“I’ll skip the bread today, but I could sure use some coffee. Something horrible has happened.” Hugging the helmet against my abdomen, I drank in my mother’s familiar face and didn’t bother to control the tremor in my speech. “I need to…I think it would help to talk about it.”
She beamed. “That’s how we women deal with stuff. We spit it all out, kind of like a hairball, and then we clean up the mess and move on. Come on inside, sugar.”
In the bright and cozy kitchen, I told her about Luella. When I was through, Althea’s main concern was that she had failed to foresee my coworker’s demise in one of her visions.
“I can’t understand it,” she said, pacing back and forth between the stove and the table. “I should have had a feeling, a sense of darkness rollin’ in, but I got no vibes at all.” She shook her head, nonplussed. “There’s only one explanation.”
“What’s that?” I asked, keeping the skepticism from my voice.
Althea looked past me toward the window and the mountain above us, her eyes glazing. “The person who did this didn’t mean to do it. It just happened, takin’ the killer totally by surprise.”
“I wish you could just tell me who it was,” I murmured glumly. “How can I go back into work tomorrow? One of my coworkers might be a murderer!”
My mother put her hand on top of mine. “No one’s gonna hurt you. I’ve seen your palm enough times to know that you’re gonna live a long life and—” She stopped abruptly and cocked her head to the side like an inquisitive parrot. “Trey’s comin’.”
I followed her gaze but saw no one on the path leading from the mountain to the field. Shrugging, I took out my cell phone and, cringing at the thought of how annoyed Sean probably was, settled into a chair in the living room and listened to my messages.
The first voicemail heralded wonderful news from my real estate agent. A young couple had made an offer on my house in Dunston. I listened eagerly to the amount of the bid and Ginny’s suggestion that I make a counteroffer. I decided to call her back only after I phoned Sean to tell him that I’d be arriving at the station as soon as possible.
He had left me three messages, and it was clear by his clipped speech that he wasn’t pleased with me. I was just about to dial his number when Trey came in through the kitchen door and shouted, “Hel-loooo!”
It was a balm to hear the undisguised cheerfulness in his voice. I hurried into the next room and gave my son a hug. His strong arms enfolded me, giving my weary body a brief squeeze before he shyly let me go. He hadn’t embraced me like that for years, and I had to look away so he wouldn’t see that I’d teared up.
“Don’t mind her,” my mother said, landing a noisy kiss on Trey’s cheek. “She’s had a real rough day. Why don’t you take her mind off things by tellin’ us what mischief you’ve been up to?”
Trey raised his brows in feigned offense. “For once, I’m cool with living by the rules. I mean, I’m working like crazy, but I don’t feel like anyone’s holding me back…” He let the words hang in the air. “I dunno. I can just be myself at the co-op.” He turned a pair of shining eyes on me. “And Mom! I went into town with Iris today to sell some of the goat products to the grocery store, and they totally loved my new package designs!”
“That’s great, honey.” I smiled at him. I wanted nothing more than to focus on my son’s optimism and vitality, but Luella’s pallid face and posed body rose up in my mind like a fishing bobber breaking through the surface of the water.
“Yeah, Iris even let me do the negotiating while she left to do some other errands in town. We traded a whole bunch of our products for things we can’t make. You know, razors, toilet paper, that kind of stuff. The manager at How Green Was My Valley said I drove a hard bargain.” Trey’s cheeks were flushed with pride.
My mother punched him on the arm. “Atta boy! You’ve got your grandma’s horse-tradin’ skills, don’t you?”
“Where did Iris run off to while you were haggling?” I wondered aloud.
Trey shrugged. “I think she went to sell wood to the pottery center. She’s strong enough to unload it from the truck by herself. I know she doesn’t look it, but I’ve watched her chop through seriously huge logs faster than half the men on the mountain.” His eyes were flashing with admiration.
“Wow,” I said. “So she sold all the wood?”
With a frown, Trey shook his head. “No. It was still in the truck when we left. Guess she got busy with other stuff.”
I recalled the mixture of hurt and anger in Iris’s eyes when she talked about Marlette’s death and wondered if she knew of the connection between him and Luella.
Trey shrugged again and continued. “Anyway, Iris and I met up for coffee at that place below your office around one She was acting weird and said she was going through a serious caffeine withdrawal. I was gonna see if you wanted to hang out with us for a bit, but I smelled like goat and, well, I figured you’d be embarrassed.”