Chapter 24

My hand flew to my mouth, and my eyes grew wide. “We need to find out what Ella’s debt is for and to whom. If she’s involved in the same thing Mike was, Ella could be in danger.” I processed the news when the realization struck me. “I think Ella knows she’s in danger and believes being behind bars is the safest place for her right now.”

“You no longer think she could be the killer?”

“If there’s a connection between the two murders, then I don’t think so. If they’re not, I’d still say Ella’s a contender for Ivan’s murder, just not Mike’s. Either way, I don’t want her dead.” Deeply rooted in thought, the line fell silent. Finally, I spoke. “A guest said a few of them saw something translucent in a window, but it was too quick to tell for sure.”

“Which window?”

“The big one to my suite.”

“Are you sure he didn’t see you walking around? Or your shadow?”

“Nope.” I shook my head, even though she couldn’t see it. “He said I’d left the inn shortly before. It could have been pareidolia.”

“Para what?”

“Pareidolia. It’s when people see familiar objects or patterns in random, unrelated objects.”

“Hallucinations? And you said it happened to more than one? What, pray tell, were they drinking?”

I chuckled. “No, not hallucinations. Like when someone sees a rabbit in a rock formation. Or a dinosaur in the stars.”

“The face of Jesus in the clouds,” she exclaimed. “Except that’s not para-whatever-the-word-you-used.”

I sniggered. “Sure. But the weird part?”

“Like that isn’t weird enough?”

“It was the same timeframe in which the mystery book somehow got in my room.” 

“That’s curious indeed,” Sister Alice said.

“What if the ghost is helping me solve this murder? Leading me to an unlikely suspect.” Hearing how ridiculous it sounded, I instantly felt foolish. To save face, I told her the story about the fireplace turning on by itself in the library.

“I’ve heard of stranger things,” she said, surprising the breath out of me. A call came through, and I lowered the phone from my ear and glanced at it. “Brad’s calling. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Good luck,” she said wryly. “Take care of this once and for all and cut the man loose. No more procrastinating.” 

“I have; he refused to hear it.”

“This time make sure he does.”

By the time I answered Brad’s call, it was too late, so I dialed him back. He said he was on his way to Hallowed Grounds, and I told him I would leave straight away to meet him there. He hadn’t sounded like he was in a bad mood, so I assumed his interview with Detective Griffin went okay. Not one to openly show anger, the couple of times he had since Ivan’s murder were unfamiliar to me. And unfamiliar was uncomfortable. 

****

Sister Alice called Sister Eunice to ask when to pick her up. Izzy was there, but she assumed Tony would want Eunice to stick around so Izzy wasn’t in his kitchen while he wasn’t there. Unless Tony planned to pull a double and stay himself. When Sister Eunice said as much to Sister Alice, she rolled her eyes. “Men,” she muttered. “Makes me grateful I’m married to God.”

Sister Eunice bounded out the front porch door and down the stairs as soon as Sister Alice pulled in front of the inn. She handed Sister Eunice a helmet. 

“Why don’t you borrow Father Vincent’s car when you pick me up?” Sister Eunice complained.

“This or walk; your choice.” She extended the helmet farther and grinned.

“But the bugs—”

“Won’t bother you if you keep your mouth closed.” 

Sister Eunice reluctantly reached for the helmet in defeat and heaved a sigh. Before she put it on, she said, “I hope Tony doesn’t kill Izzy one day while I’m not there to referee.”

Sister Alice pressed her lips together. “Probably not a good thing to say when he’s already a suspect in a murder that happened in that very kitchen.”

“Uffda, you’re right,” she said. “I hadn’t realized chefs are so territorial, though. But Izzy can be an irritating little devil. It’s like she tries to find what bugs Tony and does it.”

Sister Alice tipped her head from side to side and gave a bemused smile. “Sounds like Izzy. She’s been that way since she was just a tot. Andie Rose may want to think hard before hiring her.”

“I can stay on as long as needed if Sister Ida is okay with it.”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Sister Alice said. “Exactly how mad did Tony get?”

“He didn’t talk much, but I could practically see the steam coming outta his ears from repressed emotions.”

“Is that so.” Sister Alice frowned. She’d always liked Tony and didn’t want to believe he could get angry enough to kill. “Eunice, what’s your impression of Tony after working with him the last few days?”

“Nice young man.” Sister Eunice clasped her hands together in front of her. “And so handsome.” Dreamy eyes and a goofy smile comedically transformed her expression.

“Eunice,” she scolded. “I didn’t ask how he looks. What is your impression of him as a person?”

Sister Eunice put her hands on her hips, dropping her helmet as she did. She reached over to pick it up. “I already told you he’s a nice young man.”

“Because he’s handsome?” Sister Alice scoffed. “Do you think he’d be capable of murder?”

Sister Eunice’s eyes grew wide. “Why, I’d hope not. I’ve been working in the same room as him. With big knives.” She twisted her mouth, then shook her head. 

Sister Eunice put on her helmet while Sister Alice started up the moped. This news on Tony’s behavior was unsettling at best. She crawled forward before Sister Eunice was fully on the vehicle, earning a swat from Sister Eunice.

