Madness in Brewster Square Read online

  “What do you need?” I asked.

  “I need you to figure out who killed Ethel Harwich.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Despite the fact that it had been there longer than forever, the Starlight Diner had relatively new booths and a modern, clean look. Although they’d redecorated over the years, the color scheme had never changed from the original maroon and white, a fact I found comforting. There’s something to be said for continuity.

  Although this was supposed to be a girls’ night out, my brother had insisted on following us to the diner and now sat across from me. We had all ordered different omelets, and they were delivered with the diner’s usual speed and efficiency. I appreciated that the hot sauce was on the table already, waiting for my eggs to arrive.

  Giuseppe sat poking at his spinach and feta dish. He was so nervous I wondered if he was going to hurt himself as he twitched his right leg up and down. I watched his hand shake while he used his fork as a spear.

  “If you don’t help, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Giuseppe sounded whiny, which was very unlike him. My brother rarely turned into such an emotional wreck.

  “First of all, I don’t understand what you need from me. Second of all, what does Ethel’s death have to do with you?”

  “I’m connected to the world of the spirit, I am able to live in the in-between,” he said. Charlie and I exchanged a look, and I knew she was wondering if he was going to go off on one of his rants about parallel dimensions and spiritual connections.

  “You are connected to the linear world of logic,” he said. “You have abilities I don’t have.” At least he admitted I was capable of doing things he couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. “Besides,” he continued, “Kenny is going to use this in any way he can.”

  “How can Kenny possibly use this against you?” I asked. “You and the group can’t be blamed for what happened.” It occurred to me then that this whole thing did, in fact, look sort of bad. His group was scheduled to be at an event where a murder occurred, so the odds of someone in the group being involved were high. “Why don’t you wait and see? Maybe the police will be able to determine the time of death, and that will show everyone you didn’t have anything to do with this,” I added, deciding not to mention the phone call Detective Rialto had told me about.

  “Yeah, it probably happened before we even got there,” Charlie piped in. She and I exchanged looks, and I knew she was thinking the same thing that I was. Giuseppe was right, it didn’t look good.

  “I know you both understand the public relations ramifications,” Giuseppe said. “It’s not just about our paranormal group, it’s about the store, too. Who wants to buy anything from a murderer?”

  I was outraged on my brother’s behalf. “Nobody could possibly accuse you of doing this.” Especially if they knew the kind of weirdos that were hanging out at the house that night, I thought, remembering Big Gray Hair.

  “Not even to produce a ghost?” he asked.

  My mouth dropped. Who the heck would do something like that, killing for a public relations stunt? Besides, everyone knew my brother had more integrity than to concoct some half-baked ghost thing to spur business.

  “That’s the kind of thing Kenny would do,” Charlie said, sounding disgusted.

  “I don’t think Kenny would actually kill someone,” I said.

  “No, but if he knew someone was going to die …” Charlie let the sentence hang there.

  Giuseppe’s eyes lit up. “Sweet mother Goddess, he came into the store today to try to tag along on tonight’s investigation.”

  “Do you think he knew?” Charlie asked.

  I shook my head. “No way. He’s annoying, yes, but I can’t see him being involved in murder.”

  “Sometimes Kenny has a really mean streak,” she added.

  “If we were going to accuse people with a mean streak of murdering Ethel, then we should take a good long look at your maybe future father-in-law,” I said to Charlie. “He’s about as mean as they come.”

  “I don’t think they knew each other,” Charlie said. “They weren’t in the same social circle and all that.”

  “Are we sure it was murder?” Giuseppe asked. “If the police come right out and tell everyone it was an accidental fall, I’m clear.”

  I hesitated for a fraction of a moment. I didn’t think Detective Meany-pants wanted me to keep quiet about what he said, but I didn’t want to get on his bad side again. “I got the feeling that the police will investigate this as a murder,” I hedged.

  “So if you don’t think it was Kenny, who do you think got rid of old Ethel?” Charlie asked.

  “She wasn’t very well liked,” I said. “It really could have been anyone who ever knew her.”

  Charlie shrugged. “I didn’t mind her. I think she was lonely, that’s all.”

  “She was part of that wretched development,” Giuseppe said.

  “She was the president of the homeowners association for the development,” Charlie argued. “How does that make her in any way responsible for the development being built?”

  Giuseppe wasn’t giving up. “She was a mean, nasty woman who went out of her way to make people’s lives difficult.”

  “She took her responsibilities seriously,” Charlie said.

  “She was power hungry.”

  “I liked her.”

  “I didn’t.”

  This was like watching a tennis match on steroids.

  “Enough,” I said a little too loudly. The people sitting at the table across from us looked over, and I offered a bright smile to let them know we weren’t going to cause any trouble. My smile must not have been very convincing, because they looked away from me and wouldn’t make eye contact.

  “Obviously people had very strong feelings regarding Ethel,” I said, “but arguing about her won’t help.”

  “People didn’t like her because she didn’t break the rules,” Charlie said. “Some people think that rules were made for other people, but Ethel knew that once you crossed that line, there’s no telling what would happen.”

