Be My Valencrime

by Amy M. Reade

  “What?” she asked, stalling for time to think of a good answer.

  “It’s at the jewelry store,” Noley answered, coming to stand behind Laurel in the doorway. Lilly breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Why is it there?” Laurel asked. Her face was working as though she was trying to figure out what was going on and coming up blank.

  “That’s where your mom hit her head,” Noley said. “When she fainted, I panicked and called nine-one-one, then she went to the hospital by ambulance and I followed in my car. We’ll pick her car up as soon as she can drive.”

  “So you were at the shop when it happened?” Laurel asked Noley.

  Noley glanced quickly at Lilly. “Yes.”

  Laurel gave her a skeptical look. “So Harry’s taking care of the store today?”

  Lilly nodded. Rats. She had forgotten to call Harry. She suspected this concussion was going to cause no end of problems.

  “Yes. I spoke to him this morning and he’ll take care of everything until your mom is ready to go back to work,” Noley said.

  Thank God for Noley.

  “Whatever you say. I’m taking my shower now.” Laurel left again.

  “Thank you,” Lilly said. Noley had moved closer to the bed and stood staring down at her.

  “Don’t you think it’s time to start telling the truth?” she asked.

  “No way.” Lilly tried shaking her head on the pillow, but it hurt. “I’m not about to tell Laurel that I was attacked. It would scare her to death.”

  “I don’t mean tell Laurel everything that happened, but maybe tell her you banged your head while you were trying to find out where Alice is. That’s the truth, even if it’s not the whole truth.”

  “I promise I’ll tell everyone the truth when the time comes.”

  “And when will the time come?” Noley asked.

  “When Alice is safe and sound.”

  “I had a feeling you’d say that.” Noley sighed. “So what are you going to tell Harry? You can’t tell him your car is at the store because it obviously isn’t.”

  “What did you tell him?” Lilly asked.

  “That you banged your head and can’t come to work. He didn’t ask for details—I think he’s a little preoccupied.”

  “Of course he is. And now I’ve gone and made his life harder. Bah,” she said through gritted teeth. “I definitely don’t want him to know the truth. He’d be so upset if he found out this happened because I was trying to help him.”

  “I’m going to bring breakfast up. Let’s stop worrying about this right now because you’re thinking too hard already. That’s against the doctor’s orders.”

  Barney came crashing up the stairs and into Lilly’s room. He watched her from the side of the bed, his tail wagging furiously. Noley hadn’t let him sleep with Lilly after she got home from the hospital, so he was thrilled to see her.

  She patted the covers. “Come on up, Barn,” she said. He jumped onto the bed and commenced licking her face as soon as he had all fours on the mattress, and Lilly laughed despite the pain.

  Noley had just returned to Lilly’s room with a breakfast tray when the doorbell rang. Barney launched himself off the bed in a furry haze of frenzied barking and dashed down the stairs. Though she knew it was unreasonable, Lilly started to tremble.

  “What if the person who hit me followed us?” she asked in a scared whisper.

  Noley put her hands on her hips. “That’s impossible. That person took off as soon as you hit the ground.” She turned around to follow Barney, but Lilly noticed her footsteps hesitated at the top of the staircase.

  “Don’t answer it,” Lilly called.

  “I’ll just see who it is,” Noley replied. Lilly heard her go down the stairs.

  Just a few seconds later Barney had stopped barking and Lilly could hear low voices. She waited, not saying anything, knowing Noley would tell her who was at the door.

  She strained her ears to listen and it wasn’t long before she heard a heavy tread on the stairs.

  “You’ve got a visitor,” Noley called out.

  A moment later Bill was standing in the doorway.

  “Lilly! Oh, my God! What happened?”

  Chapter 35

  Lilly groaned. Now she would have to spill the whole story. Bill had a way of sniffing out the truth no matter how hard she tried to conceal it from him. Noley gave her a pointed look and Lilly grimaced at her. Noley knew lying to Bill would be in vain.

