A Little Town Called Mercy

by Wendy Saunders

  ‘That’s exactly what we’re going to do,’ Jake nodded, ‘now give me a hand before Judith comes back.’

  Roni sighed and moved across to a book shelf. There was a neat row of very old paperback novels which all seemed to be one series. She picked up the first one and turned it over in her hands.

  ‘The Long Dark Night by A.L. Kane…’ Roni murmured as she looked up at all the others on the shelf. The Hidden Room, Kiss me Goodbye, High Tide…they all seemed to be detective stories and all by the same author.

  She turned her attention back to the book in hand, dog eared, with a cracked spine and tattered edges. She opened the first page to look at the imprint. It was a first edition, printed by an American press back in 1948. She opened the book more fully and felt something slip from the pages, landing with a small clang.

  It was a small brown envelope, tiny, about the size of a folded dollar bill. Leaning down curiously to pick it up she once again recognized the handwriting on the front.

  ‘Für Veronica…’

  Opening the envelope, she turned it upside down and a small key fell into her palm.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ Judith bustled back into the room.

  Roni shoved the key and the envelope into her purse and turned to the woman with an amicable smile.

  ‘That’s okay.’

  ‘I see you’ve found Della’s books.’

  ‘Yes,’ Roni offered her a genuine smile, ‘I’ve never been able to resist a book.’

  ‘Della was the same,’ Judith nodded, ‘we all take it in turns to sit and read to her.’

  ‘Were these her favorites?’ Roni held up the one in her hand.

  ‘Not exactly,’ she shook her head, ‘they were her books as in, she wrote them.’

  ‘She wrote these?’ Roni glanced back down at the book with renewed interest.

  ‘That’s right,’ Judith replied. ‘As I understand it, she came to America from Europe to start a new life, along with the other survivors of the holocaust.’

  So, they’d assumed she was a holocaust survivor Roni mused. That certainly would have stopped anyone from asking too many questions. Was it possible that Renata herself believed Della to be Jewish? Was that why she’d befriended her?

  ‘She was a writer?’

  ‘Yes,’ Judith answered. ‘Once she’d settled in the states she made her living by writing dime store detective novels under the pseudonym A.L. Kane. Back then it was rare to have female novelists, so she produced them under those initials. I’m not sure what the A.L stands for. I’ve read them myself; they all follow on from each other and center around a personal investigator named Mason, although they’re very old and out of print now. I expect most of them haven’t survived.’

  ‘I see,’ Roni nodded. ‘I think we’ve worked out the connection.’

  ‘Oh?’ Judith queried.

  ‘I’m pretty certain Della was my grandmother’s half-sister. Last we heard she was born in Germany and lived there during the war, we never knew she’d come to this country.’

  ‘Wow,’ Judith let out a whistle, ‘so we’ve solved a little family mystery?’

  ‘Something like that,’ Roni nodded, ‘so as I am technically her next of kin, I’d like to discuss her medical care and who has been responsible for paying her bills.’

  ‘Sure, we’ll just head on back to the office then. It’s Ella you’ll need to speak with.’

  As Judith turned and headed out the door Roni stuffed the battered paperback into her purse and followed.

  By the time Roni finally made it out of Rowan Oaks and stepped back into the bright sunlight she was not happy. Upon reviewing Della’s file, it seemed that her care is being paid for by a company called Black Orchid. Surely that couldn’t be a coincidence. Black Orchid was the name of the company which owned the Boatman hotel overlooking the lake, the hotel which was currently being renovated.

  She’d searched for months and still been able to dig up very little on the mysterious company. A few times she’d driven out to the Boatman and spoken with the onsite foreman, but they didn’t seem to know anything about the owners either, and now she discovered they were paying for her great aunt’s care, a woman who was part of a dangerous secret organization and may or may not have possibly been a Nazi. The jury was still out on that one.

  ‘Hey,’ Jake squeezed the back of her neck comfortingly, ‘you okay?’

