An Uplifting Murder (26 page)

“More tea, Josie?” Jane asked.

Josie’s mother had run out to the car and folded her daughter into her arms. Small, fierce Jane led her daughter inside, away from the police officer and the prying eyes of sidewalk spectators. In Josie’s warm kitchen, Jane made rafts of buttered toast and strong Lipton tea.

Josie was a dedicated coffee drinker, but her mother’s toast and tea were a soothing throwback to childhood comfort food. Josie had wolfed down six slices so far, each golden brown and dripping butter. The dark bitter tea was heavily sugared.

The caffeine, fat, and sugar had revived Josie. She’d finally stopped shivering.

“Who would do such a thing?” her mother asked for the fourth time.

“To me or to the pigeon?” Josie said.

“Be serious,” her mother said. “This isn’t funny. Only a horrible person would torture a bird like that, even a pigeon. I don’t want that monster coming after my daughter. Or my granddaughter.”

“I don’t know who did it,” Josie said again.

She didn’t. She’d riled up too many people. Any one of them could have smeared blood on her windshield: the two Desiree Lingerie associates, Trish and Rosa. Or Shannon, the receptionist who had followed Frankie to help her lover, Dr. Tino, get free of his marriage and avoid a lawsuit. There was also Victoria, the neighbor who held monthly sales of her shoplifted bargains.

Josie had four people angry at her. Five if you counted Cody the hero. Except it couldn’t have been Cody. The killer was a woman wearing a black-and-white scarf. The killer knew where Josie lived. And Josie’s daughter, Amelia. Josie shivered again. The cold feeling was back, and all the tea in Maplewood wouldn’t take it away.

“It has to be someone, Josie,” Jane said. “Why would that person pick your car?” She slammed down a third mug so hard tea slopped over the side.

Josie was saved from answering by a knock on the door.

“Why, it’s Ted!” Amelia cried in poorly faked surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Josie guessed that her daughter had called Ted and told him what had happened. She was glad Amelia was so bad at lying.

“Hold this for me, will you, Amelia?” Ted handed her a cardboard box, then dropped a gym bag on the floor. “Where’s Josie?”

“Right here,” Josie said, running out to greet him in the living room.

Ted wrapped his arms around her. His shoulders were hard and muscular. He smelled of woodsmoke, cinnamon, hot coffee, and hot man. Josie wished she could have stayed in his arms for the rest of the day. They were far more comforting than tea and toast.

“How are you?” Ted asked.

“Fine,” she said.

“No, you’re not. Let me look at you.”

He held Josie away from him and appraised her carefully. “Your face is too pale. You have dark circles under your eyes and there’s a blood streak on your cheek.”

“That’s bird blood,” Josie said. “I picked some off my windshield. The blood was frozen. It must have melted when I touched it and I smeared some on my face.”

“You’re talking too fast,” Ted said. “That’s a sign of shock in humans.” He quirked an eyebrow. “Unless you’re lying to me.”

“I’m hyped on adrenaline and caffeine,” Josie said. “I’m a little scared, but I don’t think this is anything to worry about.”

“I do,” Ted said. “Anyone cruel enough to hurt a dying bird has no conscience. I’m concerned about you and Amelia both. I’m spending the night on your couch. That gym bag has a change of clothes in it.”

“Good!” Jane said.

Josie was surprised. Her mother usually worried what the neighbors thought. This time, Jane’s concern for her family’s safety won out over her fear of Josie’s lost reputation. Besides, Josie thought, mine is already ruined, thanks to Mrs. Mueller.

“I’m driving Amelia to school tomorrow,” Ted said.

“Yay!” Amelia said. Arriving with the hunky vet would impress her friends. She had a schoolgirl crush on Ted.

“There’s a problem, Amelia,” Ted said. “I’m on call in the Mobo-Pet van from six till two o’clock. Will you be embarrassed riding in a big blue van with a cat, a dog, and a bird painted on the side?”

“I’m cool with it,” Amelia said. “Your van is better than Zoe’s red Hummer. That energy hog is butt ugly.”

“Language, young lady,” Josie said.

“I’m just warning you that your social life could be ruined,” Ted said.

“It won’t be,” Amelia said. “Anybody who makes fun of my ride isn’t my friend.”

Josie remembered how embarrassed she’d been when Jane had worn an ugly brown knit cap and picked her up at school. The mean girls had chanted, “Hi, Patty, Patty, Cow Patty!” and waved at Jane, slyly pointing at her head. Josie’s mother thought they were being friendly and waved back. Josie had never said anything, but the shame still burned in her.

My daughter is more mature at ten than I was sixteen, she thought.

“Can we take Harry with us when we go to school?” Amelia asked. She was testing them, going for the double goal of handsome escort and cute cat.

“Harry is an indoor cat,” Ted said. “Most cats don’t like riding in cars. Their eyes don’t adjust properly to the road as it rushes by and they get upset. He’ll be more comfortable at home.”

“You will have to take Mom, though,” Josie said. “The school will not let strangers drop you off or pick you up, Amelia. You know that. I’ll have to be there to reassure Mrs. Apple that you are with someone safe.”

The wealthy Barrington students were prime targets for kidnappers and custody fights. The school had strict safeguards. A phone call would not be enough to clear the way for Ted. Josie would have to ride along with them.

