by J A Whiting
“Sounds like a smart plan.”
“I want to keep the house, too,” Olivia said. “It’s my home.”
“I’m sure that will break Magdalene Streeter’s heart,” Joe chuckled. “She’ll be after you about selling it, you know. Visions of dollar signs must be dancing in her head. She’d been barking up Aggie and my trees lately about selling the houses. You know how she is, all sweet when she wants something. Any time we’d run into her, she would pour it on, ‘You two should start thinking about selling those houses of yours. Wouldn’t you like it better somewhere warm?’” Joe shook his head. “That woman is not subtle.”
“That’s her. That’s why she is such a successful real estate broker, I guess,” Olivia said.
Joe rolled his eyes. “Don’t let her bully you, Liv. I’m sure she’ll approach you soon to see if you’re planning to sell.”
“What do you think, Joe? Can I handle owning the house on my own?”
“Of course you can. I’m here. I’ll help you if you need it.”
“Aggie left some money that I can use for property taxes and utilities,” Olivia said. “I think it will be enough until I finish law school.”
“It’s your house, Liv. If you want to keep it, then we’ll make it work.”
“Thanks, Joe. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said softly. After a minute, Olivia said, “I need to talk to you about the accident.”
Joe nodded. “Awful. When I got coffee after my walk this morning, I heard people in the bakery talking about it. I didn’t know then that you had been at the scene.” He took another slice of pizza from the box. “The victim owned the house at the corner of the point. He was some sort of financial advisor…investments, wealth planning, stuff like that. Name was Martin Andersen.”
“I don’t remember ever seeing him around,” Olivia said.
“The guy lived in Boston. Owned the beach house for about three years but didn’t use it that much. Guess he worked a lot.”
“You ever meet him?” Olivia asked.
“No. Never knew his name. Until now. I understand he had a partner but no other family.”
Olivia was quiet for a minute. “So what the hell happened? The accident…he’d been shot…the tongue?” She shuddered.
Joe shrugged and shook his head. “Nasty business. Gruesome.”
“The man…Andersen…he was trying to tell me something. I couldn’t make it out. I thought he was calling for someone else in the car. But the car was empty.”
“Cops didn’t find anyone else. They must have searched around in case there was a passenger. Thrown out of the car or whatever…”
“Andersen was so frantic…I assumed he was just in shock. He was pulling on me…like he wanted me to get him out of the car…or he didn’t want to be left alone…just grabbing at me…pulling my jacket. His legs were all tangled in the metal. It was awful, Joe. I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t understand him.”
Olivia wiped her hands on a paper napkin. “Now I think he was trying to tell me something. Something important.”
“What did it sound like he was saying?” Joe asked. “Could you get any part of it?”
Olivia was quiet for a minute. “It sounded like he was saying something like…‘red Julie’.”
“Red Julie,” Joe repeated. He thought about that. “‘Julie’…Cops said he didn’t have any relatives. A friend? Ex-wife? Co-worker? Pet? But what’s the ‘red’ part of it?”
“I might’ve gotten it wrong. It was hard to make out. It’s just what it sounded like.”
Joe took a pull of his beer. They looked out over the darkening Atlantic.
“There’s more,” Olivia said.
Joe looked at her.
“Andersen started really panicking while we were waiting for the ambulance.” She paused. “He was making these awful noises and trying to roll from side to side. Like he was trying to pull himself out of the car.”
Olivia rubbed her forehead. “I was scared.” Her voice was soft.
“Naturally…” Joe said. Olivia didn’t say anything else. She kept rubbing her forehead and started to massage her temples.
“What?” Joe asked.
Olivia lifted her eyes to him. “Andersen looked over my shoulder…his face was horrified…I turned. There was a man standing so close to me. I didn’t even hear him approach. He said nothing. It was so weird, Joe. He just stared at Andersen. Just glared at him. His face was…mean, like nothing I’ve ever seen. Andersen was flipping out, making screaming noises and grunts.” She shivered.
