Just Intuition (4 page)

Allie stumbled from the trees fifteen minutes later, T-shirt torn and arms bloody. The recently applied Band-Aid had vanished from her eyebrow and a new trickle of blood wound its way along her cheekbone. She pushed past Erin and groped for the truck
's door handle. Fiona whimpered and circled her legs.

Erin grappled with the remote key.
Too late. She bolted like a cornered rabbit around the truck. Finally she stopped, bent and vomited onto the road.

"I
'm so sorry!"

"Stay away!" Allie panted. She clung tight to the truck
's bumper, thighs trembling beneath her.

Erin looked into her girlfriend
's stricken face. There was only one option now. She had to tell her.

* * *

"Church Lady. Burning in hell. Are you on crack?" Allie sprang from the kitchen chair. She had washed up and changed her clothes but angry red scratches marked both arms. A fresh Band-Aid covered her eyebrow and she had applied more makeup to cover scraped skin. "This whole story is preposterous!" Arms crossed over her chest, she glared at Erin.

"I
'm not saying you're some kind of witch or anything." Erin hesitated. "But you react to things before they even happen, you dream about things you can't possibly know, and you freaked out—"

"You watch too much reality TV. This is not rational."

Erin took a deep breath and began again. "I just mean that it's interesting when you move things right before I drop something on the exact spot. You brake before the car in front of you swerves into your lane. You open the door for the dog two seconds before she gets there. You know what's happening before it does. You do it all the time."

"I
'm a good guesser," Allie scoffed. "Everyone does that."

"Well, actually everyone doesn
't. That's why people break stuff and there are car accidents. Other people don't know what's coming."

"So let me get this straight. You dragged me down a back road donkey trail through a stinking swamp swarming with mosquitoes." Allie angrily gathered her wallet, phone and keys. Snatching up her laptop case, she faced Erin. "And you pretended to be my tour guide, all to make sure your cop buddies didn
't see you sneak me to a house where a poor old lady died in a fire!"

Erin swore there were sparks in the air. She nodded contritely.

"Because you think I can magically solve your murder case with my nonexistent superpowers. You are the only one who thinks it's murder, because you say all the other cops think it's an accident!" Allie's angry voice raised in pitch. Fiona circled her and she reached out to reassure the dog.

"It wasn
't an accident." Erin clenched her jaw tight. "I looked at the scene this morning before I came home and I've known Dolores since I was a kid. She was extremely meticulous." Allie raised an amused eyebrow.

"More than me," Erin conceded. "My point is that she would never have left all four gas burners on. She wasn
't some forgetful old lady. She had specific routines and just because she was in her seventies does not mean she wasn't still sharp as a tack. You can ask her Bridge partners, or any of the ladies she served with in the Lutheran Women's League. She was clear headed and precise. This just does not fly. I know this was arson. Someone murdered Dolores Johnson."

"People make mistakes."

"That's only one piece of the puzzle. Someone had been breaking into her home when she went out. She filed three police complaints in the last month."

"That changes things." Allie adjusted the strap on her shoulder. "What was stolen?"

"Umm, nothing was actually stolen but Dolores was certain someone had been in her house." Erin bit her lip and waited for the inevitable.

Allie sighed. "Reinforcement for the scatterbrained-old-lady theory at the office?"

"If you were as detail oriented as Dolores, trust me, you'd know when someone messed with your stuff."

"Well, that
's solid evidence." The sarcastic tone unnerved Erin. A few months into this relationship and everything they had built together crumbled before her eyes.

"But there
's your nightmare—"

"Everyone has nightmares," Allie retorted. "I need to go. I can
't lose my new job." She wrenched the door closed behind her and left Erin standing alone.

"Not like you," Erin whispered to the empty hallway. She crumpled to the floor and wrapped her arms around the dog
's neck. Fiona leaned up against her, nuzzled her cheek and gave her ear a lick. Burying her face in the soft fur, they sat together by the door.

CHAPTER THREE

Minnesota
's vibrant wildflowers splashed color on the shoulders of the road in hurried summer bloom. Today Allie drove her car, Erin occasionally interrupting the silence with brief directions.

"Turn right after the third red mailbox."

The black Mini Cooper bumped over potholes that Allie made no attempt to avoid. Erin grunted when the tires shuddered through a particularly large one but Fiona stood her ground on the back seat. The dog dangled her tongue out the open window, grinning enthusiastically. Allie ignored Erin, and the car's chattering suspension.

Was this payback? She would not be so impressed when she dealt with car repairs later. Ah well, she never kept a car longer than three years and could always trade it in.

Allie had met Erin's parents but Erin knew she was anxious about meeting the rest of the Ericsson clan. Although nervous, it was time. At the very least, it had to be better than sitting home for another night of avoiding each other. The future had seemed so beautiful when they first moved in together. Maybe they could fix things.

"Did you remember to bring dessert?" Erin asked. "I
'm sorry I got tied up at work, and I didn't give you much notice—"

"Don
't worry."

"My family is pretty big on dessert."

"I took care of it." Allie's tone was final.

