.

“Did you not hear me the first time? We didn’t get the money. Don’t forget, you owe me. My cousin caught you stealing from your passengers. I’ll expose what you’ve done, what you’ve been doing all along,” Eloise said.

“I’ve heard it all before, Eloise. And if I’d just confessed to all that, I wouldn’t have a murder on my conscience. No, you’ll just have to kill me, too.”

Eloise looked around the room. “That can be arranged. Jimmy, take them, get rid of them.”

One of the big guys, Jimmy I presumed, reached for his gun.

“Wait a second,” I said. “What’s going on? Why is all this happening?”
Stall, stall, stall
. “Don’t you think Ophelia and I deserve to know why we’re dying?”

“No,” Eloise said. “Greg didn’t know. Why should you?”

“Come on, take ten seconds and tell us. I’d love to know how you pulled this off,” I said.

Even though I hadn’t stuck with law school, some things
about it had stuck with me. Criminals love to brag about their crimes. It’s weird and creepy, but they take pride in their accomplishments. My current stall tactic was to get Eloise to brag a little.

“A few more seconds wouldn’t hurt, I suppose,” she said a moment later. “It was all about Greg. He was once married to my cousin, Austin. He cheated and they divorced, but Austin wasn’t quite done with him. She wanted him dead. He shouldn’t have cheated on her, especially with pretty young things. Austin’s also one of the smartest, most observant women in the world. Years ago, she knew Leroy was stealing from his customers, and she knew that Jake Swanson fella was richer than even Greg or her own daddy. She knew she could blackmail Leroy to do the deed, and guess what, that worked just fine.” She looked at Leroy, who, in turn, looked like he was going to be sick. “The kidnapping was only supposed to involve me and Greg. Greg was supposed to die and the ransom was to be for my return, but this idiot”—she pointed at Ash—“woke up. We had to take him with us. We’ve been hiding here and there, mostly here because we thought no one would be interested in an old run-down house.” She shook her head at me. “Why were
you
interested?”

“Long story,” I said as I looked at Sally, who was still crouched next to the diary. “Why didn’t you just grab the bag and go?”

Eloise laughed again. “The police were all over it. Your friend, Jake, didn’t do as I asked. He contacted the police. I was about to kill Ash and drop him on Jake’s doorstep next because he just couldn’t obey, but things kept getting more complicated.” She looked at Leroy again. “For one, he quit being cooperative.”

“Cece picked up the bag,” I said. “Why?”

Ash sat up. “Cece? Is she all right?”

I didn’t profess to understand the complexities of love, but this man’s reaction to Cece’s name made me think he must have really loved that annoying, shallow woman.

“The police have her, just as I suspected might happen. I used her for bait. I had Leroy tell her to pick up something of his that he’d left at the park. I thought if Jake really hadn’t obeyed and had called the police, they could pick her up. She could irritate
them
long enough for us to leave, which is what we were about to do,” Eloise said.

“And she did it?” I asked, surprised she’d do anything for anyone.

Eloise laughed. “He said she could borrow the car for the afternoon if she did it. She grumbled, but apparently available rental cars in this miniscule town are few and far between right now. When we abandoned the car we stole to get away, we had no idea that Leroy would get the last rental available. We got lucky. Too bad you and your strangely dressed friend here didn’t get so lucky.”

“So you planned on killing, blackmailing, and stealing? That’s quite an agenda,” I said.
Keep talking, lady, keep talking.

Eloise smiled. “Why, yes, I’m good at multitasking. When the police finally figure out my real name, they’ll find my record and I’ll be long gone again. I’ve done this sort of thing for years; this is just the first time family has asked for help. Austin just wanted Greg dead, but I decided we had to do something bigger. A cool mill from Mr. Swanson wouldn’t hurt, and we knew that if I was a kidnap victim, too, no one would suspect me. But between Ash joining us and Swanson’s inability to obey our commands, things got out of control. We thought we had them back in control, and here the two of you bimbos show up.”

“The credit card thefts and fraud, they were all Leroy?” I said. I knew I sounded shocked, but it was the credit card crimes that were the most sophisticated; Leroy didn’t strike me as sophisticated.

“That’s right. Pretty slick, huh? His ‘dumb guy’ routine is just that, a routine. He knows his way around a computer and knows how to type his way into places that none of the rest of us can get into. He’s good. Too bad he’s got to die now.”

I looked at Leroy.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “About everything.”

“I gotta know,” I said. “The three spaghetti dinners? Who were they for?”

“These guys.” He nodded toward the two big guys left in the attic, but then he realized something I’d already thought about—I could see it in his eyes.
Where was the third guy?

He hurried and spoke again which made me realize he was on our side more than theirs. “I thought you might catch me when I left the restaurant and drove away from the hotel instead of toward it.”

“I didn’t notice,” I said.

Leroy looked appropriately ashamed.

“You…” I thought back to when we were in the shoe shop and Leroy mentioned that things had been missing from the bus. His comments seemed somewhat strangely timed then, but I’d chalked them up to him just wanting to be thorough—
maybe the thefts had something to do with the larger crimes
. “When we were in Stuart’s shoe shop you talked about the missing items. You were the thief. Did you think you mentioning them would make you look innocent?”

