Broken Promises (18 page)

She took the bag and smiled at him. “Thank you so much,” she said. “And please say thank you to Drina for me.”

Placing his arm around her shoulders, he walked the final two blocks to her apartment. At the front door they met Mrs. Gunderson and her nephew. Mrs. Gunderson’s eyes widened when she saw Clarissa and Meri.

“Hello, Mrs. Gunderson,” Clarissa said. “This is my friend, Meri. Mami Nadja sent him to help me walk home.”

“I didn’t know you were friends with Mami Nadja,” she sputtered. “You never told me…”

Meri pulled Clarissa against him and met Mrs. Gunderson’s eyes. “She is granddaughter to Nadja,” he said. “She is under Rom protection. We are watching her.”

Mrs. Gunderson’s face turned pale. “Granddaughter?” she exclaimed. “She never told me. I didn’t know.”

“You now know,” he said, his voice tight. “You now are warned.”

Mrs. Gunderson reached into her shirt and pulled out the envelope Clarissa had given to her nephew that morning. “There was a mistake,” she said, handing it to Clarissa. “This belongs to you. We don’t want it.”

“Her mother is protected too,” Meri said.

“Nothing will happen to her,” Mrs. Gunderson babbled, a bead of sweat appearing over her lip. “Please, believe me.”

“You will not be bothering them again,” he stated.

“But Clarissa, dear, you do want me to babysit you, don’t you?”

Clarissa shook her head. “That’s okay,” she said. “I have angels watching over me.”

“Lydia, I’m so sorry,” Mary said, as the group met in an antechamber near the courtroom. “I had no idea Thanner would lie to the jury about his brother.”

Shaking her head, Lydia continued to pace along the front of the room. “There was nothing you could have done about it, Mary,” she said. “We knew he would probably dig up the information about you and ghosts, and we played it the best way we could.”

“We could have Gracie Williams testify,” Bernie suggested. “She’d tell the jury that Mary wasn’t nuts.”

Lydia turned to Bernie. “Gracie Williams?” she asked.

“She’s the psychologist who interviewed Mary after the shooting,” Sean said. “She really didn’t want to put Mary on disability, but at the time it was for the best.”

Confused, Lydia turned to Mary. “What does he mean, at the time?”

“Well, I was pretty new to all this ghost stuff,” Mary said. “And I really didn’t know how to, let’s say, filter very well. So everywhere I turned, I met a ghost. It was very hard to concentrate on my work as a police officer when there were ghosts from every era of Chicago history popping up and trying to share their stories with me. It also spooked out a couple of my partners.”

“So, your disability wasn’t because…” she began.

Mary grinned. “Because I was nuts?” she asked. “No, it was because I was distracted constantly, and it was a danger to the officers I was working with.”

“As a matter of fact, Mary has been called in several times to work as a consultant on some cases,” Sean said. “She has a great reputation and even the people who don’t believe in the supernatural feel that she has an uncanny knack for getting good information.”

“Do you think Gracie would be a good witness?” she asked.

Bernie and Sean looked at each other and started laughing. “Oh, yeah,” Sean said. “She will be a great witness.”

“But I’m not the one on trial,” Mary said. “Why are we bringing in witnesses to testify on my behalf?”

“Because it’s your word against Copper’s,” Lydia said. “And as it stands, Thanner is making it look like you invented the whole thing so Gary is blamed for Jeannine’s death.”

“But Copper lied about Jeannine at the hospital,” Bradley said. “The jury heard that.”

“And they also heard that Jeannine might have been running away from you,” she said. “And if Thanner has Copper testify, you can bet that he will say he was protecting Jeannine from an abusive husband.”

“All they need to win is reasonable doubt,” Sean added. “If one juror thinks you might have been abusive, Copper walks.”

“Well, that settles it,” Mary said. “Call Gracie and tell her my psychiatric file is now an open book.”

“I hope his brother haunts him for the rest of his life,” Rosie said, as they sat together in Mary’s living room. “Imagine, lying in court.”

She stood up and walked to the kitchen to refill her cup of tea.

Mary, sitting comfortably next to Bradley on the couch, nodded her agreement. “Well, I did make that suggestion to Garth,” she admitted. “And he agreed that his brother needed a lesson in integrity. I’d love to be a fly on Thanner’s bedroom wall tonight.”

