CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

LET THE SLEET AND freezing rain come. Tuesday evening, the kids pestered Scoobie about making snow people. He explained that sleet was slippery, but it didn’t get deep like snow.

I put a plate with five cookies on the coffee table. “Tomorrow the trees will look as if they have icicles on them.”

“Popsicles?” Lance asked.

“Icicles,” Terry said. “The ice will freeze to the tree limbs.”

“We hope not too much,” Scoobie said. “Sometimes the trees get heavy with ice and they knock down the light poles. We lose electricity.”

“Can we have candles?” Leah asked.

“I want a flashlight,” Lance said.

My phone chirped, and I glanced at it. The call came from Sand and Sea. I tilted the phone toward Scoobie. “Odd that Natalie’s there now.”

I moved a couple feet away from the others and answered.

“Jolie?” Static crinkled. “I’m glad I got you.”

“Natalie?” Static came through the line again. “I can barely hear you.”

“I didn’t think it would be so hard.” Her voice caught.

I lowered my voice. “Are you okay?”

Scoobie handed each child a cookie. “Lance, why don’t you guys find the flashlights? Terry will help you.”

He’s used to being an occasional diversion, so Terry guided the twins toward the kitchen.

“I came by to bring in a few…” More static. “Can you come over for a few minutes?”

Scoobie could hear her. “Tell her the sleet’s about to start.”

“Natalie, it’s not a good time. The storm…”

More static. “It’s not here yet. Please. You won’t be here long.” Her nose was stuffy and her tone was pleading.

I looked at Scoobie. He frowned, but nodded.

“Okay, but just to help you bring in a few things from your car. I need to get back home.”

“Thanks…static… much.” She hung up.

Scoobie opened his phone to look at the weather radar. “Looks like it’ll start any minute. What the heck is she doing there now?”

“She told me earlier she was going to bring things in so the kids could make Halloween decorations on their first day back.”

From the kitchen came Lance’s yell. “Dad. We need batteries!”

Scoobie grinned. “Don’t be long, Mom.” Then he sobered. “If she’s really upset, bring her back here.”

I wasn’t sure if it would be good for the kids to see their daycare teacher in tears, but it would be the right thing to do. “Hopefully I can calm her down fast.” I grabbed his shirt as he started for the kitchen and kissed his cheek.

“Ooh la la.” He returned the kiss.

 

I WRAPPED MY KNEE-LENGTH wool coat tighter and tucked my hair into a loose-knit stocking cap. As I walked to the car, the air felt heavy with coming moisture. I wanted to get back home before it started. My dad always said the roads were the slickest with the first drops of rain because the oil on the road got wet. Imagine what sleet would do.

A car was on the far side of the Sand and Sea parking lot, under a tree. As I pulled in, sleet started to pelt in earnest. Natalie would need to move her car closer to the building if we were carrying in things for Halloween decorations.

I parked close to the side door, glad the porch light was on. I left my purse in the car and trudged up the steps to the unlocked door and walked in. “Natalie? It’s Jolie.”

Lights blazed in the hallway, and bright orange paper jack-o-lanterns decorated the walls. It looked as if she’d already done a lot of preparation.

Natalie’s voice came from the kitchen. She sounded congested, and I supposed she’d been crying.

I stopped at the kitchen entrance, surprised to see Dolly. “Hi. Are you helping Natalie, too?”

Her smile seemed forced. “She needs a lot of help.”

I glanced around. “It just started to sleet. She said she wanted help bringing in decorations from her car, or something like that. Do you guys really need me?”

Dolly reached under the kitchen sink for something. “You’re the guest of honor.”

I stared at her, not getting her meaning, then saw she had retrieved a claw hammer. “What’s that for?”

She almost lunged across the kitchen. After years of not tripping over Jazz and kids’ toys, my instincts were good. I turned and ran into the hall, making for the back door, which was closer than the side porch door.

In front of the back door sat a card table with two chairs piled on top. I pivoted and headed up the staircase for the second floor. My voice came out as a garbled scream. “What are you doing?”

