by Nicole Ellis
My car was blocked in by emergency vehicles, with the side door open, revealing the giant airplane still inside.
“I want this thing out,” I said to Desi. “And I never want to see it again. If I hadn’t brought this over to Dorinda, I wouldn’t have had to go through this.”
“But what would have happened to her then?” Desi pointed out.
“You’re right.” I swear the nose of the airplane seemed to smile at me. “Still, can you help me move this over to the porch?”
“Sure. Do you want a ride home afterward?” She tipped her chin at the emergency vehicles surrounding my car.
“Yes, thank you.” We wiggled the airplane out and set it on the lawn.
Dorinda walked up the sidewalk and nodded toward the airplane. “Thanks. I’ll have someone help me get it inside when I get the all clear.” She hugged me and then Desi. “And thank you both for being there for me.” She shuddered. “If you hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened.”
“Let us know if you need anything else, ok?”
“I will. Thank you again.” Dorinda ran her hand over the airplane’s smooth metal surface. “It feels good to have friends in town.” Tears appeared in her eyes, and I patted her arm.
“I have to go, but I’ll check in on you later when I come for my van.”
She nodded and waved as Desi and I walked toward her car. In the car, Desi turned on the air conditioning, blasting us with cool air.
“Are you ok?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just never want to go through that again.”
“No kidding,” she said. “You both stayed so cool. I was freaked out.”
“You did great. If it hadn’t been for you, Dorinda, Ella, and I would be dead.” My stomach clenched.
“How did you know something was wrong?”
“I got to Dorinda’s house, and I saw your minivan outside with the door open, but you weren’t around.” Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “When I got up on the porch and saw Ella out there alone, I knew something was wrong. I peeked through the window and saw someone waving a gun around, so I grabbed Ella and called the police from across the street.”
“You didn’t have to come back for us. It would have been safer to stay there.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “But I couldn’t leave you alone with that nut job. I went around to the back and saw her leave through the alley, so I knew it was safe to come in.”
“Not really, we could have all blown up.”
She pulled up to my house. My parent’s car was in the driveway.
“I wasn’t thinking about the danger. I just knew I had to do something.”
I reached over the center console and hugged her tightly. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you so much.”
She patted my back. “That’s what friends are for.”
I smiled at her and got myself and Ella out of the car, waving at Desi as she backed out of the driveway.
Wiping tears away from my eyes, I climbed the few steps to my front door and unlocked it. Before I could get the door open, I heard little feet pounding toward the door. I pushed it open gently so as not to hit Mikey.
“Mommy!” he shouted and launched himself into my arms. I leaned down to hug him, squeezing him tighter than normal. He didn’t seem to mind.
“You didn’t come home for dinner, and Grandma said you were delayed. What does delayed mean? Is it bad?”
I peered into his face and ruffled his hair. “No, honey, I’m fine. Delayed means something made me late.”
His face erupted into a smile. “Ok. Hey, Grandma made a blackberry cobbler. You should try it, it’s yummy!” He ran off toward the kitchen, brushing past my mom, who was making her way to the front door.
I moved Ella’s carrier inside. She smiled and blew bubbles at me, completely unfazed by the day’s events. I picked her up and snuggled her close.
“Do you want me to take her?” Mom asked.
“No, I’ll hold her. Thanks.” I smiled at her.
“What happened today?” she whispered.
I glanced at Mikey, chattering away to his grandfather. I didn’t want him to overhear if I told my mother. “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered back.
She caught me checking on Mikey and nodded. We walked together into the kitchen, where she served me a plate full of food. I placed Ella in her high chair and put some mashed carrots and a small portion of meatloaf on the tray in front of her. Mikey and my parents finished their dessert while I ate dinner. Looking around the table, I saw such a peaceful scene that I could almost forget the terror I’d felt when Sandy held a gun on me at Dorinda’s house.
I set my fork down. Sandy. Had they caught her? I suddenly felt a sense of unease.
“Mom? I’m going to make a quick phone call.”
She looked at me with concern but nodded.
I went down the hall and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. Desi answered the call on the second ring.
“Desi. Did they catch Sandy? I can’t focus on anything knowing she could still be out there.” My eyes darted to the window, as if Sandy was lurking close by outside.
“Tomàs just told me they arrested her at her house. She acted like nothing had happened and that we were crazy. I was about to call you when my phone rang.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I’d better get back to the kids and my parents, but I had to know. Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?”
“See you.”
She hung up, and I slowly put the phone back in my pocket. This wasn’t exactly what I’d intended when I vowed to help Brenda by finding out who had killed Louis Mahoney, but we were all safe, and everything had turned out ok.
I plastered a smile on my face and returned to the dinner table.
“Everything ok?” my dad asked.
“Yep, everything’s fine.”
I’m sure it would be in a few days, but until then, I’d have to fake it. I never wanted them to know how close I’d come to death.
21
The next morning, Adam was home, and I filled him in on what had happened at Dorinda’s house while he filled his travel coffee mug from the carafe.
