Epilogue
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Nan’s birthday party at Rosemoor the week before had been wonderful.
Mack had driven to Danny’s house to retrieve Nan’s special birthday gift.
Mack had placed it carefully in his truck bed before peeking under the wrapping.
His face had been wonderful to see as had been his whistle reaction. “Wow. She’s going to love this.”
And she had. So had everyone else. It had given Doreen such joy to see her grandmother’s face. She loved her furry and feathered family as much as she did.
Now however the weekend and the party were already a warm memory and the long drive to Vancouver was almost over. He pulled up into the long fancy driveway, staring in shock at Doreen’s former home.
“I know,” Doreen muttered. “Even looking at it now, it’s hard to believe I lived here for so many years.”
“And yet it wasn’t your home.”
“Right,” she agreed, giving him a bright smile. “It really wasn’t. It was a cage, but it’s still hard to go back in time and face how long it was and what my life was like here.”
Mack just waited in the truck as she dealt with all these memories, with all these emotions.
Finally she shrugged. “It’s fine.” She opened the passenger door and stepped out. “I can’t believe we’re here. It was a decently long drive.”
“You were looking at flying down,” he reminded her. “Then changed your mind.”
She nodded and smiled. “If we flew down, then we couldn’t have brought the animals.” She let Mugs out. He raced around, sniffing.
Mack smiled. “I guess this was home for him too, wasn’t it?”
“He certainly spent some years of his life here, yes,” she agreed, “but it’s not as if he cares. If he’s with us, that’s what’s important.”
And, sure enough, even as Goliath got out, he sat right next to the tire and stared, as if not believing what kind of place they had brought him to.
“What’s the matter, Goliath?” she asked. “I would have thought this would be right up your alley,” she said, with a snicker. “After all, it is fit for a king.”
Mack shook his head. “It really is, isn’t it? Good God.”
Another vehicle pulled up behind them, and Mack turned and smiled as Nick Moreau got out.
Nick took one look and whistled.
“Right,” she muttered. Still, she walked over and gave him a hug.
“Hey, my almost sister-in-law. How’re you doing?”
“Since we stopped at Merritt and had lunch together,” she shared, with a chuckle, “I think I’m doing just fine.”
“Good.” Nick nodded. “I wasn’t sure how this trip would go for you.”
“I’m fine. Besides, I brought Mack for support.”
Mack chuckled. “That’s me. I’m just here for support.”
“That’s a good thing too,” Nick noted, “because, on the way down, I did get a call from the Vancouver police.”
“Really?” she asked, turning to him. “What about?”
“Apparently you had some break-ins in the garden area. They couldn’t find any damage to the house or any entry points, but the greenhouse was broken into.”
She stopped and stared at him. “Seriously? Drat. That was my little corner,” she muttered, her heart sinking. “Wow, I hadn’t really expected to feel that.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Nick told her, patting her shoulder. “Let’s take you into the house, and we can look around while we’re here. The police do want me to contact them about it as soon as we have some answers for them.”
“Answers for them?” she asked, turning to stare at him. “How are we supposed to have answers for them?”
He chuckled. “It’s vandalism, and it’s an empty house. I’m pretty sure they aren’t too bothered.”
“Right,” she muttered, raising both hands. “Why would they care?”
“You have to understand,” Nick explained, “that this is a massive city down here and that you are in a very wealthy area to boot. So they do want to touch base at least.”
She looked back at the palatial mansion. She slowly walked up to the front door. “It still doesn’t feel real.”
“Of course not,” Nick agreed. “How long has it been?”
“I stayed nearby for a few months before I moved to Kelowna. So it may be more than a year now since I was booted out of this house,” she muttered.
Nick nodded. “And look at how much your life has changed.”
At that, Mack put a gentle hand on her shoulders. “Do you want to go in alone?”
She faced him and frowned. “Heck no,” she muttered. “I still half expect Mathew to jump out of the woodwork at me.”
“Even though he’s dead and gone?”
“He may be dead and gone, but some things never die,” she declared. “I was a ghost of the person you know now while I was in this house, and I really don’t want to go back to that timid existence.”
“And you won’t,” he declared cheerfully. “We’re here to take care of the business end of what we have to deal with here. That’s it. And, if you want to keep anything, we brought the truck, so you can take whatever you want back with you.”
Thaddeus poked his head out from under her hair and gave a massive whistle.
“Right,” she quipped. “Could have been yours too, you know,” she told him and then laughed. “No, it couldn’t. Mathew would never have allowed a bird in the house. Poor Mugs had a hard-enough time here.”
“Why?”
“He had to be perfectly groomed all the time. The maids were instructed to wash his feet each time he came inside from the yard. No jumping around or onto people. He was shut up in a room when we had guests over. No begging for food at the table. No treats, except for those the staff and I snuck over to him. And, if he so much as passed wind, believe me that Mathew had him kicked out of the room immediately.”
