Fur-boding Shadows

by Harper Lin

  “Okay. But I bet you won’t find out too much.” I rubbed my aunt’s shoulders affectionately from the back seat.

  I’d been wrong before. But this was one of those times I was wrong on an epic scale.

  4

  Domestic Disturbances

  As I was locking up the café after a slow day, I heard a catcall from behind me.

  “What do you think you are doing, Tom?” I said once I realized it was him.

  “I’m coming to walk my best girl home before I head off to work. What do you think I’m doing?”

  “Starting trouble,” I replied with a smile as he leaned in for a kiss.

  “Busy day?” he asked.

  “No. This cold snap brings out only the bravest of souls. I think I sold two brownies and maybe six coffees all day. That’s why Bea and Aunt Astrid went home early and I’m locking up.” I turned the key in the door until I heard the thick snap of the dead bolt slipping into place. “Besides, they are on a mission.”

  “Oh yeah? What are they up to?”

  I told Tom about the Elderflowers and the wake. He seemed more surprised than I expected.

  “Why are you looking like that? They’re just bringing over a casserole. People do that all the time.”

  “No. It’s not that,” Tom said. “I have been at the Elderflowers’ home before. We’ve gotten calls from neighbors for domestic disturbances.”

  “What?” I clutched my imaginary pearls.

  “Yeah. Over the past year, I’ve been there about four times. I recognize the name. Like Greenstone, it’s pretty unique. Not a name you quickly forget.”

  I was shocked. “Mr. Elderflower seemed so frail and small at the funeral home. He was beside himself. I can’t imagine him lashing out at his wife. In fact, he was blaming himself for her death.” I filled Tom in on what had happened right before we left the wake.

  “Well, that makes sense because he wasn’t the aggressor.” Tom raised his eyebrows.

  “You mean Marie Elderflower was beating on her husband?”

  “Maybe not beating but threatening. Pushing him around, maybe.” Tom’s voice was firm.

  “That bothers you?” I slipped my arm through his as we slowly walked toward my house.

  “Like I said, I was at the house a couple times.” Tom shrugged. “I’d talk with Mr. Elderflower and tell him that leaving was an option. No one would begrudge him leaving with his youngest daughter to get away from a volatile situation.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That he loved her. He couldn’t leave her like this. It wasn’t her fault.”

  “Was his daughter Evelyn there when these things happened?”

  “Yes. It’s no wonder that girl has turned out the way she has.”

  “Have you ever had any dealings with her being on the wrong side of the law?”

  “No. But give it time. According to her sisters, Evelyn Elderflower will be on a path to destruction soon enough. Following in her mother’s footsteps, I guess.”

  I looked down at the sidewalk and watched our feet as we strolled.

  “You know, just because she wears black lipstick and acts all broody doesn’t mean anything is wrong with Evelyn. She’s just a kid.” I looked to Tom for support.

  “Maybe,” he replied. “But with a violent home life and now that the stronger parent is dead, leaving the weaker one in place, well, she’ll probably take over the role as abuser.”

  “Ugh! How can you be so negative?”

  “I’ve seen it before, Cath.” He shrugged. “It’s sad, but it’s one of those things that gets passed down to children. But who knows. There are always exceptions to the rules. I’ve also seen my fair share of miracles. I wouldn’t rule anything out just yet. This ball game is too close to call.”

  He squeezed my arm, and we walked a little farther in silence. My mind was spinning. I couldn’t imagine family beating on each other. The idea of it made my stomach flip over on itself.

  I knew my aunt and cousin were bringing a casserole over to the Elderflowers’ that night. I was thinking it might be a good idea for me to do the same. I’d pick up a coffee cake or something in the morning and slip by there. But I wouldn’t tell anyone. Hopefully, Evelyn would answer the door, and I could have a few more minutes to talk to her.

  “Well, here we are.” Tom snapped me out of my trance at my front door.

  “I meant to tell you that Aunt Astrid and Bea thought the café looked beautiful.” I rocked back and forth on my heels.

