Sweet Avengers (A Sweet Cove Mystery Book 18)

by J A Whiting

  Angie closed her eyes and a vision shimmered behind her lids. Elizabeth stood on the sidewalk waiting to cross. The sky was clear blue with a few puffy clouds and the morning air was already warm promising an unusually hot day.

  Cars had been moving along the street, but then there was a lull in the traffic just as the light changed. Elizabeth stepped into the road to cross, and Angie’s vision changed to black and white.

  A car sped up the street heading straight for the woman. Someone behind Elizabeth yelled for the people crossing to watch out. Three pedestrians walking ahead of Elizabeth started to run, and when she realized what was happening, she, too, broke into a run. She’d only taken two strides before another person screamed … right at the moment of impact.

  Elizabeth was thrown into the air and died in the middle of a Boston street that bright, sunny morning. The driver of the car hit the gas and raced away.

  In her vision, Angie watched it speed through the red light and disappear.

  When her eyes popped open and she gasped, Courtney wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “It’s okay. You’re here with us. It’s over now.”

  Disoriented for a moment and with her heart racing, Angie took Courtney’s hand and squeezed it hard.

  “Did you see anything new?” Jenna asked gently.

  “I don’t think so. The images lost their color and turned black and white and gray. The same as always.” Angie pressed her fingers against her forehead. “Are you picking up on anything?”

  “I feel something different.” Jenna’s eyes narrowed as she surveyed the scene. “Someone who was here. I think they know more than what they told the police. I feel it floating on the air.”

  “Can you make out the people who were around Mom that day?” Ellie asked Angie. “When you had the vision this time, could you see their faces?”

  “It was clearer than ever, but the faces I see … it’s almost like they’re smudged. They’re blurry, but it’s getting clearer. Maybe if I come here every day, the images will sharpen.” Angie blinked and sighed. “I could sure use a cup of coffee.”

  “Let’s walk towards the hospital,” Courtney suggested. “There’s a coffee shop down there that Mom liked. We can get a drink and sit in the hospital garden.”

  The sisters strolled along the busy sidewalks making their way down to the neighborhood next to the hospital and found the coffee shop they were looking for. They went inside, ordered coffees and iced teas, and then stepped back outside into the sunlight as they walked over to the hospital grounds.

  “They’ve added more landscaping,” Ellie observed. “They’ve expanded the garden since we were here last.”

  A stone walkway led from the front door of the medical facility around to the side where shade trees and flower beds surrounded a grassy area with benches, tables, and Adirondack chairs.

  “It looks pretty,” Jenna said. “So peaceful and quiet.”

  As they walked over to the chairs, a woman passed behind them, did a double-take, and stopped. “Elizabeth?” she whispered.

  The sisters spun around.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” In her early forties, the short, strawberry-blonde looked flustered as she stared at Ellie. “You reminded me of someone.” The woman’s eyes widened and she took a step forward. “Are you…? Are you Elizabeth Roseland’s daughters?” Her eyes were still glued to Ellie when she said, “You look so much like her. It’s an uncanny resemblance.”

  “I’m Ellie Roseland. These are my sisters.” Ellie introduced her three siblings.

  “I’m Lindsey Adams. I worked with your mother.” The woman gave herself a shake. “I was deep in thought as I walked past you just now. For a half-second, I really thought you were Elizabeth … even though I know she passed away. I apologize.” She slowly shook her head. “Looking at you, it’s like Elizabeth has come back to life.”

  3

  Lindsey Adams sat with the sisters in the garden.

  “What has it been since Elizabeth died? Five or six years?”

  “It’s been seven,” Ellie told the woman.

  “I can’t believe it’s been that long.” Lindsey shook her head. “What brings you to Boston? Don’t you all live on the North Shore?”

  Angie’s skin pricked with little electric currents as she kept her eyes on Lindsey.

  “How do you know we live on the North Shore?”

