CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Back at the shop, Ellie tried calling David at the hospital but a nurse told her that she wasn’t able to locate him. Then she dialed Kevin’s cell phone number and got his voicemail.
“Kevin, please call as soon as you get this message. I got some crazy news today and I really need to talk to somebody about it,” she said, trying to control the panic in her voice. She wanted to say more, but decided that anything more might worry her friend into hightailing home instead of calling her. It wasn’t like she was dying.
Ellie heard the bell at the front door and realized that in her rush she had left the front door unlocked. “Dammit,” she said under her breath, and went to the front to tell whoever it was that the shop was closed.
Melanie Wilson stood in the doorway, peering about. Her face brightened as she saw Ellie emerge from the back room. “Finally!” she exclaimed. “What the hell has been going on, Ellie? I’ve been calling you for days, and then the shop has been closed. I’ve been worried sick. I’ve been trying to call Kevin too but just getting his voicemail.”
Melanie’s face dropped and Ellie realized that hot tears were streaming down her face. She had thought the random crying was over, but what she had found out in meeting with Mr. Thomassen hit her like a ton of bricks.
Melanie guided her to a table. “Oh, sweetie, just calm down. I’ll make us a pot of coffee.”
Ellie watched in amazement through her tears as Melanie adeptly moved about behind the counter getting the coffee ready. She hummed while she worked and never even asked where any of the supplies were kept.
Melanie caught Ellie’s stare and shrugged. “I’ve been coming here practically every day for three years. I’ve paid attention.”
Soon two cups of steaming coffee were on the table, and Melanie sat down across from her. “Okay, kid, spill it,” she said.
Ellie tried to start at the beginning, but everything came out in spurts that were all over the place. She started with the funeral, then jumped back to the conversation she and Jake had had right before the accident, and then told Melanie about her and Kevin’s discovery about the Bradfords in the library.
Melanie asked questions throughout, and finally Ellie had told her everything, including the strange dreams that both she and Jake had experienced. Ellie found herself on the verge of telling Melanie that she could see people’s auras, but at the very last minute she held it back. Her story sounded crazy enough. By the time she was done, Melanie had her notebook out and was scribbling notes.
“This is just about the weirdest damn story I’ve ever heard in real life,” she said when Ellie was done.
Ellie burst into a fresh batch of tears, and Melanie instantly looked regretful of her words.
“I’m sorry, kiddo. That was probably the wrong thing to say. Ask my husband. Hell, look at what happened the other night at Linda’s. I’m famous for it. I really am sorry about Jake, though.”
“It’s okay, Melanie. I needed someone to talk to,” Ellie said, sniffling. There was nothing menacing about Melanie’s aura. She was genuinely concerned about Ellie’s well-being.
Ellie saw Melanie shift in her seat uncomfortably, and she realized the woman was unsettled for other reasons besides her unbridled tongue. “Is there something else on your mind?”
Melanie tapped her pen against her notepad, as if debating her best plan of action. “There are some other things that you may want to know.”
“Like what?” Ellie asked.
“The story that agent babbled about the Bradford home fascinated me, what with him thinking it was haunted and all,” Melanie started.
“I think the story had that effect on everyone there, obviously,” Ellie said.
“So I’m gathering.” Melanie paused again. “So I’ve been doing some digging into the Bradfords myself. That fairy tale seemed a little too farfetched for my tastes.”
Ellie leaned forward in her chair, her afternoon’s revelations forgotten for the moment. “Did you find anything?”
“I found quite a bit actually,” Melanie said. “More than I expected really. And the interesting thing is the bits and pieces that you dreamt line up pretty well with what I’ve found.”
“Tell me everything,” Ellie demanded.
Melanie flipped over her notebook and started looking through the pages. “For starters, Joseph met Lillian when he was visiting some friends in Louisiana. They fell madly in love, like kids those days always did, and decided to get hitched.” Melanie’s finger ran down the page through her notes as she continued.
