Her grandmother looked at her in horror.
Doreen shrugged. “It’s something to keep in mind. I know that, if I keep interfering, Mack’s right when he says I need to be aware that sometimes my assistance isn’t as much assistance as I thought.”
Nan chuckled. “I do like to hear that. You have all that passion and yet a hint of common sense”—she smiled—“which makes for a great combination.”
She laughed at her grandmother. “I don’t know about that, and I’m not sure Mack would agree with you.”
Nan waved a hand dismissively at that comment. “What are you doing for his birthday?”
Doreen groaned. “I don’t know, probably have him over for dinner.”
“Will you cook?”
“I guess I can’t really ask him to come over and cook his own birthday meal, can I?” she grumbled.
Nan chuckled. “You could, and he’ll probably be happy to.”
“Maybe,” she muttered. “Maybe I should ask his brother if he’ll be up for a co-hosted party.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea.” Then Nan shook her head. “You won’t cook for both of them, will you?”
She glared at her grandmother. “Wow, now that’s a vote of confidence.”
“I don’t want to scare Mack off, but how are your cooking skills, dear?”
Doreen winced. “Not that great. I’ve been working on it, and I can do a lot of simple things, … so I don’t want to try something too fancy.”
“Don’t try anything fancy,” Nan noted. “Much better to do something simple yet very well than to go fancy and do it terribly.” On that depressing note Nan led the way to Nelly’s room again.
Chapter 5
Nelly still sat frozen on her couch, her used balled-up tissues forming a perimeter around her.
Doreen sat down beside her. “I’m back,” she announced. “You wanted to tell me something?” But Nelly remained nonresponsive, now staring at Doreen’s grandmother.
Nan raised both her hands in frustration. “Fine. I’ll leave, but, Doreen, you tell Nelly that I won’t keep calling you back here unless Nelly speaks to you each time.” And, with that, Nan left.
It was an odd thing for her to say. Doreen looked over at Nelly. “Sounds as if my grandmother is a little bit upset over all this.”
Nelly nodded. “And with good reason.” Nelly gave a heavy sigh. “I’ve been fairly emotional.”
“You’ve lost your sister, and you’re afraid that you’ve had something to do with her death,” Doreen recounted, “so you’re entitled to be emotional.”
Nelly smiled. “You really are a nice person, aren’t you?”
Doreen winced. “Not sure that’ll get me any accolades in this world,” she noted. “Nice people don’t seem to do very well.”
“And that’s too bad,” Nelly declared, her tone firm, “because it really does take nice people to get anywhere.”
“Maybe,” Doreen hedged. “Now what did you want to talk to me about?”
She sighed. “It probably seems wrong, and I should talk to the police.” She glanced sideways at Doreen.
Doreen nodded. “Yes, I agree. … Your sister, by the way,” she shared in a hushed tone, “and I’m telling you in confidence, and you can’t spread it around, … but she was shot to death.”
Nelly stared at her, her mouth forming a rosebud circle, and then she sagged in place. “So I didn’t kill her,” she whispered at that.
Doreen shook her head. “No, you didn’t, but you still must talk to the cops because the blow to her head from the book will likely show up during the autopsy, and they won’t understand what that was all about. This will help give them some answers too.”
She nodded. “I can talk to them.” She looked at Doreen. “I really am sorry.”
“I know that,” Doreen acknowledged. “Sometimes our emotions get the better of us.”
“She was always there and yet always such a pain in my butt,” she murmured.
“And that’s family,” Doreen noted, with a smile.
Nelly looked at her mistily. “That is very true. I just hadn’t realized.”
“Of course not, and stop blaming yourself. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”
Nelly sighed again. “I wanted to give you the stuff that I stole from her.”
“Okay.” Doreen studied her. “What is it you stole?”
“Her journals.”
“Okay, why did you steal them?” she asked curiously, watching as Nelly tapped a small notebook beside her.
“Because it pissed her off,” Nelly admitted. “She had three of them back when I first took them, but I returned them all not too long ago. However, Ella was mean to me, so I took one journal back again.”
“Why didn’t you give this one back?”
She winced. “Because it was a way to ensure I stayed at Rosemoor.”
“Meaning that you were blackmailing your sister?” Doreen asked cautiously.
She shrugged. “The way family does,” she quipped. “Although it wasn’t really blackmailing her, but I had something she wanted, and she had something I wanted.”
“What was it you really, really wanted?”
“The funds to stay here.”
“So you don’t have any money of your own?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed. “I was supposed to have my care taken care of until I died,” she shared. “That was part of my grandfather’s will. However, Ella kept telling me that it didn’t include care here, although I was pretty sure it did. She wouldn’t let me see anything. She wouldn’t give me any proof that what she was doing was per the will either.”
“Right.” Doreen stared off in the distance. “How we do like to mess up our family.”
At that, Nelly smiled gently. “As you said, it’s family. I still loved her though.”
“Of course you did.” Doreen smiled at her. “What’s in this journal that she didn’t want you to see?”
“I’ll give it to you. I suggest you read it before you give it to the police.” Nelly kept her gaze steadily on Doreen. “Lots and lots of details are in there. Some about Bob Small.”
“Did she know what Bob Small was like?”
Nelly shook her head. “She should have. I mean, she should have known he was a bad man. I kept telling her that, but she didn’t want to believe it.”
“Right. Did she love him?”
“She said she did, but how can you love somebody who’s bad like that?” Nelly asked, looking at her. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“I think people tell themselves lies in order to avoid dealing with the truth,” Doreen offered. “And you can’t really blame them, when they’re trying to stay hidden away in their own happy bubble.”
“I blamed her,” Nelly declared bluntly. “I blamed her a lot for it.”
“Why?” Doreen asked curiously.