Ivy Morgan 11 – 01 – Wicked Whimsy

by Lily Harper Hart

  “I’m going to be there for ten minutes,” Ivy pointed out. “I’ll be fine. Trust me. If I can give myself a tan in my dreams, I can keep myself safe at the lumberyard no one knows I’m going to visit.”

  Jack ran his hand over her hair to smooth it. “I’m still not happy with your plan.”

  “I’ll text you when I land and when I leave.”

  “Better, but I would prefer you wait for me.”

  “I can’t do that.” Ivy was firm. “I’m going to have Dad pick up Josh and bring him to the nursery, which means I need to get my visit to the lumberyard over early so I can focus on Josh.”

  “And why are you going to bring Josh to the nursery again?” Jack queried, his irritation coming out to play. “I thought you agreed that spending a lot of time with him was a bad idea.”

  “I do agree that him getting attached to me is a bad idea,” Ivy countered. “At this point, I think spending time with him will help. I’m the only one who can get the truth out of him.”

  Despite himself, Jack was intrigued. “And what do you think the truth is?”

  “I think that you’re right about him knowing who killed his father,” Ivy answered. “I think he knows and he’s absolutely terrified to tell us. He trusts me, though, so he’s far more likely to confide in me. The second he does, we can go after this person – whoever it is – and get Josh placed in a permanent home.”

  “Will you still visit him after that?” Jack was honestly curious. “I mean … will you stick with him even after he admits he lied?”

  “Yes.” Ivy bobbed her head. “We both know he lied because he was afraid. He’s basically lost everyone who ever meant anything to him. The only thing he has left to hold on to is his own life. I don’t blame him for being terrified enough to spin a tall tale.”

  “I don’t either,” Jack admitted. “Basically I’m working on the assumption that this all dates back to Abraham’s affair with Ellen. I mean … she said the right things. She said that she was over him and realized, at least in hindsight, that she was acting like a dolt.

  “There was something about the way she said it that bothered me,” he continued. “It was as if she wanted to appear sincere, proactive with her guilt even, but couldn’t quite pull it off.”

  “So … you think she has something to do with this?” Ivy pressed.

  “I think she at least knows more than she’s letting on,” Jack replied. “There was something off about her demeanor that I couldn’t quite identify. I don’t know what her deal was, but I’m convinced she didn’t tell us all that she knows.”

  “She could’ve convinced someone to go after Abraham,” Ivy pointed out. “I mean … think about it. She probably thought he would turn to her once Melanie died, start their affair all over again. When that didn’t happen, it could’ve legitimately turned her bitter.”

  “And I’m guessing that’s exactly what happened,” Jack said. “We know that Josh saw Ellen at least once. He walked into his home and saw his father with his mistress. The way Ellen made it sound, nothing was going on. What if that wasn’t true?”

  Ivy leaned forward, intrigued. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, this is also just a theory, but what if Abraham and Ellen were actually saying goodbye to one another in a different way?”

  “You mean a naked goodbye?”

  Jack nodded and smirked. “Exactly. What if Josh saw them, pitched a fit, and Abraham cut Ellen loose because his son was so upset, not because he was trying to do right by his wife, like Ellen said.”

  “Huh.” Ivy tapped her chin as she mulled the scenario. “That actually fits together.”

  “It does,” Jack agreed. “The only thing that doesn’t fit is the actual shooting. Ellen isn’t very big. I don’t see her being able to contain Abraham and Josh.”

  “If she’s the guilty party, though, she would’ve had a gun.”

  “True,” Jack agreed. “Why would Ellen want to kill Abraham? Wouldn’t it make more sense for her to want to kill Josh? He was the one she most likely blamed for her relationship with Abraham falling apart.”

  “Good point.” Ivy bopped her head, as if listening to music only she could hear. “Maybe she has a boyfriend who helped. A brother, perhaps.”

  “I’ve considered that, too, and I’m researching both today,” Jack said. “That’s another reason I can’t go to the lumberyard with you.”

