Where Secrets Lie

by R E Gauthier

  “I’m sorry, but we cannot have you wandering around back there without knowing where you are going. Until we have admitted your grandmother, we only know she is in the hospital, but we don’t know her exact location. As soon as we know something more specific to where they have taken your grandmother, we’ll find you. What is your name?”

  Kelsey thought about using her FBI credentials to gain access to the Emergency rooms but believed that it was best not to cause a scene. “My name is Kelsey MacGregor, and I’m—”

  “Thank you, Miss MacGregor we will go locate your grandmother and fiancée and come and find you when we have, please take a seat over there.” The woman, whose name on her identification badge said she was Blanche Fryman, indicated to a small waiting area designated as Waiting Area C.

  Annoyed by her predicament, Kelsey thought about calling Miranda when she saw the signs with a picture of a cellphone and the tell-tale red circle and line through it. They asked that people turn off their cell phones while inside the hospital because they interfered with many of the hospital’s electronic equipment. Sighing heavily, Kelsey took a magazine from the table next to her and tried to while away the time. Minutes felt like hours, and she was about to ask what was taking so long when she saw Miranda’s small form approaching from the doors down the hall. A myriad of feelings welled up as her fiancée’s smiling face grew closer. Only moments ago, Kelsey felt an unease but now seeing the beautiful smile on Miranda’s face she smiled back. Suddenly feeling a sense of profound relief, she began to ask where Nanna was and what was happening to her.

  Miranda lifted her hand as a signal to wait on the questions. “First off, she’s giving everyone including her doctor a hard time. I’m sure they’ll be begging us to take her home soon. But before they do, they want to run a few tests.”

  Kelsey’s relief burgeoned into exuberance. She drew her petite fiancée into her arms. “Oh, how I love you. I cannot tell you how glad I am that you were there with her today. Makes my decision to move back home more profound. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened if she had been alone. She’s so stubborn and would not have called for an ambulance.”

  Miranda nuzzled against Kelsey. “Don’t do that; you know it’s not good to think about ‘what-ifs.’ I’m just glad we were able to convince her to come here to get checked out. Her doctor didn’t think it was a heart attack but said it might be a sign of something changing and wants to do more tests. You know Nanna, she didn’t think this was all necessary, but she agreed she didn’t feel normal.”

  “Can we go see her?” Kelsey was eager to speak to a doctor and see for herself that Nanna was not in any imminent medical emergency.

  “I can take you back to the room where they’ll bring her back to, once they have completed the tests. We can see if her doctor can speak with you, in the meantime.” Miranda wiggled out of Kelsey’s arms and looked into her eyes.

  Kelsey saw the love in those eyes as well as felt it radiating from the petite woman.

  She took Miranda’s hand in hers as they walked through the door leading to section B of the emergency rooms.

  Once they entered the room, a woman wearing a long white coat entered in behind them. “You must be Kelsey; your grandmother did a fine job describing you. I’m Doctor Nelson, and I’ve been your grandmother’s primary physician for ten years.” Doctor Nelson reached out to shake Kelsey’s hand.

  Kelsey held out her hand and felt the firm, warm grip of the smiling doctor. “I hope she’s not giving everyone a hard time.”

  The blonde doctor chuckled, smiled and said, “I don’t think it’s more than what we can handle, but she is a handful. Can you sit down? I want to talk to you about what we have found out before she comes back.”

  Kelsey chewed on the inside of her cheek. Hoping the doctor wasn’t going to give her grave news about Nanna’s condition. “Tell me. Is it bad? Did she have a heart attack or a stroke?”

  Shaking her head, Doctor Nelson again indicated the chair next to the examination bed. “I’m certain this wasn’t a cardiac event, and nothing in her tests results or examination leads me to believe it was a stroke. I’m most concerned about her blood pressure elevation and increased anxiety. She told me that she was only upset because she didn’t want to bother anyone by coming to the hospital but I’ve known her for years, this is not a simple case of annoyance. Is there anything that you can think of that has happened that would cause her to feel this level of anxiety?”

