by Hillary Avis
“Sure. I even took my allergy meds this morning just in case.” He looped an arm over her shoulder. “It’s weird, I never got a chance to visit when my mom lived there because I was so busy with law school. It’ll be fascinating to finally get a look.”
“If you say so.” Emily threaded her fingers between his and smirked up at him. “I have a feeling the in-law house tour might not live up to your high expectations.”
“Hey now, be nice to your old folks.” Paul poked Emily in the ribs and she giggled, twisting so she could use Zack as a shield against her dad’s lighthearted attack.
Allison met Zack’s eyes over Emily’s shoulder. “Oh, I think you’ll both find it very interesting, especially once you see what’s inside.”
Emily stopped play-fighting with Paul to groan. “Please tell me it’s not some crazy wall of string and photos like when someone goes off the deep end in the movies.”
Paul bit his lip and Allison giggled at his expression. Emily’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Mom. You promised you wouldn’t be weird.”
“I said I wouldn’t be weird. I didn’t say anything about the house.”
“You sure about this?” Emily asked Zack, suddenly serious. “You know she’s fostering four puppies in that house.”
“If I get stuffy, I’ll step outside,” Zack said cheerily.
Emily buried her face in the front of his Avengers T-shirt and mumbled against his chest, “I just don’t want them to run you off before the wedding.”
He tipped her chin up so he could look her in the eye. “Em, nothing about your family will run me off. Your family is going to be my family, remember? And my family is totally insane.”
Allison took a deep breath. This was her segue. “Actually, that’s not true. I mean about your family being crazy. That’s part of why I asked you to come here today. I want to tell you the whole story of your family, our family, and their history in this town.”
Emily opened her mouth to protest, but Paul held up his hand. “Listen to your mom, Em. Just listen. She’s telling the truth, and she can prove it.”
“It’s a long story,” Allison said. “Let’s walk over and I’ll tell you everything.”
Chapter 28
Emily and Zack’s grilled cheese sandwiches and bowls of tomato soup sat forgotten and cooling at their elbows as they leaned together to read the entry in Graduation Ceremonies. On the open page was Emily’s memory of her med school graduation a few weeks ago, complete with their engagement announcement and their parents’ awkward meeting.
Allison and Paul finished their lunch in silence as they waited for a reaction from the pair, the only sound in the still room the soft snores of the puppies napping in their pen.
Zack looked up first with a dazed expression. “How...?”
Emily reached the end of the page, too, and stared across the table at her parents. “Is this some kind of trick?”
“It’s magic,” Allison repeated patiently. “It’s the Founders Tree magic. Every book in the library is full of memories like this. Not just yours—everyone who lives in Remembrance has their memories stored here.”
“But we don’t live here...” Zack trailed off wonderingly and then his eyes widened with realization. “The hayfield!”
Allison nodded guiltily. “Sorry. I needed to know what you knew. I couldn’t risk asking you if you were in on it with Elaine. It was the only way I could find to get your memories in the books. I’ll give you a real engagement gift when you have a party.”
“Mother! Why didn’t you just say—oh.” Emily made a face. “I guess you did; I just didn’t believe you. Well, I’m still mad at you.”
“So my mom was telling the truth about everything?” Zack shook his head as he ran both hands through his hair, making his brown curls stand on end. Emily smoothed them down with an affectionate laugh.
“Elaine has her own spin on things,” Allison said wryly. “But all the stuff about the three founding families and the library is true. And there’s someone special I want you to meet.” She went to the back door and stuck her head out, motioning to Taylor, who was perched on the fence, to jump down. When he joined them inside, she stood behind him, squeezing his shoulders encouragingly as he faced the solemn faces at the table. “This is Taylor Robinson. He’s the youngest generation of the Crisp family. He’s a very responsible young man and he knows a lot about the library and how it works, so he’ll be a big help to you.”
“I already know who you are. You’re Zack and Emily,” Taylor said swiftly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Taylor.” Zack held out his hand.
