Free Set Change: A Nina Bannister Mystery (The Nina Bannister Mysteries) by T'Gracie Reese, Joe Reese Page A

personal. I hope you don’t mind.”
    “Of course not, Hope.”
    “I wanted to ask…”
    Silence again, except for the drone of an airplane passing low on its way to landing at the Bay St. Lucy Airport, and the sound of wavelets lapping at the pier outside.
    “Do you ever feel—well, close to Frank?”
    Nina thought for a while, and finally decided to tell the truth.
    “Yes.”
    “It’s as though he’s—somehow all around you?”
    “Yes.   Yes, it’s that way.”
    “Well—I feel that way more and more often now, as I walk through the house. Or as I sit out here and watch the water. There are presences. Old friends. Loved ones. They seem to be telling me that something will be happening soon.   I shall be 82 in two months, and…well, they seem to be letting me know that my time is coming.”
    Nina would have commented, except she began to be lost in her own thoughts, which were occasionally similar.
    Not often.
    Just…
    …just sometimes.
    Mostly about this time of day.
    “It’s a very strange thing. They make me feel as though there’s nothing to fear. That it will be all right. And do you know, Nina?   I don’t fear. I don’t fear anything at all.”
    “Hope, I’m sure you’re right about there being nothing to fear; but you’re going to be with us a long time. You have many years in front of you.”
    Nina had, of course, no idea how long Hope Reddington had to live.
    She had no idea how long anyone had to live, herself included.
    But there were certain things one was expected to say.
    Or?
    At any rate, Hope continued as though she had not heard the comment anyway.
    “I just want to be sure that she’s all right.”
    “Who, Hope?”
    “Helen. I just want to have her here, and see her with a loving husband who will take care of her. And then I will be ready to go.”
    “I’m sure…”
    But Hope interrupted her:
    “As it is, I have concerns.”
    “What kind of concerns?”
    A shake of the head.
    “I’m not sure. I was unable to go to New York for the wedding. So far, so far…”
    “I understand.”
    “I’ve not seen Helen and her husband together. I don’t know anything about their lifestyle. Both of them famous now, in such a wonderful city. I assume it to be everything she dreamed of as a girl.”
    “Of course it is, Hope.”
    “But…her letters. She writes frequently, as she always did.   But...there’s been a change in them.”
    “What kind of a change?”
    “It’s hard to put into words. She writes about marvelous things, but without joy.”
    “I’m not sure what you mean.”
    “Nor am I. It’s simply…well, you must remember the nights all of us spent, sitting out here, knowing that we would wake up the next morning and go through our completely routine lives.   Lives spent at the pharmacy, or the law office, or the high school.”
    “Yes.   I remember them.   I remember them very vividly.”
    “Of course you do. Because there was a kind of wonder about them.   They were filled with love.”
    “That’s true.”
    “Helen’s letters…well, that wonder is missing, Nina. It’s simply not there. Perhaps it was during the first month or so of the marriage. But it’s gone now.”
    Nina knew nothing to say.
    The conversation stopped, then picked up again, then died by increments, as the night sky darkened.
    Finally it was time to clean the dishes, put the remains of the hated cucumber salad in the refrigerator, where it would hopefully go unthought of until it died and disappeared, be sure that Hope was secure for the night…
    …and go home.
    During her ride back Nina thought about the presences.
    Yes, they did hover around her at times.
    And yes they did make her feel that everything was going to be all right.
    They were not there now, though, and they were not there as she parked her Vespa and made her way up the stairs.
    They were not there, telling her that everything would be all right.
    She was soon to find out why.

PART TWO:   ARRIVALS AND