“Try me,” I said, but she was hyperventilating.
She was on the verge of hysteria and I tried to hush her a bit, but she wasn’t having it. And there were a few things I needed to know.
“Luanne, tell me. Was Scotty really sleeping in the next room when we were talking on that porch?”
She looked bewildered. “Sure. Of course he was.”
“And he wasn’t injured in any way at that time?”
She shrugged. “No.”
“Okay, good.” I wished I could believe her. It still bothered me that I never got to see him after our encounter on the trail. I was pretty sure by now that the whole episode had been pure imagination. But there was that lingering doubt. And now I would probably never get a definitive answer.
“So tell me. What happened?”
She looked distracted, glancing out into the hall, then turning back, wringing her hands and barely looking at me. “Scotty woke up and you left and I was trying to calm him down, but once he saw what the mayor had done, closing us down and all, he went crazy. Smashing things. Yelling. Beating himself up with his anger. Then he called the mayor on the phone and yelled insults and obscenities—said he was going to open up anyway. I couldn’t get him to see that all he was doing was making things worse. But then, I never could get him to see common sense. Not once.”
“Then what?” I prodded when she seemed to be drifting away, reliving that effort.
“Oh. Well, the mayor came running over, like a fool, and they yelled at each other for awhile, and then Scotty started shoving him and he shoved back. The next thing I knew, the mayor was punching him in the face, over and over, and Scotty couldn’t seem to get him back. So Scotty pulled a knife.”
“Oh.”
“It was awful. Really awful. Scotty went after him and slashed him good. There was lots of blood. I was scared he was going to kill him. So I…I…” She swallowed hard and tears began to fill her eyes. “I took a cast iron skillet and came up from behind and hit him on the head. He went out like a light.”
“Oh.” That seemed to be the only word I could form at this point.
“I had to do something.” She seemed to be trying to explain, trying to make me understand that she hadn’t had any choice. “I was afraid he would kill the mayor and then where would we be?”
“Oh boy.”
“The mayor took off leaving me behind with Scotty lying there. I was so scared.”
“But..but how was Scotty?” From the way she was telling it, the mayor hadn’t been the one to kill Scotty. At least not yet. “Was he okay at that point?”
She nodded. “He was okay. He came to and I thought he was going to kill me. But he grabbed a whiskey bottle and started drinking instead.” She shook her head. “Then he started making threats about all the horrible things he was going to do. Burn down the mayor’s house, kill his family. And other stuff, more aimed at me. He was just crazy, unmanageable, and I realized I wasn’t doing anything good staying around. Maybe if I left, he could calm down. So I snuck out and went home and grabbed my little sister, Molly and we headed for the beach. We walked and walked in the sand and I cried a lot. Then we had a nice dinner at the Crab Shack. We walked out on the pier and watched the sunset and talked.”
She grabbed me by the shoulders and stared intensely into my face. “I made her a promise. I told her I was ready to change my life. I was going to break it off with Scotty and we were going to pack up and go somewhere far away and start over.” She looked me right in the eye. “And then we got a room at the Tiger Bay Club and had a good night’s sleep. I came home early this morning—Molly had to be at school by 6 am for swim team practice-- and I came over and found Scotty in the workshop. Dead.”
She let go of me and reeled for a moment. I thought she was going to keel over, but she turned back and grabbed my hand.
Staring earnestly into my face, she cried, “I didn’t do it. You can see that. I was gone all night. I couldn’t have done it.”
I squeezed her hand back. “I believe you,” I said.
She looked at me harder. “Did you do it?”
My jaw dropped and I pulled my hand away. “No! What in the world makes you ask that?”
She shrugged. “You want your café back. You wanted him out of the way. Legal processes take a long time. You might have seen an opening to make it quicker.”
I was horrified. How many people were drawing these same conclusions?
About that time Shane showed up, angry that Deputy Sheriff Decker had left Luanne on her own like that, miffed that I hadn’t come straight down to his office instead of hanging around, talking to another witness, or suspect, or whatever we were—and while he got that all straightened out, I said very little.
This whole situation was looking more and more sinister to me. Scotty was dead. I had motive and had been around that bar late that night. Instead of moping about, it was evident I’d better use my time thinking about what had happened and who had done it. Because it wasn’t me!
Now to prove it.
Shane escorted me to a room with bare walls and a linoleum floor and nothing Disneyesque in sight. Warm and toasty he was not. But he was very efficient and intelligent in his questions and in his implications. At first I was resentful at being questioned at all, but then I began to realize that he didn’t really suspect me and his questions circled that fact and gave me a good start on making a case for myself. So in the end I had to thank him for that.
“How is this going to affect my taking ownership of the Bar and Grill?” I asked, knowing I would get exactly the look I got. But I had to know. That was what I was here for. At least, that was all I could figure out from the last twenty-four hours.
“I’ll look into it,” he said evasively.
I nodded. I was pretty sure he would be straight with me. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was whether or not he was really on my side. Maybe yes, maybe no. But he would be fair.
I wanted to ask him about my parents and my brother, but I was scared to. Right now, I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to hear bad news about them. Even though I couldn’t remember them, I had the emotions that must belong to that relationship deep inside me. So I ignored the issue and let it lie.
