Empty Promises and Crowded Caskets

by Ana Bisset

  Since I needed to get snacks and fizzy fruit water to stock the refrigerator at Grammie’s house, I decided to stop in when I knew Mel would be working. Finding out any of the rumblings about the recent murder was another reason to stop by. What I hadn’t counted on was hearing a few things that were totally none of my business. But I am happy to say that I heard them.

  I didn’t see Mel at the cashier counter, so I walked back the soda and chip aisle to get my drinks, passing two women who were dressed in uniform like attire, even their coats. One was older, hunched a bit and moved slowly. The younger girl was in her twenties, flitting around getting whatever the older woman wanted, and chirping the whole time.

  I stopped in front of my favorite waters and began to make a selection, berating myself for not getting a cart.

  “The mistress Bianca had me bring them a snack tray into the pool house this whole last week with these kinds of crackers.” She showed the old woman the box. “I even brought one out the night he was killed, she was there waiting for him,” the girl said with wide eyes.

  “You’ll be keeping that to yourself if you know what is good for you,” the old woman told her, eying me. “The Romanos don’t keep employees who talk or remember too much.”

  Judging by the woman’s age, she had first-hand experience on how to stay employed as Romano household staff. The girl stuck out her bottom lip and pouted, but she remained silent for the rest of the time I was in the aisle.

  I passed back by them with an arm full of waters, heading straight for a cart. Once I put them in, I went to search for my next item, but Mel appeared.

  “Hey, Libby! I had an idea that you would stop by when I was scrying this morning. Seems to me there is something here for you to discover. Maybe it’s the new mango and melon water flavor?” she asked picking up that bottle out of my cart.

  “Well, yes, that looks good,” I said, placing it back in the cart. “But I also found out that Bianca and Diego were having an affair. At least, that is what I think I heard.”

  As I was telling Mel, the two ladies came up to the counter to check out. I nodded towards them and asked Mel, “Who are they?”

  “Oh, they work for the Romanos. Domestic help because they are here once or twice a week doing grocery shopping. Although, the cook orders most of the groceries to be delivered.”

  “Shhh…” I said to Mel, I wanted to hear what they were saying.

  “Well, maybe I don’t want to work for a bunch of crooks.” The younger girl said as she pulled the groceries out of the cart.

  “You are just upset because Mr. Lorenzo doesn’t take a shine to you no matter how much you try.” The old woman countered.

  “When would he have a chance? He’s always in Boston for his dad.” The older woman clucked her tongue as the young girl said this. At that point, they were done checking out and moved on.

  “That was unnerving,” said Mel.

  “I’ll say, but really helpful. That family is hiding something, and it has to do with the murder. We have to find a way to found out what it is.” I said.

  “Not sure that is something we should be doing, especially since we are talking about M-U-R-D-E-R, Libby,” Mel said. “I’m sorry,” she continued when I gave her a look, “but I have to wonder if the murderer doesn’t care who they take out, as long as they don’t get caught. Now that we are practically investigating, we could be next.”

  As she spoke, her nephews came running around the corner, both hugged my legs in turn and ran off. “Think about it, what if they hurt someone we love?”

  “I am thinking about it. One thing I know for sure is it isn’t going to stop until they are caught. I learned that in Boston. One murder leads to two and leads to more corruption. I trust Kyle, I’m just not sure he gets it.” I said.

  “I think it is past time the two of you talked about this,” she said, “and everything else, too. He needs to know how you feel, maybe he has something to tell you that will help you forgive him. But either way, you have to share what you know about this murder. What you’ve seen and what you’ve heard.”

  “I agree. Which is why I just had lunch with him and told him everything,” I said. “Well, not how I feel because I don’t know how I feel. But, everything else.” When it came to how I felt about Kyle, things were complicated. I had just gotten out of a relationship with Tony. One that I thought was going to last. I had put my feelings for Kyle away a long time ago, and like a childhood toy that had too many pieces, I’m not sure I wanted to get them back out.

  She began jumping up and down, “Yeah!” She hugged me. “I am so happy you came clean with him. Now we don’t have to feel so guilty about doing stuff behind his back.”

  “We’ll see. I’m not sure him knowing why we do things is going to stop us from doing things,” I said.

  She cocked her head and thought about that for a minute, “Of course not. But, we won’t have to lie when we get caught,” she laughed.

  We walked over to the snacks, and I picked up what I wanted to munch on this week. Then Mel checked me out, and I went on my way.

  The thing about having friends since childhood, they knew you down to the core. This could not only be a curse or a blessing, but the friendship fabric is often woven in such a way that it was both sometimes at the same time. Much like the times she would rip off my band-aids for me, Mel was pushing me to face my most significant painful memory. I’m grateful I have someone to force me to do the right thing. I think.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “I’m home!” I yelled into the general direction of everywhere when I walked in the door. I had to chuckle at how quickly I picked that habit back up.

