I returned home for a quiet dinner with Mason and the kids. Stephanie was right— I was so lucky to have the family I had. We made it an early night, which seemed to suit everyone. The next day would be busy and Noah and Hannah would be staying over.
“I should be home by mid afternoon tomorrow,” I said.
“I’ll get home as soon as I can,” Mason said, “but don’t let the boys go out until I get here.”
“I think Lurleen and Danny will fill in wherever they’re needed.”
Vic rushed me out the door at two the following day saying she would finish up what needed doing. Her children were off in college, so Halloween was nothing more than handing out candy.
I hurried home to straighten up the house and then I called Stephanie to see if I could drop off the soup.
“That would be wonderful. Jonathan is here and I know he’d like to see you.”
I found Jonathan in a recliner in the living room.
“Thanks for the soup,” he said, “and for the talk we had. It’s great to be home, and Stephanie is the perfect nursemaid.”
She beamed at the compliment.
Nate was nowhere to be found and I asked about that.
“Once I told Jonathan that I made up the threats, we decided we didn’t need to have Nate hanging around. Jonathan’s agreed on some time away from here once his physical therapy is completed or when he can do the exercises on his own.”
“Do the police have any new leads on who ran you off the road?” I asked.
“No,” Jonathan said, “but maybe it’s unrelated to everything else that’s been happening. Maybe it really was some guy who was driving drunk and didn’t want to go to jail.”
“You don’t believe that, do you?” I asked. “You were run off the road on October 26th.”
“Sometimes coincidences happen,” Jonathan said. “If you see Adeline, please thank her for the plant. I’ll be talking to her once I get back on my feet. You can tell her that as well.”
“I think I need to get Jonathan back in bed in a minute,” Stephanie said. “Thanks so much for coming.”
Stephanie was making it clear our visit was over. It seemed equally clear that Jonathan knew more than he was telling me. My guess was that he had a pretty good idea who ran him off the road, and for some reason he was protecting that person. What I didn’t know was why he’d do that?
I said goodbye, and Stephanie walked me out to my car. “Please, Dr. Brown, let all of this drop. Nate is out of the picture. I know you thought something was going on between us, but I have everything I want now. Jonathan is home and we’ll have our time together.”
You don’t think anyone will come after Jonathan again?” I asked.
“Jonathan says he’s done with digging up the past. He’ll apologize to Adeline and he won’t be investigating the death of Luke or my father any further.”
“And Nicole’s death?”
“He’s leaving that to the police. Nicole made a lot of enemies and any one of them might have killed her. I didn’t like her, but I’m sorry she died the way she did. I’m still thinking of a small service for her. I’ll let Lurleen know when that might happen. Soon, I think, so we can put all this unpleasantness behind us.”
Unpleasantness? I felt I was in some alternate universe where no one was in danger any longer and the past could be erased. But there was no use in arguing about it.
“Enjoy your soup,” I said and left.
I hurried home to find Lucie and Hannah standing by the door. I hardly recognized them. Lucie looked fairly demure as Jennifer Lawrence and I wasn’t sure who would recognize her, but Hannah was unmistakable with her blond wig and outrageous outfit. Curves were kept to a minimum and I nodded my head at Lurleen.
“I knew you’d want me to tone things down a bit,” Lurleen said. “Danny is bringing over sandwich fixings. We’ll have a buffet that we can eat in between kids and trick-or-treating.”
I hadn’t heard Mason come in behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when he kissed me on the back of my neck.
“What, Ditie? You thought I was a vampire coming to claim you as my own?”
The girls giggled, and I turned around to kiss him back. “Just a little jumpy, I guess, appropriate to the day.”
Danny arrived and we had enough time to fix a sandwich and eat it before the first trick- or-treaters arrived. They came in clusters with a parent or two standing beside our magnolia tree as the kids ran up the walkway to our porch. We’d put Hermione upstairs so she wouldn’t scare the kids if she started to bark. Majestic would stay out of sight.
We had plenty of candy and plenty of kids. For a couple of hours we simply enjoyed ourselves. Danny had taken Noah and Jason out through the neighborhood and they came back with bags bursting with candy.
“You should have seen some of the decorations,” Danny said. “Some even scared me. Steve, your neighbor, lumbered out of a coffin as if he was the walking dead. Made me jump!”
“I wasn’t scared, Mommy,” Jason said, “but Noah screamed.”
“Did not,” Noah said.
“I would have,” I said. I wanted to end that particular debate before it got started.
