Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) (39 page)

No
!
You’ve got to stop this
.
You’ve got to get a grip, she told herself
.
You’re being ridiculous
!
You don’t believe in all that psychic mumbo jumbo and no one is out to get you
.
You’re upset
and worried
about David
,
you’re still shaken up after the scenes
with Louise
and Father Andrew
and you’re not thinking clearly
.
That’s why you’re so jumpy
.
Remember, there are a lot of mentally ill people out walking around
.
That doesn’t mean they’re dangerous
.
That doesn’t mean they’re after
you
.
But, boy, Halloween sure does bring out the crazies!

A thought occurred to her. Maybe it’s someone I know, one of our neighbors, just playing a trick on me. After all, it is Halloween.
I’ll bet that he’s
standing outside the window right now with his mask off, laughing
his head off
. Hesitantly, she pulled the drape aside, just enough to peek out. There was no one there.

She sat back down at her desk, folded her hands, bowed her head and closed her eyes.

“God, please help me,” she prayed aloud. “I don’t know what to do or where to turn.” After several minutes, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes. I know what I need to do, she
realized
.
I need to go talk to Nana
.
“Thank you,” she whispered, looking up toward the ceiling.

She
glanced
at her watch and saw that it was
finally
time to go
.
She took her purse out of a desk drawer, grabbed her coat off
of
the
coat tree
by the door and turned out the lights
.
She closed the door behind her and headed down the dimly lit hallway toward the exit
door
.

As she stepped out into the sunshine, she breathed a sigh of relief
.
When the sun was out, she always felt so much better and, s
omehow, just the thought of talking to her grandmother eased her mind
.
For as long as she could remember, s
he’d always turned to Nana when she had a problem and she never failed to feel better after she did.

She
made her way down the hill from the church to the cemetery, the wind whipping around her
.
It’s so pretty out
and not all that cold
but
this wind
sure is
making it
chilly, she thought, buttoning her coat and pulling the collar up to her chin as she walked
.
Fallen leaves swirled through the air, some hitting her in the face, some brushing against her
.
At her feet, leaves swirled around and around like a tiny tornado. She smiled, remembering how Nana had called that the ‘dance of the leaves.’

She went directly to her grandmother’s grave and
stooped
down to clear away the
debris
that covered the inscription on the tombstone
.
She heard a noise
behind her
that sounded like
light footsteps making their way
through
the
dried leaves and twigs. She glanced
over her shoulder
,
expecting to see one of the neighborhood
kids
.
She knew that they
often cut through
the woods
, taking a shortcut from the street that ran behind
them
. B
ut
there was no one
there.

It’s probably just your imagination,” she said out loud
but, when t
he sun went behind a cloud
,
she
shivered.
Then, she heard the noise again. She stood up quickly, nervously surveying the surrounding area. All of a sudden, a black cat sprang from the woods
, startling her,
and
darted
past her.
She was so relieved that
she laughed out loud.

As she
turned back toward her grandmother’s grave
, she noticed a mound of freshly dug earth a few feet away. Curious, she
went
over and looked down
.
Her eyes
opened
wide and her hands flew to her mouth to stifle a scream
.
There, printed in bold black paint on a large rock were the words, “
FUTURE HOME OF ANN KERN
.”

Chapter 3
8

AFTER HER ALTERCATION WITH ANN
,
Louise went back to work, scrubbing floors and polishing
the
furniture
and woodwork
in the old church
.
However,
no matter how hard she worked, trying to distract herself, she couldn’t forget how embarrassed she’d felt when Father Andrew had walked in on the ugly scene
.

As she cleaned, she silently berated herself
:
I thought you learned years ago not to let your feelings show like that
.
I thought you knew how to control yourself, especially in front of people
.
Lately, you haven’t done a very good job of it
.
Evidently, you haven’t learned anything from the past.

She
went
into the sanctuary with the freshly laundered vestments
,
which
Father Andrew would wear at the Saturday evening and Sunday morning masses
,
draped over her arm. She went behind the altar and into the sacristy and hung them up in the small closet
.
She straightened the articles of clothing, placing the white amice, or priest’s scarf, on top of the other garments
.
She looked around the small dressing and storage room and was satisfied that everything was in
order. She was a firm believer in the old adage, “A place for everything and everything in its
place.”

