Nearly Departed (Spring Cleaning Mysteries) (16 page)

I pulled my hand free.
"Family. I know that's something a lot of people can't understand, but for me, it's the reason."

"
I understand."

There was such sadness in his tone that I looked up at him.
"You do?"

He cleared his throat, put down his fork, and pushed his chair away from the table.
"I've got something I've got to take care of this morning. I should be at the frat boy house by ten. Do you mind if we don't start work until then?"

"
No problem."

"
You won't go in there and start without me?"

"
I promised you I wouldn't, and I make every effort to keep my promises."

"
Even if they're to your detriment apparently," he said dryly.

"
Those most of all," I joked.

A half-smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, but it didn
't reach his eyes. "Okay, I'll see you there at ten."

With a nod of thanks in Carla
's general direction, he strode out of the diner.

My favorite waitress returned to the table to refill my cup.

I held out a hand to stop her. "Just the check please, Carla."

"
No can do. I didn't realize the other day that you and Barclay are friends. No friend of his ever pays at one of my tables."

That piqued my curiosity.
"Why's that?"

"
Because he's an excellent judge of character." The very reason I liked Carla so much (that she didn't indulge in much chitchat) meant that she wasn't forthcoming with any more information.

"
We're not friends," I explained. "He works for me, so you can give me my check without any qualms."

She shook her head.
"Everyone, especially that man, deserves another chance. You're a good person for hiring him."

"
I was desperate."

She laughed and walked away.

She never did bring me my bill.

*  *  *

When Martin's parents had claimed that no one was looking for answers in their son's case, I wondered if they were right. I'd thought about asking Alan Reed, but I had decided that probably wasn't the best of ideas, considering his animosity toward Smoke. I did however have one other contact who would have the information I was looking for.

Leaving the diner, I walked across the street
, planted my butt on a bench, and waited for Megan Perron to wander out of her morning yoga class, looking all Zen.

Not only had she been valedictorian of our high school class, but she
'd been the girl who managed to make it all look effortless. The grades, the extracurricular activities, the boyfriends, the friends, everything had seemed to fall into place for her as though the stars had been aligned just so at the time of her birth.

It hadn
't surprised me that she'd continued to excel in college and had gotten into a first rate medical school. It did strike me as odd that she'd forsaken a career bringing in big bucks to become the county Medical Examiner.

I just sat there in the sun, imagining all of the Vitamin D in my body getting activated by the rays and obliterating all the free-radical damage I
'd done with the margaritas and steady diet of pizza.

Sure enough, a few minutes later Megan, hair in a ponytail, skin flushed with feel-good endorphins
, came out. She spotted me immediately and came to sit down beside me while swigging some green juice concoction from her environmentally-friendly bottle.

"
Does the irony that you regularly indulge in corpse pose ever occur to you?"

She smiled the serene smile of someone who
'd cleared her mind and contorted her body into ridiculous positions with even more ridiculous names. "How are you, Vicky?"

"
I'm tired. I'm working at the frat boy house."

She blanched a bit. I worried that her vegetarian lifestyle was depriving her of iron.

"It's a real mess," I continued.

"
I can only imagine."

"
But there's something that's bugging me about it."

A guarded expression dropped over her features like a knight
's mask clanging shut. "You know I can't discuss an open case with you."

"
So it is open? Someone's investigating? It's not just getting a rubber-stamped 'case closed?'"

"
I wouldn't know." She glanced up and down the street to see if anyone was within earshot. "What's this about, Vicky?"

"
I met Martin Nottoway's parents yesterday. Have you met them?"

She nodded.

"They seemed pretty sure their son wasn't a murderer."

"
All parents are," she muttered, practically repeating Smoke's words verbatim.

"
Still…I've talked to someone, and he seemed pretty sure Martin didn't do it."

"
Who?"

I couldn
't very well tell her it was the ghost of another kid who she'd autopsied. "A college kid who was hanging around. You saw the bodies, Megan. Do you believe that the one kid killed his two friends and then himself?"

She nervously looked up and down the street again.

"Megan?"

"
I don't know."

"
You don't know? Isn't it your job to figure that stuff out?"

She frowned at me. I
'd totally blown her sense of inner peace. When she spoke, she did so slowly, choosing her words carefully. "The evidence would support that theory."

"
But…?" I coaxed.

She took a long draw of her green juice.
"But there were no signs of a struggle."

"
That doesn't make any sense. The place was trashed, and there was blood everywhere."

"
And yet there isn't a single defensive wound on either of the bodies. Each was shot multiple times, so if there was just a single shooter the second boy killed should have been aware of what was going on. Unless of course there was more than one shooter, and it was a coordinated attack." She sat quietly for a moment as we both considered what she'd revealed.

