Secrets of Redemption Box Set

by Michele Pariza Wacek

  It’s going to work out, I told myself. I’ll make it work.

  Oddly, for the first time, I actually believed it.

  After I finished eating and loaded my dishes in the dishwasher (I insisted on doing it myself despite both Mia and Chrissy protesting—I wasn’t an invalid, for goodness sake), we climbed the stairs together to Mia’s room.

  Unlike the basement, there was no yellow tape on the door, but I heard Mia gasp as she got her first look inside.

  The noose was gone, thank goodness—probably taken as evidence, along with the bat. But the chair was still there, lying on its side, and there was blood smeared on the floor, the braided rug, the curtains, the quilt, and even the walls. Items had been knocked over on the dresser, and a glass of water had spilled on the floor. Otherwise, there didn’t seem to be much damage.

  At least, not to Mia’s physical items. If I closed my eyes, I could still see the noose in the corner and JD grinning at me, his eyes calculating and crazy as blood dripped down his neck ...

  I leaned down to pick up the rug, forcing myself to stop that train of thought. “Let me see about getting this cleaned. I’ll bring up some hot water and bleach.”

  “You weren’t kidding about Oscar,” she said, walking around as she stared at the blood.

  “He bit JD’s neck,” I said. “So, yeah, there was a lot of blood.”

  She nodded, fingering her belongings, not paying any attention to me. I turned back to the rug, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. She’s going to leave, I thought. How could she possibly sleep in this room after everything that’s happened? And who could blame her? How will I ever be able to walk into this room again and not remember lying on the floor, helpless, my hands tied behind my back, or standing in the corner with the noose wrapped around ...

  I squeezed my eyes together tightly as I jerked on the rug to free it from under the bed, trying to ignore the memory of lying right there, staring under the dresser ...

  Wait a minute. Under the dresser.

  Mad Martha’s locket.

  I got down on my hands and knees to peer under the dresser. There. Exactly where it was before. I reached down to pull it out, the gold winking at me in the light. Where did it come from? Was it there all along? No, I was sure I cleaned up before Mia moved in. I could clearly recall sweeping under the dresser. I turned the heavy jewelry over in my hand.

  “What’s that?” Mia asked at my elbow.

  I held it out so she could get a better look. “Mad Martha’s locket.”

  “Really? So that’s what it looks like. Where did it come from?” She reached out to stroke it.

  “Under the dresser, but it doesn’t make sense.” I frowned. “Have you ever seen it before?”

  “No. This is the first time,” Mia said. “I remember you talking about finding it, but you never showed me.”

  “That’s because I lost it,” I said.

  “You lost it?”

  “Well, more accurately, it disappeared.” I squished my face up trying to put the pieces in the right order in my mind. “I definitely remember Chrissy wearing the locket. I tried to get it away from her, but Stefan wouldn’t let me. I was hospitalized shortly after that, and when I got home from the hospital, I wasn’t able to find it anywhere.”

  “Did you ever ask Chrissy about it?”

  “I did, but that was when she was living with Margot, her foster mom, and she was barely communicating with me. She said she didn’t know where it was, and she didn’t have it. I didn’t press.”

  Mia gestured her head toward the dresser. “Did you check it before?”

  “Yes, I remember cleaning under there, but ...” I frowned again. Could Chrissy have hidden it? Maybe wedged it beneath the dresser and forgotten about it? I got back down on my hands and knees, putting the side of my head on the floor to see if I could peer up underneath.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Seeing if there was a place the locket could have been shoved in here,” I said. “Can you hand me a flashlight?”

  Mia fiddled around with something. “Why, can you see something?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  She handed me her phone with the flashlight app turned on. A surprisingly strong beam emitted from it. I took it and aimed the light under the dresser. There. Something was wedged under there. It looked like an envelope.

  “What do you see?” she asked, as I shoved my arm in all the way to the elbow to try and reach it.

  “I’m not sure,” I said again. I felt cautiously under the wood until my fingers touched paper. It was dry and brittle. I wondered how old it was. Carefully, I started peeling it away, not wanting to rip it.

  Finally, it came free, and I pulled my arm out. Mia peered over my shoulder. “An envelope was under there?”

  “That’s what it looks like.” It was long, thin, and business-sized. I flipped it over. My name was scrawled on the front in my aunt’s handwriting.

  “Oh my God,” Mia breathed, as I put my hand on my chest, my heartbeat suddenly accelerating. “Could this be the evidence you’ve been looking for?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. Our eyes met. Her expression mirrored what I assumed was mine—a mixture of excitement, eagerness, and fear. Was I finally going to get the answers I had been seeking for so long?

  Was I sure I even wanted them?

  If it was going to be another “body-buried-in-the-basement” type of surprise, I’d pass.

  Mia nudged me. “Well, don’t just stand there. Open it.”

  I gave a nervous little laugh and carefully slid one finger under the flap. The glue hadn’t taken, and it opened easily with a little crinkle.

  Inside was a safety deposit box key and a piece of a paper. On the paper was the name of a bank and a string of numbers.

