“It’s probably not quite as exciting as the places you usually go on Saturday night,” Mollie told Hilary as they walked in the door to Dino’s and sat down at a large round table. “But it’s the best we can do in Bayside.”
“Okay, Fox, I have a lot of questions,” Sherman said. “So you’d better start talking.”
“Yeah, I didn’t understand half of what was going on yesterday,” Jaime said. “When you cut Rahel’s hair, I thought she was going to kill you.”
“She can get a wig,” Hilary said.
“Seriously, though. How did you know it was her hair in the evidence room?” Sherman asked.
“The first thing they did to me in New York, before taking my picture, was trim my hair,” Mollie explained. “When I looked at the proofs of Meredith and Hilary from the shoot, I could tell her hair had been trimmed, too. But when I looked at the hair they had in the evidence room, it had split ends. So I knew it couldn’t have come from Meredith’s head.”
“Besides the fact that they never asked me for any hair sample,” Meredith said.
The waiter brought out a large tray, covered with plates. “We ordered seven cheeseburgers and seven extra-large fries,” Sherman said. “And an assortment of drinks—choose your own.” The waiter handed everything around the table.
“Are you paying for all this, too?” Johnny asked Sherman. He took a big bite of his burger.
“Be quiet and let Mollie explain,” Jaime said.
“Well, when Roberta and I came to your house that time, we saw Rahel out back and thought she was you, because of her hair,” Mollie said. “She’s the first person who came to mind, who could have supplied similar-looking hair.”
“On top of that, Hilary told us in New York that Rahel’s career started sliding three years ago when she got heavily into cocaine,” Johnny said, pouring ketchup onto his plate. “That’s how long the spectrographic analysis showed the hair owner had been involved in heavy cocaine use.”
“You have to admit, they put a lot of thinking into this plan,” Jaime said.
“Speaking of the plan, there’s one thing I’m still not sure about,” Mollie said. “Hilary, you said it was your idea to have Meredith come to New York. But if she hadn’t gone, Dayton never would have been able to set her up. Did he just act quickly, when he found out she was going, or what?”
Hilary swirled her straw around in her soda. “I thought it was my idea, but I did talk to Dayton that week. He called me, which was odd, because we don’t usually talk except at holidays. He said he wanted to wish me luck in the International Face Show.” She slapped the table with the palm of her hand. “And he asked if I thought maybe Meredith shouldn’t get into modeling, too. That’s probably what made me think of her for the Femme magazine article.”
“Call him Mr. Subliminal,” Sherman said.
“I’m surprised he was so subtle,” Roberta said. “I didn’t know he had it in him.”
“Okay, next question.” Sherman pretended to read from his napkin. “How did the cocaine get in a tea tin inside Meredith’s suitcase?”
“There was someone in the trunk of the limo,” Mollie said.
Jaime was drinking a glass of iced water, and he almost choked. “What?”
“There couldn’t have been,” Meredith said. “The trunk was full of suitcases.”
“And a little red trunk,” Mollie said. “You told me that one day when I called and asked you to tell me everything you saw in there.” Meredith nodded. “When we were at the party in New York, it was in Moeller’s apartment.”
“And?” Roberta prompted. “You can’t just leave us hanging!”
“Right. So I went into the bedroom and I saw a red trunk in his closet. The label on the trunk said EASTERN STUNTS AND NOVELTIES,” Mollie explained.
“And DeDario used to be a magician,” Roberta said. “You think it was a fake trunk and he hid inside it?”
Mollie shook her head. “Too small.”
“Moeller!” Jaime cried. “That little weasel.”
“After they unloaded all the suitcases at the airport and checked them, Moeller crawled out of the trunk again and called Benjamin to tell him exactly where he’d stashed the coke,” Johnny said.
“It’s true. Benjamin didn’t search my bag. He went straight for the tea tin,” Meredith said.
“When I saw your suitcase in the evidence room and it wasn’t all ripped up, it just seemed too easy. My dad implied that Benjamin had fixed cases in the past—said he wasn’t quite on the up-and-up, but nobody could touch him because of politics,” Mollie said.