Taylor hesitated, glancing up at Allison for reassurance. “Are we sure he didn’t do it?”
Allison nodded.
Taylor grasped Zack’s hand and shook as Zack asked, “Do what?”
“Murder my parents,” Taylor said gravely. Zack gaped at him and dropped his hand.
Emily gasped. “Oh, you poor thing!”
“You thought I killed your parents?” Zack scraped back his chair from the table so he could stagger to his feet, stunned. The noise woke the puppies, who yelped as their tiny toenails scrabbled on the sheet of cardboard that lined the bottom of their pen. Zack paced back and forth in front of the wall of books, his fingers pressing dents into his forehead. “How could you think that I could...?”
“Your snake,” Allison explained. “Her venom was the murder weapon, so we naturally assumed—”
“I wouldn’t let her hurt anyone. I released her into the wilderness as far away from people as I could.” Zack paused, his face troubled, and Emily reached out to stroke his arm soothingly.
“I believe you, sweetheart.”
“You didn’t release her, though,” Allison added kindly. “Think back to that day. You gave her to someone else.”
Realization dawned on Zack’s face. “Leroy!”
“He was going to send you a picture of Cleo being released. Did he do that?”
Zack let loose a stream of expletives that made Allison clap her hands over Taylor’s ears. “I should have canceled that appointment and done it myself, but Mom said he had experience. I never would have handed Cleo to him if I thought he’d—did he...?” He left the question in the air.
Allison nodded, and Taylor’s eyes bugged out. He pried her hands off the sides of his head. “Sheriff Gauss is the bad guy?!”
Zack, lost in thought, didn’t seem to hear the question. “He better not have hurt her—what’d he do with her afterward? He didn’t kill Cleo, too, did he?”
“His mom and dad were murdered, and you’re worried about the snake?” Emily looked askance at Zack.
“I didn’t mean—” he began, but Taylor cut him off with a screech.
“Who killed my parents?!”
“Settle down, everyone,” Paul’s low voice rumbled, calming the room. “We know it’s a lot of information to process. I can barely wrap my head around it, too. But”—he grabbed Allison’s hand where she stood next to him and shared a look with her—“we’ll answer all the questions you have. We don’t know everything, but what we know, we’ll share with you.”
They had a lot of questions. Allison tried to keep her answers as simple and truthful as she could, clearly separating things she knew from things she believed. For example, she knew Leroy loved Elaine, but she didn’t know how much he understood about the library and the founding families. It took a few hours for Emily, Zack, and Taylor to be satisfied. By the time she sent Taylor home for dinner, she could tell Paul was exhausted from constantly bumping up against his missing memories. His face was unusually pale and haggard, the lines in his forehead deepened by the late afternoon shadows.
“Tired?” she asked him, and he gave a single nod. “I can drive you back to Golden Gardens.”
“We’ll walk with him,” Emily said swiftly. “We should head home anyway.”
“You’re welcome to stay for dinner. I promise I’ll make something better than sandwiches.” Allison grinn
ed. She’d pretty much existed on toast and sandwiches since she moved in here; she wondered if she even remembered how to put together a full meal. Between the pantry and the freezer there had to be something she could serve, though.
Zack gave her a sad smile. “I think I need to call it a night. I need some time to process what this means for me. What it means for my mom’s case now that I know who really committed the crime. Maybe I can get her confession thrown out if I can prove Leroy did it.”
Allison bit her lip worriedly. This was the risk she’d taken in telling him everything. Even if he hadn’t known Elaine’s plan to take over the library before, maybe learning all this would push him right into her lap. “Are you angry about the whole planted confession thing?”
“Of course he’s not,” Emily said indignantly. “You did what you had to do to get out of that basement.”
Zack chuckled drily. “Honestly? I feel like you could have erred on the side of caution and just had her fake-confess to the burglary. Capital murder seems a little extreme.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” Allison sighed. “Once we get the paper and missing memories back from Leroy, I’ll see what I can do to set all that straight. He should be the one in jail, not your mom.”
