Shadows and Dreams (Dream Series Book 2)

by Braxton Hicks

  He came out to the kitchen where I'd just finished unloading the dishwasher. He looked all disheveled from the afternoon he'd spent on the couch drinking beer and watching football.

  “Did you know that Tristan will be in town tomorrow for the week?”

  “I overheard you talking to him about it just now.”

  “Guess where he’s staying?”

  “Well, from what I overheard, it sounded like Gina’s?”

  “Oh, come on, Tylar. You already knew about this, didn’t you?” He was giving me an accusatory look.

  “So, what if I did? It’s not my place to tell you everything that concerns my best friend or your brother, is it?”

  “I certainly hope you aren’t playing matchmaker with those two,” he warned, furrowing his eyebrows at me.

  “Trey, this isn’t seventh grade. Tristan and Gina are both adults who can navigate their way into a business relationship or a love relationship or a sexual relationship without any outside assistance or interference.”

  “You're mighty sassy with me tonight aren’t you, girl?” he said with a smile, closing in on me. He tugged on my ponytail gently, pulling me back against him. His arms circled around me as he lowered his face to kiss the top of my head softly, rocking me back and forth within his arms.

  “Is your period over yet, baby?” he asked.

  “Sorry, no,” I answered, trying to wriggle out of his strong grip.

  “Can I interest you in a high protein drink then?” he asked, not loosening his hold on me whatsoever.

  “We’ll see,” I replied. “You may have a better chance of that if you get out of those sweats you’ve been in all weekend and shower, though.”

  He chuckled, burrowing his face down into my hair and kissing the back of my neck. He gave me goose bumps. Just then, the sound of glass shattering on the wooden floor in the living room followed by Preston’s loud wailing interrupted our play.

  “Shit,” Trey said, racing out of the kitchen and into the living room with me on his heels.

  Preston had evidently crawled over to the tall, glass vase that was on the hall table and tried to pull herself up, causing the vase to slide off and hit the floor, shattering.

  Trey scooped her up immediately, checking for cuts. Her little face was puckered up crying tears; she buried her face into Trey’s chest her thumb finding its way into her mouth. “I think it just scared her,” he said, visibly relieved.

  “Trey, what the hell?” I fumed. “Why did you take her out of her playpen?”

  “Tylar, she wanted out. I was on the couch, so I put her on the rug with some toys while I watched the game. She was fine crawling around and playing right there with me. I guess when I took the phone call I got distracted. I didn’t think about it when I went into the kitchen to talk to you.”

  He was stroking her hair and kissing her head. “I think you need to baby proof the apartment now that she's a toddler.”

  “Right,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “What exactly do you think baby-proofing involves, Trey? Sticking some shields on electrical sockets and taking everything breakable out of the rooms?”

  “Well, yeah,” he replied.

  “The shields on electrical sockets, yes,” I replied, “but you still need to be in the same room with the baby. You teach them not to touch certain things that could break or hurt them by telling them ‘no’ firmly and consistently. Do you think you can manage that, Trey?”

  “I don’t know, Tylar,” he replied in a faux snotty tone, “I seem to have a problem with saying ‘no’ to you firmly and consistently, it would appear.”

  “Hah, since when?” I scoffed, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

  Preston looked up from Trey’s shoulder and smiled at me. “Ma-ma-ma-ma,” she whimpered, twisting away from Trey and reaching for me.

  “Did you hear that? She wants her mommy,” I crooned, taking her from Trey. “Come on, sweet baby girl,” I said, holding her close to me. “Let’s go see if your diaper needs changing after that scare you just had.” I took her to the nursery and, sure enough, she'd soiled her diaper.

  “Stinky girl,” I said, making a face as I unfastened the tabs on her diaper and lifted her legs up to remove it.

  She was grinning at me with her thumb in her mouth and jabbering in baby language. I cleaned her up with baby wipes and put a clean diaper on her. I went ahead and dressed her for bed, since she got her bath in the morning. “There—all done Preston. Do you want Mommy to read you a story?”

