“Not the cards. Just a hunch.”
“What’s new?” Abigail twisted around in the seat to face Glinda. The rain beating on the outside of the vehicle was a comforting background because they were inside and it was outside.
Glinda’s lips formed a mischievous grin. “Well, I might as well tell you, you’ll find out soon enough. Kyle proposed to me last night. I accepted and we set a date.”
Abigail didn’t wait for another word, but warmly embraced the young woman. “I knew it. Myrtle and Frank did, too. We knew you two were heading for the altar. I’m so happy for you, for both of you,” she exclaimed. “So, when is the wedding?”
“September thirtieth this year.”
“So soon?”
“Yes. There’s a couple of good reasons. For one, Kyle will be settled into Doc Andy’s practice, will need to be living in town, and we decided why should he rent an apartment, pay out all that money, when I have a nice big house close by? If we get married he can move in with me. It’s the only practical solution. September thirtieth is also when Laura will be back home visiting after her internship and before her new year starts at the art college. Kyle would like his sister home for the wedding.
“That...and Kyle and I want to be together. We’ve waited long enough. It’s time.”
“Yeah,” Abigail spoke, “we’ve all waited long enough. Myrtle is going to be so tickled. She’s been trying to get you two hitched since you first came to town years ago.”
“I know, I know. But the cards told me about Kyle long before that and I suspected he would be the one I’d marry the first time I met him.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh.”
Abigail, as usual, was impressed with the things Glinda seemed to know ahead of time and how she’d know them. Until Glinda had come into their lives, Abigail had in no way believed in clairvoyants. She was more of a believer now. “Where are you having the wedding–or don’t you know yet?”
“Oh, that’s a simple decision. The wedding will be at Myrtle’s and my house, after a church ceremony at St. Paul’s, of course. I’m sure Myrtle will insist on both. She’s talked about it many times.
“‘When you and Kyle get married the wedding will be at my church, reception will be here, my aunt always says, “and I’m paying for all of it. Honeymoon, too. Every young couple should have a memorable honeymoon. Go to Paris or Rome...those are both lovely destinations this time of year–or some tropical island with fancy drinks and a sandy beach.’”
Glinda laughed.
“Well, I’m so happy for you and Kyle. For all of us. Frank will be ecstatic. Since Kyle first went off to medical college, he’s been praying his son would someday come home and set up a medical practice in Spookie, be the town’s doctor, which he is doing; and since you came to town, that he’d marry you. Have you or Kyle told anyone else?”
“When I spoke to Kyle earlier today he said he was going to call his father and tell him the good news.” Glinda slumped back against the seat and exhaled, as if she were exhausted. “So, yes, Frank probably knows by now. I’ll tell Myrtle as soon as I get home.”
“She’s not going to be happy you didn’t tell her first, you know?”
“Ha, yeah, she would have loved it if I had told her about getting married even before I had told Kyle.” Glinda laughed and so did Abigail. “But she’ll get over it quick enough...planning the wedding.” They knew Myrtle so well.
Abigail laid her hands on the wheel. “You need a ride home, Glinda? It doesn’t look like this rain is going to let up any time soon.”
Outside the vehicle the downpour was heavier than ever. Abigail wished it would stop. She was sick of the crazy weather. Either rain or tornados. Enough already.
“I won’t turn the offer down,” Glinda replied. “When I walked into town earlier the rain hadn’t begun yet. I stayed too long at the bookstore buying books and yakking with Claudia.” She tapped the oversized purse beside her indicating where the books were. It made sense because Abigail had thought Glinda’s bag purse was unusually lumpy and fat. She either had books in there or a stray cat.
“Well, it’s raining as if the second flood is coming, so I’ll happily get you through it and safely home. We’re off.” The car’s engine rumbling softly beneath the hood, Abigail pulled out onto the road.
“By the way, how is Claudia doing anyway? You know her husband Ryan is galivanting around in the African wildlands on safari?”
