by S. E. Babin
If this was her idea of throwing a monkey wrench in my plans, I was going to tame the monkey and give it a pet name. I watched Seth walk away from me, too angry to admire the powerful set of his shoulders or the way the sun sparked golden off of his hair.
Sitting there, I gathered my thoughts, practiced the breathing technique I’d learned from a meditation app, and waited for a few more moments before I got back up and went inside the house. Just as I was about to step from around the corner, whispers trickled back to me.
“Did Chase mention anything weird to you before he died?” The voice was female.
“Like what?” This one was male and sounded genuinely perplexed.
I halted in mid-step and listened, my body pressed against the warm logs of the cabin.
“He kept talking about the color purple. How he kept seeing it all the time.”
“Purple?” There was a long pause. “That’s really weird.”
“Right?” the woman insisted. “I kept telling him to get checked out but he refused to go to the doc. Said if it was his heart, he didn’t want to hear about it. Then I tried to get him to go to the optometrist and check his vision, but he wouldn’t do that either.”
“What are you saying, Sissy? You think something happened to him?”
Sissy was Emma’s daughter. “I know he was squirreling away a lot of money. I don’t know why. He’d gotten in with a strange crowd at his work and I know he was having some problems with Candy.” She sighed. “I just have a hard time believing his heart gave out.”
The friend let out a huff of breath. “You know he’s been sick for years. You knew it was a possibility.”
“I know, Chet. Just…“
The wind made the leaves rustle. I froze like a rabbit and prayed they wouldn’t come around the corner.
“Let’s go back inside. I’m sorry. I’m just having trouble accepting everything. Some things don’t add up.”
“I know, honey.”
I waited until their footsteps faded away completely before I rounded the corner. So, the sister also suspected something funny was going on. I needed to talk to her. As discreetly as I could.
I stepped inside of the house, careful not to make too much noise since people were speaking. I looked around the room and caught gazes with Seth. I looked away quickly, so I wouldn’t get lost in his stupid beautiful eyes and tried to find Sissy.
She was sitting next to her mom, their heads together as they listened to the burly man speaking at the front of the room.
Not wanting to interrupt anyone, I found a spot at the back of the room and waited. I would be called on soon enough.
“Chase wasn’t a man who had a lot of words, but when he spoke, you knew it was going to be important. If you were smart, you stopped what you were doing and listened. He was kind and also a hard worker and we’re going to miss seeing him every day at C&C Construction.” He nodded to Emma and Sissy and went to sit back down. Emma dabbed at the corner of her eyes and stood up.
“Thank you for that, Cole.” She looked around the room until she found me. “Candy Harper, Chase’s fiancée wants to say a few words.”
I blinked at her. I’d gone from girlfriend to fiancée awfully quick. I suppose if none were the wiser, it was an okay thing to do. As I navigated through the room full of people, my heart thundered. I knew what I was going to say, but I wondered if I’d ever get over the feeling of being a big, fat liar. I wondered if the other mourners out there struggled with this, too. Maybe I’d catch one of them for a chat. If I ever got out of this job.
Once I was standing in the middle of the room, I wrung my hands together. Instead of looking everyone in the eye, I stared directly over their heads. It was easier for me than to look at the grief in their eyes.
“Most of you don’t know me, but I’m Candy, Chase’s gi… fiancée.” Cue nervous chuckle and save. “I’m not quite used to the “F” word,” I admitted, “and it was all so sudden. But the thing about Chase was sometimes he could really surprise you. One moment we were cuddled up watching television, the next he was asking me to be his wife.” Cue crocodile tears. Dab. Dab. “I was looking forward to becoming his wife, and I am devastated that I won’t be able to become Mrs. McCormick.” Pause for shaking shoulders and more tears. “I thank you all for coming here today to show your love and support for the McCormick family.” Dab more tears.
End scene.
I felt like a terrible person.
Scratch that.
I was a terrible person.
