Part 13 (1/2)
Stifling a scream, Stella reared back in surprise.
”Mrs. Buckley,” the woman stated.
”Um, yes?” Stella replied, all the while wondering how this woman knew her name.
”I saw you with Alice today.”
”Alice. Alice? Oh, you're the receptionist at the real-estate office! Yes ... I knew that. It's just that seeing you with your hair down and so ... so close up ... threw me for a second there.” Stella hoped that her ”close up” comment would be a sufficient cue to make the woman step back a few paces. Instead, she leaned in closer.
”Mrs. Buckley, I need to talk to you.”
”G-go ahead.” Stella leaned back.
”In private.”
”Um ... what-what's your name again?”
”Bunny.”
Stella felt her mouth gape open. She had never before met anyone named Bunny, but if she had, this was not how she imagined the woman would have looked. ”Um, Bunny, I-I don't think we need to go anywhere. You're close enough that no one else in the store could possibly hear you.”
Again, Bunny missed her cue to back up. Glancing surrept.i.tiously from side to side, she announced in a whisper, ”Alice is lying.”
”Lying about what? You listening at doors?” Stella replied in her normal speaking voice. ”Don't worry about it. I never even gave it a second thought.”
”Shh!” Bunny's eyes furtively danced about the store in search of an eavesdropper. ”I mean she lied about Weston.”
Stella lowered her voice. ”What about him?”
”About doing business with him.”
”Go on.”
”There's a property down in Jersey. I'm not sure of all the details, but Alice invested in it. With Weston.”
”The two of them? Together?”
Bunny nodded. ”Lost money on the deal, too. Wasn't a problem for Weston, but for her ...”
”How much?”
”I don't know the numbers, but I can tell you that she laid off the rest of the office as a result.”
”I thought she did that because of the slow economy.”
”There were two rounds of layoffs. The first one was because business had slowed down. That was just a few people, though. You know, the ones who were on salary but never earned a dime in commission. Got rid of the secretaries too. Tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the fat, they call it. That's when she hired me.”
”So you were there for the second layoff.”
Bunny gave a single nod.
”And you saw papers stating that Alice and Weston were in business together.”
This time, Bunny turned her head slowly from side to side. ”No, I've looked, but I never found them.”
”Then how do you know about this?”
The older woman arched an eyebrow. ”How do you think?”
The corners of Stella's mouth turned up slightly. If Alice's statement about never doing business with Weston had been a lie, her a.s.sertion about Bunny listening at keyholes obviously wasn't. ”What did you overhear?”
”Weston came to the office last week. Alice took him into the conference room and asked him for money.”
”A loan?”
”No, more like paying her back. She told him he owed her for getting her into the mess she was in. Said she would never have gotten involved if he hadn't put up his money in the first place.”
”Those were her exact words?”
”Not exact but pret' near.”
”And how did Weston react?”
”He told her that she was a businesswoman and she should have known the risks before going into the deal. He then reminded her that he had lost money too. Alice didn't take to that very kindly. She went into a rage-yelling at him, swearing, you name it.”
”Did she say anything specific during her outburst?”
”Yup. She said that she was still paying for her mistake.”
”Still paying? What did she mean by that?”
”At the time, I figured she was being a drama queen. But a few days later, I went to pick up the office mail and saw a monthly statement from a mortgage company in Boston. It was addressed to Alice's home, but the post office had put it in the business box by mistake. Naturally, I peeked inside.”
”Naturally.”
”The address of the mortgaged property was in Hackensack, New Jersey, and the monthly payment was over $5,000.”
”Do you still have the statement?”
”No. I sealed it back up and put it on Alice's desk. Why?”
”Because it would come in handy when you tell your story to the police.”
”I'm not telling the police anything. I don't want to get Alice in trouble. I-I could lose my job.”
Stella might have pointed out that the routine activities of listening through keyholes and opening the boss's mail were equally deserving of termination. However, given the crazed expression on Bunny's face, she decided that some subjects were best left unexplored. ”Then why are you telling me about it?”
”I needed to tell someone. What if Alice killed that man? I couldn't let her get away with it.”
”See? Generally, that's when most people would call the police with an anonymous tip.”