Chapter 35
CHAPTER 35
ARLOW
Spring has come early again this year, or maybe warm temperatures at the end of March are going to be the norm now. Our hives are set up and we’re waiting to see which queens will be accepted. Wild violets and clover are sprouting everywhere. Calli is excited to get her garden started and I’m happy to help her. We also have some strategic bushes to plant.
It’s been a little over four months since that night. A walk through the graveyard shows no sign of what we did, and we haven’t heard a peep from any authorities. Things are good. Better than good. I’m happier than I’ve ever been and when I mention to my therapist that I think we can discontinue our sessions, he makes a suggestion. One more bit of homework to do first—visit Melody’s grave and say goodbye.
Calli offers to go with me, and on a warm sunny day, we head to Paducah. The cemetery where she’s buried is large and almost unnaturally green. I’ve never been able to make myself come here before. It takes us a few minutes to locate the section with her grave and park nearby.
Calli stays by my side as we walk through the manicured grass, searching for her. My attention is so focused on reading the names that I don’t notice the lady kneeling down to brush the dirt from one of the headstones until she stands up.
I freeze, nearly dropping the flowers in my hand, and Calli looks up at me, concerned. “Arlow?”
“That’s Grace, Melody’s mother.” We haven’t spoken since that awful night at the hospital when she screamed at me to rot in hell, right after Melody’s death.
Calli slips her hand into mine. “Do you want to speak to her?”
No. It’s the last thing in the world I want, but I should. Especially because she has already spotted me. “I should do it alone. Can you give us a minute?”
She squeezes my hand. “Of course. I’ll be nearby.”
Grace stands at the edge of the grave as I approach her. “Ms. Handleman.” I greet her with a nod. “I wanted to leave some flowers if that’s okay.”
I’m waiting for her to tell me to fuck off, to scream about how I ruined her life, took her daughter away from her, caused her husband’s stroke and son’s addiction.
“There’s room in the vase.”
She doesn’t speak again as I kneel to add my flowers to the sunken vase below the headstone. Guilt and sorrow wash over me, pulling me back to the place I’ve been digging myself out of through therapy. Stepping back, I force myself to look at her. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
Without breaking eye contact, she replies, her voice firm. “I have something to say to you.”
My body feels like a stretched rubber band ready to snap under the pressure, and I try to steel myself. “I’m listening.”
“I forgive you.” Her words hit me in the chest, knocking me back a step. Before I can reply, she goes on. “There’s nothing you need to be forgiven for, but I know you need to hear it and you can’t hear it from her. This was never your fault. It was an accident.”
I can’t speak around the lump in my throat, only nod while I try to get ahold of myself. It’s so far from what I expected to hear.
“You haven’t called her phone in a few months. I hope that means you’re healing too.”
Oh god. “You listened to my messages?”
Her lips nearly disappear as she presses them together. “I did. I’m sorry for what you went through but it helped me to hear how much she was missed. How much you cared for her. You should know I turned her phone off last week. It’s time to let her go.” She glances over at Calli, who waits beside the car. “It’s okay to move on. She loved you and she wouldn’t want you to keep blaming yourself.”
She gazes down at her daughter’s headstone and her voice softens. “This frail thread that connects us to our lives can be cut so easily. You never know how much time you have. Don’t waste it.”
I call her name as she starts to walk away, and she turns to regard me. “Thank you. I hope you’re healing too.”
A small smile struggles to rise along with her nod. “Take care of yourself, Arlow.”
It feels strange to see Melody’s name carved in the stone, and I squat down to trace it with my finger. “I know I’ve said it a thousand times, but I’m sorry.” My mind plays through moments from our relationship. Meeting her at the bar, our first night in my new apartment when I moved to town, the way she always laughed when I bumped my head on the doorway. “I’m sorry I chose the worst possible moment to end things with you. I did care for you very much, and I hope you knew that. Thank you for loving me. I’ll never forget you. Goodbye, Melody.”
Calli quietly takes my hand when I return to her.
“Her mother forgave me. She doesn’t blame me.”
She pulls me into a hug. “I hope that helps you stop blaming yourself. Are you okay?”