Mack chuckled. “Mugs is much better off where he is now. It’s not as if a dog can control that.”
“No, but I’ve got to tell you that it seemed as if Mugs had this instinctive knack for doing it on purpose, whenever Mathew showed up.”
“Maybe it was his way of getting kicked out, so he didn’t have to deal with Mathew,” Nick suggested, chuckling. He handed over the keys. “I’ll let you do the honors.”
She stared down at them, made a face, and then turned to the front door.
Putting the key in, she unlocked it. Pushing it open, she stepped in cautiously.
Mugs raced past her, Goliath on his heels, and went streaming down the hallway.
He knew exactly where to go. “He’s heading for the kitchen,” Doreen shared, “in case you are wondering.”
“He’s not really expecting there to be food, is he?” Nick asked.
“There was always a stash of treats for him in one of the bottom drawers,” she explained, as she headed in that direction.
She knew that the others were more or less following her, but their gazes were shocked as they stared around. She turned to them and admitted, “I know. It’s a little over-the-top.”
“A little?” Mack repeated, staring at her. “This is how you lived?”
“No, this is how I was caged, remember? Language is everything.”
He smiled at her. “You know …”
“Don’t even say it,” she muttered. “If I wanted this life, I would have stayed. I don’t want it, don’t want anything to do with it.”
In the kitchen, she headed to the cupboard that was always full of Mugs’s treats. She opened it, and, sure enough, dog treats were right there. “I’m surprised they didn’t get rid of these.”
She pulled out a few and tossed a couple on the floor for him. He sat down and dug in. Goliath sat beside him, sniffing every once in a while, wondering what the heck he was chewing on but completely disinterested.
Catching sight of the greenhouse out the kitchen window, Doreen walked over to the ten-foot-tall double French doors and pushed them open, stepping outside into the fresh air.
Seeing the damage on one side, she cried out and raced over toward it. “Why would they damage the greenhouse?” she asked in shock.
“Depending on who it was and why,” Nick suggested, coming up behind her, “it could have just been maliciousness. A lot of people just want to destroy things.”
“But that’s so sad,” she whispered, as she stepped farther into the greenhouse and looked around. “It’s such a beautiful space.”
“This is a greenhouse?” Mack asked from behind her. “No way. This is huge.”
She sighed. “I guess most people here would call it a conservatory.”
“Yeah, ya think?” he muttered, clearly astonished.
It was obvious to Doreen that he was really struggling with what she had as her former home. She added, “Remember that none of this even matters to me.”
“I’m working on remembering that,” he conceded, “but I have to admit, … it’s a shock.”
Still, it wasn’t anything that she wanted him to feel bad about.
As she walked through the greenhouse, conservatory, or whatever Mack wanted to call it, she looked around, and her heart broke to see the damage.
It was all fixable, yet it was senseless, and there was no need to hurt plants like this.
She sighed. “We certainly have to put this to rights before we can sell it,” she muttered.
Nick looked over at her. “Do you think it’ll make a difference?”
“A conservatory like this should be in its prime,” she stated, “and obviously it’s not.”
“That’s true,” he agreed. “Depending on how much it costs, it is something to take into consideration.”
“I would like it brought back to the way that it was meant to be,” she explained. “This was my space, Nick.”
“And maybe that’s why it was damaged,” he suggested, turning to her.
She stared at him in surprise. “If it was, … that would imply it was somebody who knew me.” She frowned, shaking her head.
“I don’t even know anybody here anymore.
” She looked around and sighed. “It is sad, but …” Then she walked over to where the worst of the damage was, planted her hands on her hips, and stared.
Mack came up behind her. “Problems?” he asked her.
She turned to him. “I had Vidalia onions here. I kept them growing all year-round, so we always had fresh onions. I know it sounds silly, … but it was just one thing that I could do myself, and it was always a fun hobby.”
“Okay,” Mack replied. “So, what’s the problem?”
“This is where the worst damage is, and it’s this particular bed, and that makes no sense.”
“Why not?” he asked.
She frowned, then looked at him, and her eyes lit up, as a tickle of amusement slipped through her. “On the other hand,” she began, “I get that this is not exactly a case-case, right?”
“No, not a case, just vandalism.”
“But maybe,” she began, chuckling again.
“What is it that’s making you laugh about this?” Mack asked, perplexed.
She snickered. “Vandals in the Vidalias.”
“Hopefully that’s all that is going on here,” Mack noted.
And then Doreen looked around the bed again, gasping as she pointed. “Maybe not.”
He turned, and there—sticking out the far end of the garden bed—was something that didn’t belong there. He leaned forward to get a better look.
She whispered, “Is that a nose?”
He frowned, turned back to her, with his gaze finally going to Nick, and Mack nodded.
“Yes, it is.”