“The police totally suck,” Mia said.
Both Piper and Summer sat back down.
“They can’t keep us here,” Mia said.
“They have a police officer standing outside the door.”
“Where did he come from? He’s not a St. Brigid officer.”
“I think Ben said something about calling for reinforcements.”
The room quieted, then text messages beeped on their phones. It was Poppy, still at the hospital. “Nothing,” she said. “I think I’ve had eight cups of coffee and three snickers bars.”
Glads’s text came next: No sign of her at the library or at the cove.
“She’s not at her house. And we were escorted out by the police,” Piper texted back.
“One of whom is still standing at the front door,” Summer added.
A few moments of cyber silence.
What next? Glads texted. Where else should we look?
I have no idea, Summer texted back.
Go home and get some rest until we can think of our next move, Piper suggested.
No response.
Summer sighed. “Who wants some coffee? It’s going to be a long night.”
They all walked into the kitchen, and after drinking a whole pot of coffee, they tried to keep their mind off the situation by cleaning and sorting through Hildy’s things, They all had an abundance of nervous energy enhanced by the coffee, and all wanted to stay alert in case there was any news.
Summer peeked out the front door. “He’s still here.”
“Who would’ve thought they’d have the resources to post a man outside the door of three innocent people? We were just looking for Gram. We weren’t doing anything illegal,” Mia said indignantly.
Summer frowned. “He mentioned obstruction of justice.”
“He couldn’t make that stick. I mean, come on—she’s my mom,” Piper said as she plopped down, on the living room floor, a box full of things to go through. She turned on the television to a British sitcom.
Mia pulled out a Rolling Stone magazine. “This is wild.”
“Let’s make three piles: trash, recycling, and keep,” Summer said. She was glad they were focusing their energy together and away from the missing Agatha.
“Okay, what about the magazine?”
“I don’t want it,” Summer said. “If you do, you can have it.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it.”
A laugh track sounded from the TV. None of them were paying attention to it, but the noise was comforting.
“Oh my god!” Piper said. “I’d forgotten all about this.” She held up a small book, Creepy but True.
A wave of panic shot through Summer.
“We used to read this to each other. We pored over it.”
“I don’t remember it,” Summer said. But she couldn’t shake a weird shivery sensation.
Piper flipped through the book. “Here’s the story about the five-legged cow!”
“I sort of remember that,” Summer said.
“Here’s the one about the spider eggs. Remember that one?” Piper said.
The wave of panic became a tsunami. Summer’s heart raced. “What?”
“The story about the spider that laid eggs in this man’s mouth, tucked down between the inside of his cheek and gums while he slept. A couple days later they hatched. Remember?” Piper laughed.
The story hit her with a stone-cold thud. It had kept her up for days. She hadn’t wanted to go to sleep for worrying about a spider laying eggs in any of her orifices.
The room spun for a moment as her thoughts and emotions came together. She eyeballed her cousin holding the book. “Oh my god.”
“What?” Mia said.
“How old were we when we read that?”
Piper shrugged. “Maybe ten or eleven?” She paused. “Do you think … this might be …”
“I don’t know. It’s a possibility. Something triggered it.”
“Well, it’s good to know that, right?”
“I suppose. I’ll chat with my doctor about it. It makes sense. But what to do with it?”
Something crashed in a distant part of the house. It sounded as if boxes had fallen somewhere deep in the house. The basement.
“What was that?” Mia whispered. Eyes wide.
They sat in silence. A scuffling sound erupted from the same area.
Summer’s brain kicked into gear. “Could Agatha and Doris be downstairs?” She shuddered. She’d not been in the basement for years. But it made perfect sense. Doris knew Summer would not look for them in her own house.
Mia stood. “I’ll find out.”
Both Piper and Summer yanked her back to the couch.
“Stay here,” Piper said. “I’ll go.”
Summer, paralyzed with fear, felt a swirl of emotions—the spider story, the noise in the basement where she never could go. And yet her aunt might be in danger. She dug down. Deep down and found something strange. “‘Sometimes if you pretend to be strong and brave, you are.’” Hildy’s words rang in her head.
“I can’t let you go alone,” Summer said.
“But—”
“I know.” Summer held her hand up. “Let’s not talk about it. Let’s not give any energy to it.”
“You sound just like Aunt Hildy,” Mia said. “What do I do? Sit here?”
“No. If we don’t come back up soon, grab the cop out front. It may be nothing. We don’t want to involve him until we know,” Summer said. But even as she said it, a knowing came over her. Doris held Agatha in the basement. She might have been planning on waiting until Summer was asleep and attacking her too. It’s what made sense.
Piper stood, and Summer followed her. It was one thing to go into a dark basement that assuredly had spiders lurking in every crack and crevice—not to mention a deranged, angry old lady. But it was another thing to go first. No, she’d follow her brave cousin.
* * *
“Be careful,” Mia whispered. “Take this.” She handed Piper a goddess statue. Bronze? Was it Kali?
Piper handed it to Summer. “I won’t need this. You?”
“I’ll take it.” If nothing else, she could use it to whack a few spiders.
