Murder in Mystic Grove

by S F Bose

  “So you did know about my work? I never saw you like I saw the two of you last night,” I said.

  Addie’s mouth tightened. “Well, we can normally control our visibility in situations like that. This time events were moving very fast and we just slipped up. Yes, we knew about your work and were so relieved when you moved back home. Although, we were sorry about your friend.”

  “Nate,” I said and they both gave me a sad smile. They know about Nate. I felt a wave of relief. I wouldn’t have to explain Nate or Worldhead to them. They already knew.

  “We drank a lot of Mimosas when you called to say you were returning,” Nana Anna said. “We were happy you were coming home and sad about Nate.”

  “I wish I had known. I would have talked to you about...everything.” I saw a look of sadness cross Grandma Addie’s face and quickly said, “But I’m happy you didn’t tell me. I’m not sure I could have handled it back then. It’s a real mind bender.”

  “Are you sure?” Addie asked.

  “Definitely,” I replied and meant it.

  “That’s such a relief,” Addie said. She and Nana Anna smiled at each other.

  “How do you come to me exactly?” I asked.

  Nana Anna shrugged. “We think of it as visiting. We don’t know how it works physically. It just does. We do it now without thinking. When we plan a visit, we go to a private place, like a bedroom. Sometimes, we’ll just doze off in a chair. People leave old ladies alone when they’re napping,” she said with a smile.

  “That’s what you did yesterday?”

  “Anna and I felt the danger, went to our bedrooms, thought about you, and our spirits joined you in the cabin. We told you to stay down and helped to roll you out of the living room.”

  I felt a moment of panic. “Is this black magic or something?”

  They both looked shocked. “Good heavens, no,” Anna said. “We only use our abilities to help each other. We’re church-going people. If it’s magic, it’s good magic.”

  I believed her. Grandma Addie and Nana Anna were not the black hat and bubbling cauldron types, unless it was stirring a pot of vegetable soup on the B&B kitchen stove.

  “How about the others?” Olivia, Chloe, Katie, Becky, Aunt Grace?” I asked.

  Grandma pursed her lips. “Well, you know our mother, Bridey Shaw, has an amazing ability to diagnose and treat illnesses in people and animals.”

  I nodded. All my life I had heard stories of neighbors going to Bridey with their illnesses and complaints. She’d diagnose them and create an herbal remedy that usually cured them. She treated animals too. If a farmer had a sick horse or cow, he’d come fetch Bridey to his farm before he’d call a veterinarian. She still helped neighbors to this day.

  Grandma Addie licked her lips. “Well, she also has second sight,” she said in a low voice.

  I squinted at her. “What’s that?”

  Grandma sighed. “When I say it out loud, it sounds crazy. Our mother sometimes senses or has visions about things that will happen in the future.”

  “Bridey sees the future?”

  “She does. But she told us it doesn’t happen very often,” Nana said.

  “Or it happens more frequently and she just doesn’t tell us,” Addie added and exchanged a look with Nana.

  Nana shrugged. “It’s possible she doesn’t share everything. She may not want to worry us. The thing about second sight is that even if you know what’s going to happen, you can’t change events.”

  “Is she accurate?” I asked. They both nodded but didn’t provide details.

  I felt tingles and swallowed hard. “I knew about her healing skills. But why haven’t I heard about the second sight thing?” I asked.

  “Liz, we don’t sit around talking about it. If anyone outside the family heard any of this, it could hurt us,” Grandma replied.

  I got it immediately. “Word would get out and it could hurt the B&B.”

  “Exactly,” said Nana. “Who’d want to come to a B&B with spooky weird people?”

  I took another deep breath. “Okay, how about the others?”

  Grandma thought for a minute. “Bridey is tutoring Olivia in herbal medicine and healing. She shows great promise as a healer. However, Bridey feels Olivia has other skills she can develop over time. She hasn’t shared what skills those might be. Chloe has some serious talents, but Bridey didn’t think she was ready yet.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. “Ready for what?”

