The discussion continued for a moment, and then Maggie took a few more questions from the audience. By the end, Mr. Lindstrom had offered to help with any remodeling or repairs needed around the place, and the town librarian, Ms. Holloway, had offered to help with curating the collection.
“I’ll pass around a sign-up sheet now for everyone’s information,” Maggie said, gesturing to me to hand her the clipboard from the treat table. “And we can meet again next week, maybe? We should start planning for the fundraiser event I’d like to host at the end of the month.”
“The end of the month—that’s Thanksgiving,” Mrs. Holloway said.
“Okay, yes. We may need to adjust the timing. Hold it the week after?”
“That’s the multi-church holiday bazaar,” Mr. Delaney pointed out. “I’m making a ton of wreaths for it.”
“Well, not on the same day as the bazaar, maybe,” Maggie said, barely holding her smile. “I’ll email everyone if you’ll put your addresses down on the sheet. Now, please help yourself to coffee and cookies and take a look at what we’ve done so far.”
Gladys helped Ezra up and they walked toward the dining room. Maggie had staged a lot of the older, better-preserved photographs around the perimeter of the room. Ezra hobbled along with his cane, leaning in to see the pictures. Cooper and Dad kept their gaze on Gladys and Ezra, watching their progress around the room.
Ms. Wilson swept over to me. Her silver earrings gleamed against her dark hair, which was pulled into a low ponytail tonight. “I bet you could show me some photographs of our friend Millicent,” she said.
Maggie tapped Ms. Wilson on the shoulder. “Are you talking about Millicent Cardew? There are some pictures over here.” Maggie led her over to the wall in the dining room. I followed, sensing that nothing good would come of those two interacting.
“There she is,” Maggie said, pointing at the photo of Millicent near the bird perched on the iron fence. “Beautiful.”
“I’ve never seen that picture before.” Ms. Wilson’s eyes widened. “The raven,” she murmured.
“Yes, on the edge of the photo, we found the words ‘Raven’s Maid’ in pencil. Not the typical nickname around here,” Maggie said.
“Servant of the ravens,” Ms. Wilson said, giving out a low laugh. “Of course.”
A chill whispered against my neck. All that the séance the night before had done was convince me that Millicent meant business, that her unfinished business was about the murder. It unsettled me to hear Ms. Wilson so amused. Maggie, too.
“It sounds like she cared for them, more than she served them,” Maggie said, bristling. “The aviary in the backyard was where she nursed them back to health after injury. People think they’re rabbit hutches, but nope.”
“So you’ve been to my house?” Ms. Wilson helped herself to a chocolate chip cookie from the plate on the table.
Maggie nodded. “Everyone knows that place.”
“Right.” Ms. Wilson smiled. “Small town. I forget sometimes.”
“Is that so? We never seem to.” Maggie let out a little laugh. “This place is a bit of a fishbowl.”
Right then, Cooper whispered in my ear, “I need to talk to you.”
I startled from the surprise, but then followed him and Dad into the kitchen. “What are you guys doing here?”
“You kidding?” Dad said, after a glance out to the living room to make sure no one was in earshot. “I saw Ezra’s truck out front and decided I better be here, too. What is he doing there?”
Cooper paced the tiled floor. “You think it’s just him making nice with Maggie?”
Dad growled in his throat, surprising me a little.
“Maybe he’s after the secret society photo,” I said. “Fillis Noctus. The astronomy society during the 1870s. It had to be a cover for the pack. I saw Ezra in the picture. And your father was a member.”
“No.” Dad ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “That’s impossible.”
“I’ve seen the photo,” I said. “It’s in Maggie’s collection, and I made sure the original didn’t get displayed.”
Dad gave me a look and I followed him to the makeshift office.
Maggie was turning out the light. “Oh, did you need something?”
“The old photo,” I said. “Of that astronomy guild? I wanted to show Dad.”
She crinkled up her nose. “Why is everyone after that photo tonight?”
Cooper loomed in the doorway, looking irritated. “Let me guess. Ezra?”