Resting my chin on the top of her head, I take a deep breath, feeling my body loosen. “I’m good. Let’s go home.”
“All I’m saying is that if we’re going to get two goats so they won’t be lonely, why not get three?” Calli says, pushing the cart out to her car.
“Why not get ten?” I tease, and she grins up at me.
“Now you’re getting it.”
“How about you let Lee and I get their shelter built first before you decide to have us knee deep in goats?”
“Fine, we’ll revisit this once you’ve finished.” She checks her phone and frowns. “I need to stop and get some batteries. My front door camera is dead.”
“I have some spare ones.” She pops her trunk, and I start shifting the bags of birdseed. “You have enough seed here to feed a pterodactyl.”
“I need all four bags because they attract different types of birds. I’ll mix these two together for the new feeders I bought,” she explains, slapping the bags.
“And which one is for the squirrels?”
She narrows her eyes. “Fuzzy little bastards will eat anything. I’m devising a plan to keep them off. Greasing the pole only works for so long.” Laughing, I close the trunk and Calli points to the horizon. “Look at that sunset. It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.” She beams at me and leans in to give me a quick kiss before I put the cart in the corral, and we head home.
“I can’t believe how warm it is!” Calli exclaims as we climb out of her car and start for her cabin. “Do you want to have a bonfire tonight?”
“Do you mean bonfire or bonfire ?” I tease, bouncing my eyebrows.
She rolls her eyes. “I ride you by the fire one time and you never let it go.” Her gaze leaps over to me as a grin appears. “I’m in.”
Her laughter joins mine, startling away the birds from her feeder. Spring’s early arrival has both of us in a good mood. Winter was such a dark tunnel for us to climb through and we’ve finally reached the sunlight at the end.
Calli unlocks her door as I remember that her camera isn’t working and reach to remove it to change the batteries. What the hell is that? A black plastic bag covers the camera, and I yank it off.
“Calli!” My hand lands on her shoulder a second too late. The door swings open, and she freezes after her first step inside.
A woman sits on her couch. They stare at each other, neither saying a word until finally, the woman sits back, crossing her arms across her thin chest. A twisted smile grows on her face that chills me for reasons I can’t put my finger on. It’s not only predatory but skirting the edges of sanity.
Calli shakes her head, trying to deny what she’s seeing as the woman laughs. “What? You can’t say hello to your mother after I came all this way?”
Her mother, Mallory. The mother she ran and hid from. The mother Calli couldn’t quite believe was dead without having the ashes nearby to remind her, sits on her couch.
I step in front of Calli, guarding her from whatever the hell is happening. I don’t see a weapon but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one. “What the fuck is going on?”
Calli gapes at the disheveled woman. “You’re dead. I dumped your ashes.” Haunted despair soaks her voice. “You can’t be here.”
“Dog ashes are pretty easy to get. You just have to mix a couple together.”
“Get out. Get out. Get the fuck out!” Calli’s voice rises with each word, from a whisper to a scream.
Mallory doesn’t budge or look the least bit concerned at her reaction. “Or what? You’ll call the police? Go ahead. We’ll have a little talk about Carl.” She turns her attention to me. “You remember him, the man rotting under the bushes in the graveyard?”
A brick falls into my stomach as I watch our hopeful future fizzle away. She knows, not only that I killed him but where he’s buried. This isn’t going to end well.
Calli looks up at me and I see the same realization dawning, filling her eyes with anguish.
“This should be an easy choice for you now. Give me my fucking money or your boyfriend gets life in prison for murder, and you can join him as an accomplice.”
Every word out of her mouth has me seething through my fear. Her money. The callous way she talks about a man she’s been with for years. She isn’t upset over his death, only using it to get what she wants.
The expression on Calli’s face—she’s terrified. Panicked. I won’t let this woman pull her apart again. “Calli had nothing to do with it. I killed him and buried him.” If I end up in prison, so be it.
She rolls her eyes. “You found a real hero here, didn’t you? I was there, you stupid motherfucker. I know what happened.”
