Lainey Quilholt Mysteries Collection

Chapter 3-2

“Tonight we"re going to do some classic favorites, but sprinkle in some of our own stuff, as well.” He smiled crookedly and added, “You"ll let us know which is which.”

The crowd laughed. They went right into a Rolling Stones song and after that, Brett sang a medley of John Denver tunes. Most of them I recognized from stuff I"d heard either my parents playing, or my aunt. After this they played some of their own songs, songs Brett and the others had written themselves. It was all good. They then took a brief break.

“He"s really good!” Nadine said. “Isn"t he, Wendy?”

Wendy looked up from her cell phone. “Huh?” Nadine repeated what she"d said. Wendy nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

“Did you take a picture?” Nadine asked, moving her body in order to look over to her phone. Wendy pulled the phone away from her, and Nadine pouted.

“It"s just crap,” she snapped. Seeing how the both of us were put off by her short temper she said, “My mom"s been bugging me lately.” She put her phone face down on the table.

Moon pulled up by our table to see if we needed any more drinks. He looked a lot like his sister, in an androgynous way. In fact they both looked like their mother. Moon looked up toward the door. “Uht-oh. Here comes trouble.” We all turned to look. He picked up a spoon and held it up to his face like a mike, speaking low so only we could hear. “And here comes Arline Rochelle, down the cat walk. What is that she"s wearing tonight, Nadine?” He moved the spoon in front of his sister, who went right along with the shtick.

I turned to watch Arline, her long, blonde hair flowing over her shoulders. She was a natural blonde, but she"d put highlights in her hair. Always wearing gaudy jewelry, the bangles on her arm shimmered and clanked when she moved her hand. She was dressed to the nines, as my aunt would say.

“Well, it looks like a lacy pencil skirt with crystal and pearl accessories, and a halter top,” Nadine said.

“Thank you for that, Nadine.” Wilbur moved his pretend mike back to his mouth and continued the rundown of what Arline was wearing while she paused to take in who was sitting where and who she wanted to go sit with. I had to wonder who she was meeting here. She seemed to be looking for someone specifically.

“She matches it well with metallic jewelry and a chic envelope clutch. Matching mule pumps and—wait, is that an Anne Klein bag I see?”

“That"s at least an $80 bag! I saw one on a f******k ad,” Nadine said.

“Totally rad,” I said and we all laughed.

“Totally,” Moon agreed. After laughing at our lameness, Moon finished writing down our orders “I"ll get your orders, ladies.”

Arline walked like a movie star, her jewelry perfectly matched, a gaudy gold bracelet sparkled at her wrist. Swinging her blond hair, she twitched toward the back of the establishment. I nearly dropped my jaw when I saw her go to a booth where AJ sat. I hadn"t even seen him until now. I wasn"t looking for him, of course. His gaze caught mine and I had to avert my eyes away. Wendy and Nadine had been turned in their seats, watching the whole thing too. Their on-the-rocks romance was prime subject matter for gossip, up-dated by the day or as things changed.

“Wow. She"s sitting with AJ?” Nadine said with disbelief, turning back around to us.

Wendy"s eyes were like lasers as she had turned slightly in her seat and watched Arline glide into the booth to sit across from AJ. If she"d been a volcano, I swear smoke would be shooting out of her top about now.

With wide eyes I turned back to find Nadine, who was giving me a warning look. Her warning earlier about not mentioning how AJ kept asking me out in front of Wendy now went through my head. I felt slightly warmer than I did a moment ago while watching Brett.

I said, “I saw Arline today. She came out of the boutique. A bag on each arm.”

“Where does she get the money?” Nadine asked. “She lives in the most expensive place in town.”

“Where?” I didn"t know she knew where Arline lived.

“In those apartments—uh, isn"t it called The Chandelier, or something like that?”

I caught the name of the place and remembered someone had asked about it earlier, but I couldn"t think of who at the moment.

