by Kathi Daley
“I’ll do that. She seems anxious to be part of this, so I don’t think she’ll mind. Should we buy extra gravy for the leftovers?”
Jenna hemmed and hawed, and offered several solutions.
“So did you talk to Dennis about tree cutting on Saturday?” I asked Jenna after she’d put several cans of gravy in the cart.
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to him. He’s been really busy. In fact, given our schedules, we haven’t had the chance to talk at all other than by text or phone messages. But I’m sure we’re in. He worked last night, but now he’ll be off until next Monday barring a real emergency.”
“I’m glad he is off for the weekend. It seems like he has been working a lot of shifts.”
“They’ve been shorthanded, so he has been covering his duties as Captain and covering part of the shift work.”
The poor guy was going to work himself into an early grave if he wasn’t careful. “Did you talk to your mom about Saturday?”
“Mom wants Dennis and me to pick up a tree for their place. She didn’t want Bookman to overdo, and it seems like tree cutting day is always a long and labor-intensive day no matter how simple we try to make it.”
I followed Jenna as she headed toward the aisle with the olives and pickles. “Kyle and I discussed the fact that we were going to be low on muscle this year. My dad can’t help out, and Kyle isn’t supposed to lift anything over fifteen pounds. You and I and Dennis can cut and carry, and I suppose if Bree and Pastor Dan come, they can help as well. I thought I might try to grab a couple of staff members to come along this year if anyone is in town. The resort reopens the week following Thanksgiving weekend, so I imagine that Logan and Noah will have returned from their time off.”
“We could just get the trees from a lot,” Jenna suggested.
“We could. And we could just buy frozen pies.”
The look of horror on Jenna’s face convinced me that she had gotten my point about the importance of the Jensen family tree cutting tradition.
“Maybe we can cut the trees for all the residences, and you can ask Noah to oversee the trees for the resort,” Jenna suggested. “I’m afraid our tree cutting crew has suffered more than their share of casualties this year, and I’m not sure that cutting so many trees is realistic.”
I hated to admit it, but I supposed Jenna was right. “I’ll call Dad and talk to him about it. I suppose he may already have made arrangements for the trees for the lodge, restaurant, and cabins. I assumed we’d go out as a family and get them like we usually do, but given his physical limitations, Dad may have made other plans.”
After we completed our shopping, we stopped at Kyle’s to drop off the food that wasn’t related to the pies Jenna was planning to make. He was on the phone when we arrived, so I stuck my head in his office to let him know we were there, and then I joined Jenna in the kitchen to help put the food away. I supposed in some ways we may have gone completely overboard, but the last thing I wanted was to run out of some key ingredient on Thanksgiving Day with a houseful of friends and family.
“So are you still planning to announce your engagement at Thanksgiving?” Jenna asked as she stacked canned goods in the pantry.
“I’m not sure. The family knows, and that’s the most important thing. I don’t mind letting everyone else know, but it has occurred to me that once the masses know, people will start asking about a date.”
“And you aren’t ready to set a date?”
“Not really. I promised Ashley and Gracie that we wouldn’t do anything until we worked everything out relating to the living arrangements. Kyle and I talked about it and came to the conclusion that we should wait and see how things naturally develop.”
“Are you considering options other than you and the girls moving in here with Kyle?”
I blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’m not sure. It’s complicated.”
Jenna gave me a quick, hard hug. “Just take your time. As you said, the odds are that things will unfold naturally. I can’t see that anything will be gained in forcing things before you are ready. I know you have known Kyle for a long time, but you have only been a couple for five months. Less than five months actually.”
That seemed like a switch from her previous advice to tell the girls how it was going to be and not let them sway me. I glanced at Jenna. She seemed different today. Almost more emotional. I wondered if she and Dennis were involved in another of their increasingly frequent spats. “I guess it is true that Kyle and I haven’t really been a couple all that long, and Kyle seems fine with taking things slow, so I guess, at this point, that is what we will do. I’m still thinking about a summer or fall wedding, but I guess we’ll see how it all comes together.”
“I’m not sure we are going to have room in the freezer for all the ice cream we bought,” Jenna said.
“Kyle has an extra freezer in the walk-in pantry.”
Jenna opened the door and walked inside the pantry that was really the size of a room. “I never realized that was a freezer,” Jenna called out to me. “The way he has it built in, it looks like a cabinet. I have to say I am officially jealous.”
“When Kyle remodeled the kitchen, he went all out to make sure everything was perfect,” I had to agree.
I looked up as Kyle walked into the room from the main living area. He had a frown on his face. “Problem?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. That was Roy on the phone. Apparently, he was able to get ahold of Wallaby, who is currently living in New Jersey. Wallaby was willing to share what he knew in return for full immunity for his part in what went down. It took some doing, but Roy was able to arrange that.”
“And?” I asked. I glanced at Jenna, who’d emerged from the pantry and joined me.
