Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(96)

“Haven’t you ever heard of acid rain?” Grant asks her. “The residue is bad for the finish. You should always wash your car after the rain.”

“My car? Have you seen my car?” She cracks a smile. “I think residue is all that’s holding it together.”

“Mom, Mr. Grant wants me and Jiffy to go to the car wash with him. Can we?”

“Oh, I don’t think he needs company to go to the car wash, Max.”

“Yes, he does. He invited us!”

“I really did invite them,” Grant says with a smile. “But Max told me he couldn’t go without permission, and he didn’t know where you were.”

“I thought maybe you were playing hide-and-seek with us,” Max tells her. “I hate that game, by the way. And I hate the basement.”

“Me, too,” Jiffy agrees. “Except we have to go back down there to get the laptop, because mine is broken and I need one.”

“Laptop?” Bella asks. “There’s a laptop in the basement?”

“Yes, and I hate the basement, but I need to go get it. Oh, and I hate that guy, too, by the way,” Jiffy adds.

“Which guy?” Grant looks around. “Doctor Bailey?”

“No! The hide-and-seek guy!”

“I hate him, too. But I love Doctor Bailey!” Max speaks up. “He saves puppies and kittens.”

“I love him, too,” Jiffy agrees. “And I love puppies and kittens. I’m getting a puppy this summer. My mom said I can, to keep me out of trouble while she’s working.”

“Can we get a puppy, too, Mom? To keep me out of trouble?”

Bella smiles wearily. “Don’t you think a cat and eight kittens are enough?”

“I need a puppy, too. And I need to go with Mr. Grant to the car wash. Can I?”

Knowing it’s best to get him away from the house for a while, Bella agrees.

“Yay! Let’s go!” Jiffy says, eager to hop into the red sports car.

“First, you need to go ask your mom, too,” Odelia tells him.

“She won’t care. She lets me do whatever I want.”

That seems to strike a chord with Grant, who rests a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “No one gets to do whatever they want. Come on, let’s go talk to her.”

As they disappear down the street, Bella sees a police car turn the corner. It rolls slowly toward them, crunching on gravel.

Pandora, too, sees it coming. “I think I’ll go inside and brew some tea. I’m sure there must be some Yorkshire Gold Leaf in the pantry.”

Predictably, Odelia trails her into the house, saying, “I’m sure there isn’t.”

The door closes behind them, and Bella turns back to Max, wondering whether he’s noticed the approaching police car.

He hasn’t. He’s facing the park at the opposite end of the street.

“Mom, look!” He points. “Do you see it?”

“The lake?”

“No, the rainbow.”

She searches the gray sky above the water. There are a few breaks in the clouds where patches of blue are starting to burst through the gloom, but no rainbow.

“I don’t see it, Max.”

“Well, it’s there.”

Somehow, she doesn’t doubt that for a moment.





Epilogue


July 4

Standing in the kitchen window washing the last of the breakfast things, Bella can see the sun valiantly attempting to peek through the low lake sky.

At the table behind her, Max and Jiffy are in the midst of a surprisingly rousing game of Candyland with the St. Clair sisters, who showed up just as the boys were begging Bella to join in.

“Candyland?” Ruby exclaimed. “It’s our favorite game!”

“Candyland was around when you were kids?” Max asked in surprise.

“Oh, my, no. Not until we were grown.”

“But we play it nearly every night back home,” Opal added. “It’s great fun. Do you mind if we join you?”

“Only four people can play,” Jiffy told her. “We already have three.”

“You can take my place,” Bella said quickly, and after a short argument between the elderly women—both of whom wanted to be the red piece—the game was under way.

That freed up Bella to put the breakfast room and kitchen back in order and mull over all that’s happened since Lieutenant Grange showed up yesterday to escort Eleanor Pierson away.

As they left, Bella could hear her asking, “It’s Steve, isn’t it? Something terrible has happened to Steve.”

She was right, of course. Perhaps something more terrible than her wildest imagination could fathom. It’s going to be a long road back for her.

Eleanor has since been told about April, her husband’s longtime mistress, and Paris, his five-year-old daughter with her. He’d set them up in an apartment in Boston and had been living a double life for years—all the more reason he was worried about his financial situation.

Last night at the precinct, after lengthy hours of being questioned by the police—as a witness, not a suspect—Bella was able to hear the audio recording of Eleanor’s last telephone reading with Leona. It was discovered on Leona’s laptop, which, thanks to Max and Jiffy, Bella had found stashed on a cobwebby shelf in the basement and handed over to the authorities.