“Did he have an official diagnosis for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?” Esther asked.
But Armand shook his head. “He didn’t need one. Gomez knew all the things he was without some doctor’s diagnosis. OCD, with a healthy dose of high-functioning autism. He knew, and he always said he didn’t need some doctor to tell him. But here, with me, he was different. So different… I wouldn’t have allowed his hoarding here, but I was the only one who could get through to him, explain things to him,” he said, his voice sad again. “Oh, don’t think for a moment I didn’t know how kooky my Gomez was, or that he was a selfish son of a bitch. But he loved me in his own way, and he would never take his own life. He was too ornery. But to take his own life with sleeping pills, no less? Preposterous!”
Esther’s eyes grew misty. This life of her uncle’s, this life he’d shared with Armand, left her feeling so sad for not pushing her way into it and making him engage with her.
“Oh, Esther,” Armand croaked. “I’ve upset you. I never wanted to upset you.”
She bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head. “No. No, no. There’s just so much I didn’t know. So much I should have known, had I pestered him to let me in. But I didn’t, and even if he was cranky and selfish, at least he would have known me. I would have known him.”
Armand waved a dismissive hand and frowned. “Bah! Gomez was difficult on a good day, Esther. Your grandfather knew it, so did your father. Small children made him nervous, and he wasn’t much for barbecues or parties. You can’t be blamed because Gomez didn’t want to engage, dear. That was just Gomez.”
“So, my grandfather knew about you? My father, too?” She felt like this whole secret life had existed around her and, aside from the occasional hushed, overheard conversation between her grandparents, she’d been oblivious.
Armand bobbed his head and his eyes twinkled. “They did, and they trusted I’d take care of him, and I tried, Esther. I really tried. Except for that day. That damn, damn day.”
Tucker rose from his haunches and sat on the arm of Esther’s chair. “Armand, were you forced out of Tecton? We were there today, and one, it’s awfully suspicious that someone broke in here and tried to strangle you. Two, they said you quit. Which I find incredibly hard to believe, considering the length of time you were there.”
Armand puckered his lips in displeasure. “Oh, you bet your bunions I was forced out. The minute they got wind of the fact that I supposedly sent that email, they moved in for the kill. It was over before I knew what hit me, those bastards. Thirty years of my life, gone like I never existed.”
Tucker clucked his tongue. “So basically, they were worried you’d sent the email stating the water was good and they were avoiding collateral damage?”
“You bet they were, and they want nothin’ to do with that kind of press. That slick fella, Richter from HR, told me as much. Said my memory must not be so good, and if I wanted my retirement package doubled, I’d shut my pie hole and go peacefully. But I told ’em I was gonna tell everybody. I didn’t want their blood money. I just wasn’t sure who to tell without some kind of proof.”
“Then they must think you have something here, something that can prove someone hacked into your emails, right?” Esther asked, hoping against hope he did.
“But I don’t have anything, Esther. Other than my heart, which tells me Gomez would never leave this planet willingly.”
“And his suicide email? He sent one to you, didn’t he?” she asked.
“Bunk!” he crowed, wagging a finger. “All bunk. Yes, it says it came from his email, but those weren’t Gomez’s words.”
Esther’s heart pumped a little harder. “Can you tell me what it said? Do you mind? I don’t want to intrude…”
“You can’t intrude on something that isn’t real. I’d let you read it, but whoever sent it, sent it to my work email, and as I said, they confiscated my work computer. All it said was, ‘I can’t live knowing I killed someone,’ with Gomez’s pretentious signature with a list of his awards and degrees at the bottom, and that was it.”
Her stomach turned. She didn’t know Gomez, but seeing as he wasn’t terribly personable or communicative, it didn’t sound outrageously unlike his personality. Which made her ask, “How do you know it wasn’t him that wrote it?”
