Book Club Bloodshed (13 page)

Missy was an hour late to Books and Crannies. To her surprise, three women were waiting on the two benches outside the store.

“Your sign says you open at ten on Saturdays,” one of them said. She was white-haired and stooped and carrying a bag of used books. Missy had seen this movie before. Brett paid fifty cents for used books, no doubt this woman would take umbrage at the price when she tried to trade them in.

“Sorry,” was all Missy could manage. She unlocked the door and let them inside.

She slumped behind the desk. For a few minutes, she just sat there, not moving, not thinking, while the three women browsed. She wished she’d brought Cody with her today for company. The only thing she had brought was her Kindle, not that she’d be able to read much today.

It was either Ruby or Alison. Missy doubted it was Ruby, so she decided to focus on Alison first. She took out her cell phone and found the woman’s number in her contacts. She called it, having no idea what she was going to say.

“Hey, Missy,” Alison answered. “Sorry to hear about Noreen.”

Missy didn’t even address that statement. “I need to talk to you. Can I come over for lunch?”

Alison hesitated. “No. You can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t be home for lunch.” Alison’s voice was testy. “I’m working. What do you want?”

Missy didn’t know what to say. “I wanted to talk to you about the other night.”

“Not giving up, are you?”

“If it was your best friend, would you?”

“Actually, I would give up especially if I knew she was guilty. At that point, she wouldn’t be my best friend anymore.”

“Noreen’s not guilty,” Missy said.

“Keep saying it, you almost sound like you believe it.”

Missy wanted to reach through the phone and punch Alison. “When do you get off work?”

“Early, and then I’m going out, so don’t even bother, Missy. I’m done talking to you.”

“Noreen didn’t do this, and everybody else has an alibi.” Missy left out the part that Ruby didn’t have an alibi.

“Then why haven’t the
actual
police arrested me?”

Missy didn’t have an answer for that. “I know about you and Anne.”

It was a complete shot in the dark. As far as Missy knew, Alison and Anne had exactly zero connections. But if Alison was guilty, then that meant there was something. Missy wished she could see the woman’s reaction.

“Nice try, Missy. Goodbye.”

Alison hung up.

***

Two hours later, Missy was staring at nothing. Her first three customers were the only of the day so far. She’d thought of driving over to where Alison worked as a tech in the dentist’s office. But Alison wasn’t going to talk to her. And even if Alison did, what would Missy say? She had nothing to go on. Absolutely nothing.

When in doubt, call Mom.

“Hello, dear. I’m so sorry to hear about Noreen.”

“Yeah.” Missy sighed. “I’ve totally let her down.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“You always take the world on your shoulders, Missy. You have a big heart, too big sometimes and this is one of those times. It isn’t your fault that Noreen is in jail.”

“Forget jail, Mom. She’s about to go to prison. For a long time.”

“Which isn’t your fault. I’m sure you’ve done everything you can.”

Missy sighed. “I haven’t done anything. Noreen is in serious trouble and…”

“And what?”

“The worst part is that’s not the only thing I’m down about.”

“What’s going on?”

Missy took a deep breath. She’d opened the door, so she might as well tell Mom what else was bothering her. If she couldn’t tell her mother, who could she tell?

“Noreen and Tyler
dated
.”

“Oh.”

Missy was expecting more of a reaction than that. “It was after high school, sometime during college. My guess would be it happened over the summer.”

“That upsets you.”

“Well…yeah. It kind of does. Neither of them ever told me.”

Mom was quiet for a moment. “I can see how that would bother you.”

“I just don’t get why they would keep it from me…and on top of that, Tyler is…”

“Is what?”

She hadn’t admitted this yet. Not out loud. But she had to say it. She had to tell someone and face it head-on.

“I still have feelings for him.”

“Yes, I know.”

Missy was taken aback. “You know?”

“Yes, dear. I know you better than anybody, probably better than anybody ever will. I’ve watched you your whole life and I can tell what you’re thinking sometimes before you think it.”

Missy smiled. It was nice to have somebody like that, when she thought about it. Someone who would always be watching you, who’d be ready to help you with whatever you needed. Someone who knew you completely but never judged.

“I guess I’ve never stopped having feelings. Our relationship ended strangely…I never really understood what happened. We just drifted apart even though I didn’t want it to happen…it was as much my fault as it was his but by the time I realized, it was too late.”

“He was madly in love with you, Missy,” Mom said.

She laughed. “He had a funny way of showing it.”

“He was a boy. It scared him. Emotions scare a lot of men, your Tyler was no exception.”

Missy didn’t agree. Tyler in high school had been full of confidence. Nothing intimated or scared him, and he was always very open with her.

Except about dating Noreen later.

Maybe he hadn’t told her everything…the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. He’d drifted away, never really explaining in terms she understood the break-up. He swore left, right, up, down, sideways that he still loved her but that he needed room.

“You were both so young,” Mom said. “You weren’t ready to be in love. But I guess nobody is the first time it happens. It’s hard the second time, and the third.”

Missy nodded. “I’ve told other men I loved them, but it wasn’t the same. It was never the same thing I had with Tyler.”

“Yes.”

“And after all these years he came back and I thought…when we see each other there is all this tension and I
know
he still has feelings, I just know it, but his wife is in the picture and I don’t want any part of that.”

“Right. You can’t come between them. Whether Tyler moves on or not, it has to be his decision. He has to be sure. That’s how men are.”

“What am I going to do?”

“The same thing you’ve been doing. You should try to date more. There are a lot of nice men in town.”

Missy couldn’t even think about dating at a time like this. Starting a relationship with another man seemed so daunting and so…
unimportant
right now. Noreen was about to go to prison.

“Thanks for listening, Mom.”

