I expected to get home a few minutes before Fred because I drive faster, but I had time to feed Henry, let him out, take a shower, make plans with Trent for the evening and mix up a fresh batch of cookie dough before Fred finally drove into his garage. I noticed that his car was once again clean and shiny. A car wash would explain some of the time lapse. I knew all that dust would freak him out.
I went to his house and knocked on his front door.
He opened the door and looked over my shoulder. “Are you alone?”
“Of course I’m alone. Why would you ask such a question?”
“You so rarely are these days.”
I couldn’t deny that. “For the moment, I’m alone.”
“Come on in.”
I entered Fred’s house and went to sit on the leather sofa. “The good news is, I think my career as the manager of a B&B is over. Rick’s relations have his house to wreak havoc on. Trent’s coming over later, and we expect to have a nice Friday night alone.” I got a little thrill just thinking about our first night together.
Fred took off his jacket and settled into his recliner. “A word of advice, don’t answer your door or your phone for anybody except me.”
“Got it. And you don’t call unless you’re dying,” I warned. After all this time and anticipation, I wasn’t about to have the evening interrupted by anything less than a huge emergency.
“Not even if I have the results of Rickie’s DNA test?”
I looked at him dubiously. “Can you get results that fast?”
He shrugged. “Probably not. But I told my friend to put a rush on it.”
“You’ve already dropped that gum off?”
“Of course.”
“With a friend?”
“Yes.”
“You have another friend besides me?” I was only half-teasing. Fred never talks about his past, and nobody ever comes to visit him except Paula and me. At least, nobody that I know of. He could have a secret tunnel leading to his house that only his best friends get to use.
Nah. I’m his best friend.
“I do have other friends,” he said, “but none like you.”
I wasn’t sure how he meant that but decided to take it as confirmation of my status as his best friend. “So what do you think makes the old flour mill so important to Bryan Kollar if he didn’t already know about the plans for a shopping center?”
“At the current time, I don’t have the answer to that question.”
“But you have some ideas,” I prompted. I felt certain he had a whole list of possibilities.
He shook his head. “I don’t have enough data to speculate.”
“You could make a SWAG.” Fred’s SWAGs (Some Wild-Assed Guess) are usually more accurate than most people’s well-researched opinions.
“I could, but I won’t. I’m going to spend the evening gathering more data. Did you ever find out the name of Rick’s girlfriend who was in the explosion with him?”
I sighed. “Trent’s so close-mouthed about all that cop stuff. You could hack into the police computer and get the name.”
“Honestly, Lindsay, some of the things you expect me to do just amaze me.”
But he didn’t say he wouldn’t.
“I’m making some fresh cookies. Come on over and have a few. The massive quantities of sugar will keep you awake all night so you can find some answers.”
“Thank you, but you and Trent should have the entire evening alone.”
I rose from the sofa. “If you change your mind, we still have a few hours before the alone part becomes critical.”
“Are you going to wear those clothes?”
I looked down at my best jeans and red shirt. “Not all night.”
“The gray silk blouse and matching slacks your mother gave you for Christmas might be more appealing.”
I’d shoved those clothes in the back of my closet and forgotten about them. How did Fred even know I had them?
X-ray vision.
“I’ll think about it.”
Fred’s rarely wrong, so I dragged out the clothes my mother gave me and put them on. Then, while I was thinking about her, I phoned her just to be certain she didn’t call during the evening and interrupt me while I was wearing…or not wearing…those clothes she gave me.
“Are you on that cell phone?” she asked immediately.
Damn. I forgot about caller ID. “Yes, but it’s okay. You won’t be getting any of those evil signals in your brain, just me, and my brain’s already doomed.”
“Please call me back on your real phone.”
I sighed, disconnected and called her back from my landline.
“I’m so glad you called, sweetheart. I just heard the news about Julia Akin.”
I searched my brain trying to place the name. Probably one of Mother’s friends that I met once twenty years ago and was expected to remember for the rest of my life. I had no idea if the news was good or bad, whether Mother loved or hated Julia, if I should commiserate or celebrate. “I hadn’t heard about Julia Akin,” I said, trying to be as noncommittal as possible.