  “Ready to accept the talent and work at it to make it stronger. You can have abilities, but if you don’t practice and work at them, they stay dormant,” Addie said. “Chloe evidently doesn’t take her abilities seriously yet.”

  “Katie and Becky?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine my younger or older sister having skills like this.

  “We think Katie has the ability to go visiting,” Addie replied. “But she hasn’t really used it.”

  “She’s not really aware of her ability,” Nana Anna agreed. “She also gets premonitions but tends to ignore them.”

  “The family talents may have skipped Becky or are, perhaps, deeply buried,” Addie added.

  “Grace can sense when we need her and also when her daughters, Olivia and Chloe, need her. She can visit them the way Addie and I can, but she always remains unseen. She also gets premonitions,” Nana Anna said.

  “Are premonitions the same as second sight?” I asked.

  Grandma shook her head. “No, in our experience, they’re different. A premonition is a strong feeling that something is going to happen. However, it may or may not actually occur. Second sight involves having a vision that shows vividly some future event that does happen.”

  “What about Mom?” I asked. Addie and Nana Anna did a double take and then broke out into hysterical laughter. Nana Anna bent over at the waist laughing and Addie howled next to her, tears running down her cheeks.

  Finally, Addie gasped, “No, your mother doesn’t have any skills in that area. The skills we’re talking about come from specific families. They flow down through the Bean, Shaw, and Kelly families. Our mother, Bridey Kelly, married Kevin Shaw and merged the Kelly family talents with the Shaw family talents. So Anna and I inherited skills we got from the Kelly and Shaw lines. When I married Peter Bean, it added the talents from the Bean family. As a result, Grace, you, your sisters, and two cousins inherited talents from the Bean, Kelly, and Shaw lines.”

  “But is it a form of magic or is it a skill?” I asked. Addie and Nana Anna looked at each other.

  “I think of them as abilities that are a special family gift. They allow us to help people,” Nana Anna replied.

  “If you call them ‘magic,’ it suggests witches, potions, and spells. That’s not who we are,” Addie agreed.

  “Okay. And Dad is a guy and doesn’t have these types of skills?’ I asked.

  “That’s right, dear. Your brother, Brian, doesn’t either,” Nana Anna said.

  “Do Caitlin, Faith, and Hope have talents?” I asked Nana Anna. Nana had four children. Cousin Cait was her youngest child and only daughter. Faith and Hope were Cait’s daughters.

  “Cait has very accurate premonitions and visiting skills,” Nana Anna replied. “Faith and Hope both have premonitions and healing abilities. However, neither one practices their skills very much. I think they could also develop visiting skills, but they’re not very motivated.”

  I chewed my lower lip as I absorbed this information. “What about me?” I asked.

  “Well we know you can see visitors like Anna and me. You’ve had premonitions since you were a little girl. You just don’t remember them all. I think the fact that you saw us, heard us, and felt us at the cabin means that your skills have moved to another level. Time will tell.” said Grandma.

  “You also may have other abilities we’re not aware of,” Nana Anna added.

  I felt a little light-headed. “I don’t know. I have had a lot of accurate premonitions. But lately, I either don’t
get the alerts or my premonitions are totally wrong.”

  “Anna, Grace, and I can help you with that, when you’re ready. A part of it is strengthening your talents through practice and filtering out false signals,” Grandma Addie replied.

  “Practice makes perfect,” Nana Anna agreed.

  “Okay, what about Raven?”

  Addie shook her head. “I don’t have any idea. I didn’t see him last night when we were there with you. He has no family connection to us.”

  Nana Anna shook her head too. “I didn’t see him either. Normally, we can quickly assess a person. We pick up feelings about whether the person is good or evil, friend or foe. With your Mr. Raven, it’s hard to pick up anything. It’s as if he has an invisible wall around him. It’s very unusual.”

  “I do feel that he’s a powerful man,” Addie said. “Also, there have been moments when we spoke and I felt a positive connection with him. Very fleeting though.”

  Nana frowned. “He may come from a family that has its own talents. What I don’t understand is why you saw him and we didn’t.”

