“To think deeper, I suppose.” She was right. I still tended to look at the surface of situations and not cast my net wide enough. “I’m figuring out how to look for information I didn’t realize was out there. That’s one of the harder parts of life, isn’t?” I gazed at her, wondering how I could ever become half so great a mom.
She touched my cheek. “Learning how to ask questions and find the right kind of help when you need it is more difficult for some people than others. It’s one of the joys of teaching, to watch that moment when a student realizes he doesn’t live in a bubble.”
I hung up the drying towel, a white one my grandmother called a flour sack, with a blue embroidered kitten and ball. I faced the side that said “Tuesday” to the wall. I rarely matched the right days to the corresponding towels. “Speaking of digging deeper…” I waggled my eyebrows at Mom and picked up some colored markers.
She laughed and went to get the chart she’d started when I’d been arrested. We unfurled it on the kitchen table, using the salt and pepper shakers to hold the two ends.
“Remember Ruby’s reaction to Melody Clark?” I said. “She seemed nervous talking about her at first, then kind of mad-hurt, when she mentioned getting on Melody’s good side.”
Mom tapped the page with her marker and looked at me over her half-glasses. “That seems to be a tangential line of thought.”
I played with the saltshaker while preparing my next statement. With Mom in professor mode, she’d expect me to make sense. “I’m not sure why Ruby and Melody Clark would cross paths, or why Ruby would need to be on her good side.” I took a deep breath. “If Ruby is benefitting from the money Melody thought her son should have—the money Ivanna already inherited but didn’t tell him—there might be tension.”
Mom alternately raised and lowered her brows.
I went on. “The thing I don’t get is why Ivanna asked Ruby for her life savings to invest in Fit’r U. If Ruby quits Fit’r U now, or the business closes, she’ll have lost everything. Ivanna must have had more than enough cash, unless it was tied up in legalities. She shouldn’t have needed Ruby’s money.”
“Tell me again about Melody Clark’s visit,” Mom said.
I opened my notebook and sorted through the impressions I’d jotted down. How she was so charming and dainty, her sniffling, how she didn’t get mad when she’d been scratched by a kitten, how she apologized for Jason. How the whole picture of an evening visit, a weird call, Melody’s apology and her comments on motherhood, combined into a surreal cubist picture instead of a photograph.
“Let’s clarify.” Mom leaned over the motives list. “You think that Ruby Cook had a reason to dislike Ivanna possibly enough to kill her because Ivanna convinced her to invest in a business? One that seems to be doing well so far?”
Put like that made me backtrack. “I see your point. But what about Melody Clark’s good side? Why would Ruby feel duped somehow?”
“You’ll just have to ask her, dear.” Mom noted Ruby and her investment in the motives box. She’d squeezed in “Inheritance” and “Will” at the top of the short list. “Now, I’m sorry to say that we may never do more than speculate why that poor girl left her money to Stanley. I believe the truth will come out, and that’s all I can say about that for now.”
We spent two minutes recapping the sources of possible cyanide contamination brought up earlier: fruit pits, pesticides, in both paper and jewelry-making.
“I saw Ivanna, on the floor, her hand stretched out, the one with her engagement ring on it,” I said, remembering the day I discovered her body. “I thought she appeared as if preparing to eat a piece of candy. A partially unwrapped cube of purple Featherlight was on the floor by her hand. She had her great big diamond engagement ring on, and shiny nail polish. Then Jason came on the computer. What a great alibi.”
Mom pursed her lips and removed the cheater-reader glasses. “What else do we know?”
“The newspaper article said the candy was North Star, a new, unreleased flavor, but I saw Featherlight’s brand and design next to her…her body.”
“That may be a piece of information the police are holding back. You didn’t tell anyone else, did you?”
“Well, yes. I was so surprised. I mentioned it to Yolanda, who insisted her source saying the candy was from North Star was correct. Martha was there with us, in the store. I probably told others, but I don’t remember who or when.”
“Well, that’s out, then.” Mom folded her arms.
