“This is not something you can blame yourself for. Your brother may have been sick, but you were not the catalyst for him losing his mind. Your father did... he did terrible things to you, to both of you. It’s a wonder you turned out to be the wonderful, caring, precious person that we’ve come to know. So much could have turned you against this world, and if I were in your place... I don’t know that I’d want to live any longer. I’m so glad that you’re stronger than I would have been,” I assured her, nuzzling into her shoulder.
“I’m glad as well. I’ve not cared for anyone’s wellbeing beyond my own for so long... but then Abigail came into the picture, and I met you. I took you in, and... Isabella, you’re like the child I never had. The child I never can have. I could never hope to replace the hole you’ve filled in my life,” Agnes said firmly, pressing a kiss to Isabella’s forehead. Isabella pulled us in close, holding us tightly as the three of us wept.
That was how Robert found us a half hour later; huddled on the couch with tears in our eyes. The chocolate cake was exceptionally well received, believe me.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Can you hand me the flour?” Isabella asked mildly, flipping through the pages of a cookbook. Agnes hummed, grabbing the ingredient out of the cabinet, and I watched the two interact with a faint sense of satisfaction. Since we’d returned home, things had become decidedly more relaxed in The Smith Estate. The two didn’t bicker nearly as much, and Robert often made a point to bring new cookbooks for Isabella to busy herself with. Strangely enough, the older man had decided to accompany us back to Seattle, and find himself an apartment near the estate. Isabella and Agnes had insisted that he could join them at the estate, but he joked about three being a crowd and dismissed both of them. It was safe to say that he had perhaps the most luxurious penthouse apartment in the city. Of course, it was nothing compared to the estate, but he certainly wasn’t suffering in the throes of poverty.
“We need the chocolate chips now, Abigail,” Agnes called out, snapping her fingers in my face to capture my attention. I blinked at her, gently slapping her hand away before nudging over the chocolate morsels I’d been snacking on. One didn’t spend time with Isabella Dunn without adopting some sort of chocolate addiction of their own. I wasn’t nearly as desperate as the treat as Izzie herself could be, but I had a weakness for the chocolate chip cookie recipe she’d been tweaking here and there. She even had her own notebook for amended recipes, and as much as I hadn’t cared for Robert at first, it was nice to see her drawn out of her shell with the shared interest. Where Isabella was more outgoing, Agnes was making leaps and bounds when it came to caring for someone. She’d come to respect Isabella’s boundaries, accepting that Izzie was a grown woman with her own limitations and decisions to make. It didn’t mean that Agnes stopped her constant fretting, but she tended to keep it to herself more. I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse, but their family sort of bond only seemed to strengthen as time passed.
In the meantime, Agnes had collected several fish from the tainted lake, and was performing some tests. It was as if their DNA strands had been shifted from ingesting the formula, as strange as it sounded. They took on a red tinge, and went from confused to aggressive, with brief periods of mellowing out before repeating the cycle. Agnes theorized that the red tint in the lake was due to the aquatic life such as algae absorbing the formula and having its core structures changed. If anyone so much as swam in the lake, or ate a fish caught there, they could very well suffer the same results. Fortunately, Izzie had suffered no effects from her contact with the fish. Robert had done his job of having the lake drained. He had connections with certain people who could do a job and keep a lid on it. Something that was needed to dispose of the fish and drain the lake. Just the same, it was no longer a problem for us. At least, I could hope as much. I still felt bad for Ethan, and the scientist whose name I had not learned. He had been trying to do something good, but it had only caused suffering in the end.
As far as our home life, I was vaguely aware that Agnes had been searching the law books for some sort of loophole that would allow Isabella to take over her brother’s estate—for what little he had. She was having little luck, however, cursing her inability when it came to the world of being a fledgling lawyer. She hadn’t mentioned her efforts to Isabella, but I suppose it was better that way. Better not to get the dark haired woman’s hopes up without being able to provide any sort of the closure she sought.
“Is that the mail truck?” Agnes asked idly, and Isabella perked up before dashing towards the door. She took a strange pleasure in collecting the mail every morning, like a little puppy bringing the newspaper to its master. Darn, now I was thinking about Isabella’s life among the wolves. I knew very well it hadn’t been a true story, but Isabella continued to entertain us with tales about her pack whenever depressing family issues came to the forefront of conversation. Since she’d come clean to Agnes and I, she seemed somewhat more at ease with herself. I knew it had to be hard to live with her brother’s death, and the fact that she couldn’t even keep one of his things, but at the very least, she was learning to cope. “I’ve yet to receive a reply from the sanitarium in Naples, but I still have high hopes. I just pray they haven’t already discarded all of the poor man’s things,” Agnes said quietly, abandoning the bowl of cookie dough to come speak to me.
“It’s sweet that you’ve been trying so hard to get closure for Izzie. I know she would appreciate it if she knew what trouble you were going through,” I smiled. She shook her head, waving a hand dismissively.