  Ivy’s expression was rueful as she patted his arm. “Do you really think I can’t visit the lumberyard without something happening to me?”

  “I really think trouble seems to find you no matter how good you intend on being,” Jack countered. “Sometimes I think you exert a musk that attracts killers and thieves.”

  “Too bad I couldn’t reverse engineer that, huh?” Ivy’s eyes sparkled. “I would be rich beyond our wildest dreams if I could come up with a perfume that kept bad people from good people.”

  “Oh, I think you hit on something there.” Jack grinned as he wrapped his arms around her waist and wrestled her to the bed. “I think you should focus on that and not leave the house today. Make us rich, honey. Then neither of us will have to work and we can spend the rest of our lives in bed.”

  “Ha, ha.” Ivy kissed his chin. “I have to go to the lumberyard. I also have to focus on Josh to see if I can get him to talk. He’s our best hope of getting answers.”

  “I know.” Jack was resigned. “I don’t like worrying about you, though. It makes me edgy.”

  “I already said I would text to let you know when I arrive and leave. I promise I won’t be there long.”

  “Text me a couple of times when you hit the nursery, too,” Jack instructed. “That way I’ll know you’re safe.”

  Ivy snorted. “Dad is going to be at the nursery with me. Plus … well … all the customers. Who do you think is going to go after me there?”

  “Probably no one,” Jack conceded. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop worrying about you. That’s not how I roll.”

  “Oh, I know how you roll.” Ivy poked his side. “You like to roll around with me in the sand.”

  “You’ve got that right.” Jack kissed her again. “Just promise me you’ll take care of yourself, always look over your back, and text a lot. That won’t stop me from worrying, but it will help … at least a little bit.”

  “I promise to do all that.” Ivy was sincere. “I also promise to come up with a few dirty texts to send your way.”

  Jack’s eyes gleamed with interest. “There’s a reason I’m so in love with you. The dirty texts play into it.”

  Ivy chuckled. “I love you, too. Outrageously.”

  “I don’t suppose you have a few minutes to show me before you leave for the day, do you?” Jack glanced at the clock on the nightstand. “I think, if properly motivated, we can figure out a way to forget our problems for the next fifteen minutes.”

  “I love it when I’m properly motivated,” Ivy enthused.

  “Me, too.” Jack smacked a kiss against her lips. “Let’s see who can motivate who, huh?”

  “That sounds like a plan to me.”

  Sixteen

  Ivy was quick when she landed at the lumberyard, parking her car in Max’s reserved spot and hurrying across the untidy landscape. It was obvious where the accident happened and she wasn’t keen to spend a lot of time wondering what might’ve happened to Max if the accident went down a different way.

  Since Ivy spent a lot of time with her brother at his place of business, she knew how to navigate the area with safety in mind. She gave the various piles of wood long looks before passing in front of them and didn’t stop until she found the scattered logs in the middle of the aisle.

  Right away, Ivy could tell where they were stored. They were obviously tied together for a specific purpose – probably to be shipped within the next twenty-four hours or so – and were meant to be largely ignored until they were transported off the lot.

  Thankfully for all concerned – especially Max
– the logs weren’t overly large. Even though she didn’t consider herself a master builder by any stretch of the imagination, Ivy recognized what the logs were going to be used for. They were completely straight and cut to the same length. That meant they were going to be roof pieces, most likely for a log cabin. There were a lot of expensive log cabins going up in the area, so it made sense.

  Ivy was careful as she climbed over two logs, keeping her eyes peeled on the ground until she found what she was looking for. It was the tie from the end of the stack. It looked to be in one piece, perhaps dislodged when the other end opened and the stack rolled.

  Even though Ivy wasn’t convinced she could command full use of her magic when she wanted to do it, she focused on the tie now, closing her eyes and breathing in through her nose as she tried to relax her mind. She knew exactly what she was looking for. Unfortunately for her, the images she hoped to see didn’t come through.

