O’Toole House Chapter 24
Gabriella hadn’t talked to her cousin Manny in probably a year, but you would think it was yesterday with the way he greeted her when she called.
“That frigging Foundation,” Manny said with a laugh when she explained what she needed from him. “I don’t know how you and James do it. So listen, I’m a little booked for the next couple weeks, especially since Amber’s going back to work and I’ll be picking the baby up at daycare. When would you need me?”
“This week,” Gabriella said, her hopes falling as she paced the hallway outside of James’s apartment. “If that doesn’t work, I can just-”
“No, I can make that work,” Manny interrupted. Which was good, because she had no way to actually finish that sentence. “I’ve got some time the day after tomorrow, could you do that?”
“Yes,” Gabriella said. “Yes, thank you so much. Do you need me to do anything? I can pick up Gracie at daycare if you want, or-”
Manny laughed. “Thanks, but don’t worry about it,” he said. “All I’m doing is canceling a meeting I didn’t want to have anyway. Do me a favor and send me the address and any information you have. Including the spooky stuff.”
“Got it,” she said. “I’ll send that tonight. Thank you so much.”
She was standing outside James’s apartment door now. “I’m glad I can help,” Manny said. “Hopefully I find some horrible shit there, but I can’t make any promises. Alright, love you, hon.”
“Love you too.”
She hung up and knocked on James’s door. He opened it immediately and she realized he must have heard her out here on the phone. “Hi,” she said with a smile.
His smile wasn’t as forced as it had been before, but it was small and clearly took effort. “Hi,” he said, moving aside so she could come in.
She wanted to start by begging him not to move to Ohio. But instead, she headed toward the kitchen. “I didn’t bring any soup for once,” she said. “But I can run to Market Basket and get some stuff to make dinner. Want to come with me?”
Apparently she thought miracles had happened as the offer came out of her mouth before she could think it through. But he just shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’m making dinner right now, it just came out of the oven a few minutes ago.”
Sure enough, there was a pan of baked ziti sitting on the stove, so familiar that her eyes stung ridiculously for a second at the sight. This was what he made when he was bullying the team into actually eating during a case. “I brought cookies,” Gabriella said. “Not ones I made. But the salted caramel ones from Pastel.”
She hadn’t been back to the bakery since the case they’d had there. But today she’d gone after work and Etta, the owner, had immediately recognized her. She’d attempted to give Gabriella the cookies for free, but she refused.
She held up the little package and James’s eyes lit up just for a second before he became hesitant again. “Maybe later,” he said, avoiding her eyes now. “Sorry.”
“That’s fine. I’ll keep them here.”
He went to the cabinet and got out a couple plates while she left the little box of cookies by the sink. Gabriella wanted to go into the fridge and see if there were ingredients for a salad, but it wasn’t likely. She wasn’t sure if Graham had been home in the past three days, or if James had actually left the apartment in the past few weeks.
She tried to think of something to talk about when they sat down at the table with their food a few minutes later. He wasn’t high right now, which was encouraging. And he ate his food, even if he didn’t really talk while he did so. Again, Gabriella racked her brain for a topic that wasn’t work and wouldn’t make him feel guilty.
“It’s getting warmer out,” she said, then hated herself.
“Yeah,” James agreed.
“What did you and Amelia do the other day after I left?”
He shrugged. “Nothing, really. She stayed for a little while and we had some tea.”
“Nice.”
They were quiet another moment as all the inappropriate questions tried to force their way out of her. She could tell that James wanted to talk too, but couldn’t bring himself to do so.
“I think I’m going to leave in a couple weeks,” he said after a few minutes of quiet. “I’ll pay rent through the end of the lease, though.”
Gabriella had been about to fish a piece of sausage out of her ziti, but paused and set her fork down. “Have you talked to your parents?” she asked.
If he’d been attempting to sound casual and normal, the haunted look he took on as he stared down at the table destroyed the illusion immediately. “Not yet,” he said.
“What if you gave it a few months?” she suggested cautiously. “Maybe take it slowly? Especially if you’re still paying rent here.”
For a second, he looked like he might be considering it, and she was hopeful. But then he shrugged and went back to his food. Gabriella tried not to feel either discouraged or encouraged by that.
“Amelia said Fang escaped the other day,” James said a few minutes later.
Gabriella had missed that one. “Yeah?” she asked.
He nodded, a slight smile on his face. “She didn’t tell you?”
“She must’ve forgot,” Gabriella said. “What happened?”
She expected to just get the basics. The cat went out the door, the cat came back in the door. But instead, James started an elaborate story that must have happened on Gabriella’s day off. Fang slipped out the back door as Amelia had been going outside to take a personal phone call. She’d been distracted long enough that Fang got down the stairs and took off across the yard before she noticed.
