Derby Divas (Zoe Donovan Mystery) (2 page)

Penelope had
had the biggest crush on Levi all through our freshman year of high school. She’d followed him everywhere, even changing many of her classes to coincide with his. During the aforementioned slumber party, Ellie and I had called Penelope and told her that Levi was secretly in love with her and she should go over to his house and refuse to take no for an answer until he agreed to take her to the winter formal. Looking back, it really was a terrible thing to do. Levi hadn’t wanted to hurt Penelope’s feelings, so he actually took her to the dance even though he was the most popular boy in school and could have taken anyone he wanted.

I watched Ellie as she watched Levi.
He was mimicking the antics of the men-children on the screen as Zak laughed at their outrageous deeds. In spite of Levi’s completely juvenile behavior, I knew that Ellie must be hurting. Problem was that I really wasn’t sure what I could say that would make her feel better. She wasn’t wrong in her assessment that a long-term intimate relationship between Levi and herself was most likely not in the cards. Levi was the sweetest guy on the planet—next to Zak, of course—and would make someone a wonderful boyfriend, but they simply wanted different things in life. I knew that the quickest way for them both to get past this moment was to move on to someone else. Now I just needed to figure out a
someone else
to fix Ellie up with.

Tuesday mornings meant gathering in the back room of Rosie’s Café for the weekly Ashton Falls Events Committee meeting. Levi, Ellie, and I were all members, along with county liaison Willa Walton, my dad and representative of the volunteer firefighters Hank Donovan, town librarian Hazel Hampton, preschool owner Tawny Upton, local theater arts coordinator Gilda Reynolds, and our newest recruit, Paul Iverson, who had taken over the summer camp program after Frank Valdez was arrested for attempting to rob the bank last April.

“Welcome back
.” My dad scratched Charlie behind the ears after he gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead. We were the first members to arrive at the restaurant. “Where’s Zak?”

Zak wasn’t a formal member
of the committee, but more often than not he attended meetings when he was in town.

“He decided to go visit Scooter,” I informed him.

Scooter Sherwood is a precocious nine-year-old who had managed to get himself into quite a lot of trouble after his mother died and his dad checked out emotionally. The fact that he’d turned into the town terror wasn’t really surprising since he was left to his own devices much of the day. In an effort to help me out of a potentially sticky situation regarding a dog bite a few months earlier, Zak had agreed to babysit Scooter while his dad was out of town. The two had bonded, and a relationship forged on mutual respect and admiration had been born. Once Scooter’s dad had returned to town, he’d packed Scooter up and moved him to Kansas to live with his grandparents. Zak and Scooter had stayed in touch, so it wasn’t totally a surprise when Zak announced that as long as he had a private jet at his disposal, he was going to drop us off and then head to Kansas for a few days to see how Scooter was getting along.

“How is Scooter doing?” Dad asked.

“I think he’s doing okay,” I answered. “He misses Zak and isn’t thrilled to be living with his grandparents, but they seem to be good people who only want the best for him. At the very least, I’m sure they provide a stable environment, while his father didn’t.”

“Seems odd Zak would take off so soon after getting back from your trip
to the Islands,” Dad commented.

I suspected that Zak was giving us both some space but didn’t say as much. “We ended up coming home from Hawaii earlier than expected
, so he had use of the jet for a few more days. I guess he figured he was already packed, so why not. I know he bought a ton of souvenirs for Scooter the day we were in Lahaina, so he probably figured it would be more fun to deliver them in person than to mail them.”

“
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Do you want to come by the house later to say hi to your mom and Harper?”

“I’d like that.
I actually bought a lot of stuff for Harper the day we went shopping as well. I need to go to the Zoo and check in with Jeremy,” I said, referring to the wild and domestic animal control and rehabilitation shelter I run. “Maybe I can come by around five?”

“Five should be fine. I’ll let your mom know to expect you.”

“Have you moved back to the guesthouse?” I wondered.

Long story short
: my mom got pregnant with me when she was still a teenager. She decided she wasn’t ready to be a mom, so she gave me to my dad to raise. She came back into our lives a year ago and became pregnant with my baby sister Harper after a single night of passion with the man she had never stopped loving. They bought a property with a main house and a guesthouse. The parents wanted to raise Harper together, but neither were quite ready to commit to anything permanent, so the current lodging provides the opportunity for my mom and Harper to live in the main house, while my dad lives nearby, in the guesthouse. During the final weeks of her pregnancy, my dad had moved into the guest room of the main house to help Mom out, and as of a couple of weeks ago, the guest bedroom had been where he remained. I really hoped that my dad moving into the main house was a step toward my ultimate dream of my parents married, but while I was away in Hawaii, I’d learned that my dad intended to move back to the guesthouse.

“Actually
, I thought we could talk about the situation when you come by tonight.”

“Yeah, I guess this isn’t the best place for the discussion,” I
said.

I waved to Hazel
, who had come in with Willa, and settled Charlie at my feet when we took our seats and waited for the others to trickle in. While everyone on the committee had a specific need for the funds raised by our monthly events, it was up to Willa to ensure that all the income from our efforts was properly accounted for and distributed.

“
Are Levi and Ellie coming?” Willa asked.

“As far as I know
,” I answered as Gilda walked into the room with Tawny.

“I’m so glad you came back early,”
Gilda said in greeting. “We could use additional input on a discussion we had last week about the feasibility of having the men and women compete separately in the derby.”

“Separately?” I asked.