  “I banged my head,” Lilly said. She prayed he wouldn’t ask any more questions, but she knew him better than that.

  “How? Where?”

  Lilly didn’t answer, weighing the options in her foggy mind.

  “Lilly?” Bill pressed.

  She looked at Noley, who nodded solemnly. It was time to come clean.

  “Someone pushed me down,” Lilly said.

  “She has a concussion, so it might be better to talk about this later,” Noley suggested. Why couldn’t she have said that ten seconds ago? Lilly thought.

  “I won’t make her talk much,” Bill said. “I just want to know what happened. Where were you pushed down?”

  “In Lupine,” Lilly said. If he was going to be nosy, she wasn’t going to make it easy for him.

  “Where in Lupine?”

  “At a bar.”

  “What bar?”

  “Just a dive bar.” He closed his eyes and she could see his lips moving. He was counting to ten.

  “Lilly, what is the name of the bar?” The jig was up.

  “Guy’s Place.”

  “You went to Guy’s Place? Where I specifically told you not to go?” His voice was rising and his face was getting red.

  “You are not the boss of me. I don’t have to do what you say.” Her kids used to say the same thing—when they were four. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Noley smiling.

  “If you went there for the reason I think you went there, then I am the boss of you. You are interfering with a police investigation. I’ve told you not to do that!”

  Finally Noley stepped in to stop a spat that was clearly about to escalate.

  “Okay, you two. Bill, you should probably wait to get mad at her. She’s got a severe concussion and she’s not supposed to be doing much of anything. That includes arguing. And Lilly, try to remember that Bill is a professional and doesn’t want to lose his job because his sister is meddling in police business.”

  Lilly scowled at her.

  “Whoever pushed me would have pushed him, too, so I did him a favor,” she said.

  “Wanna bet?” Bill asked.

  Noley held up her hands and stepped between Bill and the bed where Lilly lay fuming. “Enough. Lilly, you are to finish your breakfast and then rest. Bill, come downstairs with me and I’ll make you breakfast, too.” She took him by the hand and led him into the hallway. She peeked behind her to wink at Lilly before closing the door.

  Lilly finished the food on her tray and reached for the book on the nightstand. She let it fall when she remembered she wasn’t supposed to be reading. This was going to be so boring.

  She tried sleeping, but found that she was too restless to sleep. What could she do that wouldn’t hurt, make Noley’s job harder, or annoy anyone?

  Nothing, that’s what. And exactly how was she supposed to stop thinking? It was impossible.

  Sighing, Lilly withdrew a pad of paper and a pencil from the drawer of her nightstand. She shouldn’t be writing anything down, but a few words wouldn’t be a big deal. She wanted to make a list of the people who were most likely to know something or have something to do with Alice’s disappearance.

  Mary Louise: acquainted with Alice, has crush on Harry, stays with Harry at night, demanded that Harry take her to the movies, says she knows things about Alice that she isn’t sharing.

  Guy: Alice’s boss, mean, doesn’t want Suzanne or Tracy talking to me, distrustful, misogynist.

  Man from Guy’s Place: probably pushed me down after I talked to
Suzanne, bothered Alice at work.

  David: Alice’s brother, doesn’t get along with her, accused Harry of having something to do with Alice’s disappearance.

  Writing the short list made Lilly’s head hurt. She put the pad and pencil aside, closed her eyes, and lay back against her pillow.

  It wasn’t going to be easy to figure out who was responsible for Alice’s disappearance if she couldn’t keep her eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time.

  Noley came upstairs a while later. Lilly had fallen into a light sleep and woke up as soon as Noley came into her bedroom.

  “Where’s Bill?” Lilly asked. She reached for her phone to look at the time.

  “Uh-uh,” Noley scolded, holding out her hand for the phone. “He left about an hour ago.”

  “Is he still mad?”

  Noley shrugged. “You know Bill. He’s concerned about you and he thinks you take unnecessary risks to solve problems that are best left to the professionals.”

  “But I might be able to get information that people aren’t willing to share with the police.”

