The Red Queen Dies (18 page)

“Did someone say it was Sharon's fault?”

“The girl who was teasing the other girl was sitting beside Sharon and she passed Sharon this picture that she had drawn.”

“A picture of the girl she was teasing?” McCabe asked.

Mrs. Giovanni nodded. “The teaching assistant made Sharon give her the picture. When she saw what it was, she took Sharon and the girl who drew the picture out into the hall and scolded them both. Sharon tried to tell her she wasn't doing anything, but the teaching assistant said they were being disruptive and she was going to tell the teacher when she came back. The teacher had left the teaching assistant in charge while she went to set up this experiment the girls were going to do later.”

“I see,” McCabe said. “And at some point, the girl who was being teased ran away?”

Mrs. Giovanni nodded. “The teaching assistant let Sharon and the other girl go back into the classroom, and she started telling them about the movie she was supposed to show them while the teacher was gone. But then she had a text on her cell phone, and she said she needed to return the call. She stepped out into the hall and closed the door. And that was when the girl who was making all the trouble started calling the girl she was teasing names and telling her she was going to kill her if she got her into any more trouble. And the girl she was bothering started crying and got up and ran out the door on the other side of the room.”

“What did the teaching assistant do when she came back?” Baxter asked.

“Sharon said she had turned down the lights for the movie. She didn't even notice the girl was gone. Then finally one of the other girls told her. Sharon said then the teaching assistant ran out, and the teacher came back looking upset. And they started asking them questions about why the girl ran out. And the other girls told on the one who had been teasing. And the teacher told the teaching assistant to stay there and finish showing them the movie. And she left again. I guess she went to tell the other teachers that the girl was gone, and they must have started looking for her.”

Baxter said, “Did they find her?”

Mrs. Giovanni nodded. “But she … this boy had picked her up in his car.”

“Was she molested?” McCabe asked.

“That was all Sharon heard. Two of the teachers were whispering about it in the hall. But then the next day, the mother came, and she was upset and yelling, and they got her into the office. Sharon said they called the teaching assistant in there, too, and then she came out crying … and she left and didn't come back. But I looked and there was never anything about it on the news or in the paper. So maybe it wasn't that big a thing.”

“But Sharon was upset about it?” McCabe said.

Mrs. Giovanni nodded. “Sharon was really tenderhearted and she felt bad about the girl who was teased. The girl didn't come back to camp after that day when she ran away.”

“Did Sharon tell you the girl's name?”

“No. But the girl who was teasing her was…” She glanced at Baxter. “She was teasing her about her … about having big breasts. The other girl was teasing her about how she shouldn't be there in a science camp because all her brains were in her … her breasts. She was calling her names about that. And she drew this picture and passed it to Sharon. Sharon said she wrote something on it.”

“What?” Baxter asked.

Blushing, Mrs. Giovanni said, “Tits Galore.”

McCabe said, “And you're sure that Sharon never mentioned the girl's real name? Or the name of the girl who teased her?”

“No. She didn't even want to talk about it, but I could tell something was wrong.”

“But she went back to camp the next day?” Baxter asked.

“She wanted to have a chance to do the presentation that she had been working on. And there were only another three days left in the camp session.”

“Sharon must have been really excited about her presentation,” McCabe said. “What was it about?”

“About? It was about what might happen to astronauts … to their bodies on long trips in space … like to Mars.” Mrs. Giovanni smiled. “She did her research and then she watched all these movies to see if the way it was in the movies was how it really might be.”

“If she had put in so much time on her presentation, it's understandable that she would have wanted to stay for the rest of camp,” McCabe said.

“And what happened was that other girl's fault … she and the teaching assistant. The teaching assistant should have been watching the girls instead of being out in the hall talking on her phone.”

McCabe said, “Is there anything else you can tell us about the camp, Mrs. Giovanni? We know this all happened years ago, but the camp is the first link we've found between Sharon and Bethany Clark.”

“Bethany Clark? The other girl who was killed? She was at the camp, too?”