  ‘I have a headache,’ she dug in her purse and came up with her sunglasses, slipping them on against the harsh glare of the sun.

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ he took her hand and led her down to where he’d left the police cruiser parked. ‘Look I know it all looks a bit overwhelming right now, but I promise you we’ll figure it out.’

  ‘I hope so,’ she sighed, ‘because it feels like my head is going to split in two right now.’

  ‘Look Roni,’ he started reluctantly, ‘I know you may not want to hear this, but I think you need to have a conversation with your mother. It’s obvious she knows more than she’s letting on. At the very least you need to be honest with her and tell her that you know about Adelaide.’

  ‘That’s a conversation I look forward to,’ she muttered sarcastically as she opened the door and climbed into the car.

  Jake smiled in sympathy as he rounded the car and climbed in.

  Neither of them noticed the dark sedan parked opposite, watching as they pulled away. The woman inside picked up her cell phone as they disappeared from view and punched in a number.

  ‘Yes?’ came the curt reply as the call connected.

  ‘The Mason girl has found Adelaide.’

  The line went silent for a while; she would have thought the call had dropped if it wasn’t for the dry crackle of a labored breath.

  ‘Has she found the key?’

  ‘Unclear,’ she replied. ‘I couldn’t get close enough without them recognizing me.’

  ‘Stand down for now,’ the dusty voice told her, ‘you have your orders. I don’t want anything getting in the way of that. Once you run for mayor we’ll have a solid position to work from within Mercy.’

  ‘And the Mason girl?’

  ‘We already have an asset within the museum,’ he replied. ‘We had to take a step back with the old curator; she was on to us too easily, that wily bitch. Once again, if you and Flores hadn’t botched things we’d already have the key and Hans Franke’s’ research.’

  ‘If Adelaide hadn’t betrayed us in the first place we’d have Hans’ research,’ she replied with a clenched jaw, not daring to answer back disrespectfully, but her frustration at being held accountable for that fool Simon Flores’ mistakes was beginning to wear on her.

  ‘Corinne,’ the voice spoke mildly but she could hear the veiled implication, ‘from this moment on there will be no freelancing. Do I make myself clear? You will do what you are told, when you are told…to the letter. You children need to learn a little patience.’

  She grated at being called a child when she was over forty but wisely kept her mouth shut.

  ‘The Mason girl interests me,’ he mused. ‘She shares blood with Adelaide, it remains to be seen whether she shares any of Adelaide's magical abilities, but at the very least the girl is intelligent. Why not let her figure out Adelaide’s secrets for us?’

  ‘As you wish,’ Corinne replied.

  Hanging up the phone her fist tightened around the molded plastic casing. Resisting the urge to hurl it out the window in temper, she calmly drew in a breath and tucked it back in her purse before putting the car in drive and pulling away.

  8.

  Roni’s concentration was shot; even though Jake had dropped her back at the museum her mind had been a mess all afternoon. Finally, she’d given up trying to be productive and instead had curled up in her office with a coffee and Adelaide's book. Although it wasn’t generally a genre she would normally read she’d hoped that somehow the author’s personality might bleed through the pages and give her s
ome insight into the woman.

  By the time she arrived home it was later than expected and there wasn’t a part of her head that didn’t ache from over thinking. Shutting the door behind her she tossed her keys toward the little glass dish on the side table, not noticing when they missed and slid across the table, hitting the floor. She kicked off her heels not caring where they landed and untucked her blouse from the waistband of her skirt. She moved into the lounge to find Jake already leaning back on the couch, his collar undone, a glass in one hand and a bottle of Johnnie Walker in the other.

  ‘You look how I feel,’ she said with a sigh.

  ‘Your mom called,’ he turned his head to look at her. ‘I take it all back, and I want to thank you for not telling her about me for the past year.’

  ‘She’s hard work, isn’t she?’ Roni sniggered as she crossed the room toward him.

  He said nothing, just waved the bottle of whiskey at her as if that explained it all.

