The Ghost and the Dead Deb

CHAPTER 14

The Little Sister

“Mind your own business about my sister Leila,” she spit at me. “You leave my sister Leila out of your dirty remarks.”

“Which dirty remarks?” I asked. “Or should I try to guess?”

—Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, 1949

WHEN I ARRIVED on the selling floor, I saw Sadie had taken over the register. Mina stood by the new-release table, wringing her hands as she peered at Chief Ciders speaking to Bud on the sidewalk.

I rolled the handcart up to Mina and asked her to help me arrange the titles—a task I’d hoped would get her mind off what was to come. Within five minutes, however, the bell over the front door tinkled and Chief Ciders came swaggering in.

“Mina Griffiths,” he called.

The pale, freckle-faced girl seemed to go even paler.

“Take it easy, Mina,” I said softly. “He’s just going to ask you a few questions.”

“You know why I’m here?” asked Ciders, striding up to her.

“Yes,” said Mina.

“You want to come to the station to talk to me about Johnny or answer my questions here?” asked Ciders.

“There’s no need for Mina to have to go to the station, Chief,” I interjected.

“That’s right,” agreed Sadie, rushing up like a mother hen. “There’s plenty of privacy in the Community Events room. You can talk to Mina in there.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I told Sadie. “You cover the register.” Sadie nodded and I led the way into the adjoining room, set up two folding chairs, and gestured for Mina and the Chief to sit down.

I took my place, standing behind Mina, and the Chief looked at me the same way he had back at the Finch Inn—like a wad of chewing tobacco had just gotten stuck in his esophagus.

“You can go now, Mrs. McClure.”

“Oh . . . um . . . but couldn’t I stick around?” I threw a worried glance at Mina.

“No,” barked Ciders. “Please give us some privacy.”

“Oh, okay . . .” I sighed. At least he’d said please, I thought, feeling my spine stiffen. I spun on my heel, but then slowed my movements and drifted ever so languidly toward the archway that led to the main store. I lingered there, trying to eavesdrop. Unfortunately, there was nothing to hear. When I turned around again, I found the Chief squinting at me with open hostility.

“Mrs. McClure, you’ve already given me your statement. If you don’t leave the premises, I will have to take Mina to the station—”

“No, don’t do that,” I said. “I’ll go. I just have to get my purse and car keys upstairs, okay? It’ll take a few minutes.”

“Fine, you do that.”

Cursing silently, I snagged the Stendall file before ascending the stairs. Then I dropped the file on my bed and grabbed my purse and car keys. I told Sadie I’d be back in an hour and, in the words of Chief Ciders, left the premises.

A brand-new All Things Bed & Beautiful superstore had opened recently on the highway and I had yet to check it out. I decided to spend an hour away from “the premises” there. We needed a new shower curtain, Spencer would love a set of Spider-Man sheets, and I hadn’t been able to find imported English lavender shampoo since I’d left Manhattan. If the superstore carried it, I’d probably indulge myself with one bottle of the obscenely expensive product—if only to use as a once-a-week treat for the next six months.

Behind the wheel of my used blue Saturn, I powered down the windows to enjoy the warm summer day. I drove along Cranberry, past the outlying suburbs, and through the thick Quindicott woods where an occasional clearing would reveal a small farm. The radio, which would normally be blaring Radio Disney’s hip-hop “light” for Spencer’s amusement, stayed off as I tried to consider Johnny Napp and whether or not he was capable of murder.

I came to the highway on-ramp and joined the relatively sparse traffic pattern. The thick Quindicott woods flanked the four-lane road. Oaks, pines, and maples flew by as I sped along. After a few miles, I noticed the sunset-orange Comfy-Time Motel sign looming up ahead and got to thinking about what Eddie Franzetti had said—that Victoria Banks and her friends had been staying there last night when Victoria disappeared.

“Jack thinks Victoria had a strong motive to kill Angel,” I muttered. “Which I suppose she does . . . especially if she thinks Johnny killed her sister and got away with it. She could have killed Angel out of spite and revenge and simultaneously set up Johnny as the killer . . . the perfect crime . . . if she gets away with it . . .”

