Nun the Wiser (A Deadly Habit Cozy Mystery Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter 11
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“My husband’s going to love this little table,” the tall, thin woman said with a smile.

I smiled back and handed the woman her change and the receipt for the purchase. The woman turned and walked out, and just moments later, the business phone rang.

“Hi, this is Wendy Carter,” a husky female voice said. “I was wondering if your shop was interested in purchasing a large assortment of old wooden furniture real cheap. My husband recently passed away and he was such a hoarder, but now that he’s gone, all of this stuff is just taking up unnecessary space on the farm. I’m not much of a furniture expert, but some of these pieces look very nice, a bit dusty, but nice. It’s all in good condition, but it’s old-fashioned, you know? Not antique, but old. I don’t want much for it all — I just want it gone fast ‘cause I’ve sold the place and I’m moving soon.”

I was excited about the prospect of a large amount of furniture, and cheap at that. “Yes —” I said, as soon as she paused for breath.

“Actually, I need the stuff gone very soon. I was hoping that you could at least come by today and quote me a price for the lot,” the woman continued. “Like I said, I don’t want much for it. I just want it gone.”

I pulled a face. I really didn’t want to drive out of town today in the cold, but I also didn’t want to lose out on the purchase. I looked out the front windows of my shop to see the wind blowing small specks of snow through the air. It was just light snow — in these parts, we never had much snow. “Okay, that’s fine. What time would you like me to come out?”

The woman seemed to hesitate for a moment before responding. “I’m at work right now, so it would have to be after working hours. Could you come sometime after your shop closes for the day?”

The thought of a long, cold drive out to some random farm that evening didn’t sound too appealing, but I was curious to see what the woman had for sale. If only I didn’t have to drive alone. My thoughts shifted to Adam — maybe he would like to come with me. “Sure,” I said. “That would be fine. I’ll leave here after closing. Could you give me the address, please?”

“It’s 3221 Widow’s Wale. Go through the first gate, and then wait at the second gate. I’ll be watching for your lights — I’ll drive down and meet you there and then you can follow me to the house.”

“Thanks, Wendy. I’ll see you then.”

“I can’t wait,” Wendy replied before hanging up abruptly.

I hung up the receiver and decided to start tidying up the shop. I figured it was going to be a long evening away, so I wanted to get the cleaning done before I made the trip. From dusting to sweeping, I passed the time by keeping busy between customers.

By the time I had finished cleaning, I looked up at the clock and noticed that the time had run away from me. It was now closing time, so I cashed out my drawer. After finalizing the close, I pulled out my cell and called Adam.

Nothing but silence answered me, so I ended the call and figured I’d just text him before leaving to tell him where I was going.

I flipped over the sign on the front door so that it read Closed, and then locked up as I shut the door behind me. The wind had an icy chill, so I hurried back inside to get my gloves and a thicker scarf.

I struggled to get to my car through the biting bits of sleet stinging my cheeks. Once I did, I pulled open the door and let it slam shut behind me. My car was parked on the road and so had a large pile of snow obscuring the screen. I turned on the engine and ran the heater on full blast, waiting for the windshield wipers to thaw.

“Well, this is a little better,” I said to myself. “At least there’s no sleet inside here.” Nevertheless, it was cold waiting for the heat to become, well, hot.

Small snowflakes fluttered about in the wind, sticking to the windshield, but the wipers had now thawed and I was able to wipe the snowflakes away with a flick of a switch. “This is going to be a long night,” I complained loudly as I drove off. Hey, I lived alone — I often talked to myself.

There was a barricade across the road, and a man approached my window. I rolled it down, only to be hit in the face with snow. “Hey, what’s up?” I asked him.

“The highway’s closed,” he said.

“Accident?”

He shook his head. “Ice on the road. Where are you headed?”

“Widow’s Wale.”

He shook his head again.

“Can I go through Invergowrie?”

He shrugged. “You could try,” he said.

I had no idea what he meant by that. I figured he meant that the road to Invergowrie was not blocked, as far as he knew, so I turned around and then took the back road to Invergowrie.

If there was ice on the highway, then the road to Invergowrie was infinitely worse. It was a narrow road, and I hoped I didn’t meet any oncoming cars, as the verge did not look solid enough to drive on. I didn’t want to get stuck out here in the middle of nowhere in the snow, spinning my tires in piles of icy mush.

