Chapter 30
“Oh my God, Mom. That was horrendous. I’m glad you offered to drive us home. Can you get us out of this parking lot any faster? My head is spinning. It was awful in there. I never expected it to be so . . . so . . .”
“Catastrophic?”
“Yeah, that’s a good word.”
“Look at the bright side. You were on the right track, Phee. Even though you did get it wrong in the end.”
“I know. I know. So much for the ‘Big Reveal.’ And all this time I was certain Gretchen Morin was the brain trust behind the book. Huh. Turned out she was only a small part of the scheme. Imagine that. Thomas Nolan wrote the book with Jerry White. And they got the idea from Tom’s sister, Peg. I should have realized Peg is a nickname for Margaret. And worse yet, I didn’t even connect Izzy’s dog hairs on Tom’s trousers that day at Nolan and Nolan Realty. Jerry White must have lied to Tom as well about Izzy being a pure-bred Coton de Tulear. Those dogs don’t shed. I told you I wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing.”
“Who says you’re not cut out for investigating? You figured out how Jeanette and Edna Mae’s daughter were responsible for Edna Mae’s fall. Not to mention that ugly business with Thelmalee and the ladies from the pool.”
“I didn’t exactly get that right either. Josie Nolan wasn’t the one who put the sugar under the bush. It was Joanne. And you know what else I didn’t solve? That cryptic e-mail all of the members in your book club received. The one that said, ‘Death lurks between the lines.’”
My mother’s face began to flush. “Oh, that. I completely forgot. In all this turmoil, it absolutely slipped my mind. It wasn’t a cryptic e-mail after all. It was an announcement for the Sun City West Theater’s fall production of a new play, Death Lurks Between the Lines. Eunice Berlmosler, the publicity chair, called me a few days ago. They sent the e-mail but forgot to include the message. Can you believe it?”
“Yeah, at this point, I can believe anything. Listen, I don’t think I’m going to be too welcome here in Sun City West this Christmas. Maybe you should visit me in Minnesota.”
“Are you crazy? With all that snow? I don’t do snow anymore, Phee. I only like to see it on The Weather Channel and holiday cards. Besides, I already bought tickets for the three of us to see The Nutcracker Suite ballet in Phoenix this December.”
“Three of us?”
“You didn’t think I wasn’t going to invite my only granddaughter?”
“She’ll love it. And the timing works great with her teaching schedule.”
She beamed and it felt good.
“So, do you feel like getting a bite to eat, Phee? We don’t have to drive right home.”
“Sure. As long as it’s out of ‘the compound.’”
We were in luck and got a great corner table at Olive Garden, and I finally reached Nate on the phone. I think my mother was more anxious than I was to see what he’d found out. She kept moving closer and closer to me as I was fielding the call. When I thanked Nate and clicked the End button, my mother jumped in.
“So, what did he say? How they’d figure it out? Is the money in some bank account in the Caymans? You know, they always hide money in the Cayman Islands.”
“No, Mother. According to Nate, it was a regular bank account with a national bank. The account holder was Izzy Bay Beboi, and it had a tax identification number, not a social security number. The three of them must have set up a fake company. That’s why it was virtually impossible to find. And technically, no crimes were committed. Not by them, anyway. I tried not to picture Rolo getting arrested for computer hacking. So unless Jerry, Tom, and Peg don’t pay taxes, they’ll be off the hook. By the way, do you think Jeanette and Leslie are going to be in a lot of trouble? And Joanne? And what about the pool ladies?”
“Nah, they’ll probably all get probation. That’s all anyone gets these days. What time’s your flight tomorrow?”
“Five-seventeen. Terminal Three. I need to be on the road by two in order to return the rental and give myself enough time to get through security. By the way, I’m really glad you insisted on my visit. In spite of all the craziness, this was a heck of a lot of fun.”
My mother smiled and helped herself to the salad. For the first time in a week, we had a leisurely afternoon and a nice, relaxing evening. I made sure of that by taking the phone off the hook when my mother wasn’t looking.
Of course, the book club event was televised on all four local stations. I appeared for less than five seconds, compared to Vivian, who got lots of airtime.
“Don’t worry about it, Phee. It’s that way with celebrities.”
“Believe me, the less publicity I get, the better.”
I meant it, too. I wanted to return to my normal routine in accounts receivable. Yet, oddly enough, things don’t always work out the way you have them planned. The next morning, when the paper arrived, there was a little feature notation on the top of the front page. It read:
BOOK CLUB CURSE CRUMBLES
UNDER MN SLEUTH’S SCRUTINY
In the split second it took for me to read it, I knew my life would take a different turn. What I didn’t know was how.