As soon as Doreen got home, she walked in through the back door, only to hear Mack calling out from the front door. She walked through and opened up the front door to find him standing there, a big pizza in his hand. She stared at him in surprise. “Hi. Where’d you get the pizza from?”
“I just ran by and grabbed it,” he said. “I can’t stay long, but I figured you probably hadn’t eaten.”
“Depends on if you call eating trying Nan’s banana-carrot-pineapple-zucchini bread.”
He stared at her in horror, but she shrugged. “Nan was a little confused today. She made all that in the same loaf, though honestly it wasn’t half bad.” He stared at her, as if she had just said something terrible. “I get it,” she said. “It’s not anything I would normally eat, but it was okay. I did only have one piece though.”
“Yeah, I wonder why,” he muttered.
She laughed. “Besides, I’m always happy to see food.”
“Good,” he said. “I know that it’s early, but I figured, since I had to go back to my office for a few more hours, this would be a good way to get a bite to eat.”
“Perfect,” she said, leading the way to the kitchen.
He looked at her and asked, “Did you just come in?”
“Yeah, I came in the back way in the pouring rain,” she said, still holding the box she’d gotten from Nan.
“What’s all that?”
“Huh,” she said. “You won’t believe it.” She explained, as she got out plates and put on hot coffee.
He asked, “Seriously?”
“Yeah, it looks like it may be love letters and some other stuff,” she said, downplaying what was in the box. “I don’t know exactly what it is yet—or why anybody would keep a love letter. I understand while you’re alive maybe,” she said, “but I wouldn’t want whoever reading any love letters of mine.”
“Your heirs must get rid of it,” he said.
“In this case I guess Hinja told them to send everything to Nan.”
“That’s interesting. I wonder why.”
“Apparently Hinja always talked to Nan before doing stuff. So, whenever she had a question about what to do with something, Nan would tell her.”
At that, Mack burst out laughing.
“What?” Doreen said.
“It’s just bizarre enough to be true,” he said, “but why would the family burden Nan with that?”
“Maybe they thought she’d be happy to see it all.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged and opened up the pizza box. Lifting up two big pieces, he put one on each plate. “There you go,” he said. “That’s a start.”
“And a good start it is,” she said enthusiastically, as she immediately took a bite. “I hadn’t realized how hungry I was, until I had a piece of that odd bread that Nan made.”
“I still can’t believe she poured everything into the same recipe.”
“I doubt she’s the first person to do it,” she said. “And I seriously don’t know if it was intentional or like an experiment or if she honestly just forgot what she was making.”
“In Nan’s case it could be any of the above,” he said.
“How are things going for you? The case and all?” she asked him.
“What case?” he said smoothly.
She glared at him. “You can’t hide forever, you know.”
“I can try,” he said, with a cheeky grin.
She sighed. “It would be so much easier if you’d just share.”
“And it would be so much easier if you’d stay out of that part of my world,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
She really had no answer for that, so she sat in quiet contemplation, enjoying her pizza. “This is really good,” she said, with a happy sigh. “You know what? Even though I haven’t starved, I worried that maybe I would, when I ended up single. I did have a really rough couple months,” she said. “But rather than starving, I think you’ve taken over the job of feeding me.”
“Is that so bad?” he asked.
“Maybe not,” she said, “but I do feel guilty about it sometimes.”
“No need,” he said, “because you’ll make me dinner tonight.” When his phone buzzed with a text, he glanced at it and added, “At least I hope I can get here.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m supposed to cook stir-fry by myself, right?”
“Yep, you sure are,” he said. “You are still up for it, right?”
“Absolutely,” she said, with a grin. “I’d like to learn how to make that because I really like my veggies.”
“Good,” he said. He took another piece of pizza, looked at his watch, and groaned. “I can eat this, and I probably won’t have time for any more.”
She pulled the box closer to her. “That’s okay,” she said. “I can help you out with that.”
He laughed and laughed. She just grinned. “Have you heard from my brother?”
“No. Am I supposed to?” she asked, looking down at the pizza and realizing her stomach was suddenly souring at the thought of more.
“Nope, not necessarily,” he said. “I’m just making sure everything is on the up-and-up.”
“Me too,” she said. “The good news is that, even though I haven’t heard from him, I also haven’t heard from Mathew.”
“You’re right. That is the good news. On the other hand,” he said, “you definitely have paperwork that needs to be settled.”
“What about Robin? Is that all locked up?”
“They’re investigating the ex-husband, James, right now,” he said, “but that’ll be Vancouver’s issue, not ours.”
“Right, except that he killed her here.”
“Yep, but now they are dealing with the older crimes down there. His parents and all.”
“He should be made to pay, no matter what.”
“He will,” he said, “but he doesn’t need to be held here, if they have other issues that they need him to deal with down there first. And this case will just add to the pile.”
“I guess it doesn’t really matter, does it? As long as he goes to trial.”
“Absolutely,” he said. Mack stood, grabbed a napkin, and wiped his hands and face. “I really would like to stay and have coffee, but—” And his phone buzzed again.
“You’re really busy, huh?”
“Always,” he said, “since you hit town anyway.” Then he laughed and added, “But I’m glad you came.”
“Thank you,” she said. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
He looked at her in surprise. “Seriously?”
She shrugged. “Most of the time you’re yelling at me.”
“But I don’t always mean it,” he said in a worried tone, and she flashed him a grin.
“I know,” she said. “I was just bugging you.”
He rolled his eyes, then leaned over, kissed her on the temple, and said, “Now stay safe.” And, with that, he was gone.
She reached a hand up to her temple and thought about his words and where they were heading and grinned. If he were still around, she’d have said something to him, but the witty repartee was out of her hands now. At the moment she didn’t have a clue what she would have said, and she was still stunned that he’d kissed her. Not that it was a real kiss or anything, but it was hardly something to ignore either. It said a lot about the progression of their relationship.
She sighed and cleaned up the table, surprisingly full after two large pieces of pizza. With enthusiasm and a fully empty table, she got out her laptop and her notes and started in on Hinja’s notebook about her niece, Annalise. Even as Doreen read the first page of the notebook, her gaze kept going to the letters. Finally she sighed and said, “Fine, letters first.”
She opened the first one, realizing none had envelopes, and read it. It was a sloppy mess about how Hinja had finally found the true love of her life. It was both tender and endearing. The second was similar; the third one was similar, yet the tone changed over time. In each of the subsequent letters, Hinja worried that her lover wasn’t faithful. Complaining about long absences and slow responses on letters. All the letters were address to a Bob—or just to B at times. Underlying Doreen’s suspicion that Bob Small was Hinja’s lover.
But then again, this was snail mail versus email, and Doreen didn’t think anything happened very fast in the mail back then. By the time she got toward the end of this stack, the letters were very different. Hinja was hurling accusations at Bob and asking if he’d done something to hurt her by hurting her niece. Of course Doreen found no written replies.
That was the odd thing about these letters. There were no replies from Bob; they were all one-sided. And, as Doreen looked at this collection of letters, she realized that somehow Hinja still had these letters. Doreen found no letters written to Hinja from her beloved. So how had Hinja gotten these letters that she’d sent to Bob Small back again? Was there a response anywhere? And if not, why not?
Bob could have marked the envelopes Return to Sender. Is that why Doreen found no envelopes? Why would Hinja have just her letters that she’d sent him? It made no sense and just deepened the mystery. Although Doreen wondered if the poor woman wrote them but never sent them. Like some kind of release, getting closure, without confronting Bob. Even so, after all these years, why would she keep these letters that, if she read and reread them, would just fester all those negative emotions and feelings?
Why?