I drove slowly. All I could see were the silhouettes of farms on large plots of land — they were few and far between.

It seemed to take a long time before I saw the sign to Widow’s Wale. I turned down the road and drove for at least another five miles, looking for property numbers on mailboxes out the front.

I finally came to 3221. The number was scrawled in white paint on the back of a rusty old metal tin that served as a mail box. I parked with my headlights shining on the entrance. I pushed the car door, pulled my scarf around me more tightly, and headed over toward the old, decrepit gate.

The snow had turned to sleet. I ducked my head and crossed my arms over my chest for warmth as I made my way to the gate.

I tried to pull it open, but it was so heavy and that I struggled to drag it across the dirt. I had just about pulled it all the way across when I thought I saw movement behind me.

I whipped my head around to see the door of my car slam shut. The tires screeched and it reversed at a fast pace. It did a swift U-turn and took off.

To say I was shocked and upset was an understatement. Who would do such a thing? I tried to process my predicament. I was left alone without a car, and in the snow and sleet, with no shelter. I was miles from home — miles from anywhere, as far as I knew.

Thankfully, my phone was in my jeans pocket. I whipped it out with relief, and squinted at the light provided by the screen. No service. Okay, now I was really scared. I was trembling violently, whether from the terror I was feeling or from the bitter sleet that stung me and chilled me to the bones, I had no idea.

“I need some sort of light,” I said to myself, swiping through the phone. I came across the torch app and started it up. A bright light shone from the phone, acting as a flashlight in the blackness of the night.

I figured I would use the light from the phone to find my way onto the farm. It was obvious that it had all been a ruse just to get me there, but there was still surely a farm beyond that gate, with buildings and warmth. At least that’s what I kept telling myself as I pushed through the haunting fields.

Skeletal trees seemed to bend toward me, their branches laden heavily with snow. At one point, a large pile of snow fell from a branch right in front of me, startling me. I had never been so scared.

The silence of the eerie night was interrupted only by the sporadic baaing of sheep. The sleet continued to press against my cold flesh, but at least I had a warm coat to cover most of my exposed skin. “How could you have been so stupid as to walk into a trap?” I whispered aloud, shaking my head.

I had walked for a while and still hadn’t seen any buildings. There were no lights — everything was dark. Still, the gate had to lead to somewhere, and even if the farmhouse was no longer used, it would provide some sort of shelter. Farmhouses in this area were often abandoned and left to fall down while new buildings were built on another location on the farm.

I debated whether to go back to the road and hope a car would come along, but it was unlikely that anyone would be out in this weather, and I hadn’t passed a single car on the way here. I shivered as my teeth clacked together, making an ominous chattering sound that echoed through my ears. I had to push myself to continue on.

Finally, my luck changed. I could make out the vague shape of what looked like a small barn off to the left of the dirt track. I climbed carefully through the barbed wire fence, tugging at my coat when it got stuck on one of the barbs. My hands were now so cold that they could barely work.

I hoped the barn was still in use as that would mean it would provide good shelter. The snow was falling more heavily now, so I walked as fast as I could, shining the torch app ahead of me on the ground. When I reached the barn, I shone the light over it. It looked more or less intact, much to my relief.

I hurried around the side and pushed the door open. My first thought was that the air in here was warmer, although part of the roof had fallen in some time ago, by the look of it, and sleet was falling in. My second thought was that there was a stack of old hay bales under cover. Even from here, I could smell the mold, but I didn’t care.

I hurried to the moldy hay and tried to pull the baling twine off the first bale I saw. My hands were too numb to manage, so I gave up, but luckily I spied some bales which had fallen open. I made a little hut out of hay bales, threw some loose hay inside, and crawled in.

My hands hurt and I was shivering uncontrollably, but I presently warmed up. The hay scratched me and made me itchy, and I sneezed a few times, but at least the hay was providing life-saving warmth. I shifted my body around and dug myself further into the scratchy hay. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed I had ever been in, but the warmth it provided was sufficient.

I peeked through the hay to see the pale moon shining down through the roof. I thought about Adam and where he was at that very moment. Did he get my text message from earlier? Did he know I was in trouble? I shivered — this time from fear rather than the cold.

