Jane didn't quite enjoy wandering up and down the aisles of Fresher Folks as much as she had the previous stores. She loaded up her arms with ingredients for salads, fresh-baked bread, and pomegranates. She adored pomegranates, but usually they were out of season when she really wanted them. Like right now.
Another sign of someone manipulating the situation on her behalf? Jane told herself she didn't care.
By five that afternoon, she had seen almost all of downtown Neighborlee. Her arms would have ached from the weight of all her purchases if she hadn't changed their density to make them just slightly heavier than air. To keep everything together, safe from an errant gust of wind, she had invested in an enormous net shopping bag. Jane had gone from one end of the five-block center of town to the other, and explored all the offshoot streets. To her surprise, a number of the people she ran into in various stores recognized her from the short time she had been hauling boxes and bags from the moving truck into the main room of the shop. Anyone who asked, she took the time to stop and answer questions. She had been delighted with their friendliness and their interest in the spa. If the people she met today were any indication, she would be a smashing success in Neighborlee.
She had turned around, ready to re-walk her path and go home, when she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. Even as she kept turning, a sensation like warmth and welcome and a tiny twinge of guilt, as if she had ignored something important, washed over her. Turning slowly, she tried to get back into the same position where that flash, that bit of sparkle and color had caught her attention.
Between two buildings, she saw the peaked roofs and gold weathervane and the gold and olive color scheme of Divine's Emporium. Odd, how she could see it from here in the center of town, when she knew the house was four blocks away.
Definitely, that was guilt she felt. She should have visited Angela and told her the good news the moment she finally officially signed the papers to rent the Spindelmutter building. She should have stopped in the day she arrived in town in the do-it-yourself moving truck, towing her little car. Angela had the right to know, since she had made the suggestions. Maybe that was the niggling sensation of something not being quite right that had hovered at the edges of her mind. That sense that she wouldn't feel quite at home until she stopped in and reconnected with Angela. After all, Neighborlee was her home at one time, and Angela had remembered her even if nobody else in town did.
"Divine's it is." She checked her watch. She still had until long after dark before Katie showed up. Plenty of time to put away the spoils of her shopping trip and make something for a late night feast.
A sigh of satisfaction and the sense of something settling into its proper spot came over her as she turned the last corner and saw the Victorian house with its sharp peaked roofs, ornamental gingerbread and wrap-around porch, all iced with snow like a fanciful holiday cookie. Angela had left the Christmas lights up and they twinkled in four different shades of green, with an occasional gold light, creating a sense of liveliness and color against all the white of snow and the clouds beginning to fill up the sky.
Divine's Emporium. A bit of everything and just what you need, the sign on the fence next to the open gate read.
Jane considered the bag hanging over her shoulder and the bags clutched in her other hand, and laughed. If she didn't have everything she needed by now, she was in serious trouble.
She glanced up again, and froze as her gaze met and was caught in the deep blue gaze of Angela, standing only ten feet away, on the other side of the fence. Jane had heard no footsteps, no door opening, no brushing of that long, royal blue hooded cape dragging on the snow. It was as if the woman had simply appeared out of nowhere.
"Welcome home."
"I'm sorry." Jane let Angela beckon her through the gate and scurried to follow her up the neatly shoveled flagstone path to the front door.
"Sorry for what?" She laughed.
"I should have told you when I signed the lease. I should have stopped in the minute I got back to town. Everything's just been so...crazy," she ended on a sigh, as she stepped through the door into the cinnamon-and-pine-scented warmth of the shop.
Funny, but she was positive the door had swung open just before Angela stepped up onto the porch. Maybe she had one of those doors with a sensor in it, to open for her and save on needing to remember a key every time she went outside?