“So what happened? This man say anything?”
“Nothing. Just staring. I felt…I don’t know…menace…something bad. I felt like I had to protect Andersen. I know it sounds crazy. It was an instinct, a feeling. Like this other man was…evil.” Olivia’s hand shook as she lifted her glass from the grass next to her chair. She sipped. “His pant leg was wet. I think he was bleeding, Joe.”
“So what did he do? What happened?” Joe asked.
“I told him to back off.”
Joe’s eyes went wide. “You did?” He smiled and added, “I don’t know why I’m surprised.”
Olivia swallowed hard. “He looked me in the eye then. It was bad. His look. I thought he was going to kill us both.”
Joe’s face creased with worry.
“Some people pulled over just then. Ran over to us. The cops arrived too…and the paramedics. I …I didn’t see him anymore after that. He disappeared. The officer came right up to me and started asking questions.”
Joe shook his head.
“There’s something else,” Olivia said.
Joe raised his eyebrows.
“I was wearing my tan jacket. After the accident, I was upset, shaking, so I stopped for a coffee. I reached into my pocket for my money.”
She put her hand in the pocket of her shorts. “And found this.” She opened her outstretched hand.
Joe leaned forward. “A necklace? A cross?” He picked it up and turned it in his hand a few times, inspecting it. “Looks valuable.” He saw the engraved ‘S’ and traced it with his finger. “An initial.” He looked at Olivia. “Not Martin Andersen’s initial obviously.”
“No,” she said. “Why would he put it in my pocket, Joe? He’s the only one who could have put it there. Why not just hand it to me?”
Joe stared at it. “He must have given it to you deliberately.”
Olivia nodded. “I agree. But why? Why put it in my pocket?”
Joe kept staring at it as if he might glean some answer by looking. He raised his eyes. “I guess he didn’t want anyone to see it?” Joe offered.
“So did he steal it?” Olivia asked. “Did he want me to return it to someone? To Julie, maybe? Whoever she is.” She sighed. “Or did he want me to hide it from someone and that’s why he slipped it into my pocket?”
Joe shrugged. “It must have been important to him since he made sure he gave it to you. In the midst of being trapped in the car and the tongue and the gunshot wound.” Joe winced at the thought of the man’s accident and injuries. “The guy’s dying but he makes sure he gives you this necklace. In secret.” He shook his head and passed the necklace back to Olivia.
“You didn’t tell the cops this stuff,” Joe said.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Olivia shook her head. “Not sure. It doesn’t feel right.” She looked up at Joe. “It seems like I have an obligation. To do the right thing. To honor Martin Andersen’s intention.” She put the necklace back in her pocket. “But first I have to figure out what that intention is.”
Chapter 5
Olivia walked into town to meet with the manager of the bank about Aggie’s accounts. On the way home, she wanted to pick up a few things at the food market. The store was small but it had an excellent array of products. She and Joe were planning on grilling chicken and vegetables for dinner and Olivia wanted to make a lemon marinade.
When she reached the town center,
Olivia noticed the new book shop across the street. A man was out front sweeping the sidewalk. He turned towards the road continuing his cleaning. Olivia smiled in surprise. Brad Walker. She hadn’t seen him since she was fourteen. They had been friends from the time they were seven years old. They both spent every summer in Ogunquit until his family moved to the west coast and didn’t travel to Maine anymore. Every summer day, they would swim, bike, climb trees, kayak, read, and sit by Joe’s fire pit at night and tell ghost stories. Brad gave Olivia a compliment once, telling her gratefully, ‘You’re as much fun as a boy and you’re not afraid of snakes or spiders.’ Actually she was afraid of snakes but she wouldn’t show her fear to Brad. Brad, his parents, and five sisters would come to Ogunquit around the twentieth of June and would stay for two months. As soon as Brad arrived, he and Olivia would pick up where they left off ten months before, as if they hadn’t been apart at all.