“As you know, initially the derby was an all-male event consisting of sixteen men who were divided into two groups of eight in the qualifying rounds,” Gilda explained. “The final four left running in each group were then entered into the final round. The last car running in the final eight was declared the winner. That always worked out quite well. Then, two years ago, Pandora Parker convinced the committee that she should be allowed to enter if she chose to do so. Not only did Pandora win the Derby last year, ruffling quite a few feathers in the process, but with her victory, we’ve had five additional women register for the event this year, giving us a total of six. Six!”

“That’s good,” I commented.
I knew that although Pandora was new to the derby competition, she’d been attending the classic car show for years. She owned a classic car parts and restoration shop in her hometown and attended the shows both to promote her services and acquire used parts for her business.

“Not really,” Gilda countered. “Several
of the men dropped out of the tournament because they didn’t care to compete with women, so we have ten men competing, for a total of sixteen entrants. As you know, we’re using a new field this year since the fairgrounds were unavailable. The field should accommodate six to seven vehicles at a time. The prior discussion centered on creating two distinct divisions, a women’s and a men’s, instead of dividing the pool into coed divisions. If we segregate the men from the women, we could place all six women in a single group, eliminating the need for a qualifying round, with the men in two groups of five, with the final three from each group moving on to the final round. The committee discussed it at length, but I’m afraid the vote was split.”

Levi walked in and took a seat on the o
ther side of my dad. “Vote was split concerning what?” he asked.

Gilda filled him in as Ellie joined us
, sitting down in the empty chair between Gilda and Hazel.

“I don’t think that segregating the men
from the women is going to go over well at all with the women,” I pointed out. “I realize that some of the men were tweaked that we opened the event to women, but in my opinion they’ll just have to learn to deal with the fact that they were beat by a girl. It seems like the only fair way to handle sixteen entries is to randomly divide the cars into groups for the qualifying rounds, as we’ve always done.”

“Levi?” Gilda asked.

“I don’t see the prob
lem with having a men’s tournament and a women’s tournament. They separate men and women in most other sports.”

“I guess it’s up to you
.” Willa looked at Ellie. “Levi, Gilda, Paul, and I feel we should have two separate divisions and Zoe, Hank, Hazel, and Tawny feel we should let the women compete with the men. Four to four.”

Ellie glanced at Levi
, who winked at her. “I say let the men and women compete in the same derby,” she decided.

I smiled and Levi frowned.

“Okay.” Willa sighed. “Since the venue we have is smaller than the one we’ve used in the past, we’ll need to divide the drivers into smaller groups for the qualifying rounds. I’m thinking four groups of four, with the final car from each group continuing on to the finals. On to other business. Tawny, how are you doing with the food for the event?”

I watched Levi and Ellie as Tawny gave her report. Levi was making an effort to make eye contact with Ellie
, but she was steadfastly ignoring him. I knew there was tension between them due to the events of the past few days, but I really hoped that any awkwardness would dissipate as we returned to our regular lives. The three of us had been friends for such a long time. I hated to see anything interfere with that.

“Is that okay with you
, Zoe?” Willa asked.

“I’m sorry, I guess I missed that. Is what okay?”

“Can you take over the scheduling of the qualifying groups?” Willa repeated.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’d be happy to help out with that.”

“Excellent. I know that both Pandora and Boomer Stevenson are planning to show up tomorrow. Since Pandora is the unofficial spokesperson for the women and Boomer is generally considered to be the top-rated male, perhaps you can share our decision with each of them.”

“Sure,” I
said. “Are they staying in the Ashton Falls Motor Inn?”

“I believe they are. You can
leave a message with the desk clerk to have them phone you when they get in.”

“I’l
l stop by and chat with the clerk when we’re done here,” I promised.

“Excellent.” Willa turned to my dad. “Hank
, are you all dialed in for the classic car parade?”

“Everything is set,” Dad ass
ured Willa. “The cars will cruise down Main Street on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, beginning at eight o’clock. Each car has been assigned a spot in the park during the day so that spectators can come by at their leisure, view the cars, and chat with the owners. The food vendors will be organized on the south end of the park near the gazebo. I know that Tawny has arranged for tables to be set up in the center to create a food-court type setting.”

“And the chili cook
-off?” Willa asked Paul.

“All set. We have eight entrants. The comp
etition will be held on Friday. Entrants will be allowed to set up any time after seven a.m., and judging will be at four. Samples will be available to the public once the winner has been selected.”

“
Wonderful,” Willa stated. “I volunteered to be in charge of organizing the sock hop, and Hazel and Gilda have agreed to help me with the actual event. Everything is set for Saturday night. We were able to get a fantastic band known for their renditions of favorites from the fifties and sixties, and I’ve managed to put together a reliable decorating party for the community center so that the six of you will be free to oversee the other events. Ellie, if you could help Tawny with the food, and Paul, if you will help Hank to oversee cruise night, Levi can assist Zoe with the final round of the demolition derby. Friday and Saturday will be busy days for all of us, so I’m hoping we can all meet at around seven?”

Everyone agreed that seven was fine. Ellie volunteered to bring coffee and Tawny
said she’d provide the doughnuts.

“Okay, it seems like we
’re in good shape for the weekend,” Willa said, beginning to wrap things up. “The cars should begin arriving tomorrow and the first event is scheduled for Thursday. Thursday will be a light day, with only the classic car parade. Is there anything we need to address in the meantime?”

“Are we doing a poker run this year?” I asked.

“Yes, on Friday afternoon,” Willa informed the group. “There will be five stations. Paul, Hank, Gilda, Hazel, and I will each man a station. Tawny and Ellie will be busy with the snack bar and Zoe and Levi will be busy with the derby, so I haven’t assigned you any other tasks associated with the event. Is there anything else?”