The Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries 1-3 (26 page)

“Gotcha.  He said a Mary Brown came to visit him and
insisted that he come right away to Bathgate.  She even had clothes with her. 
He dressed and left the hospital with Mary.  She took him to London City
Airport where she had left her Piper Club.  She flew him out here, and he
walked in from over the hill.  She said he needed to make his peace with his
uncle’s death so he visited the bog first.  The Father had no idea there was a
problem at the farm.  After he said his prayers and made his peace he headed
over to the Comstock farm hoping that they had a key to Bathgate.  As he was
walking through the school area he heard some activity and caught sight of
armed men.  He was able to stay out of sight of the disturbers, which was wise
considering the past trouble here.  He had no idea who was there or how many of
them there were.  Fearing that they were up to no good, Father Michael skirted
the grounds keeping to the brush until he came to the front of the house where
he saw you disappear into a window on the second floor.

“He knew he couldn’t follow you up the tree with his
shoulder so he tried the front door and it opened after a good shove.  He just
made it inside when he heard Ivana shouting upstairs for Michael.  He climbed
the stairs, and as he passed Angie’s room he heard the cat scratching wildly at
the door.  He opened the door to free the cat.  Instead of leaving the room the
cat led him to the cupboard.  He opened the door and the cat hopped in and
scratched at the back.  It was at that point he heard the breathing.  He pulled
the back off and Angie almost stabbed him with a nasty bit of hanger.  She told
him that you were in the house and was worried because she heard Ivana in her
room moments before he came in.  He carried her out to the car before he
returned to look for you, and you know the rest.”

“I better give Noelle a call.  You don’t think you could
help me downstairs?”

“It would be my pleasure.”  I handed him the canvas bag and
he gave me his elbow.  I leaned on him.

“Anyone else get hurt?” I felt guilty that I didn’t even
think to ask about the other officers and Cayne.

“Just the bad guys.”

“Good.  How much trouble am I in?”

“Trouble?  Oh Ivana and Michael?  Looks like self-defense to
me.  But we’ll run it by legal.  You’re going to be spending some time in
England anyway, healing.  We’ll try to push things through.  Although, you may
have to return.”

“That isn’t such a bad idea.  I do love it here.”

We had reached the bottom of the stairs.  He turned and
looked down at me.  “All this violence hasn’t put you off England?”

“No, actually it hasn’t.  But after all Alex is in the
United States, and he can be far more troublesome than a few murderers and
psychopaths.”

“Who is this Alex?”

“Tell you what.  Wait till I heal, and we’ll go to the pub
and I will tell you all about my son.  Who is, no doubt, cruising up and down
the east coast of Florida driving my car.”

~

The hospital staff complained about having to work around
the large dusty canvas bag that I wouldn’t let go of.  When they sewed my
stomach, and wrapped my ribs, I held it between my legs.  My nose was broken,
and the plastic surgeon played with it a bit before giving me a local
anesthetic.  The wounds on my neck and my foot were deemed superficial and were
bandaged.  It’s not that I didn’t want any of painkillers that they offered,
but I knew that I needed to stay alert so I bore the pain without pills.

They supplied me with a wonderful volunteer that would roll
me wherever I wanted to go in a wheel chair.  He was a retired police
inspector, and he kept me amused by recounting some of his adventures.  I had
almost convinced him that he could roll me out of there and down to the local
pub when my daughter and entourage arrived.

Noelle looked at me and said predictably, “What did you
do?”  She looked for a square inch without bruise to kiss.  She gave up and
kissed my head.

“Don’t baby the woman, she’s done us proud,” Lady Mary Price
said as she walked up.  “You know my daughter-in-law will no doubt put you
through another dinner.  Quite the talk of the town.”  She leaned in and tucked
a flask between my arm and body. 

“Thank you, much better than flowers.  Did you bring our
expert?”

Noelle gave me a wry smile and listed, “Doctor Marcum is in
the lobby with Peter.  Paisley is out in town with Billy trying to find you
some shoes.  CSP Browning and Sergeant Moore are interviewing Father Michael at
the moment.  Ah, I should warn you that his aunt Diane is here looking for your
blood,” she warned.  “Do you have any left?”

“What did I do?  I didn’t kidnap him from the hospital.”

“She says it was one of your pagans.”

“One of my pagans?”

“Pagans, I have to hear about this!” my volunteer said with
glee.

“Oh, excuse my rudeness.  Lady Mary and Noelle this is
Miles, my chauffeur.”

“A great pleasure.”  He bowed to Lady Mary and winked at
Noelle.

Our polite conversation was interrupted by the arrival of
Paisley with Billy in tow.  “I don’t want to hear how you saved the free world;
I just want to know how the hell can one freaking person destroy so many shoes?” 
She leaned in and surveyed my face.  “Ew, you look like...”

“Don’t say it.”  Billy put his hand over her mouth and
handed me a shoebox.  “This pair is on me.  Thank you for saving Angie.  It’s
not often a stranger reaches out and risks their life for another.”

