by Terri Reid
Chapter Three
Two hours later, their house was not only quiet but also neat and tidy. Mary was sitting on the couch, regretting the blueberry muffin she’d been tempted to eat on top of everything else that morning. “I ate too much,” she moaned softly, stretching out on the couch.
“You do know that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins,” Mike said as he appeared next to the couch.
She laid her head on the back of the couch and closed her eyes. “Now I know why,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to explode.”
He glanced around the room slowly. “You’d really make a mess if you do,” he replied. “And your mom did such a great job of tidying everything up before she left.”
Mary opened her eyes. “She really did, didn’t she?” Mary replied. “Ma is amazing. I had to threaten her in order to help this morning. And you can’t even tell that hordes of hungry people invaded my house this morning.”
Smiling, Mike nodded. “Well, except from the groans coming from you and from Bradley,” he replied.
Mary grinned. “Bradley, too?” she asked. “I thought he was on the porch putting away all of the Halloween paraphernalia.”
“He is,” Mike said with a chuckle. “But he’s not happy.”
“It’s not our fault,” Mary said. “We were just being polite. I mean, Rosie went through all the trouble of making those delicious, giant, blueberry muffins. We really couldn’t turn one down.”
“No, you’re right,” Mike agreed with a slight touch of irony. “And you wouldn’t want to be rude.”
She grinned. “See, I feel so much better when you agree with me. So how did the meeting go with my closet visitors?” she asked. “Do I need to meet with them?”
Mike hovered over to the chair next to the couch and sat down. “Yes, you will,” he said. “They’re going to need your help. But their case can wait for a day or so. I really need you to go with Bradley to the high school reunion tonight.”
Nodding, she lifted her head and propped her feet up on the ottoman. “Ian mentioned it to me this morning,” she said. “Is it just for Bradley, or are other people involved?”
Mike sighed slowly. “I don’t know all the answers,” he said. “I just know it’s complicated and Bradley needs to be there.”
“Okay, I can do complicated,” she replied with a shrug. “But I have one really important question about tonight.”
“Yes?” Mike asked.
“Do I need a formal dress?”
Chuckling, he shook his head. “No, it’s a reunion associated with the Homecoming game, so it’s being held in the gym and it’s casual dress.”
“Excellent, I can do casual, no problem,” she replied.
“Just get him there,” Mike said.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You can count on me.”
Just then, the front door opened and Bradley walked in, fake spider webs, orange pumpkin lights and other Halloween paraphernalia tangled around his head and neck. Mike looked at Bradley and then back at Mary. “Yeah, I think I better fade out now,” he said softly, fading as he spoke.
“Coward,” she whispered back as she used the couch arm to push herself up.
“What happened to you?” Mary asked Bradley, walking across the room towards him.
“I think I was just assaulted by a Halloween display,” he said with a little chagrin. “I thought I could get it all down at once, and then it came down, all at once.”
She walked up to him and shook her head. “Turn around,” she ordered, untangling the spider webs from the pumpkin lights. “I have to start from the back and work my way around.”
At that moment, Clarissa came bounding down the stairs with her backpack in tow. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, glanced at Mary quickly and then looked at Bradley. “Can I spend the night at the Brennan’s? Please?” she asked.
Bradley glanced around her to the backpack on the ground. “It looks like you’re already packed,” he said.
Biting her lower lip, Clarissa stole a quick look at Mary.
“Well, actually,” Mary inserted, “I spoke to Katie before they left and asked her about Clarissa spending the night.”
Bradley turned to Mary. “Why?”
“Because then we could go to your high school reunion tonight,” she replied.
He opened his mouth, then closed it and then opened it again. “How did you know about that?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Mike might have mentioned it to me,” she said and bit back her laughter at his aggrieved look.
“Mary, you don’t need to go to my reunion,” he said. “You’re too tired, and you don’t get enough rest.”
Clarissa cleared her throat lightly. “Even if Mommy is too tired, can I still spend the night at the Brennan’s?”
Mary grinned and looked wide-eyed at Bradley. “Can she?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “Yes, you can. Do you need me to walk you over?”
Clarissa looked at her father, still covered with Halloween, and decidedly shook her head. “No, someone might see us,” she said, grabbing her backpack and boosting it over her shoulder.
“Ouch,” Bradley replied. “I think I look pretty cool.”
Clarissa stared at her dad for a moment and then slowly nodded. “Sure, Dad, you look really cool,” she replied. “And you should think about wearing webs all the time. It’s a good look.”
He tried to bite back a grin. “You are such a brat.”
She grinned. “Besides, Maggie and Mrs. Brennan are waiting on their front porch for me. Bye. Love you.”
“Bye,” Mary and Bradley called as the door closed quickly behind Clarissa.
Once the door closed, Mary turned back to Bradley. “I would really like to go to your high school reunion,” she said, and then she sent him a sly glance. “Unless you’re ashamed to introduce me to your former classmates.”
“You know that’s ridiculous,” Bradley said. “I’m just… I’m just uncomfortable. I haven’t seen them in years.”
“Since Jeannine went missing,” she said.
He sighed and nodded. “Yeah, since then.”
