by K. J. Emrick
“No,” I told her. “Don’t give me that. One of them should be here. Listen. Let me call that little pizza place and have something delivered for us, okay?”
“That place?” Rosie scoffed. “Kid runs it out of his garage. I’m worried I’m gonna find petrol and oil on the pizza instead of pasta sauce!”
“Well we have to do something. I don’t want to leave you here with no one around.”
“Not that hungry anyway, tell you the truth.” Rosie leaned back into the couch, which I thought was a mistake considering how hard it was to get her out of there last time. “Haven’t had much of an appetite for the past two days. Stress, I suppose.”
“Then…” I glanced back at the kitchen, remembering the whirlwind that had been Rosie Ryan in there just a few minutes back. “What were you cooking up in there?”
“Oh, that? Nothing. Just thought I’d try out a new recipe for the Inn for when I get back. After all, Marco left and I won’t be gone forever.” A look very close to panic crossed her face. “You are gonna want me back, aren’t you? Right? You won’t get rid of me permanent, will ya?”
“Rosie, no, of course not! Where on Earth did you get an idea like that?”
She was full on sobbing now, her emotions getting the best of her. Putting her head back against the cushions, she closed her eyes, tears rolling out of the corners. “You hired someone else to run my kitchen. I thought maybe you didn’t want me anymore.”
“Of course I want you back. There’s no way I could ever run our Inn without you. Once you’ve had some time with your new little ones, then we can talk about you coming back. You just need some time to take care of your family, and yourself, first. That’s all. All right? Rosie?”
It took me a moment before I realized my friend had drifted off to sleep.
Careful so that I wouldn’t wake her, I stood up from the couch. She’s my best friend in the world. I’m happy that she and Josh will have the chance to be parents, but I really, really hope she has these babies soon. For all of our sakes.
Behind me the front door opened, and turning, I see Nala standing there.
She was in a different flowery dress today, her huge mass of curly black hair held back with ivory clips. Or, maybe bone. I’ve seen some aboriginal jewelry made from bone. It’s quite pretty.
The expression on Nala’s face wasn’t so pretty. Not with that scowl on it.
In her hands was her purse, that enormous cloth purse, and as she dropped it to the floor I could tell it was empty. My thoughts started racing. If her purse was empty now, then what did she have in it when she went out?
Maybe a priceless artifact stolen from the Thirsty Roo?
Nala looked past me to see Rosie asleep on the couch. “Your friend is asleep. You must go. Go on with ya. My patient needs her sleep.”
“You’re a midwife,” I reminded her. “Not a doctor. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if you’re even much of a midwife. Where were you just now? You left Rosie alone and she nearly set fire to the house.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Nala waved away the suggestion that anything was wrong. “Rosie is a capable, strong woman. Her birth will be easy. If it ever comes.”
In those few words I saw that even Nala was fed up with waiting on little baby Angus and baby Diana.
Well, this was her job, and if she’s going to be rude to my friend she can bloody well suffer through waiting until Rosie’s body is ready to deliver. Unless, of course, she wasn’t in Lakeshore to be a midwife after all. If there was another reason for her being here, then I think I might know what it is.
“Nala, where were you just now?” I put the question to her as politely as I could this time, even putting a smile on my face.
She didn’t turn around, busying herself instead with taking out some veggies from the fridge and a cutting board from the drawer. “Oh, I was out and about, I was. I have been in this house for days now. I needed some fresh air.”
“Where did you go?” I pressed.
“Here and there.”
“Where, exactly?”
Now she turned, and speared me with a glare that would have made all the icebergs in Antarctica melt. “Why d’ya need to know so badly, Miss Powers? Hm? Are you writing a book perhaps?”
I felt like smacking the rude out of this woman, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have accomplished anything except landing me in the cell next to Drew. Besides. I’m not a violent woman. Usually. “I’m just curious,” I told her. “Yesterday I heard you say that you wished the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice would go back to the Aborigines. That would grant them ownership of Tasmania, wouldn’t it? I mean, that’s the myth, right?”
