Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) (46 page)

She couldn’t breathe
.
He was twisting the cord around her neck,
choking her
,
and he was pulling it tighter and tighter
.
She tried to swallow and her mouth filled with a bitter, metallic liquid
:
blood, her blood
.
She gasped for air and clawed at the cord that was strangling her
.
She
tried to kick him but she
couldn’t move her legs
.
H
er head throbbed with an almost unbearable pain
and she felt light-headed
.

She fought as hard as she could
to stay conscious
but she knew
that
her strength was almost gone
.
She squeezed her eyes shut and saw white lines that looked like flashes of lightning zigzagging back and forth, on and off. She gritted her teeth in pain.
Death was closing in on her; she knew it
.
Was this it
?
Was this how her life was going to end
?
Please God, no, she silently prayed
.
Please God, help me!

Gathering every ounce of strength she had left,
she
pushed
against
the intruder
as hard as she could. H
e
stumbled
back
wards
,
smashing
his leg
into
the coffee table
, causing it to move
several inches
.
He
quickly regained his balance and
started back toward her.
As
she
struggled to
catch her breath
, she
saw
one of her son’s
Hotwheels roll out from under the table.
The
man stepped on it,
lost his balance and
fell
straight back
.
His head slammed into the corner of the table and he collapsed onto the floor.
Blood
poured
from his head
onto the
hardwood
floor.

She
pulled the cord from her neck
,
sank to the floor
and closed her eyes
. She heard a noise
.
Oh, my God!
Was he getting up? Would he come after her again?
Her eyes popped open.
Olivia
was
sitting in the doorway in her wheelchair with her cell phone
in one hand and
a
gun,
aimed
at the intruder, in the other.
A few seconds later,
Lawrence
appeared
behind
his mother
with a tire iron in his hand.
They didn’t need the weapons; the intruder was dead.

Chapter
4
4

Thanksgiving Day

THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE KERN’S APARTMENT
was festive. Danielle and Davey had made placemats for each of the dinner guests. They’d drawn a different scene depicting Thanksgiving on each one
.
For
the
centerpiece on the
kitchen
table, they’d
surprised Ann by
collaborat
ing
with Lawrence
to create a replica turkey
,
with brightly colored feathers
and a pilgrim hat
, made out of
papier-mâché
.
Everyone sat around the table, talking and laughing
with
the
fans’
cheers
at
the televised
Dallas Cowboys versus the Seattle Seahawks
game in the background
.

Ann was feeling a little apprehensive though; there was still one more guest who hadn’t arrived yet. When the doorbell rang, she breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the door.

She
flung open the door and
reached out and hugged Bernie. “I’m so glad you made it!
”
she said. “I was beginning to worry.”

“I’m sorry I’m late,” he said. “Of all days, my car was blocked in and I had to knock on several
neighbors’
doors to figure out who the car belonged to.
Ann, yo
u know I wouldn’t miss this for the world!
I’m guessing that everyone else is here,” he said,
smiling and
pointing
toward the sounds of
animated voices
and
laughter
that were coming from the
next
room
.

She
nodded her head and winked
at him, holding out her arm to take his coat
.
Then, she l
ed him into the kitchen. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet my good friend, Bernie. Bernie, this is my mother-in-law, Louise. Louise, Bernie.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Bernie said.

“Likewise,” Louise replied.

“A
nd this is my landlady, Olivia,
” Ann said
, barely able to suppress a grin
.

Olivia gasped and all the color drained from her face. She looked like she had seen a ghost.
She looked up, into his blue eyes, eyes that she had never forgotten. “Jeremy? Is it really you? I thought … I read in the paper …”

“I know. I saw it too,” Bernie said, referring to the obituary in the newspaper of a man named Jeremy Koch. He
leaned down and took
her
hand
, holding it
tenderly
.
“I have to admit it gave me a chill but, as you can see, I’m alive and well.”

He put his arms around her shoulders and hugged her tightly to him.
There was so much he wanted to tell her, so much he needed to ask her but
“Olivia” was all he could manage to say. Bernard Jeremy Koch looked like he must be the happiest man in the world at that moment; he had found his lost love.

They gazed at each other for several seconds and then Olivia said
with a smile
, “Jeremy, this is Lawrence. I’d like you to meet your son.”

* * * *

Ann
smiled as she
carried the turkey platter to the table and placed it in the center.

“What a beautiful turkey!” Olivia exclaimed.