“The problem was, Joseph didn’t really have a lot of money, and his soon-to-be bride definitely had a lifestyle to which she was accustomed. Joseph wasn’t real keen on the idea of working for Lillian’s father or living in Louisiana. He wanted to return to Minnesota. So he came back up here determined to make his fortune so that he could provide for his wife and the expected kids that he figured were just over the horizon.”
“So far it doesn’t sound that bad,” Ellie commented.
“Just wait—it gets better,” Melanie said, waving her hand in the air.
Ellie wanted to ask another question, but decided to wait. She could see that Melanie was on a roll.
“Like I said, Joseph didn’t have a lot of money. So he decided to invest everything he had in the iron mines up in northern Minnesota. See, he had a buddy that had done that, who was starting to make a little bit of money.”
Melanie looked at Ellie for a reaction. Ellie shrugged, not sure where the story was going.
Melanie dropped the bomb. “His buddy was a Mr. Henry Decatur. The Decatur family had a long reputation of having mob connections here in the cities. Joseph was desperate to earn a decent wage, and Henry’s family had the connections. Shortly after that, Joseph took Henry with him on a visit down to Louisiana to see Lillian.”
“Henry met Emma,” Ellie said, starting to connect the dots.
“Bingo. Everyone was so delighted that the tides of fortune appeared to be turning for Joseph, and as an extra added bonus, he brought home a handsome young man who promptly asked for Emma’s hand in marriage.” Melanie glanced around the empty café. “Would you mind terribly if I had a cigarette?”
Ellie couldn’t have cared less at that moment, even though she hated the smell of cigarette smoke. “Go ahead, but only one,” she said.
Melanie smiled gratefully and pulled a cigarette pack from her purse. As she lit the end, her eyes closed in an expression of ecstasy. Ellie just shook her head. Smoking was one habit that she would never understand.
“Can you keep going now?” she asked Melanie.
“Oh, yes, things are right as rain again,” Melanie said, digging back into her story. “So all is going well in the lives of our two young newlywed couples. Emma was apparently braver than her sister, or perhaps less used to the creature comforts in life, so she came back to Minneapolis with Henry right away. Now that Henry was married, he was more than a little uncomfortable with the dirtier dealings that he had previously been associated with and seemed more interested in going legit. So he got himself a clerk position with an accounting firm downtown, and Emma got herself a job at the downtown Dayton’s department store. Money was tight, but by all accounts they were content.”
“They didn’t seem like flashy people in my dream,” Ellie agreed. “Not like Joseph and Lillian.”
“No, those two were the exact opposite. Lillian stayed behind in Louisiana, and Joseph got himself embroiled deeper and deeper in some pretty unsavory business transactions. But between that, and his legitimate holdings in the iron mines, he amassed a small fortune in just a few years. So he started work on Lillian’s dream home.”
“Linda’s house,” Ellie said.
“Yes. The house took a lot longer to build than anticipated. There had been a smaller house on the property just like the agent said, but Joseph had it torn down.”
“What took so long?” Ellie asked.
“There were a few ‘ac
cidents’ along the way,” Melanie said, using finger quotes. “In fact, it seems that as soon as Joseph started building that house, his luck started changing in a big way. Just as it was finally being completed, Joseph’s investments went south. But since most of Joseph’s money came outside the regular channels, he wasn’t as hard pressed. At least, not until the feds started making some inquiries.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Ellie said. “Joe Klein made it sound like the Bradfords had the perfect life. What with their glamorous parties and all.”
“Nobody’s life is perfect,” Melanie snorted. “In fact, from what I gathered there was definitely an undertone of tension between Lillian and her sister.”
“Tension, really?” Ellie was surprised because she had not felt that emotion in the women in her dreams.
“Oh, no, my dear. It’s the classic story of jealousy and deceit,” Melanie said with a satisfied smile. “You see, even though Henry and Emma were poor, they were very much in love. There had been some question about Lillian’s fidelity while she had remained in Louisiana while the house was being built, and then Joseph forced her to come here to Minnesota. Rumors abounded of their stormy relationship and bitter arguments, which always seemed to end up revolving around one single topic toward the end.”
“Having children,” Ellie guessed.
“Maybe you are psychic, sweetie,” Melanie said, looking only slightly chagrined that Ellie had guessed that latest plot turn in the story.
