Page 22 of Be A Detective, They Said. It’ll Be Fun, They Said

Chapter Eight

Marty began taking pictures of the boards—of which there were six, each dedicated to a conspiracy. “Well, I understand why she kept the door to this insanity locked. I wouldn’t want anyone to see this, especially little Tamlin.”

“She’s in deep for fucking sure. You think this had to do with her divorce from Thad, or was it just that she’s a bossy pants gone over the edge?”

I blinked. “But none of them are about a basement or the school—which, by the way, doesn’t have a basement.”

I’d hoped maybe I could somehow tie a basement to the mention of our childrens’ school, but there isn’t one at the school. We only have a boiler room.

“The school?” Marty clarified.

Plucking at the picture of what looked like a fuzzy alien from Roswell with a postcard from Roswell, I nodded. “Yes. There’s no basement in the school. So the school and a basement aren’t tied into whatever Neerie was talking about in her texts to Earl and Thad. We have a boiler room, and that’s it. So she must have meant her own, but how does that tie into the school and are they even connected at all? Is it important to her disappearance?”

I’m not sure why that text about the basement was sticking in my craw, but it was stuck good.

Marty patted me on the arm. “I wouldn’t rule it out. So let’s get pictures of everything so we can examine them closer back at the castle and see if there’s a connection, and then we’ll go through the rest of the house.”

“Man,” Nina said on a grunt, tucking my arm under hers. “She really has gone off the deep end. If we find her, she’s gonna need help. You know that, right, Wanda? Like some serious mental health.”

I gnawed my lip. “But does she? I mean, Hank is real. What if all this other stuff she’s tracking is real, too?”

Marty swiped at a cobweb stuck to my trench coat. “But here’s the thing, Wanda. She’s lost in this. This isn’t a hobby. This is someone who’s fallen down the rabbit hole to the detriment of her well-being, sweetie. Even her sister said she hardly ever goes anywhere social. She has her groceries delivered. The only time she leaves the house is to take Tamlin to her classes and to handle the PTA meetings.”

I nodded, tears filling my eyes. “I wish I’d known. I would have offered my help, Marty—even as much as I disliked her.”

The guilt I felt for contributing to the gossip surrounding her came over me in a wave. I didn’t participate in what the other PTA mothers dished out loud, but I didn’t stop them either, and I certainly had thought about some of the very rumors swirling around Neerie.

Marty swiped at a tear racing along my cheek with her thumb. “How could you have known? She has a pretty abrasive exterior, honey. But what she’s really doing is filling the hole in her life since her divorce with this stuff, Wanda. She’s put up a wall, and just because Hank is real, doesn’t mean she should devote her entire life to proving it. She’s missing out on Tamlin’s childhood, because no one who puts this much effort into creating these boards has time for a whole lot else.”

Taking a deep breath, I looked around the dark, musty basement filled with whiteboards on easels. Totes of decorations for Halloween and Christmas, a couple of lawn chairs, a gas can, and not much else.

“You’re right. But if we find her, no matter how awful she can be, we’re getting her help for Tamlin’s sake, if nothing else.”

Nina pulled me to her side and gave me a squeeze before breaking the mood with her dislike of emotional displays. “Quit cryin’ like a panty waste, and let’s find her so we can help her. Hangin’ around and caterwaulin’ is gettin’ us nowhere. Now, let’s get the pics so we can search the upstairs of Holly Hobbie’s house.”

Nodding, I set about checking to make sure there was nothing more of interest hidden away in a tote or on one of the few shelves Neerie had before brushing my hands and heading up the steep steps to search the rest of the house.

We went room by room, checking to see if maybe she’d packed a bag to rendezvous with one of her conspiracy theory buddies, but nothing pointed to a hasty escape.

“Got her laptop!” Nina called from one of the bedrooms Neerie used as an office.

I plopped down on Neerie’s couch and closed my eyes, exhausted from lack of sleep. “Can you get into it?” I yelled back.

Nina hopped over the back of the couch and sat next to me. “Nah. We’re gonna need my Tater for that. But I bet it has the security cam app on it. I just can’t get to it until we get a password. You find anything else?”

“No. Nothing,” I said somberly. “We’re going in circles again, Nina. Only this time, the clock’s ticking. Neerie’s been gone for what, three days now? You know what they say about a missing person and finding them within the first forty-eight hours. If she didn’t run off, what happened?”

Nina patted my leg with a hard thump. “Stop watching all that true crime and buck up. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or in Neerie’s case, the insufferable lady. Never give up the ship. I won’t if you won’t.”

With a smile, I patted her hand, my heart swelling with love for my favorite vampire. “You’re my favorite BFF, Elvira.”

“She only says that so you won’t cry like a baby who lost her binky! I’m really her favorite!” Marty yelled from Tamlin’s bedroom.

“Pipe down in there, Blondie, and let’s get a move on. We have PTA moms to question!”

Marty poked her head out around the corner of the living room doorway and made a face. “I’m not looking forward to this meeting of the PTA minds. I don’t know how you deal with them day in and day out, Wanda. I’m not sure I’m even up for thirty minutes.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “If you thought this was going to be a thirty-minute meeting, you’re sorely misinformed. Those women could talk for thirty minutes about paint drying, given the op. But I promise to keep it as short and sweet as I can. Let’s get these pictures to Tottington, her laptop data, and the footage of her security cameras, too. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Will you fly this over to Tottington for me, please?”

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