Finding Midnight (9 page)

Summer followed the mutterings of Ms.
Midnight into a beautiful room she could only assume was a sitting
room or salon. The room was dusty and worn with age, but beautiful
art adorned its velvet and foil wallpapered walls. A huge stained
glass floor lamp that looked to be an original Tiffany shed light
on a well-used velvet cushion of a Victorian fainting chaise. By
the tall stacks of books within an arm’s distance from the chaise,
and the gorgeous thick afghan that looked like it had just been
flung back, Summer guessed this was where Ms. Midnight spent most
of her time.

Ms. Midnight was clearing a stack of books
from a chair near the chaise, making a place for Summer to sit, and
Summer rushed to help her. Out of breath, Ms. Midnight fell with a
thump into her spot on the chaise.

“Are you okay, Ms. Midnight? Can I get you
water or something?” Summer asked.

The scowl on Ms. Midnight’s face answered
her question in volumes. Once she caught her breath and covered her
legs with the afghan, she focused on Summer—who wasn’t sure if she
should start the conversation or if she should just keep her mouth
shut.

“Per our agreement,” Ms. Midnight started
with a raised eyebrow, “I’ve asked you here to have you find
something of mine that is of great value. You need to find this
item immediately. No other task is more important. I don’t want you
dilly dallying with this like you have been with the garden.”

“Ms. Midnight, I do have a job, I can’t
just—”

“NOTHING is more important than finding this
item. Your silly job is trivial. You need to drop everything and
get to finding my item,” Ms. Midnight said forcefully.

“Okay, well, I suppose I have some vacation
coming. I’ll see if I can work something out with Dr. Stuart, if
it’s so urgent,” Summer offered.

“I don’t care how you do it—just do it and
immediately,” Ms. Midnight demanded.

“I’ll do my best. What is the item you’ve
misplaced?” Summer asked. To Summer’s surprise, the comment seemed
to anger Ms. Midnight. Her face reddened, her eyes bulged and her
lips tightened into such a thin line Summer could barely see them
any longer. A wash of fear came over her. What had she said that
angered the woman so?

“I do NOT misplace things,” Ms. Midnight
exclaimed, then continued to mutter under her breath words Summer
couldn’t make out.

“I’m sorry if I’ve made you upset, Ms.
Midnight. It certainly was not my intention. Please tell me what
you would like me to find.”

After a moment more of incoherent grumbling,
Ms. Midnight said as she got up and headed to the stairs, “You are
to find the RAT immediately and Ms. Ash has gone missing too, but
the RAT…you must find the RAT or the BROOM will have my head.”

“The rat, Ms. Midnight?” Summer called up
the stairs after her.

Ms. Midnight turned on the landing and
looked down at Summer, clearly irritated by her question. “Yes,
girl. The RAT!” she shouted and then clapped her hands together
twice and said a shrill, “Now chop, chop…get to it!”

Before Summer could respond or ask another
question, Ms. Midnight was out of sight, stomping up stairs and
slamming a door shut.

Summer stood astonished and befuddled.
A
rat? She wants me to find her rat?
Not sure what else to do,
she shrugged her shoulders and headed back to work.

*****

Summer thought about the strange
conversation she’d had with Ms. Midnight all the way to the office.
She couldn’t make heads or tails out of anything the woman said.
How was she ever going to appease the woman with her vague
instructions?

Summer must have had a very confused look on
her face when she walked past the front desk because Tori was on
her in an instant.

“What’s up? What did the old bat want?”

“Well, the whole thing was rather strange.
Apparently she’s lost her pet rat; at least I think that’s what she
lost.”

“You think so? What do you mean?”

“She said she wanted me to find a rat and
someone named Ms. Ash, but she was very distraught about the rat.
She wants me to take vacation and look for the rat full time until
I find it. Then she said something very weird.”

“Stranger than finding a rat in a ramshackle
old mansion?”

“Yes. She said if I didn’t find the rat, the
broom would have her head. What do you make of that?”

“What do I think of that? I think she’s lost
her marbles.”

“I know, right? It’s bizarre. How am I going
to find a rat?”

“A trap?”

“Possibly, but somehow I’m thinking there
are more rats in that place than just one. How will I know which
one is hers?”

