The Tea Series Read online

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why would they take the top off and break it all to bits and then leave all the stuff in the trunk wrapped up? If you saw a bunch of stuff wrapped up, wouldn’t you assume it was valuable?”

  “I would, and as you so accurately pointed out, I’m brilliant.”

  “Then what the heck happened?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, and until they catch the bad guy, we won’t know.”

  “Well, crap, another mystery to figure out.”

  “Not everything is a mystery. Look for the most obvious answer, and chances are good, it is the right answer.”

  “So, Teagan, oh wise one, what’s the most obvious answer?”

  “I have no clue.”

  “You told me that Roland said someone used our glass knife and cut themselves.”

  “I think it is porcelain, but go ahead.”

  “Well, maybe they cut the heck out of themselves before they had a chance to open the trunk.”

  “So why did they break the glass on the top, stop, go into the kitchen and get a knife — there’s a screwdriver in the drawer two over — take a knife that is obviously weird because it has a white blade, go back past the trunk, and try to open the desk?”

  “All good questions for which I don’t have an answer.”

  “Another weird thing. Roland said that they focused pretty much on my stuff and left A.J.’s alone. That either means that I have a stalker, highly unlikely, or they were after my stuff, thinking that I had Adeline’s information all mixed in with my belongings.”

  “Then why didn’t they take your laptop?”

  “Another very good question. At first I thought maybe they just didn’t see it. I used to keep it pretty well hidden, and for a split second I thought maybe I’d hidden it, but the truth is I left it leaning up against the couch. They could see it if they were looking around.”

  “Really? Hidden? Every time you walked out of the house you hid your laptop? That’s just kind of weird.”

  “So, I was paranoid. Turns out I was right to be.”

  “Okay, so if it wasn’t hidden, why didn’t they grab it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Maybe they didn’t take it because they got information off of it and they didn’t want you to think they got the information.”

  “Maybe, but, really, I doubt it. Roland said that if they were looking for the passcode for the warehouse they probably would have just snuck in and gotten the code and snuck back out. I would have never known they had it, and nobody would be looking for them.”

  “Obviously Roland isn’t as smart as we are giving him credit for.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Okay, say I’m a bad guy.”

  “Not hard to imagine.”

  “Cara, you want my help or not?”

  “Sorry. Okay, you are a bad guy.”

  “I wouldn’t just sneak into your house and sneak back out. Couple of reasons. First, it’s an apartment. Too many people around. Chances of someone seeing me coming or going are pretty high. If I mess up your house, then there is a reason someone saw something, but if I sneak in and sneak out and someone tells you I was there, then you have more to think about.”

  “You are devious, you know that?”

  “Oh, that is just the first layer. So, I come in and I mess up your house, and I take information you don’t know I have. Then I use that information to go to the warehouse. People are going to think it is either about you, or it is about Adeline, but what if it is about something totally different?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that the best criminals use people as weapons against themselves. If I were a criminal, I’d do something that would lead you to the conclusion that I wanted you led to, but that doesn’t mean that I would lead you where I was going.”

  “So you think that maybe this isn’t about me or Adeline?”

  “Oh, I think it is about you and Adeline. I just don’t think it is about the warehouse or your apartment.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s too simple. Just like Roland said, if it was something that simple, why all the drama? Why make you feel insecure? If they only wanted information, all they would have to do is hire a hacker or bug the place or whatever. They don’t have to break in and ruin everything.”

  “Maybe they are just mean.”

  “Maybe, but if they’re just mean, why didn’t they break Grandma O’Flynn’s teapot? It isn’t about being mean. It’s about something else.”

  “What?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “You’re a big help.”

  “Sorry.”

  “The sad thing is, what you’re saying actually makes more sense than what Roland was saying. You want to repeat everything you just said to me to Roland?”

  “Sure.”

  “If the place is bugged, they now know that we know that they know what we were talking about.”

  “It’s not bugged.”

  “How do you know that, Teagan?”

  “Because if it were bugged, Roland would have found the bugs. He would have checked. On the other hand, he may have planted his own.”

  “You’re such a comfort. I’m gonna call Roland. Can you shut it? We’re letting all my smell out.”

  Teagan looked at me like I’d grown another head.

  “The smell in the trunk. We’re letting all the smell out. We need to close the lid.”

  “Cara, have you learned nothing? Why are you being so stubborn about this? Just open the damn gifts.”

  “I will.”

  “When?”

  “When Mom gets back.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I want her to be here when I open everything.”

  “That’s nice. She and Bernie were good friends for decades.”

  “I’m not that altruistic. I’m really more nosey than altruistic. I want Mom here so that she can tell me what the stuff means.”