I was too touched to speak.  I just smiled and opened the
box.  A pair of soft leather black Mary Janes was sitting there.

“Thank you, they’re beautiful.”

“Excuse me, Ms. Fin-Lathen?” a male voice beyond the crowd
that was gathering asked.

“Yes.”

“Miss Bathgate is asking for you.”

“Miles?”

“Clear the way, ah there you go.  Which way to Miss
Bathgate’s room?”  Miles followed the nurse dressed in the wildest set of
scrubs I have ever seen.

Half of Angie was in a cast.  I could hardly see a human under
all that wrapped plaster.  I got to my feet and carried the canvas bag with me.

“You got it,” she said approvingly.

“What if it isn’t in here?”

“Then it doesn’t exist.  Open it up, better that we find
disappointment amongst ourselves than in front of our peers.”

I eased the canvas bag open. I pulled each seat cover out
roll by roll.  I unrolled “The Happy Farmer” and four others before I unrolled
“The Two-way River” by Aaron Copland.  I la la laed out the tune through each
page and found it finished.

“I don’t know if it’s real, but it’s good,” I told her.

I
sat back down and let the fatigue wash over me.

“Thank
you for coming.  We have had a lot of ups and downs this last week.”

It has been busy,” I agreed.  “Did anyone talk to you about
Maurice?”

“A little.  I understand I have a letter to read.  I don’t
want to talk about the sad things yet.  Plenty of time for that later.”  She
was quiet for a moment then piped up.  “Cin, Father Michael cut such a dashing
figure when he carried me out of the house.  Then he ran after you. It was
very...”

“Gothic?” I volunteered.

“Yes.  Now go and bring in my friends and the expert.  I
want this done and finished.  Damn that Bobby for being such a procrastinator.”

“Can I ask you something first?”

“Go ahead.”

“Can I have those seat covers?”

“It’s not a complete set, just seven.”

“Doesn’t matter, I have grown so attached to them today. 
They would be a good...”

“Souvenir?  Honestly."  She shook her head.  "Yes,
take them, they’re yours.  Now go and bring in my fan club.”

“Miles?”

“Be a pleasure Ms. Fin-Lathen.”  He wheeled me out, and
after we sent the others in he found two glasses and we sat in an empty room
and got plowed.

I pressed my face against the window and waved at Noelle and
Peter.  It had been a month of trials and publicity.  There were dinners and
commendations.  Alex arrived and gave me another lecture before hugging me.  We
spent a wonderful week being silly tourists.  Angie had healed enough to go
back to Bathgate.  She and Paz would take their time sorting through
everything.  Billy had made it clear he expected a woman of his to be able to
do her part.  I wasn’t sure how long Paz would put up with his new attitude,
but I was positive it would be an interesting time.

Lady Mary and I had many good afternoons full of verbal
battles.  She had decided I would stay with her throughout the police
procedures.  I readily agreed because I knew she was the only one that could
take on a rabid Aunt Diane and come out winning.

I was anxious to get home.  I wanted to practice my alto
clarinet to build some skills before the fall season.  I had played the
rosewood clarinet, and it was a beautiful instrument.  But I missed my alto.

I didn’t sleep well, as I had a lot of bad dreams to deal
with at night.  My subconscious was well aware I had taken two lives with my
own hands.  It wasn’t something I found I could deal with on my own, and I had
decided I would need to work it out with a professional.  But right now I was
in England and was determined to enjoy the remainder of my visit, so I pushed
it back into a little dark corner of my mind until I could find the leisure to
deal with it.

I did get to meet Bentley Hughes.  He was a warm, helpful
man surrounded by people who loved him.  He withdrew his bid on taking over the
music-publishing giant.  Losing his best friend sobered his quest to rise to
new heights at all costs.  He sent to my home address a copy of every symphonic
band arrangement he was presently publishing for the Coconut Palms community
band as a thank you.

Mrs. Roberts and I spent an afternoon shopping.  I never
found out her first name - if she had told me, I didn’t remember it.  She would
always be Mrs. Roberts to me.  Constable Cayne and his wife are presently
vacationing on the money he made from selling a blow-by-blow account of the
occurrences at Bathgate to the papers and the television gossip shows. 
Fortunately for me, the press only had the London footage of me leaving the
hospital in the red dress, and I looked marvelous.

Noelle would finish her Masters, and then after that she
wasn’t sure what she wanted to do.  Peter had broken down her defenses, so he
was part of the picture she would paint for herself.  Lady Mary promised to
look after her.

Michael’s aunt Diane made sure that I never had the
opportunity to be near her nephew.  After several failed attempts to see him, I
wrote him a thank you letter for coming to my rescue.  Miles was able to sneak
it by the dragon lady.  They left the hospital and England without a word.  CSP
Browning had delivered the letter from Maurice, but he really didn’t know
anything beyond that they had received it.

Angie had not opened the letter from Maurice yet.  She
needed more happy times behind her before she would deal with it.  I
understood.  I invited her to stay with us in Florida.  She gave me a definite
yes.

