Valise in the Attic (9 page)

“He hasn’t contacted me looking for anything,” Alice said as they reached the kitchen and she began to fill the kettle. “And I would love to keep it that way.”

Soon the police officer came in and took their report as they sat around her small table sipping hot tea. They had few details, but Alice mentioned her ex and their rocky relationship.

“Do you have reason to believe he is in the area?” the officer asked.

“No,” Alice admitted.

“Has he threatened you?”

“No.”

“We’ll definitely look into him as a possibility, but it doesn’t sound like the most likely option,” the officer said as he dutifully scrawled John’s name in his notebook.

Then Annie told him about the mugging in the parking lot at the pier. The officer listened intently as she described it, taking careful notes. “I tend to think that event is not related to this either,” the officer said. “We do sometimes get purse snatchers and pick pockets in that area, though not so much this time of year. Still, the movie set could draw all kinds of people.”

Annie nodded. “I just wanted to be sure to mention it, especially since I saw an SUV in that parking lot.”

The officer smiled slightly. “I’d imagine you’d find SUVs in lots all over Stony Point,” he said. “They’re fairly popular around here.”

Annie nodded, struck suddenly with a silly thought. Joanna and John would strongly disapprove of anyone driving such a non-green vehicle. As she fought back a giggle, she realized how close to hysteria she really was. What was going on?

10

The police officer thanked them and said they’d get a call whenever the police knew anything. “You be sure to call if anything else happens,” the young man said.

As soon as he left, Annie invited Alice to spend the night with her. “I’m feeling a little shaky,” Annie said, “and you look like you are too.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” Alice said. “Let me collect some things and button up the house for the night. Then I’ll come right over.”

“All right, I’ll go on then.”

Annie grabbed the small suitcase full of yarn from the car and cut across between Alice’s house and hers. Anywhere the sun had fallen on the lawn, the snow was slushy, and Annie was glad she’d worn her snow boots.

Boots met her at the door, meowing in complaint. “I know, I’ve been gone a lot lately,” Annie said. “I’ll be home all day tomorrow.” She scooped up the gray cat and hugged her. “And I have a surprise for you. One of your favorite people is spending the night.” Boots purred in reply as Annie stroked her fur.

She carried Boots into the kitchen and put the kettle on for more tea—she wasn’t sure she’d had enough comfort beverage. Then she dumped some cat food into the small ceramic bowl on the floor. Boots dove into the bowl as if Annie had been starving her as well as neglecting her social needs.

“Poor kitty,” Annie cooed. Then she jumped when she heard a rough pounding on the front door. “Goodness, what’s that?”

Annie hurried to the door. She was startled to find Alice in the doorway, pale and shivering as she clutched a tattered package in her hands. “Alice!” Annie gasped as she hurried her friend inside. “What’s wrong?”

“I wanted to collect my mail before I came over. I found this in my mailbox,” Alice said, handing the package to Annie.

It was a small padded envelope, stained and ripped in several places. The return address was torn completely away from the rest of the package. A sticker on the front of the envelope said it had been accidentally damaged in handling.

“Looks like it lost a battle with the post office,” Annie said.

“Look inside.”

Since the end was torn out of the envelope, it was easy to see the jewel case inside. It was clear plastic with a crack across the face. Inside was a CD with no label. Someone had scrawled, “I’m coming for you,” across the face of the CD.

“What’s on the CD?” Annie asked.

“Creepy music,” Alice said, her voice still shaky. “I only listened for a few seconds. I didn’t want to hear anymore while I was all by myself. Do you have a CD player?”

Annie nodded and led Alice into the living room. She picked up a small CD player from the floor next to her chair and ejected the CD of Christmas music she’d been playing while she worked on Christmas projects. Alice placed the new CD inside and started it. The music was all instrumental with a low almost mournful wail. Annie felt a chill just listening to it. “I agree; it’s creepy,” she said. “Do you have any idea who sent it?”

Alice shook her head. “I wondered if maybe it was the same person who drove the SUV,” she said. “What if the guy has been stalking me for a while, and he’s only just now done enough to get noticed?”

Annie looked at her friend’s frightened face. “Then I think we should call the police back,” she said.

“And tell them what? I got a Halloween CD in the mail, and I don’t know who sent it?” Alice asked. “That officer took us seriously before because we had the evidence of a battered car, but you know how quickly they’ll mark you down as a neurotic woman living alone. Maybe I’m making too much out of this.”

Annie considered arguing with her friend, but thought of all the times she’d hesitated to call the police herself. She knew how easy it was to second-guess yourself.

