by Ginny Gold
“How long have you lived in Silver Springs?” Maggie asks, curious what draws anyone to this town.
“Just three years. Came for the skiing and fell in love with everything else. I love the small town feel.”
Maggie nods, unable to relate to the desire to live the slow life of small town America. She can’t wait to get back to Denver.
“What about you, Drew? How long have you been in Silver Springs?” Maggie asks, leaning forward to look around Josh. She can feel Josh tense at her invitation to Drew to join the conversation.
Drew is caught a little off guard but quickly recovers. “Eight years.”
“What brought you here?” Maggie asks.
“Work. I was in Denver at a brewery and there was a job opening. I thought I’d give it a try.”
Maggie can relate much more to that answer. “And you love it?”
“Parts of it.”
Maggie sighs in her head. At least he isn’t as enthusiastic about Silver Springs as Josh is.
After six rounds of Bingo, Maggie is ready to go home. Socializing with strangers isn’t her strong suit and she finds it exhausting. Josh stands to walk her out and Maggie catches him shooting Drew a warning glance as if to tell him she belongs to him. Maggie is totally turned off by that and says, “I’ll be fine. It was fun to get to know you, Josh. Nice to see you again, Drew.” She offers kisses on cheeks to the three women who are well beyond tipsy and walks to her car alone.
CHAPTER 17
Suzie waits for Maggie to leave before beginning her search. Oscar is impatient to go out so she finally agrees while Maggie is still eating. Maggie doesn’t even notice; she’s so engrossed in her dinner and Suzie is mildly jealous. She’d be more than happy to have something to eat right about now.
After Maggie cleans up her dishes, it’s clear that she’s not going to feed Suzie and Oscar so Suzie takes matters into her own hands. She goes into the kitchen and starts whining, scratching on the closet door where their food is kept, and pacing until Maggie figures out what she wants.
“Oh right. I have to feed you dogs.” Suzie hears annoyance in her voice and she’s tempted to chase Opal the next chance she gets. But that would be counterproductive to the plan. Barney would hear about it for sure and he would not be pleased.
Maggie dumps food into the two bowls on the floor and Suzie inhales hers, leaving Oscar’s untouched. She’d love to eat it but she has a svelte image to maintain.
Maggie goes to the front door and calls Oscar in. It’s just starting to get dark outside. Oscar skids across the kitchen floor and inhales his food as well. Then Maggie is out the door and Suzie hears the dirt of the driveway crunching under her tires, her bizarre car silent.
Suzie immediately gets to work. She starts at the door to Maggie’s room. Opal’s scent is not as strong so Suzie thinks she must be outside. There’s no way she can get inside that room without the help of a human and no one is home right now. She moves on.
There are shelves in the living room that are full of books and family heirlooms, but Suzie doesn’t even know what she’s looking for so she can’t be sure if what she wants is in plain sight or not. She assumes not, since Barney was certain it was under a bed.
“What you’re looking for is upstairs,” Oscar says, surprising Suzie so much she lets out a small yelp.
“How do you know? You weren’t even listening to what Barney was telling me yesterday.” Suzie is short with him and regrets it. He’s irreplaceable for the plan to work. He has to maintain the humans’ trust so Suzie can focus on the mission.
“You underestimate me, Suzie. I know you think I’m just a dopey golden retriever, but I’m always taking everything in.”
Suzie is speechless and follows him wordlessly upstairs. “How do you even know what we’re looking for?” she asks when he leads her into Eleanor and Charles’ old bedroom.
“I don’t. I’ve never seen it. But I can feel it.”
“What do you mean? Since when? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Oscar starts walking methodically around the room, sniffing and pausing every so often. “It’s only been recent. I didn’t know what it was at first. But right after they died, there was a new energy in the house. You didn’t notice?”
Suzie hates to admit it but she tells him, “No.”