  Lindsey blinked a few times. “Someone must have told me. There are a number of people here at the hospital your mother was close to. One of them must have heard through the grapevine that you moved away from the city.”

  “We’re all living and working in Sweet Cove. We have a large house there,” Courtney explained.

  “You all live together?” Lindsey looked surprised.

  “Most of us do. Jenna lives in a house on the same street.”

  “What a close family. Elizabeth would be so pleased.”

  “Did you work with our mom for a long time?” Angie couldn’t help the vague feeling of suspicion bubbling through her.

  Lindsey smiled. “For seven years, we worked in emergency together. I’m a nurse. I liked your mother very much. She was an excellent doctor. She saved so many people’s lives with her quick thinking, analytical brain, and medical skills. I learned so much from her. Elizabeth was a good person. The entire department was in shock when she passed away.”

  “Our mother was brought here right after her accident,” Jenna pointed out. “Were you working that day?”

  Lindsey’s lips held tight together in thin lines. “I wasn’t supposed to be, but I was called in when another nurse went home sick. I had just come in to work when Elizabeth was brought in. We couldn’t believe it. There was nothing anyone could do. She was gone when she arrived in emergency.”

  “Did you drive to work?” Angie asked.

  Lindsey shook her head. “No. I lived in the neighborhood and walked to work.” She drew in a long breath. “You know … I was only a block away from where the accident took place. I heard the commotion, the shouts, the sirens. I never in a million years would have thought it was someone I knew.”

  “Did you happen to see the car speeding away?” Courtney asked. “Maybe it went in your direction.”

  “I didn’t notice any car speeding.”

  Jenna made eye contact with Lindsey. “We understand that some witnesses reported seeing a black car fleeing the scene and others claim it was blue.”

  “The way the sun was hitting the vehicle could make it look different to different people. I wish I had seen it, then maybe the person would have been caught. Can you imagine hitting someone and taking off? It’s outrageous.”

  “Had our mother seemed like herself before the accident?” Ellie asked the question. “Was anything bothering her? Did she seem anxious or nervous about anything?”

  Lindsey got a faraway look in her eyes and it took her a few moments to reply. “It had been an especially busy few days. We were all a little tired. That didn’t interfere with our ability to do our jobs competently. Maybe Elizabeth was rundown. Maybe that’s why she stepped out in front of that car.”

  Courtney’s cheeks flushed red. “Our mother did not step out in front of the car. The light changed and she and the other pedestrians walked with the signal. The car came out of nowhere. It flew up the street. Our mother got caught in its path. Witnesses said so.”

  Lindsey’s expression was even. “Witnesses aren’t completely reliable. Perhaps your mom was running late. She may have tried to cross before the light changed. She probably didn’t see the oncoming vehicle.”

  “That’s possible, but improbable,” Angie corrected the woman. “Several witnesses described the pedestrians moving with the light signal. They also reported that they hadn’t seen the car until it was about to hit our mom … that’s how fast it was going.”

  “Were there ever any leads?” Lindsey asked. “Was the car ever found?”

  “We never knew if there were any credible leads,” Ellie s
aid. “The police followed the few clues they had, but came up empty. The car was never found.”

  “I should get back to work.” Lindsey stood and before she could say anything else, she noticed a tall man striding purposefully towards the hospital entrance. “George,” Lindsey called to the man and waved him over.

  The man was in his mid-sixties, fit, over six feet tall, with brown eyes and light brown hair flecked with gray at the temples.

  “This is Dr. George Day.” Lindsey made introductions. “This is Elizabeth Roseland’s family.”

  Dr. Day’s eyebrows rose as he looked from one sister to the next until his eyes stopped on Ellie, and he blurted, “My gosh. You’re the spitting image of your mother.” The man collected himself. “I’m sorry, you must hear that all the time. It’s very nice to meet all of you. Are you visiting the city or are you here permanently?”

  “We’re visiting,” Ellie said.

  “I knew your mother. A wonderful person and a fine doctor.”