“Oh, Lindsay! I didn’t realize you didn’t know! I’ll be right over. You don’t need to be alone when you hear this.”
I was supposed to know who Julia Akin was, and my mother was coming over to tell me about her and interrupt my evening with Trent. “No, Mother, don’t do that. I’m not alone.”
“Who’s there with you?”
There were plenty of spiders in the basement and Henry would be back soon. “Trent’s on his way.” He might be, and certainly would be as soon as he got off work.
“Oh. Trent.” My mother’s voice dripped icicles. But she sighed and relented. “Very well. At least you won’t be alone tonight.”
“No, I won’t. I’ll be just fine. Look, I’m really sorry about Julia, but I need to run. That may be Trent’s car coming down the street.” May be. Odds were it wasn’t, but that was a technicality.
“Sweetheart, I don’t think you understand about Julia. We need to talk about her.”
I sank down onto the sofa, prepared for a pretentious, verbose recitation of poor Julia’s troubles. “Okay, let’s talk.”
“That’s the woman who died in the explosion with Rick.” Give my mother credit, she can be succinct and to the point when the occasion demands.
Though I had nothing against the late Julia Akin, I was delighted to get that news. It would give me something to throw up to Fred, that my mother had this information before he did. “I appreciate your concern, but it really doesn’t bother me that Rick had another girlfriend.”
A long moment of silence ensued.
“Do you know who Julia Akin was?”
“Rick’s fifty-seventh girlfriend since we got married? That’s just a wild guess. I didn’t really keep track of the number.”
My mother heaved a long-suffering sigh. It wasn’t easy having me for a daughter. I could appreciate that. I wouldn’t want to have me for a daughter. “She’s Thomas Akin’s wife.”
“Married? Bummer. I hope they didn’t have kids.”
“They didn’t. Lindsay, Thomas Akin is a very prominent man in the area. He’s on the board of several organizations as well as chairman of the Missouri Roads and Highways Commission.”
This was all starting to make sense. “Mother, where did you hear about this? It’s not on the news yet, is it?”
“No, but it will be soon. Brent Hathaway told your father. He heard it from Sam Carruthers.”
The news was making the rounds of the elite of Kansas City. My mother was suffering from shame by association. It was one thing when her daughter’s estranged husband dated strippers and store clerks, but now he’d branched out into my mother’s world.
Everyone would know.
“I’m sorry, Mother. Marrying Rick was a huge mistake, but I can’t take it back, and I can’t undo his misdeeds. He’s dead. She’s dead. It’s a done deal.”
“When the television reporters come to interview you, please be circumspect in what you say.”
I thought Mother was probably being a little paranoid about the TV reporters, but I wasn’t going to argue with her. “I can be circumspect. How about, No comment?”
“Yes, that would be best. Have you decided yet when the funeral will be? We need to get that over with as quickly and discreetly as possible.”
“Oh, well, about that…” Maybe I should have let my mother come over or gone to her place. I could handle the news about Julia, but I wasn’t sure my mother could handle everything I had to tell her. “The funeral’s been sort of taken out of my hands. Rick’s family has arrived.”
She gasped. If she had not had impeccable manners, she would have interrupted me with an expression of her astonishment.
“I know, I told you I didn’t think Rick had a family, that he was hatched from an egg in an experimental laboratory and the scientist who did it committed suicide from remorse. But it turns out he has a mother, two brothers, a former girlfriend and maybe a son.”
A long moment of dead silence.
“Mom? Are you okay? Is Dad there? Do I need to come over? Do I need to call 911?”
“What sort of people are they?”
“Loud, pushy, demanding. You’re not going to want to invite them to Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Where are they right now?”
“In Rick’s house, probably destroying everything.” I smiled at that image.
My cell phone broke into Wild Bull Rider. Fred.
“I gotta go, Mom. I’ll let you know when the funeral is.”
I hung up and answered Fred’s call.
