Page 31 of One Last Night

He doesn't answer right away. When he does speak, it's in a softer voice. "Can anyone else hear me right now?"

“No. Why?”

“I haven’t told Julian this yet, but the lines were damaged by ANFO. Are you familiar with that?”

“No.”

“It’s an explosive. Ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. It’s a commonly used explosive for demolition because it’s low velocity and safer than dynamite. But it’s still a bloody explosive.”

“And you’re sure of this?”

“I’m sure. It has a very distinct smell.”

I shiver. An explosive? Even a “safe” explosive, is still—as Sean so elegantly puts it—a bloody explosive.

This saboteur really is escalating. It's time for me to put my fears over my past with Annie aside. Now, the family under my care reallyisin danger.

“Mary?” Beatrice asks again. “Is the bastard out there?”

“No,” I reply. “No, they found footprints, but he was gone before this started.”

Beatrice cursed. “God damned little coward. Sorry for my language, ma’am. But he’s a god damned little coward.” She sighs and looks at the children. “Poor babies. I’m going to serve you some ice cream. Least I can do. Ma’am, do you want some?”

“No, thank you.”

“Coffee then. I’ll bring it outside to the vineyard after I get the children their ice cream.”

That wasn’t a question. She heads to the kitchen to fetch the children their ice cream and the adults their coffee. Victoria wipes tears from her eyes and says, “Children, stay here. Mary, if you don’t mind staying with them, please.”

Nathan hops to his feet. “I want to go outside. I want to help Dad.”

“Stay here,” Victoria says firmly. “Whoever did this is gone now, but if they come back—”

“They won’t come back,” Nathan insists. “That would be stupid.”

“Everything they’ve done so far is stupid,” she counters, “but they’ve done it.”

“Don’t be rude to Beatrice,” I tell Nathan. “She’s making you ice cream. Your father’s all right. Sean would have told me something if he wasn’t.”

Nathan frowns, but he nods. "Okay. I just hate… I'm not a kid."

“I know that,” I tell him. “But sometimes being an adult means knowing when to act and when to wait.”

Nathan sighs. “All right.”

Victoria smiles gratefully at me and heads outside. Beatrice arrives a moment later with the ice cream and a cup of coffee for me. “Ms. Bellamy is outside?”

I nod, and she returns a curt nod of her own and heads outside. I notice that the hand not carrying the coffee holds the rolling pin. A part of me hopes that the coward who did this—and Beatrice hit that nail on the head—is still out there. I’d love to see him get brained for this.

In the meantime, I can do nothing but sit with the children and wait.

***

The police arrive five minutes later and stay for six hours. Sean isn’t able to keep the secret of the ANFO anymore because the police bring dogs, and those dogs immediately identify the explosive.

I am only able to pick up bits and pieces of the investigation. The police quickly determine that I was inside the entire time and once they learn that there was sabotage before I was hired, they rule me out as a suspect, a possibility I doubt they took seriously to begin with.

I stay with the children. Nathan, surprisingly, quickly loses energy. He falls asleep in the dining room, and after a half-hearted protest, I’m able to coax him upstairs to bed. Luann comes with me, and when Nathan is in bed, I turn to her.

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