I closed my eyes tightly and tried to fall asleep, but that proved to be rather difficult, hunched up as I was. I rolled over on my opposite side. Would anyone ever find me here? I wriggled my toes, and was thankful that I could still feel them. I had horrible thoughts of them falling off from frostbite.

I tried to comfort myself with common sense. I wasn’t going to die from cold, now that I had my hay bed. It was too cold for snakes, so I was safe from that threat too. It was unlikely to be snowing in the morning — we rarely had snow two days in a row in this district — so I would be able to walk to a farm house. I had given Adam the address, so no doubt he would come looking for me sooner or later.

I listened quietly as I held my eyes shut, but the only sounds echoing through the night were that of sleet and wind. Not a single car could be heard in the distance. As I lay there for nearly an hour trying to fall asleep, the agony of freezing and the hunger pains in my stomach finally began to plague me, but I drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 12
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A strange light infiltrated my clenched eyes, forcing the darkness from my sight and the sleep from my mind. A chilling sound reverberated through the small barn. What on earth was that? Was it an animal? I hoped it wasn’t rats. I fought the panic to rush like a madwoman from my safe hay bed.

The noise sounded off again in the distance, but it seemed a bit closer this time. Was that a person calling for someone? I shifted in my bed of hay, pushing off the extra piles that I had pulled over myself to keep warm.

“Hello?” the voice rang out. It was much clearer this time.

I jumped up, and then winced at the aches and pains. I staggered out into the cold to peer around the barn door. I made sure to stay out of sight — what if this was one of the nuns coming back to finish me off?

“Hey! Are you out here?” the voice yelled.

I was still unable to see anything from the viewpoint of the barn door, and without knowing who was out there, I considered that running to them would be a bad decision. Thoughts ran through my mind like an old film playing through a projector, as I remembered my conversation with the man in my shop. I knew the nuns now considered me a threat — I knew that leaving me to die in the cold was a good way to get rid of liability, while making it look like an accident.

I shivered at the thought of one of them being outside the barn, tricking me once more so they could finally seek their vengeance. As the fear threatened to overwhelm me, I also remembered something far more hopeful —Adam. I had texted him about the meeting and had made sure to give him the address, so was he the one outside? Without any other logical choices in front of me, I decided to take the risk.

What choice do I really have?
I thought. I struggled with the notion, but the thought of getting out of the cold was something I wasn’t able to pass up easily. I stumbled out and fell harshly to the ground as my cramped knees gave way, causing me to fall forward onto my hands and knees. When I looked up, I saw what appeared to be headlights shining. The light was extremely bright. I raised one of my hands to cover my eyes as I slowly pulled myself up and then walked toward the light.

I fought the cold as I pushed onward toward the source of the light. To my enormous relief, I saw Adam standing in front of the headlights. “Adam?” I shouted as loud as I could muster. The strain of yelling through the sleet hurt my throat, but it didn’t stop me from calling out again.

“Rose?” he called. I had the sensation of Adam running toward me with open arms, as I stumbled once more. My body began to feel weightless just before the darkness engulfed me.

Emptiness faded away as my eyes slipped open. My vision was blurred at first, but then it slowly grew clearer. I felt a strange sensation on my hands, so I looked down at them. What I saw was a long, warm coat draped across my body, and my hands were in the hands of someone else, who was rubbing them gently. It slowly dawned on me that Adam must have pulled me inside his car to warm me up.

The vents in the dashboard roared to life as the car filled with merciful heat. For the first time all night, I felt safe. I struggled to speak, but couldn’t quite manage.

“Shush,” Adam said softly. “You need to take a few minutes to warm up. You were freezing and barely conscious when I found you. Don’t you ever do something like that again,” he said, the panic evident in his voice.

I looked back down at my hands and realized that his were trembling more than mine.

“You scared me. These guys aren’t playing anymore, but I’m not going to let them hurt you. Next time, please wait for me.”

I gripped his hands tightly and looked up at him. I was still cold, but my voice was returning to me. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.

In an instant, what looked like fear clouded Adam’s eyes. “No! Don’t you ever say you’re sorry. I was terrified. As soon as I got your message, I just knew something wasn’t right.”

I looked out of the window and could see nothing but darkness. “Whoever it was must have been waiting by the gate. I got out to open it and as soon as I turned around, the car was peeling off in the opposite direction.”

