Blackvine Manor Mystery (15 page)

A
LEXIS SEES
THE EDGES OF her vision blur before she realizes she is holding her breath. Amelia is gone and Bella has followed her, crunching casually on chips. The sharp cry of a candy-begging child shakes her loose from her trance and she rushes out the door.

Amelia is moving slowly, following what seems to be a familiar route along the shop windows. She browses and strolls, unaware of Bella intently following behind. Alexis crosses the street, no longer caring if Bella sees her, she simply has to keep a clear view of her mother.

To her estranged daughter, Amelia looks like she fell out of a photograph. Her slim jeans, white t-shirt and light cardigan form the same perfect-in-any-era outfit Alexis remembers her always wearing. The rose-printed silk scarf makes her heart ache as she used to sort through her mother’s drawers to wrap herself in those scarves her mother left behind.

A few times Amelia looks around, a worried crease forming in the middle of her forehead about the large, round sunglasses. Alexis remembers the threatening letter her mother received. Her mother must suspect someone is following her, or at least be worried about being seen. Alexis stops behind a parked SUV to think; should she call Maxwell, or maybe Ted Diaz? Amelia felt safe at St. James Care Facility but she ran from there when another threatening letter arrived.

Alexis forces her gaze onto Bella. Why would Bella be following her mother? Was she the one who revived the threatening letters? She hopes Maxwell is able to trace her through Otto’s police connections. Bella LaRue has to have a background that ties her to Blackvine Manor.

Amelia crosses the street against a red light, running as lightly as a ballet dancer. Bella doesn’t get flustered, watching the direction of Amelia’s path as if she’s seen her go that way before. She leans against the stoplight and waits for the light to change. Alexis jaywalks and falls in step a few paces behind Bella. They both cross on green and head into the park.

An after work crowd is starting to fill the park’s winding sidewalks and paths. Amelia meanders off across the grass, slowly winding through picnickers and sunbathers. Bella is walking with purpose to what must be Amelia’s regular spot and Alexis follows behind, hoping to find a vantage point that will keep her hidden from the other women.

She has a hundred and one questions for her mother and her mind is a tornado not sure where to touch down first. When Amelia settles on a bench near a fountain, Alexis keeps walking quickly, all her unanswered questions spurring her quick pace.

Bella settles on a bench across the wide expanse of lawn on the other side of the fountain. Pulling out a paperback book, she blends in with the crowd. Alexis heads up a small hill to the fence surrounding the dog park. From the shade there she can watch both women in the sunshine while looking like a casual walker enjoying the puppies chasing each other in circles.

Was Otto really such a threat that Amelia had to disappear? Yes, the police chief was very well connected but did she really have to cut ties with her husband and abandon her young daughter just to keep us safe?

Alexis can hear her father, A. J. Cole, telling her the same thing he always told her when she focused too much on Amelia’s decisions. “It’s done now and it’s not healthy to think so much about it. Focus on your life.”

“Did you miss me?” Alexis realizes she whispered the hardest question out loud.

Never one to sit still or back down from a confrontation, Alexis wants to march across the park, sit down next to her mother and simply ask her, “Did you miss me?”

She imagines Amelia’s answer as she watches her mother finish her sandwich and enjoy the sunshine. Suddenly Alexis jolts away from the dog run fence, what if she is seeing a ghost? It would mean Bella was a liar and most likely a medium but that was easily possible in Alexis’ estimation.

“No, no, calm down,” Alexis mutters as she watches a man with two small dogs pause near her mother’s bench. He tips his baseball hat to Amelia who smiles politely. She reaches down to pet his bouncing dogs before they continue on. Wanting to make sure, Alexis watches intently until she sees a knot of runners wave and laugh at the encouragement Amelia tosses their way.

Finally Amelia gets up, gathers her trash, and heads towards the opposite end of the park. Bella gets up minutes later and follows her. Alexis starts down the hill from the dog park and jumps onto the sidewalk that will take her right past the bench where her mother sat. Deciding she’ll skip all the questions just for a chance to be near her mother, Alexis speeds up to catch her.

She hurries to keep her mother in sight. When she is near enough to hear the fountain splashing, a cold slice runs up her spine. The day is still warm but she feels the air change, growing colder. Looking out of the corner of her eye, Alexis sees it again. A woman sitting primly on the same park bench Amelia vacated. Her hair is up in a tidy bun, her shirt neat, and her long skirt pressed perfectly.

The woman becomes clearer and smiles. “Hello, my dear.”

Alexis approaches the ghost on the bench, watching as her mother leaves the park and Bella trails after her. Her heart hurts to see her mother disappear again but now she knows why Amelia visits the bench so often. The fountain splashes, a soothing sound, and Alexis recalls the fountain at Blackvine Manor and all she witnessed from the spirits there. She sits down and sighs.

“Hello, Delia.”

