Mixed Messages (A Malone Mystery) (7 page)

Years ago,
she
had gotten into the habit of reading the obituaries
in the
Cincinnati Enquirer
every
day
,
looking for Jeremy’s name
but hoping she’d never see it.
All of her senses told her that he was still alive.
Then
, a
little over a year
ago, her hands began to tremble and her eyes welled up with tears when she read that,
at age
seventy-nine
,
he
had died
.

There was no mention of a wife or children left behind, only a younger sister. He, like
Olivia, had never married
.
The details of the funeral arrangements didn’t interest
her
; t
here was no way she would go
because
s
he wanted to
remember him as the young man who had courted her
.
The only thing that mattered
and she believed
this
with all her heart
:
someday, in the afterlife, she, Jeremy and Lawrence would be together.

The sound of a car door slamming brought
her
back to the present
.
She rolled
back
over to the window,
took off her glasses,
looked out and saw
David
in the driveway,
standing next to
his car
.

Ann and David make such a nice couple, she thought
.
It’s a shame
he
drinks so much and
has such a bad temper
.
She
didn’t mean to eavesdrop but sometimes she couldn’
t help but hear his angry voice coming up through the heat vents.
It
reminded her of her father
shouting
at her
when he’d
found out she was expecting a baby
.
Whenever he was excited or upset, he would lapse into the German he’d spoken when,
growing up
, he’d spent his summers with relatives in Germany.
“Du hast shamed mich
!
Du hast shamed die
familie
!”
he had shouted.
She had shamed him
.
She had shamed the family.

She
glanced up at the
shiny, brass
clock on the mantle above the fireplace
.
She rolled over to her spot across from the TV, picked up the remote control and turned on the local news
.
She watched the news every day to stay informed of what was going on in the world even though she
often
found it
troubling and, at times, downright
depressing
.

T
here were
so many
hurricanes
,
tornados
and earthquakes
every
year, which
destroyed
homes
and, in many cases,
took
peoples’
lives
.
It seemed to her that in the last decade there had been more natural disasters than ever before.
The
TV documentary
she’d recently
seen
about
global warming
,
the greenhouse effect and
the devastating
impact
it was all having on our planet
confirmed that
.
And, according to the experts, as time went on, it was only going to get worse.

Aside
from natural
weather
related
disasters, i
t seemed like there was always something new to
fear
.
Since nine-one-one, there was the constant threat of terrorist attack in the back of
most
people’s minds.
At least once a week you heard that something you ate
, drank
or came into contact with would cause
some form of
cancer
.
Add to that the threat of deadly mosquitoes, germs
that
literally ate your skin and lethal viruses
and it was a wonder anyone could sleep at night
.
The world was a
very
scary place.

She turned up the volume so she could hear what the newscaster was saying
.
“The
police have released the name of the Westwood Strangler’s third victim. The body of thirty-nine
year old, Tanya Brown, was found
yesterday
by her mother who had become alarmed when her daughte
r didn’t return her phone calls.”

She
reached down into the leather pocket on the side of her wheelchair and pulled out
her thirty-eight-caliber revolver. She pushed the lever forward and the cylinder popped out. She
checked to be sure that it was loaded with five bullets. Then, she closed the cylinder
and
c
arefully put
the gun
back in
the pocket, hidden from view.

It’s not safe anywhere anymore, she thought
.
Thank God, Papa taught me how to shoot. She remembered his words, “If you’re going to pull the trigger,
Liv,
shoot to kill
.”

Chapter
9

DAVID WILL BE HOME ANY MINUTE
, Ann thought.
I need to come up with something quick for dinner.
S
he
decided to make pasta. She
filled a large pot with cold water
and
plac
ed
it on the stove. She turned the burner to high and
added a few drops of safflower oil
.
When the water came to a boil,
s
he broke
the vermicelli
into thirds as she put it in the pot
.
Ten minutes later, w
hen the pasta was the consistency she wanted, she transferred it into a colander in the sink.
She was cutting up tomatoes for a salad when David
came
in.

