Title: Mystery Creek
Author: DancingStar
Rating: 12
Pairing: Connor/ Lindsay
Summaries: Mary doesn´t know if a dog and a strange woman, appearing on a country road, are real...
Notes: I have nothing to say this time. Who would have ever thought?
Mystery Creek
Lindsay was lying in her bed and listened to the sounds of the evening. On her chest was her four-weeks-old daughter and she heard her gentle regular breath. Leah slept and gave her mother the time to think a little.
It was two weeks ago, when Claire had disappeared without trace after she had lost her own baby. It all happened so quickly: Suddenly, Peter came, which was excited and thrilled by the thought of being father. When he had learned, however, his baby was dead, he felt as if he were in a terrible nightmare. Sure, it wasn´t easy for him to know his baby could not live, but at least he had not left without saying where he was. Lindsay had no idea where Claire was and how she was. At worst...
The door opened and Connor came in. He greeted her with a quiet "Hi" because he didn´t want to wake the baby and kissed her gently.
"Hi," she replied just as softly and smiled. Connor knew immediately about what she had thought. Of course he was also worried about Peter and Claire, but he had to think about his wife. He felt it depressed her. Since two weeks she heard nothing from Claire, she was almost sick about it. She couldn´t sleep since days. There was no night in which she wasn´t lying in bed restlessly. Connor then crawled to her under the blanket and threw his arms around her so she stopped to move and she remained mostly all night lying in his arms. Connor tried everything so she felt a bit better, he helped her wherever he could but he couldn´t do it forever. Last night, he set light to Leah's cherry pit pillow because he didn´t know that the pillow must be taken out of the stuffed animal first and then put it in the microwave. So the cherry pit pillow landed with a soft toy in the microwave and there it had caught fire. When Lindsay saw it, she had been crying. The toy was a gift from Julianne and it upset her very much it was broken now. Connor apologized to her and held her comfortingly in his arms until she had calmed down. But sometimes she looked so sad without reason, that he wondered if she was still happy with him at all. At first he had tried to blame it on the hormones and he feared she might have a serious depression, but there were no signs. Finally Lindsay loved her baby.
"Should I take Leah to bed?", he asked and she nodded. He took the baby on his arm and walked out. Lindsay heard when he said in the hallway to his daughter: "Your Daddy wants to be alone with your Mommy again." She smiled and noted that she missed his nearness. In the last two weeks she neglected him so much and she knew the thing between Claire and Peter wasn´t her business, but they were her friends. Since, she hadn´t received one single sign of life by Claire...
Connor came in again and lay down in his bed. Worried, he looked at her. "I know you're worried about Claire," he began and next moment she threw her arms around him.
"Don´t talk about it," she said. Her head rested on his chest and she could hear his heart beating. "Connor, I'm sorry I've neglected you in the last days..."
"What nonsense! You didn´t neglect me. I…", he noticed she was already asleep, so he put his arms around her. Connor didn´t feel neglected at all. She still was a great, lovable woman and a fabulous mother. He was more worried about her. If Claire wouldn´t call soon, he did not know what he should do to calm Lindsay.
In this position, she stayed all night and next morning Connor realized satisfied she had not wake him because she hadn´t tossed and turned in bed. This was the first relaxed night Lindsay spent in the past two weeks...
The next morning, Lindsay took care of Christina. Together they played with Christina´s dolls and Connor watched how his daughter threw her arms around her Mommy´s neck and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Lindsay laughed and a grin flashed on Connor's face. She was a wonderful mother and he wished he could do something so she felt better. A few days ago she had asked him if it was probably her fault, that Claire had lost the baby. She said she shouldn´t have told Claire how wonderful it would be to have an own child and it was the greatest joy on earth for her, because obviously it was not the same for Claire. She also had the opinion it was wrong to suggest, Claire should spend the night here and Connor hugged his wife, horrified and told her she should not even think about it. He realized he had to distract her somehow.
"Dad, can you take me to Erin?", Mary asked loudly and came down the stairs with a bag. Erin was Mary's new friend from school. She lived on one of the surrounding farms and Erin was a very talented show jumper.
"It's Sunday," her dad declared and put down his coffee cup, "Why do you want to visit Erin today? You see her in school."
"Yes, but we need to work on our school project: The history of the city." The thought shook Mary. There was no worse for a special project than the local history. Mystery was a small, less interesting place at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, about an hour away from Denver. Mary hoped she and Erin would find a fascinating subject, which was about the City of Mystery.
"Fine, I'll take you to Erin," Connor gave in, emptied the coffee cup and said goodbye to his wife with a kiss.
Outside, Mary and her dad got into the BMW and set off. "How's Mom?", Mary asked suddenly, when her dad drove the car down the road. Even Mary had noticed her Mom was not feeling well lately. And she knew it had to do with Claire. "I hope your mother feels a little better soon," Connor admitted. After a curve two cars blocked the street and Connor stopped his vehicle. He got out.
"Hey Connor," said one of the men standing near the cars. The man was Hugh Carmichael, he lived on the adjoining farm and his cattle were grazing in summer on the north pasture of the Doyle family. "There has been an accident," Hugh told, "Probably one of them was a little too fast." Hugh was a rescuer at the accident scene.
"That's the second accident in this curve this week."
"The red car," Hugh turned half around, "...Is not from here. The driver overestimated his own driving skills."
