Why Not Murder

42. Retaliation

42. Retaliation

Later on, after Mitchell had returned to his hotel room to work on his story, Maya went to a small park on one of the side streets leading to the main square. She sat under a beautiful birch tree and ate her packed lunch. Across from the park was the shopping mall where she had gone with Cook for groceries. Maya was surprised to see Cook and Conrad come out of the mall and begin packing Conrad's vehicle with their purchases. A second coincidence in one day - how amazing - and Maya quickly packed up the remainder of her lunch and ran over to them. They were equally surprised and when Maya told them why she wouldn't take their offer of a lift, they decided to go for coffee and chat.

"Winnie will be pleased to hear we met up with you," Cook said, "She has been asking repeatedly about you since the last time you were over, wondering if you had come over but just hadn't spoken to her. When she heard 'no', she seemed so sorry about something and told us that she had said something terrible to you which she regretted so much for saying. She begged us to find you and have you come back but of course none of us know how to get in touch with you. You have no phone and no internet. She says she is the reason you are not coming 'round."

"She is the reason," Maya said, "I got the very distinct feeling she did not want me there."

Cook continued, "Don't take it to heart. She says many things to the rest of us without any thought as to how that would affect us. It's been one of the ways she uses to assert her authority. She believes in the class system and wants it to stay so that she can continue to feel justified in the superiority she presumes."

Conrad interjected, "She's changed in the last days since you were over. Tell her Cook."

"For the better," Cook said, "Her nightmares have reduced greatly. She insists it's because of you but doesn't tell us why. She's begun to have periods of normal sleep and the rest is changing her temper. She's been nicer to us, respectful and grateful for what we do. She really wants to see you in order for the change to remain and to continue to improve. She needs to talk to you in order for this to happen."

"Tell her that I'm glad to hear of her change of heart," Maya said, "and that I will be over as soon as I can and will continue to come over as long as she wants me to."

"That's great," Cook said, "You know she is also going to get my cookbook properly published with photos and promote it amongst all her contacts. Plus she's over her writer's block and Harriet is transcribing a story about a colony on another planet that is being established by artificial intelligence and human looking robots. When it's done she's going to let us read it and she wants our honest criticism and input."

"Sounds like good changes for sure," Maya said. The other two nodded in agreement.

"Another piece of news," Conrad said, "When I was on watch last night, I spotted a prowler. So I woke Jim up. This one very human. I don't have a gun so I went out into the yard and confronted him with a crowbar instead. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was looking for a shoe. At first I thought he was nuts but then I remembered that after the party we found a single man's shoe. I told him that it had been found but that I didn't know what had been done with it. I said I could find out and he gave me his phone number. Strange thing though, Jim said he was one of the men who was in the fight he broke up on the night of the party."

"What did he look like?" Maya asked and Conrad gave a general description. He was in a driver's uniform in which case the shoe would have been part of the uniform. Maya figured that the other man in the fight was Whittaker, judging from his notebook found nearby and also because Jim had said he was dressed like a guest.

"The shoe is under an upside down pail, behind the stack of pails in the greenhouse," Maya said. "Why did he come back for it I wonder?"

"His boss wants him in those shoes when he's in uniform," Jim said, "He couldn't find it the night of the party and doesn't want to order a new pair as they are beyond his budget. The uniform was provided when he started the job. He got into a fight he said because of a girl and figured he lost it then."