by Terri Reid
“Sweetheart,” Mary said, pushing herself up.
“No, it’s okay,” Clarissa replied, jumping up and hurrying to the stairs. “I just have to go. Goodnight.”
She dashed up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door.
“Poor thing,” Mary said.
“Poor door,” Bradley added.
“Just wait until she’s a teenager,” Margaret said with a shake of her head.
Chapter Forty-seven
Mary leaned back in her chair and tried to stretch to get the kinks out of her lower back. She had been bent over, as far as she could bend over, sorting through file drawers and deciding the things she could throw away and the things she needed desperately to keep. She looked at the note Bradley had written her on their first official date. It was a torn piece of paper with a messy note written in marker. She thought about it for another moment and sighed. “Keep pile.”
She was about to reach for another manila folder when the bell over the door rang. “Thank you,” she gushed, turning in her chair with a smile that disappeared when she saw Alex and Bradley standing just inside the door.
“What?” she asked immediately, frightened by the looks on their faces.
“How many people know you’re working on this case?” Alex asked.
Mary felt a chill slip down her spine. “No one,” she said slowly. “Well, Linda, but no one else. Why?”
Bradley walked over to her and knelt next to her chair. “Carol Ford is dead.”
“What?” she exclaimed.
“I got a call from the jail this morning,” Alex said. “They found her in her cell, unresponsive.”
“How…how did she die?” Mary asked slowly, her breath shallow.
“We don’t know yet,” Alex said. “I’ve requested an autopsy.”
“But you don’t think it was from natural causes, do you?” Mary asked, knowing the answer before she asked the question.
Alex sat down in the chair across from her and shook his head. “I think it’s a little too coincidental,” he said. “And, the comment they made yesterday about tying up loose ends…”
“She was a loose end,” Mary said. She closed her eyes in self-disgust. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“None of us thought of that,” Bradley said. “I don’t think any of us realized the length they would go to in order to protect themselves.”
“A billion dollars is a lot of money,” Mary said.
Alex released a long breath and stood up. “Well, they did protect themselves,” he said. “The greatest threat to them has died along with any information she might have been able to share with us. We’ll never know now.”
Mary and Bradley looked at each other. “Well, that’s not necessarily true,” Mary said.
“Are you doing the creepy ghost thing again?” Alex asked.
Mary shrugged. “It’s not creepy when it’s just a part of who you are,” she replied. “I can see and talk to ghosts. If you want to get information from Carol Ford, I might be able to get it.”
“Might?” Alex asked.
“Well, if she didn’t have any unfinished business here on earth, she might have already moved on,” Mary said. “So, then we’re out of luck.”
“She was jailed on trumped-up charges, and then she was killed just before she was going to finally be released,” Alex said. “I would say she’d have some unfinished business.”
“That would be my guess too,” Mary agreed. “How soon can we get in there?”
“Does the body need to be there?” he asked.
Mary shook her head. “No, her spirit has already separated from her body,” she said.
Alex exhaled a sigh of relief. “Good. Because that would have been creepy,” he said. “So, what do you need? Does it need to be, like, midnight? Do we need candles?”
Mary looked at Bradley and rolled her eyes. Then she turned back to Alex. “We need a blood sacrifice,” she said sarcastically.
“Are you kidding me?” Alex exclaimed.
“Yes,” Mary replied. “We just need to be able to access her cell without anyone disturbing us.”
“Because it will bother the spirit, right?” Alex asked.
“No, because some people get weirded out when they find out I can see ghosts,” Mary replied pointedly. “So, I don’t like that information to get out too much.”
Alex had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. “Yeah, I can see that,” he said. “I’ll set up the time at the jail. In the meantime, you might want to call Linda and warn her not to talk about things.”
“I will,” Mary replied. “And I’ll call Ma so she is aware too.”
Chapter Forty-eight
Mary pulled into her driveway and was surprised that there were several cars already there. She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, grabbed her purse and her briefcase, and hurried to the front door.
Thinking about the information Alex had shared with them that morning, she was picturing her mother facing down the goons from the pharmaceutical company with only a spatula and paring knife. She grabbed the doorknob and pushed the door open, lunging inside. “Mom,” she called, panic overcoming common sense. “Are you—”
“Mary?” her mother called from the kitchen. “I thought you were going to be at your office today.”
Her mother walked into the living room followed by Rosie and Katie.
“What are you…” she started as she continued into the house. When she happened to sniff the air, Mary froze in the hallway as her olfactory senses went on sudden overload. She breathed in the amazing smells emanating from the kitchen.
“What smells amazing?” she finally asked.
Margaret chuckled and hurried forward to greet her daughter. She hugged Mary and then took her purse and briefcase and set them on the side table. “Well, we were going to surprise you,” Margaret said. “But since you’re here, you might as well join us.”
“Join you?” Mary asked, slipping off her coat and hanging it in the closet.
“We’re making you freezer meals,” Rosie said, stepping forward and giving Mary another hug. “It was Margaret’s idea.”