In her eyes, I could see the wheels of her mind turning. Opening a drawer beside her she pulled out a long, sharp-bladed chef’s knife. She held it in her hand, up in front of her, and jabbed the air with it to help make her point. Literally. “Don’t ya think that the indigenous people of Tasmania deserve that? Before the British came to this place in 1803, there were as many as fifteen thousand indigenous peoples on this island. All of those Palawa, living their happy lives. Do ya know how many were left just thirty years later thanks to British colonization? Three hundred. No more.”
These were facts from my country’s history. Same as America needed to remember their treatment of the people who were there at the first, so did the great land of Australia. “I know that, Nala. It was a tragedy that never should have happened. We’re a better people now. Today things would be different.”
That got a scoff from her. “Are ya now? I’m not. The indigenous people of any country have always suffered for the expansion of others. My people know this. We have lived in Torres Strait for more than two thousand years. We know what it is to be a people apart. I would do anything I could to give back what was taken from the indigenous peoples of Australia.”
“And just how would you do that?”
She opened her mouth wide, about to tell me something, but then stopped. “Don’t think I want to say anything more, Miss Powers. Where I’ve been is no concern of yours. What I think about the blessed Van Diemen’s Land Chalice is none of your concern either. Now, if something happens with your friend I’m sure she’ll give you a call so you can come running back again.” With a doleful look over at Rosie snoring loudly on the couch, she added, “If something should happen, that is.”
I wanted to ask more. I was sure she had been out just now to set up a trade for the Chalice. Or maybe she’d already given it away. That huge cloth purse of hers could’ve easily hidden the Chalice while she secreted it out to someone. A leader in the Aboriginal community, maybe, or someone who could take it out of town for safekeeping. That had to be why she left Rosie alone to fend for herself.
What I wanted to do was sit right here until she confessed to knowing where the Chalice was but I’d been involved in enough mysteries by now so that I knew, without a doubt, that Nala wasn’t going to say another word if I pushed her.
No. It was time for me to make my next stop of the day instead. Time for me to see my son. The senior sergeant of—
From the couch, Rosie snorked in a breath and waved her arms in the air. Eyes still closed, she shouted in her sleep, “Pickles! Pickle relish!”
Then she was back to snoring peacefully.
Ahem. Right. Time for me to go see my son. The senior sergeant of police.
Chapter 6
The police department building was at the far end of Main Street. The only thing past that end of Lakeshore was the great outdoors and the Hartz Mountains National Park. Beautiful scenery. Nothing else. The only other building out that way was Oliver Harris’s towing and recovery station, huddled across the street under an old metal sign on a pole slowly surrendering to gravity.
The station building was just one story tall, made of stucco and brink, painted white like the rest of the town, of course. The Lakeshore PD sign was placed proudly on the front, large and round with its logo of a scraggly Monterey pine tree in the middle o
f our three differently shaped lakes. I know all of these details by heart. Can’t count the number of times I’ve been here. Almost like a second home to me now.
Just inside the front door was the lobby with its plastic waiting chairs and the wanted bulletins on the walls next to the posters about the evils of drugs. A service window of sliding plexiglass allows the constables inside to talk to folks coming here for help. In my case, it was how I let them know the boss’s Mom is here.
Usually, that lets me right in. This time, Kevin came to the window from inside to talk to me.
“Just a bit busy right now,” he explained. “It’s not just the governor of Tasmania weighing in, now it’s the Governor-General of the whole entire country. Right now I can’t take a break for so much as a how d’ya do with a passing kangaroo. Unless ya brought lunch, maybe? Wouldn’t mind some of Rosie’s pasta right about now. Truth be told, I could actually gnaw the leg off a roo right about now. Had to skip breakfast to get the arrest warrant for Drew.”