“It’s time to go back,” she said, unwrapping a strand of webs from his neck and replacing them with her arms. “Besides, I love the idea of dancing the night away in your arms.”
He wrapped her in his arms and bent his head to give her a real kiss. But as he bent down, a fuzzy, rubber bat dropped from his head onto the floor. He looked at the bat and looked at Mary who was trying to stifle her laughter. “Okay, we’ll go,” he said. “But only if you can get this stuff off of me in time.”
Chapter Four
When Mary walked out of the bathroom, Bradley turned and stared at her.
“What?” she asked, backing toward the bathroom. “Do I have spinach in my teeth? Is my blouse on inside out?”
He smiled and shook his head, stepping across the room and grasping her arm before she could go any farther. “I am just totally amazed at how, at seven months pregnant, you can still be the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen,” he said, shaking his head in wonder.
A wide smile spread across her face. “Well, that was the nicest thing I’ve heard today,” she replied, reaching up and giving him a kiss. “Thank you. And no, we are not going to stay home.”
He sighed. “Okay, I wasn’t lying about how you look, but do we really have to go?” he asked.
“Mike said it was important,” she replied.
“Mike?” Bradley asked. “Why would Mike say it was important for us to go to my high school reunion?”
“Search me,” she said. “But if he feels we should go…”
Bradley nodded. “Yeah, we should go.”
It took them a little over an hour to drive to the high school in Sycamore. “Are we going to be late?” Mary asked as they pulled into the lot.
Looking around the nearly empty parking lot, Bradley shook his head. “Maybe we have the wrong night,” he said. He drove the car over
to the doors that led to the gym and noticed a large sign on the door.
“School closed due to water main break. Reunion moved to Brown’s Grocery store at the site of East State Street High School.”
“Okay, this is not a good idea,” Bradley said.
“Why not?” Mary asked, reading over his shoulder. “I think it’s cool that they’re having the dance in a grocery store.”
Turning to face her in the car, he said, “It’s not a good idea because the old high school was built over a cemetery, and even after the high school was torn down and the grocery store built on top of it, there were stories about paranormal events.”
Mary bit back a smile and widened her eyes. “Oh, no! Ghosts!” she exclaimed. “I don’t know if I could take seeing a ghost.” She dramatically laid the back of her hand against her forehead and leaned back. “It’s just too much for my sensitive disposition.”
“Funny,” Bradley replied, clearly not as amused as Mary thought he ought to be. “But picture this. You and I in a large building surrounded by potentially hundreds of spirits all vying for your attention.”
“See, that’s the beauty of it,” she explained. “When I’m in your arms, the spirits don’t come after me. So, I have a wonderful excuse to be close to you all night long.”
“What about the bathroom?” he asked. “We both know you’re going to be spending some time in there.”
She grinned. “I think I can handle it,” she said. “And if not, I promise I’ll ask you to take me home.”
“Promise?” he asked.
She nodded. “Scout’s honor.”
Bradley drove the car out of the parking lot and headed towards downtown Sycamore. Mary looked out the window at the picturesque town passing before her eyes. “It must have been great growing up here,” she said.
Bradley nodded. “Yeah, I have a lot of great memories,” he said. “My dad was kind of a small town boy wonder; it was great walking in his shadow.”
She turned and faced him. “Really?” she asked. “What was he like?”
“He was the quarterback on the football team, the pitcher on the baseball team and the forward on the basketball team,” he said. “And even though it could have gone to his head, he was a nice, humble guy who was always willing to help someone out.”
“Did he look like you?” she asked.
Bradley nodded. “Yeah, he and I look nearly identical,” he said.
“Well, that must have been trouble,” she replied.
“Why?” he asked, clearly confused.
“He looked like you, he was a star athlete, and he was nice?” she asked. “The girls must have been battling for his attention.”
Chuckling, Bradley turned into the parking lot next to the grocery store. “Well, don’t worry,” he said. “The charm stayed with that generation. I was the nerdy, swim team guy. The girls didn’t look twice at me.”
Mary shook her head. “Bradley Alden, either you’re lying to me, the girls here were all blind, or you were just totally unaware of what went on around you.”
Chapter Five
Bradley had been totally unaware of what was going on around him, Mary decided after they walked into the building. Although he opened the door for her and had her enter first, Mary was partially hidden as they entered the empty grocery store now festooned with crepe paper and balloons. She watched as many of the women in the room became aware of Bradley’s arrival and quickly whispered to a friend next to them, causing a chain reaction of wide-eyed, interested females. Smiling, in a predatory way only other women understood, a few of them began to move toward him.
That’s my cue, Mary thought, and stepping up next to him, she slipped her arm possessively around his. He looked down at her, still unaware of the feminine machinations going on around him, and smiled tenderly. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m just great,” she smiled back, a little ashamed to acknowledge her feeling of delight at being partnered with, in her humble opinion, the best-looking man in the room. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friends?”
Bradley looked up and glanced around the room, searching for a familiar face. But before he completely scanned the crowd, a booming male voice resounded next to them. “Why if it isn’t Bradley Alden! And here I thought you were dead,” he laughed at his own joke.