  “I have to scoot,” Lindsey told the Roselands. “Come by again, if you can. It was lovely to meet you.” The nurse hurried back into the building.

  Dr. Day swallowed. “Am I correct that the driver of the car was never found?”

  “That’s right,” Courtney told him. “Did you work in the emergency department?”

  “Yes, I’ve been here for decades. I worked with your mother. I enjoyed her company.”

  Angie and Jenna exchanged quick glances.

  “Did our mother seem off in the days leading up to the accident? Like something might have been bothering her?” Angie questioned.

  “It was so long ago.” Dr. Day scratched at his cheek, thinking. “I can’t say I noticed anything different about your mother’s mood or demeanor. Nothing stood out to me, but we were often very busy. I might not have had the chance to really talk to her. Why do you ask if something seemed off? Do you think she was worried about something?”

  “We’re not sure.”

  “Even if she’d been concerned about something, that wouldn’t have had anything to do with the accident.” The man looked puzzled.

  “Maybe not.” Angie shrugged slightly.

  Dr. Day narrowed his eyes. “Do you think the accident was intentional? Did the police think so?”

  “We aren’t sure if the police thought our mother was hit on purpose,” Ellie said. “We’re meeting with a detective later in the week.”

  Dr. Day’s eyes were like laser beams. “Are you planning to have the case re-opened? Is that why you’ve come to Boston?”

  “We came because we lived here for years. We grew up here,” Courtney told the man not giving the real reason they’d returned. “The city feels like home to us.”

  “And since we were going to visit anyway,” Ellie said, “we decided to contact the detective who was in charge of the case.”

  “What do you hope to discover?”

  Courtney leveled her eyes at the doctor. “We plan to discover the identity of the person who took our mother’s life.”

  “That’s a tall order,” Dr. Day told her. “If there was any evidence to go on, the police would have made an arrest by now.”

  “Cold cases get solved all the time,” Angie said quietly. “We think it’s time our mother’s case was resolved.”

  “So we’re meeting with the detective. We want to know the details,” Jenna said. “New eyes on it can make all the difference.”

  “Well, I applaud your optimism. I don’t think I could do it. Some details I wouldn’t want to know. It would cause me too much pain.” With a sigh, the man glanced down at the ground for a moment. “Anyway, I wish you good luck with it. Which hotel are you staying at?”

  “We not in a hotel,” Jenna said. “We’re staying at the home of a friend.”

  “Here in the city?”

  Jenna nodded.

  “Very nice. Are you in the Back Bay?”

  “We’re on Beacon Hill,” Ellie told him.

  “Perhaps we could meet for coffee and chat about Elizabeth. My email address is on the hospital website. Reach out, if you have time while you’re here.” Dr. Day wished them a good day and then strode into the hospital.

  Courtney had her hand on her hip. “I don’t remember Mom talking about either of these people.”

  “They both seemed to know her though,” Ellie said. “Mom didn’t talk much about her colleagues. I only recall her talking regularly about two or three people she worked with.”

  “Yeah.” Courtney took a look at the door the doctor went inside through. “I think he was holding something back.”

  “I felt the same thing from him … strongly.” Jenna turned to her sisters. “What wouldn’t he want to say? What could he be holding back about? The accident was seven years ago. What would he not want to talk about after all this time?”

  Ellie stood straighter. “Is it possible Mom and Dr. Day had feelings for each other?”

  “Feelings?” Jenna asked.

  “Yeah, sis,” Courtney said with an impish grin. “Feelings are strong emotions you experience like love or hate or jealousy.”

  “I know that.” Jenna rolled her eyes. “Why wouldn’t Mom have told us if she was having a romantic thing with Dr. Day?”

  “Maybe it was new?” Ellie suggested.

  “We need to ask Mom’s friends about things. I wish we thought to talk to them at the time.” Courtney shook her head.