  Kelsey thought about the question for a few seconds. Other than the fact that she and Miranda’s impending wedding caused Nanna some excitement it wouldn’t be the reason for her grandmother’s anxiety. Nanna had been annoyed about her bringing up the night Aisling, Aunt Cat, and Uncle Ethan was killed but didn’t think it would be the cause either. Nanna had been annoyed before, and she never got this anxious. “I’m not sure what could be the reason for this sudden case of anxiety. Miranda and I have recently moved into her house. I wanted to be closer to her and Miranda works from home, so someone is always with Nanna. She’s excited about our upcoming nuptials, but nothing has happened that could make her worried.” She looked at Miranda and raised her eyebrow.

  Miranda understood her silent query and said, “we have been discussing the plans for the ceremony and reception. Nothing has come up that I’ve noticed. Before our yoga practice, she was laughing and joking about making you your favorite dinner. Nothing was out of the ordinary.”

  Doctor Nelson looked speculative. “Well, something has her upset, so I’m going to send her home with a mild sedative. I’m almost certain she won’t take it, but it may help her sleep tonight. I want her to take it easy and even if she wants to, hold off on any serious or conflicting conversations or discussing upsetting issues for the time being. I don’t see any reason to think this episode will evolve into anything serious, but let’s not take any chances until we can get her back for a follow-up in a couple of weeks.”

  Kelsey and Miranda both nodded in agreement. Just then, they all turned when they could hear an annoyed-sounding Nanna berating the orderly pushing her in a wheelchair. “I may be ninety-one, but I’m no invalid. I can walk.”

  Kelsey broadly smiled when she saw the red face of the young man pushing the wheelchair. She knew all too well how it felt to be on the receiving end of Isla MacKenzie’s ire. “Nanna, this man is only doing his job, don’t give him such a hard time,” Kelsey mouthed a ‘sorry’ in the young man’s direction.

  “Oh Mo Chridhe, I didn’t want to worry anyone. I told Miranda and you, Doctor Nelson, that I didn’t need to come here. Real sick people need this bed and your care more than I do. Can I go home now?”

  Seeing Nanna in her usual brisk and banter way, Kelsey could finally breathe a deep cleansing sigh of relief. Nanna wasn’t going anywhere today.

  Chapter Eight

  Nanna’s House, Canonsburg, PA, January 30, 2012

  With Nanna lying down in her bedroom, Kelsey now turned to Miranda and asked, “How did it happen?”

  Miranda’s eyes searched hers. Her brows furrowed and then Miranda frowned. “I told you she was fine. We were laughing about making some Scotch stew. Nanna just went quiet and then looked odd. I don’t know what happened or what started it.”

  Kelsey could see Miranda looked as upset as she was. “I’m sorry, Mo Chridhe; it’s just that Nanna has never been sick before. I have never seen her vulnerable; it scared the hell out of me.”

  Miranda drew Kelsey’s head down, and she looked deeply into her eyes. “I was afraid too. That’s why I asked her to call you. She wanted to brush it off as nothing, but I could see something was wrong.”

  Kelsey kissed the soft lips and felt Miranda tremble. “I’m so glad you were here.” She then thought of what she was doing when Nanna called her and thought she better call Nikki. “I need to call Nikki; she’ll be worried.”

  Miranda straightened and pulled away. “You go call her, and I’ll get something cooking for us to eat
. When Nanna wakes up, I’m sure she’ll be hungry. She only ate a small breakfast.”

  Kelsey wanted to pull Miranda back into her arms and kiss her more deeply. They hadn’t had the same intimacy they had on their vacation. Since returning to the US and moving in with Nanna, Miranda’s book and wedding plans took up most of her time. Kelsey focused her attention on reopening her cousin’s murder case and following up on the reappearance of Paul Washburg. “I miss you,” she said quietly.

  “I miss you too. We haven’t had much time together, but right now we’re being pulled in different directions. I can be patient if you can.” Miranda’s low voice filled with love.

  “I love you,” Kelsey whispered with more emotion than she could contain; a small sob escaped.

  “And I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. Now call Nikki before she winds up driving here. I bet you didn’t even think of turning your phone back on, did you?”

