by Deborah Noel
Declan pressed his lips together and nodded in agreement, but was already deep in thought. He began pacing the length of the table. He stopped and pulled the first murder’s file from the pile and spread its contents out.
“Warning… ” he said out loud, an old habit. He shuffled the photos around the table and put the photos from the first murder scene with the baby on top, along with my notes from it. “What do we know about this family?”
We took turns explaining the history.
The family was of Irish decent. Their last name was MacNamanus. No next of kin in the States and we didn’t find any in Ireland either. They had only lived here a short time.
The man hanging in the tub was known as Liam by his fellow iron workers and that was pretty much all they knew. He was only married a few years and brought his family over in hopes of making a better life for themselves. His buddies had put him around my age at that time, which was 23.
His wife, the woman on the bed, was Shannon. She was due to have the baby within a few weeks of the murder. She stayed at home with the little girl, from what the neighbors had to say.
The little girl hanging from the mobile was two. Her name was Catherine.
Consensus was they were a beautiful young couple who bothered no one, trying to raise their expanding family.
All their immigration papers had checked out. Everything was in perfect order.
Declan and I had picked apart every detail and were again going through the pictures. They were nasty. They captured my memory well. And the smells returned to my nasal cavity as my mind revisited the scene. I stopped at the picture of Liam. His eyes had always haunted me. I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was about them.
“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he has your eyes, Cianna,” Declan said.
An eerie feeling came over me, “Yeah, I know, if I had had any brothers, he could have passed for one. We’re missing something simple here, Declan. I know we are.”
We knew from the coroner’s autopsies that Catherine had died first. We assumed at this point, Shannon was already strapped to the bed, and Liam was bound in the bathtub where he could see all of the tragic events taking place in the bedroom before his own eyes.
We knew that Shannon was alive during the c-section performed to remove the baby, another girl, from inside her, a thought that still made me shudder. I could only imagine that Liam and Shannon begged for their children’s lives. Liam’s time of death, put him next; Shannon’s t.o.d. within minutes of her husband’s.
Why would someone want to kill a quiet young family that kept to themselves?
“A warning, yes,” Declan began to reason out loud again, “but to who and why?”
“Million dollar questions!” I playfully slapped his butt.
“Smart ass,” he said. “Let’s come back to this one.”
He neatly put the papers back inside the folder and pulled out the next, last murder scene I had been involved in. I cringed. I hated this one the most. This one was the one that chilled me to the bone. The one that hit too close to home for me. The reason I left.
“Okay,” Declan began. “Why my brother and his family?”
I stepped back from the table. I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t move.
Without hesitation, Declan caught me as I started to faint.
I could hear voices around me, all light in tones. There seemed to be four different voices coming from somewhere nearby.
There were piano keys being played in the room off the kitchen.
A cool cloth was draped over my face. I searched my mind to get my bearings. Slowly I opened my eyes and removed the compress from my face. I was in my bed. The piano’s music stopped and instantly Declan was beside me. He gently stroked my brow. A look of worry crossed his face.
“I’m fine.” I assured him. I propped myself up as far as he would let me. “Who all is here?”
He smiled with relief. “You scared the hell out of me.” He said audible in my mind, ignoring my question.
With guilt, I apologized.
There was a slight wrap on the bedroom door. It opened slowly. Mattie peeked her head through the opening.
“Mama?” she whispered.
I warmed inside. All of my brain’s energy focused on her. “There’s my girl!” I choked out, opening my arms to welcome her.
She slowly entered the room, almost afraid to move and cause me pain. With each cautious step closer to me, both of our smiles grew. My daughter stopped at her father’s side and look to him for approval. He smiled and nodded it was okay. She climbed into bed with me and finally into my arms. I held her tight to me. Declan eased down beside us and gathered us into his arms.
This was the first time we were together in years.
There was a flash of light.
“Now that’s a family portrait!” Sam’s deep loud voice broke the silence, and the mood.
“At least the moment has been captured on film,” Declan chuckled in my brain.
I blinked once and smiled.
“You gave us quite a scare there kid,” Sammy told me as he sat down at the foot of my bed.
Mattie squirmed around and settled between Declan and I. She took each of our hands in hers. Then smiled contently.
Another flash of light.
I blinked to erase the blue and white dots that filled my vision.
“Okay, who gave him the camera?” I asked.
“Me, Mommy.” Mattie answered. “Daddy gave me it to me during our adventure so I could have pitchers of pretty things.”
“Pic-tures, darling,” Declan corrected.
“Pic-tures,” Mattie echoed.
Bullet appeared in the doorway. Looking over the scene, he bounced in the room and onto the bed. He landed on top of Mattie and started licking her face, she giggled and squirmed.
Another flash.
Caught up in the moment, we all laughed in unison.
Mattie was all settled and tucked in her bed. She quickly told me of her adventures with her daddy before closing her eyes. I promised she could tell me all the details in the morning.