  Mia stared at the envelope. “Is that it?”

  I turned it inside out. “Looks like it.”

  “God, you’d think she’d leave a note,” Mia said with a disapproving shake of her head. “Hopefully, the safety deposit box will have answers.”

  “This is just so Aunt Charlie,” I said, my fingers tightening around the key. “She never gives me a straight answer in my dreams. Why should real life be any different?”

  “I guess we know where we’re going tomorrow,” Mia said.

  Chapter 35

  “This is it,” Mia whispered excitedly as I opened the door to the quiet blue-and-grey bank lobby.

  Mia had managed to get a day off as, in her words, “I’ve put in enough double shifts and overtime this summer. Someone else can fill in for once. There is no way I’m missing this.” I watched her make calls over my coffee, her eyes bright. She looked rested and relaxed for the first time in weeks. “It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do,” she had said when she breezed into the kitchen that morning. “I feel awesome.”

  “No footsteps?” I asked.

  “Not a one,” she had answered cheerily, fetching a coffee cup from the counter. “It was quiet and peaceful. Exactly the way it was when I first moved in. I bet it was Jonathan. He’s probably finally at peace, now that we’ve solved what happened to him and his family.”

  “You’re probably right,” I said, although I had my doubts. Could it have been that simple? Jonathan’s spirit was restless, and now that we knew the truth, he could finally be at peace?

  Or maybe the explanation was more rooted in reality. JD, the person responsible for wreaking havoc in our lives, was safely out of the picture.

  Or maybe it was because Mad Martha’s locket was no longer in her room.

  Whatever it was, Mia looked like herself again, refreshed, excited, and ready to rock. I was relieved to see the old Mia back, not only for her sake, but selfishly, for my own. Hopefully, she wouldn’t move out, which would be a huge help to my shaky financial situation.
/>   While Mia got her work situation squared away, my phone pinged. It was a text from Daniel. He had solved the mystery behind the alarm company cancellation. Apparently, Mia had offhandedly mentioned we were having an alarm installed. JD called the company and cancelled the appointment, so he would have no issues breaking in using the impression he had made of Mia’s key.

  Well, that was one more question answered. Hopefully, it was also a good omen about what we would find in the safety deposit box.

  I still hadn’t figured out how the locket ended up under the dresser. When I asked Chrissy about it, she seemed totally and sincerely clueless as to how it got there. She said she had always kept it on her dresser next to her jewelry box, and one day, it was gone. She did a quick search around the dresser to see if it had fallen into a corner, but couldn’t find it, so she had assumed her dad had taken it for some reason and forgotten about it.

  Maybe she was lying. But why would she lie about something like that? And why would she even bother hiding it in the first place?

  None of it made sense.

  For now, I had wrapped the locket in a silk scarf and placed it in one of my dresser drawers. It was still there when I left the house, and hopefully, it would stay put.

  “Do you think we should ask for a manager?” Mia asked, as we walked through the lobby of the ice-cold bank. Mia’s flip-flops made their distinctive slapping noise on the marble floor as the sound system played a Musak version of “American Pie.”

  A woman wearing a smart-looking navy suit greeted us from behind a desk. “Can I help you?” Her gold name tag read “Hazel,” and her smooth, blonde hair was cut in a short-and-sassy bob. For a moment, I wished my own unruly and wild hair would be that well behaved.

  “I hope so,” I said, pulling out the envelope. “My aunt, Charlie Kingsley, left me this.” I handed her the note. “I’m hoping you can help.”

  Hazel took the paper and studied it. “This is an account number,” she said. “Let me pull it up and see what we’ve got.” She started tapping on the keyboard, her red nails clicking away.

  “What did you say your aunt’s name was?”

  “Charlie, or Charlotte, Kingsley.”

  She pursed her lips, which were the same color as her nails. “That’s not the name on the account.”

  I glanced at Mia, whose brow was furrowed in a puzzled expression. “What name is on it?”

  “Becca Livingston.”

  “Why, that’s me,” I said, astonished. “Well, that’s my maiden name, but yes, that’s me.”

  She peered at me. “Do you have ID?”

  “I do,” I said, pawing through my purse to locate my wallet and New York identification. For the first time, I was grateful things had happened so quickly in New York. I hadn’t had a chance to get a new license after Stefan and I got married. By the time things had settled down and I resigned myself to spending the day at the department of motor vehicles, Stefan told me we were moving to Wisconsin, so at that point, it didn’t make much sense.

  She took my ID and studied it carefully before handing it back to me with a smile. “Well, it looks like your aunt opened an account in your name.”

  “An account? Like, one with money in it?” My mind was whirling, trying to keep up with this new turn of events.

  She laughed. “Yes, an account with money.”

  “How much?”

  She took the note from my aunt, scribbled a number on it, and handed it to me.

  I could only stare at the paper. Mia, looking over my shoulder, sucked in her breath.

  “Is this real?” I asked Hazel. “There’s over fifty thousand dollars in an account with my name on it?”

  “Yes, that’s what it says.”

  My legs were suddenly rubbery, and I was having trouble standing. Mia clapped me on the back. “Becca, you’re rich!”