Maggie’s brows drew together and she laughed. “Guys, really? I know you have something against Mr. Smith—that’s clear from how Lily worries about all the deliveries we’re making to the bowling alley.”
“But he took it?” Dad asked. “This is important, sorry, Maggie.”
Her smile faded. “George, what would he want with it—to put in the bowling alley? No, Mike Lindstrom just took that and a few other photos in the collection. Says he’s doing something for the town council with it. A retrospective in the foyer there, or something. I thought it’d be good publicity for the historical society.”
My stomach tightened with dread. “Dad, Tom’s been on the newspaper staff for a while and he’s always acted weird toward me. Do you think they could—”
“Who else knows Mike took it?” Dad interrupted, turning back to Maggie.
“I think Ezra and Gladys saw him leave with the box. They left right after he did.”
“Oh, crap,” Cooper said. “We need to follow Mike home.”
“Wait—what is it about that photo?” Maggie said, glancing with alarm between all of us. “I feel out of the loop, guys.”
Dad and Cooper rushed to the door, surprising the other guests.
“Wait for me!” I yelled.
“What is happening? Lily—you’re leaving?”
“Maggie, I’ll be back in a bit to help clean up,” I called over my shoulder.
I caught up with Cooper in the driveway as he was about to pull away in his work truck. “Hey!” I said, banging my hand on the hood. “Wait!”
Cooper jerked to a stop and I got in. As we screeched out of the driveway, I saw Ms. Wilson watching me from the picture window, her mouth pressed into a frown.
***
Cooper tore up the hill, the squeaky chassis of his work truck protesting at every turn. Ahead of us in his squad car, Dad swerved to the side of the road and stopped.
Cooper drove up alongside his car and I rolled down my window. “What’s wrong?”
Dad let out a disgusted sigh. “Just got a call. Disturbance at the bowling alley.”
“Disturbance,” Cooper grunted. “I hope it’s not those outsider wolves.”
“What if it’s a trap?” I said.
“Don’t think so. Mac’s already on his way over there, I’m his backup,” Dad replied, flipping on his car’s red and blue lights. “Cooper, don’t engage Mike, just make sure he’s safe.”
“We know, Dad,” I said, shaking my head.
I texted Morgan as we drove off, asking if he could head over to help Maggie clean up, and also to keep an eye on Ms. Wilson. He told me he would. I was doubly glad that I knew he wasn’t anywhere near the bowling alley.
As we neared the Lindstrom house, I saw Mike carrying a box up to the front porch. He paused, staring out at our approaching truck.
“Great. No choice now but to stop,” Cooper said, pulling into the driveway. “C’mon.”
As I followed Cooper up the walkway, I glanced right and left, looking for Ezra and Gladys along the sides of the property, the greenbelt between the houses. “What? Just talk to him?” I asked, not sure what Cooper intended.
“Hey there,” Mike called out as we approached. “Help you, Cooper?”
Inside the house, his son Tom had started to pull the drapes at the living room window. He looked surprised to see us and a little concerned.
“Yeah, actually,” Cooper said, improvising. “Wanted to check with you about something.�
�
“Sure, what’s up?” Mike said. “You wanna come inside for a bit?”
I got nervous and blurted out, “No thanks. We’re here because Maggie—”
“Maggie said that maybe…” Cooper elbowed me. “Is this hat yours? Someone left it behind at the meeting.” He pulled his own navy beanie from the pocket of his jacket and held it out.
Mike gave us a funny look and set the box he was carrying inside the open door. “Not mine,” he said. “Didn’t wear a hat tonight.”
Tom appeared in the doorway behind his dad. “What’s up?”
“Just stopping by about a hat,” I mumbled.
“You gonna be a regular participant in the society?” Cooper asked, cocking his head at Mike.
“Yeah, sure. Why not? History’s important, don’t you think?”
Cooper nodded slowly. “Yup. A lot of stuff shouldn’t be forgotten,” he said, pulling on my arm.