As I considered that maybe Victoria’s two friends were still at the motel, my heart beat a little faster, and my foot pressed a little harder on the gas pedal. “I’m sure if Jack were here, he’d have me stop,” I continued to mutter. “I mean, what harm could it do to check out the parking lot for a black Jag with a blue and white bumper sticker?”

Good idea, baby.

I jammed on the brakes and swerved to the shoulder. A surprised driver laid on the horn behind me.

“God in heaven! Jack?! Is that you?”

It ain’t the Easter Bunny.

I exhaled, my hands shaking as if I’d just been spooked. Then I realized—I had.

“I don’t understand!” I cried, automatically searching the empty confines of my Saturn. “I’m not in the bookstore, I never heard you outside the bookstore—you said you couldn’t leave the bookstore!?”

Ya got me, doll. All I know is I was back there, bored to tears with Ciders’s less than ingenious questioning of freckle-face, thinking about what you’d have to say about it, and suddenly I’m in your head again . . . but this isn’t exactly like the store . . . something’s different . . . I can’t explain it worth a plugged nickel.

“Nickel . . . Jack . . . the buffalo nickel from your files.” I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out the dull silver coin, running my thumb along the grooves of the engraved bison. “You must be attached to it somehow . . . either that or you’re still trapped in the store and you’re . . . I don’t know, transmitting through it, like some kind of cosmic cell phone.”

Your chatter sounds crazy to my ears, doll: but then I used to think this whole life-after-death thing was a coffee-and-doughnuts grift. I’d always trucked with Harry Houdini on that score: ghosts were just a carnival racket. I’d say this whole spirit thing was a buffalo, too . . . if it weren’t me who ended up the spirit . . .

I gathered my wits and pulled back on the highway, then quickly turned off again into the paved parking area of the newly built Comfy-Time Motel. The place was part of a national chain of budget lodgings that provided clean, affordable rooms for travelers—just the sort of place you’d find on a highway outside of Anytown, U.S.A., its design and décor exactly the same whether you were standing under the blistering sun of Albuquerque, New Mexico, or the threatening snow clouds of Erie, Pennsylvania.

The white-and-orange-trimmed structure was basically U-shaped with an office at the bottom of the U, breaking the wings in half. There was parking on the outsides of the U, and a large swimming pool tucked between the wings. The model of stark, modern efficiency, the Comfy-Time was the antithesis of the charming and eccentric Queen Anne Victorian that was the Finch Inn, which is why I hoped its existence wouldn’t hurt Fiona and Barney’s business.

I coasted slowly around the lot, squinting at the parked cars in the bright afternoon sun. I counted only seven. That was good news for Fiona and Barney—not many guests—but bad news for me. Most of the cars were American made: a red Buick; two Ford pickups, one green and one blue; a beige Chevy van; and two SUVs, both white. No black Jaguar. The only black car in the lot was an Audi.

“Dead end,” I muttered.

Hey, baby, watch your language.

“No offense. I’m just disappointed there’s no black Jag.”

Doesn’t matter. You’re not done here. That postal worker character, Seymour, said he’d seen Victoria Banks and her friends drive away in a black sedan after last night’s reading. You’ve got a black sedan right in front of you, and now that I’m here, I’m curious. Victoria’s friends might still be checked in.

“But that black Audi might not be their car,” I pointed out.

Only one way to find out, said Jack. Park and ask.

I was a little nervous about doing just that, but I found myself cutting the engine nonetheless. As I swung open the door and stepped onto the hot, gray pavement, I tried to reassure myself that with Jack in my head advising me, I could handle a little snooping.

Don’t worry, baby, cooed Jack. Bracing a couple of coeds will be a piece o’ cake.

“Are you crazy? I’m just going to the office to ask if Victoria Banks and her friends are still checked in. I’m not about to brace anybody.”

We’ll see.

The motel had two stories, with second-floor access via a second-floor walkway that ran completely around the entire structure. The rooms lined both the top and ground floor, and each had an outside door, painted orange, and a tiny window with a white shade. Rooms on the outside of the U faced the paved parking lot and the thick woods beyond. Inside, guests looked out at the pool.

