Chapter 16

FAMILY TIES

“Selena, I really need to get your statement,” Henry Lewis told me, his tone urgent.

“Nine centimeters dilation,” said the nurse at the bottom of my bed.

“Henry, I’m kind of in the middle of something!” I snapped. Good thing the table in my hospital room that currently held a bedpan was too far for me to reach, or I probably would have grabbed it and hurled it at his head.

Calvin’s fingers tightened on mine. He hadn’t left my side for a single second, not even in the chaotic aftermath of his blowing out Max Speros’s kneecap and calling the Globe P.D. to the scene…right after he’d contacted 9-1-1 to come and take me to the hospital. The police and the ambulance had shown up around the same time, so while I saw Henry come marching toward the house with several of his deputies in tow, I’d already been loaded onto a gurney and wheeled down the front walk of the Airbnb where Jack’s parents had been staying.

That was probably why the police chief had hurried over to the hospital to get all the details from Calvin and me. Although Henry knew my husband would never discharge his service pistol without a damn good reason, he still needed to hear the details of the confrontation from both of us.

Unfortunately, I was a little occupied at the moment. For whatever reason, this baby had decided it was time to make his or her appearance today. Things had moved so fast that the OB-GYN on duty at the medical center hadn’t even been able to give me an epidural, which hadn’t improved my mood very much.

Another contraction wracked my body, and I gripped the sheets, grimacing as I held back a shriek of pain. The last thing I wanted was to be screaming like a crazy woman in front of Henry Lewis, even though his wife had been through this twice herself and he probably had a good idea of the level of stress I was dealing with right now.

“You don’t need her statement,” Calvin said. He still sounded remarkably calm, all things considered, but somewhere outside my pain, I thought I detected a distinct edge to his voice. “I already told you what happened. Max Speros lunged for Selena, obviously meaning her bodily harm, and I had no choice but to neutralize him. Your time would be better spent interrogating the Speroses — I have a feeling Leslie is the weak link. You just need to put a little pressure on her.”

Henry’s eyes narrowed. However, he seemed to realize this wasn’t the time to let Calvin know he shouldn’t be telling him how to do his job, because he gave us both a curt nod and then said, “I’ll get out of your hair. But I may have more questions later.”

“Great,” I gritted. “You know where to find us.”

He left then, and Calvin’s grasp on my hand tightened a little. It didn’t hurt, though. No, that firm grip on my fingers told me he was going to be there through everything.

Not that I’d doubted him for a second.

Dr. Carlisle came in then, smiling. “Well, Selena, it looks like it’s time. This one’s definitely ready to come into the world.”

I sent her an apologetic look. “Sorry we’re early — and for dragging you here on a Sunday.”

Her smile only widened. “Kind of comes with the territory. Babies don’t have much use for schedules. Calvin, we’re going to need you to get suited up — I assume you want to be there for the birth.”

“Of course,” he replied, then leaned down to press a kiss against my forehead. “You’re doing great, Selena.”

I supposed I was. Or at least, it seemed all my worries about being in labor for thirty-six hours or some other ungodly span of time had been for nothing. Barely an hour had elapsed since the ambulance picked me up at the Airbnb, and already the contractions were only a few minutes apart. And yes, they hurt, worse than anything else I’d ever experienced, but knowing this was all going to be over soon made me able to hang on.

The nurses wheeled my hospital bed down the corridor to the delivery room. Calvin stayed beside me the whole way, although he had to pause before he could enter so he could put on some scrubs. Several more nurses were waiting for us, and soon enough they helped me onto the delivery table.

This was real. I was going to have a baby.

Another contraction spasmed through my body, and instinctively, I started to push. Anything to get this over with.

“Not yet, Selena,” Dr. Carlisle told me. “I need you to breathe. Can you do that for me?”

About all I could do was nod.

Not big gulps of air, though.

Rhythmic pants, just the way they’d taught Calvin and me in Lamaze class. He was there then, jeans and shirt covered up by aqua-green scrubs.

“Perfect,” he said, his voice soothing. “You’re amazing.”

“So — are — you,” I panted. It was the best thing in the world to have him with me right then. I honestly couldn’t understand how some women would scream at their husbands or significant others about getting them in this mess at such a moment, not when I knew this would have been so much more difficult if I’d been going through such an ordeal without him at my side.

He smiled.

“All right,” Dr. Carlisle said. “Time to push. Are you ready?”

Was I? The moment that baby came into the world, everything would change.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much say in the matter.