“Yes, she was.”

“Do you think she could have been one of the girls Sharon told me about?”

“We won't know that until we talk to Bethany's sister,” McCabe said. “Mrs. Giovanni, Bethany was killed first. Thinking back, do you remember Sharon acting at all oddly after—”

“No, she was just like usual. Sharon was always working so hard at her job at the warehouse or on her schoolwork. I don't think she had even heard about what happened … about Bethany Clark.” Mrs. Giovanni went still. “Do you think if she had heard … if she had heard Bethany Clark's name, she would have known who might have killed her?”

McCabe said. “There's no reason to think that. Sharon and Bethany were at the same science camp when they were children. For two weeks. After that, as far as we can tell, they never saw each other again.”

“But Albany isn't that big a city,” Mrs. Giovanni said. “Maybe they did see each other. Maybe they saw each other again and somehow that's why they were both killed. Oh God, if it had something to do with what happened all those years ago … If my Sharon's dead because—”

“We don't know why Sharon was killed yet, Mrs. Giovanni.” McCabe touched her shoulder. “We've upset you. You should have some company tonight. Do you have someone who can come and stay with you?”

“Yes. My sister.”

“Then why don't we call her? Ask her if she'll come over. Okay?”

“Okay. But do you think this is really about—”

“We don't know what it's about yet. All we have now is a link between Sharon and Bethany.”

“Which still leaves Vivian Jessup,” Baxter said.

“That means it couldn't be about the science camp,” Mrs. Giovanni said, taking heart from Baxter's observation. “Even if the girls met there … he killed that famous actress, and she had never even met Sharon and Bethany.”

That, McCabe thought, was another question they had to answer. Whether somehow Vivian Jessup had been linked to two girls who had attended a science camp. Or a third girl who had run away because she was being teased.

“Let's call your sister,” McCabe said to Mrs. Giovanni.

*   *   *

Bethany Clark's sister, Francine, invited them into her kitchen, where she was making dinner for her husband. Through the screened back door, they could see her husband and a couple of his buddies sitting out in the yard with bottles of beer.

“We cooked outside all this week when it was so hot. Tonight, I told Eddie that I was going to make some real food. The kids are doing a sleepover at their friends' house, and I was sick to death of hamburgers and hot dogs.” She looked up from the sauce that she was stirring. “You're here because of that detective who called? The one who wanted to know if Bethany had ever been in a play?”

Seated at the kitchen table, McCabe said, “Mrs. Petrie, what we'd like to talk to you about is the science camp that Bethany attended. It turns out that Sharon Giovanni also attended that camp.”

Francine Petrie put the cover back on her sauce. Then she came over and pulled out a chair at the table and sat down. “Tell me,” she said. “If you know something, tell me.”

“We need your help to try to put the pieces that we have so far together,” McCabe said. “Detective Yin told us that you remembered the science camp that Bethany attended and the presentations that she took part in at the end of camp.”

“We all went. My folks … all of us … we always made a big fuss over Bethany because she was the baby of the family. I remember Bethany had done this project where she'd made a volcano. She had all these diagrams on the computer to show, too. And she explained about how volcanoes form and then she made her model spew out the lava and run down this mountain. Everybody applauded.”

“Sounds like she learned a lot at the camp,” McCabe said.

“She really had fun there,” Francine Petrie said. “But are you telling me that the camp is connected to Bethany being killed?”

“We're telling you that we know now that both Bethany and Sharon attended the camp. Did Bethany or your parents mention an incident that happened during the time she was at the camp? A few days before it ended?”

“What kind of incident?”

“Involving a girl who ran out of the classroom, left the building. The teachers were looking for her.”

Francine Petrie shook her head. “I don't … I wasn't living at home at that point. My cousin Jackie and me had gotten an apartment…”

“Think carefully, Mrs. Petrie. Anything that might have been mentioned in passing.”

“I … Wait a minute … there was something…” Mrs. Petrie leaned her forehead on her hand. “What was it?”

Baxter said, “Something about—”

“Wait … just let me think for a minute.”

