by Terri Reid
“I don’t know about you, but that marriage stuff is enough to cool down any passion. So before things had gone too far, I called it a night and drove her home.”
“So, that was it?”
He shook his head. “Hell no, she became my personal stalker,” he said. “The guys at the firehouse would tease me because she’d show up with food and stuff for me. She’d talk about me meeting her daddy. It was beyond weird.”
“Did you ever get any tea from her?”
“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, the tea,” he said, stepping back and leaning against a tree behind him. “That was weird too. So, she brings me this tea, says she made it for me personally. Okay, so I feel kind of bad, ‘cause she’s not evil, just not socially there, you know. So, she stands around waiting for me to try it and I drink a couple of cups of the stuff. It was nasty. That night, I go out drinking with my buddies and we have a good time. Then, I get home and my stomach is killing me.”
“Did the cramping last a long time?” she asked.
“It went on for hours,” he said. “I figured it was, like, bad chicken wings or something. So I go down to my kitchen and make some more of her tea because, you know, tea is supposed to help you with things like that.”
“Did it help you?”
“You know, the warmth kind of made the cramping go away,” he said. “So, I got a little sleep and then I got my fishing gear and came out here to relax.”
Mary nodded and took a deep breath. “Mike, do you remember what happened next?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, I was out here fishing, it was a great day, the sun was just coming up and I got a pull on my line,” he paused for a moment and a pained expression crossed his face. “I started cramping again, real bad. I stumbled back to the shore. I was doubled over, it hurt so bad. And then...”
“What happened next, Mike?”
He stared at her, his eyes wide in disbelief. “I died. Damn it, I died.”
Tears filled his eyes. “Mary, I don’t want to be dead. I want to fight fires and hang with my buddies. I want to spend time with my folks. I want to get married and have a family. I don’t want to be dead.”
Mary nodded, unable to say anything for a moment. She felt the pain of his grief. “I’m so sorry, Mike,” she said.
He shook his head, took a deep breath and ran a hand over his eyes, wiping them dry and smiled at her. “Well, damn, that pretty much kills any chance of us getting together, right?”
Mary chuckled through her tears, “Yeah, it probably does.”
“So, why am I still here?” he asked. “Why haven’t I moved on? Is this all there is?”
“No, I know there’s more and it’s wonderful,” she said. “But you still had some unfinished business, so you needed to stay. It might be that you needed Angela to be caught, and I think we’re close to getting that done. But it might be that you need to do something else.”
“I guess I should think about it,” he said. “See if there’s anything I need to do before I go.”
He looked out onto the water. “I’m not going to catch any fish, am I?”
Mary shrugged. “I don’t know all the rules,” she said. “You might still be able to catch some.”
“Mary, will you come back, in a day or two, and check on me?” he asked. “I might have figured out what I need to do.”
“Yes, I will, I promise,” she said. “And Mike, now that we’ve met, you can visit me anytime you’d like. You don’t have to stay here.”
He picked up his fishing pole and nodded to her. “I’ll be here for a while, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do,” he said. “I think best when I’m fishing. Thanks, Mary, I’ll be in touch.”
She watched him wade back into the frozen stream and cast out his line. “Bye Mike.”
Chapter 30
“Do you like it, Daddy?”
Angela swirled around in front of the corpse in a wedding dress of pure white silk. Strapless, with pearl beads sewn onto the bodice, it was form fitting and had a short train edged with pearls.
She stood in front of a mirror hanging on one of the walls, and turned to the side. “It fits perfectly, just like the clerk said. She said it emphasized my curves.”
She cocked her head, smiled at herself in the mirror and ran her hands slowly over her body. “I like that, Daddy, it emphasized my curves. Do you think Bradley will like it?”
She giggled. “Oh, Daddy, you should have seen Dr. Thompson’s face when I told him about Mary O’Reilly. You were right, that man is going to take care of her for me. Get her right out of the way.”
