Grave Doubts (A Paranormal Mystery Novel) Read online

“I’m not surprised by that little bit of information. Why don’t you come in? I’m just in the middle of making spaghetti sauce before I have to leave for work.”

  She turned and headed for the kitchen, leaving Lee to step inside and close the door on her own. Lee followed her through a very beige living room and into an airy kitchen with a greenhouse window over the sink. Two large ceiling fans circulated the tantalizing smell of spaghetti sauce. Mrs. Maddox stood at a center island stirring the contents of a large green pot, the steam turning her face pink. She barely looked up when Lee entered.

  “So, what do you want to know?” she asked without the customary invitation to sit down.

  “I want to highlight the employee campaign,” Lee said, still standing in the doorway. “I’d like to know what made you to volunteer, for instance. Why you think it’s important to give back to the hospital? How you feel about some of the projects they’ve funded? Things like that.”

  Lee felt on firmer ground discussing fundraising. But a cardinal rule was to ask for the gift and then shut up until the prospect spoke. Lee forced herself to wait.

  Emily Maddox eyed her as if deciding what to do. Under the scrutiny, Lee imagined she had the word FRAUD printed in block letters across her forehead and held her breath. Finally, Emily Maddox turned off the gas flame.

  “Give me a minute and I’ll talk with you.”

  She lifted the kettle off the stove and placed it on a brass trivet next to the sink. Lee glanced around at the white cupboards, countertops, and cold linoleum floor. There were no homey knick-knacks or pottery jars filled with antique utensils. Only framed floral prints that were probably purchased at Walmart and a kitchen table that looked like it came from IKEA.

  “That’s a lot of spaghetti sauce,” Lee finally said to fill the silence. “You must have a large family.” As soon as she said it, she regretted it.

  Mrs. Maddox turned and leveled a blank look in her direction. “No, it’s only me.”

  She turned back to place her spoon in the sink when something outside caught her attention. Her head came up and her body jerked, spraying spaghetti sauce across her white cupboards like streaks of blood. Without warning, she turned and burst through the kitchen door into the side yard with a strangled cry, waving the wooden spoon above her head. Lee hurried to the window just as a small Sheltie dog darted into the trees on the other side of the wire fence. Emily Maddox lunged at it, screaming as if she wanted to reach through the fence holes to snare the dog and kill it. The sheer intensity of her anger made Lee shudder. It wasn’t until she became aware of her fingers resting in some of the red spaghetti sauce on the counter that Lee quickly rinsed her hand and tried to look halfway calm when Mrs. Maddox returned.

  When Emily came through the door again, her face was red and twisted, her breathing labored. Lee moved out of the way and allowed her to take her position again at the kitchen window, the wooden spoon clutched tightly in her hand. Lee waited. When the woman didn’t say anything, Lee tried to bring her back to reality.

  “Are you okay? You scared the hell out of me.” Lee tried to chuckle.

  Mrs. Maddox finally looked around as if realizing for the first time Lee was still there. “Did I? I’m sorry.”

  She stole one more glance out the window and then she pulled herself away to sit at the kitchen table. She placed the spoon in front of her as if it were some sort of weapon she might need again. Her eyes remained focused on the spoon.

  “I don’t like dogs.”

  Lee controlled the urge to laugh. The woman took several deep breaths before looking up at Lee.

  “I won’t have them on my property.”

  If Lee was expected to respond, she didn’t know what to say. The woman had obviously overreacted. The dog was on the other side of the fence. Even if it had come onto her yard, what harm could the Sheltie do? The dog probably didn’t weigh more than twenty-five pounds. Lee waited. After a minute, the woman’s breathing slowed and her muscles seemed to relax.

  “Do you own a dog, Ms. Moore?” She spoke softly, staring at the spoon again.

  “I haven’t owned a dog for almost ten years.” Lee didn’t actually own Soldier. Amy did.

  Emily Maddox rose and gestured for Lee to sit down. “Please, I’ve been very rude. Would you like some lemonade?”

  “I’d love some. Thank you.”

  Lee sat at the table while Mrs. Maddox filled two crystal glasses with pink lemonade. As she handed a glass to Lee, she said, “I suppose I should explain.”

