“What happens with you now, Lizzie?” asked Ed, changing the subject back to one slightly more personal.
“What do you mean?”
“The house. Are you going to stay living there?”
“No. As soon as it’s finished I’m selling it. Riley’s right ... it’s already caused too many nightmares.”
“That’s not the house’s fault though. You just got unlucky. By the way, did you hear that Joe Woods is up for parole?”
At the sound of Joe Woods’ name, my head snapped up. “What?”
“I heard yesterday. He has some friends in high places and they seemed to have pulled in a few favors. His case goes in front of the parole board next month.”
My head spun at his words. The thought that my stalker and attempted murderer could be back out on the streets soon.
“But don’t worry, Lizzie, I’m sure it will be denied.”
“God, I hope so.” I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if it wasn’t.
“And if it isn’t, we’ll protect you.” Ed placed his hand on my arm in a protective gesture, but jerked it away suddenly when my phone vibrated on the table next to me.
I distractedly looked at it and saw a photo of Riley’s gorgeous face smile back at me. It was a photo I had snapped one day when he was getting into his truck. He looked happy and relaxed and was one of my favorite photos of him. I picked it up and swiped to answer it.
“Hi,” I said quietly.
“I’ve finished with Allison and I thought maybe we could go and get a coffee down at the river. What do you think? You’re not busy are you?”
“No, I’m actually here now. You could meet me here if you like?”
I waited a beat for Riley to answer. “Okay. I’m not far away. I’ll be there shortly.” With that he hung up.
“Riley’s going to join us. Hope that’s okay?” I said, smiling at Ed.
“You know, I really need to get going, but you enjoy your drink.” Ed stood abruptly.
“I’m sorry,” I said, standing next to him.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, Lizzie. I really do have to go.”
“Oh, okay. Well thanks for meeting with me and for the information.”
“No problem, and if there’s anything else you need, anything at all, ring me.”
“Sure, I will.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Ed extended his hand to me, and as I took it he squeezed and held on for a second longer than necessary. “Keep me informed with what you find out,” he said smiling.
“I will.” I smiled up at him as he let go, turned his back and walked away. I heard the women next to me sigh as I sat back down. A minute later, Riley walked up.
“You were quick,” I said just before he kissed me. His kiss was deep and involved tongue which I thought was a bit inappropriate considering we were in public, but I wasn’t complaining.
Pulling up for air, Riley licked his lips and smiled. “You taste like a chocolate Frappuccino,” he said.
I smiled up at him. “Guilty as charged.”
“Do you want another one?”
“No thanks, but if you’re getting yourself a drink, could I have a bottle of water please?”
“I’ll be right back.”
I watched his sexy backside as he walked towards the café, his jeans molding it to perfection. The woman at the next table turned to me, her mouth hanging open incredulously.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “Do you have some kind of super power or something?”
I smiled at her comment.
“They are the two hottest men I have ever seen, and both of them looked at you liked they wanted to eat you. Please, tell me your secret.”
I shrugged. “I’m just lucky I guess.”
“Geez, why can’t I be lucky like that?”
Just then Riley walked back towards me. He noticed the woman staring at him and gave her his mega-watt smile. I saw her swoon and grab the table for support.
“Don’t worry,” I said to her. “It still has the same effect on me.”
Chapter Eleven
“On the way home I have to stop at Mum’s,” I said to Riley as we walked back towards our cars. “Did you want to stop in?”
“What do you have to do at your mum’s?”
“She called me earlier and summonsed me. Apparently she’s having a clear-out for a garage sale and she wants me to come and get whatever I want before she sells it.”
Riley smiled and moved in close for a kiss. “Sorry. You’re on your own with this one. I’m going to head back and get a start on pulling that kitchen wall out so the plumber can do his thing on Monday.”
“Really? Grandma would love to see you.”
“Send her my love,” he said, then kissed me lightly on the lips and headed to his car. I sighed. Looks like I’ll be dealing with them on my own.
I got into my car and pointed it in the direction of Mum’s. I loved my mum – I really did – but some days she could be just as intolerable as Grandma.
As I parked in her driveway, I noticed Molly was already there. Great, not only would I be able to find out how her date went, I would also have some extra help in diffusing the ticking bomb aka ... my mother. I had this sinking feeling that Mum was going to ask me to have Grandma for a while so that she could have a break. Under normal circumstances, I’d be happy to oblige, but I had enough stress in my life and I didn’t really need a house guest as well.
“Hello,” I called entering the house through the kitchen door. “Where is everyone?”
“We’re in here,” called back Molly, the sound of her voice coming from Mum’s bedroom.
I dropped my bag on the kitchen bench and walked through the house. I stopped at the bedroom door and my mouth dropped open. There in the middle of the room was Grandma, dressed up in Mum’s old wedding dress.
“What do you think? she asked, doing a twirl and nearly falling over.
Honestly, I couldn’t form words let alone tell her what I thought. “Wh ... wh...why?” I stammered.
“Mum pulled it out and gave it to me,” said Molly.