“Oh, she mentioned it. She’s a nervous wreck she’s so worried over his welfare. She has this fear he won’t be coming back...alive. That’s half the reason I went there today, besides the books. She called me, asked me to bring my tarot cards and do a reading on her husband. See if everything is okay with him.”
“Is he okay?”
Glinda fell silent. Abigail shifted her eyes off the road long enough to look at her passenger. “Is Ryan okay?” she repeated.
“The cards said he isn’t okay. There’s trouble coming. I didn’t tell Claudia that. I fibbed like crazy and told her all was well. I didn’t want her to fret more than she already was when the cards couldn’t show me what was wrong. And if they had, what could she have done about it, thousands of miles away?” She shook her head. “Lately they’ve been way too enigmatic on a score of subjects. I’ll take another reading later and hope I get better answers.”
“Oh, no,” Abigail murmured, “that’s not good news. I pray Ryan’s all right. Claudia would lose it if anything happened to him. She didn’t want him going to Africa in the first place.”
Abigail paused before asking, “By the way, did you ever get a clearer reading on the Theiss house for me?”
Again Glinda didn’t reply immediately. Oh oh. “Glinda?”
“I’ve read your cards numerous times. There’s no denying it. When it comes to that house my cards are adamant...the house isn’t safe. Whether it’s physically unsafe, haunted, evil, or whatever, the tarot won’t tell me. Just that it is...bad. If you want my honest opinion, you should just stay away from it.”
“Nothing specific though?”
“No, nothing the cards are willing to reveal.”
“I can’t stay away from that house because of vague fears. I’m determined to paint it. Nothing is going to happen to me there if I’m careful. And I promise you, as I have Frank and Myrtle, I will be.”
“So you say.” The psychic’s tone serious, she finished with, “You said you have photos of it? Can’t you do the paintings from them and not go back there? I know you use photos for your work all the time.”
Abigail didn’t want to keep making excuses, defend herself, for what she was doing, didn’t want to discuss it anymore. She was tired of people warning her about 707 Suncrest. Really sick of it. “I could, and I will when I get to a certain point, but I have to return at least another time or two to get the paintings started; for the tiny details I can’t pull from photographs. This preliminary work won’t take long. I’ll get them done quickly. Then I’ll be out of there.” She gave Glinda a grin to ease the other woman’s trepidation.
“You better,” Glinda grumbled.
She’d been ready to admit to the strange happenings she’d endured at the Theiss house that morning but seeing the disturbed look on Glinda’s face, and feeling the seriousness of the psychic’s earlier warning, stopped her. If she confessed anything about hearing bodiless voices, seeing shadows in the windows, witnessing doors slam when no one was there, Glinda wouldn’t leave her alone until Abigail would promise to stay away from the place. So no, she wouldn’t tell her.
“I can’t make you do anything, Abigail. It’s your life. Your art. But, do not go inside the house. Ever. I mean it. Stay out. The cards did tell me one thing for sure. Secrets lie within the house and some are deadly.”
A chill skimmed up Abigail’s spine, but she shook it off. Was she a child to be afraid of an empty house? No, she wasn’t. Not a child and not afraid. Why were so many people so riled up about an empty hou
se? An empty house couldn’t hurt her. It was only a house and she’d be done with it soon enough.
“Glinda, why don’t we stop by your place, pick Myrtle up and you both come home with me? Have supper with us? We have to celebrate your upcoming wedding. Frank and Nick should also be home by now. Call Kyle and have him come over, too. The whole gang should be there. Well, all except Laura, but we’ll telephone her with the good news.”
“I’d like that.” Glinda’s smile finally emerged. “Kyle was supposed to stop by my house anyway after he finished at Doc Andy’s office. He won’t mind changing plans and coming to your house for supper instead. I’ll call him.”
As Glinda spoke on her cell phone to her husband-to-be, Abigail took the road to Glinda’s house. She put thoughts of 707 Suncrest and the new worry for Claudia’s husband out of her mind; concentrating instead on the news of Kyle and Glinda’s upcoming wedding. It was nice to have good news.
