A Gathering Storm: A Gripping Mystery Thriller (A Dora Ellison Mystery Book 2) Read online

  A Gathering Storm

  A Dora Ellison Mystery

  Book 2

  A Gathering Storm

  A Dora Ellison Mystery

  Book 2

  First Edition

  By David E. Feldman

  Copyright © 2022 David E. Feldman

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  For my family

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  “We’re here!” The front door opened, and Vanessa and Jesse’s family spilled into Agatha and Rudy’s home.

  Agatha squealed with joy and threw her arms around her brother. “My baby brother’s here! My baby brother’s here!”

  Jesse pried his sister away from him, and pretended to look hurt. “You can call me your twin brother, but go easy on that baby shit!”

  “Jesse, language,” Vanessa chimed in. She was pretty and petite, and wore her hair in shoulder length golden dreads, and was wearing a gold blouse and black slacks. Her makeup was perfect. She pretended to glare at her husband, then grinned at her sister-in-law. She carried a toddler in her arms, while an older boy clutched at her pants pocket with one hand while sucking his other thumb. Vanessa and Agatha embraced, then Vanessa stepped back and looked around. “Where’s the little prophet? I want to see our little prophet!”

  Agatha stepped to one side, revealing the carrier she had set down to answer the door, and little Samuel, who had been examining the chubby fingers on his left hand and seemed to have discovered his right hand for the first time. He gazed at first one, then the other hand with astonishment.

  Jesse laughed. “Ooh, our little prophet! Isn’t he perfection?”

  “Where are my nephews?” Agatha set Samuel’s carrier rocking and, while her brother continued to marvel at the one-year-old, squatted on her heels.

  Vanessa put the toddler down. He stood for a moment on unsteady legs, saw that everyone was watching, and stumbled back toward his mother, his arms outstretched, his mouth twisting, as he began to cry and tried to bury his face in her leg.

  “Ooh, Buster’s walking! Look at you, little man!”

  “I’m little man,” the older boy insisted.

  His aunt turned to him and held out her arms. “No, you’re the big man. Come to Aunt Ags, Andrew.”

  “No kissing,” the boy warned. “Not Andrew—Drew.”

  “Excuse me, Drew. And how old are you now, Drew? Seven?”

  Drew grinned toward his parents, clearly proud to be mistaken for such an advanced age. “Five. Five!”

  “Almost a grown man!” Vanessa watched her husband and boys bask in the love of their family. She was so proud of them all, and so grateful to have a kind, thoughtful husband who would do absolutely anything for her or their children. She leaned toward Jesse and kissed him, something they did frequently and spontaneously. Jesse took his wife’s hand, and he and Vanessa beamed with the shared joy of their family.

  The house had been decorated with colorful crepe paper, balloons, streamers, signs reading Happy Birthday! and One Year Old! and a table festooned with framed, propped-up pictures of Agatha, Rudy, and Samuel taken since Samuel’s adoption. The Raines’s home, which had been gutted and rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy, as had so many Beach City dwellings, was newly raised, so everyone had to climb a set of stairs to get inside.

  “Jesse—” came a deep voice from the back door.

  Jesse turned, saw Rudy, and threw his arms around his brother-in-law in a bearhug. “Man, Rudy. You’re putting on weight!”

  Rudy shrugged, glancing down at his six-foot-four frame, all 265 pounds of him. A blue and orange Knicks shirt was draped over his belly. “Guess you won’t be having any of my barbecue.”

  Jesse frowned. “What’re you doing in here? I thought you’d be out back, tending the food.”

  “Came in to see my nephews.” Rudy took each of the boys by a hand. “Excuse us. The men need to talk.” He led the boys to one side, knelt beside them, and complimented them on their looks and style.

  Agatha and Jesse stood side by side, watching their family. The twins looked alike, except Jesse’s afro was shorter, and he was five foot ten and a muscular 195, whereas Agatha was bony, smaller, and thinner, wearing jeans and a purple cotton t-shirt, and had her hair tied back in a bun. Jesse’s red collared shirt was open at the neck, revealing two gold chains glinting against his bronze chest.

  He inclined his head toward his sister’s. “You call him Samuel, not Sam or Sammy? Was that his name before?”

  “It was, and we do.”

  Rudy looked at Jesse. “They’re sayin’ on sports talk to bet big on the Rams.”

  Jesse shook his head. “Problem with that is, they’re sponsored by the betting app, so who do you think their advice is gonna benefit—you?”

  Agatha put a hand on her hip and frowned at her husband. “You best not be betting again!”

  Rudy held up his hands. “I’m just talking to Jess. Not betting. Talking. See? No money. And I’m thinking about our customers at the bar. Jesse’s right, and I got to tell them that. Always thinkin’ ’bout the customers, baby.”

  Jesse stepped closer to his brother-in-law. “Say, we going to do a little hmm hmm hmm before dinner?”

  Rudy nodded. “C’mon out back.” He held out his nephews’ hands to Vanessa, who led them to their baby cousin. “Jesse’ll be out back with me, talking Yankees, Giants, and Knicks.”

