Unexpected Ties

by Gina Dartt

  She could detect the faint but distinct odor of horses and wondered what had brought Adele Harris into town.

  “Tea would be lovely, thank you.” Adele perched gingerly on the high wooden stool while Kate set the kettle to boil. “I’ve never been in here. This is a very nice store, Kate.”

  “Thank you.” Kate located a few herbal tea bags and allowed Adele to select her preference. “So,” she said, once she’d poured boiling water into both their cups, “what brings you by?”

  “I was at the Bargain Shop across the street, and when I saw your store, I realized I’d never been inside. I thought you wouldn’t mind my stopping by. I’d visit Nikki but she’s always sleeping at this time of day.”

  Kate was tempted to mention that Nikki was, in fact, sleeping directly upstairs, but she restrained herself. Lorne and Adele were trying very hard to be comfortable with her and Nikki, but they were still a bit shaky with the whole concept of two women being together. She didn’t need to be blatant about Nikki being in her bed, any more than if Nikki were the Harris’s’ son and currently asleep in Kate’s bed. Of course, the Harris’s would probably be a great deal more upset if it had been their twenty-six-year-old son.

  “I don’t mind at all.” Kate gestured, taking in their surroundings. “The building is old, but I like it. It makes the store distinctive in a way that a newer structure probably wouldn’t.” She knew she was prattling, but it didn’t seem the time or place to get into anything heavier with the woman, such as the death of Nikki’s younger brother, for example, though she was extremely curious about that tragedy. It clearly still affected Nikki on a profound level.

  “I remember when this was a hardware supply depot. I used to come in with my father. It was always so dark and dingy looking.” Adele glanced around. “Who knew there was such a lovely building under all that grease?”

  “You wouldn’t believe the things I had to clean out when I started the renovations.” Kate said. “Honestly, there were things on the top floors that had been there since the 1800s.”

  The two of them were silent for a moment, and Kate wasn’t quite sure what to say next. She doubted Adele’s visit was as innocent as she claimed. “I really enjoyed dinner…”

  “I’m so glad you came by…”

  They stopped in confusion, looking at each other, and then Adele touched Kate’s arm fleetingly. “Lorne and I…well, we like you, Kate.”

  Kate was tremendously flattered. “Thank you. I like you, too.”

  “It hasn’t always been easy.” Adele gazed down at her teacup. “We never really understood why Nikki is…well, the way she is.”

  “She’s a remarkable young woman.”

  Adele looked vaguely startled, a touch of color rising in her cheeks. “I suspect you’re quite a remarkable woman, too.” She took an urgent sip of her tea as if her throat was dry. “Kate, we might not understand it, but we do want Nikki to be happy. From what we can tell, you make her very happy.”

  Kate felt a slight stinging at the back of her eyes. “Nikki makes me very happy as well.”

  “I’m glad. Lorne and I both want you to know that you’re always welcome in our home.”

  These honest words of acceptance surprised and gratified Kate. She put her hand on Adele’s. “Nikki will appreciate it, as well. She’s told me many times that she deeply regrets the distance between you.”

  “We regret it, too.” Moisture glinted in Adele’s eyes. “We want her to know we love her.” She bent her head. “We haven’t always shown it as well as we should.”

  “That’s in the past. Let it go and start fresh. I’m sure Nikki will be willing to do the same. She misses you both.”

  As Adele dabbed her eyes with her sleeve, Kate promptly grabbed for the box of tissues and offered her one. “Look at us,” Adele fussed as she accepted it, seeming embarrassed.

  “It’s important that families maintain their ties. Sometimes you have to work hard to mend a frayed strand, but the effort is worth it in the long run.”

  Adele took a restorative sip from her tea and looked anxiously at Kate. “May I ask you a question? It’s rather personal, but I don’t think I can ask Nikki—”

  “Go ahead.” Kate hoped she wouldn’t regret her willingness to listen.

