A Mother's Day Murder (Mt. Abrams Mysteries Book 1) (11 page)

I nodded. “Yes. Really. Go.”

She got up and went upstairs. Tessa was down to just sniffles, so we sat there for a few more minutes. I was looking over her head at Sam.

“Thank you.”

“For what? You had everything under control by the time I got there.”

I shook my head. “She would have come after me. She would have chased me up one side of Davis Road and down the other.”

“Perhaps. But I’m sure one of your neighbors would have noticed and at least tried to stop her.”

“She’s Millicent?”

He nodded.

“She’s crazy,” I said.

He shrugged. “According to Lacey, she’s also evil.”

“Lacey? You found Lacey?”

“She found us. She had been in a motel in Harrisburg, looking for a place for her family to relocate. When she heard about Doug, she drove back here. The plan was for him to try to keep things as normal for the boys as possible. He stayed with the boys, because according to her, he thought she was more likely to be in danger once the mother found them. He didn’t think he’d be a target.” He took a deep breath and shook his head. “She told us about her mother. That’s why we happened to be there. We were coming to arrest her.”

Tessa slid off my lap and looked up at me. “You look awful. Do you hurt?”

I nodded. “Yes. And I’m starving. Do I smell pizza?”

She brightened. “Yes. Do you want some?”

I nodded again. “Yes. On a tray, please. And water.”

She bounced off the couch and was gone.

Sam was looking after her. “Your daughters are both very lovely. And quite entertaining.”

I tried to smile. “I bet. Was Shelly here, or did I dream that?”

“Shelly left about half an hour ago. You slept for almost four hours. I have pain pills for you, if you need them. And Shelly said she could come back. With Maggie. And Carol. And just about everyone else in Mt. Abrams.”

“She wanted the money,” I said.

Sam nodded. “Yes. It was all about the money. She left her husband about ten years ago. No one ever knew where she was or what she was doing. We’ll find out, of course. She returned to Fairfax just in time for her husband to die. They’re reopening that case as well.”

“She told me she killed him,” I said. “Killed him for the money.”

He looked thoughtful. “That’s good to know, but I doubt you’ll need to testify.”

“She followed them back here?”

“Yes. When the will was read, she told Lacey she wanted her share. Lacey took off and came back here. She didn’t realize her mother had tracked her down until she heard her voice in the library. She and Doug decided to give her the money and run. They handed over most of it to her, but they couldn’t touch the trust.”

“She told me. She said she tried to find the boys. She couldn’t. She found Doug instead.”

“Yes. I don’t know what she said or did, but he allowed her to get in the car with him. That’s where she stabbed him with an insulin injection. He probably had a seizure before he blacked out. Her fingerprints are everywhere. The autopsy results will confirm. We’ve got her.”

I sighed. “Good.”

“It was a very brave thing you did, Ellie,” Sam said. He was speaking very carefully. “It was also very reckless. If you had any reason to suspect Kate was a killer, why did you go to see her?”

I looked away from him. “I just wanted to ask her a question. I didn’t really
know
, I just…”

Tessa came back, carrying a tray very carefully. She set it down and watched as I sipped some water.

“Does it hurt to drink?” she asked.

I tried to smile. I kept forgetting I shouldn’t. “A little. But Sam has pills for me.”

I tried to eat the pizza, but it burned the inside of my mouth where my teeth had cut in. So I drank all the water, took two of the pills, and slept again.

I woke up once, in the middle of the night, to go to the bathroom. Tessa lay curled on the couch by my feet. Cait was asleep on the chair. And Sam was in my reading chair tucked in the corner. He was awake.

“How are you feeling?” he whispered.

I knelt down in front of him. “You should go home. I’m fine.”

He brushed the hair off my face. “Do yourself a favor. Don’t look in the mirror for a few days.”

“Gee, thanks. I look that good?”

His eyes met mine. “You’re beautiful.”

I went to the bathroom, and of course, looked in the mirror. My eye was swollen shut, my cheek and jaw bruised purple, and lips and nose were puffy.

I took another pain pill and climbed back next to Tessa and fell asleep again, watching Sam watching me.

T
he next morning
Sam was gone, and we were all tired and cranky and my entire face felt awful. Tessa attempted to start the morning with a cheerful, “Happy Mother’s Day,” but it fell a little flat. The good news was that Cait offered to get my mother from the nursing home. The bad news was three texts from Marc, wanting to know if he could come to brunch as well.

I had already bought tickets for the eleven o’clock seating, so that was an easy no. I wanted to blow off the Arboretum completely. This conversation needed more than texts.

I called Marc and told him what had happened. He immediately wanted to come over, but I put him off. If my mother did not remember the orchid show, we’d take her back to the home right after brunch. If she did remember, I’d give him a call.

I showered, put more ice on my face, and found a pretty scarf to put around my neck to hide the redness. I got texts from pretty much every person I knew, asking if I was all right. I drank hot tea with honey and waited for Caitlyn.

My mother took one look at my face and started to cry. “Why did he do this to you?”

I put my arms around her. “Mom, I’m fine. Who do you think did this to me?”

“Marc. Was he drunk? Has he hit you before?”

“Mom, Marc did not hit me. I fell. I’ll be fine. Ready to go to brunch?”

She was still crying. “You have to leave him if he beats you. Even though he’s such a nice boy.”

I patted her back. Tessa and Cait were trying not to laugh. We got her as far as the porch when she started crying again.

