Daniel’s face had flattened into a neutral expression, which I had come to think of as his “cop face.” “Where did you find it, exactly?”
“It was in the corner,” I said. “Like it had been pushed aside. I almost missed it, behind the boxes.”
“That wasn’t the same jade then,” Daniel said slowly. “I’m almost sure I saw it taken into evidence that night.”
“Really?” I asked. “You think there were two pieces of jade in the basement?”
“Maybe,” Daniel said. “What did it look like?”
“It was shaped like a triangle or an arrowhead,” I said. “Really sharp on one end. That’s how I was able to cut myself free.”
“Then it couldn’t have been the same stone,” Daniel said. “The one buried with the body was round and smooth. You couldn’t have cut anything with it.”
“Who would have thought Charlie would have liked jade so much,” Mia said lightly. I smiled, but inside, I was remembering the sound of the door slamming after I found the jade, even though I couldn’t find anyone in the house.
Well, maybe that was when JD snuck in, another voice said, and he was hiding from you.
Maybe. But it was so loud. JD didn’t strike me as someone who would make that kind of mistake—slamming the door to the house he was sneaking into.
Not to mention the fact that it was the sound of the door slamming that prompted me to put the jade in my pocket. Otherwise, I likely would have left it down there.
And, now that I thought about it, what distracted JD was the sound of the door slamming, buying me precious seconds to cut myself loose. It’s what caused JD to open the door, which gave Oscar his chance to attack.
And the bat. Where did that bat come from? Did JD really put it in Mia’s closet?
Or was there something else going on?
Maybe Aunt Charlie was helping me.
My phone buzzed with a text notification, and I glanced down at it. It was my mother. “I have to take this,” I said. “It’s my mom.” I started to slide out of bed.
“Where are you going?” Mia asked.
“Just somewhere to talk,” I said. “A little privacy.”
“You won’t find any out there,” Daniel gestured with his head. “The press are swarming already.”
Oh. I hadn’t even considered that there would be journalists interested in my story.
“You’re famous,” Chrissy said.
“Great,” I said.
Daniel smiled faintly at me. “What did you expect, when you find a dead body in your basement and then apprehend a killer?”
“Oh, well, when you put it like that,” I said. I glanced uneasily at my phone. “No wonder my mother wants me to call.”
Mia got up abruptly. “We’ll give you a break,” she said. “We’ll go down to the cafeteria. I could use a drink.”
“You do realize there’s no alcohol in hospitals,” Daniel said.
Mia groaned and rolled her eyes. “I guess I’ll have to make do with coffee.”
“Can you bring me something?” I asked. “Maybe a sandwich? I’m starving.” I felt like I hadn’t eaten in weeks.
Mia gave me a thumbs up as they trooped out. I waited a few minutes, listening as their footsteps and voices grew fainter before hitting the button to call my mother back.
“Rebecca, what is going on out there? I have been worried sick.” My mother’s voice was frantic, and I could feel shame worming its way inside me. I had been selfish. I had avoided talking to my mother because of my own discomfort. I hadn’t given a thought to her worry.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Everything is fine. They caught the killer and I’m in the clear.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” my mother said, her voice relaxing. “I can’t tell you how concerned we’ve been. But what is this about a body being found in the basement?”
I was about to ask her how she knew about that when I remembered the news media. “Yeah, it looks like Aunt Charlie killed Jonathan, her lover, and buried him in the basement.”
“What?”
“Jonathan’s son was out for revenge. He’s the one who killed those two women and made it look like it was me.”
“My sister did what?” My mother’s voice grew louder. “She killed her lover? And buried him ... Rebecca, you must come home. Now. Don’t worry about that house. I doubt you’ll even be able to sell it at this point. What the hell was my sister thinking? It is just like her to leave a mess like this for everyone else to clean up.”
I paused for a moment to take a breath and steady myself. “I’m not coming home.”
“What are you talking about, Rebecca? Of course you are. Why would you want to stay a minute longer than you have to in that house? Or is there another legal issue you need to deal with?”
For a moment, my brain scrambled, wanting to grab that lifeline. A legal issue. I could tell her that yes, I had to stay a few more days or even weeks to sort things out ...
But I knew that wasn’t fair. Not to her or me. I needed to tell her the truth. We both needed closure.
“No legal issues.”
“Medical then?” I could hear the desperation in her voice. She doesn’t want to have this conversation either, I thought. She wants the excuse as well, so we can keep on pretending.
“No medical issues either.”
“Then, I don’t understand. Why aren’t you coming home?”
“Because I already am home,” I said as gently as I could. “This is my home. Redemption. I’m staying here.”
My mother didn’t say anything for a moment, and I started to feel a tiny bit of hope that maybe she would finally understand. But the next words out of her mouth dashed that hope.
“You do understand,” she said, her tone icy, “that this means we’re cutting you off. For good.”
I closed my eyes. “Yes.”
“Rebecca, I mean it,” her tone grew even frostier. “You can never come back. Not next year. Not five years from now. You are on your own. Period.”
“I understand,” I said quietly. “I hope you realize this doesn’t mean I don’t love you. And I hope to still see you. But this is something I have to do. I have to stand on my own. Here.”