  Picking her way past Renata’s boxes, and stacks of books, she edged around the coffee table and climbed into Jake’s lap.

  ‘We need to buy a house,’ she curled into him, sighing with pleasure when his fingers played with the nape of her neck. ‘This place is too small.’

  ‘Yeah?’ he smiled. ‘You want to buy a house with me?’

  ‘Well yeah,’ she yawned, taking his glass and sipping slowly. ‘I mean, where will we put all our kids and the faithful family dog?’

  His body shook lightly with silent laughter as he settled back more comfortably into the couch and wrapped his arms around her.

  ‘How many kids are we having?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she shrugged, ‘it depends.’

  ‘Depends on what?’

  ‘On how much it hurts,’ she snorted. ‘If half of what Olivia and Louisa have told me is true it may be only one.’

  ‘Are you serious?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Probably not,’ she sipped at his glass again before setting it down on the table. ‘I’m pretty tough, I reckon I could handle at least two.’

  ‘No, I mean are you serious about having kids?’ he replied. ‘Whenever we’ve talked about it, you said you didn’t think you’d want to bring kids into the world, knowing the things we do.’

  ‘I’m not going to lie Jake,’ she let out a breath, her eyes thoughtful. ‘The world’s a pretty scary place right now and just when I think I’m getting a handle on it, it just gets scarier or more complicated. But then I think about Renata, who died alone because she was too afraid to let anyone in after the pain of losing her family. Then there’s Adelaide, I don’t know what her story is but she’s lying there in a care home, dying and all alone. I have so many great things in my life, a job I love, in a town I adore, friends I wouldn’t be without and you.’

  ‘Me?’ he smiled as she turned those big blue eyes on him.

  ‘You’re everything Jake, every breath I take and every beat of my heart. So, the answer is yes, yes I want a life with you, I want children with you. I want to be fearless.’

  His hands slid along her jaw and pulled her in close. His lips brushed along hers until they parted on a sigh and he took her under until nothing existed but the two of them.

  She shifted on his lap, so she could wrap her arms around his neck.

  ‘Ow,’ Roni pulled back and shifted again. ‘Jesus, Jake,’ she laughed, ‘is that a rock in your pocket or are you pleased to see me?’

  ‘Both,’ he replied.

  Her brow creased into a puzzled frown.

  ‘Huh?’

  He tilted onto one hip, so he could get his hand in his pocket and dislodged Roni, who yelped and grabbed on to him before she fell on the floor.

  ‘Sorry,’ he laughed in embarrassment, ‘this is not exactly how I pictured this going.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘This,’ he handed her the small Tiffany’s box.

  ‘Jake,’ all the breath left her in a loud gasp.

  ‘Open it.’

  She did as she was told, her fingers trembling as she lifted the lid.

  ‘Jake,’ she whispered again.

  ‘I’ve been carting that thing around for…well, a while. I kept waiting for the right time, the perfect moment.’ He stared at her, her blouse all creased, her hair rumpled from his fingers and sticking up on one side, her eyes wide and glassy and her lips swollen from his kisses. ‘You know what, this moment is pretty damn perfect.’

  Her mouth opened but nothing came out.

  ‘What do you say Roni? Want to get married and get started on those babies?’

  Her eyes filled with tears.

  ‘More than anything,’ she whispered.

  Jake’s mouth broke into a wide smile, his eyes dancing as he pulled the ring from its little padded cushion and slid it onto her finger.

  ‘Oh my god,’ she laughed as she stared at her finger, ‘we’re getting married.’

  ‘Yes, we are,’ he smiled as he pulled her more firmly into his lap, shoving her tight skirt up past her thighs so she could straddle him.

  ‘Jake,’ she breathed against his mouth as he pulled her in tight against his body.

  ‘Sorry about the buttons,’ he murmured.

  ‘What buttons,’ she whispered against his lips.

  She felt his hands at the front of her blouse and the next thing she heard was the patter of her buttons scattering across the coffee table and floor.

