Trouble in the Tarot (27 page)

“What if he thinks I won’t be a good mother?” She looked on the verge of tears.

“Are you crazy? What makes you think you won’t make an amazing mother? You’re one of eight kids. You’ve seen it all. I, on the other hand, am an only child. I have no clue what I’m doing around babies.”

“I thought being a mother would be easy, but Biff is a handful. He only listens to Cole, and he’s making a mess of our house. I snapped at him this morning, and the poor thing looked like he was scared to death.”

“Cut yourself some slack. Biff is a different situation. He’s been abused, remember? He still needs you to be stern, and he knows you love him. He’ll come around.”

“Cole might not, though. He got angry with me, and we had a fight. We haven’t spoken since.” Her voice hitched. “We never argue. What if we start arguing about everything? Money, kids, politics, whatever.”

“Welcome to life,” I said gently. “Cole fell in love with you while arguing. He loves your fire and passion and willingness to speak your mind. That’s what makes you the perfect match for him.”

“Tell him that.”

“You don’t have to. I already know,” Cole said from behind Jo in a deep soft voice and then wrapped his big
strong arms around her and whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry, baby.”

Jo twirled around and threw her arms around his thick neck and kissed him square on the mouth. “Me too.”

He used his thumb to swipe away a tear that had rolled down her cheek.

“Just so you know,” she added, “I’m too old to change. I’m not going to stop speaking my mind or occasionally losing my temper with both you and Biff.”

“And I’m not going to stop pointing out when you’re wrong or loving you anyway. As long as you don’t stop loving me, it’s all good. Deal?”

“Deal, you big lug.” She punched him playfully on his shoulder, and he swatted her on the bottom.

“That’s my girl,” he said softly. “And for the record you’re stuck with me for life. I’ll never change my mind about you or us, Jo. Get used to it.” He tweaked her nose and then headed back into the kitchen with Sean.

“You good now?” I asked.

“I’m great now. God, I love that big ape,” Jo said dreamily.

“I’d say the feeling’s mutual.” I smiled, happy for her but a bit sad for me. “You’re lucky.”

Jo snapped out of her dreamy state at my tone of voice and looked at me sympathetically. “Your time will come, Sunny. You’ll see.”

“Yeah, if life ever gets back to normal. I feel like trouble follows Mitch and I wherever we go.”

“Maybe that
is
your normal.”

“Lord, I hope not.”

“Hey, it’s what drew you together in the first place.” She threw my words back at me.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I replied with genuine concern.

I thought about that. What if the reason we were attracted to each other stemmed from working together on a murder case? The element of danger. The excitement of a new lead. The adrenaline rush of saving each other. The satisfaction of solving a crime.

What if we weren’t
us
without the drama?

I didn’t want to think about that. Our time together was precious right now because we didn’t get much of it. What if we had lots of it, and we discovered we were boring? We wouldn’t have anything to argue over or talk about. It’s not like I could talk about work. He still didn’t completely believe in what I did, or who I was. And when I wasn’t consulting with the police on a case, then he wasn’t free to talk about it with me.

What was left?

“Stop stressing and have another beer,” Jo said, sliding a draft in front of me as though reading my mind.

I took a sip and the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention. A strong sensation that someone was watching me crept up my spine. I didn’t want to give myself away, so I looked in the mirror behind Jo and scanned the room but didn’t see anyone new.
Huh
. Although, I did lock gazes with Quincy, and his face hardened with anger.

Anger directed at me.

“What’s next for the case?” Jo asked, changing the subject away from Mitch and I, distracting me like a true friend.

“I guess I try to figure out who the silent partner is and what Sam is hiding.”

“Speak of the devil.” Jo looked behind me.

I turned around and saw Sam. He came in alone and sat in a corner booth. A minute later Quincy stood, looked around, and then he joined him.

“I didn’t even know they knew each other. I’m sure they knew
of
each other, but I had no idea they were familiar enough to have dinner together.”

“Me either,” Jo said. “Then again if Sam is the secret partner, it would stand to reason that Sam might know about the blackmail and want his money back from Quincy. Maybe he was the person on the other end of the phone that night of July fourth.”

19

Sunday morning, the entire town seemed to be at church.
Must be more than a few guilty consciences going around.
Mitch sat beside me, listening to the sermon, while I people-watched. Several people avoided eye contact with me.

When mass was finished, Mitch and I wandered outside. I had to park down the street by the curb. Mitch had met me there and parked out back in the parking lot. I’d been late, and I should have known better. Sacred Heart’s parking lot filled early on Sunday mornings in Divinity.

“I made some calls yesterday,” Mitch said as we stood by the curb, in the road, waiting for the people to clear out before we drove home.

“And?” I asked.

“Turns out Ida has a son in Boston. She found out he’s a pretty bad alcoholic. He lost his job, his wife divorced him, and his kids don’t want anything to do with him. When he tried to commit suicide, Ida intervened. She’s been paying for him to go to rehab for the last three months. That’s the investment she doesn’t want anyone to hear about. She wasn’t even in town the night of the murder. She was visiting her son in Boston.”

“Great. So she’s out of the picture.” I sighed, feeling exhausted. “At least we still have Sam as a possibility for the silent partner angle. I think he lied, but Quincy knows the truth. He could have been trying to get more money out of him in exchange for keeping quiet. We need to find out what he had on Bernadette.”

“That’s a possibility. I planned to talk to Sam today, but I didn’t see him in church. I’ll pay him a visit this afternoon at the bakery.”

“Great, it’s a date. I haven’t had lunch yet.” I grinned.

He frowned. “Sunny, we talked about this. You do all the thinking you want, but I will do the investigating. I will keep you informed on everything just like I promised. You have to trust me on this one.”

