Nora bit her lip. Now that was tough. If that were the case, he had to tell the detectives. No matter what Sean said about Karen being with him when they discovered the body, he couldn’t be 100% sure she was uninvolved.
For that matter, could Nora really be sure that Sean was uninvolved? If he was capable of lying so smoothly to the entire town, and to Nora herself, then could anything he said about discovering the body be trusted?
Sean had said that he was willing to bend every rule for Karen’s sake. Could he possibly be willing to overlook murder for the woman he loved?
She remembered something she had told Mrs. Mullally about Sean a long time ago.
“He’s got a streak of cruelty in him, hidden beneath the niceness. He won’t ever be cruel to someone just for the sake of it, but his cruelty comes out when he’s convinced that someone’s in the wrong. When he wants revenge, Sean is capable of being a monster.”
She stopped in her tracks, thinking back to her own words, her own judgment of Sean, and now considering him with renewed wonder.
She had to tell the detectives about Sean and Karen, she decided. Better yet, she had to go to Sean and tell him that either he told the detectives or she would. Perhaps it would make Sean hate her forever, in all probability, in fact. But she couldn’t hide evidence this critical to the case from the detectives.
Making up her mind, she stepped out of the woods towards the lane that led to her house and stopped in surprise as she saw Harvey’s BMW parked in front of her, with Harvey himself leaning on it.
“Harvey,” she said out loud, and he looked up from his phone, and smiled.
He was one handsome man, Nora told herself. And one handsome man she’d do well to be wary around. Their relationship had ignited a fire in her soul, and when they had broken up, it had left nothing behind but charred remains. Even now, she felt an old scar throb in her heart as she saw him. He was wearing a grey shirt under a black pinstripe suit, and a dark dotted tie. Seeing her now, he took off his coat, and tossed it back into the car, simultaneously loosening his tie.
“Funerals don’t suit me,” he said. “I’d be happy if I never saw one again in my life.”
“Yeah, well… I haven’t met anyone who enjoys them much,” Nora said. “What are you doing here, Harvey?”
“I dropped Milly off,” he said. “I came back to talk to you.”
“You’re treating her terribly, you know. That’s no way to get--”
“If you mention her father’s business one more time, Nora, honestly, I’m going to…” He paused, “Well, I suppose killing you’d be illegal,” he said lightly.
“All right,” Nora said. “It’s unfair of me to say that anyway. Milly really likes you, Harvey. Don’t toy with her.”
“You’re fonder of her once you found out she was Amelie Studebayer,” Harvey said.
“More star-struck maybe. But she’s being fair to you and me. She’s asking us not to…”
“Not to what?” Harvey asked. “Start dating again?”
“Not a chance of that, right?” Nora laughed, her voice a little strained.
Harvey didn’t say anything. He looked away for a second, then took off his tie and stuffed it in his pocket. “Times like this, I really miss smoking,” he said. “It’d give me something to fill the silence with right about now.”
“What did you want to talk about?” Nora asked.
“You.” Harvey said. “More accurately, you and Sean. I know I got no right to ask you this , but--”
“I’m not dating Sean, I’ve never kissed Sean, and I won’t in the future,” Nora said. “Is that all? If you were distracted by jealousy you can go back to Milly secure in the knowledge that I’m alone, and probably staying that way for some time.”
“That’s your choice, you know,” Harvey said.
“Sorry?”
“That’s your choice.” Harvey said, more firmly. “You’re the one who pushed me away. Or maybe you just refused to be with someone you thought was ‘unethical’.”
“You’re the one who offered me money after telling me about all the girlfriends who’d exploited him for his money,” Nora said, her voice rusty. “Tell me what I was supposed to do? Accept it?”
“I never meant it that way,” Harvey said, frustrated. “I told you that.”
“But you still couldn’t believe it when I said no,” Nora said. “You just had to take it personally. You had to fight about it all the time.”
