“Pleasure’s all mine.”
As we sat in the sparse room, suddenly an air of the principal’s office surrounded us. I gave myself a silent pep talk. No matter what, I was marrying the man sitting next to me. I was 100 percent sure. On the other hand, no one knows everything about anyone, right? Would Nisa expose something about Tom that would change my mind? What about something about me that would change Tom’s mind?
Deep breath, Delaney.
It wasn’t quite an interrogation, but Reverend Nisa did have a fair amount of questions. First of all, she wanted to know if we both felt the same way about religion.
“Do the two of you believe in God?” she asked.
“I believe in something that I can’t name. I don’t know exactly what I believe, I just sense that something is there,” I said.
Nisa nodded and looked at Tom.
“I believe in something akin tae karma, I suppose.”
“Do unto others?” Nisa said.
“Aye,” he said.
“Will you want your children to go to church? What if they want to go and you don’t?” she asked.
“I grew up going to church,” I said. “In an ideal world, I would love for my children to be exposed to different beliefs and hope that they choose what fits for them. I would support that even if I found their beliefs difficult to understand myself. However, I also understand that chances of that happening are slim. Children typically believe what they were raised around.”
Nisa smiled and looked at Tom again.
“I would drive them wherever they’d like tae go, but once they were old enough I probably wouldn’t attend any services with them. I would never be angry at their choices. Again, though, that’s an ideal world. I think that’s how I would behave. Until you’re in the middle of something, it’s hard tae really know, aye?”
Nisa’s eyebrows came together as she remained focused on Tom. “You believe differently than your father. Your father is here every Sunday. Did something happen to change your beliefs? Was there an event?”
“No, I think it’s just the changing times,” he said.
Nisa looked at me.
“Same,” I said, though I silently wondered about Tom’s mother’s death and if that was part of his changing views. Personally, I knew there was no one event in my life that had been a catalyst.
She smiled. “Well, that’s all good news. I don’t feel the need to give the ‘differences in religion can be challenging’ lecture. Mixed religions in marriages can work, but some extra understanding and patience might be required. All right, this next part is mostly my curiosity and just to see if the questions spur any other questions from you. There are no ‘right’ answers and it’s okay to say the answers are none of my business.”
She had a number of questions that did, indeed, seem personal, and things she didn’t necessarily need to know. She had many more questions than Reverend O’Brien had, but somehow I didn’t find them intrusive. In fact, there were a few things Tom and I hadn’t discussed. I knew about Tom’s aunt, old and in failing health, but I had no idea he sent some of his pub profits to an Alzheimer’s association to honor her. Nisa fired off her questions so smoothly that we were both surprised we answered everything quickly and without taking time to think about what we were going to say.
“I never thought tae run that by you, but you will know all of my finances,” he said. “I won’t hide anything.”
“Tom, I love that you donate to the Alzheimer’s association. I won’t hide anything either, though there’s not much to not hide. Edwin pays me well, but I don’t have the same sort of accounting you’re responsible for as a business owner.”
“Will you also be a co-owner?” Nisa asked.
“Aye, she will,” Tom said. “In whatever capacity she wants.”
“I’ll keep working at the bookshop, but I might actually hop behind the bar every now and then. I don’t know yet.”
Nisa smiled. “That’s been discussed?”
Tom and I nodded.
“Have you talked about how many kids you each want?” Nisa asked.
“Aye, but we haven’t come tae an agreement,” Tom said as he smiled at me and rubbed his finger under his nose.
“I think two is a good number. But not right away,” I said.
“Tom?” Nisa looked at him.
“I’d like many and I’d like tae start right away.”
“That’s interesting,” Nisa said. “Particularly for someone with … well, pardon this term, with your reputation. I’ve heard you … dated a number of women before meeting Delaney.”
And there it was, I thought, the crux of the matter. Nisa had been waiting for a moment to insert something about Tom’s reputation. I was both impressed by her convenient timing as well as what I thought was a touch of discomfort. She wanted to get to know us, but she hadn’t wanted to be quite that personal. She’d only gone there because of the slip I’d made when first meeting her, my comment about Tom’s reputation. She thought she was asking something I needed to hear answered.
“That is true,” Tom said as he reached over and put his hand on my knee. “You can’t make yourself fall in love with someone, and you can’t stop yourself from falling either. It’s either real or not. I’m afraid I’m a quick study. I could determine quickly that I didn’t love any other woman enough to commit tae any of them for the rest of my life. I knew the second I … the second Delaney and I looked at each other that she was the one. My whole world changed. My outlook changed. It’s forever, I have no doubt.” He looked at me with a serious cobalt gaze.
I’d become lost in his words, but I swam up and out of them as quickly as I could. “Me too. Me too.” I smiled.
By her smile, I was pretty sure that Nisa was convinced too.
“Well, if you’re both being honest, and I have no sense that you aren’t, you’re going to be just fine. It would be an honor to officiate at your ceremony.”
Tom and I smiled at each other.
“I … uh,” she interjected quickly. “I have another matter I’d like to discuss. It’s delicate, and not as cheery as a wedding discussion.”