“Well you’re going to, that’s for sure. You’re on your own now,” my mother repeated. “Once I hang up, there’s no going back. There’s no changing your mind. Even if you call me five minutes from now, as soon as I hang up, it is done. You will be cut off.”
I swallowed. “I understand.”
My mother paused, and in the silence, I could sense her hope that I would break the silence and stop this. But I remained stubbornly silent.
“Goodbye, Rebecca.” I heard a tiny click and silence.
I lowered the phone to my lap. Fear and panic crashed over me, and I had a sudden urge to hit redial and beg for forgiveness. What had I done? Had I lost my mind?
No. Underneath the worry and the doubt, I knew this was what I was supposed to do.
I was in exactly the right place doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Yes, there would be challenges and difficulties ahead of me, but this was the right choice.
And, I thought as I gazed sadly at my phone, hopefully one day, my mother would come to understand that too.
Chapter 34
“So, tell me more about this evidence,” Mia said. We had just gotten home from the hospital. Mia got me settled at the kitchen table while Chrissy fussed in the kitchen making tea, soup, and sandwiches. Oscar had greeted me at the door, and then made himself comfortable in the chair next to me.
“Supposedly, somewhere in this house is evidence proving that Jonathan killed Jesse,” I said.
“What kind of evidence?”
I lifted my hands up. “I haven’t a clue. A taped confession? A murder weapon with both Jonathan and Jesse’s D
NA on it? A map to Jesse’s body?”
“I wonder where Charlie could have hidden something so well that you haven’t stumbled upon it already,” Mia mused. “It must be something that wouldn’t degrade over time, either.”
“That is an excellent point,” I said as Chrissy placed a bowl of chicken noodle soup, a cup of tea, and a tuna melt in front of me. “Eat,” she said.
“Where haven’t you looked?” Mia asked, sipping the tea Chrissy handed her.
“I haven’t looked in your room,” I said. “Or Chrissy’s. I wanted to wait until I asked you first.”
“Well, then, let’s start searching,” Mia said, glancing pointedly at my plate. “After you eat.”
“You can search my room too,” Chrissy called from the kitchen, where she stood by the counter eating a sandwich and scrolling through her phone.
“Thanks Chrissy,” I said, picking up my sandwich. “Your room is probably going to be a mess,” I said to Mia. “I don’t know how the cops left it.”
“Well, I guess it will be a search-and-clean party, then,” she said, a note of false cheer in her tone. “We’ll play some tunes. It will be fun.”
I half-smiled. “You know,” I said, dropping my voice even though I knew Chrissy could hear everything anyway. “After everything that’s happened, if you don’t want to stay ...”
Mia shook her head. “Let’s not talk about it now. Right now, I’m relieved they caught JD. I don’t know how I’ll feel once I see my room. It does ... well, I’m not going to lie. It kind of freaks me out that he wanted to kill you in my room, specifically. But I’m not going anywhere for at least a few days, until I know you’re okay.”
I nodded, trying to keep the expression on my face pleasant as the soup and sandwich turned to ash in my mouth. I had been counting on Mia chipping in on the bills and food costs to help me get my business off the ground. If she left, I wasn’t sure what I would do.
It’s going to work out, I told myself. I’ll make it work.
Oddly, for the first time, I actually believed it.
After I finished eating and loaded my dishes in the dishwasher (I insisted on doing it myself despite both Mia and Chrissy protesting—I wasn’t an invalid, for goodness sake), we climbed the stairs together to Mia’s room.
Unlike the basement, there was no yellow tape on the door, but I heard Mia gasp as she got her first look inside.
The noose was gone, thank goodness—probably taken as evidence, along with the bat. But the chair was still there, lying on its side, and there was blood smeared on the floor, the braided rug, the curtains, the quilt, and even the walls. Items had been knocked over on the dresser, and a glass of water had spilled on the floor. Otherwise, there didn’t seem to be much damage.
At least, not to Mia’s physical items. If I closed my eyes, I could still see the noose in the corner and JD grinning at me, his eyes calculating and crazy as blood dripped down his neck ...
I leaned down to pick up the rug, forcing myself to stop that train of thought. “Let me see about getting this cleaned. I’ll bring up some hot water and bleach.”
“You weren’t kidding about Oscar,” she said, walking around as she stared at the blood.
“He bit JD’s neck,” I said. “So, yeah, there was a lot of blood.”
She nodded, fingering her belongings, not paying any attention to me. I turned back to the rug, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. She’s going to leave, I thought. How could she possibly sleep in this room after everything that’s happened? And who could blame her? How will I ever be able to walk into this room again and not remember lying on the floor, helpless, my hands tied behind my back, or standing in the corner with the noose wrapped around ...
I squeezed my eyes together tightly as I jerked on the rug to free it from under the bed, trying to ignore the memory of lying right there, staring under the dresser ...
Wait a minute. Under the dresser.
Mad Martha’s locket.
I got down on my hands and knees to peer under the dresser. There. Exactly where it was before. I reached down to pull it out, the gold winking at me in the light. Where did it come from? Was it there all along? No, I was sure I cleaned up before Mia moved in. I could clearly recall sweeping under the dresser. I turned the heavy jewelry over in my hand.
