Riley arrived home just after I’d put the vacuum away. I screwed up my nose as he leaned in for a kiss.
“It smells like you had a successful day,” I said after kissing him on the lips.
“What? Don’t you like the smell of fish?” He laughed, pulling his shirt over his head and ready to move it to the laundry basket.
I considered the smell for a minute and looked at his stomach, all muscles clearly defined, and a soft trail of hair leading its way to his jeans.
Bugger the smell, I thought, following him.
* * * *
At exactly six o’clock, there was a knock at the door. I knew it was Danny. He was the only person I knew who could knock with such drama. I jumped out of bed, pulled on my jeans and t-shirt and smoothed my hair. I looked at Riley, stretched out on the bed and sighed, wondering if I could ignore the door and pretend we weren’t home. Knowing Danny, I knew that would never happen. He would just keep knocking and ringing until I opened it. I turned my back on Riley, hearing him laugh. The only defense I had against him was not to look. Once I did that, I was history.
I put Cat in the bedroom and closed the door behind me, leaving Riley to finish getting dressed. Walking down the stairs, I skipped over the now fixed stair tread and moved to the front door. That tread had been loose when I first moved in here and on more than one occasion I had slipped on it and fallen down the stairs. After my third fall, I avoided it and even though Riley had fixed it months ago, I still found myself skipping over it.
“Hi guys.” I smiled, opening the door and stepping back to allow them entry.
“God, take long enough?” asked Danny, lightly kissing my cheek as he moved past.
“Hello possum,” said Andrew smiling, the more patient of the two.
“Hi Andrew,” I said, giving him a small hug.
At that moment Riley opened the bedroom door and moved towards the stairs, pulling a clean shirt over his head. I looked at Danny and saw his jaw drop and maybe even a little bit of drool run down his chin.
“Alright, you’re forgiven,” he whispered, giving me a sly smile.
I was about to close the front door, when I heard Molly sigh. I turned to see her staring at Riley also.
“Enjoy the view guys, but remember—he’s mine!” I laughed.
“Judging by the smile, you just affirmed that with him too,” said Molly, kissing me on the cheek as her dog Harper ran between my legs, sniffing the ground, looking for Cat.
Danny and I had rescued Harper from the local animal shelter for Molly’s last birthday and it turned out he was a bit of a hero. When I needed a knight in shining armor, he had appeared to me in a white fluffy suit.
I closed the door and ushered everybody into the lounge whilst I went to the kitchen and got Harper his chewy treat. I will always appreciate what he did for me, helping me fight off the bald-headed sedan man who had stalked me earlier this year. Without him, I may not even be here.
“Harper!” I called. I watched as he ran at me, tongue hanging out to the side. I wanted to give him a bone, but he only had one tooth, so a bone would just be cruel. He didn’t mind though. He loved his Smacko’s just as much.
“Lizzie, you have to stop giving them to him,” reprimanded Molly. “The vet said he’s getting fat.”
“Oh, a little thing like that won’t make any difference,” I replied, noticing Harper’s bulging belly. Maybe I should give him half a one next time.
“Your tree is lovely, poppet,” said Andrew, as I followed Harper into the lounge room. Riley handed me a glass of wine as everyone took a seat on the couch.
“Thanks,” I replied. “Riley and I are starting a new tradition this year. We’re having a real tree from now on.”
“That’s what we should do!” yelled Danny. Andrew sighed.
“Well, they are lovely but they make such a mess,” he commented, sounding awfully like my mother. Actually Andrew was probably closer to my mother’s age than he was to Danny’s. He was about seventeen years older than Danny and at least thirty years more mature. Which was a good thing. Danny acted like a child most of the time. I looked at my brother and sister sitting next to each other on the couch and smiled. There was Danny in his skinny jeans and black t-shirt, his hair scrunched up into a messy style tonight and Molly in her skinny jeans and black lacy top, with her long dark hair scrunched into a mess of curls. Somehow her mess of curls looked sleek and sexy where as my mess of curls just looked frizzy! The only real difference between Danny and Molly tonight was that Danny’s hair was fire engine red again.