“Besides,” Alice said. “What would they do about it? The package is so beat up, it doesn’t even have a return address.”

Annie nodded. “All right. But if anything else weird happens, we have to report this too.”

“Fair enough,” Alice said. “Look, I feel OK now. I’m going to go back and get my jammies.” Alice laughed, but her voice still sounded strained. “It’ll be good to just settle down and relax. I’m making myself crazy.”

“Well, here, put on my coat anyway,” Annie said. “You’ll give yourself pneumonia wandering around in just a sweater.”

Alice slipped into the coat and hurried out carrying the package with her. Annie watched her from the side windows, not wanting to take her eyes of Alice until she knew her friend was safe.

“A mugging, a crazy driver, and a creepy package,” Annie murmured.
What do these things have in common?
she asked herself.
Which ones are related?

What mystery had they gotten themselves into this time?

When Alice came back, the two women agreed not to talk about anything creepy. “I think we’ve had enough mystery in the last two days,” Annie said. “If we’re going to sleep tonight, we need a different topic.”

“OK,” Alice said. “How about men? I noticed you and Ian looked pretty cozy on the ferry during the shooting.”

“We were told to act like a couple,” Annie said. “It was acting.”

“Well, I must say, you and the mayor are excellent actors,” Alice teased. “All those meaningful gazes and sparkling eyes.”

“Oh, you couldn’t possibly see our eyes from the pier.”

“We could,” Alice insisted. “Just ask Peggy. The sparkle was dazzling.”

Annie laughed, glad her friend was feeling more her normal self again. Still, she was eager to get off the subject of Ian. “So, when are you going to see Jim again?”

Alice sighed. “I have no idea. He finished his lighthouse project and started something new. He’s doing a book on abandoned places.”

Annie raised her eyebrows. “Like?”

“Ghost towns, abandoned prisons, and hospitals,” Alice said. “Even abandoned buildings right in the middle of cities, if the interiors are interesting enough. It’s amazing what people will just walk away from. He told me he was going to start with places in the United States, but the publisher is hinting at a second book that will show places all over the world.”

“Sounds fascinating and kind of creepy.”

“Jim is very excited about it, but unfortunately a lot of these places are way out in the middle of nowhere,” Alice said. “No cellphone reception, no email, and no post office some of the time. Jim doesn’t seem to mind. He’s as happy roughing it as he is staying at a nice hotel. But I don’t hear from him much lately.”

“And you miss him.”

Alice smiled ruefully. “I was getting used to having him call me a couple times a week. Honestly, Annie, you could talk to Jim for the rest of your life and never manage a dull conversation. He’s been so many places and seen so many things.”

Though Annie knew Jim was a great storyteller, she still thought Alice sounded very much like a woman in love. She wondered if Alice even knew how badly she was falling for Jim. “He probably misses you too,” she said.

“He better.” Then Alice laughed, and the shadow seemed to lift. “Enough about Jim, or you’re going to have to spill about Ian.”

“What’s to say?” Annie asked. “You know Ian and I are just good friends. Anything else is just a figment of your imagination.”

“Right,” Alice said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were me back in my John MacFarlane days.”

Annie looked at her quizzically.

“Back when I was Cleopatra, the queen of denial.”

Annie shook her head. “No denial. All right, I admit it. I know Ian would like for us to be more than friends. He’s pretty clear about it. But you know how it is …”

“For you, there was only Wayne Dawson.”

Annie’s eyes shone for a moment, and she nodded.

“I can’t say I know what it’s like to lose someone like that,” Alice said. “But if you do ever find you’re ready to move on, I won’t be surprised if our fine mayor is waiting.”

“Are we done with love lives now?” Annie asked. “I know I’m thoroughly uncomfortable.”

Alice laughed again. “Always my goal. We could talk about Vanessa’s love life for a while.”

“As much as I think Logan is very nice, I would love a totally different topic.”

“But if men and mystery are off limits, what do we talk about?” asked Alice.

Annie picked up the Christmas CD from the table and idly turned it in the light so it sparkled like an ornament. “We could talk about Christmas. I noticed your house was gorgeous. I thought you said you’d only done a little bit, but it looked like you’d gone all out to me.”

Alice shrugged. “I love Christmas,” she said. “I don’t intend to let it slip by just because I’m alone. I love the sparkle and the colors and getting presents.” Then she grinned. “Still, if you think that was ‘all out,’ you should see it when I’m really inspired. One year I bought a tree so big I had to cut the trunk to about this short at the bottom.” She held up her fingers with a few-inch gap between them. “It hid all my presents. Not good. Looking at my presents is one of my favorite things.”

