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Adam looked over at Beverly, who was crammed into the floor of the passenger seat. He said, “I must be insane to let you talk me into this.”
She grinned. “I kinda like you being on the crazy side. It’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
“We may have only fifteen minutes, twenty tops.”
“People can get up to all kinds of mischief in twenty minutes.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” But Adam parked the car toward the back of the long, circular driveway next to a path leading around the back. He opened the driver’s side door and held it open long enough for Beverly to maneuver across the seats and slide out the door. Then he headed toward the front while she ducked around the back.
Hoping that the mayor’s golf game would take another hour or more, followed by the usual nineteenth-hole cocktails, Adam rang the front doorbell. The look of shock on Zelda’s face would be amusing on any other occasion.
She held open the door but didn’t invite him in which made him sweat for a few moments. He asked, “May I come in? It won’t take too long.”
Her curiosity apparently overriding her suspicions, she motioned for him to enter and led him toward a living room. It was immaculate and decorated in contemporary-chic Vermont, with metal and wood furniture and showroom-pristine fabrics.
He’d looked up her house in the local real estate assessment database. The place had six bedrooms, four baths, over five thousand square feet. Much bigger than his two-bedroom, one-and-a-half baths. It also had an office, which is where he and Beverly had agreed was the best place to do a bit of slightly unauthorized sleuthing.
Adam started coughing and apologized to Zelda, saying, “Ragweed pollen. Maybe a glass of water?”
Zelda headed toward what must be the kitchen, and Adam took the chance to scurry down the hall to unlock a side door nearest the office to let Beverly in. She’d offered to use her bump key on the way over, which had made Adam reply, “You have a bump key? How in the world did you . . . no, better I not know how you got it.”
When Zelda returned with the water, he was back seated on a sofa, trying not to look out of breath. She sat opposite him, perched on the edge of her seat. “Does my husband know you were coming today? He didn’t mention it.”
“I didn’t tell him. It’s about your husband that I’m here. Something he said the other day when we ran into each other.”
“Oh?” She leaned so far forward, he was worried she might fall off.
“He suspected I might be having an affair with you. At least, that was the implication.”
“Good heavens, where would he get that idea?”
“He saw us in the street. After you came out of the wine shop three days ago.”
“But that was a random encounter.”
Adam looked directly into her eyes and said softly, “Was it really random?”
“Of course,” she said, reaching her hand up to touch her hair, the bracelets on her wrist jangling. “Do you think I planned to see you that day?”
“As I recall, you’re not a big wine drinker. More of a whiskey connoisseur. Yet not only were you buying wine, it was my favorite type.”
“Coincidence. Nothing more.”
He rubbed his eyes. “Zelda, I know I wasn’t the warmest guy to be around when you initiated the divorce. Who would be? But I wanted you to know that if you’re happy, then I’m happy for you.”
She twirled a short strand of hair. The bracelets jangled some more. “Happy? As happy as anyone is.”
“I’d forgotten how adept you are at non-answers.”
“I’m happy, deliriously happy, over-the-roof happy. There. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
He leaned back and noticed how her eyes followed his body as he moved to make himself more comfortable on the sofa.
This wasn’t the mayor’s first marriage. He’d divorced his previous wife after only two years. Rather, she divorced him. One day when he’d bumped into the woman at a bar, she’d regaled Adam, in her drunken state, about the mayor’s shortcomings in bed. Not what Adam needed to hear, and he’d extracted himself as soon as humanly possible. Although a corner of his brain did do a tiny victory dance.
Zelda dropped her hand and rubbed her leg. She still had nice legs, he had to admit, as he eyed her short skirt hiked above the knee. She said, “Have you been spending time with that suspect—Beverly something?”
“Doing my job, as I always do.”
“Is that all? Just doing your job?”
“We have a mutual friend in Harlan Wilford, one of the main reasons she came. But Beverly is merely passing through town.”
“Beverly. Sounds schoolmarmish. Is she older, near Harlan’s age?”
