Grave Haunting (A Maddie Graves Mystery Book 10) Read online

  “You saw Olivia?”

  “I did. She was pregnant … very big … and she was standing in front of the house. It didn’t look quite the same, but it was mostly the same, if that makes sense. It was a different color. It was a gross brown color.”

  “I’m not sure that’s important to the story, Mad,” Nick prodded gently.

  “Right.” Maddie shook her head. “Sorry. It was a really ugly color, though.”

  “I will let you pull out the paint color wheel of death and show me the ugly brown color once we’re in bed later if that will make you happy,” Nick offered. “I need to know more about what you saw.”

  “I didn’t see a lot, and I really didn’t hear anything other than my mother crying,” Maddie said. “I realized who he was and kind of jerked my hand away. I was in a hurry to get away from him – not because I thought he would hurt me or anything, I don’t want you to think I saw that. It was just because I needed to get away from what I saw.

  “Anyway, I knocked over the chair when I stood,” she continued. “He said he wanted to talk to me, but my head was full and my cheeks and lips were numb. I didn’t even know that could happen. Then Granny came running in because she heard the chair fall over and then … well, then things got really ugly.”

  “I can imagine.” Nick kept up his neck ministrations. “What did Maude say?”

  “She called him ‘George Eugene,’ because apparently he hates that, and then threatened to get a hammer and bury him in the backyard,” Maddie answered. “I swear time seemed to go by really fast and I couldn’t listen to what they were saying because I felt sick to my stomach and couldn’t breathe.”

  “That’s why you went outside,” Nick mused.

  “You must’ve driven really fast to get here the way you did,” Maddie said. “You were here in like three minutes.”

  “We were on the road when Penelope called,” Nick supplied. “We were only two blocks away. All I knew is that there was some sort of fight and that I had to get to you right away … so that’s what I did.”

  “My hero.” Maddie snuggled closer. “Why do you think he’s here?”

  “I honestly don’t know, Mad.” Nick heaved out a heavy sigh. “He could be here to get to know you. He might regret what he did.”

  “But he might not,” Maddie finished. “You’re afraid of him.”

  “I don’t know if ‘afraid’ is the right word,” Nick clarified. “I want you to be happy more than anything. If I thought spending time with that man was the way to do it, I would figure out a way to get past this. I’m not sure that’s the case, though.”

  “You don’t think I should talk to him, huh?”

  Nick wasn’t sure how to answer. “Do you want to talk to him?”

  “No.” Maddie answered immediately and then thought better of it. “Maybe. I … always had a picture in my head of what I would say to him if he ever had the gall to come back. Now he’s here and I fell apart instead of telling him what I felt.”

  “No one blames you for that reaction,” Nick argued. “You were in shock. Maude didn’t make things better by being … well … Maude.”

  “She was always there for me, though,” Maddie reminded him. “She never abandoned me like he did.”

  “No, she didn’t,” Nick conceded. “It’s unfair for her to take over the situation when he’s your father, though. This is your choice, Mad. If you want to talk to him … or get to know him … I will stand by you. Not only that, but I’ll handle the Maude situation so you have the freedom to do whatever it is you need to do.”

  This time the laughter Maddie mustered bordered on hysterical. “You’re going to handle Granny?”

  Nick smirked. “I can handle her.”

  “You’re cute.” Maddie pressed her lips to his cheek. “I don’t know what I want to do yet. Can I sleep on it? I want to give it some thought.”

  “You can take as much time as you want,” Nick said. “I think that’s a good plan. Acting impulsively doesn’t help anyone.”

  “Okay.” Maddie rubbed her cheek against his shirt for a few minutes. “I’m officially hungry. We’re ordering pizza, right?”

  Nick was secretly relieved that she appeared to be perking up. “Absolutely. I’ll order one with the works – minus onions, because I have plans for you that aren’t conducive to onions – and we’ll watch a movie in bed or something. How does that sound?”

  “Perfect.”

  Perfect indeed, Nick silently noted. The initial storm had passed, but he worried it was just the beginning.