“I’m just going with the plastic one,” said Molly, pulling my attention back to the tree.
“Lizzie, you suck at decorating,” said Danny, lifting his glass and drinking from it.
“I haven’t finished it yet!” I replied indignantly. “That’s what you’re here to help me with.” I grabbed my shopping bags and placed them in front of the tree. “We’ve got plenty to choose from.”
“Did you leave anything in the shop for anybody else to buy?” asked Danny. As you can see, he shares Molly’s sense of sarcasm.
“Blame Grandma Mabel for that,” I answered, pulling the first of the decorations out of its bag. “Come on everyone, dig in.”
Thankfully everyone pulled up a bag and started to fill the tree. Molly had moved to my iPod and found a few Christmas songs I had downloaded, and we all started to sing along. It didn’t take long for us all to be in a very festive mood.
“This one is beautiful,” said Molly, pulling the glass orb from the branches and holding up for everyone to see.
“It came with the tree,” I explained, telling them the story of Earl and how I found this decoration once we had the tree home.
“It’s really strange but I dreamt about it today,” I said.
“Did you have a nana?” asked Danny, smirking.
“Maybe. But that’s not the point,” I huffed. “The point is, the dream felt real.” I quickly filled them in on it and how I woke up with the scribbled code.
“You didn’t tell me about that,” said Riley.
“Yeah, well…I was a bit preoccupied when you got home,” I mumbled. Riley replied with a grin.
“Show me the note,” said Molly, intrigued.
“Maybe it’s Lizzie the psychic who wrote the note.” Danny laughed.
Ignoring him, I walked to the bin and pulled out the paper I had scrunched and thrown away earlier.
Danny grabbed the note and looked at my scrawl.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said, passing it to Andrew. Molly stepped up next to Andrew and read over his shoulder.
“I know. That’s because I wrote it in my sleep,” I explained slowly, looking at Danny like he was an idiot. “I thought you’d find it funny.”
Everyone looked more intrigued than amused.
“What if it’s a clue?” said Danny, excitement dancing in his eyes.
“It’s not a clue! It’s the scrawl of someone sleep writing!” Jeez, they just didn’t get it.
Molly shrugged. “Did the woman talk in the dream?”
“No. She just looked sad.”
“I think you’re right, poppet,” said Andrew. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Maybe you weren’t supposed to get the decoration,” said Molly. “Maybe the tree was ear marked for someone else and Earl gave the wrong one to you.”
“I don’t know. There was only one tree to take,” I shrugged.
“Why don’t you go back and ask Earl about it? If it was meant to go to someone else and he gave it to you by accident then he might be stressing. Poor guy sounds really sweet. I’d hate to think he was in trouble for selling it to you,” said Danny, wrinkling his brow.
“Maybe, but honestly, I think it was just a promotion thing. Get a free bauble with every tree.”
“It looks pretty expensive,” said Molly, holding up and inspecting it. “In fact, I think it might be crystal.”
“You think so?” I asked, taking
it off her and having a closer look. “It looks like glass to me.
“Ask your mum,” said Andrew. “She’s been collecting crystal for years. If anybody would know, she would.”
“Yeah, maybe. I’ll show her on Sunday at dinner if I remember to take it.”
By the time the pizza arrived we had finished decorating the tree and had all consumed our fair share of the wine. I am happy to announce that I can now drink a little bit more than half a glass without getting drunk. I’ve moved up to a full glass.
I sat on the couch snuggled into Riley, Andrew and Danny were sitting together on my oversized chair, and Molly was on the floor with Harper asleep in her lap. Life was pretty good right now.
