Polkacide (34 page)

Ellie rolled her eyes. "From
their
moms
and
dads
, of
course! You haven't had your caffeine yet, have you?"

I walked up the front steps and stood
beside her on the stoop. "I just didn't expect all this. Everyone's
so busy and organized."

"What can I say?" Ellie
folded her arms and cocked her head. "When you've got it, you've
got it. Did you think I was gonna let my big sister
down?"

"Well, I'm impressed." I nodded and
waved at two silver-haired guys as they passed with a load of
boards. "Maybe Polkapourri has a chance after all."

Ellie laughed and elbowed me in the
side. "Nah, it wasn't me." She threw an arm around my shoulders and
shouted as she led me into Polka Central. "Hey, boss! Look who
finally decided to grace us with her presence!"

The place was even busier
and more crowded inside. Teams of housewives, kids, and senior
citizens wrapped cookies and candy on long tables. Other teams
folded and boxed t-shirts, stuck price labels on CDs, and folded,
stapled, and stacked programs fresh out of a copying
machine.

The hubbub of all those
people talking, laughing, and working mingled with the sounds of
musicians tuning their instruments. To my amazement, I saw the
members of Polish Fly playing side by side with the members of
Eddie Sr.'s band. Some of them were up on stage, working with
Glynne on sound and recording equipment.

My heart swelled as I took
it all in. I'd never imagined seeing so many volunteers so hard at
work on Polkapourri.

Charging out of the heart of
it all, armed with a purple clipboard, was Mom. "Lottie!" She wore
a lemon yellow Polish Fly t-shirt, bluejeans, and work boots. Her
brown hair, instead of being pulled back in a bun, hung loose
around her flushed, beaming face. "What do you think?"

Impulsively, I gave her a
big hug. "How did you
do
all this in such a short
time
?"

Mom pulled back and grinned
at Ellie. "It's all about family, honey! You have your
sisters
to
thank!"

Ellie shook her head.
"Thank
Mom
for
being such a manipulative
slave
driver
. I knew she was good at
guilting
us
into
doing things, but I never knew she was
this
good."

"I made a few phone calls."
Mom giggled. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her so
downright bubbly. "Called in a few favors."

"Kicked a few
butts
. You should've
heard her
screaming
." Ellie slapped her on the back. "I'm
proud
of you, you're so
nasty
."

"I learned from the best, sweetie!"
Mom pressed her cheek against Ellie's and grinned so hard, her nose
crinkled.

"I owe you for this, Mom." Looking
around, I still couldn't get over how many people were there and
how busy they were. After everything that had happened over the
last few days, it was like a miracle. "I owe you big
time."

"No kidding." Mom winked and
punched me lightly in the arm. "You can start paying me back by
getting to work! Pick a job, any job."

"Actually..." I held up the
manila envelope. "...I have to work on this first. I need to talk
to Glynne."

Mom lost a little of her bubbly glow.
"Right, okay." She pointed a finger toward the stage. "She's
packing the lights and sound system."

"Thanks, Mom." I kissed her on the
cheek.

"What's that all about?" Ellie made a
grab for the envelope.

But I swept it out of reach. "It's a
surprise."

"Tell me or I'll punch your
lights out!" Ellie snarled and shook a fist in my face.

"You've been hanging around Mom too
long." I laughed and walked away. "She's a bad
influence."

Moving on through the crowd,
I saw Bonnie hard at work stitching up some torn red stage
skirting. Charlie and a bunch of the ADHD Dozen were on the floor
near the stage, painting and decorating a glittering backdrop.
Milly and Little Louie both looked up and gave me big happy waves
as I passed.

I didn't spot Baba Tereska till I got
onstage. She came hobbling out of the office area, one hand on her
cane, the other gripping a conductor's baton. As I approached, she
went after the handful of musicians hovering around Glynne and
whacked one of them on the head with the baton.

"Shake a leg, you
goldbrickers!" Baba Tereska hit one of the other guys, who cried
out. "Rehearsal starts in five minutes!"

"But we're checking out this
gear," said a third guy.

She hit him, too. "What good
will that do if you can't play
music
? Do you want the first time the
combined Polish Fly/Kubiak Attack have ever
played
together to be opening night
of the 25
^th
annual Polkapourri, in front of thousands of
people?"

The musicians sighed, shook
their heads, and shuffled off across the stage with Baba Tereska at
their heels. She gave the slowest one a smack on the butt for good
measure, then looked back over her shoulder and gave me a big wink.
Like Mom, she seemed to be having more fun than she'd had in
ages.

Glynne, who was crouching
over a mixing board, laughed and slapped her knees. "I have
got
such
a girl
crush on Baba Tereska!"

"You and me both." I nodded
as I watched Baba drive the men down the steps with her baton.
Then, I turned my full attention to Glynne. "Say, could you do me a
huge favor?"

"Absolutely not." Glynne
snorted and kept working on the mixing board. "What do I look like?
Your
employee
or
something?"

"Yes, actually." I hunkered
down beside her and waved the manila envelope in her face.
"But
this
is so
cool, you'd want to do it even if you
weren't
working for me."

"In that case, gimme!" She snatched
the envelope out of my hand.

Before she could open it, I
grabbed hold of her wrist. "Just one condition, Glynne. This
is
top secret
,
okay? You can't tell
anyone
."

"All right already." Glynne
rolled her eyes. "You can be a real buzzkill sometimes, you know
that?"

"Careful, it's fragile." I let go of
her wrist, and she opened the envelope. When she slid out the
record, her eyes got big.

