Page 9

Chapter Nine

M y mouth fell open. As in literally unhinged. As I stand here now, I take back every doubtful thought I’ve ever had about Melba and her “visions.”

I had to reach out and grab a chair in the row where we stood to steady myself, while still remaining calm on the off chance Melba might have something to do with this.

But how could she? Why would she? So she could become PTA president? Melba did what she had to in order to remain part of the PTA, but that was the most she did. I had to doubt she’d play a game of cat and mouse with us—it took more effort than she was likely willing to give.

Or maybe I’d pegged Melba wrong all along?

Beads of sweat popped out on my brow.

Melba instantly picked up on my panic. I mean, she is after all, psychic, right? “Wanda, are you all right?”

I dismissed my moment of pause. “I’m fine, Melba. I’m just tired. Can you tell me if you saw…um, in your vision , where she went after the woods?”

Her smile was sardonic, her response dry as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

“That’s not true, Melba. I very much believe you. I was simply hoping you saw something else that might help us find her.”

I half expected her to break out a turban and press her fingers to her temples so she could contact the other side.

Instead, she took a very somber stance. “I didn’t see anything else, but I do know she’s out there somewhere. She is. I feel it.”

The conviction in her tone, plus her verbatim repeat of that text to Earl, made me a believer. “I hope you’re right, Melba. Listen, if you see anything else—have another vision, or can tell me anything else about the vision you did have—please, please let me know, will you?”

Her lips thinned, as though she wasn’t convinced I believed her, but then she nodded, her cute bob bouncing. “Of course I will, Wanda. I know Neerie isn’t everyone’s favorite, but no one wants her taken from Tamlin. No one. I hope you find her.”

She took her leave, but I had to take a seat after that, the women around me becoming blurs as I accepted the fact that Melba did, indeed, have visions.

And Bigfoot was real.

Cheese and rice.

“Wanda?” Solange Martin put her hand on my arm. “Are you all right?”

I gave her hand a quick pat, followed by a smile. “I’m fine, Solange. Just a little tired. Did you talk to Nina?”

She nodded, sitting next to me, the curtain of her auburn hair falling over her face. “I did. Wow, she’s scary. No offense,” she said, her voice a little shaky.

I chuckled. “She can be, but I promise her intentions are good.”

“I didn’t like Neerie. She was mean to me,” Solange blurted out, then bit her lip.

Sighing, I nodded. Universe willing, we found Neerie and as soon as we did, we were sending her to rehab. As in, mean girl detox.

“She was mean to everyone, Solange. Neerie could be very difficult, but I think she was going through a really tough time in her life, one she didn’t really share with us. I don’t mean that as an excuse, simply a possible explanation.”

Solange twisted her slender fingers in a knot. “But she was really mean to me in particular.”

That alarmed me. I turned in my chair and tilted my head. “How so?”

Solange gulped. “Well, first it was just that she didn’t add me to the PTA mothers text chain. I thought it was a mistake at first, so I asked her to correct it and she said she would, but she never did. Then, Coral Morales told me that Neerie said not to add me under any circumstances.”

My eyes went wide. How could it be that I’d never noticed Solange wasn’t on the text chain? “Oh, Solange. Had I known, I would have added you, no matter what Neerie said!”

She leaned into me, her musky perfume wafting to my nose. “It’s okay, Wanda. I didn’t want to complain…but there’s more,” she whispered.

I was wide awake now. Sitting up, I cocked my ear. “Okay…”

Her sigh came out raspy and long. “Thad and I went to school together.”

My eyebrow lifted. So what? Or…no. No . Wait. Please don’t let her tell me they were having an affair.

“And?”

Her embarrassment was clear. “And she accused me of trying to steal her husband.”

For the second time today, my mouth fell open. “I’m sorry? Why on Earth would she think that?”

Solange’s breathing shuddered as she put her face in her hands. “We happened to see each other at parent-teacher night and reconnected. We’d dated in high school.”

Oh, sweet fancy Moses, that must have made Neerie insane. Before they divorced, she was incredibly jealous of anyone who even breathed in his direction.

“So because you dated in high school, she jumped to the conclusion that you were trying to steal her husband?”

Solange’s eyes went wide. “Not then, no. Not here at the school. It happened after and it was awful . She made a big scene.” Her shoulders slumped. “We ran into each other and had coffee. It was no big deal, I swear. We just happened to be in the same place at the same time, is all. We decided to catch up. She stomped into the coffee shop like she’d been watching us or something and accused me of trying to rekindle an old flame. But what she didn’t know was…”

I put my hand on her arm. “What didn’t she know?”

