by J A Whiting
Jenna turned away from her laptop. “Someone should talk to Cora. Ask her about the things we’ve been wondering about.”
Courtney ran her hand over Euclid’s fur and eyed Angie. “I elect Angie.”
“Why me?” Angie protested.
“Because.” The corner of Courtney’s mouth turned up. “You have the most finesse.”
Angie groaned and stood up. “I better go find her.” Eyeing the two felines resting on the sofa between Courtney and Finch, she added, “Maybe the cats will come with me.”
Euclid gave the honey-blonde a dirty look, but he stood and stretched and jumped off the sofa with Circe following behind him.
After being directed by Mel Abel, Angie and the cats headed for the sunroom to find Cora. “That is one quiet woman,” Mel had bellowed and pointed across the foyer to where Cora was most likely to be found. Sitting around the dining table, Mel and Orla and two other guests were engaged in a serious game of cards.
“Where’s Jenna?” Orla looked up from the cards she was holding in her hands.
“She’s having her dinner.” Angie wondered why Orla was interested in where her Jenna was.
Cora was reading quietly by the window when the two cats and Angie entered the sunroom. Cora lifted her head from her book.
“May I sit with you?” Angie asked.
Cora nodded. “Do you have news?”
“No, but I’d like to talk with you if you’re up to it.” The cats jumped up on the white couch and snuggled next to Angie.
“Of course.” Cora closed her book and set it aside on the table.
“It seems that Richard might not have attended high school in Mill City.” Angie looked directly at Cora to watch her reaction. “Do you have any idea where he might have gone to school?”
Cora’s eyes narrowed, but her face remained neutral. “He went to high school in Mill City. It was South High.”
“Do you know when he graduated? What year was it?”
Cora clasped her hands in her lap and her brows squeezed together. “It must have been the year before I graduated.” She told Angie when she’d graduated high school. “I know Richard went to a school in another city for the first half of high school.”
“Could there have been an alternative program that he attended? Maybe he studied in the evenings for his GED? Maybe he had to work during the day and could only attend school at night.”
Cora swallowed and glanced out the window to the dark rear yard. Her voice was barely audible. “I don’t think so. Richard never mentioned anything like that.”
Angie smiled and tried to act nonchalant about the questionable information that Richard had shared with his wife. “Mr. Finch and I are going to take a drive to Mill City in the morning and we’ll swing by the high schools to ask about Richard.”
Cora seemed to have diminished in size shrinking back against the easy chair. She gave a slight nod.
“We’d like to talk to Karl again while we’re down there.”
Cora’s eyebrows shot up as her eyes went wide. “Why? What do you want to talk to him about?”
Angie looked pointedly at Cora. “About Richard.”
“But, what about?” Cora blubbered.
“More about the day Richard went missing. Would you tell Karl to expect us around 11am?”
Cora gave a barely perceptible nod.
“I was wondering about something.” Angie tried to keep her tone even and pleasant. “Are you not teaching this term?”
Cora blinked a few times. “I took some personal leave time.”
“You don’t have to stay here with us, you know.” Angie spoke gently. “We can talk by phone or come down when we need to. Or you can come up for a few hours, if necessary. You don’t need to be away from home. It’s only an hour away.”
Cora opened her mouth, but then closed it as she shrugged a shoulder. “I thought it would be helpful if I stayed.”
“It’s okay to go back,” Angie said encouragingly. “We don’t want to keep you from your job or your sons or your friends. We’ll keep in touch.”
“I don’t mind.” Cora gave a weak smile.
Angie leaned slightly forward and asked in a kind voice, “Is there a reason you don’t want to be home right now?”
“What? No. Everything’s fine … I mean, nothing’s fine, but there’s no reason,” Cora stammered.
The cats lifted their heads and glanced at Angie.
Angie could feel that Cora was holding something back and the sensation caused a chill to run through her blood. “Has Karl been difficult to have at home?”
Cora forced a chuckle. “Aren’t all adult children difficult to live with?”
Angie ignored the statement and asked the next question. “Is Karl involved with drugs?”
“No.” Cora shook her head with vigor.
“What about his friends? Are they involved with drugs?”
Cora bit her lower lip. “I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
Angie decided to be direct. “Are you afraid to be at home right now?”
Cora’s hand flew up to her throat like a fluttering bird, but she shook her head and forced another chuckle. “Of course not.” Glancing at her watch, Cora reached for her book from the table. “Everything’s fine.” She nodded for emphasis. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to head up to my room now. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” The woman walked quickly out of the sunroom leaving Angie and the two cats sitting on the sofa.
Looking at her feline companions, Angie sighed. “Everything’s not fine and there is a reason that Cora doesn’t want to be at home right now.”
Euclid and Circe growled low in their throats.
Angie looked towards the sunroom doorway. “But the question is …what is that reason?”
17
Parked in the visitor lot of one of the Mill City high schools, Ellie sat in the driver’s seat of her van with Angie in the back and Finch sitting in the front passenger seat. They had just come out of the third and last high school in Mill City. Snow flurries fluttered down and gathered over the windshield wipers. Ellie and Finch perched in their seats so that they could see Angie behind them as they discussed the early morning visits to the schools.