While Connor and Hugh talked, Mary remained sitting in the car and when she once looked in the mirror, she saw a woman in soaking wet clothes standing on the street. Her dark hair hung in her face, her skin was pale and Mary could only partially see her face. The sight of the woman scarred her and when Mary turned away from the mirror, let the window down and stuck her head out of the car, the woman was gone. She got out and went to the place where the woman was standing.
"Mary", Connor was on the way to his car and noticed she left it, "Mary! We have to go back. We have to make a detour!"
"But the route to Mystery Creek Bridge takes half an hour!"
"If you wait until the road is fit for traffic it may take hours!"
"Okay!" Mary was almost on the way to the car when she heard a noise. She stopped and saw a dog sitting by the roadside. She hadn´t noticed the dog before. With prying eyes, he looked at her. "Dad, here's a dog...", Mary cried, briefly to looking at him. When she wanted to take a look at the dog, he was gone.
"Perhaps it´s McCarthy's dog...", said her dad.
Mary thought it was very strange. The woman and the dog had disappeared without a trace. Mary let out a disappointed breath and got back into her dad´s BMW. Her dad drove her to Erin, they took a detour on the Mystery Creek Bridge.
In the previous night it had snowed for 20 cm, again, and Mary was convinced the school bus had trouble on the streets today, so she listened to her radio in the morning.
"The following schools are closed today because of snow," said the host on the radio, "West Jefferson Middle School in Aspen Park, Bear Creek High School, Bailey Elementary School, Bailey Middle School, Buffalo Creek Elementary School, Chatfield Senior High School, Colorado Springs College, Foxton Primary School, JK Mullen High School, Mystery Elementary School, Mystery High School... "
When Mary heard the name of her school on the radio she jumped up, turned off the radio and went out. Outside the barn she saddled her horse and led it to the snow-covered meadow, next to the garden. Mary climbed in the saddle.
About five minutes later, Connor reached the barn and found his mother´s favorite, sandy- colored horse was missing. The saddle and the bridle were missing, too.
"Where's Nancy?", asked Connor and his second, pied horse nodded. From the corner of his eye he saw, that Mary and the horse were already out in the paddock. "Mary," he cried and came closer, "you don´t have to be in school?"
"They are saying on radio school has closed today," she cried when she let her horse trot. Connor decided to believe her. After all, there was no reason why he should not do that.
Mary said goodbye to her dad. She snaffled Nancy along the pasture´s fence. When the main road was in sight, she discovered an old man in a green coat and with a cane.
"Hey, Mr. McCarthy," Mary cried when she saw him passing by the fence.
"Good morning, Mary," replied the man. Mr. McCarthy was the only man on an abandoned farm in the neighborhood. As far as Mary knew one of his children should inherit the farm, but because they weren´t in the mood for agriculture, all animals were sold. This fast selling contributed to have a second horse in their stable: After Mary had learned how to ride and in the afternoon she was always on the road with her new best friend, Connor desperately needed another horse. Finally, there were enough places on the mountain, which could only be reached on horseback. And so he bought Big Red, a Colorado Ranger Horse. Big Red was the ugliest horse, which Mary had ever seen: He was huge and the front half of his body was dark brown, while the rear half (with the exception of his legs) was white and covered with black spots.
Mary let her horse trot and when she reached the fence, her sandy-colored mare stopped. "Mr. McCarthy, my dad wishes to inform you your dog run away again."
"I have no dog," said Mr. McCarthy and went on very slowly, "The dog is probably owned by another neighbor."
Mary didn´t believe this. She knew the dogs of the neighbors, but perhaps a neighbor had bought a new dog or it was a stray dog that hung around in the area...
"See you soon, Mr. McCarthy," called Mary and turned her horse in the opposite direction. Mr. McCarthy said he had no dog. But she had no idea where the dog came from.
"Mary," called a voice and she turned her mare around. She saw her best friend Erin coming up the street on her horse. Erin waved and her horse nickered.
First, the two rode up to the mountain where also a lake was. "The History of Mystery is boring," said Erin. They talked about their school project and although they had spent yesterday with research, they had no exciting topic. Marys last paper work in history was more exciting: It was about the strange laws of the United States and how they came about: In Colorado, the state in which they lived, it was illegal to drive a black car on Sunday. In Tennessee, it was illegal to shoot whales form a moving automobile (Tennessee was not even next to the ocean). In Las Vegas wasn´t allowed to sell dentures and in Kentucky it was illegal for pigeons to fly over the city of Bellevue.
"We should stay at home at project day," suggested Mary, laughing. They reached the lake and as they rode along the shore, Mary saw a little brown fur ball sitting under a tree. "There he is again. It´s the dog I saw at the accident location", she sat up in the saddle.
"Maybe he's been following us," Erin speculated, "Maybe it is a wolf which suffers on rabies."
"I never saw this kind of wolf," said Mary again. She turned around briefly and when she looked again at the tree under which the dog had been sitting, he was gone. Mary decided to ignore this incident. Perhaps it wasn´t any dog which was sitting under the tree, but a hare. She didn´t know.
When it was late morning, they rode back home. At this time, Connor had just returned with Big Red from the west pasture, where one part of the fence was broken.
"Hi, Mr. Doyle!", Erin said when she dismounted from her horse, "Can my horse join Big Red and Nancy in the barn?"
"Of course," said Connor, Erin thanked him and then they took care of their horses. When the horses were fed, they wanted to go into the house and Mary noticed a caravan near the house. The caravan had probably been white a very long time ago, now it was covered with splashes of brown mud and the car looked as if it would fall apart at any moment.
"Whose caravan is this?", Mary asked, turning briefly to her dad, who brought Big Red in his stable.
"Peter."