“Everything looks and smells so delicious,” Lawrence said.

“I’ll second that,” Bernie added.

“Thank you,” Ann said, smiling
.
“Let me get the kids and we can eat.”

“No
.
You sit down
.
I’ll get them,” David volunteered, scooting his chair back and getting up.

While he was gone, Ann said, “I
only
have one question for you, Bernie. Do I still call you Bernie or should I call you Jeremy?”

“Olivia’s the only person who ever called me by my middle name.” He laughed. “I always thought it was so romantic when she did that but I think the truth is she didn’t like the name Bernard.” He turned toward Olivia, who was sitting next to him
and put his arm around her shoulder
. “Am I right?”

Olivia laughed. “Let’s just say that, to me, you’
ll always be my Jeremy but, to the rest of the world, you’re Bernie.
”

“Well, that answers that,” Ann said as
Davey came running into the kitchen. “Gobble, gobble, gobble. I’m
starved!”

Danielle
, standing behind him,
rolled her eyes at her little brother. “See, I always knew you were a turkey.”

Everyone laughed.

“Who would like to say the blessing?”
Ann asked.

David cleared his throat
.
“I would.”

They all bowed their heads
.
David, Ann,
Dani
, Davey and Louise all made the
sign of the cross as
he
began
.
“Lord,” he prayed, “I have so much to be grateful for
.
I can’t begin to thank you for all that you have given me
.
Thank you for my wonderful family and friends,” he said, nodding toward
Bernie,
Olivia and Lawrence
.
“Thank you for sobriety
.
Thank you for giving me a wife who is understanding and who loves me enough to give me a second chance
.
When you
come as close as I did, Lord, to losing the people you love most … .” He paused to clear his
throat.

Ann looked over at her husband
.
His hands were folded and his head was slightly bowed but she could see the tears that were welling up in the corners of his eyes
.
Silently, she said a prayer of her own
.
Thank you, God, for giving me my husband
back
.

“And thank you, God, for all this food,” Davey interrupted.

Once again, e
veryone at the table laughed.

“Amen,” said David.

“Now, would you please pass me the mashed potatoes,” Davey asked politely.

Ann passed the bowl of mashed potatoes down to David who
sat
at the opposite end of the table next to his son
.
“Be careful,” she warned
.
“They’re hot.”

“Tell me ‘when
,’”
David said, as he scooped the potatoes onto Davey’s plate.

As
everyone at the table filled t
heir plat
es with the various dishes she had prepared and began to eat
,
Ann
was so happy that she couldn’t stop smiling
.
This was turning out to be the best Thanksgiving she’d ever had but a
month ago she never would have believed
it.

She thought back to all that happened on Halloween night. The police had responded
quickly to Olivia’s nine-one-one call.
She
cringed as she remembered the intruder being carried out of her apartment in a black body bag. She’d tried to erase the image from her mind but, sometimes, she still had nightmares of that night, reliving the terror she’d felt as the man tightened the
iron’s
cord around her neck.

The police identified her assailant as Gregory Davis, a known criminal
who had served time for breaking and entering, burglary and assault
. He was also the live-in boyfriend of Tina Butreaux, Olivia’s psychic.
As
she
and Olivia were leaving the police station after giving their statements, a
n
hysterical Tina Butreaux had come
barging
in
and confronted them
.

“I didn’t want you to talk Olivia out of her session,” she said, pointing at Ann. “
That’s why we had to do all those things.
I figured if me and Greg scared you and made a believer out of you, I wouldn’t lose Olivia’s business. I have
to earn a living too, ya know.
To think that, after Greg lost his job, I let him live with me rent
free!
So, yeah, we pulled some pranks on you b
ut I swear I didn’t know he would go to your house and try and hurt you. All those nights when he said he was out with his friends
… .
Well, I had no idea I was living with a monster. My God, think of the danger
I
was in. Why, it just gives me goose bumps. It could’ve been
me
.”

“Ann, I do believe this is the best stuffing I’ve ever tasted,” Olivia said
, bringing Ann back to the present
.

“Well, that’s one more thing I can thank my grandmother for,” Ann told her. “This is Nana’s recipe. She was a fantastic cook.”

“Does anyone need anything else to drink?” David asked, scooting his chair out and
walking toward the refrigerator.

“I need more milk, Daddy,” Danielle replied, holding
up
her empty glass.

“Coming right up,” he
said
.