I thought about Martin
's shock and denial. "You don't think the Nottoway boy did it?"

"
It's not my job to figure that out. I've just urged the detective in charge of the case to keep digging and to not rubber stamp it."

"
Thanks, Megan. I appreciate the info."

We stood up to go our separate ways. I was surprised when she pulled me in for a tight hug.

"It's not your job to figure this out, Vicky. Please be careful," she whispered in my ear.

"
I will," I promised.

I got to the frat boy house a little before ten. Since I
'd promised Smoke I wouldn't go in without him, I had planned on waiting in the van for him to arrive, but Martin was out on the stoop. He wasn't alone.

I squinted at the woman he was with. She had her back to me, so I couldn
't see her face. I couldn't see through her either, which was odd, because it appeared that she and Martin were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.

I climbed out of the van so that I could get a better look at her. She definitely didn
't shimmer in the sunlight the way he did, but I could hear her laughing and talking with him. I watched their game carefully. Martin made scissors. The woman made a rock. She smashed his scissors even though she shouldn't have been able to see his hand.

I sucked in a breath. She could
see
him. She could see ghosts!

I rushed toward them eager to meet someone who shared the same gift/curse as me.
"Hello?"

She turned toward me
, and I could finally see her face.

She had the distinctive features of someone with Down Syndrome. She smiled at me.
"Hello!"

I tried to ignore the sense of disappointment I felt. I thought I
'd found someone like me, but obviously I hadn't.

"
Do you know how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Do you want to play with us?" She waved her hand to encompass Martin who sat watching me.

Maybe I
'd found someone more like me than I'd realized. "I…I'm not sure it's a three person game."

"
That's true. Why is he missing his face? I asked him, but he doesn't have a mouth, so he can't tell me."

I couldn
't very well tell this innocent that her playmate had been brutally murdered.

"
There was an accident," I said slowly. "And he was hurt."

She nodded as though that made sense to her.

"It wasn't his fault." I was speaking to Martin now, offering up an apology. "I'm going to find out who did it to him."

Martin flattened his hand over his heart, pantomiming his thanks.

I nodded at him before turning my attention back to the woman before me. It was hard to guess how old she was, definitely not a teenager, older than that. "Can I help you somehow?"

"
My brother told me to wait here for him."

"
Here? On these steps?"

She nodded.
"He's going to take me for Chinese food for lunch."

"
That's nice. Do you want to call him?"

"
Why?"

"
So that we can tell him where you are."

"
But he knows. He told me to wait here and play Angry Birds," she motioned to a cell phone discarded beside her. "But it was more fun to play with him." She pointed at Martin who raised his palms as though to say
Guilty as charged.

"
It's nice that you got to play together, but don't you think your brother might be worried about you?"

"
No."

I scratched my forehead, feeling way out of my depth.
"Maybe you should call him just to make sure."

"
Okay."

I reached for her
cell phone hoping that there was an In Case of Emergency number programmed into it.

The telephone had nothing on the woman
's lungs as a means of communication. "Suh-Moke!" she shouted loudly enough to make my headache exponentially worse. "Suh-Moke!"

Spring Cleaning
's employee raced out of the frat boy house. The unflappable man appeared panicked. "What's wrong?"

The woman pointed at me.
"She said to call you."

"
I meant with the phone," I said weakly, holding it up to prove my point.

"
I see you've met my sister, Halley." Smoke marched down the stairs and put his hand on his sister's shoulder. "Halley, say hello to my boss, Ms. Spring."

"
Hello." She gave me that wide open smile of hers again, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"
Please call me, Vicky. You have a very pretty name."

"
I'm named after a comet. Have you heard of it?"

I nodded.

"You must be really smart then."

I laughed.
"No, my brother fancied himself to be an amateur astronomer, so he was always talking about comets and constellations and space stuff."

"
Cool!"

"
Ms. Spring and I have to work now, Halley." Smoke tenderly brushed the hair out of his sister's eyes.

"
She said to call her Vicky."

I chuckled. At least one of them got my name right.

"We're going to work now," Smoke replied to his sister patiently. "You play Angry Birds, and when it's lunchtime we'll go have Chinese food."

"
I want to play Rock, Paper, Scissors!"

He shrugged an apology at me.
"I can't right now, Sweetheart."

"
Not with you. With him!" She pointed at Martin.

Smoke sighed.
"Okay, whatever you want." He tilted his head to indicate I should follow him inside.

"
It was nice meeting you, Halley."

"
Vicky?" Halley asked as I climbed the stairs.

"
Yes?"

"
Will you come to lunch with us?"

I looked to Smoke for guidance. He shrugged one shoulder
, and his expression was unreadable. I was on my own with this one. "I'd like that."