  “Well, I’m glad my interior-decorating skills weren’t a complete bust. The guys at the precinct find it a little weird. But then again, they’ve seen my girl and can’t blame me for jumping through a few hoops in order to get you alone.”

  “Stop,” I gushed. “You’re embarrassing me.”

  “Embarrassing you? The prettiest girl in Wonder Falls?”

  I couldn’t help it. All the thoughts of the Elderflowers and their sad situation flew right out of my head as Tom kissed me on the front porch. Before I could forget my own name or how to unlock my front door, I felt a familiar push against my foot.

  “Meow.”

  “Treacle. You silly kitty. What are you doing out on this cold night?” Tom said, scooping my big black cat up in his arms. Without hesitation, Treacle gave him an affectionate headbutt under the chin, his purring motor running full speed.

  “He’s got an open window when he wants to come back home. Don’t you, big guy?” I scratched behind his ears before pulling out my keys to get inside. I hadn’t been terribly cold until Tom mentioned it. Then I realized it was freezing outside.

  He passed the big furry ball to me after I opened the door.

  “Well, what do you say we have dinner tomorrow. A couple of burgers or maybe a pizza?”

  “I think that sounds good.” I smiled and stepped inside. The warmth of my house sent a shiver across my shoulders.

  After one more kiss that lasted a couple minutes, I finally shut the door to the cold elements outside, turned up the heat, and shut Treacle’s window for the night.

  “I like Tom,” Treacle said telepathically as he hopped up on my bed and began his nightly grooming routine.

  “I do too.”

  “Do you think you’ll marry him?”

  “What? Why would you ask that question?”

  “Curiosity and the cat. Blah, blah, blah. You know how the saying goes.”

  “I’m not thinking of marriage right now. What I’m thinking is that I need to find out a little more about this Elderflower family, and I’m not sure how to go about it.”

  “Maybe I can help.”

  I thought for a minute and looked at Treacle. He yawned and sat up straight and proper, still purring happily.

  “Maybe you can.”

  5

  A Little Blood Left

  “Well, I just don’t know what to think,” Bea said just as Treacle and I walked into the café.

  “Don’t know what to think about what?” I asked as I pulled off my coat, scarf, and hat. Treacle scooted over to the table by the heater, hopped up, and began to doze.

  “We went to the Elderflowers’ house last night. I made a lovely chicken potpie with biscuits, and Mom brought chocolate chip cookies for dessert,” Bea answered.

  “I love your chicken potpies,” I said, pouting. “Don’t tell me they didn’t like it.”

  “We don’t know,” Aunt Astrid said. “Mr. Elderflower invited us in. He kept apologizing for the state of the house.”

  “What was wrong with it?”

  “Nothing we could see at first,” Bea said. “But as we helped him get set up, we saw that some pictures were facing backward on the walls. There were a lot of shadows, like a couple of bulbs had burned out and had yet to be replaced. But we couldn’t find any bulbs that were out.”

  I looked at my aunt, who was pinching her lips together. “What about you? Did you see anything?”

  “Nothing. For the first time in many years, all I s
aw was the room in front of me. There were no portals, no jutting angles, no clouded dimensions peeking through to this one. I saw his house with perfect vision.”

  “That is weird.”

  My aunt could not only see other dimensions but, with a touch of hocus-pocus, could actually submerge herself in some of them. That was why she walked so slowly. People had it in their heads she was old and slowing down. The truth was she was in fine health. It was her altered vision that made her step carefully. So, when she said she entered a place where the other dimensions were blocked from her view, that was not normal.

  “Why do you think that is? Could there be a natural explanation for it?”

  “Well, unless a small Cape-Cod-style house in the lower- to middle-class part of town is the nexus of the universe, I can’t think of any reason why that would be.” Aunt Astrid scratched her head.