"Who is that?", asked Erin.
"This is my uncle."
"You said your dad would have only one brother and your Mom and your adoptive mother would have no siblings." Erin knew her friend Mary was adopted.
"Well, he's a very good friend of my parents. Actually, he is like an uncle to me."
"Wow. And I always thought my family would be crazy."
"Let´s go in," suggested Mary and pushed her friend to the house.
Of course they were happy Peter had arrived, but they had no idea what this old caravan meant. Connor said the caravan was not worth a penny and he wondered why it ever had a license. Peter thought the trailer was the sale of the Century. He told them he had bought the vehicle one week ago, took a holiday and wanted to drive through the country to think about lots of things. His first road led him back to Colorado. "I'm sorry I ran away so quickly after this disaster," apologized Peter.
"It´s ok," Lindsay told him during dinner. They all sat at the dinner table and talked.
"Yes, but... My goodness, we have ruined Christina's first birthday." Peter was disappointed. He had bought a great gift for his goddaughter.
"Should we celebrate her birthday again?" , asked Lindsay and in her mind she saw herself baking a second birthday cake. After this disaster, Lindsay tried everything to give pleasure to Christina´s first birthday. They celebrated without Peter and Claire, but with the rest of the family.
"I know it´s a pretty inappropriate question, but do you know, where Claire is?"
"No, unfortunately I don´t know. I try to reach her permanently, but she doesn´t answer her cell phone."
Lindsay also looked very disappointed. "How long do you want to stay, Peter?", asked Connor, Peter shrugged his shoulders and said he had all the times and he could stay as long as he wanted. He probably would have to stay a while, because outside it was snowing again that you could not even recognize your own hand. "Erin, do you want to stay with us today?", asked Lindsay and Erin nodded gratefully.
"Okay, I'll tell your dad," Lindsay picked up the phone and spoke to Erin's dad. Then Mary and Erin went upstairs in Mary's room.
"I think your Mom is really nice," said Erin. Erin's mother had left the family seven years ago, because she never felt comfortable at the countryside. As far as Mary knew, Erin's mother was a singer and she left one day to run away without a word. Erin didn´t even know where her mother was, she never got a sign of live from her. One morning, she and her dad woke up and Erin's Mom was gone with all belongings.
"Do you think we should search for the dog?", Erin asked suddenly.
"No," said Mary, "I don´t steal me away at night. I have learned." Mary told her the story, as Lewis had disappeared one night and the next morning he was lying dead on the doorstep. Then she went to Mystery Mountain alone in the night, where she had an alien encounter. As it turned out later, it was only a shot for a movie. Mary told her friend that Dan Aykroyd had personally apologized to them because of Lewis.
Suddenly the light was off and Mary's digital alarm clock was also broken.
"Power failure", commented Erin.
An hour later, Connor took care of Christina. They sat together in the armchair in Christina's room and he read a story for his daughter by candlelight, when she threw her arms sleepy around his neck. Connor found the book some time ago in the attic and it was the story about a princess who fell in the hundred-year sleep.
"Mommy," Christina said suddenly, pointing to the drawing in the old book. He wanted to tell his daughter the princess in the book was not her Mommy, but on looking closely, he realized she was right. He was excited to see prince charming!
"Daddy," Christina pointed again to a drawing, this time it looked quite similar to her father. It was almost scary and Connor wondered how this old book had actually come to the attic and why the characters in the story looked like him and Lindsay.
"...The prince and princess lived happily ever after," Connor finished the story a little earlier. Christina, who was already asleep, would not mind if he ended the story at the point where Sleeping Beauty had pricked on a spindle. He put Christina to bed, covered her with a blanket and left the room with the book and the candle in his hand. In the hallway he looked at the pictures. It was almost as if he was looking at a drawing of himself and his wife. And suddenly he had an idea. He would ask Mary tomorrow if she had an idea where the book came from, but now he had to talk to Lindsay. He hastily went downstairs and saw her sitting on the couch. She read a book by candlelight, too. Because of the snowstorm which raged outside, there was a power breakdown. They had been without electricity since one hour and a neighbor had already been here and informed the electricity would be available tomorrow morning. Even Peter in his trailer was sitting in the dark.
"Hey Honey," Connor sat down beside her and threw his arms around her, his chin rested on her shoulder and he read with a few lines of the novel. "What are you reading?" ,he asked. It seemed to be a pretty tragic novel. As if they hadn´t experienced enough tragedies in recent weeks!
"It is a very passionate story with a very tragic ending," said Lindsay.
"We need to talk. It is quite important..."
"You have something up your sleeve," she smiled and put the book away at last, "I knew immediately."
"What, if you could spend one night in a department store and you can buy whatever you want?"
Puzzled, she looked at him. "Seriously?", she asked and heard him laugh.
"No. But what if we take the money, what we´ve recieved from my parents and book some holidays?"
"Connor," she sounded shocked, "Your parents gave us the money so we can get married in church." He also seemed to forget she had given birth to a baby four weeks ago. This still meant a lot of stress...
"We still can... First, we should do something good for us. Sometimes I don´t recognize you anymore and I really wonder if you're still happy with me", he admitted and she looked surprised and scared at the same time.
"Honey, I love you so much!", she told him, "You're everything I wish for... and I´ve already told you I cannot imagine a life without you." Her eyes were filled with tears and Connor didn´t want that she was crying again. Of course he knew all that.
"I don´t want you to think I would be unhappy with you... Because that's not true... I am very happy with you."
"Then let me help you," worried he grabbed her hands.