“Don’t know,” Tori said with a shrug.

“Me neither,” Summer said when the delivery
bell buzzed.

“Can you get that, Summer? I need to check
Snowball in for his appointment.” Tori pointed as a woman came in
with a kitty carrier and its howling occupant.

“Sure,” Summer smiled and headed back to the
stockroom, but when she opened the door she was shocked to see a
demon behind it. He too seemed surprised to see her.

“Hi,” Hunter said.

“Hey. How are the stitches holding up?” she
asked.

“Good,” he said, rubbing the stitches
through his shirt.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I’m taking over for Tommy Sinclair. He fell
off a ladder and broke his leg the other day,” Hunter explained. “I
guess this is where you work?”

“Yes,” she said when a growling came from
behind her. She turned to find Sully with his hackles up and
showing teeth.

“I see you still have the hellhound,” Hunter
noted with amusement.

“I wasn’t going to leave him out there all
alone waiting for the reaper and whatever else awaits him down
there,” she said.

“It’s where he belongs. You are a fool to
think otherwise. How are you going to explain him to people?”
Hunter said, moving his hand truck through the door and depositing
boxes in the corner of the room.

“I’ll tell the truth, like I already have,
and fool or not, I think he’s sweet,” she said, rubbing Sully’s
head.

“Yeah! Real sweet,” he said with
sarcasm.

“So far, you are the only one he doesn’t
seem to like. I wonder why that is?” she said.

“Haven’t a clue,” he said, handing her the
clipboard for her signature, but it was Tori that grabbed it from
behind, surprising them both.

“Who’s this?” Tori said, smiling and eyeing
Hunter.

“This is the dem…I mean, this is Hunter. The
guy I told you about? The one from last night,” Summer said.

“OOHHH! Hmm.” Tori took in a long look at
Hunter from head to toe and back to head again. She winked at
Summer and smiled. Summer went four shades of red. Hunter smiled at
this wordless exchange.

“Hunter, this is Tori.” Summer tried to
shrug off the blushing.

“Nice to meet you, Tori,” Hunter said,
shaking her hand.

“Nice to meet you too,” Tori said as she
signed the paperwork on the clipboard and handed it back to him.
“So tell me, Hunter. Are you stalking my friend here?” She waved a
hand towards Summer.

“Tori!” Summer said, embarrassed again.

“Uh no! I’m just delivering some supplies
you ordered,” Hunter explained, eyeing Summer as he did.

“So you say…” Tori teased.

It was plain to see that he was confused by
Tori’s sense of humor, not knowing if she was really concerned for
Summer’s well-being or if she was just teasing him all along, but
Tori refused to let him know anymore at this point and loved that
she had confused him so.

Hunter grabbed his hand truck and clipboard
and quickly made his way out the door. Tori waved as he got in the
truck and shut the door, and then rolled her eyes and laughed.

“Tori, you are terrible,” Summer said,
smiling.

“I know,” Tori said. “Isn’t it great?” Tori
held her head high and proud, loving every minute of it.

*****

Thinking of her conversation with Ms.
Midnight, Summer was distracted as she helped clean up after Dr.
Stuart’s last patient, and this did not go unnoticed by the good
doctor. Sully had found himself a corner where he could see the
doctor, Summer, and just barely, Tori, then fell fast asleep as all
puppies do.

“Is everything okay, Summer?” Dr. Stuart
asked.

“Oh,” she said as if coming out of a deep
thought. “Yes. I guess so. I just had the strangest conversation
with Ms. Midnight at lunch, and I’m still trying to decipher what
was said,” she said.

“And what did she say that has you so
puzzled?” he asked pulling off his gloves and leaning against the
counter, giving her his full attention.

“Everything…every word. I don’t understand
anything she relayed, and just like that,” Summer snapped her
fingers, “she was up the stairs and behind closed doors, so I
couldn’t press the issue.”

“Well, if you pass it by me, maybe I can
make heads or tails of it,” he said, smiling.

“I would be so grateful, but I’m concerned
that she’s not…all together…you know…that her faculties are…”

“You think maybe not all her pistons are
firing?” he said, making her sigh with relief. “Tell me what she
said.”