The three had been welcomed by the office staffers who, before running some reports on their computers trying to locate Richard Connors’s records, explained that due to privacy laws, they could only confirm the man’s attendance and could not provide any details about his grades or courses taken.
Nothing came up indicating that the man had gone to any of the schools. The secretaries pulled out yearbooks from the time the man was supposed to be in attendance, but like Jenna’s investigation, they came up empty. “If he attended school here,” the secretaries declared, “he would be listed as a graduate in the yearbook.”
“So what do you make of it?” Ellie pulled her gloves on while looking from Finch to Angie.
“Mr. Connors was not a student at any of these high schools, despite what he told his wife.” Finch looked out the window at the sprawling, one-level school. “Either Cora misunderstood or the man lied to his wife.”
Angie sighed. “What’s going on here? Why would Richard hide where he went to school? If he didn’t graduate from high school, then how did he get into college?”
“Who knows?” Ellie adjusted in her seat and turned the key in the ignition. “Let’s go talk to Karl.”
In less than fifteen minutes, the amateur sleuths were sitting in Cora Connors’s living room. Karl, unshaven and with mussed hair, slouched in his seat, his legs dangling over the arm of the chair. His bare feet stuck out from the bottom of his jeans.
“Did your mother forget to tell you we were coming?” Ellie sat straight.
“Naw. She told me. I forgot to set the alarm.” Karl yawned and rubbed his eyes.
“Late night?” Angie smiled trying to make Karl comfortable.
Karl only shrugged. “What’s this visit about? Didn’t we cover everything las
t time?”
The smile faded from Angie’s face. She could see how Karl would be a pain to have living in the house. “What do you know about your father’s credit card that was recently used for several purchases?”
“Nothing. Like what?”
“Like why wasn’t that card cancelled when your father went missing?”
Karl shrugged again. “I don’t know.”
“Did your father carry an emergency credit card with him?” Ellie stared with distaste at the slovenly mess before them.
“That’s what my mom said.”
“Mr. Karl, we’d appreciate it if you’d take our questions seriously.” Mr. Finch held his cane between his knees and Angie could see by the look on his face that he might want to give Karl a smack with it.
“I am.” Karl nearly whined.
Angie used an official sounding voice. “You understand that we are not law enforcement? We are only consultants for the police department.” She paused. “You won’t get into trouble by answering my next question honestly. Do you hang around with or know anyone involved with the buying or selling of drugs?”
Karl lifted his head and smirked. “Yeah.”
Angie asked. “Were any of those people angry with you over something at the time of your father’s disappearance?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Karl, we’re trying to help find out what happened to your dad.” Ellie narrowed her eyes and spoke softly. “Any little thing could lead to a clue. Was anyone annoyed with you at the time?”
“Possibly.” Karl swung his legs from the arm of the chair and placed his feet on the floor. He yawned again.
“Could you ever imagine that someone you know could do something terrible when in a rage? Could they lose their temper and beat someone up?”
Karl ran his hand over his hair. “Sure.”
“Who?” Ellie wanted names.
Karl snorted. “Everyone I know.”
Angie leaned forward trying to make eye contact with Karl. “What do you think happened to your father? You must have a theory.”
A cloud covered the young man’s face. “You want to know what I think? I think dear old Dad took off, left us, skedaddled. I bet he planned it for years. I bet he siphoned off money into another account. He was the one who handled the bills, Mom wouldn’t have known. I bet he got falsified documents under another name, a driver’s license, a passport. I’m only surprised that he left his precious shoes behind. They were more important to him than we were.” Karl’s jaw tightened. “You want to know what I think? I think good riddance, glad you’re gone, Dad, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. That’s what I think.” Karl stood up, his fists clenched. “I need coffee.” He left the room without asking the guests if they wanted anything.
Ellie blinked as she watched the young man leave the living room. “So, is the interview over?”
Angie’s heart was pounding as she let out a breath. “No, it isn’t. If he doesn’t come back, we’ll join him in the kitchen.” She looked at Mr. Finch. “We might want to take this time to stretch our legs.”
“Indeed.” Mr. Finch gave a wink and stood up with a slight smile on his face. “Perhaps, I will seek out the rest room.”
Angie walked slowly around the room, glancing at objects, checking out the book shelves, quietly opening drawers.
Ellie’s mouth was hanging open. She flicked her eyes to the hall to see if Karl was returning. “What are you doing?” she whispered. “Don’t open their drawers.”
Angie frowned. “There has to be a clue around here. Stand up, Ellie. Walk around. See if you sense anything. I’m going to look in Richard’s office. If Karl comes back, tell him we went to use the bathroom.”
Ellie jumped to her feet. “Oh. Don’t do that. Don’t get caught. I don’t trust this guy. Don’t anger him.”
“Too late, he’s already angry.” Angie touched her sister gently on the arm. “Walk around in here. Try to pick up on anything. Don’t let Karl scare you.” She winked. “There are three of us and only one of him … and one of us has a cane.”