She turned back to the corpse. “You did it for me, Daddy, just like you promised. You were always so smart that way. Understanding how people worked.”
She glanced at herself again in the mirror. “Besides, once Bradley sees me in this dress, he’ll forget all about Mary O’Reilly.”
Sighing, she looked down at the ground, wringing her hands. “I just wish Momma could be here to see me on my wedding day.”
She looked up hopefully. “Could she come, Daddy? Would you let her come?”
Tears formed in Angela’s eyes. “Course I love you, Daddy. Course I’m grateful for what you’ve done. No, it’s okay, I don’t need Momma; I just thought it would be nice.”
She sighed, her mouth in a pout. “Yes, I made the potion just like you said. Yes, it’s already in the needle and it’s in my purse. Yes, Daddy, I took care of it all.”
She idly fingered the bodice of her dress. “Don’t you think I’m pretty, Daddy. I think Bradley is going to die when he sees me in it,” she said and then laughed out loud. “Do you get the joke, Daddy? Bradley’s going to die.”
Chapter 31
Mary pulled up in front of her house; she was tired and emotionally exhausted. She had met with only three of the men on the list, but they all told the same story, they got sick after drinking Angela’s tea. She laid her head on the steering wheel and tried to garner some kind of positive attitude. Every one of those men had died. Their symptoms had continued to get worse, even though some had stopped drinking the tea; the poison had continued to attack their bodies until they died.
“You’ve got to pull yourself together.”
Mary jumped back and saw Jeannine sitting in the passenger’s seat.
“Don’t I get one moment of privacy?” she asked.
Jeannine shook her head, “No, you knew the job was 24/7 when you took it. Besides, we let you go to the bathroom alone, don’t we?”
Mary chuckled, “Yes, I have to admit I’ve never been visited when I’m using the bathroom.”
Smiling, Jeannine leaned toward Mary. “I’m sure he told you that you weren’t supposed to do his job, right? He told you that most things would be out of your control, right?”
“Who?” Mary asked.
Jeannine smiled brightly and started to fade away. “God.”
Mary stared at the empty passenger’s seat for a moment and then turned her face upwards. “Thank you,” she prayed. “I suppose I needed to be reminded that you’re in charge and I’m just a minion. But doesn’t it ever frustrate you to see what we do to each other? How we treat each other? Doesn’t it ever want to make you cry?”
A single crystal-clear drop fell down and landed on Mary’s cheek. She placed her hand over it and nodded. “Yes, me too.”
Mary gathered her things, climbed out of the SUV and walked to her house. The lights were on inside and warmth shone from the windows. She could hear Stanley’s laughter and Rosie’s voice answering back. She heard Bradley laugh and it sounded strong and healthy. Suddenly the Christmas lights on the front porch turned on in a blaze of sparkling delight. She gasped aloud. Another sign? Another miracle? She wondered, and then shook her head. No, only the timer that’s plugged into the outlet.
She started up the stairs when one perfectly formed snowflake floated down from a clear sky and landed on her cheek. Once again she brought her hand up to her cheek and held it there. “Thank you,” she whispere
d.
She skipped up the steps and opened the front door. “Hi everyone, I’m home,” she called.
Chapter 32
The table was set with her best china and there were some flowers in the center. Even Bradley had felt good enough to join them. Rosie placed a platter of roasted chicken, new potatoes, carrots and celery in front of them.
Bradley inhaled deeply. “Rosie, will you marry me?” he asked. “Sorry, Mary, I just can’t help myself.”
Mary took a bite of the moist tender chicken, “Oh, that’s quite alright, I was trying to figure out how I could marry her myself.”
Stanley chuckled. “I’ve got to say, Rosie, this is much better than the TV dinner I’d be eating tonight.”
“I thought you were dating Esther,” Rosie said. “She’s a very good cook.”
His wife had died a few years before, but in the past six months Stanley had been courting Esther Hundlemann quite seriously.