“She said that her rat was missing, and that
the broom would have her head. Does that make any sense to
you?”

His brows furrowed and his thumb and
forefinger stroked at his chin as they often did when he thinking.
Then he shook his head and said, “Nope…I’ve got nothing. Ms.
Midnight doesn’t seem the type to keep a rat as a pet, but then, I
also wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Hmm,” she said. “Oh, and do you know any
families in town by the name of Ash? She told me she thought Ms.
Ash was missing too. Do you know a Ms. Ash?”

“No, I don’t. No Ashes that I can think of.
My wife’s family were Ashtons and there are still one or two
around, but no Ashes,” he told her. After thinking more he added,
“Are you sure that’s what she said? Could you have been mistaken
about the rat and the broom?”

“I suppose I could be mistaken, but I’m
quite sure that’s what she said. She was very distraught about the
rat though. She told me I should start looking immediately and that
I should make it my number one priority above my work here or
anything else. She said it was very important.”

Still puzzled, he repeated, “a rat?” as if
trying to coerce himself into understanding some hidden meaning in
the statement. Then he said, “At least you can look for a rat, but
being so close to the woods and the house being so run down, I
suppose there’s many rats around, not to mention the
graveyard.”

“Please, don’t,” she pleaded.

“Please don’t what? Mention the
graveyard?”

“Yes. It’s a little creepy having a
graveyard outside your door,” Summer said, half whispering and
checking to see if Tori was listening.

He too looked in Tori’s direction as he
smiled, knowing exactly what Summer was thinking. “I’m sure Tori
would disagree with you,” he said.

“You think?” she said. “The night I moved
in, she was skipping and twirling in the graveyard as if it was the
most enchanting place in the world.”

“You gotta love her. She’s one of a kind,
that one,” he said, shaking his head.

“She certainly is,” Summer agreed. “So what
do you think I should do about Ms. Midnight’s request?”

“Well, now. I don’t know what to say about
the broom taking her head, but you can certainly take some live
traps home with you and see what you catch and run them past her.
Even if it isn’t her rat, you’ll at least have a chance to ask her
some more questions and see if you can get any more information out
of her as to this broom and rat thing.”

“That’s true.”

“And take a couple of days off. Show her
that you are making this issue a priority. That should gain her
trust a bit. I know she’s grown a bit gruff in her old age, but
she’s quite a remarkable woman. I think if she would open up to
you, you could learn a lot from her.”

“You said you’d tell me a bit about her
someday; can you give me a little insight on her now?”

“Truthfully, I don’t know a lot about her.
She’s kept to herself since her fiancé died,” Dr. Stuart said.

“I hadn’t realized,” Summer said.

“Oh, yes. His name was Robert Mayhew. He was
a very wealthy man, from an even wealthier family from back east.
He died, though, before they could marry.”

“How awful,” she said.

“Yes. It was quite the scandal. He’d put her
in his will before they were wed and many speculated she killed him
for his money the eve before the ceremony. I never believed a word
of it. The Midnights were well off on their own. She didn’t need
his money. No one who killed for money would have mourned as long
as Myrtle mourned Robert. My dad was the town doctor back then and
so he examined the body for the family. He said the cause of death
was an aneurysm, but you know how small towns are with gossip.

“Poor thing was heartbroken. She locked
herself in that house away from the world. Within months of
Robert’s passing, she lost her sister Ivy. She and Ivy were very
close. After that, no one ever saw her and sadly, no one really
ever checked on her either. By that time, rumors had grown to such
extents that they called her a witch. Some even told stories that
she had hung herself from the guilt she felt for killing her
husband and sister and that her ghost haunted the grounds.”

“But she didn’t kill her sister, did
she?”

“Of course not. She loved Ivy, but they were
all so convinced that she had killed her husband—from there the
story grew and took on a life of its own.”

“That’s horrible.”

“It is.”

“Do you think that maybe she’s gone a little
crazy being in that house all alone all these years and having gone
through all that heartbreak?”

“I think it’s possible, but only talking to
her and getting to know her will get to the bottom of that story.
She’s reached out to you and she hasn’t reached out to anyone in a
very long time, and that’s saying something, don’t you think?”