by J A Whiting
Olivia nodded. “Yes. My cousin showed me the plans.”
Lily sniffed Jackie and gave her a lick on the hand. Jackie petted Lily’s head.
“I just like to review everything before we get started,” Jackie said.
A blue truck pulled up the driveway and two guys got out carrying paper coffee cups. “Morning,” one called to Jackie as he put his cup on the roof of the truck and swung his tool belt around his waist.
Jackie raised a hand to the men in greeting. “Here’s some of my crew,” she told Olivia. “Can we look at the sunroom together?”
Olivia, Jackie, and Lily walked along the brick walkway to the rear of the house. Jackie indicated from the plans what they were contracted to do and reviewed everything with Olivia.
“So that’s it. We’ll be done with the whole thing in two or three weeks. Some days the crew will only be here half days. We’re running about four different projects at once so I’ll be here off and on going between here and the other places we’re working on. But all that is built into the estimate I gave your cousin and it won’t interfere with the time frame we quoted. As long as the weather holds for the first week, we’ll be good. The interior finishing won’t be dependent on the weather conditions. You’ll see other members of my team working here. It won’t always be these two guys. They’re all good experienced workers. My cell phone number is on the paperwork I gave your cousin. Call me with any questions or concerns you have. Anything at all. Every few days, I like to meet with the owner to review where we are on the project.”
“Sounds good,” Olivia said. Lily was following the men back and forth to the truck as they brought out the lumber and tools. “This is Lily by the way. Looks like she plans on helping.” Olivia chuckled.
Jackie smiled at the dog. “Nice dog. We’ll be glad for her company. Okay, we’ll get to work then. I’ll be here most of the day today. I like to stay when the project starts in case any surprises show up.”
“Thanks. Let me know if you need anything. Hopefully nothing unexpected will rear its head,” Olivia said. She started back to the front of the house.
“Hopefully not,” Jackie agreed.
***
Olivia held up the old newspaper article in front of her laptop so Brad could see it as they Skyped.
“Here are their pictures on the front page,” Olivia said to her boyfriend.
“That’s horrible, Liv. Who could do something like that?” Brad asked. Brad was in Maine running his bookstore while Olivia was minding her cousin’s house.
“That’s exactly what I said,” Olivia answered.
“Nobody ever mentioned the murders to you?” Brad asked.
“No. I guess it was so long ago that it just never came up. I didn’t even know that I had these distant cousins.” Olivia put the newspaper on the kitchen table next to her laptop. “It just seems so terrible that no one was caught and brought to justice. It seems so wrong.” Olivia glanced down at Mary and Kimmy’s pictures.
“There mustn’t have been enough evidence,” Brad offered.
“They must have collected and retained evidence from the crime scene. Why can’t they run it through some DNA testing thing now?”
“Don’t know. Maybe they lost it,” Brad said.
Olivia got a far away look in her eyes.
“What are you thinking?” Brad asked.
“Well, I was thinking of going to the police station and asking about it. Or maybe go to the District Attorney’s office and ask what became of re-looking at the case a few years back. You know how John told me there was a newspaper article about cold cases in Massachusetts and this was one that the DA’s office was looking at again.”
“It was almost forty years ago that the crime was committed,” Brad said. “They must have given it their full attention back then. There must have been a lot of pressure to solve it, what with a young mom and her little girl killed. And, so violently. Maybe there just wasn’t enough evidence to arrest and prosecute.”
“I just want to know,” Olivia said.
“You’re not going to start looking into this are you?” Brad asked. “Not after last summer? Please don’t.”
Last summer Olivia was consumed by finding out the cause of her aunt’s death and the events of that nearly got her killed.
Olivia didn’t answer.
“Liv.” Brad had an edge to his voice. “No. Let it be. None of us want a summer like last year. Don’t stir anything up. Please. Just spend some time relaxing. Clean out John’s attic like you said you would. Take your class in July and then come home to us for a few weeks before your fall classes start.”
Olivia still didn’t say anything.
Brad sighed. “Joe and I are still recovering from last year. Joe has just started to sleep through the night without waking up in terror.” Brad and Joe had helped Olivia uncover her aunt Aggie’s killers. Brad continued, “I couldn’t take another summer like last year. Don’t do this, Liv. Let it alone.”
“Brad, I’m not going to stir anything up. It was forty years ago. What could I possibly stir up? I just want to know why no one was arrested for this.”
“Olivia.” Brad never called her that unless he was being serious about something. “I know you. It won’t stop there.”
“I think I’ll go down to the library and look up some old newspapers from 1973 to find out what was written about the murders.”
Brad’s face was stern.
“Come on, nothing’s going to happen to me in a library, Brad.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Brad muttered.
Olivia ignored his comment and changed the subject. “I’m looking forward to you and Joe coming down to visit. Lily will love you two. You’ll like her. She’s a perfect dog.”
“I’ll be glad to see you. And, the dog.” Brad grinned. “Joe’s already planning the meal for Friday night, but he won’t tell me what he’s making.”