“I found out the name of Rick’s girlfriend,” he said.
“Me too. Julia Akin.” Bazinga! I said it first!
“I suppose it’s common knowledge already. That was bound to happen.”
“If it’s not, it will be soon. My mom's bridge club will be spreading the news to the far corners of the earth.”
“I didn’t realize your mother played bridge.”
Poor Fred. I’d just scooped him and now he thought there was something he didn’t know about my mother.
“She doesn’t play bridge. I was just making a point. The news is going the rounds in her circle of acquaintances.”
“I see.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to steal your thunder. Well, actually, I did mean to.” I couldn’t repress a short giggle. It’s so seldom I’m able to beat Fred at his own game.
“Does your mother’s fictitious bridge club know about the new highway extension planned for the area out by Kollar’s Flour Mill?”
I sat bolt upright on the sofa. “So that’s why Rick was buying up that property and planning a shopping center! Somehow Julia found out through her husband and told Rick.”
“It would appear. Short of finding a good medium, I don’t suppose we’ll ever know exactly what happened, but apparently something along those lines did.”
“I wonder what this will mean with respect to all those properties he bought? Will Marissa or Rickie or whoever gets them have to give them back since Rick had inside information he didn’t reveal?”
“No, of course not. Julia probably broke a few laws when she shared the information about the highway, but they can’t prosecute her or Rick now.”
“You think Bryan Kollar could have known about the highway even though he didn’t know about Rick’s plans for the shopping center?”
“It’s possible, but I don’t think so. I need to do some more research on him.” He hung up.
I sat there on the sofa mulling over this new information until I heard a knock on the door.
Trent.
I got up to let him in. Henry darted in alongside him. I was glad my cat liked my boyfriend. I’d have hated to have to choose between them.
Trent smiled, the green in his eyes dancing. He held out a bouquet of brightly colored flowers.
“They’re beautiful!” I was impressed. Rick always gave me roses, but I really like lots of different flowers of different colors.
“You’re beautiful.” He pulled me into his arms and gave me a long, slow, delicious kiss.
“Want to go upstairs?” I whispered.
He laughed. “How about we go to dinner first? We’ve waited this long. Let’s do this right.”
I nodded. “I guess I’m just being a little paranoid. It’s like the universe is scheming to keep you out of my bedroom, and we need to take advantage of this opportunity.”
“This opportunity will last all night. We’re not going to open the door to anybody, not even the fire department.”
“Deal.”
I put the flowers in a vase, gave Henry some catnip, and Trent and I went to a steak place with real napkins and candles on the table. I spilled red wine on my gray silk blouse. Should have worn the red shirt.
When we got home, Trent parked his car in my driveway rather than on the street. We were settling in for the night. I smiled as we walked across the yard to my house, his arm around my waist. I’d been waiting for this night for a long time, waiting for my divorce to be final and, more recently, waiting for Rick’s relatives to go away. I had to work the next day, but it was Saturday and we only served brunch on Saturday so I could sleep—or whatever—until six o’clock, an extra two hours.
We went inside. I locked the door behind us and put on the chain then stepped into Trent’s arms. He has the most luscious lips. I could kiss him for an hour or so and planned to do just that.
“Upstairs,” I whispered against those wonderful lips.
“Mmm hmm,” he agreed, kissing the side of my neck, working his way down, sending tingles all through my body.
His cell phone rang.
“Don’t answer it.”
He sighed and stopped the wonderful things he’d been doing. “I have to. That’s my work phone.”
I got an eerie feeling that Rick from his vantage point on the other side was somehow still manipulating my life. I was being paranoid again.
I went to the kitchen to get a Coke while Trent took his call.
When I came back he was sitting on the sofa with his hands in his lap holding his phone between them, his head down.
“You have to leave, don’t you?” Please say no!
He nodded and lifted his head to look at me. His eyes were dark. “They got an anonymous call at the station. Somebody says he knows who killed Rick and wants to meet with me tonight to tell me. The caller has some information we didn’t release to the public, so this could be legitimate.”