Hacienda Moon (The Path Seekers) (23 page)

Saul threw his head back and laughed as if he and the detective had shared an inside joke between friends.
“I’m sure you’d love to know.”
And then Saul spoke in a low, but firm voice. “Unless you want to deal with my attorney, which judging by the ragged way your department operates, you obviously couldn’t afford to do. Then, you’ll need to remove yourself from my property, Detective Newman.”

The detective turned several shades of crimson. He took a step back and turned toward Tandie. “Don’t leave town, Ms. Harrison. Or I’ll have you arrested. Good night.” He turned without looking at Saul, got into his sedan, and kicked up gravel as he pulled out of the driveway.

22

Saul followed Tandie up to Chelby Rose’s porch. He was silent and scruffy and strange: things that weren’t normally associated with him. The Manolo Blahnik’s on his feet were covered in mud and the edges of his trousers were wet. It was almost 10 o’ clock at night and Saul looked like he just finished a hiking trip in the woods.

They sat down in the new white patio furniture Eric had brought home for Tandie one evening. Until Saul explained his odd behavior tonight, she wasn’t about to invite him inside.

“Are you all right?” he said, moving over to massage her arms. Maybe one day he’d learn how to ask permission before touching someone. But with Eric away, a small part of Tandie was glad that he chose to stick around.

“I’m--I…Saul, were you walking in the woods?” Tandie asked, wondering if he saw her showdown with Ella.

Easing his hands away from her shoulders, he sighed and glanced out around the forest. A grim expression masked his handsome features. “I still enjoy spending time alone in these woods. I’ll be leaving to go back to Houston, soon, and I was feeling a little reminiscent.” He gave her a sad, but very enticing smile; one that would hold more power over her if he hadn’t just done the creepy-man thing by walking out of the forest like one of the ghosts.

“Saul, why did you hire Eric to work on this house? And don’t give me some sort of bogus southern charm answer about how I won’t understand.” They locked gazes and held them. “You’re hiding things. I can feel it. Please tell me the truth.”

“The truth could hurt you,” he said so softly she almost didn’t hear him.

“And not knowing could kill me,” she pleaded. It was time to tell him more. The key was to figure out just how much more. “Let’s make a deal. I’ll help you out by telling you a little something about me first. What do you say? Okay, here it goes. I’m connected to your family. I’ve had visions of Alice and Enrique Fontalvo. I see her sister, Eliza, and her brothers’ ghosts when I visit other parts of the town. They’ve disrupted things in the house. Should I go on?” He stayed silent; so she kept going.

“Now you expect me to believe that you just decided to take a stroll through the woods? Right after I’m almost strangled to death by a madwoman, might I add?” She paused and pleaded with her eyes. “I think I’m going crazy, Saul.”

He moved her hair away from her neck and examined it. Closing his eyes, he said, “You should probably have told the detective about that girl.”

“Okay. That’s a great idea. I tell the man who already thinks I’m halfway psycho that someone who just might turn out to be a ghost girl tried to kill me,” she said. Saul flinched as if her words hurt him.

“Tandie, I never meant for things to go this far. Let’s go inside. I’ll tell you what I can.” He stood. She stayed. “Are you coming?” he asked.

“Saul, you’re acting creepy. I feel like I need an escape route.”

“Oh come on, Tandie. You can’t be serious,” he spat, sounding annoyed now. “If I were going to kill you, I would’ve already snapped your pretty little neck. Now get up and come inside.” He held out a hand. Tandie took it this time. Saul’s intense blue eyes pulled so much out of a person. His business partners must jump at his every whim.

“Careful with that flirting syndrome. Your girlfriend, Sasha, might not like that so much,” Tandie said.

Grinning, he shook his head and said, “You’re talking about Barbie-Bad-Ass again, I see. Careful, Tandie. You’re starting to sound a touch jealous.”

“In your wettest dreams,” she said, challenging him with her gaze.

“Don’t even go there with me,” he said in an almost deadly low voice. She decided to take his advice. “Make a note of this; the woman you so lovingly nicknamed is my oldest sister.”

“Sister? Right.” Thinking back on that night, she could easily see the resemblance now. “Can I ask you something without you thinking I’m strange?” Tandie asked.

“I probably won’t answer it, but you can try.”

“You’re successful, good-looking, things like that, right? Why aren’t you married? I mean, taking your sister out to functions is okay, but...Wow, none of this is coming out right,” she finally said.

“Tandie, stop talking. Stop thinking.” Even though he was smiling, the emotion didn’t reach his eyes. “Right now, I wish I could take your mind away from this obsession you have with my dead ancestors, and be free of my own troubles as well.” He seemed so sad and desperate.

“I’m afraid it’s not that easy,” Tandie replied. “I’m snatched back and forth between times. I feel like I’m caught up in an eternal vision, ripping me back through the past. Each hope, loss, and pain Alice Chelby felt is now mine. It’s torturous. I can’t just let it go, Saul.”

“Come with me.” Saul tugged at Tandie’s hand, leading her through the doorway. Inside the hallway, he flicked on the light switch and led her up the stairs. They continued walking until they came to the locked door that led up to the attic, the room that floored her with anxiety when she thought about entering it. He removed a key from his pocket and eased it into the lock.

“You had a way in the entire time?” Tandie asked, heat rushing over her.

“You’ll understand everything soon enough,” he said in a whispery voice.

She took a step back, feeling a strong desire to flee the place. “Are you hiding something up there? I don’t know if I’m ready to go in that room.”

Saul stepped in front of her, his movie-star face close to hers, and said, “You’ve come a long way, Tandie Harrison. You can do this thing. Trust me,” he said in a soothing voice.

