20
You say you’re planning to stay there the entire summer?” Opal’s voice carried the shrill quality of a woman who’d just seen a large cockroach.
“Yes. Until late August. Then I’ll be back to open up the restaurant with my friends.”
“Right, the restaurant. May I ask why you are not back here now, preparing for the opening? I don’t think you should be squandering your time like this.”
“There’s really not all that much for me to do there yet. And when I came to visit this little town, I found it to be so beautiful and peaceful. I thought it would be a nice area to stay in for a while and begin the healing process. Then I found a job and a little duplex to rent temporarily, so it all just fell into place.” Opal had never been overly concerned with Kelli’s comings and goings, so her reaction was quite a bit stronger than Kelli had expected.
“Tell me again, how did you end up in that particular town in Tennessee? You have a friend who lives there, is that what you told me?”
Kelli considered her answer for just a second. “I know someone who used to live here. She’s not here anymore, but I grew so interested in the place because of her that I wanted to come check it out.”
Opal’s breathing was slow and deliberate on the other end of the line. “I hope you are being smart—about the way you’re spending your time, I mean.” There seemed to be a warning in her tone.
“I am, Opal. I’m just doing what I need to do.”
“I see.” A couple more deep breaths. “At least give me your address there so I can drop you a line every now and then.”
“Sure, I’ve got it written down here somewhere.” Kelli fished it out of her purse, but even as she did so she wondered at the reason. Opal had never in her life sent a “line”—not even birthday cards. “Okay, here it is, you ready?” Maybe it was just a formality, or perhaps Mimi’s death had caused Opal to grow nostalgic.
“All right, then. You stay safe and keep in touch. You’ll let me know . . . before you make any kind of major decision, right?”
Major decision? Opal had to be talking about the past—what else could it be? Well, now was a good time for Kelli to begin practicing her discretion. “Sure, Opal, I’ll let you know if anything big comes up.”
“Good-bye for now.” Opal hung up the phone with a surprising swiftness. The woman was in panic mode.
Beth pulled up at the Richland Inn, fruit bowl in hand. She walked into the lobby and was happy to find Donna Renfro at the front desk. “Hey, girl, how are you doing?”
“Splendid, just splendid.” Donna’s tone and expression were as perky as ever. “I’d heard you just moved back to town. How are you?” Beth had known Donna since grade school. After graduation, Donna had married her high school sweetheart while Beth had gone away to college. The only way they’d been in touch over the past decade was Christmas cards—Donna’s showing two adorable children.
“Couldn’t be better.” Beth’s left hand went to her stomach out of reflex. “Listen, I brought by a little gift for Kelli Huddleston. I think she’s one of your guests here. Can you tell me what room she’s in so I can take this to her?”
“According to the rules, I’m not allowed to give out room numbers. It’s a safety issue—”
“Are you kidding me? I mean, you’ve known me all my life. It’s not like I’m a murderer or anything. I’m just bringing by a fruit bowl.”
“Judging from the black eye you gave Jason Harley junior year, your status as a potential murderer could be debatable.” She grinned. “I’m just telling you what the rules are. But”—she nodded toward the lobby—“I do need to straighten the newspapers over on the table over there. If I just happen”—she winked—“to leave the room number written on a piece of paper right here, it wouldn’t be my fault if you happened to see it . . . by accident.”
“Right.” Beth nodded. “Thanks, Donna.”
“Thanks for what? I’m not doing anything.” She pulled out a Post-it note, wrote 204 in big numbers, then walked into the small lobby and neatly arranged the Lawrence County Advocate right next to the Tennessean. “There, that looks better, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely it does. Thank you so much.” Beth went through the lobby, out the door, and up the stairs. When she reached room 204, there was a Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the knob. Beth looked at her watch. It was almost ten o’clock, but she supposed Kelli could still be asleep. She went back to the car. She’d run some errands and then stop back by.
When she pulled into the parking lot of Kroger, she noticed a small lime green car with California plates. It wasn’t like there were California plates in this area all that often, so she went inside, grabbed a cart, and made a point of looking down every aisle she passed.
When she turned down the produce aisle, Kelli was just putting some grapes in her cart. “Hello there. I just came by to see you.”
Kelli looked up, clearly startled. “Oh, Beth, hi.” She paused for a moment. “You came by to see me?”