Gabriella knew it was Riley on the phone. Amelia had been talking to her more over the past several days, clearly attempting to move forward after their fight. She had some thoughts on Riley right now, but considering her own history, she wasn’t about to tell Amelia to dump her girlfriend. Especially if being with Riley made her happy through this.
“She said Bradley was out there with cat treats, trying to lure her out from under the bush,” James said, his eyes darting toward the cookies on the counter before returning to Gabriella. “And she scratched him.”
“She’s probably wanted to do that for years.”
James laughed, but the smile faded quickly and she could see the memories returning. “What happened next?” she asked quickly. “Did he get her out?”
“Yeah, but she ran underneath the stairs and stayed there for an hour. Graham managed to get her out. Apparently she walked right out for him.”
“Bradley’s going to stop sneaking her treats now,” Gabriella said as she stood up and went for the cookies.
“He spoils that cat,” James said with a smile. “So does Madelyn.”
Gabriella brought a cookie back to the table and broke it in half. Moving as naturally as possible, she set half on his napkin while taking the other half for herself. James stopped, looking down at the piece of cookie, then up at her.
She took a bite of her own piece, doing her best to remain casual. This might be the best caramel she’d ever tasted, they had to make it in-house. There was no way she could take Etta up on her offer of free cookies, she’d end up eating a dozen a day.
She forced her racing cookie thoughts aside as James cautiously picked up his piece of the cookie. He broke off a tiny chunk and ate it, giving her a small smile before setting the rest of it back down.
This was good, it was more progress. But now Gabriella worried slightly that it was because he’d already decided to move away. Maybe it was easier to move on when he was already halfway out the door.
***
The rest of the night went similarly. James seemed more with it than he had over the past month, even as the pot brownie he ate after dinner started to kick in. He asked a lot of questions about what Gabriella was up to lately. She was cautious about anything work-related and she could tell he noticed. And when she attempted to steer the conversation toward Ohio again, he ignored her to instead talk about a movie he’d watched with Graham the other night.
James was asleep and Gabriella was getting ready to go to sleep too when his phone rang. She looked over at it and didn’t recognize the number. It had an international code at the front, so it wasn’t anyone on the team or in their family. She’d let them leave a message.
As she was brushing her teeth a few minutes later, the phone rang again with the same number. She rinsed her mouth and went back into his bedroom. James hadn’t moved from where he was stretched out on his bed beside it. Gabriella hesitated, then picked it up. If they were calling again this late at night, it was probably something important.
“James’s phone,” she greeted.
“Shoot, I’m so sorry,” a female voice said. “I just realized what time it is there and how bad this looks. I’m James’s ex-girlfriend, Meredith. He left me a really concerning message earlier and I wanted to call back, but didn’t think about time differences enough or that maybe he had a girlfriend there right now. I can-”
“Meredith, wait, wait,” Gabriella said quickly. “This is Gabriella. His cousin?”
There was a pause, then Meredith laughed. “Wow, I’m so sorry,” she said.
“No, it’s alright.”
James shifted on the bed and Gabriella slipped out of his room so she didn’t wake him up. “He’s sleeping,” she said. “You said he called you?”
“Yeah,” Meredith said, then hesitated. “You’re the one who works for the Foundation too, right?”
“Yeah, that’s me.”
“It was really weird,” Meredith said. “So, he left me a message saying he was worried that he might’ve left another message saying some horrible stuff to me. He didn’t. But he said something happened, that he’d been controlled by something and he didn’t mean anything he said. Do you know what’s going on?”
“Yeah,” Gabriella said. “Yeah, that’s pretty much what happened. He’s out on medical leave for a little longer.”
“Is he okay?”
There was a question, the same one she asked every single day. “I think he’s getting there?” she answered. “I wish I had a less vague answer for you. But yeah, he’s been really messed up, but I think…”
She trailed off, not sure if she should say anything else. “What did he tell you?” she asked instead.
“He said he was scared he’d left me a really bad voicemail and didn’t remember doing it. But if he did, he was sorry. He’d been controlled by a poison and he didn’t mean any of what he might have said. Oh, and something about moving to Ohio?”
“Yeah. I really hope he doesn’t,” Gabriella said, glancing back toward James’s room.
“Do you know if there’s a good time to call him?” Meredith asked. “I’m going to be traveling the next couple weeks for school, but I want to make sure he knows everything’s alright. He didn’t actually send me anything.”
“I don’t know when he’ll pick up, but it’s worth trying,” Gabriella said.
“Thanks for talking to me,” Meredith said. “I was really worried. I know that your job is dangerous, but the way he was talking was like nothing I’ve ever heard from him before.”
“It’s been bad,” Gabriella admitted. “But I’m hoping it’s getting better. And that he doesn’t move to Ohio.”
They hung up a moment later and Gabriella brought James’s phone back into his bedroom, setting it on his bedside table. He didn’t wake up as she did so.