"Jane, no need to apologize. If you had had time to remember, you would have come. Not like some people who think about something they have to do a dozen times, and a dozen times put it off for later. Here, put those bags down and have something warm to drink." Angela shed her cloak and gestured toward the little bistro tables in the corner. "Let me see... If I remember correctly, we had dark chocolate cocoa with peppermint whipped cream, the day you walloped Stewart McCavity for taking little Stephanie Tubbs' doll that she got for Christmas. In honor of all the great things you've done, and coming home, let's see if I can recreate that recipe again. How does that sound?"
"That sounds great," Jane murmured. She sank into a chair without really paying attention.
As if it were yesterday, she saw Stewart leap a fence and snatch Stephanie's doll from her arms as she and Jane walked home from school. Jane had had permission to stay overnight with Stephanie, and they'd been laughing and making plans. Her arms had been aching to hold the doll. Stephanie had brought it to school for show-and-tell. Stewart held the doll by its curls as he raced away, across the street, and swung it toward the big old lightning-struck oak tree. He laughed and promised Stephanie she could have the pieces when he was done.
Jane could still feel the tingle of energy and anger jolting through her limbs in response to Stephanie's shrieks. Something took over as she leaped the street in one bound, snatched the doll with one hand and smashed her other fist into Stewart's nose. He had stumbled backwards so fast and hard, he bounced off the trunk of the tree. He had shrieked, an octave higher than Stephanie. The sight of his blood had terrified Jane, so she grabbed Stephanie's hand and the two of them just ran and ran, until they ended up at Divine's Emporium. Angela had comforted them, before sending Stephanie to look for a dress for her new doll. Then she held Jane close and told her how brave she had been, how she had done a good thing protecting her friend and standing against the bully, and that she had to learn to use her strengths and skills for good, or she would be a worse bully than Stewart. They had sat around the table in Angela's apartment upstairs and drank hot chocolate and ate chocolate and peppermint cream sandwich cookies until Mrs. Silvestri came to drive them to Stephanie's house, where she lived with her grandparents.
In the time it took to remember, Angela had created the hot chocolate and brought it out from behind the big marble counter. Jane couldn't be sure, but she thought she used the same big green glass mugs, with a green and red-striped candy cane to stir the thick, creamy mixture. They sat and sipped and talked about what was going on in town. Jane was fascinated when Angela related that yes, the newspaper reports were true, some of the town's "rascals," as she called them, had been badly influenced by their time in the military and had twisted around the guilt they felt for putting their high school teacher in a wheelchair, and had given Lanie Zephyr a hard time just before Christmas. Then she went on to relate the oddness that had taken place at the community New Year's Eve lock-in party at Eden II, the community center. Town officials were blaming a gas leak and some outsiders who had managed to dose some of the refreshments with hallucinogenic drugs.
"You were always the sensitive, observant kind," Angela said, sitting back and toying with her candy cane in her empty mug. "There are still some questions that need to be answered. Maybe some fresh eyes might help. After you're completely settled and your shop is open for business, of course. So, what have you been up to? How is the shop coming along? Debbi Kunardi isn't a gossip by any means, so when she's excited enough to talk about a new business coming to town, people know it's a solid fact. I know a dozen peo
ple who can't wait to get their first massage or facial."
"Oh, I'm still a long way away from getting the renovations done." Jane shrugged and cradled her mug, still with a few inches of cooling chocolate in the bottom. Before she quite knew it, she had told Angela her plans for furniture shopping over the next few days, and how she was preparing to contact the handyman businesses Debbi had recommended, to get started on the renovations while she was refinishing furniture. She ended with a list of the shops she had visited, and the fun she had today shopping and getting to know the town.
It was on the tip of her tongue to blurt what she had seen last summer, when she was flying over the town. It made perfect sense, just for a few seconds, that if anyone in Neighborlee had Gifts and was using them, Angela would know. Didn't it make perfect sense to confess to Angela about her Ghost talents, and to ask if she could connect her with anyone else in town who could do similar not-quite-normal things? She didn't doubt Angela would believe her, and consider it perfectly normal to talk about such things. After all, hadn't she just suggested that Jane get involved in unraveling the mystery of what had happened at the New Year's Eve party?