“Your car is about five miles down the road. They must have planned to leave you out in the cold all night. It’s obvious that they wanted it to look like an accident.”

Adam slowly lifted his hands from mine and repositioned his coat, which was acting as my blanket. His voice was soft and gentle as he spoke. “I know you’re still in a bit of shock, but we have to face the reality of what this means.” He gazed out of the driver’s side window before he continued. “I think they were trying to leave you out here to freeze to death. When I tried to call back, but your phone went straight to voicemail, I knew something was wrong. That’s when I knew I had to find you.”

“Look like an accident?” I asked.

“It would have looked like your car broke down and you wandered around trying to look for help. The cops would have assumed you froze outside.”

I could hear a shakiness in his voice. I was finally beginning to feel better, so I sat up higher in the seat and grabbed his hand. “You saved my life, Adam. It doesn’t matter what they were trying to do. They failed because of you.”

He looked back and stared deeply into my eyes. “They haven’t failed yet, but they will if I have any say in the matter,” he said in an authoritative tone.

“You mean
we
?” I asked.

“Yes,” Adam said with a smile. “They will fail if we have anything to say about it.”

I smiled and tucked my arms under Adam’s large coat. “So, what are we going to do about my car? Are you going to make me drive it back alone?” The notion terrified me.

“I would never leave you alone again after a night like this,” Adam said. “I actually think I should sleep on your sofa tonight, just to make sure you’re safe. I’ll make you some hot chocolate and cook you dinner.”

I nodded. The idea sounded like a reprieve from all of the insanity that had been around me lately. “I think that sounds like a good ending to a horrible night,” I said gratefully.

“Good. We can come back for your car tomorrow, when it’s much warmer and safer.” He put the car into gear and drove off. I looked up out of the window and saw the moon shining bright in the dark sky. I watched on as it followed the car as we drove, but I soon felt sleep creeping up on me. My eyelids felt heavy, and I drifted off as the moon faded from my sight.

“Hey sleepyhead, we’re here,” Adam said.

His voice woke me from a sound sleep. I rubbed at my eyes and looked up to see that we were parked. I looked around and realized we were back in town.

“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to stop the yawn from escaping my mouth. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep like that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Adam said with a laugh. “You can sleep all you want. I just want to make sure you’re safe, and with me, you are.”

I smiled, but then looked away, trying to hide the embarrassment that I felt warming my cheeks. “I know I am,” I said.

I turned back around to see Adam walking toward the front door. “Are you coming? Hurry, get out of the cold.”

I hurried behind him and stood on the steps of my porch. Adam unlocked my door. “Oh, I hadn’t thought about the key — where did you get it?” I said.

Once we were inside, Adam turned to me. “I don’t want to scare you, but you should get your locks changed tomorrow. I did find your keys in your car, and I doubt they’d have had time to get a key cut, but you never know.”

I nodded.

“How does hot chocolate by the fireplace sound?”

I thought it sounded amazing. There was a strange fluttering in my stomach. Why was he so great? And why was he so great to me? “It sounds perfect.”

Adam hurried over to my fireplace. He took some kindling from the basket, and shoved some newspaper underneath, and soon the fire was crackling away. I hurried to warm my hands over it. I watched the luminescent flames as they danced in their large, brick oven. It was mesmerizing.

Adam came back from the kitchen with two mugs which he placed on the coffee table. He then kneeled down before the fire and put on some small logs.

I walked over and sat on one of the couches by the fire. The crackling of the wood and the scent of the fire made me feel safe. I felt more alive at that moment than I ever had before. Was it because I had barely escaped death? Or was it because I finally felt safe and secure?

Adam stood up from the fire and sat across from me. He handed one of the mugs to me. “So, how are you feeling? Are you okay now?”

“I’m great now — thank you again,” I said with a smile. I sipped my hot chocolate greedily. It was the best thing I had ever tasted. The warm, fuzzy liquid tickled my nose as I drank. When I pulled the cup away and looked back at Adam, he was trying not to laugh. “What?” I asked.

Adam touched the tip of my nose with his finger. “You got a little something on your face,” he replied.

I don’t remember the rest of the night, as I fell asleep pretty much straight after that. I was exhausted, and being able to sleep safely in warmth felt like heaven. I drifted off to sleep to dream about Adam. I could certainly get used to him being in my apartment.