When they were fourteen, a new girl came to town for the last few weeks of the summer. Brad was smitten with the girl and he spent days mooning over her which drove Olivia crazy. When Brad asked the girl to the movies one evening, Olivia was furious. Every day for two weeks, he spent with the new girl. Olivia wanted to gouge her eyes out. Olivia would sit in Aggie’s shop in the afternoons, pissing and moaning while Aggie tended the store. “Why would he want to hang around with her? She just does her hair and doesn’t want to swim and wears makeup and she’s so boring,” Olivia would say. Aggie just listened. Or Olivia would ride with Joe to one of his house projects and would fume and rant while Joe painted or tiled or repaired. He tried to give Olivia a job to do to distract her but she was so angry she would only do it half-heartedly or with such rage that she risked ruining whatever task Joe had assigned her. That was the last summer Brad and his family came to Ogunquit and, at the time, Olivia had resented that he had ruined their last weeks together in favor of some blonde pixie.
Olivia watched Brad for a few minutes. She hadn’t seen him for seven years. He was tall now, with broad shoulders, but she would have recognized him from any angle or distance. The best friend I ever had. The sight of him warmed her with the sun of other summers, and of things that used to be but weren’t any more.
She crossed the street. Brad looked up as she approached and recognition passed over his face. They smiled at each other.
“In the market for a new book?’ he asked.
“I might be,” she replied.
“Then you’ve come to the right place.”
Olivia nodded. Brad stepped forward and hugged her. Olivia realized that despite all the summers they had spent together, they had never hugged before.
“You look good,” he told her.
“You too,” she said.
His face was serious. “I’m sorry about Aggie.”
“Thanks,” Olivia said. She blinked and changed the subject. “So, you’re back and working here.”
“Actually I own it.”
“You do? Well, congratulations.”
“Thanks. I’m going to try to make a go of it. I know everything’s ebooks now but some people still want to hold the book in their hands. I have a little café inside too. I’m planning on having author readings and signings and sometimes some music in the evenings.”
“Wow, I’m impressed,” Olivia told him.
His dark brown hair flopped over his forehead. His eyes were the color of the sky and to Olivia’s surprise her heart did a little flip. He leaned on the broom.
“I finished college a year early. Then I spent last year working in an independent book store while I developed my business plan. Decided to move back here and set up shop.”
“I hope it works out, Brad. It looks great.”
“I hear you’re going to law school in the fall,” Brad said.
Olivia looked surprised. “Yeah, I am.”
“I see Joe a lot. He told me. Harvard. Wow, that’s great. Just like Aggie.”
Olivia nodded.
“She was always so proud of you,” Brad said.
Some people approached and entered the store. Brad put the broom against the door jamb.
“Have time to come in?” he asked.
“Not right now. I have an appointment. Another time though,” she said.
“Come by anytime. Maybe you’ll even get a free latte.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I know the owner.” Brad grinned. He took a few steps toward the entrance but stopped before going in and turned back to Olivia. “Sorry about that last summer. I was dumb.”
“Yeah,” Olivia said. “You were.” She smiled at him.
***
Sunday night, Joe and Olivia made it to their favorite restaurant in the cove. They sat outside on the patio and had a fine meal while watching the boats in the cove. They raised their glasses and toasted their dear Aggie.
They walked home along the ocean.
“It’s going to take a long time to go through Aggie’s stuff,” Olivia said.
Joe nodded.
“Anything you’d like of hers? To remember her by?”
Joe smiled. He shook his head. “I got all I need to remember her right in here.” He touched his chest at his heart.
“How come you two never got married?” Olivia asked.
Joe laughed. “She never asked me.”
Olivia laughed at that. “You could’ve asked her.”
Joe looked at Olivia. “I was afraid she wouldn’t have me.”
“Right.” Olivia shook her head. “I see I’m getting nowhere with this line of questioning.”
