Beau, p.4
Beau, page 4
“So you think that she’s out to get money from us? How do you suppose that’s going to work when none of us believe that she’s our mother?” It was Calhoun who suggested blackmail. “Okay, perhaps I can understand that better if you were to let me know how you think she’s going to be able to do that.”
“We cashed the insurance when she died to pay for the funeral. It was the only way that it would have been paid for; if we hadn’t done that, we’d still be paying it off.” Sandy said she thought that was a lame excuse to blackmail someone. “Do you have a better idea? It’s the only reason that I can think of for her to be coming around and trying to contact us. Even Dad thinks that she’s here to get money from us.”
“I can understand why she’d wait until now to come after us. Like you said, we all have money now. But I don’t understand why she’d think she was going to get away with it. I’ve not seen a picture of our mom since the funeral. Do you suppose she’s been waiting all this time because she’s had work done on her face? That would take a lot of preplanning, and her not knowing about the money that we have now. Ten years ago, we didn’t any of us have a pot to piss in. And she would have known it. In all that time, too, we’ve had some terrible things happen. Did she ask any of you what happened to Benson and his two kids? And why she couldn’t get in touch with them?”
“I never thought of that.” Most of the table hadn’t thought of it, and Rogen felt bad because it made Belinda sad for a moment.
Danny, Sandy’s ex-husband, had murdered Benson and their two children for the insurance that he’d taken out on them. After cleaning out her house after divorcing him, she’d found more policies with names of people who were elderly down her street and the rest of the family, including her. He had planned on killing them all off for a nice payday. The fucking bastard was now in prison where he belonged. Where he should have been decades ago.
It was mind-boggling to think that after all this time, their mother had decided to show up and want something from them. Of course, they didn’t know that for sure, but there was no other reason for her to contact them now after being presumed dead after all this time.
Their mother hadn’t been a terrible person, not like some of the parents that she’d met through her work. But she did drink a great deal. That was what had caused the accident, they’d found out. Their mother had been very drunk when she had an accident with the car that she had been driving. Rogen had never understood that part, as their mother was a shifter too, and it would take a great deal of alcohol to get her intoxicated enough to be considered drunk. But it had happened, and she had died, so they didn’t look into it too deeply.
“Dad’s plane just landed. He said that the car you had there for him has picked him up, and he’s on his way here. He, too, has a death certificate as well as the paperwork from the autopsy that was performed after her death. I would think that that’s a good indication that she was killed that night.” Rogen got up to have the staff bring in drinks and snacks. She never dreamed that they’d be talking about this right now and wanted to get it over with and find out what the hell was going on.
No one had heard from their mother since the night she called them all at three in the morning, telling them that she’d only just gotten out of a coma and she’d been looking for them. Also, apparently, she’d only just gotten into town. Whether that was the town they now lived in or the town they’d come from, no one knew, but it was something that they were looking for answers about.
“I’ve checked with the hotels around the town. None of them has a Marsha Watson in their groups. The bed and breakfast doesn’t have anyone by that name either. Unless she’s changed her name for some reason.” Sandy asked about the hotels where they used to live. “Most of them said no, they didn’t have her on their books, but a lot of them said they couldn’t tell me because of privacy rules regarding her stay.”
“This is just stupid.” She couldn’t agree more with her brother on that. “I’m actually losing sleep over this nightmare because we buried the wrong person, or worse, she really has been in a coma and we’re all guilty of not believing her.”
“What else are we supposed to do right now? I mean, none of us has a way to contact her. Unless any of you have tried to reach out to her? Have you?” No one had, but they had thought about it. “Wouldn’t that be the best way to figure this out? To see if she’s really out there and we are going crazy over nothing?”
Calhoun said he’d do it now. As they waited for him to tell them if it worked or not, she did the same thing and reached out to their dad. She wanted him to know that she had a place for him to stay and that he was welcome there for as long as he wished. He was happy sounding when he answered her.
“I’ve not seen any of you for so long, I nearly forgot what it’s like to have you all together. How is everyone doing?” She knew that he knew about Benson being killed with his two grandchildren. She’d also updated him on the fact that Danny had done it to them. She would reach out to him on his birthday and the holidays and update him on the goings on with the family. “I don’t want to put you out when you’re only just newly married, Rogen. How about I stay in a hotel until we can get this figured out?”
“You came alone?” He said that Mildred had had some work to do, and she wouldn’t know anyone anyway. “But she won’t get to know us if she doesn’t come around, Dad. You should have made her come with you so that we could all be together for a change.”
“I tried, but she said that she didn’t want to come out, so I left her at home to work. She said that she gets more done without me being around anyway.” Dad changed the subject. “Are the grandkids going to be around, too? I’ve missed most of their lives, and I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
She told him how they all lived around one another and how they got together every week so that they could all catch up on things. Even though they were all together, it would be days before they would actually be able to have a conversation with each other.