****

Brad’s car was half a block from the door to Hallowed Grounds. I was stunned. He hadn’t arrived first in eons. I pulled into the parking lot behind the building and sat momentarily, taking a couple of deep breaths to compose myself. We’d been together for several years, just not the together part very often. In fact, last time and now again today, he hadn’t even come out to the inn. And there was that pesky little detail that I wasn’t ever leaving Spirit Lake anytime in the foreseeable future, and he would never, in a dog’s age, move here. He didn’t want to accept who I’d become, and I didn’t at all like who he had become. Respect had vanished as much as romance had. Reinforcement that it was time for both of us to move on.

I got out of the car, stood tall, straightened my jacket, and smoothed the front. I put my hands on my hips, took one more deep breath, let it out slowly, and started for the door. “Here goes nothing, Andie Rose,” I whispered. Aspen looked up at me and then at the ground. I reached down and scratched his head. “I know I embarrass you when I talk to myself, but you embarrass me too, sometimes, buddy. Like when you lick yourself in public.” He lay down and covered his face with a paw. I chuckled and gently tugged his leash. “Come on.”

As I walked past the coffee shop’s front windows to the door, I spotted Brad at a corner table, coffee in front of him, legs crossed at the knee, and focused on his phone. Probably looking up sports stats. 

“Hey,” he said as I approached the table. He leaned in to kiss me, but I turned my head, and his lips grazed my cheek. “What do you want to drink? I’ll go get it.”

I laid my hand on his arm. “Finish what you’re doing on your phone. I can get my coffee.”

“You sure?” He glanced at the screen on his phone and then back at me.

I felt a brush of irritation, and any apprehension I’d felt vanished. I was done being a convenience. A means for him to climb the corporate ladder.

“Positive.” Besides, Luka was at the counter talking with his son. As Aspen and I approached the counter, I smiled at Luka and raised my hand. “Before you get any idea that I’m following you, I’d planned to meet my boyfriend here without knowing you were here. This is a public place unless you have a restraining order against me.”

“Now there’s an idea,” he mumbled.

I nodded toward Brad, miles away on his phone, consumed by what he read there. “It’s a small town, so we’re bound to run into each other.” I said, sounding falsely cheery. 

Luka blew through pursed lips, then swallowed his annoyance. He looked at Roman, who observed our interaction. “Son, this is Andie Rose Kaczmarek.”

“We’ve met,” Roman said. “Hi, Andie Rose.”

I held my breath, hoping Roman wouldn’t elaborate on our last conversation. “Hey, Roman. Nice to see you again.” I offered him a smile.

Luka said, “She’s also the one who is intent on finding Ivan’s murderer. She’s been hounding me like a police dog on a scent.” He pressed his lips tightly together, his nose appearing even more prominent.

I tipped my head a bit. “Hmm. That’s an interesting choice of words.”

“Andie Rose,” Luka said, his pitch increasing, “let me be of some assistance to you. Give me space to talk with my son, and I’ll bring your coffee to your table when it’s ready.”

“Why, thank you, Deacon. That’s so kind of you.” I offered him the most angelic smile I could muster, then looked at Roman. “I’ll have a sugar-free caramel macchiato with almond milk. Please and thank you.” 

Luka grunted an unintelligible remark as I turned and left. 

“Someone needs a hug,” I said under my breath. 

On the way back to the table, Aspen stayed beside me, none too pleased. His behavior had never demonstrated fondness toward Brad, but when we met at Brewski’s, and again now, it was beyond his usual dismissive behavior. Brad continued to intently study something on his phone. I sat down, Aspen lay at my feet, and Brad placed his phone on the table. 

“Where’s your coffee?” he asked. 

I gestured toward Luka, standing at the empty counter. “Deacon Luka Molotov was kind enough to offer to bring it to me when it’s ready.”

“Oh.” He peeked at his phone again before laying it face down and focused on me. “About my marriage proposal.”

Despite a glimpse of genuineness and sincerity in his eyes from days past, the way he said it sounded like it was some business transaction—a business proposal rather than a marriage proposal. Which, if one took everything into account, it’s precisely what our relationship had become to him—a business deal.

“Brad—” I grasped the box that held the ring from my purse and laid it on the table. “I’ve already told you this, but you didn’t want to hear it. I can’t marry you.” Aspen tipped his head and looked at me as if I’d just told him we would chase bunnies and squirrels for the rest of the day. 

I’d gone through all the trite, pleasant-sounding rejections in my head (i.e., it’s not you, it’s me; you deserve someone better than me; you should have someone who can give you exactly what you want, etc.), but I finally decided honest and to the point was best. So he would know, without a doubt, that what I said is what I meant. I was not marrying him.

Surprised at the emotion collected there, I cleared my throat and took a breath. “A clean break is best so you can move on and find the woman who can give you the marriage and family you decided you want.”

He heaved a sigh and sat heavily back against his chair. “Don’t you think you’re being a little hasty?”

His reaction baffled me. This was the second hard “no” I’d given him. And how could he have thought I’d accept this…arrangement?

He sat up, leaned forward, and met my eyes. “Andie Rose, we’ve been together for five years. Now you’re telling me we wasted those five years?”