“You could have been killed.” He set down the cream he’d been pouring in his coffee and stared at me.
“I know.” The icy fear shot through my body again. I knew from past experience that for a while, every time I thought about what happened, I would relive it. I only hoped that it would pass quickly. “But I wasn’t. I’m fine, Ella’s fine.”
He wrapped his arms around me, looking into my eyes. “You need a break.”
“Right. I know. But that’s never going to happen.” Although the auction was over, I still had my job, my family, and everything else I was responsible for. A break was a far-off dream for the future.
“Eh, it might be closer than you think,” he said mysteriously. He kissed me atop my head. “See you after work.”
I watched his car pull out of the driveway. What had he meant by a break being closer than I’d think? Excitement rose in my chest. Would we someday get to go on that couples vacation I’d been dreaming of?
I’d gone through this before and only experienced disappointment when our vacation plans had turned into a camping trip with the kids—that I was in charge of planning. For once, I wanted someone to plan a vacation, preferably somewhere tropical, and tell me when and where to show up. With a husband as busy as Adam, though, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
My parents surprised me by asking to take Ella and Mikey out on a day trip to Pike Place Market and the Seattle waterfront, leaving me free to catch up on some work that I’d put off in the auction crunch. When that was finished, I met Desi for lunch at Elmer’s Sea of Fish.
We took our fried cod and chips to the beach and straddled a beach log facing each other to eat. I propped my large iced tea up in a small indentation in the gnarled wood.
“You don’t look so
good,” Desi said.
“Well, I did have a gun pointed at me yesterday.” I glared at her. The truth was, I’d had nightmares about a crazed Sandy all night and hadn’t slept well.
“Yeah.” She gazed out at Puget Sound. “Next time, let’s leave any sleuthing to the police.”
“Hey, it wasn’t even my investigation that got me in that mess.”
“You said Sandy knew we’d been in her house and that we’d told the police about the photos of her husband with other women.”
I made a face. She had a point. “You’re the one who wanted to bring her a casserole so we could snoop.”
Desi grinned and held up her hands in front of her face. “I know, I know.” Her expression darkened. “I’ve never been so scared as when I saw Ella sitting there alone on the porch and then saw you and Dorinda on the couch with your hands and feet bound when I peeked in the window. I don’t want to do that again.”
“No sleuthing for us ever again, agreed?” I held out my hand and she shook it.
“Deal.”
We polished off our food and stuffed the wrappers into the paper sack from Elmer’s. I slurped my iced tea and willed my mind to relax. The waves lapping at the shore did little to soothe the activity in my brain. What had Adam been hinting about that morning?
“Adam mentioned something about taking a break. Has he said anything to you about a vacation?”
She suddenly became very interested in her soft drink cup, drawing designs in the condensation.
“Desi … do you know something?”
She looked up but avoided my gaze. “Maybe he’s going to quit his job soon?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “No, that’s not the impression I got.”
She shrugged and hopped off the log. “I don’t talk to him much.”
I noticed she hadn’t answered my question, but I dropped the line of inquisition. “Are you sending Anthony to summer camp at Busy Bees?”
“Yes, he’ll have the same schedule as usual. Mikey?”
I nodded. “I think he’ll go most weeks this summer. He’s too active to keep with me at the Boathouse on a regular basis, and I think he’ll have more fun with friends. It’ll be weird to not be with him during the days this summer though.”
“I was talking with Tomàs about going camping, maybe in August. Do you guys want to come?”
“Sounds fun. I’ll see if Adam can get the time off.”
“So has he said anything lately about quitting?” Desi sucked her drink down until air bubbles crackled through the plastic straw.
I jumped down onto the soft sand, which shifted under the rubber soles of my sandals. I brushed the sand off the backs of my legs and picked up the remains of our lunch from the log.
“He hasn’t said anything.” I looked out at the calm seas. The salty air filled my lungs, invigorating me. I turned to Desi and stared into her eyes. “I’m going to ask him tonight. He needs to make a decision about his job soon. I can’t take this indecisiveness anymore.”
“Good for you.” She smiled. “Sometimes he needs a nudge to make a big jump.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I’d always thought of my husband as being a strong decision-maker, but in reality, he’d gone from college straight into this job. He’d never really tried anything else. For the sake of our family and his own sanity, he’d decided to branch out on his own with a small private practice to be opened in Ericksville. But to do that, he needed to quit his old job.
After saying goodbye to Desi, I went home and made a list of everything I could think of that Adam would need to do to set up a new business. When I finished, I could see why he felt overwhelmed by the task, but I was determined to make this work for our family. I printed out a list of commercial real estate spaces in downtown Ericksville and information about the necessary licenses and insurance that he’d need. Then, my enthusiasm deflated, and I settled down on the couch in front of the TV, watching reruns of a sitcom until Adam came home.
“Hey, honey,” he said, setting his messenger bag down on the recliner. “Busy day?” He motioned to me lying on the couch and raised his eyebrows.
