I look down at my hands folded in my lap. I’m too jittery to think about this right now. I can only keep thinking that I want that, too. I don’t want to face the world without him in my life.
He reaches across the seat and gives my wrist a quick squeeze. In a fraction of a second, it’s over and he draws his hand away to rest it on the steering wheel. That brief moment of human connection gives me the strength to face the future. He’s still there. He’s still the man I admire and care about. He never left and he never changed. Maybe I did, or maybe neither of us did. Maybe we just needed to catch our breath before we move on together.
“I need to come and see you tomorrow sometime,” he says. “I need to take your statement about the events leading up to Bea hitting you over the head and tying you up so we can charge her with battery and kidnapping.”
I nod. “Okay. You know where to find me.”
“Yeah. I do.”
For a long, drawn-out moment, we sit in silence. I don’t want to leave. His presence surrounds me in a bubble of safety. I never realized it until now. I feel absolutely safe with him. As long as he’s around, I know nothing can happen to me.
After a long time, he gets out and opens my door for me. He walks me up to the house and we stop on the porch. “Thank you for the ride home,” I tell him. “Good night. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Margaret.”
Neither of us moves. I should kiss him good night the way I always do, but I can’t bring myself to do it. For some reason, that invisible barrier still holds us apart. The only option is to go inside.
I open the door. When I get inside and hang up my jacket, I catch sight of him walking to his car. He gets into the driver’s seat and looks toward the house through the window.
He sits there, unmoving, until I turn off the living room light. He’s still sitting there when I get to my bedroom. I switch on the light and go to the window. He gazes up at me from the street. The last thing I see before I shoot the curtains closed is his face staring up at me.
13
I meet Sabrina Harris outside the vacant building that used to be Scott Freeman’s coffee shop. “Are you ready for this?”
She balances an enormous try of freshly cooked donuts on one arm. She breaks into a toothy grin and we enter the building together. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
When we get inside, we find several vendors already set up. Mr. Stewart works over a large black poodle standing on his table. He clips the poodle’s fur while he talks to a group of kids about what he’s doing. From here, I can see several retail-sized bottles of Floral Glow for sale on his table, along with brochures, business cards, and dog toys.
Simone stands across the room amid an impressive array of antiques, all set up in a tasteful representation of an Edwardian villa. It looks like one of the sections of her store, only smaller. It immediately brings to mind that I’m looking in on a room in someone’s house from a hundred years ago.
Simone smiles and waves to me, but before I can wave back, Zack rushes over. “Thank goodness you’re here, Mom. I need your help.”
He drags me back to our table. When I see it, I stop. “What’s wrong with this? It looks great.”
Just then, a very flustered Stacy Koontz charges at me. “Margaret! I just saw David Graham outside—with another woman. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
My shoulders sag. “You don’t seem to be having any trouble telling me now.”
“What are you going to do?” Stacy hisses. “She’s tall and blonde and gorgeous. She looks like she just stepped off the red carpet. I just don’t know what to do. He brought her to the café the other night, and it looked like they were out on a date. I’ve been going crazy over it ever since. I didn’t know how to break it to you that he was cheating on you.” She wrings her hands in despair.
I pat her on the shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about. I know all about it. He’s not cheating on me, and I would ask you and everyone in West End to welcome her. Her name is Pauline, and I suspect she’s going to be around a lot in the future.”
Stacy frowns. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Now don’t you have a booth to man?”
Stacy blinks at me for a minute. Then she bursts out laughing and lays her hand on my arm. “Of course! Of course. How silly of me. I should have known you’d have everything under control, Margaret. You always do. Thank you so much. Congratulations.”
She races off. The first influx of customers comes through the door, and in what seems like no time, the building fills up.
Zack drifts to my side. “She’s been on my case for three hours. I barely had a chance to set up the table. She kept murmuring in my ear that she’d have David Graham’s hide if he hurt you.”
I have to smile to myself. “It’s nice to know people care about me, but there’s nothing to worry about.”
“So who is this Pauline woman?” I open my mouth to reply, but he cuts me off with a wave of his hand. “Oh, I know. I’ll hear all about it soon enough from the detective. Spare me the platitudes.”
I turn to the table. “Thank you for setting this up. It looks wonderful.”
I can’t find any fault in the chocolates and candies arranged in sparkling glass containers. Zack fiddles with the chocolate trays. “Are you sure you want to give all these away as free samples? Don’t you want to sell anything? I mean, after all, this is supposed to be a market. Look at the others. They’ve all got stuff for sale.”
I scan the building. He’s right. I’m the only one with nothing for sale. Patrick has toys strewn around his table, and Sabrina is doing a roaring trade in donuts. Even Elizabeth Dunroy is signing people up for the day care center.
“Yes, I want to give them away,” I tell him. “I want everyone to have a good time. This is our first market. A little goodwill will encourage everyone to buy from us in the future.”
He doesn’t answer. A bevy of schoolgirls comes along at that moment, and Zack gets lost in handing out nearly an entire tray of chocolates to them. I get shunted into the crowd while he holds court with his young admirers.
