I took Sylvia’s contract and his donut, and I showed myself out.
CHAPTER 18
Mrs. Haggerty came into the foyer that evening at six thirty prompt. She carried her huge purse over one arm and a foil-covered plate in the other. Vero took a bottle of wine from the pantry. She grabbed hold of Mrs. Haggerty’s bag by the straps, nearly pulling the woman over as she tried to steal a glimpse inside.
Mrs. Haggerty gasped as they fought over the handles. “What are you doing?”
“I’m saving your reputation,” Vero said, peeking in the bag before dropping the bottle of wine in it. “It’s rude to go to a party empty-handed. Besides, everyone knows book clubs are better with booze. You’re not driving, so you might as well stay out late and have a little fun.”
Mrs. Haggerty looked scandalized as she snatched back her purse. Vero shook her head at me, letting me know the diary we were looking for wasn’t inside it. And since I already knew it wasn’t in Mrs. Haggerty’s house, hopefully that meant her diary was somewhere in mine.
“I would never dream of going empty-handed! I prepared dessert,” Mrs. Haggerty said, holding up her foil-covered plate. She slapped Vero’s hand when Vero pulled up the corner of the foil, revealing an assortment of cookies and brownies. Vero took one and stuffed it in her mouth before Mrs. Haggerty could insist she put it back.
“We should get going,” I said, nudging her to the door. “We know how you hate to be late. And you,” I said pointedly to Vero, “have lots to keep you busy while we’re gone.”
She licked chocolate crumbs from her fingers. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got everything under control.”
Mrs. Haggerty tugged the foil back in place to cover the plate, watching me out of the corner of her eye as we walked to my van, as if she was expecting me to steal a brownie, too.
“Is your babysitter always so strange?” she asked as she fastened her seat belt.
“Trust me, you haven’t seen strange.” I programmed my navigation app to Viola’s address and set the phone in the cupholder on the dashboard.
Mrs. Haggerty scrutinized it through the narrow frames of her glasses. “That’s not where we’re going.”
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t be nosy,” she said, adjusting the plate of cookies on her lap.
“If you don’t tell me where we’re going, how will I know how to get there?”
“Just drive. I’ll tell you when you need to turn.”
“Right.” I snapped my seat belt and started driving, nearly killing both of us with every last-minute turn as Mrs. Haggerty fired directions at me like bullets. We made a circuitous route through western Loudoun County and ended up in a residential neighborhood I’d never been in before.
“Drop me off right here,” she said, pointing up at a towering three-story town house. I pulled along the curb, looking for signs of her friends. The short, narrow driveway contained only enough room for one car. Several others were parked at various points along the street.
The curtains inside the house were drawn shut, the main floor brightly lit from within.
“You can pick me up in an hour.” Balancing her foil-covered plate, Mrs. Haggerty helped herself out of the van and slammed the door. She looked both ways up and down the sidewalk, her wine-heavy purse swinging from her elbow as she navigated the concrete steps to the front door.
A woman answered. I recognized her from the last meeting. She’d been wearing a set of pastel-colored Hello Kitty scrubs. Tonight, she wore jeans and a sweater. She peered through the dark at the windows of my van, offering a tentative wave. I waved back, unsure if she could see me. Mrs. Haggerty handed her the plate of desserts and followed the young woman into the house.
I dialed Vero’s number. “Did you find the diary?”
“Not yet. I searched your entire room, your bathroom, and the inside of your toilet tank lid.”
“My toilet tank lid?”
“The woman spent a week in the slammer, Finn. Who knows what she learned while she was there.” The toilet flushed in the background. “Besides, Zach told me he had to go potty, so I was already in here anyway. I figured it couldn’t hurt to look.”
“Wait,” I said, certain I had misheard her, “Zachtoldyou he had to go?”
“I think Mrs. Haggerty’s tactics might actually be working. We made it just in time.”
“Oh, thank god.” I might be arrested and thrown in jail tomorrow, but at least my child would be out of diapers, and today, I would take any victory I could get.
“Don’t celebrate just yet. He refused to put his pants back on after he did his business. When I told him he had to get dressed, he ran and hid in Delia’s room. He crawled inside her Barbie house and got himself stuck.”