  “I can’t believe it,” I said. “But I don’t understand why she would do this. She left me a trust. Why would she leave me a separate account like this, and tell no one … not even the lawyer?”

  “Maybe she had a feeling you were going to marry poorly,” Mia said. “Or maybe she thought hiding money was a smart move. Why does it matter? Your money troubles are over!”

  Well, not over, I thought, but the pressure was definitely off. I couldn’t live the rest of my life on fifty thousand, but it would certainly give me a bit of a breather. Not only that, but it was also a safety net as I worked on getting my business up and running.

  I pressed the piece of paper to my chest and stared up toward the wooden, vaulted ceiling. Thank you, Charlie.

  “Did you still want to get into the safety deposit box?” Hazel asked.

  I had forgotten about that completely. “Yes, yes, thank you,” I said.

  Hazel shot me a tiny smile as she asked me to sign in and fetch the key. “I can hardly wait to see what’s in the box,” Mia whispered. “It’s turning into Christmas.”

  Yes, it was, indeed.

  Hazel led us to the back where all the safety boxes were stored. After unlocking mine, she took us to a private room and left us.

  For a moment, I could only stare at it. I was already so overcome finding out about the money, I wanted to give myself a moment to breathe before I ended up in another overwhelming situation.

  Mia’s eyes darted between the box and me. “What are you waiting for? Open it!”

  “I was just ...” I swallowed. “Mia, you have no idea what that money means.”

  Mia’s face softened and she hugged me. “I know,” she whispered. “I get it. This is a good sign. A sign you’re supposed to stay here in Redemption.”

  I could feel tears start to well up behind my eyes. “I’m just ...”

  “It’s all going to work out,” she said. “It already is.” She released me enough to look me in the face. “Okay?”

  I nodded.

  “Good.” She squeezed my arms and let go of me. “Now go open the box.”

  I laughed a little, but obediently walked to the deposit box and flipped it open.

  Inside was a thick file folder, a cassette tape, and another long white envelope. I picked up the envelope as Mia studied the file folder and cassette.

  For Becca’s eyes only was written across it.

  Mia’s eyes were wide. “She left you a note!”

  “Finally,” I said, turning it over. “Should I open it now?”

  “Hell yeah!”

  I slid my finger along the flap and pulled out a couple of pieces of paper covered in my aunt’s spidery handwriting.

  I began to read.

  Dearest Becca,

  If you’re reading this, I’m gone, and you probably have lots of questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.

  First, though, I want you to know I’ve been keeping an eye on you all these years. I understand why you never came back. But that doesn’t mean I stopped loving you or looking out for you.

  And, that’s one of the reasons why I made you my sole beneficiary. Becca, you were always such a beautiful and wild little soul. My sister did her best with you, but I could tell early on she was out of her league. She didn’t know how to raise such a creative and passionate being, and it frightened her. So, she did the only thing she knew to keep you safe. She tried to control you. To break your spirit. That way, you would fit into her world and she could keep you safe.

  I never wanted that for you. I wanted you to find your own path. So, I’ve left you the means to do that.

  But I know you, Becca, and I know you have an innocence underneath all that passion and impulsiveness. I fear you may end up with a man who finds a way to drain the trust I set up for you. This feeling has grown stronger and stronger over the years, which is why I set this little account up for you. In case the worst does happen, and you somehow lose the trust, this money will help you get back
on your feet.

  I know the kind of help my sister would offer in a situation like that would come with strings. Big ones. And there’s no one else you could turn to. Certainly not CB.

  Speaking of CB, I didn’t leave him anything in my will because I know he’ll always find a way to land on his feet. He’s never needed my help, ever. Not to provide him with a safe place out of New York, and certainly not to help him find his way. He’s always known his way.

  That’s the easy answer, and while it’s true, it’s not the full truth. No, I promised myself I would be honest with you here even if I couldn’t be while I was alive.

  The truth is, I have always sensed a darkness in CB. There’s something off with him—something I could never put my finger on and something I could never shine a light on, even though I tried. If you haven’t regained your memory of the night Jessica disappeared yet (yes, I know you lost your memory and it hasn’t come back), I would take a hard look at CB. I know he had something to do with it. I don’t know what, but he was involved somehow.

  Keep an eye on him, Becca. Maybe you can reach him in a way I never could.

  Now for the other items in the safety deposit box. I’ll start with the file folder. What’s in there is everything you need to know about my healing business, to help you launch it again. You have the gift, Becca. You may even be better than I was.

  Once you’ve got the business up and going, it’s not going to take a lot of your time to maintain. You’ll have plenty of time to also work on your art. You’re very talented. It’s one of my most precious wishes that you find your way back to painting and drawing.

  Now, for the most difficult thing I must tell you. The cassette tape.

  Years ago, I made a terrible decision, one that still reverberates to this day. I had an affair with a married man. And, by doing that, I set off a nightmarish chain of an events that ended with murder.

  First, the murder of Jesse. My lover, Jonathan Decker, murdered his best and oldest friend, Jesse.