When Good Bras Go Bad (Myrtle Crumb Series) (16 page)

             
“Is that or is that not the necklace in question?” Brody asked me.

             
“Come down off your high horse, Wilbur Brody,” I said
.
“You know that’s the necklace.”

             
“So it
is
yours.”  Sunny looked from me to Brody
.
“I told you this was my Mimi’s necklace!”

             
“Is that why you took it?” I asked.

             
“Yeah!  I thought somebody stole it from you
.
I got it so I could come and ask you.”  She looked down at the necklace
.
“I’ve played dress-up with this necklace like a million times
.
I’d know it anywhere.”

             
“Well, there you go,” I said
.
“Let’s put the necklace back where Sunny got it and rebait our trap.”

             
“Why?” asked Brody
.
“We’ve caught our thief.”

             
“So are you pullin’ out?  Do I have to finish your job for you?”

             
He huffed a mad, coffee-smelling breath right in my face
.
“Fine
.
I’ll humor you until the end of the day
.
After that, this case is closed.”  He and “Tomare” turned to leave.

             
“Not a word to anybody,” I said, hoping I could still trust him
.
I looked at Sunny
.
“I mean it
.
Don’t tell a soul about this or we’ll never catch the real crook.”

DIVIDER HERE

             
When Sunny’s class came through the lunch line, Alicia was cozied up to Brandon Easton
.
She didn’t even take time to speak to me, and he didn’t either.

             
“It’s perfect,” Al was tellin
g
him
.
“It goes so
good
with my costume.”

             
She had to be talkin
g
about the necklace.

             
“Ms. Tyler said it really brings out my eyes.”  Al fluttered her lashes at
Brandon
so he could comment on her
lovely eyes.

             
Naturally, he did
.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an emerald as green as your eyes, and I’ve seen a bunch of emeralds.”

             
She giggled
.
“You’re sweet
.
So you think those are real emeralds?”

             
“Sure
.
My grandma told me some old bag died and left the necklace to her.

             
“Oh, do thank your grandma for loaning it to me.”

             
“I will.” 
Brandon
smiled. “She thought it’d be great to use in the play because it’s so old
.
I guess that lady must’ve been about a million.”

             
They both thought that was funny
.
I didn’t
.
I slammed a spoonful of peas onto the tray in front of me so hard that pea juice spattered all over both of them.

             
“Whoa, Ms. Crumb,”
Brandon
said, flicking at his white button-down oxford shirt
.
“Gettin
g
a little carried away today, aren’t you?”

             
“You have no idea.”

DIVIDER HERE

             
The day was about over and I’d nearly despaired of the school thief snatchin
g
my upscale costume jewelry necklace from backstage in the auditorium
.
I was wipin
g
off tables when Brody walked into the lunchroom.

             
“I need you to come down to my office,” he said.

             
“Why?”

             
“Can you come on down?”

             
“Yeah
.
What’re they gonna do, fire me?” 

             
I left my rag and cleaner on the table and walked down the hall beside Brody
.
I was glad it was a quick trip
.
The silence between us was awkward, but I
didn’t know
why.

             
When Brody opened the door to his office, I saw wall-to-wall young ‘uns
.
And I knew every one of them
.
Sunny, Alicia, Claire and Brandon Easton were all standin
g
around, and in the middle of Brody’s desk was a black velvet box like the very one that held my upscale costume jewelry necklace
.
I figured it was the same box.

             
“What’s goin’ on?” I asked.

             
Brody shut the door and sat down at his desk
.
He motioned for me to sit in one of the gray metal chairs, so I did.

             
“Seems Mr. Easton caught our thief,” Brody said.

             
I looked at
Brandon
, and all I could think to say at the moment was, “You’re in Brody’s Sunday school class?”

             
“No, ma’am.”

             
“He was concerned about something happenin’ to his grandmother’s necklace,” Brody said
.
“So when he was in study hall and saw somebody slip backstage, he followed.”

             
“I feigned a trip to the bathroom,”
Brandon
said, with a self-satisfied nod.

             
“He caught the thief red handed.
”  Brody nodded in the general direction of the girls.

             
It was like that game show where you wait to see which one steps forward to claim to be tellin
g
the truth, only nobody stepped forward
.
They
 
all stood there lookin
g
at the floor
.
I offered up a silent prayer that Sunny wouldn’t be the one who wound up in the spotlight.