  “The tattoo is interesting too. That lightning image goes back generations in all three of our families,” Grandma said.

  We sat in silence for a minute. There was a question I had to ask.

  “Grandma, when Grandpa Pete was killed in the car accident?”

  “I didn’t feel any warning. None of us did. Bridey swore she hadn’t experienced any visions of his death and I believe her. To this day, I don’t know why I didn’t have a premonition,” she replied. Sadness clouded her eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” I said and squeezed her hand.

  “Don’t be. It was meant to be,” she replied with a sad smile. “I do miss him.”

  We sat in silence again. Then I asked, “Anything else I should know about?”

  Grandma scrunched her face in concentration. “We do have a strong connection to nature. Most of us can feel the energy that emanates from Thorn, our Gentle Bush. And we are all very energized by thunder and lightning storms.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Is that why? I love thunder and lightning storms!”

  Addie laughed. “I know, dear. Anna and I sometimes go out and walk around in them. Drives your father crazy. Now, do I have to give you the ‘Don’t talk to anyone about this’ lecture?”

  “No, Grandma,” I replied. Who would believe me?

  “Liz, I know this is a lot to absorb. But it’s a good thing. Trust us on that,” said Grandma. I smiled.

  Grandma Addie and Nana Anna left shortly after. I lowered the bed and took a deep breath. We had found the killer of Justin Church, which would give closure to Peter and Martha. We had also helped to clear Ben’s name. And Finn, Haas, and I had all survived Damian Fletcher. On top of that, I had an explanation for my premonitions. Things had turned out well.

  I drifted off to sleep and dreamed of sitting in the meadow near Thorn, the Hawthorne tree. Sunlight warmed me and energy flowed through the ground from Thorn into my body, recharging me. In the background, I heard purring.

  ***

  Later, I dreamed about a raging thunderstorm with bright lightning streaking across the sky. I was running in the meadow and throwing jabs. Warm rain soaked me to the skin. Raven ran toward me smiling. He wore sweatpants and a tank top that revealed the lightning tattoo. After a loud crackling sound, a bolt of lightning entered the top of my head. Every fiber in my body vibrated and I glowed brightly. Raven clapped as I spun in place, faster and faster. Then I exploded into a million multicolored smithereens that rained down on the meadow. I bolted up in bed with a scream. My heart was racing.

  “It’s okay,” a deep voice to my right, said and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Then I saw Sam struggling up from a recliner chair next to the bed. He looked tired and rumpled and his Irish cap was sitting at a dangerous angle on his head. A blanket slid to the floor. He does sleep in that hat, I thought.

  “Sam, you scared me! Why are you here?”

  He glanced toward the open door that led to the corridor. “Remember, I’m your brother for the duration. I’m here to make sure you don’t die. I’m supposed to wake you up every two hours and buzz the nurse. It’s a concussion protocol, they said. The nurse will check you out and then you can go back to sleep.” He checked his watch. “You had over an hour to go. How do you feel? Did you have a nightmare or something?”

  Sam hit the switch and the bed raised me to a sitting position. The dream faded and my heart rate slowed to normal. “I feel okay. Yes, I had a bad dream. A nightmare really. What time is it?”

  “It’s almost 1:00 a.m. You want to talk about the nightmare?” he asked, handing me a cup of water with a bendy straw.

  “Never,” I replied, sucking on the straw. “It was too weird.”

  “Okay. Go back to sleep. I’m here, Liz, and nothing bad is going to happen to you,” Sam said. I looked up at him and felt a rush of emotions.

  “Can I hug you, Sam?” I asked. His eyebrows shot up.

  “Sure,” he said. He stepped closer to the bed. I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt his arms tighten around me and his hand pat my back.

  “Thanks for keeping the death watch, Bro,” I said and he laughed.

  “Any time, Sis,” he replied. After a bit, he backed up. He was smiling. Sam took the water cup and lowered the bed again. I stretched out and slept peacefully until the next wake-up call at 2:00 a.m.

