Hello, my loves! Isn't this mystery getting deeper? Well, hang on to your hats because I'm back with another chapter! As always, so much love to my girls Tm12Brady, ClaymoreQueen6176, GoldenGirl1920 and wwechristina for your support! My actual "Angels" for real!
Now, let's see how Drew reacts to Cherry's explanation, and what happens when some clues start to come together! Enjoy!
Make Things Right
Riverside
Cherry sat on her couch downstairs, her elbows resting on her thighs, and she couldn't take her eyes off that jukebox. After their brief but passionate sex session, she and Drew took a shower to clean up. She couldn't stop sobbing. Her emotions were so raw from all she had witnessed from her time travel. Drew just held her close to him, their bodies wet under the shower, the place where they first made love. He dried her off, still clutching her tight to his damp, hairy chest.
He was in the kitchen fixing her favorite tea, pomegranate with honey. He looked through the opening leading into the living room, his gaze focused on her. He would never admit it in person to anyone, but the big man was terrified for his wife. She had gone through so much in her life and they had literally endured a living hell not too long before this. The assholes that had messed with them before were human, he could beat the shit out of them. He was clueless how to fight this specter, and this, combined with the dream he had before coming home, scared him beyond belief.
He came back into the living room and sat next to Cherry, handing her the tea in her favorite huge Jack Skellington mug. As she picked up the mug, Drew could see her hands tremble. As she took a sip, he sighed, "Love, I'm not gonna ask why ya didn't tell me what's going on. I get it. Yer always looking out fer me. Ya didn't want me ta miss more work. I love ya sa much fer that. But I'm yer husband and tha father of those wee ones. I need ta know when something is wrong with ya."
She sat the mug down and put her hands over her face, "I know, Drew. I honestly thought I could handle this alone." He put his arms around her shoulders and embraced her tightly, "Like ya keep telling Phoen, ya don't have ta go it alone. Our marriage is a partnership. Ya have me no matter what. Please tell me everything, Love."
She looked up from the hug and kissed him sweetly on the lips, "I know, baby. I love you." She sat back and readied herself to relive the past few nights, "I'll start at the beginning. It'll be easier to understand. Do you remember that night when I told you I was a believer in the paranormal?" He nodded slowly, "Aye. I remember thinking we have sa much more in common than I originally thought."
She looked down, "Well, there's way more to it. When I was a little girl, I figured out that I had a gift, or a curse depending on how you look at it. It started when I was playing in my backyard close to the river one day. This little girl came into my yard. She had this long white blonde hair and she was so pale. She told me her name was Mary. We played, laughed and talked about so many things. I thought I had made a new friend and playmate. I told her to come with me so I could introduce to my mom. But she shook her head and just said, 'Help me, Leslie', and she disappeared right before my eyes."
Drew raised his eyebrow and rubbed her back as she continued, "I was, of course, completely freaked out at first. Mama used to tell me how her mom was a Native American Cherokee and had a sensitivity, but I never knew what that meant. I told Krystal about what happened, and it worried her. I was more confused than anything, but then that night, Mary showed up in my bedroom as I tried to sleep. That's when I got scared by all of this."
A tear fell from her eye as she said, "She told me not to be afraid. That she only wanted help crossing over. I told her I didn't know what that meant. She asked me to follow her. I went out of my house to the backdoor. She led me into this thick wooded area past our tree line. She stopped on this spot in this slight clearing. She turned to me and said, 'Tell them where I'm at', and disappeared again, leaving me to wonder who the hell 'them' were."
She remembered, "I ran back into my house, screaming for my mom. She was so upset I had left the house at first, but when I told her what happened with Mary, she believed me. She called a friend who was a police officer the next morning. He asked me to lead him to the spot she took me to. He called it in and there were police and their K9 units all over."
She concluded, "I kept hearing bits of conversations, like 'cold case' and 'warrants' as they started digging up the spot. It didn't take long for them to find a set of small bones buried shallowly. My breath caught in my throat. The next thing I knew was Mama was making me go back into the house, but I caught site of Mary peeking out from behind a tree before I when through the door. She mouthed, 'Thank you', and disappeared. I never saw her again. They arrested this old man for the murder of Mary Childers from 1989 not long after they identified her remains through dental records."
