Deadly Expectations (44 page)

I got cleaning supplies and garbage bags and some basics.
 
Coffee, milk, cereal, toilet paper, and Halloween candy for tonight.
 
Paul could head out later with cash for a bigger shop if he wanted.
 
It looked like now we would be spending a considerable amount of time at my house.
 
The third floor had two small bedrooms so I hoped Mrs. Desmond would let Ray and Denis stay up there.
 
Paul and I would have some privacy and she wouldn’t be alone.

When I got back nobody was waiting outside but Paul was watching for me from her window.
 
He waved and I brought in my bags and locked up the truck.
 
First I bagged everything in the fridge and hauled it all up to the cans by the garage.
 
Then I scrubbed it out and had a go at the counters.
 

My cupboards were mostly empty except for a bunch of non-food things.
 
More tools, papers and parts catalogues.
 
I moved all that stuff into one cupboard and wiped down the insides of the rest.
 
Then I put away the clean dishes and washed out the coffee maker.

By then my one hour warning had passed so I took the candy and the keys up around to Mrs. Desmond’s door and knocked.
 
Paul answered and stepped out in a cloud of cigarette smoke.
 

“You’re not burning my house down are you?”

“Not yet,” he laughed as he put his arms around me.
 
“Thank you for finding him.
 
Bee says that you never took her rent and always got her groceries for the past four years.”

I shrugged.
 
“I didn’t need the money and she never remembered anyway.
 
I’m grateful to have her to keep an eye on the place.
 
It let me wander around to find you.”

“She doesn’t think she would have made it long enough to find me if you hadn’t taken care of her,” he said quietly.
 
“She has quite the personality … not many would have the patience.”

“I feel bad for being away so much … I worried about her when I was gone so long,” I tightened my hold on him for a moment and let him go then I gave him the bags of candy.
 
“She loves to hand this stuff out … the little kids will start before it gets dark.
 
I usually come up and help her out with it but you’ll have to stand in for me tonight.”

He looked in the bags.
 
“It’s Halloween … I’d forgotten.”

“She can’t tell Alina we’re here,” I told him.
 
“And if my father turns up tell him you’re Mrs. Desmond’s grandson doing a favour for the owner.
 
Maybe cleaning out and updating the basement to rent out?
 
He can’t know either because he’ll tell Alina.
 
His picture is on the TV unit downstairs.
 
Don’t answer the phone or clear the messages on the machine … Alina will know I’ve been home if she can leave another one.”

Paul nodded.

“In ten days Damian will move on the compound and four days after that I will leave,” I said quietly.
 
Paul’s jaw stiffened briefly.
 
“We can’t interfere with the path that brought us here.
 
In two weeks he could start looking for me again so we need to decide if we’re hitting the road for a while or what.

“We can take the cash and stay in hotels for a while if we have to but I don’t think she can manage all that travel.”

“I know,” he said.
 
“I’ve been considering that too.”

“Did you ever send anyone here to look for me?”

He shook his head.
 
“I just waited for you to come back.”

“Okay.
 
I’m pushing it … I have to sleep now and I’ve lost track of the time.”
 
I put the truck and house keys in his hand.
 
“Can you come down in a bit and check that I made it to the bed?”
 

“Yes,” he paused.
 
“Bee wants to talk to you.”

“You told her everything I told you?”

“She thinks that things are more complicated than that,” his stare was hard, challenging.
 
“Important things … maybe left out?”

“I told you everything I can Paul.”

“But not everything,” he said.

“I have to sleep … nothing else of consequence,” I yawned.

He studied me for a moment.
 
Then he put the bags down on the porch.

“I’ll take you downstairs and settle you in.”

I was glad he did.
 
I didn’t remember making it much past the kitchen.

Paul slept next to me when I woke.
 
The clock said seven.
 
It didn’t matter much what day it was.
 
I headed to the bathroom and started the tub filling then down to the kitchen.
 
Ray was in there reading the paper.
 
Denis was still sleeping on the living room floor.

“Morning sunshine,” I yawned to him.
 
“What day is it?”

“Hi Kiddo.
 
The second.
 
You slept through two nights … hungry?”

“Soon.
 
I want a bath first,” Ray had coffee on so I went to look in the fridge.
 
Just the milk and a couple of six packs that I wouldn’t have put in there.

“Bee’s been feeding us,” Ray explained.

“She would enjoy that … you’re all going to look like me.
 
She can bake up a storm.”