Armand actually chuckled, sipping his tea, appearing to relax a little. “Because if you knew Gomez the way I knew your uncle, you’d know he’d prattle on and on about how much the world was going to miss him before he ever got around to telling anyone his reasons for offing himself in an email. Gomez loved to hear himself talk. I know that probably sounds strange to your ears, because he was so antisocial, but if we were talking about him, he was quite the Chatty Cathy. A suicide email from Gomez would have been far more complex. And sleeping pills? It’s ludicrous. First off, where did he get them? He lived with me, if you’ll remember. He didn’t even like to take a damn aspirin for a headache. Secondly, he’d no sooner take sleeping pills than he would arsenic.”
Closing her eyes, Esther inhaled and pulled off her silly wig, defeated. How were they going to prove someone had hacked into her uncle’s email, and Tucker’s for that matter? Jesus, what a mess. Not to mention, how were they going to protect Armand?
God, she didn’t want to do this, because it put Tucker at risk, but they had to call the police. She wasn’t going to let someone accost an old man to keep him quiet.
“We have to call the police,” she murmured. “Armand was attacked, and it’s probably because whoever’s made this mess wants to start cleaning it up and they’re afraid Armand knows something.”
Tucker nodded, but his face was stoic. “That was my next suggestion. I agree. I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t want to see you hurt, Armand.”
“Bananas!” he shouted, setting his tea on the end table with a frown. “The police didn’t listen to me, why would they protect me? They don’t think anything happened to Gomez to begin with, and Tecton’s not going to help. They’re going to cover up whatever they can to keep their stinkin’ noses clean!”
Tucker sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, that was before the embezzlement business about me got out. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but someone leaked it to the press. The entire story of how I gave the green light to the production of the new line of water. The missing money. There’s even a memo I allegedly sent to production, downplaying the severity of Gomez’s results. Which, as a by the way, I checked the timestamp on, and discovered I was indeed in my office when it was sent. Hacker? Probably. But who? Who wants me gone? Or who needed the money enough to blame me?
“I’m feeling pretty sure the police are going to think I killed Gomez to keep him quiet, now that they have that particular piece of information. Esther and I were just talking about how strange it is that they haven’t at least brought me in for questioning after that report.”
Armand slapped his hand on the arm of his ratty couch. “Well, I’m sure not going to help you do it. I’m not letting you ruin your life by going to the police, Tucker. I know you didn’t kill Gomez. I know it deep down. But they’ll pin it on you, with so much evidence against you. And if you call them and put the spotlight on you, I’ll lie and tell them nothing happened to me. I’ll tell them you’re both nuts.”
“But we can’t just leave you to your own devices, Armand,” Esther insisted, even though his loyalty touched her heart. “Not without risking you getting hurt. Someone thinks you know something.”
But Armand looked miserable, the lines in his aging face deepening, and he clenched his fists. “Please don’t do this, Tucker. Please. Gomez was so fond of you. He’d hate this.”
Nina, who’d been silent this entire conversation, finally spoke. “How about this: It’s probably not gonna be long before the cops come lookin’ for you anyway, but what if we bring Armand to Heath? If that’s okay with Armand, seeing as he doesn’t know us from Adam. We’ll send Darnell to keep watch and he’ll be safe until we can fig
ure this out. Then I’m going to call my brother-in-law, Sam, and see what I can find out about this hacking biz. He’s ex-FBI.”
“I feel like this is a ticking time bomb, Nina. It’s just a matter of time,” Tucker said with a grim tone, rubbing his hand over his jaw.
But Armand smiled wide. “I don’t care if you’re a bunch of Satan worshippers. I’ll go with you if it gives you more time to figure this out and stick it to Tecton and whoever else is involved, the bastards! Thirty damn years of my life, all to be treated like some doddering fool!”
Nina and Esther smirked at each other. If only Armand knew how close he was to the truth about who was going to babysit him.
Nina shot him one of her beautiful smiles. “You’re sure you’re comfortable, Armand? I don’t want you to do something against your will.”
Armand began to rise from his place on the sofa, slipping to the edge and smiling up at Nina. “I’m just fine, and you’re dang pretty. If I played for the other team, you’d have to beat me off with a stick.”
