by Lesley Crewe
“I better get this in the house.”
“Oh, of course dear. Here I am talking your ear off. Now don’t forget, if your mother needs anything, she only has to call.”
“I’ll tell her.”
Lily left in a hurry before Mrs. Mooney said anything else. She put the food in the fridge and went back to sit with the others.
Dahlia shook her head. “I can’t believe it. The whole world is just going on with its regular activities. The garbage truck just went by. Mr. Mooney is over there cleaning his gutters. The kids two doors down are playing street hockey. Don’t they know Aunt Hildy’s dead?”
“That’s the way the world works,” Eli said. “It just keeps revolving, even though for us it’s stopped dead.”
“Dead,” Slater sniffed. “I hate that stupid word.”
Dahlia looked at the other three. “I feel like I’m floating. I’m not attached to anything, ya know?”
Lily hugged herself. “That’s called disassociation. It comes with shock.”
“What’s shocking is how it happened,” Eli said. “It doesn’t make sense that no one saw anything. Did anyone hear anything out of the ordinary?”
Dahlia shook her head. “No. Nothing. We were in the library and I didn’t hear a sound.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you didn’t. Except maybe heavy breathing.”
“Well, where were you then, Miss Innocent?”
“We were in the…ah…dining room, for a while,” Eli confessed.
“The dining room?”
“Well, where were we supposed to go? There were people everywhere. Anyway,” Lily said with exasperation, “we didn’t hear anything from the dining room. But when I went upstairs to go to bed, I thought I saw Faith come down from the attic. I never thought anything of it. I figured she was on one of her ten nightly trips to the john. You don’t think she could have done it?”
Slater clenched his fists. “If she did, I’ll massage her neck real hard. Real hard.”
Dahlia patted his arm. “It’s okay.”
Eli spoke up. “You know, from what I’ve seen of your Aunt Faith, she’s more depressed than angry. I can’t see her shooting anyone, except maybe herself.”
“Your dad was pretty angry with Aunt Hildy last night,” Slater mused. “You don’t think it could be him?”
“What a horrible thing to say!” Dahlia shouted. “How can you even think such a thing?”
Slater raised his hands, “Okay, okay. I’m sorry I said anything.”
“Well, you should be. Gee whiz, I don’t say stuff like that about your father, even though he’s the meanest person alive. My dad is a hundred times better than your dad.”
“You were mad at your dad last night too,” Slater reminded her. “I’m not the only one who thinks he’s been a real jerk to your mom.”
Dahlia stood up. “What did you say?”
Eli saw that Lily was about to jump in, so he quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her in the house.
“It’s true,” Slater told her. “Your mom is the best and I don’t think he should go around getting mad at her all the time and making her so unhappy. You’ve said the same thing yourself, don’t forget.”
Dahlia poked him in the shoulder. “I’m allowed to say it because he’s my dad. Who are you to criticize him? He’s only ever been nice to you.”
“Your mom’s nicer.”
“How dare you!” Dahlia marched towards the front door, grabbed the handle and turned to face him. “Slater, go home.”
“I am home.”
“Not anymore, you’re not.”
She slammed the door behind her and ran into the library, throwing herself on one of the leather chairs. This was the worst day of her life. Her head ached and she just wanted to scream at someone.
Lily thought maybe she should go in there and speak to her, but Eli said that would only make things worse.
“How do you know?”
“I take psych too, remember. I’ll talk to her in a few minutes when she calms down.”
Eli knocked on the library door before he entered. Dahlia didn’t look up. He crossed the room and sat on the ottoman in front of her.
“You okay?”
“NO.”
“He didn’t mean it.”
Dahlia looked at the empty fireplace. “Why did he say it then?”
Eli took a deep breath. “He said it because none of us are thinking clearly. We’re battered and bruised. Aunt Hildy was killed upstairs last night. We’re all in shock, but especially the big guy. He loved that old woman. He’s just trying to figure out who would do such a thing because it makes no sense to him. It was a random thought that meant nothing. And I think you know that.”
Dahlia’s face crumpled and she tore out of the room, blinded by tears. She ran all the way to the front door and threw it open, then down the steps, over the walkway, under the police tape and out into the street, trying to see his car.
When she realized he was gone, she knelt on the ground and put her hands over her face. She rocked back and forth. Her life was over.
Graham saw Dahlia first. He yelled for Elsie. They rushed out of the house. Her mother took her by the shoulders. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“I told Slater this wasn’t his home anymore. I told him to go away and now he thinks I hate him. I can’t believe I was so stupid. I know him. He’ll throw himself off a bridge or something. He’s so upset about Aunt Hildy and I do this to him. I can’t bear it.”
Graham knew what to do. “Dahlia, get in the truck. We’ll go find him.”
She gave him a startled look. “Okay.”
Elsie kissed her. “Everything will be all right, sweetie.”
“Where would he be?” Graham zoomed down the street before she had a chance to put on her seat belt.
Dahlia dried her eyes on her sleeve. “Check at his house first. If his car’s there, I’ll go in.”
“Don’t worry, Dee. He won’t do anything stupid.” I hope, he thought.