“I feel it already,” Ray said putting his hand on his stomach.
 
“Anywhere decent to go for a run around here?”

“Let me get dressed.
 
You can take me for breakfast and I’ll show you where you can burn off the cookies.”

First I took him up the hill to the dam where there were trails that connected the small lakes and then to the dirt roads under the power lines for something hillier.
 
I’d only ever run dirt bikes up and down the power lines but Ray thought running there would be better exercise than the flat trails provided nobody wiped out on the uneven ground.

We went to one of the restaurants along the old highway for breakfast then to one of the grocery stores in the other end of town.
 
I didn’t want to go to the one in the mall by my house because they knew me.
 
I would let Tony keep delivering to Mrs. Desmond and Paul could tell him the same story I’d asked him to tell my father.

Paul and Denis were just going up to Mrs. Desmond’s when we got back so they helped bring the groceries downstairs before they went to see her.
 
I made myself a salmon sandwich and salad and sat in the living room to eat then I got a blanket and pillow from my bed to try and get a nap on the couch.
 
Even after two days sleeping it would take a bit to get my energy back.
 
It didn’t help that I was starting to need more rest.

I lay with my eyes closed for a while.
 
The door opened quietly and Paul came in.

“Do you want to come upstairs now?
 
Bee still wants to talk to you.”

“Hey Paul,” I said as I rolled back over.
 
“I was worried you might have forgotten about me.”

“Never … maybe you should be sleeping in the bed.
 
This can’t be good for your back.”

I sat up yawning.
 
“How are you doing?
 
Do you need a rest too?”

“Bee kicks us out by nine.
 
Ray and Denis have been going out after we leave but I’ve just been coming down here waiting for you to wake up.
 
Come on,” he said helping me up.
 
“She’s waiting upstairs for us.”

Mrs. Desmond’s main floor was much less smoky than it had been two days ago.
 
Denis smoked out of the wind and on the path between the garage and the house.
 
Mrs. Desmond never smoked much anyway.

“Afternoon Mrs. Desmond,” I said to her as I kissed her cheek.
 
“These boys aren’t too much of a nuisance I hope.”

“None at all,” she told me.
 
“They seem to have turned out okay without me.”

I went over to the cupboard and pulled out her prescriptions.
 
The number of pill bottles had doubled so I started going through them.
 
I pulled out six that hadn’t been there the last time I had seen her.

“Six of these are from six different doctors in the past month,” I told her.
 
“Three are for the same thing.
 
You’re not taking all of them are you?”

“No idea what you’re talking about dear,” she said.

I gestured to Ray to come over and look at them.

“Remember we agreed that unless you’re having trouble breathing or have chest pains you call Alina first?”
 
She just smiled back.
 
“Do I have to go yell at the cab company again?”

Paul was laughing quietly at me now so I threw a towel at him and picked up her phone to call her doctor’s office.

“Hello, can I get someone in to see Dr. Keller this week?” I waited as she checked.
 
“It’s for Beatrice Desmond … she has a dozen bottles of pills here and I have no idea what they’re for.”

“Tell me about my brother,” Mrs. Desmond said.

I covered the phone.
 
“Which one?”

“Your mate,” she said loudly as the receptionist suggested twenty minutes.

“Eeww,” I said to Mrs. Desmond but I had uncovered the phone.
 
I looked over at Paul, he was glaring at her.
 
“No, sorry, two conversations at once.
 
Twenty is fine.”

She said Friday at ten-twenty and would the locum be okay, Dr. Keller was away.

“Yes,” I told her then, “wait; is that the same locum as last time?”

She told me yes.

“Anna?” Mrs. Desmond said sharply.

I covered the phone.
 
“I’m going to kill him.”
 
I glanced at Paul; but he was distracted by the noise Denis was making coming in and hadn’t heard me.

Then to the receptionist.
 
“That’s fine; he’s not an idiot like the locum before him.”

“Anna …
don’t
talk about the doctors like that,” Ray mumbled next to me, he was still going through the bottles of pills but the receptionist was laughing.
 
She had heard that before.
 

I quickly covered the phone as the towel hit me in the back of the head.
 
“You never met him.”

Then she wanted my name.

“Rachel Lund.
 
I’m her grand-daughter.
 
You have me down as next of kin.”

Paul rolled his eyes.
 
Another name for Anna and the receptionist wanted to know if Anna should still be listed as well.

“Yes, Anna is my cousin and should also still be on her file … she married recently,
it’s
Richards now, not Creed.”