Mike gave us a funny smile and then shut the door. I heard the lock click.
“Why didn’t you—”
“We can’t just ask if he has the photos,” Cooper whispered as we walked away. “Then he’d want to know why we want them. Remember, if he is a hunter, he doesn’t know that wolf was you.”
“Maybe he already does,” I grumbled, climbing into the cab of the truck. “We should have just told him to hand over the box.”
“And then what? Explain why you’re so desperate to get the photos? The point was to make sure he made it home okay.”
“I’m not after just that photo,” I said, with a low grunt. “I’ve got a copy on my phone.”
Cooper hissed out a breath. “Well, damn. Why didn’t you say so?”
“No one asked.”
Cooper started up the truck. “And you took a snap of the back of the photo too?”
“There was nothing written on the back. No names.”
“But somewhere there has to be a record of who these wolves were that were in the astronomy society.”
“Yeah, maybe back at Mr. Gray’s House? In the other boxes? Shoot. Ms. Wilson is still there.”
Cooper backed out onto the road, giving the Lindstrom house a last glance in his side mirror.
***
Back at Mr. Gray’s house, I heard laughter coming from the kitchen. Cooper had dropped me off, deciding to head home as it was getting late, though I suspected he might be heading over to the bowling alley to see what trouble Dad was smoothing out.
I took off my jacket and hung it next to Ms. Wilson’s red wool coat in the closet in the hallway. Another peal of laughter filled the air. Maggie’s signature giggle tagged on to the end. I headed to the kitchen and found Maggie and Morgan near the sink. Morgan was drying the coffee carafe while Maggie sudsed up a serving platter.
“What?” He asked me, raising an eyebrow. “Everything all right?”
“Where’s Ms. Wilson?”
“Bathroom, I think.” Maggie gave the platter a rinse and handed it to Morgan.
I headed off to find her. As I neared the bathroom door, I heard running water. I let out a sigh of relief. The doorknob turned and I took a couple steps backward, toward the makeshift office. Inside, the desktop was covered by a jumble of papers, photographs. It seemed messier than when I’d been in there before we’d left for Mr. Lindstrom’s house, but I wasn’t entirely sure.
“More research?” I turned at the sound of Ms. Wilson’s voice. She stood in the doorway now, rubbing her hands together as if she were cold.
“No, but I wondered if you were doing some of that,” I said.
She came in and flipped on the overhead light. “Maggie showed me more pictures of Millicent,” she said. “It helped my fears to know she’d been a lovely, kind woman. Not someone scary or with bad intentions. Makes me feel better about coexisting with her.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s kind of weird.”
“Listen, Lily.” Ms. Wilson closed the door. “I found some burned-down candles in my garage. You know anything about that?”
I swallowed hard. “Me? Why would you think that?”
Ms. Wilson arched an eyebrow. “I think you were there. Maybe trying to do something about Millicent on your own.”
My gaze dropped to the desktop. I certainly wasn’t going to tell her about the vision I’d seen in the garage. Not if she was planning to put it into her book.
“Really, it’s sweet, but I’m telling you I’m not afraid anymore.” Ms. Wilson walked over to the desk and picked up a black and white photograph of Millicent, one with Charlie standing next to her, at the town picnic. “She’ll go when she’s ready. There’s no need to force her out. Or to force anything. I want her to be at peace, wherever she is.”
I looked up and held her gaze for a moment. “Morgan saw your manuscript.”
A blush crept into her cheeks. “Well, that’s embarrassing. A terrible first draft of something I’ve been working on for years, no matter where I’ve lived.”
“Why Pioneer Falls?” The question bubbled out of me before I could stop it.
“I get it. It must seem like I moved here for my book,” she said.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Ms. Wilson laughed. “It’s not like I moved to Forks, Washington, hoping to score a vampire sighting. Maybe I like creepy old towns. I told you I was into unsolved mysteries, and this town has a few. Plus, I do like to hike.”
“You like to hike?” I said, shaking my head at her.