“What did you suggest?” Bradley asked.

“The usual,” Mary said with a smile. “Groaning, moaning, some items being whipped across the room. Just a basic haunting, that’s all.”

“Brilliant,” Ian said, lifting up his tea cup in a toast.

“That’s my girl,” Bradley said, hugging her and placing a kiss on the top of her head.

“So, what’s next?” Stanley asked, leaning forward and snatching a cookie from the plate on the coffee table. “You need us to come and be character witnesses?”

“And you are quite a character, Stanley,” Ian said, grabbing the final cookie before Stanley took it. “But I’d think I’d rather have you and Rosie testify for me. Who knows what’s going to happen to me tomorrow on the stand.”

Smiling, Mary shook her head. “You’ll be fine, just wear the black shirt,” she said. “There are plenty of women on the jury. However, Stanley, I will certainly keep you in mind, just in case. So, be ready to hop in your car and head to Sycamore.”

“Anything to get me out of cleaning my office,” he mumbled.

“I heard that Stanley,” Rosie said, walking back into the room. “It’s Tuesday and we get married on Friday. So, you don’t have a lot of time left.”

“That’s right,” Mary said. “There are only three days until your wedding. What can I do to help?”

Rosie sat down on a chair across from Mary. “Two things,” she said. “We need to finish the project we started last night.”

She lifted her eyebrow knowingly and Mary nodded. “Yes, that project,” she agreed. “It does need to be finished before Friday.”

“And, remember, we have a date at the spa on Thursday,” Rosie reminded her. “Can you still make it?”

“Not only can I make it,” she replied. “I am going to need a day of pampering after tomorrow’s testimony. My whole life is going to be an open book; I only hope Lydia is able to keep the press out of the courtroom.”

Ian leaned back in his chair and took the last bite of cookie. “If not, I’m sure there will be plenty of television opportunities in your future,” he said. “Think of all the weird talk shows you’ll be invited to be on.”

Shaking her head, Mary laughed. “No thank you,” she said. “I really don’t want that kind of publicity.”

“Come on now,” Ian teased. “I thought that any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right.”

Mary picked up a pillow and tossed it at him. “Thanks a lot!”

Ian tossed it back. “Anytime.”

“How did your sleeping arrangements work last night?” Rosie asked.

Bradley cleared his throat a little. “Well, they were fine, just fine,” he said.

“Iffen you don’t mind sleeping with crazy rock and roll music,” Stanley grumbled. “They had it playing to all hours of the morning.”

“It was either that or not sleeping at all,” Ian retorted. “Your snoring was loud enough to wake the dead.”

Looking up at Bradley, Mary smiled. “And how did you sleep?”

“Like a baby,” Bradley admitted, “once I turned my music on, put my earplugs in and put my head under my pillow.”

“You had earplugs?” Ian accused. “And you didn’t share?”

Bradley shrugged. “Only one pair, sorry.”

Ian stood up. “Well, if they worked, I think I’ll swing by the store this evening before we call it a night,” he said, turning to Stanley. “Anything you need while I’m there?”

“I wouldn’t mind a quart of ice cream,” he said. “Rocky Road. It helps me sleep.”

Ian nodded. “Rocky Road it is. Bradley, anything I can pick up for you?”

“No, but I might tag along and get a couple things for breakfast,” he said.

He turned and gave Mary a quick kiss. “Mind if we leave a little early?”

“No, actually, Rosie and I have a project we’re working on,” she explained. “And it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get an early start.”

“Stanley, do you want to come along?” Bradley asked. “Or do you just want the keys to my place?”

Stanley stood up and walked over to Rosie, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I think I’ll stop by my place afore the night gets too late,” he said. “I’ll pick up a couple of things for tomorrow. I’ll meet you both later.”

Ian nodded. “Okay, then, Rocky Road for you,” he said. “Good night, ladies.”

Stanley entered his home cautiously. He only turned on the lamp in the living room, leaving the rest of the house in shadows. He had walked through the house so many times in the dark, he knew his way without light. He stopped in the middle of the living room, trying to read the atmosphere of the house. Even though he had seen a ghost, he didn’t have a bad feeling when he entered his home. He felt a little uneasy, but he chalked that up to experiencing something new, rather than something evil.

