Green Tea (12 page)

“Better him than us.”

“True.”

“You want to call or you want me to?”

Teagan smiled, “You can.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that right now.”

“I think we should lock the journals up again. You want me to drop them off to Steph on my way home?”

“You live right down the street it isn’t exactly on your way home.”

“It would have been more accurate to say on my way to Jessie’s home.”

“I thought he left town.”

“The meeting was delayed. He leaves tomorrow.”

“Then what are you doing here instead of being with him?”

“He’s at work. I’m going to meet with him later.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind dropping this stuff off to Steph? I haven’t told anyone who she is, so as far as I know we aren’t putting her in any danger.”

“I’ll drop ‘em off on my way. You give her a call. Make sure that she’s going to be home, or at the office, text me, and I’ll know where to dump them. Don’t forget to tell her what we found so that she can have her investigator check it out.”

“Thanks.”

“Anything else we can do?”

“Not really.”

“Then I’m going to take off. You want cash for the shoes I can give it to you tomorrow, or I can write a check right now.”

“I don’t care which, I’m just gonna put it to my credit card anyway.”

She sat down and wrote out a check, stuffed her old shoes in the new shoebox, stuffed the box in one bag, the journals in another, and headed for the door.

She didn’t even ask to see my dress on me, or my shoes with it, or anything.

Weird.

“You want to take the roast? You can make sandwiches.”

“You better save it for AJ.”

“You sure?”

“Yep.”

Time to worry. Teagan turning down food is unprecedented.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Just have a lot to think about.”

“Anything I can help with?”

“Nope.”

With that, she was out the door.

I called Steph, she said she was still at the office and she’d wait for Teagan.

I love my phone, I can text and talk at the same time. I texted Teagan while I told Steph all about our discoveries of the night. She said she would have her investigator on it in minutes.

I really don’t think that what we found means anything, but Steph seems to.

I got a text from AJ saying he was on his way home and was wondering if and how he would be able to get in the door. I assured him I wasn’t leaving and would let him in.

I straightened up the kitchen, thought about taking a bath, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. What if Jerkface showed up again?

I called and checked in with my mother, nothing outrageous going on on the O’Flynn front, which is kind of weird, there is usually something to report.

Steph texted me to let me know that she was in contact with her investigator. His name is Carmine. He might be calling me tonight, but would definitely call me tomorrow to set up a meeting and get a statement from me.

Great.

I got online and did some research for the trip to Alaska.

I’d have to find out if Teagan wanted to explore Seattle before we did the cruise, that’s where the boat takes off, maybe she would want to see the Space Needle and it turns out they have an exotic meat market where Teagan could try anything from yak to kangaroo.

Oh,
please Lord
,
don’t let her do that
. I’d be queasy for the rest of the trip.

I even found a local whale watching thing, so we could go from there instead of fighting all the people on the ship for a reservation, or we could go twice, doubling our chances of having a whale blow whale snot on us.

What other kind of snot could he blow?

We could always rent a car in Seattle and drive around for a while and maybe go up into Canada.

Wonder how much time Teagan can get off work. Last I heard she still had a gazillion hours of comp time left. If my budget can take it, maybe we should spend some time on a road trip.

There was a light knock on the door.

AJ came in, dumped his stuff in the extra room, funny how it has turned from his room to the extra room, an unofficial declaration of us actually living together instead of technically living together.

I gave him enough time to enjoy his nice hot shower then joined him; which meant that he’d have to cool the water down, but since I was willing to warm him up, he didn’t complain.

A couple of hours later we were sitting at the dining room table, eating, when AJ asked what had happened lately that I hadn’t told him about. I guess that’s going to be his new thing until he gets over the fact that I didn’t tell him Jerkface got into the apartment.

I told him about Teagan coming over and that she was pretty convinced that Jerkface’s sister had something to do with the girls with their legs akimbo. I explained that it doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve never heard of a female serial killer killing a bunch of women. Of course, maybe I’d just never heard of it and there are a bunch of them out there, or maybe I’ve never heard of them because even though there are a bunch of them out there nobody ever thinks that way so they don’t get caught. Still doesn’t feel right.

Maybe she’s a perturbed lesbian? That didn’t make sense to me either.

“Cara, tell me that you aren’t trying to track this down yourself.”

“I’m not trying to track this down myself.”

“Funny.”

“No, I’m serious. Teagan’s lawyer Steph has a private investigator
who
’s trying to track it down. His name is Carmine. His name is right out of central casting so of course he’s going to figure it all out and as soon as he does we’re out of this mess.”