“I do trust you.” I bit my bottom lip and ran my fingertip down the front of his dress shirt. “We just haven’t spent any quality time together, is all.”

He groaned and wrapped his hand around mine, flattening my palm to his chest for a minute, then lowering them both. “You don’t play fair,” he said in a husky voice.

“I never understood the saying all’s fair in love and war. There’s nothing fair about love and war. It’s called fighting for what you want.” I bit my lip.

We just stood there, holding hands and staring at each other, when someone shouted, “Watch out!”

I turned my head and saw my bug rolling down the street, straight in my direction. My mouth parted, and my limbs felt paralyzed. It felt like an out-of-body experience, and I could suddenly relate to how Bernadette must have felt.

At the last second Mitch picked me up and held me against his chest as he hurled his body backward. He landed flat on his back with me facedown on his chest, which had cushioned the blow. My car rolled by at a good enough clip to have flattened me if it hadn’t been for my hero.

“As much as I love the feel of you against me, Tink, I think you crushed my lungs,” he wheezed. “Think you can get up now?”

“I’m so sorry.” I scrambled off him and helped him to his feet. Running my hands all over his chest, I asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.” He stilled my hands. “But I won’t be if you keep doing that.”

“Oh, sorry. And thank you so much. You saved my life.”

He cupped my cheek, then ran a hand through his thick hair, and over his whiskered face. “How the hell did that happen?”

“I have no idea.” I looked down the street to where
my bug had come to a stop, half on the sidewalk and half in the road. Thank God it hadn’t hit anyone else, and there didn’t seem to be any damage. “I have my keys, and I always put the emergency brake on. There’s a slight decline to this street, but nothing like the hill in front of Trixie’s house, and I parked there the other day, no problem. It shouldn’t have rolled like that.”

“Come on. I want to check something.” Mitch led the way across the street to my bug. He opened the door and looked around. I peeked over his shoulder, of course. Sure enough the emergency break was off and the gearshift had been knocked into neutral. “Sunny, you’re crowding my space.”

“Sorry.” I backed out of my bug. “There’s no way my car did that by itself.”

He pulled himself out of the car as well and looked at me. “Exactly. This is why I didn’t want you involved in this investigation, Sunny. You’re getting too close. I hope now you will back off.” His tone was frustrated and no nonsense and definitely grumpy. “Someone did this on purpose. The question is who?”

My cell phone rang.

It was a number I didn’t recognize, but I answered anyway. “Hello?”

“Hi, Sunny. This is Dr. Wilcox.”

My stomach jumped to my throat as I immediately thought of Granny Gert. “Is anything wrong?”

“Your grandmother is fine. It’s Ms. Atwater who called the paramedics.”

“Oh. Let me guess. Another false alarm.”

“Actually, no. She was having severe heart palpitations and was positive she was having a heart attack. Because they are on house arrest, I made a house call.”

“I really appreciate that, Doctor. Is Fiona okay?”

“She’s fine. I gave her something to calm her down. She experienced a severe case of anxiety, but she should be fine so long as no one gets her riled up anymore.”

“Anymore?” I asked suspiciously. “What in the world brought this on?”

“Not what.” He hesitated. “Who. The answer would be Granny Gert. Apparently she was having a lunch date with Harry, and the stress was too much for Fiona to bear.”

“I see.” I set my jaw.

First someone tried to kill me, and then Granny nearly killed her friend—no matter what they said, it was plain to see they enjoyed sparring with each other. It was probably the most excitement that either of them had had in ages. But I, for one, had had enough.

“Since they were released under your care, it was my duty to call you,” Dr. Wilcox said.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And, Sunny…don’t be too hard on them. They’ve been through a lot.”

“Don’t worry, Doc. I know exactly what they need.”

*    *    *

“What were you thinking, Granny?” I asked with hands on my hips as I stood in the foyer of my house.

Mitch had dropped me off and called in the CSI group
to go over my car from top to bottom. I’d promised him I would stay home for the rest of the day so he could do his job without worrying about me. I’d agreed for once, but only for today. No way would I put myself on house arrest with the Dynamic Duo.

I’d end up in the loony bin for sure.

“I was only trying to help the nincompoop,” Granny said. “How was I supposed to know she was telling the truth for a change?” Granny’s snappy brown eyes didn’t look so snappy anymore. They were filled with genuine concern. Good. She needed to worry a little so maybe she would think before she acted impulsively next time.

“How is you dating her ex-husband helping her?” I asked.

“It wasn’t a date; it was lunch. And I thought maybe it would make her jealous. Remind her of how she used to feel about Harry. It’s plain as day she still feels that way. She’s just too stubborn to admit it.”

“And you.” I pointed my finger at a sheepish Harry. “When will you stop playing games and just tell Fiona you love her?”

“I told her I wanted her back, but she wouldn’t listen. What more can I do?” He looked so worried and lost and helpless, I believed every word he said.

I softened a bit. “She wants to hear that you love her, not just that you want her back. What more can you do? Fight for her, that’s what. Instead of playing silly games like trying to make her jealous, shower her with affection and words of love.”

“I’ve sent her a bunch of gifts, but she sends them right back.” He paced the foyer. “Stubborn woman.”

“She doesn’t want your money; she wants your time. Don’t you see this is all a test? She wants to make sure you’re serious and that you’re not going anywhere. She wants to make sure you mean what you say.” I looked him in the eye. “She wants to make sure you won’t hurt her again.”

“Boy, I really messed up, didn’t I?” His shoulders drooped.

“Yes, you did. But she will be fine, and you didn’t do anything that can’t be fixed. But right now, you need to leave,” I said firmly. “Think about what I said.”

“I will, and thank you.” He nodded. “I know exactly what I’m going to do.”