“You refused to accept my help, but if Sean came over to fix things, you let him do it for free,” Harvey said. “What was I supposed to think, Nora?”
“What?! That isn’t… Harvey, that’s ridiculous.”
“Not so ridiculous,” Harvey said. “You can say what you like about intending to be single forever, but I saw you in that car with Sean. I saw how you leapt to his defense when the town was against him. I saw how he got you flowers at the Viking festival.”
“He’s pretending to like me,” Nora burst out. “He doesn’t, not really.”
“Oh sure.” Harvey rolled his eyes.
“I’m serious, Harvey. There’s someone else in his life. He’s just friends with me, but there’s someone else he’s in love with,” Nora said.
“And you hate that?” Harvey said. “It makes you angry that he loves someone other than you? Because you love him?”
“I don’t care,” Nora said. “To be honest, I have no time for love anymore. I have no time for anything really. I have a catering job I need to do tomorrow, and Dr. Neil to visit, and Ricky to worry about, and a hundred other things besides.”
“No time for love?” Harvey scoffed. “You manage to breathe just fine, don’t you? There’s time for anything if you value it enough.”
“Well then maybe I don’t,” she said. “I don’t value… I don’t value the heartache love leaves behind, Harvey. And with you, every day was like walking on a tightrope, wondering when I’d fall off.”
He stared at her, and she continued in a rush of breath. “I don’t know why I cared about you, Harvey. I only know that being with you after losing Raquel was… was simultaneously the best and worst thing that happened to me. Every day, I’d wake up feeling like if I didn’t see you, I’d die. To be honest, it scared me. It scared me how much I needed you, and how fast. I couldn’t take the money because the price would have been too high. The diner was the one thing in my life that was separate from you.”
“I was an idiot too,” Harvey said. “I got so insecure about Sean. I was so sure that you’d prefer him over me. I mean, my own father did, didn’t he? Sean’s everything I’m not. Solid, dependable, popular…”
“He isn’t you,” Nora said, moving a little closer. “Harvey, you had no reason to be jealous of Sean. Not ever.”
“The only thing I had to offer that Sean didn’t was my money,” Harvey said. “Even that, you refused to take, while he came around to your house to fix things. It made me feel like you didn’t need me. It made me feel like…” He shook his head. “Nora, I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have. I did a lot of things I shouldn’t have, but--”
“But now you’re dating Milly,” Nora said, a warning tone in her voice. “So nothing can happen between us while you are, right?”
Harvey took a step towards her, but she backed away.
“I’m flawed in a million ways, Harvey, but the one thing I place above all others is loyalty. You know that.”
“Yes,” Harvey said. “I know that. I won’t be unfair to Milly, Nora. I think she knows it already, or suspects. I’ll tell her as fast as possible.”
“I know you didn’t want me to bring this up, but she won’t take kindly to that,” Nora said. “Neither will her father.”
Harvey laughed. “I really don’t care,” he said. “If he wants to invest, he can invest because he thinks the money will do well here. If he doesn’t, he can go right back to wherever he came from.”
“Milly will feel you’ve used her,” Nora said, biting her
lip.
“I’ve used her?” Harvey said incredulously. “Nora, the only reason Milly came here was because her other option was to go to a very expensive rehab down in Florida,” he laughed. “No, I don’t think her father can complain, or her. She’s been clean since she came here.”
“She didn’t look like she has a drug problem,” Nora said, horrified.
“Alcohol,” Harvey said. “She started drinking a little too hard when her film flopped, and her father told her he’d cut off her money if she didn’t choose a better career, like the family business.”
“Oh,” Nora said, feeling worse for Milly. “Harvey, she really does like you.”
“And I really like you,” Harvey said. “Nora, I’ve missed you every day that we’ve been apart. If I promise not to be a fool about Sean any more, will you--”
“We can’t!” Nora said. “We can’t right this minute, at least. Let’s give this some time, okay?”
His face hardened a little, though his eyes looked still like they were pleading with her.
