“If I’d known about it, then I might be a suspect. Some people might think I killed Terry myself, in some sort of jealous rage or something. That’s why you had to tell me about it, wasn’t it? To check my reaction.”
“Yes.” There didn’t seem to be any sense in lying to her. “I’m sorry. I really am.”
“No, don’t be. I hired you to find out why my husband was murdered. We didn’t have an agreement that you wouldn’t find out anything that might upset me. I want you to continue the investigation. I have to know the truth, no matter what it is. I can’t go on with my life until I know the truth.”
“Okay,” I said. “I have a couple of other things I want to look into. Meanwhile, keep trying to think of anything, anything at all, unusual or different or strange about the night before Terry was killed.”
“Okay, I will,” she said.
I got up to leave, and she walked me to the door. When we got there, I stopped.
“I don’t know if this is something I should be saying or if it will help you or hurt you or whatever, but I’ve talked to the woman. There wasn’t any love there, Rachel. Whatever the relationship was built upon, it wasn’t love. And there was no talk of Terry leaving you.”
She nodded, and as I left, I could see the tears begin.
Some days the classroom doesn’t look so bad after all.
Chapter 28
At ten o’clock the next morning, I once again stepped into the beautifully decorated lobby of the law firm of Chaney and Cox. And, once again, the beautiful decorations included my good friend Melanie.
“Well, hi there,” she said, as I exited the elevator. “I like the look.”
For today’s visit, I had selected dark brown slacks, an off-white linen sports coat, brown loafers, and a white shirt with a tie that had a cream background with some sort of little tan figures on it. I’d never been able to figure out what the figures were supposed to be, but I liked them.
“Hi, Melanie. The bosses in yet?”
“Mr. Cox won’t be in today, but Mr. Chaney’s in his office. Did you have an appointment, Jeremy?”
“Nah,” I said. “I thought I’d just walk in unannounced and make his day.”
“Okay,” she said, “let me give him a buzz.” And I think she rolled her eyes just a bit as she said it. Melanie appeared to be getting to know my personality rather well and rather quickly. Perhaps I was an easy read, personality-wise. Perhaps there wasn’t that much to read.
While she talked to Elias, I took note of her outfit. Since she’d noticed mine, it only seemed right. She had on what appeared to be a dressy denim skirt with a pale blue silk blouse, open at the neck, showing the same gold necklace and earrings she’d had on during my previous visit. It was a good look for her. Of course, off the top of my head, I couldn’t come up with a look that I thought wouldn’t be good for her.
“Mr. Chaney has a few moments for you, Jeremy,” she said. “I’ll walk back with you. I have to get his signature on some papers.”
As she preceded me down the hall to Elias’ office, I saw that her ensemble was completed by high-heeled navy pumps. I enjoyed following her this time just as much as I had the first time we’d made the trip.
As we entered Chaney’s office, he was coming out from behind his desk, his hand stretching toward mine. We shook, and I waited for a minute while he signed his name a few times for Melanie. Then she left, and Elias motioned for me to sit down. I chose one of the wing chairs, and he sat on the sofa.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said. “Would you like something to drink?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks,” I said.
“Well, then, what can I do for you, Mr. Barnes?”
“Just a question or two,” I told him. “When I was here last week, you mentioned that you and Mr. Cox prided yourselves on the supportive work environment that you foster here.”
“Yes, I did,” he agreed.
“I wondered if you knew that Terry Pendleton was cheating on his wife?”
He didn’t respond right away, but he didn’t seem to be calculating a response. I got the idea that he really was surprised by the information that Terry had been unfaithful to Rachel.
“No,” he said, “I did not know that, and I’m certain that William didn’t, either. If that is true, I’m very sorry to learn of it. I, ah, assume that his indiscretion did not involve anyone here at the firm.”
“No, not as far as I know.”
“Well, then, what possible connection could it have with his death?”
“Jealous husband or boyfriend,” I said.
“Oh,” he said. “Yes, I see. Well, I suppose it’s possible. Have you shared this information with the police?”
“Not yet,” I said. “I want to be sure that it’s germane before I go any further with it.”
Germane? Must have been the legal surroundings.
“At any rate,” he said, “I would assume that your investigation is nearing an end.”
“Not necessarily,” I told him. “There are a couple of other angles I want to explore first.”
“Such as?” he asked.