“According to Roy, Wallaby had been approached by Julie Matheson as she claimed. She told him that she’d seen someone who she thought might have been Deputy DuPont carrying something which looked to be a human body wrapped up in a blanket. Wallaby promised Matheson that he would look into things. And he did. He called DuPont and shared with him what Matheson had told him. DuPont admitted that he had shot Edmonton, but that it had been an accident. He’d gone by the sheriff’s office to pick up something he had left behind and had noticed the back door to the bank was ajar. He was off duty, but he figured that a robbery was in progress, so he grabbed his gun and went to check it out. He saw a man dressed in black inside the vault room. The room was dark other than a dim light over the door to the vault, so he hadn’t been able to identify the intruder. He called for him to freeze, but the man tried to run. DuPont told Wallaby that he aimed his gun and shot at him, intending to injure, not kill him. It was only after he realized the man was dead that he recognized the thief as the bank president.”
“It sounds like an accident. Why cover it up?” I asked.
“Wallaby told Roy that DuPont had told him that he’d been off duty, and had actually had quite a bit to drink when the incident went down. He knew that due to his level of intoxication, he would be held accountable for what happened whether the shooting was called for or not.”
“So why did Edmonton try to run?” Jenna asked.
“DuPont said he had a bag filled with money,” Kyle answered. “It appeared as if he actually was planning to rob his own bank. DuPont didn’t know why.”
“So how did Julie end up in jail?” I asked.
“Roy said that Wallaby told him that he and DuPont came up with the plan to have the concrete for the town hall poured early. They hid the body beneath some beams so that the workmen pouring the concrete wouldn’t notice it. Once the concrete hardened, all traces of Robert Edmonton were erased forever. When it became apparent, however, that Julie Matheson wasn’t going to leave the whole thing alone, DuPont planted the drugs and then arrested her.”
“And Julie? Has Roy been able to track her down?”
Kyle shook his head. “She hasn’t been home, and she hasn’t shown up at her place of employment since the explosion. I suppose that could lead to the theory that she was the one to blow up the town hall so the skeleton would be found and her story would be proven, but it seems like there are still a lot of unanswered questions even if she does turn out to be the one who planted the bomb.”
“Yeah like why the emergency meeting that led to the death of two people was called in the first place,” I added.
“Or whether Harriet knew the bomb was in the building when she called the emergency meeting,” Jenna joined in.
“I’m not sure how we will ever know that.”
Jenna and I headed over to her house after we finished putting away everything at Kyle’s. She planned to start the pies, and I planned to sit and chat with her while she baked. Dennis had gone to the hardware store, Gracie and Kari were playing upstairs, and Rosalie was still entertaining Ashley and Kristi. It had been a long time since I’d sat and chatted with Jenna while she cooked, and I found that I’d missed it. When Jenna had owned The Antiquery, I’d stop by and sit and chat with her while she cooked all the time. Things had changed in the past year. I wasn’t unhappy with the way things were now, but I would admit to feeling just a bit of nostalgia for the way things had once been.
“Is your headache still bothering you?” I asked. “You seem sort of off today. If you aren’t feeling well, we can buy the pies from the bakery.”
“I feel fine.” Jenna tied her apron around her waist. “But I do have something to tell you,” Jenna said, somewhat hesitantly, after turning on the oven to preheat.
I paused at the serious tone in Jenna’s voice. “Something bad?”
Jenna stopped what she was doing and frowned. “To be honest, I’m not really sure if I would consider my news good or bad. The only term I can come up with at this point is unexpected.” Her smile, which had seemed forced from the beginning, faded just a bit. “Totally and completely unexpected.”
I crossed the room and took Jenna’s hand. “It’s okay. Whatever it is. We’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks.” Jenna wiped a tear from her eye.
“Are you sick? Is one of the kids sick? Is it Dennis? Are you getting a divorce?”
Jenna’s head snapped up. “Divorce? Why would you even suggest that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I know that your marriage has been experiencing some growing pains in the past few months since Dennis made Captain, and his role at work changed, and you sold The Antiquery, and your role in life changed. You just look so scared, and divorce was where my mind ended up.”
“Dennis and I are fine. Yes, I will admit that his promotion has caused a level of stress that we weren’t anticipating, and my selling the restaurant has left me feeling sort of lost, but I love Dennis, and he loves me. In spite of whatever little bumps we face along the way, we will always be okay.”
I blew out a breath. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear that.” I squeezed Jenna’s hand. “So if no one is sick and your marriage is fine, what is it?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Okay, I hadn’t seen that coming. “Pregnant?”
Jenna nodded.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded again.
I smiled and hugged my best friend. “That’s great.” I pulled back just a bit and studied Jenna’s face. “That is great? Right?”
Jenna started to sob. “I don’t know. I guess I haven’t had time to process everything yet. I will say that having another child at this point in my life was not at all on the radar. Kristi is in junior high, and Kari only has a few years of elementary school left. After Dennis made Captain and I decided to sell the restaurant, we began to discuss what our lives would look like after we got both kids off to college. We even started a special savings account. We were going to finally go to Paris and Rome and all the wonderful places I’ve only been able to dream of to this point. But now…”
“Now you will have a brand-new baby to love. That has to be better than a trip to pretty much anywhere.”
