JOSIE HAD PICKED up three pizzas as well as two six-packs of Coors and one of Diet Coke. But even after a hard day no one seemed particularly hungry. Everyone had been talking about Courtney and what to do with her body since they walked in the door, still sweaty from work.
So far, they had consumed one pepperoni pizza, half of the cheese with extra garlic, and all the beer. Annette seemed to be a bit tipsy. Josie realized she had been serving beer to a minor and decided the only thing to do was to make sure Annette had a ride home-after they made some decisions.
If they ever came to an agreement. The women had repeated and repeated the details of the day. Their shock at the discovery of Courtney’s body. Their panic when it looked like Bobby Valentine might discover their secret. The long afternoon, not talking about what was uppermost on their minds, waiting for this evening so they could.
“We need to come to some decision,” Josie insisted. “Courtney cannot stay up there. She is going to start to smell soon.” A giggle escaped her lips. “And she would really hate that.” She felt another giggle bubble up and pursed her lips. Perhaps Annette wasn’t the only woman who had had too much to drink.
“What do you suggest?” Jill asked quietly. Jill had been noticeably reticent, eating and drinking little, walking around the room examining the birdhouses that lined the small space.
“Frankly, I have no idea what to say. My instinct is to call the police-” Josie said.
“Good God. Why?” Dottie’s flat voice interrupted.
“They’re here to help us,” Annette said.
“Bull.”
“Well, I don’t know how you were brought up, but my mother always said that if there was a problem I could go to the cop on the corner for help. Or dial 911,” Annette added.
“Your mother may have been right for where you grew up. But the police on this island are notorious for arresting the wrong person. And I’m afraid the wrong person they arrest for Courtney’s murder could be…” Josie paused. “Could be one of us.”
Dottie looked at Josie. “Do you want to tell her or do you want me to?”
“I… It’s your business. You should be able to keep it private if you want” was Josie’s answer.
“Yeah, I should be able to. But in my life, what should be and what are are two different animals.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re entitled to your privacy,” Jill said.
“She’s right,” Josie agreed.
“Yeah. But I think I should explain. Otherwise no one is going to understand why I think we should-or should not- call the cops.”
“Listen, it’s completely your decision.” Josie had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but she understood what Dottie was up against.
“Okay. No point in beating about the bush. I was in prison.”
Neither Annette nor Jill spoke.
“I think if you’re going to say that much, you’re going to have to explain what put you in prison and how you ended up at Island Contracting,” Josie suggested quietly.
“What put me in prison was stupidity and how I ended up here is Josie.”
“Maybe you should tell them just a bit more,” Josie said.
“Prison?” The word just reached Annette’s consciousness.
“Yeah, I was there for assault. I beat up some idiot in a bar fight. Turned out his brother-in-law was a cop. I didn’t deny doing it. The bastard deserved what he got. But I didn’t deserve three years in prison. In some circles, punching that guy in the mouth would have been considered a public service.”
“Why? Why did you do it?” Annette asked.
“Guy called me a dyke. Said working as a carpenter wasn’t an appropriate job for a woman. He kept trashing me. And I got angrier and angrier and drank a bit too much. On the way out of the bar, he grabbed my breast and I slugged him-once or twice.”
“And you were arrested?” Annette sounded horrified.
“Yeah. And a few months later convicted. I got six years.
But served slightly less than three. I was released early because of good behavior-and because Josie was willing to hire me. But maybe you would like to explain about that.”
“Well, it’s a long story. I don’t know whether you know the history of Island Contracting, but it was begun by a man named Noel Roberts and he tried to hire people who needed help.”
“Women who needed help?”
“I’m not sure he set out to hire women, whether women just happened to need more help than men, or whether he was one of the only contractors who would hire women workers. It was the early sixties. There weren’t many women in the business and the ones who were had a very difficult time finding jobs.”
“What did he do? Put an ad in the paper asking for women who needed help and were trained carpenters or plumbers or electricians to apply to Island Contracting?” Jill asked.
“No, he was more… what’s the word? More proactive than that. For instance, I was pregnant and waiting on tables at a luncheonette here on the island when I met Noel. We chatted a few times when he came in to eat and one day he asked me to have dinner with him.” Josie smiled, remembering that afternoon. It had been unseasonably hot. The air-conditioning hadn’t been turned on yet. She had been seven months pregnant with swollen feet and sweating profusely as she worked. It had never occurred to her that Noel might be making a pass. She had accepted out of curiosity and because, in her financial situation, a free meal was something she couldn’t pass up.
“It was at that dinner that he made his offer. I could come to work for him-in the office, if necessary, and bring the baby if I couldn’t find anyone to take care of him-and he would teach me a trade and keep me employed and-this was the most important thing then-insured.
“I didn’t even stop to think, I had agreed before I finished my salad.” She had already been living in Risa’s house but had never suspected that her landlady would be willing-in fact, thrilled-to sit with Tyler until he was old enough for day care.
“And over the years, I learned that Noel hired many women under similar, if not identical, circumstances. So when Sam told me about Second Chance-”
“What’s that?” Annette asked.
“Second Chance is an organization dedicated to keeping recidivism rates low,” Dottie explained.
“It’s made up of people who believe that those who are convicted of a crime are less likely to end up in prison again if they are given a second chance to live a normal life. And that the first thing necessary for a normal life is a job. Sam’s known about the organization for years.”
“Sam Richardson? The guy you date who owns the liquor store? Why would he know about it?” Jill asked.
“He used to be a prosecuting attorney in New York City,” Josie explained.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, in fact, he was involved with the group when he was in New York, and he still keeps in touch and gets their newsletters. So when he read that they were looking for placements for women who had been trained in nontraditional jobs-for women that is-he told me about it and I sent in Island Contracting’s address.”