"A 45?" She dropped the
envelope and stared at the shiny black disk. "Complete the
following sentence: this record is cool because..."

"...it's a new recording by Polish Lou
and Eddie Kubiak, Sr." I locked eyes with her and nodded grimly.
"True story."

Glynne shook her head hard,
like she was trying to clear away cobwebs. "Stop jerking me
around."

"I'm not jerking you." I pointed a
finger at the record. "That is the only known copy of the last
recording session of Lou and Eddie before they died."

Glynne gingerly turned the 45, making
the reflected light shift across its surface. "If I lose
it?"

"It's better if you don't know." I
raised an eyebrow and tipped my head forward.

"Remind me to never do any favors for
you again, 'kay?" Glynne shook her head slowly. "Speaking of which,
what's the favor?"

"Can we play this?" I nodded at the
record. "Not over the P.A. system, though."

"If you help me set up," said Glynne.
"I just got done tearing down and packing all my gear."

*****

We hooked up a turntable in
the office area, out of sight, and played the 45. All it took was
one listen, and Glynne was on board.

"Those runs of gibberish in
the bridge sound like some kind of audio on fast forward." Glynne
was jotting notes on a pad as she spoke. "Maybe someone's
voice."

I nodded. "That's what I thought, too.
Can you isolate and slow them down?"

"Absotutely!" Glynne clapped
her hands and hurried past me. "Let me just grab a USB cable and my
laptop. Once I rip it to the laptop, I can do pretty much
anything
with
it."

She rushed through the
curtains, leaving me standing there feeling relieved. If she could
decipher the gibberish, we might finally have a clue to the
killer's identity. We might actually solve the murders in time for
Polkapourri.

For once, I felt like I was covering
the bases.

Then, I heard footsteps on the other
side of the curtains. I assumed they were Glynne's, and I watched
for her to push her way through...but Glynne wasn't the next person
I saw.

"Hey, Lot." It was Peg,
looking like she'd just staggered out of a train wreck. "Mind
filling me in?"

At which point, I realized I hadn't
covered all the bases after all.

Chapter 51

"You found it!" Peg pointed at the 45
on the turntable. "Where was it?"

"Mom had it." I nodded. "Sorry I
didn't call to let you know, but things have been
crazy."

"No worries. I've got
surprises for you, too." Peg walked over and sank onto one of the
desk chairs. "I think I'm finally on to something."

"Me, too." I told her about "Polka
Strikes Back" and Glynne's plan to decipher the fast-forward
gibberish. "I think Dad and Eddie left a message for
us."

Peg yawned and rubbed her face.
"Actually, I have an idea what it might be about."

Just then, the band started
playing in the gym. I had to pull up a chair beside her so we could
hear each other. "What's your idea?"

Peg blinked her bloodshot
eyes. "Eddie Jr. was in bad shape last night. I went to ask him a
few questions and ended up staying all night to talk him through
it."

I felt a twinge of jealousy, which
weirded me out. Eddie and I were ancient news, weren't
we?

"Anyway, he told me
something pretty interesting." She fiddled with her tangled, floppy
'fro, which had seen better days, then gave up and plopped her
hands in her lap. "You know your dad tried to get Father Speedy
fired years ago, right? But did you know
why
he did it?"

As I shook my head, Glynne came back
through the curtains with a laptop and a USB cable. She took a
quick look at the two of us, then went to a far desk to set up her
gear.

Peg watched her go, then
turned back to me. "Father Speedy was a drug addict. He got
addicted to painkillers. Everyone looked the other way except
Lou."

The band stopped playing in the gym,
then started up again after Baba Tereska yelled at them.

Peg kept talking through the
din. "Lou used all his influence against Speedy, but he couldn't
take him down. So Speedy just got worse. Then, one day, there was a
hit-and-run accident. Eddie's wife's car was t-boned, and she ended
up with crippling back injuries. They never found the other
driver." Peg raised her eyebrows behind her huge polka dotted
glasses. "But Lou and Eddie always suspected it was Father
Speedy."

I listened, amazed at what I was
hearing. I'd never known about Speedy's drug use or possible
involvement in the hit-and-run.

"After that, Speedy cleaned
up his act." Peg leaned closer. "Until recently. I guess Eddie Sr.
heard he'd fallen off the wagon."

Glynne walked over and interrupted.
"'Scuse me. Can I just get this?" She tapped the turntable. When we
both nodded, she unplugged it and carried it to the desk where
she'd set up the laptop.

"According to Eddie Jr., his
dad went to Lou for help to get evidence against Speedy and take
him down." Peg nodded. "They came up with a plan and went to a
third person for extra help."

I was hanging on every word.
"Who?"

"
Stush Dudek
." Peg nodded grimly. "The
three of them were working together to get dirt on Speedy.
Now
two
of them
are dead."

"Oh my God." A bitter chill
swept over me as the implications hit home. One person had been in
the forefront of my life over the past week, making things
difficult, but I'd never suspected him of murder.

Not
Father Speedy
. I'd never pegged him
as a killer. Sure, he was greedy and hard-headed and
obnoxious--even cutthroat--but I'd never imagined him taking a
life.

Until now.

And if
Stush
was the only survivor of the
three men who'd been investigating him...

"We need to warn Stush!" My
heart was pounding, my blood rushing with adrenaline. "If Speedy
killed Eddie Sr. yesterday and came after me last night, we don't
have much time! He's tying up loose ends in a hurry!"