  The cool air of the apartment brushed over her skin as he drew the silk over her shoulders and down her arms. His hand snaked back up to grip the back of her neck the way she liked it, when his watch snagged on the delicate silver chain of her half-moon pendant and it broke.

  Suddenly everything around her shifted. There was a bright swirl of colors and motion, like being caught in the center of the funnel of a tornado. Her head was spinning and when it finally came to a stop she stumbled and fell against something hard.

  Wait a minute…since when was she standing?

  A moment ago, she’d been half dressed on the couch with Jake. The disorientation slowly subsided and she stood up, glancing around at her surroundings.

  ‘What the hell?’ she muttered in confusion.

  She was standing in a dimly lit office. In front of her was a large wooden desk covered with stacks of files and an old-fashioned typewriter. The window was covered by a blind with wooden slats which let moody slashes of light filter across the dusty room. To her left was a door with a frosted glass panel, on the other side were dark letters. She crossed the room and opened the door, reading what was written there.

  Mason Stone - Private Eye.

  Mason Stone? What the actual fuck?

  Roni slammed the door and moved back into the room. She looked down to discover she was wearing round-toed black suede pumps and a pair of masculine-cut wide legged pants with a silk blouse tucked into the waistband. Her shoulders felt restricted and slightly heavy and she noticed she was wearing a gun holster which hooked over both shoulders. In it sat her gun, nestled comfortably against the left side of her ribcage. Her hand moved to her weapon, her fingers tracing the gun. It was only then she realized her nails were now painted blood red which highlighted the fact her skin was a weird grey color.

  She looked up and really studied the room. The whole office was in black and white, mixed with light and shadow. It was like she’d just dropped in the middle of a film noir.

  And where the hell was Jake?

  There was a sudden shrill ringing and she turned. Looking around for the source of the high-pitched sound she found a black brick of a telephone sat on the corner of the desk.

  ‘Hello?’ she picked up the receiver, ‘hello?’

  There was a series of clicks and then a deep voice, heavy with a German accent.

  ‘Do you have the key?’

  ‘What?’ she replied, ‘what key? Who are you? Where am I? Hello…hello?’

  The line clicked again and went de
ad.

  ‘Damn it,’ she swore as she slammed the receiver down.

  Somewhere she could hear music, the bluesy riff of a saxophone whining in the distance. For Christ sake, it really was like she was stuck in the middle of the Maltese Falcon. Suddenly she sniffed and caught a waft of smoke, which hung in the air like a miasma, setting the dust motes spinning in the slats of light from the window. Then she heard a voice, so familiar, so close she almost felt his lips brush against her ear.

  ‘She wasn’t like no dame I’d ever seen, she was a flower, delicate, long stemmed and not the kind you pin to your lapel…’

  Roni spun around to see the door was now open and a large male figure leaned against the frame, a lit cigarette in one hand which he lifted slowly to his lips and took a long drag. Although his face was obscured by deep shadows and a fedora, she’d know him anywhere.

  ‘You don’t smoke,’ she dead panned.

  Jake looked up at her from under the rim of his hat. Glancing at the cigarette in his hand he frowned, almost as if he’d just realized she was right… he didn’t smoke.

  ‘Roni?’ he shook himself as he stared at her; her hair, usually cut to her chin at a sleek sharp angle, now skimmed the top of her shoulders in deep sculpted waves. Her lips were blood red as were her nails, a stark contrast to the shades of black and grey surrounding them. ‘What the hell is going on?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ she shook her head as she took in his appearance.

  His pants were held up with suspenders just visible under his long trench coat, as were his shirt and tie. He wore a dark colored fedora.

  ‘Let’s just backtrack here a second,’ Jake shook his head as he placed the burning cigarette down in the ashtray on top of an old metal filing cabinet, ‘we were in the apartment and now we’re suddenly here?’

  Roni cast her mind back to what they’d been doing, her hand involuntarily reaching for her throat. Her fingertips traced her neckline and she realized what was missing.

  ‘The pendant.’