“Maybe after your first year of law school is finished, your techniques will have improved. You can ask me again then.” He winked at Olivia.
“I will,” Olivia said. “Joe, do you have Aggie’s laptop and cell phone at your house? I can’t find them.”
“No. Did you check her car?” Aggie’s car was parked in one of Joe’s garage bays.
“I did. They aren’t in there. I’ve looked all over the house. Her computer backup drive isn’t there either.”
“Must be at the shop,” Joe offered.
“Yeah, I’ll go down to the store in the next couple of days. There’s so much to do with closing her accounts, paying bills and all, I just haven’t had a chance to get to the shop. What about her camera? Did she leave it at your house? I can’t find that either.”
“I don’t think so. I don’t recall seeing it. I’ll look around for it,” Joe told her. “If there’s anything you need me to do to help, I’m here.”
“I might take you up on that. I want to see what’s down in the basement, but you know how I hate dark, closed in spaces.”
“Yes, I do. Joe chuckled. “Think it has anything to do with getting yourself locked in that closet when you were little?”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “It could.”
Aggie used to have an old walnut wardrobe in the basement where she kept winter coats and jackets. On a rainy day when Olivia was five, she was playing in the basement and decided it would be a good idea to hide in the wardrobe. The door locked when she pulled it shut. Her screams brought Aggie and Joe running to the cellar where Joe had to pull the old wooden door off with a crowbar. The wardrobe was hauled to the dump the next day.
Joe and Olivia walked along in silence for a while, then came to one of the many benches placed along the Marginal Way. They were almost to their houses.
“Want to sit for a bit?” Joe asked.
“Yeah, let’s,” Olivia answered. They sat side by side looking out over the sea. The first stars were dotting the sky.
“How can she be gone, Joe?”
“Don’t know, Sweet Pea,” Joe sighed.
“She was fine when I came up here for a few days on my March school break.”
Joe nodded.
“You saw her everyday. Did she seem tired? Run down? Did you notice anything different about her? Was she worried about something?”
Joe rubbed his palms on his pants and took a deep breath. “No�
�nothing. I guess when it’s your time…”
“You don’t believe that…neither do I.”
Olivia turned to Joe. Tears were streaming down his face.
“Joe…” She put her arm around his shoulders.
He used both hands to brush away the tears. He forced a smile. “Big tough guy.”
“It happens to me all the time,” Olivia told him, her voice wobbly. “Everything’s fine and then something, a scent, the breeze on my arm, a word, the way the light comes in through the window, makes me think of her and the thought of never seeing Aggie again punches me right in the gut and I almost double over. I’ll be driving in the car or standing in the shower and the tears come pouring out.”
Joe nodded, his shoulders slumped. They sat in silence.
“Does the pain ever go away?” Olivia asked.
“It turns into a big hard knot, a lump that stays in your heart forever. Time goes by and it doesn’t hurt as much,” Joe told her. “But that lump is always there.”
When Joe was thirty-four, he lost his wife to cancer after ten years of marriage and was left to raise their two year old son alone. Joe’s son was now a prominent oncologist working in Boston.
Olivia sighed and slipped her arm through Joe’s. More stars twinkled in the sky.
“Thanks for straightening up the house and all. After Aggie died. Thanks for getting rid of the bike, too,” Olivia said.
Joe nodded.
“I know it wasn’t easy for you to do that. Thanks for taking care of everything so I could finish up school.”
“It hasn’t been easy on either one of us,” Joe said.
Olivia looked back out over the ocean. “Why was she out so late? Where was she going? Why was she on my bike? She never rode that thing.”
“I guess we’ll never know for sure. The police assume she was heading to the shop. But it wouldn’t have mattered if she was on that bike or not.”
“How could she have a massive heart attack? She was in better shape than you are.”
Joe cocked his head at her. “Thanks a lot. Does that mean I can expect to go at any time?”