  Lee merely sipped her lemonade in silence. Mrs. Maddox sat down again and wrapped both hands around the crystal glass, forgetting the spoon for the moment.

  “I was attacked by a large dog when I was seven. I was playing in the backyard with my brother, and a neighbor came over with a dog that was part wolf, part something else. My brother and I were fighting. You know how kids can be. We were screaming and yelling, making a lot of noise. I guess we scared the dog. Suddenly, it snapped at me, taking off the tip of my ear.” She paused as her hand fluttered to the left side of her face. With some hesitation, she pulled back her hair to reveal the ragged appendage.

  Lee grimaced. “How awful.”

  “I was deathly afraid of dogs after that. A year later, I found a little white kitten in the church parking lot. It was injured and starving, so I talked my mother into letting me nurse it back to health. I was very proud of that.” She looked at Lee with deep sadness in her eyes. “I think it’s what made me want to become a nurse. Anyway, the kitten followed me everywhere. It even slept on my bed.”

  Her lips curved into a pale smile. Then she looked down at the table and took a deep breath.

  “One day, I was playing with the kitten in our front yard. It was so small,” she remembered, rubbing her thumb across the outside of the glass. “Suddenly, a large dog came out of nowhere and killed it. Right in front of me.” Her hands began to tremble and she put the glass down. “It grabbed the kitten right out of my hand, shook it violently once, and snapped its neck.”

  She paused, her breathing labored.

  “The dog was so close that I could smell its breath and feel its fur against my face,” she said, her eyes staring into the abyss of bad memories. Finally, she looked up at Lee, a tear in the corner of her eye. “I haven’t been able to see a dog since without wanting to kill it!”

  “I’m sorry,” Lee whispered. “But there are dogs everywhere. How do you cope?”

  “Mostly, I try to ignore them,” she said breathlessly. “If I see one on the street, I’ll cross to the other side. If I’m in the car, I’ll just look the other way and drive past as quickly as I can. But if they come onto my property, I have to do something. I just have to.”

  Lee felt sorry for her. The hard exterior had vanished and the woman’s outlandish display somehow didn’t seem quite so out-of-place anymore. Lee felt herself wanting to reach out and share her own story.

  “I had a completely different experience with a dog,” she suddenly heard herself saying. “I always loved them. I grew up with dogs. Mostly large dogs.” She felt the warmth rising in her cheeks again. “My husband and I owned a Labrador Retriever, named Perry.” She smiled as she remembered the big black dog with its soft brown eyes and silky fur. “Brad used to fish a lot and Perry always went with him in the boat. Labradors love to swim, and Perry would often jump from the boat and swim ashore. Brad absolutely adored that dog. They went everywhere together. One day, they went fishing and didn’t return before dark. I didn’t worry too much because we’d fished that lake a hundred times, and Brad was good with the boat.” She looked at Emily Maddox with a little smile. “And, besides, Perry was with him.”

  “But they didn’t come back,” Mrs. Maddox said, finishing her thoughts.

  “No.” Lee looked at her hands now encircling her own glass of lemonade. “In fact, they never came back. Brad was never found. The police found the boat hidden up a side creek about two days later. There was blood in the bottom.”

/>   “And the dog?” the woman encouraged.

  Lee wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “He was found floating in the shallows about a hundred yards from where they found the boat. He had a bullet in his head. I haven’t been able to have a dog in the house since. In fact, I haven’t had any pets. I never liked cats much. My daughter begged me to get one, but I never did. I guess, I felt as if I’d lost two of the things I loved most in the same day. I still have a hard time looking at a dog without thinking of Perry.” An image of Soldier appeared in her mind and she realized how much she was beginning to depend on the dog.

  “Did you ever find out what happened to your husband?”

  “No. The police investigated but didn’t find anything.” She looked up at Maddox. “I’ve played different scenarios out in my head for almost a decade, but the dog always saves the day in my mind…and Brad comes home.”

  There was a long silence between them, each woman nursing memories. Finally, Mrs. Maddox spoke.

