That at least brought a smile to his face. “You said that Kane is a good kid, but actually I have two good-no, great kids.”
I leaned in and hugged him. “And we have a great dad.”
He pulled me tight into his shoulder and wrapped his arms around me. It had been a long time since he'd held me like this. “I'm beginning to think that this whole thing was a bad idea,” he said with a sigh.
“What whole thing?” I asked as I pulled away gently.
“This…” he said with an expansive gesture that took in his surroundings. “The bed and breakfast.”
“But it was Steve's dream,” I said.
“Maybe some dreams aren't meant to be realized.”
“Do you really believe that?” I asked.
“I don't know anymore. I do know that it's not worth losing my family over.”
“You've not lost anyone.”
“Yet. It's causing a lot of strain on my relationship with Steve too.”
I looked at him closely. “How much strain? You're not going to break up are you?”
“It's not that bad yet, but it seems like all we do is fight these days. He so stressed out that I'm beginning to worry that he's going to have a breakdown.”
“If Amalie was gone that would relieve a lot of the stress, right?”
“It would help. It wouldn't be a magical cure, but it would go a long way.”
“Then I just have to get her to go away.”
“How? We don't even know why she's still here. We found the baby and moved it out next to her grave and she's still here. And now it looks like someone pushed her down the stairs. What does she want? Does she want justice from the person who killed her baby?”
“I don't know what she wants,” I said. “But I intend to find out.”
“Just don't do anything stupid.”
“I promise.”
“I'm going to go see who was on the phone and if it wasn't Kane I think I'll drive home and see him. With only the Munster's staying here, Steve doesn't really need me. You want to ride back with me?”
“Um, actually, I think I'll stay here and see if I can find out anything else.”
I could tell he didn't like that idea. He seemed to struggle inwardly for a few moments, then he stood up and dropped a hand to my shoulder. “Be careful, son.”
I smiled up at him. “I will, Dad.” I saw a tear form in his eye before he turned and walked quickly away. I rarely called Adam dad, and whenever I did, he had a pretty emotional reaction.
I slowly pulled myself to my feet using the doorframe as leverage. I had several very sore spots that I had a feeling would be bruises if I were to check. I decided to take stock of my injuries later. I turned to face the stairs to the cupola and tried to summon the courage to go up there alone. Taking a deep breath, I started up, leaving the light off because it somehow seemed appropriate. I took one step at a time, waiting for the sense of horror to hit me, but it never did. The feeling of old pain and death still lingered, but the overwhelming horror was gone. Now that I knew what had happened there, had it faded?
I reached the top of the stairs without incident and looked around the small room. It was lined with windows on every side. During the day, it looked out on a spectacular view of the surrounding woodlands and the creek that wound its way along the side of the property. All I could see now was the thick blackness that lay over the house like a blanket. I walked around the small room, which didn't take long since you could only take a few steps in any direction before bumping into the windows.
“What do you want, Amalie?” I whispered.
I heard a creak from the hall downstairs and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. The soft brush of a footfall on the stairs followed and I found myself backing away from the opening that led down. Now that I was faced with actually confronting Amalie, I wasn't at all sure I wanted to. A figure began to come into view, looking eerily as if they were rising directly from the floor. My breath caught in my throat and I fought the urge to scream. Why had I done this alone?
“Killian?” the figure asked in Judy's voice.
“Judy?” I asked as I released my pent up fear in a whoosh of relief.
“What are you doing up here in the dark? I didn't know if you were up here or not.”
“You scared the hell out of me,” I exclaimed, panting slightly.
“Sorry,” she chuckled. “Adam said you were still up here and I thought I'd come check on you.”
“Did you notice anything as you were coming up the stairs?” I asked as I gathered my scattered wits.
“I wasn't paying…wait.”
“No horrible feeling?”
“It was never as strong for me as it was for you so I didn't really notice, but you're right. What do you think it means?”
“Maybe we're done with this room now that we know what happened here.”
“Where do we go now?”
“If you don't know, I'm sure I don't.”
I looked over to the stairs and remembered the feeling of fear that I had felt just before falling. “Who do you think pushed her?” I asked.
“I've been thinking about that. Do we have any proof that the story that real estate agent told Steve was true?”
“What kind of proof? And what part do you think might not be true.”
“I don't know exactly, it's just a feeling I have. Maybe some research is in order.”
“Research?”
“I'd like to know if all the dates of death add up.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Remember your dream, the man you saw running from the creek towards the house? We never knew who he was. I'd like to be able to rule out the Captain.”