“I won’t ask. I want to be surprised. Are you bringing the blueberry cake?”
“You bet.” He smiled. “I need to get back to work, Liv. Talk tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Olivia smiled back at him.
“Stay out of trouble,” Brad warned.
Olivia shook her head. “You worry too much,” she told him.
“I’m dealing with you, so no, I don’t worry too much.” Brad’s face was serious. “And maybe you don’t worry enough.”
“Good night, Brad.”
“Night, Liv. Love you,” Brad said.
Olivia’s heart still warmed whenever he said those words to her. “Love you, too.” Olivia closed the Skype session just as Lily put her warm nose against Olivia’s thigh and nuzzled her to go out.
Chapter 4
The night never cooled off and the day dawned hot and muggy. Olivia tossed and turned all night in the bedroom’s sauna-like conditions and when morning arrived, she felt as if she hadn’t slept at all. She decided she would install John’s air conditioning unit in her bedroom later in the day. She showered, made breakfast for herself and Lily, and let the dog out so that she could spend the day in the yard supervising the sunroom workers. Olivia checked with them to be sure Lily wouldn’t get in their way while she spent a few hours at the library. The men reported that they were pleased to have the dog’s company.
Olivia made the ten minute drive to the library and parked in the front parking area. She got out, walked across the lot, and climbed the granite steps to the old, oak door of the Howland Public Library. She stopped at the information desk to inquire about old newspapers and was directed to the third floor microfiche library. The librarian showed Olivia how to use the machine to scroll through the articles and how to print the ones she wanted. Olivia flipped through the newspaper films until she found what she was looking for.
The first article reported that on the day following the murders, two local men, eighteen and twenty years old, had discovered the car and the bodies around 10am in a clearing approximately seventy-five yards up a woode
d dirt road in the Howland State Park, two miles west of the Howland town center and three miles west of the Monahan’s home. The young men were on their way to fish at the lake when they made the discovery. They went immediately to the police to report the grisly murders.
Mary Monahan was found fully clothed on the ground with her head partially under the vehicle. The daughter was in the front seat of the car. Mrs. Monahan’s throat was slashed twice and she suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdomen. Olivia winced recalling being stabbed in the gut herself last summer. Her hand moved instinctively to her stomach as she continued reading.
The daughter was stabbed once in the chest and her throat had been slashed. The left rear car door was open. Sperm was found at the scene but neither the mother nor daughter had been sexually assaulted. The husband, George Monahan, reported his wife and daughter missing around suppertime on the day of the murders.
Mrs. Monahan had dropped her son off at kindergarten, did an errand in the nearby town, stopped at a hardware store in the town next to Howland around 2:00pm, and then was not seen again that day. There were stories about Mary and Kimmy in the newspapers every day for ten days, and after that, the articles were more sporadic until they disappeared altogether. A nineteen year old local man was a suspect and the police felt that the case was solved but no arrest could be made due to lack of evidence.
Olivia wondered how there could be a lack of evidence. Mary must have fought back. She must have had the killer’s blood and skin under her nails. There was sperm at the scene. If the police suspected the nineteen year old man and felt the crime was solved, how could they not make an arrest? How could they let him off?
Olivia rubbed her temples and shifted her gaze away from the microfiche reader. Her eyes burned. A headache was brewing from reading for so long on the tiny screen and she felt hot and miserable. The accounts of the murders of the young mother and her little daughter made Olivia’s stomach roil from the horror of it as she imagined the mom’s panic and desperation to protect her child and the utter despair that must have crushed her when she knew there was no escape.
Olivia’s heart pounded and a cold sweat broke out all over her skin from thinking about the killings. She printed the articles that she wanted to keep, paid the librarian, and left the building taking the steps two at a time. She needed to get out of there, to get away from the horrible words on the screen.
Her orange Jeep was an inferno from having sat closed up in the parking lot. Olivia fiddled with the controls for the air conditioning as she pulled onto Main Street and headed back to the house. She took the turn to John’s Colonial and parked next to the blue and red trucks in the driveway. Jackie was pulling a metal case out of the truck bed and she turned her head when she heard Olivia’s car. She waved to her.
“You don’t look so good,” Jackie said eyeing Olivia’s pale face.
“I don’t feel so good,” Olivia confirmed. “I’m going to lie down for a bit.”
“Need anything?” Jackie asked.
“I’m okay, thanks,” Olivia said even though she didn’t feel okay. It was like knives were cutting into her head.
“It’s probably this heat,” Jackie said.
Olivia nodded and moved toward the house, her head pounding.
“Just yell if you need something,” Jackie called after her. “I’ll be here a couple of more hours.”
Olivia checked on Lily and let her stay outside to hang out with the contractors. She went to the kitchen and splashed her face with cold water while leaning over the sink, took two aspirins and drank a large glass of ice cold water. Her headache was in full force now and her eyes squinted against the too bright light streaming in through the windows. Olivia’s legs shook as she shuffled down the hallway. Her stomach threatened to heave. She made it to the living room couch and immediately fell asleep.