  “We are in here, Libby,” Grammie said. I immediately wondered who she meant by ‘we’, but I didn’t have to wonder for long, as I walked into the parlor and saw for myself. Grammie had an antique percussion pistol aimed at Mr. Romano’s head.

  “This on is from 1842 and uses a bit of powder, but the accuracy is spot on,” Grammie said. You would think that she was an expert. In reality, she remembered what Gramps told her about his guns. She lowered the gun and smiled at me. Mr. Romano and his son-in-law looked relieved.

  “Libby, have you been introduced to Mr. Romano and his son-in-law Salvatore? You sat behind the at John’s memorial service, but with all the commotion,” she said waving her hands, and the gun, in the air as if creating a whirlwind, “I’m guessing you didn’t get the chance to meet.”

  “You’re right Grammie, we haven’t met yet,” I said as I walked over to shake the older gentleman’s already outstretched hand. He held on, turned my hand in his enclosed it with his other hand as if to make a warm, familiar gesture. It was a bit creepy and not something I was comfortable with, considering this was our first meeting, and we were not family.

  “She is beautiful, Grace,” he turned to me, “You look very much like your Grandmother.”

  “Thank you.” It was something I heard from time to time, and I always considered it a compliment.

  “Elizabeth, this is Salvatore. He is married to my daughter, Bianca. He handles all of my bookkeeping.”

  Salvatore gave Mr. Romano a sour look for all of a second, then smiled at me. “It is a pleasure meeting you, Libby.”

  I could tell by the way he was acting that Mr. Romano got away with belittling whoever he pleased whenever he wanted. Salvatore was probably more than a ‘bookkeeper’.

  “I didn’t know we were having company Grammie, I would have come home sooner,” I said.

  “Well, Mr. Romano called right after you left this morning and I thought you might be home by now,” she said.

  “No worries. We’ve only been waiting a few minutes. Your grandmother has been showing me her collection of antiques,” said Mr. Romano.

  “I see she started with her gun collection, one of her favorites,” I smiled, knowing it wasn’t but I could see these two had rattled her.

  She smiled back at me, “Yes dear. I was just about to show them how
to load the French flintlock pistol when you walked in.”

  I wondered if our guests had any idea that Grammie kept many of the pieces in Gramps’ antique gun collection locked and loaded for protection purposes. I knew she never pulled them out just for show. By the looks on their faces, they were wondering. Best to keep them guessing in my opinion.

  “I’m sorry we’ll miss that demonstration.” Salvatore said as he cleared his throat. “But, I am interested in your book collection, Mrs. Foster, at a future date. We do need to get back, and Mr. Romano would like to discuss business. Now that you are home Libby, of course.”

  “What business is that?” I asked Mr. Romano.

  “Your grandmother says that you own the paper that your grandfather used to run. We were hoping that you wouldn’t mind parting with it. For a substantial price, of course. We wouldn’t want you to feel cheated out of it or anything like that. Your grandmother could live out her life in luxury. Maybe, where there is warmer weather? We would purchase the house and the carriage house as well.”

  “I really haven’t thought through what I want to do with it as I have been away much of the time since my grandfather’s death. Now that I am home, I’d like to see what is over there,” I said. “I don’t even know what it is worth as it hasn’t been active in a while.” I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I was picking up a bad vibe. Why would they want the paper? Just adding to the number of businesses and influence in the community, or were there other reasons?

  “No need to worry about that. We could have our assessors take a look around and then we can come to a price,” Sal said. “You wouldn’t need to worry yourself over all the work that would take.”

  I’m not sure I liked the look of the son-in-law, Salvatore Mancini. Handsome, like the rest of the men in the family, but not solid. He had a beard, glasses, and was dressed in what looked like an expensive suit, while Mr. Romano was more casual in his dress pants and sweater. He seemed uptight. I wasn’t sure if it was because Grammie was still playing with the gun or he really wanted this sale to go through. Which made me wonder why they were so interested in the carriage house.

  “I don’t think that selling the paper is something I am interested in. Perhaps in a year or so when I’ve decided what I’ll be doing. Grammie and I are very comfortable here. But thank you so much for your offer,” I said.

  They looked annoyed. Mr. Romano recovered first, stood, and shook my hand. “Of course, of course. Take some time and think it through. Maybe we should have waited until you’ve been home for a little longer. Know that our offer remains on the table until you are ready to take us up on it.” He kissed my grandmother's hand. “We’ll see you lovely ladies soon.”

  Salvatore didn’t recover as quickly. He shook my hand and walked out the door behind Mr. Romano. I looked out of the window and watched them leave. The car was waiting on the road in front of the house. Mr. Romano had managed to lose his cool exterior the second we had closed the door. I don’t know what he was saying, but he was laying into Sal, who could only nod back.