“And a brilliant idea,” Katie agreed, also giving Mary a hug. “There’s nothing better than knowing there’s food in the house when you bring a new baby home.”
“This is so nice of all of you,” Mary said, tears filling her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say a word,” Rosie advised. “Just come into the kitchen and visit with us while we cook.”
Mary shook her head. “I can’t just sit and do nothing,” Mary said. “I can help.”
Katie put her arm around Mary’s shoulders and led her forward into the kitchen. “You should really not argue with us,” she said, guiding Mary to one of the barstools. “Once Mikey is born, your life will be changed forever, and you will look back on this day and say, ‘I’m so glad they made me just sit and watch.’”
Rosie sat down and started peeling potatoes. Katie went over to the other side of the counter and continued to chop vegetables while Margaret stirred a pot on the stove.
Mary shrugged. “I’m just having a baby,” she said. “It’s not going to be that different.”
The three other women looked at each other and burst out in laughter. “Oh, honey,” Rosie said. “Welcome to the Mom’s Club.”
Katie nodded. “The exclusive club where you never get enough sleep and can’t go to the bathroom by yourself,” she began.
“Won’t eat hot food for years because you’re helping everyone else,” Margaret continued. “And all of your clothes will begin to have interesting stains on them.”
Rosie chuckled. “I remember a favorite sweater that I finally had to throw away because of all the snot stains.”
Mary shuddered. “Snot stains?”
“Yes, that’s when your children pretend they want to hug you,” Katie explained. “But all they really want to do is wipe their drippy noses on your clothing.” She paused and smile
d. “It’s adorable.”
“But Mikey won’t be doing that for years,” Mary said. “He’ll just be a sweet little baby when I bring him home.”
“With built-in, projectile-enhanced weaponry,” Katie said and the other two women nodded in agreement.
“What?” Mary asked.
“I still remember the time when Sean was a wee babe,” Margaret said, turning from the stove for a moment. “We were getting ready for church. Your father was already dressed, and Sean was in the cutest little romper. I’d finally taken a moment to run to the bathroom and do my hair when your father called out that Sean was making grunting sounds.” She laughed softly and shook her head. “He would have such a time with his bowels, grunting like a wee pig and turning red.”
She stirred the pot again, then continued. “I called from the bathroom that I would be there in a moment,” she recalled. “But your father, being the man he is, decided that he could take care of it on his own. Not more than a minute had passed when I heard a scream coming from the bedroom. I dropped the curling iron and rushed in.”
“What happened?” Mary asked.
“The walls, the bed, the floor and your very own father were covered with a light brown spray of baby poop,” Margaret replied, shaking her head. “I was amazed at the distance, over four feet in some spots.” Margaret turned to Mary. “Your brother had amazing sphincters. And we had to get your father a new suit.”
“He shot poop across the room?” Mary asked. “Babies do that?”
“I remember the time Andy shot pee from the couch across the room into Clifford’s soda glass,” Katie laughed. “Not only distance, but precision.”
Katie picked up the bowl of chopped vegetables and poured them into the pan Margaret was stirring.
“Across the room?” Mary asked.
“Aye,” Margaret said. “You’ll learn soon enough to always have a diaper ready when you’re changing them. Never give them a chance to feel the breeze of an open room. They’ll take advantage every time.”
Mary nodded. “I can handle this,” she said with assurance. “I’m a black belt. I can swap diapers with no problem.”
“Well, you know,” Rosie said. “Those first couple of days, you’re not moving as quickly as you’d like.”
Katie shook her head. “Not days, weeks,” she said with a groan of remembrance. “I couldn’t sit in a regular chair for weeks.”
“Wait. Why?” Mary asked, looking around at her friends, panic in her eyes.
Margaret walked over to Mary and patted her hand. “Don’t worry, darling,” she said. “It’s all part of the wonder and mystery of giving birth.”
“Yeah, you wonder how you ever got yourself in this situation, and the mystery is how siblings are ever born,” Katie chuckled.
Rosie laughed. “I remember my dear, first husband holding our little girl in the delivery room, the glow of a new birth in his eyes,” she said. “I was having sixteen stitches sewn into my nether regions, so I wasn’t glowing quite as much. He smiled down at me and suggested we do this again, soon.” She paused, her eyes sparkling with mirth. “I admit I’m not proud of my response. And my doctor assured us that my suggestion was probably not anatomically possible.”
“Women should not be held accountable for what they say during childbirth,” Katie added. Then she turned to Mary. “And no matter how much someone suggests it, never have someone videotape the birth.”
“Aye,” Margaret said. “Giving birth is miraculous. It’s amazing and it’s fulfilling. But there is no way on God’s green earth that it’s pretty.”
“And, quite frankly, what are you going to do with a video like that?” Rosie asked. “I never could understand it. Have a party so all your friends can see you exposed to the world? I don’t think so. And don’t think your children want to see the miracle of their own birth. It embarrasses them enough to know that their parents actually participated in sex. They certainly don’t want to see the results.”
“But in all the movies…” Mary began.