I was about to head for the office when I recognized one of the young women who’d escorted Victoria out of my store last night. The pale woman was obviously coming back from the pool, her flip-flops clip-clapping along the concrete sidewalk under the eaves on the ground floor of the motel. Her curly red hair was wet and slicked back, and a big white motel bath towel modestly circled her hips—though the powder-blue string-bikini top she was wearing left little to the imagination.

You can say that again!

“Be quiet, Jack.”

That legal, what she’s wearing?

“Yes. And I hope she keeps that towel around her hips because I’m betting that bikini has a thong bottom.”

And a thong is?

“Uh . . . let’s just say you’d think it was indecent.”

You don’t say? Well, it looks like I’ve finally come across something I like about your century.

“Excuse me,” I called, hurrying to catch up to the young woman. “Aren’t you a friend of Victoria Banks?”

The girl stopped, key in one hand, the other one grasping a doorknob to room 18. At the sound of my voice, she turned and squinted in my direction.

“Are you . . . calling me?” she asked, eyes unfocused. “I’m not wearing my glasses.”

By then I was at her side. “Yes,” I replied. “I’d like to ask you some questions . . . about Victoria.”

“Oh, I don’t know if I can answer them,” was her suddenly guarded reply.

Just then the door to the motel room opened from the inside, and I saw angry dark eyes peering out from the gloomy interior. It was the raven-haired woman with the pierced lip, the one who practically threw me against the wall and called both me and Angel Stark a bitch last night at Buy the Book.

“Who are you and what do you want?” the young woman demanded.

I was glad she didn’t recognize me. But I wasn’t surprised. She’d only glimpsed me for a second the day before, and I had looked much different in my businesslike pantsuit and contact lenses and with my hair in a tight French twist. Today my green eyes were behind black-framed glasses, my shoulder-length auburn hair was down, and my attire of khaki pants and white cotton blouse was much more casual.

“The police were already here, and we told them everything we know,” continued the raven-haired girl.

Come down fast and hard, Jack barked in my head. She’s pushing. You push back. Wedge your body into the room so she can’t shut you out—

“No.” I silently told Jack. “I’ve got an angle. Let’s try it my way.” Then, in a gentle voice, I told the two coeds, “I’m not from the police. I just want to ask a few questions—”

The raven-haired girl cut me off. “Then you must be a reporter. Go away!” She grabbed her friend’s arm, dragged the girl into the motel room, and slammed the door in my face.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

Say, baby . . . your way didn’t exactly work like a charm, did it?

I sighed.

Want some pointers?

I sighed again.

Make like you’re leaving. Get in your car and drive toward the exit.

I did. The end of the motel drive and entrance to the highway was just ahead. “Now what? Forget the interrogation and go for the Spider-Man sheets?”

No. Turn around and drive all the way around the motel, pull up close enough to spy on their door but not so close that they can spot your car.

I followed Jack’s directions. Now what?

Now wait.

“For what?”

For the door to open . . .

I waited five minutes. Ten. Fifteen. It wasn’t all that bad actually. Jack kept me entertained with a long story about a bookie and a call girl. After about twenty minutes of suppressing blushes, I noticed the girls’ motel room door open. The raven-haired coed with the pierced lip strode out in denim shorts and a black tank top. She walked toward the office.

Go, now, baby. Knock on that door and try your little spiel again. Curly’s inside and she’s the softer touch . . .

I knocked, expecting the girl inside to ignore me, but to my surprise, she slowly cracked the door.

“I’m here to help, please give me a chance to explain,” I quickly said. “I’m a member of the Quindicott Business Owners Association, and I’m here to express our community’s concern over the news that your friend is missing and to see if there’s anything at all we can do to help you find her.”

Through her small, frameless, rectangular glasses—which looked exactly like the two-thousand-dollar pair I saw in a Newport boutique window two months ago but could in no way afford—the redhead looked at me with wide eyes. “Oh . . . so, you’re not a reporter or anything?”

“No. I’m not. See no notebook, no recorder”—I spread my empty hands—“and I’m all alone.”

