Pecked to Death

by Vanessa Gray Bartal

  He yelped and wobbled on the ladder, grasping the fixture for support. “Sadie! You scared me.”

  “I knocked, but you didn’t hear me.”

  “And so you let yourself in,” he said as he descended the ladder. Luke was always grumpy after he was scared. Or sad. Or mad. Basically, he lived most of his life in a state of grumpiness or near-grumpiness.

  “It’s Aunt Abby’s house,” Sadie said. “I’ve always been welcome here before. Is that going to change?”

  He didn’t answer, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t sure what she would do if he cut off the one place she had always found refuge. Even with Luke’s geek stuff scattered around, nothing could erase the familiar presence of Aunt Abby. Her scent and style were stamped on everything. Sadie walked to the mohair couch, sat, and rested her giant chicken feet on the ottoman. “I went to see Doctor Jones,” she announced.

  “Because of yesterday?”

  She had to think for a second to remember her heat exhaustion from the day before. “No, your friend Hal fixed me up. I’m fine today. I went to talk to him about Aunt Abby’s death.”

  “Hmm,” Luke said. He didn’t stop working. He was so task oriented; it drove her crazy.

  “He said Abby was pregnant,” she said.

  “Hmm,” he said, then, “Wait, what?” He stopped short and looked at her, head cocked to the side.

  “Oh, so you are listening,” she said. He rolled his eyes and resumed working.

  “I can listen and unpack at the same time. Continue.”

  “So I asked him if he signed the death certificate, and he said yes. And then he said Abby died of natural causes, and that she may or may not have been secretly sick. And then he said he was with her when she died.”

  “Hmm,” Luke said.

  “Luke!” Sadie snapped.

  He paused to look at her. “What? I heard you, but I don’t see how this is earth-shattering information. He was with her when she died peacefully and signed the death certificate. Isn’t that how it should be?”

  “Then why did she say she was murdered?” Sadie asked.

  “How could she say she was murdered before her death?” Luke said.

  “Exactly. She must have known something or…or…” she sat back, trying to sort her thoughts.

  “Or what?” he asked, pausing again. As always with Sadie, silence got his attention better than chatter.

  “What if he killed her?” she said softly.

  “Sadie!” Luke said. “That’s crazy. You can’t accuse a respected man like Doc Jones of murder,”

  “I’m not accusing; I’m brainstorming. And I don’t mean that he strangled her for kicks. But what if Abby was sick, and she asked him to kill her? You know he would do anything for her.”

  He sat beside her as he digested that. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “Why wouldn’t she fade away with dignity?”

  “Unless it was the type of illness that wouldn’t allow for dignity. What if she had some form of dementia? She would have hated that.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know if I buy Doc Jones breaking the law, even for Abby.”

  “Let’s think of it this way: If I found out I had dementia and asked you to kill me, would you do it?” she asked.

  “No. I wouldn’t kill you or anyone, and no one should be selfish enough to ask another person to break the law for them.”

  To Luke, the world was nice and monochrome—he refused to acknowledge gray areas. Sadie was heartened by his answer, however. At least he hadn’t said he didn’t care enough about her to do anything.

  “What was her state of mind the last few times you saw her?” she asked.

  “Normal, a little withdrawn, maybe.”

  “What was the talk in the neighborhood? Was anyone saying anything about her?”

  Luke squinted, trying to remember. “Now that you mention it, I do sort of remember hearing chatter that Aunt Abby was losing it, but I can’t remember who said it or why.”

  “I need to talk to the neighbors.”

  “You need to let this go. You talked to Doc, you satisfied yourself that she went peacefully and didn’t die alone. Let it go, Sadie.”

  “I can’t, not until I feel like I have closure.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Oh, good, go with your feelings because that’s always worked out so well for you before.”

  She reached over and pinched his bicep, smiling. “Just a little while longer, tiger, and you and your Russian robot will have the world to yourselves again. How long is her warranty good for, by the way? Because I heard those taller models don’t last as long as the smaller ones. And how long have you been dating?”

  “We’ve been dating a few months, we’re happy, and I’m not talking about her with you. What about you? I’m surprised one of your hard bodies hasn’t swooped to your rescue by now.”

  “First of all, never say hard bodies again. I just threw up a little in my mouth. Second, I’m single. Happily,” she added even as her heart thought of Rick and tore a little more. Had he moved on by now? Maybe he was dating Celia Raker, the cow who usurped Sadie’s position at the television station. Maybe Sadie should send a congratulatory note telling her to enjoy the leftovers.

  “Whoa, Sadie Cooper is single. That happens, what, once every decade or so? Should I call my friend at NASA and ask him to look for atmospheric anomalies, too?”

  “Whoa, Luke Sawyer making a joke. That happens, what, never?” She shoved his arm.

  “I am funny,” he said, shoving her arm in return.

