by Dawn Eastman
Vi’s eyebrows twitched upward, but she relaxed her arms and followed us into the living room.
We sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Mom took a shaky breath.
“Vi was right,” Mom said. “I wouldn’t have approved. I was afraid of Neila because of what she predicted a long time ago.” Mom dabbed at her eyes. She had morphed from scary to pitiful.
I reached out and took her hand and she didn’t pull away.
“Neila told me about her prediction that you would attend a child’s funeral,” I said.
Mom met my eyes with surprise in her own.
“She told you?”
I nodded.
“I was so frightened that day. I thought if I kept you both away from her that you would be safe, as if she was the threat.” Mom stared out the window, remembering. “I was convinced it was you she had doomed with her prediction. It’s why I was always so careful with you. It drove your father nuts and I think it made Grace jealous. And then you joined the police. I waited every day for the call that you had been killed on duty. He won’t admit it, but I think it’s why your father started listening to the police scanner.”
“Mom, I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s not your fault. You were just a little thing at the time. Grace had been there a bunch of times, but Neila didn’t warn me until she met you.” She spread her hands out, palms up. “It all made sense.”
Vi had remained uncharacteristically quiet all this time, but I noticed she had scooted closer to Mom on the couch and had leaned against her just enough. Sort of the way Baxter does when he knows I’m worried about something.
Mom turned toward me and squeezed my hand. “But this is what I wanted to tell you, and I suppose the fact you already know Neila just makes it easier. I attended a funeral for one of my children this week. It’s all over. All the years of worrying about a coming disaster and now it’s done. And no one has actually died.” She smiled then and I saw every worry line on her face convert to smile lines.
“I think Neila will be very happy to hear that you aren’t worried anymore,” I said.
“Why don’t you invite her for dinner? Do you think she could come tonight?”
“I can ask her,” I said.
“I knew it,” Vi said. “I just knew it would all work out if Clyde trained with Neila.”
Mom narrowed her eyes at Vi. “You and I are not quite finished with this.”
I chose that moment to join the kids outside.
* * *
An hour later, I pulled up to the stop sign to take a left onto my street. I checked for traffic and saw a familiar car outside my house. I pulled my head back as if that would hide me from Aaron Vaughn. Had he discovered I’d snooped in his office? Was he waiting there to confront me about it?
As I watched, he got out of his car and looked quickly up and down the street. He didn’t notice my car sitting at the stop sign and instead of turning to go toward my house, he crossed the street to Tatiana’s place.
This was interesting. I knew they were acquainted. She was dating Theo, and they had all been at her shop before the race. But what was he doing here, alone, in the middle of the day?
He didn’t go to the front door, but looked up and down the street again and then opened the gate and disappeared into the backyard. What was he doing? I had a sudden thought and pulled out my cell phone to text Diana.
Is Tatiana at work right now?
Yes, she’s harassing my customers, why?
Just checking. Talk l8r.
I pulled onto my street and parked in my driveway behind Mac’s truck. He’d planned to come home early from work. I couldn’t see what was happening in the backyard because of the high privacy fence, but I knew from past experience that I could see most of the yard from my bedroom window. I hopped out of my Jeep and took the steps two at a time.
Inside, I told Mac to follow me and ran upstairs to my bedroom.
“What? Why?” Mac said as he climbed the stairs after me.
I looked out the window and gestured at Mac to join me. Tatiana’s backyard was empty. I couldn’t see the whole thing, so Aaron could still be there, but I suspected he had already gone inside.
“Mac, I have to tell you something.”
I told him the whole story about Richard, Aaron, Theo, and the missing diamonds. I described finding some at the shelter. Then I pulled the velvet bag out of my pocket and told him where I found it. We emptied it onto a small tray. Ten diamonds, just like before.
“We have to turn these in,” Mac said.
“I agree, but not just yet, Mac,” I said. I kept my eye on the house across the street while I put the diamonds back in their bag and stuffed it into my small jewelry box.
Then I told him about Francine’s theory that Aaron may have been jealous of Derek because of an affair with Lila. He stood quietly at the window for a moment.
“We’ll have to find a way to get the information to Roy,” Mac said. “I’m afraid if you just walk in there and tell them you were hired to psychically find stolen diamonds, he’ll politely listen and then shred your interview before you even leave the building. If he doesn’t arrest you for stealing them yourself.”
“But it’s the truth,” I said.
“I know it is, but he’s not a believer in any of the Crystal Haven offerings and you have a really strong motive to try to move the suspicion away from Grace and Paul.” Mac turned away from the window and paced across the room. “Roy has already settled on his narrative. I’ll have to think about how to get him to reconsider. The Vaughns are very powerful in Grand Rapids and Roy could just blame the whole thing on people who are dead.” Mac rubbed his hands together to demonstrate Roy’s sense of completion.
“Well this is pretty suspicious,” I gestured out the window to where Aaron had still not reappeared.
Mac nodded. “Yes, but probably not enough for Roy.”