Kyle Davidson comes up to me with Jonah on a leash. He holds out his arms to me. “How are you, Margaret? I hear you bagged another bad guy last night.”
I hug him back. “It was a bad girl, actually. We caught Mark Sheridan’s murderer, but I couldn’t have done it alone.”
He wags his forefinger at me. “I know you better than that. You probably tackled her in the park and brought her down singlehanded. Am I right?”
“Wrong,” I counter. “She nearly killed me. I wouldn’t be alive right now if David Graham hadn’t showed up.”
He looks around and frowns. “Where is he? You two are usually joined at the elbow for things like this.”
I turn away to hide my flaming red cheeks. “I don’t know where he is, to tell you the truth. I hear he has some business to attend to. I’m sure he’ll be around later.”
Kyle gets distracted when Mr. Stewart comes over and takes Jonah’s leash. “If you don’t mind, Sir.”
“Of course. Be my guest” Kyle hands over the leash.
Mr. Stewart leans over to me. “I want to thank you, Margaret. I know the details of the murder case are supposed to remain confidential, but I owe you a debt of gratitude for defending my honor.”
My cheeks burn even more. “I don’t even want to know how you found out about that.”
“No, you don’t. Just remember that I know and I appreciate it.” He leads Jonah away to his table. The dog jumps onto it and stands like a statue while Mr. Stewart starts clipping his toenails. Jonah heaves an enormous sigh of resignation and trains his eyes into the distance while children chatter all around him and even stroke his fur. I swear, that dog is an angel from heaven.
When I turn around, Kyle is halfway across the building in a deep conversation with Oscar Whitfield. It looks like I’m at loose ends.
I wander over to Patrick’s toy stand. I wade th
rough kids to his side. “How are you doing, now that you’re on your own, Patrick? I know this whole situation has affected you a lot.”
“I’m doing just splendid on my own, Margaret.” He beams at me with a wider grin than I’ve ever seen on him before. “Things couldn’t be better.”
“Does that mean your arthritis cleared up?”
“Not at all,” he chirps. “It hurts worse than ever.”
“Why are you so happy, then?” I ask. “Did the judge uphold your purchase agreement with Mark Sheridan?”
“Nope. He threw it out, but the very same day, I got an even better offer. I’m selling up. I’m out of here at the end of the month. A new couple will be taking over.”
My eyes pop. “Really? That’s incredible.”
“That’s what I said. I’m rolling in the clover, and I won’t have to work in the store anymore. I’ll be able to pay you for solving the case out of my proceeds.”
“I’m sorry about Bea,” I tell him. “Believe me when I say I never meant to….”
“I have to thank you for capturing her,” he interrupts. “I’ve been unhappy with her for a long time, and now she’s gone. I knew there was something wrong with her, but I didn’t know what. Now my life is heading straight up. She’s gone and I’m selling the store. I couldn’t be happier.”
I can’t stop gaping at him in astonishment. “Okay. Congratulations, Patrick.”
He goes back to chatting to his customers and I wander away. I can’t stop thinking about him, though. He’ll be gone in a matter of weeks. A new store owner will move onto Main Street. We’ll all have to get to know a new couple, and the dynamic between all of us business owners will almost certainly change.
Still, I can’t fault Patrick. He doesn’t want to run the toy store anymore, and now that Bea’s gone, he doesn’t have to. Why should he stick around? Why should he care more about West End than he does?
I scan the crowd. Besides him, all the other store owners appear to be enjoying themselves. They talk and sell and laugh. I see quite a few people walking around munching donuts.
I find myself drawn to Sabrina’s stand. I get there to find her flushed and grinning while she wipes her hands on a rag. “How are things over here?”
“I just sold out,” she tells me. “I sent Tanya over to the bakery to pick up another load of donuts and cookies. These people are famished.”
“This market was a great idea, Sabrina. Good thinking. We should definitely do this every month, at least.”
She straightens up. Now that she doesn’t have anything to do but wait, she has time to talk to me. She’s usually running a mile a minute. “I’ve been thinking, Margaret.”
“Uh-oh,” I tease. “What is it now?”
Her features gleam with inner excitement. “I’ve been thinking the town should buy this building. We should turn it into a community center. We can organize all sorts of events here. We can make it a regular meeting place. We could have concerts and plays and…well, anything anybody can think up. We just need a venue for the locals to showcase their abilities.”
“You’re right!” I gasp. “You’re absolutely right. We would just need to figure out how to…”
“I already contacted the lawyer in charge of the building,” she breaks in. “Sophie Freeman sold it to a consortium down in the city, but they don’t have any plans for it. He said he would pass along my request to discuss buying it.”
My head swims with too much information. “There’s only the problem of coming up with the funds.”
“I thought of that, too,” she replies. “First of all, we could tap the town reserves. We have several thousand in back tax returns that have been accumulating in a dusty old bank account for decades. Then we could whip up a little fundraising campaign among the locals and their extended families. We could raise enough to put a down payment on a mortgage. Then we could charge entrance fees for events to cover the payments.”