  Chapter 59

  Doctor Monroe kept me one additional day and then released me at 8:00 a.m. the next morning. Because of the possible concussion, he prohibited me from driving until a follow-up visit in a week. Sam volunteered to drive me back to the coach house. Before we left, we visited with Jeff Haas in his room. Jeff looked good and said he was getting out later in the day. He promised to come to the B&B for dinner with us when he was up to it.

  Sam insisted that I wait inside the front door of the hospital while he got the Jeep. As a surprise, Sam had a Bacon Butty sandwich and strong coffee from the Farmhouse Café waiting for me on the front seat. Abbie had wrapped the sandwich in extra tin foil, so it was still warm. I nearly cried with joy. Despite a splint on my right hand, I ate every bit of the sandwich by the time we reached the Bed & Breakfast driveway.

  “That was unbelievably delicious!” I said, dabbing at my mouth with a paper napkin. “You wouldn’t believe all the healthy crap they make you eat in the hospital.”

  Sam laughed. “You’re sounding better already.” He parked on the gravel lot and walked me to the front door of the coach house. He planned to check in at the office and then go home to sleep. We made plans for breakfast the next morning.

  Olivia and Chloe had closed their Herb Shop in Mystic Grove for the day and were waiting at the coach house to greet me. We hugged and cried. Snap and Sam meowed and wouldn’t relax until I gave them both tummy rubs.

  I settled in on the floral, living room couch with the cats curled nearby. My younger sister, Katie, called and we talked for almost an hour. For the past three months, she’d been traveling through the south with a friend, taking photographs. I couldn’t wait for her to return to the coach house. I missed her a lot.

  Addie, Nana Anna, and Grace arrived with platters of sandwiches and bowls of salads. They didn’t want us worrying about cooking during the day. Then they came to the living room and chatted for a bit. I almost raised the special skills that Addie and Nana Anna had revealed to me in the hospital. However, I decided to wait because it would be a better discussion to have in the future when Katie, Chloe, and Olivia could all be there.

  Later, Mom, Dad, Ben, and Margo, stopped by. At first, Mom treated me like an invalid. After I quietly reassured her that I felt good, she relaxed and the tension in the room dropped. We talked briefly about Justin and Damian. However, they all wanted to know more about Finn. After I shared some of his background and explained how he had saved our lives, Dad said we had to invite Finn to the B&B for dinner or a party. I agreed to talk to Finn abou
t that. Eventually, Mom revisited the subject of finding a safer job for me. I quickly nipped that one in the bud.

  “I hope to keep working with Sam,” I said firmly.

  “We’re just worried about you, honey,” Dad said and their four heads bobbed in agreement.

  “I know, Dad. I’m fine.” I felt a sudden urge to bolt from the room and run five miles. Instead, I jumped up and said, “Who’s hungry? I’m starving.” We went to the kitchen and dug into some of the food Grace, Addie, and Nana Anna had prepared. My appetite was certainly still strong. After they all left, I fell asleep on the couch, covered by an afghan blanket. Snap and Sammy curled up at the end of the couch.

  When I woke up, Finn was sitting in one of the button-tufted easy chairs looking at his cellphone. Watching his left leg bounce up and down, I could feel his bottled-up energy. Finn would run not walk through life.

  “Hey,” I said, swinging up into a sitting position.

  His face lit up when he saw I was awake. After a lot of hugging, we both settled back on the couch. He said that Sherrie was still in shock and was under her doctor’s care. Once she recovered, they planned to go away for a few weeks to decompress.

  “You’re coming back to Mystic Grove, I hope.”

  Finn nodded. “Oh yes. Sherrie already said she wants to live here. And I have the business.” I felt relieved.

  I thanked him again for saving my life, which he brushed off. Finn said the battering I gave Damian had slowed him down and had given Finn an edge. He also revealed he’d given the Bible and letter to Peter and Martha Church. After we rehashed that evening and what we might have done differently, I finally asked him if he’d seen anything weird before he shot Damian.

  “Funny that you mention it. Promise you won’t laugh?” he asked, giving me an appraising look. I promised. He looked around and took a deep breath.