“Whatever you say,” he said. “Just tell me one thing. Did you miss me at all?”
“Every moment,” she said. “It was torture for me, to be so cold to you, Harvey.”
In her pocket, the phone rang. She picked it up, and a feeling of dread stretched itself in her heart.
“What is it?” Harvey asked.
“The detective, Jason,” she replied. She picked up the phone, and a terse voice said, “I need you to come down to the station. Now.”
“Give me a ride?” Nora asked Harvey, who nodded, and ushered her into the car.
They sped all the way back to Main Street, Harvey driving as recklessly as he always did, but with the same control.
At the station, Detective Jason and Rudy stood dejectedly in front of a desk, Rudy chomping on a bagel while Jason sipped coffee. Jason looked up as she entered, and then raised an eyebrow at Harvey.
“Harvey. Thought I saw you with Milly at the funeral.”
“You did,” Harvey said. “What’s the problem, Jason? Any reason you had to make us run down here?”
Jason nodded, his face grim. “Unfortunately, there’s been a… discovery,” he said.
Nora’s stomach sank. In her heart, she already knew what he was going to say next.
“We need you to identify a body,” he told her. “The clothes, mainly.”
“It’s Ricky, isn’t it?” she asked.
“We’re not sure of it yet,” Jason said. “We’re running the fingerprints.”
Nora’s legs started to tremble, and Harvey put an arm around her shoulders. “Easy there,” he said. “We’re not sure it’s him yet.”
“No,” Jason said. “Not 100% anyway.”
“You were one of the last people to see him too, weren’t you, Harvey?” Rudy asked casually. “Nora here mentioned how he ran away when he saw you.”
Harvey raised an eyebrow. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Yes you do,” Rudy replied. “Have you ever met Ricky before, Harvey? Have you talked to him at all?”
“No,” Harvey said firmly. “I have no idea who he even was.”
“I’ve got a witness that says otherwise,” Rudy said. “Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider?”
“Come on,” Jason said to Nora, putting his arm around hers. “We got to go down to the morgue.”
“Wait, I want to--”
“Rudy will take care of Harvey.” Jason said. “You come with me.”
“Harvey, I didn’t tell anyone…” That wasn’t true. She’d told Sean what the detectives were saying.
But Harvey just gave her a cold look and waved her on. “You do what you have to, Nora.”
The walk down to the morgue was cold and damp, with a puddle of water from a dark, half open door, and a strange chemical scent in the air.
“We really need to clean up down here,” Jason said.
The morgue itself had a thick steel door, and a metal table on which a body covered in a thin white sheet lay.
“This is it,” Jason said. “Do you remember at all what he was wearing yesterday, Nora?”
“A yellow sweatshirt, and blue jeans, I think,” Nora said. “To be honest, I can’t be sure. Jason, I thought you said that he was spotted leaving the county.”
“I wish he had,” Jason said, his voice full of regret. “Anyway, I’m going to have to ask you to identify him, Nora, if possible.”
So saying, he lifted the sheet from the head. Nora looked at the body, shuddered, and then turned away.
*****
Chapter 24
Ricky’s death seemed to put a great load on Nora. It also coincided with a few jobs she had lined up. So, for the next three days, she was so caught up with her work that she had no chance to talk to anyone. She was too busy preparing and delivering her work to her various customers. Her feet ached from standing all day, and her hands from lifting heavy vessels. The one thing no one had told her about a chef’s job was how much physical work went into it.
Her work finally done, Nora welcomed the two days of free time stretching ahead of her by kicking off her shoes and collapsing on a sofa, with a cup of green tea in one hand. In one corner of her mind, she seemed to keep looping and re-looping every incident with Ricky. In particular, she remembered how he had fled when Harvey had shown up with Milly on his arm. Her thoughts wandered to Milly, and she wondered how she would feel when Harvey broke up with her. Would she be very upset? Or was Harvey right, had Milly and her father just been using him as a convenient person to stay with while she tried to fight her addiction?
