by Olivia Swift
“We thought it might all just be a one-off thing,” Carly told him. “I’m sorry now. We might have saved her being attacked. Dex was away seeing to his house move, and Jazz came down to pick me up. I’ve stayed at Chestnut Hall ever since.”
“We’ll have to go over this place to see if there are any other fingerprints or DNA for anyone other than the family.”
“She has a husband,” Carly remembered. “But I don’t know where he is. Spends most of his time in the bar.”
“Thanks,” Mackay answered. “We’ll try and find him.” Sanchez was already putting out a request to find Jed Duval. Carly gave him the timber yard address. The need for the hunt for the husband was wiped out by the fact that an officer brought him into the house.
“This man says he lives here,” The uniformed man said, and Mackay let Dex and Carly leave. The drive home was quiet and uneventful. Carly realized how exhausted she was.
“What a day. A wedding, a party, and an attack where we rode to the rescue,” Dex mused, and they let themselves back into the house.
“I know this is over the top,” he told her, “but we are going to check every room in this house together and make sure all doors and windows are locked fast.” She agreed and the house was covered from top to bottom. Nothing suspicious occurred. With a coffee in her hand, Carly decided that she would never sleep and opted to search for Charley Rose’s grave and death notice instead.
“I just won’t sleep so I think I’ll sit with a drink and the laptop and see if I can find Charley Rose.” She paused. “If I had never set out to find the history, Charlene would not have been attacked.”
“You couldn’t know where the story would lead,” he consoled her and wrapped his arms around to hold her close. “Let’s both try and find the grave and then we can tell Emily and finish the whole thing.” There was quiet as they both concentrated on searching, but Carly stopped and dabbed at her eyes.
“I feel really sorry for Charlene. Poor woman---a useless husband and a violent son.” Dex took her hand.
“We’ll give her a hand when she recovers,” he said and went on. “You know, if he has done this, then he is a much more dangerous person than we thought.” Carly nodded.
“We’ll keep up being careful, but I would think he is on the run or in hiding if he knows the police will be looking for him.”
“Once they pick him up, things will be safe again,” Dex added and took his tablet over to the sofa. Carly came and sat beside him and watched as he went on searching. In the end, they found it. The victim of the runaway horse accident was buried in Three Elms Cemetery.
“When Katarina comes in tomorrow, we’ll run over there and finish the story,” Dex told her and draped an arm around her. She dropped her head on his shoulder and fell asleep. He reached over for a throw that was fairly close and draped it over the two of them. Neither of them had mentioned that he had said those three words to her.
“Even if she doesn’t feel the same,” He thought as he drifted off with the pink tendrils of her hair on his face, “that monster won’t get near her.”
The shop was waiting for them with the beautiful crystals and gifts. As Carly left her bag in the back room, the scent of lavender drifted around her.
“Hello, Emily,” she said. “We found where Charley was buried, and we will go and see the place today.” She called Katarina who said she would come straight away. The girl arrived ten minutes later to hear about Charlene and the attack.
“That is just dreadful,” she said. “He must be really unhinged.”
“I’ll call Ben to come over. Duval is probably in hiding, but he might just be crazy enough to turn up here and cause trouble,” Carly told her. In another ten minutes, Ben arrived to hear the news as well. Carly called the hospital and heard that Charlene Duval was comfortable and stable but was not allowed any visitors.
“They’ll have a guard on the door, I would imagine,” Dex remarked.
“What a horrible end to a wonderful day,” Carly said sadly. “The wedding went so well, and Jazz was just a fabulous bride.”
“We’ll not tell them until they come home. No need to spoil the honeymoon,” Carly added and when she had seen everything was in order, she and Dex set off for Three Elms Cemetery.
It turned out to be a very pleasant place that was well cared for and peaceful. There was an office, and they explained to the lady there what they were looking for.
“What a romantic story,” she said with a smile. “If you have the name it should be easy. The graves are laid out to a plan and notes kept of the people buried. Instead of taking a book and thumbing through it, she flicked on the computer and typed in Charley Rose.
“There he is,” she pointed and ran off the plan on a printer. From the door, she pointed to the far corner of the grounds.
“It should be easy because it is the corner plot at the far end. If you cannot find it, come back, and I’ll go over there myself.”
They thanked her for her help and set off for the distant part of the area. Some of the graves were hard to define, and many had no headstones. These were all older graves. The grass was kept cut, but there was no new activity in that part of the grounds. The lady had been right though because, where the two rows of graves joined, the corner grave was almost a marker for the rest. It did have a rough stone on the site, and Carly knelt down to rub at the surface. The moment she felt the stone beneath her fingers, there was a connection of some sort. She saw the initials---a roughly cut C and R.