  “It seems like we’ve both experienced some loss on that front. Why don’t we go into the living room and talk about your article? Give me a minute to wipe up the mess.”

  Lee nodded and went into the other room, dabbing at the corner of her eyes. She hadn’t meant to tell that story, but somehow the timing had felt right. And it seemed to have helped break the ice with Bud’s wife.

  She placed her glass on a coaster and dropped her purse onto a chair next to a wall-to-wall bookcase. The living room was as spotless as the kitchen and just as boring. Lee wandered around until she ended up back at the bookcase. A fat tabby cat sat on the piano bench nearby, waiting for attention. Lee ignored the cat while she admired an expensive ceramic figurine of a woman draped over a bench, holding a parasol. On the shelf above it was a group of photos. In one, a young Emily sat in the middle of the floor, holding a small white kitten. In another, she was in her cap and gown getting her diploma.

  Bud was pictured in several photos. In one, he was clearly a teenager, with his arm around a pretty girl with long, dark hair. In another, he was probably in his twenties, and again, he was in an intimate pose with a woman. Lee quickly glanced at the other photos. In two more, Bud was with other women. She didn’t find any photos of Bud and Emily, although one picture looked like it could have been taken at their wedding. In it, Bud was standing in front of a black limousine dressed in a tuxedo with a blonde man, also dressed in a tux.

  Curious, Lee leaned in to study the back row of frames, letting her eyes roam across the photos. Suddenly, her heart nearly stopped. In the back corner was a small pewter frame holding a picture of Bud and Diane standing before a storefront. Bud’s arm was around Diane’s shoulders, and he was grinning as if he’d just had the best sex of his life.

  Why would Emily Maddox have a picture of Diane? Especially a picture of Diane with her own husband?

  Before another thought could cross her mind, Lee reached in and pulled the frame from the shelf and quickly dropped it into her pocket. She was just about to turn away, when something behind the frame caught her eye. When she leaned in for a closer look, she sucked in a pocket of air large enough to float a boat.

  It was the onyx bird!

  Feeling dizzy, she reached in with an unsteady hand to grab it just as Mrs. Maddox called out from the kitchen. Lee’s hand froze about an inch from the bird.

  “I’ll be with you in a moment,” Emily called.

  Lee held her breath. Finally, she turned her head and chanced a reply. “Take your time.”

  She turned back to grab the bird, leaning the heel of her hand on the shelf. The shelf wobbled and suddenly tipped forward, sending everything to the floor with a crash. Lee was too shocked to move. A pile of frames lay at her feet, while the onyx bird had disappeared.

  “My god, what was that?” Emily rushed into the room.

  Lee just stood there as if grounded to the spot. She would have said something, but her tongue seemed to have swollen to fit the inside of her mouth. Maddox quickly made a sweep of the entire room and stopped when she saw the mess on the floor. Her cat had become startled and flown to the other side of the room, where it now sat carefully watching them.

  “Agatha! What in heaven’s name did you do?”

  Emily bent down to clean up the mess. Lee should have acknowledged her role in the disaster, but stood mutely watching Mrs. Maddox as she grabbed two of the frames and put them on the shelf, chiding the cat as she went.

  “She’s done this before,” she said. “Such a pest!”

  Lee contemplated leaning down and taking the pewter frame out of her pocket so that she could pretend to pick it up, but Mrs. Maddox scooped up the remaining frames before Lee could move. She positioned the frames in exactly the way they’d been before, stopping at one point as if she was missing something. She paused and Lee held her breath. Suddenly Maddox turned and scanned the floor.

  “There should be one more,” she mumbled. She bent over to check underneath a chair. “What’s this?” she asked, pulling something out. She looked at it for a moment and then turned to Lee, holding the onyx bird in her hand.

  The blood rushed to Lee’s head, and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

  “I…uh…I’m sorry, that’s mine. It must have fallen out of my purse.”

  “Really?” The other woman glanced over at Lee’s purse sitting innocently on the chair. There was a long pause before she said, “It’s quaint. Where did you get it?”

  “Uh … a friend gave it to me.”