“That I don’t want her husband. I don’t want any man. I’m gay.”

“Oh, Solange. I’m sorry she made a scene like that and embarrassed you.” What I couldn’t believe was that Neerie hadn’t told all of the mothers here at the Paranormal and Gifted about it. Though, that might make her look bad if she was perceived as bested by someone else.

“It’s fine. Thad was one of the first people I ever told in high school that I thought I was gay—when we broke up, I mean. That was why we broke up. He was so kind to me when I was so confused. But I spent a lot more years confused. I mean, I married a man, had a child, and still couldn’t admit my true feelings. Finally, I came out of the closet. Mostly . I got divorced, but I wasn’t fully ready to be out in the open, I guess. That’s what Thad and I were talking about when Neerie found us.”

My heart twisted in my chest. “And Thad kept your secret because you’re still not ready to tell anyone?”

“Yes!” she moaned. “Right now, I’m just trying to navigate single motherhood, but I was so afraid Neerie would find out, and I don’t even know why, but I made Thad swear not to tell her.”

“Even if it meant she tortured you…” Gosh, I felt awful for Solange.

Her misery was clear. “Yes, and torture me, she did. She made snide comments all the time about me being his wannabe wife and all sorts of ugly things. Finally, I’d had enough. I don’t know how, but I found my spine.”

“And you confronted her about how she was treating you?”

Solange sniffled. “I did. We had a loud argument in her PTA office. A really loud argument. Even Agnew the janitor heard us.”

Wait. Back up. Neerie had an office here at the school?

I held up a hand. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but Neerie has an office ?”

Solange rolled her eyes. “It’s not an official office, but Principal Mathers finally gave in to her complaints about having nowhere to work on school events that brought in a lot of money, so she gave her what basically amounts to a broom closet right near the boiler room.”

Note to self, take a peek at the broom closet. “I see. Anyway, please continue. You had an argument Agnew overheard?”

She nodded, her hair shiny under the auditorium lights. “We sure did, and I said some things… some really awful things.”

“Like?”

“I…I said I hoped…I hoped that she’d disappear off the face of the planet. And now…” Her face crumbled, eyes filled with guilt. “And now she has!” she wailed. “I manifested this, Wanda! I did this!” She began to cry in earnest, putting her face in her hands.

I pulled her into a hug, patting her back. “No. No, Solange. You didn’t. That’s impossible. Did you physically kidnap her?”

“Nooo!” she sobbed.

“Then you’re not responsible for her disappearance.”

“I was just so tired of her taking out whatever her problem is on me! I was an easy target, and she knew it. She knew I was afraid of her. She knew I wanted to be the best parent possible for my son Michael. Divorcing his father was hard on him. I’m just trying to be there for him—be involved. That’s why I joined the PTA, but I just couldn’t take it anymore! She was so awful !”

I hugged her harder. “I’m so sorry. I wish I’d known. I would have spoken to Neerie. I would have done something.” I dug in my purse for some tissues, handing them to her.

She wiped her eyes. “You’re always so kind to me—to everyone , even Neerie. I was just trying to lay low and not make trouble, and I didn’t want Neerie to tell everyone about…well, you know… Me. My private life.”

There was so much I didn’t know about what Neerie had been up to. “Did anything else happen that I should know about? Have you heard her talk about anyone giving her any trouble?”

Solange snickered. “Just me. Everyone does whatever Neerie says because they’re afraid of her.”

Marty approached, her eyes hesitant. “Hey, everything okay?”

I gave Solange one last hug and rose, smoothing my skirt. “Everything’s fine. You two done?”

Marty smiled, her blue eyes showing signs of wear. “We are. We definitely are.”

“Solange, will you be all right?”

She nodded, rising, too. “I will. Thanks for sharing my meltdown.”

I chuckled as I scooted out of the row of seats. “Please text me if anything comes up, or if you just need to talk, will you?”

She gave me a warm smile and a wave. “I will. Thanks, Wanda—for being so kind.”

As Solange took her leave, Marty hooked her arm through mine. “Everything okay with you?”

“Let’s go get Nina. I have so much to tell you and we have an office to investigate.”

* * *

“That Solange wasn’t fucking kidding, was she. It literally is a broom closet,” Nina said with a click of her tongue.

