by Dale Mayer
“I’ve got some of my favorite recipes hanging around here,” Nan said. “I couldn’t part with them when I left the house. I should just hand over the book to you. It’s not like I’m cooking much anymore.”
“If and when you’re ready to get rid of it,” Doreen said with a smile, “I shall be happy to have it.”
“Did you have a reason for calling? Otherwise I’ll go eat,” Nan said. “All that exercise has given me an appetite.”
“Right,” Doreen said. “I was just calling to ask if you know Aretha Abelman.”
“Aretha?” Nan pondered. “I know that name, but her last name is not Abelman.”
“So who’s Aretha?” Doreen asked.
“Her husband ran one of the little insurance companies around here,” Nan said.
“Oh, that makes sense. She probably remarried.”
“Yes,” Nan said, “She and Hobart were together for decades.”
As Doreen looked down at her notes, she realized that, even at thirty-five, decades into a second marriage was still quite possible. “Did she ever have a family?”
“No, it was always suspected she couldn’t have any,” Nan said bluntly. “Never really understood that myself.”
“Some people’s biology just doesn’t work the same as everybody else’s,” Doreen said. “Really difficult if she wanted children.”
“I don’t think she wanted children as much as she wanted to have had children,” Nan said with a laugh. “There’s a very fine distinction there.”
“True. Did she ever talk about being married previously or being part of a jewelry family?”
“All the time,” she said. “It was one of the things she always reminded all of us,” Nan said in disgust.
Hearing Nan’s past tense usage, Doreen’s heart sank. “Are you saying she’s dead?”
“Oh, I don’t know if she is or not,” Nan said with a careless attitude. “The woman wasn’t terribly nice. She always lorded it over us that she had more money than we did.”
“But the jewelry company went bankrupt.”
“That was after a robbery,” Nan said dismissively. “She never considered that their fault. Somebody came in and stole a lot of their stock of jewels, and the insurance company refused to pay out on all of it because they just had a shipment brought in, but there was some confusion on just what had arrived.”
“Wow,” Doreen said. “For somebody who you don’t really know, you sure have a lot of information.”
“I didn’t want the information,” Nan said in a snappy voice. “You’ve got to realize she’s the kind of person only interested in making you understand how she’s better than everybody else.”
“Where is she now?”
“No idea,” Nan said with a sniff, her nose probably rising, as if Doreen had insulted her. “However, I could ask around and see.”
It was so unlike her grandmother to be snippy about somebody that Doreen couldn’t help pushing. “Were you rivals for the same man or something?” She wasn’t sure what else to ask. But Nan’s snorted disgust got her laughing. “I guess not, huh?”
“She married that stuffy Hobart,” she said. “That man was a nightmare.”
“But could he keep her in the style to which she was accustomed?”
“I don’t know how they did it,” Nan said, “but she certainly lived in a big highfalutin house. She had one of the first houses up on the Knox Mountain area, with a huge view of the city and a pool and the whole works.”
“Well, good for her,” Doreen said. She didn’t have anything against a woman doing well.
“Yeah, but it’s not like his little insurance company should have done that well.”
“I don’t know,” Doreen said. “It seems like a lot of insurance companies do very well.”
“Maybe so,” she said. “But I’d be more than happy to help you try to find dirt on her.”
“I’m not trying to find dirt on her,” Doreen said gently, not willing to tell her about the jewels because, if Nan thought they would be returned to this woman, it might be the last straw for Nan. “I’m just wondering how that whole jewelry business went under. It seems that a robbery shouldn’t take down a longstanding business like that.”
“That’s easy,” Nan said. “Neither of them worked. At least not well. Neither had a head for business. She was involved in her father’s business, but only in the sense that she was the model used for everything. They had a lot of different rings, and apparently she had gorgeous hands. Her father was very proud of his little girl, so she was in a lot of the advertisements.”
“Which would have gone to her head, of course,” Doreen said.
“Yes. But that still didn’t give her the right to lord it over us.”
“Of course not,” Doreen said quickly. “How often did you see her?”
“Way too often,” she said. “She was here at Rosemoor for a while. And I used to pass her when I was coming back and forth to visit friends. But she hasn’t been here since I moved in. Honestly, I’m not sure if I would have moved in here if she’d been here too. The woman is insufferable.”
“Ah, Nan,” Doreen said with a warm smile. “Please don’t ever change.”
“Not planning to,” she said in a huff. “I’m not like Aretha.” And, with that, she hung up.
“It would be nice if you didn’t hang up on me, Nan.” But her grandmother was gone before those words were spoken.
Chapter 3
Friday Late Afternoon …
Doreen started a file, writing down the information she’d gotten from her grandmother. Then she started looking for Aretha and her new husband. Had Nan mentioned a last name? She frowned at that. Hobart what? And what was the insurance company name? Doreen hesitated calling Nan again to ask. Her grandmother would know she was working on another case, and Nan could be relentless when she wanted information. Doreen researched online first, and it wasn’t long before she came up with Hobart’s Insurance Company.