I excused myself from my company and went in my bathroom to collect myself. All of the distractions kept my mind off what had happened earlier. Knowing me so well, Declan had lit the calming candles. I drank in the scents, sat at the sitting window and closed my eyes.
I didn’t have to time to relax completely; I had company downstairs. The stroke of piano keys being played drifted through the house. It was the lullaby that Declan had written for Mattie when she was an infant. It had always soothed me too. I smiled inward.
“Hope this helps my love.” I heard in my head as Declan kept playing the notes.
I smiled.
Declan was sitting at the piano in the small room just off the kitchen.
It was a room I hadn’t gone into since the baby grand piano was placed there shortly after I had moved in. Once, when I was away, Declan had stayed here with Mattie. He had bought the piano and re-decorated the room. Three of the walls were mirrored. The room looked like it was bigger than the rest of the house itself. The piano was situated in the corner on a slightly elevated carpeted stage. There were two small love seats with a round end table between them. On the un-mirrored wall, hung oak shelves covered with framed pictures family moments, Mattie and Declan together and even one of Declan and I when we were married.
Technically we still were. Although, up until now, we weren’t living together. When I left five years ago neither of us had filed for divorce.
Marcy was floating around straightening the house. She was getting ready to leave when I came downstairs.
“I’m glad you are better now, Ci. Please call me if you need anything else.” She hugged me as she left.
“Good night, Marcy, thanks for coming over.”
I closed the door behind her.
Sammy was stretched out on the recliner he had deemed his a few days ago in the family room, watching the evening
news. I went into the piano room.
Declan was playing a new piece. It was edgy in its tempo, with a happy undertone. Perfect harmony. I stood in the doorway and listened and watched as his fingers graced the keys. The music was as soothing as a bath. It spoke peace to my soul. I made my way to one of the two love seats and made myself cozy. Bullet jumped up and curled himself tightly against me, tucked all his paws under his body and buried his nose under my leg. He let out a big sigh and closed his eyes.
Declan, not missing a beat, looked up and smiled at me. I smiled back.
Hours went by in a hurry. Sam appeared in the doorway. When Declan finished the piece he was playing, Sam clapped with approval.
I looked up at him. “I made up the guest room for you, Uncle.”
He winked, “Thanks. I’m going to turn in then.”
Declan and I bid him goodnight. He turned to go to bed and stopped. He turned back to us, “The universe is now right.”
Declan smiled. “That’s the title I was looking for. Thanks.” And he scribbled on the sheet music.
I began to worry about the reason for my fainting earlier. “Declan?”
“Ah, Cianna, please let’s leave it alone for tonight. It’s late and we should sleep on all of this. When Mattie is off to school tomorrow, we will look this all over with fresh eyes.” He reached for my hand, “Let’s call it a night.”
I didn’t argue. I let him lead me upstairs. Suddenly I had a surge of anxiety roll through my insides. Declan was going to be beside me in bed for the first time in years.
“Don’t worry; I won’t bite…” he assured me in my head. “Unless of course, you want me to…”
We chuckled and crawled under the covers. He lay down on his back and extended his arm. I nestled my head on his chest, and he wrapped his arm around me. He pulled me closer. I moved against his side and wrapped my arm around his body. He kissed my forehead and we exchanged “I love yous.” The lullaby of his heartbeat put me to asleep instantly.
Chapter Six
Monday morning started out, and stayed, busy. Sam made us all breakfast and we spent the better part of the morning listening to Mattie tell her exciting stories of her shortened adventure with her dad. She loved the waterfall the best. It was the first time she was on a boat. It was just a small canoe that Declan rowed around the lake, Mattie even got a chance to help row.
We downloaded the photos onto the computer and started her scrapbook.
Sam left to go back to his office. He left the boxes for us to sort through later.
We managed to get Mattie ready in time for Marcy to pick her up for school. After Mattie left for school, Declan announced he had a surprise for me. He told me to dress comfortably with my favorite flat shoes and told Bullet to go get his leash, which he did – he went right to the small table by the door. I was totally amazed he remembered the drill, as I hadn’t taken him anywhere on a leash in months. I rushed upstairs and got ready, still shaking my head at how smart my little dog really was.
We jumped in the jeep that Declan had running in the driveway with the top off and buckled up.
“You aren’t going to tell me are you?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
He glanced at me with a snicker. And we were off.
We drove for a little over an hour; I was completely lost with no clue where we were nor where we were headed. The road was scattered with a few homes. The horizon rolled with hills and valleys. Trees stretched as far as my eyes could see. The air smelled cleaner and the sky was looked bluer.
We turned left down a dirt road. It was barely wide enough for the jeep to fit. The oak and pine trees were huge and their foliage was lush and deep green. The underbrush was getting thicker as we traveled further into the woods. The signs that Spring was drawing near.
Declan stopped the jeep in the middle of the path. “We walk from here.”
We both hopped out of the jeep and Declan retrieved Bullet from his cage in the back seat. He ran ahead with his nose to the ground, shifting excitedly from side to side.