  “What makes you…” Adele trailed off, flustered. “Why did you choose Nikki, and not…well…”

  “A man? It just worked out that way.” Kate sipped her tea, realizing why Adele was asking. “No one has the real answer why someone is the way they are. It doesn’t have anything to do with how someone is raised or what he or she is exposed to. Otherwise we’d all be heterosexual, since that’s the cultural environment we experience from the time we’re born. It might be a genetic thing, but what makes one child out of several gay when all his or her siblings brought up in the same manner are heterosexual? Ultimately, we are as God made us, and to deny that would be to deny Him.”

  Adele looked uncomfortable. “A lot of people would say this is against God and His will,” she said, not argumentatively, but as if honestly trying to comprehend some new and strange reality.

  “There would be. But we both know that people who hate will always find a reason, whether by taking a quote from the Bible out of context for promoting their agenda, or using the Koran, a book of peace, to justify ramming a plane into a skyscraper. It can’t be wrong to love, Adele. If it is, I’d still rather be wrong than allow hatred and ignorance to dictate my actions.”

  Adele was silent for a long moment, studying her cup before she raised her head to meet Kate’s eyes. “Thank you for speaking to me about this. I really do want to understand.”

  “I know,” Kate said kindly. “We all do. Adele, I was married to a wonderful man and had everything a woman was supposed to want, but no matter how hard I tried, it wasn’t right for me. It took a great deal of self-examination to discover why, and it wasn’t easy, but I’m very grateful I accomplished it. It’s all right to want to talk. In fact, if more people talked about the things that trouble them, this world would be a much better place.”

  “I think you’re right.” The chime of the bell over the door interrupted what she would have said next, and Kate rose as a customer entered. Adele also stood up, placing her cup carefully on the counter. “I should go. I’ve wasted enough of your time, and I still have to drop by the co-op and pick up some feed. Will you come by for dinner Sunday?”

  Kate smiled widely. “I’ll speak with Nikki and find out if we’re free,” she promised. “I’ll call you Friday.”

  “We’d love to see you there.” Adele gathered up her purse and left the store. As Kate went to help the customer peering uncertainly at the nonfiction section, clearly looking for something in particular, she wondered if parents ever really understood their children. Or if children ever understood their parents.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  “So what have you found out so far?” Irene Taylor handed Nikki a ginger ale.

  Her summons was the first call Nikki had received on her new cell phone from anyone other than Kate, and since it was Friday afternoon and Kate would be working most of the day, she had accepted the invitation.

  “I’ve spent most of the past week checking out the names on the letter that Kate gave me,” she said, happy to have someone with whom to share her thoughts. Unlike Kate, Irene relished criminal details like Nikki did.

  “The one Denise found?” Irene sat down and poured herself a cup of tea.

  “Yes. Three of the names check out. I looked up their phone numbers and called them.” Faintly embarrassed, Nikki felt her cheeks warm. “I pretended to be someone with Revenue Canada checking on SIN numbers. Everyone I spoke with seemed legit. They just had a digit transposed or were off by one, you know, ‘123’ rather than ‘124’. Plus, they were all new employees hired this year so this was the government’s first chance to detect any mistakes in their T-4 forms.”

  “What of the other two? Were they the names Stephen checked?”
<
br />   “I don’t know yet. The problem is, the names don’t have street addresses listed, only P.O. boxes. I don’t know where they live, and I can’t find a phone number for them. They’re not listed in the book. I asked a few people I know who work for Elliot Manufacturing, and they don’t have a clue as to who they are or which part of the plant they work in. I’m hoping if I watch the post office, I’ll be able to catch them when they pick up their mail and ask them a couple of questions.”

  “Would the post office give you any information about who rents the boxes?”

  “I doubt it,” Nikki said. She had been pressing her luck with the phone calls as it was. “They probably couldn’t anyway, under the Privacy Act.” She sipped her ginger ale, enjoying the bubbles. “No, I think I’m going to have to do a good old-fashioned stakeout.”

  Irene’s eyes widened perceptibly. “A stakeout? When will you be doing this?”