“Well, she threw me over for a younger man,” Stanley said with a shrug, as he helped himself to some more potatoes. “Sold everything and left town to be with him.”
“No!?! How could she do that?” Mary asked. “Do you think he was scamming her?”
Stanley chuckled, “I doubt it, he’s only two years old, but seems like these con men are getting younger every day.”
“Two years old?” Bradley asked.
“Her great-grandson,” he said. “Her granddaughter wanted to go back to work and wondered if great-grandma would like to watch him part-time. She dropped me like a lead balloon.”
Rosie leaned over and placed her hand over Stanley’s. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
He shrugged again, “Well, I saw a picture of him before she left. He was a cute little fellow, but he sure didn’t have my personality.”
When the laughter died down, Mary decided it was time to bring up what she had learned that day. “Speaking of personality, I met Mike Richards today.”
“Mike Richards,” Bradley said, musing. “I don’t think I know him.”
She shook her head. “No, he died before you got here.”
Rosie dropped her fork with a crash. “Mary, I do wish you would warn a person before you bring up dead people at the dinner table.”
Mary hid her smile. “Sorry, Rosie,” she said, and then cleared her throat. “Attention, I will now be bringing up dead people at the dinner table.”
Rosie patted her hand. “Nicely done, dear, now please continue.”
Bradley coughed into his napkin for a few moments, trying to stop his laughter and Mary grinned at him, but her smile disappeared when she continued, “Mike told me that he knew Angela, he met her at a party. Once he tried to put a little distance between them, she started stalking him. He thought she was just, you know, socially backward, so he tried to be nice. That’s when she gave him the tea.”
“Tea?” Bradley exclaimed.
Mary nodded. “She stopped by the station and stayed with him until he drank several cups of it,” she said.
“She can be very persuasive,” Bradley added.
“That night he went out drinking with a bunch of friends.”
“I bet his liver didn’t like that,” Bradley added.
Mary nodded. “Exactly. He woke up with terrible cramps.”
“Just like you had, dearie,” Rosie added.
“Exactly. So he went downstairs and made some more tea, thinking it would help,” she continued. “The warmth did seem to soothe his stomach and then he went back to bed. The next morning he got up early and went fishing. He died on the banks of Yellow Creek.”
“So why ain’t we out there arresting this Arsenic Annie before she kills someone else?” Stanley asked.
“Until we get the tea tested, we don’t have any proof,” Mary replied. “Unfortunately, she’s done a really good job cleaning up after herself. She even took the container that held the tea she used for Sam.”
“Cory stopped by this afternoon and picked up the tea,” Rosie said. “He said he would be waiting at the door when the Cook County Coroner’s office opens.”
“That’s great. We should have the results by tomorrow afternoon at the latest,” Mary said.
“But we still don’t have intent,” Bradley said. “If she’s cleaned up all of the records through the Coroner’s office here, and picked up any evidence that she left the tea, she could just say the tea we’re testing was tampered with or some ingredients were bad. We still don’t have anything to link her to all of the other murders.”
“You’re right,” Mary said thoughtfully, “We still don’t.”
Chapter 33
“Bradley must really be sick if he didn’t see through you at dinner,” Jeannine said.
Mary turned quickly, nearly dropping the boot she held in her hand. She was dressed in all black and was tugging on her black work boots. “I thought perhaps it was because I was being cunning,” Mary said.
Jeannine snorted. “The nice thing about you is you can’t lie very well,” she said. “The bad thing about it is you can’t lie very well.”
“Well, it worked,” Mary said. “Besides, if he knew what I was doing, he would either try and stop me, or try to come.”
“Yes, he would,” Jeannine agreed. “And he really is in no shape to go with you.”
Mary stopped. “Do you...can you tell...is Bradley going to...?”
“There you go, expecting someone other than God to play God,” Jeannine said. “I don’t know what the plan is, but I can tell you that he’s very pleased with how you’ve been doing your work. And I think he’d like to see you and Bradley together.”
