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  I See You

  A Majek Family Mystery

  Jeanne Grunert

  Bricks & Brambles Press

  Prospect, Virginia

  Copyright © 2019 by Jeanne Grunert

  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 critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author through her website, jeannegrunert.com.

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Book Layout ©2013 BookDesignTemplates.com

  Cover Copyright 2019 ©BookCovers.Us

  All Book Cover Photos © DepositPhotos.com

  I See You/Jeanne Grunert. -- 1st ed.

  ISBN 9781695139107

  Other Books by Jeanne Grunert

  I Believe You (Book 1 of The Majek Family Mysteries)

  The Last Run of the 6:01

  It Was Mine

  An Ancient Gift and Other Stories.

  .

  1

  Ross placed his palms on the conference table and leaned forward. He swept the conference room with his gaze. “We need a charitable cause,” he said.

  “What we need,” Neil yawned, “is a tax write off.”

  David Majek glanced up from his phone. He finished his text to his youngest son, Eddie. Yes to using a snake in science fair project. No to buying another one. He hit send.

  David cleared his throat and slid his phone onto the table. Ross waited for the CEO to speak.

  “I think Ross brings up a good point,” David began, and Ross sank into the leather chair and smiled. “However, Neil is correct. The issue isn’t altruism. We have Betty’s socially conscious funds to offer to our clients should they wish for a fund that aligns with their values.”

  “Then what do you suggest, David?” Ross asked.

  David steepled his fingers on the table. “We start a nonprofit corporation, aligned with Majek Investments, but registered as its own entity.”

  Neil nodded. “He’s right. We can accomplish all our objectives in one stroke. It addresses my concern about paying such high taxes. It answers Betty’s challenge to find a way to do some good in the world. Majek Investments needs some good publicity after the fiasco two years ago with Constantine’s trial—sorry David, but you know that was a cluster—”

  David cut off his friend and colleague. “Yes, Neil, I know. My brother’s trial and the expose on the whole thing hurt both my family the firm’s reputation.”

  “Yes, right.” Neil ran a finger under his collar and loosened his already strangling tie. “Well, I’m sorry, David, but it’s true. If the markets hadn’t been so bullish this year, the firm would be in trouble. Many of our clients grabbed their money and ran to the competition after the media pounced on your brother’s trial. Now that Con is out of jail and doing whatever he’s doing in Florida, maybe they’ll leave us alone, but maybe not.”

  Dana, the Director of Marketing and PR for the firm, said, “As long as the nonprofit or charity isn’t viewed as a gimmick but an authentic attempt at adding to the common good, it should work.”

  “No gimmicks,” David muttered. His phone buzzed again. Eddie kept texting him. He grabbed the phone and typed as he spoke — NO MORE SNAKES.

  “What kind of charity would we run?” Betty asked.

  “Something will occur to us,” David said. He glanced around the room. “Look, it’s late, it’s almost Christmas, and we’re all tired. How about we adjourn and think about the charity? We can each conduct research and return next meeting with our ideas.”

  Murmurs of assent followed. Joan, David’s Executive Assistant, formally adjourned the meeting. Chairs scraped, conversation rose and fell, and everyone said goodnight. David switched off the light. He strolled with Joan to the elevator and paused.

  “You seemed distracted during the meeting,” Joan said. “Is everything all right?”

  David shrugged and stepped into the open elevator. “The usual. Eddie’s texting me every five seconds asking for another reptile, Alex wants to know when I’m going to be home, and Josh is at the train station waiting for Turquoise to pick him up, and she thinks I’m on my way to pick him up, and asking him to take a cab home somehow makes me the worst father of the year. Nothing much.”

  “Yes, in the middle of all of this, you come up with a brilliant plan,” Joan laughed. “Typical Majek.”

  “We’ll see,” David replied.

  It was past seven when he grabbed his laptop and briefcase and left the building. Jason, the burly security guard at the front door, nodded and held the door open for him. “Goodnight, Mr. Majek.”

