The Stone of Sadness (An Olivia Miller Mystery Book 3) (3 page)

Olivia’s heart pounded and a cold sweat broke out all over her skin from thinking about the killings. She printed the articles that she wanted to keep, paid the librarian, and left the building taking the steps two at a time. She needed to get out of there, to get away from the horrible words on the screen.

Her orange Jeep was an inferno from having sat closed up in the parking lot. Olivia fiddled with the controls for the air conditioning as she pulled onto Main Street and headed back to the house. She took the turn to John’s Colonial and parked next to the blue and red trucks in the driveway. Jackie was pulling a metal case out of the truck bed and she turned her head when she heard Olivia’s car. She waved to her.

“You don’t look so good,” Jackie said eyeing Olivia’s pale face.

“I don’t feel so good,” Olivia confirmed. “I’m going to lie down for a bit.”

“Need anything?” Jackie asked.

“I’m okay, thanks,” Olivia said even though she didn’t feel okay. It was like knives were cutting into her head.

“It’s probably this heat,” Jackie said.

Olivia nodded and moved toward the house, her head pounding.

“Just yell if you need something,” Jackie called after her. “I’ll be here a couple of more hours.”

Olivia checked on Lily and let her stay outside to hang out with the contractors. She went to the kitchen and splashed her face with cold water while leaning over the sink, took two aspirins and drank a large glass of ice cold water. Her headache was in full force now and her eyes squinted against the too bright light streaming in through the windows. Olivia’s legs shook as she shuffled down the hallway. Her stomach threatened to heave. She made it to the living room couch and immediately fell asleep.

Olivia wobbled around the kitchen still groggy from her nap. She had slept for two hours and woke up sweaty and weary but the headache had subsided. She let the dog in and Lily sat near the back door watching Olivia move about the room. Olivia ate a banana and then went upstairs for a shower. She could hear hammering coming from the sunroom and was surprised that the construction workers hadn’t quit for the day.

After she cleaned up and changed clothes, Olivia walked barefoot through the house to the sunroom toweling off her hair. Jackie was putting some tools in a metal box.

“Hey,” Olivia said. “I thought you’d be gone by now.”

“Oh, hi. No, I’m still here. A guy decided to call in sick today so I’m doing a little extra. How are you feeling?”

“Better. I didn’t sleep well last night and I was at the library reading small print for a couple of hours this afternoon and the combination just made for a whopper of a headache.”

“Doing some sort of research?” Jackie asked as she cleaned up the wood scraps and stray nails.

“Just for my own interest. Not for any official project or anything.”

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Jackie asked.

“Somewhat. I just started really,” Olivia said. She sat on a saw horse that was in the sunroom. “Did you grow up around here?”

“Yeah,” Jackie replied. “I left to go to college, but I came back to the area to do graduate work in Boston and married my high school sweetheart.” She looked up at Olivia with a big grin on her face. “You don’t hear that much anymore, do you?”

“No, you don’t,” Olivia smiled. “How long have you been married?”

“Well, next month it will be six years.”

“Wow. A long time,” Olivia noted. “What did you do your graduate work in?”

Jackie took a swig from her water bottle and stretched. “I got a Ph.D. in counseling psychology.”

Olivia’s eyes widened and she cocked her head to the side.

Jackie laughed. “I know, so what I am doing in construction?”

“That was my exact question.” Olivia smiled.

“I got married while working on my Ph.D. When I finally finished it, I worked for a year and then decided that it just wasn’t for me and that I preferred designing and creating structures. My dad had worked as an architect and had a small construction business. I worked for him all through high school, and off and on when I was doing graduate work. So I started small with contracting and built my business over time.” Jackie snapped the metal case shut. “I love it.”

“I’m impressed,” Olivia told her. “Especially since you spent all that time in school and you weren’t afraid to make a change.”

“Oh, I had my detractors and naysayers. But this is my life and I only get one shot. I want to be happy in my work.”

“What did your husband think?” Olivia asked.

“He’s a musician. He’s used to flexible schedules and doing his own thing,” Jackie grinned. “So he was fine with it.”

