“Because I did a little background checking and Mabel G. Chalthoum is the name of one of the owners of The Salon.”
A.J. swallowed so hard she knew Jake could hear it on the end of the line. “Gloria-?”
“Gloria Sunday is the professional name, the stage name, of Mabel G. Chalthoum. Gloria Sunday was Massri’s sponsor into this country.”
Gloria was Madame X.
“Oh my God,” A.J. said. “Jake, Mother is probably at Stella Borin’s farm. She’s been taking care of Stella’s animals while Stella”-she gave another of those little gulps-“tries to gather information at The Salon.”
The silence was deafening.
Then, so tersely she pictured him having to chip the words out, Jake said, “I’ll try the farm,” and hung up.
A.J. dialed Elysia’s cell phone. It rang and went to message.
She tried again. Same result.
But after all, Elysia often left her cell phone at home. This really meant nothing.
Would Elysia leave her cell phone behind when she believed they were in the middle of a big sting operation?
A.J. grabbed her purse, dug out Stella’s phone number, and tried the farm. The circuits were busy. She realized she and Jake were probably calling at the same time. She hung up and counted to ten, then dialed again. The phone rang and rang and then an answering machine came on with Stella’s brusque invitation to leave a message.
“Mother, pick up,” A.J. commanded. “Are you there? Pick up!”
Why did people always say things like that? Obviously if Elysia was there she would pick up. If she wasn’t there, what was the point of asking whether she was there?
A.J. hung up and put her face in her hands.
Next to her elbow the phone rang again and A.J. snatched it up. “Yes?”
“It’s me,” Jake said. “You better explain to me exactly what’s going on. Start at the top.”
“You know most of it already.” A.J. began to explain into the vast and intimidating silence on the other end. She had reached the part about Stella going off with Stewie for a day of shopping when she heard a car outside.
“Hang on,” she said and hurried to the front door, nearly falling over Monster in her haste. She threw open the door in time to see Stella and the tall, elegant form of Stewie Cabot getting out of the rental car.
“Have you talked to Elysia this morning?” Stella called.
A.J. shook her head. “I can’t reach her.”
“Come on,” Stella said. “We’ve got to find her. Stewie thinks she’s in danger.”
Stewie did look pretty worried. His silver hair was standing on end as though he’d been running his fingers through it.
“I’m on the phone to Jake,” A.J. said.
“Tell him to get over to my place,” Stella told her.
“Don’t move.” A.J. flew back to the phone. “Jake, I don’t have all the details yet, but Stella is back and she says Mother may be in danger. She said you should head for Little Peavy Farm. I’m on my way and I’ll call you as soon as I have the details.”
“You stay right where you are,” Jake said. “Call me when you’ve talked to Stella. I’m leaving now.”
He disconnected.
A.J. grabbed her purse and keys, called to Monster, and ran to join Stella and Stewie.
“I was burned,” Stella said and the rental car, driven by Stewie, tore back down the highway toward Warren County and Stillbrook.
“You were… what?” A.J. pushed Monster’s head away as he leaned across her to get to her window. What was wrong with his own window? Only Monster had the answer to that one.
“Burned. My cover was blown yesterday,” Stella, who had clearly been hanging around Elysia too long, explained.
“I’m not following.”
Stella looked at Stewie. Stewie, his gaze on the road ahead, said wearily, “Go on. Tell her everything.”
“I was ‘made’ at The Salon yesterday,” Stella said. “It turns out one of the stylists working there was a kid who’d bought his calf from me a couple of years back when he was in 4-H Club. He didn’t know what was at stake, naturally, but he happened to mention it today in front of Gloria.”
“Oh no,” A.J. said.
“When I got to The Salon this morning, Gloria was acting a little weird, but Stewie got me out of there before I had time to make much out of it.”
Stella looked at Stewie again, but he volunteered nothing.
“Well, it didn’t take me long to see from the way Stewie was acting that something was wrong.”
This time the look Stella gave Stewie was softer. More astonishing was the look Stewie threw Stella. Observing this, A.J. said, “I thought…”
“Oh, Stewie’s not gay,” Stella said. “That’s just something he says to keep the ladies at bay.”
“Oh. Oh?” Apparently Stella was not a lady Stewie wanted to keep at bay, even now that he knew the truth about her. “What did Stewie tell you?” A.J. was looking at Stewie but asking Stella.
“He confessed everything.”
“Everything?”
The car swerved, and Stella said calmly, “About the blackmail scheme. Stewie and Gloria have been running a blackmail business out of The Salon for the last five years. They got into financial trouble, you see.”
“I know how it looks,” Stewie said. “But you have to understand. Once I got into it, there wasn’t any getting out. Gloria doesn’t take rejection well.”
“I think I see,” A.J. said. “How did it start? Let me take a wild guess: Gloria went on a vacation cruise to Egypt five years ago?”
Stewie’s eyes met hers in the rearview. He nodded glumly. “That’s exactly how it happened. Gloria went on vacation and came back with an idea of how we could get The Salon out of the red. The way she looked at it is we were sort of providing a public service to lonely women, and it was as reasonable to be paid for that as a haircut or a paraffin bath.”
Stella snorted.
Stewie said defensively, “Most of our ladies could easily afford the amount we charged. We weren’t greedy. They enjoyed the attention and the wining and dining and the…”
“Sex,” Stella said.
“Yes. And the sex. Most of them thought the social fees were a small price to pay. It’s not like we continued to charge them forever. We always let them off the hook after a couple of years.”
“After a couple of years,” A.J. repeated. “You blackmailed them. Social fees? Those were penalty fees for being lonely. What a horrible thing to do to people. And, no, they weren’t all okay with the social fees. Peggy Graham wasn’t okay with the social fees.”
“We didn’t have anything to do with Peggy Graham’s death,” Stewie said quickly.
“You may not have doctored her sleeping pills, but you sure did have something to do with her death. She was suffering from depression and you blackmailed her. I’d say that was a contributing factor to her death.” A.J. steadied her voice. “What about Medea? She knew something. She called you after she learned that Peggy had killed herself and you came to her house and shot her.”
“No!” Stewie said, and the car swerved again. Monster sat down in A.J.’s lap.
“Whoa,” Stella cried. “Let’s slow down and take this one thing at a time or we’re going to end up in a ditch and then what’ll happen to Elysia?”
“What will happen to Mother?” A.J. demanded.
Stella looked at Stewie who shook his head. She said to A.J., “You have to understand that Stewie doesn’t know anything for sure-”
“I’m afraid of Gloria,” Stewie said. “I think she’s gone off the rails. I tried to talk her out of doing anything rash, but she was in love with young Massri, and she blames your mother for his death.”
“She blames my mother?” As though someone else’s mother were a possibility?
Stewie said heavily, “She accused your mother of persecuting her and sending her undercover operative into The Salon. That’s why I got Stella out of there first thing. I wasn’t sure what Gloria might do.”