We waited, and about ten minutes later I saw him moving through the kitchen to the back door. He pulled the door closed, went into the yard, and opened the gate just a crack. He slipped through the gate and walked to his car. Before we knew it, he was gone.
I stepped away from the window. He’d been inside about fifteen minutes. I wanted to know what he had been up to in Tatiana’s house when she wasn’t home. But I also wanted to know what he was up to now. Was he looking for the diamonds? If he’d gone there to see Tatiana, he would have known within a minute that she wasn’t there.
I thought about the velvet bag I’d found in Aaron’s office. It had felt the same as the bag with diamonds from the shelter. I supposed it was possible they weren’t even part of the original group that had been stolen, but who hides their own inventory behind a picture? How could I tell Aaron that I had found his missing diamonds behind his own poster in his office? I would probably have to go to Richard.
“Are you coming or what?” Mac said, breaking into my thoughts.
“Where?”
“Let’s see where he goes,” Mac said. He held up his keys.
33
In the end, we took my Jeep as it was behind Mac’s truck. I pulled out and headed in the direction Aaron had gone.
“Stay back so he doesn’t see you,” Mac said.
I glanced at him and smiled. “Don’t worry, Vi taught me everything I know about tailing a suspect.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
We followed Aaron out onto Singapore Highway. I figured he was heading back to Grand Rapids and his office, but he pulled off onto the gravel road that led to the animal shelter.
“He’ll see us if we follow him,” I said to Mac.
He pointed to a clump of trees at the side of the road. “Pull in there and we’ll wait.”
It was the same spot Flattop and his friend had waited for me the day before.
“Wha
t’s he doing at the shelter?” Mac asked.
I shrugged. “Logan works there, but he must be in school right now. Maybe he’s picking up something. Or stashing more diamonds . . .”
Aaron didn’t reappear for at least twenty minutes. I started to worry that we had lost him through some secret back road when his car pulled out onto the highway. He didn’t go toward Grand Rapids, but headed back to Crystal Haven. Mac and I ducked as he passed our hiding spot. I waited until he had taken the first curve through the trees and followed.
When Aaron pulled into a gas station I started to feel like this had been a bad idea. The guy was just running errands. I was reminded of the time Vi had followed one of her “suspects” and texted me photos of his grocery bags.
“I agree he acted strangely when he went to Tatiana’s house, but now he’s just driving around doing normal stuff,” Mac said.
“You’re right,” I said. “Let’s just see where he goes next and then we can go home.”
Aaron finished pumping gas and hopped back into his Audi. He pulled out onto Main Street and parked a few blocks from the center of town. I drove past his car, found a spot about a block ahead, and parked.
Mac looked through the back window. “He’s coming this way. Do you want to talk to him, or pretend you don’t see him?”
“Let’s just stay in the car and see where he’s going.”
We hunched down in our seats. I tilted the rearview mirror so I could watch his approach.
“Is he still headed this way?” Mac whispered even though the windows were rolled up and no one was around.
I whispered back. “Yes, but he crossed the street at the corner—he’s not likely to notice us.”
We watched as Aaron made his way toward the main business section on the other side of the street. He slowed as he approached the garden, looked up and down the street, and ducked in through the gate.
“He went into the memorial garden,” I said.
“Let’s go,” Mac said. He opened his door and waited for me on the sidewalk.
We strolled casually toward the garden, holding hands. The memorial garden took up a prime spot right in the middle of town. It had been a restaurant, and when it burned down many years ago, the owner’s wife kept the land and planted a garden. It was stunning in the summer, with rosebushes and pathways through all varieties of flowering bushes. This time of year the forsythia was in exuberant golden bloom.
Mac and I strolled into the gate and then slowed. We walked far enough into the garden that we wouldn’t be seen from the street and then Mac ducked down so his head was below the line of tall boxwoods and arborvitae that lined the path.
“Where do you think he went?” Mac asked. He leaned toward me and spoke quietly.
I remembered meeting Tom Andrews here last summer on a different case. I gestured toward the back of the lot where a bench sat, surrounded by shrubbery and well-hidden from the street.
“If he’s meeting someone, it will likely be back there,” I whispered back.
We made our way quietly toward the back of the lot and stopped when we heard voices.
“Thanks for meeting me like this, Roy,” Aaron said.
Mac and I looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Was Aaron meeting Roy Fisk? And why was by-the-book Fisk meeting a possible suspect anywhere but at the police station?
“Well, it is an unusual—” Roy’s next words were swallowed by the sound of a truck rumbling past.
Mac and I crept closer. Both men had lowered their voices and though we could hear them talking, we couldn’t make out the words. We circled around the path and finally Mac gestured that I should squeeze between two tall evergreens to see if I could get close enough to hear. We both leaned forward, focused on Aaron and Roy.
“What are you two doing?” Tom Andrews whispered practically right in my ear and I jumped, tripped over some vines, and would have fallen on my behind if Mac hadn’t caught me.
Once I had my feet under me I turned on Tom. “Why did you sneak up on me like that?” I kept my voice low, but the irritation was clear. My heart raced and I felt wired from the surprise and the near fall.