THAT EVENING THEY GATHERED, had supper and bathed in the happy couple’s bliss as Glinda and Kyle unveiled their plans. The two discussed the wedding, where they wanted it, who they were going to invite, and where the reception would be. Glinda talked about wanting at least a three tier chocolate cake hand made by their friendly baker, Kate. Both young people wanted the wedding and reception to be intimate, with just the families and some of their closest friends. But Frank pointed out that with Kyle becoming the new town doctor, the reception, at least, should accommodate more of the townsfolk, especially Kyle’s new patients.
In the spirit of the happy occasion, Myrtle excitedly announced to everyone how she was going to pay for everything as her wedding present to the young couple.
“That’s too much, Myrtle,” Kyle protested. “We appreciate your kind generosity but–”
“Heck, I have more money than I can ever use in what’s left of my life,” Myrtle interrupted, cajolingly, “so make an old lady happy and take my gift.
“And Glinda is my blood, the last of my kin. I want to do this for her. For both of you. Kyle, I’ve known you since you were a boy. So let me do it. Please?” Myrtle gave the couple her pathetic pleading face behaving as if she’d be devastated if they didn’t take her gift. Then she threatened to throw herself off the porch if they didn’t and, in the end, they accepted.
“And I’m paying for your honeymoon, too...wherever, anywhere, you two want to go and for as long as you want to be gone,” Myrtle tossed in. “Two weeks, three weeks. Money is no object. Sky’s the limit. Long leisurely cruises are nice. I should know.”
“We won’t be going too far away, Auntie.” Glinda was smiling at Kyle when she said, “It can’t be a long honeymoon, either. Kyle is getting ready to open his medical practice, meet all his patients. He has to move into the house. There’s so much to do. We’ve decided to take a short honeymoon right after the wedding, mainly because Doc Andy wants to retire as soon as possible and Kyle will have to step in. Then we’ll try to have a longer, a real, honeymoon sometime next year when he’s settled into the job.”
“That’s okay, too,” Myrtle conceded. “When you get married I’ll gift you the money for both honeymoons, the short and the long one, as your wedding present.”
“We can’t accept–”
“I won’t hear anything else about it, Niece. I’m giving you and Kyle a wedding you’ll remember all your long lives and two honeymoons. And I don’t want to hear another word about it. You hear me!” The old woman glared at both of the soon-to-be-newlyweds.
And so it was settled.
Following supper, after it had cooled down outside, the group lingered on the covered porch in chairs, watching the rain, and chatting about the Summer Festival coming up at the end of August.
“Hey all,” Nick reminded everyone, yet looking at Glinda, “my band is playing at the festival. We’re going to be under the new outdoor pavilion Mayor Samantha just had built in the courthouse park and we will be on the main stage from two to four. You are all coming, aren’t you?”
Abigail had known for a while Nick had a minor crush on the psychic, but it was a young man’s infatuation and he was happy she was marrying Kyle. She’d be a part of the family.
“Of course, Nick, we’ll all be there,” Glinda assured the boy. “We wouldn’t miss it. One day you will be famous and we’ll be able to say we knew, and heard, you when.” Her chuckle, beneath her smile, was understanding. She was an insightful woman.
The party ended early, everyone leaving with smiles on their faces. They had a festival and a wedding to look forward to. Life was good.
AFTER THE PARTY, WHEN everyone had left for their homes, Nick was in bed, Frank had gone up to his office to, as he put it, wrap up loose ends on a new project he was working on, Abigail sat at the kitchen table and added to the painting she’d begun that morning. She used the photos she’d taken of the house to put in the tiny details. Outside the rain slowed to a drizzle. With the quiet house around her, she contentedly painted and sipped on her cup of coffee.
As she worked she brooded on what she’d seen that morning in the window at the Theiss house; what she’d heard and how strange it had made her feel. Though she’d about convinced herself, once more, it had been her imagination and hadn’t been that strange at all. The shadow in the window could have been the sun passing by, the slamming door could have been a stray draft in the house. Shadows and noise. What harm could any of that do to her? None.