“In all the movies the moms leave the hospital in the jeans they wore before they were pregnant,” Katie said laughing, with the other two women joining in.
“That doesn’t happen either?” Mary asked.
The laughter stopped immediately, and the three women looked at Mary, her eyes wide with fear and her face slightly blanched. Margaret turned off the heat under the pot and shook her head. “Ladies, I believe it’s time for a cup of tea and a little intervention.”
She walked around the counter and led Mary towards the living room and got her settled on the couch. “Now, the first thing you must remember is that giving birth is a miracle,” Margaret said.
“Exactly,” Katie added. “The feeling you have when you hold that baby in your arms for the first time is unimaginable.”
“But,” Rosie added. “With everything worth having, there’s some, er, uncomfortable moments you’ll experience.”
Mary looked at each of the women sitting around her, women who were such an important part of her life, women who she trusted with all her heart. “But it’s worth it, right?” she asked, her hands resting on her belly.
They all smiled, and in that moment, she could see the memories of their own miracles reflect on their faces. “Yes,” Margaret whispered, wiping away a tear. “It is. More than I could ever describe.”
Mary sighed and smiled back at them. “Well, that’s a relief,” she said. “Because it’s pretty much too late to change my mind.”
Chapter Forty-nine
The next morning, Bradley drove Mary to the county jail on the outskirts of town. They parked in the visitors parking lot and then met Alex at the door.
“Are you still okay doing this?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes, I’d like to at least try and give her some peace,” she replied.
They walked into the front lobby and were met by a guard.
“The Sheriff said you needed to look at one of the cells,” the guard said. “Carol Ford’s cell.”
Alex nodded. “Yeah, it’s just routine,” he replied easily.
Mary studied the large man. “Did you know Carol?” she asked.
“Yeah, I did,” he said, his tone clipped.
“What did you think about her?” she asked.
“Why? Is this for some report?” he asked.
Mary shook her head and placed her hand on the guard’s arm. “No, no report,” she said. “I was reading some information about her, and it seemed like she was a woman who really cared about people.”
The guard sighed and nodded, his eyes filling with tears. “Yeah, she was good,” he said, his voice hoarse. “She was a Christian, you know, a real Christian.”
Mary nodded. “She lived her religion, not just talked about it?”
“She shouldn’t have been here,” he said. “Someone screwed her real good. But since she was here, she was like everyone’s auntie. Everyone asked her for advice.”
“Did she give you good advice?” Mary asked.
“She saved my marriage,” he said, “made me a better man for knowing her.”
“Well, I’m very sorry I didn’t get to meet her,” Mary said. “I missed out.”
He nodded. “Yes, you did,” he said. Then he took a deep breath and nodded. “Come on, we can go down now.”
They followed him through the security gates and into the main section of the jail. Then he led them through the main section and downstairs to private cells.
“Why was she down here?” Alex asked. “This is isolation. She wasn’t a danger to anyone.”
The guard nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good question,” he said. “A real good one.”
He unlocked a small cell and stepped back. “This is it,” he said.
“We have to run some tests and do some analysis,” Alex said. “Can you come back for us in about fifteen minutes?”
“You want me to leave you alone in a cell?” he asked, surprised.
“Just for
a little while,” Alex said. “Too many people can contaminate the sample.”
The guard shrugged and nodded. “Okay, you should be safe down here,” he said. “I’ll be back in fifteen. You need me any sooner, just call on that emergency phone on the post in the hallway.”
“Thank you,” Alex replied. “I will.”
The guard turned and left them.
“He’s a good man.” The woman’s voice had Mary turning towards the cell.
“He spoke very highly of you,” Mary replied.
“Wait! What? Is it happening?” Alex asked.
Mary glanced over and quickly shook her head to silence him.
“Oh. Sorry,” he replied, stepping away from the cell. Then he turned to Bradley. “What do we do now?”
“We wait,” Bradley said. “And listen.”
Chapter Fifty
“My name is Mary,” Mary said to the ghost sitting on the bunk in the cell.
“I’m Carol,” the distinguished, African American woman said. “Carol Ford.”
“Carol, are you aware that…”
“That I’m dead?” Carol asked with a bit of humor in her voice. “Oh, yes, child. I realized that when I stood up and my body didn’t come with my spirit.”
“That would have been a little disconcerting,” Mary said.
The woman laughed out loud. “Well, to say the least,” she replied. “To say the least.” She looked at Mary. “Is this your first baby?”
Mary nodded. “I have a nine-year-old stepdaughter,” Mary explained, “who I consider to be my child.” Mary put her hands on her belly. “But this is the first time I will give birth.”
“Well, God bless you,” Carol said. “That’s just wonderful. A new baby is always a miracle.”
Mary nodded. “Yes, it always is,” she said. “And babies and children, they have a right to be protected and loved and nurtured.”
“Amen,” Carol replied. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“I have a gift. Some may call it a responsibility,” Mary explained. “I can see and communicate with spirits—those who are still here on earth because they have unfinished business.”
