The Tea Series Page 30

  I opened the door as she walked up.

  “I’m assuming you had your door locked and that’s why you had to let me in. Good.”

  “I’m trying to be better about all things security.”

  “That begs why you had the blinds open enough so that I could watch you watch me.”

  “I’m not going to live in a fortress.”

  “This apartment is far from a fortress, but I understand what you’re saying. It isn’t forever, Cara; it’s just until we find the crazy person. Until we find him, you need to be really careful.”

  “That’s what we thought about Barry. We found him, and he was replaced by another crazy person.”

  “You do seem to be attracting them lately.”

  “Some would say I always have. Of all the O’Flynns, you are my favorite.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment, dingleberry. I choose to ignore that you just called me crazy. Where’s my food?”

  “I wasn’t sure what you’d want, and you didn’t give me a whole lot of time to prepare, so you can have a sandwich, Buffalo Flops, I’ve got some leftover fried chicken, or I could do breakfast.”

  “Whatever is easy. We have some stuff to talk about. First, Honey. She got Mr. Fisher so whacked out about my leaving that he is basically kissing my toes. He even wants to give me a portion of the company.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I know. He said he wants to make me a partner.”

  “How’s that going to work?”

  “Not sure yet. I have to talk to Jessie’s sister about the legal stuff. I want to make sure that whatever it is I commit to, I can actually pull off and benefit from. I want to make sure that things are the way I think they are. After the last several conversations with you, I’m not so sure people are as honest as I assume them to be.”

  “You really think that Roland and Adeline are out to set me up? I have a really hard time believing that.”

  “That would make it all the easier, wouldn’t it? Start cooking. I’m not kidding. I’m starving, like fall-on-the-floor or throw-up kind of starving.”

  “I talked to Sinead yesterday. She said the same thing.”

  “Don’t go there, Cara.”

  “I told her I thought maybe she was dehydrated; that’s all I’m saying.”

  “Okay, you set off every alarm available when you start comparing me to the pregnant sister. I can live with dehydrated. I’ll fix myself a cup of tea while you cook breakfast.”

  “Tea will only dehydrate you more.”

  “No, I’m tea-proof. We started drinking tea in baby bottles. If it dehydrated us, we’d all be prunes. Cara, what are we going to do to keep you safe?”

  “I have no clue. I feel safe, and then you say something, and it scares the bejeezus out of me, and I worry and whack out for a while, but I really don’t change anything, and then I feel safe again. It’s just one more of the big loops I seem to be stuck in lately. I’m telling you, Teagan, there is something going on in my brain that I just don’t understand.”

  “Maybe it is intelligent thought. That would be new for you. Okay, dingleberry, you need to really give this some intelligent thought. Feeling safe isn’t enough; we need to make sure you actually are safe.”

  There was a knock on the door, and I about jumped out of my skin.

  The top of Suzi’s head is about all I can see of her through my peephole. I need to get one of those fisheye ones.

  “I saw Teagan’s car, and I just wanted to say thank you again.”

  Teagan called from the other room. “You’re welcome. I had fun.”

  Suzi had a big smile on her face. “I gotta go. I was at work and came home to grab some stuff that A.J. wanted for a shoot. Some old family pictures of Gran and her great-aunt. He wanted to kind of recreate the background. He’s going to do a shoot of one family, multigenerational, and show the progression with the surroundings going from sepia to color, but all in the same picture. I’m not sure how he is going to pull it off, but if he can, I’ll bet a lot of people will be interested in doing it for their family.”

  “Including mine. We were just going to have some pancakes; you sure you can’t stay?”

  “Nope, but that sounds good. Have a good day. Thanks again.”

  I walked back over to the kitchen. “She sounded kind of off.”

  “Yeah, she really did. It’s gotta be hard to be pregnant and trying to move forward and depending on people you don’t really want to depend on. Nobody wants their family to think they can’t make it on their own.”

  “We are not going to do tangents. Tangents are all I’ve been doing since I got my head kicked in.”

  “You’ve always gone off the path or the tracks or whatever the heck it was you used to say all the time.”

  “Yeah, but back then, I could pull myself back. I think that’s what I’m having problems with these days. I get stuck. In my whole life, have you ever known me to worry about my hair for an hour at a time, or step-by-step makeup, or focus on anything until it is boring even to me? Well, I do that all the time now, and I want to stop. It’s like my whole life is going by in slow motion.”

  “I can think of a few areas where that might come in handy.”

  “Focus is good; boring is bad. I’m gonna do ham in eggs, and pancakes. Would you set the table and get the stuff? I’ll have it ready in five.”

  “Wow, being asked to set the table in your apartment. This is growth.”

  “I told you, I’m trying. You know, that whole thing that Suzi was talking about reminds me that I haven’t done anything about the stuff in the trunk. Like those pictures we found.”

  “I thought you were going to wait until Mom got home and then you were going to open everything up.”