  “WHERE DO you think you’re going?”

  Nick stood next to the counter in the kitchen when Maude tried sneaking into the main house for some coffee the next morning, a mug clutched in his hand as he stared down Maddie’s mischievous grandmother.

  Maude made a face that wasn’t lost on Nick before straightening and adopting a serene expression. “I was coming to see you, of course.”

  Nick scorched her with an “I’m not falling for that” glare while sipping his coffee. “Do you usually tiptoe when you’re going to visit someone? That might say a little something about your motives if so.”

  Maude scowled. “Fine. I’m out of K-cups and wanted real coffee. You’ve got me. Put me out of my misery.” Maude lifted her hands in mock surrender. “Just make sure the first shot is clean and I don’t waste away for days because you screwed up and shot me in the gut or something.”

  Nick remained immovable as Maddie and her best friend Christy Ford wandered into the kitchen. Christy owned the area beauty salon and graduated from high school the same year Nick and Maddie did. Blackstone Bay was small so she’d heard the gossip regarding the return of George Hunter and Nick found her on the front porch first thing in the morning. Rather than put up a fight – which he figured was a no-win scenario – he cleared a path so Christy could head up to the bedroom and bolster Maddie’s spirits. Even though she woke in a good mood, Nick remained worried that Maddie would have another meltdown and the more people on her team to combat that, the better.

  “What’s going on?” Maddie asked, glancing between faces. She looked worried.

  “Nothing is going on,” Nick replied, his easygoing nature on display. “Maude and I were simply discussing the fact that she ran away like a little girl last night rather than face the music regarding her actions with George Hunter.” Nick refrained from calling him Maddie’s father whenever possible because he didn’t want to further upset her … and it seemed weird to say because Maddie never had a father until the previous day. He simply hadn’t been a consideration.

  “I didn’t run away like a little girl,” Maude scoffed. “I had an appointment.”

  Nick was blasé. “If that’s your story.”

  “I don’t need a story because that’s the truth.”

  “Uh-huh.” Nick flicked his eyes to Maddie. “What are you going to do today, love?”

  Maddie was caught off guard by the question. “I … well … I’m going to run the store.”

  “Okay.” Nick bobbed his head as if in agreement, although his stomach involuntarily tensed. “What are you going to do if he comes back?” There was no sense ignoring the elephant in the room and Nick had no intention of leaving Maddie unprotected. “Maybe you shouldn’t open the store today.”

  “If he comes back I’ll have my hammer ready this time,” Maude said, her eyes flashing. “In fact, I’ll move it into the kitchen right now so I don’t misplace it.”

  Nick narrowed his eyes to dangerous slits and shook his head. “Stop making the murder jokes. I’m a cop. They’re not funny.”

  “If you knew George you would think they were funny,” Maude sniffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “In fact, if you really knew George you would be offering to help me dig a hole so we could hide the body.”

  “You’re on my last nerve,” Nick warned, wagging a finger. “You made things ten times worse than they had to be yesterday and you darned well know it. That’s why you took
off the way you did … and spent the night out with your little friends.”

  “We had an all-night euchre tournament,” Maude countered. “It’s not my fault that the Pink Ladies are wild and crazy. Their reputation knows no bounds and sometimes they simply cannot be contained.”

  “Yeah, the majority of your Pink Ladies are drinking Metamucil by nine each night and turning in before it’s dark in the summer months,” Nick argued. “Your little contingent of Pink Ladies – the one you personally command – is a different story. You’re not fooling me, by the way. I know exactly what you were doing. I mean … I don’t even understand why we’re having this argument.”

  “That makes two of us,” Maude said. “I think you’re doing it because you want to be mean.”

  Nick rolled his eyes until they landed on Maddie. “Mad, I’m not going to tell you what to do. If you want to open the store, that’s your decision. I simply want you to be careful.”

  “I will be.” Maddie extended her hand and wrapped her slim fingers around his wrist. “I’ll be okay, Nicky. If I see him coming I’ll … well, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I doubt he would have the guts to come back so soon.”