The biggest surprise I received happened on my last evening
in England when Stephen Douglas called and asked me to join him for dinner.  I
went, just out of sheer curiosity.  We met at the Spaghetti House near the
college.  We had agreed on dressing casual, and he looked very pale in the
jeans that barely hugged his thin frame.  His eyes lit up when he saw me.  I
couldn’t help smiling back.  He had a large box under his arm topped with a
large packing envelope.

He ordered wine, and after the first drink he talked a blue
streak.  He asked me questions about home, music and killing people, in that
order.  I complemented his playing and asked about what direction he might take
after college.

“I just want to play.  I’m learning to arrange music, but
really I just want to play.  Studio musician would be fine, but I fear I am
destined to stand up and be gawked at.”

“I think you make more money the more people that gawk.”

He actually laughed at my bad joke.

“I have something for you.  I made it myself.”   He reached
into the box and pulled out a scrapbook.

“Thank you.”

I opened the cover expecting to see a collection of his
notices and pictures.  Instead I was looking at myself.  The scrapbook covered
everything from the first blurb about finding the body in the bog, to the Queen
introducing me to Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber.  I leafed through the pages and was
surprised that so much had been written about each of the incidents that I had
been involved in.

“I had no idea there was so much.”

“I made two, one for me.  Would you sign my book?”  He was
so excited he was shaking.

I opened his book to the first page that he left blank.  He
handed me a pen.  I thought for a moment and wrote:
 To Stephen, whose
musical performance is an inspiration to me.  I shall never forget the night I
heard you perform.  I will hear it in my dreams for a very long time.  Have a
wonderful career and make the composers proud they decided to write music.

Detective Cin Fin-Lathen

I handed it back to him and he read it over and over.

“Is it okay?”

“Oh yes, please one more thing.”  He motioned for the waiter
to come over.  He handed him a camera and slid his chair over.  The waiter took
two pictures and handed the camera back.

“I have one more thing for you.”  He pulled out a musical
manuscript that had been handwritten.  “I have transposed some of Donald
Williams’s work for alto clarinet.” 

I looked at the music and reached over and gave him a big
hug.  I was careful not to snap any bones.  I thought I saw a flash out of the
corner of my eye but ignored it.

We ate dessert and parted.

This morning after I had checked my bags, Noelle, Peter and
I browsed through the shops.  We walked by a newsstand and there on the cover
of Britain’s most colorful rag was a picture of me hugging Stephen.  I wouldn’t
say it was a large picture, just half the front page.  They saved the rest of
the space for the title: “AMERICAN DETECTIVE’S SECRET RENDEZVOUS WITH YOUNG
MUSICAL PROTÉGÉ.”

I stood there a moment.  Noelle and Peter were laughing.  I
picked up the paper, bought it and put it in the scrapbook I was holding.

As promised, I didn’t have any trouble at security with the
Kernow Daa.  I had returned to Mary’s home to have it blessed again, since I
had taken it off.  She wasn’t upset, and she knew I was coming.  Mary just
asked me to step outside while she “puttered around with it.”  It didn’t seem
as heavy as before when she clasped it this time.  I thanked her for helping
Father Michael.  She shrugged her shoulders and said simply, “It’s what I do.”

It was tough leaving Noelle, but I needed to get back to my
life in Florida.  I knew she was going to be fine.  I said my goodbyes to her
and Peter and got on the plane.  As I sat back in my seat I closed my eyes.  I
thought of the trip over and of Father Michael.  I felt the seat next to me
become occupied, and I slowly opened one eye.

“I’m back,” Father Michael announced.

“I don’t even want to know how you knew when I was leaving.  And
I don’t want you to even try to explain where you have been for the last
month.”

“I’m flattered.  I thought you must have been too busy
rendezvousing with young protégés to notice.”  He flopped the paper on my lap.

“Cute, very cute.  I’m not going to explain that.”

“My my, you are mad at me.”

“I thought we were friends.”

“I went to Ireland to see an old teacher of mine.  And then
I went into a retreat.  I had trouble dealing with all the mystical Cornwall
things combined with my worries about my uncle’s passage out of this world.”

“Did you find solace?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Good at least that’s one of us.”  I leaned back in my seat
satisfied.

“Don’t forget, you promised me equal time with Joyce.  How
long did it take you to read and understand ‘Portrait’?”

“A week,” I said cautiously.  I didn’t like the way this was
going.

“When I can clear my schedule I will call you.  A week of
religious instruction.”

“Thank God.”

“I am surprised to see you pleased enough to thank the
Lord.”  He sat up a little taller.

“I said thank God, because I was thanking God I didn’t read
Ulysses!”

Father Michael nudged me, and I looked up to see a flight
attendant coming down the aisle.  He tapped his alb and smiled.  The flight
attendant stopped and leaned in.

“Excuse me, Detective Fin-Lathen, we have a couple of first
class seats available, would you care to join us?”

“Yes, fine.  Would you have two together for my associate
and me?” I could barely contain myself.

“Yes, we do.  Follow me.”

I picked up my things and walked a few feet and turned around. 

“Perks, Father, perks.”

***