“Hm. It’s like it’s trying to find its next person. Winona, Erline and Ginger Rae are all in possession of the other pieces, but this one doesn’t have an owner anymore. We know that Clem and Maggie don’t know about it, so it’s trying to tell someone it exists. It can’t be lost forever because then its power would be gone.”
Suzie is beyond surprised. How does he know all this? He’s right, she does think he’s just a dopey golden retriever. So how can he know more than she does?
“So what does it feel like?” she asks, wanting to be in control again. Now, she’s sidelined while he looks for the trinket.
“It’s just . . . a feeling in my bones,” he says, completely unhelpfully. “I can’t explain it.”
Of course he can’t, she thinks to herself, he’s not that smart.
“Ah hah.” Oscar stops in his tracks and looks up at a bookcase. “It’s on the top shelf.”
Suzie follows his gaze but doesn’t see anything that indicates he’s right. She doesn’t want to believe him and quickly sniffs around under the bed. Oscar waits patiently, a cocky almost grin on his face.
Suzie finds nothing so turns back to the shelves and Oscar. She looks up and finds photos of Maggie and Clem from when they were younger, some books, but nothing that she thinks would be as valuable as what Barney has described to her.
“Is it one of the photos?” Suzie asks.
Oscar charges her. “You don’t believe me. Well, I’m just going to go lie down. You can decide if you want to be the one to get in trouble by knocking the book case down. It’s up to you. I’ve led you to the trinket but I can’t make you protect it.”
Suzie is livid. She watches Oscar walk out of the bedroom and then she runs in tight circles, needing to relieve some of the anger and frustration that has been building ever since he told her he could feel the trinket’s presence.
When she has herself under control again, she sits in front of the book case and looks at the top shelf. She tries willing the trinket to land on the floor. She doesn’t want to get in trouble for knocking everything over but she’s unable to come up with a better plan.
Just as she’s about to give up and run at the book case, she senses someone behind her. She turns and sees Opal on the bed.
Suzie raises her hackles. Opal isn’t allowed in the rest of the house. And she’s certainly not allowed on Eleanor and Charles’ bed. This room is off limits to nearly everyone, Suzie shouldn’t even be in it.
Suzie sits and stares, weighing her options before acting. Barney’s words echo in her mind, if you can befriend the cat in your house it could mean inside information. This is Suzie’s chance to show Opal she can be trusted.
But her instincts get the better of her and she darts at the cat, her hind legs crashing into the book case as she takes off, leaping on to the bed.
The sound behind her is deafening and she turns to assess the damage, giving Opal a chance to escape back downstairs. The book case has just barely missed landing on the bed, and on Suzie.
From behind one of the photos on the top shelf, a small trinket rolls to a stop under the bed. Suzie gets down on the floor and gently picks it up and walks with it in her mouth downstairs. She places it on the coffee table in the living room and then lies down on the floor, keeping both eyes on the small keychain looking ornament. She plans to stay there until someone comes home and finds it.
CHAPTER 18
Maggie gets home just before ten. She’s shocked that she was the first to leave and Bingo is still going on across town. She enjoyed talking to Josh and Drew, but without them she’s not sure Bingo would have been as much fun. Ginger Rae, Erline and Winona have their own friends and so
cial circles that Maggie isn’t a part of.
Inside, Maggie finds Suzie lying on the couch and she shoos her off. She sends both dogs outside one last time before she closes the dog door for the night and she checks that Opal is in the bedroom. Then she closes the bathroom window and goes back out to call the dogs.
When Suzie comes in, she goes straight back to the couch and Maggie has to encourage her to go upstairs where she usually sleeps. In the process, she finds a small round ornament that is suddenly familiar to her.
“Where did this come from?” she asks Suzie, picking up the trinket. “Our cat used to where this when we were kids.”
Maggie pats Suzie on the head once and walks into her bedroom, ready to put the trinket on Opal’s collar.
***
Wednesday morning, Maggie wakes up too early to a horrible screech she hasn’t heard in decades. It’s quickly followed by Clem’s hysterical voice screaming, “Maggie!”