Summer followed Piper to the basement door, which creaked when she opened it. Of course. And the stairs would creak as well. If they were down in the bowels of the basement, there’d be no surprising them.
Piper must have had the same thought. She flicked the light on as she descended the stairs.
There are moments in all people’s lives that are etched in their brains for eternity. Summer was certain this one would stay with her. The musty, damp scent mingled with the slight odor of bird food. The willing away of spider images. The impending danger. She placed one foot after the other. Creak. Creak. Creak.
Summer kept her eyes on the back of her cousin’s blonde head. Her thin shoulders and slim back.
Piper gasped as a furry creature jumped out at them. “Shit!”
It was Missy, Rudy’s cat. She was eating the bird food. Looked up at them and meowed. Piper bent down and lifted the cat in her arms. “Naughty cat. How did you get in here?” She stroked her and turned to face Summer. Her eyes became wide circles of fear. “Behind you!” The cat jumped from her arms, and Summer spun to face Doris coming at her, out of the dark, with a huge needle.
Summer lifted her bronze statue as Doris’s arm came closer to her. She thwacked the needle of out her hand—but the pink-haired Doris kept coming. She tried to grab the statue out of Summer’s arms. “No way, old lady.” Summer wrangled it from Doris’s reach. And thwacked her across the head.
Doris dropped with a sickening thud.
Summer’s heart leaped into her throat. “I didn’t kill her, did I?”
Piper bent over and felt her pulse. “No. She’s still alive.”
Mia came running down the steps. “Should I get the cop?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s Gram?”
Where indeed?
“Mom?”
No response. Summer and Piper split up to look around the small basement.
“Mia, please get the police officer. Now!” Piper said.
Mia ran up the stairs.
“Mom! I found her.” Piper fell to her knees.
Summer raced to her side.
Agatha was as white as the sheets Doris had swaddled her in. For all the world, she just looked as if she were a part of the laundry.
“Is she okay?”
Piper slipped her phone out of her pocket and dialed 911. “I have an emergency. Please send an ambulance.”
Summer reached for Agatha’s hand. Cold. But she felt a pulse at her wrist. She was alive. “Aunt Agatha!” She patted her face. But her aunt was drugged or something. There was no response.
“Mom! Please!”
The two tried to revive her, but she was deep in another state. Shock? Drugs?
* * *
As the paramedics came and took her off on a gurney, Summer, Mia, and Piper clung to one another.
Doris was quickly recovered by Ben Singer, who cuffed her immediately and read her her rights.
Rage erupted from deep inside Summer’s guts. “You killed my mother!”
Doris blinked. “I did. And I’d do it again. She was seeing my husband behind my back. After all the years I gave him. All the sacrifices I made. He was cheating on me with your mother.”
With a jolt, Summer slapped her across the face. “She never slept with married men. How dare you!”
Summer lunged at her for more. She’d rip her from limb to limb. But Ben pulled her off. “Summer! Get a hold of yourself.”
Piper’s arm slipped around her. “Good girl,” she said. “I’d have done the same thing.”
The police took Doris away.
“How did she even think Hildy was sleeping with her sick husband?” Mia said. “How delusional!”
Delusional or not, she killed Hildy. Summer trembled with anger. The slap hadn’t helped. She wanted more.
Ben Singer reentered the room. “Summer, you need to calm down.”
“Calm down?” Piper’s eyes flashed with anger. “The woman killed her mother. She almost killed my mom and was planning to kill Summer. What the hell, Ben?”
He nodded. “I know that. I know she’s hurt and angry, but she‘ll get in trouble if she doesn’t get a grip.” He looked around. “Where’s Hildy’s bourbon? I know she has some around here. Pour yourselves some. Calm down. Both of you. Before you go to see Agatha. You two are a mess. She needs you calm and collected.”
Summer glanced at Piper. She might be even more wired than Summer. She took in a deep breath. It was four thirty AM, but they would sit down for some whisky. Yes, they would.
* * *
Soon enough, Glads, Poppy, and Marilyn were there. With food. With comfort. With friendship. All of them in a slight stupor over the happenings.
“Glads held up her shot glass. To Hildy.” She looked at Summer. “You done your mama right.”
Summer blinked back tears. I have.
But now it was time to focus on Agatha, who had been transported by Life Flight to a hospital in Wilmington. They all piled into Marilyn’s van, borrowed from the library, and trekked to the city.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Two days later, Agatha was home. She’d been injected with something that made her sleep. She was fine, but the hospital had insisted on her staying a couple of days because of her age.
“An extended vacay?” she’d said and laughed.
“What happened, Gram?” Mia asked when they were sitting at breakfast the day after she’d gotten home.
She took a long drink of juice. “I don’t know what came over me, but when Summer and I figured it out, I just wanted to wrap my hands around her throat.”
“Gram!”
“Oh, I wouldn’t kill her. But I would have beaten her up.”
Mia grinned. “Aunt Summer smacked her.”
Summer’s face heated. Not her proudest moment. But she didn’t regret it. Not one bit.
“What?” Agatha dropped her fork.
Summer nodded. “Continue with your story, please.”