“It’s him,” she said with a smile. “I can feel it, and his initials are here.” Dex dropped down beside her and placed his hand on the stone as well.
“You’re right. I can feel something as well.”
“Well, well, well,” a male voice said mockingly, and with a chill, Carly turned to see Jed Duval with a large and wicked-looking knife in his hand. Dex stood and pushed Carly behind him, but she stepped out and shouted at Jed Duval.
“You nasty, wicked man,” she pointed her finger and took a step forward. Dex tried to hold her back, but she was furious and not frightened. “How you could attack your mother like that, I do not know. She loved you and brought you up. She defended you when you did things you shouldn’t and then she told you the truth.” She took a breath and another step forward. “And what did you do, you worthless excuse for a man. You attacked your own mother with a knife and smashed all of her things. Come on, big man with your knife. Come and attack another woman.” She stopped a few feet in front of him and held her hands out with her feet spread determinedly apart and ready for the lunge.
Instead of the attack, Jed Duval dropped the knife on the ground and started to cry. He fell to his knees and sobbed. Carly looked at Dex and then dropped beside the crying man on the ground. She kicked the knife away, and Dex came beside her.
“Jed. It will be all right. She’ll get better. Come on. Let’s find a safe place for you.” She laid a hand on his shoulder and Dex took a step forward in case the man suddenly charged again, but he slumped there. “You’ve got a successful business to run. You have so much more to do than worry about what she told you.”
“All these years and I never knew,” he whispered. Dex heard someone approaching and half turned in case it was another attack but, with relief, he saw Mallarchy Mackay and his partner, Sanchez, moving quietly but swiftly to take over the situation.
15
“The patrol cars picked up the van and called it in,” Mackay told them, as Sanchez slapped cuffs onto Duval who was still weeping on the ground. They hauled him to his feet, and he looked pitifully at Carly.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
They took away the now harmless Duval, along with the knife, saying that they would take statements tomorrow. Dex and Carly were left in the quiet cemetery which was as calm as if nothing had happened.
Carly’s legs suddenly turned to jelly, and she sat on a nearby stone. Dex came and knelt beside her and held her hands.
“It’s over. He’ll go to j
ail for quite a long time, I should think, because of the attack on his mother. It might even be attempted murder.” Carly gripped his hands hard in return and nodded without speaking. After a little while, she regained her composure and shakily got to her feet.
“Let’s tell Charley Rose about Emily and go back to the shop.” He agreed, and they both sat down beside the roughly shaped stone with the scraped initials. Carly put her hand on the surface and felt a slight tingle. She took Dex’s hand and added it to her own.
“Charley Rose, if you can hear me, Emily Duval is still waiting for you in the hotel. She has waited for a hundred years, and that has to be the truest sort of love. She raised her son alone and called him Jedediah. You have great-great-grandchildren, but Emily is still trapped in the hotel,” she paused for breath and Dex continued.
“Maybe, like me, you did not believe in spirits, but you must know better now. If you hear us, try and come to meet Emily and complete the journey you started a hundred years ago.” There was a silence as they both waited and neither of them really expected an answer. They had done all they could and would go back to tell the lavender lady where the love of her life was buried. Into the silence, there was a warmth that surrounded them that was more than the summer sunshine. The pressure touched Carly’s cheek like a cobweb. She breathed a thank you. As they stood, Dex took a photo of the gravestone for Emily and with one last look, they linked hands and left the cemetery. The lady at the office stopped them to ask if everything was all right because the police had told her to stay indoors. After briefly putting her mind at rest, they climbed into the car and drove back to the pretty little shop.
Katarina and Ben wanted to hear the details and were so relieved when they heard that Duval had been arrested.
“We can relax,” Dex added. “He will not be let out after attacking his mother like that.” It was a great relief but reminded Carly to call the hospital again. The formal report was that the patient was stable and comfortable but would not be allowed visitors for a few days.
“Thanks to both of you,” Carly told them. “Take the rest of the day off. I think I’ll close early even if it means losing a couple of customers.” Katarina gave her a hug and said she would be in tomorrow and Ben followed the assistant out of the door. The bell jingled and then there was silence, but the drift of lavender perfume filled the air as they went into the rear room.
“Oh, Emily,” Carly started. “We found him. We found your Charley Rose after all of these years. His grave was in Three Elms Cemetery, and we told him that you were still waiting here in the hotel.” She paused. “I will miss you very much, but you should try and find the light now. Charley will be there.” The lavender stayed where it was but the door tinkled, and Carly looked out to see who had entered. There was no one there. She turned to come back into the room and was surrounded by the almost solid scent and feel of summer roses. The cobwebs touched her cheek, and she turned to Dex with tears in her eyes.