“I’m glad it worked out,” Olivia said. “Lots of people would be afraid to make such a big career change.”

Jackie picked up the case and Olivia and Lily walked her to her truck.

“My husband is traveling with his band for a couple of weeks. If you’re free, would you be interested in grabbing a bite to eat later?” Jackie asked Olivia.

“I sure would,” Olivia responded. “I’m not used to all this country quiet. I have an apartment in Cambridge while I’m at school and it’s a lot busier than Howland. My home’s in Maine and Ogunquit’s busy in the nice weather. I’m not used to things being so spread out and having to use the car all the time.”

“Yeah, a place like Howland is a definite change of pace. I’ll run home and jump in the shower. Do you know the Sports Bar Restaurant in the center of town?” Jackie asked. “It has good food and good prices. Want to meet around 8pm?”

“Sounds great. See you there.” Olivia waved as Jackie backed out of the driveway and turned onto the road.

Olivia arrived first and took a booth by a window. Jackie arrived shortly after and hurried over to where Olivia was sitting.

“It took me a little longer than I thought,” Jackie said. “I had to swing by and talk to a client.”

“It’s okay,” Olivia said. “I haven’t been here long at all.” Olivia was sipping an iced tea and browsing the menu. The restaurant’s clientele changed gradually around 8pm each night as the families finished up their meals and headed home and the couples and singles arrived and gathered around the bar for drinks and appetizers. A Red Sox game played on the television over the bar. The restaurant was in the midst of the customer shift as Jackie took her seat across from Olivia.

Jackie ordered a burger and cole slaw and Olivia decided on the veggie burger and salad. They shared an appetizer of hummus and pita bread. They were both grateful for the air conditioned temperature of the restaurant and for a chance to get out of the heat for a couple of hours.

“The heat doesn’t usually bother me, but the humidity is killing me,” Olivia said.

“Yeah, it’s bad this year. It came on strong. I haven’t had time to build up my tolerance for it,” Jackie said.

They worked on polishing off the appetizer. “So your cousin John said you had finished your school year and would be staying at his house for a couple of weeks, but he didn’t mention what you’re studying.”

“I just finished my first year of law school.”

“That’s great. How did it go? Are you enjoying it?”

Olivia laughed. “I’m not sure you could say it was enjoyable. I survived though. I just came back from the Netherlands. I did a three week internship there.”

“Nice. That was where we spent our honeymoon,” Jackie said. “We spent two weeks on a bike trip traveling the country. It was wonderful. What did your internship entail?” Jackie asked.

“I was working at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. I think it probably sounds more exciting than it was. It involved mostly doing research and writing up findings. But I learned a lot.”

“Sounds terrific.” Jackie told her. “So what were you researching today at the library? Something law related?” Jackie asked.

“Not really, no.” Olivia put ketchup on the veggie burger that the waitress placed in front of her. “I’m cleaning out my cousin John’s attic and I came across some old newspapers up there. I found a story about a double murder that happened here in town about forty years ago.”

Jackie bit into her burger. “Before I was born,” she mumbled after swallowing. She wiped her chin with her napkin. “It rings a bell though. Was one of the victims a young mom?”

“A mom and her four year old daughter,” Olivia said.

Jackie put her burger on her plate. “I remember hearing about that. My parents brought it up once.” She looked thoughtful. “The killer was never arrested, right?”

Olivia nodded. “Right. The story caught my interest and I went to the library to look at old newspapers to find out more details about the killings.”

“What did you find?”

Olivia filled Jackie in on the information that she had gathered from her research.

“Awful,” Jackie said. “What kind of a monster could do that? In broad daylight, too. Doesn’t seem smart to kidnap two people in the light of day. Could it have been a crime of emotion? Or was it just random?” Jackie took a swallow of her beer. “This was a small town in those days. Lots of open space and people who had lived in town for years. Most people knew each other. The killings seem out of place. Seems like something more likely to happen in a city. What do you think about the killer? Someone just passing through? Someone from town?”

“The newspaper article said the police suspected a local guy. A nineteen year old. But there wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest. As far as the police were concerned, the case was solved,” Olivia said.

