Measured Mayhem

by Jessica Beck

Autumn surprised me by laughing fiercely again. “Lee Graham? No, he’s just my handyman. The guy can fix practically anything, and he even mows lawns. Did you honestly think that I’d dumped Jeff for a younger man?”

  “Hey, I’m not here to judge. I’m your friend, remember?”

  “I remember,” she said, growing serious again. “That’s why I called you.”

  As I grabbed my bag from the back of the Jeep, I asked, “Autumn, how long have you been living here?”

  “Three weeks,” she admitted.

  “How did you get sunflowers to grow so quickly in that short amount of time?”

  Autumn shrugged. “Leave it to you to notice them. As a matter of fact, I’ve been planning this move for the past three months. Jeff didn’t even know I bought the place. I used the money from my inheritance to buy it after Pawpaw died.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said. I knew that she and her grandfather had been close, and I hated that he was gone, especially now that she needed him more than ever.

  “Thanks. It was sudden, so at least there was that to be thankful for,” she said.

  “Was it cancer?” I asked, since Phillip’s cancer diagnosis had made that my first assumption whenever I heard that someone had passed away.

  “No, he had a heart attack after catching the biggest fish of his life off Key West,” she said. “The other men in his party said that they’d never seen him that happy. He used to tease me about not wanting to die in bed a feeble old man, and I know in my heart that going out fishing at the age of 87 would have been his first preference if he’d gotten to choose. Anyway, he left me enough to buy this place and live in it pretty much on my own.”

  “The key phrase in that statement is ‘on your own.’ What about Jeff?” I asked.

  Autumn started to answer, and then she looked around. Chances were good that no one was within a mile of us if I had to make a guess, but she still seemed a bit paranoid talking about it. “Let’s go inside. It looks as though it might rain.”

  There were a few clouds in the sky, but not enough for even a brief shower, at least not in my opinion. Still, I wasn’t going to argue with her about it. “I’m right behind you.”

  We walked up onto the porch, and I saw a pair of friendly rockers sitting there as though they were waiting for us to take advantage of them, light quilts draped over the backs of both of them. A bird feeder hung from one post while a hummingbird feeder hung from another. She saw me checking the feeders out and explained, “I know you’re not supposed to keep feeding the birds in the summer, but I find their presence so soothing, don’t you?”

  “I get it,” I said. “This setting feels like home to me; it’s so much like where my cottage is positioned.”

  “Yes, but you live near a public park,” she said as she looked around the woods surrounding us. “I’m out here all by myself.”

  “You’re not afraid to be so isolated?” I asked her as she held the front door open for me and I stepped inside.

  “No. At least this way, if somebody comes after me, I can see them coming.”

  I shook my head and put my bag down by the front door. “Young lady, I’m not taking another step until you tell me what’s going on.”

  “Suzanne, I think I’m losing my mind. Either that, or somebody is trying to kill me.”

  Chapter 3

  “WHAT’S GOING ON, AUTUMN?” I asked her once we were settled in the cozy living room of the cottage and my bag was in the guest bedroom. The furniture was all well worn, and a few ragged rugs covered the painted hardwood floors. Everything had faded over time, and the entire place looked as though it had been transported from the 1940s to the present. Wood covered the ceilings, and the walls had been plastered and painted a faded shade of blue that reminded me of old milk paint.

  Autumn curled up in her chair, took a deep breath, and then she began. “I guess the best place to start is the beginning.”

  She paused again, but I knew better than to push her. She would take her time telling me what was going on, and now that I was there with her, I didn’t find myself in as much of a hurry as I had been earlier.

  “Up until three months ago, if you had asked me if I was happy, I wouldn’t have hesitated to say yes. Jeff was the perfect husband, practically doting on me. But then his brother, Adam, came to town, and everything suddenly changed.”

  “I didn’t know your husband had a brother,” I said.