Emma gave me a short nod. Sissy frowned at me. Maybe that speech wasn’t very Candy-like, but the more I found out about her, the more I didn’t like portraying her.
I caught Seth’s gaze again. He gave me a discreet thumbs-up. I rolled my eyes at him and went outside to where the food table was.
You know the perfect time to avoid any more conversation or speeches? When your mouth was full of canapés.
8
It was another two hours before everyone left the house. The caterers had come by and cleaned up all of the food and their heating trays, so the backyard looked exactly the same before everything had started. When I came out of the bedroom from getting out of that dreadful dress, Sissy and Emma were in the kitchen chatting quietly as they washed the dishes.
I grabbed a towel, stood beside Sissy and took the rinsed dishes from her. I quickly began to dry.
“Thank you, Kitty,” Emma said.
“No problem.” I introduced myself to Sissy, but she didn’t seem too impressed.
“Mom told me all about this harebrained scheme.”
I stopped drying the glass I was holding. “Harebrained?”
Sissy shrugged. “We’re all lucky Candy wasn’t around much.” She turned to her mother. “No one cares if Chase had a girlfriend, Mom. This is more about you than anything.”
I turned to put the glass in the cabinet before reaching for another one to dry.
Emma’s face hardened. “You don’t know that, Sissy. You never heard people whispering about him.”
“Even if he was gay, it doesn’t matter.”
“My son wasn’t gay.” A voice boomed from behind us. I barely managed to hang on to the glass I was drying.
Sissy let out a squeak and Emma made a defeated sound. “You decide to finally come out of the room now that everyone is gone?” It was true. I hadn’t seen him for the entirety of the wake, not even when the family had first arrived.
Gary shrugged. “My son is dead, Emma. This was for the living, not him.”
“Dad,” Sissy scolded. “That’s pretty callous.”
“It’s true,” he said. “We’re the ones who have to deal with all the problems someone leaves behind. If your mother needs to do all this to try to preserve his memory than let her.” He moved up behind Emma and touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry about last night,” he murmured before he opened up the fridge to rummage for something else.
Apparently, the tender moment was over. A wave of melancholy hit me as I thought about my own parents. My father couldn’t stop touching my mother to save his life. A brush of his hand over her hip, a hand on the back, a finger through her hair. They were different than this. Softer.
As much as I wanted my independence, I was going to miss seeing them do those kinds of things.
“I’ll be out of here as soon as I finish helping you,” I told the women. “All of my stuff is packed.”
Emma nodded. “Thank you, Kitty. You did well today.”
Basically, all I did was wear a very short dress and try my best to stay silent, but I sent her a thankful smile. “I’ll be there at the funeral. I’ll send you a picture of my outfit beforehand.”
Emma nodded. Sissy stared at me in an unnerving way. I caught her gaze and held it.
As I was putting up the last dish, I spoke. “Sissy, mind coming to my room for a minute?”
She looked very much like she did mind, but she followed me anyway. When she walked in, I shut the door behind
her. She crossed her arms over her chest.
“What is this about?” she demanded.
Sissy was a pretty woman, prettier than the picture I had of her. Dark brown hair curled down her shoulders. She had expressive cornflower blue eyes and a peaches and cream complexion. Her face was small and heart-shaped, but her lips were pressed together in annoyance.
“I overheard you today,” I admitted. “In the backyard.”
She took a sharp inhale of breath. “So?”
“Do you think something happened to your brother?”
Sissy’s gaze narrowed. “Why?”
I sat down on the edge of my bed. “Because I wonder, too. I was in Chase’s room and I found a couple of things.”
She sat down in the chair next to the dresser. “Tell me.”
I explained why I’d gone in there in the first place and the two things I’d found. Once I finished, her gaze had turned thoughtful. “Interesting. I thought Chase would be with her forever. Something really bad must have happened for him to want to break up with her.”
I pressed a little more. “Do you have any idea of what it could have been?”