“Eventually, Lillian had given in to Joseph’s demands to start a family, especially once they moved into their new home. But then fate played a cruel trick on the Bradfords, because try as they may, they couldn’t conceive.”
“Then Emma got pregnant,” Ellie said.
“The plot thickens again, because yes, Lillian’s sister got pregnant,” Melanie agreed. “The timing couldn’t have been worse because money was getting tight. Henry lost his job right around the same time. He was forced to look to his old pal Joseph for help. I can only speculate that it was on one of those types of unsavory errands that Henry was running for Joseph that he disappeared.”
“That’s so sad,” Ellie said. “What about Emma?”
“Lillian told her friends that Emma had returned to their parents’ house when the news came that Henry had gone missing. I haven’t really had a chance to do any further digging into what eventually happened to her,” Melanie answered.
“What about the Bradfords?” Ellie asked.
“Well, that part the real estate agent did have right. The Bradfords had a big dinner party one Saturday night, and guests at the party said that they were arguing, even more so than usual, I guess. The Bradfords had hired a psychic to lead a séance in the house as part of the evening’s entertainment and apparently once it kicked off things went south quickly. The guests all scattered after a woman started having a seizure. A few evenings later, screams were heard coming from the general direction of the Bradford house, but nothing was reported to the police at that time.”
“Why not, for heaven’s sake?” Ellie was disgusted.
“Let’s just say that to have loud, shrieking noises coming from the Bradford house was not all that unusual,” Melanie quipped. “After about a week, the neighbors started realizing that they hadn’t seen the Bradfords in a while. They knocked on the door, but there was no answer. The police were eventually called, but no trace of them was found.”
“What about their belongings, their furniture? Surely they turned up at some point to collect that,” Ellie said in disbelief.
“All of that was apparently handled through Joseph Bradford’s attorney and it was sold to pay off Joseph’s debt. Some speculate that the Bradfords just up and decided to move back to Louisiana and start over. Others think that Joseph’s underworld dealings finally caught up with him. Whatever the case, the Bradfords were not heard from again around here.”
Ellie sat back her chair. “How did you find out about all of this, Melanie?”
“I’ve got my resources,” Melanie said. “I’m a writer, remember? I learned a long time ago where to dig and how to ask the right questions. People around here have long memories. You just need to know who to ask.”
“Are you planning on writing a story about the Bradfords?” Ellie asked.
“I think I can fashion something that would be loosely based on their story. It has all the elements of a story that sells: romance, passion, crime, and an ending that is wide open for interpretation.” Melanie looked at her watch and grimaced. “Damn, I lost track of time.”
As if on cue, the phone in the back of the store rang. Ellie waved at Melanie. “It’s okay if you have to go. I’m better now. I’m sure that’s Kevin calling me back.”
“If you’re sure.” Melanie looked doubtful.
“Go!” Ellie said. Then she quickly walked to the back of the store.
“Hello,” she said breathlessly.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
Ellie was delighted to hear David’s voice. “Hi David,” she said.
“What’s going on? You get your new-fangled network all set up?” he asked.
“Oh, wow, David. A lot has happened since this morning,” she sighed. That morning seemed like a million years ago.
“What’s going on?” he asked, the concern evident in his voice.
“It’s a very long story,” she said. “I was hoping that you were going to be able to come over tonight and I’ll tell you all about it then. I’ll even make food.”
“Now that sounds like an invitation that would be difficult to resist,” he said. “If you’re sure that your news can wait until then.”
“Yeah, it can wait,” she said. She hadn’t figured out the best way yet to tell him that she had still technically been married until just a few days ago.
“I can probably scoot out of here around seven,” David replied. “Will that work?”
“Perfect,” Ellie said. “I’m starting to get the hang of Linda’s kitchen, so I’ll have everything ready.”
“See you then,” he said.
Ellie glanced around the shop and felt better about things than she had since that morning before Mr. Thomassen’s call. Everything would be okay; she just had to take it all one day at a time. She quickly gathered her things and locked the door. She had errands to run before David’s arrival.