  “Neither did I,” Autumn admitted. “He wasn’t there during our courtship or the wedding, and Jeff never mentioned him. One day out of the blue, this stranger just showed up unannounced, and he’s been in Cheswick ever since.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “The easiest way to describe him is to say that he’s everything Jeff isn’t. My husband is as friendly as a puppy, blond and blue-eyed, but Adam is dark, and it’s not just his hair color or his eyes that I’m talking about, though that’s true enough. The day I met him, I caught him staring at me when he didn’t realize I was looking, and there was something about the way he was taking me in that set me on edge. Adam tried to cover it with a smile when he realized that I’d caught him, but it was cold and completely devoid of any warmth. I said something to Jeff about it later, but he told me that it was all in my imagination. I knew better. Cecile suddenly changed as well when Adam came back to town.”

  “Your mother-in-law was probably just happy to have both of her sons home again,” I said. Cecile Marbury was the matriarch of the clan, and she wanted everyone to know it. She’d struck me as a bit cold during the wedding, but I’d written it off to the fact that her son was getting married, and to a commoner at that.

  “That was part of it,” Autumn said. “But Cecile seemed to be equal parts angry and afraid, and she started to take it out on me.”

  “How did she do that?”

  “Suddenly nothing I did was good enough for her,” Autumn explained as she started absently playing with a strand of her hair. “She became critical of my every move, and to make matters worse, Jeff wouldn’t stand up for me. When I tried to talk to him about it in private, he just brushed me off.”

  “So you two started arguing, which led to you being here alone,” I said.

  “Partly, but it’s not that simple,” she answered.

  “Then explain it to me.”

  “It didn’t help that Adam stayed with us instead of his mother,” she went on, deflecting my request for more specific information about her relationship with her husband. “That made Cecile angry, but he wasn’t about to change his mind. Adam practically invited himself to move in, and I couldn’t very well claim there wasn’t any room for him, not in that mausoleum we lived in.”

  “That must have been tough on you,” I said, doing my best to sympathize with her. So far she’d described an unhappy stretch in her marriage, but I hadn’t heard anything to make me believe that someone might be trying to kill her.

  “It wasn’t easy, but soon enough, things started getting worse,” she said.

  “How so?” Maybe now we would get to the meat of the matter.

  “Around that time, I started hearing voices,” she said softly, as though she were afraid that someone else might hear her confession.

  “Voices?”

  “Only at night, always in whispers, when everyone else was asleep,” she said. “I woke Jeff up a few times so he could hear them for himself, but they always seemed to stop whenever I tried.”

  “It was probably just Adam talking to someone on the phone in another part of the house,” I suggested.

  “I considered that possibility, at least at first, but when the voices woke me again, I decided to investigate. I hated being frightened in my own home!”

  “What did you discover?” I asked her.

  “Adam wasn’t even there, so it couldn’t have been him!” she explained. “His car wasn’t in the driveway, and his bed hadn’t been slept in. There was no way his could have been one of the voices I’d heard.”

  “
Could it have been a television or a radio left on by accident?” I asked.

  “No, I searched the place from the attic to the basement. There was nothing.”

  “How about the wind?” I asked. “Sometimes I can swear I hear things outside our cottage when it’s clear that nobody’s there.”

  “There’s never been any wind to speak of when it’s happened, and unlike this place, there are no trees close to that house, either,” she said.

  “I can see how that would creep you out, but it wasn’t really life threatening, was it?” I asked her, trying not to dismiss her very real angst.

  “Of course not. That all came later,” she said. Autumn suddenly stood. “Are you hungry? I am suddenly famished. Let’s get something to eat.”

  “I’m fine for the moment,” I said. I didn’t want to give her a chance to stop telling me what was bothering her, and I was afraid that if she stopped at that moment, it would take her another hour to get back to telling me what was going on.

  “Well, I’m starving,” she said as she headed into the kitchen. “Suzanne, I’ve never known you to turn down a chance to eat.”