A contraction wracked my body, but I managed to nod, breathing in and out, pushing…pushing hard.

And then I was spent and had to stop so I could pull in more air.

“That was great,” Dr. Carlisle told me. “Another one, and I think we’ll be there.”

Just another push. I thought I could do that.

Calvin bent down and pressed a kiss against my forehead. “You can do this.”

Yes, I could…and I would.

A groan tore its way out of my throat as I bore down again, and this time, I could feel something give way, could feel the weight that had been pressing against my pelvis for the past six months finally ease.

And then a sharp cry filled the room.

“Wonderful,” Dr. Carlisle said as a nurse rushed over with a towel to pick up the baby and wrap the round little body securely. “Selena, Calvin…I’d like to introduce you to your new daughter.”

Happy tears trailed down my cheeks as the nurse came over with my daughter and laid her in my arms. Calvin bent down, marveling at the tiny, tiny fingers and toes, the lush fringe of black lashes that lay against her red cheeks.

“She’s perfect,” he said, and kissed me again. “Just like her mother.”

What could I do except smile?

“That is probably the prettiest baby I’ve ever seen,” Josie declared as she gazed down into the bassinet. “Just don’t tell Terry and Brett that. I love my niece and nephews, but I have to say they didn’t look this good when they came into the world.”

I allowed myself a grin. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Because the birth had been so uneventful, I was allowed to go home the next day. And while some people might have waited a while to have visitors, two days after that, I felt well enough to have my friends and family over to see baby Celeste.

Possibly I was biased, but I had to admit she was a gorgeous little thing, with those long, long lashes and thick dark hair. Her eyes looked as though they were going to stay blue, which surprised me a little. I would have thought Calvin’s genetic contribution would have made sure she was as dark-eyed as he was.

We’d just have to wait and see on that, though.

“She’s a good baby, too,” I said. “She’s only been waking me up two or three times a night, so I count that as a win.”

“Well, I hope she’s waking up Calvin, too,” Josie said, now looking a little stern.

“Obviously,” I replied. “And he’s a champ at diaper duty. But that’s probably because he’s had so much practice with his nieces and nephews.”

Josie nodded at that comment, then said, “I’m just glad your mother took Chloe in, since this all happened so last minute.”

That was for sure. I’d told my sister that I’d find her another Airbnb to stay in, but obviously, nature had intervened. But my mother stepped up and said they had plenty of room at the old Bigelow mansion, and Chloe had taken her up on the offer.

Maybe some people would have found the setup a little odd. I just looked at the arrangement as my family coming together, the way they were supposed to.

“She and my mom are coming by in a little while,” I said. “Did you want to stay and say hi?”

Josie looked regretful. “I wish I could, but I have a house showing after this. I just wanted to pop in and see the baby…and see how you were doing, of course.”

I was fine. More than fine, really, and I thought everyone could see that.

A few minutes later, Josie left, promising she would stop by again in a few days.

And then my mother and Chloe came over, ostensibly to check in to see whether I was still chugging along, but really so they could spend some time with the baby. I was a little surprised by how well my sister had adapted to being an aunt, and as for my mother, well, she was over the moon to hold her first grandchild and give me some much-needed free time for a hot bath or anything else I might need.

But as wrapped up as I was in reveling in being a new mother — and, with Calvin, experiencing every little sigh and coo and bubble like the new miracle it was — I’d managed to get the lowdown on what was happening with Max and Leslie Speros.

Apparently, once Henry talked to them separately, Leslie had broken down and confessed everything, saying she’d gone along with her husband’s wishes because they needed the money — they had two mortgages on their house and multiple maxed-out credit cards, and couldn’t see a way out of the mess they were in. Of course, she also said she had no idea that her husband planned to kill their son, only that he’d followed him to Globe to make sure he patched up his relationship with Chloe any way he possibly could so they could use her as a means of getting at my inherited fortune. The “garrote” had been a clay cutter Max had gotten from their garage, a relic of their daughter Emma’s one semester of taking pottery in high school, something he’d grabbed at the last minute after he realized that throttling his son with his bare hands probably wasn’t a very good idea.

Despite Leslie’s protestations of innocence, she’d been charged as an accessory to murder, and both of them were in jail awaiting trial. It seemed the judge didn’t trust them to honor their bail, not when they were so in debt and the Mexican border was only a hundred miles or so away.

That didn’t mean there weren’t some niggling questions that needed to be cleared up.

