Chapter Twenty-Three
Carol
The Fair-Weather Friends Fan Club had taken over a back room at the coffee shop.
Someone pushed together about a dozen little tables to form a long rectangle.
When Carol got there, more than twenty people were already milling about with mugs of coffee, plastic cups of smoothies, or other drinks in hand.
Chloe was at the head of one side of the tables, wearing a bright yellow shirt and a pair of “jet stream” earrings that were giant swooshes.
Carol glanced around and saw two other people she recognized right away: Steve, Faith’s alleged boyfriend, and Heather, the woman who had glommed on to Carol at the vigil. She was thrilled to see Steve so she could snoop.
Heather spotted Carol and waved her arm enthusiastically, yelling out, “Carol! Hi!”
Carol gave only a slight smile and a less-than-enthused lift of her hand in return, but Heather was beelining Carol’s way as fast as she could with her slight limp. Carol had that weird feeling again of being penned in by this person she barely knew.
Eyeing Heather warily, Carol noticed Heather was once again carrying Mr. Bojangles, her emotional-support teddy bear, and she was wearing the funky earrings with bright colors and little mirrors.
“I’m so glad you came,” Heather gushed, reaching out and putting her hand on Carol’s arm.
Carol pulled it away. Remember why you’re here, Carol told herself.
For Faith and the baby. And Steve. She wanted to spy on him.
Her eyes wandered past Heather to scan the room.
Steve was standing in the corner, rocking back and forth like the slowest speed on a metronome.
He seemed to be the only one without a beverage in hand.
“Do you want to sit together?” Heather asked in her irritatingly nasal voice, and Carol tried to scramble for an excuse.
“Oh, I can only stay for a bit so I’ll probably sit near the door so I don’t make a scene. Thanks, though.”
“I don’t mind being by the door,” Heather responded with a big grin, and Carol wished she could build a brick wall between the two of them. She couldn’t figure out why this woman felt so attached to her when they were relative strangers.
Heather pulled two chairs back and plopped down in one, patting her hand on the other and smiling up at Carol. Warily, Carol lowered herself into it, knowing that walking away now would be rude. Heather placed the teddy bear on the table.
“Watch this,” Heather said, squeezing the bear’s paw. The bear started to make a noise that sounded like a heartbeat. “I made him at Build-A-Bear. You get to choose a sound to be installed. I like the heartbeat. It calms me down when I feel anxious.”
“Isn’t that nice?” asked Carol. And it would have been, in the arms of a child, but since Heather was a fully grown woman Carol started to move her back into the “nutjob” category.
People were still milling about and the meeting hadn’t started yet.
Steve continued his painstakingly slow rocking.
Carol knew if she wanted to play amateur detective she would need to make the first move.
Turning back to Heather, she said, “Excuse me, I’m going to mix and mingle before we get started. ”
“OK, I’ll save your seat for you!” Heather replied.
Carol tried to push Heather out of her head as she stood up and walked toward Steve. Talking to another mildly crazy person was not what she necessarily wanted to do, but it had to be done. For Faith. For the baby. Carol and Olivia had to suss out these suspects.
When she got to Steve, he looked at her uneasily.
“Hello,” she said in what she hoped was a soothing voice. “I recognize you from the vigil yesterday. Steve, right? Faith’s boyfriend?”
At the word boyfriend he stood a little taller and said, “Yeah, that’s me.”
“I’m so very, very sorry for your loss,” Carol responded, adding a tinge of sadness to her voice to sound sincere. “May I ask, when was the last time you saw Faith?”
It was the first question in what she hoped would be a revealing chat with Steve that might yield insights she could report back to Olivia.
“Friday night,” said Steve. “We met during her dinner break. She was pregnant, you know. I told all of you that and now you know it’s true.
She asked me to meet up with her and get some food.
She wasn’t feeling great so I was there to make sure she was OK.
You know how ladies get when they’re pregnant, like they want to puke or something. ”
Carol was carefully studying Steve as he spoke.
He didn’t seem to have the emotions a boyfriend would have if he had just lost his girlfriend and their baby to strangulation.
Steve spoke very matter-of-factly and didn’t appear upset at all.
Carol thought of the photo he had produced that was so clearly photoshopped.
But she wasn’t here to determine if he was truly Faith’s boyfriend, she was here to figure out if he did something to Faith, boyfriend or not.