“At the hotel. I brought you a little welcome gift, but I saw the Do Not Disturb sign on your door, and I thought you must still be asleep.”
“Oh. How’d you know where to find me?”
“It wasn’t that hard. The Richland Inn is the newest hotel in the area—it’s an obvious choice.”
“What were you doing there, again?”
“Bringing you by a bowl of fruit, as a sort of welcome-to-town present. I’m not much of a baker or I would have made you some banana bread or cookies or something. I was just trying to be neighborly.”
Kelli smiled. “Well, thanks for that. The need for fruit is what brought me here today. I’ve been eating nothing but junk food since I’ve been in town.”
Beth looked at her cart. “Well, you can keep those grapes, but if I were you, I’d put those apples and bananas away. I don’t think you’ll be needing them.”
“Thanks.” Kelli grinned. “Well, I guess these grapes and some juice are all I need, then.”
“My fruit bowl is still in the car, and I’ve got a little more shopping to do. Can I stop by the hotel after I’m done here?”
“Sure, that would be nice.”
Beth hurried through her shopping, and when she finally stood outside room 204 again, the Do Not Disturb sign was still on the knob. Surely Kelli was back by now. She hadn’t mentioned another stop.
Kelli opened almost immediately upon Beth’s knock. She looked at the bowl in Beth’s hands. “Thank you so much for that. It’s really sweet. Do you want to come in?”
“Just for a second. I’ve got groceries in the car.” Beth reached for the sign. “This is still out, do you want me to bring it in for you?”
“No. I leave it there all the time.”
“You’re kidding. Why?”
“So the housekeepers don’t come in here.”
“You don’t want the housekeepers in your room?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want anything to get stolen. I go down and change out my towels at the front desk when I need to, but other than that, I’m only going to be here for a week. It’s not like the room is getting filthy during that small amount of time.”
“What makes you think they would steal your stuff? There’s a safe in here for valuables, right?”
“Yes, but that only holds smaller things.”
Beth started laughing and couldn’t stop. She supposed she was getting to the point of being rude, but she just found it so funny. Finally, she caught herself, straightened up, and said, “Do you always do that when you travel?”
“Always. My father was a stickler about it.”
“Really?” Beth giggled again and shook her head. “I, on the other hand, leave the door to our house unlocked about half the time. I guess different families have different ideas about things, huh?”
“I guess so.” Kelli blinked and turned away. Beth had the distinct impression she wanted to cry.
On the drive home, she called Rand and told him about it. “I don’t know what it is, but Kelli is nursing a great big hurt.”
“What?”
“That you’ve found another one of your projects.”
“Now that you mention it, yes, I think I have.” Beth smiled as she pulled into the driveway.
After a long day, Alison looked forward to this evening of good food and relaxed conversation. She was only halfway up the driveway when the front door swung open and Shane hurried out to meet her. Before Alison even knew it happened, he had the casserole dish out of her hands and into his. “Oh, Shane, you don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but Pop told me you were bringing your famous squash casserole. I decided I wanted to be personally in charge of the safety of this dish. You can’t be too careful with these things, you know.” He grinned his usual mischievous grin.
“Yes, I’d heard there have been several casserole burglaries in this area recently.”
“My point exactly.” He led her through the house and out to the back porch. “I just heard from Rand that he and Beth are running a couple minutes late. Pop should be home any second.” He poured her a glass of iced tea.
“Thank you.” Alison looked at her watch. 7:40. “He’s there late, is everything okay?”
“Now that Frieda’s gone, it takes him a little longer to get closed up.”
“Oh right. I’ll bet he’ll be glad to have Kelli there to help him out.” She motioned toward the table. “Speaking of help, what can I do for you?”
“Kelli? You know her?” Shane dropped onto the bench seat of the picnic table.
“I met her at church last Sunday. Your father had asked me to keep an eye out for her because he thought she might be coming. Then he actually asked for my opinion before he hired her.”
“You are kidding me.” Shane folded his arms and leaned back. “Does he usually do that?”
“Ask my opinion about work? Never. I found it rather odd.”
“There’s a lot I find odd about this Kelli situation. None of it makes sense. Pop has never been one to act impulsively like this.”
Alison nodded. “I agree, it is unusual. What do you think is going on?”