Finally, she smiled: "You're right. A little vacation can´t harm us."
"All right," Connor rummaged for a list, "Where do you want go?"
Lindsay knew the famous list. She remembered well the night when she had found the list in Connors wallet and what was written on it was so obvious. Actually, the list cheered her up. It contained all of her favorite places. After Connor's parents had told them they wanted, the two would officially get married again in church, they had thought about where this could be. Connor and Lindsay got married on a cruise ship and they never had problems with that. But his parents were very religious after all...
She couldn´t believe he still had the list:
Perfect places for ( a wedding) relaxing:
Hawaii
An old castle in Scotland
Greece
Barbados
Paris
The words "a wedding" he had written in brackets behind "relaxing".
"Where do you want to go?", he repeated and she looked at the list. She thought for a while. "Hawaii. It´s very nice and our first child is born there... How did you get that idea?"
"Through an old fairy tale book for children. In the book were drawings and the princess looked like you."
"Fine," she smiled, "Can´t hardly wait to enjoy lying on the Hawaiian beach in my new Victoria's Secret Bikini... Does this mean we are celebrating your birthday in Hawaii?"
"That would be a great idea," Connor admitted, "I've never celebrated my birthday like this... But because of the snow storm we can only leave in four weeks after Christmas", adding he didn´t mind, they decided to go to sleep. On the way to the stairs she heard a whimper. "Connor, you hear that?", asked Lindsay and remained in the dark hallway. Again she heard a whimper and Connor heard it, too, this time. He noted it came from the front door and he opened the door. There was a small dog with brown fur. Probably he was sitting there for a long time, he was already covered with snow.
Connor didn´t hesitated a moment: He grabbed the little dog and took him on his arm. Then he closed the door behind him. "He would have frozen to death, if we hadn´t heard him," he said. They examined the dog and as it turned out, it had to be a very young animal. The dog wore a collar, but without dog tag.
Tomorrow they would see the vet, perhaps the animal was chipped. Now Connor took him into the kitchen, gave him water, food and laid him into Lewis´ old dog basket.
When Mary and Erin woke up the next morning, it had snowed even more but at least now everything was quiet and Erin could ride home. They came into the kitchen for breakfast and first they saw a small brown dog in Lewis old dog basket. "This is the dog which has been at the accident location," Mary recognized him immediately, "And yesterday he was also at the lake."
"The dog looks very small," noted Erin.
"We´ll take him to the vet," said Connor, they ate breakfast and then Erin said goodbye. Connor and Mary took the dog to the vet.
They were now the first patients and so they hadn´t to wait until the door to the treatment room opened and the doctor smiled at them. He was surprised, because he hadn´t seen the Doyle family for a long time. "Mr. Doyle, come in," said the vet and Connor, Mary and the little dog entered the treatment room. The vet seemed to be surprised by the visit. "I didn´t know you´re having a new dog," he said, and knelt in front of the brown dog.
"He ran to us," Mary told, "He was sitting on our doorstep, yesterday."
Connor said they were here for a check and maybe the dog was also chipped. "You found a very pretty dog," the vet said, "This is a pure-bred Welsh Terrier. They cost a lot of money."
"Can you tell us how old he is?"
The doctor took a probing look into the mouth of the animal.
"He´s one year old," said the vet then he took his equipment and held it next to the dog's shoulder. "He has a chip," he said, "According to his Chip his name is McBeth and his owner is a certain Hillary Atkins, who lives in New York City. I thought immediately he is not from here. I don´ t know anyone in this area who breeds this race."
"Dad, may we can find out her phone number and call her!", Mary suggested and Connor agreed it was a very good idea.
"I've already tried five times to reach McBeth´s owner", said Mary in the evening after she had tried all day to call the small dog´s owner. At least she knew now how to call the dog. But that didn´t comfort Mary. Maybe his owner wanted the dog back. In New York it was now 10 p.m. and she actually thought his owner would be at home at this daytime.
Mary took the phone with her into her room. "Who are you calling?", asked Connor, when he noticed it.
"Not anybody. I left our phone number on the answering machine and hope she calls back." That was true but Mary decided to try reaching Miss Atkins.
Last night it had snowed again, the garden was full of it and the streets were impassable. So Mary hoped she wouldn´t have to go to school today. When Mary got up and came into the kitchen, McBeth was already outside to do his morning business. Lindsay and Christina, who was sitting on her mother´s arm, watched how McBeth dug through the snow and lifted in front of each tree in the garden of one of his hind legs.
"Good morning, Mom," Mary sat down at the table and poured herself some milk, "I'm really tired."
"I would be tired, too, if I would try to call people from the bathroom."
"Mom, I'm trying to reach McBeth`s owner. She doesn´t answer the phone."
"Maybe she´s out of town," suggested her Mom when she sat on her chair and began to feed Christina.
"Out of town?", Mary was a bit confused. On the other hand, it made sense: How else should McBeth come into this snowy area?
"Mom, Erin comes over later. OK?"
"Yes, that's okay," Lindsay said and let McBeth in, who was already waiting outside the door and had shaken the snow from his curly brown fur. "Hey McBeth, you want a sausage?", said Lindsay while the dog was standing next to her and looked up to the fridge, begging.
"He's cute," Mary noticed, "Maybe we should keep him."