“Oh, how kind of you to meet up with her,” Carol replied, hoping by lobbing a few compliments his way she might warm him up. “Where did you go for dinner? I only ask because I’m such a huge fan and it would be nice to picture what Faith did on her last night.”
“Applebee’s,” he said. “But then I had to go home and she went back to the station and then, you know, something happened somewhere along the way. I dunno what happened.”
His monotone style was hard to place. Carol was trying to figure out whether he was a psychopath and killed Faith, or a clueless nerd making up stories. She tried again.
“Steve, your loss is unimaginable. My deepest condolences. And then you went home? Did you ever hear from her again that night?”
He opened his mouth to respond but before he could a loud clinking sound came from behind Carol and startled both her and Steve. It was Chloe banging a fork aggressively against a glass cup.
“FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS,” she called in a loud bellow that wasn’t really necessary given the space they were in. “Please come sit so we can get started. We have a lot to talk about.”
Reluctantly Carol moved back to the chair next to Heather’s. She wanted to spend more time grilling Steve but he slunk back into a chair that wasn’t even in the main rectangle.
Chloe started talking about the baby and the unthinkable loss of two lives. Carol noticed that Steve looked at the floor and wiped his hands on his jean shorts multiple times. Chloe then turned to the scholarship the station was starting.
“As her number-one fan club, we must step up,” Chloe said.
“My partner and I are donating two hundred dollars. Please give what you can. I have the station Venmo account here. If we raise more money than any other fan group in town, their news director told me they’d put our names on a wall of donors they’re creating. Isn’t that neat? Who’s in?”
Carol shot her hand up and so did everyone else, including Heather and Steve. Chloe’s eyes widened and she grinned.
“You all are the best. Although we’ve lost Faith, look what we’ve gained in getting to know one another. It’s truly the best community I’ve ever been in. Let’s all get our phones out and Venmo at the same time. The station will be blown away!”
People fumbled for their phones, saying things like, “How do I do this again?” Heather leaned over toward Carol and Carol thought she was going to ask her something about Venmo.
Carol barely knew how to operate her own and didn’t want to teach someone else, so she faked that she didn’t notice Heather getting closer to her by keeping her eyes on her own phone.
“Carol, did you say your niece met Faith?” Heather whispered. “I heard a rumor that Faith gave an intern some piece of paper. Was that your niece, by chance?”
Carol’s head snapped toward Heather. How would this woman know that bit of info?
“Where did that rumor come from?” she asked, suddenly worried sick for Olivia if this got around.
“From Chloe,” hissed Heather, nodding toward Chloe, who was helping an elderly couple who didn’t have Venmo and wanted to donate cash. “She knows a lot of things.”
“Well, it was not my niece. Must have been some other intern.”
Carol was going to protect Olivia at all costs. No way she was divulging info to this teddy-bear-toting, weird-earring-wearing, glomming-on woman.
“Oh, OK, I just wondered ’cause you know, we’re all looking for justice for Faith. That’s all we want. If it was your niece, your secret is safe with me. I mean, if she told you anything, anything at all that could bring justice, we could all work together to do so.”
What an odd thing to say, Carol thought. Why would Heather press her in this manner and say “your secret is safe with me”? Did Heather not believe her?
“Well, it wasn’t my niece,” said Carol firmly.
“Cool beans,” replied Heather. Carol glanced around again and wondered if she could slide over to an open chair without being rude. Chloe started talking loudly again.
“Venmo time is over but if you need tech help I will stay after this meeting. Next I want to talk about Faith’s …
you know … her … her baby.” Chloe’s voice cracked at the last word, and she paused to compose herself.
“I’ve been thinking of ways to honor him or her.
What about a community baby shower where we all get diapers and wipes and formula and things for those less fortunate? Or does anyone have any other ideas?”
For a few minutes they went back and forth on thoughts, Chloe writing them all down and nodding vigorously at each one. Steve raised his hand.
“Yes, Steve?” called out Chloe.
“We were gonna name the baby Zeus, it was a boy,” he said.
Heather leaned over and whispered in Carol’s ear.
“No way you can tell that at six weeks.”
Chloe smiled in that appeasing way toward Steve and said, “Thank you for sharing. Anyone else?”
Another woman raised her hand and started talking about a day care that really needed donations and maybe they should zero in on that.