  Nick hoped she was right, but he had reservations. He opened his mouth to voice them when his cell phone dinged on the counter. He shifted his eyes to the screen, frowning when he read Kreskin’s incoming text. “Son of a … .”

  “What’s wrong?” Maddie asked, instantly alert.

  “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with,” Nick replied, draining the rest of his coffee before collecting his phone and pressing a kiss to Maddie’s forehead. “Apparently we have a body. Dale is on his way to pick me up right now so I can’t continue this conversation. I would appreciate it if you texted me with what you decide after breakfast.”

  “I will.” Maddie’s eyes reflected bewilderment. “Who died?”

  “I have no idea,” Nick answered. “Dale didn’t say. I’ll text you with the gossip as soon as I know it. That sounds like a fair compromise, huh?”

  Maddie grinned, legitimately amused. “It does. There’s definitely no trading up from you.”

  “I told you that yesterday.” Nick smacked a loud kiss against Maddie’s lips. “I can’t believe you would forget between then and now.”

  “I didn’t forget,” Maddie countered. “It’s very rare to find a boyfriend who not only participates in gossip sessions with his girlfriend, but also enjoys them. I will never give you up.”

  “No, you won’t.” Nick moved toward the door when Kreskin honked his horn in the driveway. “I’ll be in touch. Stay out of trouble.”

  “I will,” Maddie promised.

  Nick shot a dark look in Maude’s direction. “I was talking to your grandmother.”

  Maude merely shrugged in response. “No promises.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about,” Nick muttered. “It’s going to be a long day.”

  5

  Five

  “What do we have?”

  Nick kept his eyes on the house as Kreskin pulled out of the driveway, worry eating at him a moment longer before he shook himself back to reality. He had a job to do and Maddie was more than capable of taking care of herself. Plus, well, Maude wouldn’t leave if she thought there was a chance George would return – and she had a hammer, after all.

  “Fran Livingston is dead,” Kreskin replied, his eyes thoughtful as they roamed his partner’s face before focusing on the road. “I’m not sure what to expect. The woman who called was a bit of a mess.”

  Nick arched an eyebrow, surprised. “Fran Livingston? The woman who runs the Bayside Bed and Breakfast on Main Street?”

  Kreskin nodded. “Sarah Cooper called it in,” he supplied. “She showed up for her shift at the front desk and couldn’t figure out what was going on. Fran had the late shift last night and she’s usually on the door until ten or so before she goes into her office to sleep. Sarah said Fran always opens the front door in the morning before she gets there, but it was locked today. She went into the office and found Fran dead.”

  Nick ran the information through his head. Fran Livingston was in her sixties, which didn’t make her young, but she wasn’t old enough to make dying in her sleep somehow routine. “Did she say how she died?”

  “She was a crying mess and I said we would head straight over,” Kreskin replied. “Sarah is young and kind of dramatic so I’m not sure what to expect. The other woman who works there – Dora Walker – is apparently off today so we’re stuck with Sarah.”

  “Yeah, well, I hate to say it … but if Fran died of natural causes that would be a relief given everything that’s going on.”

  Kreskin arched an eyebrow. “Yeah. What happened with that?”

  “Not much. Maddie didn’t want to talk right away so I finished all of the reports we had piling up on my laptop. Thanks for letting me work from home, by the way. I didn’t want to leave Maddie alone.”

  “I don’t blame you.” Kreskin pulled onto Blackstone Bay’s main drag, waving at the town dentist as he walked his poodle down the street. “Did Maddie say anything?”

  “She just said that he showed up and wanted to talk,” Nick answered, his attention drifting out the window. “They really didn’t get a chance to get into it because Maude showed up and … well … you can pretty much imagine how that went.”

  “I can,” Kreskin confirmed. “I’m not familiar with that situation all that well. For some reason I always thought Maddie’s father died. I was never in any position to question Olivia about it and I never considered asking Maddie.”