She was silent for a moment until she shook her head once in a sharp gesture. “No idea. She wasn’t around enough for me to figure anything out. Everything came from my brother and at the end he got pretty tight-lipped. But something was up. I could feel it. Chase and I were close. We talked about things. Whatever this was, I felt like maybe he didn’t want to involve me in it.” Sissy shook her head. “He had some stuff going on with work.” She paused abruptly. “There was an incident about a month and a half ago. Chase came home...shaken. Like something had rocked his world.” Sissy shook her head. “He wouldn’t tell me about it. He kept saying I wouldn’t understand and that he would deal with it.”
“Do you think anyone at work held a grudge?”
She let out an exasperated breath. “No? Maybe?” She scrubbed a hand over her face. “This is a pretty small town and we knew most of the people he worked with. A lot of these jobs take place outside of Marshall, though. They work with a lot of different people when they’re in a larger city.”
“Okay. I’ll see if I can scrounge anything else up. If you hear anything, please let me know so we can compare notes.”
Her gaze was beseeching. “Kitty, I hope you find something. I can’t seem to accept that he just...died. It’s like he was never even here. How can someone you love just be erased like that?”
I reached over and took her hands. “If there’s anything to find, I’ll do my best to find it.”
She nodded and stood. “I’m glad you were here for my mom. As weird as this situation is, I think just having another woman here helped.”
“I’m happy to do it.” Being paid certainly helped, too, though this job was becoming more personal than I expected.
Sissy stepped out from the room and shut the door quietly behind her. I stood and did another pass around the room to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. With a last look at the place, I snapped the handle on my roller bag and left it behind.
I didn’t stop to chat too much on my way out. I figured with Gary home, my presence there just made it a little more awkward. With a wave and a smile, I called out that I’d be in touch, right before I stepped out into the cool mountain air. I let out a relieved breath and had to keep myself from running to the car. Once I was there, though, I threw my luggage into the trunk and got into my car as quickly as I could.
The last few days had been rough. Not just on me, on everyone. I liked the wacky McCormick family, but I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed from now on. I was also hopeful I wouldn’t get any more assignments like this one. Thoughts of Seth intruded into my brain like an invisible amoeba. Was this my punishment for saying anything bad about him to Ruthie?
I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as I drove off the property. As soon as I turned onto the main road, I let out a little sigh of relief. They were a little crazy, but I’d seen crazier in California. I had one more day of uncomfortable shoes and negative attitudes, then I could hopefully turn my thoughts to greener pastures. And by green, I meant a nice paycheck in my bank account so I could get my own place.
Traffic was light on the way home and I swung into my parent’s place around seven. From the amount of lights on in the house, I could tell they were home, and that Mom was probably lecturing Dad on the high electric bill they were going to have if he didn’t start conserving some electricity. I chuckled to myself. They’d been married for thirty years and Dad still never turned out a light when he left the room.
Heaven forbid if you left the door open when the air conditioning was on, though. It drove Mom apoplectic when he yelled at people for doing that, and it was even worse when he walked out of a room he’d just left the lights on in.
I made sure to remember to set the emergency brake before I got out of the car. The steep drives in this neighborhood were familiar, but I’d been gone so long it was hard to remember to do that. The last thing I wanted was my car rolling downhill into the middle of the road. I’d had enough go wrong lately.
I popped open the trunk, grabbed my suitcase and yelled a brief hello to my parents as I unlocked the door and gratefully stepped into the house.
“Hi, honey!” My mom called back. “You hungry?”
I was but I was too exhausted. “Maybe later, Mom.” I waved as I passed by them. “I’m pretty beat.”
A look of concern flashed over her eyes before she waved me by. Dad waggled his fork at me, his mouth full of something.
I pushed the roll-on bag into my room, shut the door and collapsed face first onto the bed.