             
“Claire,” Brody prompted, “don’t you have somethin’ to say?”

             
Claire?  That didn’t sound like “Alicia” or “Al.”  But—thank you, Jesus—it didn’t sound like Crimson either.

             
“Claire?” I asked.

             
Claire looked up at me and then she started to bawl
.
I got up and hugged her
.
This had to be a mistake
.
Maybe she was like Sunny and knew the necklace was mine.

             
“Will somebody please tell me what’s goin’ on?” I asked.

             
“I saw her take the necklace,”
Brandon
said.

             
I pulled back to look Claire in the face
.
“Why, honey?”

             
The child stopped sobbing long enough to say, “To get back at
her
.”

             
“At who?”

             
Claire sniffled. “At Alicia. I wanted to get her back for embarrassing Crimson.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Not that it would make any difference. Crimson still won’t be my friend anymore.”
             

             
“Is that what this is about?” I asked. “Sunny not bein’ friends with you anymore?”

             
She nodded. “Alicia’s trouble. I knew she’d make trouble for Crimson, and she did.”

             
I looked around at Brody,
Brandon
, Alicia and Sunny before turning my attention back to Claire. “So it was Alicia who stole Ms. Anderson’s bracelet?”

             
“No,” Claire said. “That was me. It was all me. I stole the money and the clarinet, and I put ‘em in Crimson’s locker.”

             
“But why?” Sunny demanded.

             
Claire stepped away from me and looked at Sunny. “You ditched me! We’ve been friends since Kindergarten, and then—” She jerked her head toward Alicia. “—
she
came along and I wasn’t good enough for you anymore!”

             
“That’s not true!” Sunny looked from Claire to me.

             
I looked away. I believe Sunny was wantin
g
me to take up for her, but I just couldn’t do it in this case. I knew how Claire felt. Sunny had ditched me, too.

             
“We were still friends,” Sunny said.

             
“Oh, sure,” Claire said
.
“
T
hat’s why you never had time to talk to me when I called anymore…why you always had plans with Al whenever I suggested doing something.”

             
“I’m sorry. I just—” Sunny’s “just” hung there. She didn’t have anything to say. She didn’t
have an excuse for her behavior.

             
“Still,” I said, softly, “that didn’t give you the right to take those things and try to blame it on Sunny.”

             
Claire whirled back around to me. “I wasn’t trying to pin the blame on Crimson! I was trying to pin it on Alicia! She’s into everything else, why wouldn’t she steal?”

             
Alicia stepped forward. “Hey, I resent—”

             
“You stay out of it,” Brody said.

             
“I didn’t think Crimson would take the blame,” Claire said. “I thought she’d believe Alicia was taking the stuff and that she’d dump her. But she didn’t.”

             
“No,” Sunny said, “I took a suspension for you.”

             
“You didn’t take it for me! You took it for
her
! Admit it, you thought she was stealing and you didn’t care!”

             
“I did care, I just.…” Sunny shrugged. “I just didn’t want her to stop being my friend.”

             
“So if Crimson wouldn’t put the blame on Alicia, you decided to do it yourself?” Brody asked.

             
Claire nodded. “When Ms. Anderson’s bracelet didn’t do the trick,
I put the goblet in Alicia’s backpack to make people think she was the thief.”

             
“Is that what you were plannin
g
to do with the necklace?” Brody asked
.
“Plant it in Alicia’s backpack?”

             
“
Yeah.
Everybody heard her goin
g
on
about
it to
Brandon
today at lunch
.
They’d have believed she took it.”

             
“Why didn’t you talk to me instead of doin
g
all this?” Sunny asked
.
“Why didn’t you tell me how you felt?”

             
“I tried,” Claire said
.
“You were too wrapped up in Alicia to listen to anything anybody said
.
You treated everybody else like dirt.”

             
Al looked at her watch
.
“I really need to get to play practice
.
Can I take my necklace with me?”

             
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I said
.
“The necklace is actually mine.”  I took the black velvet box and put it in my pocketbook
.
“Your grandma will back me up on that,
Brandon
.”

             
“Claire,” Brody said, “you and I need to go talk with the principal.”

             
We all left Brody’s office
.
Brandon and Al headed for the auditorium, while Brody and Claire went to the principal’s office.