Haunted

by Melanie Jackson

  “No, I did not,” I assured him. “I said I was thinking about getting pregnant.”

  “You? Pregnant? I don’t get it. Is this some kind of joke?” His amazement wasn’t flattering.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t” I said gathering my things and preparing to leave. “But there’s only one way to find out, and tonight I plan on practicing should the need to procreate arise. And you can pass that around the precinct house as fact rather than fiction.”

  “You go girl,” Jeffrey called after me.

  When Blue and I left the parking lot in my three-wheeler, I had every intention of enjoying my one month leave of absence. But you know what they say about the best laid plans.

  Chapter 2

  I planned on having a long discussion with Alex that evening, about a lot of things. I suspected that I wanted to talk about more than he’d like to hear about. I thought that I might ease him into discussing some of the tougher subjects by appeasing his appetite, which is always strong at the dinner hour. I’d gotten a braised short rib recipe from Mr. Jackman that we both adored. I stopped by the grocer on the way home and bought a large bag of fresh fixings to stir up when I got home.

  Alex was still out when I pulled into the driveway. Most days he worked from home; however, his work was varied and often sent him on short romps across town or even trips cross country. His car was gone but I knew that he was currently working on a local case and would be home soon, so I got cooking.

  Soon the smell of searing meat began to permeate our place instantly making it seem homier. Next came the aromatics and the braising liquid, in this case a locally brewed porter ale. The whole lot went into the oven to braise while I worked on the glaze. Not long after the short ribs started braising I was working on the scalloped potatoes. All that was left to do was steam some asparagus and toss a fresh, green salad. And that said nothing of the dessert I’d picked up at Dahlia’s Bakery after the grocer. Normally I would have baked my own, but there wasn’t time.

  Instead of walking in and saying hi, like any normal adult would, Alex chose to sneak into the kitchen from the door to his side of the duplex and grab me from behind. It was so sudden that he almost made me pee my pants. Fortunately, I was able to restrain my elbow from flying his way as it was want to do when grabbed without warning. Instead I eased back into his body and let his arms and hands caress me.

  “Say, that isn’t braised short ribs I smell cooking, is it?” he asked, sniffing at the air.

  “With all the fixings,” I purred in reply.

  “Great, let’s eat,” he suggested, too suddenly pulling away.

  Isn’t that just like a man? One minute he’s holding you, about to whisper sweet nothings in your ear, and suddenly he’s distracted by something he wants more. Like food. I had to admit that the short ribs smelled great.

  “Why don’t you pour us some wine while I finish the meal,” I suggested.

  “You even got wine. That’s why I love you,” Alex said, grabbing me again and kissing me on the neck.

  This time he made me giggle, but just a little bit since I knew it was coming. The kiss was loud and ticklish. Then he was gone again.

  “So, what did you do at work today?” he called from the dining room.

  “Oh, nothing much. I quit my job.”

  He was back in the kitchen door in a flash with a concerned look on his face and the bottle of wine in his hand.

  “You quit your job?”

  “Only for a little bit. Then the Chief suspended me.”

  “You got suspended?”

  “That didn’t last either, though. I ended up on a one month leave of absence instead.”

  “You’re off for a month? Are you alright? You’re not sick are you?”

  “No, of course not. I just needed some time off.”

  “What do you plan to do with your month off?” Alex asked, finally beginning to smile.

  “Well, that’s something I wanted to talk with you about during dinner.”

  “Forget waiting for dinner,” Alex suggested, returning to the dining room after the corkscrew I’d laid out. “Let’s talk now,” he called back into the kitchen.

  “Well, I did have a few ideas.”

  “Such as?”

  “Sleeping late, reading, and long walks with Blue. Things like that. Maybe take up painting,”

  “Those all sound nice.”

  “Maybe have a baby.”

  Alex was back at the kitchen door in a flash. This time he looked terror stricken.

  “Did you just say you want to have a baby?”