Nina threw her head back and laughed, giving Armand her hand. “Let’s get you some clothes packed, Player.”
As she led him off to the bedroom, their feet padding over the worn shag carpet, Esther shivered. Finally, a break. Maybe a small one, but a break.
As they waited for Armand and Nina, who were laughing and joking, Esther took a look around at thirty years’ worth of two lives spent together.
The apartment was sparse, save for some very old furniture and a couple of paintings, but there was one wall—a wall filled with degrees and pictures. Tons of pictures of her uncle Gomez, who looked so much like her father, at work in his lab, his face serious, his expression determined. Several of him and Armand together were tucked into ornate frames. Armand’s arm around the shoulders of a reluctant Gomez, who stared at the camera as though it were a flying purple people eater.
And then, a surprise. Pictures of her grandparents, locked in an embrace in their old kitchen, playing pinochle in the summer under the big tree in her front yard. Pictures of her parents, waving from the shore of the beach at her cottage, sitting in the small motorboat they’d owned. Swinging Esther between them, during a walk on the beach.
And stranger still, a picture of Gomez holding her as a baby, right alongside her high school graduation picture.
Armand, now dressed in some black trousers and a periwinkle-blue sweater, put a light hand on her back. “He loved your family, Esther. He might not have shown it, no one other than those closest to him could detect it, but he loved your father, his parents, and even you, in his odd way. No, he didn’t know you—or even try to get to know you—but he’d smile at your accomplishments when he’d get mail from your grandfather. I know you tried to reach out to him, and I know he ignored you. We had many disagreements over the years about his family. He just couldn’t accept that they accepted him.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I wish I had known. I didn’t know anything about you or your relationship.”
He winked at her. “But you know me now, and I hope when this is all over, you’ll keep in touch. Also, I found this on Gomez’s nightstand. Forgot all about it till that cutie in there made me pack up my clean underwear.” He handed her a scrap of yellow lined paper.
As she read the scribbled words, she frowned. It was clearly someone’s email, but there were only two letters before the gmail.com, and due to the way they were spaced apart, she wasn’t even sure if the letters were meant to be together or if there were more letters in between. So, who the hell was PF?
“Is this what he found while he was looking for the hacker?”
Armand cupped his chin and shook his head. “I can’t say for sure, Esther. I can only tell you, he emptied his pockets every night before he went to bed. It’s been there since he…”
“Hey, you guys ready?” Nina asked, holding up Armand’s overnight bag, handing it to him. “Darnell’s outside.”
“When you are,” Esther whispered, and then she put her hand on Armand’s arm. “Can I ask a very personal, possibly intrusive, maybe even offensive question?”
He tucked his overnight bag over his arm and smiled. “Of course, dear.”
“Why here? Why this apartment? It’s so… The neighborhood doesn’t look very safe.”
“It wasn’t always like this, Esther. Twenty-five years ago, this area was what you young kids call hip. Over the years, life has taken its toll. But the primary reason? Rent control, dear. Gomez wasn’t willing to split a rent any higher than this because he just couldn’t give up his apartment full of all those crazy papers—that I will never, so long as I live, understand. In essence, your uncle was a cheap bastard. The cheap bastard I loved.”
A penny saved was a penny wise. Her grandfather had always said that. Esther threw her head back and had a good laugh as they made their way out of the depressing apartment and back to the street, to tuck Armand safely in the car with Darnell.
Chapter 16
“Right here in the ocean? I mean, loud and proud?” Esther asked Tucker as the chilly wind blew. “Is that safe?”
They’d decided to take time out from worrying about the email address and anything else involving the H2O-Yo mess and practice Esther’s mermaiding. But as she looked at the ocean, so rough compared to the manmade lake, she wasn’t sure this was a good idea.
Tucker chuckled, shedding his pants and shoes, because Body Beautiful wasn’t afraid of anyone seeing him in just his britches. “It’s where all good mermaids began, Esther. We didn’t always have manmade lakes. I’ll be right here next to you, but we have to practice. You have to learn how to mermaid, pretty lady.”