“I still don’t understand how Jack tracked me here to Globe, though,” Chloe told me the day after Josie’s visit. Little Celeste was sleeping in her bassinet, and my sister and I sat in the living room with the windows open, glad of another unseasonably mild day, a promise of warmer weather soon to come.

I’d been thinking about Jack’s appearance in Globe quite a bit — well, in between being obsessed with the new baby — and an idea had occurred to me. “I think it was Athene’s medallion,” I said, and Chloe’s eyes went wide. “I think Max Speros placed some kind of tracking charm on it, then put the idea in Jack’s head to give it to you. That way, he’d always know where you were.”

“That’s creepy,” she said, her tone emphatic, and I nodded.

“Extremely creepy. But it’s obvious he was a very controlling parent. Was he like that with Jack’s brother and sister?”

Chloe reached up to push a lock of dark hair back over her shoulder. “Not that I really noticed. But then, his older brother Ethan had already graduated from Stanford and had decided to stay in the Bay Area, so I didn’t see him very much. And Jack’s little sister Emma was so busy with cheerleading and all her other activities that she also wasn’t around a lot of the time.”

What would those two do now, with both their parents in jail and very likely facing substantial amounts of prison time? Maybe Ethan was old enough to manage on his own, but Emma….

I asked Chloe about that, and her expression grew sympathetic.

“Jack’s Aunt Tracy — his mom’s sister — was pretty close to the family, so I think Emma would probably go live with her.”

That was good to hear. All the same, I made a mental note to set up some kind of fund for Emma, enough to get her through college and have a decent start on life.

After all, none of this was her fault.

Chloe didn’t stay very long, as she’d only popped over during an extended lunch break. But I could see from the lightness of her step that, while she might have mourned Jack and his terrible end, she was ready to move on. As far as I was able to tell, my mother loved having her at the house, so there wasn’t any rush to find her a permanent place to live.

Eventually, though, she’d need a home of her own, and I did not doubt that Josie would help us find it when the time came.

And Calvin, although on leave from his job as chief of the San Ramon police for the next six weeks, was keeping in contact with his deputies…especially Ben Ironhorse, the one with the computer-hacking skills.

“Turns out that Max Speros was also involved with GLANG when it first started up,” Calvin told me. We sat together on the couch, a sleeping Celeste cradled in his arms. She’d just had her afternoon feeding and was now zonked out, little spit bubbles forming on her Cupid’s bow lips. “But it sounds like he had a falling out with Lucien, and that was when Athene stepped in. This would have been long before you ran afoul of Dumond.”

“How did Ben find all that out?” I asked, and Calvin only smiled.

“Trade secret.”

I stuck my tongue out at my husband and he laughed, even as he leaned over to press a kiss against my cheek — but gently, so he wouldn’t wake up our daughter.

However, that additional piece of information helped fill in more of the puzzle. Max had been playing with dark magic for a long time, which explained why he’d been able to put the tracking charm on Athene’s medallion and that awful hex on my Jeep. Exactly what had passed between father and son on that awful night we might never know — well, at least until the trial — but clearly, they’d argued, and Max had decided to rid himself of a son he now viewed as a liability.

After all, he had two other children.

Or at least, that was how I guessed his thought processes might have gone. How any parent could murder their own child, I had no idea, but as much as I hated to admit it, this wasn’t the first time that awful scenario had played out…and I knew it wouldn’t be the last.

“Love you both,” I said fiercely, and Calvin’s dark eyes met mine.

A nod, as if he understood where that comment had come from. “Love you both,” he said softly. “Now and forever.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder. Thank the Goddess for Calvin, and for all the love he’d given me over the past few years. Because of him, I knew men such as Max Speros were an aberration. There were far more good people than evil in the world…if you only knew where to look.

On Thursday, Archie finally made it over to see the new arrival. Hazel and Chuck and Victoria had already visited several times, but Archie had seemed to come up with one excuse after another for not coming out to the house.

Was he worried that seeing a real live baby in action might make him reconsider his decision to start a family with Victoria?

If that was the case, it was a little too late to have him change his mind.

When he arrived, I was in the nursery, with Celeste freshly fed and down for another nap. He paused at the doorway, a stuffed pink teddy bear in one hand and an almost sheepish expression on his face.

Well, sheepish for Archie, anyway.

“Sorry I couldn’t come sooner,” he said, his gaze not quite meeting mine. “Things have been busy at the studio with the floor refinishing and everything.”

Yes, I vaguely remembered him saying that they were going to sand everything down and put on a fresh coat of urethane, a housekeeping chore that needed to happen every year or so because of all the wear and tear the studio floors suffered during those weekly dance classes.