Drew's eyes widened, "Holy shit, Love! That's incredible. I never knew." Cherry acknowledged, "There's a reason for that. It happened several times to me. The communicating with the dead thing. But for the most part, they just wanted someone to talk to, like they were lonely and sad. But that all changed when I started my relationship with…" She gulped and got a disgusted look on her face, "…Phil."
Drew stiffened up immediately hearing that vile name, "That asshole." She looked up at the ceiling, "He never believed in any of it. He told me that I was crazy and just wanting drama. He threatened me one night, 'If you don't stop this bullshit, I'll beat your ass so bad, you'll join those dead fucks!' Drew had a physical reaction to this, "That motherfucker! I should dig his sorry ass up and cut off his worthless head again!"
She sniffed and wiped away another tear, "So, for self-preservation, I trained my mind to block the spirits out from contacting me. And it worked. I didn't hear, speak to, or see another ghost for years. I didn't even get the tell-tell signs I'm near one. My scalp on the back right side starts to tingle when one is close. But I felt nothing for many years. That was until we went to Scotland."
Drew considered her and she elaborated, "I don't know what triggered its return. Being so happy with you that my mind started to relax, Scotland being so ripe with the energy, or all the stress we were under with that incident, but I started to sense things again. But I didn't see or hear anything while we were there. It wasn't until we got home and you brought in the jukebox that everything started to really ramp back up."
Drew ran his hands through his long black hair and groaned, "My stupidity put ya in danger." She shook her head and put her hand on his shoulder, "No, Drew. You didn't do this and I'm not in any danger. Not from Shelby and at no point when I went back did I feel pain or discomfort." Drew sighed, "But the stress on ya worries me, Cherry. I can't let anything happen ta ya and the babies. Tell me what happened last night."
She explained about all she witnessed, from the she tried to rouse Christine only to find Shelby sitting on their bed to coming to on the couch. She sobbed, "Drew, it was so sad! I saw the love they had for each other. It was so sweet and beautiful. He tried to protect her and shield her from that bastard, but I saw him shot get right in the head! And then that monster…he shot her in the heart, baby!" She picked up the bracelet from the table and shook it, "It ripped off her bracelet from her wrist. I couldn't see who it was, but I'm positive it was the nasty bastard husband of hers."
Drew agreed "Yeah, no one else would've had a motive ta do that. And ya got ta 1966 when ya picked it up off tha floor?" She nodded, "As I was bracing my hand on the jukebox. It's like those items combined act as a portal or something." He wondered, "But what does she need ta be set right? It should be obvious what happened."
She shrugged, "I wish I knew. She can't tell me. She told me in my dream before you woke me just now that the window to do this is closing soon. I guess it needs to happen close to the anniversary, which is this week. She also said that even with my gift, it's not strong enough to see the whole picture and that I'm surrounded by those that can help me. I wish I knew what that meant. I really need to help them, Drew. They need to be together forever. They were robbed of their life with their baby. I have to see this through. I just don't know how!"
Cherry started to cry, thinking of the pain she felt from Shelby in that moment she watched Bobby fall in death trying to protect her and their unborn child. Drew shut his eyes as he realized that he had done the same thing for her in Scotland, only he was able to succeed. He hugged her close and kissed her forehead, soothing her, "It's OK, Love. We'll figure it out. We'll help them. I just wished we knew how ta do that."
At that moment, Christine used her spare key and burst through the door with Denise, "Sis, holy hell do we have some news!" Drew and Cherry jumped up, with Denise running to hug Cherry, "Jesus Christ, Cher! Don't you ever fucking scare me like that ever again!" Cherry huffed, "Like I had any control of that. I'll know not to activate a time travel portal next time I pick up something Chris lost."
Christine got right down to business, "Cher, we went to see Sabrina McKenzie at the NMPD." Cherry asked, "Detective Jack McKenzie's wife? The forensics lead?" Christine rambled, "Yes, and oh my god! She looks just like you! It's uncanny." Denise brought things back down, "Yes, well I've known her for while from working as a PI. She did some research into the case. This is what she found. Cher, you really need to see this."
Cherry took the printout from Denise, and she studied it while Drew looked on. Cherry was confounded, "No, this isn't right. There was no murder suicide. Bobby was killed first, then Shelby. What bullshit is this?" Christine shook her head, "That was the official ruling when they closed the police had the case closed." Cherry started to pace in fury, "No! That's not what happened! I don't believe this!"
