Classic Revenge (18 page)

"You're at my house," the man snarled. Trish jerked
her attention to the not-so-friendly man, a little concerned about the tone of his voice. About to speed off,
regardless of whether they drew attention to themselves or not, she saw the man's eyebrows suddenly shoot up
as he glanced in the back seat.

"Hi," Edna said cheerfully, still sprawled in a horizontal position.

Up ahead, Trish saw Mary get in her car and slam the
door. She turned quickly to look at the man. "Oh, silly
me, I just realized where we are. Don't worry, Sally," she
said with a glance over her shoulder, "we'll be at the hospital in no time."

"Sally?" Millie asked, turning to stare at her. "Who
are you talking to?"

No doubt about it, Trish was going to strangle her.
"Thank you for your time," she said quickly to the man
as she put the car in gear and pulled away, noticing that
Mary had just reached the end of the street.

"Oh! You didn't want to use her real name. That was
good thinking," Millie said. "That man was sort of
creepy, wasn't he?" Trish glanced in her rear view mirror and saw the man standing there, hands on hips,
watching them. She couldn't agree with Millie more.

"Can I sit up now?" Edna asked impatiently.

"No!" Trish and Millie said in unison.

"At least tell me what's going on!"

"We're following Mary again," Millie said.

With a pointed look at Millie, Trish said, "I hope she
goes back home. We really are lost, you know."

Millie just waved a hand in dismissal. "We can stop
and ask directions if we need to. What we're doing is
important."

"I hate to remind you girls, but what we're doing is
exactly what Joe warned us not to do. If we're gone
much longer I'm going to have a heck of a time smoothing his ruffled feathers."

Trish grimaced. "You're right, it is getting late. Let's
follow for just a few more minutes. Maybe we'll get
back on a street we recognize. I hope so, anyway. This
atmosphere sure is depressing."

"Do you think this place is important to our investigation?" Millie asked.

"It's probably not," Trish admitted ruefully. "More
than likely, Mary was just visiting a friend or relative. I
don't think I could find it again, anyway"

"I know I couldn't," Edna said from the back seat.
"I'm so turned around right now that I actually thought
Millie's question to the man about where we were made
sense!"

Trish started laughing, but Millie only shook her head.

Mary didn't go back home. They followed her for
several miles until she finally pulled into the parking lot
of a Jim's Restaurant. Trish entered through the second
driveway and parked a few rows behind Mary's car,
where they could see inside the restaurant through the
large glass panes. "Edna, we'll leave in just a minute,"
she promised. "The main street there runs directly into
Interstate 10, so we're not lost anymore. Let's just see
who she's meeting."

But Mary wasn't meeting anyone. They watched as
she disappeared for a moment behind a wall, then came
back out wearing a different shirt with black slacks-a
uniform. "Aha," Millie exclaimed, peering through her
binoculars, again unnecessarily, "this is where she
works!"

"Can I sit up now?" Edna asked.

"Oh, of course," Trish said. "Sorry"

Edna sat up and stretched. "Why is she working as a
waitress when she's a bookkeeper?"

Trish shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe she's
not a very good bookkeeper, like Mark said."

"What are we waiting for?" Millie asked. "Let's go in."

"Not now, Millie-I really don't have time. Joe's
probably already home by now"

With one last look through the restaurant window,
Trish put the car in reverse. "I think we've done enough
spying for one day. Finding out where Mary works is a
godsend"

Millie leaned back in her seat and yawned loudly.
"I'm hungry. Why don't we pick up some chicken on the
way home, and we'll call Joe over to tell him what we
found out? That way you won't have to tell him by yourself," she said to Edna.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Edna wasn't worried
about Joe getting angry, because he would understand,
but since she was hungry too, it would be a great way to
kill two birds with one stone. Satisfied with the plan, she
didn't feel guilty at all about justifying her reason not to
have to relate the day's events by herself.

Forty-five minutes later, they were in Trish's kitchen
spreading plates and silverware on the table when Joe
walked in carrying a small cardboard box. Edna smiled
at him as she carried napkins to the table. "Mmm,
something smells awfully good in here," he said.

"We've been cooking all day," Millie chuckled.

"And you even went to the trouble of packing it in
colorful containers. What's the special occasion?"

"Just knowing we have a handsome man to share our
meal with does the trick," Millie quipped.

Edna walked over and gave him a quick kiss on the
cheek. "Hi, honey. You sure got here fast. What are you
carrying?"

"I'll tell you in a minute." Joe placed the box on the
countertop and sat down. "Who wants to start telling
me about what you ladies did today?"

"Oh, no, let's not do that yet," Trish said, walking over
with a pitcher of iced tea. "Let's eat first. I'm starved"

"I am too," Edna said, passing around the box of
chicken. "Besides, we want to know how it went with
Sam."

During the meal, Joe told them about his visit. "I'll
have to say he looks better than the last time we saw
him. I hate to say this, but I think the robbery may have
sparked some life back in him. He's angry, not about
the money, but about losing Susan's jewelry"

Trish sighed. "The sad thing is that I doubt if the police will ever recover anything that was stolen"

"They won't even look if they think Sam staged the
whole thing," Millie pointed out.

"Did he give you any information on Mary Chavez
or Tom Jones?" Trish asked.

Nodding, Joe chewed and then swallowed. "Yes, but
it was like pulling teeth. Sam doesn't like to say anything negative about people"

Millie snorted inelegantly. "You can say that again.
When we first suspected Susan was murdered, Sam about
chewed our heads off. He wouldn't help us at all until we
threatened not to give him any peace until he did."