“I’ll drive the Mustang when I pick you up after school,” Ted said.

“Yay!” Amelia said. His vintage tangerine Mustang was almost as handsome as he was. Amelia thought the old car outclassed the shiniest new BMW and Mercedes anyone else drove.

“Can it be just us in the afternoon? Mom can do the paperwork in the administration office when you drop me off in the morning. Then you can pick me up without Mom.”

Josie was crazy about Ted. She thought he would make a good father, but it was too soon to be forcing him into that role. Too much responsibility too soon could make a man run.

“Sorry,” Josie said. “Your mother is riding shotgun after school, too.”

“But the backseat of a Mustang is small,” Amelia said.

Does my daughter really think I’ll crawl in the backseat so she can sit up front with Ted? Josie wondered. “You’ll fit in it just fine.” Josie’s tone squashed that hope.

Ted changed the subject quickly. “What are you going to do tomorrow, Josie, if I have to answer a house call?”

“I have to go for a haircut tomorrow morning,” Josie said. “It’s a mystery-shopping job. I’ll fax my report to the office afterward. Then I can ride with you. When it’s time to take the van back to the clinic, we can get your car and pick up Amelia together. I’ll be safe at a hair salon. It has scissors and razors. I’ll come straight home and file my report.”

“Deal,” Ted said. “How about if I make dinner tonight? Do you like pasta with Italian sausage, peppers, and onions? I thought I’d cook up a batch.”

“Love it,” Josie said.

“Can I watch?” Amelia asked.

“You can help.”

Josie, Jane, and Amelia followed Ted into the kitchen. He pulled a pot out of the box and handed it to Amelia. “Fill this with water and put it on to boil, please. Then we’ll start cutting up peppers and onions.”

“Onions make me cry,” Amelia said.

“I have a way around that,” Ted said. “No tears, I promise.”

“Do you put the onion under water and then chop it?” Jane asked.

“No, that’s a good method, but the wet knife could slip and Amelia could cut herself.”

“Do you chill the onion?” Josie guessed.

“That one works, too,” Ted said. “But this onion is now room temperature and I don’t want to wait for it to get cold again. I didn’t bring a lime, either. The acid in the lime juice, Amelia, reacts with the gas in the onion and cuts down the tears. Instead I got this.”

He reached in for a box of sugar cubes.

“Sweet!” Amelia said.

“Indeed,” Ted said. “Start chopping while you chew sugar cubes.”

Amelia and Ted chopped and chewed sugar cubes. The girl’s eyes didn’t redden or water.

“It worked,” Amelia said. “Why?”

“Because when you’re chewing the sugar, you breathe through your mouth and that stops the onion’s ‘tear’ gas from getting in your nose.”

“Let me try,” Josie said.

She chewed a sugar cube while she worked with an onion and a knife. Sugar to stop the crying. Such a simple, pleasant solution. Josie hoped she and her daughter could get out of this trap she’d created—without tears.

Chapter 28

Josie sat up in bed, awakened by a brittle crash. Her sleep-logged brain registered a sound like glass breaking. In the front of the house. Only two rooms were there: Josie’s living room and her daughter’s bedroom.

“Amelia!” Josie cried.

She rushed to her daughter’s room. In the glow of the night-light, she could see Amelia sleeping. Harry the cat sat up by her, eyes wide and ears alert.

“You heard it, too, didn’t you, boy?” Josie whispered.

Amelia slept undisturbed. Josie decided it was safer if she stayed that way.

Upstairs, Stuart Little sounded the alarm with frantic barks. Josie ran back to her room and pulled the dog repellent from her purse. If the spray could stop rabid dogs, it should work on robbers. She threw on her robe, slid into her slippers, and crept down the hall to the living room.

“Ted?” she called softly.

He wasn’t on the couch. His blanket was thrown back and his pillow was on the floor. The front door was wide open. Ted had run outside in a hurry. A light popped on upstairs at Mrs. Mueller’s house.

Stuart Little’s barks grew louder and deeper until he sounded twice his size. The lapdog had turned into a fierce protector.

Josie grabbed the living room phone out of its cradle in case she had to call 911. Armed with the phone and the dog repellent, Josie ran outside and was hit by a blast of chill wind. She froze when she saw a man standing under Amelia’s window. Josie moved into the shadows along the porch and raised the spray, hoping to hit him in the eyes. Then she saw it was Ted, dressed in the same blue flannel shirt and jeans he’d worn last night.

“What is it?” she asked, joining him on the snowy lawn. “What’s wrong?”

“Looks like a big chunk of snow slid off your roof,” he said.

“I heard a sound like glass breaking,” Josie said.

“The snow slide took the icicles on the gutter along with it. I don’t want to worry you, but you should see this.”

He pointed to footprints leading from the sidewalk to the pile of snow under Amelia’s window. More footprints led back to the sidewalk, forming a deep V in the yard. Ted’s footprints made a third track beside them.

“Oh, my God, someone was trying to steal my girl,” Josie whispered.

Ted put his arm around her. “He won’t get past the two of us,” he said.

He? Or was it “she”? Josie wondered. Officer Doris Ann Norris’s warning replayed in her mind:
Watch your daughter. Whoever is after you may decide your girl is the way to get to you.

“I’d better call Officer Norris,” Josie said. “Do you think a man or a woman left those prints?”