The Mall is Not Enough, page 11
part #3 of Secret Shopper Mom Mystery Series
I decided that the most undorky thing I could do would be to act as though I thought her advice was the best thing ever. “Perfect. Our summer is packed. We’re going camping with Seth’s sister. And then there’s the task force—” Was that too obvious? Maybe.
Dierdre’s eyebrow raised. “Seth’s sister? Does she live nearby?”
My inner Molly screamed warnings at me, but I babbled one, “She lives in Southern Maine. She’s a lawyer.”
Dierdre’s eyes positively lit. “Perhaps she could make it to the cookout, do you think? Round out a sense of Seth’s family.” The unspoken implication: Seth’s normal family was loud and clear to me.
“Perhaps.” Over my dead body. But I didn’t say that out loud. The last thing I wanted was for Seth’s sister and Deirdre to bond as deeply as she and my mother had managed to do.
Deirdre smiled and said, “This has been lovely, Molly. I’m so glad we connected.”
“So am I,” I lied. Connery snickered in my earbud. My heart skipped a beat in shame. I’d forgotten the live mic. So much for his coffee break.
As Deirdre walked away Connery said, “One more stop. Then you meet up with me for a debriefing.”
I felt like I’d been beaten with pool noodles all day long. I tried to gather up some energy from my depleted stores. “And then we’re done?”
“And then we’re done.”
“Will I get to know who the bad guy is, if you catch him?”
“That’s need to know, Molly. But the FBI thanks you for playing your part.”
It seemed anticlimactic, not to have caught the bad guy. I didn’t even know who was suspected. It could have been the tellers, the managers, or the IT guys I never even met.
“When will I get paid.” I was horrified that those words came out of my mouth. I had not wanted to ask.
Connery said without hesitation, “We’ll do a dead drop in the trash can at the park at midnight.”
“Really?”
He was silent for a moment. “Would I do that to you Molly?”
“Yes.”
He just laughed in my ear.
I noticed a few people staring at me and realized I looked like a woman who was talking to herself. Great. I held my phone up to my ear to pretend to make a call.
And then I realized I needed to make a real call. To my mother. Fortunately, I got her voicemail and left a vague, cheery request that she might help me plan a barbecue. I went heavy on the “Dierdre suggested” portion of the message.
Connery didn’t snicker even once.
* * *
I entered the last bank at just before 4. Like a kid who didn’t want to go to school, I’d thought up and discarded about a zillion excuses to not do this one last spy stop.
I’d already done the real mystery shop, turned in my records and only had to wait for sixty days to get paid. As long as this quick check-in to find out my big win was a scam didn’t alert anyone to my role as a mystery shopper, I was safe.
Yes, I know. Not fair. But life is not fair, which is why I try to be.
No, the reason I was looking for an excuse to ditch this last stop was that I really didn’t want to face Bill again. Didn’t want to think about how he’d tell me that I was not going to be $10,000 richer, minus the very reasonable $1,500 in taxes I was supposed to wire to the sweepstakes company.
Especially didn’t want to know that Bianca was going to forever believe that I was foolish enough to fall for a too-good-to-be-true sweepstakes scam.
My options for saving my reputation were limited. I could always tell her that I’d been undercover — not for the FBI, but for a mystery shopping company. But then she’d know I was a mystery shopper, and so would everyone else. Like Dierdre, Bianca was not likely to look favorably upon such a profession.
Maybe, when the kids were grown and I gave up my mystery shopper life, I would tell her.
Maybe.
I could see one of the tellers getting ready to inform me they were closing. She had her purse on her shoulder and a trash can full of shredding in her hands.
“I have an appointment with Bill,” I said, to forestall her. She nodded and veered away from me to a door marked “Staff Only.” She was in a hurry. I could guess the reason why. A pacifier dangled by a clip from her purse and bounced as she walked.
“Molly! You’re right on time.” Bill came out and ushered me into his office.