I bolted down the second-floor hallway and into the conference room. I knew it had two entries. I ran through the room and toward the opposite door.

Dolly had me figured out. She ran in that door, so I turned and ran back out the way I’d come. To the left was the narrow stairway that led to the third floor.

I sprinted up the steps, getting to the top just in time to slam the door and turn the bolt. I leaned against it, breathing hard.

Blam! Blam! Dolly struck the door with the hammer.

“What are you doing? Are you nuts? Calm down!”

“I can’t calm down. You figured it out!”

“Figured out wha…? Oh.” What difference did it make if I thought she had dated Aaron Taylor before he died?

“Nobody cares! Natalie doesn’t even know.”

“The police care.”

Then it hit me. “You mean you killed Aaron?”

Her words came as a sob. “I helped him. He said he loved me!”

OhMyGod. My breathing stayed ragged. “I’m sure he did.”

Dolly screamed, “You don’t know anything! I let him in. He said Natalie owed him money.”

“Listen to me. You’re only going to make things worse.”

She sobbed. “I thought if I helped him get it, he’d…he’d…” She turned and went back down the stairs.

I reached in my pocket for my phone, but it was in my purse, in the car. Aloud, I said, “She’s getting keys.”

I looked around the small third floor. It basically had two rooms with a hallway in the middle and a bathroom at the end. Both rooms had windows that led to the outside, but it would be a drop to the flat, second-floor roof.

Her feet pounded up the stairs. I dashed into the room on the right and shut and locked that door. Like that will help. The empty room offered no weapon. I ran to the window and struggled with its lock.

Finally, it gave. From the hall, the door to the stairway burst open. She’d be in my room in less than a minute.

I raised the sash and swung my legs through the window. I looked beyond my perch to the ground three stories down. Even if I fell from my precarious perch on the window ledge, I’d land on the gravel roof of the Sand and Sea second story. I might break an ankle, but I wouldn’t die, which I’d do if I’d had to jump to the paved parking lot.

The bigger danger would be Dolly figuring out where I’d gone and coming after me with the hammer she’d grabbed from under the sink. She was at least ten years younger than I, and at least six inches taller and thirty pounds heavier. I didn’t like my odds in a fight.

The sleet storm meant streets were deserted. If I’d been in a residential neighborhood, someone in a nearby house could’ve heard my screams. Not downtown.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the doorknob rattle. Dolly had figured out which room I’d gone in. “Damn.”

I shivered. Time to leave my cozy window sill. I placed each hand flat on the ledge to lower myself down to the gravel.

Even the window sill felt slick. My hands slid forward and I sort of launched downward, landing hard on both feet. The jolt radiated from my right ankle to knee. “Ow!”

Then my legs shot out and I sat down hard, hands splayed at my sides. By instinct, I grabbed my ankle, which felt as if it was already swelling.

Above me, Dolly ran across the room and stuck her head out the open window. “You can’t get away!”

I tilted my neck to see her contorted face. “Go home, Dolly. You don’t need to hurt anyone else.”

“If I go home, you’ll tell.”

She sounded like one of the toddlers. “You can talk to the police yourself. Tell them it was an accident.”

“Right. I tripped and the garden tongs fell into his neck. Oops. They’ll believe that.”

Of course, they wouldn’t. But if I could convince her to turn herself in, it might keep me from ending up like Aaron. “Anyone would understand why you were angry. He took advantage of you.”

“He said Natalie owed him money, and he needed to figure out how much. We were going to go away from here. But he changed his stupid mind.”

“So, you came here just to help him.” I tried to sound reasonable, as if I agreed with her.

“He wanted my help. I thought…I thought…”

The third-floor window slammed shut. Now where is she going? I massaged my ankle and loosened the zipper on my boot. I didn’t think I’d broken my ankle, but it hurt like heck.

A light came on in the second-floor window closest to me. I groaned. Dolly lifted the sash.

I yelled above the pattering sleet. “You can’t think you can come out here, somehow kill me, and no one will notice I didn’t make it home this evening.”