I got the feeling he was only half joking. “Actually, Kevin, that’s what I came to talk to you about.”
“Really? Came all the way down here to talk about lunch, did ya?”
“Don’t get cheeky with me, young man.” He winked at me, and I smiled, but it quickly faded away. “This is serious, Kevin. Your sister’s in a terrible state.”
“Yeah,” he agreed soberly, rubbing a finger beside his nose. “She looked about ready to spit the dummy when we took her boyfriend into custody.”
“Then why’d you do it? Kevin, this is a big thing. The whole town’s buzzing about it. Even Ada in her little library was talking about it. You can’t just arrest the first guy you come to because it’s convenient.”
One of his constables had been hanging about just behind him, scribbling notes on a pad of paper as he answered a call. He looked up at us now, obviously gobsmacked that I’d talk to the senior sergeant that way. Kevin didn’t look much more impressed than the young constable did, who very wisely told the person on the phone he’d call them back before beating a hasty retreat.
“Mom,” Kevin said drily. “I don’t arrest people just because I feel like it. Haven’t ya been in enough scrapes with me by now to know that?”
I gave him one of my patented mother looks, head tilted to one side. “Of course I know that. I don’t mean… Kevin, can’t I come in? This would be a lot easier if we weren’t talking to each other through a little hole in a piece of glass.”
“Can’t just now.” He shrugged. “Might come ‘round the Inn later for dinner though. We can talk then. What’s on the menu?”
Leaning my elbows on the ledge of the service window, I put my fingertips to my forehead. “Wish I knew. My chef quit. Rosie’s about ready to pop any minute now and her midwife’s about as helpful as a rowboat in the Outback. So we don’t have anyone to cook dinner.”
He looked surprised at that. The Pine Lake Inn’s been such a permanent fixture in Lakeshore for so long that the idea of us not having the dining room open was just about unthinkable. “I hadn’t heard that, Mom. Been holed up here most of the day interviewing Drew and overseeing my constables putting together the case.”
“I’m sure. Where’s all the news reporters?”
“Gave them a public statement earlier, out front of the station here.” He rolled his eyes. “Promised them more later if they buggered off and left us be. Not quite in those words, mind you. I never will get used to that part of the job. Talking to the cameras is about my least favorite thing.”
“Poor baby,” I teased him. “You should ask that wonderful fiancé of yours for pointers. From what I hear Ellie’s become a favorite guest on WIN News.”
“Yes, she has.” His whole expression changed as he thought of his Ellie. It’s the same look I used to get over his father, and then for James. “Er, sorry Mom. Didn’t mean to make this about me. We were talking about your Inn. What are going to do about Sunday dinner? You always draw a crowd on Sundays.”
True enough. “No worries. I’ll have to figure something. Ikon did the breakfast this morning and I asked him to take care of lunch, but dinner? That’s a whole other animal. I’m on my way back to the Inn after this, but that’s a worry for later. I want to talk to you about something. I might know someone who wanted to steal the Chalice but I need to know what proof you have against Drew first. You didn’t just pick him out of the air as a suspect, fine, but what made you think it was him?”
“Not exactly supposed to spread that information around, now am I?”
“And,” I reminded him lightly, “that’s never exactly stopped you before.”
“Strewth. Guess you got me there. This bit’s been given to the reporters already anyhow.” He rubbed at his temple for a moment, and I could see how tired he was. “Alfonse Calico is not a trusting man. He’s got cameras recording everywhere in the Thirsty Roo. Except the loo, of course. So, as criminal investigations go this one was pretty simple. We watched the video, and we saw Drew go in the back storage room. He goes in, he goes over to the case where Alfonse was keeping the Chalice, he opens the case, and then he leaves. Plain and simple. Wish everything could be that simple.”
That took me a moment to process. “You can see Drew take the Chalice? You can see it?” I’d been so sure it wasn’t Drew. If he was caught on video though, then how could there be any doubt?
