Holly Lewis Mystery series Box Set

by Dianne Harman

  “Thank you, Holly. I really appreciate your offer,” she said as she lightly touched Holly’s arm.

  Holly followed her out to her SUV and helped her load everything in it. After giving Fiona a hug and waving goodbye to Aiden, she slowly made her way back into the store. She was still distracted with thoughts about what might be wrong with Fiona when Levi entered the bookstore.

  “Hey, Holly,” he said brightly as he entered. “How’s it going?”

  “Okay, I guess,” Holly sighed.

  “Well that didn’t sound very convincing,” Levi said as he collapsed in a nearby chair. “Care to talk about it?”

  “It’s nothing, really. It’s Fiona. She’s just seems off lately,” Holly admitted. “I’m worried about her.”

  “What’s she doing, if you don’t mind me asking?” he asked. “Maybe I can help.”

  “She doesn’t seem as happy as she once was, which is crazy since now she finally has this beautiful little baby she’s always wanted,” Holly explained.

  “Oh, yeah. Well, maybe it’s postpartum depression,” Levi suggested as he looked down at his painted fingernails.

  “What makes you say that?” Holly asked.

  “I mean, I’m no doctor, but that’s what my aunt had after her baby was born. She got super depressed, but she tried to hide it. She did such a great job that it took everyone a little while to realize what was happening,” he explained.

  “How did your family figure out what was wrong?” she asked.

  “Well, it was kind of a long and drawn out sort of thing, but eventually she realized something wasn’t right. She and my uncle were fighting a lot because he didn’t have a clue what was going on, either. He just thought she was losing it, and she’d have these terrible mood swings,” Levi said.

  “Fiona hasn’t been having mood swings,” Holly said. “So maybe that’s not it.”

  “It’s probably different for everyone. Sort of like depression. One person can look like they’re totally fine, while someone else looks like they’re obviously depressed. I think it depends more on how that person copes with things than anything else. Maybe Fiona is just really good at dealing with things.”

  “What do you think we can do for her?” Holly asked. She couldn’t stand the thought of Fiona being depressed, even if it was just her body adapting.

  “I think my aunt went to therapy. I don’t really know. Maybe look online? I’m sure there’s probably plenty of information there on it and probably a list of symptoms. If you end up thinking she does have it, I’d tell Brigid. I’m sure it would be better to hear something like that from an adult rather than someone our age,” Levi pointed out.

  Holly thought he was probably right about that. While Brigid and Fiona never really treated her like she was a kid, this may be a different situation. But if she did some research and had evidence to back up the theory, maybe they’d listen to her.

  “Thanks, that’s really good advice,” Holly said.

  Levi shrugged. “That’s what I do,” he said cockily.

  “So, what did you stop in for?” Holly asked, knowing he hadn’t come to the bookstore to talk about Fiona. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time for that.

  “I knew you were supposed to be working today, and I’ve really been bored lately. I was wondering if you had any great ideas about what I can do besides read and watch television. Like, is there anything cool to do around here? I don’t care if it’s volunteering or a job or whatever. I need something to fill my time.” Levi tossed himself back in the chair as if he were exhausted. His dramatic flair made Holly laugh.

  “To be honest, I’m not really sure. Things do come up once in a while, but not all that often. If I hear of something, I’ll let you know. A lot of times, Missy over at the church needs help, and since she’s friends with Brigid and me, she tends to talk to us first,” Holly explained.

  “Okay, thanks. Just keep your ears open, will you? I need something to fill my time. I wouldn’t mind getting a job, but I’m not really sure where I could apply. I’m a little much for some people and I’m not so sure some of these places would like my… character,” he said.

  “I’m sure I can come up with something. Let me think about it and ask around. I bet the perfect opportunity is out there, we just have to find it,” Holly said optimistically. She was sure someone could use Levi. He was fairly creative even if he was a character.

  “I really appreciate it,” Levi said. “Maybe I can start to make money, so I can do some shopping online. I miss all my favorite weird little stores in the city, but online shopping can be just as fun. Except for the waiting part.”

  Holly laughed. “Now that’s the truth. Waiting for something you bought to show up is like waiting for Christmas when you already know what you’re getting.”

  “Exactly. You know, I’m glad you get me. You make this town worth living in,” Levi sighed. “I’m not sure I could do it without you.”

  Holly smiled smugly. “You’re welcome.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Joe Cooper had always been taught that you should do all you can to try and help those less fortunate than yourself. He wasn’t a big man by any means, and when he was younger, he’d been picked on because of his height. Even so, he’d always done his best to be kind to his fellow man whenever possible. Sometimes it had been tough, but he’d managed pretty well in all his years on this earth. Now that he was older, though, he was getting frustrated by how little he had to show for it.

  After leaving his job at the hardware store, he walked home slowly, trying to enjoy the afternoon. It had been a long day, and he still needed to go over to the church to help Jordan decide what supplies he needed for his latest project, and what it would cost. Not that he minded.

  Joe thought it was a great idea to build something like a little fort for the kids to play in after church. It would be so much better than seeing those young children sitting around playing on their electronic devices. It made him sad when he saw that sort of thing. Kids needed more time to play and less distractions.

