Murder Between the Covers (30 page)

What she saw inside made her gag.

It was a dead parrot.

Helen gathered her courage and looked again. The green feathers were too bright. That color was not found in nature.

It wasn’t a dead parrot. It was a Styrofoam bird covered with dyed green feathers. Helen could breathe again. Pete was OK. She saw she’d been clutching the counter for support. Gayle was standing next to her, looking worried.

“What’s wrong, Helen?” she said. “Are you sick again?”

“Someone sent me this weird thing,” Helen said.

Gayle looked in the box. “Is that a dead bird? No, it’s a fake. But it looks dead. That’s horrible. There’s a note in the box. It looks weird, too.”

The letters were cut out of magazines and newspapers and pasted to plain white paper. The note said,
If Peggy
wishes to gaze upon her darling bird again, you must stop
your sleuthing. Cease or her beloved pet will feel the cold
gaze of mortality.

“‘Cold gaze of mortality’?” Gayle said. “What does that mean?”

“Someone’s going to kill Pete the parrot,” Helen said.

“Should I call the cops? What sicko wrote that?”

“I have a good idea. I’ve got to go home. Someone may hurt Pete.”

“Go on. I’ll cover for you,” Gayle said, but Helen was already running out of the store. If her investigating led to Pete’s death, she’d never forgive herself. Peggy would never forgive her, either. Peggy might give up if anything happened to Pete.

Helen couldn’t bear the thought. She came to a street corner and was held up by the world’s longest red light. Twice, she tried to dash across. Twice, cars nearly ran her down. Angry drivers honked at her. One man leaned out the window and yelled, “Are you trying to get killed, lady?”

I’m trying to stop a death, she thought. She willed herself to take deep breaths until the light finally changed.

Pete will be OK, she told herself. He’s with Margery. She’s tough and smart.

She’s seventy-six years old. What chance did an old woman have if a killer surprised her? Helen redoubled her running efforts. She tripped on an uneven sidewalk and fell forward, landing on both hands. Her palms were scraped, but nothing felt broken. She wasted no more time looking for potential damage. Helen ran.

She could see the turquoise Coronado sign on the icecream-white building. She could hear the rattling air conditioners. Best of all, she heard a parrot squawk. She hoped it was Pete and not one of the wild birds in the palm trees.

Helen knocked on Margery’s door.

Silence.

“Margery! Margery, are you home?” She hammered her fists until the jalousie glass rattled and her knuckles were raw.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Hold your horses.” Never had bad-tempered words sounded so good. Her landlady opened the door. She’d clearly been asleep. One side of her hair was flattened, her red lipstick was smeared, and there were sheet wrinkles in her skin.

“Where’s Pete?” Helen said.

“Asleep, too, for a change. That’s how I finally got some shut-eye.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. His cage is right over—”

But his cage wasn’t there. Only the stand and a scattered pile of seed remained. “Where’d he go?” Margery said, bewildered. “How the heck did someone get into my place and steal that parrot?”

Helen looked at the door lock. “Lock picks. You have a Tandy DE345 lock. The killer picked it and took Pete. It’s Melanie. She killed Page Turner. She kidnapped Pete to make me stop looking for her. She says she’ll kill him. She has a cat. A big mean Siamese. He’ll tear Pete to pieces, if she doesn’t.”

“Oh, Lord, if anything happens to Pete, Peggy will kill both of us,” Margery said, then looked at Helen. “I didn’t mean that.”

“I know,” Helen said.

“Do you know where this Melanie lives?”

“No, but I know how to find her. Where’s your phone book?”

Helen called the Mr. Goodtooth Clinic. “Melanie has left for the day,” the receptionist said.

Melanie took the afternoon off for a little birdnapping, Helen thought.

“Do you have her home phone? This is Page Turners bookstore. We’re trying to get in touch with her.”

“Page Turners! I know she’s been wanting a book signing at your store. She’ll be so disappointed she missed your call. Melanie left early to go to a wedding at the Tree of Life Baptist church. You need her home phone? She may still be at home getting dressed. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if you called.”

“Could I have her address also?” Helen said. “We want to send her our author-information packet.”

The receptionist obligingly gave out Melanie’s address and phone number.

“I’ll drive you there,” Margery said. She had miraculously put herself back together during that short phone call.