Then common sense and the self-defensive secrecy training Reginald and Demetrius had pounded into her took over. What had she been thinking? Just because Divine's Emporium seemed like a magical place, and Angela seemed to be in the know about everything and anything, that didn't mean she wouldn't back away and reach for the phone to call the police to haul this crazy, delusional woman out of her shop.
No, getting herself committed to the local mental ward for some evaluation and a new prescription wasn't the way to introduce herself to her new home.
"You've had a long, wearying day," Angela said, "and lots of things to do to get ready for your friend to visit." She stood, and Jane realized she was on her feet, putting the mug down on the table. "Go on home and relax. You're going to be busy once your spa opens. Neighborlee has been waiting a long time for you, and you're needed. And being needed takes up a lot of time and energy." She smiled impishly, eyes sparkling.
"Can't be anywhere near as exhausting as the town I just left," Jane said, grinning back.
"Well, there's needed and there's appreciated. Be sure, you'll be appreciated, no matter what you do here." Angela handed her coat back to her and patted her arm. "Mind if I send a few girls your way who might be needing jobs along with their beauty treatments?"
"I don't know. It depends on how busy I get."
"Just some high school girls, orphanage girls, who need weekend and after school jobs. Minding the front desk, answering the phone, letting you run errands before the stores close. You've heard people joke about rolling up the streets at closing time? In Neighborlee, that's just about the way of it." She nodded, looking somber and serious...until she winked.
"So I should get my running done during the day, you mean. Sounds good." Jane sighed. "Sounds like just my kind of town. Thanks. And yes, do send the girls." She silently added, Especially if they're orphanage girls, as she picked up her bag and turned to leave.
The sweet, spicy, green scent of the shop followed her in a cloud, having soaked into her coat, even after she turned onto the main street again. Jane smiled, feeling the last residue of tension from her Fendersburg days sliding off her shoulders. She was home, in Neighborlee. She was an ordinary woman preparing to run a spa in a small town. That was all she ever wanted.
A truck rumbled past as she paused on the doorstep to pull her keys from her pocket. Jane glanced over her shoulder at the wide-shouldered, sandy-haired hunk with the five o'clock shadow, and deep, wide-set, gray eyes. He had a whimsical multi-colored scarf wrapped around his neck, and wore a black jacket. Their gazes met and one corner of his mouth quirked up in a smile. He nodded as his truck continued past the shop. Jane felt something go melty-soft and turn a somersault in her stomach.
No, she didn't have everything she ever wanted, but she had the feeling she was going to find it here, like nowhere else.
Halfway up the stairs, Jane stumbled when it occurred to her that she hadn't told Angela that Katie was hopefully coming to visit tonight. Or had she? Now she couldn't remember.
"Weird." Then a giggle escaped her, surprising her as she lifted a foot to continue up the stairs. In Neighborlee, weird had a totally different connotation. A good connotation.
Definitely good, she decided, as she emptied out her bags and put away all the provisions she had bought, and found a note tucked in her purse in unfamiliar, clear handwriting that just looked like it had to be Angela's. She had provided a list of handyman names and their phone numbers, and at the bottom of the list made a note that she should start at the top.
At the top was Kurt Hanson's name, circled. The silvery-blue ink seemed to sparkle, just a little bit, as Jane stared at the name and wondered, hoped, dared to believe that this was the same Kurt Hanson who had been her hero when she had lived in the orphanage. Sandy hair and gray eyes and... Yes, a talent for gizmos, such as managing to attach the can opener from the kitchen to his BMX bike and getting extra speed from it. That was the kind of handyman she could depend on.
Somehow, though, she couldn't get herself to make that call to Kurt to ask him to come over and look at the shop and talk about the renovations. Not tonight, anyway.
