Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(22)

Steve blinks. “But we can’t stay here if Leona isn’t . . . if she’s . . .”

“Of course you can. She would have wanted business to go on as usual, and you know how meticulous she was about keeping notes. I know exactly which room you prefer and it’s all set for you. No feathers. Allergies,” she adds for Bella’s benefit.

“Leona always took such good care of us.” Eleanor smiles through her tears. “Thank you, Odelia.”

Leaving them to get checked in and settled, Bella heads upstairs to find Max in the train room. He’s wearing only underpants and fishing through his open duffle bag on the floor. “Do I have a purple shirt, mom?”

“Purple? I don’t think so, no. Why?”

“That’s Jiffy’s favorite color.”

Jiffy again. The ghost kid.

She doesn’t really believe that, of course.

“Listen, Max . . . I don’t think we’re going to have time for Candyland this morning.”

He looks up, crestfallen. “But I told Jiffy I’d be right back!”

“I’m sorry, sweetie.”

“I don’t want to go!”

“I know, but we have to.”

“Why?”

“Because this isn’t . . . this is just . . . it’s a place where we stopped to spend the night, that’s all. I’m sure the next place we stop will be just as much fun.”

“Where? The tent? Grandma’s? Those aren’t fun places.”

“You don’t know that. You’ve never been camping, and you haven’t been to Grandma’s in years.”

“I don’t want to go, ever! I want to stay here.”

“I know you do.” She kneels beside him, touches his bony, pale little shoulder and finds it trembling. “I wish we could stay.”

“Odelia said we can.”

Odelia.

A crazy thought materializes in Bella’s brain. She tries to push it right back out, but it’s as persistent as Odelia herself.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” she tells Max.

“Can we stay forever?”

“No, not forever, or even for another night. But let me talk to Odelia, and maybe we can figure out a way to stay long enough for you to play Candyland. Okay?”

“But—”

“Candyland is better than nothing, right?” she reminds him, hating that it’s all she can offer. He’s been through so much and has so little.

He looks up at her with sad, brown eyes. “I guess so.”

“Good. Now get dressed and let’s go see what we can work out.”

*

An hour later, Bella finds herself in the cramped waiting room of Valeri and Son Service Station a few miles from Lily Dale, listening in dismay to the mechanic’s verdict.

“Is that the best you can do?” she asks, clutching a half-finished white foam cup of bad coffee, courtesy of a filmy carafe on a nearby counter.

“You mean the best I can do on the cost or on the time it’ll take to finish the repair?”

“Both.”

“’Fraid so.” He shakes his head, eyes apologetic beneath the blue brim of his Buffalo Bills cap. “It’ll take me at least a couple of days to track down the part, and with the holiday, I probably won’t have it here until after the weekend. And it’ll be expensive because it’s old. But I’ll give you a break on the labor, seeing as how you’re stuck and outa luck.”

Stuck and outa luck.

“You’ve pretty much just described the last year of my life,” she says wryly.

“Yeah? Sorry.” He offers a brief smile and a complicated explanation about how something in the engine isn’t functioning the way it should. The technical details escape her; car maintenance was—like playing board games with Max—Sam’s department.

Now, however, like everything else, it’s solely her responsibility. She has no choice but to spend money she doesn’t have and time she . . .

Well, she has time, she supposes. And a place to stay for another four or five days.

Earlier, when she asked Odelia to recommend a service station, Odelia reminded Bella that she’s welcome to stick around the guesthouse as long as she’d like.

“I thought it was sold out starting today.”

“The public rooms are, yes. But the Rose Room is Leona’s private quarters—the closet and bureau are still full of her things, but I’ll clean them out for you tomorrow.”

“No need to do that. We’re not—”

“Oh, it’s no problem. I’ve been meaning to get to it. And Max can sleep in one of the smaller rooms with a twin bed. Leona always keeps one open just in case her nephew shows up to visit. He never gives her any notice, but she adores him.” Odelia’s tone indicated that she herself had little affection for the nephew, Grant Everard. “He’s supposedly trying to get here this week, but who knows if he’ll really come?”

The mechanic—who’s around Bella’s age and whose name is Troy, according to the patch sewn on his coveralls—asks if she needs a ride somewhere.

“Can I keep my car with me until the part comes in?”

“You can if you like hitchhiking, because you’re already on borrowed time. I can’t believe you managed to drive it this far without breaking down.”