  “The rules she was asked to break were absurd,” Giuseppe said.

  “What are we talking about?” I asked.

  Charlie and Giuseppe both answered. “Solar panels.”

  That’s when I remembered the controversy. There had even been a brief article in the newspaper about the whole thing. Apparently there were a couple of people in the new development who started the process of installing solar panels on their houses, and Ethel had halted construction. The homeowners never got a chance to install their solar panels and had lost lots of money they’d already spent on supplies. Needless to say, the newspaper was filled with editorials from both sides of the matter.

  “She was only following the guidelines that had already been established,” I said. “I’m sure those people weren’t happy after spending the money on the solar panels, but they should have known to check with the homeowners association first anyway.”

  “You’re given the list of do’s and don’ts when you buy a house in that development, and the list of what you can and cannot do is very stringent,” Charlie said. “That was the main reason I didn’t want to buy a house in there.”

  “That was the reason?” Giuseppe said in disbelief. “Not the fact that they raped the land to build those monstrosities? Not the fact that the town didn’t want it built in the first place?”

  I shrugged. “Not everyone feels the way we do, G. Some people saw it as an opportunity.”

  “Don’t call me G,” he said. “So will you help me?”

  I knew I didn’t have much of a choice in my answer, but I wasn’t sure what I could do to help. Obviously I didn’t know the first thing about being a detective, as had been pointed out to me earlier by certain professionals.

  On the other hand, I wasn’t going to work in my brother’s store for the rest of my life. I had stepped in when Janine was pregnant and unable to manage her hormone fluctuations. Now that Giu
seppe had things under control there, I could truly begin to think about a career change. Maybe this would open doors for me or at least help me find some direction. Maybe I really could become a private investigator or someone who did the research for the investigators. It would, at the very least, be interesting. What else do people with degrees in English literature do? Since I didn’t know a Long Island iced tea from a Shirley Temple, bartending was out.

  “I’ll think about it,” I hedged. “I don’t know if I can do something like that.”

  Charlie yawned. “I’m exhausted. I think I’m done for the night.”

  I nodded. “It doesn’t really seem respectful to go out dancing or anything right now, does it?”

  We nodded to the waitress that we were ready for the check and waited in silence for her to come back. Strains of music filtered out of my pocket.

  “You’ve had that ring tone forever,” Giuseppe said. “When are you going to get a new one?”

  “What difference does it make?” I asked, glancing at the screen. It was Stanley. “Hi,” I answered.

  “Hey, just thought I’d check in. Are you okay?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, we were just talking about that. I’m getting ready to go home now. We don’t feel much like staying out tonight after all.”

  “Why don’t I meet you at your house?” he said. “I can make sure you get in safely.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” I protested.

  “I’m not going to stay, I just want to make sure you’re okay. The fact that this may have been a murder has me concerned.”

  I relented. He was very sweet to offer me protection, plus I wouldn’t mind seeing him again. I smiled in anticipation of our first date. Ending the call, I put the phone in my jacket pocket. Charlie was shaking her head.

  “What?” I asked.

  “He’s meeting you at your house, isn’t he? I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” she said.

  I was going to have to make sure the volume was down on the phone when she was around. “Why not? I thought you liked Stanley,” I said.

  “I do, but how well do we really know him?”

  “He’s the mayor, for heaven’s sake,” I said.

  “Yeah, but isn’t it a little weird he was there tonight?”

  “Isn’t it a little weird we were there tonight?” I retorted. “What do you think?” I asked my brother.

  He shrugged. “I think you should trust your instincts,” he said, putting some money on the table. “I’m going home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  So much for brotherly protection.

  “All I’m saying is you’ve got to be careful,” Charlie said. “What if Stanley is the killer?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  We debated the concept of Stanley being a killer the whole time she drove me home. It was a short ride, but Charlie was persistent for the entire ten minutes. I didn’t see Stanley as ever being able to do something like that, but Charlie insisted I needed to keep an open mind. She said you never really knew what was in a person’s heart. I took that to mean she was reflecting more on her relationship than mine, but I supposed she might have had a point.

  It was well after midnight by the time her car pulled up in front of my house. Stanley was sitting on the front steps and stood when he saw us.

  “Just remember, he wasn’t supposed to be there,” Charlie whispered.

  “Neither were you.”

  “Don’t let your emotions distract you. People always have hidden agendas, and sometimes they’ll string you along for their own purposes.”

  “Are we still talking about Stanley?” I asked. “Never mind. Go home and call Fred; he’s probably wondering where you are.”

  “Let him wonder,” she said. “Call me tomorrow, ‘kay?”

  I bounced out of the car, happy to see Stanley. He approached me with a smile and wrapped me in a hug. I inhaled his scent: part shampoo, part fabric softener, part Stanley.

  “C’mon, I’ll walk you in as promised and check the place out. I won’t stay.”

  Walking up the steps into the darkened building, I was glad he was with me. The dark of the night wrapped around me, and shadows loomed across the front porch. I couldn’t tell if my aunts were up or not. I assumed Aunt Maria was still awake, but with her apartment located in the back of the building, I couldn’t see if her lights were on.