  It didn’t take much time before he was casually walking up the sidewalk to his house. As he looked around, he realized the lawn needed to be mowed, and the hedges needed to be trimmed. He’d have to check the gas can to see if he had enough gas for the lawn mower or if it would have to wait until payday. He unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

  He looked around his simple one-bedroom home, and like he did every day, felt grateful for all that he had. He’d lost his wife many years ago in a car accident, before they’d had the chance to have children. Although he was often lonely, he knew it was important not to think about the past and what might have been. He’d never met anyone who was as wonderful as his Nan. She’d been the sunshine in his life, and no one had ever come close to comparing to her.

  Joe walked to the bedroom, pulled off his work shirt, and found a clean change of clothes. He realized just how much of a routine he’d made for himself.

  He didn’t understand how some people could continue to wear their work uniforms once they’d gotten home. When he was finished with work, he certainly didn’t want to carry it with him the rest of the day. Best to leave all those customers at the hardware store. He had enough problems that waited for him at home as it was.

  After taking a quick shower, he made the short trip to the kitchen. The sound his stomach was making told him he was past due for a meal. He opened the refrigerator, even though he knew there wasn’t much in there. A pan of cornbread and a half gallon of milk along with a few things like butter and a jar of olives were the only things inside it. Not exactly stuff worthy of making a meal. Closing the door, he hoped to have more luck when he searched the cabinets.

  He pulled open the first one and it revealed one bag each of rice, flour, and sugar. Sighing, he opened the second cabinet. There he found various seasoning packets, crackers and more miscellaneous items, but there was nothing to make a good meal with. He knew it was still a we
ek and a half before his next payday. Thanks to the rising rent and utilities, his last check simply hadn’t left him enough to make it on.

  “Well, this doesn’t look good,” he grumbled. Finally, he returned to the first cabinet and pulled out the bag of rice. “I guess it’s better than nothing,” he said aloud to himself. Making a small pot of rice, he added a dollop of butter and sat down to his meal.

  After consuming his meager meal, Joe cleaned up his mess and looked at the time. It was close enough that he could head over to the church. Jordan hadn’t been worried about a specific time. Instead he’d told Joe to come “somewhere around 5:00.” He wished he’d had something more substantial to eat, but there wasn’t much he could do about that.

  Before leaving the house, he decided to remind himself of his blessings once again. “I am grateful to have a roof over my head, a job to pay the bills, and a fairly quiet community to live in,” he said.

  Shutting the door behind him, he began the walk to the church. Thankfully, it wasn’t too far. He decided to try to balance out his budget in his mind as he walked.

  When he reached the church, Jordan was outside trimming the trees in the area where he’d told Joe to meet him. It was clear Jordan had been working there for quite some time. Most of it was neatly trimmed with not a single branch out of place.

  “There you are,” Jordan said happily when he saw Joe. “You should have told me if you needed a ride. I could have picked you up.”

  “Thanks, but I prefer to walk,” Joe said. “So this is where you’re thinking you’ll put the fort, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Jordan answered as he turned to take in the area. “I’ve been considering this for a while, but I’m not completely sure how I want to do it. That’s why I thought something like a playhouse or a fort would work. Let the kids use their imaginations,” he said as he crossed his arms. “I’d considered just buying a swing set, but there’s only so much a kid can do on one of those.”

  “That’s true,” Joe admitted. “And kids these days need help with their imaginations.”

  “For the most part,” Jordan agreed. “I meant to bring out a picture of the style I’m thinking of. Do you mind running inside and grabbing it for me while I finish this up?”

  “Of course not,” Joe said. “Where is it?”

  “I left it on Missy’s desk,” he explained. “Go through the chapel to the door in the back. Her office is the third door on the left down the hallway, all right?”

  Joe nodded and quickly took off up the stairs. He did his best to hurry, not wanting to leave Jordan waiting for too long. Yet when he got to the hallway he couldn’t recall if Jordan had said left or right. As he tried to remember exactly what Jordan had said, he was almost certain he’d said something that sounded like right, so he twisted the door knob and pushed open the third door on the right. When he found the light switch, he realized he’d been wrong.

  Shelves upon shelves filled with food made him instantly hungry. The rice had done very little to satisfy him and seeing all that food lining the shelves triggered his stomach, and it began to growl. He quickly flipped the light switch back off and hurried from the room. He didn’t want to see all that food sitting there. Not when he was practically starving.

  He opened the door that led to Missy’s office and found the photograph that Jordan had spoken about. Snatching it from the desk, he hurried back out into the hall. He had to get away from all of that food, or he might be tempted to eat something. Just something small. Nothing that they’d probably even notice was missing, because, after all, there was so much there. Who would realize there was an item missing? They’d probably just chalk it up to miscounting or something like that.

  No, don’t rationalize it, he thought as he pushed the doors open that led outside. Just forget about it.

  “Here you go,” he said as he hurried back to Jordan and handed over the photo.

