Saturday Morning …
Doreen worked hard, trying to stay on top of the news, but found no mention of the gardener nabbed in the nasturtium bed. It tickled her fancy to label it that, even though she didn’t know much about the poor man or his family. Or woman?
What wasn’t funny was Mack’s attitude in keeping Doreen out of the loop, no matter who the victim. Mack could save her so much time researching on the internet. As an afterthought, Doreen wondered if that was not his whole intent, keeping her home, tied to her computer. No matter. After her research, she always headed outside anyway.
She stopped to think about the gender of the gardener again. Nobody ever said that the kidnap victim was a male or a female. And did kidnapped mean the same thing as nabbed? She wasn’t so sure. Maybe the gardener had been stealing something, and somebody had nabbed him in the act? She didn’t know what that meant either. Either way, she was looking for any kind of news coverage, but so far it was mighty slim. But it got her thinking about other cases in town that might remain unsolved.
What if somebody had been caught doing something, but, when they were taken in for questioning, maybe they disappeared? Or maybe somebody was supposed to get caught but never showed up to commit a crime that the police had a tip on? Or maybe somebody was kidnapped and was never found again? All these scenarios kept running through her head, and, of course, that just brought her back to the stack of newspaper clippings about the Bob Small case.
Finally she gave up pretending to be disinterested, rose, pulled out the basket, and sorted the articles. Nan had said her friend had collected all these clippings, and that woman had clearly had a serious passion for it. Doreen didn’t know exactly what it was that had brought Nan’s friend to the point of following Small so much, but a quick text to Nan would hopefully get some answers. Nan immediately called her instead. As soon as she answered, Doreen said, “It was just a question, Nan.”
“Why?” she asked, sounding absolutely thrilled. “Are you on another case?”
“I’m just thinking about studying this basketful of newspaper clippings that you had here from your friend.”
“Oh my,” she said, “that will take you quite a while to sort out. Are you sure you’re up to it?” she asked, her tone worried. “It’s a lot.”
“I’m fine. I’m recovering nicely.”
“Maybe you are,” she said, “but you’ve been under a lot of strain lately, and I don’t want you to overdo it.”
“Wow,” Doreen said into her phone. “Are you sure you haven’t been talking to Mack?”
“No, is he worried about you too?” Nan asked, sounding even more thrilled.
“Of course he is,” she muttered. “He always worries about me. Even when there’s no need to.”
“Of course he does. He cares, and anybody who cares worries,” she said. “So you really should do what you can to not cause them to worry.”
At that, Doreen snorted. “In that case, I might as well crawl into a glass room and stay there.”
That tickled Nan, as she burst out laughing with joy. “Oh, I do like to hear your train of thought these days. You do think differently than everybody else.”
Doreen stared down at the phone. “I don’t think I do,” she said. “It seems pretty normal to me.”
“What’s normal for you is not normal for everyone else.”
“Are you sure?”
“How many people do you think are out there, tracking down these cold cases?”
“I’m intrigued every time I hear about these crimes, past or present. Most recently it’s because of the kidnapping that happened last night. I named the case Nabbed in the Nasturtiums, but, if he was kidnapped, then he wasn’t necessarily nabbed.”
“It would be, I mean, if he was trying to evade somebody.”
“Hmm,” Doreen said, as she thought about it. “I guess that would work too.”
“Regardless,” Nan said, “you haven’t even told me about the case.”
“I’ve been trying to find some news coverage all morning,” she said, “but it seems like Mack has managed to squeeze out the press.”
“So tell me,” Nan said, her voice and tone elevated. “You always have such interesting tidbits before anyone else does.”
“I don’t really know anything, and you know I don’t like to be kept out of the loop.”
“You might not like it, but Mack sure wants to keep you out of it. He’s only thinking of your safety, dear.”
“That may be,” Doreen said in a grumpy voice. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“Besides, that Bob Small stuff,” Nan said, with a sad note, “it tore apart a lot of people. Especially my girlfriend.”
“Mack says he was involved in a lot of investigations that may have involved Bob Small,” she muttered.
“More than a lot. A lot is a euphemism. In this case I think we’re talking like fifty or sixty cases,” Nan said quietly. “That’s an awful lot of families who were torn apart.”
“But nobody was ever charged?” Doreen asked in horror.
“That’s because the man died.”
“I don’t think he did,” Doreen said, frowning, looking at what she had written down. “I think he went to jail for something completely unrelated.”
“It would be ironic if he spent a lifetime in jail for something unrelated to all the killings he was involved in.”
“Do we know for sure that he was involved in the killings?” Doreen asked.
“Oh, yes,” Nan said.
“You seem awfully adamant.”
“My girlfriend was very adamant and committed to making sure that this man paid for his crimes.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No, and she has passed away now,” Nan said sadly. “So no justice there.”