  Vanessa smiled. “Mmhmm.” She watched the men head for the back door. “Boys,” she said, “this is your cousin, Samuel. Isn’t he handsome? Can you give Samuel a kiss?” The brothers each somberly and dutifully gave their cousin a kiss. First Drew leaned over the carrier and planted a kiss on the baby’s cheek, and then Buster, who had been paying attention, did his best to do the same. “Look at them!” Vanessa marveled. Agatha laughed.

  Samuel was clutching one of Vanessa’s fingers. “Ooh, this child is strong!” Vanessa exclaimed to her sister-in-law. Her boys remained on either side of Samuel’s carrier, soberly standing guard.

  Agatha knelt beside Samuel. “This is your Aunt Vanessa, Samuel. We call her Nessa.”

  “Gggh,” said Samuel.

  “Hello? Children?” a voice called from the other side of the front door.

  “Mama!” Agatha opened the door, saw her mother’s arms were full of gifts and cake boxes, and propped open the door. Mother and daughter pressed their cheeks together and kissed. “You look beautiful, Mama.
”

  Miz Liz, as she was called by just about everyone but her children, wore a scarlet shrug over a black dress. She was a diminutive woman with a big personality that could be charming or intimidating, depending on her mood.

  “Mom!” Vanessa exclaimed. “You look gorgeous.”

  “If you’re going to lie, Nessa, at least make it believable—though I suppose there’s an element of truth in that, when you take my age into account.”

  Miz Liz held a smooth, cool palm against her daughter-in-law’s cheek and looked deep into her eyes. “You do look gorgeous.”

  “Oh, stop!”

  “But enough of you. Where’s my little men?”

  Drew was dancing around his grandmother’s feet, and for a moment, she danced with him. “How is my Andrew?”

  “Drew! Drew!”

  “He insists we call him Drew,” Vanessa explained.

  Buster stumbled around in circles, in as close an approximation of his brother’s dancing as he could manage.

  “Oh, and William’s walking!” Miz Liz swept her younger grandson into her arms and twirled him around.

  “That’s Buster!” Drew corrected.

  “Well, hiya Buster!” She set her grandson down and leaned toward Agatha. “You tell your men if they’re going to smoke, to do it in the basement, so you don’t get in trouble.”

  “Haven’t you heard?” Vanessa said. “It’s pretty much legal now.”

  “Not in my family, it isn’t.”

  The doorbell chimed. Agatha looked beyond her mother, then shook her head. “Too late. Cops’re here!”

  Liz looked alarmed and turned as Agatha opened the door, revealing two women—one five foot eight, white, and heavily muscled, the other smaller and rounder and of South Asian heritage.

  Miz Liz turned back and shook a finger at her daughter. “Don’t you play!”

  “Mama, you remember Dora?”

  “’Course I do. I will always admire this girl for what she did for our family and this city.”

  Agatha held the door and Dora stepped into the room, moving lightly on her feet, despite her size. She wore jeans and a dark blue t-shirt with the logo of Shay’s Mixed Martial Arts Gym. She and Agatha kissed, then Miz Liz touched cheeks with Dora, who stepped to one side.

  “And this is my friend, Missy.”

  Miz Liz looked at Missy, who wore a crisp white shirt and navy-blue slacks. She looked back at Dora. “Mmhmm.” She raised an eyebrow.

  “Mama,” Agatha warned, and Miz Liz held both her hands up in front of her, palms outward.

  “What do I know? I’m just an old lady.”

  “And Dora and Missy,” Agatha said, “this is my sister-in-law, Vanessa. She’s married to my twin brother Jesse.”

  Vanessa took both of Dora’s hands in hers and looked at her, the love shining from her eyes, which had begun to tear. “I’ve heard so much. It’s truly an honor.” She turned to Missy. “And we’re so glad you’re here!”

  Miz Liz bent toward her grandsons. “I don’t think we’re going to need to eat.”

  “What? Why?” Vanessa asked.

  “Oh, no! Not when we have three delicious boys! I could…eat ’em all up!” She poked each boy lightly in the belly, making them giggle. “Eat ’em all up! Eat ’em all up!” The two boys laughed and ran from the room. They peeked in from the doorway to the kitchen and, when their grandmother pointed at their bellies, laughed and ran away again, then snuck back to peek once more. Samuel couldn’t take his eyes off his grandmother.

  “Now I know those boys in the yard aren’t just smoking; they’re drinking too,” Miz Liz said to Vanessa.

  “It’s okay, Mom. We’re staying over.”

  “Mm hmm.” She turned to Dora. “So, you’re a policewoman now, like your…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Not yet,” Dora said. “I’m just starting at the academy. But yes, like Franny was. I’m sort of doing this in her honor—her memory.”

  “Have I told you how sorry I am for your loss?”

  “I believe you did, but thank you again, Miz Liz.” Thinking about Franny was excruciatingly painful for Dora. Franny had been a balm to the pain and trauma caused by Dora’s childhood—Franny had understood without judgment, supported without expectations.

  Miz Liz turned to Missy. “And are you with the police as well?”

  Missy giggled and shook her head. “I work at the library.”

