by K. J. Emrick
“Uh, James,” I said, leaning back into the car. “Maybe you should stay out here.”
He turned to look at the front of the police department building. “That’s your Kevin that’s getting yelled at in there, I’m guessing?”
I let out a mother’s heavy sigh. “I’m sure it is. Once Senior Sergeant Cutter found out what was happening back here he probably called in and gave Bruce Kay an earful. Now he’s unloading it on my Kevin.”
James shook his head and slouched down in the driver’s seat. “Don’t know what it’s gonna take to get Cutter fired. I’ll stay here, Dell. Just call me if Kevin needs backup. I’ll swoop in and do my best meddlesome reporter routine.”
See? I knew there were lots of reasons why I liked James.
Turns out I didn’t have to go inside to find Kevin. I met him as he was thundering out through the front door. His face was beet red, all the way up to the reddish-brown scruff of his hair. Hard to say where the flush ended and the hairline began, actually. When he saw me he stopped short and made a visible effort to get ahold of himself but even so, his hands were still fisted tightly to his sides.
“Kevin? What’s going on? What’d that fool in there do now?”
“Kay? Oh, nothin’. Not one blessed thing. Just ask him! He’ll tell ya that he’s got the whole bloody thing under control and I’m a no good nong—his word, not mine—who just needs to step aside and let him do his work. His work! Can ya believe that? That idiot’s gonna take credit for everything we did and still he’s gonna screw it up!”
“Kevin,” I tried to say in a calm voice, “son, take it easy. We know what Bruce’s like, it’s just—”
“I can’t take it easy,” he said to me, a little vein at the side of his neck pulsing. “I can’t take this at all. I just can’t, Mom. I can’t stand being in this lousy town one more day. I’m just jack of being led by blind sheep who’d just as soon see the wrong man go to prison as lift a finger to figure things out the right way!”
This is the most upset I’ve ever seen him. Ever. He’s had to put up with Cutter’s inept handling of the police department for years, and he’s had to stomach a lot of bad acid all the while, and he’s never blown like this. “What are you saying?”
With a shaky breath, some of the color drained out of his cheeks, and he closed his eyes. “I need to quit, Mom.”
“Kevin!”
One big hand mopping his face, he waved the other in the air. “I know, I know. I can’t quit. Not right now. I can’t do that to Arthur Loren because if I leave this to Bruce and that idiot Cutter then they’ll never find out who did this.”
Opening his eyes again, he saw James sitting in his car, window up, carefully looking straight ahead, pretending not to see or hear anything.
“What’s he doing here?” Kevin asked me.
“He was my ride. Same as before. Plus...we came over to show you something.” I bit my lip, looking through the front doors of the police department. “Maybe I can show you back at the Inn. Or at James’s place.”
“Something about Arthur?”
“Yes. Actually, it was James who figured it out for us. Come on, Kevin. You’re mad and upset—”
He snorted, and I got the feeling that “upset” didn’t quite cover it.
“—but my point is that now’s not the time to make any decisions about whether you’re going to stay or leave.”
Kevin pursed his lips, shaking his head again. “I’m telling ya, Mom, sure as I’m standing here, that I’m leaving.” Unclenching his hands, finally, he settled them on his hips, over his duty belt. “Guess I can wait, though. Just long enough to help Arthur. Doubt anyone else in this town’s gonna do it, excepting me and you.”
“And James,” I put in, glad that at least for now, my son wouldn’t be running off to better pastures. All the times I’ve been sure he was going to leave Lakeshore for someplace where he’s appreciated... guess I’m still not ready to see my baby boy leave me behind. Looks like I might have to get ready, whether I want to or not.
Anyway.
“Come on,” I said. “Wait ‘til you see what we found.”
He climbed into the back of James’s car and sat in moody silence all the way over to Victoria Street. James found my right hand with his left and squeezed it tight. He could pretend he hadn’t been listening. We both knew better.
A short while later, the three of us were crowded on James’s couch in front of his laptop.
“See, if you put in one of the ECEF coordinates,” James explained, for the fourth time, “then the website can translate it to the ENU number, which is what we’re all used to seeing on a GPS.”
“I never did like alphabet soup,” Kevin mumbled. “But I think I’ve got it now. This is why we couldn’t make the numbers on the jars work as coordinates the way we found them.”
“Right,” James nodded. “Cause ya needed to know there’s the two different systems.”
“Lucky my mom knows the right guy.” Kevin didn’t look at either of us when he said it.
Good thing, too. I would have had to give him one of my most scathing mom stares.
“Listen, Kevin,” James said, sitting back on the couch. “I heard some of the things Bruce Kay was, uh, saying to ya. Don’t let the bugger get under your skin. He’s as blind as Cutter.”
“S’truth,” Kevin admitted. He didn’t look like it made him feel any better. “Let’s stick to this for now, right? So if we have the numbers off Arthur’s jars, we can know where all the samples came from, right?”
“Well, sure,” James agreed, “but we don’t have the numbers, do we?”
Kevin took his cell phone off his belt. Swiping the screen, he tapped his way through a few apps until he found what he was looking for.