“Don’t apologize.” Paul’s voice came clear and strong as he sat up straight on the sofa. “Even if Leroy committed the actual killings, it was all Elaine’s idea. Who’s to blame, the mastermind or the lackey? I’d argue the former. And Elaine is the one who destroyed my mind without remorse; we know that for certain. Now, there’s no law against that, but it’s still criminal. Even a lawyer can’t argue with that.” He fixed Zack with his piercing blue gaze. Zack held eye contact for a few long seconds before looking away.
“I won’t lie. It hurts to see my mom in jail, even if she did some terrible things.”
“Don’t forget that she knocked Mom out and locked her in a cellar!” Emily said indignantly. “She should be in prison!”
“I know.” Zack looked down at her and swallowed hard. “You’re my family now, too, and you deserve justice. I think—I think we can figure this out. I just need time to wrap my head around it.”
The pleading tone of his voice thrummed like a chord inside Allison’s ribcage. She’d tasted that mix of desperation and heartache too many times herself. She knew what a gift time could be. She nodded at him. “Take whatever time you need. But before you go—Emily, your dad has something for you.” She nodded to Paul and he handed Emily the wooden pen, the simple thing that had cost him so much.
“Keep it safe,” he said, clasping his hands around his daughter’s. “I know you’re the right person to have this. If you think about it, it’s very similar to a doctor’s scalpel. It can do a lot of harm or good depending on the heart of the person who wields it. You have a good heart, Emily—don’t forget it. Even if you lose everything else, you always have that.”
Chapter 29
That evening, Allison let the puppies out of their pen to scramble around the first floor. She rolled a tennis ball down the hall for them, and the circular floor plan became a racetrack as they chased it, skidding and tripping over each other as they snapped the ball and sent it ricocheting from baseboard to baseboard. Serena finally claimed it on the second lap by taking a flying leap over her sister’s back and then flattening, spread-eagle, on top of the ball, her back humped like a shell on a turtle.
Wilson squared his little shoulders and gave a warning growl before he pounced on her head, worrying her left ear with his tiny, needle-sharp teeth. Serena yelped in surprise and rolled over, exposing her belly and rabbiting her back paws to unseat him, while Everest gave a sharp bark to try and break up the fight. Allison watched in amusement as the tennis ball, seemingly forgotten, rolled away across the floorboards.
Venus, who’d been sitting quietly and watching her siblings brawl, ambled over, nosed the ball, then picked it up gingerly in her mouth and trotted off to hide under the sofa and gnaw on her prize. Allison giggled to herself. They were going to miss each other when they went off to forever homes, but hopefully they’d have new friends to play with, other dogs or kids like Nia and Jaden.
Her smile slipped away as she remembered her promise to Myra. Nia and Jaden needed their mama dog—or at least a decent lookalike. She located her phone and dialed Rachael.
Rachael didn’t bother with a greeting when she answered the call. “I have three in the kennel waiting for you,” she said briskly. “Take one, take all...it’s up to you.”
A laugh burst out of Allison. “I have four in a pen waiting for you.”
“Oh, are those puppies ripe?” The glee in Rachael’s voice was palpable.
“I think so. They’re tearing up the place. Can you hear them?” Allison held her phone in the direction of the puppy stampede as they raced by, yipping and nipping at each other’s heels.
“They sound delicious. I can’t wait to get my hands on them.”
“If you say so.” Allison wished she had Rachael’s positive attitude about taking on extra work.
“You don’t believe me? My kennel is bursting at the seams! I have a huge adoption event planned for next weekend, and nobody can resist a puppy.”
“Doesn’t that make it less likely that people will adopt one of the other dogs?” Allison knew that Oregon Tails rescued a lot of senior and special needs dogs, in addition to healthy adults.