She slipped one leg over the ledge. “I’m not going to kill you. You’re going to fall. Thanks for hurting yourself when you jumped down.”

The sleet came down harder. I slid on my butt across the flat, tar-and-gravel roof. Absurdly, I thought of the cost of getting my coat cleaned.

Maybe it would be better if I dropped myself to the ground so she couldn’t push me. I reached the edge of the roof, which had a four-foot-tall brick wall around it, and glanced to the ground. Waaay too far.

Dolly put both feet on the roof and took a few tentative steps in my direction. Then she lunged toward me and grabbed my shoulder, wrenching it to one side.

“Let go!” With my other hand I pushed her away and slid backwards. It felt as if she’d almost dislocated my shoulder.

She lost her balance, but regrouped and came toward me again. Suddenly, both feet shot out from under her and she landed on her tailbone, still clutching the hammer. “Ow! This is all your fault, Jolie Gentil!”

“I didn’t make you…” Headlights bounced off the porch below and I yelled. “Help! Up here!”

The dark-colored Jeep, probably one of the few vehicles that could easily traverse the slick pavement, drove by.

Dolly had rolled onto her hands and knees and was trying to get up. “Nobody’ll hear you. Car windows are up and their defrosters are on high.” She struggled to her feet and kept her hands outstretched to keep her balance.

I hated that she was probably right. Still on my butt, I slid to the far side of the roof. There was nowhere to go. The small third floor separated each side of the second-floor roof.

My best chance was to say seated. She’d have to lift me up to flip me over the edge. I decided sitting near the brick wall rim was not my best choice, and made for the middle.

Dolly turned to come toward me, but slid a few feet down from her current position, which took her away from me. “You aren’t going anywhere but down!”

It seemed like Scoobie should have gotten worried that I wasn’t home. What would he do? He could leave the kids with Terry. Or maybe he’d send Terry to find me. No, he wouldn’t do that.

If he called Natalie, she’d say she hadn’t asked me to meet her. Then he’d come to find me.

Dolly seemed to have regained her footing. Her boots crunched on the mix of gravel and ice and she started toward me again. She got within three feet and raised the hammer.

Good God. She really means to kill me! I slid back toward the brick barrier.

But the act of raising the hammer had thrown her off balance. I backed, butt first, into the wall and she pitched toward me. As she did, more headlights came toward us.

I slid to my right, thinking the wall would stop her. But it didn’t. She dropped the hammer and both arms reached in front of her.

Absurdly, I thought of a gymnast doing a handstand. If the top of the bricks hadn’t been so icy, she might have been able to stop. Instead, she plummeted head first toward the parking lot below.

The headlights, which had been even with the daycare center’s first floor, jerked to a halt. The driver backed up, sliding, with a screech, and turned into the parking lot.

I crawled to the edge of the roof and half stood to peer over as two people almost threw themselves from the car.

Ramona’s frantic voice drifted up. “Is it her?” She fell forward and started to crawl toward the woman on the ground.

George stayed on his feet and dropped to one knee next to Dolly. “It’s not Jolie. My God. How in the hell?” He looked up.

My eyes met his. “She wanted to kill me. She fell over the edge.”

George glanced down. “Ramona, don’t look at her.”

I did. Dolly’s head was turned to her right, and her left leg was at an improbable angle. Improbable for a leg that wasn’t broken. Worse, she lay, motionless, with her eyes open.

I leaned on the bricks. “How did you know to come?”

“You didn’t answer your phone, so Scoobie asked us to check.”

I glanced at Dolly again. “Is she…?”

“Dead, I think.” George pulled out his phone and Ramona leaned over and threw up.

I sat down again, and began to shake violently. I tried to get a tissue from my coat pocket, but my hands were too cold, so I wiped my nose on my shoulder.

George’s strident tone reached me as he demanded that police and an ambulance come to Sand and Sea. “No, I’m not kidding. Somebody just tried to kill Jolie Gentil, and ended up on the pavement.” He paused. “No, not Jolie. I don’t even remember the woman’s name. Just hurry.”