  “Lil, you don’t need to explain it to me. I understand and I even agree with you sometimes. I’m just telling you how it looks from Bill’s point of view.”

  “Why did he come over here, anyway?” Lilly asked.

  Noley looked down at her feet for a second and Lilly knew something was up. “It’s your mom. I guess she woke up this morning upset about something and Nikki can’t get her to calm down. Bill said she can’t stop crying. He went to the jewelry store to ask you to go over and talk to her, but Harry told him he’d find you here.”

  “Poor Mom,” Lilly said. “I don’t think I can go over there right now—”

  “You’re darned right. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “What I was saying was,” Lilly began with a pointed glance at Noley, “I can call Mom and see how she’s doing. I wonder if she’ll tell me what’s upsetting her.”

  “Good idea,” Noley said. “I’ll give you your cell phone if you promise not to do anything on it except call your mom.” She grinned. “It stinks, I know.”

  “I promise. But you can’t keep me in here forever, you know. I have to go to work at some point.”

  “Well, since tomorrow is Sunday, you’ll have a forced day off. Maybe you can go back on Monday. With limited responsibilities, obviously. I’ll call Harry and make sure he’s okay with that arrangement.”

  “All right, Doctor Appleton.” Lilly held out her hand for the phone. She dialed her mom while Noley slipped from the room.

  Nikki answered the phone. “What’s going on over there?” Lilly asked. “Is Mom all right?”

  “Lilly, I’ve never seen her like this. Laurel left before she woke up, and I think that upset her. But I can’t get her to explain.”

  “Can I talk to her? I can’t come over right now because of my concussion, but I can try to figure out what’s wrong.”

  “Sure. I’ll put her on. I hope you’re following the doctor’s orders,” Nikki warned. “Concussions are serious.”

  “I’m following the ER doc’s advice as well as Doctor Noley’s advice.”

  She could hear the smile in Nikki’s voice. “Good. Now here’s your mom.”

  “Lilly?” Bev asked in a tremulous voice.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Oh, Lilly….” Bev began to cry, speaking garbled words that Lilly couldn’t understand.

  “Mom, listen. I can’t understand what you’re saying while you cry. Take a few deep breaths if you can and try to calm down a bit. I want to help you, but I can’t when I can’t understand you.”

  There was a pause while Bev took a few jagged breaths. She came back on the line and her voice was a little bit clearer.

  “It’s hard to get old, Lilly.”

  “I know, Mom. But you’re doing so well.”

  “I miss your father.” The tears started again, and this time there were tears on both ends of the call.

  There was silence for several moments as both women sniffled and swallowed. “I know you do, Mom. I miss him, too.”

  All those times Bev had talked about her late husband, all those times she insisted that he was still living in the same house with her, all those times Lilly had reluctantly decided against reminding her that he wasn’t around anymore—they all came rushing back to Lilly and she wondered how she ever could have wanted to remind her mother of the cruel truth.

  It was far better to let her mother live in her memories. At least there she was still happy.

  Chapter 36

  “Can you and Billy come to see me tonight?” Bev asked, sniffling. “I miss you both.”

  Lilly swallowed around the lump in her throat. “I’ll ask him, Mom.” There was no way she was going to let Noley keep her in the house tonight when her mother needed her. And she was going to make sure Bill went over, too. No work excuses, no nothing.

  She called Bill as soon as she hung up with her mother. “Bill, Mom wants us to go over there tonight.”

  “Did you find out why she’s so upset?”

  “Yeah. She misses Dad.” Bill didn’t answer, but Lilly knew what was going through his mind—the same things that went through her mind when she talked to her mom.

  “I’ll be there,” he said. His voice held just a hint of huskiness. “You’re not going, are you?”

  “I can’t not go,” she said. “I’m not using this concussion as an excuse when Mom needs us both.”

  “All right. I’ll pick you up and drop you off afterward,” he offered.

  “See you later.”