“She’s around my age or a little younger. Why all this interest in a suspect?”
“Is she pretty?”
“I’m not sure that’s relevant to this conversation. I want to talk about us.”
Zelda got out of her chair and sat close beside him. “Adam, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Not only at the wine shop. I just . . . I guess I’m getting sentimental. Remember that summer we carried a picnic up Franconia Notch and you tripped and fell into a bog, so we went skinny dipping in the Concordia falls?”
“Yeah, I remember.” One of many moments he’d shared with his wife that brought a smile to his lips.
Without warning, she reached over to wrap him in a bear hug. He managed to extract his arms to pat her gently on the back. And then he looked over her head and saw Beverly waving from a hallway. She made a cutting motion with her hand, then disappeared.
Zelda released him and rubbed her hand across his cheek. “We could do it, you know.”
“Do what?”
“Have an affair. If Titus believes we’re already having one, why not?”
His jaw dropped open. “Zelda, you do know that’s crazy, don’t you? And that’s not why I came here today.”
“Not crazy at all. You are an amazing lover, Adam. Thoughtful, passionate. Titus wouldn’t have to find out.”
“In a relatively small town like this, you think he wouldn’t find out?”
“Not if we’re careful.”
“Zelda, I . . . “ He rubbed a hand through his hair. “I care about you. But not that way.”
“You said you wanted me to be happy.”
“I do, I do.” He bit his lip at his choice of words. “I fear that my coming here was a bad idea. I should go.” He stood up and then reached down to give her a light kiss on the forehead. “This is what you desired, wasn’t it? The house, the fame, the fortune, the glamor? Don’t squander it all on a sordid affair.”
Adam dabbed at the corner of her eye, where a small tear was threatening to fall. “You gave me ten wonderful years, Zelda. I’ll forever be grateful for that.” He reluctantly headed out the door, part of him hating to leave her like that, part of him wanting to run as far and fast as he could.
Re-enacting their arrival in reverse, he opened the driver’s side and waited for Beverly to hurry over and crawl onto the floor of the passenger seat. She waited until they were out of sight of the house to sit up in the seat and pull off her gloves. She was quiet for the first few minutes.
“How’d it go?” He prompted.
“Prospecting pays off sometimes.”
“Good, good.” He paused. “About what you heard in there. I wasn’t being dismissive of you.”
She waved him off. “Guess what I found?”
“Gold, I hope. Not Goldie.”
“Your Mayor Lehmann is going to have to surround himself with an army of smart people if he wants to be governor. He’s not an Einstein. Keeps his papers in unlocked drawers and documents everything. Possible blackmail fodder for later, who knows?”
“What did you find?”
“Evidence that the mayor knows full well about Forsythe’s shady dealings. I didn’t see anything that indicated he was involved per se. But he’s freely consorting with a known criminal. He’d done a little research himself. All written down. Is he a Luddite or something? No computers in his office. Only a set of expensive, matching executive-type furniture. The place was like a museum.”
“Too bad you couldn’t make copies of those documents.”
“Didn’t have to.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. “I took pictures.”
“You are a wonder, Beverly Laborde.”
He caught her looking at him before she looked away and said, “Was it awful? Being there with your ex?”
He laughed, but it was bitter and humorless. “She wants to have an affair.”
Beverly sucked in her breath with an audible hiss. “That’s what the hug was about. And here I thought it was a goodbye hug.”
“It was. As far as I’m concerned.”
She put the cellphone away. “Where do we go next?”
“We don’t. I do. You may be one tough lady, but I’m not going to risk taking you in the Sutton’s Grove camp to hunt for Gabriel Karlstad. Gun or no gun.”
“You can’t go in there alone, Adam. I won’t let you. You should take Jinks with you.”
“She’s still in Nashua. That break she’d hoped for in her case came through. But don’t worry. I have someone else in mind. He’s helped me out on more than one occasion. We’ll be fine.”