  “Do you say that to yourself every morning in the mirror in the hope that it will come true?” she asked.

  “Vaslilssa thinks I’m hilarious,” he said.

  “She’s the one who doesn’t speak English, right?” Sadie countered.

  “We communicate just fine,” he said.

  Sadie closed her eyes and held up her hands. “Don’t put images of you and women in my head. I just got rid of the ones of you trying to play baseball.”

  “I wasn’t that bad,” Luke argued.

  “You broke your arm standing in the outfield,” she said.

  “Who lets their dog dig a hole in the middle of the outfield? Not my fault I fell.”

  “That might have been a plausible excuse if you were running to catch a ball, but it happened during a timeout,” Sadie said.

  “Fine, I will admit I’m not an athlete, but I am funny.”

  “Prove it; make me laugh.”

  “I can’t work on command.”

  “A funny man would.”

  “I will make you laugh when you least expect it,” he promised.

  “That’s all the time,” she said.

  “Wow, that brutal honesty is so refreshing. Tell me again why you’re single.”

  “Because I’m saving up for a Russian. Remind me how much they cost.”

  “Well, she’s getting her PhD, so kind of a lot, much more than you can afford on the chicken scratch you make.”

  Sadie laughed and slapped her hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe you actually made a joke that was funny.”

  “And it was at your expense—it’s a win-win for all of us.”

  They were slouched low on the couch together, their feet touching on the ottoman. For some reason, Sadie’s mind flashed to Abby and the Doctor. How many times had they sat on the couch like this, talking and laughing? And yet they could never get it together and overcome whatever held them back from being a couple. Instead they had both remained single all their lives, devoted to each other in friendship. She couldn’t decide if that was sad or happy. Wasn’t it better to remain friends and not be anchored in a miserable marriage? Of course, she had only seen matrimony as a misery, both in her parents’ lives and in her own brief marriage. Luke’s parents were happy and always had been. Was he optimistic about love?

  “Luke, are you going to marry your Russian?” she asked.

  “Um, when did we make the rapid transition to my personal
life?”

  “Just answer the question,” Sadie pushed.

  “I don’t know. We’ve only been dating a few months, but everyone wants to get married someday, don’t they?”

  Sadie didn’t answer because she didn’t know. She tried to picture Luke married, but the image wouldn’t form. Maybe because she pictured him more with the homely teacher type instead of the Russian supermodel he was dating. They stared at the same point in space, lost in their own deep thoughts. The sun was slipping low on the horizon when Sadie roused herself out of her stupor. Her head dipped to the right as she studied Luke’s profile. He was still staring into space; she wondered what he was thinking about.

  “Luke.”

  His head dipped toward hers. “Hmm.” Somehow they had shifted until they were face to face, only a few centimeters apart.

  “Promise me something,” she said.

  He took in her gold ringlets, baby blue eyes, and rosy cheeks and was suddenly afraid of what she might ask, and even more afraid that he would say yes no matter what it was. “What?”

  “Promise me that when you get married, it will be with someone you know, love, and respect. Promise me it will be real and you’ll live happily ever after.”

  “Isn’t that how everyone goes into marriage, Sadie?”

  Sadie smiled and touched her fingertips to the stubble on his cheeks. That was new. The Luke she knew couldn’t grow facial hair. “I’ve missed your idealism. Good to know I didn’t kill it completely.” Abruptly, she dropped her hand and stood. “I should go. I’ve deprived Gideon of the chance to yell at me for too long.” More people had taken her picture during work, this time with the chicken head off. The paper was sure to run with that, and Gideon would be furious. Sadie tried and failed to feel any remorse over that.

  She let herself out while Luke stared at her with a furrow between his eyebrows. What had that last part been about? Was she trying to tell him that she hadn’t gone into her marriage with any of those feelings? For the first time in a long time, Luke didn’t feel anger when he thought of Sadie’s hasty nuptials. In place of the anger was curiosity and a little bit of pity. Why had she done it, and why hadn’t it lasted? Something in her tone made him wonder if she had been the victim rather than the perpetrator, and he found himself feeling angry all over again, this time at her husband. What had he done to her? Had he hurt her?

  He shook his head and stared at the door, more confused than he had ever been. It was happening again; Sadie was bewitching him with her charms and making him forget everything that had passed between them. Not this time, not again. He had watched her befuddle countless men over the years. It had happened to him once, and that was enough to learn his lesson. As confirmation of his vow not to fall prey to Sadie, he picked up the phone and had a long conversation with Vaslilssa. Even though he couldn’t understand most of what she said, he felt better when he hung up the phone. He had a girlfriend, a new house, and he was starting his doctorate in a few weeks. Life was finally on track, just the way he wanted it, and he wouldn’t let hurricane Sadie ruin it again.