“Nope! It works both ways. People are drawn to the event to see the puppies, but then they see how much energy those little guys have—”
“And how sharp their teeth are,” Allison giggled.
“Yep. And suddenly the calm, gentle adults start looking pretty good.”
“Reminds me of dating in college.”
Rachael laughed. “You said it. Listen, I’ll give my vet a ring and get those puppies scheduled this week. Do you mind taking them for their shots and a checkup?”
“No problem. Anything else you need from me?”
“Yes, actually. Tell me all about them so I can post them on the website. Names, personalities?”
Allison filled her in on Wilson, Serena, Venus, and Everest. When she was done, she could practically hear Rachael grinning through the phone.
“They sound exquisite. I’m kind of shocked that Myra’s not going to keep any of them.”
“They’re super busy with Crystal’s new ‘pup.’ I think an actual puppy would just add chaos. They’re really missing Jenny, though. The kids think she’s at my house with the puppies. Any chance you’ve heard about an adult female Lab that needs a home from one of your rescue partners? I’m scheming to find a good substitute so I can ‘return’ her.”
“Aw.” Rachael was quiet for a few moments. “I can’t think of any off the top of my head, but I’ll ask around. Just a warning, it’ll be a long shot finding a dog as sweet as that one.”
“I know. But I also know you can work miracles. If there’s a dog out there who fits the bill, you’ll find her.”
“Oh, I’ll find one, all right—the question is, are you willing to drive to Canada to pick her up?”
Allison grinned into the phone. “Maybe not Canada. But Idaho and Washington, definitely! Wave your magic wand and find me a new Jenny.”
Rachael cackled into the phone. “Better gas up your car.”
Allison hung up the phone. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The little tennis balls rolling around her house would go to wonderful new homes, and Rachael would find a mama dog for Nia and Jaden to love—and to love on them. She didn’t need to worry about them—and she didn’t need to worry about Emily, either. Zack wasn’t going to hurt her. He was kind and thoughtful and genuinely cared for her. And Emily had the sensitivity to help him work through his complicated family situation.
She could finally relax. She felt the tension drain away as she fed the puppies their last meal of the day and watched them scoot their plates of food around the pen with their faces.
At least, until sh
e remembered the next item on her to-do list. She still needed to steal those boxes of memories from Mrs. Gauss’s dahlia shed. And she had no idea how she was going to pull it off. Despite pulling off the storage unit heist, she was no expert burglar. Her closest brush with criminals was Elaine’s break-in at the library, and Elaine had used a key!
She gnawed her lower lip pensively, trying to remember the plots of heist movies and crime novels. All she could think of was Mission Impossible-style, high-tech teams complete with safe crackers and computer hackers—neither of which she had.
“I’m not breaking into a bank vault here,” she mumbled to herself. “It’s an old lady’s garden shed.”
Mrs. Gauss’s shed was part shed, part greenhouse, she recalled from Leroy’s memory. The entrance door was solid wood, but the back half of the small building was all glass. The most obvious route would be to break one of the large windows, then climb through it. Once she had the boxes, she could let herself out the regular door.
But the noise of the window breaking would surely draw Mrs. Gauss’s attention. Maybe Myra could invite her over to visit the baby again. That would keep her and Leroy busy long enough for Allison to smash and grab. Leroy might not check on those boxes for weeks or months if he thought they were still safe in the shed.
Except Mrs. Gauss would surely notice the giant pile of broken glass as soon as she got home. She rolled her eyes at herself. Her criminal career was going to be short. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to end up in jail just like Elaine.
She drummed her fingers on the dining room table. She needed a way to break in without being noticed and get away without leaving evidence behind. When Leroy discovered the boxes were missing, he couldn’t even file a police report, because he didn’t have evidence a burglary occurred and couldn’t prove he ever had the boxes in his possession to begin with. He wasn’t supposed to have them. They should still be in the unit at Hughes Mini Storage, which, though it contained Elaine’s possessions, was rented in Zack’s name.