“Nothing I want to get into at the moment,” I said. “Mostly, I wanted to see if you had any additional information about Terry, regarding the infidelity.”
“No, I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t help you at all in that area. Now, if there’s nothing else, Mr. Barnes, I have a 10:30 appointment.”
He walked me to his door, where we once again shook hands, and I started walking back down the hall towards the lobby. My conversation with Elias hadn’t helped me much, other than to confirm what I already knew, which was that, for a reason that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, I didn’t trust him. He’d said that he assumed I was close to being finished with my investigation, but if I didn’t know where I was on the thing, how could he? He couldn’t, of course, so his comment would seem to have been more wishful thinking than anything else. But why would he want me to bring the investigation to a close? Nothing I’d uncovered so far had in any way linked Elias Chaney to Terry’s death, and I couldn’t think of any scenario that would do so.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Sandra Richardson’s voice.
“Jeremy. What are you doing here?”
The door to her office was open, and she’d spotted me as I walked by. I stopped and turned back and walked into her office.
“Hi, Sandra. I just had to check on a couple of things with Elias.”
“Making any progress?” she asked.
“None that I understand, at least so far,” I told her.
She had been sitting at her desk, but as we spoke, she came out from behind it and walked over to me. She was wearing a dark green skirt that had a matching jacket which was currently on a hanger on a brass coat rack in the corner of the room. The top she wore with the outfit was a white silk pullover, and it was cut a little lower, and a little tighter, than you usually see in a business environment. As for the skirt, on one hand, a lot of people would say that it was definitely too short for office wear. On the other hand, it had a six-inch slit slightly off-center to the left. It made for an interesting effect when she walked. I noticed that she was wearing high-heeled shoes that matched the color of the suit. Had she been wearing the shoes before I came in, I wondered, or had she slipped into them before coming out from behind her desk.
Standing very close to me, she said, “How about dinner tonight? I’ll cook.”
“Uh, I can’t, Sandra, not tonight. I have, uh, other plans.”
“Another date, huh?” she asked, with a smile.
“Well, yes, as a matter of fact,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry that you made the other date?”
“No,” I said, a little too quickly. “I mean, I’m sorry to have to say no to your offer of dinner.”
She moved a little closer to me. I hadn’t noticed before, but she was wearing perfume, some sort of understated floral scent. I liked it.
“And your relationship with this other woman is more important than your relationship with me?”
I wouldn’t have thought she could move much closer to me without the two of us actually touching, but she did. Our bodies were probably an inch apart now, and she seemed to be leaning just slightly in my direction.
“I, uh, don’t know. We really don’t have a relationship yet, I mean this other woman and I. I just met her and we’re having dinner tonight and that’s why I can’t have dinner with you.”
She smiled again and said, “Why, Jeremy Barnes, are you blushing?”
“This kind of stuff isn’t easy for me,” I told her.
“What kind of stuff?” she asked.
“Talking about one woman with another one. I don’t think I should be doing it.”
“Well, then,” she said, “we’ll just have to stop, won’t we?” As she turned to walk away, she somehow managed to brush her breasts up against my chest. It was not an altogether unpleasant experience.
“I hope you have a good time tonight, Jeremy,” she said, as she got to her desk and leaned back against the edge of it.
“Thanks,” I said.
I turned around and began walking out of her office. As I reached the door, she said, “Oh, by the way, later on, after dinner? If you’d care to stop by for some, uh, dessert, I’ll be home.”
I nodded, and made my escape.
Chapter 29
Silvio’s has been around longer than I can remember. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, just a red brick wall, really, with a dark-stained wooden door in the middle, and a picture window on either side. The windows have old-fashioned drapes, which were pulled shut against the glare of the afternoon sun when I got there at five after four that day. When I walked in, I saw that the place looked pretty much the same as it had the last time I’d been there, about a year or so ago. In contrast to the rather mundane exterior, the interior was much brighter and more cheerful-looking. Basically, it was one large room filled with circular tables of varying sizes. Along both sides of the room were booths that were one step up from floor level. The table in each booth had a small Tiffany-style lamp hanging down over it, and all the tables in the room had green-and-white patterned tablecloths. The walls were covered with pastel-colored murals showing scenes from the Italian countryside. A smiling young woman greeted me and asked if she could seat me. I told her she could and that there would be two of us. She asked if we’d prefer a table or booth, and I said booth, which is where I was sitting when Laura Fleming arrived a few minutes later.