Properly chastised, I dropped my gaze to the page. What else? “Jason quit his job. Amy ordered candy from Featherlight Confectionaries instead of North Star. Since she hadn’t met Stanley yet, who sent the Featherlight samples? Adam mentioned getting some at the store, and we already stock it. Would Jason have tried to sabotage the candy and accidentally poisoned Ivanna? Amy said Ivanna had taken some samples…oh, right. She took some to Tiny’s.”
“And there wasn’t an outbreak of poisoning deaths. We know the cyanide wasn’t in the candy. Perhaps we should ask if other businesses received samples of Featherlight. It might have been a distraction or a promotion. I’ll have Elvis do that, but it’s a long shot.” She made a note.
I wasn’t defeated yet. “Doralynn Pressman doesn’t like Melody Clark and vice versa. Could they have fought about the wedding and made Jason upset enough to…?”
“Poison is usually considered a woman’s choice of weapon, but it’s not exclusive.”
“Melody told me Jason was stressed. Since he quit his job without lining up another, he must have thought marrying Ivanna would be a good set up. I still think he found out about the will and—”
“Don’t you think Stanley would have been a better target if Mr. Clark learned of the will?” Mom cut in.
I couldn’t refute the logic. “What about Ivanna’s mother?”
Mom bristled.
I laughed. “Not every mom thinks her kid is perfect. If she thought Ivanna was about to do something that hurt her reputation, she might have tried to stop it.”
“Marrying Jason would be a good social move,” Mom said.
“But if Doralynn thought her daughter was involved in illicit activities with Stanley, that might have sent her over the edge.”
“Again, putting Stanley at risk.” Mom capped her marker and set it down.
“All right, all right. I wanted to kill Stanley too at one time. How in the world does he get himself into such messes?” I stood and went to fill the kettle. Some chamomile tea would help settle my synapses. “What will he do with all that money? He must have told you his plans. How’s the case coming, anyway?”
“We’ve only gotten to the filing stage, and I can’t share any confidences.”
“Right. I understand. It’s just…thinking all the time he was here last year…all the time he said he’d come to Apple Grove for me, he was dating Ivanna on the sly.”
Mom got out mugs we’d put away earlier and dangled a tea bag in each. I filled them with steaming water. The fragrance of daisies and sunshine danced through the anger I wanted to conjure at Stanley’s betrayal. “He couldn’t have loved me, could he?”
“Oh, honey.” Mom turned me into her embrace. “I’m sure he believed he did.”
“I got over him…or what he did to me. And I have Adam.”
“Mmhmm. One of the good ones.”
“I don’t want to be the kind of woman who thinks no one else should get Stanley even if I don’t want him.”
Mom pushed me away to look into my eyes. “You’re not that kind of person,” she said firmly, with a little shake of my shoulders. “You’re hurt, but you don’t really know what went on between Stanley and Ivanna.”
“You do?”
“Only what he’s told me.” She let me go and moved to the counter to dunk our tea bags. “Don’t ask me to repeat privileged information.” She turned and offered me a mug. “Ivanna had troubles, certainly. Sometimes having a stranger in town to share your problems with makes life beara
ble.”
“Especially when the town is so small everybody can hear you sneeze. Besides, I have trouble believing Ivanna was romantic about Stanley.”
She nodded. “And being a local celebrity makes you gossip fodder.”
“I get the feeling Stanley and Ruby are more suited.”
“Perhaps. Ivy, darling, you’d be a wise woman to avoid matchmaking for your former fiancé.”
I made my “who me?” face for Mom. “I suppose. I just want everyone to be as happy as I am, living in such a sweet town, even if it is small.”
“Apple Grove has many charms,” she said primly. “Apple Fest in the fall sounds delightful.”
“That’s right. You couldn’t come last October. I should think you’re more interested in the cores than the apples, though. At lease, one core in particular.”
She retaliated with her “naughty” narrowed eyes.
I led the way into the living room, careful not to break into a jig for fear of spilling my tea. “So, Mom, tell me more about how you’re so charmed.” I watched her over the rim of my cup.