  “Good point. Cara, we both know that when Mom gets home she’s gonna be a little busy. She’s got several things going on in the family that she will need to address, to be a part of. Just Sinead’s baby is going to take up at least eighteen years. The child of your youngest child, and Sinead being young and single and Mom trying to act like that is okay with her when you know it isn’t — that’s gonna take a lot of time. If you’re waiting for Mom, you have the perfect excuse to put it off even longer.”

  “That’s not what I meant, but a great strategy. Want chocolate? I do.”

  Once we’d balanced our sugar intake with our salt intake and washed it down with a very unhealthy amount of carbonated drink, we went about creating a list of all the things in my life I want to get completed. Then we got Teagan’s fingerprints, both her index finger and her ring finger. She is absolutely convinced that if she comes into my apartment, she is going to forget to use her ring finger, and next thing you know there will be cops everywhere, and the SWAT team will descend, and she is going to end up on the floor flopping around like a fish out of water. She has seen as much Taser stuff on television as I have.

  First on the list is to figure out if there is even a mystery involved in Bernie’s trunk. The more I think about it, the more I think that Bernie is just a nice old woman who didn’t have any family and that she left the stuff to me because she figured that Troya had more attention when we were younger because of her illness and Teagan would get more attention because she is Teagan and Sinead would get more attention because she is the baby and so that left Maeve and me. She probably flipped a coin.

  I need to figure out what is going on with Barry. I need to know how much I have to be involved with that whole thing. Will I have to testify? What am I supposed to say?

  Barry’s a jerk.

  Barry and I got into a previous physical altercation.

  Do they want me to say that I was pretty sure I’d been shot in the head and woke up in the hospital to find that Barry had kicked
the supreme bejezzus out of me?

  I really don’t remember him doing everything that we know he did, and you are only allowed to testify about what you know to be true. It would suck to have to go to court and look him in the eye and have his lawyer rip me apart on the stand.

  Hopefully I won’t have to have any part of it.

  According to what I was told, he confessed, but that doesn’t mean that some lawyer won’t want it to go to court. People get caught with the gun in their hand, and twenty-three witnesses, and their lawyer still has them plead not guilty. This one is pretty much Barry’s word against mine, and my word is coming out of the mouth of a head that got kicked in.

  I’ll bet they can come up with a bunch of specialists who could testify that some other person kicked the crap out of me, that I just think it is Barry because I don’t like him, and that he confessed because he felt guilty about the first fight we got in, and if you look at that one, I ruined his knee.

  You watch, I’m the one who is going to end up in jail.

  Okay, that’s just ridiculous.

  That’s a bad movie, not real life.

  Right?

  My luck he’s going to get probation and be back after me three minutes after the state pays to have his leg fixed.

  Wow, I’m getting cynical.

  That’s not good.

  So, I need to find out what is happening with Barry.

  I need to find out if everything is really over with Jerkface. Maybe he has another crazy relative, and that’s who broke into my apartment.

  That’s a terrible thought.

  I’m not even sure how I would go about finding that out.

  Maybe I should talk to Roland.

  He’s already done a lot for me. Not sure what I can do to pay him back, but the truth is, the more people we can rule out, the faster we can figure out if whoever broke into my apartment was really after anything to do with Adeline.

  So really, having Roland check out all the creeps in my background is a favor I’m doing for Adeline.

  If I can sell that one, I should be in the used car business.

  I was losing Teagan. I shouldn’t have tried to explain all this stuff. I should have just written a few points on the page and then thought about it after she left.

  Time for a change of subject.

  “So, what did Mom say to you? You said she was writing a different thing to each of us; what did she write to you?”

  “She said that they are having a great time. They went to the Giant’s Causeway. Mom said that things have really been built up. I guess when Grandma was there, there was a little shack, and everything was free. Mom said that she and Dad got there and there’s a huge visitor’s center, complete with a big gift shop. Mom said she read online that there is access for free, but when she got into the visitor center they were charging for tickets. I’m not sure what all that meant. Anyway, in the visitor center gift shop you can buy everything from books about the history of the place to a giant eraser. I guess giant is a theme. She said you walk through the place, and off to the right you get to pick up a radio-type thing that tells you all kinds of stories about the traditions and the legends of the place. She and Dad walked. There’s a bus, and they were going to grab it on the way back to the visitor center, but Mom only had euros, and they thought that since the visitor center wanted pounds sterling since it is in Northern Ireland, the bus would only take pounds sterling, but after they walked the whole thing, uphill in both directions, it turns out that the bus would have taken their euros. I’m guessing there is more to the story, since they’ve been walking miles and miles without complaint. I’m sure we will hear about it when they get home.”

  “I hope they had ice cream for Daddy. It really seems to be his thing.”

  “Mom says he’s focused.”

  “They sound like they are having a lot of fun.”