“We usually meet at my house and go over things that have happened in the week. They bring the kids, too.” He said that he was looking forward to seeing everyone and getting to know the kids. “They’re all here now. The kids are playing in the back yard as the weather has turned really nice after raining all day yesterday.”
“The weather is always nice where I live.” They talked about his plans of staying for a week or longer, depending on when they could get this all taken care of. “I never dreamed that this would happen. We buried her, and I thought that was about as final as it could be.”
“I know, Dad. We’ve been talking about it too. Calhoun is reaching out to her now, but he’s not telling us whether or not he’s gotten in touch with her. It’s been a nightmare around here with all the things that are going on.” He told her to keep her chin up, something that he said to them all at some point in their lives. “I’m going to be there in forty minutes I was told. You keep them there so that I can see them. I might be a little teary-eyed from missing so much, but we’ll be together again, and that’s all a man can hope for when it comes to his family.”
After closing the connection, she looked around at her family. They were all currently staring at Calhoun to see if he was getting through to their mother or not, but she’d bet that he wasn’t having any luck, just by the look on his face. When he shook his head and looked so sad, she wanted to hunt down this person who said they were their mother and beat the shit out of her. This was no way to treat strangers who were still grieving the loss of their parent.
“Nothing. It was as if I was reaching out to the air and there was no one there to answer me.” Rogen asked him what he thought that meant, not sure if it could mean that the woman was lying. “I think it’s just as we said, she hasn’t any idea that we’re shifters and never planned on that being brought up.”
“I’m not saying I believe that she’s our mom or not, but could the link be messed up because it’s not been used in a decade? I might be grasping at straws right now, but I don’t think I can take any more disappointment concerning the losses we’ve experienced. Not just Benson and the kids, but with dad moving away and never coming back. With this crap with Danny and him trying to kill the rest of us for money. I would like for one thing to go right for a change. Wouldn’t you guys?”
“Yes, I would.” She pulled tissues from the box that was on the table, along with the snacks and drinks. After blowing her nose, she looked at each of their faces. “I don’t know if I could have survived this without you guys around. And I know that at least a couple of you feel the same way.”
They all did. Once the tissue box made its round around the table, she laughed a little. “Weston is going to come home and wonder what we’ve been up to if we don’t stop crying. I have cried a river thinking about all the what-ifs or how-comes. If we could just talk to her again to see what the hell she wants from us, I’d feel a good deal better. The not knowing is driving me crazy. I don’t know about you guys, but I just want this to be taken care of so that we can move on with our lives.”
Calhoun, being the oldest, said that he had lost a great many nights of rest from this, and it turned out that all of them had. She knew that she was sleeping worse than she had when she had a large project coming up. There wasn’t enough information for them to make a solid plan for when or if she showed up. Some kind of indication about her plans would make them all a little less stressed about any and all of this.
~*~
Beau loved the old house. Some things needed to be taken care of. The kitchen was outdated and needed new appliances. He’d bet anything that it hadn’t been updated since the forties, if not longer. The refrigerator didn’t work anymore, and that was one of the things she was going to have replaced from a store. There were coolers all around the room that made him think that the sucker had been out for some time, and they were simply making do with what they had on hand. Then there was the stove. He wouldn’t use it even if he was starving to death, and that was the only way to cook something. It was so outdated that he was fearful of it blowing up the house when the gas was turned on. Tomorrow, both appliances were going to be delivered. Also, he looked at the dining room and was appalled.
He knew that Danielle had been eating in the big room, but it looked to him like the place hadn’t had a good cleaning for decades. The faeries had gotten on it when he mentioned that it needed to be cleaned. Right now, after they were finished, it still needed a new table and chairs, as the ones that were in the room looked like they’d been through a war zone or something. There were scratches in the table top, and it looked as if the legs had been chewed on by a dog or something else he didn’t want to think about. There had been so much dust on the table that he didn’t know it was a dark wood until it was cleaned up.
The bedrooms that hadn’t been used were in better shape than the rest of the house. They were dirty and needed the windows cleaned. But once the faeries were finished with them, they did shine up really nicely. The only rooms that were taking the longest to clean were the master suite that her grandmother had taken over when she’d moved in, as well as the bedroom for the great grandparents. The room was much too small for two people, much less a bed and furniture. All of the furniture was going out on the next purge, she told him. She’d left the rooms that they occupied alone in favor of cleaning them out first and then deciding what she wanted to do with them.
Her father’s bedroom told of a man who was used to having discipline. The room and the furniture were all old and musty-smelling, but it was neat as a pen, and even his shoes had been lined up on the floor of the closet. His things would also be going out with the next time she was ready to get rid of the stuff in the house that she no longer thought she could use.
“I’ve had the faeries redo the master bedroom. I have no idea why, but I think we’ll need a bigger bed than the one that was in there. You’re a large man, and I don’t want to be crowded in a room with stuff that belongs to us both.” He told her that he’d take care of that. “Good. Also, since the kitchen needs to be updated too, I was thinking that we could go out to dinner tonight and have some fun. All we’ve been doing is fretting over this house for so long that I’m sick of it. What do you say?”