Baxter glanced at McCabe. Then they sat there, looking around Mrs. Petrie's well-lived-in kitchen with the children's drawings taped to the refrigerator and the stuffed toys piled in a basket in a corner by the breakfast nook. The kitchen smelled of garlic and simmering tomatoes. It was warm from the cooking, but a breeze came now and then through the open door.

“All right, I've got it,” Mrs. Petrie said. “It was after the presentations were over, and we were walking around the room, having a closer look at the exhibits. We were looking at an exhibit that one of the girls had built … a miniature greenhouse … and the girl was talking to some other people about it and she said, ‘Deirdre helped me figure out the irrigation system.' And then she looked over at Bethany. And Bethany grabbed my mother's arm and said, ‘Come on.'”

“That was all?” McCabe asked.

“No … as we were walking away, I heard my mother whisper to my aunt, ‘Deirdre's that teaching assistant who caused the problem … got the girls all upset.'”

Baxter said, “Was that it? Did your mother say what the problem was?”

“No, she … Bethany brought over her favorite teacher from the camp. The teacher was telling my mother how well Bethany had done. I didn't even think about it again.”

Both of Bethany Clark's parents were dead. Bethany had been living in the family home alone since her youngest brother had married and moved to Vermont.

McCabe said, “Your aunt—”

Francine Petrie shook her head. “She died last year. All of that generation are gone.”

“Do you think your mother would have told your brothers what—”

“Mom never told the boys or my father about things like that. She said men just made things worse by charging in like bulls in a china shop. And I don't think whatever it was really involved Bethany. She seemed fine … except for that moment when the other girl mentioned Deirdre and they looked at each other.”

“I'm curious,” McCabe said. “How do you remember the name Deirdre after all these years?”

“Because my cousin Karen had named her baby Deirdre, and she was complaining to everyone who would listen because her mother-in-law was calling the baby ‘Dee Dee.'”

“I see. You said the girl who had mentioned Deirdre and your sister looked at each other. What kind of look exactly?”

“A kid's look. The other girl … she mentioned Deirdre … and then she saw Bethany standing there … and it was like she'd said something and she wished she hadn't.”

“Like maybe she was scared or frightened?” Baxter asked.

“Frightened? No … why would she be frightened because Bethany heard her? It was like when you say something and it's awkward because it reminds people of what nobody's talking about.”

McCabe said, “And you think the girl had reminded herself and Bethany of whatever happened with Deirdre, the teaching assistant?”

Mrs. Petrie nodded. “That's what it felt like. It was just that moment and my mother whispering to my aunt and then it was over. And we all went out to a diner and had a family dinner. It was a good evening.”

“Did Bethany ever talk to you about the science camp? Did she ever mention the girls she met there?”

“No. Like I said, I had moved into my own place by then. I wasn't seeing her as much. During that last week of her science camp, my cousin Jackie and I were up in the mountains, staying at the camp that Jackie's boyfriend's family had up there. We had come back in time for Bethany's program that Sunday afternoon.”

“So,” Baxter said, “You're sure Bethany never mentioned Sharon Giovanni back then. What about later? Recently? Maybe saying she had run into someone from science camp?”

Mrs. Petrie shook her head. “I never heard Bethany mention that camp again after that. She … later she sort of lost interest in books and school.…”

“Why do you think that happened?” McCabe said. “It sounds like she was really smart.”

Francine Petrie smiled—a brief, weary smile. “The ugly duckling becoming a swan. At least that was what our mother said. Bethany was awkward and skinny when she was a kid. But then when she was about fifteen, she started to blossom. And suddenly she was a really beautiful girl, and the boys were flocking around her.” Mrs. Petrie shrugged. “It's hard for some girls to be popular and stick to their books at the same time. I kept telling Bethany…” Tears filled her eyes. “She should have been in college, getting her degree, not working at some waitress job and then out partying with those wild friends of hers. And they let her walk to her car alone … half-drunk … in the dark … and she ends up dead.”