I waited for him to tell me that I’d been the victim of a scam.
Instead, he took out some papers. “I’ve checked, Molly, and it looks like this is a legitimate sweepstakes win. Congratulations.”
That was unexpected. The scammers must be good if they had fooled Bill. I hesitated for a moment, unsure how to proceed. “So what do I do now?” I settled for, asking both Bill and Connery.
Only Bill answered me. My earbud was ominously silent. “I deposit this check into your account.” He pushed it over to me. “It just needs your endorsement on the back, here.”
I signed it and pushed it back numbly. “And then I’ll wire the taxes and fees from that sum to the appropriate parties?” This was not good. Was I going to be on the hook for the bounce fees for this check?
Poor Bill. Was he ever going to be embarrassed when the FBI told him he’d been had.
I waited for Connery to tell me something. To make a snide comment. Nothing.
Bill nodded, beaming at me.
I pulled out all my acting experience from my high school drama class to sound dazed and disbelieving — in a good way. “That’s it?”
“That’s all. You won’t need that new car loan at all.”
“Great. Thanks!” I could tell my acting skills weren’t up to the challenge, my voice had a little sob in it.
His smile dimmed a little. “You don’t look happy.”
Hoping I had more than a minute’s worth of acting left in me, I quickly admitted, “I’m not used to being lucky. It feels like there’s a shoe about to drop somewhere with my head under it.” That was certainly true, not that I meant it the way it probably sounded to Bill.
He waved his hands in a vaguely reassuring way. “Nonsense. I’ve checked this out thoroughly. You’re a very lucky woman.”
I would have believed him, except that James Connery had been very clear that whoever was running this scam had done the same thing to countless other people so far. Not that any of them knew it yet.
It takes a while for the scam to work. Those other folks actually thought they’d won the money. In about two days, when the checks didn’t clear, they’d find out otherwise. Bill was not going to be a happy camper when he found out he’d been scammed. Fortunately, I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. That was up to the FBI.
I wouldn’t have pegged Bill for someone who’d be taken in. He’s always seemed so sharp and on top of things. Bianca definitely demanded that other people live up to her expectations. I hoped she wouldn’t divorce him if this mistake got leaked to the press.
I got how he could believe, though. I’d really, really, wanted to believe. I needed that $10,000. I’m sure all the other people who had been scammed were the same. No matter what Deb said.
At last, Connery whispered in my ear, “You can’t let him know you know he’s lying. It’s going to take us a little while to get him, now that we know he’s a part of the ring.”
Part of a ring? Bill? All my acting experience deserted me at the realization that Connery thought Bill was part of the scam, not a victim like me.
At that moment, Bianca walked in. She gave me a startled glance, but it was momentary. She had bigger things on her mind, and they began and ended with Bill. Despite her skill with the makeup, I noted the telltale redness of her eyes that indicated she’d been crying. Again.
“Hi Bianca,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound as shaky as I felt. “I was just leaving.”
“Stay,” Connery whispered in my ear.
I wanted to argue with Connery, but then I thought of Bianca and how she had been so different lately. Did she know? Was my little spy job going to nab a prominent banker and the president of the PTA? I didn’t want that to be true. I hoped there was some other explanation.
“Let me see you out, Molly.” Bill said to me. “Bianca, I have more paperwork to finish up, I’ll have to meet you at home later.”
Bianca just gave him a frosty smile. Whatever uncertainty she’d felt that had made her cry was completely gone. “I can wait while you catch up on your work.”
Bill frowned and, then, with a glance at me, nodded at her. He was looking almost as cold as Bianca.
I could tell there was going to be an epic down and out fight between them. I knew Bianca well enough by now. I felt for Bill, even if he did turn out to be a scammer. But I was glad I was going to escape.
And then, of course, Connery whispered in my ear, “Ask him when the money will be available.”