“But I thought he was lost at sea.”
“That's where the veracity of the real estate agent's story comes into play. What if she didn't have all the facts straight, or what if she was telling the version of the story she had heard, but facts have a way of getting changed over time.”
“How would you do the research? This all happened so long ago.”
“I'll try the library; they have an extensive genealogy and local history research room. They have all the old tax records, vital statistics records, censuses, and so on. Hopefully I'll be able to find something about the Marniens. The Captain must have been a fairly prominent citizen of the area so I may be able to find something in the old newspapers too. I think they have most of those on microfilm.”
“Have you done this sort of thing before?”
“A friend of mine back in California was a genealogist and sometimes she'd get me to help her with research. It's not like it's all that hard, it just takes a lot of patience.”
“Sounds like detective work.”
“It's the same thing really. Well, it doesn't look like Amalie is going to make an appearance tonight. Why don't you go on home?”
“Well, since they have a few spare rooms at the moment, I think I'll stay here. That way I'll be on hand in case she decides to show up again. Besides, I'm closer to work and school here anyway.”
“What about clothes?”
“I'll just wear these again tomorrow. I'm not that dirty. I'll run home tomorrow night and get enough clothes to last me a few days at least.”
“You're really serious about getting to the bottom of this, aren't you?”
“Yeah, I am. I've been really selfish about all this. After everything Adam has done for me, this is the least I can do. For that matter, Steve's probably done just as much. It would be wrong for me to be able to do something and not do it.”
“I was a little worried for a while, but you're turning out alright. You're an amazing kid, Killian Kendall. Adam should be proud to have a son like you.”
I blushed, but her comments made me think about Jake. It was too dark to really make out her expression, but I couldn't help but wonder if she was feeling as lucky. “I'm sorry I haven't been able to do more about Jake lately.”
She waved her hand dismi
ssively. “Don't worry about it. I know you haven't forgotten and you've had enough other things going on.”
“But I made a commitment to you...”
“And I have no doubt that you'll live up to it. Shane told me he somehow managed to get you tickets to the AIDS Ball. That's good. Maybe you'll be able to figure out what Jake is doing there.”
“I hope so. I still feel really lost on this one. I have no idea what is going on.”
“You'll figure it out. Come on. Let's go downstairs. I'll help you make up a bed before I leave. Steve should just get to bed and get what little rest he can before he has to get up and start breakfast.”
“Steve cooks the breakfast?” I asked in surprise. That was news to me.
“No, I meant he has to get things ready and be there when the guests come down. Both of them. He has a cook who comes in to prepare a light breakfast every morning. Nothing fancy.”
We found Steve downstairs sitting on the settee in the foyer, half asleep. He told me I could sleep in one of the rooms that hadn't been occupied so the sheets were clean. He gave me the key and gratefully dragged himself off to bed. I saw Judy out and locked the door behind her before going to find what would be my room for the next few nights.
The room was beautiful, just like every other room in the house. Adam and Steve had furnished the entire place with antiques from the civil war period. This particular room was done in shades of blue with white accents. Very soothing. Rich, heavy blue velvet curtains hung at the window over sheer white drapes. The large, comfy looking chair with carved wooden arms and legs had been upholstered in the same material. A tall mahogany dresser stood against one wall with an oil lamp and silver-framed mirror on its top. Framed watercolors hung on the wall and a beautiful hand-painted glass shade covered the overhead light bulb.
Despite the beautiful decor, there was only one piece of furniture that I was interested in at that particular moment: the bed. It was a mahogany frame bed with carved spindle posts with a mattress that was almost as high as my waist. I barely registered any of that, however, as exhaustion suddenly overtook me. It had been a stressful night and it was beginning to take its toll. I turned off the light, pulled my clothes off, and climbed into the bed. As I drifted into the dream world, I wondered again if it was just simply too late to help Amalie. I could only hope it wasn't too late to help Adam and Steve.
Chapter 18
I have to admit that I was relieved when I awoke the next morning without having been wakened during the night by anyone, alive or otherwise. Despite my determination to see this through, I still wasn't looking forward to seeing Amalie again.
I took a break from my cases on Friday; I just went to class and caught up on routine stuff at the office. It was a nice change of pace. That night, Micah took me out to dinner and again. We avoided discussing the case while we ate. Afterwards, we took a walk along the river that ran along next to the restaurant where we had eaten. I couldn't resist bringing up the case any longer. I had been thinking of a plan to find Neal and I had a question that I needed the answer to in order to implement my plan.
“What is the name of the agency that you and Paul worked for?” I asked him.