  Miz Liz turned to her daughter. “With my Agatha!”

  Missy nodded. “I’m more reference, while Agatha is more children’s, but we all share responsibilities.”

  “Well, it’s a pleasure,” Miz Liz said. “Maybe you can help Agatha influence these children to read, instead of…” She turned toward the kitchen. “Do you think if I went out the back door I could catch those boys smoking?” She looked briefly concerned. “I guess I shouldn’t say that in front of the police, though they do tell me it’s legal now.”

  Dora laughed. “I promise to look the other way, Miz Liz.”

  “Okay, then!” The elderly woman headed through the kitchen, toward the back door. “’Cause I got to go see my favorite son!”

  Agatha watched her mother disappear out the door and start down the stairs, and pressed her lips together. She continued watching, as her mother clutched the bannister while descending slowly, one step at a time, down the short stairway to the deck. Something about her mother’s body language bothered her, but Agatha forgot about it a moment later when she heard Rudy and Jesse launch into their usual argument over which beer was better, Blue Moon or Samuel Adams.

  While she and Agatha prepared the side dishes, Vanessa smiled to herself, grateful for the love of their close family without the roadblocks of misunderstanding and jealousy that burdened so many families she knew, or the pain of relatives caught up in addiction or criminality.

  During dinner, she and Jesse held hands under the table whenever their hands were free, and kissed and nuzzled every few minutes. She was so grateful to be so much in love.

  Chapter 2

  Vanessa awoke and sat up in bed. Later she would try to remember why she had sat up or what had awakened her, but she could answer neither question; she knew only that she was suddenly awake and sitting up, and that Jesse was not beside her.

  “Jess?” She spoke softly, remembering that she was at Agatha and Rudy’s house. Save for her, the bed was indeed empty. She pulled back the covers and swiveled her feet to the floor and into Agatha’s fuzzy gray slippers. Opening the bedroom door, she peered into the hallway. “Jess?” The light from the bathroom cast reflective streaks across the length of the shiny wood hallway floor. She could still smell yesterday’s barbecue, wafting up from downstairs. She put an ear to the bathroom door. “Jess?”

  No response. So Vanessa pushed and the door creaked open. She stood still, listening, but heard only the faint barking of a dog from somewhere outside.

  “Nessa!” came a loud whisper.

  Vanessa spun to see Agatha’s silhouette framed in her bedroom doorway against the white light spilling in from the street lamp outside the window.

  Behind Agatha, a dark shape appeared. “What’s going on?” Rudy stepped into the light. “What are you girls doing up at 3:00 a.m.?”

  “Jesse’s not in bed,” Vanessa explained.

  “Shhh. Don’t wake the boys,” Agatha cautioned.

  Rudy nodded. “Go back to your rooms. I’ll check downstairs and outside.” He looked to Vanessa. “He was in bed when you went to sleep?”

  She nodded, then stopped. “He…no, he went out. At about eleven. He said he needed—you needed more beer, but I thought he was with you. I assumed you went to the store together.”

  No one spoke for a moment, then Rudy shook his head. “We were on the couch, watching hoops. When I came up to Ags, he was on the last bottle of Sam Adams. Prob’ly went out for beer and passed out in front of the TV. Go on in your rooms ’til I come back, but I ’spect he’s downstairs on the couch. Hang on a
minute.” He ducked back into the guest room and came back with a shotgun open over his left forearm, its stock held against his body under his right arm. He was not a big fan of guns, but he kept an unloaded shotgun hidden away in a closet and insisted his brother-in-law’s family safely do the same. He slowly descended the stairs.

  Five minutes later, he returned, shaking his head. “He’s not downstairs.” He looked at Vanessa. “And your car’s gone.”

  Vanessa shook her head. “Why would he take the car? He could’ve walked to the store for beer. He knows not to drive.”

  Rudy thought for a moment. “Maybe the store didn’t have Sam Adams and he went looking…”

  “No, he still wouldn’t drive. For sure he wouldn’t with me and the boys here. Something’s not right.”

  “We should call the police,” Agatha said.

  “And say what?” asked Rudy. “That Jesse said he wanted more beer and now he’s gone with the car?”

  “Maybe that’s just what we say,” Vanessa replied.

  Now Rudy was shaking his head. “You think the cops are gonna bother with a missing black dude who’s been drinking at a party and has only been gone a few hours?”

  Agatha looked at him. “We don’t know what they’ll do unless we try, but it should come from Nessa.”

  “Agreed,” said Vanessa.

  • • •

  Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. Vanessa, now in a blue silk robe over her pajamas, answered the door with Rudy a few feet behind her, minus the shotgun. She looked through the glass peephole to see two uniformed police officers, a man and a woman. The woman was holding up a shield. Vanessa opened the door and stood aside, allowing the officers to enter.

  “Vanessa Burrell?” the female officer asked, and Vanessa nodded. “I’m Lieutenant Catherine Trask and this is my partner, Lieutenant Mitchell Weiss. You reported your husband missing?”

  “I did. Would you like to come in and sit down? I can make us all a pot of coffee.”