CRIMINAL CHRISTMAS: A Set of 8 Holiday Suspense Stories, page 20
As Pops stomped off the snow from his boots on the back deck, Jamey came up from inspecting the basement. The snow was falling fast out there, like the flakes were too heavy to float to the ground.
“What are you looking for in the basement, Son?” Pops took off his winter coat at the back door and hung it on its usual hook.
“Just a tool,” Jamey had hoped his father wouldn’t see that he’d been in the basement.
“Maybe I know where it is. What is it?” Pops pulled out the Scrabble set from the games cupboard, while Jamey grabbed a beer from the fridge.
“A Philips screwdriver I bought last time I was here.” Jamey hated lying to his father and told himself it was for the best.
“Your brother probably took it. You know Gavin and tools.” When the tea kettle whistled, Pops made a cup of tea then cut a piece of mango bread that Tina made especially for her father-in-law. “I’m not sure who I love more right now,” Pops joked. “You, for coming early, or that wife of yours, who took up baking for me.” He slathered butter on the thick slice of bread and chuckled. “Can’t wait to see that little rug rat of yours too. He looks like he’s grown so much since your last visit.”
Kai hadn’t been in his grandfather’s arms since July and he was almost eleven months old now. He’d recently taken up walking. Not smoothly, but he stumbled across the floor with his stance wide, his arms out and a big silly grin on his sweet face. “You won’t believe how much he’s grown.” Jamey remembered the last time Pops had seen Kai. “He’s not a baby anymore. Once he figured out the walking stick could help him with balance, there was no going back.” Pops had made baby walking sticks for his granddaughters, years ago. The canes were yard-tall, sanded branches from Pops big walnut tree near the river.
Pops laughed. “I’d forgotten, it was so long ago. Those things must be twelve years old now.” His eyes twinkled. “The canes, I mean. I know the twins are twelve. You still driving them to school tomorrow morning? If you want to sleep in they can take that school bus you know.”
Pops was teasing him. Not only was Jamey not one to sleep in, but he hadn’t seen his daughters for weeks and was eager to get his hug around them. “Should be a great time to visit at seven a.m.” Jamey joked.
Pops unfolded the Scrabble board and laid it on the table. They’d decided to play a game before dinner. “Loser goes first,” Pops teased nodding for his son to start.
Jamey shrugged at the insult, knowing the taunting had begun. “Happy to, Old Man.” He arranged his Scrabble letters to spell meal even though he had enough letters for flame. Instead he held on to the f.
“The twins are excited to have Kai coming.” Pops added the letters ose to the l to make lose. “They have all kinds of plans for Kai and Harley to be best friends.”
Jamey’s ex-wife’s baby, Harley, was a month older than Kai. “I doubt Kai will even notice Harley for another two years,” Jamey said, adding the word smoke to Pops’ s. He gave his father a squinty look. “Still not smoking?”
“Never again,” Pops said, shaking his head. “Getting rid of that dad-burned oxygen machine was a triumph.” He looked down at the dog his granddaughters had found at the soccer field last year. Harry’s head lay on Pops’ slippered foot. “I need to be in the best shape to walk this stupid fart.”
Taking on a dog had breathed new life into Pops this year. That and his friendship with Tina’s widowed mother who lived forty minutes away on Mercer Island, near the downtown area of Seattle. “And play Pinochle with Elizabeth, I hear,” Jamey added.
“You mean beat Liz at Pinochle.”
When had his father started calling Tina’s stoic mother by a nick-name? Jamey smiled and watched Pops add an r to the word lose.
The doorbell rang and Harry barked, heading out of the kitchen and down the hall. Jamey liked that his Dad’s dog barked. It gave him a sense that someone was standing guard for his father. Especially with how jumpy he was feeling about Pops’ safety. Both men left the table to follow the dog down the hall. It was unusual to have someone come to the door out here in the country. Especially at night.
Jamey could see the shadows of two people through the sheer curtain on the top half of Pops’ front door.