  It was clear that I was going to lose this particular battle, so I decided to go along with her request. Maybe she needed a little more time to collect herself. I would give her a chance to regroup, but soon we were going to get back into the real reason I was there with her. “Okay, I give in. What have we got to eat?” I asked as I joined her.

  “I’m not sure,” she said with a frown. “I wasn’t at all sure that you would come, so I didn’t stock up. Then Lee showed up to cut the grass and do a few other things around here, so I never got away. I’m not a very good hostess, am I?” she asked a bit sadly.

  I hugged her again. “Just seeing you again is all that I need,” I said. “I’m sure we can whip something up between the two of us.”

  “Just not donuts,” she said, showing a brief grin. “I know they are your specialty and all, but the truth is that I never really cared for them.”

  “That’s it,” I said with mock disdain. “I’m leaving.”

  “I guess I could force one down if you made them, just to make you happy,” she answered with a hint of playfulness in her voice.

  “Don’t knock yourself out,” I said, smiling in answer to hearing the lightness in her voice, if only for a moment. “I get plenty of opportunities to make donuts when I’m at work.”

  I was about to start opening pantry doors when the front doorbell rang.

  “Did you order takeout, by any chance?” I asked her.

  “Do you honestly believe that anyone would deliver all the way out here?” she asked me.

  “Then let’s go see who’s at the door. Maybe they brought food,” I replied as I reached the front door before she did and threw it open.

  A dark, brooding man was standing there, and he looked unhappy to see me the moment our eyes met. “Who are you?” he asked me shortly.

  “I’m me,” I answered blithely. “Who else could I possibly be?” It was a Winnie-the-Pooh kind of response, but it was really the politest thing I could think to say to him at the time. “You must be Adam.”

  That took him back even more. “How could you possibly know that?”

  “I have the Sight,” I said as mysteriously as I could manage.

  “Where is Autumn?” he asked me gruffly, clearly tired of me playing games with him.

  I was about to tell him she wasn’t receiving company at the moment when she stepped into the doorframe beside me. “What do you want, Adam?”

  “Jeff is upset about the fight you two had this morning,” he said.

  “And he sent you to fix it?” Autumn asked him pointedly.

  “He doesn’t even know that I’m here,” Adam said. “When are you going to stop this willful, hurtful act and move back home where you belong?”

  “Go away, Adam,” Autumn said, her voice quivering a bit as she said it.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said defiantly, “at least not until I can talk some sense into you.”

  I stepped closer to him. “I’m afraid this conversation is over.”

  “It’s over when I say it’s over,” he replied, doing his best to dismiss me completely.

  “Okay, but you’ll be talking to the door in a second,” I said as I slammed it and dead bolted it before he could try to stop me. I think the man was so shocked that I’d actually do it that he’d been taken by surprise, which had been my intention.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Autumn said after I turned to her.

  “Did you really want to stand there and let him try to browbeat you into going back home again?” I asked her. “If that’s what you want, I’ll open the door and butt out.”

  “All I’m saying is that he’s not going to be very happy,” Autumn said softly.

  “He’ll just have to get used to it. The world’s full of disappointment,” I told her. “He had no right to speak to you that way. Autumn, what happened to you? You used to be the fiercest woman I knew.”

  “Things change, I guess,” she said.

  I peeked out the window and saw Adam walk to his Lexus and drive away. “He’s gone,” I said.

  “For now, but I’m sure that he’ll be back,” she answered.

  “Then we’ll deal with him when and if that happens. In the meantime, you said you’d feed me, so let’s make that happen.”

  After surveying her refrigerator, freezer, and cabinets, we decided that we should probably go out instead. “We can stock up at the grocery store later, but let’s grab a bite first. Do you have anywhere to eat around here that you like?”

  “There’s a café I go to all of the time, but maybe tonight we’ll treat ourselves to a great pizza place not far from here, if you’re game.”