I noticed her shudder as she said the words. I’d seen Mum’s dress before and it was no more attractive this time. It had a high neck, long sleeves and big skirt with not one, but two hoops underneath it and made of lace. Now, I don’t mean pretty, delicate lace, I mean stiff tulle covered with the largest, ugliest flowers I’d ever seen. Not for the first time, I was grateful for being the middle child.
“Oh look, here’s the headdress and veil,” said Grandma excitedly.
She pulled the blue tissue paper from the box and retrieved a veil that was several meters long, edged with the same ugly flowers on the dress. “Oh, your mother looked beautiful in this,” said Grandma fondly.
“Has it always been that color?” I asked, noting the distinctive dark cream color to the dress.
“Yep, well she couldn’t wear white, could she?” responded Grandma. “I mean, it’s alright nowadays but back then it was kind of frowned upon. God knows why though, what with all the hippies getting up to God knows what.”
“What do you mean ‘she couldn’t wear white’?” asked Molly.
“Well she was pregnant, wasn’t she?”
“Pregnant?” Molly and I said in unison.
Grandma looked at us both as if we’d grown a second head. “Of course she was. How do you think you got here, Molly?”
“She always told us I was a honeymoon baby!”
“Your mother honeymooned at the caravan park up the road and she threw up every single day of it. You were not kind to her, let me tell you that,” she said frowning at Molly. Just at that moment, Mum chose to enter the room.
“Molly do you wan ... ,” she stopped mid-sentence, looking at Grandma. “What on Earth?”
“It might not fit you no more Nell, but it fits me great.” Grandma smiled and attempted another twirl. I looked at the dress sagging a
s it hung on Grandma’s spindly bones. “Can I have it? Molly don’t want it anyway.”
“What do you want it for?” asked Mum incredulously.
“Well, in case I get married again.”
I heard Mum’s sigh and watched her shoulders droop, as she shook her head.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea,” added Molly. “I’m not getting married for a very long time anyway.”
“What?” cried Mum.
“How did your date with Matt go?” I asked.
Molly glared at me. Obviously she didn’t want to talk about it in front of Mum and Grandma.
“You should invite him around for dinner tomorrow night,” added Mum excitedly.
“That’s a great. I could invite my man too,” said Grandma. We all turned to look at her. “It’d be like a double date.”
“Your man?” asked Molly, grateful for the distraction.
“George.”
I remembered Grandma had had a date on Thursday night with George Burnett, the old man from Bradley’s tour.
“I guess your date was successful then?” I said, smiling.
“Yep, I know it’s early days, but I think he might be The Two.”
“The Two?”
“Yeah, well your Grandfather, god rest his soul, was The One, so I this guy must be The Two.”
Made sense, I guess.
“There’ll never be another man like my father,” said Mum. “He was one of a kind. He’ll be sitting up there with the Saints, looking down on you and thinking ‘stupid old woman’.”
“The Saints?” asked Molly.
“Of course he’s with the Saints. Any man who put up with her for all those years would have to have been made a saint.”
“Hey!” cried Grandma. “That’s just plain rude. Your father, God rest his soul, was a good man, but I can tell you he was no saint.”
The tension in the air built and I knew now was the time to divert and deflect. “Anyway, what stuff did you want us to look at?” I asked Mum, quickly changing the subject before World War Three broke out and Grandma came to live with me.
Mum glared at Grandma for a second longer, turned on her heel and left the room, muttering under her breath as she went. I couldn’t hear exactly what she said, but it kind of sounded like ‘crazy old woman’. I quickly followed her back down the hall and out to the garage.
“Where’s Dad today?” I asked.
“He’s gone to golf,” huffed Mum.
Guess that was another subject I wanted to stay away from. Mum’s back was stiff as a board, her shoulders rigid. I knew Grandma frustrated her, but she just needed to relax a bit and stop worrying about everything.
Seriously, if Mum didn’t have something to worry about, she’d make something up. Not consciously of course, but she’d find something to worry about. I’m sure Grandma and George would fizzle out, and Grandma would not actually need Mum’s wedding dress. And if she did, so what? What harm could come of two elderly people finding comfort in each other’s company? I should have brought Riley, I thought. One smile from him and all her worries would be forgotten.
“Your stuff is over there,” said Mum as we entered the garage, pointing to a pile of five large crates. I looked around at the piles of boxes and furniture, and wondered where it had all come from.
“Oh, okay, what’s in it?” I asked.
“Have a look!”
“Alright, don’t get your knickers in a knot.”
“Lizzie, that’s no way to speak to your mother. Have more respect, will you?” chastised Mum.
“Sorry, Mum. I just heard the way you spoke to Grandma so I thought it must be what we do now.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, even more frustrated than before.
“You did just call her a stupid old woman,” I reminded her.
“Well she is! She’s eighty-two years old. She should be knitting baby jumpers or crocheting doilies, not running around looking for a new man.”
“If she marries George she might move out and leave you alone for a while.” Mum stopped and looked back at me. That was something she hadn’t thought of.
“Yes, well ... we’ll see, won’t we. Now come over here and give me a hand. Between the two of us we should get this all in your car.”