Not exactly the most professional-sounding business name—and using his first name at that. But it worked. She brought it up only to find the business had been sold ten years ago. Hobart had lasted another three years after that, and then he died. After a little bit more digging, Doreen couldn’t find anything new about Aretha. There was no sign of family, extended or otherwise, and she didn’t have any children, according to Nan. So Aretha was apparently a fairly wealthy older lady who’d been alone now for several years. But where was she?
Doreen studied several more articles online and found that Aretha considered herself a bit of a philanthropist, as she donated to various causes. At the top of her list was always children, animals, and women’s shelters. That made her a more likable woman in Doreen’s eyes. But that didn’t necessarily mean that Nan would like her. But why wouldn’t she? It was so unusual for Nan to have such a pet peeve about somebody. But then, of course, Nan had come from no money and had built up everything she’d had on her own and had enjoyed life with a lot of different relationships. It was quite possible Aretha was a pious judgmental person. Doreen knew that could irritate Nan. It was also quite possible the two women had clashed over something else, like Nan’s gambling, for instance.
There were any number of possible reasons why somebody didn’t like someone else. And, as soon as somebody didn’t like you, human nature being what it was, you tended to not like that person back. And what was it Nan had said? That the insurance hadn’t paid out on a load of jewels that had come in. Were they really lost after that burglary? Or had that burglary been something set up that had gone bad? But then why would you burgle your own store? Particularly if the insurance wouldn’t pay out. None of that made any sense.
But then how much were Aretha and her first husband really into the business anyway? Her parents apparently had built it up from nothing, starting it when her parents were in their early twenties. It wasn’t until after their daughter had married that it hadn’t done all that well. How much of it was Aretha sipho
ning off jewels and funds, potentially to keep herself in the lavish lifestyle she considered her right? Just because one owned the jewelry store didn’t necessarily mean she was dripping in jewels.
Doreen herself had spent many an evening covered in jewels, but the minute she walked back into the house, her husband had removed them from her neck and ears and wrists and had locked them up in the safe. Even though she had received them as gifts for various anniversaries and other occasions, her husband had never let her have access to them otherwise. So when she left, she couldn’t take them with her.
Annoyed at that, she started a list of all the jewelry her husband had given her, yet kept. Surely that wasn’t right. They were supposedly gifts. There’d been a beautiful pearl necklace, an emerald necklace, a beautiful sapphire pendant, several rings and bracelets. She wrote down as many of the individual items as she could and wondered if she had any pictures of them. She had a lot of photos on her phone and then also on her cloud account, where she had kept them stored away and set aside for memories. Maybe that had pictures of the jewelry.
She would like it if Mack’s brother could get just her personal possessions back. Surely her husband didn’t have the right to keep those too. She didn’t want to go looking online for pictures of him and his lawyer girlfriend, Doreen’s divorce attorney no less, in case the lawyer was now wearing Doreen’s jewelry. That would really suck. It also made her angry. Finally she got so angry that she snatched her phone and sent Mack a text about his brother.
You just contacted me about him today, Mack texted back. I haven’t had a chance to reach out to him.
She sat back and sighed. Then sent a text back. Sorry. I was just getting angry thinking about all my jewelry.
What jewelry?
The gifts he gave me over the years, she typed. I wasn’t allowed to keep them. He locked them up in the safe every night. And, of course, I didn’t have access to the safe.
And when you left, you left them behind?
No choice.
But they’re yours?
He gave them to me as gifts, yes.
Wow, Mack added. Not a nice man.
No.
I’ll mention it to my brother.
Okay.
And, with that, she had to leave it.
Her stomach growled. But the last thing she wanted right now was another sandwich. She stared around the kitchen, wondering if she could justify some Chinese takeout. She hadn’t had any in so long. She got up and found the roll of bills Nan had slipped into the bag of veggies just a few days ago and opened it up. Another three hundred dollars in there. “Nan, you’re such a sweetheart.” Doreen could live for a whole month on three hundred dollars. Of course she had more bills coming that had to be paid, and that was a bit of an issue. She checked the fridge and winced at how empty it was, then closed it again.
She sat back down. “Well, if we walked down to the Chinese place to see what was on special,” she said to Mugs and Goliath and even Thaddeus, “we would wear off the calories by the time we got back again.” Likely cold too. And maybe she couldn’t come inside with her animals, but she didn’t give herself a chance to hesitate. She got up and grabbed her wallet, checking how much money she had, including the three hundred dollars, and saw way too much to be carrying around. She took out ten dollars and put it in her pocket, so she wouldn’t spend more, and then put away her wallet.
With all the animals in tow, she headed out the front door, setting the security system, then down her driveway and around the cul-de-sac. She still had a way to go, but it wasn’t too far.
A post office sat in the same little corner, as well as a pizza place and a gas station with a little convenience store attached. Such a beautiful evening to be out for a walk.
As she walked across the road, the traffic had slowed down, and the evening lights had come on. It would be really beautiful on the way back, if darkness ever fell, because the lights on the marina and the boats out in the harbor were visible from here. It was truly breathtaking.
