Mean Evergreen (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Twelve) by A.W. Hartoin

Author:A.W. Hartoin [Hartoin, AW]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A.W. Hartoin

Chapter Seventeen

Grandma threw back the curtains, turned the TV to BBC International, and flipped on the lights about seven hours before I was remotely interested in being awake.

I pulled a pillow over my head and said, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Language, Mercy, please,” said Grandma. “Now get up and get going.”

“It’s like two-thirty in the morning.”

“It’s six o’clock in the morning.”

Grandma’s pillow joined mine until she yanked it off.

“Hey!”

“We’re leaving in a half hour. No time to shower, but you don’t need to. Nobody will be smelling you,” she said.

“I don’t smell.” Do I?

“That’s right. Up and at ’em. We’ll get breakfast afterward.”

“After what?” I asked, rolling over and searching for the remote. I so didn’t need to hear dreadful news on some political strife or an earthquake. “Rubble Hill. Isolda told me about it and we’re going to hike it to see the sunrise.” Grandma pinned a brooch on her sweater and looked at me expectantly.

“Are you still drunk?” I asked.

“Don’t be silly. I’m Irish.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“I took an Emergen-C last night while you were asleep. I’m right as rain,” she said, frowning at me. “I should’ve given you some. You’re very pale.”

“I didn’t sleep well.”

“How come? Last night was wonderful. I can’t remember when I had such a good time.”

I had nightmares about having a kid like my dad and going freaking crazy.

“I was talking to Spidermonkey,” I said. “I am on a case, remember?”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, that.” And so many other things.

She tossed a pair of jeans at me. “The hike will clear your head.”

“Never going to happen,” I said.

“I’m going to brush my teeth and when I come out. I want you dressed,” Grandma said.

“Good luck with that.” I found the remote, turned off the bad news, and checked my phone. Spidermonkey hadn’t come back with anything new since I’d gone to sleep. Disappointing, but expected. I had been working long into the night like I’d told Grandma, but it wasn’t on our case. Spidermonkey and I were going through the new lead she’d given me. Gladys Watts was really Giséle. Spidermonkey was absolutely stunned that that hadn’t turned up. He had no idea that she was French either. Gladys Watts had an American birth certificate. She was supposed to have been born in Iowa to American parents. Spidermonkey hadn’t had any reason to question her documentation and had taken it at face value. Everything added up until I threw France into the works. Grandma didn’t give me a last name, so all he had to go on was Giséle and the timeline.

“You really think Elias the Odd was Elijah’s father?” Spidermonkey asked.

“Definitely,” I said. “No doubts.”

“The numbers don’t line up. Elias disappeared in October 1910. Thomas Watts married Gladys in December 1910 and Elijah was born in September 1911.”

“They got a fake birth certificate for Giséle. They could get one for Elijah,” I said.

The two of us combed through ships manifests looking for a Giséle. I’d begun to think it was

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