“Verda,” he called out softly. “I’m back. I’ve been trying for the life of me to remember what you want, I just can’t.”

He moved through the house, into the hall and finally into his bedroom. He turned on the bedside lamp, which cast a soft glow throughout the room. “Iffen it’s so important, can you give me a clue somehow?” he asked. “I’m a little older than I was when we were last together. My memory wasn’t great then, it’s worse nowadays.”

He opened his drawers and pulled out some clean clothing for the next couple of days and packed them inside an overnight case. “Maybe you’re wondering why I’m sleeping at Bradley’s,” he muttered. “I guess I was spooked seeing you those first couple times. Guess it was easier to run away, than figure out what you wanted.”

He put his bag on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. “You know, I think you’d like Rosie,” he said. “She’s kind of a no-nonsense gal like you. She don’t let me get away with much. She’s even making me clean my office afore we get hitched on Friday.”

Yawning, he stretched his arms and laid back on the bed, his feet still on the floor. “Don’t know why I ain’t sleeping here,” he muttered. “I miss this old bed. It creaks like I do.”

He grabbed a pillow from the top of the bed and stuffed it behind his head. “Maybe I’ll just relax for a few minutes,” he said. “They ain’t gonna be done with their shopping for a while, anyways.”

In a few moments, Stanley was asleep on the bed and snoring was filling the room. The streetlight cast a soft shadow through the curtains into the room, across the carpet, on the corner of the bed, on the bottom of the dresser and on the ghost standing next to the bed watching over the sleeping man.

He was back in the hospital, he realized, as he walked down the halls that had become so familiar to him when Verda was sick. He knew the nurses by name, remembered each one of the paintings that hung on the wall and was familiar with the codes used by the operator to broadcast urgent information in a calm and friendly manner, so the residents and visitors weren’t unduly alarmed.

Walking up the muted rose-colored hallways, he turned the corner at the nurse’s station and walked to the left. Verda’s room was 314.
Funny,
he thought,
even after so many years, I still remember her room number.

The door was slightly ajar, as usual, because Verda didn’t like being alone, especially as she got weaker. She wanted to be sure someone could hear her if she had to call for help. He slipped through the doorway and stood silently for a moment, watching his wife in her hospital bed. The pillow seemed too big for her head, her body too tiny and frail for the bed. The machines and tubes that surrounded her more animated than she was. He cursed silently, she was shrinking away in front of his eyes and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Stanley,” Verda called out weakly. “Is that you?”

He took a deep breath and pasted a smile on his face. “Hey, sweetheart, how are you doing this morning?” he asked as he strolled into the room.

He moved up to the side of the bed, took her tiny hand is his and leaned over and gave her a soft kiss. “I thought I’d steal you away from here and we could go on a picnic,” he said.

She smiled up at him. “Oh, that would be lovely,” she said, her voice thin and frail. “Where should we go?”

He stroked her hand gently. “Well, I was thinking we could drive up to Wisconsin,” he suggested. “How about Devil’s Lake? I could rent a boat and we could spend the afternoon paddling around under the trees.”

“Then we could take a hike up on the bluffs,” she added. “I love hiking on the bluffs.”

He nodded and lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. He willed back the tears that were threatening to spill into his eyes. “And we could watch the sunset from up there,” he said. “I could bring your favorite picnic blanket in case it got cold.”

She took a deep breath and sighed. “I do seem to get cold lately,” she admitted. “I think my blood might have thinned down a mite.”

“Well, you need to eat a little more and put some meat on your bones,” he said, trying to be a little gruff because she would expect it. “You already got a cute, little girly figure, you don’t need to get any thinner.”

Laughing, she weakly pulled their clasped hands to her face and rested her cheek on them. “Do you really think I still have a cute girly figure?” she asked.

“Always,” he agreed immediately.

Looking out into the room, she sighed. “Do you remember our first date?”

“Best day of my life,” he said. “How could I forget?”

“You were so handsome in your uniform,” she said. “My heart just fluttered at the sight of you.”

“I saw you and my eyes popped out and my jaw dropped,” he said. “I didn’t know they let angels walk around on the earth.”