  “No, I didn’t,” I replied, trying to calm him down. “I’ve just been thinking about it. You know, if we’re going to start a family, now would be a good time.”

  “Oh,” Alex replied, looking a little less tense, but only a little. It was obvious he could tell he was about to tread on dangerous ground. “You’re right, let’s talk after dinner.”

  “I said we should talk during dinner,” I reminded him, carrying the side dishes to the table.

  I had set a beautiful table, using a couple settings of my grandmother’s china and silver that I had borrowed from Mom. A burgundy colored, cotton table cloth and matching napkins I’d bought on sale, and even matching candles, had all been laid out. All that was needed were two young lovers and some stimulating conversation.

  After carrying the short ribs to the table, everything was ready and I began to serve. The food was sumptuous. We both talked about it a lot. I couldn’t help but notice that neither of us appeared willing to resume our conversation about having children. It finally made it to the point that I couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “Having a child isn’t the only idea I was toying with,” I blurted.

  “Good!” Alex replied, a little too enthusiastically. “I mean, it’s good to have options,” Alex added, tentatively. “What other ideas have you had?”

  “Well, do you remember talking about the two of us working together?”

  I really wasn’t sure how Alex was going to respond. I knew that he took his business seriously and would do nothing to chance harming it or his customers. At the same time, he really didn’t want to talk about having a child.

  “Alright, let’s talk about that possibility,” he began. “I, for one, think that it’s a fantastic idea.”

  “Well, I do too,” I told him.

  “Good. Then let’s do it.”

  Well now, that was easy.

  “In fact, I’m glad you brought this up now,” Alex continued. “I just got a rush case the other day that I don’t have the time for. It’s for an older client. I’d rather not decline, but I’d have to drop everything else I’m doing to handle it.”

  “Sounds great.”

  “The client lives on the coast, in a town called Thorny Springs. The job requires an initial interview, which should just be a day trip, but everything else you can handle from home.”

  “It keeps sounding better.”

  “As I understand it, it’s a missing persons case that the police aren’t willing to open. It’s an old case. Seems that it’s important to have it solved soon.”

  “Alex, this case sounds perfect. I’m great at finding missing things. When do I start?”

  “Why don’t I give the client a call after dinner? If he’s amenable, I see no reason why you shouldn’t start tomorrow.”

  “Oh, Alex,” I said, rising and running around the table to give him several big kisses. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I said between every kiss.

  The last kiss was deep and lingered.

  * * *

  I woke bright and early the next day to a task I wasn’t looking forward to but could no longer ignore. The planning of cousin Althea’s baby shower. I laid in bed several minutes longer than usual girding my loins for the upcoming torture. Then, all at once, I burst out of bed and set about the task of starting my day. Alex, being a late riser, groaned and rolled over in his pillow to cover his face wit
h the sheets and try to ignore my very existence.

  First, get dressed. Second, make coffee. Third, walk Blue. I ran through the process, but this morning I was experiencing something special. You see, as of last night, Alex had made me an official consulting detective. Of course, there were still a string of community college classes and other certification courses that I needed to attend and pass, but in the meantime, at least temporarily, he had made me a consulting detective with his firm.

  You see, true to his word, Alex had called our client the previous night and explained that his wife, an experienced investigator in her own right, had accepted the case. Above the hissing and popping of an ancient line I was allowed to speak for several minutes with an elderly Mr. Cartwright who established the time of ten o’clock in the morning, two days hence, as the moment to meet at his home in Thorny Springs to discuss the matter in detail. I considered asking him why we couldn’t discuss the matter right there on the phone, but suspected that old clients required the personal touch. Besides, he probably wanted to get to know me a little before hiring me.