  “He didn’t die, but it would’ve been easier for everyone if he did,” Nick explained. “I honestly don’t know all that much about him myself. I’m not sure Maddie does either. I think she’s told me everything she does know … and it’s not much.

  “From what I understand, Olivia and George Hunter fell fast and hard for each other,” he continued. “They married after dating for only a few weeks. She got pregnant a few months in. George waited until she was hugely pregnant to walk out.”

  “That sounds … rough.” Kreskin made a disgusted face. “Olivia was pretty much the nicest woman ever so I can’t imagine anyone walking out on her. She never gave me a lick of trouble and she always volunteered her time to those less fortunate. I don’t understand why anyone would abandon her.”

  “Yeah, well, I can see making a mistake and marrying the wrong person when you’re young and dumb,” Nick conceded as Kreskin pulled into the parking lot to the rear of the kitschy bed and breakfast. “Everyone makes mistakes. What I don’t understand is how he could abandon Maddie. He didn’t even see her before he walked out.”

  “Maybe it was easier that way,” Kreskin suggested. “I’m not saying it was right – in fact, it’s just about as wrong as it can be – but it’s easier to run when you’re younger. Maybe it was easier for George Hunter to run than to face up to a lifetime of responsibility he wasn’t ready to accept.

  “I dug into his background as you requested and there’s honestly not a lot there,” he continued. “I have a more extensive search running, but it will take time. His marriage to Olivia is on record. He filed for divorce, but Olivia didn’t fight it. In fact, she didn’t ask for a dime from him.”

  “That sounds like Olivia.”

  “It does,” Kreskin agreed, bobbing his head. “I went through the divorce documents, although only in a cursory manner. There was an agreement between the two that Olivia would not ask for child support if George signed away his rights to visitation with Maddie. There weren’t a lot of specifics in it but … even if he had tried to come around when she was older, Olivia had the legal right to keep him away.”

  “Yeah?” Nick wasn’t in the mood to feel sorry for George Hunter. “If it was you and you were a mess as a younger man but got your crap together at a certain point and knew you had a five-year-old child out there … or a ten-year-old child … or even a sixteen-year-old child, what wouldn’t you
risk to see her?”

  Kreskin held his hands palms up and shrugged. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you’re letting the fact that you adore Maddie above all else color your judgment. You could never leave her so you don’t understand how anyone else could. I hate to remind you of it – mostly because it turns you into a rabid bear – but she left you for ten years.”

  Nick scowled as he glared at his partner. “Thank you so much for bringing that up.”

  “I didn’t do it to hurt your feelings.”

  “You didn’t hurt my feelings,” Nick snapped. “What happened between Maddie and me was … different. She wasn’t pregnant. I hadn’t told her I loved her. She was trying to protect me from … something big.”

  “The fact that she’s psychic,” Kreskin said sagely. He was well aware of Maddie’s abilities even though Nick refused to go into great detail about them. Nick’s protective nature was one of the things Kreskin liked best about his partner. That didn’t mean he was blind to the obvious issue in Olivia and George’s marriage. “Have you ever considered that George might not have realized that Olivia was legitimately psychic until they had a child on the way?”

  Nick balked, unnerved. “Olivia never hid her gifts. She didn’t volunteer it, but everyone in town knew she was special.”

  “As an adult,” Kreskin clarified. “You don’t know what she was like as a young woman. I didn’t know her then either. She would’ve just moved to Blackstone Bay around the time they divorced and she gave birth to Maddie. There’s no mention of any of … that … in the divorce documents, but you can’t possibly know what was going on during that portion of Olivia’s life.”

  “Maybe,” Nick conceded, although it somehow felt disloyal to think anything of the sort when it came to Olivia. She was like a second mother to him, always going out of her way to take Maddie and him on adventures when they were kids. “What are you saying? You think Olivia didn’t tell George the truth and it was too much for him to deal with?”

  Kreskin shrugged, noncommittal. “I don’t know. I can imagine that would be a lot to deal with, though. That’s on top of the fact that the man had the mother-in-law from hell.”