HOLY SMOKE (An Andi Comstock Supernatural Mystery, Book 1)

by Ann Simas

  “Yes,” Andi promised. “I’ll come back tomorrow.” She sent a quick prayer skyward that she’d have something positive to say to Sherry that would give her hope. And peace.

  . . .

  Jack arrived a little after seven. Andi had a pot of chicken tortilla soup going on the stove and a loaf of bread heating in the oven. He took off his coat, accepted a beer, and after giving her a quick kiss, lifted his nose for an appreciative smell. “You didn’t tell me you can cook.”

  “You didn’t ask. How are you?”

  “Tired. It’s been a helluva week.”

  “Because of this case?”

  “Initially, no, but now that the ME has his tox results back, all hell is going to break loose on this one.”

  Andi took his hand and lead him to the sofa, where she told him to put up his feet and relax.

  Jack laughed. “You are shameless.”

  Andi shrugged. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I can hardly wait to hear what you have to say.”

  He took a long slug from his beer, then cradled the bottle and looked at her. “Let’s cut to the chase, then. It looks like Sherry died from mercury poisoning.”

  Even though she’d been expecting Jack to confirm murder, Andi still collapsed against the back of the sofa, stunned. “Poisoned.”

  “Yep.”

  “I thought they couldn’t get anything organic from the cremation remains.”

  Jack lifted a finger. “True, but we have a super swift ME in this county and he’s been doing autopsies a long time. Remember his hunch? He saved those organs for a reason, and since the original samples were misplaced, it turns out he saved them for two good reasons.” He gave her a satisfied smirk. “Lucky for us, mercury is a metallic element.”

  “Mercury poisoning,” Andi repeated. “How the heck does someone get that?”

  “The doc gave me a quick overview. It can happen from ingestion through vapor or swallowing or through the skin. All we have to do now if figure out the how and we’ll have the who, and the why.”

  “You make it sound so simple,” Andi said.

  Jack grunted and took another swig of his beer. “It should have sounded time consuming,” he muttered.

  She glanced at him sideways, then asked, “Have you told Father Riley or Phil yet?”

  He shook his head.

  “Is it okay if I update Father Riley when I see him on Sunday? We’re having lunch.”

  “Just be sure he knows he can’t talk about it to anyone else and don’t tell Phil at all.” His silence drug on. “I shouldn’t even be discussing this with you.”

  Andi nodded. “I understand.” She watched him fiddle with the paper label on his bottle. “I’ve done a little research,” she said, and added quickly when he raised a dark eyebrow at her, “and I know that you look at people with motive first. Does that mean you’ll be talking to Vaughn?”

  “This was computer research, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Why didn’t you just ask me?”

  “You weren’t here when I thought about it a couple of nights ago at two a.m.”

  Without taking his eyes off her, he took another sip from his bottle. “The spouse is usually the first suspect,” he said noncommittally.

  “Hmm.”

  “What?”

  “At Sherry’s request, I’m paying a visit to the Hemmer house tomorrow. She wants me to comfort her husband and give her kids a hug and a kiss for her.”

  Jack tensed. “Comfort him!”

  “I’ve been sending you Sherry emails every day. I told you I was going to do as she asked.”

  “That’s total bullshit, Andi. You’ve never met this guy, and for all we know, he’s a cold-blooded killer. There’s no way in hell you’re going over there.”

  “There’s no way in hell I’m not! Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Jack.”

  His jaw flexed noticeably and his green eyes morphed into stormy seas of emotion.

  “Don’t you think Sherry would know if her husband killed her?”

  “No, I do not think that! And how are you supposed to hug and kiss kids you’ve never met?”

  “I haven’t got that part figured out yet, but I am definitely going over there. If you’re so concerned about me, why don’t you come along?”

  Jack plopped his feet on the floor and sat up straight. “Oh, that would be just great, wouldn’t it?” he asked sarcastically. “I’m going to haul his ass in for questioning on the death of his wife and you want me to go over for a social call beforehand.”

  “Well, I—”

  “You’re not going.”

