“I’m ... I’m so, so sorry,” he stammered, using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe at her bodice. Only when he realized he was actually rubbing her ample chest, did he stop. I looked at Sam and saw his smile from behind the viewfinder. He’d caught the whole thing on camera.
Molly took Matt’s hand and gently moved it away, smiling as she did so. “It’s okay. No biggie. It needed dry cleaning anyway.”
It was this reaction that made me realize Matt was the man Molly had been telling me about earlier, the new man she had her eye on. Well, judging by the color of his cheeks, I thought he would fit in with our family very well. Maybe he could even contribute to my book, 101 Ways to Embarrass Yourself.
“Why are you so interested in this?” asked Riley, stepping up behind me and putting a protective hand on my lower back.
“Oh ... well ... um, news is a bit slow in Westport today,” explained Matt. “Plus not everybody digs up a whole skeleton in their back garden.”
“A whole skeleton?” I asked. That was the first I’d heard exactly what the police had found.
“Yes, they think so. I don’t think they have it all yet, but the unusual thing about this skeleton is ... it has three hands.”
Chapter Two
I closed the door behind Molly, leaned against it and sighed. Cat sauntered out. Who knows where he’d been hiding, but he seemed to know exactly when Harper had left. I inherited the cat with the house, and even though my pet owning history was bad, Cat seemed not to care. As long as his bowl was full of food and he could stretch out on my comfy bed, all was good in his world. We also both shared a dislike for my neighbor, Helen. Only he could poop in her garden bed though.
Riley walked down the stairs towards me carrying my pillow.
“Are you ready?” he asked. You guessed it ... tonight we were sleeping at his house. Riley owns a small converted church that backs on to the river. It looks, smells and feels like Riley. I loved it. Since he was renovating my house, we’d divided our sleeping arrangements between the two homes. This seemed to work well, but personally I loved the nights at his house the most.
“Sure, just let me get Cat’s travel box and put him in it.”
“He’ll be okay here for the night, won’t he?”
“Maybe, but I don’t like the thought that whoever that body belonged to may not have crossed to the other side. I’ve watched Ghost Hunters and I know exactly what dead people are capable of.”
Riley sighed. “Lizzie, I don’t know much about dead bodies, but I know enough to know that the one they dug up in your garden has been there a very long time. He’s had plenty of time to walk to the light.”
“How do you know it’s a he?” I asked.
“I don’t. I guessed and I’ve got a fifty percent chance of being right.” Riley flashed a smile.
“Fair enough, but if you’re wrong, I’ll make you pay for it later.” I laughed, using Riley’s catch phrase on him. Making me ‘pay for things later’ was a favorite saying of his. And when he says ‘pay’ he doesn’t mean with money. Personally, I try to find things that I will need to ‘pay for’ later.
Riley laughed. “It’s a bet.”
“I could always pay in advance—you know, just in case you’re right and I’m wrong. I wouldn’t want to have a debt like that hanging over my head.”
Riley moved toward me and pulled me in close. His lips touched mine and I felt the sizzle all the way to my toes. After a moment of skin-melting body contact, I pulled up for air and tried to regain my senses. Truth is, Riley has the ability to fry my brain. I have a secret fear that I’ll be totally brain dead by the time I’m thirty-three, but damn it’ll be worth it. I averted my gaze and refused to look into his eyes. If I did, I’d be a goner.
“Not here,” I breathed.
“What?” asked Riley, his lips moving their way down my neck.
“Not here. We have to wait until we get to your house.”
“Why?”
“In case the ghost is watching us. That would be creepy, don’t you think?”
“Lizzie, there is no ghost,” explained Riley patiently, lifting the collar of my dress and kissing my shoulder. “And beside, we’ve done it here loads of times. If there is a ghost, he’s seen it all before.”
“But what if the ghost wasn’t here before? What if it’s been watching and has seen its body uncovered and now it’s pissed off.”