I stare at her with my mouth open. “Did you research all of that in between running the bakery?”
She wiggles and blushes. “Yeah.”
I shake my head. “You’re a wonder.”
“What do you say, Margaret? Will you help me? You’re closer to everyone in this town than I am. I know it’s asking a lot. You have your own business to run and your son and David and your private investigations and everything.”
“Nonsense,” I snap. “It’s never too much if it’s what West End needs. Count me in. We’ll start right away. In fact, we can make an announcement later today. Everyone’s already here. We can take advantage of that to ask for volunteers to help us, and we can inform everyone what we’re doing and why we’ll be mounting a fundraiser soon so we can continue events like this.”
I squeeze her arm, but at that moment, Tanya comes back with armloads of donuts and treats. In a few seconds, the mob rushes in and surrounds the table.
I withdraw into the faceless masses. This market wound up being so much more of a success than I ever thought possible. West End has really turned out to support its local businesses.
I know now they will support the community center, too. They’re all itching to come together as a community. They just need a venue to do it.
The strangest part is that, even though we’ve suffered all these murders recently, every heinous crime brings us closer together.
I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this community. I couldn’t be more proud to serve it and do my best to make it better.
14
I shield my eyes from the sun and carry a dozen empty chocolate trays back to the candy store while Zack trucks the folding tables behind me. We get to the sidewalk when I spot David Graham across the street with blonde Pauline. God, I have got to stop calling her blonde. It sounds so insulting, even in the privacy of my own mind.
I turn away and head inside. I don’t want to see him with her, even if it is innocent. I dump the trays in the garbage and go to the counter to put away the leftover sweets that Zack brings over from the market.
I pour the Jelly Bellys into their jars, but when I turn around for the Laffy Taffy, my blood runs cold when David and enters the store. To my surprise, he doesn’t bring Pauline with him.
Instead, a tall girl of fifteen walks at his side. She moves with willowy grace, and her honey-blonde hair hangs past her shoulder blades. Sparkling blue eyes radiate out from her ivory face, but they aren’t David’s eyes. They look too feminine and elongated for that.
I stare at her in mute astonishment until David eases up to the counter. “Margaret, I’d like you to meet my daughter Ariel. Ariel, this is Margaret Nichols. She’s a very special friend of mine. I know you two are going to get along well.”
Ariel breaks into a magical smile. For a fraction of an instant, I can see another face underneath hers, a woman’s face, and it isn’t Pauline’s. This girl resembles someone ghostly, someone mysterious and infinitely appealing.
Ariel extends her hand to me. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Nichols. David has told me so much about you.”
I turn bright red. “He can’t have told you that much.”
“He did!” she exclaims. “He told me how you solve mysteries and catch criminals. I would love to be a detective someday.”
She casts a wistful glance at David. A look of inexpressible emotion passes between them. I hesitate to call it love, but the connection is there. She might not have known him for fifteen years, but blood will always tell. She’s a part of him.
He gazes back at her with profound adoration. I’ve never seen him look at anyone like that, not even me. It’s a look only a parent can give to a child. It’s a look of cosmic belonging. He never had it before. Some part of him was always missing, and now he has it back.
All these years, I knew I loved Zack, but I never really let myself comprehend how much. I was too busy changing his diapers and putting Band-Aids on his knees. I got lost in the minutia of everyday life to realize the prize I had.
N
o parent can understand the magical gift of their children until they come face to face with someone who never had them. I see the heartbreak and tragedy of David Graham’s life. He lived the last fifteen years carrying the torment of losing his wife.
Now he has those years back. He has the prize that makes all the suffering worthwhile. He understands the bottomless love for his own child. No one could give him that but his daughter.
He whips around from admiring her. “Hey, Margaret, why don’t you come have lunch with us? We’re going next door to the Happy-Go-Lucky. Come along and join us, why don’t you?”
I’m about to make an excuse. They should spend the time together without a stranger distracting them. Before I can get the words out, Zack interrupts from behind me. “Go on, Mom. I’ve got this.”
I spin around to find his deep brown eyes boring into my soul. I read the same understanding there. He must have seen the same change in David, and now David is inviting me to be a part of his long-awaited reunion. How can I turn that down?
I blush. “All right. I’ll come.”
David leads the way outside. He chatters to Ariel while we walk. “Margaret is becoming a minor celebrity in this town. She organized a street fair where all the businesses came out and displayed their wares on Main Street, and she organized that market in the vacant building this morning.”
“I wasn’t the only one,” I correct him. “Sabrina from the bakery had the idea, and the two of us did the organizing. I can’t take all the credit.”
Ariel breaks in. “Is it true you caught a murderer only last night?”
“Well, actually, David caught her. I got myself into hot water, as usual.”
“Don’t let her fool you,” David adds. “She found the missing piece of evidence after the forensics team went over the crime scene twice. That should tell you what kind of detective she is.”
I mumble into my collar. “I am not a detective.”
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