It sure was. The three of us could barely fit all at once. There was a folding table she used as her makeshift desk with a matching folding chair. A desktop computer that wasn’t even hooked up to the school Wi-Fi, a hook with a sweater on it. Her “desk” held some sticky notepads, a cup full of pencils and pens, and not much else.

Nina dropped into the folding chair, her long legs almost around her ears as she sat in front of the computer. “So Melba the Mystic wasn’t shittin’ around. She’s the real deal?”

I’d told them what both Melba and Solange had said as we made our way to Neerie’s office. They were as surprised as I was that Melba knew what Neerie had texted to Earl.

I leaned against the wood doorframe, nodding. “Yep. It appears so. How else would she know—verbatim, mind you—what that text said? She couldn’t have seen it on Neerie’s phone, because her phone was in the woods with…Hank,” I whispered. “And absolutely no way she knows Earl. The only way she could have seen that text was if she was there, and all the people in the woods are accounted for.”

“But remember,” Marty reminded, her finger in the air. “That Benny guy, the one who shot the cheater, said he saw Neerie, but no one else did. Maybe Melba was there and no one saw her, either?”

Pinching my temples, I nodded. I hadn’t even thought about that. “You could be right. For now, until we check her alibi, I vote the mystic isn’t such a kook but could definitely be a soft suspect. Good on you for not missing a possibly important clue.”

Nina clicked on the archaic mouse as she looked at the computer screen. “I vote soft suspect, too. I’ll check her alibi. Now, what about this Solange chick—who, by the way, is afraid of her own damn shadow? When I was questioning her, I thought she’d shit herself.”

Marty rolled her eyes. “Stop picking on that poor woman. She was terrified the entire time she talked to you, Nina.”

I held up a hand. “ Both of you stop behaving like children and get to the task at hand, which is deciding if we can rule out Melba and Solange and find out if there’s anything in here that will help us.”

Nina stuck her tongue out at Marty before she tapped the computer screen. “Well, she has a thing for lists. She was really into the cleaning supplies in the supply closet and the pens, pencils, pads, coloring books for the kids and—get this—some chemistry books. She has a list of ’em on a Word doc, and beside each fucking item, she’s checked off the incoming stuff, noted how much there is, when an item was taken from inventory, and how much was actually gone when it was time to place an order.”

Marty rolled her eyes. “She had her nose in every part of this school, huh?”

“Are the PTA broads even in charge of stuff like this, Wanda? And was there some big spill or some shit? Like a toxic waste spill? Because she’s made note of a bunch of stuff that was gone. Mostly paper towels.”

She swung the comp screen my way to show me list after list of both school and janitorial supplies. Toilet paper, hand towels, soap, floor cleaner, pencils, pens, and a bunch of other items, like erasers and such.

How odd.

“As far as I know, she’s only in charge of things having to do with the PTA, like bake sales and family fun day…the winter carnival. I have no idea why she’s keeping track of soap and toilet paper.”

Marty wrinkled her nose, pulling her jacket tighter around her. “This feels weirdly compulsive, Wanda. Another conspiracy theory, maybe? Is someone stealing the school supplies and using them to make pipe bombs?”

My stomach turned. I gripped the doorframe to steady myself. I needed to get some lunch before I passed out. “Neerie’s into so many conspiracies, who knows. Nina, take pictures of her Word docs, would you, please?”

My phone rang then, an incoming call from Nerrie’s ex-husband. “Wanda Jefferson.”

His deep voice resonated in my ear. “Mrs. Jefferson? Thad Lincoln calling. Naida tells me you wanted to speak with me?”

I clicked the speaker button on my phone. “You’re on speaker, Mr. Lincoln. My associates, Marty Flaherty and Nina Statleon, are here with me, and yes, we did ask Naida to have you contact us. Are you aware of the situation?”

There was a small pause, and a raspy sigh followed. “She said Neerie is missing.”

He sounded worried, despite their differences. We couldn’t see him, so we couldn’t gauge his body language and facial expressions, but his worry rang true.

“She is,” I confirmed. “Do you have any idea where she might go? Anything that could be helpful in locating her?”

He cleared his throat. “I don’t. Despite some of the things she’s been up to lately, she would never leave Tamlin for this long without keeping in touch.”

“Define what you mean when you say, what she’s been up to , Mr. Lincoln,” Marty requested.

“I’m sure you know what I mean. Neerie was into all sorts of conspiracy theories. She spent a great deal of time devoted to finding answers. Too much time, but it was always after Tamlin was in bed. I’m incredibly worried she got into something dangerous…”

I wanted to see if he’d fess up to her telling him something was going on at the school. “Any particular theories you can think of?”