Tom and I looked at her again and waited. She sat forward and seemed to switch gears again.
“Delaney, did you take the cards back to Norval?” she asked.
“I did,” I said.
“Oh good. I … I actually looked for them when I was there this morning. I didn’t see them.”
“Were they something you needed returned tae you?” Tom asked.
“No, no, not that. I wondered if Delaney had stopped by, is all, and I wondered how Norval was. If he seemed okay.”
“He was great,” I said. “He did tell me the story of his meeting Nessie, and his father. He wanted me to take his papers and continue his work. I didn’t decline outright but even after I thought about it awhile, I would have told him no.” I still didn’t want her to know I’d met Gavin or had been there to discover his body. It suddenly felt like too much to explain. “Why?”
“Gavin only recently started attending church with Norval. I thought it was a good thing at first, but then I sensed that maybe it wasn’t, though I couldn’t put my finger on why.”
“I’m so sorry,” I repeated, again not sure what else to say to fill her pause.
Nisa nodded. “From my point of view, Gavin took good care of his uncle. There was never a real problem that I could see … until very recently. The two of them were having some sort of row. They were to come talk to me later the day you met Norval. They never showed for the meeting. I tried to get Norval to give me the details by himself that morning, but he didn’t. He said something about not wanting to be told what to do by Gavin anymore, and he brought me a couple books. He was cryptic, but I told him he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to do. I was just trying to calm him down. I hoped to talk to them both later. I meant to get back to them to find out if we needed to reschedule, but I never did.”
“The books, were the
y the one by Brodie Watson and the Loch Ness book?” I asked.
She blinked at me. “Well, yes.”
“I saw them on your shelves. They were the only things out of place when I was here. I couldn’t help but notice them.”
“I understand. Yes, those were the books.”
“I get the Loch Ness Monster book. Norval probably has lots of those. But is he a fan of Brodie Watson’s? Are you?”
She brought her eyebrows together as she studied me. “You know who Brodie Watson is?”
“I do.”
“Interesting. I hadn’t heard of him until Norval brought me the book. He said the author, a local man, approached him recently, seeming only to want to chat and leave him a book. I thought perhaps the author had actually approached Norval for some Nessie research, but Norval was pretty sure that the author was simply visiting. I was going to bring it up again in the group meeting we were scheduled to have, see if Gavin knew about it—only because I sensed that Norval was somehow bothered by the whole thing. He wasn’t interested in reading the book so he brought it to me.”
“Did you think Brodie Watson was trying to somehow take advantage of Norval?” I asked.
“I have no idea. Norval was just … I don’t know, overly consumed by their meeting, at least for a good few moments. But, and this is important to know, Norval can easily become obsessed. Obviously.”
My mind was whirring, but going nowhere, really. I still hadn’t quite accepted what I’d read in the article, let alone processed this new information. How could any of this be important to Gavin’s murder?
“Do you think I should tell the police?” Nisa asked.
“Honestly, I have no idea, but I don’t think it would hurt,” I said.
Tom agreed.
“All right. I’m going to try to see Norval if the police will let me,” she said. “I need to see if he’s okay, see if I can understand what might have happened.”
“Nisa, this isn’t your fault,” Tom said.
“I know,” she said unconvincingly, “but it would be impossible for me not to wonder what I could have done differently. I am Norval’s religious advisor, after all. Surely, there might have been something I could have picked up on. At this point, I’d like to try to understand and try to … help, I suppose.”
“I doubt anyone could have changed anything,” I said, feeling a little guilt myself. Was there something I could have done differently?
She forced a weary smile and it seemed the dark circles under her eyes became deeper.
“I look forward to next Saturday. Stay well and safe, and we’ll have a beautiful wedding,” Nisa said.
I realized that she was doing her job. That’s what you had to do when you were involved with so many different people, be happy for some, sympathetic for others, and sometimes despondent for even others. Sometimes all at once, sometimes transforming in the blink of an eye. I didn’t envy her job, and I was suddenly grateful to have found her.
“Thank you for doing this,” I said.
“My pleasure,” she said.
Nisa walked us to the red door. The hallway was busy. Some people smiled and greeted us, but others were too busy to even notice us. Nisa sent them all a friendly hello, as if nothing was weighing on her mind.
As we said goodbye, I realized that I hadn’t had even a tiny doubt about marrying Tom; in fact, I was now even more convinced that it was the right thing to do. Nisa’s interview had been much more about Tom and me than Nisa’s curiosity.
She was very good at her job.
FOURTEEN
“Delaney?” Tom said.
I had stopped moving toward the car, my attention pulled back across the street. “Is that crime scene tape over Norval’s door?” I nodded toward the row of homes. “Before we went into the church, I actually had a thought that there was no crime scene tape there. The police must have been there while we were inside.” I glanced at my watch. It had been about an hour.
“It looks like it, and I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“There are no police cars nearby. They were quick.”
“Do you want tae walk over there?”
It had been a good idea to leave the key behind. The temptation to use it was only growing. I would love to make my way into Norval’s apartment and take my time looking through his papers. Even if I did it under the guise of trying to find something to help him.