“Good. Promise me you’ll keep your distance. I can’t worry about you, and Suzi and Nana all at the same time.”

“Is Nana okay? I’m so sorry, I didn’t even ask.”

“You were busy.” He actually blushed. “She’s good. Back to her normal self. I worry about her living alone, but she doesn’t like any of the alternatives.”

“She could live with us.”

“Thank you. That means a lot to me, but to be honest, I already made the offer. I was sure you would be okay with it, but she said no. She won’t even think about it and when Nana makes up her mind, there’s no changing it.”

“What about friends? Could she and one of her friends share a place?”

“She doesn’t have a lot of friends, which is another reason I worry. It was all about her and my grandfather. They spent all their time together. They didn’t need anyone else.”

“They needed you and Suzi.”

“More like we needed them.”

“So now she needs you. We’ll figure something out.”

AJ stared at the table for a while. He was quite. I didn’t want to step all over his thoughts about his grandparents, so I just sat there.

When he was ready, he said, “So, here’s a question. If Jerkface’s sister is the killer, is Jerkface trying to protect his sister? Is he cleaning up her mess? Is he helping her? A brother-sister serial murderer team is just more than I can wrap my brain around.”

Whiplash. I was sure his question would be about Nana. “I know. I always say I’d do anything for Teagan and the rest of my brothers and sisters, but serial murder of a non-O’Flynn persuasion, I don’t think so. I’d never actually kill an O’Flynn, but every once in a while, it’s fun to make a plan, especially if Liam or Sinead are involved.”

I’d actually done a really quick search online and although I found some serial killers that posed as brother and sister, I didn’t see any that actually were brother and sister. My search was far from scientific, or thorough, and just because they might be the first, didn’t mean they weren’t doing this together, but the fact that it was as outrageous as I thought it was, brought some comfort.

We sat on the couch and snuggled, seems like it’s been forever since we did that.

When we finally got to bed, I slept better than I’ve slept in forever and I had a much better morning than I’ve had in a long time, but that almost made AJ late for a shoot.

I called Jovana. She has another mailing she wants me to do. She said the stuff she wants stuffed is at the bar. She said I can use a conference room there or bring it somewhere else; she doesn’t care which.

I called Adeline, who sounded terrible.

I called Jovana back, said I had to go check on Adeline and if the mailing could wait till afternoon, I’d like to go there first. She agreed. I rushed out the door and got all the way to Adeline’s without using my GPS. I was really pretty proud of myself.

Adeline answered the door looking twice as old as she did the last time I’d seen here. She was coughing a terrible cough, but refused to go to the doctor or the ER.

I was worried.

I called and updated Jovana, who said she would come over as soon as she could. I asked her to bring the mailing with her and I’d simply spend the day at Adeline’s.

My dad has always said that if you aren’t feeling well, the best thing you can do for yourself is to get up and move around, take a nice long shower and do your hair. You’ll feel human again.

I asked Adeline if she was in the mood for a nice shower. She said she’d love one, but had been concerned that she would fall while home alone, and she didn’t want to take the chance.

I told her I’d be more than happy to help her, or stand ready, or take her out in the garden and hose her down.

The resulting laugh caused a wave of coughing that was scary. I promised myself that if she were to cough like that again, I’d dial 911.

Thankfully, the shower was uneventful. Her master bath is so large I didn’t dare wait outside the door, I never would have heard her if there was a problem. Instead, I lounged on a very nice chase that was far enough from the shower that she could easily maintain her privacy.

What a house!

Adeline does not wash her own hair in the shower. She’s old school and goes to have it done at least once a week. An old fashioned wash and set. She told me there was a time ‘her girl’ came to her to do her hair. We wandered down a rather long hallway and what to my wondering eyes should appear; a private little beauty salon right there in the house.

I told Adeline I’d be happy to wash her hair, and set it, or blow it dry, but I’m certain it would not turn out the way a professional would fix it.

No one ever told me what could happen if you didn’t hold onto the hose thing that the stylist uses when she washes your hair. Nor did anyone tell me that if you’re washing someone’s hair, and they have their head back in the bowl, and they move a bit, and you don’t make up for that movement, you can shoot yourself right in the face with a butt-load of water. I’m just sayin’.

We did a very good impression of Lucy and Ethel.

By the time we were done, Adeline’s hair was clean, blown dry, and looked presentable, if not fashionable.