“Oh, Nan, I’m so sorry. I thought she was living in the Lower Mainland.”
“She passed away recently, but I didn’t even know. I told you that I would call her a while back. Remember? I didn’t get it done, and then, out of the blue one day, I called,” she said. “And, when I did, I found out she’d already passed. It broke my heart. I so wish I had at least called earlier, so I could have said goodbye.”
“I’m so sorry, Nan,” Doreen said. “That is rough.”
“It is. Life is full of regrets, and you have to minimize the ones you can.”
“I gather she had a personal reason for following this Small guy?”
“Her niece,” Nan said. “Her niece died many years ago. The crime was never solved, and she put it down to this Bob Small guy.”
“Did she have any proof, evidence, photos, or even a time line? Anything?”
“I don’t know,” Nan said. “I do know that I’m getting some of her belongings though. You can take a look, when they get here.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I called and learned of her death, her granddaughter asked if I wanted her books. And I said yes. She said she had also found some notebooks, some journals in there too, and I said that would be lovely too. I guess they don’t quite know what to do with her personal belongings. None of us ever really do. When we die, we leave all this stuff,” she said. “It’s only important to us while we’re alive, and, after we’re dead, it’s a burden for others to dispose of, as it’s not important to anybody anymore.”
“I don’t know about that,” Doreen said. “You had filled your house with antiques, specifically for me to do what I wanted with. I chose to put them up for auction, at some point getting cash instead, which you were perfectly happy with. If you had passed on at any time after that, I would still have been eternally grateful for your stuff.”
Nan chuckled. “And how do you feel about the stuff I have with me here?”
“I highly doubt you have very much,” Doreen said. And then she hesitated, before adding, “Or do you?”
“It doesn’t seem like much, but I’m sure, when you start clearing it out, whenever the time comes,” she said, “you’ll think it’s too much anyway.”
“I want you over your things, Nan. But once … but then,” she said, “I’ll treasure everything you have. And please let’s not talk about your demise anymore,” she said. “I was having a good day, and I really don’t want to start crying.”
“Oh dear,” she said. “If it makes you feel any better, go ahead and look into this Bob Small thing. I’ll let you know when Hinja’s boxes get here and if there’s anything of interest.”
“Okay, will do,” she said. “Oh, Nan, what was her niece’s name?”
“Annalise. Annalise Bergmont,” she said. “A really lovely girl.”
“Do you remember what happened?”
“She was coming home from ballet practice—I think it was—some sort of dance anyway. It was early evening. Her class was like at six to seven that night. And she was fifteen years old. Her mom let her go on her own all the time, and she would walk home afterward. One day she just never came home.”
“Was her body ever found?”
“No, it sure wasn’t. Nothing.”
“Oh, gosh, those are the hardest cases,” Doreen murmured. “To have no answers, no closure, that’s the worst of it all.”
“To not have them come home is the worst part,” Nan said, “but no answers makes for a lifetime of looking over your shoulder, wondering what you could have done differently and how you could have saved her, when it’s way past the time when you could have done anything.”
“I think living with the regrets, living with the what-ifs, that makes it very difficult,” Doreen admitted. “Maybe it’s a good thing I never had any kids.”
“No, and it’s not too late yet,” she said, “if you would give Mack a little more encouragement.” And, with that, she laughed and hung up on her.
Doreen stared down at her phone, but it was hard because, all of a sudden, she was beset with ideas and images of having Mack’s baby. “What a bad idea,” she muttered to herself, shaking her head. “I like the man, but I’m not sure I’m ready to start a family with him.” Best to not go there. “Besides, I’ve never been around a little kid in my life.”
“Thaddeus is here. Thaddeus is here.”
She looked to see Thaddeus strutting at her feet. “I know. I’m not my usual high-energy self, am I? And you guys are all probably wondering what’s going on. But still, I might have a new case—or at least something to think about. That’ll make me feel better.”
She looked around for the rest of her crew of animals, smiled, and asked, “Hey, do you guys want to go for a walk?”
Immediately when Mugs heard the magical word, he jumped up and barked. That got Goliath all excited, who’d been sleeping in a tiny ball on one of the two pot chairs in the living room. If there were such a thing as tiny, when it came to a cat of that size. But he came over to join Doreen, hopped up onto the kitchen table, and proceeded to shoot one leg sky-high and clean his butt.
She looked at him and said, “Do you really have to do that on the kitchen table?”
He completely ignored her, but then what else was new? The animals always ignored her. At least when she was telling them off. She got up, grabbed a leash for Mugs, and put it on. She then looked at Goliath and asked, “Should we try this again?”
He gave her a scowl, and she had to laugh at such a disdainful expression. “It would be good if you would learn though,” she said, coming toward him, her smile coaxing. But, as soon as he caught sight of the cat harness, he was gone, like a rocket. She groaned. “This isn’t helping, Goliath,” Doreen cried out. “You can’t keep avoiding this forever.”