McBeth was the sweetest dog they ever had, but unfortunately he wasn´t their dog. He was only thier guest until his owner picked him up. "Unfortunately this is not possible," said Lindsay to her, while Mary ate her cereal. Then she got dressed, helped her dad with the horses and of course she also talked to him about McBeth. She explained that she wanted a dog for Christmas and a dog would also be useful for the family. Connor listened to her, sometimes he said "Oh" in some kind of agreement and took note of her preaching. Finally he said: "As soon as McBeth is back with his owner, we drive to the animal shelter and get a new dog."
"Really? Thanks, Dad", she hugged him briefly, then Mary took her horse out of the stable to saddle it. Then she took McBeth from the house and together they waited for Erin.
"Oh God, it's still snowing," in the afternoon Mary and Erin were sitting in the living room and watched as it continued snowing outside. They drank hot chocolate, sat on the couch and McBeth had settled between them. "He's a very nice dog," said Erin and stroked McBeth´s head. Mary had already noticed McBeth was apparently very happy here.
"Shall we try again to reach his owner?", asked Mary.
"No," replied Erin, "Actually not. But we have to."
Mary reached for the phone, dialed the number again and they heard the announcement on the answering machine. "Mary," Erin said, suddenly terrified, "That was my Mom´s voice." She hadn´t seen her for a long time, but she never forgot her voice.
"But you and your dad´s name is Green!"
"Atkins was my mother´s maiden name. She is probably here." Suddenly, Erin was very excited. She decided she had to go outside to pick up her horse and then ride home.
Lindsay noticed a little worried, when Erin past her. "What's the matter with her?", Lindsay asked, confused. She held Leah in her arms and wanted to change her baby´s diapers in the bathroom.
"We have found McBeth´s owner," said Mary and her Mom seemed to wait for a further statement, "It is her mother and she is here..."
Meanwhile Peter wanted to show Connor the inner life of his caravan. Connor coughed when Peter opened the door to his caravan. Peter knew Connors Opinion: This trailer was not worth money and had when he been in his situation, he would have returned the caravan immediately.
"I know it smells very bad in here…," Peter began. One more reason, why Connor couldn´t understand why Peter didn´t want to sleep on the couch.
"...But I think if I clean up from inside and outside, it will look much better. Unfortunately I had no chance until now..."
They now watched, how Mary's friend ran out of the house, entered the stable and shortly thereafter she came out with her own horse.
"On occasion, you need to repair the heater in here", suggested Connor. In the trailer it was freezing cold. On the way to the house Connor got the mail from the mailbox, but ignored the content. Inside the house, Mary told her Mom that Erin's Mom left many years ago. When Connor asked what they were talking about Mary reported McBeth 'owner was Erin's Mom. "I guess Erin's Mom would like to have her dog back again."
Mary looked at McBeth sadly. The little dog was standing in the door all the time and looked at her in enthusiasm when she spoke.
In the evening, Mary's mood was at rock bottom. She liked McBeth very much and hated the thought of having to say goodbye to him, even now. She sat sadly on the couch when her parents sat down next to her.
"You´re sad because we have found McBeth`s owner, right?", asked her dad and Mary nodded. Since she knew who was McBeth's owner and that she was probably in the area, Mary had called all motels, she could find in the phone book and had asked about Hillary Atkins, but no one knew her.
Connor didn´t understand why Mary was sad. Finally, he had promised they would get a new dog from an animal shelter. He realized, Mary wanted to keep McBeth. He was admittedly a very friendly, loyal dog. He seemed to love children: After lunch they where outside with the kids, McBeth never left Christina´s side. He even growled at Peter, when he wanted to take Christina on his arm.
"McBeth isn´t our dog, unfortunately", Lindsay said gently, "but you were also sad when one of our horses would run away and another family wants to keep it then."
"Yes," murmured Mary.
"I know you like McBeth very much", began her Dad, "When we return from Hawaii, we visit the animal shelter and there you can choose a dog."
"Why do we go to Hawaii?", asked Mary and her parents explained they wanted to go on holiday. Wouldn´t it be enough if they had driven to the four- hours- away ski resort in Aspen? What about Nancy and Big Red?
"Don´t worry. Peter looks after the horses, while we are in Hawaii. It is hopefully not too much, if he feeds them twice a day and brings them to their pasture", said Connor. Mary was surprised Peter wanted to stay here.
"Try to be thrilled a little bit for Hawaii," suggested her dad, "We will miss McBeth, too. But we can´t keep him."
In the night Lindsay heard how one of her children cried and before she could get up, Connor gave her a kiss on her cheek and told his wife to stay in bed. He would take care of it. So he went to Leah's room, took her out of her bed and together they went downstairs into the kitchen. When they were in the kitchen, his little daughter had already calmed down a bit but she was hungry, she could not stop sobbing. Leah was an incredibly sweet little girl and he could not stop looking at her. Although Leah was already his and Lindsay's second baby, he sometimes couldn´t believe they both were able to accomplish such a pretty child. "Do you like mint tea?", Connor wanted to know from Leah and she sobbed a bit louder, "Well, I don´t like it, too."
He was looking for a milk bottle in the fridge, warmed it in the microwave and during feeding his daughter, he petted carefully through her dark silky hair. When Leah had emptied the bottle, he placed it in the sink.
Now Leah had to burp, before they could go back to sleep. With the baby on his arm Connor walked through the living room. He gently patted her back and heard Leah breathe. When he then turned around once and wanted to go to the door with the baby he saw a woman with long dark hair standing in the garden. He could see her face, but her clothes were wet and at first his heart stopped a beat, because he hadn´t expected that a stranger was watching him. He put Leah into the cradle, which was in his living room because he didn´t want to take the baby outside.