“Where are we going?” I asked as Declan took my hand to lead me forward. He only smiled.
I drank in the smells of the outdoors. The fresh honeysuckle was amazing.
Suddenly the not-so wide car path turned into a single walking lane of white crushed stone. A few feet in, the forest disappeared and before us was a small pasture that led to a smaller stoned beach that sat before the most incredible waterfall I had ever seen. And for the first time I could hear the water falling.
Rainbows emanated from the mist everywhere. I stood there unable to move, in awe. The waterfall was 20 feet high and a wall of rocks of all sizes seemed to keep it in place. Thick green patches dotted the crevices of random stones, reaching for the moisture. Atop the fall the forest began again on either side, parted by the water’s downward path.
Declan jerked me to keep me moving behind him. We headed over a tiny hill to the beach’s beginning and straight to the water’s edge. He left me standing there while he and Bullet went to retrieve something along the hillside to the right. He came to my side carrying a small canoe.
“Do you trust me?” he asked in my head.
I smiled and nodded once.
Within seconds the three of us were in the canoe and halfway across the water. He rowed up to the side of the waterfall where a ledge appeared. He tied the canoe off to a peg sticking out of the rocks and hoisted me up onto the path.
It was much wider then it appeared. Bullet barked, anxious to join me. A gentle spray of water misted over us.
Declan hopped up on the ledge and once again took my hand while Bullet led the way. The walkway took us up to and then behind the cascading water. I stopped to look out through the water at where we had arrived. I would have never known there was somewhere to stand behind the water’s wall.
I wasn’t given enough time to enjoy the view--Declan was pulling me toward the back wall. I couldn’t believe it: in the back, chiseled in the stone was an archway leading into the mountain. I think my eyes bulged out of my skull. Declan laughed and pulled me through.
I felt oddly at home walking down the chilly stone corridor into the mountain. The water above us weaved to the right while we took a twisted path to the left. The rushing water grew quieter. We turned under another archway, which led to a room. Light streamed in from the ceiling; I couldn’t help but look up. There were several skylight-type tunnels through the rock allowing the sun to shine in.
Declan finally let go of my hand.
The place was amazing, it was like I stepped into what I had envisioned a castle in Ireland to look and feel like. It took me a few seconds to discover that I was standing in a “living room.”
In the far corner was a piano. In front of that were a couple of love seats. Then it dawned on me, it was just like the piano room in my house. Pictures of my family dotted the walls, perched on small ledges that jetted out of the rocks.
I spun around, taking in all the duplications. Although this was a much bigger area then my little 12 x 12 room, for the most part it was almost identical. Except this “room” had a fireplace that was vented up through the ceiling openings.
Smirking, Declan grabbed my hand again and pulled me through another archway into another room. I barely had time to pick my jaw up from the floor.
It was a tiny bedroom, decorated all in pinks and yellows. Mattie’s favorite colors. The bed was big and fluffy, covered with teddy bears.
“How… ” I started to ask, but once again I was being pulled through another archway before I could finish my sentence.
This room was the grandest of them all. Again the ledges created by the edges of different stones in the wall were perfect natural shelving that held photos of my family in their frames. Sunlight tunnels shone light beams into the room, just like the others.
A wrought-iron king-sized bed looked small in the room. It was covered in a printed pattern of green and blue with matching solid-colored accent pillows. The floor
was covered with plump, soft throw rugs. Next to the bed on each side were nightstands.
I couldn’t believe there was a small bathroom off to the side. The toilet, tub and sink were, of course, of stone, each shaped to perfection. Hanging over the side of the tub was a drain stopper to keep the water from flowing right out. It was like travertine-tiled bathrooms the rich paid good money for, just natural.
Through another opening I was taken into the kitchen. There was a stone fireplace for cooking that actually shared the vent of the fireplace in the living room. Declan had a gorgeous oak table and chair set in the center of the room, and instead of cabinetry, there were oak planks stretching across the edges of stone jutting out from the walls, which served as shelves for dishes, glasses and food. A small sink like the one in the bathroom stood alone in the corner.
The whole place with breathtaking.
Before I could get a word in, I was whisked through yet another doorway, back into the room where the tour began.
“Well, someone has been busy!” I finally gasped.
He snickered.
“How did you find this place?”
“Come, sit down.” Declan and I sat on one of the smaller sofas.
“Many years ago, when I was a boy before I came to Grannie Sheehan, my father told me of this place. ‘Hidden behind the waterfall of nowhere,’ he used to tell me. During my years with him, he had taken me to several different places of majestic waterfalls, but never once had we gone behind any of them. This one had always been my favorite waterfall to visit,” Declan looked over at me. “About a year after you moved, I couldn’t stand to be in your parents’ house so far away from you. So one day I drove out to talk to you. You weren’t home so I came here. As I sat on the beach, I remembered the tales of my father and of the castle hidden behind the waterfall of nowhere, so I figured, what the hell, and swam over to see if I could get behind the waterfall, and sure enough…”