  “Later this afternoon, around four. It’s the time of the month the bills come in, not to mention next week’s flyers. Assuming they work the day shift, then they’ll probably be by after work to pick up their mail.”

  “What if their wives or girlfriends have already picked it up?”

  Nikki shrugged. “Then I’ll have wasted my afternoon.”

  “Are you going to lurk in the bushes in the back?”

  Nikki swallowed back a laugh. “No, I’m going to sit on the bench in front of the Catholic church. It’s right across from the post office, and I’ll be able to watch the boxes through the plate glass window.” She glanced outside. “Fortunately, it’s a nice day. I’d hate to have to do it in the rain.”

  “I want to come along.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I want to come with you on your stakeout,” Irene insisted. “What will we do if we spot them picking up their mail?”

  “I’m not sure.” Nikki wondered if this was such a good idea. “I guess we can follow them and find out where they live. Once I have a street address, I can get the phone number and call them about their social insurance number.”

  “Yes, let’s do that,” Irene said with enthusiasm. She stood up. “Let’s go now. I know it’s only three thirty, but if we get there ahead of time, then we might catch the wife or girlfriend.”

  Nikki hesitated before surrendering to the inevitable and followed Irene outside. The Honda was parked in front of the large house, angled to one side of the circular driveway near the front steps.

  “What a cute little car!” Irene exclaimed as Nikki tucked her into the passenger side.

  Nikki was amused. “I’m glad you like it.” She slipped behind the wheel and started the vehicle. On the way back to Truro, she stopped at the drive-through at one of the many donut shops dotting the area and had to wait behind a large pickup truck. “What would you like?”

  “I’m not really hungry.”

  “It’s not for eating, it’s for camouflage,” Nikki explained. “No one looks twice at people sitting on a bench enjoying a donut. They might look twice at two people just sitting and staring at the post office.”

  Irene’s face lit up. “That’s so clever.” The truck left and it was their turn at the window. “I like chocolate…and a glass of milk. You can’t have a donut without milk, you know.”

  Well, I know Kate can’t, Nikki thought idly as she turned to the young woman serving at the window. Now I know where she gets it.

  After they’d collected their order, she drove to the lot behind the Catholic church and parked. They carried the distinctive brown and gold donut bag past the flowerbeds, to the nook located in front of the tan brick building and sat on a cast-iron bench shaded by a large elm.

  Built during the seventies, the Catholic church reflected the architecture of the time: a one-story Art Deco structure, all angled corners and sharp edges, looking more like an art gallery than a place of worship. It was distinctly out of place with the other churches that lined this street, most of which were the tallest structures in town, boasting heavy stonework, soaring steeples, and the architecture of the late 1800s. They looked more traditional and, well, far more churchlike to Nikki, though she had never ventured inside any of them.

  From this angle, they had a clear view of the interior of the post office where boxes lined the wall to the left of the sun-drenched entrance. A slight breeze rustled the new leaves of the elm as Nikki opened the bag of donuts. She handed the chocolate glazed to Irene, along with a paper napkin.

  “How will we know if the person we’re looking for shows up?” Irene peered across the street. “I can’t see any numbers from here. I can barely see the boxes.”

  Nikki opened her windbreaker slightly to reveal small, but powerful field glasses hanging around her neck. They were very compact, the type normally used for sporting events and bird watching. “I checked out the location of the box numbers earlier in the week. The first one, 501, is on the upper row at the far right. The second is on the bottom row to the left. We were lucky. It would be more difficult to see someone access them if they were in the middle of the wall. If anyone goes close to either of them, I’ll use the glasses to see if that’s the box being opened.”

  “That’s very clever. Really, the more I get to know you, Nikki, the more impressed I am with you.”

  Nikki felt the blood warm her cheeks. “Thank you, Mrs. Taylor.”

  “Please, call me Irene.” She put her hand on Nikki’s forearm, a mannerism Nikki recognized as she looked down at the hand, noting that it trembled slightly. It was elegant, with long fingers, one of which bore Irene’s wedding rings, both encrusted with diamonds. Age had wrinkled the skin and dusted it lightly with spots. “I think we’re going to become good friends, Nikki.”