As Drew tried to calm her down, Denise received the call she had been waiting on and put it on speaker, "Sabrina, hey. You got something? Please tell me you do." Sabrina's voice was deliberate yet angry, "Oh yeah, I got something. Jack and Brodie agreed with me. From the positioning of the bodies, there's no way this was a murder suicide. Jack looked into the history of the coroner at the time, and he had a slew of corruption charges. Unfortunately, none of them stuck. He retired not long after this case after he received a huge amount of money in some settlement."
Denise looked at Cherry and said, "Or more like a payoff." Sabrina said, "That's what we think. And get this. This coroner, Hubert Bradford was very close friends with Benjamin Moore, Shelby's husband and the one who found the bodies." Cherry put her hand over her mouth and plopped down on the couch as Sabrina said, "We're talking to Chief Rick about reopening the case, but if we can't get more evidence, I don't know how much we can do."
Denise said, "Sabrina, you're amazing. Keep me in the loop and kiss Annabella for me." Christine went to Cherry as Denise hung up. She sat down next to her and put her hand on her knee, "Sis, that's not all. Sabrina also gave us the address to the old site of Scooter's. Is this what you saw when you went back to 1966?" She handed a printed crime scene photo, just a wide shot of the left wall of the bar.
Cherry gasped as she got a cold chill, "Fuck me! That's it! Drew, this is where I was at! There's the jukebox right there!" Drew took the photo as Christine continued, "We went inside the new building and…we saw this." Denise pulled up the picture of the Scooter's neon sign in the window and showed it to her. Cherry immediately began to tear up, "Oh my god! That's the light I saw. It was beaming as Bobby and Shelby…Jesus! The window looks the same as..." She looked between the two photos, "What the fuck?"
Denise said, "The owner of the building now is trying to say he had the bar razed and built Taylor's Thrift on the site, but I don't believe it after seeing these lined up." The hairs on the back of Drew's neck stood up on ends, "What did you say? What's the name of the place?" Christine said, "Taylor's Thrift. And the crabby old owner is quite a piece of work!"
Drew looked like he himself had seen a ghost, "Holy fucking shit! That's where I bought the jukebox and bracelet! What tha fuck?" As Denise and Christine looked at each other in shock, Cherry stood up and started pacing again. Only this time, a troubled Drew could tell her tell her wheels were turning. She always hummed when she had a thought that she was exploring, and she was droning loudly.
Cherry stopped pacing as she swore she saw the lights of the jukebox flicker. She turned around and repeated, "Make things right. Make thing right. Make things RIGHT! MAKE THINGS RIGHT! Oh shit! I know what she meant now! I know what we need to do!" Drew reached over and grabbed her hands, "Talk ta us, Love. What's going on in that beautiful head?"
Cherry gulped, "There's more to this than Shelby and Bobby not getting to be together in life with their baby. This is about clearing his name. He listed and painted with the brush of being a murderer. That's how we set this right. We get the official ruling changed from murder suicide to double homicide and bring the real murderer bastard to justice, if that bastard is still alive! Even if he's not, we get the evidence that clears Bobby's name. If we can do that, they get to be together for eternity and move on into the light."
Denise screwed her face and scratched her head, "Well, that sounds all well and good. But how do we do that? I could try to break into Taylor's Thrift later to see if there is any paper trail, but there's no guarantee any of that evidence is still there. The new owner could've thrown that out years ago, if it even existed to begin with. Nor would I know where to look other than the back office."
Cherry said, "It's at least a start. And Drew, I know you won't like this. But it's something that I need to do." Drew shook his head violently and cupped her cheeks, "No! I'm not letting you do this! Yer not going back there!" Christine wondered in a panic, "What? What is she trying to do? If it involved you putting your life in danger, you can just forget it, Cher!"
Cherry put her hands on top of his and kissed his lips. She put her forehead to his and eased him, "I'll be OK, baby. I went there before and I'm fine. Shelby made sure the babies and I were perfectly safe. And only my mind will be there. My body will still be here. And this time, I won't be alone." Drew seethed but relented, "I don't like this, Cherry. Not at all. But as long as ya don't go back there by yerself ever again…"
Christine looked between the two of them and conjectured, "What is going on?" Cherry looked at her and said, "You, Chris. I need your help. I now know what Shelby meant by being surrounded by those that can help. You have a sensitivity, right?" Christine nodded. Cherry faintly smiled, "My gift isn't strong enough to see everything. I need another with me to view the whole picture. Chris, I need you to come back with me to 1966 tonight."