She leaned close to Nora and whispered. “Do you think we should call a doctor?”
They should call somebody skilled with delusional hippies but Nora had no idea who that would be. “Let’s just—.”
“Nope, not here, either,” Abigail yelled and opened and slammed a door.
“—see if we can talk some sense into her.”
Abigail opened and closed a door and whisper. “Do you think that will work? She’s really nuts.”
“Make her some hot milk and maybe we can get her to sleep.” They kept their eyes on Petal.
Petal hugged herself and rocked on the couch.
“She can smoke some more pot,” Abigail said.
“Petal has a flimsy enough grasp of reality. She doesn’t need that kind of encouragement from us.” Nora slid a canister of coffee from its spot on the counter and stopped it in front of Abigail. She walked back to the living room.
The doorbell rang and Petal sprang from the couch and sprinted down the hall toward the bedrooms. Abigail patted Nora’s arm. “You get the door. I’ll go see about Petal.”
“No illegal drugs, Mother.”
35
Nora pulled open the front door to see Cole standing there with a pizza box balanced on his outstretched hand
It smelled like cheesy, spicy wonderfulness. Now it made sense that Abigail hadn’t cautioned Nora to take a weapon with her when she answered the doorbell. “Let me guess,” she said, grinning and stepping back to let him in. “Abigail and Petal called and asked you to bring this.”
He stepped inside. “How did you know?”
She closed the door against the increased wind. “Lucky guess.”
He set the box on the kitchen counter. “I thought it might be another of her tricks to get us together.”
She laughed. “You’re becoming as skeptical as me.”
“But she swore it wasn’t.” He unzipped his green down jacket. “And she sounded so desperate I couldn’t say no.”
The cold clung to his coat as Nora hung it up. She was strangely glad to see him. Cole carried assurance as comforting as a warm sleeping bag.
That sounded like Abigail’s poetry.
She reminded herself how unpredictable Cole could be. If he thought she was in danger, he might chain her up in a basement.
He folded his arms and leaned back on a kitchen counter. “In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you I didn’t believe her.”
She walked to the hallway and shouted to the closed bedroom door. “It’s safe. It’s only Cole and pizza.”
He shook his head. “Only me.”
“Hey, you got top billing over the pizza.” She grinned.
Abigail appeared with her arm around Petal. “Let’s get something in your stomach. You’ll feel better.” They stood beside the table.
“You mean something besides Oreos and Doritos?” Nora headed into the kitchen.
Cole set the pizza on the dining table and opened the box. The spicy aroma of sausage and cheese made Nora’s mouth water.
Petal paled as if no blood circulated in her veins. She wouldn’t make eye contact with Cole. “Where did you get it?”
Abigail only cringed slightly at Petal’s rudeness.
Cole carried the plates and spatula Nora handed him to the table. He slid a piece of pizza on a plate and held it out to Petal. “That place down the street.”
Petal waved it away. “No. I can’t eat that. They use pork sausage and cow’s milk cheese.”
Right. “Vegan,” Nora explained to Cole.
He offered the plate to Abigail.
She waved it away, too. “It seemed like a good idea at the time but I’m not hungry anymore.”
Nora accepted a plate. “Munchies all satisfied?” Petal had eaten the chips and Oreos. Did dietary restrictions take second place to THC cravings?
Cole piled a couple of slices on his plate. He raised a questioning eyebrow at Nora. “I guess pizza was another of Abigail’s matchmaking tricks.”
Abigail sniffed. “It was no trick. We were very hungry. Now we’re not.”
Abigail led Petal into the living room and settled her on the couch.
Nora opened the refrigerator and found two beers hanging out with the leftovers from last night’s arranged dinner. She handed one to Cole.
Nora hiked herself to sit on the kitchen counter and Cole leaned back across from her.
Nora gulped the cold beer. “Petal and Abigail spent the afternoon taking the edge off their problems in a haze of smoke.”