They made it in ten minutes, with Margery breaking the speed limit. Melanie lived in a spectacularly ugly 1970s apartment complex. Helen expected the
Saturday Night
Fever
John Travolta to come dancing out the door.

“That’s her building—two-twelve,” Margery said. “She’s in apartment A on the first floor.”

Even from the parking lot, Helen could hear outraged squawking and cat yowls.

“Pete!” Helen said. “Pete’s in trouble. Those aren’t his usual squawks.”

Margery rang the doorbell and yelled, “Melanie, it’s your aunt Purdy. Are you home?”

“Aunt who?”

“That’s in case the neighbors are watching,” Margery said. “Nobody’s home. Can you pick a lock?”

“No, but I can break a window.” Helen grabbed a big rock out of the planter and smashed one of the slitlike windows beside the front door. Two more sweeps removed most of the glass shards. She squeezed her hand in and unlocked the dead bolt. She got a long scratch on her arm, but it didn’t bleed much.

“I’m coming in with you,” Margery said.

“I need you to stand guard out here,” Helen said. “Yell if she comes back.”

Helen followed the cat yowls and parrot squawks to Pete. His cage was in the guest room on a dresser spread with newspaper. The room was a riot of cabbage-rose wallpaper, cat hair, and bird feathers.

Pete sat unharmed in his cage, his eyes glittering with rage. A scowling Siamese cowered under the bed. Fear puffed its fur to twice its size. The cat hissed at Helen and started toward her, but Pete squawked again and the animal backed under the bed. Helen grabbed the cage, shut the door on the cat, and ran out of the room.

She could hear Margery talking as she approached the door. “I’m sorry that bird was making such a racket,” she said. “Melanie called and asked us to take it away.”

Really, Margery was the most incredible liar, Helen thought as she opened the door. Her landlady was standing in front of the broken window to hide as much damage as possible, and talking to a woman with gray permed hair and thick glasses. Helen hoped she couldn’t see the shattered glass.

“There you are, dear,” Margery said. “That bird’s racket has been disturbing the whole complex, Brenda says. My niece will take care of the bird while I’m at the wedding. By the way, Brenda, can you direct me to the Tree of Life Baptist church from here? I’m a little flustered.”

Margery forgot she was wearing purple shorts, hardly proper attire for a church wedding. Brenda didn’t seem to notice. You got used to bizarre costumes in South Florida.

The woman gave Margery directions to the church, three blocks away. As they climbed back in the car, Helen said, “Take Pete home. I’m going to that wedding to make sure Melanie doesn’t get away. Call Detective Gil Gilbert and let him know what’s going on. I don’t know if a birdnapping is enough to get his interest, but tell him about the lock picking and the smothering scene in her book. Oh, and don’t forget the Cinderella shoes.”

“I’ll call him as soon as I get home,” Margery said. “Then I’m calling a locksmith.”

At the church, Helen was glad she was wearing her bookstore clothes. She could pass as a wedding guest, if she picked the feathers out of her hair and took off her Page Turners name tag.

She looked around the church and saw no sign of Melanie. But she did see a choice spot in the back row on the groom’s side, between a huge man and a woman with a hat the size of a truck tire. Helen figured she could hide between the two and observe the other guests. The man must have come straight from work. He was wearing a securityguard uniform and looked like a minivan in a tie.

Helen squeezed in between the hat and the minivan and looked for Melanie. She didn’t see her. Helen was getting nervous. Did she have the right wedding? Did Melanie decide to bolt? No, she wouldn’t leave her cat.

When the processional music started, she finally saw Melanie. She was a bridesmaid. Her dress would have sent Scarlett O’Hara into a jealous fit. It was powder-blue chiffon, with a hoop skirt that stretched from pew to shining pew. Ruffles cascaded down her front and dripped off the sleeves. Her flowing blond hair was topped with an enormous picture hat. Dyed-to-match ankle-strap heels peeped out from under the swaying skirt. Her bouquet was big as a shrub. Melanie looked sublimely happy. For her, this was romance with a capital R. She did not notice Helen as she floated down the aisle in her blue chiffon dream.

Four more blond bridesmaids followed, skirts swaying like lamp shades in a hurricane.