If you don’t count me.

“Jack,” I silently warned. “Stop cracking wise.”

The door slowly opened all the way, and I stepped through. Because of the strong sunlight, it took me a few seconds to adjust to the darkness of the room.

“My name is Penelope Thornton-McClure,” I said, reaching out.

Hearing my name, the young woman’s expression seemed to relax a bit. It made sense. The McClure name was well enough known among the well-heeled set. Likely as not, this girl had gone to boarding school with one of Calvin’s cousins.

She shook my proffered hand. “Courtney Peyton Taylor,” she said. She’d changed from her bikini into a small white T-shirt and paisley pink capri pants.

I smiled and she offered me a chair. The room was gloomy and untidy, one of the beds still unmade, as if someone had just gotten up. Courtney walked to the window and opened the blinds, dispelling some of the darkness. I was about to begin asking some questions when I heard the sound of approaching steps. Angry Girl had returned with a bucket of ice—and a vengeance.

“What the hell is this!” screeched the young woman, barreling toward me.

“Stephanie, will you take it easy!” cried Courtney.

“No!” She turned on her friend. “Why did you let her in?!”

“She’s not a reporter,” said Courtney.

Stephanie narrowed her black eyes. “What is she then? And why is she here?”

“The Quindicott Business Owners Association wants to help locate your missing friend,” I told her. “We feel terrible that this happened in our town, but we have all sorts of resources at our disposal.”

“Oh,” said Stephanie. A few seconds later, she seemed to physically deflate. With a sigh, she set the bucket of ice on a nightstand and fished into her pocked for an elastic hair band from her denim shorts. “What sort of resources?”

“Well, we can distribute flyers with Victoria’s picture, for instance,” I explained as Stephanie violently pulled her short black hair into a tight ponytail. “We can canvass the surrounding areas, contact other businesses in nearby communities. We can even mount a search party if necessary.”

I wasn’t lying to these women. Members of our Business Owners Association had done these very things last year, when Milner Logan’s rottweiler broke free of his leash and wandered off. Bruno was eventually located by sunbathers while chasing sea gulls along Ponsert Beach five miles away, and the happy couple was eventually reunited.

“I’m sure we can help, Ms . . . ?”

“Usher. Stephanie Usher.”

Courtney looked at me with hopeful eyes, while Stephanie sunk down on the unmade bed.

You got ’em, doll, good work. Now start the real questions. Just get ’em to spill whatever they’ve got—exactly when and how Victoria vanished. What her thinking was when she came to your store yesterday . . . anything and everything . . .

“What I need to know is when Victoria vanished, and under what circumstances—”

“We already told the police everything,” said Stephanie.

“I understand that,” I replied evenly. “But we can’t help you if we don’t know all the facts. Why were you in town, for instance?”

Stephanie flopped backward until she sprawled across the bed. “It wasn’t my idea,” she grunted.

I faced Courtney.

“We came to attend Angel Stark’s reading at the local bookstore,” Courtney explained, one eye on her friend.

“Oh,” I replied, feigning surprise. “So you’re fans of the author?”

“Ha!” Stephanie cried. “Not hardly. I’d like to kill that bitch.”

I silently queried Jack. “Did you hear that?!”

Cool your heels, doll. There’s a big difference between an expression and a confession.

“Angel Stark’s book . . . mentions Victoria’s family,” Courtney added. “Victoria was very upset by some of the things written in that book.”

“So Victoria came here to confront Ms. Stark?” I pressed.

“Oh, no,” Courtney replied.

“Hell, yeah!” said Stephanie, sitting up again. “You wouldn’t believe the things that money-grubbing hack bitch said about Victoria’s family, her dead sister. Hateful things. Libelous things. Vicky loved her big sister. That stuff made her sick.”

“But why confront the author in public like that?” I asked. “Aren’t there other ways—attorneys, lawsuits? The Banks are an influential family. Surely they have resources.”

Stephanie sneered again. “Her parents didn’t want to get involved. They’re in denial, like it’s just a bad dream. They think if they sue it will just give Angel more publicity. So they’re hiding in Europe for the summer, and probably the fall, too, assuming it will all just go away—blow over by Christmas.”