Mary felt Bradley’s arm tense underneath her own. She turned and looked at the balding, slightly paunchy man dressed in a Sycamore High School sweatshirt and jeans.
“Hi, Neil, how are you?” Bradley asked politely.
Mary bit back a smile; Bradley only treated people he really didn’t like with that much courtesy.
“I’m great, just great,” Neil said, hitching up his pants as he spoke. “You know I’ve moved into a management position at the dealership. If you are ever looking for a sweet deal on a car…”
“It was nice seeing you, Neil,” Bradley said, stepping forward with Mary.
“Hey, wait,” Neil said, moving over to block Bradley’s escape. “I haven’t paid my respects to the little woman.” He smiled at Mary, taking a long moment to check out her body and then, finally, meeting her eyes. “Jeannine, right? I never forget a name or a face. I think you were pregnant the last time I saw you. You and the Brad man trying to populate the entire world on your own?”
Mary glanced up at Bradley for help.
“Actually, this is my wife, Mary,” Bradley corrected. “Jeannine died eight years ago. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” Bradley guided Mary around Neil, who was actually momentarily speechless, and moved her across the room.
“Well, he was charming,” Mary whispered to Bradley, a teasing smile in her eyes.
Bradley released a pent-up sigh and shook his head. “Mary, I am so sorry.”
“You are not responsible for the actions of your former classmates,” she said. “And really, he did you a favor.”
“What?” Bradley asked, looking down at her.
Mary nodded her head back in the direction they’d come from, and they both saw Neil busy at work, gossiping and not-so-subtly pointing in their direction. “You won’t have to explain about me or Jeannine to anyone else,” she said.
“It’s none of their damn business,” Bradley replied stiffly.
“It’s human nature to be interested in the lives of people you know,” she said. “And I know you guys on the police force talk about people in town all the time.”
He shrugged, slightly embarrassed. “Well, that’s professional gossip,” he improvised.
“Yeah, right,” she laughed. “Professional only means you’re better at it than anyone else.”
This time he laughed and nodded. “Well, we try our best.”
“Bradley. Bradley Alden. You come on over here and talk to me.”
Chapter Six
Mary and Bradley turned and saw the elderly woman standing in the corner of the store. She was a tiny woman with gray hair, spectacles perched on an upturned nose, and sparkling green eyes. She was dressed in a slim skirt and a high-collared, button-up blouse.
“Mrs. Penfield,” Bradley exclaimed softly as they moved over to speak to her. “I’m really surprised to see you.”
She smiled up at him. “Well, of course I had to come and check up on all of my former students,” she replied, and then she looked from Bradley to Mary. “You got the pick of the litter when it comes to the rest of the young men in his graduating class.”
Mary smiled back at the elderly teacher. “I agree with you,” she said. “What courses did you teach?”
“Mrs. Penfield was my English and Literature teacher,” Bradley said. “She made Shakespeare come alive in our class.”
“It only came alive to those who were willing to pay attention,” she said with an approving nod in Bradley’s direction. “And this one always paid attention.”
“Yes, he’s very good at attention to detail,” Mary agreed.
“I also taught young Alden’s father,” the teacher explained. “Alike in
many ways. But I admit, the younger was always my favorite.”
Bradley blushed. “Mrs. Penfield, thank you,” he said. “But, really, you don’t have to say that.”
“I’m only telling the truth,” she said. “Now don’t get me wrong. Your father was a good man. But there was something about you…” she paused for a moment. “More depth of character. More looking below the surface, not taking things for granted.”
Smiling up at him, she shook her head. “You were always just a nice young man,” she finished.
“Thank you,” he said. “And you were always my favorite teacher.”
She looked over at Mary and winked. “You need to watch out for him,” she said. “He was always a charmer.”
“Well, he certainly charmed me,” Mary said with a smile.
Mrs. Penfield leaned closer to Mary. “If you ever need to talk to me about this young man, you come and see me,” she said, a twinkle in her eye. “I spend a lot of time at the Joiner Room at the library. You can almost always find me there.”
“I’ll remember that,” Mary said.
“Hey,” Bradley inserted. “I would think by now most of that would be beyond the statute of limitations.”
Mary shook her head. “Oh, no, when you’re married, there is no statute of limitations.”
Mrs. Penfield chuckled. “I do like your wife, Bradley,” she said. “She’s got spunk.”
Bradley nodded. “Yes, she does,” he said. “And I am never bored with her around.”
“That’s lovely,” the elderly teacher replied, her eyes getting soft with tenderness. “That’s an important asset in a marriage.”
She sighed gently. “I still remember my dear husband…”
“Bradley. Bradley Alden,” the young woman squealed. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
She walked through the old woman, and with a soft sigh, the elderly teacher’s spirit disappeared. Pausing for a moment, the woman wrapped her hands around her bare arms and shivered. “Oh, I just got a chill,” she complained.
“This was probably the old freezer section,” Mary said wryly.
The not-all-that-natural blonde glanced in Mary’s direction for a passing moment and sent her a wan smile, then turned her obvious charms in Bradley’s direction. Bradley stepped back, so those charms didn’t brush up against him.