“Angie, don’t go snooping around.” Ellie’s voice shook.
Angie said gently, “You said you wanted to help. Take some deep breaths. Karl won’t hurt us. Open your mind to the energies in this house. Try to feel something. I’ll be right back.”
Ellie gave a reluctant nod of her head as her sister headed out of the living room into the hall.
Her heart pounding, Angie hurried away to Richard’s small office at the back of the house trying to walk as quietly as possible, all the while looking over her shoulder to see if Karl had left the kitchen and was making his return to the living room. Turning the knob on the closed door, she entered and quickly shut the door behind her, breathing out a sigh of relief.
Angie ran her hands over the desk, picked up the pens and pencils, opened the desk drawers, and touched her fingers to papers and file folders. Anything of interest had been removed by the police, but Angie tried closing her eyes and opening her senses to what might have lingered behind. Picking up a blue folder, she flipped through the papers and stopped short as she stared at a bill from an attorney in Mill City addressed to Cora. For a moment, the letters on the page seemed to glow and Angie had to snap her eyes shut as something picked at her with a low-energy buzz.
She froze in place when she heard Karl and Mr. Finch at the other end of the hall.
“I needed to use the rest room,” Mr. Finch spoke. “May I have a cup of tea, if you don’t mind?” Angie knew that Finch was trying to herd Karl back to the kitchen so that she could make her escape from the office. When she heard them retreating, she slipped from the room and hustled quietly back to the living room where she took a seat.
“I almost died waiting for you.” Ellie’s face was pale and her voice breathless. “Karl was almost back here, but Mr. Finch took him into the kitchen. Can we leave? I don’t like it in this house.”
“Soon.” Angie turned when she heard Karl apologize that there weren’t any tea bags in the cupboard. The men entered the room, Karl clutching a coffee mug.
“So are we done here?” Karl looked to Angie.
“Almost.” Angie smiled and nodded. “Just a few more questions.”
Letting out a loud sigh, Karl sat down. “What else do you want to know?”
“Do you know much about your father’s background? Where he grew up? Where he went to school?”
Karl dipped his chin and glared at Angie. “He had a tough upbringing. He went to the state college here in Mill City. He never talked about his life and we weren’t encouraged to ask questions.”
Angie had an idea. “How old is your father?”
“A year older than my mom.”
A scurry of unease shot through Angie’s body. “Are your mother’s parents still living?”
“Yeah. I don’t see much of them. They live in Gloucester.” Karl scowled. “You planning to pester them next?”
“May I remind you that we are looking into your father’s disappearance at your mother’s request.” Ellie held Karl’s eyes.
Angie asked, “Can you think of any reason why your mother might not feel safe here at home?”
An expression of alarm washed over Karl’s face. “She doesn’t feel safe?”
“I didn’t say that.” Angie placed her hands in her lap. “I’m asking if there might be some reason she would be uncomfortable staying at home right now.”
Karl’s eyes darted around the room. “No. Why would she be uncomfortable here?”
Angie glanced at her sister and Finch. “I guess that’s all for now. If you think of anything that might help, just give us a call.” She stood and thanked the young man and the three interrogators left the house. Mr. Finch held Ellie’s arm as they walked to the van.
“Something is not right in that house.” Mr. Finch moved carefully over the spots of ice on the walkway. “I can feel it.”
“Yes.” Angie took a quick look back at the ho
use as she opened the van door. “So can I.”
18
Angie had just put a honey cake in the oven and was wiping down the tables in the bake shop when Jenna came in from the door that linked the shop with the commercial side of the Victorian’s kitchen.
Jenna made herself a hot tea and sat at the counter. “I finished some new designs for the summer line. I’m happy with how they’re coming out. I’ll show you later.” After taking a sip from her cup, she set it down and looked at Angie. “I’m dying to hear what happened on your visit to Mill City, but first I want to tell you what happened when I went over to my house this morning.”
Angie came to stand by the counter and looked at Jenna with interest.
“Courtney went off to the candy store and I was going to work on my designs while watching the B and B for Ellie. I realized I’d left my sketch book at my house so I hurried over to pick it up.” Jenna put her chin in her hand and leaned on the counter top. “The sketch book wasn’t where I left it.”
Angie’s mouth opened. “The ghost?”
“I prefer to call her Katrina.” Jenna nodded. “I had the sensation I was being watched. I hunted all over the downstairs rooms for my book, but I couldn’t find it.”
“What happened?”
“I heard something fall over upstairs. Just like last time. I went upstairs and into the library. The sketchbook had been neatly placed on the small desk by the window. That photograph of Katrina, her husband, and son was sitting right next to my book.”
“Huh.” Angie stared at her sister. “What do you make of it?”
Jenna sighed and chuckled. “I have no idea.”
“Are you worried? Do you feel threatened?”
“Not at all.” Picking up her teacup, she said, “It’s just going to be weird having a third person in the house with us.”
“What does Tom say?”
Jenna laughed. “He said he’s going to charge Katrina rent for living there.”