“All the department’s reports are scanned and attached to our computer records for each active case,” he explained to me and James. “At least, they’re supposed to be. Doubt Cutter or Kay have any idea how to use the computers. But I do. The software we have allows for remote access, like this.”
What he was showing us was part of a report that detailed each of the jars in Arthur’s house, and the numbers on each jar.
“Well then,” James said, turning the small phone screen so he could see it better. “Good to know. Sure ya should be showing me this?”
“I’m sure that I shouldn’t be.” Kevin pulled the laptop over to his end of the coffee table and put in one of the sets of numbers experimentally. “After the chewing out I just got, couldn’t care less who saw this. Ask me whatever ya want, James, I’ll give ya the biggest exclusive interview ever. Once this case is done, I’m gone. Lakeshore can deal with the likes of Cutter on their own.”
James looked sideways at me, and all I could do was shrug helplessly. Kevin had to make up his own mind, no matter how I felt about it.
“Not sure it’d be fair,” James said to Kevin, “taking advantage in the state yer in. Might regret something ya said to me, later on.”
“Your choice,” Kevin answered, still putting in numbers and writing down results in his little notebook.
Then, after a moment, he sat back on the couch. “I see why mom likes ya so much, James. I appreciate how ya figured this out for us. Thing is, I don’t know what to do. Bruce Kay has this whole case tied up in knots from start to finish. Got the wrong guy in jail. He’s blocking me from going up to talk to Arthur in hospital, not that it matters I guess, since he’s still in some kind of medical coma. Oh, and then, he says he’s gonna go back to Arthur’s house today and go through it himself ‘cause he’s sure I missed something. Figures the evidence that Myles clubbed Arthur is just lying out there on his floor or something.”
I was trying to find the words to make Kevin feel better, somehow, when James spoke up instead.
“Kevin, let me tell ya something. When I started out in the newspaper business I was a nobody. No one had ever heard of me, and it was forever before I could get my own column into the paper. Even now, I put
together some great writing only to see it torn apart by my editors.”
Kevin waited for the rest of the story. So did I. When there wasn’t any more of it, my son lifted his head up from the couch cushions. “Is there a point in there somewhere?”
“The point,” James said, completely serious, “is that it ain’t easy being the best there is.”
The silence that followed was broken by my Kevin’s laughter. It wasn’t forced, or faked, just honest-to-God pleasure. When he sat up, it was like he was ready to face the world all over again.
While Kevin wiped tears away from his eyes, I leaned in close to whisper in James’s ear. “Thank you.”
I added a kiss that I hope gave him the same shivers that it did to me.
“All right,” Kevin said. “Look, I’m not going anywhere until we find out who hurt Arthur Loren. After that, well, we’ll see. For now, let’s finish translating these coordinates.”
“Why?” I asked him. “What good is it going to do for us to know where the samples in the closet came from? We still won’t know what spots on the map the missing jars were taken from.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that.” Kevin flipped to an empty page in his notebook and drew out a rectangle, then began carefully filling it in with wide-spaced dots, as James and I watched. I was sure he was sorting all this away for his next big article. “We know that Arthur owns a piece of land, right? One that apparently is very valuable considering how Myles wants it so bad like. What if each of the jars represents a location in that plot of land? If we can pinpoint each one, and if there’s gaps left over where there should be dots...”
“Then those gaps are where the stolen jars came from!”
“Exactly,” Kevin said, his lips twisting in a sour sort of smirk. “Which is exactly what I was trying to explain to Bruce when he started yelling in my face. Course, I didn’t know how to translate the numbers on the jars at the time, but I doubt he’ll listen to me any better now. So. Guess we figure it out ourselves.”
“Er, mate,” James said, getting up from the couch. “I don’t mind ya using my place as the Bat Cave or whatever, but wouldn’t this be easier on the computers at your station?”
“And what about Arthur’s daughter?” I asked him, seeing James try to hide his interest at that tidbit of info. “You’re going to need the department’s resources to keep looking for her, won’t you?”
“Yeah, I still haven’t gotten very far on that.” He scrubbed a hand against the back of his head. “All right. I’ll go back later, after I know Kay’s gone. Maxwell Stocker’s in for the night shift. He’s a decent enough bloke. Might actually get something done.
“Looks like we have a plan,” James said brightly, clapping his hands together. “Who wants some coffee?”
“Love some,” Kevin and I both said at the same time.
When James stepped out to the kitchen, Kevin elbowed me in my arm. “Guess we’re still a lot alike, you and me.”
“You always took after me.”
“I remember when ya used to say I took after Dad.”
I frowned, remembering the same thing. “That was before he left us.”
“Now it’s you I take after, is it?”
“Always.” I elbow him back, watching him type strings of numbers into the website’s blank fields. “You really think this will work?”
“If Kay or Senior Sergeant Cutter don’t foul it up.”
The bitterness at the stupidity within his own department has never been clearer. I feel for him. Every mother wants their children to be happy. His sister is. At least, I assume she is. Been a while since I spoke to her. Best give her a call before too much more time goes by, all things considered.
Time moves on. Takes you with it, too, if you’re not careful.
“So... what have you found out about Arthur’s daughter?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.