The brunette bride came out in a simple white satin princess gown, her skirt about half the size of her bridesmaids’ dresses. Clever woman, Helen thought. She looked impossibly skinny and sophisticated in that sea of chiffon.

The groom and his men were up there somewhere, overwhelmed by yards of fabric.

Baptist weddings were conducted at breakneck speed compared to the Catholic ceremonies Helen knew. Within fifteen minutes, the minister was introducing the new Mr. and Mrs. Farley Ostrander to the congregation. Helen clapped dutifully along with everyone else.

The bride and groom left arm in arm. Then Melanie wobbled back down the aisle on the arm of a groomsman. Helen edged closer to the hulking security guard, hoping to go unnoticed.

But Melanie saw Helen as she came down the aisle. Her face mirrored her panic. Melanie tossed her bouquet into the nearest pew and tried to cut through the pews on the bride’s side. Her huge skirt wouldn’t fit. She picked it up and held out it at an angle, exposing sheer-to-the-waist panty hose and unromantic white underwear. The church was speechless with shock as Melanie ran through the door at the end of the aisle.

Helen followed, stomping on the feet of a woman in a coral silk suit. Someone screamed. The other bridesmaids and groomsmen halted in the aisle.

“Stop that woman. She’s ruining my wedding,” shouted the bride, and the wedding party took off after Helen. A welter of skirts tried to squeeze after her. Helen heard the snap of a hoop and an “Ouch!” The other bridesmaids followed Melanie’s lead and tilted their skirts either forward or backward, displaying garments rarely seen in church.

Helen went through the door and then locked it. She could hear Melanie clattering down the steps. She followed and locked the door at the bottom of the steps, too. Now she was in a church reception area. At least, Helen thought that’s what it was. This wedding was very different from the lavish Catholic affairs she was used to.

The Baptist wedding reception had cake and punch and a pretty flower centerpiece. The punch was pale pink with something fizzy. An ice ring of strawberries floated in the massive cut-glass bowl. It was a classy little reception. There were real china cups for the coffee. The caterers were setting out some nifty canapes on a silver tray. Helen’s stomach growled as she passed the miniquesadillas. The sesame chicken skewers looked good, too.

Helen could hear the wedding party. It had broken through the first door and was pounding on the second. The hulking groomsmen would have it open soon. Helen looked for another way out, but didn’t see one. She did see Melanie. Her hoop skirt was back in its proper place. Melanie was swaying with rage, and moving swiftly for someone in ankle-strap heels. She threw her picture hat on the floor, grabbed the ornamental cake knife, and went after Helen.

Slash. Slash. Ribbons and lilies of the valley ripped through the air, and left a long cut in Helen’s shirt. Helen had no idea those cake knives were so sharp.

Melanie was doubly dangerous. The ruffles didn’t hinder her furious thrusts and parries. Together with the wide hoop skirt, they served as protection. She would be hard to stop.

“You’ve ruined my life,” Melanie sobbed. “All I ever wanted was to write, and you’ve humiliated me.”

“It wasn’t me. It was Page Turner,” Helen said.

“Don’t say that vile name!” Melanie said. She lunged at Helen with the cake knife, and Helen dodged a nearly lethal swipe at her heart. She heard a ripping sound. There was another deep cut in her shirt.

Helen looked for a weapon to defend herself from the wild knife thrusts. She saw only coffee spoons, china cups and saucers. Helen picked up a coffee cup and hurled it at Melanie. It shattered.

“Hey!” yelled a caterer, but the woman backed away when she saw Melanie’s slashing knife.

“Call nine-one-one,” Helen shouted, and threw another cup. That one bounced harmlessly off the lurching skirt. Chiffon was better than Kevlar. Helen reached for more ammunition from the coffee bar. The coffee urn wasn’t out yet, or she would have unleashed gallons of hot coffee. Instead, she grabbed a fistful of delicate china saucers. Two went wide of their mark. One bounced off Melanie’s arm. A cup hit a wad of ruffles and slid harmlessly away. Helen was desperate. Melanie and her knife were moving in for the kill.

Helen ducked behind the wedding cake for protection, but Melanie kept coming with the knife. She was a terrifying sight. Her blond hair looked like it had been electrified. Her ruffles whipped back and forth. Her skirt swung crazily. She was the bridesmaid from hell.