  Kelsey had turned it off while at the hospital and Miranda was right; she had not thought of turning it back on. Nikki likely had been trying to reach her for the last two hours since she arrived at the hospital and they drove back home. “You know me so well; I better call her before she calls the police and has them knocking on the door.”

  Miranda chuckled and then blew a silent kiss before she turned and headed for the kitchen.

  How can I be so lucky? Kelsey watched Miranda’s form pass through the threshold to the kitchen, and she smiled. It was so hard to believe that only a few months ago she thought Miranda didn’t want her in her life and today, Kelsey couldn’t imagine her life without the petite woman who had her heart in a death-grip. Shaking her head to rid it of the unpleasant memories of misunderstandings and lies that kept the two of them apart, Kelsey drew her phone out of her jeans pocket and turned it on. When the phone came on, it chimed several times to notify her of voicemails and texts. All of the voicemails were from Nikki, each one more demanding and urgent asking Kelsey to call her back. The texts were even more compelling, and the last one sent a few minutes ago stated Nikki would wait for ten minutes and then she would call the police.

  Noticing when the texts were sent, and compared that to her watch, Kelsey knew she only had seconds until Nikki would make good on her promise. She quickly punched Nikki’s call icon.

  Nikki answered on the first ring. “What the fuck…Mack. You had me scared. What happened? Is she alright? Did they admit her? How are you?”

  Kelsey laughed awkwardly before taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t call you back, but they asked me to turn off my phone, and then I waited to hear from the doctors. Then they were doing tests. She’s fine, I mean they really couldn’t find anything wrong except that her blood pressure was severely elevated and the doctor worried it was a sign of something more serious.”

  “Oh, Thank God. Are you home?”

  “Yes, we got here a half an hour ago. Nanna is upstairs resting. Miranda is making us something to eat.”

  “How are you?” Nikki repeated her earlier query.

  “I’m okay,” she said softly. Honestly, she didn’t feel well. Her nerves were still firing on the adrenaline pumped into her veins by the fear of losing Nanna. Worry still clouded her mind.

  “Mack, you’re not fine. I can hear it in your voice. Do you need me to come over to talk?”

  Kelsey smiled. Nikki was such a great friend, and after the Baltimore fiasco and resulting emotional fallout, Nikki made every effort to try and make up for not seeing Kelsey’s emotional breakdown coming and doing something to prevent it. “I was afraid I would lose her today. I have never thought about her death before. I always thought she would be around forever but today, I got a glimpse of my future and it will come one day. She’ll be ninety-two soon, and even though I cannot imagine a woman like her ever not being able to beat all odds; when her time comes, she will leave me.”

  “Oh Mack, she’s a strong woman and will be around longer than you think. I cannot imagine how afraid you were, but when you didn’t call me, I did get an idea. Did Miranda tell you how it happened?”

  “That’s just it; Miranda doesn’t know what caused her to…wait a minute.” Kelsey stopped her thoughts mid-sentence. What had she and Nikki been doing when Nanna called? Remembering the conversation about trying to find new evidence to re-open the official closed-murder case of her cousin, aunt, and uncle, Kelsey thought for a moment that Nanna always grew upset when she brought up that night and finding out the truth and getting justice. Could Nanna have had a vision of Kelsey talking about the case with Nikki? “Nikki, I think it was me looking into that night. Nanna has never wanted me to investigate that night further. When I told her, I was going to be an FBI agent, so I could find out what happened and bring justice to Aisling and her parents, Nanna always got upset.”

  “But why wouldn’t she want to know what happened that night? You would think she would want to know and seek the same justice you do.”

  “I never could get her to talk about that night. She said it was best left alone. At first, I thought it was because she couldn’t help them or that she hadn’t had a vision that night. I thought Nanna blamed herself, but as time passed, she grew adamant that nothing good would come from me looking into a case the police had officially solved. She begged me, she bribed me, then when that didn’t work, she grew angry and demanded, that for the family’s sake, I leave it alone. I didn’t want to be the recipient of her anger, so I said I’d leave it alone. All along I still planned on looking into it as soon as I could.”