  “Goodnight, Jason. See you tomorrow.”

  Frost speckled his black SUV, and he cranked the heat on high as he eased out of the parking lot and into the snaking back roads of Mitchell Field. Every station on the radio played Christmas carols, and he punched the buttons until it settled on 1010 WINS the traffic and weather station. Cheerful lights adorned evergreen trees planted in front of office buildings. Everywhere he looked, Christmas decorations waved in the chilly breeze.

  He took the major roads home, stopped for gas, and finally turned onto Edgewater Drive around 7:30. Lights glowed from every window of the Majek’s Tudor. Turquoise, the family’s housekeeper and now property manager for the family’s houses, had hung tasteful evergreen wreaths with velvet bows on the doors of the stately home, and David had to admit it looked festive.

  He pulled into the driveway, locked the car and the garage, and stepped into the mudroom adjoining the kitchen through the rear door and. Warmth surrounded him and the scents of garlic and tomato sauce saturated the air.

  “Hey, Alex? Josh? I’m home!”

  “Upstairs, Dad!” He heard laughter and a thud. He smiled. All his children were home.

  His oldest son, Alex, had finished his studies and residency in Massachusetts and was interviewing for several positions at hospitals in the New England area. Alex’s required delighted David when his son asked if he could come home for Christmas and introduce Martha, his long-time girlfriend. Joshua, his middle son, had completed his first semester at New York University. Josh lived in an off-campus apartment with two other guys, and David’s mission in the new year was to convince Josh to spend the summer working at Majek Investments as he had done during his summers at New York University.

  His youngest son, Eddie, had turned thirteen this past July and had grown several inches in the past year. Eddie had been born completely deaf and mute, and despite this challenge, was one of the smartest children David had ever known. His son’s keen intellect and curiosity lent itself to the biological sciences, and his collection of reptiles, amphibians, and fish threatened to take over Alex’s old bedroom as well as his own. His latest acquisition, a present from his father for his thirteenth birthday, was a corn snake named Salu. The snake joined his turtles, Teeny and Tiny, several white dumpy toads, and a freshwater aquarium.

  David found Alex and Josh upstairs in Josh’s bedroom. His sons dragged had dragged the laundry basket from the bathroom, and Josh dumped his entire suitcase into the basket. David poked his head around the corner.

  “Dad!”

  Both boys ran to embrace their father. David closed his eyes, smiling, as these tall, strong men embraced him. Josh had grown too, and with his dark eyes and hair, he was unmistakably a Majek. Alex, slightly shorter and broader, resembled David’s brother, Constantine, and his mother.

  “I’m so glad you’re home.”

  “Yeah, Al picked me up at the train station,” Josh said. “I couldn’t get a cab from Locust Valley for anything, and man, it’s cold out there.”

  “The weather station predicted snow,” Alex said.

  “A white Christmas. Wouldn’t that be fantastic!”

  “Let me get changed and eat something, boys, and then we can catch up.”

  David changed from his business suit into jeans and a sweatshirt and had just exited the bathroom in the master bedroom when he caught sight of Alex pacing in front of the bedroom door. “Alex? Come on in. Is everyone okay, Son? I’ve never seen you look so anxious.”

  Alex leaned against the doorway and cleared his throat. “Um, Dad? I’m going to ask Martha to marry me.”

  David smiled. “What took you so long?”

  Alex laughed. “That’s what Martha’s father said when I asked his permission.”

  David turned to the master bedroom closet. He pushed aside suits and his late wife’s formal gowns, still sheathed in heavy plastic and fabric bags for storage. He knelt by the built-in safe in the back of the closet. “You’ll need a ring.”

  “Dad, I wasn’t going to ask…”

  “You don’t need to ask,” David replied. “I want to give you your mother’s ring.”

  “What if she says no?” Alex paced in front of his father’s walk-in-closet.