  She smiled at me again, saying, “num-num-num.” I wasn’t sure what that meant, so I pulled a book from the shelf and sat her on my lap in the rocker, opening it up to start reading. She squirmed about, knocking the book out of my hands and repeated the ‘num-num’ jargon a few more times, definitely starting to fuss now.

  Num-num? Nurse? Nipple?

  I unbuttoned my top and unclasped the front hook on my bra, freeing my breasts. That was it. That was ‘num-num.’ She immediately leaned into me, latching onto my nipple and started nursing, curled up against me.

  Trey came into the nursery a while later; I shared with him her latest word. I'd noticed that he'd showered, shaved and had a clean pair of pajama bottoms on. His hair was still damp from his shower.

  “I swept up all of the glass from the entry hall,” he said. “I'll keep a better eye on her in the future.”

  “Good,” I replied, looking down at my precious girl nestled so contentedly against me. Part of me wished that she could stay this age forever. I recalled though, how I'd thought the same thing with almost every stage she'd went through thus far.

  I thought about the things that Maggie had told us the other day. In particular, I thought about how she told me that my mother had loved me and never liked being apart from me. It reminded me of the way that I felt about Preston. Perhaps I had more of my mother in me than simply my physical appearance. I decided that I was very proud of that possibility. I needed to find out more about the last thing that Maggie had said before falling into her unconscious sleep. I needed to understand what she meant about my mother being poisoned. Had it been an accident or had it been deliberate?

  Trey was watching me with the baby.

  “You know, Tylar, you're never sexier in my eyes than when I watch you nurse our baby. I can’t explain it, but it's definitely a turn-on.”

  I smiled up at him knowing that he was sincere—horny or not. “Are you going to bed?” I asked.

  “I’ll be watching the late game in our room. Will you be long?” I looked down at Preston and her eyes were closed; her long lashes resting against her soft skin. She continued to suck gently, the pauses between them growing longer each time.

  “It’ll be just a few more minutes, Trey. She’s almost finished here.”

  “Okay baby,” he said, leaning over and kissing her head. His lips brushed across mine warmly and sensually.

  “I’ll be waiting for you. Come and get your ‘num-num,’ baby.”

  Chapter 33

  Trey and I were roused out of our sleep a little after five on Monday morning by the landline extension in our room ringing. Trey was closest, so he grabbed the phone. I felt him sit up quickly after the person on the other end had identified themselves to him.

  “I see,” he said, switching the bedside lamp on. He wanted me awake. “She’ll be there in thirty minutes. Let Maggie know. Thanks, Sandy.”

  I pulled myself up into a sitting position.

  “Tylar, you need to get to the hospital. Maggie has rallied somewhat from the coma and she's asked for you. It’s only temporary, her death is imminent, so if there's more you need to know or anything you need to say to her, this is your last chance.”

  I threw the bed covers off and went to my closet. I shrugged a pair of jeans on and pulled a sweater on over my head. I grabbed my socks and boots and sat down on the bed to put them on. Trey hadn’t moved.

  “Aren’t you going to get ready?” I asked him.

  “Sweetie, I have t
o stay here with Preston.”

  “Can’t we get her up and take her with us?”

  “By the time we rouse her, change her, dress her and all of the other things she needs done in the morning, it may be too late. You can do this on your own.”

  I nodded as I zipped the last boot up. I grabbed my phone and purse and was out the door and on the road in no more than ten minutes after Trey had told me the situation. I ran through the hallway at St. Matthew’s, taking the elevator up to the ICU. As soon as I got off the elevator, Sandy was there to greet me.

  “Your mother is weak, but coherent. She wants to see you about some unfinished business. She won’t last much longer, Mrs. Sinclair.”

  “I understand, Sandy. Thanks for calling.”

  I made a hasty entrance into the ICU and to Maggie’s room. She looked much worse than she had on Friday. She had oxygen going in through tubes in her nose. Her skin had a mottled look to it, almost purplish. I went to her bedside, where she appeared to be dozing.

  “Maggie, I’m here. It’s Tylar.”