She punched her fists into her knees. “How could I have been so rotten?”
“We often hurt people in a thoughtless moment.” He gave her a sideways glance. “We just hope if people love us, they’ll forgive us.”
Dahlia nodded but didn’t look at him.
He added, “Honey, it’s been a terrible day. None of us can think straight. Just say you’re sorry and everything will be all right.”
“I hope so,” she sniffed. “I’d die if anything ever happened to him.”
They pulled up to Slater’s house, but his car wasn’t in the yard. “Never mind. There’s no one home.”
“How do you know? You haven’t even gone in.”
“There’s never anyone there.”
Graham realized he’d never asked about Slater’s family before. “Why not?”
“He’s an only child. His dad’s a drunk and his mom’s always out with one of her dozens of boyfriends.”
“God, that’s awful.”
She started to cry again. “That’s why he’s always over at our house. That’s why he loves Mom so much. She calls him sweetheart and that’s why he loved Aunt Hildy, because he never had a grandmother. Oh my God. I have to find him.”
Now Graham started to panic. “Well, where would he be? Do you have a favourite place you like to go?”
“The library,” she sobbed.
“The library? Slater likes to read books?”
“Not that library. Oh, never mind.” Then she brightened. “I know. Gus.”
“Who’s Gus? A friend?”
“No silly. Gus the Tortoise. Slater loves him. At the museum. Hurry Daddy, hurry.”
Graham drove like a maniac. It was the one thing he could do for her and he didn’t want to screw it up. By the time they got to the museum’s parking lot, his stomach was in knots.
“I see his car!” Dahlia screamed. “He’s here. He’s here.”
He stopped on a dime and she fumbled for the door handle, bu
t not before she turned around and gave him a big smile. “Thanks Daddy.” And out she went.
He watched her run up the stairs to the museum. She looked like her mother just then. Graham put his head on his hands as he gripped the steering wheel. How does everything go so wrong?
She ran until she saw him. He was with a bunch of school kids who were trying to entice Gus out from under one of the display counters.
“Slater!”
He turned at the sound of her voice. She ran right up and jumped in his arms. “I love you so much. Please forgive me. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
He gave her a big hug back. “I love you Dee.”
“Please come home. We need you. Everyone loves you. It’s not the same when you’re not there.”
Slater gave her his sexy blonde playboy smile.
“Sweet.”
Juliet and Robert happened to be in the living room drinking a cup of tea that Crystal made for them when Dahlia went tearing down the hall and out the front door. They munched on their chocolate digestives and watched the soap opera unfold from the window. Apparently Dahlia wanted to be run over by a car, because why else would someone kneel on the street? Thankfully she was rescued by her parents, before they actually had to go out and do something.
Once that died down, they twiddled their thumbs for a while, then went back to their discussion about what to do about Faith. They finally agreed Juliet should talk to her.
“If she confesses, what will you do?”
“How should I know? Have I ever done this before?” she snapped.
“Take a small tape recorder. Then if we get a confession, at least we have proof that you and I are innocent.”
“That’s not a bad idea, actually.”
“I told you, I’m not stupid.”
Juliet got up from the sofa and headed for the attic. Then she came back. “You are stupid. We don’t have a tape recorder.”
He snapped his fingers. “I think I saw one on the desk in the library.”
They opened the library door. It was empty. They walked over to the desk and looked around.
“I don’t see anything,” Juliet grumbled. “You must have imagined it.”
“I could have sworn there was something that looked like a tape recorder. It was a square box anyway.”
“Maybe it was the treasure and you let it get away. I wouldn’t put it past you.”
Robert looked through desk drawers and searched on some of the shelves. “Do you ever have anything nice to say?”
“I would if you did something nice.” She looked around too, but stopped when the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone through the window onto the chandelier that hung in the middle of the room.
“God, that’s bright. I can’t believe Elsie actually dusted it. She doesn’t dust anything else in this house.”
He grunted. “Oh, hell. I don’t know what it was I saw…What’s wrong?”
“Robert, look at those hanging crystals. Do they look too sparkly to be crystals? They look like diamonds!”
He looked up and gasped. “Oh, my God. I think you’re right. Aunt Hildy said we’ve all seen it. That has to be it.”
“Help me move the desk closer,” Juliet ordered. They pushed and pulled at the heavy piece of furniture.
“I think we’re scratching the hardwood,” Robert wheezed.
“We’ll buy them a new floor. I think we’re close enough. Get the chair.”
Robert hurried over and retrieved it, helping Juliet step up on the seat and then onto the desk itself. “Don’t fall.”
She steadied herself and reached above her head to grab one of the dropped crystals. She took it off its hanger and held it in her hand.
“Oh my God, if this is real, you and I are in the money,” she squealed. “Here, take this and scratch the window.”
She passed it down to him. He stood in front of his handy work.
“Say something.”
He turned around, his face white. “It’s a diamond.”
They looked at each other and giggled like fiends.
Juliet gloated. “We did it. Let’s get these down and get the hell out of here.”
“And where would you be going?” a deep voice asked them. A policeman stood in the door.
