Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,67
“She—she told me I had a hateful person working for me, someone who was cruel to children, and that I—along with everyone else at the party—would be better off without her.”
“Better off without her?” Tori echoed. “What? Did she expect you to fire Ashley?”
A low, mirthless laugh escaped the woman’s lips. “Fire Ashley?” Regina dropped her hands to her desk and stood. “Are you kidding me? I was offering her the chance to immortalize her own name instead of—oh, forget it, it doesn’t matter. That woman was crazy.”
“But—”
“It’s time for you to go. I am trying to run a company here. A company without a head designer I desperately needed.”
Chapter 24
Tori felt the smile spread across her face the second she saw the name on her caller ID screen, the momentary respite from her thoughts a welcome relief. Flipping the cell phone open, she held it to her ear. “Hi!”
“I called over to the library and Nina told me you were off today. Where are you?”
“I just left Regina’s office and I’m heading home. I’m in dire need of a little chocolate.”
“You get anythin’ good while you were there?”
“Not really. Except maybe the fact that Samantha Smith may have hinted at the crime that took Ashley’s life.”
“Then you need to go straight to the chicken pen and start scratchin’.”
Her laugh echoed around the car. “Excuse me?”
“Sorry ’bout that, Victoria. I forgot who I was talkin’ to for a minute.” Margaret Louise’s voice bellowed in her ear. “Rather than taking a hint as told to you by someone else, how ’bout you get one straight from the horse’s mouth instead?”
“What horse might that be?” She slowed to a stop at the four-way intersection on the eastern edge of the town square.
“Samantha Smith.”
She stepped on the gas only to switch to the brake once again. “How?”
“By stoppin’ by—hold on a second, will you?”
As she waited, Tori slowly crept across the intersection, her gaze sweeping the grounds of the Green as she headed down one of its bordering roads.
“Victoria? You still there? Sorry about that. Sally had a mini-crisis.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Just dandy. Now drive on over here and let’s see if we can’t get some of those answers we need.”
“Samantha is there?”
“Sure as shootin’ she is. Seems almost the entire mornin’ kindergarten class and their mammas are here.”
“And where, exactly, is here? Melissa’s?”
“Good heavens, Victoria, of course not. We’re at the park—Sweet Briar Memorial Park.”
Sweet Briar Memorial Park.
“You mean, Penelope Park, don’t you?” She turned onto Valley View road and headed east.
“Now don’t you get me started on that, Victoria. This is too nice a day to discuss the fact that our city council is three pickles shy of a quart.”
“It could be worse. They could be four pickles shy.” Tori stifled the urge to laugh as she pulled into a parking spot beside the park. “I’m here now.”
“Ooooh, I see you, I see you.”
She scanned the crowd of moms and kids to find a waving Margaret Louise on the far side of the monkey bars, her plump form moving alongside Sally as the little girl worked to maneuver each rung. “I see you, too.”
“The horse is on the bench when you step inside the gate.”
“The horse . . .” Her voice trailed off as she sought out her friend’s directions. Sure enough, the short-haired brunette that had been a topic of discussion with Regina Murphy not more than fifteen minutes earlier was sitting on a bench watching her daughter like a hawk. “I see her.”
“Why don’t you strike up a conversation when you first walk in. And I’ll do my best to encourage Sally over in that direction.”
“Sounds good. See you soon.” She snapped the phone closed in her hand and pulled the key from the ignition. A quick check in the rearview mirror confirmed what she already knew—she needed more sleep and a rapid end to the drama. And while she was at it, perhaps a one-way ticket out of Sweet Briar for Milo’s former flame, as well.
Shaking the latter image from her thoughts, Tori stepped from the car and made her way over to the gate, the prospect of talking to Samantha guiding her forward. As luck would have it, Samantha turned in her direction as she approached.
“Hi. Samantha, right?” She extended her hand in the mom’s direction. “I’m not sure if you remember me but—”
Samantha stood. “Of course. You’re the librarian. The one who helped with Sally Davis’s birthday party.”
She confirmed the woman’s words with a smile and a