  “I am, but I haven’t even thought about the stuff I’ve already opened.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve thought about that trunk more than once, and you know what I think? I think we have created this whole fantasy where there’s a mystery, and the reality is, Bernie didn’t have anybody to leave her stuff that she liked. That doesn’t mean the stuff has any less importance, but it might not have any meaning, you know what I mean? I don’t think there’s a mystery in the trunk; I think there is junk in the trunk.”

  “I can’t believe you said that.”

  “It doesn’t have to be a mystery to be important.”

  “No, dink, junk in the trunk!”

  We were still laughing when someone else pounded on the door.

  The unfortunate consequence of the door pounding was that it scared me and I jerked.

  Unfortunately, I jerked while I was starting to transfer the eggs to a bowl, and they kind of went splat on the counter.

  And Teagan.

  The look on her face made me laugh.

  Which made her laugh.

  Then there was more pounding, and our laughter neared hysteria, and since a little egg smoodge is really no reason to laugh hysterically, I’m thinkin’ that it was more about tension release than egg yuck. Since I always transfer eggs when they’re still a little bit runny — because eggs continue to cook after you take them off the stove, or so says that cooking channel thing on television — they splatted really well.

  A rather gruff sounding voice found its way through the laughter. “Cara?”

  It was Harry, and he didn’t sound amused.

  I really didn’t care.

  I opened the door, with tears running down my face, and great peals of laughter.

  The look on his face was less than welcoming of my attitude.

  Screw him if he can’t take a joke. I haven’t had nearly enough laughter in my life lately. A year ago I used to throw my head back and laugh out loud. All the time. Over the littlest things. Things other people didn’t even smile about. I like to laugh. I’ve always liked to laugh.

  A year ago people I’d never met would comment that my laugh was contagious. Once Teagan and I were in a restaurant, I’m not even sure what she said, but I thought it
was really funny. I started to laugh. Then the lady at the table behind us started to laugh. I laughed until the tears were running down my face, and I was aware that if I were older and had had a few kids, I’d be in panic mode and headed toward the bathroom. By the time I was blowing my nose in the napkin supplied by the laughing waitress, all the people in our section — except one officious looking idiot in a blue suit with a power tie — were laughing almost as hard as I was.

  That’s how life is supposed to work.

  Your presence is supposed to make people happier.

  Harry was not accomplishing that, and to be honest, I’ve had enough of all of this. I’m tired of being a ninety-year-old nun. I don’t want to do any of this anymore, and I’m gonna laugh when I want to laugh, and if Roland and all his muscle guys don’t like it, well, that’s just too bad.

  “Cara, Roland sent me.”

  “Yeah, I figured that. Come on in.”

  “We need you to come with me.”

  “Now what?”

  “Ms. Adeline is in the hospital. She refuses to talk to anyone but you. Will you please come?”

  “I have to turn off my stove and put on shoes. I’ll be out there in one minute.”

  I explained to Teagan, and she promised to lock up after sticking the stuff in the fridge that would go bad if we left it out.

  I didn’t even bother putting on my shoes; I just grabbed them and my purse and ran for the big SUV in the parking lot.

  Harry had the door open waiting for me, and my butt was barely on the seat before he took off.

  “What happened?”

  “Roland will fill you in — ”

  “Dammit, I’m not going to play this game. Tell me what the hell happened.”

  “I’m not exactly sure. From what we’ve put together, Ms. Adeline, Ms. Anna, and Ms. Carolyn were getting ready for their adventure.”

  “Oh dear God, were Anna and Gran hurt?”

  “No. Just Ms. Adeline.”

  “Is she going to be alright?”

  “They are running tests.”

  “What happened to her, I mean, her body?”

  “I’m not sure. We’ll be there in seven.”

  “How do you guys do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Always count down exactly how long it is going to take you to get to the rescue? Roland did that when everybody was on their way to my apartment. I know he did it at least once, but I think he did it more than that.”

  He pointed. “The GPS says we will be there in seven.”

  “Oh, right. Too much television. Will you at least tell me what you know?”

  “All I know is someone at Ms. Adeline’s house hit the panic button. All hell broke loose at the office. We had people in the area, and they were first responders. We had people from the office out the door and on the way, we had dispatch contact Roland, and he wasn’t that far, so he got there pretty quick. By the time Roland was there, our guys had entry, found her, got medical staff to her, and had her on the way to the hospital.”

  “What did the ambulance people say? They know more than they tell people.”

  “No ambulance.”

  “What?”

  “You know how Ms. Adeline is. She had private transport, but it was just as good as an ambulance, and it was private.”

  “What the hell is wrong with people? An ambulance doesn’t subtract status points. So, what did Roland say?”

  “‘Go get Cara. Hog tie her if you have to.’”

  “Did he really say that?”

  “Well, that’s the cleaned up version. You have a reputation for being a little bit stubborn.”

  “That’s like saying Ireland is a little bit green.”

  He didn’t even crack a smile.

  “I can’t imagine why Adeline wants me. I can’t do anything.”

  “You are her family. Everybody wants family around when there’s a problem. We have people transporting Ms. Carolyn and Ms. Anna.”