Robert recovered first. “Nowhere officer. I just told my wife to get down from there. That’s it’s not necessary to clean everything before the funeral.”
Juliet picked up the story. “I’m afraid I have a cleaning fetish. I’ve had it my whole life. Could you help me down, officer?”
The policeman went over and offered her a hand. She stepped down as if alighting from a carriage. “We know we aren’t allowed to go anywhere without permission. The detectives made that quite clear. And we’d never do anything to jeopardize the investigation. I want the murderer of my darling aunt brought to justice and I won’t rest until that’s accomplished.”
“Fine,” the policeman said. “Just so we’re clear.”
“It’s perfectly clear.” Robert assured him. He walked over and put his arm around his wife. They stood there and grinned like idiots until the officer left.
Juliet and her Romeo grabbed each other by the hands and did a victory dance all around the carpet.
Chapter Eleven
Aunt Hildy’s remains were cremated, as per her request, once the coroner finished her report. Elsie knew what to do because of the big black binder Aunt Hildy had handed over when she first arrived. Elsie hid it in the cedar chest at the end of her bed and reluctantly took it out the day after the shooting. The lawyers were called. It seemed those first days were nothing but men in three-piece suits who acted very business-like as they pored over documents. Elsie let them handle it. She needed only one thing from the binder, a thick envelope that was addressed to her and which she kept hidden until after the funeral.
Her aunt wanted no part of an organized religious affair. She requested that her ashes be scattered on the water by Point Pleasant Park, where she played as a child. She wanted only immediate family in attendance, and afterward, if they gathered by the fireplace in the old house and raised their glasses to a life well lived, she’d be very grateful indeed.
The night before the ceremony, Graham drove Elsie to Cruikshank’s Funeral home to retrieve Aunt Hildy’s ashes. The box was inside in a blue velvet drawstring bag, and Elsie hugged it to her chest as they drove home in silence. The ashes were still warm. That wonderful heat seared itself into her heart.
They put the ashes on the coffee table in the living room and by the end of the evening, it was surrounded with flowers, pictures and the music box.
The family had a hard time saying goodnight, knowing she would be alone with only Flower and the cats for company. They left a small light on. But Elsie couldn’t close her eyes, and wandered back downstairs.
She need not have worried. Slater was fast asleep, curled up on the floor beside her. She tiptoed across the room and grabbed a chenille throw to put over him.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” she whispered. She went back to bed and thankfully nodded off.
The next morning was cold and grey, a foggy mist in the air. It suited everyone’s mood as they piled into the cars to go to the park, everyone in their dark finery. They gathered at the edge of the water, at the farthest end of the park. A loon cried in the distance, and two herons stood still at the water’s edge, ready witnesses to this solemn occasion.
They told her they loved her, and would never forget her. Then Elsie opened the box and flung Aunt Hildy’s ashes into the wind. They swirled upward and mingled instantly with the grey fog over the grey water and disappeared into the unknown, heading out on the next wonderful adventure.
The family gathered with their glasses of champagne around the fireplace when they returned. A toast was made “To Aunt Hildy.” They took a sip, each lost in their own private thoughts.
Until Elsie spoke up. “Could you sit down please?”
All eyes turned to her as th
ey seated themselves around the room.
“This isn’t how I imagined this day. Aunt Hildy taken from us violently and the killer still at large. And it hurts to know the police consider us suspects. But quite frankly, I can’t think of a soul who’d want to hurt her.”
“Come on,” Robert scoffed. “Everyone she ever came in contact with would’ve gladly wrung her neck, given half a chance.
You know that. Don’t make her out to be a saint, because she wasn’t.”
She held up her hands. “I refuse to talk about her faults, today of all days. I just asked you to be here with me, because she left me something.”
“Another music box?” Juliet suggested. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Will you let her finish, please?” Graham said impatiently.
Elsie went over to the secretary desk and took out the thick envelope. “This is a letter from Aunt Hildy. She wanted me to read it to you, after her death.”
Slater bit his knuckles. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“You’ll be all right, honey. We’re all here,” Elsie reassured him.
Faith rolled her eyes. “Can we just get on with it?”
Lily agreed. “Yeah, Mommy. This is too hard. Just read it.”
Elsie took a deep breath. “Okay.”
She sat on a chair and faced them. She took the letter out of its envelope and unfolded the creamy thick paper.
“It’s dated a month ago.”
“Dearest Elsie,
I have given you the job of reading this letter, as you are the mistress of this house. It pleases me enormously that you have done such a fine job, keeping the home fires burning as it were, and I hope you and your family have many more happy years under this roof.
“I know my life is ending. I look forward to it, in the same way I’ve looked forward to all the adventures in my life. Because I know the journey is not over. I have spent my time here on earth uncovering the remains of past lives and know what peace there is in these sacred places. So do not grieve for me. I am where I want to be. And I am with the one I love. The one I’ll be with until the end of time.”
Elsie had to stop because her tears made it hard to see the writing. She took a handful of Kleenex out of her pocket and wiped her nose. She didn’t dare look up because she could hear sniffs, and she’d be lost if she looked at the girls. Besides, she knew from a stifled howl that Slater was on the edge.