  That left me one day to have fun, only one day, and I planned on taking full advantage of it. Now, if only there wasn’t Althea’s baby shower with which to contend. I thought of the possibility of spending my day, hip deep in blue and pink crepe paper, and yellow plastic cake decorations, due to the fact that the stubborn couple refused to find out the sex of the child. Frankly, in spite of my own recent thoughts, the thought of all the planning made me sick to my stomach. But there was one woman who I knew had baby on the brain twenty-four hours a day, at least of late, and she probably already had the blueprints for a perfect shower in her head. Since there was no other option to pursue and have any free time, I went after the one option I had at hand before I changed my mind.

  “Hello, Rosemary,” I began. “This is Chloe.”

  I hadn’t wanted to call my mother-in-law and had rethought the matter twice while dialing. It was the investigative job at hand the drove me to it, I assured myself. The job had to come first.

  “Oh, hello, Chloe,” Rosemary returned. “Any news?”

  Of course, I knew perfectly well to what she was referring. She was referring to baby news, what else? I actually took a measure of grim satisfaction in answering this time.

  “No, no news on that front. However, since you brought up the topic, I was wondering if I could get your help with something.”

  “Shoot.”

  Rosemary was usually not so no nonsense.

  “I got roped into arranging this baby shower for my cousin, Althea,”

  “Yes?”

  She was apparently going to make me say it.

  “I was wondering if you would be willing to…” I choked on the word

  “Help?” she said, completing my sentence for me. “You’d like me to help, wouldn’t you, Chloe?” she continued, smugly.

  “Yes, Rosemary. I’d like you to help.” I admitted.

  “Why, Chloe,” she said in her patronizing voice, “of course I’d be willing to help. When is the event?”

  “Five days.”

  “And how far along are you with the preparations?”

  “I haven’t started yet.”

  “Oh, Chloe.” There, she did it again. This woman annoyed me all the way to my back teeth. “Don’t you know that you need to book the caterers and select the food weeks in advance of such an event? And the printers for the invitations would need advanced warning. Then there’s booking the venue.”

  “I was thinking of something smaller, like potluck, maybe.”

  “Potluck?”

  “I thought we’d just Xerox the invitations and mail them out.”

  “Xerox?”

  “And the venue is my home.”

  “Home?”

  “Look, Rosemary. I’ll be paying for this event out of my own pocket, so the party is going to have to live down to my lowly standard of living. So, think inexpensive.”

  “Inexpensive?”

  All of these single word responses didn’t bode well for the outcome. And she spat out the words “potluck”, “Xerox”, “home”, and especially “inexpensive” as if they tasted foul in her mouth. I was afraid for a moment she might faint.

  “Rosemary, are you alright? Because if this is beyond you….”

  “I’m fine, Chloe. It just took me a moment or two to adjust to your way of thinking on the matter.”

  “Great. So, you’ll do it?”

  “Have you got a guest list?”

  “I can email you one in an hour.”

  “Do it. I’ll manage the rest.”

  And that was that. Rosemary was fully onboard. Not only that, but she seemed to be taking charge. And with any luck at all she’d agree to come to the party, adding one more person to the sparse guest list.

  Within minutes I was on my PC typing up a list of a dozen names, half of which I thought might actually attend for my sake. Then I remembered that at least two of the Elvises had planned on being in town some time soon. Heck, I added the addresses of all the Elvises I personally knew. I clicked “Send” and party planning was under way, and it sure didn’t need my help anymore.

  Which left the remainder of the day for pleasure.

  * * *

  After dressing in my grubbiest clothes, I headed out to the backyard to tend to the pumpkin patch. Not that it ever needed much tending. I had started the pumpkin patch earlier in the year with Jacky, the Pumpkin Thief, and ever since he had been showing exceptional care and skill when it came to making our crop flourish. All with little need of my help. In fact, when I rounded the corner of the house, I found Jacky down on his knees, weeding between the rows of massive vines leading to big, beautiful, orange pumpkins. And when I say big, I mean big.

  “Good morning, Jacky.”

  “Blue,” he called, completely ignoring me for the time being in preference to his favorite.