When Clem got like this as a teenager—only a handful of times—it always took their mother stepping in to get them to be civil with each other again. Now it’s up to the two of them to work out whatever happened like the adults they are.
Maggie groggily gets out of bed and follows the sound of Clem’s ranting and clanging upstairs. Her eyes are still barely open but at least she remembered to put her glasses on. She has trouble seeing the disaster in her parents’ bedroom until she rubs the sleep from her eyes.
“What happened?” she asks Clem through a stifled yawn.
“What happened?” Clem screeches back. “What happened? I don’t know. I was gone all night and I come home to . . . to . . . this!”
Maggie rubs her eyes again and does her best to clear her sleep riddled mind. “Why are you back from Denis’?” she asks.
That is clearly the wrong question because Clem’s face turns a new shade of red. “So I can shower and get dressed for work. Which I’m going to be late for. But what is this mess?” Clem’s voice doesn’t calm down at all and Maggie worries the neighbors can hear them.
Maggie comes into the room and peers around the bed. What she sees wakes her up the rest of the way. A book case has been knocked over sending books, photos and broken glass everywhere.
“I don’t know what happened,” Maggie says calmly, hoping Clem will pick up on that energy and follow suit.
“You don’t know?” Clem’s voice only gets more hysterical.
“I got back from Bingo, made sure the dogs were in and then went to my bedroom. I haven’t even been up here before today.”
Clem’s hands tighten into fists and Maggie backs up. How did their mother calm her down? Maggie needs some of that magic right now.
“Well, I don’t have time to clean this up. I have to get to work.” Clem storms out of the room, leaving Maggie standing in the doorway.
Maggie thinks it’s probably better that Clem has somewhere to be. When she’s alone, Maggie heaves the now empty book case up against the wall and surveys the damage.
There are a handful of broken picture frames, but nothing that’s irreplaceable. Books are lying open on the floor, but it doesn’t look like any pages have been ripped. She gets to work putting as much back in place as she can until she hears the garage door open and Clem’s car leave the driveway. Then she heads downstairs to eat some breakfast and get ready to meet Ginger Rae, Erline and Winona for coffee. She’ll finish cleaning up later before Clem gets home.
An hour later, Maggie is sitting alone on the tan couch in The Coffee Bean, sipping the darkest coffee available. It’s just barely after eight, and thinking back to last night’s activities, Maggie isn’t surprised the women are late. To pass the time, Maggie takes her latest novel from her handbag and opens to where she left off last night.
She is immediately lost in the murder mystery and doesn’t notice the woman standing in front of her, ready to refill her mug.
“More coffee?”
Maggie looks up and smiles. She holds out her mug and says, “Thanks.”
“You waiting for someone?” the woman asks.
“Yes. Winona, Erline and Ginger Rae,” Maggie says, wanting to get back to her book without being rude.
“They don’t come on Wednesdays. I’m Sylvie, by the way. You must be Maggie Boothe?”
Maggie puts her bookmark in her book and closes it. She shifts on the couch, inviting Sylvie to sit if she wants. “I am.”
“You look just like your sister. I heard you were in town.”
Maggie nods. “We’re twins.” She’s not sure who Sylvie might have heard about her from so she doesn’t address that comment.
“I was so sorry to hear about your parents. To think they killed themselves when they could have reached out to anyone for help. Everyone really loved them.”
Sylvie’s voice is calm and soft, making Maggie want to continue talking to her. Maggie pats the space next to her and says, “Why don’t you sit down. It doesn’t look too busy right now.”
Sylvie sits. “Tess and Gina can take care of everyone.”
“What do you know about my parents and why they might have killed themselves?” Maggie asks. She’s learned to always start with what a possible lead thinks they know rather than tell them what really happened at the start of the conversation.
Sylvie shakes her head. “You must be the only coffee drinker in your family, because I don’t think I’ve ever seem Eleanor, Charles or Clementine in here.”