  The café was warming up nicely. Kevin was pulling a fresh batch of orange-cranberry muffins out of the oven. They smelled so good even I was ready to gobble them down. Usually, I adhered to a strict diet. If it had chocolate or vanilla frosting, I’d eat it. If it had fruit or veggies in it, you could bet I’d have to think about it.

  “So, there is something a little strange about the Elderflowers’ house.” I tapped my chin. “Maybe it’s built on an ancient Indian burial ground, or there is some electromagnetic pole centered there. Maybe an asteroid hit on that spot a million years ago and it affects the dimensions around it. I’m just thinking out loud.”

  “We did that too,” Bea said. “After we were practically thrown out of the house on our… ears.”

  “What?” I gasped.

  My aunt nodded and clicked her tongue. “But Mr. Elderflower invited you in. Then he threw you out?”

  “Not him. His daughter,” Bea replied.

  “Which one?” I had assumed that it was Gail or Fern. They seemed very cold and very private at the viewing. I was shocked when Bea said it was Evelyn.

  “She came in the house, slammed the door, and demanded to know what we were doing there,” Bea continued. “Of course, I tried to talk her down off the ledge, but she was having none of that.”

  “What did she say?”

  Aunt Astrid took a deep breath and explained. Evelyn had said they didn’t need any do-gooders pushing their way into family business so they could gossip all around town.

  “Mr. Elderflower sat down at the kitchen table with his head in his hands and said nothing,” Bea added. “I wanted to go to him, but Evelyn started stomping around the house and telling us to get out, or she was going to call the police. There was no way I was going to put my hands on her father. I didn’t want him to get hurt.”

  “Did you really think Evelyn would hurt him?” This pill wasn’t going down.

  “Let’s just say I wasn’t going to bet the odds that she wasn’t.” Bea shook her head sadly.

  I looked over at Treacle, who had been listening to the whole story. I was having a hard time believing it. Of course, I knew my family wasn’t lying. But there had to be more to what they were telling me. Something they didn’t see.

  “Thankfully, as we were scooting down the walkway, Gail showed up.”

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  “She said she was there to check up on them. When we told her what happened, she nodded as if it were a normal occurrence and told us thanks for stopping by,” Bea answered. “I wouldn’t say either one of the Elderflowers’ other daughters is an example of fine manners. They seem a bit rude. But if I had a mother who was suffering from violent dementia, a father who couldn’t cope, and a younger sister gone wild, well, I might be rude too. To say the least.”

  “You think Evelyn has gone wild?”

  “Well, Fern is a dermatologist with her own office, and Gail is a veterinarian with her own office,” Aunt Astrid said. “They seem to be quite successful. If you saw the Cadillac SUV Gail pulled up in, you’d see she was doing pretty well too.”

  I was about to open my mouth and defend Evelyn to Bea and Aunt Astrid when Jake and Blake tapped on the glass door of the café.

  “We’re closed!” I yelled, standing in front of the door. “We don’t open for another minute! You’ll have to wait!”

  I put my hands on my hips then looked at my watch.

  “Cath, I’m not above arresting family,” Jake replied.

  “Fine.” I snapped the lock and turned over the Closed sign so it read Open. “I guess the rules don’t apply to you. I didn’t realize this was Jake’s world and we were just in it.” I huffed as I walked over to Treacle.

  “This is a nice surprise.” Aunt Astrid fussed over Blake as if he were her long-lost son. “Sit down, boys. Cath, get them some coffees to go. Blake, are you hungry?”

  “I had some toast and coffee before I left the house this morning, Aunt Astrid. Thanks.” He barely smiled, but his eyes twinkled.

  “Nonsense. When it’s cold outside, you have to give your stomach something to do. It will help keep you warm. Cath, go get a couple of Kevin’s muffins for Blake.”

  “He just said he had breakfast.” I stood there with my hands out, shrugging.

  “He lied.” Aunt Astrid gave him a wink. “Get him two of them, and put them in a to-go bag.”

  I let my arms fall and stomped to the kitchen.

  “Hi, Kevin,” I mumbled.