  Fortunately, Jacky was one of Blue’s favorites as well. She came bounding, in her own fashion, round the corner of the house at the sound of Jacky’s voice. The dash ended in Jacky’s arms. There were lots of kisses and hugs going back and forth. After an adequate tongue bath, Jacky turned to face me.

  “Hello.”

  “Jacky, the gardens look beautiful,” I complimented.

  And I wasn’t lying. There were four garden patches in all, each measuring approximately twenty feet square. These squares were themselves laid out in a square with a gravel path between them forming a crossroads in the middle. Around the outside of this central formation were my flower borders. Jacky had learned quickly and now took care of the flowers as well. I wondered about getting his mother to come over and see the gardens he tended for me. After all, she was the rightful recipient of all these free and talented gardening services. At the very least, I supposed that I should point out to his protective mother that her son has found his chosen vocation.

  I joined Jacky in weeding and soon we had one patch clear of the major stuff. Jacky wanted to keep on going until the patch was perfect. I pointed out that maybe our time could be better spent measuring the pumpkins so that we could track their growth up until Halloween.

  We used a standard cloth measuring tape, the type used by seamstresses, to get the circumference from each of the largest pumpkins. Of course, we had to do the measuring in segments since our tape was only sixty inches long, far short of the girth of our largest pumpkins. One of the pumpkins already measured over one-hundred inches around and it still had couple months left to grow, if the weather held. Jacky giggled every time we slipped the measuring tape around a new pumpkin. Like most people, I think he’d only seen such a tape used to measure women’s waists. This was a new experience, and all new experiences were fun to Jacky.

  We concluded by spreading mulch from our mulch pile. The ground between the pumpkins was dark brown, rich with peat and other organic nutrients. We seemed to spend almost as much time on the soil as the plants. Pumpkins eat a lot of nutrients and the soil m
ust be replenished.

  When we were done, Jacky checked his watch, a new piece of equipment since last I’d seen him, and announced that he had to go home for lunch. I waved goodbye and soon packed it in myself, gathering Blue on the way, who was perfectly happy digging for gophers in the fallow portions of the flower garden.

  Stepping out of the shower, I came to the realization that simply showering wasn’t good enough. I deserved to be pampered during my first day of leave. I checked via a phone call to Jillian’s Spa and found that they’d had a cancellation for early this afternoon. I decided to take full advantage of the slot by ordering the works. And if you order the works, you even get to bring your dog along.

  I don’t know if you’ve ever had hot rock massage. Special, heated rocks are used in the massage, then laid atop your body to warm the skin and muscles. At one point, just because I wanted to see what it would feel like, and it was a slow day at the spa, I had three women give me a manicure, pedicure, and facial at the same time. I was in heaven.

  Then I saw the bill. That almost took my mood down a few notches, but I shrugged it off.

  By the time I stepped out of the spa I was walking on air. No really, I was. Have you ever had that feeling, after having a pedicure, that you have new feet or that some special, bouncy insole has been placed in your shoes? Well, I was feeling it. So Blue and I went for a walk, and did a little window shopping along the way. Blue ended up being a little crowded in the sidecar having to share her space with several packages.

  I made it home fully prepared to make dinner. Alex was waiting for me. He was dressed and looked good. He apparently had made alternate plans for the evening.

  “Get dressed, I’m taking you out to dinner,” he announced.

  How fortuitous that I’d just bought a new dress and shoes. I slipped into the bedroom to get dolled up while Alex made us drinks.

  When I stepped back into the living room, Alex was sitting on the sofa with Apollo fully ensconced in his lap and Aphrodite making moves like she wanted on as well. For some reason, my cats adored Alex. In response, Alex was always a little tentative around them because they sometimes got aggressive in their play and “attacked” him. At these times, Alex would scream like little girl and call for help. I helped him now by removing the unwanted cats from his lap and then using sticky tape to get the cat hair off his dress slacks.