Riley sighed and lifted his head. “You’re serious aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I said, happy my voice sounded a lot more resolute than I felt. Looking into Riley’s brilliant blue eyes made me have second thoughts. I heard him sigh once again, but thankfully he stepped away from me.
“Okay, here’s the plan. You get Cat and I’ll get his travel box. I’ll meet you back here in one minute. If I speed and take the short cut, I can be at my house in ten minutes. Then you’re all mine.”
* * *
After I dropped my pillow and Cat at Riley’s—and paid him my debt, of course—we headed over to Mum’s for dinner. It was a tradition that every Friday night I would get together with my siblings. Tonight however, Mum had moved Sunday dinner forward as Dad was taking her out on Sunday for their anniversary. Honestly, this made me a bit restless, as Dad wasn’t known to ever even have remembered their anniversary, let alone take her to a nice restaurant, but who was I to question the sudden change of heart.
In a previous life, Mum’s dining room was the bedroom Molly and I shared growing up. Now, both the room and the table weren’t quite big enough as our family grew, but somehow we all squeezed in. It’s just ‘elbows in’, everyone. This worked well as long as you didn’t get the seat next to Grandma.
Today however, I had that privilege. I guess I couldn’t complain. The only reason we were last to arrive was because of paying my debt to Riley and that was more than worth it.
I looked around me. There were eight of us in total. Mum and Dad sat at the opposite heads of the table, I had Grandma Mabel to my right and Riley to my left. Opposite me was my brother Danny, who had Molly to his right and his partner Andrew to his left.
In her younger days, Grandma Mabel had been quite beautiful with long black curly hair and deep brown eyes. Danny, Molly and I all inherited her dark curly hair and brown eyes, but only Danny truly got her free spirit. Thankfully he has Andrew to keep him grounded.
I looked at Andrew. He was about seventeen years older than Danny, graying at the temples and had started work on a very small muffin top. I knew he worked hard to keep the weight off, as Danny resembled a walking skeleton, but I guess age catches up with us all at some point.
Next to Danny, he was very conservative. Danny and Andrew were not only life partners; they were also business partners, owning their own hairdressing salon on River Road. Personally, I thought Andrew must actually be some sort of saint.
“Hey Molly, Sexpo’s in town. I was wondering if you wanted to go?” asked Danny looking hopefully at Molly, his eyebrows raised.
“Why don’t you go with Andrew?” she responded.
“He won’t go with me,” said Danny, sulkily. “He says I’m too embarrassing.”
“You are too embarrassing!” commented Andrew.
“Well, excuse me if I just happen to show my enthusiasm!” snapped Danny, turning his back on Andrew and giving his full attention to Molly. I knew what Molly was thinking. She thought Danny was embarrassing too.
“Umm, I’m not really sure. I’m pretty busy with work at the moment.”
“I’ll go!” piped up Grandma Mabel. “It’ll be great. I might learn a few new things.” I felt Riley smile next to me. He loved Mable. He thought she was a hoot.
I could see Danny mentally calculating how he could retract his statement about going. “Oh ... well ... umm ...”
“Mum! Really!” chastised my mother, horrified.
“What?” asked Grandma.
“What would the ladies at Seniors’ group think?”
“They’d think it
was great. In fact, I might see if I can get a group of us to go. We could get all sorts of new toys. And maybe the men may learn a thing or two,” she said, swishing her bottom teeth around.
I smiled as Danny eyes widened and he looked for the exits.
“Daniel, if you take your Grandmother to Sexpo I will stop making you chocolate cake,” continued Mum. That was a threat we all took seriously. “And you,” she said, turning towards Grandma, “you need to start acting your age!”
“Humph,” said Grandma, forking at her potatoes. “Sounds like you should be the one going. It might loosen you up a bit.”
We all held our breath as we heard Mum suck in hers. Mum may be small, but when she’s upset, it’s time to get out of her way and hide. I snuck a look at Mum and saw her death-stare Grandma, deciding whether or not it was worth the fight. After a few minutes of silence, she must have decided it wasn’t.