“My neighbors,” Pops said reaching for the door handle. “You’re going to like these two.” Pops’ eyes lit up and his smile broadened as he opened the door to two rosy-cheeked people covered in snowflakes.
Chapter 2
The young couple standing on the front porch smiled at Pops, only slightly surprised to see Jamey at the door. The blonde woman held a tray of something covered in tin foil.
“There’s the newlyweds!” Pops said. “Come in, come in.” He stood back to allow the guests to enter.
Jamey was surprised that Pops seemed completely overjoyed to see people Jamey had never even heard of. Even Harry wagged his tail excitedly.
“Amy and Max, this is my son, Jamey,” Pops said. Jamey’s intuition picked up on a genuine fondness between all parties but then you’d have to be anaesthetized not to feel that. Maybe it wasn’t intuition.
The couple were probably late twenties, her blonde, him brunette, both wholesome looking, and both smiling ear to ear. He was a big man, like Jamey but in his case, it looked to be mostly soft flab, not hardened muscle. They said hello to Jamey, then while Max bent to pet Harry, Amy handed the tray to Pops.
“I baked Christmas cookies for the first time ever,” Amy said proudly.
Jamey closed the door behind the guests. With a reception like that, and cookies in hand, they were obviously coming in for a while.
Max stomped the snow from his boots on the hall carpet and Jamey wondered why he didn’t do that outside. Clumps of snow fell from Max’s boots, then he stepped out of them.
“Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” Pops exclaimed, taking the plate. “And I get to eat all these or will you help me?” Pops nodded towards the kitchen for the guests to follow. “Come in.”
Amy took off her coat. “They are especially for you. They might not be that good,” she said to Jamey apologetically, like he wasn’t supposed to eat any. Amy’s blonde ponytail bounced as she followed Pops down the hall. “I hope we aren’t interrupting anything. I didn’t know you had company.”
Pops’ words about Jamey not being company faded into the kitchen.
Jamey brought up the rear of the group, behind Max, but half way down the hall, level with the table of photos of the family fishing and camping, the young man turned and smiled at Jamey. “I don’t remember Pops saying he had a son named Jamey.”
“Probably ashamed of me,” Jamey joked, and they entered the kitchen.
Pops put the kettle on for tea and cut slices of Tina’s mango bread while everyone seated themselves at the large oak table that held the Scrabble board.
“I love Scrabble.” Amy uncovered her plate of Christmas cookies. They looked pretty deluxe for someone who’d never made cookies before.
“Looks like you two just started,” Max grinned at Pops. “Any way we can get in the game?”
They agreed to begin the game again and by the time everyone had something to drink, Pops had put the first word on the board. Scared.
Max joked that Pops might be subconsciously telling them he was frightened to eat Amy’s cookies and she playfully hit her husband on the shoulder. Harry sat between the guests waiting for a handout or waiting for something to drop. Maybe he knew they were messy eaters.
It looked like Pops knew these two pretty well and Jamey wondered why he hadn’t heard about them before now. “Did you buy the Clancy house next door?” Jamey hadn’t known it was up for sale again.
“Yes,” Amy nodded. “We moved in before Thanksgiving.”
The Victorian house to the north of Pops’ property was pretty big for only two people and although Jamey wanted to ask if they planned on having six kids, he held off. The place had been vacant for years and these two probably got it for a good price seeing it had been neglected over the years.
Max spelled daring with the r from Pops’ word and it was Amy’s turn.
“It’s a big house. Used to be so grand.” Jamey took another cookie and noticed Amy look at him. Were the cookies only for Pops?
“We love it,” Max said. “For months we’ve been looking for a Victorian and finally found our dream home. Right Amy?”
She nodded. “Right now we’re making lists of things that need to be replaced and repaired. It’s been so long since that old place had any attention.”
Max looked at Jamey. “Do you know anything about the ghost?”
Jamey wasn’t surprised Max had heard ghostly rumors, but the way Max asked, set his teeth on edge. It was almost as if the neighbor had a strange fascination. He shook his head. “I never heard there was one,” he lied.