“Oh, it’s no trouble. You do things for the people you love, dear girl. It isn’t the most entertaining pastime in the world but—what in heaven’s name are you smiling about?” Agnes rambled, cutting herself short as she seemed to notice the starry eyed look I was giving her.
“Is that the first time you’ve admitted that you actually love Izzie?” I giggled, clapping my hands over my cheeks.
“You act like we’re schoolchildren with a crush, Abigail. She’s like my child, of course I love her,” Agnes said scornfully, though the blush on her cheeks made it clear that she’d never gone as far as saying as much. I snickered, silencing myself as Isabella called out to us from the entryway.
“Aggie! Little Bean! Get in here, hurry,” she shouted urgently, and Agnes raised a brow before wiping the flour from her hands and meandering towards the living room. I trailed behind her, pausing to grab the bag of chocolate chips in case of emergency. Isabella was sitting on the floor, staring through wide eyes at a large box that sat in front of her. Agnes and I exchanged a look, and I crept closer to try and get a closer look at the address. All I could make out was that it was an address in Naples, and I quickly ushered Agnes over. “This... this is from the asylum Leo was being kept in. It’s... it’s big. What do you think it is?” Isabella murmured worriedly, fidgeting with the tape on the box.
“I’m not sure. I’d been trying to retrieve his things, for your sake, but I never received an answer, so I wasn’t expecting much,” Agnes murmured, edging closer and sliding the sharp edge of her long fingernail through the tape. Isabella looked up at her, looking every bit the innocent child that Agnes saw in her. Tears were pooling in her eyes, and she gave the box a slight nudge to push it out of the way before clinging to the legs of the older woman. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, would you just open the box?” Agnes laughed, patting Isabella gently on the head in spite of her words.
“I can’t believe you would do that for me. You’re one of a kind, Aggie. Though, I gotta say, I’m a bit nervous. What if they just sent me a big box of his ashes? Not that I wouldn’t appreciate having his remains, but I’d rather they not erupt from the box in a ploom of dead body,” Isabella murmured, opening the box and looking quietly inside it for a long moment.
“Well?” I inquired, leaning over to get a better look. Isabella drew a simple cedar box out of the larger box, smiling a bit at the engraved name on top.
“They sent
his remains, thank God they didn’t explode into my mouth,” she said in watery tones, placing her palm reverently on the top of the box.
“If you’d like, we can clear a place on the mantle,” Agnes offered a bit awkwardly, seeming not to know what to say. Isabella chuckled, glancing back up a the older woman.
“Mantle privileges? Nice! This just keeps getting better,” she teased, searching through the box a bit more, There was very little contained inside, ultimately, aside from a few t-shirts and a small jewelry box. “There’s a note,” she mused as she pulled the jewelry box our, grabbing the folded and taped piece of paper and considering it warily.
“It’s probably just something from the sanitarium,” Agnes assured her. “I can read it, if you’d like,” she continued, stepping closer.
“It’s okay. I think...,” Isabella paused as she unfolded the paper, pristine cursive handwriting scrawled along the lines of the page. I breathed a sigh of relief, having expected the worst in the form of a suicide note. “It’s from Leo. It’s got my name at the top. Oh God,” Isabella gasped, beginning to hyperventilate slightly. Agnes and I dropped to our knees on either side of her, and Agnes drew her in for a gentle side hug.
“You don’t have to read it, dear. You don’t have to subject yourself to that,” the oldest of our trio murmured. Isabella nodded mutely, her hands shaking as she held the paper. In spite of what Agnes said, however, she began to read the note aloud.
“Dear Izzie, my little wolf pup,
I’m writing you this letter to say goodbye. I wish I was able to say it in person, but this will have to do, I guess! I know you’re going to be devastated when you receive the news of my passing, and I’m fairly certain you’ll blame yourself. You did always blame yourself for... well, everything. I wanted to write and tell you that is certainly not the case. You’re the only thing that has kept me alive for this long, dear sister. I know I banished you from visiting me, but that’s because I didn’t want you to see the life fading from my eyes. I feel immeasurable guilt every day for what I told you—I never saw any glimpse of our father in you. You were nothing like him. You were, and are, the only thing good in this world. I know you think I hated you for the last few years, but there’s more to the truth than I wanted you to carry until the end. It was not your burden to shoulder. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, one that’s been steadily growing for years. The doctors think it may have something to do with... the incident. I don’t know if I believe that, but all I know is that the mass is untreatable, and that if I carry on living, I’ll become nothing but a shell of what I used to be. Which is why I’ve made the decision to take my life. When I meet mama at the pearly gates, I want to be in my right mind, you know? Not some drooling vegetable. I don’t want you to carry such a memory of me either. I know this is selfish, and I hope you can forgive me. I just can’t stand the waiting process any longer. I can’t wait to die. If it’s going to happen, it will be on my own terms—perhaps the one thing in my life that actually is. I’ve gone on a little longer than I intended, when all I really wanted to say was this: I love you, Isabella. I would never trade you for the world. Read this and know that I’ll be happy when I’m gone. I know it will be hard for you, but I hope you can forgive me. Goodbye, dear sister,
Leo.”