***
Olivia wobbled around the kitchen still groggy from her nap. She had slept for two hours and woke up sweaty and weary but the headache had subsided. She let the dog in and Lily sat near the back door watching Olivia move about the room. Olivia ate a banana and then went upstairs for a shower. She could hear hammering coming from the sunroom and was surprised that the construction workers hadn’t quit for the day.
After she cleaned up and changed clothes, Olivia walked barefoot through the house to the sunroom toweling off her hair. Jackie was putting some tools in a metal box.
“Hey,” Olivia said. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”
“Oh, hi. No, I’m still here. A guy decided to call in sick today so I’m doing a little extra. How are you feeling?”
“Better. I didn’t sleep well last night and I was at the library reading small print for a couple of hours this afternoon and the combination just made for a whopper of a headache.”
“Doing some sort of research?” Jackie asked as she cleaned up the wood scraps and stray nails.
“Just for my own interest. Not for any official project or anything.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Jackie asked.
“Somewhat. I just started really,” Olivia said. She sat on a saw horse that was in the sunroom. “Did you grow up around here?”
“Yeah,” Jackie replied. “I left to go to college, but I came back to the area to do graduate work in Boston and married my high school sweetheart.” She looked up at Olivia with a big grin on her face. “You don’t hear that much anymore, do you?”
“No, you don’t,” Olivia smiled. “How long have you been married?”
“Well, next month it will be six years.”
“Wow. A long time,” Olivia noted. “What did you do your graduate work in?”
Jackie took a swig from her water bottle and stretched. “I got a Ph.D. in counseling psychology.”
Olivia’s eyes widened and she cocked her head to the side.
Jackie laughed. “I know, so what I am doing in construction?”
“That was my exact question.” Olivia smiled.
“I got married while working on my Ph.D. When I finally finished it, I worked for a year and then decided that it just wasn’t for me and that I preferred designing and creating structures. My dad had worked as an architect and had a small construction business. I worked for him all through high school, and off and on when I was doing graduate work. So I started small with contracting and built my business over time.” Jackie snapped the metal case shut. “I love it.”
“I’m impressed,” Olivia told her. “Especially since you spent all that time in school and you weren’t afraid to make a change.”
“Oh, I had my detractors and naysayers. But this is my life and I only get one shot. I want to be happy in my work.”
“What did your husband think?” Olivia asked.
“He’s a musician. He’s used to flexible schedules and doing his own thing,” Jackie grinned. “So he was fine with it.”
“I’m glad it worked out,” Olivia said. “Lots of people would be afraid to make such a big career change.”
Jackie picked up the case and Olivia and Lily walked her to her truck.
“My husband is traveling with his band for a couple of weeks. If you’re free, would you be interested in grabbing a bite to eat later?” Jackie asked Olivia.
“I sure would,” Olivia responded. “I’m not used to all this country quiet. I have an apartment in Cambridge while I’m at school and it’s a lot busier than Howland. My home’s in Maine and Ogunquit’s busy in the nice weather. I’m not used to things being so spread out and having to use the car all the time.”
“Yeah, a place like Howland is a definite change of pace. I’ll run home and jump in the shower. Do you know the Sports Bar Restaurant in the center of town?” Jackie asked. “It has good food and good prices. Want to meet around 8pm?”
“Sounds great. See you there.” Olivia waved as Jackie backed out of the driveway and turned onto the road.
***
Olivia arrived first and took a booth by a
window. Jackie arrived shortly after and hurried over to where Olivia was sitting.
“It took me a little longer than I thought,” Jackie said. “I had to swing by and talk to a client.”
“It’s okay,” Olivia said. “I haven’t been here long at all.” Olivia was sipping an iced tea and browsing the menu. The restaurant’s clientele changed gradually around 8pm each night as the families finished up their meals and headed home and the couples and singles arrived and gathered around the bar for drinks and appetizers. A Red Sox game played on the television over the bar. The restaurant was in the midst of the customer shift as Jackie took her seat across from Olivia.
Jackie ordered a burger and cole slaw and Olivia decided on the veggie burger and salad. They shared an appetizer of hummus and pita bread. They were both grateful for the air conditioned temperature of the restaurant and for a chance to get out of the heat for a couple of hours.
“The heat doesn’t usually bother me, but the humidity is killing me,” Olivia said.
“Yeah, it’s bad this year. It came on strong. I haven’t had time to build up my tolerance for it,” Jackie said.
They worked on polishing off the appetizer. “So your cousin John said you had finished your school year and would be staying at his house for a couple of weeks, but he didn’t mention what you’re studying.”
“I just finished my first year of law school.”
“That’s great. How did it go? Are you enjoying it?”
Olivia laughed. “I’m not sure you could say it was enjoyable. I survived though. I just came back from the Netherlands. I did a three week internship there.”
“Nice. That was where we spent our honeymoon,” Jackie said. “We spent two weeks on a bike trip traveling the country. It was wonderful. What did your internship entail?” Jackie asked.
“I was working at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. I think it probably sounds more exciting than it was. It involved mostly doing research and writing up findings. But I learned a lot.”