When Connor reached the door to the garden, however, the strange woman was gone. He recalled her clothing was wet, but on the terrace there was not a water spot. There were no footprints.
"It was scary," Connor said next morning after breakfast to his wife. He didn´t talked to Mary about what had happened yesterday.
While Connor reported about the mysterious scene that had happened the previous night, Lindsay prepared a bottle of milk for Leah.
"You don´t believe me, I'm right?", he asked and she hugged him.
"Of course I believe you," she said, looking at him.
"What's wrong with you?", he asked, "You are now so affectionate."
"Nothing's wrong, what should be?", she smiled at him sweetly, "What do you think, if we take a walk after lunch, just you and me?"
He liked the idea, but because they had now two horses, he suggested they could ride up to the mountain.
Lindsay decided to clean up a bit and then they wanted to start their little trip. Because Mary was working on her school project, she wouldn´t need her horse and she also had time to take care of her sisters.
First, she cleaned up some letters, which still lay on the kitchen table. She wondered about the postcard that came from Cape Cod. Lindsay had to look almost twice when she read the sender. Why did she discover the postcard from Claire just today?
Claire wrote she was fine. She visited some friends who lived in Massachusetts. She also needed some time to think about several things, she was sorry she had run away without saying a word, she was planning to come back to Colorado and that was... Today!
"Honey, I go out and get the horses ready for us," Connor said to her and before she could tell him that Claire would return today, he had closed the door behind him. She thought feverishly, how to get Peter as fast as possible out of the house. So she gave Mary notice that she and Connor took a ride on their horses. Into the kitchen she reached for a piece of paper hanging on the fridge and knocked on the door of the caravan. Lindsay had to wait. Then she knocked again until finally the door to the caravan opened.
"Can you buy some Items for me?", she asked, handing him a note. She didn´t even let him answer. While she went to the barn, she called him a "See you". Obviously in time: When Peter was for five minutes on the road, a car reached the house and Claire got out.
"Did you know she returns today?", asked Connor, holding Big Red's reins. Lindsay nodded and told him she knew it through a postcard which had been found today.
Lindsay hugged Claire very relieved. "How are the children?", asked Claire and Lindsay was very surprised by this question. "They´re fine," said Lindsay.
"Do you want to take a ride?" Claire noticed that one of the horses pawed impatiently with his hoof.
"That's okay!" Claire smiled, "I'll just go inside and look after the children. Have fun!" Claire turned around and discovered an old trailer in front of the house. She asked whose trailer was this and Lindsay decided it was better to tell her the truth: "This is Peter's caravan. He's here."
Claire seemed think a while what to do. Finally she said: "Don´t worry. I can handle it."
Mary was surprised a little bit when Claire walked into her room with Leah and Christina. Mary was working on her school project, but it didn´t bother her. She was happy to see Claire again and asked her how she was. "You are hiding from Peter. Am I right?", asked Mary and Claire tried not to nod.
"Do you mind if we stay here for a while?", asked Claire. A little later with Leah on her arm she watched, like Christina was sitting on Mary's bed and played with her dolls. McBeth was also here.
Then the front door opened. "I'm back," she heard Peter calling, "Mary, you're in your room?"
"Yes, I´m doing homework! Put the Items on the kitchen table."
"What should I do with the frozen vegetables?"
"Wait, I'm coming down!", While Mary went downstairs, Claire entered with Leah Mary's bathroom. She sat on the closed toilet lid and waited. But waiting for what? She hoped Peter wouldn´t find her here and that Lindsay and Connor would come back soon.
"Can you imagine: Me as a dentist?", asked Connor, while he and Lindsay were riding their horses side by side along a forest trail.
"No," she replied briefly and smiled at him, "If you would you have taken your father's dental practice, we never met."
Connor didn´t know why he had asked her if she could imagine him as a dentist. But it was very nice they could talk with each other in a relaxed environment.
"Let´s ride along the river," suggested Lindsay and led her horse along the shore of Mystery Creek. She kept an eye on the gravel and discovered a cell phone lying on the ground. The phone was scratched and looked very battered. "There is a phone," she noted, stopped the horse, dismounted and picked up the phone. "Don´t let the horse drink water," Connor said to her, "Otherwise she´ll get some colic."
Lindsay grabbed her horses´ reins. She could not determine who owned the phone, so she put it in her pocket. At that moment Connors phone rang and he answered. It was Mary who called him and it sounded, as if it was an emergency. She said she didn´t know how long Claire was able to hide from Peter. "We should ride back," he suggested to his wife, "It sounds as if they had a big problem at home."
When Connor and Lindsay arrived at home, they heard the loud fight already at the stables. They freed the horses from their saddles and bridles then they released them into the stable. Together they went back into the house and because Leah was crying upstairs in her crib and Mary wasn´t able to calm her, Lindsay went immediately to her daughter. Meanwhile, Claire and Peter were fighting more loudly in the kitchen. "Why haven´t you called?" grumbled Peter.
"Why should I call?" Claire shouted back, "That chances nothing!"
"It was about MY child!", Peter sounded very angry, "MY child is dead! Have you ever asked only ONE TIME, how I´M handling this whole thing!"
"You never took care of the baby!"
"Because you just told me about it when it was already dead!" Peter angrily swept a Christmas decoration from the kitchen table and Connor heard Christina crying louder. He had had enough, walked between the two and announced it was enough now.
