by Anna Kern
“No, I really need to speak to her, but I can come back.”
“No need to do that, I’m Alyx. What’s going on?” Alyx had appeared behind Maggie.
“The station received a call shortly after one o’clock this morning about a disturbance at this address. The officer dispatched to the scene found a bedroom window open and no one appeared to be home. Did you notice anything missing?”
“Maggie checked the house a short time ago and I don’t think anything is missing.”
They both turned to Maggie for confirmation.
“I’m the one who left the window open.” Maggie explained what had happened. “We thought that maybe the cats had pushed the screen out and I checked the house. Everything seemed to be in order.”
“Two men were found in a van parked down the street, both of them bleeding profusely from scratches and bites––they looked like they had been in a cat fight, but they wouldn’t say who did it. We have them in custody on suspicion of wrongdoing. Anything either of you can tell us will help.”
“Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God.”
––Unknown
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: Unpleasant Memories Revisited
Alyx stayed in bed the rest of the day and part of the next. Her brother and sister-in-law were there to take care of her needs and ours. Bernice stopped by with food one day, and the next day just to see if she needed anything, giving Maggie a much-needed break.
I stuck as close to Alyx as she allowed. Sunday morning, Alyx’s ex, Bob Hille, called to check on her as he promised Ethan he would do.
“I know you hired the lawyer and you don’t have to tell me anything, so thank you for authorizing David Hunter to keep me up to date on any new developments and for being there for Ethan. I know it means a lot to him.”
There was an awkward silence and Alyx looked uncomfortable.
“I love Ethan and always have, though, I admit, for a while I foolishly lost track of the important things in life. I haven’t been much of a father, I know, and I’m sorry for that. I just hope it’s not too late to make amends.”
“You’re right; you have been a jackass, and it has been longer than a while. For his sake, I hope he can forgive you, but only time will tell.”
Then Bob told her that the investigation on the theft of her purse had so far led nowhere. I imagined she must have felt helpless. I hoped her outburst hadn’t change his mind about keeping her in the loop.
The conversation ended, Alyx tossed off the covers and slid out of bed. “I need to get out of here,” she said to no one in particular.
My housemates, anxious to reveal what we knew, started meowing impatiently, swarming around her as she made her way to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. Clearly distracted by her emotions, she didn’t try to figure out what we wanted.
“I need some air. I have to get out of here,” she said again.
I realized that it probably wasn’t the right time to tell her; there were other things going on that I needed to unravel in order to keep her safe.
“Of all domestic animals, the cat is the most expressive. His face is capable of showing a wide range of expressions. His tail is a mirror of his mind. His gracefulness is surpassed only by his agility. And, along with all these, he has a sense of humor.”
––Walter Chandoha
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: The Missing Key
Alyx went straight to her bedroom when she returned. She showered and washed her hair. Dressed in lounging shorts and a T-shirt, she sat on the couch and promptly fell asleep, waking up when Susan called to see if she needed anything. She mentioned that she hadn’t had anything to eat and promised Susan that she would as soon as she got off the phone.
I trotted next to her to the kitchen with the other two following, their tails straight up. Alyx looked around and with a heavy sigh, sat at the kitchen table, across from where she usually sat. It must have been disturbing for her to be sitting there, believing that someone had tried to kill her.
She bent down to pat Misty who was rubbing against her ankles, with Pooky weaving in, out, and around the table legs.
“You all know something is wrong, don’t you? I wish you could talk and tell me what happened here Saturday. I bet you know.”
I heard a key turn in the lock at the front door. Alyx heard it too. She quickly glanced over to the desk where Maggie had put the house keys and saw there was only one key. I leaped onto the table ready to attack. Alyx took a deep breath and held it until she heard Maggie’s voice.
“Alyx, it’s me.”
“I’m in the kitchen.”
“Honey, you’re as white as a sheet. Should you be up?”
“I’m fine. You scared me half to death, is all. I saw that one of keys to the new lock was gone and I didn’t remember giving you one.”
Maggie blushed and stammered an answer. “Well...I just assumed...you wanted me to have a key. I’m sorry for the presumption.”
The keys already in her hand, Maggie started to pull off Alyx’s house key from her chain, her eyes downcast.
I realized that Alyx knew she had hurt Maggie’s feelings. “No, Maggie; I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“I should have called, but I didn’t want to wake you in case you were sleeping. I was just going to leave these, if you were. Novie sends her regards and muffins to make you smile.”
“How thoughtful of her,” she said, taking the bag from Maggie. “You want some?”
“Sure, if you sit and let me make the coffee.”
Maggie put two mugs on the table and handed Alyx a plate for the muffins. “Novie has always been nice. She was the first one on our side when we first approached the Downtown Merchants Association about staying open late. Remember?”
“Yes, I do, and she has been on our side on every issue we’ve discussed since. Do you know what she’s decided to do about selling her building?” asked Alyx.
“I think she’s getting some pressure from her husband. She says she’s still thinking about it.”
Maggie poured the coffee and sat down across from Alyx.
