Read Online Death of a PTA Goddess by Leslie O'Kane - Free Book Online Page A

too, but she’s in school today, and I just got off the phone with her stepmom. Amber thought it’d be good for her. Amber’s going to be working at the ski slope tonight. Wouldn’t do to change one’s routine, just because your stepchildren’s mother died horribly right across the street from you, not four days ago.”
    “Yes, well . . .” I let my voice trail off, not really knowing what to say. On the one hand, I shared Jane’s indignation at what appeared to be Amber’s indifference to Kelly’s grief. But Amber, as well as her stepdaughter, was a source of guilt for me.
    After assuring Jane that I’d be at the school to help with the loading up of students and ski equipment, we said our good-byes and hung up.
    I returned to my seat and pondered my feelings toward Amber Birch. Initially I had drawn nasty conclusions when I’d barged in on her to use her phone, yet it was impossible to say how I’d have reacted under those same circumstances. She was such a natural target for scorn from all of us forty-plus-year-olds who resented anyone’s trophy wife. None of this could be easy on her. I could seek her out and give her a kind word. More important, establishing camaraderie between us would help allow me to discuss her relationship with Patty and learn if she was a suspect . . . said my one face to my second face.
    After school, Karen reminded me that I’d promised her that, if I went on the trip, she could go as well. Since then I’d learned that the high school teachers did not have in-service days this week, so this
was
a school night for her. Even so, these days I was anxious to spend some time with my growing-up-too-fast daughter. So far, Jim and I had only managed to elicit her usual one-word responses to questions about her budding romance with Adam Embrick. That she was at all interested in going skiing with her mother and a hundred eighth graders was almost a welcome surprise. I told her that she could come skiing as long as she got her homework done first.
    That evening, we each had a bowl of macaroni-and-cheese—the Goddess of Processed Food’s little gift to us harried moms—and a Flintstone vitamin for dessert. Okay, so I’m not exactly centerfold material for
Good
Housekeeping
. Or even
So-so Housekeeping
. Truth be told,
Unlikely-to-cause-permanent-damage Housekeeping
was more my speed. I left a message at Jim’s office as to where we’d be. Then we took off to meet everyone at school.
    It was a hectic scene in the junior high parking lot. In their excitement, the students had reverted to that peculiar tendency of young children to be able to spot a Cheerio in the dirt from a hundred paces, but not the twelve-feet-high, fifty-feet-long display of fine china directly in front of them. With many of them carrying skis, the trek along the sidewalk was hazardous to us non-Cheerios.
    Jane Daly was the first person to greet me. Again, she was wearing her red gnome hat. “Molly. Several parents are driving up and hauling the kids’ ski equipment.”
    “I can do that,” I quickly interjected.
    She shook her head. “Those slots have already been taken. We need chaperones on the buses. It’s just you, me, and Chad on one bus, and we’ll have our hands full.”
    I nodded. “Good thing it’s just the first hundred eighth graders to turn in their permission slips and not all three hundred of them.”
    “Really.” She patted my arm. “I’ve got some running around to do. You take the clipboard and start checking off kids as they get on the bus.”
    I got Karen and Nathan situated on the bus and began to check off names as a mob of eighth graders boarded. Their noisy voices were getting to me, so afterward I went outside to catch the few late-arrivals on my list. In the corner of my vision, I caught sight of Chad Martinez, who was pacing the sidewalk a short distance away, looking downhearted.
    I smiled at him when he neared. He gave me a slight smile in return. “I’m really sorry about