Reluctantly, I did as he asked, “Just one more question, Bill. When will the money be available?”
“What money?” Bianca eyes were narrowed as if I’d just told her I’d spent PTA money on a latte for myself.
“I won a sweepstakes,” I said.
“You did?” There was surprise, and then a bolt of horrified understanding went through her. For one split second she looked at me as if she was going to rescue me from my fate. And then the moment passed. “Congratulations.”
Now her gaze was trained on Bill. “I hope you checked that out thoroughly. I wouldn’t want Molly to get caught up in a scam.”
I wondered if Bianca would make an even better spy that I did. She’d put two and two together, somehow. And she wasn’t even working for the FBI. The look she threw Bill left me with little doubt that Bill was up to something and that something probably had to do with scamming gullible hopefuls like me.
Bill ignored her. “Three to ten days,” Bill said to me, standing up and sweeping me out of the office with the professional skill of a long time bank manager.
I smiled at him, trying not to gawk now that I knew he might not be an innocent dupe, but someone who was profiting from the scam. I wondered if Bianca was his silent partner in crime?
I may not have been winning any big sweepstakes prizes, but I was certainly sweeping up my share of big secrets this week.
So much for need to know. I may not have needed to know, but I still knew that Bill was about to go down for crimes that would make Bianca the talk of our town — and not in a good way. Unless, of course, she was his partner in crime and she went away, too.
I thought of their kids and felt a pang of hope that Bianca had been as duped by her husband as the rest of us had been.
Too bad I couldn’t discuss all this shattering secret knowledge over coffee with Deb.
My mother picked that moment to call me. I let the call go to voicemail. I’d rather humiliate myself with my mother when Connery was not listening in.
16
When the Perfect Fall
I pretended everything was life as normal for the rest of the day, after literally getting Connery out of my head. Dinner. Homework. Listening to Seth unwind about his day.
He seemed to notice my distraction. Maybe it was because I asked him three times what he wanted to drink for dinner. I told him about Dierdre’s suggestion that my mother hosting the picnic for us, and the pending conversation I had to have with her.
“Grandmom’s going to throw us a picnic?” Anna asked. “Can I help?”
Anna loved her grandmother without reservation. I sometimes wondered if my mother’s people skills — that had skipped over me — would pass on to Anna. “You’ll have to ask Grandmom, but I bet she’ll say yes.”
Seth smiled at Anna, but raised an eyebrow at me. “Do you think that’s a good idea?” he asked. I understood his hesitation. He liked my mother well enough, but wasn’t any more a fan of the way she took over things than I was.
I poured myself a glass of wine and sat down at the table. “Do you want to be on the task force?”
He smiled after giving the question only a few seconds thought, “Thanks for taking one for the team, then, Molly.” He got up and poured himself a glass of wine as well — without even pointing out that I’d neglected to give him anything to drink after asking him multiple times. That meant he really was grateful that I was going to bring in the big guns for this task force picnic.
Having managed to make sure Seth and kids were unaware of the secrets boiling inside me, wanting desperately to come out I felt worse than ever about what I knew about Bill and Bianca. I wanted to talk to someone about everything. But I couldn’t. That’s the bad part of being a spy, I guess. Not that James Bond ever seemed to feel the need to confide all his secrets to anyone but M.
After dinner was cleared up, I settled into my office, tucked between a pile of books that needed to be returned to the library and a laundry basket full of clothes that needed to be folded. There were reports to be done. Lots of reports. Another set of secrets that I was authorized to tell. In short paragraphs, with lots of specific detail.
The possibility that Bill could be a scammer kept intruding on my thoughts. My imagination created scenarios where he was innocent. But they always ended with a frosty Bianca and left me without hope that this was not going to end badly for both of them.
The mental disruption made ten minute reports turn into thirty minute reports. Once I actually caught myself typing “Bill can’t be a scammer. He drives a BMW and smokes fancy Cuban cigars. He coaches his kids’ soccer team, for goodness sake.”