"Get out!", now Connor was louder, "No matter what you want to discuss, do it outside and don´t dare to come back until you haven´t talked with each other!" With these words, he pushed them out and closed the door angrily. He took a deep breath, calmed down and went up the stairs. Mary had now closed the door to her room and he still heard Christina and Leah crying. Connor went to the end of the hallway, there was the master bedroom. He saw that Christina was sitting beside the bed, on her cheeks were still tears. "Mommy," she said, pointing to her mother. The feet of his wife stuck out of the closet. As he noted, she shut herself away in here. Connor came one step closer. With Leah in her arms Lindsay was sitting on the floor of the closet and held the sobbing baby in her arms. Lindsay looked up at him while he sat down beside her. He put an arm protectively around her shoulders and she leaned against him. Lindsay also had been crying.
"You throw them out?", she wanted to know and he nodded, "Good job." She couldn´t wait until they left for Hawaii. Then they were far away from all the hassle. "Honey, why can´t we fly right now to Hawaii?"
He knew she would prefer to pack her bags immediately. His wife calmed down and snuggled into his arms. "Why they have to fight so terribly?", she asked. It was a shame that Claire was still allergic to Peter. He had really tried to talk to her.
"I told them they shouldn´t join us until they talked seriously to each other."
"I hope they understand the broad hint...", she murmured.
"Who knows," Connor said, smiling at her, "Maybe it´s not enough to give them a broat hint. Maybe I need to punch them."
She smiled when she heard that and it was a pleasant feeling to see her smile. "Come here," Lindsay muttered and gave Connor a kiss, "I love you."
It felt good to kiss her. It was even better to hear that she loved him. And it was meant very honestly.
Connor made her Hawaiian Toast for lunch on this afternoon and her mood improved. He tried to cheer her up and this was so sweet.
It was a beautiful day: After lunch, they spent their time together and took McBeth for a walk. When the children had gone to bed, Connor took Lindsay's hand and left the house with her. They noted in Peter's caravan the light was on. But they didn´t took care: They also had no idea if Claire was back in her motel. After all, they wanted to ignore Peter and Claire as long as they haven´t talked about their baby. Claire should know that Peter had been looking forward to the baby and Peter should know how bad it was for Claire.
The stars twinkled in the sky, while Connor opened the gate to the barn and went inside. They went up the narrow stairs to the loft and sat together in front of the window. From here they had a perfect view to the sky.
Lindsay put her hands into the pockets of their thick coat and in that moment, she reached for the phone which she had found in the woods. She got it from her pocket and looked at it. "Who owns it?", asked Connor.
"I don´t know. I found it next to Mystery Creek today." She started the phone and searched the phone book. She didn´t find any known name. And the numbers had a New York area code. Lindsay reminded of what Mary had told her: Erin's Mom was apparently in the area, but she could not find her anywhere. No one had heard about her. But how should the cell phone come into the Mystery Creek? Lindsay was hoping it wasn´t the phone from Erin's Mom. She decided to call the phone company tomorrow. Perhaps they could tell her, who was the owner of the phone. But this evening, she wanted to spend with Connor...
Unfortunately, next day they learned the phone belonged to Hillary Atkins and this troubled Lindsay and Mary: First there was McBeth, he was clearly Hillary's dog. Then she found her phone in a river. They told Connor about their suspicion maybe something had happened to McBeth´s owner and using the pretext Peter had bought the wrong diapers for Leah yesterday, they would drive to the police. Moreover, they also had to buy Christmas presents.
They didn´t tell Peter and Claire about driving to town. So they drove to Mystery in the afternoon. First, they bought new diapers for Leah then Connor parked the car opposite the small police station in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. McBeth hopped happily out of the van´s trunk and waved excitedly with his tail. Immediately, he explored the area and Mary called him, so she could take him on a leash. She got up and looked at the other side of the street. In front of the police station a woman was standing with soaking wet clothes. Her dark hair covered her face.
"Do you have the phone with you?", Mary heard her father asking in the background. Lindsay nodded.
Then her father came to her and asked why she stared at the other side of the street. He also looked to the police station. There she was: the woman who had recently observed him in the living room at night.
"There she is again," murmured Mary.
"Who's there?", asked Lindsay. With Leah in her arms she came to them. She also looked to the parking lot, but she saw no one. "So I cannot see anyone... Come on, Christina. Give me your hand", she stretched out her hand to her daughter and together they crossed the street.
They were lucky they didn´t need wait long at the operations center: An officer had time for them. He listened to Lindsay, who told him she had found the phone yesterday at Mystery Creek: "The phone company says the phone is owned by a woman named Hillary Atkins."
"Hillary Atkins?" First, he had not taken Lindsay's story seriously. He thought she wanted to bring this phone because she had found it. But when he heard the name of the owner, he knew the matter was serious. The officer swallowed: "Her car was saved a few days ago from Mystery Creek. On the road to Mystery Mountain she lost control about her car."
Connor recalled that Hugh Carmichael had told him about an accident.
"Is she in the hospital? Do you know in which motel she lives?", asked Mary. She could not wait to tell Erin she had might found her mother.
"No, I'm sorry. She hadn´t survived the accident... You know her?"
"I know her daughter, Erin. She´s my best friend." Mary sounded very concerned. Then she had to tell Erin´s address to the police. The officer also asked her to tell Erin and her Dad nothing about the accident and after the Doyle family had filled out some forms they were sent home.
Claire was very surprised why Connor's car wasn´t here. Lindsay would have told her, if they had traveled to town. Claire would be able to meet Lindsay and talk with her in a quiet environment. She needed someone with whom she could talk about her grief and she had the impression Lindsay would understand it very well. She was a mother of three children...
