Ding Dong Dead

24

“If you and I are going to pull this off,” Caroline said from the passenger seat in Gretchen’s car, “I have to come clean.”

“Okay?”

Gretchen didn’t want to hear more bad news. She’d had an epiphany. She wasn’t the problem. Her family was. Caroline and Nina were like trouble magnets, drawing Gretchen in against her will, making her a magnet, too. All she wanted was to put on a fundraiser, decorate a doll museum, and finish lassoing her hot man.

Why couldn’t they leave her alone? Now she was up to her neck in murders, bones, and hauntings, doing everything possible to destroy the fledgling relationship with Matt Albright.

“Someone in a white van tried to hurt me,” Caroline said. “It wasn’t driver’s error that made me lose control of my car. Another driver rammed into the side of my car twice. The first time I was able to correct my direction and escape injury. The second time the driver was much more determined and I was forced into oncoming traffic.”

Gretchen slowed and pulled over to the side of the street. She put the car in park. Information was coming at her too fast and none of it was good news.

Silence hung heavy inside the car as Caroline let Gretchen absorb what she had learned. Finally, Gretchen said, “Then the driver was trying to kill you.”

“I’m not sure I’d go that far.” Caroline saw Gretchen’s incredulous stare. “All right. It’s possible, yes, that the driver intended to kill me.”

“He didn’t count on your amazing resilience.”

“It was dumb luck that I survived.”

“Someone was killed, though. That van driver obviously didn’t care how many innocent people were killed. That’s unbelievably ruthless.” Gretchen was horrified at what had occurred. “Why would anyone want to kill you?”

“Why would someone leave a threatening note on your windshield?”

“How do you know about that?”

“April mentioned it. She thought that it was a suggestion for a new title for the play. She knew I’d be interested.” Caroline narrowed her eyes, in mother-bear mode. “Come on, Gretchen, after a murder in a cemetery with those exact words written on a tombstone and a skeleton in a house we happen to be converting into a doll museum, do you really think Die, Dolly, Die could be something that innocent?”

“I wanted to block it out,” she admitted. “I really wanted to believe it was a bad joke.”

“You didn’t want to face the truth.”

“And what is the truth?”

Caroline didn’t answer. Gretchen pondered the possibilities. They all led back to Allison’s death in the cemetery and the bones in the museum. “Up until this point in time,” Gretchen said, “we worked on the luncheon without anyone threatening us or trying to kill us.”

“But after Allison was murdered, someone attempted to kill me and you found the note,” her mother said.

“Someone wants us to do what? Abandon the show? Close the museum?” They weren’t dealing with idle threats. They were targets. “We’re in the way?”

“What’s changed?”

“You began working in the house,” Gretchen said.

“And you were at the murder scene.”

“We’re the only ones with keys to the museum. Is that important?”

“I don’t know.”

“Now what?”

“More bad news, I’m afraid. The reason I didn’t want to leave the coffee shop with Andy is because we’re being followed.”

Gretchen stared at passing traffic, first ahead through the windshield, then in the rearview mirror. Flickers of panic shot through her. Was someone following them this very minute, parked close by with a scoped rifle?

“Are you sure?” Gretchen asked. Her Birch imagination was out of control.

Caroline laughed.

“What’s funny about our situation?”

“I’m pretty sure Matt Albright’s behind the tail.”

“What?”

“He’s having us watched. See, there goes his goon.”

A squad car passed at a turtle’s pace. The driver craned to get a good look at them.

“He’s so obvious,” Gretchen said. “How did I miss him? How long has he been behind us?”

“I’m not sure. I admire Matt for wanting to protect us, but how can we help Andy if we’re under police surveillance?”

“I can lose him.”

Gretchen pulled back into traffic as soon as she saw the police car park up the block. She made a U-turn in heavy traffic, jamming on the gas. Caroline let out a surprised squeal. Several horns blared. And they were off.

“He’s turning around,” Caroline called. “He has his lights on.”

Gretchen took a corner, then another.

“We’ve lost him,” her mother said.

Gretchen turned one corner after another until she was satisfied that they weren’t being followed. The only option left for the cop would be to wait at the banquet hall or their home and hope to pick them up at one of their known haunts. With the museum closed to them and April handling the show, they could easily change their patterns.

“Have you considered the possibility that Andy did kill his wife?”

“Yes, it crossed my mind, but I rejected it the moment I saw him again. Andy wouldn’t harm anyone for any reason.”

“How can you be that sure? I don’t share your confidence. He doesn’t have an alibi, and he admits that the relationship with his wife was tenuous. Not very reassuring.” Gretchen’s argument sounded logical, even to her troubled ears. “So you once had a casual friendship with Allison and Andy Thomasia. That doesn’t mean you have to harbor the man from criminal charges.”

“Gretchen, calm down. I can explain.”

“This better be really good, because I’m jeopardizing my relationship with Matt because of your blind faith in a man you haven’t seen for years.”

“I should have told you much earlier that Andy and I were more than friends. We were high school sweethearts. He was my first love. Our senior year we went in different directions, grew apart, but we kept in touch occasionally.”

Gretchen tried to imagine Andy and her mother together. It wasn’t a pleasant thought. She’d never imagined her mother with any man other than her father. “What about Dad?”

“That was long before I knew your father. Come on, don’t you remember your first boyfriend?”

She did remember her first love. She thought of him occasionally and wondered where he was and what he was doing. He held a special place in her heart and always would. But that didn’t mean she would protect him if he was accused of murder.

“Don’t you understand how I feel?” Caroline asked. “Even a little?”

“Knowing helps.”

But not much.

In her opinion, anyone was capable of murder given the right circumstances. Andy Thomasia hadn’t convinced her otherwise. Neither had her mother.