Chapter 57
Muffled sobs came from the couch. Cora forced her eyes to open. Zee was awake and crying, with her mouth taped.
Where was Jo?
Zee’s eyes met Cora’s, whose mouth felt cottony, tongue thick. Cora breathed in and breathed out. “Try to calm down,” she whispered.
Zee nodded, her stomach lifting and falling.
Jo left Cora’s mouth uncovered. She didn’t want to shout because she didn’t want to draw attention to it.
Jo’s absence confused Cora, unsettled her. Had she taken off again?
Zee poked at Lulu, who didn’t stir. Was she dead? Or merely unconscious?
“Where is she?” Cora mouthed.
Zee shook her head and tried to move her shoulders.
The place was quiet. No creaking floorboards. No soft footfalls. Nothing.
The sun was streaming through the window, and its light gleamed on the piano. The room stood watch. What would happen next?
Voices erupted into the quiet. Women’s voices—and they were getting closer. Footsteps shuffled along on the front porch. Someone laughed. The doorbell rang.
Caught between wanting to yell out in fear and the fear of drawing attention to herself, Cora did nothing. Not knowing where Jo was, she didn’t want to get anybody else involved—or to anger Jo. Her eyes searched for answers in Zee’s, who was shooting angry glares at her, eyebrows wrinkled on her forehead.
“Come in,” Cora yelled. “Help!”
The doorknob twisted. And the door opened.
A group of women entered the living room.
“What the—” Jane said, rushing to Cora.
“It’s Jo,” Cora said.
“Where is she?” Annie said as she and Vera ran to Zee and Lulu.
“I don’t know,” Cora said as Jane untied her. “I passed out and when I came to she was gone.”
“Ow!” Zee said as Annie ripped the tape from her mouth.
“Sorry, it was the best way to do it. Believe me,” Annie said.
“I doubt that!” Zee replied, holding her red face.
Vera attended to Lulu.
Jane worked at untying Cora’s arms. As her arms fell free, she stretched them.
“Is she in the house?” Vera said, eyes wide.
“She could be,” Cora replied. “This is a big place.”
“Well, surely she heard us. We weren’t quiet,” Annie said.
“We need to know,” Zee said, sitting up, groaning, trying to get up from the couch.
“No,” Annie said. “You stay there.”
Jane turned to Cora. “Are you okay?”
“I am now,” Cora replied. “I think we need to find Jo.”
“She’s probably long gone,” Jane said. “I called the police. I’m surprised they’re not here.”
“Maybe something else came up. An emergency?”
Jane winced. “Yeah, I guess we couldn’t know this was going on.”
“You can’t get any more of an emergency than being tied up by a disturbed person,” Vera said. Lulu was awake and sitting up. Dazed.
“I’ll get you all some water,” Annie said. “Which way is the kitchen?”
Cora pointed in the direction. “Be careful. We just don’t know where she is.”
“There’s one of her,” Annie said. “Six of us. I’m not worried.”
“Did she have a gun?” Vera asked. Annie stopped in her tracks.
“No,” Cora replied. “I don’t think so.” Annie continued to walk.
“What’s going on?” Cora asked after a few minutes of silence. “What does Jo have against you?”
Annie walked back into the room with water.
“It’s a long story,” Zee said. “And it happened such a long time ago.”
Annie handed her a glass of water. Vera sat next to Lulu, with her arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“Mean,” Lulu said. “We were so mean to her.”
Cora couldn’t believe Zee would be mean to anybody, but Zee sighed loudly and said, “You’re right. We were despicable.”
“I’m confused,” Cora said. “You’ve been the nicest person to us.”
Jane sat down on a chair next to Cora.
“Time has a way of softening people. We were young, thought the world owed us something. And we all loved to party. I’d developed quite the habit. Cocaine,” she said. Cora winced. Sweet-faced, white-haired Zee had a coke problem.
A shuffling noise above silenced them.
“She’s here,” Jane mouthed. Lulu sobbed and grabbed onto Vera.
“Jo isn’t the woman she used to be,” Zee said quietly. “She’s broken, and I’m afraid I had a part in it, as did Stan.”
Suddenly, a whooshing noise came from near the glass sliding door. A man dressed in black emerged with a rifle. “Quiet, ladies. I’m a police officer.”
Jane grabbed Cora, whose heart pounded.
Another man stepped out from behind him.
How long have they been here?
He placed his hand to his mouth signaling quiet. No worries, Cora thought, I couldn’t put a sentence together right now if I tried.
I’ll just stand here and try not to pee myself.
Where was Brodsky? This wasn’t his turf, though, was it? He was a homicide detective, not a member of the SWAT team. And did they need a SWAT team to take down one woman? Just how dangerous was she?
Cora’s thoughts raced. She reviewed the weekend in her mind. The way the first day of the retreat Jo stood out from the others. The way she left early because she said she missed her kids. The way Cora fell for it, even though it unsettled her—after all the retreat was billed as a weekend for moms needing time away from their children—as they all did, from time to time.
Zee and Jo had known each other long ago. Ruby had mentioned that Zee ran with a different crowd. Ruby probably had no idea what was going on there, just that she wasn’t part of it. She was too busy being a single mom, trying to make ends meet.
The man dressed in black shepherded all the women into the same corner in the living room. “Stay here,” he whispered.
A tingle of fear shimmied along Cora’s spine, as she held Jane’s hand. What would these men do to Jo? What happened to Jo to push her over the edge? So much that she killed Stan and came here to the Blue Note for revenge on Zee and Lulu? How much pain was Jo in?