Verse and Vengeance

by Amanda Flower

  She sighed. “I think it’s time.”

  I blinked at her. “Time? Time for what?”

  She held up a finger. “Lock up the shop, and I will be back in a moment. We don’t want anyone else here when we have this conversation.”

  She walked to the back of the shop and into the kitchen. Part of me wanted to follow her and demand what was going on, but I did as she told me and closed up the shop. Emerson walked behind me as I locked the front door and then checked the windows to make sure they were locked, too. Faulkner flew down from the tree and landed on the mantel. He sat on the corner of it looking more like a Halloween decoration than an actual living bird.

  By the time my grandmother returned, the shop was closed and I had balanced the cash register for the night, locking the money and credit card receipts into the safe below the counter. I came around the side of the sales counter. “I was starting to think you might not come back.”

  She laughed. “I will always come back, my girl. You can count on that.” As she said this, I noticed that she was carrying a leather-bound ledger in her hand that appeared to be very old. The leather on the spine was cracked and peeling.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Let’s sit down.” She walked over to one of the two sofas in front of the fireplace and sat.

  Emerson leaped onto the seat beside her, and, frowning, I sat on her other side. Faulkner’s talons clicked on the mantel as he moved down to the end closest to the rest of us, all the while keeping a close eye on Emerson.

  “I haven’t told you everything about the essence.”

  I waited, biting my tongue to hold back from shouting, I knew it!

  She sighed. “Let me say first that I thought I was doing the right thing by not telling you. In hindsight, maybe I was wrong. I should have trusted you to come to your own conclusions. Perhaps I was no better than my own mother.”

  I wrinkled my brow. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ll start from the beginning. I have already told you about Rosalee Waverly, who moved here to Cascade Springs after her husband died in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.”

  I nodded.

  “She brought her baby daughter here and built her home around the birch tree. She was mystic and knew the power of the spring water here. She began watering the tree with the spring water, and the Caretakers have been doing that ever since. When Rosalee was alive, people in the village and the surrounding town knew she was someone who could help them. She was a healer, and using her special herbs and the water, she was able to care for many people. She was accepted. That wasn’t the case for all the Caretakers.

  “Over the next two centuries, the village started to turn against the family. There were those who said that what Rosalee and her descendants did was evil, although no one was ever hurt by a Caretaker’s actions. People fear what they can’t understand, and scientific advances over time couldn’t explain our gift. This came to a head with my great-grandmother, Dahlia Waverly. She was born in 1878, and she was the one who made this house into the beautiful Victorian home we have today. She had the gift of visions. I have told you that all the Caretakers had a different gift. She was able to warn villagers when something was about to happen. Every prediction she made came true, including bad things like death. Some in the village thought she was the source of these bad events, and she was shunned. It got so bad that one night when she walked to the springs to collect the water, she never returned. Her body was found three days later in the woods.”

  I swallowed hard. “She was killed?”

  She nodded.

  I blinked. “You mean murdered?”

  “We don’t know for sure. She died in the middle of winter. She was found frozen to the ground.”

  I gasped. “How awful.”

  “My grandmother, her daughter, told me this story. She was just a teenager at the time. After that, my grandmother decided she would keep the essence a secret, and it has been so ever since. My own mother knew of her grandmother’s death and rejected being the Caretaker of essence. She wanted nothing to do with it or the tree. I wouldn’t have known about it myself if my grandmother hadn’t told me when she was too old to water the tree any longer. I started to water it then, but I never told my mother, who threatened to cut the tree down so many times during her lifetime. I begged her not to, and she never did. I like to think she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  “Instead of being the Caretaker, my mother made the old house into the bookshop it is today. I think she believed that by making the house into a bookstore, she would be able to ignore the tree. It would just become a curiosity in the shop to attract shoppers. What she never knew was that the essence started to communicate with me through the books. They led me to the people who needed my help like they have you. Although it never directed me to solve murders like it has you. I help people in other ways. The books would tell me when they were ill or needed a friend to visit them.” She brushed the palm of her hand over the cracked leather cover of the ledger.

  “What’s that?” I pointed at the ledger.

  “This is where our history is recorded. You can read about each Caretaker who came before you and her gift, from Rosalee’s gift to heal to Dahlia’s visions. The essence has been different for each one of us.” She set the ledger on my lap. “Now, it’s your turn to record the people you have helped.”

  My hands hovered above the leather-bound book. “I wish you had trusted me with this from the start.”

  She bowed her head, and her silver locks fell over her face. “I should have.” Her voice dropped. “I was just so afraid that you would leave, and I couldn’t bear you leaving again. I thought, after everything that happened with your mother’s death and with Colleen’s, that this would be too much and keep you away from the village forever.”

  I touched the book, and some of the leather flaked off the cover. I would have to be very careful with it not to damage it more. “So this is why we kept the secret, because of fear?”

  Grandma Daisy nodded. “Yes.” She paused. “And I don’t know if that’s fair to the Caretaker or the people she loves. It might be time to let others in.”

