Finally, I spotted something. On the shelf next to the crawl space. A long barrel, barely visible in the filtered light. But could I get to it in time?

Rex saw my eyes dart toward the crawl space and he lunged at me. I screamed and jumped toward the shelf and grabbed my weapon. I turned and swung as hard as I could at his head.

The hair dryer—the hair dryer that had gotten me into the crawl space in the first place—smashed into his jaw. It disintegrated into about fifty pieces as Rex crashed to the ground with a thud, the bits of plastic and ceramic falling onto his back like puzzle pieces.

I stood there for a moment, my hand shaking, holding onto what was left of the hair dryer.

I looked down.

Rex was out cold at my feet.

FORTY SEVEN

“Why are we having pizza again?” Will asked, grabbing a slice from the box in the middle of the table. “Is this cause Mom beat up that creepy inspector guy today?”

I held up the bottle of beer and tilted it in his direction. “Yes. That’s exactly right.”

I couldn’t believe that just a couple of hours earlier, I’d jumped over Rex’s unconscious body and sprinted up the stairs. I’d locked the basement door behind me and, with shaking hands and eyes blurred from unshed tears, grabbed my cell and called the police. I’d called Jake next and  he’d gotten to the house three minutes later, before the police arrived. He’d gone downstairs to stand guard over Rex and I’d stood on the back porch to wait for Detective Hanborn to arrive.

Jake put his around me and raised his own beer bottle. “Your mother handled herself quite nicely today. She was very brave.”

“Yeah, but we need a new hair dryer,” Emily said. “I have to take a shower and dry my hair tonight..”

Grace slapped the table. “You can use one of the Barbie ones in the playroom!”

Emily shot her a disgusted look before turning her eyes back to me. “We can go to the store tonight, right? And get a new one?”

“Sure,” I said. She could have asked me to buy her twenty hair dryers and I probably would have said yes.

“Or I could just not worry about my hair and skip school tomorrow,” Emily said, reaching for another slice of pizza. The cheese slid off and she dangled it above her mouth, dropping it in. “All I’m going to hear about is how my mom beat up the murderer.”

“Better than your mom being the murderer,” Jake said.

I elbowed him in the ribs and he laughed.

“Yes, you’re going to school,” I said. “Life is back to normal. You won’t be poison anymore.”

Jake started rapping the Bell Biv Devoe song and Emily shot him a disgusted look. “Oh my God. What are you singing?”

He rocked back and forth in his chair, folding his hands rapper-style across his chest. “Bell Biv Devoe. One of the most awesomely bad rap groups ever.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just stop.”

Jake turned to look at me. “I really think you should do a music appreciation class. All of the one-hit wonders and bad bands of the 80s and 90s.”

“Great idea,” I said, taking a sip of my beer.

“Yeah, well, I’m not homeschooled anymore,” Emily pointed out.

“We’ll make sure we do this class on the weekends, when you’re home,” Jake said.

She made a face, but I could see the smile in her eyes.

“See?” Jake said to me, clinking his bottle of beer against mine. “Everything is back to normal.”

He leaned over and kissed me and Will groaned. “He’s right. Everything is back to normal. Including your gross kissing.”

I smiled. I wasn’t one hundred percent convinced about the normal part. I was still rattled about both what Rex had done and what he had tried to do to me. I saw a few sleepless nights in my future, as well as some consultations with a security company for the house. It was going to be hard to shake the image of someone sneaking into our home in the middle of the night without our knowing.

But it was evident, sitting around the kitchen table, bantering with the kids and feeling a sense of calm wash over me, that some of the normalcy had already returned.

“Can we have cookies for dinner?” Sophie asked hopefully.

“Cookies?” Emily raised her eyebrows. “You had time to make cookies while all of this was happening?”

“No,” I said. “Carol brought them by.”

After Detective Hanborn had led a dazed and slightly bloody Rex out of our basement and into a waiting squad car, Carol Vinford had shown up at the door, a plate of cookies in hand. Her husband had been listening to the police scanner and she’d come scurrying over, telling me she’d planned to stop by anyway to let me know that we were welcome back at the co-op with no restrictions. She babbled on about how the mothers had met and had decided that they needed me and they’d do whatever it took to get me back. I didn’t know what was truth and what was fiction and I was still reeling from what had happened in the basement. I wasn’t in the mood to agree to anything at that moment, but I took the plate of cookies and told her I’d be in touch. I knew we’d go back because the kids would want to, but I didn’t mind making her squirm just a little before I gave her the news.

So that normalcy was back.

We finished the pizza, the kids discussing how maybe now that the crime was solved that Olaf would decide not to haunt our house. We were a one-ghost household, Grace proclaimed and all the kids, Emily excluded, agreed that Lolly was the only ghost we wanted.

Yep. Back to normal.

A knock at the backdoor froze all conversation.

“No one’s running?” Jake asked. “Wow. This is progress.”

“You and Mom are here to fight off the robbers,” Will said, leaning to the side to get a better look at the window. “And now we know Mom can actually fight, so that’s cool.”

“Yes,” I said, standing and heading for the door. “I’m a crime-fighting machine.”

I peered through the kitchen door and smiled.

“Am I bothering you?” Olga asked, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry to stop by after the day you’ve had.”

I waved her into the kitchen. “Not at all. Come in.”

She stepped inside and unzipped her coat, revealing a purple and yellow paisley sweater. “I heard about what happened. Are you alright?”

The pattern on her sweater was making me dizzy. “Fine.”

“He didn’t hurt you?” She eyed me. “You don’t seem fine. You seem…rattled.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. Really.”

She studied me for a minute. “That’s good,” she finally said. She wrung her gloved hands. “And he said he did it? To Olaf?”

I recounted what Rex told me. She listened closely, nodding her head. She winced when I mentioned the part where they’d fought, her eyes pooling with tears. She rubbed at them and let out a long, slow breath when I finished.

“Okay,” she said. “At least I know now.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling at a loss to offer her something better.

“Me, too,” she said. “But at least I know. Not knowing was the hardest. And I guess it’s better that I know it wasn’t Helen.” Her mouth twisted into a knot for a moment. “Even if it was partly her fault.”

I doubted she’d ever not blame Helen for losing her brother. I wasn’t sure where I stood on that, after witnessing Helen’s apology and guilt. But that was for them to work out and for me to stay out of.

“So I guess I just wanted to say thank you,” Olga said. “For figuring it out.”

“I didn’t really figure it out,” I told her. “I’m not sure I really did anything.”

She brushed at her hair with her gloved hand. “Well, you went out with him. And you were nice to him. And you cared that someone killed him.” She paused. “I’d say that’s plenty.”

I didn’t know what to say.

“Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your family,” she said, glancing into the dining room. “I just wanted to say thank you. And remember if you need a clown for a party or something—”

“Right, right,” I said hurriedly before Jake came out of his seat and threw her out for uttering the c-word in our home.