Jenna wiped her arm across her face to dry her eyes. “I know you are right, and I know I will love this baby, but I guess I need some time to get used to the idea. Kari is almost nine. She will be close to ten when the baby is born. That is just such a big gap.”
I hugged Jenna again. “It is a pretty big gap, but it will be fine. You’ll see.” I handed Jenna a tissue.
She blew her nose. “I guess.”
“What does Dennis think?”
Jenna cringed.
“Was he mad?” I narrowed my gaze. “He wasn’t mad, was he?”
“Actually, I haven’t told him yet.”
I gasped. “Haven’t told him? Why not?”
“I just took the pregnancy test this morning. He was still at work when I took the test and when he got home, I thought about pulling him aside before I left to meet you for shopping, but Ashley and Gracie were here, and I guess I just needed to get used to the idea before I had the strength to deal with whatever volatile emotions another child might bring about.”
I frowned. “You don’t think he will be happy?”
Jenna shook her head. “I’m not sure he will be. I know he is only thirty-four years old, but he already has thirteen years with the department. He will be eligible to retire with partial benefits when he is forty and full benefits when he is fifty. Even earlier if we buy down the time, which we have talked about doing. I realize retirement is a way down the road but still close enough for him to think about it from time to time. I’m just not sure how he is going to feel about starting over again with a baby.”
“It wasn’t all that long ago when the two of you wanted a baby very much,” I reminded her.
“A lot has changed in the past few years.”
I supposed a lot had changed. For all of us.
“Let’s just get back to the pies,” Jenna suggested. “I really should talk to Dennis before I say anything else. I really should have told him first, but when you asked how I was doing, I found myself blurting it out.”
“Okay. Let’s get back to the pies, but if you want to talk, just call me. Any time, day or night.”
“Okay. I appreciate that.”
“I wonder if we are going to have enough chocolate. Everyone loves the pumpkin, but it seems like it is the chocolate we usually run out of.”
Jenna baked, and I chatted about anything and everything that I could think of that wouldn’t remind her about the news she needed to have time to process and deal with. Jenna’s fear that she might be past the stage in her life where she wanted to start with a new baby had me wondering if I was past the stage in my own life where I wanted to start with an infant as well. I supposed it would behoove me to really stop and look at how my life, as well as the lives of Ashley and Gracie, would be affected with the introduction of a new baby, which I knew in my heart, Kyle wanted very much, and I was sure, assumed we’d have.
Chapter 26
Halfway through the pies, Jenna realized she was low on sugar. I volunteered to run into town and pick some up. Knowing how crowded the market would be, I decided to stop at the local liquor store, which also had a small mini-mart attached. I figured I could get the sugar there and avoid the crowd. As I passed the aisle with the whiskey, I saw a woman I was sure was the woman Roy had been looking for. “Julie?” I asked. “Are you Julie Matheson?”
The woman scowled. “How did you find me?”
“I didn’t find you so much as ran into you. I’m here for sugar.”
The woman turned back toward the whiskey selection.
“Do you know that Deputy Fisher has been looking for you? He has some questions. We all do.”
“I know. I obviously chose not to be interviewed.”
“Look,” I tried. “Two of my friends died in that blast. Others
were injured. If you know anything…”
The woman turned and looked at me. “I’m sorry about what happened to Harriet, and I’m sorry about the fact that others were killed and injured, but the last time I tried to do the right thing, I ended up in prison for fifteen years.”
“I know. And that was awful. I totally understand why you don’t trust cops. Would you talk to me? Just me?”
The woman didn’t respond.
“Please. I really only have a few questions. It won’t take long.”
“Okay. I’m living in a monthly motel a couple doors down.” She handed me a large bottle. “Buy this for me, and we can chat.”
I happily agreed to the purchase of the whiskey, and then followed Julie to a dive motel that I’d been campaigning to tear down for quite some time. I supposed if you didn’t want to be found, it was as good a place as any to hide out. I knew the motel owner didn’t bother to ask for ID and was happy to take cash for payment. After we entered her room, Julie pointed toward a chair and indicated that I should sit down.
“Okay. So what do you want to know?” she asked.
“Did you blow up the town hall?”
“No.”
“But you do know something about the town hall being destroyed?”
“I do.”
“Okay,” I tried to ignore the stench of cigarette smoke and focus on the conversation. “Why don’t you tell me what you know?”
The woman got up. She began to pace around the room. I could see that she was nervous. I guess I didn’t blame her.
“I assume, based on what you’ve said, that you know what happened eighteen years ago,” Julie started off.
“I know some of what happened. I know that you saw Deputy DuPont carrying a body which turned out to belong to Robert Edmonton, and I know that you told Mayor Wallaby what you’d seen, only to end up being arrested for a crime you didn’t commit.”
“That’s right. Do you know I had a daughter, a little girl named Amelia, who was taken from me after my arrest? Do you know that during the fifteen years I was in prison, she grew up thinking I was guilty of the charges against me? Do you know that my baby grew to hate me, and even though I am out of prison, and have tried to connect with her, she refuses to take my calls?”