How can a man be so charming, but twisted at the same time? Surely the rumors about him must be wrong.

Musty air surrounded Tandie. With her psychic sensitivity back in full force, the vibrations coming from within the short stairway winded her. She stumbled backward, allowing Saul to embrace and steady her. “Again, I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”

“Trust and confidence are the keys to the world’s treasures,” he said and led her to the stairway.

“Great. Remind me to use that line in my next chapter,” Tandie said, swallowing hard.

They climbed up eight steps and entered a room about the size of the kitchen. A strong mothball odor assaulted Tandie’s nose. Emotions lingered in the room: sadness, laughter, fear, and the stolen joys of a woman making love to a man she could lose at any moment. And each sensation showered Tandie with a force that made her gasp. This was the place where Alice Chelby spent almost an entire year of her life in hiding—scorned by a father who couldn’t accept that his little girl had fallen in love with a fugitive.

“Thomas Chelby hired artists from all over the world to paint portraits of his family. At some point, they wound up wrapped and stashed away in this room,” Saul said and ran his fingers over the top of a portrait of Eliza Chelby.

Tandie gasped and stepped over to each painting situated throughout the room. The people she’d seen during her escapades back through the past all sat staring at her: Thomas, Rose, Eliza, the two boys. One of them resembled the child she’d met at the Catsburg store. He wore the exact same outfit, only his cheeks were rosy and filled with life and his smile reminded her so much of Saul’s.

Tingling with excitement and awe, she worked to control the multiple emotions shooting her way. One person was missing. The only Chelby she hadn’t seen because Tandie had connected to her body each time she went back in time, Alice Chelby.

“Where is she?” Tandie whispered, afraid to turn around. Saul eased over to her and gently turned her toward the window facing the driveway. One of the larger easels sat beside the window. It was covered in a brown tarp. They inched toward the picture. Tandie’s heart beat so hard she could feel its movement on her tongue.

Saul sighed deeply and yanked the tarp away, revealing the portrait of Rose and Thomas Chelby’s eldest daughter.

The girl staring at Tandie moved her with those brown eyes. Right away she understood Sasha’s reaction when Saul introduced her the other night. Yes, those eyes were a different color from Tandie’s, but everything else about the girl was identical: the oval-shaped face, the small, but full lips, the pointed nose, the forehead that wasn’t in proportion to the rest of her face, the black hair highlighted by auburn strands. It was as if she stared into a mirror. The only difference being the darker eyes and paler skin.

Tandie took a couple of steps back, a flush of adrenaline tingling through her body. “What is that? Are you playing some kind of sick joke?” she spat.

“Unfortunately, I’m not.” He moved over to the closet and removed a leather pocket, the kind used to store expensive clothing. Inside was a dress similar to the one Alice had worn in Tandie’s vision. “This is what you wore the evening Virgil McKinnon was murdered.”

“Stop it, Saul. This is too much strangeness for one night,” Tandie shook her head and turned away, her chest heavy with all she was feeling.

“I don’t want to hurt you, believe me, but you need to hear what I’m about to explain. You called me that night. Your voice sounded strange enough, but I was excited to hear it, as I always am. You told me to get over here and unlock the attic door. I did. You walked right over to this closet, removed the dress from inside a trunk, and put it on. You never said a word the entire time. At that point, I figured you were in a trance, a spell of some kind, so I played along.” He stopped and cleared his throat before continuing. “You kept saying something about the beach over and over. I drove you out to Market Street. You told me to pull over just before we reached the Aeneid.”

Tandie’s heart beat so fast she was certain she would have a heart attack. Although she wanted to believe Saul was making it all up, her instinct told her that he was telling the truth. “And because my body had been taken over by Alice’s spirit, I walked out to the beaches, hoping to catch a glimpse of the ship in the water. I remember, now,” she whispered.

Feeling nauseous and confused, Tandie stared at Alice’s face, her twin from another lifetime, in the portrait. Connecting with a spirit was one thing, but finding out you could be the reincarnated version of someone who lived almost three centuries ago was even harder.

“Why didn’t you tell me all of this before now? People saw me talking to Virgil. They think I had something to do with his murder.”

He smirked and made a light laugh. “You would just have conjured it up to me trying to find another way to get you into my bed.”

“Don’t show your true self, Saul. You’ve been doing well. What happened after Virgil approached me? That’s the part that’s still a little fuzzy,” Tandie asked; her heart thudding as she waited for his answer.

“I spoke to him and told him you were with me. He seemed well enough when he left us standing there.  Besides cursing about some wine he needed to pick up from the store, he never once seemed agitated or scared.”

The events of the past few days were too much. Now Saul confirmed Eric’s suspicions: Tandie was the woman Shania and Abby had seen on the beach the night Virgil died.

She wanted to be alone, and craved time to reflect on her thoughts without being influenced by Saul. The way he looked at her, that love-sick hopelessness in his eyes, made her feel odd now.

“My turn to fulfill my part of our deal. This attic was like a second home for me. My mother and father were never the types that would win parents of the year. And I wasn’t the son who wanted to behave so that they could. I spent days at a time locked up here as a punishment. What’s an eight-year-old boy supposed to do with all that time on his hands?” His face was lost in a reverie, and his eyes held enough sadness to last a lifetime.

“The people in these portraits, especially Alice Chelby, became my best friends. My father despised me. And my mother was so busy keeping my sisters out of trouble, she forgot all about her worrisome son. My father remarried and lives in Houston now. You would think none of my parents were living. I sometimes wonder. We have little to no conversation these days. These portraits became my world. I even started picking women who reminded me of Alice, the ultimate conversationalist.”