Meanwhile, I was hoping he could help me with the rest of my world. I looked earnestly into his face.
“I think you believe me about this amnesia thing. Don’t you?”
His eyes were hooded as he looked into mine. “I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt,” he said crisply.
“Okay. Good enough. But maybe you could go a step further. How about giving me a basic picture of what my life was like when you knew me before?”
His mouth twisted in a half smile and he looked bemused. “A basic picture, huh?” He looked away and took a deep breath. “How’s this? You were the kind of teenaged girl who dated bad boys and ditched school to drive down to San Francisco and sneak into a heavy metal show where Satanic messages were the currency of the day.” His lips curled as he remembered. “And who ended up on stage, taking over for the intoxicated lead singer and getting a standing ovation from the crowd.”
“Oh.” I wrinkled my nose as I looked at him, dripping with skepticism. I didn’t believe a word of it. “You made that up.”
He shrugged, his eyes hooded. “I don’t know. Maybe that was some other girl.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth as I watched his eyes. “Did we ever go out?” I asked him flatly.
Something flickered behind his eyes. “I’ll leave that question until you get your memory back,” he said.
I caught my breath and thought I already knew the answer. “What if I never get it back?” I said. “How will I know….?”
He grimaced. “Put it this way. If you don’t have a tattoo of a dolphin on your left cheek, you’re not the real Haley Greco.”
My hand flew to my cheek, and then I flushed when I realized that was not the cheek he was talking about. I swallowed hard. “But you’ll tell me….?”
“No, I won’t,” he said sharply. “Take it easy. There’s time. Go see your grandmother. I’m hoping she’ll clear up a lot of this for you.”
There was something else going on here and I wanted to know what it was. I narrowed my eyes, staring into his.
“Did I like my grandmother?” I asked him quickly. “Did we get along?”
He looked surprised. “I don’t think you knew her very well.”
“What?”
He shrugged. “She wasn’t around. I think she moved away when you were a kid. I never met her until I came back last year.”
That put a new twist on things. A grandmother I needed desperately to meet, but a grandmother I hadn’t seen for about fifteen years. Did that make any sense?
“You want to tell me how I can find her?”
He nodded. “Her place is called Cliff House. Take the beach road, then turn right at the filling station. You can’t miss it. As long as she’s expecting you. If she’s not ready to receive…” He shrugged and bit back a grin.
“How do I know that? Do you have her number?”
“You mean phone number?” He coughed, but I had a feeling it was only to hide that grin. “You don’t call Madam Ana. She calls you.”
“That’s her name?”
He nodded. “Short for Anastasia,” he added, then hesitated. I could tell he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how I was going to take it.
“What?” I said.
He shrugged. “Just understand this. No matter what she tells you, don’t turn your back on me. Okay? I really want this to turn out good for you. For old time’s sake. Don’t turn against me.”
He meant it and it shook me. I was about to answer when the door opened and a tall, grey haired Sheriff came in, frowning at me, his eyes cold.
“Is this Miss Haley Greco?” he asked evenly.
Shane stood and looked serious, as though he had to prove to this man that he was not fraternizing with a murderer. “Yes sir,” he said.
He nodded. “I’m Sheriff Hayes,” he told me, but he didn’t offer to shake hands. “I’ve got to inform you that you are high on our list of suspects, Miss Greco. You are what we call a ‘person of interest’ in this case. Don’t leave the area without informing us. Alright?”
I nodded, suddenly scared. This man didn’t like me on sight. He wanted to find the murderer and he thought I would be a dandy perp. Someone he could prepare for prosecution with enthusiasm. My danger button was flashing red. I was going to have to watch my step around this one.
He turned and was gone without another word.
Shane glanced my way and prepared to leave as well.
“That’s all for now, Haley,” he said stiffly. “I’ll give you a call later.”
“Okay. So I guess I’ll go out and see my grandmother.”
He hesitated. “Don’t forget. Anything she tells you about me, give me a chance to explain. Okay?”
I nodded, chilled, and he left.
I got up slowly, wondering about that last plea. What on earth? What could a grandmother I hardly knew say that would turn me against Shane? I didn’t totally trust the man, but I felt a strong pull in his direction. I didn’t think she was going to be able to do anything to break that. But time would tell.
I went back to the motel room, spent a minute allowing my little dog to jump all over me in pure unabashed happiness and gave him a hug. I eyed the full-length mirror on the door, fighting the urge to take a peek. I was dying to know if what Shane had said about my….my left cheek was true, but I wasn’t going to give in to it. I wasn’t going to do it. No!
I tried to walk by, but there it was, mocking me—as if I didn’t have the nerve to find out the truth. Okay, okay, I was going to do it. I went up close and yanked down my slacks and panties and took a good look at my left cheek. Yup. There was a tiny blue dolphin, leaping for the sky. My face got hot again.
“Probably more of that skinny-dipping,” I told myself sensibly. “That has to be how he knows.”
Yes, but why did he remember? That was something I wasn’t ready to delve into just yet.
