The next afternoon, I was a witch on a mission as I backed out of my driveway in my Jeep and headed to a large house across town.
There was something I needed to do, and once it was done, maybe life would be able to start getting back to normal. Dylan hadn’t wanted me to go out alone, especially when I told him where I was going, but I finally convinced him.
It was a gorgeous fall day, all bright sunshine and soft breezes.
A perfect day for making new choices.
Glancing at the passenger seat, I reached over and patted Louella’s head. She bit my hand.
Yanking it back, I said, “That’s the thanks I get for saving your life.”
She growled.
The deputies on the scene last night had called in one of the vet techs to look after Louella. After a few IV bags, she’d been back to her old self and was sent home with me.
But she was still not eating.
And her bald patches were multiplying.
As I drove past Eulalie’s place, I spotted her in the garden. This morning she informed me that Mr. Butterbaugh was still in the hospital demanding tests, and that she had decided to limit her visits to once a day, fifteen minutes max.
Theirs was clearly not a love match.
Though . . . as I drove past Marjie’s inn, I decided not to write off the match altogether. Not yet. After all, if Marjie and Johnny could survive ten days on the high seas with each other, anything was possible. The pair was due home the next day, and I couldn’t wait to hear about their adventures . . . and to see with my own two eyes that each was alive and well.
Until then, I wouldn’t be quite convinced.
I turned left at a stop sign, wound through side streets, and slowed as I passed Haywood’s house. His actions the night before at the vet clinic came flooding back.
At first when I ran outside and had found Dylan and the deputies, I thought that Haywood had somehow led them to me, but it turned out he hadn’t.
Dylan had been led to the clinic by following the money trail. The blackmail scheme had been obvious in Gabriel and Idella’s bank reports. He’d called on Gabriel at home to question him further, only to be told by Idella that her husband was at the clinic.
With me.
It was hard to say whether or not I would have survived without Haywood’s help. Would I have been able to hold off Gabriel until Dylan and the deputies stormed the clinic?
I wasn’t sure, but I knew that with Haywood there, I’d been less afraid. His presence had brought a comfort that I wasn’t battling evil all alone. He’d been on my side.
In my eyes, he’d saved my life.
It had been a long night. By the time I made it home, Delia had been there waiting for me, oblivious to what had happened as she’d been running around town helping ghosts.
We’d talked long into the night, and come this morning, we both agreed to close our shops and take today to just be. Another form of hibernation. This time to heal.
I’d tried to stay put. I really had. But in the end, I couldn’t put off this trip any longer. Delia had understood.
I took one last look at Haywood’s house and drove onward, passing by the spot where Virgil had been killed, and also by Hyacinth’s house.
News had come that she was going to be okay in time, but would remain in the hospital for a while. I hated thinking of her missing Haywood’s funeral, but last night when she took those pills and drank that booze, she’d made her own choices. I’d heard through the grapevine that she’d admitted to her doctors that the guilt from taking Virgil’s life coupled with the loss of Haywood had been too much pain for her to bear. She was now getting the treatment she needed, and I hoped the news that she hadn’t been the one who’d run over Virgil would help her recovery.
Avery would be there, at the funeral. I’d called her this morning to tell her the time and also about the arrest of the man who’d killed her father.
She’d had news for me, as well. She’d heard from Haywood’s lawyer about his will. He’d had it changed several months ago, removing Hyacinth and adding Avery. She’d inherited his existing estate, and was going to file for ownership of the Ezekiel house as well.
After graduating in December, she planned to move to Hitching Post.
She wanted to do right by her daddy, and perhaps learn a bit more about her mama as well.
An added shocker was that Avery was graduating as a doctor of veterinary medicine and hoped to start her own clinic up here in Hitching Post, or join forces with Dr. O’Neill, who was likely to take over Gabriel’s share of the practice. All of that would be decided much later, after the dust settled around here.
As I drove along, her words from yesterday haunted me more than her father ever had.
He’s the only family I had left, and I barely got to know him.
But Haywood wasn’t the only family member left in Avery’s life, which was why I was on this mission in the first place.
Have mercy on my soul, I was going to see Patricia.