“You faked your death,” Calli says, her tone low and stunned. “To find me. The tracker in the ashes.”
A proud smile blooms on her mother’s face. “Carl didn’t think you’d actually fall for it when I had him create the fake church email, but I did a good job on that obituary. I knew you wouldn’t leave my remains to be abandoned. Like it or not, I’m your mother. You love me. But I’m done dealing with your selfish ass. I want two million dollars, or you can both spend the rest of your lives in prison.”
“Watch her,” Calli says to me, and I catch her wrist as she tries to walk away.
“Calliope.”
“I need a minute.” She shrugs out of my grasp and stalks toward her bedroom.
The monster on the couch gives a shrug and a clownish smile. “Take all night. I have nowhere to be.”
The gleeful satisfaction in her voice turns my stomach. I wish she would’ve shown up when Calli wasn’t home. I could’ve planted her in the graveyard with her dead boyfriend and spared Calli from ever knowing.
When Calli emerges a minute later, her expression is impassive. Strength and determination show in her posture. Spine straight, shoulders back and her chin held up. She’s made a decision.
She lays some cash on the coffee table in front of her mother, who leans over and scoops it up instantly. She looks up with a sneer. “Five hundred dollars?”
“That’s all the cash I have on hand, but I’ll get more.”
“Calli…no.” She holds her hand up at my intrusion and looks me in the eye. The coldness there is disturbing, but I let her finish. I’m not sure what her plan is or what we should do, but letting this bitch control us isn’t the answer. Hopefully, she’s stalling for time or has an idea to relay to me later.
She regards her mother with the same distanced demeanor. “You win, but I don’t have the money you think I do. I spent it, vacations…buying this place.” Her mother’s eyes narrow and she starts to speak but Calli cuts her off. “But I have enough to buy you a house and a car. I can send you five thousand dollars a month, every month.”
They stare at each other, neither breaking eye contact for a good minute. The air is stuffed with tension. “Of course you blew most of the money, stupid bitch,” her mother says with a chuckle.
Calli doesn’t blink an eye. “The choice is yours now. You can call the cops, have us arrested, and my money can keep our commissary accounts full. You can go back to scrounging for food and shelter. Or you can have more than enough money to live on and leave us alone. If you ever show up again to bother me or Arlow or anyone I care about, the deal is off.”
After a few tense seconds, Mallory tucks the cash in her pocket. “Don’t use the account number Carl left. You can pay me in cash.”
“Fine, but that’s more than I can withdraw from an ATM. It’ll take a couple of days for me to deal with the bank. In the meantime, I’ll take you to an ATM and pull out five hundred more for now. You can stay in a hotel until we find you a house.”
Mallory gets to her feet. “Let’s go.”
“There’s something I need to know before we leave,” Calli says, and suspicion furrows Mallory’s brow as she waits.
Calli looks her in the eye. “Did you watch him choke me? In the woods that night, if you were there, you must’ve seen what he was doing.”
For the first time, Mallory seems to falter and weighs her words after a long pause. “He wasn’t going to kill you. I wouldn’t have let him kill you.”
I’m not sure what Calli expected to hear. Her stony expression gives nothing away as she nods and picks up her car keys.
“You aren’t leaving here with her,” I exclaim, grabbing Calli’s arm as they start toward the door.
“Ride with us or follow in your truck, but I’m going.” She jerks out of my grasp and opens the front door, stepping outside. Of course I’m going. Once she gives this bitch some money and drops her at a hotel, we’re going to have to figure out what to do because this is not the answer. “Lock the door,” she orders, thrusting the keys at me.
Mallory is a step or two ahead of her as they exit the porch into the yard. My back is turned for a few seconds to lock the door when a shot rings out.
Time stutters and slows. My heart thumps like a bass drum in my ears. It feels like it takes an eternity for me to turn and look for her.
Calliope .
It’s dark, but the motion light has blinked on, illuminating the scene and glinting off the gun still held in a shaking hand. Calliope’s hand.
She looks down at the body of her mother slumped a few feet in front of her, then back at me. Wide blue eyes washed to silver under the bright light find mine as she says, “We’re going to need more bushes.”