  Her eyes flickered open and she turned her head slightly so that I was in her line of vision. “Tylar?” she asked weakly.

  “Yes, I’m here Aunt Maggie. Did you have something that you wanted me to know?”

  “Promise me something, please,” she whispered. “Promise me that you'll have the hospital perform an autopsy after I die.”

  What a bizarre death bed request—especially from someone like Maggie who hated the thought of not looking her best.

  “Why?” I asked, confused and questioning her lucidity.

  I took my iPhone out and hit the button to record her deathbed wishes. My instincts had kicked in and told me to do so.

  “Tylar, I don’t have time to explain everything, just do it. Tell them not to look for man-made toxins, but for bayou poisons. This infection isn't what they think it is. Don’t have me cremated. I want to be buried next to my baby in Indiana. The rest of your money is in my purse that they checked in over at the jail. It'll pay for my burial arrangements. Don’t let them know you're not my daughter, Tylar. You have to be my official next of kin. Your husband will confirm that if you ask him.”

  Her voice was getting raspy and she took a break, breathing in her oxygen.

  “What about my mother? What about Marla?”

  “He poisoned her, too,” she whispered weakly.

  “Who—who poisoned her?”

  “Matthew did. He poisoned her and now he's poisoned me. Your mama is buried at the cemetery south of Jackson, Mississippi where our parents are buried. The Renaud family crypt is there.”

  She was rasping again and stopped to breathe in more oxygen. “You have them get you her death record. There wasn’t no autopsy done on her. There should've been to prove what Matthew had done to her. Miss Trinity LaFleur must have evidence or something. I know she prepared Marla for burial. Your mama was buried with your caul. You find Miss Trinity you hear? I promised Marla I'd give Trinity those jewelry boxes your daddy gave her after she died. She said it was the only way that I'd be safe. I wanted to keep that jewelry for myself, so I never did what I promised Marla. Miss Trinity is a midwife living in Concordia Parish. She delivered you, Tylar. She can fill you in. Anyone in Vidalia will know her.”

  I was confused by all that she was telling me. It sounded like crazy talk. What the hell was a ‘caul?’ Was this one final way that Maggie was going to fuck with me before she died? Why would I believe or trust her at this point? Why should I even care? It sounded bizarre. Her story had a flavor of voodoo or witchcraft. I hadn’t seen that about her growing up. It was as if she could read my mind on her death bed.

  “You do as I ask, Tylar, and you'll put your mama’s killer away. You find your daddy. Judge Tylar will help you, if need be. You let him know it was his wife and her friend that paid Matthew all of that money. When she died, the money stopped. Your mama loved you and that's the God’s honest truth. I never did. I’m sorry, I wish that I had, but by the time you were born, I was just too fucked up. Please tell Daniel that I loved him.”

  She breathed her last breath as her eyes closed. The screen that had been beeping, suddenly flat-lined into one constant audio tone. A nurse came in right away and ushered me out.

  “Aren’t you going to call a ‘Code Blue’ or something?” I asked.

  “Your mother had a DNR order. It’s what she wanted. She’s at peace now. I’m sorry for your loss.”

  I wasn’t about to mention that my loss had occurred twenty-one years ago. It made sense to continue playing the daughter role for now.

  “I don’t want her body moved until my husband gets here,” I said. “My mother left explicit instructions with me. Let me remind you that I'm her next-of-kin. She has no one else.”

  I called Trey at home immediately. My hands were shaking.

  “Tylar,” he said, as soon as he picked up.

  “Trey, I need you here now. Maggie is gone. Please drop Preston at Gina’s and get to the hospital. There's something that you need to see, immediately. I need a lawyer.”

  Trey was at my side in less than an hour. I'd managed to have my way with the nursing staff. Sandy had returned to the jail to start the process of releasing Maggie’s personal effects to her next-of-kin, which to her belief, was me. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was, which is what I needed to ask Trey. Did a niece trump a half-brother as far as next-of-kin?