I rose hastily. “I was so tired after everything that I couldn’t do anything else until I’d rested for a while.”
He smiled and came over to stand in front of me, resting his hands on my shoulders. “I wasn’t being critical. You deserve some time off. In fact, you need more than just an afternoon of TV.” He stared into my eyes. “How would you feel about a week in Jamaica?”
“That would be awesome, but it’s never going to happen with the kids and our work schedules.” The enormity of everything that would need to slip into place to have a couple’s vacation hit me, making me more weary than I’d been before.
“It’s all taken care of.” He walked over to his bag and retrieved a brochure that matched the one I’d found in the mail. “We leave on Saturday.”
My eyes bugged out. “You’re kidding. Saturday? As in four days from now?” I leaned back into the couch, filled with a mix of exhilaration and apprehension. “Who’s watching the kids?”
“Your parents are going to stay here to watch them together,” he said smoothly.
“But I have responsibilities at the Boathouse,” I protested. “I can’t leave your parents hanging.” I did like the idea of my parents spending time together in a different environment from their house. It might have been a little Parent Trap-ish, but I still had hope that they’d decide to stay together.
“Who do you think helped put me in touch with the travel agency I booked through? My mom recommended an old friend of hers over on Grand Avenue in Everton.”
That location sounded familiar. Grand Avenue was where Adam had received the red light camera ticket. Relief flooded through me. I knew he hadn’t cheated on me, but there was still a little part of me that had been concerned about what he’d been doing in that part of town.
“So Beth is taking over for me next week?”
He nodded. “She is. And Desi said she’d help out if they needed it.” He leaned in to me. “Honey, you need a vacation.”
“But what about your job? Will they let you take this time off?”
“I have weeks of vacation saved up. They were fine with it.”
I remembered the lists I’d made earlier. “Have you thought any more about quitting your job?”
Adam sighed. “I have. I even looked at a few office spaces in Ericksville, but I haven’t found the right location yet.”
I went to my desk and brought back the lists and printouts I’d prepared. “I know it’s overwhelming, but we can work on it together, ok?” I gave him a chance to review the documents.
He scanned them and then lifted his head, relief discernible in his features. “Thanks. When we get back from vacation, I’ll take a closer look at these. I’m going to take a few extra days off after we get back. Maybe I can knock off some of these tasks then.”
Tears came to my eyes. Maybe his career change would become a reality sometime in the near future.
“Great,” I said. “Now, let’s get packing for that trip. I can’t wait to relax on the beach without a little hand grabbing me to ask for another cup of juice. Are you sure we can’t leave today?”
Laughing, he led me to the stairs and we went up to our bedroom together to start packing and getting a head start on our romantic couples-only vacation. For the first time in weeks, I felt truly hopeful about the future and more than a little excited for a week of fun in the sun. It was more than I could have dreamed about.
22
The next day, I brought the auction proceeds check with me when I picked up Mikey from preschool. There was no getting around it. I had to see Nancy to give her the check. Buoyed by the thought of my upcoming vacation, the thought of seeing her didn’t bother me nearly as much as it usually would.
Outside, the sun shone brightly, glinting off the steeple of the Lutheran church a few blocks away, and a slight breeze kicked up the scent of the flower bushes b
looming next to the door to Busy Bees Preschool. I’d had a productive day at work and was filled with optimism for the future.
Parents were showing up to check their kids out of school, and I had to weave my way through a teeming mass of children and adults to get through the lobby. I stuck my head into Mikey’s classroom, but his teacher was still reading them a story, so I opted to find Nancy before getting him. I passed by Sugar and Spice’s terrarium and had a fleeting thought that maybe they weren’t too bad. Should I let Mikey take them home? I stared at them and then thought better of it. My newfound bright outlook on life didn’t extend to allowing rodents in my house.
I traveled down the hallway, glancing into every room. There was no sign of Nancy. Had she not come in to volunteer that day? Busy Bees was her life, and I wasn’t sure what she’d do when her youngest daughter aged out of the school after pre-kindergarten the next year.
In a darkened classroom, I found her. She was sitting on a stool leaning against the wall, crying. She blew her nose loudly. As I approached, she quickly stood and smoothed her skirt.
“Nancy? Is that you?” I called out, acting as if I didn’t know it was her.
“You’re not supposed to be back here. This classroom is closed up for the day.”
I took a step back, out of the room. Given the circumstances, I’d give her the joy of telling me what to do for once.
“Sorry. I was looking for you, and I thought I heard someone back here.” I inched further into the hallway. “I have the auction check for you. I’ll meet you in Ms. Shana’s classroom, ok?”
“Yes. I will see you in a few minutes.” She sniffled, almost imperceptibly. I hurried away. I wasn’t sure how she’d react to having been seen in a weakened state.
I hung out at the back of Mikey’s classroom for several minutes before Nancy appeared. Her eyes were rimmed with red, but she’d regained her composure.
“So you’re here with the check?” Her eagle eyes assessed me.
I nodded. “I think you’ll be happy with the total. The parents were quite generous this year.”