Erin snuck a peek at her girlfriend and felt a familiar leap in her chest. This was the woman she had fallen for six months ago in
Toronto. They'd met at a party and she had made an ass of herself flirting with the beautiful brunette, thanks to the ubiquitous Jell-O shots she'd too eagerly consumed. Allie didn't have to say a word. She had simply arched one exquisite eyebrow, and the look shook Erin to her very foundation. Really? it said.

She still remembered those exotic brown eyes, flecked with gold and green, locked steady on her own. They looked right into her and she felt naked. Her bravado evaporated in embarrassment when it dawned on her that she
'd had too much to drink. Of course, Allie was too grounded to be fooled by inane lines. Too discerning to fall for the clumsy flirtations of an arrogant stranger. In that moment, Erin knew Allie disdained the superficial, the immature, and she was ashamed.

She withdrew and spent the remainder of the night drinking coffee, trying not to look like a stalker. She just could not take her eyes off that woman. It was more than a physical attraction. Sure, she was awed by Allie
's athletic beauty, but there was something more. As the evening progressed, she found it harder to resist the overpowering desire to release the hair tie from that tidy ponytail. She longed to set those brunette tresses free, to kiss the curve at the corner of her mouth where it curled into a mischievous grin. She wanted to get close enough to breathe her in. She couldn't really describe what compelled her, an internal vibrancy. Fierce strength and solid confidence swirled around her and Erin was captivated. Hopelessly enraptured.

Over the next months, they
'd formed a long distance friendship and Erin was ecstatic when it blossomed into love. She made up for her crass first impression, ten times over, Allie later laughed. Allie was the one who'd made the life changing decision to move all the way from Toronto to rural Minnesota to be with her. Only weeks ago, they moved into their forty-seven-year-old fixer-upper with big plans to renovate it together. That's when the nightmares had started.

When they reached the red mailboxes, Allie jerked the wheel to enter a hidden driveway, at first glance no more than a break in the bush. Wider than it looked, the opening led to a manicured lawn ringed by meticulously tended flowerbeds. A tidy white bungalow and large garage nestled under mature trees. Fifty years of footprints had worn a
well beaten path to the river where a red motorboat lay moored to the dock.

A huge trampoline graced the lawn, beside an equally large satellite dish. Two young girls shrieked excitedly, their shoes discarded and dresses twisted by their leaps into the air. Allie parked at the end of the drive and tilted her seat forward to let the dog out. Tail wagging in circles, she bee-lined for the sound of children.

"So glad you made it." The screen door banged shut behind a middle aged woman to whom Erin bore a striking resemblance. Her blonde hair had paled but she had the same compact build, piercing blue eyes and fair complexion. A small boy followed her. He stood on tip toes to peep through the window of Allie's car.

"Did you bring your kitty?" He pulled himself up with the door handle and pressed his forehead to the glass. "I never saw a kitty with only three legs."

"No, Jimmy, but we brought Fuzzy Fiona." Erin messed up her four year old nephew's hair. She had almost forgotten that the cat was missing a leg. It didn't slow her down, but possibly contributed to her evil personality streak. She could jump, crawl and sneak into the most unusual places and scare Erin half to death in the process. It had taken some getting used to when Allie moved in with not one but two house pets.

"Fiona is over there." Allie pointed to the lawn where the dog lay flat on her back, accepting belly rubs from the girls who had abandoned their trampoline. "Go ahead. She loves everyone.
"

Jimmy peeked once more into the back and whispered. "That
's a pie in a box!" He climbed off the side of the car and scurried off toward the other kids.

"It is nice to see you again, Mrs. Ericsson." Allie
's face flushed slightly when she retrieved her dessert offering from the floor behind the seat. The brightly colored cardboard box promised Delicious Blueberry Pie. Homemade taste. She handed it to Erin's mom who held the box by the edges.

"Auntie Erin
's new friend brought a store-boughten pie!" Jimmy called out, running across the lawn. The girls turned to gape at Allie.

"Well, thank you Allie.
" Erin's mom politely ignored the kids' chatter. "I'm Ellen. Please don't be so formal. This is not Buckingham Palace. Come in. Come in."

Allie followed Erin and her mother up the steps to the freshly painted porch. A spray of small blue flowers in a pink vase sat on a table just outside the door and a half dozen pairs of assorted
footwear jumbled together beside it. She added her stained leather shoes to the pile.

* * *

Inside, it was surprisingly bright and Allie raised her eyebrows at a row of floor to ceiling windows looking out to the river. Fiona ran by outside, tail windmilling behind her, pursued by the two exuberant girls. Jimmy followed on their heels, a stick in his outstretched hand. All three kids were blond haired, fair skinned and pink cheeked.

Erin
's mom urged Allie to take over her seat at the table and introduced her to Erin's brother Thomas, and sister Liz. Ellen then made a point of busying herself in the kitchen. Thomas was fair haired like the children but Liz was the only one in the clan with light brown hair. Both regarded Allie with familiar clear blue eyes, the Ericsson family trademark.

