“I don’t understand,” Ava said. “Why are you protecting her? I’m family.”
“She’s my friend,” Sean said. “And come to think of it, she’s family, too.”
“She just cost you a high-paying client,” Ava said. “And by the time we’re through with you, I can assure you that more will follow us out the door.”
“I have plenty of clients,” Sean said, “and to a one, they are all more pleasant to deal with than you. You can save your vitriol, Ava, because I’m firing you as a client.”
Ava turned and stormed off in a huff.
“I’m sorry,” Melissa said.
“Don’t be,” Sean said. “There are few things I hate more than being bullied.”
“I guess you know what’s going on.”
“I know a lot, that’s true,” he said. “I’m sorry for what you’re going through, and I wish I could assure you that my brother has more good sense than he’s shown lately. If there’s anything I can do to help, I hope you’ll let me.”
“There is something,” Melissa said and told him about the zoning approval she needed.
Fifteen minutes later, Sean and Melissa were in Mayor Kay Templeton’s office.
“The council meets next week,” Kay said. “We have a full agenda, but I’m sure I could shoehorn this matter into the schedule.”
“How do you think they’ll vote?” Sean asked.
Kay thought about it.
“Three against and seven for,” she said. “I have three people who would no doubt love nothing more than to raze the ground those trailers sit upon and put up a row of high-priced condos, and six individuals who will rubber stamp anything I want to be passed.”
“What about the seventh person?”
“That’s Hannah,” she said. “You have nothing to worry about.”
Hannah came in just before the end of the workday.
“Is he in?” she asked as she pointed to the back.
Melissa nodded and called Sean. He came up to the front to greet Hannah.
“Well, I’m officially sacked,” she said. “I got the call a little while ago. They’re offering me six months’ severance if I sign a paper promising not to sue them, but if I don’t sign, I get nothing.”
“So we sue,” Sean said.
“The thing is I need that money now,” Hannah said. “My health insurance is kaput as of Saturday, and we can’t get anything else on this short of notice, even if we could afford it.”
“Let me call Anthony,” Sean said. “He can get you a policy, and I can pay for it. We’ll put it on your tab and take it out of the settlement.”
“What if we don’t win?”
“Let me lay it out for you: you are a woman over forty who has never had a poor performance review in twenty years of faithful service employed by the county. This new boss of yours has let it be known he wants to hire his unqualified twenty-year-old son-in-law and pay him probably twice as much as you. I know every judge in this part of the state, and they all know I only bring cases before them I know I can win. I don’t know what your idiot boss thinks will happen, but the county will settle fast and for a lot more than six months’ severance, and then they’ll probably fire him. You on board?”
“I’m scared, Sean,” Hannah said. “Are you sure?”
“It’s a slam dunk,” Sean said. “What’s their official cause for firing you?”
“I took too many days off in July,” Hannah said. “That was when Sammy was so sick, and we thought he might have meningitis.”
“That thrills me no end,” Sean said. “The jury will eat that up. Working mother punished for caring for her child. I can’t believe they dared try that on.”
“Here’s the thing,” Hannah said. “I love my job. I don’t want to stop. I’d miss it.”
“False cost sunkenness,” Melissa said.
Hannah looked at Melissa as if she had lost her mind.
“I think you mean ‘sunk-cost fallacy,’ ” Sean said.
“Yeah, that,” Melissa said. “It means you stay with the crappy thing because you’re so used to crappiness and afraid of making a change.”
“Basically, yes,” Sean said. “I could probably get your job back for you, Hannah, but he’d always be looking for another reason to fire you, just for revenge. Eventually, it would change how you felt about your job, and you’d be miserable. I recommend you cut your losses and sue their asses off.”
“You always wanted to run a no-kill shelter,” Melissa said. “If Sean got you enough money you could start one.”
“I’m thinking mid-six figures,” Sean said. “I’m very confident about this, Hannah. Please trust me. Do you want to talk to Sam about it first?”
“He’s the one who told me to speak to you,” Hannah said. “He said it was up to me.”
“What’s it gonna be?”
Hannah chewed her lip and blinked fast.
“Hell, let’s do it,” she said. “Let’s sue their asses.”
“High dollar! High dollar!” Melissa chanted as she clapped her hands.
“I’ll call the county and announce your intentions,” Sean said. “Melissa, you take Hannah down to Anthony’s office. We need to get you and Sammy covered by health insurance today.”
When Hannah and Melissa got to Delia’s house later that evening, they found Bonnie and Claire there with Hannah’s son Sammy, Hatch’s nephew Josh, Claire’s four girls, Ava’s daughter Olivia and son, Ernie. The women were working on Halloween costumes.
Little Pixie and Oliva were fairy princesses, Bluebell was Rey from Star Wars, and Sammy was Spiderman.
Ernie had to explain his costume, as he was the Sith cat Kuro from a manga anime series. Joshie, wearing a black wig and a small business suit, explained he was Dr. Sōsuke Banba from a Japanese anime television series titled Kagewani.
Bonnie rolled her eyes.
