Chapter 36

Once back in Virginia, Mac paid a visit to Mrs. Iola Manors. She wanted to tell her all that she had found out about her husband.

Mrs. Manors was so very grateful and happy to finally know what had kept her beloved Kelly from returning to her. "When it first happened, my father would always wonder out loud if he had found some other woman and ran off with her."

"That's awful!" Mac exclaimed.

"I know, I was hurting so badly, and to have my own father speculating about things like that! We didn't speak for years after that!" Iola told Mac.

"I don't blame you," Mac assured her. "What got you talking again?"

"My mother called when he had a heart attack and told me how much he wanted to see me. I went to the hospital and he told me that he regretted what he had said all those years ago. We talked for several hours, catching up on all that we had missed. Then I went home for the night and he had a second fatal heart attack in the middle of the night. At least we had a chance to make things right before he was gone."

Mac expressed her agreement, and told Iola how she hadn't had that chance with her own father. The two of them sat there for a while in silence, contemplating the workings of the world before Mac told her she had to go.

Things went along just fine for the next two weeks until on the Friday before Jordan's due date. She once again got the feeling that she was being watched. That eerie tingling feeling crawling down the back of her neck had returned. This time she refused to search franticly for the source. If it was Clark Palmer and he was watching her, she didn't want to give him that satisfaction. So instead she kept her head down and walked from her car into work just like any other day.

When she got into the building she wondered if she should tell the security guard who looked up at her and smiled when she came in. But Jordan thought better of it knowing it wouldn't do any good anyway. She rode up in the elevator and remembered her promise to Woody. But again, what could he do? Palmer was way too tricky and clever to get caught just watching her.

If he had some nefarious plan cooked up she was sure it was more than just to give her the heebie jeebies. Good Lord! Her thoughts were beginning to sound like they were coming from Woody's mouth! This was what happened when you lived with someone! Pretty soon she would begin to spout Woody-isms!

What she needed was to spend an evening in her father's bar. Even if he wouldn't even let her have a beer these days at least she would be around people with good solid Boston accents and speech patterns! By the time all that had run through her mind she was in the break room pouring a cup of coffee and listening to Lily's unending chatter about the coming baby. She let herself forget about the parking lot and about calling Woody to tell him about it.

The morgue was closed on the fourth, even though Garret had spent most of the day before complaining about all the work there was to do and how taking a day off would put them even more behind. The staff pointed out that they were already working on a Saturday so that wouldn't happen, but Garret ignored them.

They had all given Jordan a lot of hassle about taking the week before she was due off of work as part of her maternity leave, but Jordan told them she wanted to work up until the last minute so she could have as much time after the baby arrived as possible. So her leave wasn't scheduled to start until Monday the twelfth. Her due date was the Friday before.

Woody had planned a very Wisconsin holiday for them even though he had lived in Boston for four years now. A picnic in the park in the afternoon then a long walk if Jordan was up to it so close to her due date. Then they would have a late dinner out and go to watch the fireworks. It would be a very pleasant and relaxing day for the two of them.

That wasn't how it turned out however.

The creepy watched feeling she'd gotten before was back again, but this time it occurred before she even got out of bed! This led her to wonder if she had just been having some kind of weird hormonal happenstance the times it had happened before.

To be continued…