  Andi stood up, incensed. “Just who do you think you’re talking to, Jack, your dog? I’m a big girl. I don’t intend to say one freaking word to Vaughn about his wife being poisoned, so why in the heck would he want to harm me?”

  Jack stood, as well, and stared her down. “No one’s seen or heard from the guy since he went to the memorial service in Bellevue. Who knows what state of mind he’s in?”

  Andi stood her ground. “The Spences said Sherry and Vaughn were madly in love. I believe them!” She was surprised to hear her voice raise almost to a shout, matching his.

  Jack bent down slightly, the veins on his neck suddenly prominent as he raised his voice back at her. “Have you ever heard of a crime of passion?”

  Andi thought about taking a step back, but resolved to stay firm. “Aren’t crimes of passion spur-of-the-moment? I assume mercury poisoning would take some time!”

  He straightened and glared down at her for several moments. “So, nothing I can say will dissuade you from going over there?”

  “Nothing,” she said stubbornly. “But I will call you the moment I leave there and tell you how it went.”

  Jack hooted. “I don’t need a spy.”

  “I am not going to be your double-oh-seven,” she informed him. “We agreed to share updates, remember? This will be me sharing.”

  Jack tipped up his bottle and polished off his beer. He walked into the kitchen and set the empty down none too gently.

  Andi watched in stubborn dismay as he pulled on his jacket, growling, grumbling, and glaring at her all the while. “You don’t want to stay for dinner?” she asked.

  “I need to blow off some steam. By myself.” He fastened up his jacket, staring at her. If a human could’ve had steam coming of his ears, Jack would have been a sight to see.

  Andi clasped her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. She’d never in her life had an argument with a boyfriend. Not that Jack was her boyfriend, but they had kissed…. She thought about apologizing, but she had nothing to apologize for. She then thought about telling him she wouldn’t pay a visit to Sherry’s husband and kids, but she’d promised Sherry she would, and Andi never broke a promise. She then thought about begging him not to be mad, but right at that moment, she really didn’t give a damn if he was.

  She turned away from him and went to open the door. “Thanks for stopping by,” she said, her tone polite but cold.

  His scowl deepened, if that was possible. “Good. Night.”

  Andi gave him the courtesy of being completely out the door before she shut and locked it. She refrained from slamming it, because she just felt that would give him some kind of satisfaction. Well, that’s just plain dumb! she thought, then considered kicking it, but realized it would probably hurt, so she didn’t.

  She went to the stove and turned off the soup and pulled the bread out of the oven. She’d never felt less like eating in her life. Until tonight, she hadn’t even known she’d lose her appetite over an argument with a guy. Yeah, Jack was a cop, but who was he to tell her who she could and couldn’t see?

  She turned off the light in the kitchen, leaving both the bread and soup to cool before she put them in the fridge, and headed for her laptop.

  She had a little research to do on mercury poisoning.

  . . .

  Not more than fifteen minutes after Andi had begun her
search, someone knocked at her front door. By now, it was pitch black outside and any moon was hidden behind rain clouds. She had no porch light to switch on, but the outside stairwell was well-illuminated from the exterior lights.

  Andi peered through the peephole. Jack stood on her doorstep, staring—or should she say, glaring?— directly at her. “Who is it?” she asked, out of perversity.

  Apparently, feeling a little perverse himself, he responded, “Police, ma’am. Open up!”

  She thought about greeting him with a bucket of cold water, then considered a good swift kick in the shin instead. Before she could conjure up any more forms of retribution, he grinned.

  And Andi knew he’d come back to apologize. As she opened the door to him, she wondered if she’d need to heat up the soup, or, if having left the lid on it, it was still hot enough to eat.

  “Shall we start over?”

  “Good idea,” Andi said. “Hi, Jack.”

  “Hi, Andi.” He stepped over the threshold and she closed the door. “I thought about changing into my donkey suit, but I figured I can bray well enough without it.”

  Andi grinned.

  He leaned down and kissed her.

  When they pulled apart, he asked, “Am I still invited for dinner, even though I’m an ass?”

  “Absolutely, and when we’re done, I’ll show you what I found on the Internet.”