“My mom didn’t come in with her friends? I thought I was filling that void for them.”
Sylvie chuckles and shakes her head. “They used to come in and get coffees to go. I think they would visit with your mom at Two Sisters in the mornings. But now they hang out here instead.”
Maggie nods and sips her coffee. If she’s not careful, she’ll soon be shaking from all the caffeine. “So you don’t know anything about my parents’ death?”
“No, sorry.” Sylvie looks disappointed in herself that she can’t offer any comfort.
“Because it wasn’t suicide. I’m here trying to find out who killed them.”
Sylvie’s eyes grow wide in surprise and she clutches at her heart with her hand.
“Can you think of anyone who might have seen anything? I’ve talked to Leah Scott, their neighbor,” Maggie continues.
Sylvie pauses, deep in thought, and then says, “Talk to Vince and Harriet Flint. They’re also neighbors, right?” Maggie nods. She’s heard their name come up at least once. “They’re elderly and retired and keep their eye on everything going on around town. If anyone saw anything, it was them.”
CHAPTER 19
Maggie finishes her second cup of coffee and the chapter she’s reading before leaving The Coffee Bean. She waves to Sylvie and heads back home. She has work to do.
First things first, though. She goes back upstairs to finish cleaning up her parents’ bedroom. As Maggie puts title after title back on the shelf, she finds herself stopping to read each one. One of her favorite novels catches her eye—The Time Traveler’s Wife—and she leaves it on the bed to take back to her room. Even though she’s read it three times, she can’t pass up a fourth.
Many of the other books look like they’ve been saved from the dumpster they’re so old. Or they came through Two Sisters and when no one bought them after months, or years, on a shelf, her mother brought them home to give them a new life.
It’s noon before Maggie is satisfied that everything is back in its correct place, except the picture frames that weren’t salvageable, and she goes downstairs. The dogs are both asleep on the couch and jump off as soon as Maggie sees them, a first. Clem has them trained just well enough to know they’re not supposed to be on there but they still test the limits.
Maggie makes herself a roasted vegetable Panini with the leftovers from Monday night that went untouched yesterday. She is just sitting down for her first bite when the doorbell rings.
Maggie considers not answering it. Hardly anyone knows she’s here so it’s probably not for h
er. It could be a delivery driver dropping off a package and just letting anyone who’s home know it’s there. Or solicitors, who she doesn’t want to talk to anyway.
She takes a bite and the doorbell rings again. She gives in and lets her lunch get interrupted.
Maggie opens the door and is greeted by a massive bouquet of lilies. With the sound of the door opening, the flowers are lowered to reveal who has brought them. Standing with a grin on his face to match the huge bouquet is Josh McMann.
“I had such a good time last night,” he says, handing her the flowers.
Maggie is flabbergasted. Who brings flowers after one date to the weekly Bingo game?
“I . . . I don’t know what to say,” Maggie stutters after she swallows the bite of her sandwich she was still chewing when she opened the door. “They’re . . . beautiful. Thank you.”
“Can I come in?” Josh asks, more forward than Maggie would like but she doesn’t have the heart to turn him away when he’s making such a big effort.
“Of course.” She steps aside to let him pass. “I just sat down to lunch. Can I make you something?”
“No, no, I ate already. Thanks.”
Maggie leads him back to the kitchen where she searches under the sink and any cabinet for a vase big enough to hold the bouquet. She finally finds something in the cupboard above the fridge. She has to stand on a chair to get it down safely.
Once the flowers are on the table and Maggie is self-consciously eating her lunch again, Josh says, “I just stopped by to see what you’re doing tonight. I’d love to take you out for drinks.”
Maggie chews slowly, planning her response carefully to let him down easily. She swallows and has no other stalling technique. “Thank you for the invitation,” she starts and she can see his face fall. “But Clem and I have plans to go out with some friends from high school tonight.” It’s not a complete lie. Clem was friends with Denis and Daniel. And who knows, maybe after tonight Maggie will be, too.