Chapter 2
Chapter two
Isaid good-bye to the woman who’d raised me since I was eleven, after a dinner of steak, baked potatoes and green beans that on any other day would have had me relish every mouthful. Today, I had to force the food down.
We were eating in the staff corner of the industrial-sized kitchen at the Blue Moon.
Harper’s wife was visiting her parents in the state capitol Salem, so it was just the two of us, plus Cosmo.
He’d become agitated when he saw me heading to the door of my room, so I’d brought him down with me.
He’d watched every move I made, throning on the chair next to mine.
“I’ll look after him while you’re out,” Harper offered when I reached for my coat. “Or should I drive you?”
“Would you mind?” Cosmo hunkered down, resigned to be left behind, if I interpreted his body language correctly. “Sorry, buddy, I don’t think they’d give you a visitor’s pass.”
His whiskers drooped as I scooped him up and carried him to our room. I put a scarf on the quilt. Aunt Violet had given it to me during my last visit. Hopefully her scent still lingered on it to comfort the poor cat.
The hospital, with the morgue hidden away in the farthest corner, lay at the end of the original village.
Together with the cemetery it served as a demarcation line between the old part and the newer additions that had sprung up after the wars.
Aunt Violet’s house and lending library were at the other end of the old village, where residential buildings were interspersed with mixed use.
Harper waited in the car park while I followed the elderly morgue attendant.
Our steps echoed on the linoleum floor, marked by stretchers wheeled past over the years.
A faint smell of disinfectant lingered, and I reached for the handrail on one side of the beige walls to steady myself.
I wasn’t good with hospitals at the best of times.
In death, Aunt Violet appeared to have shrunk. Her hands were crossed over her heart. I stroked them, willing her to wake up and admire my new periwinkle hair. Her purple mane framed her pale face as vibrantly as I remembered it, but that was all. She was gone.
The morgue attendant handed me a Kleenex. I blew my nose. “What happens next?” I asked him.
“The funeral home’ll collect the body tomorrow,” he said. “We don’t keep’ em long, unless – we don’t keep’ em long.” His gaze flickered to another steel compartment, next to the one reserved for Aunt Violet on her way to her eternal rest.
My chest tightened and I nodded. At least there was no need to worry about the funeral arrangements. She’d arranged to be laid to rest in the family plot, beside her late husband. My mother was buried there as well. Maybe I should check if the space would be large enough for me too.
Harper glared at me when I mentioned that thought once I was back with her in her car.
“Don’t you dare go all gloomy on me. It’s okay to grieve for her.
We all do that. But she was in her seventies, and she had a weak heart, whereas you are a woman in her prime.
Funky hair, free as a bird …” She ran out of things to say.
“You’re right,” I said. What I didn’t tell her was that I really had the feeling it would be a good idea to sort out my funeral arrangements too.
When we returned, the neon sign outside the Blue Moon bathed the flower beds outside in an eerie light echoing my new hair color. Through the windows, I glimpsed half a dozen folks in matching jackets with a bowling pin embroidered on the back sitting at the bar.
Harper touched my arm. “You don’t have to face anyone just yet. We can take the fire exit at the back.” She left me outside the room, to head down and help her staff.
Cosmo dozed on my bed, the scarf between his paws.
His ears twitched as I crept nearer. Harper had sound-proofed her guest rooms well.
Only the occasional thumping bass line made itself more felt than heard.
I wondered if I should try to move the cat.
A plush basket stood ready for him. Of course he’d ignored it so far.
A soft throaty purr stopped me. It would be nice to have that comforting sound nearby and it would also be mean to take his cushy spot away from him, when he already lost so much. The bed was big enough for both of us. Next to him, I sank into a deep sleep.
One of the good things about small towns, where most people stay settled for life, is that they rally around you. When I came down for breakfast, sunbeams shone through the windows and sparked dancing fingers of light on the honey-colored floorboards.
A couple of handwritten notes waited for me.
“How are you holding up?” Harper asked, as she poured me a cup of freshly ground coffee.
I added a generous dose of cream. “Okay, I think. It helped that I had a chance to see her. I only wish I remembered what we had to do when my mom died.”