He looked at me as if gauging my feelings on the subject. “Are you sure you want to talk about this?”
I shrugged. “I'm doing better with it now. I'm trying not to be so judgmental.”
He gave me a lop-sided smile. “I thought I'd given you the name already, not that it will help much. They're not exactly listed in the yellow pages. It's called Top to Bottom.”
I blinked for a second, thinking he must be joking. When I realized that he was serious, I couldn't help but burst into laughter. “No,” I sputtered, “You definitely had not told me the name before. I would not have forgotten that.”
Micah waited for the giggles to wear off before asking, “Why did you want to know? Are we still on for Michelangelo's tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, we're still on. I was just curious. It occurred to me that if the club doesn't pan out, it would be hard to find something that you don't even know what it's called. Actually, I have an idea. If it works, it might mean that we can just have fun at the club and not worry about business. Our last trip there didn't turn out so well; I wouldn't mind exorcizing those memories.”
“True,” he said with a grimace. “I'd ask you what your plan is, but the fact of the matter is, I don't want to talk business right now.”
“Oh?” I asked, giving him a coy look through my lashes. “And what do you want to talk about?”
He stopped and caught my arm, swinging me around into his embrace. “I don't want to talk about anything,” he said in a husky voice before kissing me tenderly on the lips. I melted into his arms, slipping one arm around his waist and running my other hand through his hair. It didn't take long for kiss to heat up. We came up for air a few minutes later, both of us breathing heavily.
“I've missed you,” he breathed as he held me tightly to his chest.
“I've missed you too.”
“Do you want to come back to my place tonight?”
I knew what he was asking and I did want it; I was surprised at how desperately I wanted it. “I want to, but I need to stay at the bed and breakfast. I'm on Amalie watch.”
Micah pulled back wearing a startled expression. “Since when?”
“Since last night. It's a long story, but suffice it to say that I'm trying not to be so selfish. Steve and Adam need me to do this and I'm going to do my best.”
“To get rid of Amalie?”
“Something like that.”
“I'm proud of you.”
“Don't be. I'm still scared spitless.”
“What does that have to do with anything? Who wouldn't be scared? The important thing is that you're doing it anyway. How about if I stay over with you then? You have your own room, right?”
“You'd be willing to do that?” I asked in surprise.
“Do what? Would I be willing to sleep with you? That's a silly question,” he teased.
“I meant sleep in that house, silly.”
“It wouldn't be the first time, remember? Besides, I'm not sensitive like you are. She could show up and do a Mexican Hat Dance in the middle of the bed and I doubt I'd notice.”
I snorted at that mental image. “Oh, you'd notice alright. She can make herself known to just about anyone, sensitive or not, if she wants to. If you're serious about staying with me tonight, I'd like that.”
“I'm very serious.” He pulled me close again and showed me just how serious he was.
I'd gone by and picked up some clothes and toiletries from home earlier that day, and now we ran by Micah's apartment so he could do the same. We almost got sidetracked there, but we finally made it out the door. We'd left my car there when we went out to eat, so I drove from there with Micah driving behind me.
Steve gave me a surprised look when I showed up with Micah and we both went upstairs with duffle bags, but he didn't comment. Micah was still feeling quite amorous, but I tried to convince him that we should restrain ourselves for now and go back down and be social. He agreed only after I promised him we wouldn't stay long. When the ballroom on the first floor wasn't being used for parties, Steve and Adam had arranged a comfortable sitting area around the large fireplace. It wasn't quite chilly enough yet to need a fire, but Steve had lit one anyway, for purely aesthetic reasons. Then again, there is something comforting and inviting about a crackling fire, so maybe there was more to it than I first thought. Steve served drinks from the wet bar in the corner every night and often the guests would gather and socialize with one another and their host.
We arrived back downstairs to find that the ghost-hunting couple was still the only other people staying there, although another couple was scheduled to come in the next day. Conversation with Alan and Carla, the couple with the ghost fetish, was awkward at best. All they wanted to talk about was supernatural phenomenon in general, and ghosts in particular. As hard as w
e tried to steer the conversation to other topics, they always managed to turn it back to Amalie. They tried especially hard to grill me about my experiences. My reticence only seemed to inflame their curiosity all the more. They were beginning to give me a headache when I guess Micah realized how much they were getting to me.
“We'd better go soon,” he said suddenly, cutting Alan's diatribe on the importance of understanding the living impaired off in mid-sentence. “I have to get up early in the morning and get that story finished. They want it for Sunday's edition.”
The Truth of Yesterday Page 26