Back on the other side of the crosswalk the four of them carried on for the next two blocks, and she finally turned in to the area where the Chinese food was. She headed toward the corner where the store was tucked into the back, but, as she walked inside, Mr. Fong Wu lifted his head and smiled, until he saw Thaddeus on her shoulder and the rest of her animals and got upset.
“No animals. No animals!”
She glared at him. “I just want to place an order, and then we’ll wait outside.”
He appeared mollified, until he saw the ten-dollar bill in her hand. He rolled his eyes. “Big spender.”
“Not a big spender,” she said, feeling a little defiant, “but it’s what I have. What can I get for ten dollars?”
He looked at her in surprise, his fingers rapping away on the countertop, then snatched a take-out menu, placed it in front of her. He started to circle things. “Combo A, B, or C,” he said. “Or you can have a single dish.”
She nodded and stood here for a long moment. “How about this combination?” she said. “Noodles and lots of vegetables and almond chicken.”
He rang it up. “With tax it’s a little over ten dollars.”
She glared at him. “But it says in the front window that I get a ten percent discount if I pay cash.”
He looked at that, smiled, and said, “I forgot.” Then he changed the order and said, “Now you have enough,” and handed her back a little bit of change.
She smiled and said, “We’ll be outside.” She pulled the animals back outside to a big area with a round concrete table across the way beside a health food store that served shakes and coffees too. She looked at her coins and sighed. “We didn’t bring enough for a coffee.”
Mugs barked at her, obviously smelling something he wanted in the nearby garbage can. She kept him on a shorter leash because other people were around. Goliath, on the other hand, didn’t have that problem. He hopped up onto the big concrete table and sprawled himself on his side, his tail flicking in the late afternoon sun. She reached over and gently scratched his ears.
“I’m not getting anything for you to eat,” she said. “Chinese food isn’t for kitties.” He just looked at her. Those golden eyes of his were mesmerizing. She smiled, then reached down and kissed him on the top of the head. He looked at her like she’d done something horribly wrong. She laughed.
Thaddeus took the opportunity to jump off her shoulder and hopped down beside Goliath, where the bird curled up against Goliath’s belly and hunched down, so he was tucked against Goliath’s underarms. She never really understood this move, but Goliath didn’t even move.
She looked down at him and said, “You are a beautiful kitty, and I thank you for not hurting Thaddeus.”
Thaddeus gave her a strange little look and started to make a weird cackling sound.
She stared at him. “I really don’t think I want to know what that means.”
And he did it some more.
She groaned. “There should be a handbook on bird sounds.” Then she realized there probably was one, and all she had to do was check the internet. She pulled out her phone, checked to see she had enough data, and then searched on sounds that African grays made.
The trouble was, they evidently had the ability to make hundreds of sounds, which she shared with Thaddeus. For whatever reason, Thaddeus seemed to think that was worthy of a chuckle. But sitting there, snuggled up with a cat who was likely to eat him, was hardly something to chuckle at. But, as long as Thaddeus was happy, she was good too.
She sat here, smiling, as she watched the pizza guy return, leave, and then come back again. “The delivery address must be pretty close for such a fast delivery,” she muttered.
And while she waited, the health food store switched their sign from Open to Closed and even turned the lights down. She could see the woman inside, trying to cash out.
Just when she wondered if the Chinese food had to be grown before it was cooked for her, she heard a call fro
m behind them. She turned to see Mr. Wu waving at her. She walked back inside and said, “Is it ready?”
He nodded and smiled, handing her a plastic bag. The smell was especially good. She grinned at him and said, “Thanks.”
“You come again,” he said.
“What if I only have ten dollars?” she asked wryly.
“You come with no money,” he said, “we still feed you.”
Surprised at that and touched, she said, “Thank you. That is very generous.”
He shook his head. “You good people,” he said. “We feed you.” Then he disappeared into the back.
She could see all the slips of orders lined up by a kitchen pass-through window and realized he was in for a very busy Friday night. With the animals in tow again, she headed to the riverside this time and walked down Mission Creek. Then she had to cross over and come up around the corner. She headed up the back path to her property. She sighed happily as she reached home. She put the food on the little table outside on her deck, went into her kitchen to grab a knife and fork and a dinner plate, and poured herself a glass of water. Just as she sat down, she heard a voice call out.
“In the back,” she yelled. Good thing she’d disarmed the security; otherwise no way Mack could come in. She scooped almost half of the Chinese food onto her plate, realizing it really was a huge portion, and she would have enough for tomorrow too. Except, with Mack here now, there was a good chance she wouldn’t get any leftovers. He came storming through, but the fury on his face had her freezing in place.
“What on earth is the matter?” she cried out.
He stopped, took several deep breaths, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m trying to calm down, but—”
“With you, it’s never an easy process,” Doreen said with a smile. “I’d offer you some of my Chinese food, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“And I’ll say, Thank you, and take it,” he said, marching back inside, grabbing a plate and fork.
She watched almost sadly as he scooped the rest of the Chinese food onto his plate. “If I’d known you were coming, I could have ordered twice as much.”
