He was still feeling good hours later when they pulled into Lorna’s driveway. Merry slept through most of the drive, but he didn’t mind. The early stages of her pregnancy were kicking her butt and sleep was exactly what she needed. Besides, the quiet time was relaxing to him. The drive across state was a long haul, and he’d driven it pretty much straight through except for stops for gas and restrooms. They grabbed food on the go and just kept ticking away the miles. Big fat pain in the ass as he was driving it. Worth it now that they were here.
The most surprising thing to him was he thought he’d feel sad as they left Eastern Washington, but he didn’t. As the clouds rolled in at the top of Snoqualmie Pass, rather than washing him in a sense of gloom, it had made him smile. Adventure was awaiting them on the downside of the pass, and he was anxious to reach the ocean shores. The reality was maybe he more ready for a change in his life than he realized.
At the house, he parked the SUV and trailer close to the back door. He’d start unloading later when they figured out exactly where he and Merry would make their new home. The room he’d stayed in earlier was great, but there was a whole wing of the house he needed to explore. With a place this size there was no reason any of them had to be on top of each other.
In the kitchen, they both stopped and stared. He started to laugh and Merry shook her head.
“Jolene is going to kill her if she sees this,” Merry said somberly.
No shit was his first thought. Lorna’s mud-splattered tri bike was leaning against the kitchen counter, her helmet hanging from the handlebars. Running shoes with the laces splayed were tossed just inside the door. A glossy black wetsuit was wadded up in the sink, one sleeve hanging over and dripping water onto the floor where it puddled on the granite tile.
Then there was the kitchen table. Lorna’s laptop was open, surrounded by piles of printed paper and books. A legal pad with sheets torn off lay next to the computer, and tossed aside were sheets covered with Lorna’s distinctive writing. He counted five coffee mugs nestled in the midst of the paper chaos.
“Oh yeah,” he said as he held up one piece of paper displaying coffee soaked rings. “Jolene is most definitely going to kill Lorna.”
“Who’s gonna kill me?” Lorna walked into the kitchen, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, her hair wet. Clancy trotted in behind her, his tail wagging. She walked past them to the back door, opened it, and Clancy trotted through without giving any of them another look.
“Kinda obvious, sis. She might be injured, but once she gets an eyeful of this place, Jolene is going to be smoking mad. You have completely trashed her kitchen. This is impressive, even for you.”
“Even for me?”
“Even for you.”
“Humph.” Lorna looked around and shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve been busy. No time to tidy up.”
“No time to clean up because you’ve been too busy making a hurricane.”
“Not exactly, Mr. Clean.” She opened a cupboard door and pulled out another coffee mug. He wondered if there was an endless supply inside there. “Good research takes time. Just wait until you guys see what I’ve found.”
“When is Jolene coming back?” While he wanted to hear what Lorna had dug up, he was more concerned about getting this cleaned up. Jolene already had a head injury, he didn’t want to give her a heart attack too when she saw her normally spotless kitchen looking like a tornado had blown through. He’d get it straightened away before he touched anything else.
Lorna took a sip of her freshly poured coffee. “In the morning. Plenty of time to get things back in tip-top shape.”
“Depends,” Merry said, her brow drawn together and her expression stern. “Does the rest of the house look like this? We may have to pull an all-nighter.”
Rolling her eyes, Lorna said, “What do you guys think I am?”
He raised one eyebrow and stared at her. “Right now, a slob, and I’m trying to be nice here.” It reminded him of her bedroom when they were teenagers. She was a walking disaster in those days, and he thought she might be having flashbacks now.
“Come on, Jeremy. So I dropped a few things. What’s the big whoop?”
“A few things.” He did a full circle, looking at the bike, the muddy shoe prints, the dripping wetsuit, and the piles of coffee mugs. “Lorna, your bike is in the kitchen!”
This time, she flinched. “Yeah, you might have a point there, bro. Don’t think Jolene would be too amused by that. Probably not my wetsuit in the sink either.”
This time he rolled his eyes. “You think?”
“Come on.” Merry was holding up the wetsuit between her thumb and forefinger as it dripped water into the sink. “You two quit snapping at each other like little kids and let’s get cleaning. We’re burning daylight here, folks.”
*
The sun dropped below the horizon shoving out the light and ushering in deep, inky darkness. From his usual spot, the Watcher stepped around the tree and studied the three as they unloaded boxes from the long white trailer and carried them into the house.
The sight pleased him. Though the woman had been making progress in the days she’d been here alone, having the others back would give her both added power and help. She could draw strength from them, and perhaps at last this would all come to an end. They could finally be brought home and his reign of terror would be stopped.
Still, a nagging worry plagued him. Evil vibrated throughout the grounds despite his best efforts to keep it at bay. He was growing stronger with each passing day feeding off of something unseen. Now that the man was back, he would draw from him as he’d done before, and that frightened him. The danger grew every moment they failed to see and act, and his ability to guide them was limited.
It seemed hours before they finally locked the trailer and made their final trip into the house where they gathered around the table. From where he stood, he had a clear view into the lighted kitchen. There they sat talking and reading, handing papers back and forth. She seemed to be the one holding court, and the other two listened, their faces full of interest. The seriousness with which they studied and listened gave him hope.