“Like I said, not much.” He talked while he typed. “I was able to confirm that there is one. He had a wife and a daughter up until about sixteen years ago, when his wife died, leaving him with the little girl. Can’t find a lot since then. I’m trying to work it backwards, starting with this Denice Aldrich and tracing her back through time. Hopefully the two will match up and we’ll be a step closer to figuring this mystery out.”
I can’t tell him about my visit from Lachlan, of course. Can’t say that whoever did attack Arthur was a slender woman with short hair and that fits Denice to a tee. Course, it fits a couple of the University coeds staying in the Inn, too, and probably a few million other women in Australia. For now, there’s nothing more I can do except wait for Kevin to find the proof of what I already know.
I really am going to miss him when he’s gone.
Holding back a tear, I took the cup of coffee when James offered it. He could see how upset I was, I think, by how much attention I paid the dark brew in the heavy mug. Sitting down on the arm of the couch, he wrapped himself around my shoulders and pulled me close to him.
It felt nice.
***
When it got late enough in the afternoon for shift change, Kevin went back to the police department to continue his research there. James drove again, dropping Kevin off, and then taking me to the Inn where we said goodbye with a long, sweet kiss.
I really hope he stops by again tomorrow.
Inside, I went through the notes left for me about the day’s activities. Rosie had already left, of course. She comes in early on the weekends and that lets her leave early, too, but she left me a list of things to order for next week’s meals. George left me a list of projects he took care of with a little question about the knocking on the second floor.
“Sure,” I whispered to myself, “got it covered. Just a ghost with a personality complex.”
On those last words, the desk phone rang.
I picked up the gray plastic receiver and crooked it into my shoulder while I opened the registration program on the computer at the same time. Now. How many rooms did we have left to rent...?
Static on the line.
And behind the static I could swear I heard a voice.
“...be careful...watch...the raven...”
Click.
I seriously need to get the ghosts their own line. Maybe even an answering service.
Watch the raven? Did I hear that right?
Maybe I didn’t hear it at all. Maybe it was just static. Just noise.
But Jess’s ghost was still here with me, and now there was Lachlan Halliburton... not for the first time, I had to wonder if there could be more. It wasn’t impossible that the voices on the line...were exactly that.
All the deaths in the Inn that James had uncovered came back to mind, one after the other. Unsettled deaths leave ghosts behind. Wasn’t that how it worked?
I rolled the phone in my hand and then set it down on the desk, leaving the line open on my end. I really didn’t want to have another cryptic conversation with the other side. I’d gotten my fill of that in the past few days.
Checking the clock up on the wall with its burnished copper setting and wrought iron hands, I decided it was way too early for bed. Didn’t mean I wasn’t knackered after the day I’d had. Might just turn in early and see how long I could sleep before one of the guests needed something. I could just put up the sign and wait for the phone to ring through to my room. We’re not a major hotel chain, or anything like that, but I like people to know there’ll be someone there for them if they need something. It’s even in the brochures.
It means I get woken up out of a dead sleep a lot of nights, but that’s the glamorous part of being an Inn keeper, now ain’t it?
Still have to walk past every room on the second floor to reach the stairs up to my floor, and most days that doesn’t bother me so much. Not anymore. Today, I stand there, looking at all of those closed doors like I’d never seen them before. What happened, in all those rooms, over all the years that this building has stood on this plot of ground? What secrets took
place here at the Pine Lake Inn?
“Jess?” I called out quietly. The last thing I needed was for my guests to see me calling to my dead friend. Well. Considering a lot of them booked rooms here because they heard about her murder, who knows? Maybe a haunted Inn would be good for business.
People are just plain nuts.
“Jess?” I walked down the hallway, slowly, keeping my eyes on room number seven. “Are you here? Jess?”
Then, I tried something else. “Lachlan?”
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and it was like a hand grabbing me around my waist. The only thing that kept me from screaming out loud was my two hands clamped up over my mouth.
Eyes closed for a moment, I told myself exactly how stupid I must look, in very colorful language, and made myself take in three gulping breaths to calm down. Obviously I was more keyed up than I thought, because it was just my mobile going off, but you have to admit... that was seriously poor timing.
Still grumbling to myself I reached into my pocket for the still ringing phone and then opened my eyes again.
The person standing in front of me smiled sweetly and scared my heart back up into my throat.
My mobile fell from my trembling fingers and I had to bite down on my lip to keep myself from saying something extremely unladylike that I’d just have to apologize for afterward. Breathe, Dell. Breathe.
It was Denice Aldrich.
She was in a business suit, gray slacks and a matching blazer over a white blouse. A brooch was pinned to the lapel. The leather cord bracelet on her right wrist seemed really out of place, all things considered.
Arching one of those perfect brown eyebrows at my reaction to her presence, she smirked and said, “Didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“No, no, that’s fine.”
Just freaking out over my dead visitors and my neighbor being attacked and my son wanting to leave town. Nothing much.
I matched her wry smirk with one of my own as I bent down to retrieve my phone. I’d missed the call. “Sorry. Was there something you needed?”
“Yes, actually. Was wondering if I could extend my stay.”