“Listen, Maggie, we’re partners, but more important, we’re friends, and I’m truly sorry I blew up at you and didn’t let you explain why you think we should sell and move our business.”
“I accept your apology though it’s not necessary.”
“Thank you for all your help, Maggie. I don’t know what would have happened without you here to take care of the cats, the store, and me. And one more thing I want to say is I’m glad you asked Bob to help out; it means a lot to Ethan.”
Maggie reached for a muffin and put it on a paper napkin and pushed it over. “Okay, now that’s out of the way, how are you feeling? You’ve lost a some weight; those shorts are a little loose on you.”
“I’m okay and so are the shorts as long as they don’t fall off.”
“How are you emotionally?”
Alyx didn’t answer her question directly. She broke a piece off the muffin but didn’t put it in her mouth. “Bob called this morning with information on the latest round of non-productive leads. He said the stolen purse lead didn’t pan out. The investigator working for the lawyer looked at the store’s surveillance video and there was nothing showing the purse being taken, but it did show it being returned by a store employee.”
Maggie’s eyes opened wide. “Really, that’s good isn’t it?”
“The employee was questioned and she said she found it on the floor in the produce aisle.”
“And they believed her?” Maggie asked, surprised.
“She’s a senior citizen who’s worked there several years and Bob said there was no reason not to.”
“Did Bob say anything else about the case?”
“Just that nothing came out of the other leads either. David told him that in the security video of the parking lot and store entrance, they saw Rupert Moresby enter the coffee shop next to the store right after me. They thou
ght that would lead to something, but it turns out he’s just an opportunist and a cheat. He told David he was meeting a woman there.”
“The lawyer questioned George Lucas too. Of course, I knew he was wasting his time looking for anything on George. He’s as straight as they come,” said Maggie.
Alyx hesitated before answering. “I agree, but as far as David was concerned, everyone he talked to could have been a suspect, even you.”
Trying for a normalcy I’m sure she didn’t feel, Alyx asked, “What’s going on with the Swanson account? Were you able to find those circa 1900 pedestal sinks they wanted?”
“I’ve found two, so far, and I’m waiting to hear from two more dealers.”
“Did they agree to use reproductions if we can’t find the rest?”
“Yes, but it’s really important to them to use original materials as much as possible.”
“Did I tell you that I met the former owner, before the house went up for sale?” Alyx asked.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“She told me that she started the story about the house being haunted. She did it as an advertising gimmick. The story appeared in one of those special sections the paper puts out every so often and the ghost story became part of the history of the house. It never died and she never confessed that she made it up. Just out of curiosity, I asked her if the lie bothered her.
“She said she didn’t see why it should since no one could positively say there wasn’t a ghost in the house. She said that she did experience some strange things––little things disappearing and then reappearing in strange places and doors opening on their own. She also said that the psychic who came to investigate definitely felt a strange presence in the house. So her point was that maybe there is and maybe there isn’t. Who’s to say?”
Alyx took a bite of her muffin and smiled. “Have the new owners seen any ghosts, yet?”
Maggie laughed. “Betty told me a funny story the other day. She said she surprised her husband at work one night and practically scared him out of his skin.
He was working in the kitchen and didn’t hear her come in. All of a sudden, he saw this huge shadow on the wall. She said he froze to the spot and visibly jumped when she called his name.”
The picture of the big tattooed man jumping in fright obviously made the two women laugh.
“Maggie, I’m sorry all this has fallen on your shoulders. Hopefully, I’ll be able to come back to work tomorrow or the next day, at least for a few hours anyway.”
“You just take your time. I spoke to Charvette and Bernice and they are glad to work the extra hours.”
They finished their coffee. Maggie got up to clear the table and continued, “Those two have been so cooperative taking on extra work and more hours, I was thinking about a bonus for them at the end of year. What do you say?”
“I think that’s a great idea.”
Maggie put the cups in the dishwasher, covered the leftover muffins, and got ready to leave.
Alyx shivered and wrapped her arms around her waist. “It’s just starting to sink in that someone tried to hurt me, if not kill me, and I guess I’m feeling a little vulnerable.”
“Did something else happen today? Did Bob say something to upset you?”
“It wasn’t so much what he said, it was the memories he evoked.”
“If you want to talk about it, I have time to listen.”
“I’ve told you most of it already.”
“I’m getting older; I may have forgotten some of it, so tell me again so you can expunge it from your mind.”
“I don’t think I ever told you the details of the night Bob told me he didn’t love me anymore and wanted a divorce––the memory, and the aftermath are too painful to recall.”
“Time spent with cats is never wasted.”
––May Sarton
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Unpleasant Memories
“Talking with Bob this morning brought back unpleasant memories and coupled with all the bad news, I felt like I was suffocating. The beach always has a calming effect on me, so I dressed and drove to the Inlet Beach. I strolled along the shore and let the painful memories buried a long time ago haunt me for the last time.