  Chapter 11

  Sadie decided her next order of business should be a good old-fashioned gossip session with the neighbors. Luke had said he thought someone mentioned Abby acting strange. The best place to learn more information was to go straight to the source—the rumor mill. News flew around the neighborhood like head lice at summer camp. If anyone knew anything about Abby, it was the neighbors. But Sadie couldn’t show up empty-handed, and that was why she spent the rest of her evening baking a few dozen cookies, much to her father’s chagrin.

  “Where did you even find that stuff?” he groused. “No one has baked here since your mother died.”

  How well Sadie knew. Her mother loved to bake. Though Sadie hadn’t shared her sweet tooth or enthusiasm for the hobby, walking into a house that smelled like browned butter and melted chocolate was one of her dearest memories. And she had enjoyed the time spent with her mother in the kitchen. It had been a safe place, far from the judgmental and competitive worlds of pageants and cheerleading. They could have normal mother-daughter bonding time without her mother trying to convince her to get hair extensions or smear petroleum jelly on her teeth to make her smile sparkle.

  Few men that Sadie dated ever realized she could cook and bake. That was a secret she only let out after she trusted a man. Men who saw her as a trophy didn’t like it because it didn’t fit with their image of her. They wanted to pretend she was vapid and only knew how to order takeout, a lesson she learned the hard way from her erstwhile husband. Sadie could still remember the one and only time she cooked for him and the ensuing disaster in which she ended up wearing most of it. The hot food had soaked through her clothes, sending her to the school’s medical clinic with second degree burns. The doctor had bought her excuse that she tripped and spilled the food on herself. She remembered how he had laughed and made a dumb blond joke as he applied medication to her many wounds.

  Rick knew that she could cook, and he had loved it about her, or so he said. My Sadie is full of surprises, he had commented when she shyly presented him with a homemade pie. “And so was my Rick,” she muttered. She was angry that she hadn’t seen their breakup coming. How could she have been so stupid to trust someone so completely?

  “What did you say?” Gideon asked. Sadie jumped and tried to cover. The skill of tuning him out was such a part of her life that she forgot he was still in the kitchen with her.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Just thinking out loud.”

  Her father eyed her through narrowed eyes. “Who’s Rick?”

  “Just another of my men, Dad,” Sadie said and quickly retreated to her own inner world again when he sighed expressively and rustled his paper. Her father could say so much without saying anything at all.

  The cookies were finally done, and Sadie could once again escape her father’s house. She loaded up a plate, covered it with plastic wrap, and set off for Maddie and Tom Sawyer’s house.

  “Sadie, what a pleasant surprise! Come in, sweetie.” Maddie welcomed her inside with a hug before taking the proffered cookies. “Is this your mom’s recipe?”

  “Sure thing,” Sadie said.

  “Come into the kitchen while I pour some milk to go along with these,” Maddie said.

  “None for me, thanks. I’ll just have coffee.” The Sawyers always had coffee available because Tom had a raging caffeine addiction.

  “Tom switched to decaf, I hope that’s okay,” Maddie said.

  “What?” Sadie exclaimed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I know, who would’ve ever thought? But he started having trouble sleeping at night, and the doctor said it was time to cut back. It’s a terrible thing to get old, honey.”

  “I’ll make sure it never happens to me,” Sadie said.

  Maddie chuckled. “You’re so funny, Sadie.”

  Sadie supposed that, compared to Luke, the statement was probably true. She poured herself a cup of coffee and added artificial sweetener while Maddie poured herself a glass of milk and set some cookies on a smaller plate. “So, Maddie, what’s going on? We didn’t have a chance to talk the other night.”

  “Well, Luke got accepted into his doctoral program. Did he tell you?”

  Maddie suffered under the delusion that Sadie and Luke were still best friends forever. “No, he didn’t mention it,” Sadie said. “Although I did meet his girlfriend, Vanilla Sky.”

  Maddie laughed and choked on a cookie.

  “What’s she like? Do you approve?”

  “Those are two very good questions,” Maddie said carefully. Sadie leaned closer; this was going to be good. “As far as knowing what she’s like, she’s very beautiful, isn’t she?” Sadie nodded her agreement. The Russian was undeniably beautiful. She was impatient to hear the but that she sensed in the works.

  “That’s it?” Sadie said when Maddie didn’t continue. “What about her personality?”

  “Can I tell you a secr
et, Sadie?”

  Sadie nodded. Yes, please!

  “I can’t understand a single word that woman says. And her accent is so harsh that I always think she’s angry at me. To be truthful, I’m a little bit afraid of her.”

  “So you don’t approve,” Sadie said.

  “Luke is a grown man, or so I keep telling myself. It’s not a matter of whether or not I approve of his choices; it’s a matter of whether or not he’s making good choices. Except for the fact that I might as well be speaking to a gerbil for all the communication we have with her, I can’t seem to find anything wrong with her. Luke says she smart, warm, and funny.”