Cole’s eyes widened. Around a mouthful of pizza he said, “I thought I smelled something and chocked it up to residue on Petal’s clothes.” He swallowed. “Abigail stoned. What led to that apocalyptic event?”
Nora hated the reference to End of the World, even in jest. All that Hopi Fourth World-ending stuff didn’t seem like a joke to her.
“She claims Charlie had an affair and she’s leaving him.” The pizza tasted as good as it smelled.
Cole nearly spit out his mouthful of beer. “You better invest in long underwear because hell is freezing over.”
She finished her pizza and hopped down. She reached for his plate and piled pizza onto both and returned. “Speaking of the end of the world, a bunch of birds fell from the sky in Georgia and sent Petal into a meltdown. We’ve been teetering on the edge of reason ever since.”
Nora gave Cole the skinny on the escalating events leading up to the pizza delivery. The warm, gooey pie might be the single best thing that happened to Nora all day. Having a rational person to provide and share it with didn’t feel too awful, either.
They left their plates in the sink and Nora set the beer bottles on the counter for recycling. Cole leaned on the counter and watched her. “What are you going to do?”
“Bring this all back to reality.” She walked into the living room where Abigail and Petal sat on the couch talking quietly. They seemed calm, Petal’s hysterics a thing of the past. Perching on the edge of a chair, she addressed Petal. “If what you say is true, we need to go to the police.”
Petal jumped from the couch and screamed as if Nora poked her with a torch. Abbey leaped up and let out a few barks.
Crazy was back in fashion.
“No, no, no. I can’t.” Petal folded herself into the corner between two pots of corn.
Now would be a good time to call the folks with the white jackets.
Cole stood by the kitchen table watching it all with a blank face.
Abigail squatted in the corner with Petal. “It’s okay, honey. Why don’t you want us to call the police?”
“She’ll kill me, too.” Petal whimpered and drew even tighter into the corner.
Abbey sat by Nora, welcoming her fingers in his fur. Why couldn’t everyone in her life be like him? He didn’t need expensive trappings, stayed calm most of the time, gave her affection and comfort, and having an affair amounted to sniffing another dog’s rear end. All this in exchange for a daily walk and a full food dish.
She regarded Cole. Actually, he didn’t require much, either. And he showed up with his own food.
“Sylvia’s not a killer.” Abigail sounded reasonable
Petal shook her head. “No. You don’t understand.”
“What don’t we understand, honey?” Abigail drew Petal from the corner.
“She killed Darla and if she finds out I know, she’ll kill me, too.”
Abigail and Nora exchanged helpless expressions. What would they do with Petal?
Petal gazed from one to the other. “Sylvia stole a bunch of money from the Trust. Made it look like Darla took it and then she killed her.”
Using only her eyes, Nora asked Abigail what to do.
Petal saw their silent exchange. “You don’t believe me. But it’s true. I saw her kill Darla. I was there.”
“Oh, my,” Abigail said.
Petal continued in a halting voice. “I was with Darla that night when she went to ask Sylvia about the missing money. I w
aited in Darla’s office and I heard her run outside. I watched out the window to the backyard and I heard a gunshot. Darla fell. I didn’t know what to do so I hid. And then Darla died.”
“But she was found closer to the road,” Nora said.
Petal sobbed and they waited until she could talk. “I carried her out there.”
Aside from Petal being too weak to carry a dead cat, it seemed strange. “Why?”
“To protect Sylvia.” The weirdness compounded the longer she spoke.
Nora said, “You have to go to the cops.”
“I can’t. If the cops arrest Sylvia she won’t be able to do her work and if she can’t, they’ll find someone else.”
“’They’ who, dear?” Abigail asked.
Petal sniffed. “And if they don’t arrest her, Sylvia or the people she works for will kill me.” Petal gulped air. “If she kills me, who will stop her?”
“Stop her from what?” Nora asked.
Petal’s eyes acquired a desperate gleam. “I don’t know. But something awful.”
Abigail sat back in disbelief.