“You think women in heels don’t also own hiking boots? That’s quite an assumption,” Ms. Wilson said.
“I’ve never seen you in the woods.” I felt a little bolder, now that at least some of the cards were on the table. “How well do you know Mr. Lindstrom?” I asked.
“Not very, just through Tom. Why?” she replied, her smile neutral—not exactly revealing any connection I was imagining.
“Forget it. You’re right about this town being weird. It was all that you’d hoped it’d be, I guess.”
Ms. Wilson rearranged the scarf on her shoulders. “I should go find my coat. See you tomorrow in class.”
I sat down behind the desk and organized the photographs into stacks. “Oh, Mr. Gray,” I murmured. “What were you thinking when you left us this house?”
Maggie came in and sat down in the chair near the reading lamp. “Morgan’s walking Ms. Wilson out,” she said.
“Hey, Maggie…you probably shouldn’t give photos out to random people.”
“Why not? It sparks their interest in donating or volunteering.” Her expression was so earnest, I felt my guard waver a little. “They’ll return them, anyway.”
“What if I told you it might hurt my family,” I said, carefully. “I don’t want to drag you into everything, but we had ancestors in the town back before the turn of the century. That photo you found of the astronomy club, the one you gave to Mr. Lindstrom, our ancestor really was in that photo. My dad doesn’t want people to know.”
Maggie’s mouth gaped a little. “Honey, being one of the founding families is a source of pride for folks around here. Your dad should be proud. Especially after his rough start in town…the rumors, you know, about the partying he used to do.”
“You don’t have to remind me,” I said, shaking my head.
“Why would your dad want to hide it?”
I moved closer to Maggie’s chair. “Maybe our relative wasn’t such a good guy,” I told her, a half-truth really. I didn’t know much about my grandfather.
“C’mon, it’s not like you’re the reincarnation of him. Or them,” Maggie scoffed, waving her hand. “All of us have things in our ancestors’ pasts that we don’t want dredged up.”
“Even you?” I said, giving her a half-smile.
Maggie put her hands beneath her chin in a beatific pose. “Who, me?” she joked. “I’m descended from a long line of angels.”
I moved toward the door because I could hear footsteps in the hall, probably Morgan coming back into the house. “I should get going
.”
“You know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt your family,” Maggie said, getting up from the chair. “You’re the closest thing I have to my own family in town. Well, aside from my cousin.”
“I know. And I love you, too.”
“I won’t tell anyone about your relative,” Maggie said before I slipped back out into the hall. “But I won’t promise to stop lending out pictures. I still think that’s a way to drum up interest. I mean, look at your teacher and her interest in our town.”
“Yeah,” I said, my smile flattening. “That’s something else entirely.”
***
“Ready, lass?” Morgan asked, handing me my coat.
“Yeah, let’s get out of here. It was sweet of you to come help,” I said. “You sure Maggie’s going to be all right? Should we wait for her?”
“She’s right behind us, love. I loaded up her car for her. She has only to lock up and she’s free.”
“And…did you really need to walk Ms. Wilson out to her car?” I said, punching his arm.
Morgan smirked. “Jealousy, is that what I hear? I thought I’d try to find out what she’d learned from Maggie when they were in the office looking at pictures.”
“You weren’t in there? What were you doing, dishes?”
“Hardly,” he said with a wink. “I slipped downstairs to check out the boxes. Didn’t get much time down there since Maggie called for me after a moment. I should probably get the keys from her tomorrow and do a full search of the house.”
“Mr. Gray’s old-wolf smell is all over that place.”
“True enough.” He paused at the corner to take my hand.
“We know Mrs. Gillingham was in this house too. We saw them together here that one time.”
“I assume she didn’t know he was a wolf. Humans aren’t like us, they don’t smell wolves out like we can—like you’ve learned to. And wolves can be rather charming, as I think you’ve discovered.” He gave me a little wink. “Perhaps the old wolf was smarter than you gave him credit for.”
A Light So Cruel (Pioneer Falls Book 3) Page 11