Chapter 4

T he animals were more than happy to head down to Nan’s but, even more so, to play in the river, to go for a walk, and just to be outside. It had started out as such a lovely day but had dimmed somewhat after talking to Nan initially this morning. Still, Doreen was feeling pretty darn fine on the inside. When she got to Nan’s, her grandmother sat on the patio, waiting, completely composed, as if she’d never even made that first phone call today.

Nan looked up at Doreen, smiled, and noted, “Don’t you look lovely, dear.”

Chuckling, Doreen smirked. “I’m pretty sure I look the same as I always do.”

“And that is just lovely,” Nan repeated.

Doreen smiled at her. “Back to the cheering squad again?” she teased.

“Not back to , my dear,” she corrected, with a smile. “I never left.”

“Oh, that’s true enough.” Doreen sat down in the patio chair across from her grandmother and asked, “Are you happy now? You’re doing okay?”

“Yes, of course,” she replied, with the brightest smile. “I was really just tired this morning, child.”

“I’m sorry you had a bad night.”

“Me too. I kept worrying about you,” she pointed out in that scolding tone Doreen heard only rarely.

“Ouch. You do know I’ll be fine, right?”

Nan stared at her. “I do know that, and I would never want to insult you by making you feel that you couldn’t do it on your own. It’s just… It’s hard when you’re my age, and you want to tell everybody exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, knowing they would all be so much better off if only they would listen.” She gave her granddaughter a big smirk. “But I also know that you have to learn to do things in your own way and in your own time as well.”

Doreen stared at her, not sure where all this was coming from. “Have I messed things up that much?” Doreen asked in astonishment.

“No, not at all,” Nan stated. “It’s just that sometimes I feel my age, and I can sense the time coming when I won’t be here. So honestly it would make me feel a lot better to know that you and Mack had your relationship somewhat together at least.”

“We do have it together, Nan.” When her grandmother eyed her suspiciously, Doreen had to grin. “We do,” she stated, with a bright smile. “Now that Mathew is gone to whichever place he’s gone to,” she said, with an eye roll, “I’m sure things will move along a little bit faster.”

Nan perked up immediately. “Really?” She was almost ecstatic.

Doreen nodded. “Really.”

An odd look came over Nan’s face. She quickly jotted down something on the small pad of paper before her. Then she nodded and stood. “Let me go grab some snacks for breakfast.” She briskly took off for her kitchen.

Doreen wasn’t really sure what that was all about and really was not bothered enough to question her grandmother on it. So she waited until Nan returned, a little basket of treats dangling on her arm. “Wow,” Doreen muttered. “The center must wonder where everything disappears to.”

“Nope, they know exactly where it is. Since Richie fessed up about what he was doing, lots of the other inmates, oops ,” she said, with a chuckle, “ residents ,… a lot of the other residents also admitted to taking treats back to their rooms to save for later.”

“Oh, I guess that’s probably okay then,” Doreen noted, “as long as they’re not wasting the food.”

“I don’t think anybody’s wasting anything, and, yes, we get lots to eat here.”

Doreen nodded, but it had always been a worrisome side effect of being around her grandmother, wanting to ensure that Rosemoor was looking after Nan as they should. “You know I’ll just worry too,” Doreen admitted, with a shrug.

“As I worry about you,” Nan agreed, with a nod. The two grinned at each other. “So, what makes you say that you and Mack are okay now?”

“A large part of the problem was me and Mathew,” she stated with finality. “Our divorce had been pending this whole time, bringing all the other nonsense along with it. Now Mathew is gone.”

“Good riddance,” Nan declared. When Doreen glared at her, Nan glared right back. “You can’t expect me to even pretend to be upset that he’s gone. That man mistreated you and made your life miserable.”

“He did, and—if he hadn’t made my life miserable and hadn’t been the person he was and hadn’t had that affair with Robin and hadn’t kicked me out of the house—I wouldn’t be where I am right now,” Doreen pointed out. “And, Nan, where I am right now is somewhere I really want to be, and I never want to go back to being that person I was before.”