“But?” Mary asked.
“But, he allows us all the freedom to make our own choices,” she said. “And sometimes someone else’s choices step right on top of ours. Like your choice tonight.”
“I have to go,” Mary said.
“Bradley’s not going to be happy when he finds out,” Jeannine said.
“He won’t find out,” Mary countered.
Jeannine smiled and started to fade, “What’s that I mentioned about your ability to lie?”
Mary stared at the empty spot where Jeannine had just been. “Everybody’s a smart ghost,” she said to the air.
She pulled a black knit cap over her head and slipped into a black leather bomber jacket.
“She’s a killer you know.”
Mary jumped at the sound of man’s voice in her bedroom. She turned and saw the ghost of Mike Richards sitting on the edge of her bed.
“Mike, what are you doing in my bedroom?” she whispered.
“You said I could drop by,” he said with a shrug. “By the way, you look sexy in all black.”
“But, you’re in my bedroom,” she said.
“Yeah, I understand the rules are no bathroom appearances, but bedrooms are fine,” he grinned.
“But I was getting dressed.”
He smiled widely. “Yeah, I know.”
“But, but, but...” Mary stammered.
“Hey, calm down, I didn’t see anything,” he said.
Mary breathed a sigh of relief.
“That I couldn’t have seen in a Sears catalog,” he added with a wink.
“Mike,” Mary said, fighting between mortification and amusement, “what are you doing here?”
“I’m going with you.”
“What?”
He stood up and walked over to her. “Since we can’t run away together to a hot tropical island, I figured I go with you to case the killer’s joint,” he said. “I’m your backup.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mary said.
Mike rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “Why because I might get shot? Oh, wait, I’m dead. Maybe because someone might see me? Wait again, I’m a ghost. Maybe I might knock into something and make noise? Oh, no, can’t...I am ghost here.”
“Okay, you made your point,” she sighed. “You can come.”
“Beautiful and graci
ous, how lucky can a guy get?”
“Fine. Thank you for coming and being my back-up,” she said, trying and failing to contain a smile. “I really appreciate it.”
Mary tiptoed down the stairs, Mike hovering behind her, and slipped out the back door. The night air was cold and the sky was dark and clear. They walked around the side of the house and quietly continued to Bradley’s SUV parked at the curb. Within ten minutes they were located down the street from Angela’s house.
“I don’t know what to expect,” Mary said. “I don’t even know what we’re going to accomplish.”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Mike said, then turned to her. “Let me take lead, okay? I’ve got the advantage of being invisible.”
Mary nodded. “Okay, you’ve got lead.”
Climbing out of the car, she kept her eyes on Mike as he moved closer to the house. He was next door to Angela’s home, when he suddenly disappeared from sight. Mary looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of him. Then instantly he was at her side.
“Not funny...” she began, but then she looked up at his face, serious and determined. “What?”
“There’s something there, near her house. It’s like an energy field, but it seems to be limited to a small area,” he said. “It’s angry and it feels evil. If I had gotten any closer I think it would have felt me. It’s not human, although it may have been at one time.”
Mary shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms. “What do you suggest?”
Mike looked back over his shoulder. “We go in together, I lead. It’s not big enough to hold us both back. When it confronts us, I distract it and you go past its guard and figure out what its hiding. You okay with that?”
“Yeah, I think it’s a good plan,” she agreed. “Ready?”
This time Mary jogged down the street toward the house, Mike in front of her. She wasn’t surprised that she could feel the bad energy coming from the house; she was just amazed at the intensity. Mike turned to her and nodded. Then both ran towards the house. The energy hit them like a wall of bricks, but Mike took the brunt of it. Mary ran to the right and used the cover of the neighbor’s hedges to move undiscovered toward the back of the house. She climbed through a break in the hedge, the snow reaching up to her calves.