“Lizzie, I need you to take your Grandmother to the doctor’s on Monday,” she said, looking at me.
“I’d love to, Mum,” I replied, noting the forced calmness of her voice. “But my car is in for a service. I won’t have any transport. Sorry. Maybe Molly can take her?”
“Sure. Why not?” said Molly. “I can move work around to do that for you, Mum. But Lizzie, you really should join us.” She looked at me, her smile tight. “It’ll be nice spending time together.”
Spending time together, my ass. She just didn’t want to take Grandma on her own. As I mentioned, Grandma is a bit of a wild card and I emphasize ‘wild’. Grandma now lives with my mum and dad after she accidentally set the oven on fire. She’d had only ever been married once in her life, and as far as we knew had had a long, faithful marriage. However, since Grandpa had relocated to somewhere beyond the Pearly Gates, Grandma seemed to be making up for lost time.
“Great!” said Grandma, coming in on the end of our conversation. “You can pick me up early and we can go shopping. I need a new dress.”
“Good. That’s sorted then,” said Mum, standing up and clearing the plates as she went. Silently, we all helped her, too afraid to say anything that may upset the peace. Only when dessert was served—sticky date pudding with custard – yum!—did the tension in the room lift.
“What’s happening with your dead body?” asked Danny, looking at me.
“It’s not my dead body,” I responded, shivering.
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law ...” said Danny. “... Or something like that anyway.”
“Tomorrow the police are bringing in a team of experts to dig up the rest of the yard, looking for whatever’s left of it,” explained Riley. “They believe it’s a whole skeleton, but the officer I spoke to this afternoon, is hoping there’s only one.”
“Only one what?” I asked.
“Skeleton.”
“What? There could be more than one?” Okay, that thought maybe made me a little anxious.
“It’s okay, Lizzie. They’re only checking. I’m sure one is all you have.” Riley put his hand on my thigh and gently rubbed it up and down. I know it was supposed to calm me, but honestly it was much more distracting for another reason. I swatted it away.
Riley smiled his very wicked smile. He knew the effect he had on me.
* * *
Saturday dawned bright and sunny, which was in complete opposition to my mood. I’d had another restless night. Since my run-in with my stalker and his attempt to murder me, I’d had a lot of restless nights. Only last night instead of dreaming about stalkers, I’d dreamt about dead bodies and ghosts. Hence, this morning, I felt slow and sluggish.
Riley and I had completed the morning routine of teeth-cleaning etc. and then made our way back to my house in May Street, where we found the police vans already in place. I will admit to being a bit overwhelmed by the amount of people it took to dig up my garden. At first I thought at least they were saving me the job of digging the soil for the new garden beds, but when I saw the bobcat moving the piles of discarded soil, I thought again. No garden bed needed to be that deep.
I tried to distract myself and not think about what they were finding, but it all became a bit difficult when the news cameras returned and hundreds of people stood at my front fence, hoping to get a glimpse of what was happening.
Riley did tell me there weren’t actually hundreds of people—more like—but it felt like hundreds. I only hoped that when the For Sale sign went up, my house would be just as popular.
It was early afternoon when the police officer knocked on my door. I let Riley open it, unsure as to whether or not I actually wanted to hear what he had to say. It was only when Riley called my name that I reluctantly moved into the kitchen.
He handed me a cup of coffee and pulled out the chair for me to sit in. “Officer Helms would like to have a chat.” I looked at Officer Helms and recognized him immediately. Not too many men were six foot tall and head-to-toe gorgeous mocha skin. He was the policeman who had helped me when Joe Woods—aka my stalker—had declared his love for me. At least this time my life wasn’t in danger.
“Hi, Lizzie. It’s nice to see you again,” he smiled. I noticed how white his teeth looked against his skin. I smiled back at him.
“Thank you, it’s nice to see you too.”
“We’ve finished digging your garden and you’ll be pleased to know that we only found one skeleton.” There was that smile again.