Allie noted the playing cards splayed on the table, a game of Cribbage already in progress. Erin shrugged apologetically and headed back to the door where her father, Tom Sr., stood in his navy blue coveralls. He held grease stained hands up like a surgeon and avoided touching anything. She joined him on the porch and the two of them assumed the same casual posture while they examined a mechanical part.

"I think it's a problem with this little jigger here," he told her.

"The impeller looks worn. Did you check the oil seal?" Erin pointed at something and he squinted at it, furrowing his eyebrows. They spoke for a moment, alternately inspecting the part and then walked off toward the garage.

"The boat motor is kaput," Thomas explained to Allie when they'd gone. "Dad and I tried to fix it earlier but Erin's always been better at engines. I'm a computer guy. We don't like to get our hands dirty."

"You
'll have to take over for me." Erin's mom pointed to the cards on the table. She turned to the open oven and poked at a large turkey partially covered with shiny foil.

"I
'm afraid I've intruded," Allie said. "I don't know how to play Cribbage." Thomas and Liz exchanged a veiled look.

"Don
't worry, we'll teach you," Liz said. She shot another of those indecipherable looks at her brother. "Mom!" she called over the whirring of the stove hood fan. "Where's the blueberry wine you made last fall?"

"Erin says you
're an IT Tech?" Thomas chose three glasses and poured the wine his mom had produced. "Is that how you are allowed to work in the States so soon after moving here?"

"Something like that," Allie said. "My work permit was expedited when my company offered me the position. They had no local applicants with the requisite skills and I had to give them a copy of my diploma, of course."

"I do graphic design so all that techie stuff is alien-speak to me. I just make the front end pretty."

Allie noticed that he had poured her an extra generous amount. She took a cautious sip. It tasted delicious. She took another. "We are installing a new EVPL for the Health Region to integrate into the existing network and take advantage of an upcoming fiberoptic opportunity." Allie stopped when she was met with blank looks from both Thomas and Liz.

"EVPL: Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service," she explained.

"Graphics and pretty picture guy here." Thomas laid a manicured hand on his Hugo Boss clad chest. "Liz
's boy Jimmy is only four years old and I swear he knows more about computer programming than I do."

"And I
'm a mom who works part-time at the window factory, has three little brats and a husband on perpetual night shift." Liz raised her hand like a kid in school. "No computer techie speakie understood here." She laughed, a spontaneously melodic sound.

Allie grinned back. Like their parents, both siblings exuded warmth and were immediately likable. She sat forward and took another sip of blueberry wine. She had never been much of a drinker but this was quite good. With brief instruction, Cribbage proved to be fairly straightforward. It was all about fifteens and thirty-ones, and not getting stuck behind the dreaded Skunk Line.

"Fifteen-two, fifteen-four." Liz counted while she laid down her cards.

They neared the end of their game and dinner was nearly ready but there was still no sign of Erin or her dad. The kids marched through their second excursion of the kitchen, dog in tow, looking for pre-dinner snacks. Fiona
's nose twitched as she air scented. A tiny hand snatched a piece of cheese from a tray and it soon disappeared into the dog's waiting mouth. Fiona had her ways. With her soft brown eyes, she often took advantage of children and little old ladies. As a result, the wily canine had devoured the lion's share of pilfered treats. Allie grinned. She had lost count of how many times Thomas had refilled her glass and the room seemed much warmer than when she had first sat down.

The girls stopped their sneaky kitchen foraging long enough to circle the table and examine their mother
's cards. Allie could see them counting on their fingers. Liz introduced them as Sophie and Victoria.

"Mama named me after Auntie Vicky because she saved her from a grizzly bear when she was a baby." Victoria stretched her hands over her head like bear claws and assumed a dramatic tone. "All Auntie Vicky had was a butter knife and her big brave voice and she fought the bear all by herself!"

"And I'm named after a Swedish princess!" Sophie said. "She was the most beautiful in all the land and I look exactly like her!"

Liz laughed and shooed the kids away from the table with a wave of her arm. Thomas smirked and palmed the
girls candies from his pocket when they ran past.

Jimmy stood on his toes and peeked at the box on the kitchen counter with Allie
's pie. He clucked his tongue like a serious old wife. "Is that store-boughten pie made out of cardboard like mama says?"

Liz shushed him too late and she avoided Allie
's eyes, concentrating on her cards.

"I know where you can pick blueberries to make a real pie for next time," he whispered earnestly, patting Allie
's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll show you."

"I
'm not much of a baker," she whispered back with a forgiving wink to Liz, "but maybe we can pick blueberries some time."

Jimmy leaned on Allie
's arm and examined the cards in her hand. "Are you gonna get skunked?"

"I don
't really care," she confessed. "It's a good game anyway." Thomas surreptitiously poured more blueberry wine into her glass and she playfully frowned at him.

Jimmy pointed to the Seven of Hearts, the Five of Clubs and the Three of Spades in Allie
's hand. "That should help." He nodded approvingly when she used the cards to make a couple of points and then draped himself across her lap.

"You sure must fish a lot." Jimmy inquisitively touched the skin on her arm.