As soon as she’d seen Father Andrew leave the church,
she
had gone into his office to use the telephone
.
She called
several police departments in Indiana
.
As she made her calls, pushing one button after another to try to reach someone who could help her
,
she was put on hold numerous times
.
Frustrated and angry, she paced back and forth
for what seemed to her like an eternity.
“I don’t want to talk to a computer,” she mumbled into the phone. “I want to talk to a real person!”

She thought she heard a voice coming from outside and stretched the phone cord as far as it would go
so that she could see
out the rear window
.
She watched as her daughter-in-law entered Father Andrew’s house
.
What in the world
is
Ann doing there
?
she wondered.
She ha
s
no business
going
in
to
the priest’s private living quarters
.
I’m the only one who has
a right to be there
when I go in to clean.
The nerve of that girl!
W
ill
Ann go into his bedroom and see what
I saw
the day
I
went
into the one room
he had forbidden
me
to enter
?
W
ill
Ann realize the significance of what she
sees
: that her father was responsible for the death of Father Andrew’s sister?

She couldn’t think about that now
.
Determined to find her son, she continued to make calls and, when she finally located where David was, she was informed that he was being held for a mandatory twenty-four hours
.
He wouldn’t be released until then
.
She felt
helpless and frustrated
;
t
here was nothing she could do
.
Worried about him, she left the office, gathered up her cleaning
supplies and, at exactly four p.m., locked the door to the supply closet, retrieved her coat and
purse and headed for home
.
She couldn’t erase the image of David behind bars
.
As she walked, she thought back to another time in her life when things had spun out of her control and she’d
felt powerless.

It was 197
9
.
David was seven years old
.
She remembered that she was standing at the
stove
in the kitchen, making dinner, when her husband phoned to tell her that he wanted a divorce
.

“You spineless weasel
!
You didn’t
even
have the guts to tell me
to my face
?
You’re such a coward
!
There’s someone else, isn’t there
?
You’ve been fooling around behind my back!” she screamed.

“Yes, there’s someone else but that’s not why I’m leaving you
.
Our marriage is over, Louise
.
It’s unhealthy and I can’t
be
healthy if I stay with you.”

“That sounds like a load of crap to me
.
So who is this other woman, this whore?”

“She’s not a whore
.
She’s someone who wants the same things in life that I want, someone who loves me for who I am,” he replied.

“A drunk
!
That’s who you are
.
Just a lazy, stupid, worthless drunk.”

“See how well you know me
?
For your information, I haven’t had a drink in five months
.
Five months sober in AA and you don’t even know that.”

“Is that where you met your whore, at one of your damn cult meetings?”

“AA is not a cult
.
It saved my life
.
And she’s a good person
.
At least,
she’s
not crazy.”

“Meaning that I am?”
             

“Meaning that you need help, Louise.
Maybe
seeing
a psychologist, maybe going to Alanon
meetings
would help you.
Ever since Daniel died, actually, maybe
even
before
that, you’ve
… .
”

“You son of a bitch
!
How dare you tell me I’m the one’s who’s crazy
!
I’m not the one with the problem. You are!
You’re the
crazy one
!
You think you can just walk out
?”
she
screamed
.
“You have responsibilities
!
What about David?”

“I’m truly sad, leaving him
.
I’m really going to miss him
.
Please tell him that and tell him that, as soon as I can, I’ll come see him.
No matter what you think,
Louise,
I do love my son
.
If I could, I’d take him with me.”

“Take him
?
You’ll never take him!”

“I can’t
.
I have to make my sobriety the priority right now
.
For me, that means leaving everything, the good and the bad, behind and making a fresh start
.
I can’t handle another scene with you so I’ll stop by sometime when you’re not at home to pick up my clothes
.
The house, the furniture, it’s all yours.”

“You’re damn right it’s all mine
.
And, I’ll make sure you
never
see your son again!”

She
remembered standing in the kitchen, still holding the phone long after he’d hung up on her
.
She didn’t cry
.
She stood there
.
Numb
.
T
hen, from somewhere deep inside her, the rage started to build
.
If the bastard wanted to leave, so be it
!
But he would get nothing from the house, nothing from her,
not even
his clothes
.