M
AXWELL HAS DINNER
, TAKE-OUT, on the table when Alexis arrives at his loft. Before she can even get a word out he sweeps her close and kisses her. She comes away smiling softly. He hands her a glass of wine and her smile widens. It’s been yet another strange day in a long series of odd occurrences and yet it was a good day. And now she knows her mother is alive.

“You’ll never believe what happened to me,” she tells him as he pulls out a chair for her at the table.

Maxwell laughs. “No, no, I’m open-minded now, remember?” He kisses the top of her head. “And I want you to be able to tell me anything.”

Alexis arches an eyebrow at him. “So you won’t call me crazy if I tell you that I just spent a half an hour sitting on a park bench with your grandmother’s ghost?”

He sits down across from her and takes a long thoughtful sip of his wine. “Well, if I start by assuming that can actually happen, which I might be starting to believe it can, then I guess I would ask how is she?”

“Funny, she mostly asked about you.” Alexis doesn’t care if Maxwell is just pretending for now, it feels good to have an open conversation. “She was remembering how you used to wade and splash in the fountain at Blackvine Manor. Maybe we can figure out how to fix it?”

“Whether or not she told you that—” He catches himself and gives her an apologetic look. “It’s a great idea. I loved playing in that fountain. If you throw the water up in the air just right you can see rainbows.”

“That is so sweet. I wish I could see a vision of you making rainbows.”

Maxwell thinks about that while chewing. “Actually, that’s a big question I have. How come you only rarely see happy memories? It’s all trauma and intrigue.”

“I think it has everything to do with what the spirits need to communicate. The happy ones move on, into the white light, I guess. And the ones that have unfinished business or ‘trauma and intrigue’, as you say, stay and look around for people like me to help them.”

He takes that in and then decides to change the subject. “Where did Bella go? I didn’t have much information to tell Otto’s police buddies so it might take them a while if they find anything at all.”

Alexis sips more wine, feeling excitement bubbling up. “I followed Bella and it ends up
she
was following someone too.”

“That’s odd, who?”

“My mother.” Alexis sits back and lets the grin take over her face.

“Amelia? You saw Amelia?”

She nods happily.

“That’s crazy!” He catches himself again. “I mean that is amazing. What did you say to her?”

Alexis sighs. “I didn’t say anything. I had too much to ask and too much to say, so I just watched.”

Maxwell hesitates but has to ask, “And she was … ah … alive?”

“Yes!”

They spend the rest of dinner speculating why Bella would be following Amelia but the mood is buoyant. Finishing the take-out they move to Maxwell’s leather couch before pouring another glass of wine.

“I know you still don’t completely believe in what I can do”—Alexis snuggles into the crook of his arm—“but thank you for trying. This is a good end to a good day.”

“No,” Maxwell whispers in her ear. “This is a good end to a good day.”

His lips kiss her neck, just below her ear and send a shiver down her shoulder blades. His kisses move slowly along her collarbone until he tips her chin towards him and their mouths meet. There he kisses her softly, pulling back so she can see his smile until she longs to bring him deeper.

He pulls her down on top of him as he stretches out on the leather couch and luxuriates in a long, deep kiss. Alexis groans and tangling her hand in the hair at the nape of his neck, she rises to meet him. Suddenly he turns over, laying her down and plunging the kiss deeper. She meets his every move, hips pushing up to answer his press, back arching up as he unbuttons her shirt.

They wake up in the morning, the bright sunshine warming their naked bodies, clothes strewn over the ottoman and coffee table. At one point, just before they made love again, slowly with teasing explorations, Maxwell had pulled the soft comforter from his bed. Wrapped up together with him Alexis doesn’t want to move, but as soon as her eyes open she thinks of the park bench.

“We’ll go together,” Maxwell mutters sleepily. “Right after coffee.”

* * *

S
till wrapped
around each other and stealing occasional kisses, Alexis and Maxwell walk into the park and find the bench. Just as they reach the fountain, Alexis puts a hand to her mouth.

“What?”

“She’s here! Oh, God, my mother is here!” Alexis kisses his cheek and rushes forward to greet Amelia on her own.

She arrives breathless in front of her mother and before she can form a word, Amelia smiles and says, “Oh, Al, I’m so glad you came. I was worried you didn’t want to see me.”

“Of course I want to see you.” Alexis swallows a hundred sad and angry phrases she’s practiced thousands of times and says, “I want you to meet Maxwell.”

He comes over to the bench slowly, nodding awkwardly.

“So tall and so handsome!” Amelia winks at her daughter. “And you look so happy.”

Alexis sits down, nervously lacing her fingers together. “And how are you? Do you know I met Nurse Diaz?”

“Isn’t he wonderful? Thank God for a sympathetic ear.”

“He gave me a letter of yours. The one he thought upset you enough to make you leave St. James.”

A wave of sadness washes the color from Amelia. “I’m sorry, Al. It’s all yours now.”

