A few days after her aunt’s death, Skye received a phone call from someone saying he was Miss Prynn’s great-nephew and he had a file that his aunt had asked him to hold for safekeeping. Skye’s name and number were on a slip of paper inside the folder, and he wanted to know if she still wanted it.
She said no.
Epilogue
It was the second Saturday in September, and school had been back in session for a couple of weeks. As promised, Simon had not called. It had been a sad summer. Skye sat at the counter peeling apples and watching May make applesauce. “Mom, we’ve never really talked about what happened with Aunt Mona. Would you rather I had left things alone?”
May didn’t answer for a while. She finally turned from the stove. “I still miss Mona. She wasn’t always like that. She was so smart. We thought for sure she would go to college and have a career.”
“Do you know why she didn’t?”
“Neal started to court her during her senior year in high school. He was a couple years older and already a successful farmer.” May stirred silently for a few seconds. “I think maybe Dad pressured Mona into marrying Neal. I know he always said he wasn’t paying for any of us girls to go to college.”
“I had no idea. My image of Mona is so different from that.” Skye closed her eyes. “I don’t remember ever seeing her without her guard up.”
“Mona used to be such fun. She loved shopping with me for your baby clothes. She loved taking care of you and dressing you up.”
“I don’t recall her spending any time with me.”
“She stopped when she found out she couldn’t have children. After that she changed. Appearances and possessions became everything to her. Everyone had to envy her or she wasn’t happy.” May wiped away a tear. “And Neal didn’t like her to spend much time with her family.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t think we were good enough.”
Skye and May worked in silence for a while. Finally Skye said, “You didn’t answer my question. Would you rather I’d left things alone?”
May stopped stirring. “No, I guess some things just can’t be swept under the rug. That’s what happened with Mona, really. Dad wanted to keep everything hidden.”
“Secrets will destroy any family.” Skye concentrated on peeling an apple without breaking the spiral of skin.
“I suppose so.” May added sugar to the sliced apples in the pan. “That’s why Minnie and I decided to confront Dante.”
Skye was halfway through without breaking off the skin. “So you weren’t surprised to learn that Uncle Dante and the lawyer were skimming off some of Grandma’s money?”
“Not really. I think we all knew he was up to something. He spent so much more money than the rest of us. Even Mom knew. But it was always on farm equipment he used for the estate, so we could tell ourselves it wasn’t really stealing. Another family secret no one wanted to face.” May sprinkled cinnamon into the mixture.
“Hugo’s been very quiet lately about the advantages of selling Grandma’s land to a developer,” Skye said.
“Your dad and Emmett had a talk with him and that Castleview guy. I think that settled Hugo’s hash. They made both of them see we would never sell the land for a housing development.” May turned the burner down to let the applesauce simmer.
“Look, I got one off without breaking it.” Skye held up the ribbon of bright red skin.
“Good, now drop it on the counter and it will form the initial of the man you’re going to marry.” May leaned over to get a better view.
Skye let the peel slide between her fingers. “I can’t tell what letter it looks like.”
May stepped closer. “It’s an R, of course, for Reid.” Even though May knew that Skye and Simon had broken up last June, May never gave up on a prospective son-in-law.
Skye tilted her head and looked at the red skin. She could see how her mom thought it looked like an R, but to her it kind of looked like a B for Boyd or maybe even a K. Didn’t that new English teacher’s name start with a K?
Following is a preview of the next
Scumble River mystery
Murder of a Sleeping Beauty
coming from Signet in 2002.
CHAPTER 1
From Bad to Hearse
As a school psychologist, Skye Denison had dealt with many recalcitrant teens, but Justin Boward would be the death of her yet. He refused to talk. She was beginning to think his entire vocabulary consisted of yes, no, and the occasional grunt. Although she knew that adolescents were the same as cats—neither reacted when you spoke to them—his lack of response to her attempts to draw him out was starting to make her feel like a failure. A feeling she was way too familiar with already.
Two years ago Skye had been forced to crawl back to Scumble River, Illinois, after finding herself fired, jilted, and broke. It had been hard enough to return to the rural Midwestern town she had escaped as a teenager, but the citizens’ long memories had made it even worse. Hardly a week went by without someone reminding Skye of what she had said twelve years ago in her valedictorian speech. Back then, the moment the words had left her mouth, she’d regretted saying that Scumble River was full of small-minded people with even smaller intellects. She had regretted it even more since she’d moved back home.
She sneaked a peek at her watch as she pushed a stray chestnut curl under her headband. It was twenty-five minutes before the Scumble River High School dismissal bell would ring. Once again, she attempted to make eye contact with the teen seated kitty-corner from her at the small trapezoidal table. He ducked his head and studied his chewed fingernails. Justin had not spoken three words to her in their fifteen minutes together. Skye searched her mind for some pithy comment.
Before she could think of what to say, a girl she vaguely recognized flung the door open and stumbled inside. The girl bent over, trying to catch her breath, and spoke between gasps. “Sleeping Beauty is dead.”
“What?” Was this teen speak for: Run, the cops are here? Was she supposed to answer: The gray wolf howls at midnight? Skye’s emerald-green eyes raked the adolescent, who was standing just past the office threshold, still-hunched over, hands on her knees. She was dressed in low-riding, wide-legged denims and a hooded belly top. Her bleached two-tone hair fell to the middle of her back, and her navel was pierced.
Skye quickly examined her mental file and decided that the girl probably hung with either the Rebels or the Skanks. Of Scumble River High’s five or six cliques, these were the two roughest. The Cheerleaders, the Jocks, and the Nerds had much more teacher-pleasing behavior. What was this girl up to?
The adolescent finally straightened and grabbed Skye by the wrist. “Something abhorrent has happened. You have to come right now. Hurry!”
Skye found herself half running, half being dragged down the long hall. Orange lockers went by in a blur, and the smell of that day’s lunch caught in her throat.
The teen skidded to a halt before the closed gym doors and pointed. “In there.”
“Who are you? And what are you talking about?”
“This is just FYI. I’m out of here.” The girl tried to push past Skye and head back down the corridor.
Skye grabbed the hood of her top. “Oh, no, you don’t. Explain.”
“Hey, Cujo! Back in your cage.” The teen twisted violently, trying to free herself. She turned an anger-filled stare on Skye, who met her gaze without blinking. Finally, the girl shrugged. “So, okay. I cut my eighth-period study hall, and I was hanging around here and there, waiting until my buds got out of school. I wanted a cigarette, and knew there was no PE last hour, so I went in the gym. It was dark. I thought I saw someone on the stage, so I went closer. That’s when I saw her. What’s her name? The cheer-leader playing Sleeping Beauty. She was lying there dead.”