“Well…” Uncharacteristically, she bit her lip and tilted her chin. “It’s no secret that I’m ready to retire from teaching. I have many of friends in Maplewood, and your father’s sister, of course.”
“Aunt Chris.” She didn’t have any children, and since Mom’s family was long gone, I’d never had any cousins. There was some mystery hovering in the background about a problematic very brief former husband of Aunt Chris, but I was taught not to pry and too young to discuss such things when Dad died. Mom and Chris weren’t bosom buddies.
“I’ve been thinking about relocating,” Mom said. “How would you feel if I sold your childhood home and moved away?”
I tried to summon a shred of nostalgia, but I had abandoned Maplewood too. “It was only home to me because you were there.” Isis leapt up on the sofa to curl at my feet, which I had pulled up to recline. “I want you to do what makes you happy.”
She trembled and held the cup to her lips.
“Mom?”
When she finally looked at me, her eyes were bright with tears. “I don’t know how you’ll feel about this. It doesn’t have to be here, either. It can be Colby…or…even Newton—”
“You mean you want to move here? By me? To Apple Grove?”
“I don’t want to crowd you, darling, but—”
“Oh, Mom!” I made Isis unhappy by accidentally kicking her in the leg she was cleaning when I jumped up to hug Mom. “Does this mean you…you and Virgil…”
“I’m relocating first for me,” she said in her Independent Widow voice. “Then for you, but I don’t want you to feel you need to take care of me, or that I’m strangling you.” Her voice softened. “And of course, if there should happen to be any grandchildren, I’d like to be closer.”
She was making me teary. “The whole prospect of parenthood just got a lot less frightening,” I told her. “I don’t want to try being a mom without you.”
“Thank you, honey.” She kissed my temple. “But be aware that I refuse to interfere. Only to…be available.” She gave me a stern finger shake. “Except when I want to travel or…go to meetings.” I settled at her feet and stared up at her until she blushed and confessed. “All right…yes, then there’s Counselor Toynsbee. But at our age…”
“Age, nothing! Love has nothing to do with age.”
“Maybe.” She shifted and sighed. We drained our tea and wandered back out to the kitchen.
Isis followed, reminding me to give her fresh water.
“So, do you have a place in mind to live?” I asked Mom.
She glanced around my kitchen, toward the back door, the steps leading up to the office. She smoothed the countertop. “A little house like this would be so nice. I noticed a few For Sale signs, but I don’t want—”
“You missed this one!” I’d scribbled letters on a sheet of paper while she did her mental tour. I held up my homemade sign. “For Sale.” “One of my hang-ups has been what to do about this house. It was mine and yet, it won’t be ours—Adam’s and mine, that is. I’ve known it all along, since we got engaged. Adam would move here with me if I asked, but it’s not convenient, and…as you said, hopefully will be too small someday.”
Mom put a hand over her mouth.
“I told Adam I was ready to sell, but it would mean so much to me to know someone who likes this house would live here. Of course, you don’t even have to buy it—”
Mom smothered me with a hug. “I honestly hadn’t considered it,” she mumbled in my ear. She pulled back. “Living here, I mean. Naturally I’d pay you.”
“What about Virgil?”
Mom colored even brighter pink than earlier. “He’s planning to give up his house. But he’s not ready for a senior facility and not happy about condo living. A downtown apartment seems too noisy, although he’d be close to everything.”
“There’s still yardwork and maintenance in a house, no matter the size.”
“One can hire such work. Virgil’s family is still in New York, and he has no one else here besides his nephew Jim and Jim’s family. Virgil is a bit lonely.”
At my grin, she said, “Oh, for heaven’s sake, we haven’t done more than decide we enjoy each other’s company. I don’t know if we’ll be more than friends.”
“There are two bedrooms and an office.”
“I don’t believe in roommates of opposite gender. Besides, I don’t need one. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of the house and expenses.”
I kissed her cheek. “Of course you are. We’ll find you someone to mow. At least until Boyd Cook leaves home.”
