Elaine Viets - Murder With All the Trimmings: Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper

MURDER WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS

by Elaine Viets

Mom, can I see your wedding pictures?Amelia Marcus asked.

My what? Josie Marcus hit the gas and nearly smacked the Hummer parked in front of them. Great. It was owned by the PTA president. Josie gave the woman an insincere smile and a little wave.

Your wedding pictures, Amelia said. You know.

When people get married, they get pictures taken.

Woman in a white dress. Man in a black tux.

Dont get sarcastic with me, Amelia Marcus, Josie said.

The air seemed to be sucked out of the car. Josie felt an odd, still silence, as if shed just survived a bomb blast.

Shed been dreading this question from her nine-yearold daughter for almost a decade, since the moment Josie knew she couldnt marry Amelias father.

Put your seat belt on, Josie said.

Amelia had thrown her winter coat in the backseat, dropped her monogrammed backpack on the floor, and flopped down on the front seat. She must have had a difficult day at the Barrington School for Boys and Girls.

Amelias hair stuck up at odd angles and her socks slid down into her shoes. Again.

My daughter has inherited the slippery-sock gene from me, Josie thought. Amelias rich, dark hair and long nose were from her father, Nate. The sprinkling of freckles, like tiny flecks of chocolate, was all her own.

Josie thought her child would be a dramatic-looking woman. She was glad Amelia hadnt inherited her mothers ordinary looks. As a mystery shopper, Josie needed to blend in to the crowd when she went to the mall. But her daughter stood out, even in the throng of school children.

Not that Im prejudiced or anything, Josie thought.

The school grounds were filled with yelling, shrieking children, running in the pale December sun. It was sixty-two degrees, unusually warm for winter in St. Louis. Tender green plant spears were poking out of the mulched beds and the trees were budding. The new buds would die in the next frost.

Josie eased carefully out of the school driveway, praying she woudnt hit any kids darting heedlessly in front of her moving vehicle. With her luck, shed clip the child of a lawyer. Worse, two lawyers.

Mom, Amelia said. I was asking about your wedding pictures. Youve never showed them to me.

My wedding pictures... Josie repeated as she sailed through the stop sign at the end of the school drive. Horns blared and brakes screeched.

Mom, that lady in the black SUV flipped you off.

Shame on her. Josie gritted her teeth and tried to delay the inevitable. Why do you want my wedding pictures?

Were doing a family tree for class, Amelia said.

Grandma showed me her wedding pictures. She has a leather photo album with gold letters. She got married in and wore a white lace Cinderella dress. She was really skinny.

Grandma Jane had been a fairy-tale beauty. Too bad

her marriage to my father didnt have a happy ending, Josie thought. That particular prince turned out to be a toad in a pin-striped suit. He walked out when I was Amelias age. Mom worked herself half to death to put me through school. And she wonders why I didnt want to get married.

Mom, Amelia nagged, where are your wedding pictures?

It was hard to think straight with horns blaring and Barrington parents glaring.

Uh, I dont have a wedding album, Josie said.

Were you too poor? Amelia said. She was a scholarship student at a rich kids school.

No, Josie said. Shed considered creating a fake album by Photoshopping pictures. But shed promised herself she wouldnt lie to her daughter.

Why not? Amelia said.

It got lost in a flood, Josie said. The lie just sprang out of her mouth.

What flood? asked Amelia. We live on a hill in Maplewood.

The Great St. Louis Flood of . It happened before you were born.

Jarred said his parents didnt have any wedding pictures because they didnt get married. His mother said marriage was middle-class. Zoe called Jarred a little bastard. She got detention from Ms. Apple.

Good, Josie said.

Ms. Apple said that Zoe was judgmental. Thats so last century.

Shes right, Josie said.

Zoe was nine going on thirty-ninethe first girl in Amelias class to tongue-kiss a boy, drink a martini, and smoke cigarettes. She dressed like Britney Spears on a bender and dispensed wildly inaccurate sex information. She told Amelia that Coke was a contraceptive douche and that girls couldnt get pregnant the first time they had sex. Josie was amazed how many of the dangerous myths of her youth still survived.

Amelia seemed to be measuring Josies loud silence.

Mom, did you marry Dad?

Uh, Josie said.

Im a bastard, arent I? Amelia said.

Josie wanted to cry. No, sweetie. Thats a terrible word. Dont ever use it. Children are not to blame for what their parents didor didnt do.

You didnt marry Dad, did you?

No, Josie said.

Why did you lie to me?

Because I didnt want to hurt you. I was wrong, honey, Josie said. I loved your father very much. But I didnt want to marry him.

Why not? Amelia said. You told me you should wait until marriage to have sex.

Thats the ideal, Josie said. But sometimes people dont live up to the ideal.

I bet Grandma was pissed when you got pregnant.

Amelia! You know better than to talk like that. Yes, Grandma was angry when I failed to live up to her standards. But then you were born. When she saw how cute you were, she forgot all about being mad.

What about Dad? Amelia said. Did he think I was cute?

Im sure he would.

Would? Did he ever see me? Was he dead when I was born?

Yes. A second lie. Sort of. As soon as Nate was arrested for selling drugs, he was dead to me, Josie thought.

Wheres he buried? Amelia asked.

What? Josie said. More horns blared.

Mom, that was a red light, Amelia said. You drove through it.

I know that, Josie said. Damn, her daughter was persistent. The kid could be a telemarketer.

Is he buried in Arlington? Amelia asked. Zoes grandfather fought in World War Two and hes buried there.

No, hes not buried in Arlington, Josie said. Hes buried in Canada.

That was the truth. Nate was buried in a Canadian prison. Josie considered his crime worse than murder.

Shed known this conversation was coming. Shed had plenty of time to invent a good answer. Josie had rehearsed this scene in her mind, with all the wise and tender things shed tell her daughter, but the time never seemed right.

Josies mother had wanted Josie to marry Nate, then divorce him. At least give the baby a name, Jane had said when Josie announced her pregnancy.

Shell have a name, Josie had told her mother. If shes a girl, Ill call her Amelia, after the woman pilot.

Are you nuts? said her mother. Amelia Earhart vanished. Theyve never found her body.

Shes still a good female role model.

If its a boy, will you call him Wilbur, for the Wright brothers? How about Orville?

If the baby is a boy, Ill name him Richard, after Grandpa.

Andy, Josies ex-fianc, had offered to marry her and raise the baby as his own. But the man had made his proposal sound as if he were royalty offering to marry a peasant. After all, she was damaged goods. A ready-made family would look good on Andys rsum, Josie decided. It would show he was solid corporate material, prepared to settle down. But Andy didnt really love her. Josie would never let her child be a springboard for anyones career.

Her cell phone rang, and she pulled into a parking lot to answer it. It was Mike, the hunky Dogtown plumber shed been dating.

Hello, she said.

Josie, whats wrong? Mike said.

Josie could picture his fabulous slate blue eyes and broad shoulders. Why do you think anythings wrong? she said, dodging.

I can tell by your voice. Hmm. School has just let out, so Im guessing Amelia is in the car and shes the problem.