* * * *
"Weird. And how come the Old Poops didn't pick up on the whole brouhaha at New Year's?" Katie sat back from her notebook computer after half an hour of searching for news on the events at Eden II, and shrugged.
"Well, considering how everybody seems to have worked together to keep it quiet? Not like all the witnesses and the noise and how long things lasted when that teacher was attacked at Christmas." Despite her words, Jane still felt like something was weird. Other than a short note in the Tattler, and a few police reports that Katie had hacked into in totally illegal ways—another of her talents—very little notice had been paid to the events.
Reports were vaguely worded, admitting to injuries, people with memory gaps, vanishing equipment, and a notation that a local family, the Gladstones, was threatening to sue and several lawyers in town were putting pressure on them. Sue over what? Jane put the Gladstones on her list of people to investigate. Yes, she remembered three bully cousins—two boys and a girl—who made a point of picking on orphanage children. Were those the same Gladstones who were involved in the New Year's Eve mystery? Jane had a general impression that the Gladstones sued over anything that violated their belief that the universe revolved around them.
For a few seconds she felt as if something whispered in the back of her mind. She caught a whiff of damp and stone, and the lights dimmed. Or at least she thought they did. Maybe she was just tired?
Jane remembered her panicky spell and all her tangled suspicions from that afternoon. Could she blame it on too many changes, too much pressure from all the things she needed to do? Neighborlee was such a quiet town on the surface. According to appearances, and so many people she had talked to, nothing ever happened. No deadly, dangerous accidents, no children getting abused or kidnapped, no criminals using it as a base of operations. And no irresponsible jerks who did everything the owner's manual told them to avoid, and then sued the manufacturer because something blew up on them or refused to work.
Maybe that was it—all appearances—meaning a major conspiracy to keep things quiet, calmed down, and to silence those who asked too many questions. Was that what Angela was really implying, when she suggested Jane get involved in investigating the events at Eden II?
"Maybe they figured since I was moving here, and I've been reading the papers, I already knew about it. Or maybe that project they've been talking about is finally getting off the ground and they're busy."
Chapter Eight
"You're probably right. Anyway, I did a few circuits through town before I found your place—on purpose," Katie added with a grin. "I really like it. There's this feeling. Welcoming, like you said. I could almost envy you. Maybe if things work out for y
ou, and you figure out what's up, if there's a guardian here, people who know what's going on and know about us, maybe it'd be safe to settle here. For all of us, you know? It's not like I have to be in the center of the country to do my job. Ohio is considered part of the Midwest, right?" She shut her notebook with a decisive click and slid it off her lap, to rest on the rag rug next to her.
She raised her arms above her head and stretched luxuriously. "Got to admit, I thought you were crazy when you said you were moving here. I mean, who really wants to go back to the town where you were dumped like month-old garbage, right?"
"We were all dumped. Not a one of us ever had parents who admitted to ownership." Jane shrugged and made a mental note to go over to the orphanage and see what she could do about inspecting her records. She had a right to know everything the state knew about her, didn't she?
"Yeah, kind of creepy. I mean, it's like we were all whipped up in test tubes in some hidden laboratory, and the eggheads who made us didn't know anything about raising kids, so they dumped us."
"Too bad it's not just us. Lots of kids, wanted and unwanted. Kelpie emailed me a few months ago after checking out a newborn found in mysterious circumstances about twenty miles away from me."
"Not one of us?"
"Big, stupid family argument. The eighth baby from one couple, and someone in the family decided to take the baby because they couldn't have children and it wasn't fair their cousin could keep popping them out like a gumball machine. It turned into a big game of keepaway, and whoever had the baby last just left her in a grocery basket in a fast food joint. Fortunately, the parents are the smart ones from both families, and they really wanted their baby. Anyway, none of us were ever found that young. And never inside a building." Jane sighed. "Just mysterious circumstances. That's all they ever write on our records."
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