I flinched from the proverbial arrow. Wasted? Ouch. “Is that what you think our time together was—wasted?”

“It’s time I could have spent with someone who wanted the same thing as me.”

I had all I could do not to stand up and yell, “What time? That’s part of the problem—we didn’t spend time together.” Instead, I kept my composure as best I could and said, “First of all, I—we’ve—never discussed marriage and family. You’d never voiced or given any clue that’s what you wanted.”

“Be reasonable, Andie Rose.” I bristled at the manner in which he said it. Like I was a child. “It’s the natural order of things after a while.”

“So after five years comes marriage and a baby in a baby carriage as the child’s saying goes? Without so much as a discussion?”

“Now you’re being juvenile.” He inhaled slowly and exhaled through his nose as he slowly shook his head. “This is ridiculous.” 

Forcing myself to stay put and not get up and walk out the door took all my strength. “I won’t leave Spirit Lake, and you won’t leave the city. That’s a paramount detail with a marriage—” I struggled to find the right word. “Deal,” I finally said. Silence followed for a beat. “Brad, I want you to be happy. But I’m not the one that can make that happen. I will not marry you.” I slowly slid the ring toward him as he sat there, still as could be, staring at the box. When he looked up at me, his eyes were impossible to read.

“So I guess this is it then,” he said quietly, cupping the box loosely. “For the record, Andie, I loved you.”

Loved. Past tense. Words caught in my throat until I was finally able to whisper, “Yeah, me too.” I reached to touch his hand, but he jerked his back, clutching the ring.

I leaned back in my chair and looked out the window at the gray skies. How fitting. Yet I felt freer than I had in a long time. Luka waltzed over to our table, setting my coffee in front of me. “You have your hands full with this one,” he said to Brad. 

Brad paid him no attention and didn’t even grace him with a glance. Luka appeared not to have noticed as he strutted back toward Roman, said something to him, looked my way, then left. Stupid to make an enemy of a murder suspect, Andie Rose.

“How did your interview go with Detective Griffin?” I asked. Pathetic that murder was more pleasant to talk about than our relationship.

“I gave him a receipt and a suggestion to check the video cam footage at the Cenex station on the outskirts of St. Cloud to prove I was long out of the area during the time of the murder.” Irritation tinted his otherwise flat voice. 

“Oh. That’s good, then. You’re cleared, right?” 

Brad pushed his chair away from the table, letting me know he wasn’t up for further conversation. The chair’s legs scraped loudly on the tile floor. “Let’s not waste time on small talk, Andie Rose. Clean break, you said, right?”

“Talking about getting cleared in a murder investigation is small talk?” He remained quiet. “Okay, then, that’s fine. Let’s go. But first I need to use the ladies’ room. Can you watch my things for me?” I gestured toward my purse and coffee, nearly gone after taking gulps between sentences to quell my nerves. I’d begun not feeling well and assumed the last several days were taking their toll. Aspen stood to follow me. I gave him the stay command, and he gave me a death stare. Even exchange, I guess.

“Sure,” he said flatly. He tucked the ring box deep into his jacket pocket. 

Five minutes later, feeling worse instead of better and wanting nothing more than to get home, I trudged back to the table. Brad stood and walked out ahead of me, letting the door shut in my face. I stopped to take a breath. Hurt feelings didn’t look good on him. That I’d never noticed this before spoke volumes about our relationship from the beginning. Dodged a bullet with that one. And yet, it hurt how far we’d drifted from one another.

I shook my head, inhaled, and pushed the door open when a sudden bout of dizziness and nausea overcame me, followed by a stab of excruciating stomach pain.

“Oh,” I gasped, bent over, my hands on my knees, and rested my weight there. Another wave came, and I crouched down. I sensed Brad hovering over me. 

“Are you okay?” he asked calmly. Too calmly. 

He extended a hand to help me stand up, but I couldn’t grasp it. “Something’s…wrong,” I croaked, voice hoarse. I hadn’t had a panic attack for a while, but one never forgets what they feel like, and this wasn’t it.

Aspen sat close beside me and whined. His cool, moist nose touched my cheek, and he licked it. A legion of feet circled me on the sidewalk, but I couldn’t look up to see who they were. I just prayed I didn’t hurl on their shoes. 

“I called an ambulance,” a young man said. Roman’s voice? 

“I just hung up from them as well,” a woman said. “I hope they don’t send two.”

I didn’t care how many arrived so long as at least one did. Brad squatted beside me and held my hair back from my face. “Andie Rose, are you pregnant?”

If I wasn’t in so much pain and discomfort, his question would have been laughable. We hadn’t been together in several months. Then, in a pain-induced haze, it occurred to me that was his way of asking if I was seeing someone else. The absurdity brought with it another swell of nausea. Then the sickness waned a bit, enough for me to wonder if maybe it was Brad who had been seeing someone else, therefore the lack of intimacy. Maybe she dumped his ass, hence the marriage proposal. 

Another spasm of pain barreled down on me, along with more nausea, and every thought vanished as I struggled not to pass out. And then, as sirens screamed, everything went dark.