Chapter 58
Beatrice loved waking up with Elizabeth between her and Jon in their big king size bed. She knew it wasn’t in vogue to still share a bed with almost-five-year-olds, but when Elizabeth stayed with her, Beatrice left it up to her. She looked like a clichéd sleeping angel, curled between her and Jon.
Bea struggled to loosen herself from the blankets without waking anybody up. She planned on pumpkin pancakes this morning, one of her favorite breakfasts for the fall. It had become a tradition for Halloween morning.
She was so pleased that she would be taking Elizabeth trick or treating this year, then on to the fire hall for the community party. Vera and the others were all going to try to stop by the party, including Annie with her boys, so there would be no scrapbooking party tonight, but they were getting together later to do another Halloween ritual. Beatrice had thought about going—in truth she still thought about going. She might just leave Elizabeth with Jon and attend after all.
After breakfast, Annie called her.
“Are you ready for tonight?” Beatrice said. “Are the boys excited?”
“Yes and yes,” Annie said. “It’s going to be a busy one. But listen, I have a question for you.”
“Yes?” Beatrice asked.
“What do you know about Michelle Drummond’s housekeeper Irina and her nephew Jorge?”
“Nothing, really,” Beatrice said. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I just had the weirdest feeling about them last night.”
“Last night?”
“Yes, I went to their crop, which was pretty cool. It had this Day of the Dead theme.”
“What kind of weird feeling did you have?”
“It’s hard to explain, really,” Annie said, but she tried to articulate her feelings while Beatrice listened.
“You probably just stepped into the middle of a family thing. Kind of like I did with Emma.”
“What happened?” Annie asked.
Beatrice relayed the story of seeing Sheriff Bixby at Mountain View and then visiting with him later. On Annie’s end of the phone, she heard a scuffling in the background, followed by a crash.
“I’ve got to go,” Annie said.
Beatrice laughed. “It sure sounds like it.” Those boys of Annie’s were a handful.
Jon and Lizzie were outside raking leaves, and then they planned to carve a jack-o-lantern. Of all the joys Elizabeth had brought Beatrice, seeing her with Jon was a huge one.
Bea finished loading the dishwasher, wiped off the counters, and finally went upstairs to change. She’d been in her nightclothes all morning.
When she came back downstairs she was surprised to see Detective Bryant, Jon, and Lizzie in her living room. Lizzie loved Bryant and was sitting on his lap, chatting away about Halloween.
“You need to promise me that you will check out each piece of candy you get or let a grownup do it, before you eat it,” Bryant was saying to her.
“Okay, I promise,” she said solemnly.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Beatrice said.
“Beatrice,” Bryant said, looking up at her, then back at Lizzie. “I’ve got to talk to your grandmother alone, okay?”
Lizzie wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek before she and Jon went into the kitchen.
“What can I help you with?” Beatrice said as she sat down in her favorite armchair.
“I hear that you’ve been buddying up to the local sheriff,” Bryant said.
Bea didn’t like his tone. Why did he have to be so sarcastic? “Well, that’s not exactlty true. And I hear you’ve been buddying up to a woman who’s half your age,” she retorted.
He reddened. “That’s my personal life. Not your concern. Or any of your cronies’.”
“Cronies?” Bea’s voice raised. She took a deep breath. “What do you want? Honestly, just get on with it.”
“I’ve been working pretty hard on the cases of the murdered sisters and trying to combine efforts with the sheriff.”
“And?”
“I wondered if you might have any leads for me.”
Beatrice sat back against her chair cushion. “Do you think I killed those women?”
“No no no! I just keep tabs on Bixby. I don’t trust the man. The feeling is mutual.”
“He’s a lawman, Bryant,” Beatrice said. “I’m surprised at you.”
“He’s a sheriff. He works at the will of the people. A lot of politics goes into his job. A lot of winks and slaps on the back.”
Beatrice thought about that a moment. “Well, that’s true. But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.”
“No, I know that. He’s just a different animal from me. So have you found anything about the cases from him?”
“No, we had a personal conversation. His wife’s aunt, Emma Drummond, is my old friend and I ran into him the other day at Mountain View. We’ve just been discussing her and, um, well, family matters, if you must know.”
Bryant raised an eyebrow and nodded his head as if that somehow meant a lot to him. “That it?”
“I think so. Small talk, you know. Nothing else,” Bea said. “Sorry I can’t help you. I wish I could. You know, we were able to send cards to the Martelino family and I thought I’d feel better after that. But I sure would feel a whole lot better if you’d find their killer.”
“We all would, Beatrice,” Bryant said. “Believe me, we all would feel much better if these cases were solved.”