Leroy looked at me and then looked at the ground as he shook his head slowly. “I know, it doesn’t make much sense, but, yeah, that was the idea.”

“And you were so casual about your group staying at the cooking school. No one in charge would have been so casual. You almost seemed not to care,” I said, wishing I’d thought about that before now.

Leroy looked at Eloise. “I had specific instructions that we were to be in Broken Rope that night. I wasn’t allowed to veer from those instructions. No matter what, we were to be in Broken Rope.”

“Well, I’ve just decided that that’s enough talk,” Eloise said. “Now, boys, get them out of here, take them deep into some Ozark woods, and take care of them.”

Jimmy grabbed Opie and me, and the other guy grabbed Ash and Leroy. It was a wonder we didn’t break our necks as they shoved us down the first narrow stairway. They held tight as we went down the next set of stairs. Sally didn’t come with us, but at that point, there wasn’t much she could do anyway. She couldn’t have scared these guys even if she appeared and said, “Boo!”

The ineffective front door was still hanging from a lone hinge, and at first I couldn’t see anything but the front yard and the road beyond it.

Not remembering about the third guy was this group of criminals’ biggest mistake. They should have wondered why he hadn’t reported back, and what might have happened to him. We all found him a few moments later.

Everything happened pretty quickly when we went through the front door, and it’s the sounds I’ll always remember.

Flanking the front door were a number of police officers, Cliff and Jim among them. I don’t know if I really heard the metallic click of guns coming to the ready or if I’ve seen too
many movies, but my memory remembers those clicks followed by Jim saying, “Drop your weapons now!”

There was that predictable beat as the big guys looked around and then noticed their friend already deposited in the back of one of the police cars out in the street. It didn’t take them long to figure out they should follow the instructions. They dropped the weapons and were immediately grabbed and subdued, and Opie and I were scooted to the street and out of the way.

“One more in the attic,” I said to someone. Eloise hadn’t joined us and I wondered if she was looking at the diary or cleaning up after her strange group of bandits.

Even with all the commotion, I finally saw the two bystanders down the road, pacing nervously beside the Nova. Teddy and Gram were doing everything they could to stay away from the scene, like they’d probably been told to do. I decided not to make them work any harder.

“Come on, Opie, I think there are some people who’d like to talk to us.”

They met us halfway, but hugged us both all the way. I didn’t watch Teddy and Opie hug. There’s only so much a person should have to put up with in one day.

After Gram hugged me, she put her hand on my cheek and said, “Oooh, when I saw those men bring you two out it was all I could do not to run down there and kick their butts. How dare they!”

Opie put her hand on my arm. “I don’t understand. How did you know I was there? Why did you…?”

“I followed you. What were you doing with Sally Swarthmore’s diary?” I kept my eyes steady, but in my peripheral vision I saw Teddy run his hand through his hair.

Opie looked toward the old house. “I love that place.” She sighed. “Since I was a little girl, I’ve snuck away and hidden there sometimes—you know, to get away. There’s just something about it that I love. I was drawn to it, have been drawn to it forever.”

Well, that figured, but I didn’t say so.

“I found the diary about five months ago. When I read it, I knew I had to be Sally this summer. We seemed like kindred spirits. When I heard they were going to tear the place down, I thought I’d replace the diary, send Jake out here on an anonymous tip, and maybe the diary could be enough to help keep it from being demolished. But I couldn’t seem to part with it, until today.” She paused, looked at Teddy, and then cleared her throat. I thought she might light into him for snooping, but all she said was, “Thank you, Betts.”

I waved away her gratitude. “Does the diary say who the real killer was? Does it clear Sally?”

“Oh, no, not at all. There’s no real indication. Her father was kind of mean, but homicidal intentions on anyone’s part aren’t mentioned. You’ll see when you read it.”

My heart sunk. So Sally was the real killer? Or not?

A VW came into view behind Gram. I smiled at Jake and his big scared eyes.

“Come on, Gram.” I took her hand. “Let’s see if…I don’t know. Let’s get Jake and go in there, together.”

Once the house was cleared and the attic processed for
evidence and fingerprints, and everyone’s statement was taken, I managed to talk Jim and Cliff into letting Gram, Jake, and me enter the attic by ourselves. They probably shouldn’t have, but somehow Jim concluded that they had enough evidence and confessions to protect their case. We scurried up the stairs the second he hesitated to give us anything but a go–ahead.

On our way up the first flight, Jake touched my arm. “It’s paint, Betts. On the piece of fabric you found. It’s paint, not blood. It was the first test the lab did and it was quick and easy. I know now’s not the best time, but I wanted you to know.”

“Thanks, I’m glad you did. It’s somehow…a relief I guess, but I’m not sure that it proves anything. Maybe Sally put it there.”

“Here’s my theory, and I have no proof: Sally hid it there
so she’d have evidence that she didn’t get blood on her dress. If anyone thought they’d seen blood, she could prove it wasn’t. But I really don’t know. I don’t know why she didn’t use it to save herself. We’ll try to ask. And the pain in Sally’s side? Gall bladder. I’m going to do a more thorough investigation, but I don’t think she died of a heart attack, or heart condition. I think it was something with her gall bladder. It could have probably been prevented. It doesn’t matter, I suppose, but I like accurate archives.”