  “You know me. I love pizza,” I said as I grabbed my keys and wallet. “Let’s go. I’ll drive.”

  “Are you sure? You just came all the way from April Springs,” she protested.

  “Are you kidding? I love tooling around in my Jeep,” I said, but there was more to it than that. I was certain that Adam and Jeff and everyone else in town knew Autumn’s vehicle, but nobody knew mine. At least that way maybe we’d be able to eat in peace without someone tracking us down so they could continue their onslaught on my dear friend.

  Chapter 4

  RICKY G’S HAD A WELCOMING atmosphere from the second we walked in the door, a homey décor that said they were more concerned about their food than their furnishings. The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing, and the arched opening overlooking the pizza prep station allowed anyone who wanted to to watch the pizzas as they were being made. Two couples were sitting by the opening at the moment, the men watching raptly as the biggest pizza I’d ever seen in my life was being created. It was the size of the tabletop, and I wondered how many people it would take to actually eat the thing. I was certain the two middle-aged couples weren’t going to be able to do it even if they took a few days. We kept walking to another table, and a waitress named Lacey handed us menus. The thin waitress was in her late teens or early twenties, had jet-black hair, and sported heavy eyeliner as well as a few piercings, but under that façade was a young woman with a snarky smile and lively brown eyes.

  “We’ll have whatever he’s making in the kitchen,” I said without even glancing at the menu.

  “The 32-inch pizza, got it. Will that be for here or to go?” she asked, not missing a beat.

  “Suzanne, we couldn’t eat that if we had a month,” Autumn said, “not even when we were in college.”

  “I’m kidding, and Lacey knows it,” I said with a smile. “I love your name, by the way.”

  “Thanks, I got it for my birthday,” she said, and I knew right away that I’d just met a kindred spirit.

  “Does anyone actually eat one of those?” I asked softly.

  “You don’t need to whisper,” Lacey said. “The wives aren’t all that happy with the order, but both men are acting like te
enagers, and it’s been a long time since either one of them could say that was true. I don’t mind, though. They’re fun. I like people who are different, you know?”

  “Then you’re going to love me,” I said as I offered my hand. “I’m Suzanne, and this is Autumn.”

  “Seriously? I went to school with a girl named Summer.”

  “I’m from April Springs. Does that get me in the season club?” I asked her.

  “What do you think, Autumn? It’s your call,” Lacey asked with a smile.

  “I’ll vouch for her,” my friend said, offering the slightest of grins.

  Sensing Autumn’s somber mood, Lacey became all business. “What are we having to drink this evening, ladies?”

  “How’s your sweet tea?” I asked her.

  “Strong enough to walk out of here on its own, and sweet enough to break your heart,” she said with a slight smile.

  “Sounds good to me,” I said.

  “Make it two,” Autumn said.

  Once Lacey returned with our drinks, we were ready to order. I said, “As much as I’d love to try one of those monsters, we’d better stick with a large pepperoni.” Autumn had wanted to order a medium, but I was starving, and I wasn’t sure when we’d be eating again.

  “Sounds good. Salads?”

  “No, just the pizza,” I said.

  “I’ll put your order right in,” Lacey said, and then she disappeared into the kitchen. I could see that the pizza chef had spread sauce and then cheese on the massive pizza and was now carefully placing enough pepperoni on the top of it to cover most of the cheese. Next came the sausage, the mushrooms, green peppers, and onions. Before he slid it onto its own shelf in the pizza oven, he lifted a corner of the dough and blew under it, forming a bubble in the middle of the massive pizza.

  “I really appreciate you coming,” Autumn said, and I turned my attention back to her.

  “But,” I replied.

  “No buts.”

  “Autumn, I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds with Adam. I just hated seeing him try to bully you like that.”

  “I appreciate you having my back, but it’s almost better than what Jeff does. He’s clearly baffled by my behavior, even after what happened three weeks ago.”