The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney Page 8
“Maybe.” TJ took a sip of wine and then set her fork down.
“No, you don’t. Keep eating that blueberry pie. Lettie will be very unhappy if she finds out you didn’t eat every crumb.”
“How would she know?”
Grace gave her the “teacher stare.” TJ picked up her fork again and ate another mouthful of Lettie’s delicious, freshly baked pie. After swallowing, she said, “I remember that scary look. I usually got it after I rolled my eyes in your class.”
“As well you should.”
“Lettie hasn’t lost her touch with pie.” She looked up and smiled at Grace.
“Ah, a smile. Finally.”
“And how is Jeff Maitlin? Your newspaper editor?” TJ asked between bites.
“He’s fine. Thinking about buying a house and settling down here.”
“A house?”
“Yes. He’s been checking out several old Victorians. They’d take a fortune to fix up, so I’m not sure why he’s determined to find that kind of house. But I guess we’ll see. Oh, stop smirking at me.”
TJ set her fork down again and said, “Old houses. Lots of history in Endurance. Sounds like the two of you will have plenty to talk about.”
“Stop it, TJ. I will always have time to spend with you. That will never change.” Grace took a sip of wine and walked over to the counter to get the rest of the bottle. “My friend, you still seem to carry a trace of sadness. Events did happen for the best with the Lattimore case. You closed it and brought relief to the family. You even enhanced the Sweeney rep in town for solving murder cases. You should be on top of the world.”
“Sure. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it since crime has taken a holiday in Endurance lately. I will shake this Lattimore case off my shoulders. I simply felt such a kinship for that woman, who was biracial like me. Different times, same place. Turn on the news any night and you still hear the same old bigotry and ugliness. I keep thinking about the Lattimore family and how secrets affected their happiness. All those years they spent waiting, not knowing Rose Lattimore was here all along. What a waste. What a terrible waste.”
“TJ, you know you were always the same way in high school. You couldn’t understand why the better side of humanity didn’t win, why principles didn’t trump immorality.”
“If you hadn’t sent me off to read all those dark books, Grace, I probably would have become much more optimistic.”
“Me? You put this on me?”
TJ smiled. “Of course.”
Grace drank a large sip of her wine and set the glass down on the table. “It’s all in how you look at it. Sure, the darkness is always there, and it always will be, especially in your job. But what you forget is the love. James Lattimore, as you told me, waited for years, knowing his wife would never have left him. He never believed her capable of that, and in the end he was right. Again, as you told me, he fell in love with her immediately, and it didn’t matter what Rose inherited from her family. He loved her anyway. So did Louise. I think you have to consider that viewpoint a bit more heavily than that of the Hugh Lattimores of the world.” She shook her head slowly and muttered, “I guess I should have had you read more Steinbeck.”
TJ sat in silence for a moment. Then she stirred and said to Grace, “You’re right, Grace. This is why I hang out with you. It’s that the-world-will-be-better-tomorrow attitude.”
“Of course. I think this calls for a contest of good”—Grace pointed to herself—“versus evil. Gin rummy. An entire box of toothpicks is at stake. What do you think?”
TJ looked down at the table, then stood up and moved her empty pie plate and fork to the kitchen counter. She turned to Grace. “Not sure I’m up to that yet. Give me a couple more weeks. I thought I’d stop in and check on you, since it occurred to me you’re leaving for Arizona soon to see your kids. How about a rematch when you return?”
“I will hold you to that. Yes, I am making my annual Christmas pilgrimage shortly. That’s why I’m glad you stopped, because I have something for you. An early Christmas present. I’ve thought a lot about what would make you smile again. Just let me go and get it.”
TJ leaned against the counter, looking around at the Kimball kitchen, a place where she had found peace for many years. She would again. Grace’s footsteps sounded from the hallway upstairs and came down the front stairway approaching the kitchen. Then TJ heard a meow.
“I thought you might like company in that house of yours across the street. Of course, you’re never home long enough to talk to anyone, but I thought this little guy might help.” She handed TJ the kitten, and it snuggled right into the detective’s arms. “I think he’s exactly the medicine you need. This means, of course, the minute I get back from Arizona, I expect a rematch with the gin rummy game.”
“All right, Grace. You’ve got it. And thanks. I can talk to this little guy while you’re gone.”
TJ was still laughing as she walked across the street to her house, cradling the kitten in her arms. “What shall I name you, little guy? Good question. I can’t simply call you ‘little guy.’ I’ll have to think about that. Grace is right, you know. She usually is. I need more time, and I’ll be fine again.”
She strolled through her garage and pushed the button to lower the garage door. Walking into her kitchen, she set the kitten down on the floor, and watched him get used to his new digs.
The kitten took a few cautious steps through the deep pile carpet toward TJ’s bookshelves, which lined the entire south wall of her living room and revealed her eclectic taste, combining Proust with Hesse, Chandler with Sayers, and Twain with Dickinson. Then the little guy trotted over to the wine rack on the north wall and checked out the bottles of pinot grigio and chardonnay. As if assuring himself that this area was uninteresting but safe, he turned his footsteps to the floor lamp near TJ’s comfortable reading chair. Every so often he looked back to check on TJ’s location. Seeing a hallway that stretched from the living room to somewhere else, he took a few tentative steps down the hallway. The photographs of the Sweeney family were up high on the wall, and he turned and came back to the living room, waiting to see what TJ would do.