  “Well, that bites,” Ivy muttered under her breath as she shoved the tie in her pocket and scrambled over the logs. She kept her eyes on the ground, determined to find the second tie. She almost missed it, but a hint of color poking out from the far end of one of the logs caught her attention. The second Ivy scooped it up, a myriad of images flashed through her head, each darker than the previous.

  At first, Ivy didn’t understand what she was seeing. When things slipped into place, however, she was appropriately horrified.

  “Oh, no.” She had no idea how long she was trapped in the vision stream, but when she snapped out of it, she jumped to her feet. “Oh, no, no, no, no.”

  MICHAEL DIDN’T HAVE A PROBLEM picking up Josh when Ivy called to ask him for a favor. In truth, he felt for the boy. He couldn’t imagine going through the terrible things plaguing Josh’s life at such a young age.

  The boy had lost a sister to SIDS, something that defied understanding. Then he watched his mother suffer and slip away. Then, only a year later, someone took his father in brutal fashion. A sympathetic man at heart, Michael couldn’t understand why everything was piling on Josh, and seemingly in such a short time span. How much was one boy supposed to survive? Especially now that he was on his own.

  “Thank you for picking me up.” Josh was in polite mode as Michael navigated through downtown Shadow Lake. “Where is Ivy that she couldn’t do it?”

  “I’m actually not completely sure,” Michael replied. “I know she’s on her way out to the nursery, but she said she had somewhere to be before then.”

  “And where is that?”

  “I don’t know but … oh, look.” Michael pointed toward the medical center as they passed. “That’s Ivy’s car right there. She must be visiting Max. I had no idea she planned to do that today.”

  Josh craned his neck so he could stare at the hospital. “They’re close, huh?”

  “Who? Max and Ivy?” Michael smiled at mention of his children. “They are pretty close.”

  “Max is older?”

  “He is.”

  “Did he like Ivy when you brought her home from the hospital?”

  The question caught Michael off guard. “I think he did. He wasn’t very old when it happened. He was two – more like two and a half, I guess – and he was fascinated with watching her.”

  “But he liked her?”

  Michael nodded, something occurring to him. “I know you had a sister.”

  “You know about her?” Josh seemed surprised. “No one ever talked about her after she died. Not really. I knew my mother was sad, which I didn’t get because it’s not like she had Jenny all that long, but no one talked about her out in the open or anything.”

  Michael was surprised by Josh’s matter-of-fact demeanor. “Well, my guess is that your parents were so upset about what happened to Jenny that they couldn’t find the right words to express the emotions they were grappling with. How can you explain something that has no rhyme or reason?”

  “She didn’t do anything, though,” Josh persisted. “She just sat in that crib and cried. She cried all the time. Mom said it was normal, but she just wouldn’t shut up.”

  Michael was taken aback by Josh’s tone. “That’s what babies do. They cry. Eventually they grow out of it, but that’s the only way an infant can communicate.”

  “Did Max like it when Ivy cried?”

  Michael had no idea why Josh was so fixated on Max. It seemed like an odd question to ask, although harmless, so he answered it all the same. “Max didn’t like it when Ivy cried.”

  “Did he ask you to shut her up?”

  “No. It was more that he kind of wrung his hands and got nervous when she cried. He was always afraid something was wrong with her. Even at two he was a good big brother and told us to go to her when she was upset. He always put her first.”

  “I didn’t feel that way about Jenny.” Josh’s expression was a mix between a scowl and a sneer. “I just wanted her to be quiet. I told Mom that, but she said I was being ridiculous and to go outside if the noise bothered me that much. I never got to sleep through the entire night after they brought Jenny home. It was … terrible.”

  “Well, I’m sure it was.” Michael chose his words carefully. “Still, she would’ve grown out of that. Eventually you wouldn’t even have remembered that she used to cry so often.”

  “Oh, I would’ve remembered.”

  Michael cleared his throat to dislodge some of the discomfort rolling through him. “Still, you must have missed her once she was gone.”