  “You are a woman with a one-track mind.”

  “Two-track,” she corrected, going in for a second kiss. “But who’s counting?”

  CHAPTER 12

  The next morning, Andi wanted to stay in bed and daydream about her and Jack locking lips the night before, after they’d gotten up from the computer. But she needed to shower and wash her hair, then dry it before she went to see Sherry’s family. Daydreaming didn’t fit into the day’s calendar.

  She got tingly all over just thinking about kissing Jack. And, they had a real date tonight. Not just a spur-of-the-moment thing like they’d been doing, but a real, honest-to-goodness date, maybe with candlelight on the table to set a romantic mood.

  After she visited the Hemmers and reported back to Sherry, she planned to go shopping for a new dress that would knock Jack’s socks off.

  Two hours later, Andi rang the bell outside the beautiful leaded-glass double-door entry at Sherry’s home. Vaughn Hemmer answered, trailed by four kids in various states of dress, or undress, as it were. The twin toddlers were in similar Mickey Mouse T-shirts and diapers and the older twin girls wore sweats of different colors, topped with two different Ariel-the-mermaid T-shirts. One had a ponytail, the other wore her long, tangled hair down and kept pushing it out of her eyes.

  “You must be Andi,” Vaughn said. “Please come in. Sorry we’re in such a state here. Our nanny is down with the flu and we’re fending for ourselves as best we can until Sherry’s parents get here.” His gaze swept wide, the gesture encompassing all four of his children. “We’re just finishing up with lunch, as you might have guessed.”

  Andi extended a hand to him, which he took and shook warmly. A big, good-looking man, he sported stubble on his lean cheeks and looked as if he hadn’t slept in weeks, which he probably hadn’t. His offspring had quieted down once the door opened and they stared up at her with the biggest, bluest eyes Andi had ever seen. They looked a lot like their mom, at least as far as Andi was concerned from her memories of Sherry, but they also had some of their dad’s features.

  Vaughn closed the door and introduced his children. “Ashley, Micah, Trevor, and Etta,” he said, finishing with the girl with the untamed hair. Andi knelt to their level to greet them, and because each of the older kids extended their hands to her somberly, and the younger ones parroted them, she shook each hand and uttered a greeting and a compliment to them as she went.

  “I gots to go pee-pee,” said Micah.

  “Okay, buddy, head to the bathroom and I’ll be there in a minute.” Micah waddled off down the hall and Vaughn said, “Kids, take Andi to the family room and we’ll be right there, as soon as Micah finishes going potty.”

  Andi was momentarily taken aback to hear a man, whom she knew to be famous in the world of business, use the word “potty.” But then how else would a dad talk, if not on his child’s level, she decided a moment later.

  The girls, who were the almost five years old, chatted all the way down the hall, asking Andi if she knew that their mommy had gone to Heaven.

  As she settled on the large circular sofa, Andi bit her lip and blinked furiously in an attempt to quell her tears. She studied each child in turn, not wanting to say the wrong thing.

  Trevor studied her back, and said, “Mommy goed to lib with God and the angels.”

  Ashley and Etta nodded in agreement. “Good people always go to Heaven when they die,” Etta said. She used both hands to shove the hair off her face.

  “Your mommy was a good person,” Andi concurred. “The very best.”

  “I miss Mommy,” Ashley said, tears suddenly streaming over her chubby cheeks. “I don’t want her to be in Heaven. I want her to be at home.”

  “Me, too,” Etta said, her eyes also wet.

  “I want Mommy!” Trevor wailed.

  Andi, who didn’t know she had a motherly bone in her body, opened her arms to the three little ones and they launched themselves at her. Their dad came back to find a cryfest seriously underway with all four of them. Not to be left out, Micah joined in. Vaughn watched over them in silence, his own tears, spilling from eyes bleak with grief, coursing down his cheeks.

  Eventually, Trevor climbed down from Andi’s lap and toddled over to the tissue box on an end table. She suspected this family had gone through more than their fare share of Kleenex over the past weeks. The little guy offered each of them a tissue, including his dad, who took several.

