Mariah Stewart - Coming Home

“Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?” She grinned and pulled up his shirttail. “I always wanted to be able to say that but never thought I’d get the chance.”

“Hal put me on the force as a temporary part-time officer.”

“He can do that?”

“He’s acting chief in Beck’s absence.”

“He hired you just to watch over me?” She frowned. “That’s not a very good use of taxpayers’ money.”

“We didn’t discuss remuneration, and I don’t expect any. He just wanted to be able to give me a handgun. Just in case.”

“I do not like guns, but if Edmund Dent is in St. Dennis, I’m not going to argue.” She picked up Jackie Weston’s picture. “I feel real bad for her. I could be very wrong, but I didn’t get the sense that she was a bad person. I’m sorry she got involved with that family. They’re not nice people. That bad-news gene-and yes, the pun is intended-seems to run in the family. And I believe he’s been abusing her. All the signs were there.”

“I reviewed his criminal history. Their neighbors called the police several times to report screams and loud banging coming from their apartment, but she always insisted it was the television.”

“I knew it. She just has that defeated look about her.” Vanessa sighed. “If her fingerprints were in the database, she must have been arrested before, right?”

He nodded. “About six months ago, for passing bad checks.”

She looked back at the woman’s photo. “I can’t decide whether or not to be mad at myself for having been so nice to her.”

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think she had anything to do with the break-in.”

“I hope not. There ought to be a law against men like that.”

“Well, there is, but unfortunately, too many women ignore it.”

“Some habits are very hard to break, Grady. Once you start believing that you deserve what you’re getting, it’s real hard to convince yourself otherwise. It took me a long time to realize that I could make it stop.”

“I’m surprised you ever took that kind of treatment from anyone. You are so strong, so self-assured.”

“It was hard-won, believe me.” She smiled. “Just something else I have to thank Hal for.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you’d seen me when I first arrived in St. Dennis…” She laughed ruefully. “Not just the way I looked, which was way inappropriate for anyone other than a teenager-I was just a mess all the way around. Looking back, it’s a miracle Hal even opened his door when he saw me standing on his front porch.”

She stopped and took a drink from the coffee Grace had brought her.

“I was scared to death that someone in Gene’s family would come looking for me-prophetic, huh? I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. Here I was, bunking in with strangers who had no real reason to take me in except the goodness of their hearts, and I sure wasn’t used to people like that. I had no money, I couldn’t pay Hal room and board. I told him I’d get a job, but it was winter and there wasn’t much tourist action. Besides, there wasn’t much I was qualified to do. Long story short, Hal asked me what I would do if I could do anything, anything at all. I told him the only thing I ever dreamed of was owning a little dress shop, since the only job I ever had was in retail. He told me that if I did two things for him, he’d help me to have that little shop. One, I had to take classes at the community college-business classes, math, that sort of thing-and two, I had to go talk to a therapist. He promised me he’d never ask me what we talked about-and he never has, though I often volunteered. Anyway, I went to school and I did really well-surprised the hell out of me, how well I did-and I went to therapy every week for almost two years, which Hal paid for. It helped me to put a lot of things in perspective. Dr. Campbell-she was my therapist-helped me to understand that sometimes, you just have to let certain things go.”

She smiled up at him. “So yes, I am strong now. It took me a while, but I don’t let my past dictate what my future is going to be. That’s one of Dr. Campbell’s mantras, by the way.”

“Smart woman, your Dr. Campbell.”

She nodded. “Very.”

“You really have a lot to be proud of, you know that, right?”

“I got lucky, I had Hal and Beck and Dr. Campbell on my side.”

“I think you’re overlooking the fact that you must have had a lot inside you that you didn’t realize was there. Friends and family and even professional therapists can’t give you what you don’t already have. They can only help you to find what you’ve got and tap into it.”

“That’s what Dr. Campbell always said. Were you in therapy, too?”

He shook his head. “Psych major.”

“I should have known.”

He laughed and looked around the shop. “Speaking of moving on, let’s finish this up so that you can reopen as soon as the glass is replaced.”

“The glass guy should be here soon.”

“Do you have a large trash container? I can get this broken glass up for you while you try to figure out what’s missing.”

“I already made a list for the insurance agent,” she told him. “He took the money and the dress that Candice-excuse me, Jackie-tried on. She must have been with him, for him to have known which one to take.”

“She could have just described it,” he replied. “I doubt he would have taken her with him on the break-in. There’d be less chance that he’d be seen coming and going if he was by himself.”

“Maybe. I hope you’re right, for her sake. If he’s arrested, he’ll go to prison, so maybe she can get away from him.” She paused on her way to get the trash container for the glass. “I’d like to think that could happen for her. I’d like to believe she’d get another chance to make things right for herself. She didn’t seem like someone who should be involved with someone like that.” She thought over what she’d just said, then laughed ruefully. “Then again, neither was I…”

Diary -

Well, didn’t I say that Grady Shields was a nice young man? Apparently Vanessa thinks so, too. I noticed he hangs around Bling quite a bit, in a most protective manner, I might add. Which is only right, since our chief of police is away on a honeymoon with Grady’s sister-not that that obligates him, of course, but it is lovely that Grady is keeping an eye on Vanessa. But one cannot help but notice there’s nothing brotherly in the way that young man looks at her!

As for Vanessa, she’s come across some of Alice’s old herb books! Oh, yes, I’m dying to get my hands on them, since so much information has been lost to me since dear Alice passed, and let’s face it, my memory isn’t what it used to be. Blessings on Vanessa, she invited me to come to the house and look at those books-I will take her up on that as soon as I can without appearing overly anxious. I did inquire if she’d found any of Alice’s journals, but so far, she says she hasn’t seen them. I cannot even begin to imagine what she might think should she open any one of those and read about the activities that once took place in the very house she now calls home… and more shocking still, the names of those who participated!

Oh, dear-how would one explain…

– Grace

THE woman stood in the doorway of the municipal building as if she wasn’t sure she wanted to go in. Hal noticed her when he crossed the hall from Beck’s office to the conference room, then when he came back out again and walked to the reception desk. He’d just opened his mouth to complain to Garland about having started three times to pick up his messages but had been distracted three times, when he realized why the woman looked familiar.