Joe chuckled. "Torture works every time. I did find
out a few interesting things. First of all, Sam believes
Mary lied on her application about being a full-charge
bookkeeper. She had a lot of trouble staying up with the
work load. He decided to do on-the-job training with
her, and she did show some improvement. But when the
other company wanted to use their own bookkeeper, Sam said it was as though Mary went through a sudden
personality change. She was really angry and became
downright mean. He hasn't heard from her since. He
doesn't know what she's doing now."

Trish remembered the show of temper Mary had displayed outside the mobile home earlier. She didn't know
the woman, but it appeared that she used anger quite often to make her feelings known. God help the customer
who complained about the food or service at the restaurant where she now worked.

Edna stood and began clearing the table. "What did
you learn about Tom?"

"Tom Jones" Joe nodded and took a sip of his coffee.
"Tom worked for Sam for a number of years. He supervised jobs, ran crews. Around the last year or so, before
Sam retired, Tom hinted around that he was having some
financial problems, so Sam gave him some work on the
side, things Tom could do on his own. Tom wanted to
buy the company when he found out Sam was selling,
but Sam knew Tom wasn't experienced enough to run a
whole operation. Well, Tom wasn't real happy about it,
and it pretty much destroyed their relationship. It turns
out the new guy didn't like him, either. Tom didn't last
long. Sam doesn't know what he's doing now"

Trish sat back and crossed her arms. The two former
employees might not be murderers, but they were still
the only two leads at the moment. If Tom Jones and
Mary Chavez could be eliminated from the list of suspects, then the next step would be customers Sam had
before he sold his business. Sam would surely give
them trouble over that line of thinking.

"So, what did my favorite sleuths find out today?"
Joe asked, his eyes twinkling. He was either really get ting into this detective stuff, or he was ready to pounce
on them for interfering needlessly. Better tread carefully, Trish thought as she glanced at Edna.

Of course, Millie had never understood the meaning
of tread carefully. "We found out where Mary Chavez
lives and where she works"

Joe's eyes narrowed slightly. "I knew you were going
to try to find out where she lives. How did you also find
out where she works?"

Edna started to respond, but Millie beat her to it.
"We got lucky when we found her house because she
was just leaving. We thought of a way to approach her,
so we followed her." Millie had a self-satisfied expression on her face, obviously proud of their accomplishment, but Joe didn't look impressed. Fortunately, Millie
left out the part about the mobile home.

"She made a stop first at a mobile home park, but we
don't know who she was visiting. After that we followed her to the place she works. She's a waitress at a
restaurant" Trish groaned silently and sent an apologetic look to Edna for The Mouth.

Joe took a deep breath and asked, "Are you sure she
didn't see you following her?"

"Not a chance," Millie blurted smugly. "Edna and I
took turns ducking down low in our seats. Even if Mary
had spotted us, she wouldn't have seen three women at
the same time."

Trish could tell Joe was trying to hide a grin. That
was a good sign. He might think their methods were
amateurish, which, when hearing Millie tell it, certainly sounded that way, but at least he wasn't mad.

"I see I made a very wise decision today," Joe
sighed.

"What is that, dear?" Edna asked, obviously relieved
also.

Joe reached over and grabbed the box he had brought
in. Opening it, he pulled out a small object and handed
it to Edna.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It's a cell phone. I'm sure the only reason you didn't
let me know the extent of what you were doing today
was because you didn't have a way to get in touch with
me. That won't be a problem any longer."

Edna kept her smile in place and swallowed. "How
thoughtful you are, dear."

"Take a left here." Trish sat with Millie in the backseat of Joe and Edna's Expedition. It had taken over an
hour the night before to convince Joe that talking to
Mary Chavez was necessary in their investigation, but finally he had agreed on two conditions: one, that he come
along, and, two, that he drive. He had heard enough horror stories over the years not to trust any of them to drive
while they were excited.

"Let's go over the plan one more time," Edna said
from the front seat. "Millie, please listen carefully."

"Hey, did you forget that I came up with the plan in
the first place?"

"No, dear, and it's a good plan. But you do seem to
have a habit of straying off-script. This might be our
only chance to find out what we can about Mary. We
don't want to blow it."

Millie sighed deeply. "Oh, all right, go over it one more time if it will make you happy. I feel like I'm in
grade school"

"Sometimes you behave like you're in grade school."

Trish groaned to herself. They didn't have time for
this. "First of all, we find out what section Mary is working in. Then, we go in and order dinner. While Mary is
taking the order, Edna tells her that she looks familiar.
We engage her in conversation and come to realize we
had seen her at Sam's office a few years ago. We ask her
if she heard Susan had passed away. Everybody needs to
watch her reaction carefully. If she gets curious as to
what we're doing in the area, we mention that we've
been visiting a friend.

"During the whole meal, we keep asking friendly
questions and try to find out as much as we can about her
life now. Remember, we don't want to appear too curious
or suspicious in any way, just friendly. Has everybody
got it?"

"Got it," Edna and Millie replied in unison.

"Is that it up ahead?" Joe asked.

"Yes," all three of them replied, and excitement began to fill the air.

Joe parked the car and waited a few minutes for the
women to spot Mary through the large windows. Soon
they were entering the restaurant, for all appearances
just a group of friends out for dinner. There was a sign at
the hostess station asking that patrons wait to be seated.
When a young, pretty teenager approached them and
asked what there preference was, Millie pointed toward
the back and said they'd like to be seated in that area.

"The smoking section it is. Follow me, please."
Smiling, the young girl missed the look of dismay cross Edna's face. Edna had quit smoking several years ago
after developing an allergy to cigarette smoke.