  “No. We didn’t have her very long. It was just like going back to how things were supposed to be before they brought her home from the hospital.”

  Michael was utterly flabbergasted. “You can’t mean that. She was your sister.”

  “I think it’s probably different for people like Max and Ivy,” Josh offered, taking on a pragmatic tone. “They were close in age. Max was too young to realize he had it better before Ivy was born. It was different for me.”

  “Yeah. I’m starting to see that.”

  Josh rested his hands on his knees and turned a bright, if somewhat vacant, smile in Michael’s direction. “Can we get ice cream before heading out?”

  “Sure,” Michael replied, conflicted. “I think ice cream will do us both good.”

  MAX WAS SURPRISED TO FIND Ivy waiting for him when he exited his hospital room’s private bathroom in street clothes.

  “I thought Mom was coming,” he said as he slid into his weathered hoodie. “Don’t tell me she’s already tired of serving as my nurse because I’ve come up with a whole list of things I want her to do before I’m going to be feeling well enough to take care of myself.”

  Ivy scowled, understanding exactly what her brother had planned for their long-suffering mother. “Ugh. You’re going to make her clean your house and find someone to dress up like a naughty nurse for you, aren’t you?”

  Max was appalled. “I would never have Mom pick out a naughty nurse for me. I’m going to make Jack do that. He knows who would look good in the little uniform and I’m sure he would be open to holding auditions.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  Max smirked, genuinely amused. “That might be fun to watch. I honestly haven’t ruled it out.”

  “Whatever.”

  “For now, I’m simply curious,” Max said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I stopped by the lumberyard,” Ivy replied, digging in her pocket. “I was looking for these.” She dropped the ties she found into his hand, watching as Max wrinkled his nose while studying them. “What do you see?”

  “These are log ties.”

  “I know that.”

  “This one has been cut,” Max noted, his cheeks flushing with color as he studied the item in question.

  “Are you sure it was cut?” Ivy pressed. She already suspected that, but Max was an expert and she wanted him to verify it for her. “You’re absolutely positive that it was cut and didn’t somehow break from natural causes, right?”

  “Do you see this?” Max pointed a
t the edge of the broken tie. “If it ripped, it would be jagged. This isn’t jagged.”

  “No, it’s not.” Ivy dragged a hand through her hair as she began to pace in front of the bed.

  “What are you thinking?” Max asked, concern for his sister outweighing his fury over the sabotaged tie. “You know something, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know anything,” Ivy countered. “I suspect something, though.”

  “That’s the same thing.”

  “Not really.”

  Ivy made a “well, duh” expression as she rolled her eyes. “I don’t know anything,” she reiterated. “However, I saw something when I touched the tie. It was fast … basically a flash … but I saw something.”

  “Is this that magical witchy thing you’ve been doing where you see things that no one else can see?” Max asked.

  “Kind of. If you’re going to give me grief about it, save it. I already know you think I’m nuts.”

  “I don’t think you’re nuts,” Max countered. “I don’t think you’re even remotely nuts.”

  “So … what do you think?”

  “I think you’re special and that you can do things,” Max replied without hesitation. “I don’t know why you can do these things and I can’t – it would be totally awesome if I had magic and we both know it – but I have faith you’re powerful. Just tell me what you saw.”

  Ivy heaved out a sigh as she collected herself. “I went in thinking that I was going to see a stranger cutting the tie. That somehow, when you were distracted by the machinery, someone snuck close enough to cut the tie in an effort to either hurt Josh or send him a warning.”

  “Jack’s still convinced he’s lying about what happened in the woods, isn’t he?”

  Ivy nodded. “He is lying about what happened in the woods.” She was sure of that now. “I thought I would see someone else cutting the tie at the lumberyard, Max, but I didn’t. Josh is the one who did it.”

  Max wasn’t sure what he was expecting his sister to say, but that wasn’t it. “You can’t be serious.”