We were done with Halloween by eight thirty. I took the candy to the kitchen island and labeled the bags. “We’ll sort this out tomorrow but right now you have to get to bed.”
Lurleen helped the girls get out of their costumes and take off their make-up. Mason helped the boys. By nine it was lights out and everything was quiet.
“I think maybe we wore them out,” I said to Mason.
“Possible.”
We put the sandwich fixings away and settled in the living room.
“Thanks, Lurleen and Danny,” I said, “you made my favorite holiday so much more fun.”
“What about me?” Mason asked. He smiled and showed me fangs he’d brought just for the occasion.
“You too, sweetheart,” I said, “but everyday is Halloween with you around.”
“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment,” Mason said.
Lurleen’s cell rang as she and Danny were getting ready to leave.
“What? What are you saying, Stephanie? You must be devastated.” Lurleen wandered off to the kitchen, for privacy I assumed, and returned ten minutes later.
She looked ashen.
“Josephine has been arrested for the murder of Nicole Ash.”
“Did you know about this, Mason?” I asked.
“No,” Mason said. “Kevin didn’t tell me.”
“I think I need to sit for a minute,” Lurleen said. “Could I get a glass of wine?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “I’ll join you.”
“I’ll get it,” Mason said. “You want a beer, Danny?”
“No thanks, I’m good.”
Mason came back with two glasses of wine. Lurleen and I both took a sip before I asked anything.
“Did Josephine confess to murdering Nicole?” I asked again. This time my question was directed to Lurleen.
“According to Stephanie, she confessed to everything—to killing her brother in the hospital, murdering Nicole, even driving Jonathan off the road,” Lurleen said. “It’s horrible, and Stephanie is extremely upset as you can imagine.”
“Did Josephine say why she did all that?” Mason asked.
“Or why she confessed?” Danny asked.
“Stephanie said Josephine felt she couldn’t go on with her lies. She told Stephanie that she killed her brother because she thought he didn’t take proper care of Luke. She thought Luke died because of Mr. Strout’s greed and negligence.
“More recently she began to have her doubts. Her tarot card reading with Crystal suggested she was wrong about something very important and that she needed to find the truth.”
“But Josephine acted as if she didn’t believe in tarot card readings,” I said.
“Well, it seems she did believe this one,” Lurleen said. “Remember I said she seemed upset but I didn’t know why.”
“She confessed to Stephanie?” I asked.
“Only after she told her she was going to go to the police,” Lurleen said. “Josephine said it was the only way she could begin to save herself.”
“Save herself by going to jail,” Danny said, “or maybe something worse than that.”
“Stephanie begged her not to go to the police,” Lurleen said. “What was done was done, but Josephine said a real jail would be better than the prison of her mind. Even death would be better than that.”
“Why did she attack Jonathan?” I asked.
Lurleen shrugged. “Stephanie said she didn’t explain that very well. Apparently, Josephine begged Jonathan to forgive her, that she got confused and somehow believed Jonathan was involved with Luke’s death.”
“But he wasn’t even in the country when Luke died,” I said.
Lurleen shook her head. “I don’t know. Stephanie was so upset when she was talking to me. Maybe she didn’t get a clear explanation from Josephine. What she did say at the end of the call was that she wanted to have a forgiveness gathering at her house tomorrow night. Josephine begged for that.”
“A forgiveness gathering?” I asked.
“A farewell to the people Josephine had harmed,” Lurleen said, “perhaps a seance to reach those she could and beg in her aunt’s name for their forgiveness. I told her I would come.”
“You’re not coming without me,” Danny said.
“She invited you as well, Ditie.”
“You’re not going at all, Ditie,” Mason said. “This sounds much too flaky and possibly dangerous.”
“We have to talk about this, Mason,” I said. “I don’t like you making decisions for me as if I can’t be allowed to decide on my own what to do.”
It was unusual for Mason and me to have a serious argument and never did we have them in public.
Danny and Lurleen stood. “We’ll let you figure this out in private,” Lurleen said. “Call me with your decision. I’ll be up.”
They left and for a few seconds Mason and I stared at each other in silence.
“Think about this, Ditie,” Mason said. “Josephine makes a sweeping confession to all the crimes without any good explanation of why Nicole was murdered or Jonathan run off the road. Did it occur to you she might be protecting someone?”
“I admit it sounded like a very neat package to tie up a series of crimes that didn’t seem to fit together,” I said, “and when I dropped off soup to Jonathan and Stephanie this afternoon, they were suddenly calm about everything. Stephanie told me she made up the threats in an effort to get Jonathan’s attention, and they both claimed there was nothing more to worry about. It felt surreal.”