  “We couldn’t discuss it back then,” Angie said. “Losing Mom was too much to process. We didn’t have the mental energy to think about talking to her friends. I think we expected the police would figure it out, and would do it fast.”

  “Let’s go back to the house,” Jenna suggested. “This has been enough for one afternoon.”

  “I felt uneasy when the doctor said something to us,” Angie said.

  The sisters looked at her.

  “Why did Dr. Day want to know where we were staying? It didn’t seem like a casual question.”

  Hmm. Why, indeed?

  4

  Angie, Josh, Jenna, and Tom were sitting in the yard at the back of the house with Gigi and Libby in their strollers. Euclid and Circe rested in the grass watching the birds flying in and out of the branches. The first night in the borrowed home went smoothly with everyone getting a good night’s sleep. Even the children slept through the night and woke happy and ready to eat at 5:30am.

  Courtney called from inside the kitchen. “Angie and Jenna, we’re ready to go.”

  The sisters, Mr. Finch, and Orla were meeting Orla’s friend, Dianna Griffin, at her home in Cambridge and hoped to learn something from the woman that would help with their investigation.

  Angie and Jenna kissed their husbands and daughters before heading towards the kitchen. Euclid sat on the patio watching the sisters leave.

  Angie leaned down as she walked past the big orange cat and whispered, “Keep your eyes on things, will you good boy?”

  Euclid trilled and swished his long plume of a tail.

  Since arriving in Boston, Angie had begun to feel anxious and apprehensive about looking into their mother’s death. She worried that they were opening a Pandora’s box they wouldn’t be able to contain, but there was no turning back. She took a quick look at Gigi before shutting the door and following the others out to the SUV taxi.

  Orla said, “You’ll enjoy meeting Dianna. She’s a wonderful person. I’ve known her for a very long time.”

  Angie and Jenna looked at one another. Orla was a bit of a puzzle to them. They knew she had strong paranormal skills and was an important person in the paranormal community. They also knew she’d traveled the world for several years on business serving the members of the community, but how she actually helped and what her duties were was a mystery, and anytime one of the sisters brought up the question, Orla would say very little before changing the subject or leaving the room.

  Along with other jobs, the sisters knew that Orla had taught French and Spanish for many year
s and that she drew in pastels and sold some of her work in galleries.

  When Elizabeth Roseland died on the Boston street seven years ago, she was wearing a necklace with a silver chain and an oval cabochon containing a pearly white stone that the sisters couldn’t identify, but thought it might be moonstone.

  Previously, the necklace had been in the possession of a woman named Katrina Stenmark and she’d lived in the house that Jenna and Tom purchased not long ago.

  Knowing that the necklace had powers and that people were after it, Katrina gave it to the Roselands’ nana for safekeeping. Shortly afterwards, someone broke into Katrina’s house trying to find the necklace. Katrina wouldn’t tell where it was. She died during the break-in, protecting the necklace with her life.

  Katrina’s spirit remained in Tom and Jenna’s house, and although Jenna could sense the ghost’s presence, Katrina had never shown herself to the young woman.

  The sisters’ mother had inherited the piece of jewelry when Nana passed away, but wore the piece only on occasion. Ellie was the one who took possession of the special necklace after Elizabeth died.

  The cabochon’s white stone had great power, and among other substances, it had mistletoe inside of it. The necklace could help with all sorts of things. It could sometimes heal illness. It could protect against fire. No one knew all of its secrets.

  There were people who wanted to possess the piece and would do anything to get their hands on it. The necklace was its most powerful in the hands of a keeper, the protector of the stone, and it glowed and shimmered only when it was held by its keeper. The stone always knew who it should be with, and its powers could only be led by the keeper.

  Orla had stayed at the Roseland’s B and B in order to obtain the necklace that Ellie kept in a safe and never wore. Orla’s mission with the necklace was not revealed to the sisters, but she did tell them that she traveled the world for “special” reasons and used different IDs and credit cards to keep her identity a secret. She’d promised them that the stone would be protected and only used for good.