“I didn’t sneak up,” Tom said quietly. He gestured for us to move further down the path. “I came here as back up for Detective Fisk. He’s meeting with one of the Vaughns, but he wanted me here as a witness in case anything unusual happened. What are you doing here?” He reached out and pulled a twig out of my hair.
Tom looked from me to Mac and back again. Mac had been strangely quiet since Tom had arrived and I noticed a distinct pink flush to his cheeks. He stood taller and gave Tom one of his patented scowls, but Tom had grown immune to such tactics over the past year.
We all noticed at the same time that the voices on the other side of the hedge had gone silent.
“Hold on for a moment, Mr. Vaughn,” Roy Fisk said.
Mac’s eyes got fractionally larger and he grabbed my hand.
“We’re just enjoying the garden, Officer Andrews,” Mac said in a stiff, loud voice.
Roy Fisk rounded the corner and stopped when he saw us.
“Andrews, I thought I told you to keep the area clear for the next half hour.”
“Yes, sir. You did,” Tom said. “I was just asking Detective McKenzie and Ms. Fortune to clear the area.”
“Hello, Roy,” Mac said. “I’m surprised to see you here. Taking a break from the case, are you?”
Roy scowled. “No, I’m working. But you know I can’t discuss it with you.”
“Sure, of course,” Mac said. “We’ll just be on our way.”
We walked past Roy and I gave Tom a cover-for-me look that I hoped Roy didn’t see.
“You two aren’t following me, are you?” Roy asked.
Mac stopped and turned slowly back toward Fisk. “You’re joking, right? Why would we be following you?”
Roy held his hands up. “Just checking, I know you have an interest in this investigation.”
Tom stepped forward. “I’m sure you would have noticed if you were being followed, Detective Fisk.”
Roy stood a bit taller. “You’re right, Andrews. I’m sure I would have noticed.”
Aaron rounded the corner of the path then. “What’s going on here? I thought this would be—” He stopped when he saw me. “Clyde? What are you doing here?”
I held up the hand that was clasped in Mac’s. “Just out for a stroll. Mac had the afternoon off.”
“Oh. I, uh, just needed to get some information from Detective Fisk here.” He studied the path and the bushes and looked everywhere but at me. “It seemed too nice a day to meet at the police station.”
I nodded at Roy and Tom. And Mac and I turned to continue down the path.
“That was weird,” I said when we got back onto the sidewalk and had walked a safe block away from the garden.
“It was,” Mac said. “Aaron acted like we’d caught him doing something wrong, and Fisk was twitchy. When the only normal person is Andrews, it makes me nervous.”
* * *
I checked my watch and hurried back to the Jeep. Mac and I rehashed the last hour on our way and came to the same conclusion as before: Aaron was up to something, but we didn’t know if it had anything to do with his brother’s death. I drove home and pulled into the driveway. Mac said he’d meet me at my mom’s for dinner, kissed me, and climbed out of the Jeep. My next mission was a much happier one. I hoped Neila would be willing to forgive my mother.
Even in the past few days, the long driveway to Neila’s house had become more colorful. Daffodils and tulips spread along the drive and the dogwoods had already begun to fill in with flowers.
Neila was on her porch when I drove up, shaking out a throw rug.
She handed it to me when I approached and indicated that I should give it a good shake. She had a couple of them lined up an
d I wondered once again how she always seemed to know when I was on my way.
After all the rugs had been thoroughly shaken and were draped on her porch railing, she invited me inside.
“Did the tea work for you?” she asked.
I snapped my head around to look at her. “I haven’t tried it yet, but that’s sort of why I’m here.”
“Oh?” She gestured toward the kitchen as usual.
“Actually, I can’t stay,” I said. “I came to see if you’d like to come with me to my mom’s house for dinner tonight.”
Neila’s eyes glistened in the pale evening light. “Rose asked you to invite me?”
“She found the packet of tea and knew it was from you. Once I told her I had been seeing you for the past six months she invited you to dinner.”
“Oh, my.” Neila looked around her entryway and pulled her shawls closer around her shoulders.
“She’s not . . . worried anymore,” I said. “We had Grace’s funeral this week.”
“Yes, I know.” She laid a gentle hand on my arm. “I think it will be enough. I only ever saw the funeral, not the actual . . . death.”
“So, you know that Grace . . .”
“Isn’t dead? Yes.”
“But how?”
Neila smiled and slowly closed her eyes. “I think I’d like to just change and then I can come with you. Do you want something to eat while you wait?”
I shook my head no. I wondered if other people felt as weird around me when I made predictions and found things. Because sometimes Neila sort of freaked me out.
34
That evening, dinner was a boisterous affair.
Mom had greeted Neila with a big hug and an apology for all the years she had avoided her. Vi also hugged Neila and there was something about the familiar way they said hello that made me think I wasn’t the only visitor to Neila’s house in the woods.
Seth had never met Neila and he maneuvered his way to sit next to her. As he quizzed her about her talents, it was the only time I ever saw him leave a plate full of food untouched.