“I say that’s a wonderful idea.” She nodded, but he could tell she had more on her mind than just dinner. “Is there anything I can do to help you out? You seem really stressed right now.”
“I’m going to have them fix up the bathrooms the way that we talked about it. The master looks so much better enlarged, and with the double bathroom in there, we’ll have plenty of room to get dressed in the morning.” He said that he’d noticed too that there wasn’t any carpet in the room. “Yes, it was nasty in there, I noticed, and then I figured that we’d be better off with hardwood floors rather than a carpet that needs to be vacuumed every day. At least with hardwood floors, they can be dusted instead of swept up.”
There was more to it, so when she walked away, he let her. She would come to him later and tell him what she’d been thinking, but for now she needed to think things through and figure them out. He loved that she didn’t need to empty her head when she had something to say; she’d say it. But only after she’d worked it out a great deal in her mind.
The house was coming along nicely. Having the faeries cleaning the rooms was working out better than they thought it would. It also made it so that she could figure out what she wanted done with each room. The living room was the only room that was completed, and it looked like a dream. Instead of just cleaning the room, she’d had them clean the wallpaper as well as the fireplace, too, so that they could enjoy the room better. He loved the old-fashioned wallpaper in the room and didn’t mind at all that it was from a different era. While this was going on, the garden was being taken care of.
He’d been outside just yesterday to see the progress they were making. By then, they’d had the tall weeds taken down and some of the fixtures that were out there—a large fountain was in the middle of the tall grass and weeds, along with several topiaries around the garden that needed to be repaid. They were taking their time with the area, so they didn’t mess with the long-dormant flowers and roses around the fountain and other planters.
There was also an herb garden right off the kitchen that they were going to bring back for him to use in his cooking. He loved cooking with fresh when he could get it. And from the size of the garden, he was going to be able to cook anything that he wanted and use the fresh herbs out there.
When Danielle found him on the second floor, where the bedrooms were that they weren’t using, she asked him if there was a certain room that he wanted all for himself. Asking her what she meant, she mentioned the office and how it was on her list of things to get organized.
“You’re still going through the things that were left behind, right?” She told him that she was nearly finished in there if he wanted to go have a look at it. “You’ve been using the paper shredder, correct? I’d hate for some of that to get in the wrong hands at this late date.”
“I’ve shredded everything that was paper. Even if I couldn’t find any information on it, I wasn’t going to take any chances.” He smiled at her. “I’m going to need to get another trash can from the trash company if we keep purging things out of here. I never realized how time-consuming this was going to be when I started. But I have to admit, I’m having fun doing it. It’s like I’m renewing the house from what it had been. A junk pile.”
“Yes, I have to agree with you on that. It has been a junk pile of things. I’m just glad we have the faeries to help us out, or there is no telling what we’d have to do to get this place in shape.” She nodded and looked around the room he was in. “I was thinking that I’d take this room since it seems to be bigger than the others.”
“I’m still sleeping in the living room for now. I want the master suite to be just for us. No one else will sleep in there but the two of us when we get to that point in our relationship.” He loved it when she talked like that. It made it seem like she was thinking about the two of them as a couple and not someone who was just staying with her while she got the house under control. “I suppose that I could sleep in one of the other bedrooms that are finished, but I’ve not had the energy to go up to bed yet, much less try and blow up the mattress again.”
They both laughed. There was a bed in each of the rooms that the faeries had put in there for them. The empty bedrooms were finished as well, but for the bed, there was nothing at all in the room as yet. He knew they’d need a dresser or two, but they were focusing their time on the rest of the house for now and would get to that part later.
“I’ll help you with your mattress. The one that I’ve been sleeping on is really nice. You should take the next bedroom so that you’ll get off the floor.” She said that she was thinking that very same thing. “Good. I hate using a bed when you’re still using the air mattress in the front room.”
They were getting along well, he thought. They talked most evenings about everything that they were doing to the house. Then, in the morning, over toast and tea, they would gather up the faeries that were still working in the house and tell them what they were planning. Most of the time, they’d be very helpful, but there were times when they’d be in the way more than not. But they loved having them around, and they were a great help when it came to getting the rooms up to par, like they wanted them to be.
“Mistress, we have a surprise for you.” She looked like she didn’t want another surprise, but told them to tell her what they’d done. “Come see the kitchen. We have been taking ideas from the master, as he knows how to cook, and have come up with a good idea of what he wanted in the room.”
“You remember that the stove and refrigerator are going to be delivered tomorrow, correct? You didn’t put on in the places that we discussed, did you?” He assured her that the kitchen would be ready for the two things now. “I thank you for doing this for us. You guys are working so hard that I feel bad when you do something like the kitchen for us.”