Nothing about Petal’s story sounded the least bit sane. Still, it made Nora’s heart pound with dread for Petal. “It’s too dangerous for you to do this alone. You have to go to the police.”
Petal squeezed Nora’s hands with more strength than Nora thought possible. “Please, please. Not tonight. I’ll go tomorrow. Please, let me just stay here and rest tonight.”
True or not, Petal was terrified. Nora didn’t have the heart to rip her from the slight comfort of Abigail’s mothering.
36
Sylvia’s Ferrari squealed off the road and across the bridge and into the Trust’s lot. The parking lot light was out again. She was sick of this rinky-dink facility and their slip-shod maintenance. It was wrong. Everything was wrong tonight. She slammed on the brakes and skidded on the gravel. The few flakes falling hadn’t started to accumulate.
Birds! Goddamn birds. How did this happen? Petal had calculated the angle, and Sylvia trusted her. Petal should have known. How could Petal make this mistake?
Eduardo would have been watching the news anticipating his victory. What would happen when he saw a sea of dead birds instead?
Brittle flakes of snow whirled through the frigid air. Clouds threatened to drop more before the storm moved on. Sylvia climbed from her car and hugged her fox-lined jacket close, thankful for the fur-topped, snow boots with the rubber tipped-heels. She may have to live in an inhospitable climate but at least she could maintain some style. Not like Alaska where she’d had to wear clothes straight out of survival catalogues.
Sylvia hurried across the front porch and unlocked the front door. She didn’t bother turning on lights and ran through the kitchen to her office suite.
Where was Petal? Sylvia needed her to recalculate the refractory angles of the tower and reset the beam.
But no, she couldn’t trust Petal. Sylvia should have known that girl didn’t have the brain power to accomplish something so delicate. Why hadn’t she checked Petal’s calculations?
Because Mark had shown up and ruined it all.
Think, Sylvia! But her mind chased itself. Dead cats, Daniel’s body in her bed, blood on her carpet, the black Town Car, her fur-topped boots, Daniel’s naked body, Mark’s bloody body, Mark, Daniel. Stupid, stupid Petal.
She leaned against the door jamb and held her hands to her head trying to push the random thoughts into order.
Sylvia snapped on the light and ran across her office. She flung her bag onto her desk and booted up her computer. She’d checked the coordinates Petal calculated. They should have been correct.
Sylvia entered her passwords and navigated beyond the firewalls. In a matter of minutes she understood Petal’s mistake. The moron had transposed two numbers. Perspiration lined her body as she reset the program. Her fingers shook and her nails kept hitting the wrong keys.
Finally she sat back, her insides a molten stew of acid, her skin chilled from sweat. She’d done it. As only she could do.
Sylvia rummaged inside her bag for her phone before she remembered where it lay—hurled against the wall after Eduardo’s last call—broken on the floor of her bedroom, spattered with Mark’s brains.
She grabbed the headset of the ancient landline phone on her desk. Her fingernail tapped the buttons and she dialed the country code, area code, and private number. She waited while it ran.
Finally he answered. “Ah, Sylvia, carina.”
“Eduardo. Listen, I can explain.”
His robust laugh sounded cheerful. “No need. Truly.”
She didn’t trust his good cheer. “It was an error. I’m fixing it right now. I can send another ELF wave at dawn. You’ll see. I’ll do it for you, Eduardo.”
“Yes. Yes. That will be excellent. Good bye, Sylvia.”
“Wait! Don’t—”
He hung up on her. Again.
Thud.
What was that? Sylvia ran across the room and slapped off her office light. She couldn’t stop her rapid breathing as she snuck into the dark kitchen. She stood on tiptoe to see out of the window above the sink. In the unlit parking lot she made out the Lincoln Town Car sitting next to her Ferrari.
The knob on the front door rattled and she felt the pressure in her ears as it opened.
Sylvia tiptoed to the back door and stealthily turned the lock. She grabbed the knob, twisted, yanked. She didn’t bother to shut the door, knowing that Juan—or whoever it was Eduardo sent to kill her—would already be chasing her.