  She put the phone next to her on the bed and tried going back to sleep, but she was still restless. She got out of bed and made her way downstairs, where she found Noley in the kitchen talking on her own cell phone. She hung up when she saw Lilly.

  “What are you doing out of bed?” she cried.

  “I have to move around or I’ll atrophy,” Lilly said. “What’s going on down here? You didn’t have to hang up, you know.”

  “I know. But I need to talk to you about something.”

  “What?” Lilly was immediately on alert, as much as she could be with her brain fog.

  “That was Harry. He said the police came into the store to talk to him again. They found something of Alice’s and they wanted to know if he knew anything about it.”

  “What did they find?” Lilly asked. Her heart did a little flip-flop, but not in a good way.

  “A shoe.”

  “Where did they find it?”

  “Outside Guy’s Place in some bushes.”

  Lilly stood still for a moment as Noley’s words sank in. “Why would anyone leave a shoe in the bushes?”

  “They wouldn’t.”

  “Then that’s definitive proof that she was taken against her will. This is the second clue that she didn’t go away on her own.” Lilly shivered.

  “I think we’ve always known that,” Noley said.

  “Of course, but now the police have more to go on. Maybe there are fingerprints on the shoe.”

  Noley looked doubtful.

  “How is Harry taking it?” Lilly asked.

  Noley shook her head. “Not well. He sounded pretty distraught when he called me.”

  “I really should go over there,” Lilly said. “Do you think it would be okay if I went over for just a little while?”

  “No, I don’t. As Harry said, there’s really nothing he can do right now except worry, and when he’s in charge of the shop he has less time to worry.”

  “I could at least be there for moral support,” Lilly said. “I’m no use to anyone here.”

  “That’s not true,” Noley countered. “Don’t forget that it’s for your own good that you’re staying home. You’re no use to anyone if this concussion gets worse and you end up bedridden.”

  “All right. I’ll stay here,” Lilly mumbled.

  “You’re not the most patient patient,” Noley said with a grin.

  “
I’m bored. I hate not being able to do anything.”

  “You are doing something—you’re healing. Now go back upstairs and quit your whining.” Noley made a shoo motion with her hands and Lilly headed back upstairs.

  Now she had one more thing to worry about on top of everything else: there could no longer be any doubt that Alice had been taken against her will.

  Where was she? And was she okay?

  That evening Bill picked Lilly up in his cruiser after dinner. They said little on the ride to Bev’s house, each lost in thought.

  When Bill pulled up to the house, Lilly turned to him. “I’m worried about Mom.”

  “Me, too.”

  “How long do you think she’ll be able to stay at home, with Nikki taking care of her?”

  “I’ve heard of people who go on for years like that,” Bill said.

  Lilly sighed. “I think it’s almost better when she’s in a fog. At least she’s not lonely and she just carries on as if it were years ago.”

  “I think it’s better, too. She seems to be pretty happy on the days she’s confused.”

  “All right. Let’s go in,” Lilly said. She couldn’t procrastinate any longer.

  They knocked on the front door and waited while Nikki disarmed the security system. She opened the door with a smile on her face. “Come on in. She’s doing much better tonight.”

  Lilly exhaled in relief. Bill led the way into the living room, where Bev was in her favorite chair with a fuzzy blanket wrapped around her legs. “Lilly! Billy! What are you doing here? Is everything all right?” Bev asked, her face crumpling in concern. Then she gasped. “Lilly, what happened to your face?”

  Lilly spoke immediately, not wanting to break the spell. “Everything is fine, Mom. I fell, that’s all.”

  “You should be more careful, Lilly,” Bev said, wagging her finger.

  “I will, I promise. Bill and I just thought we’d come by and say hello.”

  “Well, wasn’t that sweet of you both. Billy, you work so hard. You should be relaxing with your lovely wife, not worrying about me.” Lilly rolled her eyes. Yes, her mother was definitely back to her old self. She caught Nikki’s eye and Nikki laughed silently, shaking her head. Even Bill couldn’t keep from smirking. He didn’t bother reminding Bev that he and Noley weren’t married.