Nan sat back and beamed at her. “Oh my, I do like the sound of that.”

Doreen nodded and took a peek at the basket of treats and smiled. “I don’t know how you always manage it, but these look lovely.”

Nan just shrugged. They sat down and enjoyed their brunch, and nothing seemed to dim Nan’s bright mood. Finally, unable to stand it any longer, Nan pinned down Doreen with a very direct gaze. “You do seem to be in an awfully good mood.”

Doreen smiled and nodded.

“Any chance that you and Mack, like,… you know?” And Nan waggled her eyebrows.

Doreen flushed bright red, then shook her head. “Nan! Not that it’s any of your business but, no, not yet. However, we did get a little closer in terms of where we’re going.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Nan said, with relief. “It’s taken you a long time.”

“It’s taken however long it’s taken because I wanted to get someplace safe, with my own judgment intact,” she explained. “I didn’t want to feel pushed or prodded or forced to go in this direction. I care a lot about Mack, and I certainly don’t want to lose him. I’m also very appreciative of the fact that he gave me time.”

“He did give you time,” Nan noted.

“He understands me, so Mack is a really good guy.”

“In which case, you should be grabbing him up and locking him down tight.”

“Grabbing him up is one thing,” Doreen pointed out, “but locking him down tight won’t help.”

“Why not?” Nan asked.

“Because trying to tightly lock down someone doesn’t work, and, more to the point, you should release them to do whatever they need to do. If they still come back to you, then that is real.”

Nan stared at her, as she chewed away. “That’s all fine and dandy, but you could also lose him doing that.”

“But then he wasn’t mine to begin with,” she murmured.

Nan sighed. “Fine, do it your way, but don’t lose him.”

She chuckled. “Not planning on it.”

“So what are you doing to stop going stir-crazy, now that you don’t have a case?” When Doreen didn’t say anything, Nan’s eyes widened, as she brightened up. “Do we have a case?”

As the pronoun changed from you to we , Doreen smiled. “No, we don’t have a case. I don’t have a case either, but Mack does.”

“Of course Mack has a case. He always does.” The excitement in Nan’s tone was too much.

“It is the job he does, after all,” Doreen murmured.

“How will you deal with that when you’re in a relationship with him?” Nan asked.

“I already am in a relationship with him,” Doreen stated in a wry tone. “Regardless of what everybody else thinks, we’re obviously in a relationship, and I deal with his job just fine.”

“Mack couldn’t have picked a better person because you do understand the nature of his work,” Nan noted thoughtfully. “And you’re always there for him because, if nothing else, you want information on the cases.”

Doreen frowned at her. “That’s true, but my curiosity is never over and above making sure he’s okay.”

“He can take care of himself,” Nan stated. “And I’m so glad that he is watching over you too.”

“Yes, that’s how it started out,” Doreen explained. “Mack was just there. He’s the one who got me through those first stages of trying to be independent, when I was failing so badly.”

“Oh, my dear, you never failed at anything,” Nan cried out softly. “You may have taken a couple tries to figure something out, but you didn’t fail, and don’t you ever think you did.”

Nan was always such a cheerleader, but it seemed as if she meant that last comment for real. “I appreciate that vote of confidence,” Doreen said, looking at the sun, “because too many times I felt as if I was failing miserably.”

“You didn’t fail yourself, and you certainly didn’t fail this community. You’ve been there to help out time and time again,” Nan reminded Doreen. “And I’m really glad that some people have taken the opportunity to show you that they care.”

“Building my deck is certainly one of them,” she murmured.

“I’m really happy I gave you that house.” Nan smiled broadly. “You’ve done far more with it than I could ever have imagined.”

At that, Doreen stared at her in shock. “You’ve done so much for me already, and I don’t know that I’ve done much with the house except clean it out.”

Nan burst out laughing. “Cleaning it out is good—great really. I filled it, and you had to clean it, and that seemed to be a fair deal to me.”