  “I’d like that a lot, Irene.”

  Irene patted her arm once before returning to her donut and milk. She took a bite, chewing as she looked across the street. “So what do you really think is going on, Nikki?”

  “I honestly don’t know. Maybe it would be easier if I were more familiar with the players…” She trailed off uncertainly.

  “What do you need to know?” Irene said immediately.

  Surprised, Nikki glanced at her. “Well, Pat Spencer, for one. He seems to be the one in the middle, but I can’t figure out how he fits in. I know he and Stephen were friends.”

  “Best friends,” Irene said. “Pat and Stephen were like two peas in a pod since grade school. A lot of people didn’t understand it, but I did.”

  Nikki chewed her Boston Cream slowly. “Why didn’t people understand it? Because Stephen was rich and Pat…uh, wasn’t.”

  “Pat and Stephen both came from the same type of stressful home life. Both had fathers that were most…” She paused, clearly searching for the word. “Unkind to them while growing up.”

  “Abusive, you mean?”

  Irene sighed. “I suppose that’s what it was, in different ways. Hannah’s son was very much like her, the apple not falling far from the tree. She raised him hard, and he raised both his sons the same way, with cold indifference and little to no approval. Andrew responded by working harder, by trying to do everything the ‘right’ way. Stephen just rebelled in every way he could.”

  “So Andrew was the ‘good’ son while Stephen was the ‘bad’?”

  “Exactly. Though Stephen’s approach seemed to be more successful. Neither seemed to impact their father, but while Andrew’s sterling character was ignored, Hannah doted on Stephen. She spoiled him unmercifully.”

  “What about Pat?”

  Irene’s lips tightened. “His father was a little more direct in his disapproval of him. That was abuse, both physical and mental.” Her voice lowered. “He drank, you see.”

  “Ah.” Nikki absorbed the information. “Did they live in the Court Street Trailer Park?”

  Irene frowned and looked at her, astonishment in her eyes. “How did you know that?”

  “Just that for a wealthy family, the Elliots seem to have a lot of ties to that place. I hear Tiffany’s
from there, and so’s Martin.”

  “Well, Hannah did not come from money.” Irene said with a touch of primness. “That doesn’t mean you should think any less of her.”

  Nikki bit the inside of her cheek. “I couldn’t possibly think any less of her,” she said sincerely.

  Her irony seemed lost on Irene. “In any event, Pat introduced Tiffany to Stephen, and they began dating. Hannah was appalled, of course, but everyone was surprised, including Stephen, I think, when she dropped him for Andrew. At the same time, Denise came along, a very nice, acceptable girl that even Hannah could approve of, and finally Stephen seemed to settle down and become the man he should be in the family.”

  Nikki liked gossip as much as the next person, and this was truly glorious stuff. “Was that why Andrew was passed over for CEO, his unfortunate choice of wife?”

  “I’m not sure, but certainly some people think so.” Irene lifted her paper cup and drained the last of her milk, dabbing delicately at the white moustache on her upper lip with a lace handkerchief. “You know, I want to thank you for bringing me along. I find this very exciting.”

  Nikki chuckled. “Well, I don’t know how exciting it’ll be, but it’s certainly a lot more fun to share it with someone. Plus, I don’t think two people having a conversation are as suspicious as one person sitting by herself.”

  “Does Kate enjoy this?”

  “We’ve never done a stakeout together. We did case someone’s house once, looking for clues. We found them too.” Nikki sobered slightly. “Kate was a little more willing to go along with me back then. Now, she just worries about me. I really can’t blame her, I guess. That fire scared her. It scared me, too.”

  “But not enough to give this up.”

  “No.” Nikki shook her head. “I just wish Kate liked this the way I do.”

  “Does she really need to?” Irene eyed her curiously.

  “It’s easier when two people share the same likes and dislikes.”

  “I’m sure it is, but I suspect it’s also very boring to be so much alike.”