Just as I was closing my eyes and listening to the story Andrew was telling us of a Christmas he spent in Mexico, Molly’s phone rang. I watched as she pulled it out of her bag, read the caller ID, turned red and stood, ready to step outside to take the call. Once she was out of earshot, I spoke up.
“Did anybody else see that?” I asked, excitedly sitting forward in my seat.
“Yes!” exclaimed Danny. “She went as red as Rudolph’s’ nose!”
“I wonder who she’s talking to?” I stood and moved into the hall, trying my best to eavesdrop. Danny followed me. As we both stood with our ears pressed against the door, we heard a distinctive giggle from Molly.
“She’s got a boyfriend!” said Danny.
“How about you give her some privacy?” said Andrew from the lounge room.
“Bugger privacy. If she’s got some hunk of spunk chasing after her, I want to know about it.”
“Yeah and what about letting us in on the details?” I sulked. “She wanted to look at my handy man when I hired him.”
“Yeah and look how handy he’s turned out,” said Danny quietly.
“I heard that,” called Riley.
I giggled. Molly giggled some more.
Hearing her goodbyes, Danny and I quickly retreated to the lounge and sat back pretending we had never been eavesdropping. Molly walked into the room, her eyes shining brightly.
“Hear enough?” she asked, looking between Danny and myself.
At least I had the graciousness to blush.
“Not really,” said Danny. “Who is he?”
“None of your business,” she replied.
“Oh come on, sis. We have to meet him sometime.”
“No you don’t. I quite like this guy and I want more than a few dates with him, so meeting this family isn’t going to happen for quite a while.” Yeah, I could see her point. I’d wanted to keep Riley away from them for a while too.
“Pfft. We grow on people. Look at Riley, He loves us now,” said Danny, pointing his thumb towards Riley.
Riley nodded. “I do. Some of you more than others.” He smiled, kissing my neck.
I felt the tingle all the way to my toes.
* * * *
Sunday dinner came around pretty quickly and thankfully I did remember the ornament. I had it safely tucked into my bag where I would ask Mum later to have a look at it. If it were crystal then I would go back to ‘Happy Christmas Trees’ in the morning and see if I could talk to Earl. If it were meant for someone else, then that was the right thing to do.
“Pass the potatoes, please,” Danny asked Grandma. Grandma was usually a barrel of laughs but today she looked somber and cranky.
Ignoring Danny, she stabbed at her pumpkin.
I reached over and touched her hand and indicated she should turn her hearing aid on. We all heard the familiar screech as she turned it up to loud.
“What?” she asked, looking at me.
“Danny asked you to pass him the potatoes,” I said.
“What’s wrong with your hands?” she snapped at me.
“Did someone miss nap time?” asked Danny quietly.
I heard Mum sigh. “No. She came home from Mr. Willett’s as irritable as this.”
“What happened at Mr. Willett’s?” asked Andrew. We all glared at him. None of us really wanted the details of what happened between Grandma and her man friend. Especially not while we were eating dinner.
“Well, thanks for asking,” replied Grandma, looking at Andrew. “No one else around here cares enough to ask about my life,” she huffed.
“Oh Mum! That’s not true. I asked you what was wrong when you walked in this afternoon but you just ignored me and hurried off to your room.”
“Oh. Is that what you said. I thought you asked what’s that pong and I didn’t want to tell you I’d had curry for lunch. You don’t like it when I have curry,” explained Grandma, her mood improving slightly now she realized we did care.
Mum gave a disgusted grunt and resumed eating her dinner.
“Are you alright, Nell? Sounds like you’ve got a bit of indigestion. Maybe you need some of my medication. Actually, that reminds me. That cream you got me doesn’t work.”
“What cream?” asked mum.
“The one you got me for my sore gums.”
“Mum, I haven’t bought you any cream for your sore gums. What cream are you talking about?”
“The white and blue one. It’s got a really long end on it.”
“You’re not talking about the Anusol are you?” asked Mum, her fork full of potato stopped half way to her mouth.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Mum, that’s your hemorrhoid cream. It’s for sore bums, not gums!”