But Pops nodded. “I’ve heard talk, but I’m not sure I believe in all that.” Pops was lying too. For one thing, he knew very well that ghosts existed because he’d heard all about Tina’s experience last year.
“Me neither,” Amy said, setting down the word dumb off the d. “Max is obsessed with knowing more, but I’d like to ignore that little morsel of information. I just love my house.”
Pops nodded to Amy. “We talked about this when I got the tour of the house last month, but I don’t really know anything. Max, what did you hear?”
Max shrugged. “Not much. Only that the woman who lived there jumped off the widow’s walk and the dad and kids moved away. The lady at the post office told me that she committed suicide after her baby died.”
Amy shot a warning look at her husband.
Jamey set the word guard off the g and nodded to Max for his turn.
Pops downed another cookie in two bites and then spoke. “It was a tragedy. Now, of course, they speculate Edna Clancy had post-partum depression, and when the baby died, she went off the deep end. At the time though, post-partum wasn’t even a thing.” He shook his head like it was all too sad.
Jamey’s ex, Carrie, had had post partem with the twins, and her son, Wyatt. It was a horrible affliction at a time when women should be enjoying their new baby. Jamey didn’t wish it on anyone. Luckily, Tina escaped it when Kai was born, taking on the joyful glow of being a mother for the first time. He reached for a shortbread and avoided looking at Amy in case the cookies were only for Pops.
“I do believe this is as good as yesterday’s banana bread.” Pops held up another cookie decorated with a green Christmas tree.
“It sounds like your neighbors are trying to fatten you up, Pops.” Jamey winked at his dad.
Max jumped in to defend his wife. “Amy’s learning to bake and Pops and I are the tasters.”
Pops’ eyes twinkled and he looked fondly at Max. “We’ll be the guinea pigs anytime won’t we, Max?”
Amy smiled, Max laid down ass after dumb, and they all laughed.
****
Tina and her friend Pepper had gone diving for lobster, and now the two women sat on Tina’s deck with the succulent white tails in front of them. A bowl of garlic butter sat between their place settings along with a bottle of Chardonnay.
Tina picked up her wine glass. “To us, Pepper. The singer and the psychic.” They laughed and Tina took a big sip of wine. Revealing her abilities to Pepper, last week, had been a tough one, but after a premonition that her friend would be in a serious car accident, she’d had to intervene. Jamey wanted as few people as possible to know about dream jumping, but Pepper was Kai’s godmother and like family. Shortly after hearing about the imminent accident, Pepper’s planned road trip to Hana with her boyfriend was cancelled and hospital time was avoided. Pepper took the news of Tina’s new ability in telepathy well and was appreciative to have Tina break the rules of not interfering with the future.
Although Tina and Jamey didn’t know the long-term repercussions of tampering with a premonition, they couldn’t sit back and watch friends, family, and each other be the victim of bad luck. They’d made the decision, a year ago, to interfere with the course of things if the future looked bad. Premonitions didn’t come that often, nor did proph dreams. That’s why Jamey had taken off so quickly, even though he wasn’t sure it was a true proph.
With garlic butter dripping from their chins and lobster in their mouths, the two women were happily engaged when the phone rang. It was Jamey. Tina quickly wiped her hands on a napkin. “I gotta get it,” she said to Pepper, and answered the call.
“Hi, Gorgeous,” Jamey said. “I miss you.”
“Me too.” Hearing those words spoken by that particular voice always made her feel warm and fuzzy.
“How’s Pops doing?” she asked.
“He’s kind of sick right now. Went to bed early. I think he ate too many Christmas cookies,” Jamey added.
Tina had a clear sense that Pops was ill. She could sense this type of thing sometimes through the phone.
“But other than that, he’s good. Very happy. I think your mother might have something to do with his general state of happiness.”
Even though they both wanted their respective parents to enjoy each other’s company, it was still too close to Tina’s father’s death to imagine her mother having a boyfriend. Especially Pops. She kinda wished they were just friendly companions who liked to play cards and eat dinner together.