I looked at the size of the boxes she wanted me to take.
“I drive a Mini. There’s no way all that will fit. I’ll have to get Riley to come over with his truck.”
Mum sighed. “Okay, but what’s still here next Saturday gets sold.
“Where did all this stuff come from?” I asked.
“The attic space. There was another whole house of belongings up there. Your father’s getting annoyed by it and told me I was to get rid of anything I hadn’t used in the last two years. I can use the money to buy myself something nice.” Mum smiled for the first time today. “I have my eye on a nice ring at Hogan’s Jewelers.”
* * *
On the way home from Mum’s, I decided to make a quick stop at the library. I wanted to do a quick search on Ronald Smithson to see what I could find. Westport was a lot smaller back then and I was sure The Chronicle would have mentioned his disappearance within its pages.
The Westport library was housed in a very old, small, two-storey municipal building that was extremely bland and boring. For such a small library though, it was surprisingly busy and it was always hard to find a car park. I took deep breaths, only swore once and eventually parked my Mini. I walked in and headed to the counter with the big Information sign hanging above it. Now, two women usually worked this counter – one was Miss Nice Lady and one was Miss Cranky Pants. Of course, today Miss Cranky Pants was on duty, wasn’t she? I should have just gone home and brought Riley back with me. She never scowled at him.
“Hi,” I said, giving her my biggest smile. “Could you please tell me where I’d find the copies of the Westport Chronicle from 1949?” My smile didn’t seem to make any difference, as I didn’t have Riley’s magic powers.
“The computers upstairs,” she snapped, pointing to the staircase that ran the back of the room. “Knock yourself out.”
I don’t think she meant that literally, but I could be wrong. I thanked her and made my way to the back of the room and up the stairs. I found the row of computers easily and sat down at the nearest one.
It didn’t take long for me to find what I was looking for. Some wonderful people of Westport had joined the twenty first century and had digitized all copies of the newspaper right back to 1903. And they had a search button. I typed in Ronald Smithson’s name and bingo! Up popped every article his name was mentioned in ... and there were quite a few.
Mr. Smithson appeared to have been quite popular in this area, but not always for the right reasons. Apparently he was a popular butcher, was an excellent shot at the gun club, had been tossed out of the local pub on more than one occasion and was once arrested, but not charged with urinating in a public place. But the story I was looking for didn’t tell me much more than I already knew.
Ronald Smithson was twenty-nine years old when he went missing, and was on probation for assault. The police suspected he’d used his butchering skills to cut off someone’s hand, but they could never find any evidence and the victim would never confess to the truth. I guess that could explain why he had an extra hand in his pocket. His girlfriend at the time reported him missing as he owed her money and she thought he’d run off with another woman. I did also find out that you could buy thirty-six acres of frost-free land with a house, two horses, a cow and four hundred chickens all for the bargain price of fifteen hundred pounds. Wow! That was cheap. Also the local ladies bowls was doing exceptionally well winning against Ackwood and Betty Grable was starring in When My Baby Smiles At Me in Technicolor. So I guess, all in all it wasn’t a total waste of my time. I just didn’t know how this new information would help me.
I printed out the pages I wanted and closed the search engine I was using. Grabbing the paper off the printer, I pu
shed it all into my bag and headed home before Riley sent out a search party looking for me.
* * *
Later that afternoon, Dad dropped all the boxes to my house. I stood and looked at the pile in the middle of the lounge room and wondered what the hell I would do with it all.
“What’s in them?” asked Riley, frowning.
“Who the hell knows?”
“Are you going to open them?”
“No. They’re probably full of things from my childhood and if I look, I won’t want to throw anything out.”
“Well, where are we going to put them?”
“Your house?” I asked hopefully.
“There’s no room at my house.”
I sighed. “Maybe we can put them in the old shed and deal with them later.”
I sighed again. I hated the shed. To be honest it scared the shit out of me. It was all dark and creepy and full of spiders. Plus I worried that the roof may actually fall on my head.
“Why don’t we just take it all to the dump?” asked Riley as he lifted one box that was particularly heavy. Lord knows what was in it.
“I can’t do that!” I replied, indignantly.
“Why not?”
“Because.”
“You need a better reason than that,” said Riley, carrying the box and moving through the doorway, heading for the backyard. Obviously we were doing this now.
To be honest, I didn’t have a better reason and I had had the same thought. I hadn’t seen this stuff in years and I’d never once gone looking for it, so I obviously didn’t need it.
“I promise I will go through it and throw away whatever I don’t need,” I said, dragging a box.
Riley looked back at me and grinned. He knew they’d sit out there forever without me going through them.
I followed him through the house and listened as my box clanged and crashed as I dragged it down the three steps to the grass.
“If you wait a second I’ll pick it up for you,” said Riley, grimacing as something inside my box smashed.
“I’m sure it was nothing important,” I shrugged. “Anyway, why don’t you go ahead of me and open the shed door,” I added before he could complain that if whatever I had just smashed wasn’t important, then maybe I should just throw it away.
Give Murder A Hand: Lizzie. Book 2 (The Westport Mysteries) Page 12