A half cackle came from Thaddeus. She glared at him. “That isn’t helping either.”
“Maybe not,” he said.
She stopped and asked, “What did you just say?”
“Maybe not, maybe not, maybe not.”
“Oh, my goodness,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder if you do understand what I’m saying.”
“Maybe not, maybe not, maybe not.”
“And then the rest of the time I know you have absolutely no clue,” she said, staring at him, chuckling.
Thaddeus seemed to take offense and glared back at her. She groaned. “You guys will end up making me nuts. You all know that, right?”
He made another weird cackling sound.
She sighed. “Oh, fine, point taken. Let’s go before I get any more nuts.”
Of course if it would help or not was a matter of opinion. With the animals at her side she walked down to the river path. Thaddeus had taken up a perch on her shoulder and was even now peering around her head, as if trying to see everything all at once.
“It hasn’t been that long since we’ve been out here,” she muttered. “Stop making me feel bad.”
But they weren’t exactly ready to let her off the hook, and even Mugs was determined to sniff every little bush. Goliath was quite content to wander around, as long as he could keep just far enough away from her that she couldn’t catch him. She’d stuffed the cat harness into her pocket anyway, thinking maybe the opportunity would present itself to try again.
She wasn’t even sure when or how it had all gone so badly, but it had definitely taken a turn for the worse somewhere along the line. Most likely she just hadn’t been consistent with the training. That was the thing about animals; she was supposed to be so consistent, and she was anything but. Her approach appeared to be lackadaisical when it came to a lot of things in life.
Thankfully she hadn’t heard from Mathew in the last four days. She hadn’t heard from Mack’s brother, Nick, either, but then she knew that he was dealing with the fallout from Robin’s death. That had to throw a wrench in his plans. To think that her former divorce lawyer had been murdered was already chaotic, but to think Robin had been murdered by her own ex-husband was even worse. As for Rex, Mathew’s henchman and Robin’s lover, Doreen wasn’t sure if he was being charged with anything or not. After all, he did kidnap Doreen on Mathew’s orders.
She’d walked away from that whole incident and would just let the chips fall where they may. Nobody would be too upset at the police whenever investigating the various people involved. Her neighbors were probably more concerned about the neighborhood going to pot with all these extra cases, but at least this latest kidnapping case didn’t involve Doreen.
Trouble was that Robin and Mathew and Rex and then Robin’s ex-husband, James, had all come here to Kelowna because of Doreen being here. And, for that, she was sorry, yet she didn’t really want to think of any of this mess as her responsibility.
Mack would say she wasn’t responsible at all, but he was always trying to let her off the hook because he was a nice guy. She wasn’t sure anybody else was too willing to do the same, particularly her neighbors. Richard was barely civil most of the time, and now, since Robin had died shortly after being on her front porch, Doreen found a suspiciousness to Richard’s sideways looks. She didn’t think he really believed that Doreen had done something, but she could never really tell. He would just prefer that she would disappear and stay that way.
Not that it would happen. This was now her home, whether Richard liked it or not. With her menagerie all around her, she headed down past the back of Richard’s house, then several others, until she came around the corner, and the animals automatically headed toward Nan’s place. But she tugged Mugs in the opposite direction. “Nope, we’ll keep going for a while.”
Excited at the thought of a longer outing, they all happily headed in the new direction. Doreen smiled. “See? It’s good to go someplace else sometimes.”
Mugs woofed in delight and dropped his nose to the ground.
They wandered around, appreciating the afternoon sunshine and the chance to stroll around. She really enjoyed walking. A couple grocery stores were up ahead, but she’d have a hard time going in with all the animals.
“I guess we’ll do without a few groceries,” she muttered. Mugs woofed again, but this one was different, more urgent somehow. She looked at her dog and frowned. “We still have dog food, don’t we?” He woofed again, and that made her wonder if they were a little bit on the low side, but she didn’t think so. Granted it was a huge bag in the front closet and, while Doreen reached in to scoop up dog food, she didn’t look inside the deep bag. However, her routine today had her fingers sweeping through more dog food in the bag to get her scoop filled, so she thought there was plenty for another week. Mugs just didn’t want to run out. She looked over at Thaddeus. “We still have bird seed and cat food, so we should be doing okay with all you guys.”
At least she hoped so. She needed to start a grocery list. But it was still something foreign to her. The whole process of being responsible for cooking and buying groceries and everything else that she needed for daily life was such a new responsibility. Just like cooking. Mack had shown her several dishes, but some of them she couldn’t afford to buy food for, like salmon. She had been stricken with shock the first time she went to buy a piece to cook. Then again, seeing the price of many different items—ones she was accustomed to eating—she’d quietly written them off her menu permanently.