“Grandmother, you’re the one who’s causing him stress! Father Henry is very unhappy with you.”
Gigi scoffed at the notion. “Taking a little water isn’t hurting anyone. And I always replace it. I don’t leave the tub empty.”
“It’s not a tub, it’s a font,” she corrected. “And what do you mean, you replace it?”
“I take a couple of big bottles of Perrier with me, and after I’ve helped myself to what I need, I pour in the Perrier.”
“You pour sparkling water—”
“That’s right, dear.”
The priest wasn’t going to like hearing that one bit. “When you talk to Father Henry, it might be a good idea not to mention the sparkling water.”
“When I talk to him?”
“I’ve invited him over to the house tomorrow. Perhaps he could join us for dinner.”
“I like to be sociable, and this is your home, but I would like to know why you invited him.”
“Gigi, you know very well why.” Threading her fingers through her hair in frustration, she said, “I’m hoping he can talk some sense into you. He’s warned you before about stealing holy water. Why do you keep doing it?”
“Stealing is such an ugly word. I’m taking the holy water. Taking,” she emphasized. “The answer to your question is outside. Stand on the porch and look over at Mrs. Castman’s yard. Pay particular attention to her flower beds and her planters. Compare her yard to mine.”
“But Gigi …”
Waving her hand, she said, “Go on now.”
Arguing was pointless. Lyra went out on the porch, checked both minuscule yards, then walked back into the kitchen.
“And what did you observe?” her grandmother asked.
“Mrs. Castman’s flowers are blooming, and yours aren’t.”
“Hers are thriving, Lyra, and mine are withering away,” she corrected. “Same thing happened last year and the year before. This spring I decided I would buy exactly what she did and water just as often. And look at the results. My yard gets as much sun as hers,” she added. “Then I saw her coming out of church one Sunday with a big plastic jug of water. I knew where she got it. I followed her home, and low and behold, she sprinkled the holy water all over her planters and her flowers. And that, young lady, is why I’m taking holy water.”
How did one argue with such logic?
Lyra was not looking forward to the priest’s visit tomorrow. If Father Henry stayed for dinner, would he make it to dessert without storming out in frustration?
SIX
FATHER HENRY HAD A LOVELY EVENING. HE’D CALLED AHEAD to tell Lyra that he’d arrive at the house after saying five o’clock mass. His intention was to have a stern conversation with Gigi Prescott and be back at the rectory by six-thirty to eat cold leftovers, but the spicy aromas wafting from Gigi’s kitchen made his stomach grumble, and it took very little coaxing to get him to stay for dinner.
The meal Lyra’s grandmother prepared was fit for a king. It was all part of her master plan to disarm the priest. With Lyra’s help she served spinach salad, prime rib with Yorkshire pudding, her special eight-thousand-calorie potatoes, and fresh asparagus. For dessert, she offered homemade apple pie with cinnamon ice cream.
Father was tall and slender, yet this evening he ate enough for three lumberjacks. Lyra couldn’t figure out where he was putting it all. Gigi had decided against making her chowder in favor of red meat, arguing that all men liked beef, or at least most did. The priest was obviously a fan. He had two extra helpings.
Gigi served Father Henry coffee in the living room, then suggested they go out on the porch and sit in the wicker rockers while they discussed the holy water “situation.”
Lyra stayed inside. She didn’t want her grandmother to feel that she and the priest were ganging up on her. Because of their soft voices and the rising wind, Lyra couldn’t hear any of the conversation, but she did hear Father laugh, and thought that must be a good sign. When Father Henry called out to Lyra to say good-bye, she decided to walk with him to his car. She wanted to find out how the “situation” was resolved.
“Your grandmother has given me her word she’ll leave the holy water alone. I suggested alternatives … several, as a matter of fact,” the priest said.
“And?”
He shook his head. “She explained it wouldn’t be the same.”
“But she did promise not to take any more holy water from the font?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay, but if anything else involving my grandmother should occur, will you call me, and only me? I don’t think it’s necessary to involve any other family members.”
“She gave me her word,” he reminded her.
Yeah, right, Lyra thought. “And I’m certain she has the best intentions,” she said.
He was catching on. “I’ll call you.”
“Thank you.” Relieved, she smiled.
He opened the car door, paused, then said, “If she should slip up again and take a little more holy water, ask her not to replace it with sparkling water. It was still fizzing when Bill Bradshaw, one of our parishoners, happened by. He thought it was a miracle. If the pastor had seen that, he would not have been amused.”
Lyra didn’t start laughing until Father Henry’s car had turned the corner. As she was walking up the porch steps, her eye caught a slight movement of Mrs. Castman’s curtains. Lyra smiled to herself. The neighbor’s curiosity must be killing her. Lyra went into the house and carried the dishes from the dining room to the kitchen. While she was loading the dishwasher, she heard laughter coming from the living room. She peeked in to find Gigi entertaining a couple from down the street. By the time Lyra finished cleaning up, Gigi’s company had increased to six. Earlier Lyra had wondered why her grandmother had made two pies. Now she understood. Friends and neighbors often dropped in to visit, and Gigi always fed them. She was a wonderful hostess. When Lyra was a little girl, she would sit on the stairs, out of sight, and listen to her grandmother tell the most wonderful stories. From an early age, Lyra wanted to be just like her. And no wonder. To Lyra, Grandmother Prescott was the epitome of the genteel southern lady.