“Umm... I guess I’d be happier if you actually found no skeletons,” I replied.
I instantly felt bad when his smile faltered. “Well ... yes, of course ... sorry.”
“Is it true you found three hands?” asked Riley.
“Yes, we did. At this stage we’re unsure as to why but we’ll certainly be looking into it. I just wanted to inform you that you need to stay out of the garden for the time being. No digging. In fact, we’ll be leaving the tape up until we are sure that we have all the evidence we need.”
“You don’t need to worry about me,” I said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be digging in that soil now.”
“That’s understandable.” Officer Helms nodded. “I can recommend a good gardener if you ever need one.” He smiled warmly, his eyes full of compassion.
“Do you know much about the skeleton?” asked Riley, ignoring the look Officer Helms gave me.
“Not really. I’ve been informed that it’s male and has been there approximately sixty years, but until the Coroner does his thing we don’t know much more than that.”
“Will we be kept informed about the findings?” I asked. As much as I didn’t like the idea of a body in the backyard, I did like the idea of knowing why it was there.
“I’d be more than happy to keep you up to date. I’ll give you my private phone number. Call if you need anything.”
I thought his offer was very kind, but I felt Riley tense next to me. Maybe he thought the offer was a little too kind.
“Thank you, Officer Helms,” I said.
“No worries ... and please, call me Ed.”
About an hour later Danny wandered in the front door. “Geez Louise. Who would have thought you’d be this popular?” he commented, looking at me.
I huffed. “Nice to see you too,” I said. My bad mood had not lightened as the day continued. In fact, if anything it had gotten slightly worse.
“I had to park way down the street. Don’t those gawkers know family has priority parking around here?” Danny walked past me, gave me a peck on the cheek, and put a backpack on the ground. “Oh, I’ve made you an appointment for Tuesday to get your hair done,” he said, opening the zip and retrieving something from his bag.
“Why? You only did my hair about a week ago.”
Danny responded by jiggling a DVD in the air. “Yeah, I know. See what you have to say when I show you last night’s news. I recorded it.” He smiled, moving into the lounge room and towards the TV. I followed him.
“Why did you record the news? And more importantly, why are you showing me?” I asked, standing in the doorway
watching him insert it into the DVD player.
“Because you’re on it,” he said, picking up the remote and moving to sit on the couch. I sighed and sat beside him. I thought back to yesterday afternoon when Matt interviewed me. I’d actually forgotten all about it last night and never once thought to switch the news on.
“That probably explains the hundreds of people standing outside my fence,” I commented.
“Lizzie, you’re a bookkeeper. Surely you can count past twenty,” said Danny.
“Of course I can count past twenty. And that’s how I know there are far more people than that standing out there,” I huffed.
“Whatever. Here, watch this,” said Danny, stopping the fast-forward of the DVD and pressing play.
I instantly regretted owning a forty-eight inch TV. Seeing my face blown up to that scale was awful. I never realized that when I’m nervous I bite my bottom lip and it makes me look ridiculous. Plus I’m starting a new diet tomorrow. I can only hope that the rumor that the camera adds ten pounds is true and correct.
“You’re right. I definitely need that appointment. And I think I should join the gym.”
This certainly had not helped my mood.
* * *
After Danny had his fun at my expense—lucky I love him, that’s all I’ll say—he got ready to leave.
“I have to head off. Andrew’s parents are in town and we’re going out to dinner with them.” Danny sighed.
“Ahh, I wondered why you were here alone on a Saturday afternoon,” I said, referring to the comment about the in-laws. Danny glared at me.
“Lizzie, I live with Andrew, I work with Andrew, and I sleep with Andrew. I need my time without him thank you very much.”
I smiled. I figured Andrew needed his time without Danny just as much.
“Just you wait until the honeymoon period is over with you and Riley. Sure now it’s all sex and smoochy, lovey-dovey stuff, but it wears off you know!”
Give Murder A Hand: Lizzie. Book 2 (The Westport Mysteries) Page 2