Shadow Notes by Laurel Peterson (my miracle luna book free read .TXT) 📕

Ernie said, “How about we give it a couple of weeks? Things will muddle along for a while with minimal guidance before I’ll need to put out some fires. That gives you time to sort out things with Constance.”

I guess he meant that I needed to make peace with her. I leaned across and squeezed his hand. “You’re right, and I know you’re right. It’s time. I just need to let it all settle.”

He looked at me for a long moment. “And,” he said, “your mother needs you.” He was right about that, too.

By the time Mother and I sat down to review the blackmail scheme with Bailey, it was nearly five o’clock. A domestic dispute out on Alston Road required the chief’s attention, so we started with Bailey; as campaign lawyer, she had the right to know what we’d found. I dreaded telling her, but I couldn’t let her be blindsided either.

Mother said Maria was coming, too, but didn’t say why.

We sat at the kitchen table, another pot of coffee in front of us. Bailey had changed out of her funeral suit into a pair of jeans with holes in the knees, a long V-necked sweater with a lace camisole under it, and a pair of spiky-heeled boots. I wanted to be her when I grew up.

My mother shoved the list toward Bailey. “There are irregularities in these campaign donations.”

Bailey turned toward me, a hard look on her face. “You removed data from the office.”

“You wanted to know if anything was off. You even asked me to use my intuition, said you were worried about Winters. Well, we’ve found something.”

She started flipping pages.

Mother began getting containers out of the refrigerator. Hummus, carrot sticks, cheese and crackers, cold cuts and grapes appeared on the table. She put a plate in front of me and began filling it with food.

“I’m not hungry.”

“I don’t care. You’ll eat something because your body has been traumatized and I want you to heal quickly. We need to solve this and fast, so Andrew doesn’t get elected, and we can all get on with our lives.” Her sharp tone made me wonder if she regretted telling me about the rape.

Bailey looked up. “Andrew doesn’t get elected? That’s your goal?”

I ate a couple bits of cheese, realized I was ravenous. Maybe the increase in my blood sugar would deal with some of my wooziness.

As I ate, Mother told Bailey the story of the rape. Bailey’s face snapped through emotions like one of those flip pads we played with as kids: pain, shock, horror, pity.

“Oh my god, Constance, all these years and you never pursued it? Why?”

“I didn’t want Clara to have to live publicly with what had happened to me. We could deal with it privately, and we have. Until now. He thinks he’s gotten away with it. He thinks he’s invincible. Mary Ellen protects him. And I suspect he’s getting bad advice somewhere.”

She paused, looked thoughtful. “Clara, don’t you think it’s interesting that Mary Ellen showed up on the morning of Hetty’s funeral to ask us, well, what she did?”

Mother glanced at Bailey. I said, “Bailey knows about the intuition, Mother.”

Mother looked only mildly surprised and waved her hand like a wand. “I didn’t want to, well…if she didn’t know…”

“We get it.”

Bailey tapped a long finger on the table. “You mean, Hetty supplied Winters with psychic predictions and when she died, he panicked?”

“He can’t go twenty-four hours without a psychic’s help?” I said. “I can’t believe that. And anyway, why would he kill her if she was telling him what he wanted to hear?”

“Maybe she wasn’t. Maybe she wasn’t a fraud, like Hugh thought, and she’d started telling him the same truths I told him thirty-five years ago.” Mother picked at a cube of cheese with her fingernail, crumbing it onto the plate.

Bailey frowned. “Hetty wasn’t born when you turned him down.”

“When he realized what I could do, he became obsessed with his future, but who knows what he did in those intervening years? He needed his narcissistic vision of himself confirmed—over and over. A whole industry of sham phone psychics and card readers and alternative therapists will give clients whatever answers they want.”

I said, “That’s why Hugh was trying to shut Hetty down? To stop her from reading for Andrew Winters? Was that revenge for you?”

“Oh, god, no. Hugh worried that her attention-seeking behavior would get her in over her head.” She folded her hands neatly on the table. “People who want that kind of information, some of them will believe anything, and they’re willing to pay anything for it. If you give them the wrong answer, or you don’t know how to read them or phrase what you tell them in a way that’s easy for them to handle, well, it’s a tricky business.”

I looked at her questioningly.

“I have done a fair amount of research on the subject over the years.” She shrugged. “Hugh encouraged it. I wanted to know how I could use the gift.” She straightened in her chair, a proper lady. “However, nothing presented itself that was, well, appropriate.”

“What did Winters want to know?” Bailey asked.

“He wanted to know how to achieve the Presidency. That’s all he’s ever wanted. Lord knows what would happen once those four or eight years were over. God forbid we would ever have to suffer through them.”

Bailey threw her head back and let out a monster sigh. “Thanks, Clara. You’ve created the perfect storm. On the one hand, the partners and the election law guy are going to blame all this on me. On the other, if there’s a trial, I’m the criminal attorney. Billable hours are always good news.”

“That’s cold,” I said.

She laughed.

The doorbell rang. Mother went to get it and we heard low voices. A moment later, she and Maria walked into the kitchen. “Maria has news.” She looked at me. “This is what I’ve been waiting on, Clara.”

Maria sat down next to Bailey, looking tired,