“Can you smell the roses? Dex, can you smell the roses. Charley has found the shop.” She went to put her arms around Dex’s waist, and the two of them could almost see and feel the meeting of two lost loves from a hundred years ago blend together as one. The atmosphere intensified and the scents swirled around them. There was an intense beam of white sunlight that streamed in the window and seemed to appear from nowhere. Two entwined sections of gentler sunlight travelled into the beam, and then the whole magical white rainbow faded into nothing. All that hovered in the air were dust mites and the traces of perfume. That, too, disappeared gradually and Carly turned to the man beside her with tears in her eyes.
“We did it, Dex. We brought them together after a hundred years.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close. There were tears threatening in his eyes as well, but it didn’t seem to matter. He pulled away slightly and tipped her head towards him to brush her lips lightly with his own. She held her arms around his neck and returned the kiss gently. This was a meeting of minds and hearts. The sweetness was overpowering. The blood in her veins sizzled, and the lightheadedness that the touch of lips brought was there as it always had been, but there was something more this time. There was an offer in his kiss. It seemed to say “Catch my heart. It’s yours forever.” There was no doubt in Carly’s mind that she wanted to stay in his arms and his life forever. The tears on her cheeks were for herself now as well as for Emily Duval. Dex gently wiped them away with his finger and she returned the favor for Dex.
“These are all happy tears,” she whispered. “True love that lasted for a hundred years is wonderful to see.” She looked around. “It has made this shop very special to me as well.”
Dex Sutherland wondered if she had heard him say that he loved her at the wedding.
“Or maybe she heard, and it isn’t returned.” He felt the panic well up in his throat at the feeling that he might lose the love of his life when he had only just found her. He wondered if the shop was so important that there would be no time for love. She saw his face and knew he was worried about something.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” She asked and knew it was the first time she had used an endearment towards him. The word found a chord inside his heart, and he smiled and held out his hand. She took it and felt the thrill of his touch. Dexter Sutherland dropped to one knee and asked a question to which he had to know the answer.
“Sweetest, wonderful, beautiful Carly James. I love you from the bottom of my heart. Please marry me.” He paused and smiled. “You’ll always be the boss.” Carly pulled him to his feet and held both of his hands.
“I have known that I loved you since the first time we kissed. True love, in this world and the next, like Emily and Charley,” she kissed his lips lightly and answered the question. “I would marry you this very minute if it was possible.”
“Thank heavens,” Dex said with enormous relief and swept her off her feet and swung her round in the shop. “I thought that you might not realize how much I needed you.” Then he put his hand behind her neck and drew her in for the kiss that had his heart and his love in it. They stayed in that world where time stood still for some time, and everything that had happened drifted away and only the two of them and their future together remained. They did not even hear the door tinkle as Katarina came back to collect her flat shoes. She was about to speak but picked up her things and tiptoed back the way she had come. Ben was waiting outside to drive her home and was about to go inside. She stopped him with a touch on his arm.
“They are…er…otherwise engaged in there,” she laughed. “And I am so pleased for them.”
Dex and Carly had slipped into the routine of closing up and leaving the shop for the day. As she pulled the door, Carly looked back.
“I hope I was right, Emily. I hope you are together.” She locked the door. Dex smiled and put an arm around her shoulders.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
“That sounds so good,” she told him and slipped her arm around his waist. They settled in the house and searched Evan’s freezer for food to heat in the microwave and then curled together on the sofa.
“Tell me the wedding can be soon,” he asked, and she moaned.
“It will be soon, but we just finished organizing yesterday’s event.”
“I don’t care about that,” he said. “We could take off to Vegas instead,” and she laughed.
“That is one brilliant idea,” Carly said and pushed him down on the sofa. She smothered his face with kisses and told him she loved him over and over again. Dexter Sutherland was insanely happy.
“Happy ever after, my sweetheart,” she told him. “In this world and into the next.” The scent of lavender floated out of nowhere and filled the room. Carly smiled. “Emily just said thank you.”
THE END
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About the Author
Olivia Swift loves writing cozy mysteries! Her stories are inspired by her varied interests…gardening, spirits, crystals and so much more. Of course, there must be a romance or two in her books and a happily-ever-after ending!
Growing up in a small English village, Olivia is only too familiar with the various characters that make up a community. There is always an event, drama, or mystery amongst the village folk.
Only a few years ago, Olivia and her husband chose to take an early retirement and moved to the Aquitaine region of France. There, in her sun-filled study, she is able to sit and write her books. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the window overlooks her lovely French country garden.
Contact us
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