Claire parked her car in front of the Doyle family´s house when Peter came out of his trailer. "They are not at home. They left a little over an hour. I don´t know where they are", he told her.
"I´ve already noticed," she sounded at once very angry and Peter immediately knew why. Why she said this to him? He could not help that the baby was dead!
"Damn! I'm so tired of you going out of my way! You know, it's my baby, too, which died. But what would you do if it was still alive? Have you already chosen a name?"
He had touched her sore spot. Peter should not even dare to think that...!
"I also wonder how it would be. In some months we could have had a sweet daughter or a son."
When he said this, Claire began to cry. Peter came to her and hugged her. "You have no idea how terrible it is for me," she sobbed and returned the embrace, "I would certainly be a terrible mother. It was my fault that the baby died..."
"No, that's not true. It's not your fault." He held her for a long in his arms and for the first time they talked about what was on their minds.
Mary now felt even worse when she came home and wondered how Erin felt. She wanted to call her and talk to her but the officer told her he would do that. Mary waited all afternoon for a call from her best friend. Finally, there was a knock at the door. With Leah in her arm Lindsay opened the door.
"Mary, Erin is here!" Lindsay called for her daughter and followed by McBeth Mary came down the stairs. Erin looked terribly sad. They sat together on the couch and while Lindsay gave them something to drink, Erin told that she and her dad were called after lunch to the local police station. A very friendly officer told her, her mother had a serious accident a few days ago on the road to Mystery Mountain. The car went off the road, crashed through the railing and plunged into the icy Mystery Creek. There, her mother drowned. Apparently she had tried to escape from the car because the police told them the windows were lowered on both sides.
Mary suspected that McBeth had escaped like this.
Then Erin told, her father had to identify her mother on photos. She had not seen the photos, but her father told her everything exactly when she asked how her mother looked like, finally she hadn´t seen her for a long time.
Erin took a photo out of her pocket and showed it to Mary. "That's your Mom?" asked Mary. The person on the photo looked like the woman who had appeared on the street and suddenly disappeared. Only the person at the photo looked a little better.
"Mom looked like this eight years ago... The police officer said they found crack in her blood. She must have been addicted to drugs."
"You know what she was doing here?" Mary suggested Hillary Atkins wanted to see her daughter. Why else would she come to Mystery?
Erin, however, shook her head sadly at the question. Unfortunately, she didn´t know.
Lindsay listened to the conversation of the girls. After they had reported to the police that Miss Atkins´ dog was with them, the officer had to call the woman´s boyfriend. And they received a call on the same day he would pick up the dog in two days.
Two days later there was a knock at the door. Mary was doing homework in her room, McBeth was lying on the bed and slept. Connor answered the door and a man greeted him.
"Mike Taylor, Hi. I'm here to pick up the dog", Mary heard his voice clearly. She hated that she had to give up McBeth now. She took the dog on his collar and went with him to the door. "Here he is," she handed the leash to the man, "What will happen to him?"
"I don´t know yet," Mr. Taylor had no plans to keep the dog. Finally he had enough to do. He probably took him to some animal shelter or euthanized him. He didn´t want to keep the dog. Mr. Taylor hadn´t even thanked them for caring for the dog. Finally it was Hillary's dog and he always hated him.
Mary watched how Mr. Taylor put the dog roughly on the passenger side and then just drove off in his Porsche.
While he drove, he lit a hand-rolled joint of cocaine and for a moment he thought back to how Hillary and he had smoked this stuff sometimes for nights. Sometimes there were days when Hillary would have done everything, so he gave her the good stuff...
Fortunately, he was alone on the street and was free to focus on his joint, he thought to himself. Suddenly the dog barked. The black Porsche came to skid on the wet street and Mr. Taylor slowed down before a curve.
"Shut up McBeth!", Mark pushed McBeth roughly against the passenger door and he yelped. Then Mike looked back on the road and right before his car was a woman who looked like his girlfriend Hillary. Her clothes were wet and her hair hung in strands in her face. Panic, he jerked the cars steering wheel and raced through the wooden railing which separated the road from the free-fall into the deep.
An hour later it was dinnertime and when the entire family had gathered at the table (Lindsay and Connor were pleased to note Claire and Peter had ended their dispute and were talking to each other again), there was a knock at the door. Connor decided to answer the door.
Mary hoped it was Mr. Taylor, who had changed his mind and brought McBeth back. She missed the little dog now. Her Dad had shown her a newspaper article: in the animal shelter three greyhound puppies where waiting for a new home. Judy, Jodi and June. But she wanted no new dog.
Instead of Mr. Taylor their visit was Hugh Carmichael. "On the road to the mountain there was an accident," he said, "And I came because your dog is involved." In the recent days he had seen Mary several times with a little, brown dog.
Connor didn´t notice Mary had got up from the table and came to the door. She heard what Hugh said. "What about McBeth?," Mary asked in panic.
"I'm sorry," Hugh looked at Mary apologetically, "He was sitting unsecured on the passenger seat and broke his neck. He is dead."
Tears welled up in Mary's eyes. Suddenly she realized she would never see McBeth again. Weeping, she ran into her room and Hugh asked Connor, if he wanted to bury McBeth here. The truth was at that moment he didn´t know what to say. He thanked Hugh for the information and then sat back on the table. Lindsay, who fed Christina, noticed first his strange face. "What happened?", she asked, "Where's Mary?"
They all liked the little dog very much and Connor didn´t know how to tell them the bad news. "There was a serious accident on the road to the mountain," he told them, "It was Mr. Taylor from New York. McBeth didn´t make it."
Fin?