I watched Grandma consider this new information, swishing her teeth around as she did so.
“Well, I guess that explains why it tastes so bad then,” she replied.
After dinner, Molly and I helped Mum clean up the kitchen. For some reason I always got stuck with the washing up, Molly taking the drying up role. A few years ago, we bought Mum a shiny stainless steel dishwasher but she sent it back saying she would much rather wash up by hand. We didn’t like to tell her the reason we bought it was so we wouldn’t have to wash up by hand. Placing the last dish on the draining board for Molly, I took the opportunity to question Mum about the Christmas decoration.
“Hey Mum. What do you think of this?” I asked, getting the ornament out of my bag and holding it out for her to look at.
“That’s really pretty. Did you buy that in the city the other day?”
“No, it came with my new tree but Molly thinks it looks expensive.” I gave her the Readers Digest version of how it came into my possession, leaving out the part about my dream. Mum took it from me and had a closer look. Holding it by its hanger, she flicked it with the back of her fingernail and we all listened to the melodic ding that echoed around the room.
“It’s definitely crystal,” she said smiling. “Maybe Danny is right and you should take it back. People don’t give crystal away for nothing.” She carefully handed the bauble back to me.
“What do you think of the etchings on it?” asked Molly.
“I think it’s pretty,” shrugged Mum.
“You should see it when the sun hits it. It’s stunning.”
“Yeah. Lizzie reckons it contains a secret code,” said Danny, walking into the kitchen to put the coffee on.
“I do not!”
Mum looked at me quizzically. “I worry about you, Lizzie. Maybe you should see Doctor McGrath and get some sort of test.”
“I don’t need testing!” I said, raising my voice. “It was just a stupid dream. Geez.”
“Yes, but she wrote something down whilst she was dreaming,” dobbed Danny.
“What did you write?” asked Mum, her hands on her hips. This was the stance she took with us when she meant business and we were to stop messing around.
“Nonsense is what I wrote. What did you expect? War and bloody Peace?” I huffed.
“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady,” she chastised.
I let my breath out with a sigh. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s better,” she said. “Now, do you want to tell me exactly what’s going on?”
No, not real
ly I didn’t, but I knew better than to argue with her. She stood and listened patiently as I recounted my dream. Only when I had finished did she walk over to me and pull me in for a hug.
“I think that house is possessed,” she said earnestly. “I think you should move out and sell it. Then your life will go back to normal and maybe you and Riley can get married and start making me some grandbabies. I saw his grandmother in town the day and she agrees that the pair of you will make beautiful children, and none of us are getting any younger.”
“What does grandchildren have to do with my house?” I asked, stepping back and looking at her. Now it was my turn to put my hands on my hips.
“I’m just saying, that’s all.”
During this exchange Danny had gone very quiet and I had noticed Molly slink out of the room. They both realized the conversation could turn on them very quickly.
* * * *
As a freelance bookkeeper who works from home, I do have the luxury of working my own hours. True, most clients had a deadline but it was no skin off their noses if I worked all day or all night, so this morning I took advantage of that and headed back to ‘Happy Christmas Trees’. Looking around the parking lot, I soon realized I should have bought my tree on a Monday as I was the only customer in sight. True, their stock seemed to have diminished quite a bit, but I could have purchased my tree without the headache.
Walking to the office building, I opened the door and waited for the middle age gentleman with the beer gut to finish his phone call. Looking around, I could see the office was pretty minimalistic. It was reasonably small—about the size of my dad’s garage—had an old dark timber desk pushed into the far corner with a modern looking computer screen sitting on top and a counter that ran horizontally across the front of the room, allowing just enough room for a couple of people to stand side by side. I knew they had a mobile EFTPOS machine so they probably didn’t get a whole lot of customers inside, and the room reflected that.
The Westport Mysteries Boxed Set Page 51