“Well, okay. I went over to her house. She was frazzled. Her husband had just been taken back to the hospital. I told her I didn’t care one iota about that. I wanted to know what she’d done to my sister and why.” She paused. “I was shaking with anger. Has that ever happened to you?”
Summer nodded.
“She started to leave the room, and I grabbed her. I don’t know what happened next. I don’t remember anything from that point on. I do remember a prick. So I supposed she injected me with something, like she did Hildy.”
“Then she brought you here and hid you in the basement, thinking Summer would never go down there,” Piper said.
“She was planning to kill me that night. I’m sure of it,” Summer said. A chill moved along her spine. Just like it had when Doris set the fire.
Agatha reached over and grabbed her hand. “But she didn’t. You all turned the tables on her, didn’t you? Thank you for braving the basement for me.” Her eyes watered. I know what that meant to you.”
“Are you kidding? I would have gone through a thousand spiders to get to you,” Summer said and smiled. “But I’ve got to rush and get to the bookstore this morning. Today was supposed to be my day off, but Poppy called and said there’s a new shipment of books. She needs help.”
“Let’s all go,” Piper said.
The promise of more books to unpack lifted their spirits.
* * *
Beach Reads stood on the corner of the boardwalk. As it always had. The awning flapping in the sea breeze. The mermaid watching out over the door. People looking in the windows. Some entering the place, some turning back toward the arcade. So much was the same. Yet, it was different.
The inner circle of the Mermaid Pie Book Club members were already gathered in the back to help with the shipment of books. They stopped only to greet Agatha with hugs.
“Well, you survived,” Glads said.
“Thanks to you all for your help,” she said.
“Ah, it was nothing,” Poppy said as she poked her head in the back. She was on register duty, which is why she needed help unpacking the books.
Summer would be here awhile whether or not her sabbatical trickled through all the red tape at the school. This is where she’d spend it. If it didn’t go through, she’d still be here until things settled. Until she made some decisions.
She walked over to a box of books marked “Evidence” and opened it. The police had confiscated them from Doris’s house, along with evidence to link her to the fire. Ben Singer and Levi Jensen had not let her down. Doris had taken the books, robbed the store, set the fire, and attacked Summer that day on the path. All in a half-baked attempt to scare Summer off and keep the police confused. She’d also, of course, sent the creepy notes, trying to scare Hildy, then Summer, away. The woman was living in la-la land. and logic couldn’t be applied to most of her actions. She didn’t know Hildy well at all if she thought notes would scare her off from her beloved Beach Reads.
“Oh!” Glads said. “Here’s the newest Hannah Jacobs.”
Summer’s heart jumped. “The woman who wrote Nights at Bellamy Harbor?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“I’ll take one of those,” Summer said. She reached for the book, then slipped it into her bag. She could hardly believe she had done that. That she was excited about reading another romance. Her eyes caught those of Aunt Agatha, who was grinning. She didn’t need to say anything—she could read her mind.
They laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Mia asked.
“Oh, nothing!” Agatha said. “Private joke.”
“We don’t like private jokes around here,” Glads said.
“Yeah, it’s rude,” Mia said.
“Mia, don’t talk to your grandmother like that,” Piper said.
“Oh, it’s
just that Summer and Hildy never saw eye to eye on books,” Agatha said. “Now, look: Summer’s reading romances.”
Summer flushed. Why was she embarrassed? Why was it so hard to admit to herself that her mom had been right all those years? “I was such a snob. And as it turns out, romances have so much in common with Shakespeare.”
“What?” Piper said.
“Well, you know there’s a Shakespeare professor who actually writes romances.”
Piper waved her hand. “I’m the one who told you that.”
“I know!”
The women laughed and gathered close to Summer.
“Have you ever gone to check the safe deposit box?” Piper asked.
Summer’s heart sank. “No, not yet.” She wasn’t sure why. She just hadn’t been able to do it.
“When are you going back to Staunton?” Glads asked.
That was a good question. “As far as I know I’m on a sabbatical. I’m staying for a while.” She’d not heard back yet whether the paid sabbatical was a go. But no need to think about details. Contemplating leaving these women and this store was unpleasant. She’d grown accustomed to their company, their food, their quirky ways. Glads and her predilection for Madonna songs. Marilyn and her tats and herbal teas, dancing while she worked (and naked on the beach). Poppy and her silly but helpful ways.
Poppy entered the back room. She was pale and stiff.
“Summer, can I speak to you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I mean privately.”
Summer looked around the group, all happily busy with their own tasks.
“Sure,” Summer said, walking over to Poppy. “What is it?”
“There’s a man out front to see you.”
“A man?” Agatha said loudly.
“Mind your own business, Aunt Agatha.”
“Never!”
Summer turned back to Poppy. “What does he want with me?”
“He says it’s a private matter.”
“Okay, then,” Summer said. Was it someone from work? Someone who knew her mom?
Poppy opened the door to the front part of the shop, and Summer followed. Near the coffee station stood a man, maybe a few years younger than Summer. Mocha-skinned, dark eyes, dark curly hair. He was a few inches taller than her. He looked vaguely familiar. His face lit when he saw her. “Summer? I’m Sam.”
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