  “I guess they walked down the path all the way to the stones. There’s an area where you can actually walk out onto the stones. It’s kind of like all these pillars. Mom said that they are hexagons and that there are tens of thousands of them. Some tall, some not. Some you can stand on; some make walls. She said she and Dad actually went gallivanting out to the sea on them. She thought they’d be slippery and thought for sure they’d end up in the drink, but they did fine. She says they have lots of pictures. Something about a chair and a boot and granny rock. I’m sure we will get details when they get home.”

  “I know. It will take them months to tell us all about it. They can relive it over and over again. They are already talking about their next trip over, and they aren’t even home yet.”

  “What did they say in your email?”

  “Mine was short. Basically Mom wanted me to get online and see if she understands the arrangements she’s made. She talked to two different guys. One guy told her how to get where she wants to go. Another guy told her the only way to get there was very different. She’s trying to figure it all out on a smart phone that only has connectivity part of the time. The majority of websites she needs to use in order to accomplish anything are not her-phone friendly. She said she logs on, and they want her to answer questions, but the questions are in boxes that her phone won’t allow her to get to.”

  I stretched out.

  “Mom said that they will be leaving Ireland on a ferry. The ferry brings them to Holyhead. They get on a train. The train brings them to London. They are good with that part; it is simply the reverse of how they got there. Because they weren’t sure of their travel dates, Mom made those arrangements by phone on their website, and it got all screwed up. The ferry people were really kind and went out of their way to help via email, but it was a nightmare trying to communicate that way.”

  “Why didn’t she just call them?”

  “I don’t know. Back to the problem she assigned me. They know how to get to London via train. They aren’t sure how they are going to get to the hotel, but my guess is they will just use the tube. The Internet says it’s six hundred meters — which according to the calculator thing I found is about a third of a mile — from the tube station to the hotel, but Mom says they’ve been burned by that kind of assumption a couple of times already.”

  “She said in her email to me that they walked for miles trying to get to one hotel. When she told the guy at the desk that even their literature said they were only yards away from the tube station, he laughed and said they use the numbers on the computer, but in reality that is an aerial measurement, and people don’t fly.

  “Anyway, they will spend the night in the hotel, and then according to one guy, they need to take a cab to a different hotel, and then from that hotel they get a private bus that will bring them to Stonehenge for an hour and a half and then will drop them off at the cruise dock. Mom said according to the Internet that she can get sporadically, the bus won’t be able to get close to the right dock, and they are going to need to get a cab. Not a big deal, but Mom wants to make sure they have enough time to do all this.”

  “She likes to get to the gate early when she flies, so I’m sure she will want to get to the boat dock early. She’s right, you know. The first people on get better seating and food until the rooms are ready. That’s what happened to us.”

  “True. Back to Mom and Daddy. According to the other guy, they should skip the bus and take a train straight from the station they are closest to — not the tube, but a train — and that train will bring them close to the port, and then a ten-minute cab ride will get them to the boat.”

  “You would think that with technology and all the research they did they wouldn’t be having these kinds of problems.”

  “Mom says she has to go into town and access Wi-Fi at the bank every time she wants to look something up, since they are in such a little village, and the locals are starting to look at her funny.”

  “They don’t have wireless at the house?”

  “Nope. I guess there are a few places in town that have wireless, but free connections aren’t
all that popular, and she keeps her phone set so that she doesn’t get charged for overseas rates. That was one of the things that Daddy was supposed to take care of. I’ll bet he is in trouble. She can’t use her cell to make calls, but she can use it as a computer. She’s got that part of it all figured out.”

  “So did you find out everything she needed?”

  “In theory. I haven’t gotten any response, so I’m not sure if she got my message or not. From what I could figure out from here, they need to do the train thing.”

  “I thought they rented a car.”

  “They rented a car in Ireland. They’re using the tube in England.”

  “Holyhead is in England?”

  “No, Holyhead is in Wales. I think. It’s up at the top. You know I flunked geography.”

  “It’s embarrassing, Cara. Every time I talk to family over in Ireland, they know everything there is to know about our politics and business and everything. I don’t know anything more about Ireland than a bunch of Americanized legends and traditions.”

  “You could look it up if you really want to, you know.” She gave me a look. “One trauma at a time. First let me get the lists I’ve already got cleared. Then I can make a new list of all kinds of stuff that I should do before I die.”

  “A bucket list?”

  “No. Don’t start. I can’t lift a bucket that big. It’s dawned on me in the last few weeks that there is more to life than being an O’Flynn.”

  “Cara, being an O’Flynn isn’t what you do, it’s what you are while you do what you do.”

  “See, you know that, but I always thought about it a different way. I don’t know. It’s hard to put into words. It’s not that every minute I was thinking WWOD?”

  “What would an O’Flynn do? Wow, that’s reaching back into our childhood. I can remember Sister Bernadette talking about that at school. I wonder if she is still alive or if a bunch of little kids have finally had enough and she’s buried out in the back of some soccer field. She is quite possibly the meanest person who ever lived.”

  “She shouldn’t have been a nun. They should have a test.”