At that, Doreen burst into laughter. “It absolutely was, particularly since I got the benefit of all your hard work.”

“If you don’t get the benefit, who else should?” Nan asked, with a smile. “Besides, it’s good for people to learn to give a little.”

“Oh, I hear you there.”

“Have you been down to check on Mr. Woo?”

“No, I figured he probably needed more time to heal,” she shared.

Nan studied her and nodded. “You’re still struggling a bit yourself, aren’t you?”

“Not so much struggling, but it was an odd case. And, with Mathew gone now, everything feels different.”

“Don’t make it too different,” Nan warned. “Think of his passing as just another case, then move on with your life, as you are meant to.”

“Working on it,” Doreen replied, giving her grandmother a wry smile. “Not to worry. I’m not planning on ditching Mack in the meantime.”

“Thank heavens for that,” Nan muttered. “I was pretty sure I hadn’t seen that level of stupidity in you.”

At that, Doreen gasped in astonishment.

Nan gave her an impudent grin. “Hey, I’m allowed to say things like that. I’m far too old for beating around the bush.”

“I don’t know about old ,” Doreen clarified, with a smile at her grandmother. “Yet you’re definitely too cagey to want to be bothered.”

“Now that is very true,” Nan agreed, with a nod. “Life’s too short. I keep telling you that.”

“I’m working on it,” Doreen shared, “and, with these cold cases, I’m certainly finding out how cruel the world can be and how quickly life can change.”

“In a heartbeat,” Nan agreed gently, “an absolute heartbeat.”

Once again, Doreen looked over at her grandmother, her heart clenching with pain at the thought of losing her.

Nan patted her hand gently and stated, “Don’t you worry. I’m not going anywhere for a while.”

“I hope not,” she replied. “That would be devastating.”

“Tell me the details about this case. I don’t care whose case it is,” she added, with a wave of her hand.

“I don’t know much,” Doreen began. “Something about a body found in a flower garden.”

Nan perked up. “A flower garden? Now that case should be one of yours.”

“I know, right?” Doreen chuckled, then told her about naming it.

“Oh, I do like that,” she murmured, “and you do give as good as you get, when it comes to Mack.”

“It’s part and parcel of our relationship,” Doreen declared, with a smile. When she noticed Nan staring off in the distance, Doreen asked, “What’s the matter, Nan?”

“I thought I heard something about that body being found. One of the delivery guys today mentioned it.”

“You can hear the delivery guys from your patio?” Doreen pointed to the parking lot behind her.

“I’m right here in the mornings, and shipments are always coming and going. So they talk among themselves, calling out between their trucks. It’s not as if they can even see me over here. Sometimes, when the air is clear and everything else is quiet, I can hear them quite clearly.”

“What did you hear?”

“Something about it being a sad day, as some poor guy was dead, and these drivers seemed to think he was a local.”

“Oh, then it might have been him, but I don’t know that it was,” Doreen noted. “Mack hasn’t even told me the name of the dead man.”

“The delivery guys never mentioned a name either, but one did mention something about murder.”

“And that didn’t get you to stand up and to start peppering them with questions?” she joked.

Nan grinned at her. “No, I was waiting for my teakettle, so I wasn’t really registering what they said.”

“Do you know which driver it was?”

“Doesn’t matter who it was, does it? Just because someone was murdered doesn’t mean these guys did it.”

“No, of course not,” Doreen agreed, as she thought about it. “And no matter who was murdered, they would surely have had family somewhere.”

“We can only hope so,” Nan replied. On that note she added, “I didn’t see the delivery guys, and they are not always the same ones who come here.” Nan sighed. “I should have asked them right then, but I missed my chance.” She frowned at Doreen. “Next time I hear something juicy, I’ll immediately ask questions and let you know.”

“Good enough.” With that, Doreen rose, gave her grandmother a gentle hug and a kiss, and said, “If I don’t see you later this afternoon for tea, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Then she gathered up the animals and headed home.