“I was so naive back then, I never saw it coming. I truly believed my marriage was solid. We hardly ever argued. Bob was always where he said he would be, and when he wasn’t at work, he was with me. I never had a reason to distrust him, yet thinking back, there were a couple of things that happened that should have alerted me, had I not been lulled into a false sense of security. For instance, the strange earring I found on the passenger seat of his car. I could hardly speak when I asked him about it. He was so sure of me, that he didn’t even bother to make up a lie. He said he didn’t know where it came from, leaving me to draw my own conclusion.
“I rationalized that it could have belonged to a co-worker whom he might have had lunch with. It seemed perfectly innocent––I wasn’t worried. Then there was the time he didn’t come home from work one night. After he called to say he was going to be late, I didn’t hear from him for the rest of the night. Frantic, by the time I finally reached him at work the next morning, he calmly explained that he had spent the night working on a crashed computer program for a client and just wasn’t able to call. I let it go for the simple reason I wanted to believe my marriage was solid.
“Then one night, I woke in the early hours of the morning and I was alone in bed. The kitchen light was on, and I went to see if anything was wrong. Bob had been acting restless, and I wondered what was going on. He was sitting on a bar stool at the counter, one hand holding his head, the other holding a lit cigarette. I stood behind him and put my arms around him.
“He loosened my arms and turned to look at me, his soulful eyes begging for pity. ‘I don’t love you anymore. I want a divorce.’ I heard the words but didn’t know what they meant.
‘“I want a divorce,’ he repeated. The words sliced through me to the core. The beautiful, deep blue eyes that warmed my heart had just turned it to ashes. It felt like a nightmare but I knew that it was real.
‘“I...don’t...understand,’ I stammered.
“In an angry tone, he said, ‘What’s there to understand?’ Then, he lowered his voice to almost a whisper, ‘I don’t love you anymore, I’ve met someone else––she’s my soul mate.’
“I wondered why he was angry since I wasn’t the one breaking up the marriage.
“I went back to bed, and curled up on my side of the king-size bed and tried not to think, but the same thoughts kept coming up. What gave him the right to change two people’s lives, alter our future––the future I’d depended on for the past eleven years? How did meeting your soul mate negate the promises, the plans, the commitments made to another?
“The next morning, I got up and made breakfast as usual. Everything was the same and nothing was the same. Bob broke Ethan’s heart when he told Ethan that he was leaving. He moved out a week later, oblivious to the path of destruction he left behind, leaving me to deal with the damage. But that was a long time ago.
“Anyway, this morning, after a short walk on the beach, I sat on one of the rocks used to form the Inlet jetty––behind me, man’s imperfect creation, God’s perfect creation in front of me, the blue expanse of the sky meeting the green water of the ocean. The waves lapping at my feet, the rhythm of the pounding surf, the smell of the ocean, the precise formation of the seagulls’ flight overhead brought peace to my soul and, after a while, I felt the anxiety begin to melt away until I picked up my towel and headed for the car.
“Then I saw a man I knew when some tourists stopped me to ask directions to the Inlet Lighthouse. I tried my best to avoid him, but he must have picked up his pace and there I was face to face with Dan Ramsey.
‘Well, I see you’re back among the living,’ he said.
I answered, ‘Sorry to disappoint you; I was never near death, just sleeping.’
‘You’d better be careful, young lady, s
omeone might get serious next time.’ He turned his back and headed for the surf.
I didn’t want him to know how that had shaken me up and I said, ‘You be careful too, Dan. I hear the rip current is pretty strong today.’”
“I think that’s exactly what he intended to do, Alyx,” replied Maggie, “shake you up. Tell David Hunter about it; see what he thinks, and talk to your brother about it too. I know he wants to help. Of course, if it will make you feel better, I can come and stay with you, or you can stay with me. I know you don’t like my sleek modern style––no antiques or shabby furniture in my condo but it does have a view of the ocean just across the street.”
“Thank you, Maggie, you’ve done more than enough already.”
Alyx followed her outside and sat in the wicker chair on the porch. “Just last week, my life revolved around the store. This morning when I passed Antiques & Designs on the way to the beach, I didn’t stop, didn’t even glance in that direction. I’ve always believed that possessions don’t bring lasting happiness, and I’d give it all up in a minute to have my son free.”
“Alyx, don’t think like that; it’s not over for Ethan and if even if it does end badly, the decision can be appealed, new evidence might be found.”
“I don’t think I can cope with this.”
“You’ll cope with this the same as you’ve done before with other things you thought you couldn’t handle.”
Maggie glanced at her watch, “I hate to leave. Do you want me to stay and keep you company for a while longer?”
“No, I’ll be fine. I know we still have a business to run and I want you to keep your appointment with our client.”
“Okay. I’ll call you later about dinner.”
“I’m all set for dinner. Susan called; she’s worried I’m not taking care of myself and is dropping something off later.”
“I’ve only spoken to her twice but she seems like a nice person.”
“She is. There’s only a five-year difference in our ages and we were close friends at one time. Sadly, as time went on, Tom became the focus of her life and her identity. The Susan I knew disappeared; I don’t know who she is anymore. At fifty years old, Susan has become the invisible middle-aged woman.”