“Boyd? Ruby’s brother? They live around here?”
“Sure…around the block.”
“That girl has a good head on her shoulders, despite the occasional lumpy personality she presents. Investing in that exercise place might be the best career move for her.”
“If it works out now that Ivanna’s gone,” I replied. “One thing’s for sure, Ruby’s working hard and looks fantastic.”
Mom yawned and turned. “Oh, excuse me. So, you’re going, right?”
“Where?” I imitated her yawn while I threw out our teabags and rinsed the cups.
“Maybe I wasn’t supposed to say anything yet.”
“What?” I was starting to fall in that dopey state of sleepiness where everything sounds like a joke.
“I think it’s sweet,” Mom said. “Ruby is planning an exercise-a-thon memorial for Ivanna. Since Ivanna’s mother won’t even allow a public funeral, Ruby says it’s the least she can do to honor Ivanna’s memory and commitment to community.”
20
It turned out I was able to fill in a number of volunteer hours working with Ruby on the Memorial Exercise-A-Thon for Ivanna. Virgil hadn’t requested that I keep track of when and what I did for those forty hours of time I owed him, but I kept a journal anyway. Friends and maybe future relatives should trust each other.
Ruby’s party was awfully close to the wedding, and I was trying to stay calm by working at Mea Cuppa, spending an hour here and there for my tech service, and the rest of the time planning the E-thon with Ruby.
Adam and I joined Fit’r-U and signed up for coaching on the various machines. They were all bigger than me and I approached them with fear and trepidation one afternoon on my lunch break.
“Maybe I should wait until we get back from our honeymoon,” I told Julie, the cute young thing that weighed half as much as me and wore a purple-streaked ponytail with a life of its own. My coach. We stood in the great shadow of a chrome creature looming over our heads. I was supposed to step inside its arms and grab some handles and something, something about resistance and toning.
“You’ll be so jazzed when you see the effects this baby will have on those upper arm jiggles,” Julie said, prancing from side to side.
I self-consciously pulled my blue-chevron patterned warm-up jacket tighter. I thought I’d done pretty well
picking the new outfit and shouldn’t get it all sweaty and dirty before I had a chance to break it in. My feet started following Julie’s rhythm in the meantime. Suddenly I had danced myself back into the monster’s belly. Julie hooked me up and twenty reps later my arms were trembling, and I was done for the day.
I stepped away, thanked Julie.
Stanley stood on the other side of the humungous window facing the street. He ducked his head and gave me a little half-wave. So! He was out in public again, unafraid of being the target of so many lethal friendships.
I bobbed my head and turned away.
Ruby confirmed our planning session that evening after I was done at work. I put Stanley on the back burner in favor of my new life. Adam had meetings tonight. That would be part of our routine as long as Adam was mayor. We were both committed to Apple Grove, and Adam knew when to say no to last-minute things that interfered with plans we’d already made.
As I wound through the exercise floor back to Ruby’s office, I reflected on her change, not just in appearance, but also personality. It must be true that the more self-confidence a person possessed, the more she could afford to be generous to others. I considered myself a work in progress.
Ruby’s office door was open. She’d finally quit waitressing. Still doing occasional voice-overs at WWAG and helping her aunt with big orders kept her mind off what would happen if she were forced to close the business by some hitch in Ivanna’s estate settlement. Which hadn’t yet happened. Ruby glanced up from her computer and smiled at me, a genuine grin that went past her mouth. Despite the blocky jaw and facial hair she’d been blessed with, she was pretty now that the chip on her shoulder melted. A little lip liner and mustache waxing did wonders. And the smile. I smiled back almost subconsciously. Another truth: smiles were contagious.
“So, we’re on for later?” she asked me.
“Right. What shall I bring to eat while we go over plans?”
“I’ll spring for a couple of salads.” She cocked her head while smirking. In a nice way.
“Thanks for thinking of me and the fit of my wedding dress.” I pulled the warm-up jacket closer again.
Meow Matrimony Page 19