Whoa. I erased that sentence and slowly finished the report, reading it four times to make sure it made sense and didn’t spill any unauthorized secrets.
I looked at the time. It was just past nine. Our local coffee shop was open until midnight. I considered begging Deb to meet me for coffee. If I could talk this out with her, I could get it out of my brain and go back to writing reports in a more efficient time frame.
I heard my phone ringing downstairs. I thought I’d been smart to leave it in the downstairs charger, but as I listened, the phone broke off mid-ring and I heard Seth talking. Always helpful when I really didn’t want to talk to anyone.
Except I really did want to talk to Deb, so as he came up the stairs, I held my breath, hoping it would be her and not my mother and we could get that coffee after all.
He knocked lightly on my door and opened the door just wide enough to proffer my phone. “Liz wants to talk to you.”
Of course she did. “Thanks.” I took the phone, wishing the caller was someone I could tell my secrets to instead of hearing more secrets I wouldn’t be allowed to tell.
“Hi,” I tried not to sound exhausted, even though I was. She’d only take it personally and I’d hear about it at Thanksgiving or Christmas from Seth’s mom.
Her voice was clipped and almost a whisper. “Molly. I’m coming for a visit.”
I thought maybe I’d misheard. “What?”
Her voice rose a little, but she was still speaking very fast. “Don’t argue.”
“I—”
“Not on the phone,” she said with the urgency of a spy who knew her phone was bugged. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”
I wanted to argue, but I felt constrained to keep it vague, just in case her phone was bugged. “Tomorrow is the end-of-the-year picnic.”
She sighed. “It’s always something with you.” Like the end of school year picnic was somehow my fault, instead of a regularly planned event. “I’m coming anyway.” Ooookay then.
I knew better than to argue. “Come directly to the school. I’ll be there all day. I’m on set up and clean up duty, plus I’ve promised Anna that we will win the three-legged race this year.”
I could hear her roll her eyes, even though that should have been technically impossible. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Now that she’d refused to answer any of my questions, my curiosity was a raging waterfall. “Great, the kids are welcome, too.” I confess I added that part just in case she was hiding the fact that her husband had turned into a serial killer.
That possibility would have seemed absurd if I hadn’t just found out that Bianca’s husband Bill was not the pillar of our community he appeared to be. There are a couple of men in our community that I wouldn’t be surprised to hear were scammers. But Bill would never have been on that list. Neither would my brother-in-law, come to think of it.
There was a silent pause. “I don’t want to disrupt their schedule. It will just be me and you.”
And Seth. And the kids. But I didn’t say that aloud. “It will be nice to see you,” I lied. “Do you want me to make the guest bed up?” That was a euphemism for turfing Anna out of her bed for a sleeping bag on the floor and putting clean sheets on Anna’s bed for Liz.
She paused, and I heard her consider the idea. “No. I’ll head home after dinner. I’ve told Gracie that I have a meeting out of town, so she’ll make sure everyone has dinner and gets to bed on time.”
“Great!” I half meant that. It would be great to have her gone after dinner. It was not so great that I’d have to come up with dinner after working at the picnic all day. Liz was not a vegetarian, though she had played with it. But she liked her food organic and fresh. With our car-repair-driven budget, that could be a problem.
I delayed returning to my reports long enough to enter two sweepstakes for free groceries at my local supermarket. For good measure, I returned to the campsite and submitted a second entry to win a week long glamping trip. They said you could enter every day, so why wouldn’t I increase my odds?
* * *
I was bleary eyed and eager to dive into the last of my reports when I got another call. Expecting my mother, I was pleased to see it was Deb.
“Hi, stranger,” I said.
“What did you say to Bill, Molly?” Deb didn’t even say hello first.
“Ask Connery, he was listening.” I felt so defensive I didn’t even feel guilty for throwing Connery under the bus.