“We know Stephanie is capable of lying,” Mason said, “and we know how devoted Josephine is to her. Is it possible Josephine is taking the blame for something Stephanie did?”
“Lurleen trusts Stephanie, and she’s a very good judge of character. Once I asked Stephanie about the threats she admitted she’d made them up and why she’d done it. Where is the danger, Mason?”
“Is that a joke?” Mason asked. He stood and sat down again. “We don’t know who killed Nicole, not for sure, or who ran Jonathan off the road. Yes, it might have been Josephine but it might have been any of a long list of suspects. It isn’t safe.”
“Why don’t you come with me? You and Danny can make sure nothing bad happens. We can let Kevin know, and if he says it will interfere with an ongoing investigation we won’t go. But I don’t see how one small gathering, even with a seance, could interfere with his investigation, which is most likely wrapping up. I don’t believe in this New Age stuff with tarot card readings or seances, but if it brings comfort to people I’m not sure what’s wrong with that. We won’t stay for more than an hour.”
“You intend to do this regardless of what I think or say?” Mason asked.
“Mason, if your mother asked you to do something for her, you’d do it in a heartbeat. Josephine is like a mother to Stephanie. I think this might be really important to both of them. Talk to Kevin. If he nixes it for any reason then we won’t attend. Otherwise, I think we should.”
Mason’s face darkened. “I think you’re making a mistake. I’ll talk to Kevin and see what he says.”
We split up at that point. I went upstairs and Mason stayed in the living room. I think we both needed time to cool off.
I called Melissa, Noah’s mom. She’d volunteered to look after the kids if I ever needed a baby-sitter and Lurleen wasn’t available. I told her I might need her the following night and that I’d let her know for sure when I knew.
“I’d love that,” Melissa said. “The kids can stay over if you like. We have plenty of room.”
“I’m not sure about two sleepovers in one week,” I said.
“I’m a taskmaster, Ditie. You haven’t seen me in action.”
“Okay then, thanks.”
Mason found me upstairs.
“Kevin had already agreed to the gathering. He and Stephanie spoke before she called Lurleen. He thinks it might lead to new information. While Josephine confessed to everything she didn’t get all the details right. She couldn’t explain where the car was that hit Jonathan or how she managed to find Nicole alone in the house. He said he’d have people there in case of trouble. I told him Danny and I would be present.
“Kevin said suspects might come, and he wanted to see how they acted. He assured me he’d have enough manpower to keep everything under control.”
“That’s what you’re worried about, aren’t you, Mason?” I asked. “You’re not sure he can guarantee that.”
“Of course that’s what I’m worried about. Josephine makes a blanket confession and some of it doesn’t add up. You don’t know who will be there or what kind of trouble they might cause? You seem to forget you are the mother of two children who have already lost one parent.”
“I never forget that Mason, but if the real murderer believes Josephine confessed to everything, why would anyone cause trouble?”
“That seems to be what Kevin thinks. He’ll be at the gathering in disguise, and he’ll be looking for someone to give themself away.”
“What kind of disguise could Kevin possibly wear that would fool anyone?” I asked. “With his red hair, his best bet would be to come as a clown, and I don’t think there will be clowns at this gathering.”
“I don’t know what he has in mind,” Mason said, “or why he agreed to this gathering. No matter what he says, there may be a desperate killer there and desperation breeds disaster.”
Just then we saw the late breaking news on the TV.” “Confession of murder by CEO of Killimon Care.” Kevin Delaney was lined up with his superiors announcing that Josephine Strout had confessed to the murder of Nicole Ash along with an earlier murder of her brother. We spent the next half hour listening to Kevin answer reporters’ questions, often saying he could not release some details yet but that he had every confidence the murder of Nicole Ash had been solved.
“Does he believe what he’s saying?” I asked.
“No,” Mason said, “but I think he sees it as an effective way to keep the real murderer from getting desperate. He never mentioned the hit and run either, which may let the murderer think that’s gone by under the radar.”
Mason rubbed his bald head. Back and forth. That let me know how really upset he was.
“This announcement is the only reason he’s allowing Stephanie to have her party, and it’s the only reason I’m allowing you to go.”
Allowing me to go? I swallowed my anger and tried to remember Mason’s job had always involved trying to protect people from harm or finding the culprit when he couldn’t do that. I thought about what he’d said. Josephine’s all-inclusive confession didn’t really add up. She was either protecting someone or afraid that someone else might be harmed if she didn’t confess.