“There’s a lot of snow here.”
“Oh good!” Tina could hardly wait to see it. “I wonder what Kai will think of snow. I bet it looks beautiful.”
Before they said goodbye Jamey told her about the new neighbors. “They’re really fond of Pops and visa versa.”
“It’s good for him to have friends next door,” she added. “For emergencies too.”
“True. We had fun tonight playing Scrabble. I’ll be interested to hear your take on them.”
“Something weird?” she asked.
“Not weird at all. Wholesome and outwardly normal. Very familiar with Pops,” he said.
“Do I detect a note of jealousy in there?” Tina teased. She looked at Pepper with a look to say I’ll tell you in a minute. “But Pops likes them?”
He chuckled. “Oh yea. The woman, Amy, especially who keeps baking for him.”
Now Tina’s nose was out of joint. “Well, just keep shoving my mango bread in front of your father, and he’ll forget all about that woman next door.”
Jamey laughed. “Between you and Amy, Pops is going to be three hundred pounds by New Year’s.”
When they hung up, Tina made a plan to bring her newly acquired recipes to Carnation and show off. “I lost Pops to a next door neighbor who also bakes,” Tina told Pepper.
“You look serious,” Pepper’s smile left her face. “Ti, if someone is baking for Pops, that’s nice, right? He still loves you.”
“You’re right, but baking is my thing with Pops. I’m his protégé. I know it’s silly to say, but I’m disappointed.” She couldn’t hide it from Pepper.
“You’ll get to Carnation in another week, do some cooking, trade some recipes, and the neighbor will soon be forgotten.” Pepper waited for confirmation.
“Probably right.” Tina picked up her fork to continue eating, but the rest of the dinner was filled with thoughts of the neighbor weaseling her way into Pops heart through food. By the time Pepper left, Tina was so upset she dug out the recipe box that her father-in-law had given her and pulled out all their favorite recipes to make over the Christmas holidays.
Nobody was going to one up her in Pops’ heart through baking.
****
Jamey saw the letter taped to the front door glass window when he came down the stairs the next morning. As he unlocked and opened the door, he noticed that Pops had left the front yard tree lights on last night. Before getting the envelope on the door, Jamey unplugged the lights from the porch outlet. Strange, he remembered his father going outside specifically to turn off the tree.
The envelope was addressed to Pops, in large, bold handwriting. Maybe an invitation to a party. He pulled it from the glass and went inside, setting the envelope on the kitchen table. The house was cold so he turned up the heat to sixty-eight and then made coffee. Pops preferred a cup of tea in the mornings, but Jamey had to have his coffee. Today he’d drive the girls to school and come back here to ask Pops if he wanted to go Christmas shopping. The sky hadn’t begun to lighten yet at 6:45.
Later, standing in the hall at Carrie and Chris’s house, Jamey thought again about the letter-sized envelope and wondered what the envelope held.
“Dad!” Jade raced down the hall, ready to go.
“Squirt!” He hugged his daughter tightly. “Where’s Squirt Two?”
“Hair,” Jade said, her face buried in his heavy coat.
“That’s important,” he said. If Jasmine’s hair wasn’t perfect, Jamey would wait with his less-fastidious daughter. “Why is Jaz always late?”
“I don’t know Dad. She’s just a perfectionist, I guess.”
Jade was getting so tall. He’d last seen them a month ago when he’d flown over to talk to Pops about some family business and they probably hadn’t grown much since then, but he felt like his daughters’ childhood was a thing of the past. They were going to be teenagers soon and he wasn’t ready. Wyatt whisked past them to the vehicle outside. “Hi Jamey.” He gave a quck hug to Jamey’s arm and slammed the door on his way out.
“Two out of three isn’t bad.” Carrie stood with a cup of coffee in hand, her preschooler, Mango, still asleep upstairs, her husband off to work, and the baby, Harley, crawling at her feet. “Have a good flight yesterday?” she asked.