She sprinted across the icy lawn, slipping. Is this what Darla felt like just before the bullet ripped into her back?
37
Abigail had coaxed Petal into Nora’s bedroom, convincing her to lie down. Petal would only relax if Abigail stayed with her. Both were sleeping when Nora checked on them a half hour ago. Cole hadn’t made any move to leave and Nora hadn’t asked him to. They’d been sitting on the couch ever since, staring at the television.
After the Petal drama and the exhausting day, Nora didn’t know what to do. Tomorrow morning she’d take Petal and the spreadsheets to the police. Tonight, she felt helpless. She plopped down on the sofa and turned on a daily news satire show. Uninvited, Cole sat next to her. She didn’t complain. The host reported on the day’s events with pithy political commentary. Cole stared at the screen without any reaction and Nora assumed he heard as little of the show as she did.
Too bad Nora didn’t have any more beer. She could use another cold one.
Too many questions banged around her brain to concentrate on television. What if what Petal said was true? Did Sylvia really possess the means to alter the weather and kill birds? If so, did that mean Petal’s life was in danger?
Abbey lay in his bed under the corn plants, snoring softly.
Cole stirred. “What was Petal saying about Tesla?”
Nora sat up. “I don’t have any idea. I thought Tesla was a car. I didn’t know it was a person.”
Cole scanned the apartment. “Do you have a computer?”
Nora hurried to a small desk in the corner of the room. She shoved the leaves of a corn plant out of the way and grabbed her laptop. She booted up. “Okay. We’ve got weather and Tesla and HAARP.” She typed them all into the search engine and hit enter.
Cole leaned into her and read the screen. “Might want to narrow that down.”
She grinned at him as results appeared and she clicked on one. She scanned it then read to Cole. Tesla was also reportedly working on resonance machines, or devices whereby he could shake one or many large city buildings from some distance away.
This capability has now blossomed into the ability to create earthquakes in any desired location on earth, of the desired magnitude, and desired depth. HAARP can create such earthquakes.
Cole lifted the computer, settled it on his lap and kept reading. Tesla's experiments in Colorado produced powerful artificial lightning, in the millions of volts. Producing this lightening was
one of the earliest examples of Tesla being able to create weather phenomenon. A mushroom-shaped radio tower was instrumental in Tesla fine-tuning his ability to create all manner of weather. As he beamed radio waves at the exact ELF frequency by which earth's weather is naturally created, Tesla discovered he could alter the weather.
A chill spiked up her neck. “Syliva is going to create an earthquake.”
Cole’s eyebrows shot up. “Not jumping to conclusions, are you?”
“Well, maybe. It could be.”
Cole laughed. “You’re sounding like Petal. Just because the first site you randomly hit spouts crazy conspiracy theories, it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Maybe she was getting carried away. She shot him a sheepish grin.
Instead of teasing, as she’d expected, he grew serious and his eyes darkened.
She caught her breath. She tried to tell herself she didn’t know him well, but she understood his expression. He leaned into her, sliding his warm fingers along the back of her neck. With the gentlest touch, he drew her toward him.
“Is it okay if I kiss you?” he whispered.
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
They’d only kissed once before and yet his touch felt natural and familiar. She closed her eyes and blood rushed through her ears. His lips moved with soft pressure against hers and suddenly her arms and legs felt like pudding. She smoldered against him.
Cole stopped long enough for Nora to set the computer on the floor.
His arms encircled her, pulling her against him as his heat matched hers. They paused for breath and Nora sank into his eyes, dark with passion. Without thinking, she allowed herself to fall into another kiss. And another.
How many years since she’d made out on a couch with her mother asleep in another room? It was as exciting and erotic now as it had been at seventeen. The bad tension eased from her shoulders, replaced with the good kind—the tingly kind that accelerated her pulse and made her warm all over, some places downright steamy. She could go on like this forever. No guilt, no expectations, no past or future.
The Nora Abbott Mystery series Box Set Page 49