  “Do you think your Aunt Maria is still awake?”

  I laughed. “It’s funny, I was just wondering the same thing. Probably.”

  “How’s she doing?”

  I hesitated, not sure how to answer. Three years ago Aunt Maria’s only son Victor had died from pancreatic cancer. It was a terrible time for everybody, and my aunt never got over losing her boy. “She’s still taking care of all of us, cooking and checking in. It’s hard to tell sometimes, because I think she just doesn’t want to talk anymore.”

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “She told me once that she was sure everyone was tired of hearing about how much she missed Victor. She thinks she should be over it by now.”

  “Grief doesn’t exactly have a timetable,” Stanley said.

  “That’s what I told her, but I think she’s channeled a lot of her sadness into staying busy.”

  We climbed the steps to the third floor with Stanley leading the way. The stairway was dimly lit, and it took all my willpower not to jump at the creaks and groans the building made. I saw a dead body tonight, I reasoned internally. A murdered dead body. Of course I’m a little jumpy.

  In front of me, Stanley stopped so suddenly that I smacked into him.

  “What do you think you’re doing here?” he said, his voice a low growl, “and how did you get in?”

  My stomach dropped, momentary panic taking over. Who was he talking to?

  “I’m here for Ava,” a voice said.

  My heart rate returned to normal. I knew that voice, and for some reason I wasn’t surprised he’d shown up. Tonight was the night for weirdness.

  Stepping out from behind Stanley, I looked at the visitor sitting, knees bent, in front of my door. “Kenny, you’re going to have to leave now.”

  “That’s what you always say,” he whined. “You should spend some time with me. I think it would be good for you. We used to have something special, you know.”

  “We dated for one month in high school, and that was it. Thanks for the offer, but once again I’ll have to decline.”

  “What are you doing here?” Stanley said.

  Kenny stood. “I came to visit. I started a conversation this morning with her brother about his paranormal group, and I was hoping she could help him understand my point of view.” He looked Stanley up and down. “I guess she’s spending time with the mayor now, huh?”

  “Giuseppe does not want to work with you,” I said. “He doesn’t want you coming with us on our ghost hunts because he doesn’t like you, so you should stop bugging him. He said no this morning, and he’ll say no again.”

  “Where were you tonight?” Stanley asked.

  “Who wants to know?” Kenny said.

  “I’m sure the police will want to know,” Stanley said.

  Kenny stood and brushed imaginary dirt off his perfectly pressed jeans. “Yeah, I heard you guys found a dead person. Don’t worry, Mr. Mayor, I have witnesses who can attest to my whereabouts for the whole night.”

  I was tired, and it was time to end this. “Goodbye, Kenny.”

  “Someday you’ll come to your senses and see what I’ve been telling you all along,” Kenny said. When he began to walk by, he stopped and looked down at me. “You’ve really got to make sure you lock your door, especially since there’s been a murder here in town. You don’t want someone to come in and hurt you.”

  “Is that a threat?” I asked.

  “No, of course not,” Kenny said. “It’s common sense. Everybody knows you’re supposed to lock your door, because you never know who’s going to try to get in.”

  Stanley
cleared his throat. “Kenny has a point, Ava. Remember, when you find unwanted visitors you should call the police and report a breaking and entering crime.”

  Kenny’s face turned red. “Ava and I are friends, and I didn’t even try to get into her apartment. I came over tonight to make sure she’s okay. What’s your excuse?”

  I stepped in between the two men. “Stop it, Kenny. It’s been a long night for everyone. Stanley is just making sure I’m okay.”

  “Kind of like what I’m doing,” he said.

  “Does he always come here unannounced?” Stanley asked.

  I shrugged. “Yes, but that’s because he knows if he asks I’ll tell him no. He usually leaves right away.” I often wondered why he bothered. I never encouraged him, and at times I had been downright mean to him. I didn’t like the guy, but I did think he was a little bit lonely and a whole lot unhappy with his life. Even if I was stupid enough to get back into a relationship with the creep, my loyalty was to my family. I would never befriend someone who was so mean to Giuseppe. “Stanley’s right, Kenny, you can’t keep showing up here like this.”

  “Why, because your brother wouldn’t like it?” Kenny said.

  “No, because normal people call first,” I said. I squelched the desire to tell him we weren’t ever going to be a couple, even though I wanted to say it. I would not resort to being a bully.

  Kenny shook his head. “After everything I’ve done for you, Ava, I cannot believe you have hardened your heart against me.”

  “Are you done?” I asked. Kenny always managed to get on my very last nerve.

  Kenny nodded. “Yeah, I’ll go now. Hang in there, kid, it’ll get better.”

  Finally, he left, descending the stairs without a backward glance. How someone like Kenny had so much confidence in himself was a mystery to me. I’d be embarrassed to do half the things he did, but it never occurred to him to change his actions.

  Opening the unlocked door, I stepped aside to let Stanley in first. Following, I flipped on lights in the living room area and hoped I hadn’t left anything embarrassing lying around, like underwear or bags of opened potato chips. I was aiming for a different sort of impression than that of slob.