Harper tapped a finger on the notes. “It’s all in hand.
Your aunt’s lawyer has called me. Well, Louisa’s receptionist has.
You have an appointment in an hour. The funeral home will receive you at your convenience, and the florists have promised to hold all her favorite flowers, no matter who calls at their store. ”
“Then I’ll only have to get in touch with the cousins?
” Brian and Brenda lived a couple of hours away, in different directions.
They’d spent their summers in Willowmere when I was a kid, but the five- year age difference between us had meant we never got that close.
They were as closely linked to my aunt on the family tree, but since I’d grown up with her, she was the closest person in the world I’d had, apart from my daughter.
“That’s all sorted. Louisa took care of the calls.”
A wave of gratefulness washed over me. “As efficient as always.” Louisa Connors had been the undisputed queen of the spreadsheet at high school.
Anything that needed organizing, categorizing or cataloguing was dumped into her capable lap.
She’d edited the yearbook, kept score of baseball matches, and she’d been nice too.
No wonder Aunt Violet had entrusted her law firm with her legal affairs.
“One last thing,” Harper said as she cracked eggs into a skillet. She’d already fried four strips of bacon in their own fat. She tested the temperature of the pan before she continued.
I sipped my coffee and watched the fingers of light flit across the floor. She’d tell me soon enough.
The rich aroma of fried bacon reached my nostrils. She divided the food evenly onto two plates and took a seat opposite me. It tasted as good as it smelled.
I mopped up the last bit of bacon fat with a piece of toast when she said, “Louisa said to bring the cat.”
The toast fell out of my hand. “Cosmo? Why?”
“No idea. Maybe your aunt left everything to him? You’ll find out soon enough. He’s a good traveler, so he should be fine in the car.”
The law office of Connors and Sons (or in Louisa’s case, daughter, not that it was reflected in the name) was ten blocks away from the Blue Moon. On my own, it would have been an easy walking distance. With a cat in tow, the car sounded like a sensible option.
I checked on the different areas I’d laid out for Cosmo. Food and water stations had been used this morning, and so had the litter pan in the bathroom. Five minutes clean-up, and we’d be ready to go.
Harper had offered to come. I declined. She couldn’t put her complete schedule on hold for me. She had a business to run. If I needed her, she was only a phone call away.
The fall leaves sparkled in the sun as I drove towards Main Street.
Most of the businesses were small artisanal shops, from bakeries with award winning gateaux and handmade bread to crystal shops, a tailor that also offered sewing courses, and a local brewery.
The pharmacy and grocery stores offered home delivery.
If you were so inclined, you could live out your days in Willowmere without ever having to leave the town boundaries.
Street parking offered enough space, sidewalks were wide, and a picnic table and a playground had recently been added to the small central park.
The local K-12 school flanked it on the shortest side, and the vet and pet store sat opposite the new, fenced-in dog park.
City planning had been taken seriously for generations, and that wasn’t going to change any day soon.
Cosmo allowed himself a quick glance towards a spaniel and a labrador mix who were chasing sticks behind their fence. He pressed his furry face against the plastic bubble as I rolled his carrier from the car to the law office. “Not much longer,” I promised him.
Inside, a Turkish rug covered the center of the hallway. The dark wood gleamed like satin. Paneling covered the walls up to hip height. Portraits of members of the firm hung above a group of accent chairs I’d found for Louisa when she left law school.
I rolled my shoulders to ease my tension.
They creaked loud enough to cause the young receptionist to stare at me.
I opened my mouth to apologize. No. Getting older was a fact of life, nothing I had to be ashamed off.
If creaky joints, a bit of extra padding or a few wrinkles offended anyone’s sensibilities, too bad for them.
I sat down, gazing into Cosmo’s eyes. I opened the bubble and instead fastened a fine-meshed net across the opening. The receptionist’s mouth curled up at the corners. “He’s so cute.”
“He is.” Maybe I’d misinterpreted her earlier stare, and my noisy joints had taken her by surprise. I rolled my shoulders again. They definitely felt looser.
“We have an awesome reiki guy, two doors down,” she said. “My gramma swears by him. Your aunt told her to go and now she’s fit as a fiddle.”