“What will happen if he leaves? How will you live? Oh, dear, get a good lawyer.” She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater.

Shelly, Mike, and their two boys saw us, and Shelly hurried over. “Ellie, what is it?” She peered at my mother. “Hi, Leona, remember me? What’s wrong?”

Mike was looking at my face closely. “Wow, that crazy lady did a number on you,” he said. I tried not to laugh because it hurt, but the situation was getting out of hand.

My mother was telling Shelly about my abusive husband, Marc, and how getting a divorce would send me out into the street. Shelly and Mike’s kids wanted a closer look at my black eye, and Tessa was getting hungry. Mike managed to move us all, inches at a time, closer to the clubhouse, and my mother finally got distracted.

“Look,” she said suddenly. “There’s a sign over the door. Mother’s Day! How exciting!”

We sat with Shelly and Mike, and had omelets and French toast, and I chewed all the bacon I could manage on the good side of my mouth. Of course, the entire population of Mt. Abrams knew the whole story of Lacey and Doug Mitchell, and my part in it all, and there was a seemingly endless stream of concerned friends and curious strangers stopping by for a word or six. My mother told all of them I would soon be divorcing, because well, look at her. Everyone smiled and nodded, and after an hour I was exhausted.

“What do you want to do now, Mom?” I asked her.

She patted her hair. “I know you wanted to see the orchids, but you look dead on your feet. Besides, if I have to look at that monster you’re married to, I may do him violence. Cait, can you take me back?”

I was so grateful, I almost wept.

Cait and Mom walked back across Abrams Lane, and my mother waved as she got into Cait’s car. Tessa and I had stopped to look out at the lake. It was beautiful, and I never tired of it. Tessa put her arms around my waist.

“It’s pretty,” she said.

“Yes.”

“Mrs. Mitchell is back.”

“I know.” I had seen the Suburban parked in the drive earlier.

Shelly came over and stood with us. “You guys want to come over for the first cookout of the season?” she asked. “A day like this shouldn’t be wasted.”

I nodded gratefully. “Thanks. Yes, that would be great.”

She poked me with her elbow. “You good?”

I nodded. “I will be.”

Shelly smiled and followed her family down the hill.

“Mom, if you had a superpower, what would you want it to be?” Tessa asked.

I tightened my arm around her. “To be able to keep you and your sister safe forever.”

She nodded. “That’s a good one.”

“Gee. Thanks. What would yours be?”

“To save all the good days, days like today, so when you were having bad days, you could take them out and live them all over again.”

I watched in the distance as Lacey Mitchell came out of her house, got in her car, and drove away.

“That’s a good one too, honey.”

We turned away from the lake and walked home.

I
called Marc again
.

“I still love you, too,” I said quietly. “But things are confusing right now.”

“Your date?”

I nodded, then realized I was sitting on my porch, watching the sunset, with the dog on my lap, and Marc probably hadn’t heard me nod. I cleared my throat and said, loudly, “Yes. I like him.”

“If he’s the one causing the confusion…” Marc began.

“But, he’s not. You are.”

“Oh,” he said quietly.

Boot whined and snuggled in closer. I had managed without the painkillers all day, but knew I’d need them to sleep, and had taken the full dosage a few minutes earlier. I didn’t think they’d go to work so quickly, but I felt a sudden heaviness, and my mind began to get fuzzy.

“Can we be friends?” I asked.

“Always.”

“Good. I have to go now.”

I could hear him breathing. I remembered when we first started dating, and listening to him breathe on the phone was something I’d do every night we were apart. I felt the phone slip into my lap, and I closed my eyes.

I heard Kate’s voice, screaming, and then Sam was there, looking angry. Kate was smiling at me, pouring tea. Doug Mitchell was sitting across from me. His smile was fixed, and his skin was blue, and he appeared to be crying.

Sam was there again.

“Good drugs,” I murmured. Sam laughed, and I turned towards him and fell asleep.

S
ummer in Mt
. Abrams was heaven for kids. The beach up at the lake wasn’t terribly big, so most kids spent the day jumping off the dock and swimming out to the large, wooden floats off shore. What beach there was had happy toddlers running all over it, with a corner carved out for the sun-worshipping teen girls. There was sailing on the other side by the boathouse, and fishing every morning in canoes and rowboats. Lake Abrams wasn’t big—barely one hundred and seventy acres — but it was large enough that the swimmers and the sailors and the fishermen never seemed to crowd each other too much.

Of course, adults liked the lake too. In the summer, the clubhouse was open until eleven, and on it’s wide, screened porches, mahjong and martinis reigned. Behind the clubhouse, on a slight rise, ancient maples provided shade that kept picnic tables and wooden chairs cool and comfortable, even in the humid New Jersey summers. Yes, it was practically perfect.

But that was Mt. Abrams for you. Practically perfect.

Small communities were like that, or at least that’s what the residents all said. Mt. Abrams had all sorts of things going on behind closed doors, the same sort of things that happened in the big cities, but it wasn’t talked about. And since no one was staggering down the street drunk or openly beating their kids, we could all pretend bad things didn’t happen here.

But sometimes, bad things had a way of raising their ugly heads and waving their broken arms, and no amount of looking away could make it stop. Like what happened in Emma McLaren’s garden.

No matter how hard everyone tried to say otherwise, something bad had happened there. And it wasn’t going away.

A Founders’ Day Death