“Your presents?” Annie laughed. “Here I was thinking I would hear all about the spirit of giving.”

“I love it when people are in the spirit of giving me things,” Alice said, grinning. “I admit it. I never grew up. I’d make a list for Santa if I thought the old guy would come through for me.”

Annie shook her finger at her friend. “You can’t fool me. I happen to know there isn’t a greedy bone in your body.”

“You say that even though you have seen the convertible I bought myself,” Alice said with the laugh. Then her face fell as she remembered the damage her beloved Mustang had taken.

Annie patted her arm. “I’m sure a body shop can make it look just like new again.”

Alice nodded. “I’ll have to go get estimates in the morning and call the insurance company. But for tonight, how about a movie?” She held up a red paper envelope. “A movie came in the mail today too. It’s a comedy, just what we need.”

“Great,” Annie said. “I’ll make the popcorn.”

The rest of the evening passed in a pleasant blur of giggling and crunching. By bedtime, they both finally felt they’d put the day behind them. The next morning, Alice insisted she needed to get an early start on the whole insurance thing. “You know,” she said, “maybe this was all some weird road-rage attack. Maybe the guy just hated convertibles. I’m ready to just get my car fixed and focus on Christmas.”

“Good attitude,” Annie said. Still, she watched as Alice walked back to her house. And stood watching for several more minutes, in case Alice came back with some new scary discovery. When nothing happened, Annie finally relaxed and started planning her own day.

She looked over at her project bag and wondered if she should settle down with some crocheting. She also considered bringing some Christmas things down from the attic. Maybe she should be like Alice and decorate for herself.

Finally she settled on an idea. She would pull out her laptop and go online to see if she could get an idea for the perfect book for Herb’s Christmas present. She carried the computer out to the kitchen table and stared out the window pensively while she waited for it to boot up. This had certainly been a strange couple of days.

When the computer was ready, she opened her Web browser and clicked on the link to her favorite online bookstore. As she clicked through page after page of books, she put several on her wish list to look back over later for herself, but nothing specific jumped out at her for Herb. “I wish I could just give him the bookstore,” she said. Maybe Alice was right and a gift card to the bookstore was best.

Annie remembered how much her grandmother had disliked the idea of handing out gift cards. “You might as well just admit you haven’t paid attention to what people like,” Betsy had said once when Annie’s grandfather had suggested giving everyone gift cards to save time and shipping costs.

Annie sighed. “There has to be some answer. Some way I could give Herb the bookstore without something so impersonal as a gift card.”

She aimlessly clicked through some links until her eyes hit something that just seemed to leap out at her. Electronic books! Herb loved gadgets and books! Quickly Annie began a search for electronic book readers and read the specifics for each one. Finally she picked a nice lightweight reader that came with a certificate for two free e-books. She bought a lovely leather case to go with it. She could have them gift-wrapped and shipped directly to Texas.

Annie sat back with a warm sense of accomplishment. She was willing to bet Herb wouldn’t shrug off this present! And the next time she was in Texas, maybe she’d even try it out. She might like one of her own.

Then she looked down at the computer that spent most of its time cluttering up her dresser and shook her head. “I might as well admit it,” she told Boots. “I’m an old-fashioned girl.”

As she shut down her computer, the warm glow of accomplishment faded a bit as her mind turned back to the last two days. Annie pushed the computer to one side and grabbed a slip of notepaper and a pen. She decided to be methodical about the frightening events that had happened to her—and now Alice too—while she was still feeling the warm glow of solving the mystery of what to get Herb for Christmas.

She made a list of the strange events. Someone had tried to steal the valise. Someone had tried to run them off the road. Someone had sent Alice a strange spooky CD. Were these events related?

Looking at the list, it looked as if more things were tied to Alice than to Annie. “So probably the valise doesn’t really matter,” Annie said. Then she nearly shot upright. She had loaned the valise to Vanessa before the weird package or the near calamity on the highway. What if someone went after Vanessa?

Annie pulled the cellphone out of her sweater pocket and dialed A Stitch in Time. Mary Beth answered the phone with her usual bouncy greeting.

“Hi Mary Beth. This is Annie,” Annie said. “Is Kate there?”

“Hi Annie. Sure she is. One second.”

Annie tapped her toe nervously while she waited for Kate to come to the phone. She would feel terrible if the valise caused any trouble for Vanessa. Finally she heard Kate’s warm, slightly husky voice. “Hi Annie.”

“Hi Kate,” Annie said. “I was just wondering if Vanessa got away on her trip?”