  “Yeah, so like I was saying, I’m thinking I can see this being right over here,” Jordan began as he moved over to a section of the lawn and used his arms to outline the area.

  “That could work,” Joe nodded as he tried to focus on the project. “I like the style of it too. How it’s raised off the ground, but not so high the little ones could get hurt.”

  “Exactly,” Jordan nodded. “I thought it was a little like a treehouse without the tree.”

  “You have an account at the hardware store, right?” Joe asked.

  “Sure do,” Jordan said. “Where should I start?”

  “Well, first things first, you’re going to want to decide just how big you want it. Remember, you’re going to need to adjust for the walls. No matter what, the platform will have to be built first,” Joe began.

  Even while he was focusing on the task at hand, his brain continued to show him the scene of all that food laid out on the shelves inside. He wanted nothing more than to have just a few of those things. Just to tide him over until he was paid again. Maybe then he could even afford to replace them.

  As Jordan turned his back towards him, Joe shook his head. He needed a distraction. Maybe he had just enough in his wallet he could grab something cheap from the grocery store on the way home. That would at least help him for now. Beyond that, he wasn’t sure. But he couldn’t worry about tomorrow. He needed to stay focused on the present and worry about later when it came.

  CHAPTER 5

  Sitting in front of her computer, Holly had spent most of the morning looking up the symptoms of postpartum depression. The more she read about it, the more concerned she became. While there were quite a few symptoms she wasn’t sure about, there were a number that seemed to jump right off the screen.

  Like not feeling joy at things that used to make you happy. It seemed as though Fiona was always a little down, even when they talked about things that normally would cause her to be bubbly and full of life. Others, like not eating, poor concentration, and trouble remembering things, were also symptoms Holly had noticed.

  Based on everything she’d read, Holly was convinced they needed to do something. Stage some sort of intervention or have a serious conversation with Fiona. Yet the whole thing seemed a bit out of her role as Fiona’s niece. She definitely didn’t feel comfortable talking to Fiona about it on her own.

  She decided it was time to talk to Brigid. If anyone should be able to bring it up to Fiona, her sister would probably be the one to do it. Besides, it seemed as though Brigid and Fiona could talk about absolutely anything. Surely something like this wouldn’t be off limits.

  Holly transferred the information she’d found on the internet to her cell phone and stood up. It seemed as good of a time as any to let Brigid know what she’d found out. The sooner she let someone know what she thought was going on, the sooner Fiona could start working on getting back to normal. On her way to the great room, she tried to decide how to approach the conversation. When she got there, she found Jett and Lucky playing with a tennis ball while Linc and Brigid were having a discussion.

  “I just don’t know if you should be helping with the fireworks,” Brigid said. “I kind of like having you sit with me while I watch them.”

  “I know you do,” Linc said sympathetically. “But they really need an extra set of hands to do it all. Jordan asked me the other day while I was at the post office. He said they were going to do even more this year, and that meant they needed more hands on deck to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

  It was easy to see that Linc had his heart set on shooting off some of the bigger fireworks this year. Holly could empathize. She’d always thought it looked like it would be fun.

  “You know I always want to help,” Brigid sighed. It was plain she was all for helping, but she was conflicted because she still wanted Linc to be with her during the fireworks show. Now was probably as good a time as any to interrupt.

  “Guys, can I interrupt for just a moment?” Holly asked as she sat down. She had a feeling this conversation was going to take a while.

  “Sure
, kiddo. What’s up?” Linc asked as they both turned their attention towards her.

  “I’m really worried about Fiona,” she began. “She hasn’t been acting like herself for some time now. I thought it would pass, but if anything, I think it’s gotten worse. I’ve done some research, and I think she may have postpartum depression.” Laying it all out like that didn’t seem nearly as scary as she’d imagined it would.

  Brigid’s eyes became wide. “Wow, Holly, what makes you say that?” she asked. “That’s a pretty serious claim.”

  “It’s a lot of little things that when they’re combined, looks like a very big thing,” Holly explained. “She doesn’t seem as interested in her favorite things anymore. You know how she loves tacos. Well, I brought her some the other day, and she barely touched them. She’s not eating like she used to, and she always seems tired. The other day, she was even a little snappy with a customer before she caught herself. I don’t think the customer noticed, but I did. Fiona hasn’t been herself since the baby came.”

  “I’ll be honest, I don’t know much about postpartum depression,” Brigid said. “You could be right, but all that could also just be the side effects from being up late at night with a baby and dealing with everything.” Brigid shrugged. “I’m not really sure, but I have noticed some of what you mentioned.”

  “I have too,” Linc chimed in. “I thought maybe when I’d seen her, she was just having an off day, but now I’m starting to wonder.” He turned to Holly. “I’m sure you didn’t come to us with this if you hadn’t done a little research on it.”

  “I have,” Holly nodded. “Here.” She made sure the link was still up before passing them her phone. “I think it would be tough for us to know about a lot of these symptoms without directly asking her.”

  Brigid took the phone and began to look over the list. “Wow, there’s more here than I thought there would be.” She scrolled through the list before handing it over to Linc. “I take it you already have a plan?”