Strolling over to her record player, TJ pulled a vinyl album out of its sleeve and set it on the turntable. “I think, little guy, we need some Miles Davis.” She pulled a bottle of 2009 Chappellet Chardonnay out of her wine rack, opened it, and poured an ample amount into a wine glass, leaving it on the counter for a few minutes. Taking off her coat, she checked her messages, relieved when nothing appeared from the Endurance Police Department. As the music floated through the room, she carried her wine to the living room, sat down, and watched the kitten try to climb up her leg. Picking him up, TJ put him on her lap and listened to him purr as she stroked his fur.
“This is a problem. What to call you? You don’t look like a Wyatt Earp or a Bat Masterson. If you’re to live with me, you’ll have to be tough on crime.” Listening to the mellow trumpet notes, TJ sat back and relaxed. She had almost fallen asleep when a wet tiny tongue started licking her arm. “Oh, all right. A name. You want to have a name? I know what I’ll call you, little guy. You’ll be named for one of the biggest, badass crime fighters of all time. We’ll divide things up. I’ll keep an eye on the town, and you can keep an eye on Grace and Sweetbriar Court. That seems a fair split. Together we—Theresa Johanna Sweeney and Eliot Ness—will keep our eyes out for crime in this metropolis of Endurance.”
Other Books Available by Susan Van Kirk
The Endurance Mysteries
Three May Keep a Secret
Endurance Mystery # 1
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
—Benjamin Franklin
Grace Kimball, recently retired teacher in the small town of Endurance, is haunted by a dark, past event, an experience so terrifying she has never been able to put it behind her.
When a shoddy journalist, Brenda Norris, is murdered in a suspicious fire, Grace is hired by the newspaper ed
itor, Jeff Maitlin, to fill in for Brenda, researching the town’s history. Unfortunately, that past hides dark secrets. When yet a second murder occurs, Grace’s friend, TJ Sweeney, a homicide detective, races against time to find a killer. Even Grace’s life will be threatened by her worst nightmare.
Against a backdrop of the town’s 175th founder’s celebration, Grace and Jeff find an undeniable attraction for each other. But can she trust this mystery man with no past?
Praise for Three May Keep a Secret
“Readers will love meeting the residents of Endurance, Illinois. Grace Kimball and her intrepid friends court disaster as they investigate who is keeping a dark secret.”
—Terry Shames, national best-selling author of the Samuel Craddock mysteries
“Van Kirk’s appealing mystery debut…introduces recently retired Grace Kimball. Cozy fans will find a lot to like.”
—Publishers Weekly Review
“Van Kirk’s debut novel, following a memoir of her own days as a teacher, offers a promising new heroine who’s clever, observant and smart enough to admit when she’s been fooled.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Available from Five Star Publishing (Cengage) in hard cover, soft cover/large print, and e-book. Find it online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or at your nearest library. ©2014
Marry in Haste
Endurance Mystery # 2
Available November 16, 2016
“Marry in Haste, Repent at Leisure”
—Benjamin Franklin
Marry in Haste is the story of two lives over a hundred years apart, both illustrating the resilience of women in the small town of Endurance.
Grace Kimball is surprised when Jeff Maitlin buys a huge Victorian house. His decision sets off a chain of events that puts Grace in danger. Conrad Folger, the bank president, is murdered, and his wife, Emily, becomes the prime suspect.
While TJ Sweeney, Grace’s friend and Endurance police detective, investigates, Grace also sets out to prove her former student innocent.
Grace and Jeff find a diary from 1893 in Lockwood House, Jeff’s newly bought mansion. Written by a naïve 17-year-old who comes to Endurance from a small farm, it tells Olivia Havelock’s bittersweet story. She marries a powerful judge, and what begins as a joyous event turns to terror.
As Grace reads the diary, she soon sees parallels to the life of Emily Folger. Can the lessons from the past help Grace clear Emily’s name? And can she do it in time, before a killer strikes again?
Marry in Haste will be available in hard cover and e-book from Five Star Publishing (Cengage). You will find it online at Amazon for pre-order just prior to November 2016.
A Nonfiction Memoir about Teaching
The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks)
A veteran of thirty-four years in public high school, Susan Van Kirk takes you on a passionate and unforgettable journey. Through one teaching life, you meet the students and experience the real stories that shaped a rookie teacher into a veteran. The girl who sneezed a hundred times, the first classroom brawl, the unplanned pregnancy, the drug overdose, the sexually abused girl, the first one who sadly died, and the challenge to a major Kurt Vonnegut book in her classroom: real stories, real people, real classroom issues.
The fifteen stories are hilarious, sad, poignant, thoughtful, and honest. Van Kirk’s collection is about the practice of teaching: what happens when a new teacher walks into a classroom, closes the door, and begins. Once you see lives changed in these stories, you’ll understand why teaching is an inspired and rewarding profession.
Available in hardcover, softcover, and e-book from Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, and iUniverse ©2010
About the Author
Susan Van Kirk was educated at Knox College and the University of Illinois. After college, she taught high school English for thirty-four years in the small town of Monmouth, Illinois.
She taught an additional ten years at Monmouth College. Her short story, “War and Remembrance,” was published by Teacher Magazine and became one of the chapters in her popular and best-selling creative nonfiction memoir, The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks).
She has written two Endurance mysteries, Three May Keep a Secret and Marry in Haste (Nov. 2016), published by Five Star Publishing (Cengage). The Locket is her first novella featuring Detective TJ Sweeney.
She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.
Visit her website at www.susanvankirk.com, and sign up for her quarterly newsletter for news of new publications.
Follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SusanVanKirkAuthor/ and follow her on Twitter or at The Endurance Mysteries on Pinterest.