Sunlight beaming into my face woke me the next morning. My eyes blinked open and I lay there for a moment stunned as I had no idea where I was. My mouth was dry as a box of cotton and my eyelashes felt glued together.
“Holy smokes,” I muttered. I’d slept like the dead. I shifted around, only to groan at the stiffness in my muscles. My slip-on sneakers were still on and I’d managed to wrinkle my clothes beyond all repair.
Sitting up, the first thing I did was pull the curtain closed to block out the offending sun. I rubbed my eyes, stood up and headed straight into the bathroom to splash some water on my face. I felt exhausted, but I was glad to be home. I had one free day before I had to finish the McCormick job and I planned to make the most of it.
I pulled a brush through my hair, smiling to myself, when a thought hit me. I was planning on enjoying my day off when my client’s son might have been murdered. My conscience twanged in discordance with my thoughts. If I were Chase’s mother, I would want to know if something happened to him besides what the medical examiner had told me.
Putting the brush down, I frowned at my reflection. It was my own curiosity that had gotten me here. I never should have gone snooping around in his room. Wasn’t there something called accessory after the fact or something where people who figured out facts later could still be held liable for the crime? No. I shook my head. That was for people who knowingly assisted or incited someone. I’d been taking classes between jobs in California and my degree required a law class. I couldn’t be held liable through the legal system, but my conscience could punch me in the gut every time I looked at myself in the mirror.
It was decided. I was going to meddle. Discreetly. I was going to Chase’s job today. With a nod to myself, I headed out of my room in search of breakfast.
My mother came into the kitchen, took one look at me, and made a tsking noise, which told me she was disappointed in my choices. I smiled at her right after I swallowed down a massive spoonful of Chocolate Sugar O’s. It was hard to be disappointed in myself when my choices were so delicious.
“You’re 28, Kitty. Shouldn’t you have more respect for yourself by now?” she said as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
I smiled at my pretty mother and shook my head. “Respecting yourself is doing the things you love, even when people don’t agree
with you.” I shoveled another bite into my mouth.
Mom sipped her coffee and rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure that’s not what that saying means, though I do admire your remarkable ability to twist words around.”
I snorted through my cereal.
She sipped her coffee for a bit and I plowed through my huge bowl of what amounted to chocolate sugar before I spoke again. “Mom?”
“Yes, honey.” She must have heard something in my voice. My mother set her mug down.
“This new job. Something happened.”
Concern flooded her eyes. “Did someone hurt you? Do something? Do I need to have a chat with that Ruthie?”
“Mom. No. Nothing like that.” Maybe later I could figure out why Ruthie managed to get into my mother’s craw so deeply. I decided not to mention the gun-wielding pack of uncles and nephews. “I found something. I’m beginning to wonder if the man didn’t die of natural causes.”
Mom sat back in her chair, her eyes wide, and her fingers pressed over her lips. “Oh, my,” she said after a moment.
“For real,” I murmured.
“What did you find?”
I explained my little foray into Chase’s room and Mom didn’t seem too impressed. She sat up straighter, though, when I got to the conversations I’d overheard from Sissy.
“What are you going to do, honey?”
I pushed my bowl away. “I’m not sure. What if I’m wrong?”
Mom nodded. “It’s a horrible thing to give people false hope.”
“But what if I’m right and I can’t prove it?”
Mom reached over and covered my hand with hers. “You must not tell his mother anything until you are one hundred percent sure. Do you understand me?” There was something fierce in her voice.
“Wouldn’t you want to know?”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Kitty, this woman has lost her son. Her grief must be tremendous, but each day, she grows a little bit stronger. Whether she wants to believe it or not. Throwing a piece of bait into her path right now will send her down a road she might not recover from, especially if it turns out to not be true.” Mom patted my hand. “Let her continue to heal. When you have something concrete, take it to the police. Let them be the ones to tell her.” She pulled away. “This is a dangerous thing, to have this kind of knowledge and not know what to do with it. I would tread carefully, honey.”