  “You’ve been dating her for three years, Alex,” David chided. He punched the security code into the panel and gave the key a quarter turn to the right. The door lock beeped once, and the light on the panel turned from gr
een to red.

  David rummaged in the safe’s interior, pulling out packets of documents: his will, his father’s will, the terms of his late wife’s trust fund, now set aside for the boys.

  A single document fluttered to the floor. He bent and plucked it from the carpet. The letter from his brother Con, given to him after Con’s conviction for accidentally killing David’s wife Cathy, had been worn smooth from David’s reading and re-reading the paper.

  “Did you find it yet?” Alex stopped pacing and plunged into the closet, peering over his father’s shoulder. “There are a lot of boxes in there.”

  David thrust the letter back into the safe. “Your mother had some fine jewelry.” He set aside the worn red leather Cartier box that contained Cathy’s mother’s pearls and another box containing her diamond tennis bracelet. He plucked out the robin’s egg blue velvet Tiffany’s box and held it out to Alex. “Satisfied?”

  Alex hesitated. “Dad, are you sure it’s okay?”

  “Of course, it’ okay,” David said. He straightened, his knees protesting as he rose to his full height in the closet. He slid the documents and jewelry boxes back into the safe, closed, and locked the door. Pocketing the key, he asked, “Alex, what’s bothering you?”

  “It’s just…do you think Josh or Eddie will mind?”

  “Mind?”

  “That I’m going to use Mom’s ring as Martha’s engagement ring,” Alex blurted.

  “Oh, Alex.” David touched his son lightly on the shoulder. “No, I don’t think your brothers will mind at all. Josh is in college, and he’s not thinking about marriage right now. He doesn’t even have a steady girlfriend. And Eddie thinks more about his turtles than he does girls. They won’t mind.”

  “And you, Dad?” Alex blinked. “You don’t mind?”

  David didn’t hesitate. “No. Your mother would want Martha to have her ring. It’s too beautiful a ring not to adorn a woman’s hand in love, Alex.”

  Alex opened the lid. His mother’s engagement ring nestled on the white satin interior. The closet light caught the facets of the two-karat round cut diamond and the almost half-carat baguettes, sending rainbow shimmers coruscating on his father’s clothes and his mother’s collection of evening gowns, swathed in plastic garment bags, still waiting for David’s decision on what to do with them.

  “It’s been four years since your mother died, Alex,” David cleared his throat. His voice suddenly grew husky. “I miss her every day, and I’m sure you do, too. But she can’t wear the ring anymore. She’d want Martha to have it, or if one of your brothers had gotten engaged first, their fiancé to have it. When their time comes to ask some lucky woman to marry them, I have your grandmother Majek’s engagement ring in the safe deposit box at the bank, as well as an emerald ring of your mother’s that’s worth even more than this diamond, believe it or not. They may have their choices of the other jewels, and if nothing suits, they can buy their own. It’s fine, Alex. Really.”

  Alex gently closed the lid of the box. He smiled at his father. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Josh called from the doorway of his dad’s bedroom. Alex and David emerged from the closet. David switched off the light and slid the pocket door shut.

  Josh paused by his father’s dresser. “You guys finally coming out or what? Squirt’s dying to decorate the Christmas tree.”

  “I need to eat dinner first, guys,” David said.

  Eddie, the youngest of the three Majek boys and often referred to as Squirt by the family, danced from one foot to another.

  His hands fluttered in excited ASL signs. Come ON. It’s almost Christmas, and we don’t have the tree up yet!

  David laughed. He signed as well as spoke, a long-standing habit to include everyone present in the multi-lingual conversation. “Come on, guys, let’s get the tree up before Eddie explodes.”

  “What about dinner?”

  “I’ll eat afterward."

  Alex slid the box into his pants pocket. “I’ll be right down.”