  Mrs. Maddox handed over the bird. Lee wrapped her fingers around the figurine, feeling the warmth of its body heat her hand again. Emily Maddox glanced at Lee’s other hand stuffed inside her pocket, then seemed to think of something. She turned to grab an old leather frame holding the picture of Bud and a friend in tuxedos.

  “This is a picture of my husband. Did you know him?”

  Her head turned back so swiftly Lee took an involuntary step backwards. Lee looked at the photo and was surprised to see Mrs. Maddox pointing to the blond man standing next to Bud.

  “He used to work at the medical center. I thought maybe you’d met him,” she said.

  “I…don’t know too many of the technicians.” Lee clamped her mouth shut when she realized that she wouldn’t know Bud was a technician. Silently, she prayed Emily hadn’t noticed her mistake.

  “Too bad.” Mrs. Maddox turned her attention back to the picture. “This was taken just after our wedding. He’s good looking, don’t you think?” She held the photo out for Lee, once more pointing at the blond man.

  “Yes,” Lee replied, wondering why Emily Maddox was attempting to pass this man off as her husband. She didn’t know whether she should acknowledge the mistake, or go along with the game and pretend she had never met Bud. She decided to stick with the original scenario despite her blunder.

  Several seconds lapsed while the other woman quietly regarded Lee. The moisture began to form under Lee’s armpits. All she could think of was getting away. She glanced at her watch.

  “Emily!” she almost barked. “I didn’t realize it was so late. What with the dog and all, and the…this, I really need to be going. Why don’t I call you in the next few days?” She grabbed her purse, vaguely aware that she’d just contradicted the deadline she’d established when she arrived. Maddox followed as Lee hurried to the door.

  “That would be fine. Let me know when you’ll be back in town.”

  Lee attempted a smile and opened the door to step outside. “Great, I’ll give you a call.”

  Lee backed out of the door, attempting to appear calm. As she made her way back to her car, a myriad of questions flashed through her mind. Had Emily Maddox realized she’d stolen the pewter picture frame? And why in the world was she trying to pass off the blond man as her husband? But what if the blond guy really was her husband? If he was, then who was the guy calling himself Bud Maddox at Twin Rivers Hospital?

  Once inside the car, Lee turned back to the house and caught a glimp
se of Emily Maddox closing the front door. Only then did the woman’s last words register, raising one final question.

  How did Emily Maddox know Lee was from out of town?

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It was almost eight o’clock when Lee pulled into her driveway. She had stopped for a quick dinner on the way home, but hadn’t eaten much. She was physically and emotionally exhausted and could only think about a hot bath and bed. Whatever she thought her amateur investigation would be like, this wasn’t it. Emily Maddox was as weird as Pauline Bates. Bud Maddox gave her the creeps, and Diane’s death had thrown her into a deep depression. But it was the image of the onyx bird peeking at her from the back of Emily Maddox’s bookshelf that had invaded her thoughts all the way home. It was frightening to think the small figurine could move around on its own. It was even more frightening to think it was trying to tell her something.

  She had switched off the car lights and was rubbing her eyes when the flicker of something in her upstairs bedroom window caught her attention. She peered through the windshield, but decided it had only been a reflection from the street light behind her. She grabbed her keys, drew her purse over her shoulder and climbed out of the car just as a breeze swirled a handful of leaves around her feet. Two big birch trees at the corner of her property rustled in protest of the wind, and somewhere up the street a dog barked.

  With a yawn, she began moving towards the front porch. A single bulb above the detached garage threw light halfway up the path, but dissipated quickly, leaving Lee to walk part of the way in deep shadow. The porch loomed ahead, and Lee headed quickly for the light from the front door, contemplating the last half pint of ice cream in the freezer before her bath.

  She was just passing the big corner bushes, when the porch light flicked off. Lee stopped short, completely engulfed in darkness. Slowly, her fingers found her long car key and pushed it to the front. It was the only weapon she had.

  She couldn’t see above the bushes that crowded the porch, but strained to hear any noise emanating from the front of the house. Overhead, the trees shifted restlessly. Behind her, a bush stirred. When something moved through the bushes along the pathway, Lee panicked and turned and ran for the car.