“You don’t have to thank me, dear. I’m just blessed we have this relationship where you feel like you can talk to me. A lot of parents I know aren’t so lucky. I love you, Missy.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

***

The day wore on. A handful of customers came and went, but that was it. Missy hit the motherlode with one man. He came up to the desk with about twenty books in his arms, complaining about how they didn’t have any old Lawrence Sanders novels. Missy knew there were some in the back and told him as much. When he left the store, he needed a couple shopping bags to carry the thirty-five books he’d purchased.

It had been slow for an hour and she’d spent that time thinking about the case, coming up with nothing. She couldn’t take any more of the what-ifs and spinning her wheels. Missy finally relented. She just needed an hour to recharge. So she turned on her Kindle and opened the book she’d been reading for Book Club.

At first she could barely concentrate, reading the same sentences over and over again. The words practically bounced off her mind. But finally, she got back into the flow of the story and was enjoying it. The book was well-done and certainly didn’t deserve the ribbing that Anne had ceremoniously given it. She was getting close to the end and had decided to give it a four-star rating on Amazon and a nice review, hoping that would encourage the author to keep going. The climax was right around the corner and Missy was about to thumb to the next page when her breath caught in her throat.

The words she’d just read had sounded familiar.

She backed up a few sentences and re-read them.

It’s like waking up and finding out gravity stopped working.

Missy shook her head, not believing the first thought that came to mind. “No. No way. There’s no way.”

She read the words a few more times, convinced it was word-for-word what Ruby had said the other night. Exactly the same phrasing. It was an expression she’d never heard before, so she didn’t think it was a common saying. But that meant…

“No way.”

Missy thought back to what else Ruby had said that had stuck out in her mind.

Something about an ant on a balloon in a hurricane.

Missy activated the search feature on her Kindle. She typed in the word hurricane. It appeared only once in the manuscript. Missy jumped to the spot and read:

…like a flea on a leaf in a
hurricane
…

Missy nearly dropped the Kindle. She could understand one phrase popping up inside the book, but not two.

Missy made the last turn with one hand on the wheel. The other was holding the cell phone up to her ear. She was close now.

“Tyler, it’s not a coincidence.”

“Missy, don’t do anything rash.”

“Too late,” she said. “You know me. I’m only a few minutes away.”

“Missy! Wait!”

“If Noreen’s guilty, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?” Missy said.

“Melissa, don’t—”

Missy hung up and put her phone in her pocket. For a moment her foot moved off the gas pedal and hovered over the brake. But she decided to keep going. She’d come this far and she kept thinking about Noreen.

Missy reached her destination two minutes later. The nearest neighbor was probably ten seconds up the road. She parked on the street, next to the mailbox. She looked out the passenger window of the ranch house she’d parked in front of. She thought of calling Lee and Paul too, but the front door of the house opened and Ruby stepped onto her porch. In the twilight she squinted and, realizing it was Missy, waved excitedly at her.

Missy took a deep breath. She really should have brought Cody with her, but she’d left the dog home today and had wanted to get to Ruby’s house as soon as possible.

“Hi, Missy,” Ruby said once Missy got out of the truck. “How long has it been since you’ve been here?”

Missy looked at the ranch house. She had babysat Ruby in this house all those years ago. Ruby’s parents had moved south and given it to her. Missy saw two cars in the driveway, which meant Ruby’s fiancée, John was around.

Missy just looked at Ruby for a moment. A small part of her thought there was no way. This was totally crazy. Ruby was so
small
.

“Ruby, why did—”

The front door opened again, and Missy stopped what she was saying. Ruby’s fiancée had come outside. He was a pretty big guy and broad. He had a belly but that didn’t mean much when it came to strength. Missy was instantly on her guard.

“What were you going to say?” Ruby asked, and something like recognition passed through her eyes. She knew why Missy was here.

And now Missy knew Ruby had killed Anne. She just hoped her phone call had worked.

Ruby’s eyes didn’t leave her as her fiancé stepped off the porch and made his way across the lawn. Missy instinctively took a step backward. This was a mistake. She should have gone to Tyler and forced him to come with her. He would have listened. She should have trusted him.

“You’re Missy, aren’t you?” John asked. Obviously, Ruby had been talking about her.

She took another step back. “I just remembered, I have somewhere to be.”

“She knows,” Ruby said.

John took two big steps and latched onto her arm. For his size and belly, his speed surprised her. His fingers dug into her arm.

She struggled against him but could tell it was useless. He was much stronger than her, and she was still weak and sore from her workout at WiredFit.

“Let me go.”

“Did you call your boyfriend?” Ruby asked. “Does he know?”

“Tyler’s not my boyfriend,” Missy said. She knew it was a ridiculous thing to say at a moment like this, but the words just came out.

“Come on inside,” John said. “We can talk about this.”

“Let go of me!” Missy screamed.

John pivoted and covered her mouth to muffle her shout. She thought back to some half-remembered advice from a self-defense course she’d taken a long time ago. Missy brought a foot up and stomped as hard as she could on John’s toes. The man was surprised by the attack and she must have struck home, because his grip momentarily loosened. She twisted and elbowed and kneed till she connected with something. Missy got loose of him and tried to sprint to her truck, but Ruby got in her way. She crashed into the smaller woman. Ruby wasn’t much physically, but they both went down. Ruby grabbed onto her so she couldn’t get away, while John gathered himself and came over.

“Missy, you should have just stayed out of it,” Ruby said. “Now we have to—”

Headlights hit the ranch house and lit up the lawn. Both Ruby and John froze for a moment, uncertain what to do.

Missy craned her head to see a police cruiser pulling into driveway. She breathed a sigh of relief as both Ruby and John let go of her. Scrambling away, Missy put some distance between herself and them as Tyler got out of the police car, gun in hand.