  “I don’t think you should answer the door the next time the two of them come calling,” I said to Grammie, who was watching out the window with me.

  “I think you are right about that,” she said. “I regretted answering it this time, they said they would be over this evening. But, I thought it was Mae Anderson bringing over her new quilt magazine. She is supposed to stop by sometime today. Not sure why she keeps getting those, it is not like either of us is going to live long enough to make too many more quilts considering we have enough patterns for five lifetimes already.”

  I looked at my phone, it was ten after three. Grammie looked over at my grocery bags, “Did you get a few snacks and things?”

  “Yes and I had lunch with Kyle,” I said.

  She looked over at me, curious at what I wanted to tell her, but in true Grammie form, she said, “Let’s put on a pot of coffee and take out some sweets. Then, we can talk. I’ll just call Mae and tell her to come tomorrow.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” I said.

  While Grammie got the coffee ready and made her phone call, I texted my source to see if I could find anything out about Salvatore and Bianca Mancini.

  Hey, when you get a chance, can you fill me in on Salvatore and Bianca Mancini? And why would Mr. Romano want to buy my grandfather’s old newspaper?

  I shut the phone down knowing he would answer when he had something to tell me, and I didn’t want to interrupt my conversation with Grammie.

  The smell of strong coffee brought me into the kitchen. I sat down and accepted a mug, poured cream in it, and took a donut. I may not know much about the afterlife, but I know it includes coffee and donuts in Grammie’s kitchen.

  “I decided to tell Kyle about my abilities. I told him that Gramps had them too,” I said.

  She smiled, “It’s not that I hope this will bring the two of you back together, Libby, even though an old woman can hope,” she said, “But, I am so glad you let him in on this part of you. It weighed so heavy on you before.”

  “I am glad you approve, but don’t get any ideas. Kyle and I are going to try and be friends again. I don’t know if I can trust him, but I told him anyway. He may come and ask you questions about it. Just be honest. Remember that this is something most people would not understand and tell him whatever he wants to know, okay?” I asked.

  “Absolutely, but can I ask why you wanted to tell him now?” Grammie said.

  “I didn’t know any other way of letting him know what I know about Diego. When I saw his ghost in the carriage house the day I came home I knew something was wrong, but there was nothing I could do about it,” I said. “I had no idea who he was at the time. But, now that I do I couldn’t keep it from Kyle,” I said.

  “I think that was very smart of you. Your grandfather helped with many investigations in his time,” she said.

  “As long as he didn’t go back to his office and look up a loony bin to throw me in, it was smart. Actually, I have to say, it was a bit anti-climatic,” I said.

  “Oh, how so?” Grammie asked.

  “I always worried that he would look at me differently if he knew. I thought he wouldn’t love me anymore. Knowing that he didn’t love me enough anyway helped, I guess,” I said.

  “Libby, you do not believe he didn’t love you. He may not have been thinking right at the time, or he had other reasons, but he didn’t leave you because he didn’t love you,” she said.

  I fidgeted and played with the second half of my donut. “Do you think that Gramps knew why Kyle left?” I asked her.

  “I think he may have, but he never shared that with me.”

  I am going to file those thoughts away for another time, with all the other thoughts that might hurt when I bring them out.

  “Kyle is coming over later to help me check out the carriage house. We made plans at lunch. I’m glad we did, now that we know Mr. Romano wants to buy the building. He is up to something,” I said looking at Grammie who picked up her mug and stared into her coffee. “Do you know what it is?” I asked.

  “Well, of course not. How would I know such a thing?” she said looking up at me. She sighed. “I’m feeling a little tired, I am going to go rest up a bit before the sheriff is here. Don’t worry about cleaning up, I’ll get it when I come back.” She walked out of the kitchen to her room.

  It’s hard watching your loved ones get older and frailer, I thought as I began to clear the table.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  After clearing the table, I headed over to the carriage house to start snooping around a bit before Kyle showed up. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but there was a lot housed in that one building including all the emotions I felt the last time I said goodbye to my grandfather. For today, I was going to be looking only for surface problems, if you could consider a ghost something that popped up to the surface of the living.

  I walked in and turned to the left, where the front stables had bee
n. Here is where the breaker box is housed, and I needed to turn on the electric in the entire place if we were to search it. The box was kept in a room full of devices that looked more like a steam punk puzzle room with Victorian-looking keys, gages, and gadgets. Things were marked in different colors, and handles were made of metals like copper, brass, and silver - all tarnished. To get to this room, you needed to open the fake breaker box and turn off the breaker that was marked front office, leaving the rest of them on. Then, reach down to the hidden handle, pushing the door into the wall to the left. Once in the room, the breaker box was straight ahead, each breaker marked appropriately.