But then Kevin took a slow breath, and shook his head. “Can’t actually see him take the thing but it was there before he went in, and it was gone when Alfonse went to get it. Drew was holding a towel in his hands when he went into the back room. We figure he put the Chalice into the towel to sneak it out. Sorry, Mom, but the only question left is where he put the thing. Once he tells us that bit then it’ll be done.”
I remembered Drew talking about leaving Lakeshore. He was in such a rush to leave. If he was making plans to set up a new life somewhere else with a girlfriend—my daughter—then he’d need money to do it. I doubt seriously that working as a bartender at the Thirsty Roo paid a man enough to support a family. Selling an item like the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice on the black market, however? Now that would earn a man some serious coin.
Much as I hated to admit it, the theory that Kevin had come up with was a sound one. Maybe more sound than the one Ada showed me in her library. Still, several things were nagging at me. It was always like this when I was being a stickybeak and looking into one of the many mysteries here in Lakeshore. If I didn’t have all the answers to all of the questions, then I had to keep digging.
“But,” I said, “if you can’t actually see Drew take the Chalice on the video then there’s the chance he didn’t do it, don’t you think?”
Kevin just shrugged again as he checked the time on his watch. “It’s a bad camera angle for it, and like I said, his body blocks the camera and the towel could be covering anything he took from back there. I know Carly’s got a thing for him, though for the life of me I can’t understand why.” He sighed. “Tell ya the truth I kinda like the guy. I really do. That doesn’t mean I won’t put him away in a prison somewhere if he did this to the town.”
I could understand that. Last thing we needed was to be known as the town that found and lost the Chalice, all in one day!
“I’ve still got things to talk to you about,” I told him, knowing he had to get back to his job, and so do I.
“Same,” he said. “Just wanted to ask you. Um. All these reporters about. Have ya heard from James?”
My smile was involuntary. “Um. Well, to tell the truth he’s going to be at the Inn tonight. He’s coming into town. To cover the story, I mean. Because he’s a reporter.”
Kevin gave me a knowing look, but didn’t leave me twisting for too long. After all, he was still on duty, and this isn’t exactly a slow day here in Lakeshore. “I’ll see ya tonight, Mom. Maybe we should invite James to dinner with us?”
“Troublemaker,” I scolded him. “Leave things be, will you?”
He rapp
ed the plexiglass with his knuckles. “Can’t. You and James were good together. Now that we know what happened to Dad… well. You deserve some happiness. If I need to step in and knock James upside the head for him to see it, then that’s what I’ll do as the loving son of the amazing Dell Powers.”
“Don’t you dare!” I gasped.
Too late. He was already backing away from the window, smiling from ear to ear. “Sorry, can’t hear ya.”
“Kevin, I’m serious!”
“It’s the glass. Makes it hard to hear.”
“Kevin!”
Cupping a hand behind his ear, he backed out of sight, winking at me just before he’s gone.
Oh, that son of mine. He’s lucky there’s no way for me to crawl through this little opening in the window. I’d give him a piece of my mind, to be sure!
Then again, it’s nice to know that after everything this family has gone through, I’ve still got one child who loves me enough to knock an ex-boyfriend’s block off.
Which leads me to my next stop. A long sigh escaped between my lips. I’m going back to the Inn, yes, but it’s not just to check on what’s for dinner.
I need to try and patch things up between me and Carly. After all the things that kept us apart, I didn’t want this thing with the mythical Chalice of Tasmanian ownership to be what finally drives a wedge between us.
Which meant I needed to have a talk with my daughter, and sooner rather than later.
Outside, heading to my car in the early afternoon sunlight, my mobile rang. I’m going to run the battery dry if I keep this up.
When I take it out, it’s not Rosie calling. It’s not anyone. The caller ID says Unknown Caller. I knew before I answered it what I’d hear.
Static, and faint words in the background. Be…careful. Be careful. Be careful. Becarefulbecarefulbecarefulbecarefulbecareful—