Murder of a Small-Town Honey

'Already done.' May grinned. 'I got you a couple of outfits and your cosmetics. I knew you'd never willingly face the world without some makeup. I'll bet you were the only Peace Corps volunteer in Dominica who wore mas­ cara.'

Simon and Charlie were sitting at the kitchen table when Skye emerged from the bathroom. Jed and Vince arrived shortly after that. Chief Boyd pulled in seconds later.

He strolled into the kitchen, nodded at its occupants and said, 'Could I speak to you alone, Skye?'

Simon, Charlie, Vince, and Jed said no, but Skye spoke over their objections, 'Sure, let's go into the den.'

The den was really a fourth bedroom that had been equipped with a sofa, chair, and TV.

Before the door was fully closed, Wally whirled on Skye and ground the words out between his teeth, 'What in

heaven's name possessed you to drive your car over the side of that bridge? You could have been killed. Are you crazy or just plain stupid?'

Skye took a step forward so that they were nearly nose to nose. 'What should I have done? Waited for you to res cue me? I'd be dead now, and you'd still be trying to pin the whole thing on my brother.'

'You could have ... ah ... you could have signaled someone for help.' His tone lacked conviction.

'Right. There are so many people hanging out on Cattail Path.'

'Well, you should have done something else.'

'That's the point, Wally—there was nothing else to do. I would have rather died trying to get away than be shot like a helpless child.'

Wally shrugged and eased himself into the La-Z-Boy. 'Okay, tell me everything that happened from the time Mike appeared at your house.' He clicked on a tape recorder. 'All right if I use this?'

'Yes.' Skye sat on the sofa and explained the events leading up to her kidnapping and Mike's death.

He nodded. 'That's what we figured. We found all kinds of stuff that Mike must have stolen from his friends and customers. There must have been a hundred ashtrays alone. Why would he do that?'

She shrugged. 'Must be something in his background. Some need he was trying to fill.'

'Well, he didn't have an easy time of it with his father that's for sure. His dad was an alcoholic and liked to knock his family around when he was drunk.'

'I never knew that. Is that common knowledge in town?'

'Might be. Hard to keep secrets in Scumble River. But it's one of those things everybody knows but no one talks about. Because if you admit to knowing it you'd have to do something about it. I only found out yesterday by looking

at old police records and questioning some of the older dis-patchers.'

Skye stretched and got up. 'At least we don't have to put everyone through the misery of a trial. You have enough to wrap things up, don't you?'

The chief grudgingly agreed that the people being black­mailed had suffered enough, so he would let the matter drop. Skye was sure his wife's involvement helped him make that decision.

Wally turned down May's invitation to lunch and left. The rest of them sat around the table and discussed the past few days as May began serving the food. First she placed a ham on the table and handed Jed the carving set. While he was occupied, she put out bowls of scalloped potatoes, Waldorf salad, creamed peas, pearl onions, and glazed carrots. Grandma Denison had sent over a batch of her rolls, served hot with butter. May poured iced tea and they dug in.

No one spoke until Skye finished her first helping and wiped her mouth with a napkin. 'Charlie, I forgot all about the board meeting Tuesday night. What happened with Lloyd?'

Charlie snickered. 'Oh, we fixed his wagon. The district is now accepting applications for a new junior high princi­pal.'

'How did you manage that?' Skye reached past Vince for a roll.

Leaning back, Charlie took a generous swallow of his iced tea. 'You remember when my house was broken into, right?'

'That was Mike, wasn't it?' Skye nabbed the butter as it was being passed.

'Nope, Lloyd did it. He was looking for Honey's year­book. I must have mentioned looking for it in front of him, and he got nervous about what he wrote by his name.' Charlie sipped his drink.

'What made you realize that it was Lloyd?' Simon questioned.

'I didn't, but I took the opportunity when everyone was so involved in the murder to break into his office.'

'Oh, Uncle Charlie, how could you?' Skye's knife hov­ered above the half-buttered roll.

'I knew there was something fishy about that guy. It turns out he and Mike Young had a scheme going with the school pictures. Say someone bought a package worth twenty-five dollars. Lloyd and Mike would take half the money and the records would show a payment of only twelve-fifty. The school board always wondered why the junior high's profit on that fund-raising activity was so much less than the other two schools.' Charlie folded his hands over his stomach and grinned.

Vince wondered out loud, 'So, Lloyd broke into your house and you broke into Lloyd's office. Where was Mike Young in all of this?'

'Getting ready for his date with me, no doubt.' Skye shot Vince a look.

Simon added, 'Don't forget he was also searching Honey's condo, rigging the surveillance camera, and bug­ ging Skye's cottage. I'd say he was pretty busy.'

'I want to know how he got hold of my shears,' Vince said.

Skye answered, 'Chief Boyd explained that. Turns out, in addition to his other nasty habits, Mike took things.'

'What do you mean, took things? He was a thief, too?' Vince reached for his glass.

'Yeah. I'm never letting you set me up with a blind date again.'

Simon took Skye's hand. 'That's good to hear.'

They were interrupted by a knock on the door and a voice calling out, 'It's Darleen Boyd. Can I come in?'

Jumping out of her seat, May rushed to the door. 'You come on in. You're just in time for dessert.'

Darleen tried to say no, but before she knew it, she was seated between Skye and Charlie. As if by magic, a piece of apple-slice pastry appeared in front of her.

May finally allowed Darleen to speak after everyone was served their sweet. 'This is kind of hard to say in front of you all, but I know that you already know most of the story. When Wally stopped by the school and told me about the record of my being blackmailed, I decided to start fresh. I took half a personal day and came over here to explain.'

Skye turned to her. 'You don't owe any of us an expla­nation. I'm just sorry your personal problems got dragged into the open as much as they have been.' 'But 1 want to tell you,' Darleen insisted. Charlie patted her arm. 'We're all ears.' 'Well, Wally and I decided to try and have a baby about three years ago. At first we weren't concerned when I didn't get pregnant right away, but then I started to worry. About a year went by and we started talking about getting tested. Before we decided, I got a letter in the mail. I still can't fig­ure out how Honey found out about this, but we weren't keeping our attempts to conceive a secret.

'Anyway, the letter revealed that back in high school Mike had a sexually transmitted disease that he gave to Honey, which made her sterile. She figured I must have the same thing and that was why I wasn't getting pregnant. So she threatened to tell Wally if I didn't pay her to keep quiet. 'I quit telling Wally I wanted us to be tested and paid up. A month ago Wally insisted that we get examined. When I got the results, I finally came clean with him and stopped paying Honey.'

Skye poured her a glass of iced tea and said sympatheti­cally, 'We're all so sorry.'

Darleen got up and made her way to the door. 'You know, I do feel much better now that I've talked about it. Since this nightmare started, I haven't been able to eat much, but now I think I'm actually hungry.'

Those were the magic words that May lived to hear. She packed a lunch and had it in Darleen's hand before anyone else could bat an eyelash.

Skye's curiosity was still not satisfied. 'I wonder why Honey raised the blackmail amounts so suddenly?'

'I can explain that,' Charlie said. 'When I talked to her agent, she said her show had been canceled. She was going to be out of a job come September.'

'This time I have a question for Simon.' Skye pinned him to his seat with her gaze. 'How did you find out my