Tears poured from Izzie’s eyes as she clutched the note to her chest, and I would be lying if I didn’t admit to shedding a few of my own. Agnes held Isabella tightly, whispering soft words of comfort as the dark haired woman sobbed.
“It’s not my fault. It was never my fault. He never blamed me,” Isabella choked out, an almost hysterical laugh bubbling up in her throat. “He loved me. After everything, he loved me,” she whispered, almost in awe.
“I fail to see how anyone could not love you, my dear,” Agnes murmured, kissing the top of Isabella’s head. Isabella wrapped her arms around Agnes in turn, holding her for a long embrace.
“Don’t get all sappy on me now, Aggie. I might start to think you actually like me,” she said seriously, winking at the end to show that she was in fact teasing. She turned her attention back to the velvet box that the note was taped to, hesitating a moment before popping it open. Inside was a golden heart necklace, decorated with delicate swirls and flowers. Isabella took it out of the package, startling a bit as it popped open. “A locket, huh. Leo always was the sappy type, too,” Isabella whispered, staring down at the picture inside the necklace. It was a picture of a remarkably young looking Isabella held in the arms of a teenager who looked as if he could be her twin.
“That’s beautiful,” I whispered, watching as Isabella turned the necklace over in her hands.
“There’s room for another picture on the other side. Do you think we could fit a picture of all of us?” Isabella mused aloud, allowing Agnes to loop the chain around her neck. My heart skipped a beat, and Agnes seemed to be having much the same response.
“Dear girl, why would you want our picture in such a private and... familiar thing?” Agnes murmured, stroking a hand through Isabella’s hair. Isabella was quiet for a long moment, seeming somewhat lost in thought. Before I could voice my concern, she chuckled a bit and turned the locket in her hands.
“Well, I figure it’s only appropriate,” she explained gently, turning the front of the locket so Agnes and I could get a good look at it. In beautiful script across the gold, a single word read. “You’re my family now, after all. And I couldn’t ask for a better one in the world. I know it’s a bit awkward, especially considering that we’ve not even known each other all that long, but—,” Isabella cut herself off as a weeping Agnes drew her into her arms with surprising strength. “Darn, Aggie, I didn’t think it was that bad of a suggestion,” Isabella chuckled, smiling as Agnes slapped her on the shoulder.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It would be an honor... a privilege to have a place in your heart. Both here,” Agnes paused, gently poking the locket, “and here,” she finished, pressing her finger just above Izzie’s heart. The dark haired woman smiled goofily, looking much like the cat that got the canary—a bit strange considering the circumstances.
“You do love me,” Isabella said quietly, almost in awe. I chuckled, pulling both of them close for a group hug.
“Of course we do. How could we not?” I murmured, smiling fondly. Isabella smiled, kissing both of us on the cheek before shifting away to grab the box of her brother’s ashes. I watched her rise to her feet, ambling away with Agnes on her heels; presumably to find a place on the mantle for the young life—stricken down far too soon. I trailed behind the two of them, a sense of peace washing over me as I realized that this was where we were meant to be—the three of us, with each other.
After all, the word on the face of the locket said it all.
“Family.”
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CATALOG OF BOOKS
The Chronicles of Agnes Astor Smith
The Peculiar Case of Agnes Astor Smith
The Grumpy Chicken Irish Pub Series
A Frosty Mug of Murder
Treachery on Tap
Old School Diner Cozy Mysteries
Murder at Stake
Murder Well Done
A Side Order of Deception
Murder, Basted and Barbecued
THE CURIOSITY SHOP Cozy Mysteries
The Curious Case of the Cursed Spectacles
The Curious Case of the Cursed Dice
The Curious Case of the Cursed Dagger
The Curious Cas
e of the Cursed Looking Glass
THE WE’RE NOT DEAD Yet Club
Fetch a Pail of Murder
Wedding Bells and Death Knells
Murder or Bust
Pinched, Pilfered and a Pitchfork
A Hot Spot of Murder
WITCHY WOMEN OF COVEN Grove Series
THE WITCHING ON THE Wall
A Witching Well of Magic
Witching the Night Away
Witching There’s Another Way
Witching Your Life Away
Witching You Wouldn’t Go
Witching for a Miracle
TEASEN & PLEASEN HAIR Salon Series
A Hair Raising Blowout
Wash, Rinse, Die
Holiday Hooligans
Color Me Dead
False Nails & Tall Tales
CAESAR’S CREEK SERIES
A FROZEN SCOOP OF MURDER (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book One)
Death by Chocolate Sundae (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Two)
Soft Serve Secrets (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Three)
Ice Cream You Scream (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Four)
Double Dip Dilemma (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Five)
Melted Memories (Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Six)
Triple Dip Debacle(Caesars Creek Mystery Series Book Seven)
The Peculiar Case of the Red Tide Page 9