“What’s that?” Mia asked at my elbow.
I held it out so she could get a better look. “Mad Martha’s locket.”
“Really? So that’s what it looks like. Where did it come from?” She reached out to stroke it.
“Under the dresser, but it doesn’t make sense.” I frowned. “Have you ever seen it before?”
“No. This is the first time,” Mia said. “I remember you talking about finding it, but you never showed me.”
“That’s because I lost it,” I said.
“You lost it?”
“Well, more accurately, it disappeared.” I squished my face up trying to put the pieces in the right order in my mind. “I definitely remember Chrissy wearing the locket. I tried to get it away from her, but Stefan wouldn’t let me. I was hospitalized shortly after that, and when I got home from the hospital, I wasn’t able to find it anywhere.”
“Did you ever ask Chrissy about it?”
“I did, but that was when she was living with Margot, her foster mom, and she was barely communicating with me. She said she didn’t know where it was, and she didn’t have it. I didn’t press.”
Mia gestured her head toward the dresser. “Did you check it before?”
“Yes, I remember cleaning under there, but ...” I frowned again. Could Chrissy have hidden it? Maybe wedged it beneath the dresser and forgotten about it? I got back down on my hands and knees, putting the side of my head on the floor to see if I could peer up underneath.
“What are you doing?”
“Seeing if there was a place the locket could have been shoved in here,” I said. “Can you hand me a flashlight?”
Mia fiddled around with something. “Why, can you see something?”
“I’m not sure.”
She handed me her phone with the flashlight app turned on. A surprisingly strong beam emitted from it. I took it and aimed the light under the dresser. There. Something was wedged under there. It looked like an envelope.
“What do you see?” she asked, as I shoved my arm in all the way to the elbow to try and reach it.
“I’m not sure,” I said again. I felt cautiously under the wood until my fingers touched paper. It was dry and brittle. I wondered how old it was. Carefully, I started peeling it away, not wanting to rip it.
Finally, it came free, and I pulled my arm out. Mia peered over my shoulder. “An envelope was under there?”
“That’s what it looks like.” It was long, thin, and business-sized. I flipped it over. My name was scrawled on the front in my aunt’s handwriting.
“Oh my God,” Mia breathed, as I put my hand on my chest, my heartbeat suddenly accelerating. “Could this be the evidence you’ve been looking for?”
“I don’t know,” I said. Our eyes met. Her expression mirrored what I assumed was mine—a mixture of excitement, eagerness, and fear. Was I finally going to get the answers I had been seeking for so long?
Was I sure I even wanted them?
If it was going to be another “body-buried-in-the-basement” type of surprise, I’d pass.
Mia nudged me. “Well, don’t just stand there. Open it.”
I gave a nervous little laugh and carefully slid one finger under the flap. The glue hadn’t taken, and it opened easily with a little crinkle.
Inside was a safety deposit box key and a piece of a paper. On the paper was the name of a bank and a string of numbers.
Mia stared at the envelope. “Is that it?”
I turned it inside out. “Looks like it.”
“God, you’d think she’d leave a note,” Mia said with a disapproving shake of her head. “Hopefully, the safety deposit box will have answers.”
“This is just so Aunt Charlie,” I said, my fingers tightening around the key. “She never gives me a straight answer in my dreams. Why should real life be any different?”
“I guess we know where we’re going tomorrow,” Mia said.
Chapter 35
“This is it,” Mia whispered excitedly as I opened the door to the quiet blue-and-grey bank lobby.
Mia had managed to get a day off as, in her words, “I’ve put in enough double shifts and overtime this summer. Someone else can fill in for once. There is no way I’m missing this.” I watched her make calls over my coffee, her eyes bright. She looked rested and relaxed for the first time in weeks. “It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do,” she had said when she breezed into the kitchen that morning. “I feel awesome.”
“No footsteps?” I asked.
“Not a one,” she had answered cheerily, fetching a coffee cup from the counter. “It was quiet and peaceful. Exactly the way it was when I first moved in. I bet it was Jonathan. He’s probably finally at peace, now that we’ve solved what happened to him and his family.”
“You’re probably right,” I said, although I had my doubts. Could it have been that simple? Jonathan’s spirit was restless, and now that we knew the truth, he could finally be at peace?
Or maybe the explanation was more rooted in reality. JD, the person responsible for wreaking havoc in our lives, was safely out of the picture.
Or maybe it was because Mad Martha’s locket was no longer in her room.
Whatever it was, Mia looked like herself again, refreshed, excited, and ready to rock. I was relieved to see the old Mia back, not only for her sake, but selfishly, for my own. Hopefully, she wouldn’t move out, which would be a huge help to my shaky financial situation.
While Mia got her work situation squared away, my phone pinged. It was a text from Daniel. He had solved the mystery behind the alarm company cancellation. Apparently, Mia had offhandedly mentioned we were having an alarm installed. JD called the company and cancelled the appointment, so he would have no issues breaking in using the impression he had made of Mia’s key.
The Evil That Was Done (Secrets of Redemption Book 3) Page 30