“And politicians like Dayton Hughes,” Jaime said.
“Do you guys have any idea why all those models were flying to Hong Kong and Rio?” Roberta asked. “I never figured that one out.”
“I have a theory,” Johnny said. “I think they were either carrying drugs or dating men who were carrying drugs—you know, providing a high-class escort service.”
“That makes sense,” Hilary said. “Moeller has to get his drugs from somewhere, and he’s too recognizable to do it on his own.”
“Correction, he had to get them from somewhere,” Roberta said. “Not only did Eleanor fire him today—and DeDario, too—but she had them arrested. I guess she stuck around on the boat so she could get the real story. She called me today when she was going through DeDario’s files and found my name. When I told her who I was, she told me what happened after we left Dayton’s boat and thanked me. She’s determined to clean up her agency and get it back on track.”
“What did happen after we left?” Mollie asked.
“General mayhem,” Roberta said. “They fished Moeller out of the water. DeDario got seasick. Eleanor pretended that she wanted to get in on the drug ring, so they told her everything, even though Dayton warned them not to. He couldn’t get the boat back to shore fast enough. Oh, and Rahel’s been fired, too.”
Mollie had seen Rahel’s sister Jackie off at the airport that morning. They’d exchanged addresses and promised to keep in touch. Jackie was more resolved than ever to stay away from drugs, and her older sister, at least for a while.
“I don’t want you guys to think that all modeling agencies are like this,” Hilary said. “And you know, it was only a couple of people in Whistler who were involved. I believe Eleanor when she says it’s going to be clean from now on.”
“I do, too,” said Roberta.
“Mollie, when did you start suspecting my uncle?” Meredith asked.
“When we looked into other people’s pasts, and his name kept coming up. We found out he was connected to Benjamin and DeDario.”
“He called in some favors, is what she means,” Johnny added.
“Then right after Roberta and I talked to him, you changed your story and said you were guilty,” Mollie said. “I knew he must have gotten to you somehow.”
“The only problem is, unless Han Wu shows up, I doubt you have a case against him as far as the drowning goes,” Roberta said.
“Yeah, my sister’s boyfriend is a lawyer,” Sherman said, “and he says the testimony of two kids is always suspect, and especially in this case because what looked like a shove to you could have just been a friendly pat. Without the cook, there’s not much of a case.”
“You told someone what happened?” Mollie asked.
“I changed the names,” Sherman said. “The discussion was purely hypothetical.”
“Well, at least Uncle Dayton’s withdrawn from the governor’s race. That’s one good thing to come from all of this,” said Hilary.
“Where’s Dayton now?” Roberta asked.
“He’s in Europe somewhere,” Meredith said. “I hope he never comes back, unless it’s for the trial.”
“Mollie, when you came to New York, I never dreamed that this whole thing was so complicated, or that it would end up involving my uncle,” Hilary said. “Actually, I wasn’t even sure if Meredith was innocent. I guess I tried to put some distance between me and my parents by moving to New York. I was so sick of listening to them fight.”
“Or not listening to them talk,” Meredith added.
Hilary nodded. “I think Meredith got caught in the middle. In a way, it’s kind of a good thing that this all happened.”
“Yeah, I feel like I got my big sister back.”
“It’s really too bad this all had to happen now, though,” Hilary said. “I was kind of counting on being the new international face.”
“So was Bitsy,” Johnny joked. “She’s crushed.”
“I wonder if Parker still has that sticker on her back.” Mollie laughed.
“In case you guys are wondering, I did know all about Dad and Rahel,” Meredith said. “They’re history, now—thank God. I couldn’t stand her.”
“Did you know, too?” Mollie asked Hilary.
Hilary nodded. “Do you think I’d hate her half as much if I didn’t know?”
“Anyway, our mom’s coming back from Hawaii tomorrow, and we’re going to try to talk about things,” Meredith said. “Who knows, maybe we can be a real family again. At least until Friday, when Hilary goes back to New York.”
“I might stick around a little longer than that,” Hilary said. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” She looked at Meredith and grinned.
“So do we,” said Sherman. “These french fries are getting cold.”