A cry from Mrs. Mullally’s room roused Nora immediately. Rushing up, she found her landlady looking very pale, and clutching her heart.
“Mrs. Mullally!”
“Oh, its nothing, dear,” Mrs. Mullally said. “Just having a little difficulty breathing, is all.” She took short rapid breaths, wincing every so often.
Alarmed, Nora called up Dr. Neil immediately. The Doctor arrived soon enough, with his bag in one hand, his hair sticking up all over the place, wearing an ancient looking yellow shirt with olive green trousers.
Nora waited anxiously outside the room as the Doctor checked up on Mrs. Mullally. Afterwards, he came out, his face looking cheerful.
“I should be as fit as her,” he said. “Not a thing to worry about, Nora. It was just a matter of adjusting her dosage. She’s fine.”
“Should she be resting for the next few days?” Nora fretted. “I keep telling her not to work so hard. She’s up on her feet all day.”
“She needs to do whatever she likes, and be surrounded by cheerful people,” Dr. Neil said. “Like I said, not a thing to worry about, Nora.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Nora said. “Come to the kitchen, Doctor. If you have the time, I’ve got some lasagna leftover from last night.”
The Doctor looked at his watch. “Well… it seems a little early for lunch, but why not? I could do with some good food. I’ve been living on canned tuna for the last three days because I’ve been too lazy to go grocery shopping.”
“That’s a shame,” Nora said.
“I wish there were a place that delivered home-made food to me,” Dr. Neil said. “Any chance of you starting something like that?”
“I doubt I’ll be starting anything these next few days,” Nora said.
“Ah, yes,” the Doctor nodded. “Tina and you were talking about your diner the other day, weren’t you? The day Sean got voted out of office.”
“That seems so long ago,” Nora said. “It’s hard to believe it was only last week.” She reached into the fridge, reheated the lasagna, and spooned some on a delicate china plate, before handing the doctor a fork.
“It was, wasn’t it?” Doctor Neil sighed. “Ah, time… it flows by so fast.”
In this case, Nora thought she could do with time moving even faster.
“This is amazing,” Doctor Neil said. “I can’t wa
it for you to open your own diner, Nora. I think the entire town is staying up at night wondering when it will start.”
“It’s been tough after Raquel’s death,” Nora said.
“Yes. Of course,” he replied. “I was really sorry about that. Raquel was a good girl. A solid citizen. The kind of person that makes this town what it is. The only thing to console ourselves with is that she got the justice she deserved.” He shook his head gravely.
Remembering a conversation they had at Wallis’ funeral, Nora said, “Doctor Neil, Joe mentioned at the funeral that Wallis wanted to become sheriff because he wanted justice for his family. What do you think that meant?”
Instantly, the doctor’s face seemed to harden. “Why do you ask?”
“It’s just that…” Nora hesitated. “I don’t know. It struck me as funny. You’re the town doctor. Did Wallis have any relatives around here?”
“Actually Wallis didn’t come to me,” Doctor Neil said. “I think he preferred to get his medical treatment from out of town.” Dropping his fork in the plate of half-finished lasagna, the Doctor stood up. “Well, I’m a busy man. I think I better get going.”
“Oh, but you didn’t even finish this.” Nora looked up at him. “Doctor Neil, did I offend you in some way?”
“Offend me? Far from it,” Doctor Neil said. “I’m going to see myself out.”
Nora watched him leave, wondering what was going on. One minute he’d been the picture of happiness and good cheer. Next thing she knew, he’d decided to walk himself out.
She went up to check on Mrs. Mullally, who was fast asleep. Maynard, her golden retriever, was sleeping under the bed, with his little black nose peeking out. Seeing Nora, he decided to scramble out, and went to her, wagging his tail. Normally, he would have jumped on her and licked her all over. This time, almost sensing Mrs. Mullally’s health, the dog tiptoed over to Nora, nudged his head on her knee as if to say hello, and then slunk back under the bed.
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