“I can,” he said smoothly. “One in particular about the school. She didn’t say what she thought was going on, and that’s probably because I dismissed it, something I deeply regret now. I called her paranoid and it upset her, and she hung up on me.”

We all looked at each other with a nod. “She didn’t say anything at all about what she meant by something happening at the school?”I confirmed.

He sighed and it was a sigh filled with frustration. “Listen, Mrs. Jefferson, Neerie had fallen down a deep hole I couldn’t drag her from. It became a real problem for us. I’m not defending my action of calling her paranoid, but I wasn’t sure what else to believe. When your wife…er, ex -wife tells you she thinks the power lines by our house are sending messages to the Illuminati, you begin to worry.”

So this conspiracy thing had been going on during their marriage. “The Illuminati?”

“The Illuminati,” Thad confirmed. “Yes. The Illuminati. I tried to get her help. I even tried an intervention, but she refused to participate.”

“Did you look into what she said about the school stuff?” Nina asked.

“I didn’t, because I’m away on business and have been for three weeks. But I am worried about Tamlin. I realize biologically she’s not mine, but I raised her from her toddler days. I love her. Hindsight tells me I was like a bull in a China shop.”

His regret after those texts they’d shared was very clear. With a sigh, I didn’t know what else to ask. “Thank you for calling us back, Mr. Lincoln. We appreciate it. If there’s anything else you can help us with, or anything you remember, please call or text.”

“I absolutely…” His deep voice trailed off then.

“Mr. Lincoln? Are you still there?” Nothing but silence greeted me, my phone indicating we’d lost the call. I growled my frustration. “He’s gone.”

“That was a big nothing burger anyway,” Nina groused. “So he knew she was nuts. Who didn’t?”

Marty swatted Nina’s arm. “Stop calling her crazy. I’ll remind you one more time— Bigfoot .”

“Bullshit. She didn’t find him, we damn well did.”

“Ahhh,” Marty cooed. “But she believed .”

“Regardless of Bigfoot and the Illuminati at school, Thad didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t know, and I need a breather. I’m going to go find out if Agnew or Cooper knows about any of this. I don’t know how janitorial supplies fits into this, but it’s a thread we can’t ignore. Just like all those whiteboards in her basement. I’ll be right back.”

I turned and walked down the hall, hoping to find Agnew somewhere close by. I headed to the boiler room to see if he was in there.

I hoped Neerie hadn’t been hassling him the way she did everyone else. He was a lovely man who only wanted to do his job and go home to his cats each night. I wasn’t even sure if he was here on a weekend.

Though, he was known to go the extra mile and come in on a Saturday. After the bake sale Friday afternoon, he likely had plenty of cleanup on his hands. Cooper did the same, taking his lead from Agnew, even though it wasn’t necessary. Still, the school paid them overtime, and that made it worth it for Cooper, who was going to college.

I wandered down the hall, passing rows of classrooms with colorful pictures the children had drawn, posters of multiplication tables, the letters of the alphabet, the shiny floor beneath my feet and smiled.

My children loved this school. I loved this school. I loved the smell of crayons, the cafeteria pizza (they even had a blood dispenser for the vampiric children), the floor cleaner Angus used to mop.

I stopped at the boiler room door and rapped with my knuckles. “Mr. Yannis? Are you in there? Agnew? Cooper?” I listened at the door, but there was no sound behind it.

Deciding to take the bull by the horns, I opened the door, poking my head inside.

As boiler rooms went, it was, well, a boiler room. Nothing fancy. Agnew’s pail and mop were set neatly in a corner. He had a small table where he ate his lunch, even though the staff often asked he and Cooper to join them. A shelf with the supplies Agnew was currently using and Neerie was so concerned about and, oddly, a transistor radio. Mr. Yannis was an ancient. It didn’t surprise me that he still listened to the radio.

When I stepped fully into the room, the door shut behind me, leaving me in the dark. As my eyes adjusted, I felt around and found the light switch, flipping it on.

There wasn’t much to see, and if Agnew wasn’t in here, I needed to get back to Nina and Marty so we could hash out what we had—and lunch. Sweet Caroline, I needed some lunch.

Texting Arch, I asked if he would be so kind as to make me my favorite, a BLT on brioche bread.

My stomach grumbling, I left the boiler room and headed to the supply pantry a short way down the hall to take a good hard look at the supplies.

Reaching out, I began to move the jugs of cleaner around—and that’s the last thing I remember.

Everything went pitch black.