“No, that’s okay,” I finally said.
Tom laughed. “You don’t sound convinced. Are you sure?”
“I am. Well, I’m curious, but it seems … wrong, I guess.”
“He gave you the key, so it’s not wrong that way. He shouldn’t have asked you for your help; that was asking too much. It’s natural tae be curious, particularly for someone who is already such a curious person anyway. But crossing police tape might not go well.”
Absently, I nodded, and muttered quietly, “I really wonder if he had anyone else to trust.”
Tom said something else, but my attention jumped to some movement I saw out of the corner of my eye. Someone was walking around the corner of the church building. Someone I recognized immediately, but it seemed like such a square-peg-in-a-round-hole kind of moment, that I had to move through bewilderment before I got to recognition.
“Well, I’ll be. It’s Delaney, right?” a thickly twanged voice said. Boot-clad bowlegs came in our direction.
“Angus?” I said.
“Yes, ma’am.” He tipped his hat just like any good cowboy. He extended his hand to Tom. “You must be the lucky guy. Delaney mentioned the upcoming nuptials. Good to meet you. Angus Murdoch.”
“Good tae meet you. Tom Shannon.” Tom shook the cowboy’s hand.
The two men made a striking pair, movie star–like in their own ways and oozing with so much male-ness, I wondered if they’d stop passing traffic.
“Angus brought a wonderful rare edition book into the bookshop,” I said.
“Aye? Well, you picked the right place,” Tom said.
“I have no doubt.” Angus blinked as if he pondered whether to share the rest of the story with Tom, but he didn’t.
“What are you doing over in this part of town?” I asked, making polite conversation.
“Sightseeing.” He nodded backward. “Dane Village over there is quite the place. Like something out of a fairy tale.”
Neither Tom nor I corrected him with “Dean” but his description was spot-on.
“It’s a great place,” I said.
“I saw this church from over there yonder, so I walked over the bridge to take a gander. I thought about going inside, but just because this is a tourist town doesn’t make every church a tourist place.” He looked up at the steeple and back at us. “Does it?”
“If the front door is unlocked, I’m sure you’re welcome tae look inside,” Tom said.
“Good point. I think I’ll give it a try.” His smile this time was half-sided as he hitched up his jeans.
At that moment, he struck me as so Texan, so American, that even though Kansas wasn’t Texas, a memory of my parents’ farm filled my mind. For an instant I could smell the tilled earth, the same earth that made up Scotland, but different in ways that had to do with space and sky and their congruity. I would never be able to explain how lovely the wide-open plains of Kansas were to me.
“Hey,” Angus continued. “Y’all told me about Arthur’s Seat.”
“Yes. Hamlet mentioned it,” I said.
“Can you point me in the right direction?” Angus asked.
“Sure, it’s that way.” Tom nodded his head and held back a full smile. “You won’t want to walk from here. Take a bus maybe. Up from Holyrood Park, other side of the university. Any of the bus drivers can help you.”
“Huh. I thought I was closer. Got off track, I guess.” Angus laughed. “My mom always said I couldn’t find the one cow in the barn, so … there it is.”
Angus glanced across the street and toward the row of houses, and he noticed the sam
e thing Tom and I had.
“Is that crime scene tape down there?”
I looked at Tom.
He answered before I could. “Not sure.”
Angus looked back and forth between Tom and me. We must have both looked like we were keeping secrets. “Do you know what happened there?”
“Not really,” I said, cringing inwardly. I wished I’d said that more convincingly.
Angus tipped back his cowboy hat and smiled again. “Not really?”
I looked toward the tape, fluttering in a breeze I couldn’t feel. “I recently met the man who lives there, but I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I see. Well, I’m sorry for whatever it is,” Angus said.
“Good to see you,” I said. “Come visit us in the bookshop again. Tom and I should probably be on our way.”
“Right,” he said, and he brought his attention back to me. “Oh! Did Edwin remember anything else about the book?”
“I don’t think so. But I’ll have him call you if he does.”
“I just hope he remembers something. I think my grandfather would be glad that any mystery his thieving ways might have conjured was solved.”
Tom raised one eyebrow in my direction.
“I don’t think Edwin is concerned,” I said.
Angus smiled again, sadly this time. “Pleasure to meet you, Tom, even if I wish I’d met her sooner.”
His compliment, if that’s what it was, was unsettling. It felt less like a compliment and more like I was being objectified. Fortunately, Tom, not surprised by much, remembered his manners.
“Pleasure tae meet you too, Angus, and feel free tae come by my pub before you leave. It’s in the Grassmarket, not far from the bookshop. First one’s on me,” he said with a smile.
Angus tipped his hat again and Tom and I got into the car.
“That was interesting,” I said without moving my lips too much, in case Angus was watching us.
“Och, he’s a friendly fellow, a bit out of his element. Remember how you felt when you first moved here?” Tom said.
But I knew Tom well enough to know that Angus hadn’t sat right with him.
The Loch Ness Papers Page 9