“Right,” Wendy said. “Maybe she steals credit cards, and she"s stolen someone"s identity?”

“Where does she work?” I asked.

“She used to work at the mall. But I think they fired her. Which I wouldn"t blame them,” Wendy said nastily, looking at her cell phone again. “The b***h. She worked across from where I worked. In that boutique? I was happy when she quit.”

“I thought you just said she was fired,” I said.

“Well, I don"t know if she quit or what,” she said with a shrug. Her thumbs were busy texting again.

“You mean she hasn"t worked since June?” I asked. “And she"s driving around in an expensive car, living in an expensive apartment, and buying expensive clothes and stuff?”

We all exchanged looks.

“Credit card fraud,” Wendy said again with conviction. Nadine laughed. But I was dubious.

“The owner of any credit card would have shut it down as soon as they"d seen any unfamiliar charges. Besides, you can"t pay for an apartment on credit.” I turned to Wendy and said, “You say her big spending sprees started sometime this year?”

“Yep.”

“When?”

“I think it was last month?” They conferred with one another.

“Maybe sooner.” Nadine narrowed her eyes in thought. “Wait. I remember seeing her driving the Mustang a few weeks after she came back from vacation, back in June.” I looked a question at her. “I live only one block from her parent"s house. Her car was in a wreck. A week later she had a new car. Must have had a hell of a settlement.”

I remembered hearing something about it from somewhere. Small town. People talk. We had all graduated this past June from Montclair High.

“You mean her parents didn"t buy the car for her?” I asked, remembering Arline sailing down the street with the top down like a movie star, today. They both shook their heads.

“They don"t have a lot of money. They aren"t dirt farmers, or anything like that, but they couldn"t have afforded a new car. She probably got a new one with her insurance. I heard the other one was totaled in a wreck when she and AJ were coming back from The Dells.”

“She has a sugar daddy,” Wendy concluded, chuckling.

“You mean AJ Beaumont?” I said, slightly shocked. I knew they were no longer dating.

We all stole glances at Arline sitting with AJ. They didn"t look like they were having a good time. Arline was leaning across the table across from him, pointing a finger in his face. Not like someone who was enamored, or in love, but rather enraged. He lifted both hands, palms out to her, shaking his head, saying something that calmed her down.

“No. They"ve definitely broken up. He"s really changed,” Wendy said. I turned my attention back to her. Her expression was blank. There were odd moments when she would just stare. It was no secret she was seeing a doctor for whatever the problem was with her. She was already on some medication—I didn"t know what and didn"t ask. Nadine secretly worried it was a brain tumor. Wendy was going to Iowa City for a CT scan at the hospital there, tomorrow. I only knew this because Nadine had told me this earlier in the week. Wendy did not share much with me about her private life. I only learned of anything through Nadine, or if she said something while we were together.

“Arline"s changed too,” Nadine said. “She used to be nice.”

Wendy gave up a snort to her comment.

“Especially since her best friend died in that boating accident,” Nadine went on.

“What boating accident?” I said.

“She drowned, or something. Arline, AJ, Margo and her boyfriend all went up to the Dells—AJ"s parent"s cabin—back in June,” Wendy explained. “Anyway, something happened and Margo fell into the water and drowned.”

“Margo?” I tried to think of who that was.

“Margo-something,” Nadine said, looking back at Wendy for confirmation.

“Faraday,” Wendy said.

“Wow. First her friend drowns and then on the way home her car is totaled?” I suddenly felt sorry for Arline.

“Wait,” Nadine said, “Wasn"t Margo going with an older guy?”

“Who?” I said.

“I don"t know his name. He lives in Rapids City,” Wendy said, looking back from where AJ and Arline were sitting. “Scuttlebutt says he was older, and not from our area at all. I have no idea how she met him, but I think he"s a mechanic up that way.”

“Why didn"t I hear about this drowning?” I asked. I always peruse the newspapers for any unusual news to help my creative juices.