“When my kids were little you got to be one of three things: a hobo, a pirate, or a ghost.”
The two older girls wanted to be mermaids, so Claire was applying temporary rainbow color streaks to their long blonde hair.
Ed and Patrick came through the front door with pizzas, and Sam followed behind with grocery bags of chips and soft drinks.
“I hope it’s okay I came,” Patrick said to Melissa.
“I don’t mind,” she said.
Olivia came over to Patrick and reached up for him to pick her up. He did so, saying, “It’s Princess Olivia! Look, Melissa, it’s her royal highness. Isn’t she pretty?”
Melissa had a close view of the two of them together, and the likeness was striking. She fled to the kitchen to escape all the uncomfortable feelings this produced.
“I told you,” Bonnie said to her as she followed close behind. “Didn’t I tell you? The spitting image. Look at her hands if you get the chance. That’s my granddaughter.”
Melissa did her best to avoid Patrick, although she was keenly aware of his proximity at all times. Hannah’s parents Curtis and Alice arrived, soon followed by Hatch, Maggie, and Scott. The party got louder, the children more shrill as they were plied with carbohydrates and carbonated sugar water.
In every room she tried to escape to, Melissa saw something that made her want to disappear: Claire and Ed embracing in the kitchen, Patrick cuddling Olivia in the living room.
Finally, Melissa fled to the backyard. There she found Sam sitting on the picnic table.
“Hey,” she said. “Scoot over.”
He made room for her, and she sat next to him.
“It got to be a little too much in there,” he said. “Nice out here, though.”
“I love them all, but it was giving me a headache,” Melissa said.
“It’s kind of cold,” he said and offered her his jacket.
She shook her head.
“Feels good,” she said. “I like the smell of wood smoke, too; it smells like fall.”
“Smells more like something else burning,” he said, as he raised his head and looked
all around.
“Over there,” he said, and stood up.
He pointed in the distance, where Melissa could see an orange glow reflected off the trailers in the mobile home park that was soon to be hers.
“What’s doing that?” she asked, but Sam was already running to the house.
And then she knew.
By the time she got there, many other park residents had gathered outside their trailers. Bruce had trained his garden hose on the conflagration, but it had no effect. The sirens from the fire station began going off, and engine sirens were deafening as both turned down Peony Street. Melissa stood amongst her neighbors and watched as the trailer she had called home went up in flames.
It was mesmerizing. It was horrifying.
All of Tommy’s school papers. His little league trophies. His baby clothes. His birth certificate. His adoption papers. Their photo albums. Every gift Patrick had ever given her.
The flames were hot on her face. It reminded her of the fire down in Florida, the one that changed everyone’s lives forever; the one that made Tommy her son.
Patrick came up behind her and put his arms around her, but she felt nothing.
“There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “Let me take you back to Delia’s.”
Melissa turned and looked up at him.
“This is Ava’s doing,” she said.
He let go.
“You can deny it if you want to,” she said. “You can defend the precious love of your life all you want, but you and I both know it’s true. She’s poisoned the well, and now we all have to drink from it. This is on you, Patrick. You brought this down on my head, the woman you were supposed to love and protect. You betrayed me, but now I’m the one that’s sufferin’ for your sins.”
He started to speak, but she held up her hand.
“I know you’re well and truly sorry, but I’m done with you. I want you to feel it, know it, and go.”
Patrick backed away and then turned, disappeared in the crowd.
Claire came up and put an arm around her, followed by Hannah and Maggie. They didn’t say anything, just stood there at her side until the flames were doused, the crowd had dispersed, and nothing remained but the blackened wreckage of her former home.
“This takes me back to when Theo burned my house down,” Maggie said. “You never get over something like that.”
“Your book burned up,” Melissa said to Maggie. “I’ll pay you for it.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Maggie said. “Did you like it?”
“I hated it,” Melissa said. “Catherine and Heathcliff were horrible, selfish people who didn’t care who they hurt.”
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Maggie said.
“Let’s go,” Claire said. “I’m freezing.”
Melissa turned to Hannah.
“I talked to Bruce,” Hannah said. “He couldn’t swear it was Ava he saw the night of the accident.”
“She did this,” she said.
“I know,” Hannah said.
“I want her punished,” Melissa said. “I want her to suffer for what she’s done.”
“It will be my pleasure,” Hannah said.
When Hannah got home the kitchen sink was empty, the counters and table had been wiped clean, and the dishwasher was running. She looked in the laundry room and found two baskets full of clean, folded laundry where there had been a tall, dirty pile when she left the house. The floor still needed to be swept and mopped, and there were still dust cobwebs dangling from the corners of the ceiling, but for their house, this was clean.
She found her husband and son in the family room. Sammy was asleep on the couch, the two little white dogs curled up next to him, the husky lying on the floor in front of them. Sam was watching a blacksmith competition on television, his son’s head on his lap.
“Who’s winning?” she asked.
“The young guy,” Sam said. “The underdog.”
Hannah squeezed in beside him at the end of the couch, and he put his arm around her.
“You cleaned,” she said.