Shane stood up and shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve got to believe there’s a con involved, but I can’t see what it is she hopes to gain.”
“If she was after money, there would definitely be more promising subjects in town than your father. Besides, Kenmore told me that all of her rent checks have cleared the bank already. If she doesn’t do a good job at the store, he can fire her and you’re no worse off than before. And since he’s the one who always does the end-of-the-day bookkeeping, if she’s skimming money anywhere in the store, he’ll know about it soon enough.”
“You’re right, I know you are. For some reason, there’s something about it that just gets me really worked up.”
“You want to take care of your father, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Alison placed her hand on his arm. “Speaking of con artists, did you hear Beth’s latest?”
“Nothing since the china debacle.”
“Who could forget that one?” Beth volunteered two days a week at the local thrift store. A young woman had come in, told Beth a long story about her abusive husband who had finally been arrested, but when he found out the police were on their way, he broke every last piece of china in the house—that china was the only thing the woman had left from her poor dead mother. Now, the family was in such financial straits they were eating directly off the counter.
Beth had run home, packed up her beautiful set of Royal Doulton fine china, brought it in, and happily presented it to the woman. Two days later, Rand found it all for sale on Craigslist. Turned out the woman had never been married and did not have any kids, but she and her boyfriend had a whole houseful of stolen goods.
Alison shook her head. “You would think she would have learned something of a lesson from that, but she didn’t. She handed over her car keys a couple of days ago to a woman who asked for cab fare so she could get her sick baby to the pediatrician’s office.”
“She didn’t.”
“Unfortunately, she did. Thankfully, the woman, who had a blood alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit, ran the thing into a ditch before she was ten miles out of town. It dinged up the car a little, but no one was hurt.”
Shane shook his head and laughed. “That girl takes the word gullible to a whole new level.”
“I know. It scares me to death to think of what she might get talked into next. There’s a woman she works with at the thrift store that she keeps talking about now. She’s determined to get her a merchandising job in a department store. I’m pretty sure the next issue will have something to do with her.”
“Hello, hello.” Rand and Beth came walking around the corner of the house, Rand pulling a rolling cooler behind him, Beth carrying a bag of rolls. “It smells really good back here.”
“I’m getting the hang of using this smoker. This is my first attempt at Texas-style brisket, though, so consider yourselves forewarned.”
“From the smell, I’m saying I’ll take my chances. By the way, your dad pulled up right behind us.”
“Hello there.” Kenmore came ambling out of the house. “Looks like I arrived after all the food is ready. Perfect timing.” His limp was getting more and more pronounced. Alison noticed Shane watching his father with a look of disapproval.
Kenmore walked over and smiled at her. “Last day of school, eh?”
“Yep. Until a week from Monday, anyway.”
“Mom, you’re doing that summer program? I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to do that again this year.”
“No, you agreed that you didn’t want me to do it again this year, but I told you that I was planning to.”
“Kenmore, tell her she needs to stop doing that. You know it’s not a good thing.”
“And why is that?”
“Well, she has to drive all the way to Nashville twice a week, and the kids in that enrichment program are not nice kids. I just think her time would be better spent here in town. You can teach more music lessons if you want to work more.”
“That’s what’s wrong with your theory, darling. The summer is when my students go on vacation. My music lessons always drop off in the summer months, so I can either teach music two days a week at the Radison Academy summer program, or I can try to find work at Walmart. Since every high school and college student has already applied for all those jobs, the chances are not in my favor.”
“What is it with kids that they think they can tell their parents what to do?” Kenmore grinned a challenge toward Beth. “I liked you all better when you were little and you didn’t try to boss us around so much.”
“Maybe you should try listening to us sometimes, right, Shane? I’m sure we’d all be a lot better off.”
“Agreed. Especially when you’re making decisions about who you are hiring and who is going to be living in the rental house you co-own with one of those kids.”
“Well, at least your father made a good decision there.” Beth dropped into a lounge chair. “He’s hiring Kelli, right?”
“You know her, too?” Shane bellowed.
“Oh yes. I met her at church, then went by to visit her earlier this week. She’s a great girl, you don’t have anything to worry about there. Trust me, I’m a great judge of character.”
Alison exchanged a glance with Shane. His face was bright red, and she thought for a second he might explode. Somehow he managed to turn toward the smoker and get busy, but she could still see his hands shaking.