I grabbed Toto and put him in the car, and we were off—on our way to grandmother’s house.
Chapter Eight
The air is different at the beach--cool and salty, with the sound of the surf beating itself against the rocks in the background. I filled my lungs with it and craned my neck to get a glimpse of the blue, blue ocean in the distance. This is where I would live if I had a choice.
Did I have a choice? Did I have any choices? That was probably what I was here to find out. Deep down, something told me that my future would be laid out before me in this visit. Was I going to let my grandmother plot that out for me? Hard to know until I found out what it was. But just knowing that I was a natural rebel—and I was pretty sure I could bet on that one—I had a feeling my relationship with this older lady was going to be as rocky as the shore.
I turned right at the filling station, just as Shane had said, but I couldn’t see anything up ahead that seemed like a “can’t miss it” situation. I looked up to see if we had our raven and sure enough, there he was. I pulled over and got out of the car. The raven settled on a branch above us. I stared up at him. He stared down at me.
“Well?” I said at last. “Are you going to lead the way?”
He cawed loudly. Almost triumphantly. And I took that to mean “yes”. I got back in the car and he took off and we followed.
And suddenly, there it was. Cliff House. It hung from a jagged cliff over the ocean like an enchanted place, built right into the stone, all tinted glass and oiled redwood, looking like an element of nature. Beautiful. Elegant, expensive. Wow. My grandmother’s house gave all the signs of being the home of a woman to be reckoned with.
As if I wasn’t nervous enough already.
I parked and walked up to the front door. It opened before my knuckles hit the wood. A tall man in tails stood before me looking like every butler in every story always did. Except this one had a friendly grin.
“Ah, there you are. Where’s your little dog?”
“Uh…I left him in the car.”
“Oh no no. That won’t do. You must bring him in. We’ve had a dog run put in for him. I’m sure it will suit him just fine.”
“What?” I stared at him. “How did you know I was bringing a dog along?”
He smiled. “We know a lot about you, Haley. All good things. We have your best interests at heart at all times. You must believe that.”
I wasn’t sure I could believe that at all, but I went back out to the car to get Toto. And all the time I was wondering why that butler seemed so familiar. I put Toto in the dog run and he began playing with the toys the place was littered with. I could tell he was going to have a great time.
But what about me?
“Come along,” the butler said. “My name is Oliver. Madam is waiting for you on the island.”
I was walking very quickly, trying to keep up with his long stride as we made our way through the beautiful house. Floors of polished wood and walls covered with satin, richly upholstered furniture and wide, open windows looking down over the ocean—the place was stunning. But I wasn’t sure what the man was talking about.
“On the island?” I asked, looking around in bewilderment. “What island?”
“Right there.”
He came to a stop and once I caught up, I saw where he was pointing. We’d gone right through the house and out on the other side, where a wide lake shimmered in the sunlight.
That got to me right away. A lake? But…but we were right by the ocean. Where had this lake come from? There shouldn’t be a lake.
But there was. And there was an island in the middle of the lake—an island covered with palm trees and flowering vines, looking very tropical. Looking hard, I could make out an elderly lady in layers of lace sitting at a tea table and chatting with two young ladies who were seated across from her. A bright red umbrella shaded them from th
e sun, which gleamed on the silverware and crystal glasses. The lady turned, caught sight of me and waved merrily, then went back to talking to her other guests. I looked around quickly. The only bridge I saw was far way, around the lake and through a wooded area.
I looked at the lake again, and then at the island. Why did it all seem to shimmer in the sunlight like a vision? Very odd.
“How do I get out there?” I asked Oliver.
But he didn’t answer, and when I turned to look at him, he was gone.
I sighed. As far as I could tell, the bridge was the only way. I started to trudge around the edge of the lake, wishing I’d worn my sneakers instead of the sandals I’d bought the day before. This looked like it was going to be quite a hike. I looked up as I reached the little forest. The bridge still looked just as far away. I began to climb in through a rock pile, dodging tree branches that seemed to be purposefully reaching for my face and getting more and more annoyed at this way of getting to the island. Then I looked up to see how much more of this was in store for me, and it looked like it had moved even further away. Not only that, the section of bridge closest to the island had fallen into the water.
I stared at it. I couldn’t believe it at first, but as I stared I could see that it was true. The bridge was unusable. All that effort for nothing. With a sigh, I turned back.
“Hey.”
I turned and looked back at the trees. I’d heard Oliver but I couldn’t see him. Then he moved and I could see that he was hiding behind a boulder. What was he hiding from? I glanced out at the island and decided it had to be my grandmother. Maybe he didn’t want her to know he was out here, following my progress. Was this strange man now ready to be my trusted guide? I had my doubts.
“How am I supposed to get out to the island?” I asked him, my annoyance of the entire situation clear in my voice.
He raised an eyebrow. “Ah, yes. That is the question. Don’t you have an answer?”
I wanted to stamp my foot like a little brat, and maybe scream out a few curse words, but I held back the impulse. “No, I don’t.”
Even Witches Get the Blues (Wicked in Moonhaven~A Paranormal Cozy Book 1) Page 8