“And when I was up for parole, I was put in contact with Second Chance and they sent me Josie’s name.”
“Most of the prisoners… people…”
“Call us prisoners. That’s what we were.”
“Well, most of them had been trained while they were in prison,” Josie continued to explain. “But Dottie had been a carpenter before she was arrested, and, frankly, I thought I was lucky to get her.”
“And I thought I was lucky to be here… until that snotty bitch was murdered.”
“Why?” Annette asked.
“Look, I’m on probation. And one of the many terms of my probation is that I’m not supposed to be fraternizing with the criminal element-and I think you could probably call the person who killed Courtney Castle a criminal-so I just hope it wasn’t one of you.”
The words were spoken casually, but Josie knew the situation and knew Dottie was dead serious. “And that’s why Dottie believes we shouldn’t tell the police about Courtney’s body.”
“Yes. Not only am I the most likely suspect, but I think you could say that being a suspect in a murder investigation violates the terms of my parole.”
Annette nodded. “You’d end up back in prison.”
“Got it in one.”
“I go along with Dottie.” Jill spoke up. “I don’t think we should tell them either. What do you think, Josie?”
Josie took a deep breath. “I tend to agree with you two. The police on the island are… well, they’re not exactly competent. But we all have to agree to keep silent. If one of us doesn’t go along, we’re all in trouble.”
“She’s talking about you,” Dottie said, pointing to Annette.
The young woman nodded seriously. “But it is illegal to withhold evidence in a murder investigation. I’ve seen it on TV.”
“Yes, but, in fact, we’ve already done that.”
Annette looked up at Dottie, her eyes opening wider. “You’re right. I didn’t think.”
“Look, the truth is, you either believe I did it and then you should call the cops and we’ll all be questioned and I’ll be arrested. Or you believe I didn’t do it and we shut up until the real murderer is found.”
“Oh, I’d never think that you killed anybody!”
“Until a few minutes ago, you probably never would have thought that I’d been convicted of assault and spent three years in prison.” Dottie’s voice was surprisingly gentle.
“I guess that’s true. But it’s different. You were angry at someone for insulting you and you just hit him. You didn’t murder him. And, besides, you have no reason to be angry at Courtney Castle. She didn’t do anything to you.”
“As far as you know,” Dottie said.
“You were in prison for the last three years, what could she do?”
“Listen”-Dottie reached out and put a hand on Annette’s arm-“you’re a sweet kid. But you haven’t been around much and I gotta tell you: You really don’t know me. I mean, I appreciate that you believe in me, but, honey, what you’ve heard about prison is true. Everyone’s got a sob story to tell and most of ’em are lies.”
“Are you lying to me?”
“No. No, I’m not.”
“Then I agree with you all. We shouldn’t tell the police anything!”
Josie sighed, relieved. “Fine. We will keep the information to ourselves. But there’s one other question. What are we going to do with the body?”
“We could just leave it up there and, when it starts to smell, climb on up and claim to have discovered it then. Of course, that doesn’t really help us, does it? I mean, the police would investigate and Dottie would be arrested, et cetera, et cetera,” Jill said, looking worried.
“We could hide the body, find out who the murderer is, and then turn both the body and the murderer over to the police,” Annette suggested. “Just like Chad’s mother does.”
“Oh, yeah, and we could rent us a big barn and put on a show and raise money for the orphans.” Dottie’s sarcasm couldn’t be missed.
“I’m just trying to help,” Annette protested.
“And you are,” Josie said firmly. “If you think about it, Annette has come up with the only solution that will keep Dottie out of prison. Anything else will mean calling in the police and they’ll arrest Dottie, for parole violation if not murder.”
“So what are we going to do with Courtney? Dump her in the ocean?” Jill asked.
“We can’t do that!” Annette cried. “Someone might see us!”
“We can’t do that because, on the off chance that this scheme to find the murderer actually works, we’re going to have to provide the police with Courtney’s corpse.” Dottie was blunt.
“So we need to store her somewhere.” Josie couldn’t imagine where. “What we need is some sort of large refrigerator or a freezer. Can you tell if a body’s been frozen after it thaws out?”
“Haven’t the foggiest,” Dottie answered.
“Well, if it got freezer burn…” Jill seemed about to giggle and Annette snorted.
Josie realized they were all tired and very close to hysteria. “Sam has a large refrigerator at the back of the store. I don’t know how we could sneak her in there-”
“No way.” Dottie was adamant.
“What’s wrong with that? We can trust Sam.”
“I’m not trusting anyone who was a prosecutor, I can tell you that right now.”
“If it weren’t for Sam, you wouldn’t be here. You might not even have a job. You might not have gotten parole,” Josie protested.
“You think he’s going to break the law just to keep me out of prison?”
It didn’t sound all that likely to Josie either. Maybe they could hide the body in his refrigerator without him knowing.
Jill seemed to read her mind. “How big is this refrigerator? Maybe we could sort of shove her in a place where she won’t be found.”
“I’ve got it!” Excited, Josie jumped up. “We can put it… her down in one of the freezers behind the Fish Wish.”
“That’s a restaurant?”
“It’s the bait shop. And they have a freezer in the back of the store just filled with boxes and boxes of frozen moss bunker. We could put Courtney underneath. She’ll be safe there for months-they don’t get down to the bottom of that freezer until late August.”
“And what are you going to do? Just walk in and ask if you can use their freezer to store a famous television personality?”
“No, I thought maybe we could sneak in there in the middle of the night and put her away. I have the key to their back door. We’re going to be adding a deck out back as soon as we finish this job.”
“Then I guess we know what we have to do,” Dottie said, getting up and stretching.
“What?” Annette asked.
“Go get Courtney and take her to the… what did you call it? The Fish Wish.”