Alexis looks under the bench, where Amelia gestured, and when she sits up Maxwell is next to her.

“Where’s my mother? Where’s Amelia?”

“I’m sorry”—Maxwell takes her hands—“I never saw her.”

A
LEXIS IS FROZEN
, STARING SIGHTLESSLY at the fountain, when her phone rings. Maxwell reaches into her pocket and answers it for her. After a subdued conversation she doesn’t hear, he nudges her.

“It’s your father.”

She takes the phone but can’t bring herself to say anything.

“Alexis? I don’t know how to say this so I just have to say it. Your mother was killed in an accident this morning. The parking brake failed on a delivery truck. It rolled down a hill without a driver and up onto a sidewalk where it injured a few pedestrians. She didn’t see it coming. She didn’t get out of the way in time. . .” A. J. runs out of words and Alexis hears a ragged sob.

“She’s dead?”

Her father pulls in a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, Alexis.”

“Where did it happen?”

“A block from Blackvine Manor.”

Alexis hangs up the phone and gets up from the bench. Swaying on her feet, she grabs Maxwell’s arm for support. Together they head out of the park and straight for Blackvine Manor Apartments. When her father calls back Maxwell answers the phone and tells A. J. where they are going.

“Are you sure you want to go that way?” Maxwell tugs Alexis to a stop.

She’s taking the long way to Blackvine Manor, going to the only street that has a hill steep enough to have caused the accident. She can’t do anything but nod in the affirmative, pulling on his arm.

“No. I don’t think I can let you go.” Maxwell’s eyes are wide with concern. “What if you see something? This isn’t a vision you need.”

Tears fill her eyes. “But what if she’s there? I want to talk to her again.”

He nods, keeping a tight hold of her arm as they walk towards the scene of the accident. The crash site is obvious though everything has been cleared away. White paint and long gashes scar the side of a red brick building, deepening just before the crushed rubble of what used to be an archway over the entrance. Black tire marks on the sidewalk and the tracks of an ambulance in the dust are the only other things they can see.

Alexis sinks into a chair at the abandoned café across the street and waits. Maxwell pulls up a chair next to her and sits, holding both her hands in his, as the light fades and it gets dark. A. J. calls once to say he is at her Blackvine Manor apartment. The second time he has been called to the county coroner’s office. The third time he is back at her place, sounding desperate and begging her to come back soon.

“We’ll be there in an hour. There’s something I have to do first,” Alexis tells him.

Maxwell meets her eyes expectantly; those are the first words she has said all day.

She kisses him and gets up, holding his face in both hands. “I know Amelia saw what Otto did to Delia. I know Delia confided in her before and after her death. I know Amelia moved the stolen jewels from under the Willow grave. And now I know where they are.”

Maxwell looks around. “She came? You saw her?”

Alexis blinks sadly. “No. I just know.”

* * *

A
thin saber
of moon illuminates the deserted park as Alexis leads Maxwell back to the park bench. He nods to assure her no one followed them and she shakes her head to tell him there are no ghosts. The digging is easy and it takes only minutes before Maxwell pulls out a moldering burlap sack from a shallow hole under the bench.

The dim slice of moon is enough to shatter thousands of sparkles across Alexis’ face as she uncovers a diamond necklace. She quickly wraps it all back up and stuffs it into her black backpack.

“No one saw us?”

Maxwell scans the lawns and paths again. “No. There’s no one around.”

In the car he pauses before starting the ignition. “How did you know Fenton’s jewels were there?”

“Delia, your grandmother, visited that bench every week and my mother would meet her when she could. Its location is in between half a dozen regular errands; just a mundane place that they made their own special spot. No one would recognize it as anything more.”

“Unless they knew both women met there regularly. And only you could know that now.”

He starts the car and they head back to Blackvine Manor Apartments. “So the threatening letter had to do with Fenton’s stolen stash of stolen jewelry. Who else knew about it?”

Alexis thinks. “Otto.”

Maxwell doesn’t deny his grandfather would send threatening letters but he points out, “The whole city knew, actually. It was big news for a long while.”

“But the letter made it personal. We need to find out more about Collin Fenton. Before something else happens,” Alexis says urgently.

She opens the car door before Maxwell can turn the engine off. A. J. is ranting up at the apartment building, throwing whatever rocks he can find on the front lawn.

“You ruined everything! You ruined her! I’ll tear you apart before you put harm to my daughter!”

“Dad!” Alexis catches his arm before he can fire another rock at the front doors of Blackvine Manor.

A. J. is distraught. “I can’t get in. I got in but something shoved me back out. I thought you were in there. I couldn’t get to you.”

“It’s okay. I’m here. Everything is alright.”

Except when she looks up at Blackvine Manor a looming shadow splits into a dark and harrowing vision. A poisonous force wells up, eating away at the core, tearing everything apart from the inside out, hurting everyone and everything she holds dear.