  “Hey, Cath,” he said with his cheeks rosy red from the heat of the ovens and the stove. “Would you mind cracking the back door for me?”

  “Not at all.”

  Kevin often kept the door cracked to cool the kitchen off while he baked. The winter air would feel especially good this morning. As if on cue, Treacle hopped down from his table, stretched his legs, and trotted out the door.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said as he slithered through the small space.

  “Be careful, and don’t take any unnecessary risks.”

  With Blake’s orange-cranberry muffins in my hand, I returned to the front of the café.

  “So, what are you guys up to today? Anything interesting?” I asked while I bagged the muffins, adding two pats of butter, a container of honey, red napkins with hearts on them, and a fork. Sure, I didn’t have to put all those nice things in there, but the guy did only have toast for breakfast.

  “We are actually heading over to Collins Funeral Home,” Jake replied.

  “That sounds like the beginning of a joke. Two cops are on their way to a funeral home to inspect a body.” I chuckled.

  “I wish it were. But we got a strange call from the undertaker.”

  I handed Blake his breakfast and leaned closer.

  “What kind of strange call?” Bea read my mind.

  “Well, um, Blake? What would you say this is?” Jake turned to his partner and shrugged.

  “It appears that the body of one of their patrons was defiled sometime in the night. We aren’t sure what that means yet. Those are Mr. Collins’s words. But he was very earnest that we come by and investigate.”

  “Did he say who the person was?” Bea asked, looking at her mother and then me.

  “It was Marie Elderflower,” Jake said. “But I don’t need to tell you guys to keep it under wraps. Not for our sake but for Mr. Collins. Any rumor of a dead body being violated in any way at a funeral home will get the place shut down. We need to see exactly what he’s talking about first.”

  I rubbed my stomach.

  “No problem, Jake. Who would we tell anyway?” I held up my index finger. “Bea, pour me some of that tea, there. Add that lavender sprig.”

  She did it quickly and handed me a large to-go cup.

  “Here. I’m not sure why, but this tea tastes good with these muffins.” I looked up at Blake and, for the first time in a long time, didn’t feel the urge to blush and run away to scribble about him in my diary.

  Of course, all I got in return was a grunt and a nod.

  “Please, be careful.” Bea leaned over the counter to give Jake a quick peck on the
cheek. “And let us know what you find out.”

  “Yeah. Let us know,” I repeated. “Don’t leave out any details.”

  “You’re a weird one, Cath,” Jake replied after kissing his wife.

  “Takes one to know one.”

  “Now, you eat that before it gets cold, Blake. Be careful, you boys.” Aunt Astrid waved as the guys left the store.

  “Well, that is a strange turn of events.” Bea put her hand on her hip. “I’m not sure what to think about that. I wonder where Evelyn Elderflower was last night. We know she came home for a spell, but that doesn’t mean she stayed there.”

  “Mr. Collins has at least three people working at his business. I hate to say it, but it could be any weirdo there.”

  “Cath is right. We can’t just assume Evelyn is up to no good,” Aunt Astrid said.

  “Besides, just because she looks evil doesn’t mean she is. We can’t forget that she’s only seventeen.” I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to defend this girl I didn’t know. I guessed it was because I felt as though I did know her.

  It was obvious Aunt Astrid and Bea were trying to look at things from all angles. But they had no idea what Evelyn was feeling. I didn’t either, really, but I had a better idea because I had been there. All the witchcraft and spells and fortune-telling and crystal-gazing couldn’t change the fact that Evelyn was broken. Not permanently. Not forever. But for now, she was functioning the way a seventeen-year-old girl should. It wasn’t her fault. I just couldn’t understand why no one saw this but me.

  Once again, business was slow due to the cold weather. But one person was willing to brave the elements, wrapped in her full-length fur coat and leather boots with matching gloves.

  “Hello, Darla. What brings you out on this chilly winter day?” Bea asked politely.

  Darla Castellan was the Lex Luthor to my Superman. We had spent four hellacious years together in high school when I was the post she used to sharpen her claws on.