  I knew she was thinking of Rainwater. I bit the inside of my lip. What she had told me might change everything for me and for David.

  “But we have to be careful who we tell,” she warned. “Not everyone will be accepting if they know the truth about Charming Books, about us. Dahlia taught us that lesson.”

  “We don’t have the essence; the shop does,” I argued.

  She frowned. “I don’t think those who fear or mistrust such things would see it that way.”

  I knew she was right, and it was more than I was ready to think about just then. At the moment, my concern was Jo and how I could help her out of whatever mess she’d found herself in. I knew that’s what the essence wanted me to do, even though it wasn’t very clear how exactly I should do that. I cleared my throat. “I saw Bobby at the finish line. I went down there to talk to Rainwater and Bobby again. Maybe I will be able to track Jo down too.”

  She nodded, as if she accepted that I was done talking about the essence for the time being. I would have more questions later. We both knew that.

  “Bobby could have done it,” she said. “I hate to think that, but the bike was from his shop. Jo told you she didn’t know it was tampered with when she gave it to Redding,” Grandma Daisy mused, and then she shivered.

  “I hate to think that about him, but he and Jo had the most access to the bike. They are the most likely suspects. I can’t believe Jo would do it. What would her motivation be?” As I asked this, I remembered how Jo had lied to me about knowing Redding. I knew she’d known him somehow. I didn’t mention this to my grandmother. I wanted to talk it over with Rainwater, but then again, did I want the police chief to consider her a prime suspect in the case?

  “It’s hard to believe,” Grandma Daisy said, shaking me from my black thoughts. “Bobby is such a nice man. Ev
eryone in the village likes him. I can’t think of anyone who would have a bad word to say against him.”

  Neither could I.

  She nodded. “Find out if we are wrong about Bobby.”

  I swallowed. “Or wrong about Jo.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I left Grandma Daisy at Charming Books and headed back down to the Riverwalk. I was surprised when Emerson didn’t follow me to the door. Typically, the tuxie was always ready for adventure, but he sat by the front door and watched me go with little more than a twitch of his whiskers. I found this suspicious. One never knew with Emerson. It was actually a blessing that the cat and the crow generally didn’t get along—although they tolerated each other well enough. If they had combined their mischief, Grandma Daisy and I would never have had any peace.

  I tried to shake off the eerie feeling Emerson’s uncharacteristic behavior gave me as I made my way through the garden gate, around the shop’s front yard, and onto the sidewalk and strolled toward the river. Even though the race was officially over, there were still a good number of people milling around the Riverwalk. I spotted Adrien and Lacey in front of Le Crepe Jolie, handing out leftover baguette sandwiches.

  Aster, David’s niece, was with them. In the summer, Lacey and Adrien let Danielle bring the little girl to work with her. She did on most days. Rainwater thought it was great, because, he said, they needed a chef in the family.

  Lacey waved at me. “Violet, you’re back.” She paused. “And I see that you are back in normal clothes.”

  I looked down at my T-shirt and jeans. “Yes, I feel much more human in this.”

  “How are you feeling?” Adrien asked. “You didn’t do the whole race, but most of it.”

  “I feel okay,” I said.

  “The worst of the pain from the long ride will come in twenty-four hours,” he said knowingly, and I knew that Adrien knew. If he wasn’t at the café, he was working out to keep his body in top shape. “I suggest you take some aspirin tonight so you can sleep.”

  I grimaced. “Thanks for the tip.”

  Aster looked up from the book she was flipping through, dropped it on the sidewalk, and ran to me, hugging me around the legs. I swallowed hard. My exposure to children had been limited to those who came into Charming Books. I was finding I had missed a lot, spending my life exclusively with adults or with my nose buried in my studies.

  She looked up at me. “Mommy and Uncle David went for a walk!”

  I gave Lacey a questioning look.

  She shook her head. “David came by a little while ago and said that he needed to talk to Danielle. He said it was important. We agreed to watch Aster.” She smiled at the girl. “We’re having fun. As soon as we’re done passing out the last of the sandwiches, Adrien is going to teach her how to make crepes.”

  “I love crepes,” Aster said.

  “Me too,” I said with forced brightness. Something felt wrong about David taking his sister from work and talking to her. I hoped they were both all right. By the concerned look on Lacey’s face, I wasn’t sure they were, and I didn’t want to ask her for more details in front of Rainwater’s niece.

  “Have you seen Bobby or Jo?” I asked.

  Lacey’s face cleared, as if she was relieved I had changed the subject. I might have dropped it with her, but I was certainly going to ask Rainwater about it.

  “Not for a little while. After the police left and the race ended, Bobby wasted no time closing up his registration booth and packing up his store. I think if he stayed on, he could have made a few more sales, but he seemed to be in a hurry.”

  “Violet, were you looking for the chief?” Adrien asked.

  I looked up to see Rainwater and his sister walking down the street. Danielle had her head down, staring at her feet.

  “Mommy!” Aster called and ran to her mother.