“It’s fine,” I assured him, and it was. While I appreciated all the visits — and all the praise for Celeste — I also thought it wasn’t a bad idea to space things out a bit. “And the teddy bear is adorable.”

I went over to him and he handed me the bear, which I set down on the easy chair in the corner. I’d need to move it before Celeste’s next feeding, but that shouldn’t be for a while.

“You look well,” Archie observed. “Thinner.”

About all I could do was chuckle. “Well, I dropped over ten pounds this week.”

True, Celeste had weighed in at seven pounds, eleven ounces, but the rest of it was my body beginning to shed some of the other weight that had come along with the pregnancy. Calvin and I had both agreed that I wouldn’t worry about trying to get back to my usual size six any time soon, and yet it seemed my metabolism had its own opinion on the matter.

Archie nodded, then went over to the bassinet so he could look down at the sleeping infant inside. “She has a lot of hair,” he observed, making the comment sound almost like a criticism.

“So do her parents,” I replied with a smile. Again, only true. Calvin’s hair was much longer than mine, but we both had thick, straight locks.

Another nod, this one almost distracted. Then Archie turned back toward me, clear blue eyes almost pleading. “Is it…is it hard?”

We’d known each other too long for me to do anything except answer truthfully. “Yes,” I said. “It’s hard. But it’s also the best thing you’ll ever do.”

A corner of his mouth quirked. “Is that more of your fortune-telling?”

“Not at all,” I replied. “It’s just knowing. And I know you and Victoria will be wonderful parents. We’ll all be here to support each other while we learn along the way.”

He watched me for a moment, still with that half-worried flicker in his eyes, and then he inclined his head just the slightest bit. “You’re a good friend, Selena.”

“So are you, Archie. The best.”

A hug so quick I almost didn’t realize it was happening until he’d already let go of me, and then he murmured, “I need to get back to the studio.”

I didn’t say anything to stop him, but only smiled.

After checking on Celeste — who showed every sign of staying asleep for at least the next hour — I wandered into my office and paused there for a moment, gaze moving over the shelves of books and Tarot cards and crystals. I hadn’t been in here very much this past week, for obvious reasons.

I’d had much more important things to occupy my time.

But then a hint of movement caught my eye, and I watched as pale mist swirled in the crystal ball on its shelf. At once, I picked it up, and carried it and its stand over to the altar.

A moment later, Grandma Ellen smiled at me from within the crystal ball.

“Congratulations,” she said.

“Thank you,” I replied. It touched me that she’d appeared like this, unbidden, rather than waiting for me to reach out to her. Before now, I’d always been the one to make contact.

“She’s a beautiful girl,” my grandmother went on. “And thank you for the name.”

Because that was my daughter’s full name — Celeste Ellen Standingbear. Calvin and I had gone back and forth on whether she should be a hyphenate, with my husband insisting that our daughter should carry both our names. Luckily, I’d managed to convince him that was an awfully big mouthful for such a little girl, and he’d relented.

But he’d been fully on board with giving her the middle name of the great-grandmother she’d never get to meet.

Well, unless Celeste ended up inheriting my psychic gifts and decided to use the crystal ball for advice from her ancestor, just as I had all these years.

“Calvin and I both wanted to honor you,” I said.

Were those tears glittering in my grandmother’s deep blue eyes, so similar to my own?

“It means more than I can say,” she replied. “And I’m so glad to see you happy here with your new family and all your friends. And now that’s what you’ll be able to truly focus on.”

Those words made me lift an eyebrow. “Are you saying I won’t have any more murders to solve?”

She didn’t answer for a moment, her gaze far away, as if fixed on something only she could see. “You’ve done the work you came here to do. Now is the time for a new stage in your life. I’m not saying you won’t have plenty of opportunities to do good in your community, only that it might take a different form from what you’ve been doing these past few years. Many blessings to you, Selena.”

The image in the crystal ball faded away then, but I had no desire to call my grandmother back. She’d reached out from the afterlife to send us all her love, and I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.

Very gently, I picked up the crystal ball and its mount, then set them back in their usual spot on the bookshelf. Quite possibly, I wouldn’t need them again…at least, not for a very long time.

But that was all right. My days would be filled with watching Celeste grow and become her own unique person, and eventually, I would go back to Once in a Blue Moon…or possibly not, depending on how things worked out. I knew the store would be just fine with Chloe at the helm, so maybe that part of my life was also over, with something new and exciting just around the corner.

I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.