  “Mack, it doesn’t make any sense why she wouldn’t want you looking into it. Maybe she wanted to protect you from getting hurt when you learned the truth. Is there any way she’s been lying to you all this time? Maybe she did see what happened and thought by you looking into it; you’ll find out and be too affected by it.”

  Kelsey had already thought about this possibility many times herself. “That night’s vision was ambiguous and didn’t give me many details of what happened. When I was sixteen, I had a nightmare about that night and saw the man attacking Aisling. I told Nanna about it, and she held me and told me it was best if I forgot all about that night. After that nightmare, that night’s memories or visions were again fuzzy. Since I met Miranda and we’ve been together, the nightmares of my vision of that night are more profound. The urgency to find out what happened has come back with a vengeance, and I cannot stop looking into it.”

  “So, you think Nanna’s attack today was brought on by us looking into that night. Somehow she knew what we’ve been doing and is trying to make us stop by feigning being sick.”

  Kelsey loved how Nikki could finish her thoughts even when they were miles apart. “How do you do that? How can you know what I’m thinking?”

  Nikki chuckled. “We’ve been friends for more than ten years, but I think it has more to do with the fact that our brains seem to work very much alike. The natural conclusion to this conversation is that Nanna knew what we were doing and is trying to stop you again from learning the truth.”

  Kelsey frowned. Her thoughts were taking the same route to the same end. Now that she knew that Nanna’s attack and the subsequent hospital visit was to do with their pursuit of the truth of what happened the night of September 2, 1990, Kelsey knew that moving forward would be fraught with more pitfalls than she had initially anticipated. “Well, you’re right, and now we must go forward with more caution.”

  “How do you suggest we continue without letting your grandmother find out what we’re doing? She’s more clairvoyant than you are and can control how she sees things before they happen more than you can. She’s going to know what we’re doing before we do it.”

  Kelsey grinned and then laughed at the thought. “Nanna wouldn’t like it if you said she is clairvoyant. But I get your meaning, and we do have a problem. Let me work on it on this end. I think Nanna gave me a solution to it herself years ago. One day she taught Aisling and I how to block out someone from seeing our thoughts or having a v
ision about what we were doing. Aisling took to it more naturally than I did, but I wrote it all down. I never threw anything out from my childhood. It should be in the attic here or at Kenny’s place.”

  “You left your stuff with your brother; why not have all of your belongings in one spot?”

  “Kenny lives in our old house. I left somethings there and some here in Nanna’s attic.”

  “Aren’t you worried he may have thrown out all that old stuff by now?”

  Kelsey chuckled. “Not likely. Kenny is more of a pack-rat than I am. If I put it up in the attic, it’ll still be there.”

  A clear voice rang out from upstairs. “Mo Chridhe, can you come upstairs for a moment,” Nanna said.

  “Is that Nanna, I hear calling you?” Miranda called from the kitchen.

  “I should go, Nikki. Nanna is calling from upstairs and Miranda’s calling from the kitchen.”

  “I’ll let you go then, but let me know how it goes trying to work on a solution to block Nanna.”

  Calling out to Nanna that she would be upstairs in a moment, Kelsey then said, “you’ll be the first I’ll call; bye Nikki.”

  Ending the call, Kelsey smiled at the beautiful face peeking out from the kitchen door. “I’m going to see what she wants,” she said softly.

  Miranda smiled back.

  Taking two stairs at a time and steeling herself for the conversation that was to come when she reached the top, Kelsey drew a few deep breaths and mentally emptied her mind. Goddess give me the strength. I must do this and keep my promise.

  Chapter Nine

  Nanna’s house, North Strabane, Pennsylvania, February 13, 2012

  The dusty attic in Nanna’s huge Victorian home proved to be the resting place of all of Kelsey’s childhood memories from before the night Aisling died. Frowning, Kelsey recalled the days after that fateful night. She had been so distraught and didn’t want to have anything in her view that would bring up the pain of not having Aisling with her. The two of them had been inseparable for over thirteen years. From the time Kelsey came into the world, the two cousins were never more than a few streets away. If Kelsey wasn’t at Aisling’s house, they were at Nanna’s or Kelsey’s house. Then that horrific night took Aisling away forever.