I forced myself to nod, although the girl made me sound positively geriatric.
Had I treated middle-aged women like that when I was her age, which I took to be barely legal to drink?
I glanced at the sign on her desk. Deanna James, receptionist. I filed that name for future reference.
To be on the safe side, I also texted it to myself.
I’d been having trouble with my memory lately, not often enough to worry, but the last thing I intended was to give Deanna a chance to make another well-meant remark about my advanced years.
At least she’d distracted me. I hadn’t thought of why I was here for at least 90 seconds.
Her landline rang. She picked up and listened. “Sure.”
She beamed at me and Cosmo as she glided around her desk and opened a door for us. “Ms. Connors is waiting for you.”
The cousins arrived while I was still debating if I should open the carrier and hold Cosmo or if letting him stay inside the thing was the better option.
Brian hugged me. “I can’t believe she’s gone.” Brenda did the same, after she’d recovered from spotting my periwinkle-hued mane.
I hugged them back. They hadn’t changed much since I last saw them on Aunt Violet’s seventieth birthday.
Brian’s hair had thinned a little more, which he tried to cover up with slicking back his hair into a man-bun, but he still wore the sleeves of his jacket rolled up, with jeans, and an open-necked shirt.
His sister had helped him pick his style when he set out as a wedding DJ three decades ago and he had stuck with it ever since.
Neither too casual, nor too formal, she’d declared.
She had a knack for matching people and clothes, and to find top-shelf garments at bargain basement prices.
Her eyes were reddened in her perfectly made-up face. Her chin-grazing bob had not a single hair out of place and her grey suit was wrinkle-free, something I couldn’t say about my clothes today. Or on any other day, to be honest.
Louisa shook hands with all of us. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” She peered at us through blue-rimmed spectacles that matched her cashmere sweater.
My throat constricted.
“Thank you,” Brenda said.
Louisa opened a thin folder. “Shall we start?”
“Please.” Brian grasped for his sister’s hand. I put mine on top of Cosmo’s carrier.
“Your aunt Violet has left a clear set of instructions in her last will, so probate shouldn’t take long. Each of you three will receive an equal share in her savings, which amounts to roughly $20,000 per person.”
I gasped. That sum would allow me to rent a decent place, hopefully here.
Cosmo growled. I peered at him, startled by the unusual sound.
He chirped at me, as if to say he was fine, and I returned my attention to Louisa.
“The bulk of her estate is formed of her house and the lending library. She’s stipulating that the person who inherits it must carry on the business and look after it and the customers with the same diligence she’s shown it for over 40 years.
This is also including caring for Cosmo.
” Her spectacles slipped a little as she gazed from Brenda to Briana and, finally, to me.
“’Both of my nieces and my nephew should be in the position to fulfill that request, should they be chosen. ’ Is that correct?”
“Yes,” Brian said. He rubbed his hand over his hair, dislodging a strand. “Most of my business is on weekends and holidays, and my sister is running her boutique online. As for Bex --” Both he and his sister mirrored each other as they cocked their heads a little to give me a pitying look.
I ignored them. “What do you mean, were they chosen?” I asked.
“That’s the unusual bit. The cat will decide who inherits.”
“Say again?” Brenda exclaimed. The cousins and I gaped at Louisa.
“Bex, can you please make sure the door is closed?” Louisa picked up the carrier and put it down at an equal distance from the three of us. True to character, she checked by walking around and counting her steps. Only then did she let Cosmo out.
My heart hammered against my chest. I’d taken it for granted that Cosmo would stay with me.
My ex-husband had been allergic to pets, and I’d promised myself that now he was out of my life, I’d never be without a pet again.
My palm felt sweaty as the cat moved. Cosmo’d be fine, whoever he chose. Brian and Brenda were pet lovers, too.
“Now, sit down, all of you,” Louisa ordered. I perched on the edge of my seat as a black paw touched the floor. In the blink of an eye, Cosmo emerged fully, stretched himself, and without hesitation he jumped onto my lap.
Louisa smiled. “Congratulations, Bex. It appears you’re to be Violet Merriweather Walker’s principal heiress.”