Page 29

Lenora was so anxious going through customs she thought for sure the agent could see the guilt on her face. She’d promised herself if she could just get home, just surround herself with all the old items that were once hers, she would never again do anything illegal.

“Why were you in England?” he asked.

“Just visiting old friends and doing some shopping,” she smiled. He looked at her bags and nodded, scanning the passport and then looking up at her again.

“Welcome home,” he said, waving her through.

For Lenora, there wasn’t a better feeling in the world. She was truly home. Her home. Her family’s home. No one could take this from her again. After more than an hour in a car, she finally arrived at her destination.

Her realtor was standing at the door, smiling at her and waving.

“Welcome home!” he said excitedly.

“Thank you, it feels good to be home. Do you have the paperwork with you?”

“I do,” he nodded. “If you’ll just sign here and here, everything will be done. We’ll have to notarize some things, but we can do that tomorrow or the next day once you’ve rested a bit. The check was deposited this morning, and everything has cleared. The house is yours.”

She quickly signed all the designated areas and handed him the papers once again.

“I’ll call you tomorrow to set something up,” she smiled.

“Of course. And as you requested, we’ve set up the master suite with a temporary bed for you. Are you sure you’ll be okay in this big house all alone?”

“I’ll be wonderful,” she laughed. “Believe me, I stayed here a lot as a kid by myself.”

“Alright then, see you soon.” He left, and Lenora almost did a dance in the middle of the massive vacant foyer. The house was so empty her breathing echoed as much as her footsteps.

But she was home where she belonged, and her adventures were done. She would never leave Connecticut again. Just as she was about to take her bags upstairs, the doorbell rang.

“Who on earth?” she murmured. Opening the door, she was shocked to see Dean.

“Welcome to the neighborhood,” he smiled.

“Dean!” she hugged him and kissed him sweetly, and he blushed, pushing her further into the house. “I’m so glad you’re here to celebrate with me.”

“Yeah. About that, Lenora.”

“I’ll order something for dinner. What would you like?” She walked toward the back of the house, hoping to get a better signal on her cell phone.

“Lenora,” he called out. She turned to see him surrounded by more than a dozen people. One, a woman, she recognized.

“Wh-what is this? What are you doing?” she asked.

“Lenora, I’m with the FBI. I specialize in recovering stolen art and antiquities,” said Dean.

“No. No, that has nothing to do with me,” she said with conviction.

“Lenora, it has everything to do with you,” said Tillie. “We know that you killed Echo, we know that you sold the amber and the eggs, and we know that you’ve done this game before.”

“You don’t know anything,” she said, glaring at them. Her back was to the bay, the windows behind her as she stared at them. She owned a weapon, but it was not with her, or she’d fight her way out. “You won’t take my home from me again.”

“You’ve bought this house with stolen money,” said Dean. “I wish I could give it to you. I wish you’d come to me for help. But I can’t ignore my duties.”

“Your duties,” she sneered. “Where were you when they took everything from me? No one was there for me!”

“I was a kid as well, Lenora. Don’t you remember? I was in college, too.”

“No. No, you’re not going to take this. I won’t allow it. I’ll find a way. I’ll fight you in court. I didn’t steal those things. They were already stolen. All I did was market and sell them.”

“That’s still stealing, Lenora,” said Tillie.

“What would you know? You had a home to go back to, family, your things. I had nothing!”

They could see that the conversation was getting them nowhere. The woman was becoming more and more irritated, but they’d given their word that they would let Dean handle her the way he thought best.

Slowly, he approached her, his hands raised, hoping that she would see he was unarmed.

She could see that it caused him tremendous pain to do this, but that didn’t matter any longer. The only thing that mattered was her home.

“Please, Lenora. Come with me peacefully. I don’t want to hurt you.”

The team fanned out, worried she would try to run. They had no idea if there were hidden tunnels, staircases, or anything else in the mansion. Leo gently pushed Tillie behind him, hoping to shield her from anything.

“Lenora, you have to give this up,” said Tillie. “There’s no way for you to get out of this.”

She looked like a trapped animal. Her eyes were wild, her body jerking with fear and concern. Pacing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, she was shaking her head, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Lenora? Lenora, honey, look at me,” said Dean.

“You betrayed me!”

“No. No, I never betrayed you. I was happy to see you, to see that you were okay. But I have a job I have to do. Please. Just come with me, and we’ll get you a good lawyer.”

“Lenora, please,” said Tillie. Leo caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and gasped, shoving Tillie to the floor.

“Shooter!” he yelled.

All hell broke loose at that point. The shattering of glass, shards flying through the air as bullets laced the sky. All hitting their target.

“Who fired?” yelled Dean into his communications device.

“Not us,” said his team. “We’ve got a team chasing them down.”

Dean stood over the bleeding, dying body of Lenora Palmer as she looked up at him, tears streaming down her face.

“Th-the ceilings were always so beautiful,” she smiled. “I loved this house. I love this house. M-my house. M-my…”

Her last breaths floated through the air of the old home as Lenora slipped away. Dean reached down, touching her eyelids with his fingertips, closing her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Dean,” said Tillie.

“It’s alright. I really did care for her. It was terrible what happened to her here, and it wasn’t her fault. I can’t imagine what it would have felt like to have your whole world ripped from you.”

“What will you do now? I mean, she’s bought the house, paid for it. What will you do with it?” asked Leo.

“If I’m allowed, I’d like to make it a historical site. It qualifies under the guidelines, and the story alone would bring people through the house. I don’t know. We’ll see what the feds want to do with it.”

“If you need help,” said Luke, “call us, and we can have our legal team look into it.”

“I just might do that,” he nodded. “It’s almost time for me to retire anyway. Tour guide for a historic home sounds great to me.”

It turned out that the shooters were the men who’d originally stolen the amber and eggs. The FBI caught up with them in Maine, and they were facing so many federal and international charges they wouldn’t see the light of day ever again.

One thing was certain. Lenora got to go home.