She gripped his arm as she stared out into the vast ocean in front of her cottage, now dark and rippling with frothy waves. “Speaking of being a mermaid, when you saved my clunky butt from drowning last night, did you grab my neck?”
He gave her an odd stare, his chiseled face twisting under the moonlight. “No. Not that I recall. I recall grabbing for you around your shoulders, or maybe it was your waist, I think. Definitely not around your neck. Why would you ask that?”
She shivered at the memory of last night. “Because Armand said someone tried to strangle him, and I know this sounds dramatic, maybe even crazy, but when I was sinking and couldn’t get myself to propel upward, not only couldn’t I see because of my bountiful mermaid hair, but someone gripped my neck. It was quick, and then I was being swept upward.” She shrugged. “I dunno. I think I’m just connecting dots that maybe don’t necessarily connect.”
Now Tucker gripped her arm and swung her to face him. “Esther! How could you forget to tell me something like that? If someone from the pod tried to harm you, it needs investigating.”
“It was all so chaotic! One minute your father’s yelling at us, the next we’re shooting off in a fit of anger, and then it was like an underwater tidal wave exploded.”
His eyes narrowed. “Yes. The tidal wave. You can do that, you know. It doesn’t make it any better that my father did it out of anger, because it’s dangerous when your emotions are so out of control. But if you’re ever in jeopardy, it’s useful. Water hitting at that speed can crush all the bones in someone’s body, Esther. It’s not much different than folks jumping to their deaths. On impact, it will crush you. You’re immortal, but not infallible.”
She shivered, tucking her sweatshirt under her neck. “Okay, forgetting for a moment the hands around my neck, why would I ever be in jeopardy?”
“Oh, you know, sharks, whales, interlopers.”
“Sharks?” she squeaked. Sweet Jesus. She’d never even thought about the rest of the ocean’s inhabitants.
“It happens so rarely, it’s like hen’s teeth, Esther. I promise. We mean no harm to our sea-dwelling brethren, but there’s been a time or two when a shark’s come just a little too close for comfort. A tidal wave helps deflect and disorient, and it gives you time to get away.”
She stared up at him, unable to voice how crazy this al
l sounded. But she had to keep reminding herself, so did have a tail and fins.
He chucked her under the chin and grinned. “There’s more…” he teased, pulling her to him, letting his bare chest press against hers. The heat of him seeped into her, warm and soothing, hot and exciting all in one embrace.
She plucked at his skin with a light pinch, loving the feel of it beneath her fingers. “More? I knew it! It’s X-ray vision, isn’t it? Oh, what will I do when I can see all the other little mermaids with their perfect bodies naked?”
Laughing, he shook his head. “Hardly. First, we can communicate underwater, as I’m sure you heard the other night. You’ll learn that in time. But also, bubbles. You can turn bubbles into bullets. All ya gotta do is blow.”
Now her mouth fell open before she forced herself to snap it shut. “And you found this out how?”
“How do you think mers kept all those invasive sailors away? Also, something else to give thought to. Underwater, your strength increases by leaps and bounds.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, you could probably manage to grab on to a whale and swing him like a baseball bat.”
She continued to stare at him in wonder. “I’m going to collapse under the weight of all my superpowers if you don’t cut it out.”
With a chuckle and a grin, he flashed his hand at the water. “Then how about we get started?”
“Are you afraid we’ll get caught?” she asked, looking around at the deserted landscape of the beach. As the day dimmed and went dark, she fought the fear of discovery.
“Well, it’s almost seven o’ clock in the evening, and there hasn’t been a soul out here almost all day, according to Marty. Also, it’s pretty cold, which doesn’t inspire folks to take walks, and all the summer people have gone home. Plus, we have this,” he pointed to her faded dock. “We can hide under it if we need to. I’ve done it before.”
The Accidental Mermaid (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 16) Page 17