“Really? That seems awful that they knew who did it but then he got off without being arrested.” Jackie shook her head.

“John said that the Monahans were relatives of ours,” Olivia said.

Jackie’s eyes widened. “Were they?”

Olivia nodded. “I’d never heard about the killings before. I saw the old newspaper up in the attic and John told me about it. I wonder if Mrs. Monahan knew the killer. Like you said, it was broad daylight. Maybe someone stopped Mrs. Monahan for something, to talk or whatever, and then the person kidnapped them. Maybe Mrs. Monahan was unsuspecting because she knew him?”

“It doesn’t seem like it would be premeditated though,” Jackie offered. “If you were planning ahead, wouldn’t you want it to be dark when you approached?”

“But the person must have had a knife with him since the Monahans were stabbed and their throats were cut,” Olivia said. “So maybe it was planned.” Olivia’s stomach was churning and her throat felt dry. Talking about the Monahans having their throats cut caused violent images of last summer to flash through her mind. Her palms were clammy and she reached for her water glass to moisten her throat. She took a long drink and continued. “But like you said, it seems dumb to plan an abduction and murder for the middle of the day. And how would someone even know where the Monahans would be that day?”

“And ‘why’ is another question. What could have been the motive?” Jackie asked.

“It seems beyond brutal to kill a woman and her child,” Olivia’s voice was soft. “The mom must have been terrified. Her one thought must have been to protect her daughter. She must have fought like hell.”

They sat thinking for a while.

“My dad grew up here in town,” Jackie said. “Lived here all of his life. I’ll ask him what he heard about it.”

“I’d be interested in what he has to say,” Olivia said.

“Dad would have been in his early twenties then. He must remember some of the details. I’ll let you know.”

They finished off their burgers.

“The town must be a lot bigger now than back in the seventies,” Olivia said.

“Oh, yeah. The location of Howland is really great. About a half hour on the train to Boston. Good schools. Highway access is nearby. But it still has a very rural, country flavor even with the huge influx of people over the years. Actually all the building and expanding started about forty years ago, a couple of years before those murders,” Jackie said. “That mom and her daughter must have been in the first wave of newcomers to move in. It was the beginning of the changes in Howland.”

“I imagine those murders certainly changed the atmosphere here,” Olivia said.

“Yeah.” Jackie’s face was serious. “I bet that’s for sure.”

Olivia had spent the morning working on the attic. John had designated the things that should be thrown out, those he wanted to keep, and things he wanted to sell in a yard sale. She carried the things that would be thrown out into the garage. A trash removal company would be coming in the morning to haul the unwanted articles away. Olivia brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and wiped her dirty hands on her old shorts.

She spotted Mr. Andrews, the landscaper, parking his truck in the driveway alongside one of the construction worker’s vans. Olivia’s cousin had hired Mr. Andrews to cut and trim the lawn at the house. Olivia waved to him and then went into the kitchen through the door from the garage.

Mr. Andrews rang the bell when he had finished his work. He was a spry silver-haired man in his late-sixties. His skin was dark and leathery from years of working outside.

“Hey, Mr. Andrews, come on in. John left an envelope for you. Come to the kitchen. How about a cold drink?” Olivia said.

“A cold drink sounds good. Damn heat,” Mr. Andrews said wiping his forehead with a handkerchief that he retrieved from his back pocket. He followed Olivia to the kitchen at the rear of the house.

Olivia put ice cubes into a tall glass and poured lemonade into it. She put a slice of orange on the rim before handing it to Mr. Andrews.

“That looks great. Thanks.”

“Have a seat. John left the envelope on the desk in the den. I’ll be right back with it,” Olivia told him.

When she returned with the envelope, Mr. Andrews was scanning the account of the murders in the old newspaper that she left on the kitchen table.

“This was a damned thing,” he said still looking at the front page. “I remember it well. Forty years ago? Hard to believe it was so long ago.”

“You lived in Howland back then?”

“Oh, sure. We’ve been here since 1968. The Monahans lived on the next street over from us. We had kids close in age.” He shook his head. “Bah. Hadn’t thought about it for a long time.”