Born Lyra Colette Decoursey in Alexandria, South Carolina, a charming little town an hour from Charleston, Gigi was raised as the privileged child of Beauregard Decoursey, owner of Alexandria’s single industry, the Decoursey Textile Mill. She attended the finest boarding schools in Europe, and one month after her return home at eighteen, she met Tobias Christopher Prescott, a man her father called an upstart oil baron from the uncivilized state of Texas.
A year later, she married Tobias in the most lavish affair Alexandria had ever seen. Gigi told her namesake years later how she promised to love and honor her husband on that day, but she deliberately left out the word “obey” from her vows. Obeying a husband was just plain nonsense. Her grandmother was stubborn even back then, but Grandfather Tobias must not have minded his wife’s attitude, for their marriage was strong and happy and lasted forty-two years.
Lyra knew she would never find a man like Grandfather Tobias. He was bigger than life. She doubted there were even any men like him around these days. The men she dated were self-centered, money-loving, sex-addicted chauvinists who expected to hook up with a woman two hours after meeting her. Needless to say, they were disappointed and a little shocked when Lyra said no and went home alone.
Love wasn’t for her, she supposed. She was so tired of dating jerks, it just wasn’t worth it. She was happy being single. Why change what worked?
It was after eleven when Lyra went downstairs to make sure the doors were locked and to say good night to her grandmother. Gigi’s bedroom was tucked in the back of the house on the main floor. Her door was open, and she was tying the belt of her robe.
She saw Lyra in the doorway and said, “It was a nice day, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” Lyra came into the room and sat on the side of Gigi’s bed. “Do you get that much company every night?”
“I’m glad they do.” Lyra’s eyes settled on the framed photo on the dresser: her grandparents arm in arm standing in front of two horses.
“Do you ever miss the ranch?”
“Oh, yes, of course I do. It was my home for most of my life.”
“I sometimes think you left there to get away from my parents.”
Gigi looked sheepish, and deftly dodged the issue. “I love California. The move has been good for me.”
Lyra smiled. “Do you miss Grandpa Tobias?”
“Yes, I do. I liked being married,” she said.
“Ever think about getting married again? Grandpa Tobias would want you to be happy.”
“No, no, I could never marry again. I believe you only get one, Lyra, and Tobias was my one.”
“One what?”
“One true love. Now go to bed.”
“I didn’t realize you were such a romantic,” Lyra said as she kissed her grandmother good night.
Once she was settled in bed, Lyra thought about all that her grandparents had accomplished. They had turned their small Texas ranch into an empire of fifteen thousand acres that produced oil and cattle and thoroughbred horses. It was a wonderful place to raise a family, and the couple had hoped for a house full of children, but they were able to have only one. They showered their son, Christopher, with love and attention and expected that he would take over the ranch one day. He grew up with every advantage, but showed little interest in the family business. After college he married Dallas socialite Judith Thorndyke and moved back to the ranch and, regardless of his parents’ efforts, managed to shirk any of the responsibility that came with living there. Lyra’s parents’ lives were filled with exotic trips and social obligations, interrupted briefly by three pregnancies. Lyra’s two brothers, Owen and Cooper, were born a year apart. Lyra came along five years later.
Despite the fact that her parents were seldom around, Lyra’s childhood on the ranch was idyllic, thanks to Gigi and Grandpa Tobias. While Christopher and Judith were jet-setting around the world, Owen, Cooper, and Lyra grew up under the loving and watchful eyes of their grandparents. They were encouraged to explore and to pursue their passions. For Owen and Cooper, that was the ranch. Lyra’s interests took a more artistic path: she fell in love with filmmaking.
Lyra’s parents were deeply disappointed by their daughter’s peculiar interests. They had hoped she would take her place in society by marrying into a wealthy and prominent family. Gigi, however, encouraged Lyra to pursue her dream. After Lyra finished college, her grandmother turned the ranch over to Owen and Cooper and moved to California. Lyra had decided to stay there in order to study at one of the country’s best film schools, and Gigi wanted to be nearby. For that and so much else in her life, Lyra was eternally grateful to Gigi. And she was also very protective of her.
Although her grandmother was a wonderful woman, she wasn’t perfect by any means. She held grudges. She only discussed politics with Democrats because, in her outrageously biased opinion, they were intelligent and sensible, and Republicans weren’t. She was stubborn and she was superstitious. And if one considered stealing holy water a crime, then Gigi was also a thief.
After mass on Sunday morning, Lyra went with Gigi to the market. They strolled among the vendors and bought oranges and grapes and bunches of bright-colored daisies, then they stopped for lunch at a cafe overlooking the beach before walking home. Lyra loved these quiet times they shared, but she knew she had to get back to Los Angeles, so by mid-afternoon, she had hugged her grandmother good-bye and was back on the freeway heading north.