  Danielle kneeled on the sidewalk and buried her face in her daughter’s neck. After a moment she stood, and I saw the tears in her eyes. “Excuse me.” Danielle ran into the café crying. Lacey went in after her.

  Aster looked up at me. “Is Mommy okay?”

  I swallowed. “I’m sure she’s fine.” I made eye contact with Rainwater. His amber eyes were like hard stones, giving nothing away.

  “Well.” Adrien cleared his throat. “Aster, why don’t we start practicing those crepes?”

  “Yeah!” Aster pumped her fist. Then she spun around and gave her uncle a hug. “Love you, Uncle David.”

  The hard mask he had been wearing started to crack.

  Adrien led the little girl into the café.

  Rainwater stood in the middle of the sidewalk and watched them go.

  “David,” I whispered. “What’s going on?”

  “I—”

  His cell phone rang and cut off the conversation. He looked at the readout. “Violet, I have to take this. I’ll stop by Charming Books later, and we can talk then.”

  I nodded, and he strode away.

  After Rainwater left, I collected my bike from behind the café where Adrien had stored it. As soon as I started to pedal, my legs began to ache. I guessed Adrien was right and I would need to take some aspirin tonight if I was to have any hope of sleeping.

  To save both my legs and myself some time, I decided to cut through the park to Bobby’s Bike Shop, which was just outside Springside’s campus. When I’d had classes and the weather was good, I’d always ridden my bike to the college, so I was familiar with the shortcut.

  This late in the spring, the trees were filling out again after the long winter. The leaves were bright green and new. Late-afternoon sunlight shone through them, casting a neon-green glow on the path in front of me.

  Just a quarter mile into the park, I stopped my bike beside the springs. The water bubbled and flowed over the large boulder and other rocks into a pond. This was the place that I gathered water for the birch tree.

  I didn’t have my watering can with me to gather more water, so I kicked off the path and continued on my way toward campus. Bobby’s Bike Shop was directly across from Springside Community College. It was a great location, as the students often rented bikes from Bobby throughout the semester. Also, it was on a major road that allowed for easy access from the highway coming into Niagara Falls for out-of-town customers.

  It was a busy shop, but not today. The gravel parking lot of Bobby’s crunched under the tires of my bike. I slowed the bike, and a few pebbles flew in front of me. There was a long bike rack in front of Bobby’s shop with at least ten bikes in various stages of disrepair locked up. I parked my bike beside it and didn’t even bother to put the chain on. I wouldn’t be at the shop very long—I just wanted to ask Bobby about Jo.

  I walked to the front door, but before I got there, I could tell no one was there. All the lights were off except security lights. There was a hand-written note on the door: BOBBY’S IS CLOSED TODAY AND TOMORROW. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

  I stepped back from the door. What had caused Bobby to close the shop for two whole days just at the beginning of the summer season? Now was the time people needed their bikes tuned up and were thinking of getting new ones. Had David or one of his deputies taken Bobby into custody? The thought chilled my blood. Bobby was a nice man, a part of the community for many years. In my heart, I couldn’t believe he was the killer.

  I rang the bell, knocked. I turned the doorknob. Nothing. The place was locked up tight. However, it was worth checking every possible way to get in. I walked around the back of the building. There was another door there, and it was also locked. Next to it was a large patio area with a green awning over the top of it. It was an outdoor bike repair space. Handlebars, spokes, chains, and other pieces of bicycles lay all over the patio. Some were organized in crates, while the rest were just on the concrete floor or table, as if Bobby had been in the middle of a project and had just walked away before he was done.

  A sharp-looking knife and a pair of wire cutters lay on the worktable in the very middle of the space. I shiv
ered. Either one of those tools could have been used to tamper with Redding’s bike, but would Bobby do that? Just because he had the opportunity didn’t mean he was the killer.

  There was a book on the table with the tools. I took a step closer, peering at the cover. Part of me wasn’t the least surprised that it was Leaves of Grass.

  Was the shop now able to show me books outside the bookshop? I didn’t know how I felt about that. In the past, when I’d left Charming Books, I’d been able to escape the essence. I didn’t take its following me around the village—if that was what was happening—as a good sign.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I couldn’t run around the village looking for Jo all day long. She was my student, but she was also an adult. If she wanted to stay hidden for a little while, that was her choice. However, I was still my nosy self, and I couldn’t help wanting to check one more place for her before I gave up for the day.

  Her apartment was close to campus, so I didn’t think anyone would blame me for stopping by to see if she was there when it was just a few yards away. I hopped back on my bike and road through the campus to the cluster of apartments just to the south of college property. There was no on-campus housing at the community college, but a small developer had built three two-story buildings nearby to capitalize on the students and faculty in need of apartments. The buildings were well cared for and in keeping with Cascade Springs’ high standards of architecture. Each building had a name—one of the Great Lakes. As one of my students had once said, there should have been five buildings, then. Huron was left out. If I remembered correctly, Jo lived in Ontario.

  One day in February, I had given her a ride to her apartment from campus. Yes, it was only a short drive, not even a mile, but the wind had been howling and the wind chill thirty below. She’d only had a light jacket on.