“Tell-all books like this usually do,” I pointed out.

“That’s what I said,” Courtney cried, looking not at me but at her friend. “But Victoria couldn’t sit still for it—”

“I don’t blame her,” Stephanie said. “Her parents might be too caught up in ‘how things look’ to fight Angel, but she isn’t.”

“Was Victoria upset enough to . . . try something . . . I don’t know . . . desperate?” I asked carefully.

“Like what?” asked Courtney.

I shrugged. “Like maybe hurt Angel in some way . . . physically.”

Keep your eyes open, baby, advised Jack.

Stephanie and Courtney exchanged a look.

“They know something,” I silently told Jack.

Or suspect something. You notice they haven’t denied the possibility.

“She’s been pretty upset since Angel’s book came out two weeks ago,” Courtney finally replied. “She got real secretive, too. Kept getting late-night phone calls on her cell—wouldn’t tell us who it was that was calling her though, and we usually shared everything. I also think she was e-mailing Angel . . . threatening her.”

Stephanie was frowning at Courtney, like she wasn’t too happy the girl was continuing to talk.

“Did Victoria receive any calls last night, before she vanished?” I asked, returning to the missing persons line of questioning.

“She got a few while we were at the bookstore,” said Courtney, “but she didn’t check her messages until we got back here. I don’t know who called her and she didn’t tell us.”

“Is her cell phone here in the room?” I asked hopefully, even though I was sure the police would have impounded it.

“It’s not,” said Stephanie. “Victoria took it with her when she went out last night. Said she wanted to get a soda from the vending machine and make a call.”

Courtney gave Stephanie a sidelong glance and added, “She probably wanted some privacy . . .”

“This was what time?” I asked.

“A little after midnight,” said Courtney.

“I think it was closer to one a.m.,” said Stephanie.

“So she stepped out for a soda and you think to place a private call and then you never saw her again?”

Both women silently nodded their heads.

“Have the police searched the area?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” Courtney replied. “That one policeman—the cute one, Officer Falconetti—”

Franzetti, I thought, but didn’t correct her.

“—he searched the whole place, the swimming pool, the laundry room, looked around the parking lot and the woods, talked to the people in the motel office and all the guests. He even had the motel people let him search every empty room, but he didn’t find anything he said looked out of the ordinary.”

“The cop also said that because she was an adult, they still had to follow up on all known addresses and confirm she was really a missing person,” added Stephanie.

“Officer Falconetti did say he’d take a photo of her and send it to the State Police,” noted Courtney, “so they could put out a bulletin . . . I gave him one I took of Victoria last week . . . I’m sorry I don’t have another to give you for the flyers.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” I said. “We can talk to the police and work something out.” Then I rose. “Well, thank you for all of your help . . . Will you be staying in town much longer?”

Stephanie’s face was set. “I’m not leaving without Victoria.”

I walked to the door, then paused. “One more thing. Is it possible Victoria simply went back home to Newport or somewhere else without telling either of you?”

“Not unless she hitchhiked,” Stephanie said. “She left her purse here, along with her wallet—the police took them, though.”

Courtney nodded in agreement. “Victoria can’t drive, and Stephanie’s license is suspended. I’m the only one with a valid driver’s license. We came up together, in my Audi. It’s still parked outside.”

I peered through the window. “The black one?”

Courtney nodded.

“Well, thank you for your time . . . We’ll be in touch,” I said as I slipped out the door. I left Stephanie with her perpetual sneer in place, and Courtney’s doe-eyes imploring me to use all of my resources to find her friend.

And I would. Not just for their sakes, or Victoria’s, but for Johnny’s, Bud’s, and Mina’s.

Where you going, doll? said Jack as I began walking toward my car.

“I’m leaving,” I replied.

Oh, no you’re not. You haven’t given the place the up-and-down.

“The what?”

You haven’t cased the joint, baby.

“Cased the joint? You’ve got to be kidding. The police already searched the area.”

Jack laughed.

“Why are you laughing? What do you expect me to find?”

That’s easy, doll. You’ll find what they didn’t.