“Yep,” Sam said.
“Are you in trouble or something?”
“Sammy and I were just trying to help out,” he said. “We also cleaned the bathrooms and put toys away.”
“Wow,” Hannah said. “Thanks.”
She looked at Sammy.
“Look how long he’s gotten,” she said.
“He’ll be taller than you in a couple years,” Sam said.
“I’ll have to stand on a stump just to look him in the eye when I ground him.”
“How’s Melissa?” he asked.
“Gutted,” Hannah said.
He nodded.
“Sammy and I are on health insurance now, thanks to Sean and Anthony.”
“So I heard,” Sam said. “I also heard we’re going to be rich litigants.”
“So he says.”
“I got an offer for a teaching position at Quantico.”
She turned and looked at him.
“When did this happen?”
“Today,” Sam said. “A few days ago I told Tony I was looking for work and his old C.O. got back to me today. He’s at the academy now.”
“Tony-from-Kuwait Tony?”
He nodded.
“What did you tell him?”
“That I’d have to talk to you.”
“Hah, right.”
“I did. I am.”
“Do you want to do it?”
“Partly.”
“Which part?”
“I’d be good at it,” he said. “I might like it.”
“Be a long commute.”
He turned and gave her a look that said, ‘very funny.’
“I can’t see you leaving your wounded warriors,” she said.
“I said a part of me wants to do it, not all of me.”
“Is it a good offer?”
He rubbed the thumb and fingers of one hand together.
Hannah whistled.
“That much?”
He nodded.
“Full benefits package,” he said. “Relocation expenses.”
“We’d have to move.”
“Naturally.”
Hannah looked over at the other side of the living room, where a striped tabby cat was curled up in an armchair.
“Whose cat is that?” she asked.
“I thought it was ours,” he said. “It wanted in.”
“I guess it’s ours now,” she said.
“Watch what this guy does,” he said, gesturing at the television. “He’s just about to win the whole thing, and at the last minute, his blade breaks in two.”
“You’ve seen this one before.”
“A couple times.”
“The thing is,” Hannah said, “I don’t want to leave. This is our home. Sammy has friends here, our family’s here. My folks are getting older; they’re gonna need us more.”
“I could go, come home on the weekends.”
“No,” Hannah said. “I want you here for Sammy.”
“Just Sammy.”
“You know what I mean.”
Sam pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.
“I know,” he said.
“Plus, we’re going to be rich,” she said. “All our problems will be solved.”
“Could take a while,” he said. “Probably shouldn’t count on it.”
“We’ll be okay,” Hannah said. “Either way.”
“Most likely,” he said. “You feel like fooling around?”
“I gotta feed the pony.”
“I already did.”
“Good man,” she said.
“I bought you some donuts.”
“I definitely feel like fooling around with a man who buys me donuts.”
“That was the plan.”
Sam turned the television off.
“I’ll take him up and meet you in five,” he said.
“I can probably eat ten donuts in five
minutes.”
“I hid them.”
“Oh, I get it,” Hannah said. “I get the donuts afterward.”
“You got that right,” he said. “I want you hungry and motivated.”
Afterward, lying in bed, Hannah licked donut glaze off her fingers.
“These are highway donuts,” she said.
“Only the best for you.”
“I’ve got a problem I need you to help me solve,” she said. “It’s kind of a delicate situation.”
“Tell me about it.”
“It involves Ava.”
“That one I know about,” Sam said.
“Care to share?”
“Classified.”
“Okay,” Hannah said. “So you know Ava has turned into a murderous banshee who won’t rest until Melissa’s tits up in Rose Hill Cemetery.”
“I think you’re exaggerating.”
“I’m not,” Hannah said.
She told him all the evidence she had plus her theory.
“Did you know all that?” she asked.
“Not all of it,” he said.
“What do you think?”
“You need hard evidence.”
“Would Patrick testify against her?”
He shrugged.
“Let’s say it was me Ava was after,” Hannah said. “She wanted you, and I was in the way. She shot the dogs, poisoned the cats, got Sammy taken away by children’s services, and burnt our house down. What would you do?”
“I’d get hard evidence, turn it over to the police, and let them take care of it.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“Nah, I’d probably make her wish she’d never been born.”
“That’s more like it.”
“What exactly do you want me to do, Hannah?”
“Help us,” she said. “Every one of us has a small piece of evidence, but it’s just our word against hers. Melissa has an audio of her threats, and I think Patrick has video evidence that he’s turned over to Sean, but I haven’t talked to him about it yet.”
“I can neither confirm nor deny that.”
“Going all Glomar on me now, huh?” Hannah said. “That’s okay, I’ve got my ways. I’ll find out.”
“What’s your endgame?” he asked. “Do you want her to go to jail? Do you want her kids to lose their mother?”
“I want her stopped,” she said. “I want her to be profoundly afraid to do one more thing to anyone I love. And if she was forced to move away from here that would be the dark chocolate icing on the devil's food cake of what I want.”
Pumpkin Ridge (Rose Hill Mystery Series Book 10) Page 14