  I took a moment to text A.J. just in case someone told him that huge black SUVs had ghosted away his grandmother. I assured him that she was fine, but that Adeline was in the hospital and her security staff was providing transportation for all of us. I let him know that I would be at the hospital and not sure when I would get home.

  Then I texted Teagan to make sure she had everything covered. She said she was on my couch, eating my chocolate, just in case Suzi got home before everything was calm, because she might need someone to hang with.

  God, I have the best sister in the world.

  We got to a building that looked a lot like a high-end business center. Then I remembered that this was in the same area as the doctor that Adeline had been to a while back when her house was all moldy and trying to kill her.

  When I got to the room, I was surprised to see that Adeline actually looked pretty good.

  “Cara, thank you for coming so quickly.”

  “Anything I can do, you know that. You look great. What happened?”

  “We will talk about that in a minute. Just let me get a few things settled. Please do me a service and run down to the kitchen area and get yourself a nice cup of tea. Would you bring one for me too?”

  “Certainly. I’ll be just a minute.”

  “Please, make it five minutes.”

  “Done.”

  What the heck is going on? I may not be the brightest bulb in the pack, but this isn’t what it looks like, or rather this isn’t what I was told. Or not really told. It isn’t what Harry alluded to. Okay, so he didn’t really allude, but this isn’t what I expected when a big black SUV picked me up in a panic. Not by a long shot. I’m beginning to think maybe Teagan is right about all this stuff.

  I texted Teagan: This is weird. Adeline looks fine. We are at that private hospital I told you about — the one that treated Adeline’s lungs. If you don’t hear from me in an hour — panic!

  Teagan texted back: You want me to come?

  My response: Then who will get me out of the well? No, if it all goes pear-shaped, I need you on the outside. I know I’m just being nuts. Gotta go.

  Teagan’s response to me: You’d look good with curves (pear-shaped). Don’t forget to text me. If I show up with the cops because you forgot, they will witness your end.

  I smiled while I made our tea. Even when I’m a mess, my sister knows how to do that, how to make me smile.

  When I walked back to Adeline’s room, there was no one else there. She was sitting in a modern-looking chair, wearing a beautiful gown, her hair in place, no makeup, but looking rather well.

  “Cara, I’m sorry I brought you here under these circumstances.”

  “You know how I feel about you Adeline; anything I can do, I will do. It is no problem at all.”

  “I should say I brought you here under false pretenses.”

  “What?”

  “Please try not to be angry, but this is all part of a ruse.”

  “You are okay?”

  “I’m quite well.”

  “Oh, thank God.” For a split second I was weak with relief.

  “I appreciate your reaction considering the fright we may have caused you, but since we have no way of knowing if you are being watched, and if you are, how they are accomplishing it, we decided that the best thing to do was to get a very natural reaction from you, should anyone be watching.”

  “Understandable. Disturbing, but understandable. What’s going on Adeline?”

  “It would appear that one or more of my children and one or more of their offspring have determined that it is time to take a more active approach to shortening my existence.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “That is an understatement.”

  “What makes you think that they are doing that?”

  “What else could it be? They were quite content to allow me to wallow in the detritus that had overtaken a part of the plant, and although I’m quite aware that it was not their doing that the house became toxic, they did nothin
g to benefit me. Instead they sat back waiting for me to come to a painful and untimely end.”

  “Adeline, I really hope we are wrong about that. Maybe they just didn’t know.”

  “When we were in Las Vegas, it became very evident that they had been watching me for a time. Cara, it took three old women a day to figure out that we were being followed. Those arrangements had to be made. There were very few people who were aware of our travels.”

  “I swear to you, Adeline, I am very careful about who I talk to about anything that has to do with you or the girls.”

  “I am confident of that, Cara. I am not holding you responsible in the least. We have done our due diligence, and I am very comfortable with the information we have accrued. My family, and I use that term only because I have no other at the moment, has been having me watched since before you were introduced to me.”

  Totally off the subject, when Adeline said that we were introduced, it reminded me that I should check in with Jovana. I wonder when her daughter-in-law is going to have that baby.

  “Since my return, we have become aware of even more information that attests to the fact that my family wishes me harm.”

  “So you are putting yourself out there as bait? Adeline, you can’t do that.”

  “I not only can, but I have. This is not your decision to make, Cara.”

  “I understand that, I really do, but you need to think this through.”

  “Believe me, Cara, I’ve thought of little else since we arrived home just after your encounter with Barry.”

  “Exactly.”

  “What?”

  “My encounter with Barry, as you put it, shows you how unpredictable things can be and how you can end up with your brain bouncing around inside your skull in less than a heartbeat. I’m sorry, Adeline. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but this seems foolish to me. It seems foolish on any number of levels.”

  “There is no fool like an old fool, Cara. The girls and I have talked this through. We have talked it to death, actually, and this is the plan that we agree will be most effective. If you do not wish to participate, I fully understand, and I will reserve no ill will due to that decision. Your life has already been impacted enough by this familial outrage I find myself involved in. I cannot begin to apologize for what my family has put you through. Having all this happen so close to the incident with Barry must make it all the harder. Please accept my apology.”