The man stepped to the window and gazed out as he drank from a long-stemmed glass filled halfway up with amber liquid. His high spirits sank as he watched him, the hazy glow around his body growing in intensity. Its origin was undeniable. In the short time since he’d returned to the house, he had once again invaded his body and soul. He always found a way, a vessel that would carry his energy into the present. In this life, it was the young man with the kind face and pale eyes. Preying on gentle souls was what he liked to do best. Taking what was good and corrupting it gave him power even in death. It was time to take that power away from him.
He closed his eyes and began to pray. Though he’d been cast from his rightful place in heaven, if God would hear him now, just maybe this time it would all end differently.
Chapter Nineteen
“So here’s what I found.” Lorna turned the wineglass in her hand, watching as the beautiful Shiraz swirled inside. “We have Tiana McCafferty, twenty years old, a ‘spinster’ still at home with her parents. Everything I could find seemed to show that despite living so far from the city, she and her family were very active in the Seattle social scene. From all accounts, her father was working hard to set her up in a successful marriage. Like really hard if you catch my drift.”
“Pretty woman,” Merry said as she studied a copy of an old photograph Lorna had uncovered. “I wouldn’t think it would have been too tough a challenge to find a rich guy to take her for a walk down the aisle.”
“I don’t think finding a willing man was the problem. I found snippets of gossip about men vying for her attentions. It seems, however, that she didn’t give any of them the time of day. All those eligible bachelors and not a single mention in any newspaper that she dated even one. I don’t think our girl was interested in the bachelors.”
“Must have burned her daddy’s ass,” Renee said
with a smile. “A beautiful girl and no rich hubby to add to Daddy’s coffers.”
“She was beautiful and so was her lover, Catherine Swan. She kicked all the men to the curb because she was in love with another woman. Man, oh man, that must have driven Mom and Dad crazy. Think about it. I mean even today, people can be far from accepting. Those two women did nothing wrong except fall in love. In that day and age it had to have turned most everyone against them.”
Jeremy, who’d been standing in front of the windows looking out, turned around to study her and then shook his head. “People can be so narrow-minded, even these days. Think about how horrible it had to have been for the two of them. So what happened? I mean beyond Tiana killing herself?”
All Lorna had were her own deductions drawn from reading everything she could find. With a lot of work, she’d finally uncovered a number of stories about the wealthy heiress and her sad death. How she’d thrown herself from the roof of this very house, breaking her neck in the fall. Stories of how her mother had grieved deeply while her father acted as though she had never existed in the first place. It was love and hatred all written up in politically correct stories that said nothing and everything all at the same time.
A good psychiatrist would have lots to say about the esteemed Mr. McCafferty. Lorna was no medical professional, but in her opinion, he was a world-class horse’s ass. Here was a self-made man who created an empire of wealth and influence. Everything pointed to the fact that he gave his family everything money could buy. On the surface, it was the American success story. Reading between the lines, she found something very different. To his daughter, his only living child, he’d denied her the one thing that mattered the most: unconditional love.
Perhaps that’s what Tiana was searching for and ultimately found in the lovely Makah woman, Catherine. Though it might be a hundred years late, acceptance could heal, and she had no doubt that Tiana and Catherine needed that even in the beyond. It occurred to her as she’d pieced together the story that’s why the women came to her now. Giving them what they needed might come late, but that’s the least she could do for the two tragic souls.
Except she didn’t think that was all. The mystery of Catherine’s disappearance screamed for resolution, at least to her. As the days crept past while she was waiting for everyone to return, Lorna had the growing sense that understanding where Catherine had gone and what had happened to her was equally as important.
It was entirely possible she was creating a devious scenario in her own head, and it may have been a case of the pressure becoming too great for Catherine to bear even given her intense love affair with Tiana. Sometimes going against the grain was a burden impossible to handle. Lorna had witnessed it firsthand with two of her own friends. Catherine might have been one of those people, especially considering they were fighting not just on one front but two—she was a lesbian and an Indian. Tiana’s father would have despised Catherine on every level.
Lorna got up and retrieved the open bottle of wine from the counter. She refilled her glass and topped off Jeremy’s. For Merry, she pulled a bottle of apple juice from the fridge and poured her a big tumbler.
She handed Merry the tumbler of juice and said, “The day before Tiana jumped from the roof, Catherine disappeared. I don’t think that was a coincidence.”
Merry held the glass without taking a drink. “The police came looking for her?”
“They had to investigate, didn’t they?” Jeremy spoke from where he still stood with his back to the windows.
Lorna shook her head, feeling anger at the prejudice and dismissal of those long ago times. “No, not even close. Remember, bro, this was a hundred years ago. They didn’t care about one pretty girl from the Makah Nation.”
He was shaking his head a look of disgust on his face and she knew he felt it too. Still, he asked, “How do you know she went missing then?”
“Alden Swan, one of her distant relatives, and the guy Jolene sent us to talk with. The story of her disappearance has been passed down since the day she vanished. One day, she was there and the next, she wasn’t. He believes I’m the one who’s going to find her.”
Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “So are you?”
“Damn straight I am.”
*
By the time Renee pulled into the driveway it was nearly midnight. For a couple of minutes, she sat in the car with her head tipped back. Exhaustion washed over her so heavy it was like it seeped into her bones. What she wouldn’t give for about twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Her original plan called for at least a seven-hour stretch because she’d wanted to make the trip in the morning after they’d had a good night’s rest. Her plan went out the window the second the doctor told her mother she could leave. Mom was up and dressed as soon as the doctor left the room, and they were out of there despite her best arguments to the contrary.
The right thing to do, in her mind, was to stay one more night, but no, Mom was having none of that. Not that she really blamed her. If she’d just spent a week in a hospital bed, she’d be running out of there as fast as she could too.
Of course, Mom got in the car and promptly went to sleep, and stayed asleep all the way from Seattle to here. Renee didn’t have that luxury. She had to be wide-eyed and alert as they left the city behind, traveling the scenic highway to the coast. Traffic was light, not too surprising at this time of night, and she played music softly, humming along. All in all, the drive had turned out to be fairly pleasant. Under the circumstances, it was the best she could ask for.
Now that they were here, she sighed and rubbed her eyes. She should get up and out of the car. After all, sitting here wasn’t going to get either one of them into bed, and while Mom might be feeling rested, she sure didn’t. Bed sounded fantastic. Soft pillows, warm blankets, and the sound of the ocean out the window were exactly what she needed.
Renee pushed out of the driver’s seat and went around the car to the back door of the house. Once the door was unlocked and open, she returned to the car. Though groggy, her mother roused enough to let Renee help her out of the car and into the house. Thirty minutes later, she had her tucked into her own bed. Though she hated to admit it, Mom had been right. Being home and in her room was a much better place for her to be even if it was the middle of the night. The look on her mother’s face was far more peaceful here than what she’d seen at the hospital.
One more trip to the car and she had the bags inside, dropping them just inside the back door. She locked up the back door and thought about taking their bags to their rooms. That thought lasted a second or two before she decided against it. Tired to the point of exhaustion, all she wanted to do was go to bed herself. There was nothing in those bags that couldn’t wait until morning.
She left the bags where she’d dropped them and walked into the kitchen, stopping abruptly. Lorna was leaning against the doorway to the hall. The last thing she expected this time of night was anyone to be up.
“Hey,” Lorna said, her eyes a little sleepy, her hair messed in a way that looked cute. She wore a T-shirt and baggy flannel pants.
“Hey back at ya.” It was lame, but it was all she could think to say. Her heart was hammering, and while she’d known she would be happy to see Lorna again, she didn’t realize how happy she’d feel.
“Missed you.” Lorna’s eyes stayed on hers. “Kind of growing accustomed to both you and your mom being around. It was pretty quiet here all by myself.”
“Really?” She wanted to believe it and was afraid. It had been a long time since she’d wanted someone to like her this much. It was kind of stupid at her age. Except that argument didn’t seem to matter. She still wanted Lorna to like her.
Slowly, Lorna crossed the room until they were inches apart. She smelled like sweet soap. Her skin was creamy and clear, her eyes steady as she met Renee’s. “Really.” The single word was soft but confident.
Tears welled up unexpectedly in her eyes. This was something out of her dreams. “I miss
ed you too.”
When Lorna’s head dropped toward hers, she didn’t hesitate. She moved into the kiss that was sweet, gentle, and breathtaking. It made her heart swell, and she realized it wasn’t enough. Not even close. She wanted so much more, and she was going to take it. Her tongue touched Lorna’s lips, pushing its way between them.
In the quiet moments of the last week, she’d fantasized about an interlude like this, and now that it was happening, it was far more thrilling than anything she’d imagined. Her hands came up and tangled in Lorna’s soft hair. Lorna’s arms came around her, and they pressed together, the heat between them intense.
As wonderful as this was, it still wasn’t enough. She wanted it all and didn’t care that maybe it was rushing things. This woman, this wonderful woman who opened her home to Renee, made her crazy with desire. All her life, she’d been waiting to feel like this, and for so long believed it would never happen for her. Now that it had, to hell with restraint.
As she pulled out of Lorna’s embrace, she saw dismay cross her features. Lorna mumbled, “I’m sorry—”
Renee smiled and put a finger to Lorna’s lips, stopping any further apology. “Oh, I’m so not sorry.”
Confusion replaced the dismay. “I thought—”
She laid her hand on Lorna’s cheek and said, “Quit thinking.”
Renee took Lorna’s hand and started toward the door. “I don’t want to think or talk. I want to…well, let me show you what I want to do.” In the hallway, she paused and looked around. Then she smiled and asked, “My place or yours?”
Lorna hesitated for only a second and then pulled briskly her down the hall. “My place. Not so close to everyone else.”
She made an excellent point. The master suite that Lorna called her own was not only on the main floor but also on the opposite side of the house from the other bedrooms. It was perfect for privacy. She hurried with Lorna to the door at the end of the hall. Once inside, Lorna turned the lock and then stared at Renee.
Twisted Echoes Page 18