As she turned the corner onto her street, her phone rang. She pulled over, put the car in park, and answered. Cooper was on the line.
“How’s Gigi?” her brother asked.
“She’s great.”
“Still ornery?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Then she’s doing okay. I still think she should come back to the ranch where Owen and I can keep an eye on her.”
“She doesn’t want to come back, and she doesn’t need a baby sitter. She’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.”
“Hey, I’m just as protective of her as you are. Listen, the reason I called … You’re not going to like this …”
“Tell me, Cooper. Just tell me,” she repeated impatiently.
“Mom and Dad just bought a house in La Jolla, not far from Gigi.”
“What?” Lyra nearly dropped the phone. “Why’d they do that?”
“Dad said they want to be nearby should Gigi need them in her final years.”
“Oh, right,” she scoffed. “They’re treating her as though she’s ancient. She’s in her seventies, and in this day and age that isn’t old. Besides, she’s in perfect health—”
Cooper interrupted her tirade. “I’m just telling you what they said.”
“I’m not buying it, and neither should you. Their only real motivation is Gigi’s money. They want to be near it far more than they do her. I swear I can’t understand why Gigi puts up with such blatant greed.”
“It could be because he’s her son,” Cooper said.
Ignoring that truth, Lyra said, “Every time those people do something horrible and I suggest she never speak to them again, she always says the same thing, ‘Don’t let it worry you,’ and that’s the end of the discussion.”
“Like I said, he’s her son.”
“I know,” she said.
“I’ve got to go. You doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” she sighed.
“Stay in touch.” And with that, he was gone.
Lyra took a deep breath. She was determined not to let Cooper’s news upset her. She had a busy week ahead, but it would be an easy one if she stayed focused and calm. She wasn’t about to let this or anything else rile her.
She could hear her grandmother’s words echoing in her head: “Don’t let it worry you. Don’t let it worry you.”
SEVEN
LYRA DIDN’T HEED THE WARNING SIGNS.
She had punched in the code to open the parking lot’s electronic gate, and as soon as she had pulled through and the gate had closed behind her, she was home.
A big luxury sedan was parked in Mrs. Eckhard’s assigned spot next to Lyra’s. It sat on the line separating one space from another, and she could barely get her door open. Mrs. Eckhard’s Prius was at the airport for another week while she was in Hawaii. Lyra was collecting her mail for her. So who was using the space and being so careless about the way he parked?
She grabbed her purse and her keys in one hand and her overnight bag in the other. As she struggled to squeeze past the ridiculously big car, she noticed a triangular rental car sticker in the corner of the back window, and when she turned to cross the lot, she saw the trunk lid was slightly open.
One of the apartments on the second level had the television blaring. It wasn’t until she climbed the outside stairs and moved down the external corridor to her apartment that she realized the noise was coming from her own living room. It sounded as though cartoons were playing. That didn’t make any sense. Sidney’s car was in her assigned parking spot, so presumably she was home, but she’d be the last person Lyra would expect to be watching cartoons. Yet Lyra clearly heard “Yabba dabba do” coming through the door. She slowed her pace as she approached, perplexed at the sight of scratches on the new nickel-plated lock and a split in the wall at the doorjamb.
Finally, the warning bells went off. Was Sidney inside, and if so, who was with her? Lyra leaned closer to the door and nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a man’s voice.
“Turn that down,” he shouted. “It’s giving me a headache.”
Seconds later, the television’s volume was lowered. Then Lyra heard another man talking.
“Why do we have to wait until she wakes up to carry her down to the car and dum
p her in the trunk?”
“That’s not why we’re waiting. It’s because it isn’t dark yet. You want someone to see you?”
“No, but why don’t we just tie her up here?”
“You left the rope and the duct tape in the car, that’s why.”
“So why was that my job? You could have carried it up. And what are we gonna do if she don’t wake up? You hit her pretty hard.”
“Hey, she was making too much of a racket. I had to hit her to shut her up. If we had found what we were looking for, we would have been out of here.”
Lyra moved away from the door as quietly as possible and then ran around the walkway to the back of the building. Her heart racing, she called 911. Lyra told the operator what was happening, and though her voice was shaking, she tried to answer the questions as succinctly as possible. The operator dispatched the police to her address and instructed Lyra to stay on the line. Lyra couldn’t do that. She kept the line open but put the phone on top of her overnight bag, then opened the side flap of her purse and found the small canister of pepper spray. She had no intention of going into the apartment unless she heard Sidney. She would wait for the police, but in case something did happen, she needed another weapon. She looked around her. What could she use?
Her car … She flew down the stairs and hit the remote on her keychain to pop open the trunk. She found the L-shaped lug wrench and raced back up to her apartment door to listen while she prayed for the sound of sirens. What was taking them so long!
Pepper spray in left hand poised to fire, a lug wrench in the other, Lyra was ready. Scared to death, but ready.
She leaned toward the door to listen for Sidney’s voice. The television was still tuned to the cartoon channel. The men inside were silent. What were they doing? She held her breath while she waited.
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