  Everyone was in the process of blowing their nose or wiping their eyes when the doorbell rang. Vaughn excused himself to answer. He returned moments later with Sally and Edgar Spence. From the way the children threw themselves at them, it was obvious they loved their grandparents. Andi knew that road ran both ways.

  “Hello, Andi,” Sally said, stooping to pick up Micah, who was trying to climb up her leg.

  “Hi, Mrs. Spence, Mr. Spence.”

  “You can call us Sally and Eddie,” Edgar said.

  “Thank you,” Andi said.

  “I’m so glad you came to see Vaughn and the children,” Sally said.

  “Me, too.” Andi looked at the kids, then at Vaughn, then back to the grandparents. “You have a beautiful family.”

  Sally and Eddie exchanged a glance that left them both with teary eyes. Finally, Sally said, “Okay, kiddos, let’s go get cleaned up from lunch and get dressed. Grampa and I are going to take you to Dairy Queen for dessert.”

  Their grief momentarily forgotten, the siblings began to squeal with delight. Vaughn issued an audible sigh of relief. Andi realized it must be incredibly difficult for a newly-widowed parent to deal not just with his own sorrow, but that of his four young children and his in-laws, as well. He couldn’t truly let his own emotions show until he climbed into his empty bed at night. She couldn’t even imagine….

  Vaughn scrubbed his hands against his face, then looked around at the room which adjoined the kitchen and dining area. “This place is a mess. Dotty makes childcare and housework seem effortless and I can’t even get the toys put away or clean up the lunch dishes.”

  “I’m good at kitchen duty,” Andi said. “Why don’t I help you there and we can talk. That is, if you want to. About Sherry.”

  He almost broke down again, but after a lot of rapid blinking and jaw flexing, he seemed to get his emotions under control. “If you’re sure it’s no trouble, I’d like that.”

  “No trouble at all,” Andi assured him. She removed her jacket and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt.

  For the next half hour the two of them worked in the kitchen, rinsing, loading the dishwasher, washing and drying by hand the dishes that
wouldn’t fit, wiping down the table and countertops, sweeping the floor. All the while they talked about Sherry. Sharing memories of her own that she’d long forgotten, Andi also enjoyed hearing Vaughn’s reminisces.

  They moved on to the family room, picking up toys and books, putting them in their proper places. Sherry had been extremely organized about her children’s belongings, so it was obvious where things went.

  The kids came barreling in with their jackets on just as Andi picked up the last sofa pillow off the floor.

  “I’m gonna have a chocolate sundae,” Ashley informed her, her ponytail newly brushed and tied back with a big pink ribbon.

  “I wanna Blizzard with M&Ms,” Etta said, her wild hair tamed, pulled up on each side with pretty little silk daisy clips.

  “I gets an ice cream cup,” Micah contributed.

  “What about you?” Andi asked Trevor, who had remained silent.

  He glanced up at his father, then at his grandmother. “I wanna stwabewy milk shake.”

  Sally looked at Vaughn. “Did he eat all his lunch?”

  “He did,” Vaughn said, “and if he can’t finish the shake, we’ll put it in the freezer for later.”

  Trevor put his almost-three-year-old fist into the air and shouted, “All wight!”

  “How about you guys?” Eddie asked. “Can we bring you back something?”

  “Not for me,” Andi said, imagining they’d be at DQ for an hour, “I’ll probably be gone by the time you get back.”

  “Vaughn?”

  Etta sidled over to her dad. “A Peanut Buster Parfait might make you feel better, Daddy.”

  Andi’s heart almost broke.

  Vaughn put his hand on his daughter’s head as he knelt to meet her eye-to-eye. “Thanks, sweet pea. That sounds like just the thing. Your hair looks beautiful.” He looked at Ashley. “Yours, too. Gramma really knows how to use that brush.”

  “I’ll have to teach you,” Sally said, her voice choked with emotion.

  The other children took the opportunity to say goodbye to their dad, then turned as one to Andi. “You sure you won’t be here when we get back?” Ashley asked, her expression sad.