  “Okay, but don’t be long. I need your help to bring the tree into the house,” Josh called over his shoulder as he and Eddie ran downstairs.

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “She’ll say yes, Alex.”

  “I hope so. I hope so!”

  About two miles away, the Majek’s housekeeper and property manager, Turquoise Daniels, pulled her battered gray Honda Civic into the small parking lot behind the row of stores on Northern Boulevard. The harbor gleamed a hard, gunmetal gray, and cold salt spray dashed against barnacled rocks. Gulls wheeled overhead, searching the trash cans near the visitor parking lot for crusts of sandwiches from the café across the street.

  Turquoise locked the car and slung her heavy pink satchel over her shoulder. Christmas music played softly from loudspeakers set up along the Main Street. It was three days before Christmas, and Turquoise knew she was cutting her Christmas shopping close, but what do you get for a man who could buy and sell Manhattan several times over? A tie seemed stupid, and David Majek had a silk tie collection to rival the finest men’s shop.

  Turquoise pushed open the door in front of her, randomly choosing a shop from the four along the small strip of stores in the old building. The historic society plaque indicated that the building had once been the chandler’s shop. She imagined hoary old sailors buying rope and lamp oil as she stepped into the warm, cinnamon-scented air.

  It took her vision a moment to adjust to the dim interior of the shop. A woman peeked out from behind a beaded curtain. “Can I help you?”

  “Thanks, I’m just looking.”

  A Victorian sideboard groaned under a gilt-edged table setting for twelve. Depression glass glowed in warm tones of pink from the store window while men in stiff collars and velvet waistcoats glared from oil paintings hung throughout the shop. A Christmas tree twinkled from the corner and arranged on tables near the tree was a collection of antique Christmas ornaments and trinkets.

  The woman stepped out from behind the high counter, and Turquoise found herself guided to a display near the Christmas tree. “Looking for a gift?”

  “Yes. For my boss.”

  One snow globe caught her eye. She leaned over and touched its surface. It felt icy under her fingertips. She plucked up the courage to scan the price tag: $50. “What can you tell me about this one?”

  “I bought several boxes of miscellaneous items from a large estate sale in Lloyd Harbor,” the woman said. She picked up the snow globe and handed it to Turquoise with a smile. “I’m Sarah, by the way. Sarah Schein.”

  “Turquoise Daniels.”

  “What a lovely and unusual name!”

  “Thanks. It fits me.” Turquoise examined the little globe. “How old do you think this is?”

  “Old,” Sarah smiled. “I’d put this as a very early example, maybe 1920.” She lifted the snow globe from Turquoise’s hands and turned it around slowly so that the snow swirled around castle-like house inside. Sarah gave it a gentle shake, and a blizzard raged inside.

  “The base is brass and ship’s mahogany,” Sarah said. “The maker’s mark is missing, but the quality is impeccable. It’s also rare.”

  “How so?”

  “Most snow domes or snow globes depict tourist traps,” Sarah said. “You’ll find old ones for cities like Paris with the Eiffel Tower, or New York with the skyline. I’ve never seen one this old featuring a unique building like this.”

  Turquoise smiled. “Would you take $30 for it?”

  “Forty, and I’ll box and wrap it for you.”

  “Done.”

  Turquoise requested silver wrap and a pink bow, which Sarah added without question. Turquoise remarked, “I don’t remember this store.”

  “It used to be a Hallmark store,” Sarah said as she finished snipping the ribbon on the box. She slid the neatly wrapped box inside a shopping box and rang up the sale. Turquoise handed her cash. “I opened the antique store last year. I hope you’ll come back again soon.”

  “Thank you. I might.”

  Once inside the Honda, Turquoise tucked the box into the seat next to her and smiled. The Honda coughed to life, but no matter how much she punched the dashboard, the air blowing from the vents remained ice cold. Her breath fogged before her eyes; she pulled her gloves on and muttered to herself as she made a mental note to speak with her mechanic after Christmas.