  Trey and I went into the chapel located on the same floor as the ICU. Thankfully, no one else was in there. I played the video for him of Maggie’s deathbed conversation.

  “Tylar, I don’t see any problem in requesting the autopsy. It's customary for the hospital to do that in cases where the patient has been hospitalized at that particular hospital.”

  “Good,” I said, relieved that we would get past the first request Maggie had made.

  “Here’s the thing though, Tylar. I’m not sure how to define a post-mortem request to look for bayou poisons, as Maggie mentioned. It seems a bit eccentric, I guess, for lack of a better word.”

  “I know,” I replied. “Can you somehow talk to the medical examiner and find out if there's a way to preserve something for later testing maybe? I think that this Miss Trinity LaFleur may fill in some of the gaps where this bayou stuff is concerned.”

  “I’ll do the best I can, sweetie,” he said, hugging me.

  “Am I legally the next of kin or is Matthew?”

  “That’s a tough one, even for me,” he replied.

  He thought for a moment, raking his hand through his sleep-tousled hair. “As long as Maggie’s contact information listed you as next-of-kin, with no mention of Matthew, and provided that Matthew hasn’t been keeping tabs on her and doesn’t suddenly surface here to lay claim as next of kin, I really don’t think you have any concerns. If he truly poisoned her, I doubt very much that he wants to show his face now. He probably doesn’t think, under the circumstances, that you'd even be in touch with her after she took Preston and headed down to Mississippi.”

  I hadn’t considered that angle of it. Matthew had been the contact for the LLC that had been established for my trust and for the house in Kentucky. Matthew must've been the guy that Trey had talked to when he hung around the post office last year for nearly a full day in order to make contact. Matthew must also have been the ‘business partner’ she'd told Daniel about when he questioned the phone calls being made to Mississippi. Matthew was likely a co-conspirator in the abduction of Preston.

  I looked over at Trey, as he was watching me figure it all out. He apparently had arrived there first.

  “We need the proof, Tylar,” he said.

  Chapter 34

  I had a phone call to make once Trey and I got back to the apartment. I pulled Daniel’s number up in my phone’s contact list. I hoped that he hadn’t changed it. I heard his voice on the other end when he answered.

  “Daniel, its Tylar Sinclair. I’m afraid that I have some bad news.”

  Onc
e I'd broken the news to him about Maggie’s death, I filled Daniel in on the specifics concerning where she wanted to be buried; I shared with him her message that she'd loved him. He was silent for several moments.

  “I guess, if she said it on her deathbed, then it just might be the truth, for once,” he said solemnly.

  I explained that an autopsy was to be performed and the body would be released in a couple of days for transport to Indiana. I asked Daniel if he minded making the arrangements with a local mortuary at his end; I'd do the same here to handle the transfer of her remains to the mortuary in Indiana. I told him that we would pay the cost for everything. The cash in Maggie’s possession had turned out to be a little more than fifteen thousand. That would more than cover it.

  “No, Tylar,” Daniel replied, startling me. “I'll cover the costs for this. She's taken enough from you. I want to do this.”

  “Are you sure, Daniel? Aren’t you back in school?”

  “I held back some of the reward money you and your husband gave me, so I’m good. I’ve straightened my life around because of that money. I want to do this for Maggie, as well,” he said.

  “Well, okay then. I’ll call you as soon as I get notification that the coroner has released her body.”

  “Sounds good,” he replied, “I’ll contact the local mortuary up here, as well and put them in touch with the county coroner’s office down there. Is there any particular reason why they're doing an autopsy?”

  “It’s what Maggie wanted. She told me that before she passed away. She felt she'd been poisoned.”

  “No shit,” he said with surprise.

  “That reminds me, Daniel. I remember you telling me that Maggie had run up your cell phone bills with calls being made to Mississippi last year?”

  “Yeah,” he scoffed, “she claimed she had some business partner down there.”

  “Is there any way that you can get those phone records? I’d like to have that phone number.”

  “Yeah, I sure can. I'll request copies of my cell phone log and get them to you. Do you think her business partner had anything to do with her death?”