“It wasn"t in the papers down here. The family sort of kept it hush-hush. They only put it in the obits.” Well, that explained it. I never look at the obits.

“So, naturally you knew because?” I prompted.

Nadine shrugged. “My father gets the news over the AP wire. Naturally, the name caught him by surprise. He asked me later if I"d known her.”

“Wow.” I didn"t know what to say. That was when someone"s shadow bent over us. We all jumped. It was Moon with our orders.

“Jeeze guys, you look like you"re planning a bank robbery or something,” he said as he set our drink orders down, plus my order of quinoa salad and roasted asparagus. Wendy made a sound of disgust when she saw what I"d ordered.

“Get lost, Moon,” Nadine rebuked her brother.

“Whatever you"re discussing, I want nothing to do with it.” He threw his hands up and moved away. “Enjoy.” He stopped, turned back to us and added, “And leave a tip for your server, namely me.” Hand on chest, he bowed, turned, and chugged back into the crowd.

A second figure, much larger, floated to our table. I looked up to find Brett looming over us. My heart beat went wacky again. His long hair hung down in his eyes, and he swept it away with a broad hand. Brown locks fell back to frame his face.

“Hey, Lainey. Introduce me to your friends,” he said. I did the intros all around. Then he lowered himself, crossing his arms on the table and spoke, chin on back of hands. “Hey, look, me and the guys are gonna go to a park nearby, afterwards. It"s just out of town, I"m told. I think it"s called Wruck"s Woods? You want to join us, you"re welcome to.” He looked over at my friends and added, “All of you ladies are welcome to join us.” He smiled.

I was flabbergasted once again.

“Some of us have curfew,” Nadine reminded.

Wendy hit Nadine in the arm—none too lightly by the way Nadine had reacted—to shut her up. Realizing she"d said something dopey, she pressed her lips together.

“Sure. We"ll be there,” Wendy said.

“What time?” I asked him.

“When we get done, I guess,” Brett said, looking around. “Whenever this place closes.” He chuckled and rose.

“This place closes at nine-thirty,” Wendy said.

“Great! See you afterwards.” As soon as Brett scooted away, Wendy poked Nadine in the shoulder.

“Ow! That hurt, you know?” Nadine groused.

“What"s wrong with you?” Wendy snarled.

“Shut up!” Nadine said.

“Never mind, guys,” I said. “We"ll be able to go at least for a while. We can call our parents and make sure they know where we are.”

Wendy snickered. “Maybe you can call your respective parents and guardian, but I"m not calling my mother about nothing. Screw her. She"ll be drunk and passed out anyway.”

Nadine and I merely exchanged knowing looks, and worked to ignore Wendy"s comment about her mother.

“How exciting!” Nadine said, picking up her phone and hit a button. “He invited us all to the park!” Nadine called her mother.

“Where is this park?” I asked, clueless.

“Wruck"s Woods? You know, the one by the river, outside of town? Everyone goes there to party,” Wendy said as though her knowledge was first hand. I shook my head, trying to remember any such woods.

“You know this, how?” I said. She wiggled her brows. Her eyes dropped to her phone again, and then announced she had to go to the bathroom before the band started. While she was gone, and Nadine spoke to her mother, I had recollections about kids talking about this woods as being their prime party place where they would drink around a fire, and make out. Great. A Woods with a make-out reputation.

When the band started up, and Wendy slid back into her chair across from us, I couldn"t eat much of my salad and asparagus wondering what would happen when we got to this infamous park. I hadn"t known it by its proper name, as it was dubbed the “Party Hole” by some. I now remembered seeing the entrance to it whenever my aunt and I would drive that direction out of town to go shopping. I"d often wondered what sort of park it was. In the daytime, it looked harmless enough. Tall oaks shaded it during the summer, and was located only a few miles out of town. That was the extent of my knowledge of it. Knowing that my friends would be there, I felt slightly less trepidation about going there after dark. At least I wouldn"t be alone. What could happen?