By the time she climbed the stairs to bed, she was pleased with how the painting was progressing. She’d portrayed the dilapidated house as she’d first glimpsed it in the storm with the rain and wind whipping around it, the sky avocado ebony with clouds, undulating with lightning; the tornado hulking behind it like an angry monster. She’d worked hard to recreate the scary ambience, the gloom haunting the house and the property, on the canvas. She believed she’d achieved all that. The painting was turning out even better than she’d hoped. The painting was nearly done and she’d finish it at her leisure in her own kitchen. Now she needed to start another.
The day after tomorrow, because she had shopping and laundry to do the following day, she’d get up early to beat the heat, drive to 707 Suncrest and begin her next painting. This one, she’d thought, would be the old house broiling under the hot August sun, and from a different perspective. Showing a three quarter view of the building, perhaps. The sky would be bright and sunny, the clouds wispy with touches of pinkish mauve. The house would be cheery. The opposite of the painting she’d just completed.
She would finish the series of haunted house paintings. To address everyone’s concerns, she’d made the concession she wouldn’t go inside again. No matter what. Even if she saw something in the window or heard an eerie voice...she would not go inside. There, that was that.
When she went up to bed Frank wasn’t there. Working in his office most likely on that new book of his. When he got going he was as bad as she was, obsessed, until his task was completed. It did cross her mind he might not be working on his book. The image of the fat envelope she’d received from Andy Bracco’s daughter days ago passed through her mind. She’d told Frank to throw it in the trash can but she had a hunch he had not. She feared, but suspected, Frank was doing something with it and its secrets.
Damn, she knew she should have snatched Bracco’s file from him right away and burned the thing. Too late now. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know exactly how Joel had died. If it had been accidental or, as she had thought in her darkest times, an intentional murder. What would she, or Frank, do if they found a suspect–or a killer? The insanely invasive media coverage would resume, there could be, heaven forbid, a trial. She didn’t want to be reminded of those horrific days and her broken heart. It was the past and, heaven knows, had hurt her enough.
Joel going missing. The endless days and nights she suffered waiting for him to come home and walk through their door again. Slow torture. Joel being found dead in his car. As she laid in bed she fought back the panicked feeling she remembered all
too well. The dread, the feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, that had made her so ill for so long. For two seemingly endless years, while Joel had been missing, she’d searched for, desperately longed for, and worried about him. Not knowing what had become or what had happened to him had nearly driven her insane. She couldn’t relive any of that again. She just couldn’t. She’d have a truthful conversation about it with Frank. The past should stay buried. She didn’t want whatever he might be doing to ruin the life she had now. Her and Frank’s good life. Frank would just have to understand. She had to make him understand. He couldn’t keep digging into Joel’s death.
Chapter 7
Glinda opened her eyes as dawn’s light crept into her room. Restless, she couldn’t reclaim sleep so she rose, put on a robe, and padded into the kitchen. Preparing a cup of tea, she stepped out onto the rear porch and lowered herself down onto the seat of the glider swing. The remnants of her dream, more a nightmare, which had woke her wouldn’t leave. It hadn’t been a vision, merely a dream but still....
The day was supposed to be cooler than the ones before. Thank goodness. She hated being locked inside the house with air-conditioning. She preferred open windows and fresh air. It kept her mind clearer. Sitting outside, she raised her face to the breeze, her thoughts going to Kyle and their marriage. They still had further arrangements to make, details to attend to, but there was time for that.
Her smile came, thinking about Kyle and their future together. It’d taken her some time to admit she’d fallen in love with him but, in the end, she accepted Kyle was meant to be her husband, her life mate. He was a kind man with a good heart, so how could she not love him? He’d make an excellent town doctor. He’d make a perfect husband.
Glinda looked around her at the summer foliage. The house was charming in the summer with all the flowers she and Myrtle had planted. Soon Kyle would be living here with them, though he spent most of his time here already. But it would be different. They’d be man and wife. Imagine...she was getting married. Married. Oh my.
All Those Who Came Before Page 16