He walked right by her and went over to Danielle and kissed the top of her head
.
“How’s my girl?” he asked
.

Just then, Davey came flying around the corner and almost collided with his father
.

“Well, would you look at this
?
Hi, Spiderman, how’s it going?”

Davey jumped up and into David’s arms, hugging him
.
David gave him a squeeze and
kissed
the top of his head
. Almost immediately, Davey w
r
iggled free.

“Davey, go take your costume
off
.
It’s almost time to eat,
” Ann
instructed
.
The words were barely out of her mouth when Davey swooped over to the kitchen sink, grabbed a handful of spaghetti out of the colander and began hurling it in all directions.

“Stop that!” she yelled
.
“What are you doing?”

Davey looked up at her and said, in a matter-of-fact way, “Mommy, I’m spinning a web
.
You know
.”
He began singing
, “
Spiderman, Spiderman
.
Does whatever a spider can
.
Spins a web
… .
”

She
had to struggle to keep from laughing
.
In her most serious voice, she said
,
“
Okay
, young man, enough
.
Now, definitely, go take that costume off!”

* * * *

An hour later, they’d finished dinner and Ann began to clear the table
.
David started to
get up.

“I need to talk to you,”
she
said
.
“Kids, why don’t you go watch TV in
Dani
’s room
.
I think there’s a Charlie Brown Halloween special on
.”

“Why can’t we watch it in the living room?” Danielle asked
.
“My TV is so little.”

“Because I need to talk to your father in private,” Ann told her
.
“Now scoot.”

Danielle and Davey raced down the hall
.
David sat there, hands folded on the table, looking at Ann
.
She
waited until she heard Charlie Brown’s theme song blaring from her daughter’s bedroom before
sitting back down at the table
.

She
cleared her throat
.
“I’ve got some news
, David
.
First of all, I called Father Andrew today and I’ve got an appointment with him tomorrow morning to interview for the job
at the church
.”

He
smiled
.
“Great
!
That’s great
!
You’ll see, it’ll be a good thing
.
It’ll help out a
lot.”

“I think so too,”
she
agreed
.
“But let’s not count our chickens
.
I don’t have the job yet.”
             

“
Not to worry
.
You’ll get the job
.
I know you will.”

“
And
, there’s something else I have to tell you
.
I met with Davey’s teacher today and she believes Davey has ADHD
.
That’s Attention Def
.
.
.
”

“I know what that is!” he shouted over her. “That teacher, she’s nuts! There’s nothing
wrong with my son
!
He’s a normal, red-blooded boy, for God’s sake.”

“How can you say that
?
He can’t even sit still
.
The teacher says there are special diets and medications
… .
”

“You are not giving my son drugs!”
He slammed his fist down on the table.

“I didn’t say that
,
David
.
I
t’s not that bad. There are all kinds of treatments. We should
be grateful it’s something so minor
.
Think about all the things it could be: leukemia, a brain
tumor
.
My God, we’re so fortunate.”

“Fortunate my ass!” he screamed
.
“You and that stupid teacher
.
You’re both crazy
!
You want my son to be a zombie
!”
He pushed back his chair, picked up the serving platter of spaghetti
with
meat sauce and hurled it at the kitchen sink
.
“That’s what I think of that
.
I’m outta here
.
I can’t stand the sight of you right now
.”
He grabbed his
trench coat
off
of
the hook by the door and his car keys off
of
the counter and slammed the door on his way out.

Tears streamed down
her
face as she stood back, staring at the mess
.
There was spaghetti dangling from the faucet and clinging to the wall and red sauce splattered all over the stove, wall and counter tops
.
She retrieved a bucket and sponge from under the kitchen sink and started to wipe up the mess
.

Part of her was so angry that she felt like screaming. How dare he do this? she silently
fumed
.
It isn’t fair
!
I can’t even talk to him without him going ballistic
.
He
should have to clean this up
!
Not
me
!
But another part of her felt sad
.
I can’t even talk to him, she thought
.
I can’t even talk to my own husband anymore.