Still, the memory of her clinging to my arm, her fingers on the ledge slipping off, her intentionally letting go, will probably haunt me for the rest of my days.
But I’d talked long and often with Father Rico, Coop, and Higgs. They’d brought me a great deal of comfort, and while I hated that Susie was gone—even though, had she lived, she’d have gone to jail and likely would have felt more alone than ever—I was healing.
But as with all things, it would take some time.
“Trixie?” Higgs stuck his dark head out of the kitchen with a warm grin.
“Uh-huh?”
“It’s time for your antibiotic. I’ll grab some water.”
Higgs had been here every day and late into the night, worried about my health, but I wasn’t sure if it was my physical health or my mental health he fretted over. According to him, I’d suffered a trauma, and he wanted to be here in case I needed to talk.
“On it!” Coop called back, popping the cap off my antibiotics and handing me one. They’d been tag-teaming me since my first cough, and I have to admit, I didn’t hate the love they were showering me with.
“So any news on Ames?” I asked, letting Coop fluff my pillows behind me.
Higgs brought me some water with lemon and handed it to me. “Tansy says he’s recovering slowly, but he’s in pretty rough shape. He’s got two broken legs, a crushed pelvis and about thirty stitches in his head. But thankfully, the guy who hit him is in custody.”
Tansy…
She’d dropped by a couple of times to visit, and we’d made up—for the most part. How can I hold a grudge against someone who brings me a box of chocolate-covered cherries and a dozen sketch pads, I ask you?
She’d explained to me that the day I went to Susie’s, they were on their way to bring her in for more questioning. It was just dumb luck they’d arrived when they had.
The windows in Susie’s apartment had just crashed open when they’d arrived, and they’d called for backup—and of course, Higgs. Then Higgs had called Coop. It took them a few minutes to get past the security on her elevator, which meant I’d sat at the window for a few minutes in the cold and rain.
The rest is history.
She also reminded me of the reason behind her holding off on charging anyone with murder.
That lame old phrase, physical evidence. The DA had claimed he wanted more.
Then I reminded her, I’d handled that for her. And then we’d laughed, and she’d thrown on a face mask and hugged me and all was right with the world once more.
Margot had even dropped by to wish me well before she went back to LA to pack up her things and move home to Nashville with her cat Kenny. Turns out she had been the one arguing in the hotel room that night with Mitzy. She’d finally confronted her about Kelly’s suicide, sending Mitzy into an angry rage.
I was just glad this was all over, and Coop was mostly back to normal. Either she was too busy caring for me to mope, or she’d zipped past that stage the way she had every other one. She’d apologized to me, but I told her it wasn’t necessary. This was what life was all about.
Highs and lows, peaks and valleys, and, I reminded her, there’d never be a valley low enough or a mountain so high that I wouldn’t find a way to get to her and make her grab my hand.
And she, in return, had smirked. A huge accomplishment on her part—one we’d decided to call a Coopie special.
“Trixie,” Coop said, sitting down next to me on the couch. “It’s time we have a discussion, now that you’re feeling a bit better. We have a proposal for you.”
“We? Do you mean you and Higgs?”
Higgs bustled into the living room and stood over us. “She does.”
I rubbed my tired eyes and pulled my legs up under me. “What have the two of you been cooking up now?”
Coop looked at Higgs, tucking her auburn hair behind her ears. “Road trip.”
I cocked my stuffy head in question. “Road trip? Where?”
“Back to Saint Aloysius By The Sea,” Higgs said. “And before you say no, hear us out. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“We…er, the two of us think it’s time for you to face your demons. If Artur can’t be exorcised, we need to find out what he wants and how he got here. That means you have to talk to Father O’Leary. Now, we both know you don’t want to do that, but he has some of the answers, Trixie, and even though you’re not raging anymore, Artur has proven himself pretty useful.”
Higgs dropped a kiss on my forehead. “What she said. He’s been key to solving some mysteries, just like he tried to do with this one. What if you could channel that? Tansy’d hire you in ten seconds flat.”
What they said was right, and who better to do it with than people who loved me? I was always pushing Artur’s existence to the back corner of my brain and only facing him when forced. That was no way to live. So if I was going to live with him virtually inside me, if I was going to ask other people in my life to do the same, I had to understand him and learn how to focus his efforts.
“Well—”
“Wait!” Coop held a