She came in, looked around and spotted me, then walked over to the booth and slid in on the opposite side. She was wearing a long turquoise skirt with matching jacket over a lightweight T-shirt with scalloped edges at the top. Her beige shoes had low heels, and her hair was swept back and held in place by a single large clip. Other than small silver earrings and a watch, she wore no jewelry. Her makeup was so light and so artfully applied that at first glance, one would think she wasn’t wearing any. I hoped she was maybe one-tenth as impressed with my navy casual slacks and long-sleeved red-white-and-blue checked sports shirt as I was with her outfit.
“I was just wondering,” I told her as she sat down.
“About what?” she asked.
“How you can look this good after spending the day with a group of five-year-olds.”
She laughed and said, “Thank you. That’s very kind. Actually, I did take a few minutes to try to repair some of the day’s damage before driving over here.”
“You done good,” I said.
“And since I know you used to teach English, I realize that you’re just having fun with that ‘done good’ comment.”
“Just trying not to appear too intellectual,” I said. “I’ve found that coming across as too smart scares off a lot of babes who are only interested in my body, anyway.”
“Hmm,” she said. “I’ll be sure to let you know when I start feeling intimidated by the sheer force of your intellect. Meanwhile, I’m starved. What are you having?”
“The spaghetti, of course,” I said. “What about you?”
“Angel-hair pasta with the house sauce. They make the sauce right here, and it’s delicious. Every time I come here, I tell myself I’ll try something new, but I always end up getting the same thing.”
Our waitress came over then, and we ordered. I asked Laura if she’d like some wine, and she said she would but not on a school night, since it tended to make her sleepy, and she had work to do. We both ordered iced tea, instead.
Leaning back, Laura looked across at me and said, “So, Jeremy. Angie says you two have known each other since kindergarten, right?”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “It was love at first sight, at least on her part.”
“Really? She also told me that she used to, let’s see, how did she phrase it, regularly beat the crap out of you in third grade.”
“I had a cold that day,” I said.
“She seemed to imply that this went on pretty much that whole year.”
“It was one of those lingering colds,” I said. “And, anyway, girls mature earlier than boys. That’s an established medical fact. All your best doctors believe it. You can look it up.”
Laura laughed out loud at that. It wasn’t one of those raucous laughs, but a soft, pleasant noise, and I felt good that I’d been the cause of such a wonderful sound. Our waitress arrived with our iced teas, and there was silence for a minute while we both took a few sips.
“Let me ask you a question?” I said.
“Sure.”
“What’s with you and old man Grim? Angie said word is he made a pass at you.”
Again, I got the laugh. I was on a roll here.
“Oh,” said Laura, “that was so embarrassing for poor Mr. Grim. The man must be in his late sixties, at least. Somebody told me that he has more time in the system than any other teacher in the city. All that happened is that we discovered a common interest in flowers, and one day he asked me if I’d like to go over to his place and look at his petunia. He was talking about a special flower that he’d been growing for a show. It was all completely innocent, but he happened to make the request in the faculty room at lunchtime, in front of half the staff. You can imagine the varied interpretations that made the rounds the rest of that day.”
“Petunia, huh?” I said. “I’ve never heard it called that before.”
“See what I mean?” she asked. “You can’t resist it, can you?”
Our dinners arrived, and for a few minutes, we both got serious about eating. The silence between us was one of those comfortable spaces, not the awkward variety. Laura was the first to break it.
“When you decided to leave teaching, did you consider another level, maybe middle school instead of the older kids?”
“Oh, God, no,” I said. “I have a friend who taught middle school for several years, and he described that age group as being ‘all hands and glands.’”
“That’s a great description,” she agreed. “One of the teachers at Fairview is married to a woman who teaches at Miller Middle School, over on the North Side. Sam says his wife believes she has the perfect solution to those difficult middle school years. Evelyn says that the day they graduate from elementary school, the kids should be put on a bus and driven around the city for three years and then dropped off at a high school.”
“I love it,” I said.
Our conversation went like that the rest of the meal. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so comfortable just sitting and talking with any woman other than Angie. Finally, after what seemed like just minutes, the waitress came over to clear our plates. She asked if we’d like dessert.
“None for me,” said Laura, “but if you’d like some, Jeremy, I’d be glad to wait.”
“No,” I said. “I’ll pass, too.”
The waitress gave me the check, and I gave her some money and she gave me my change right there at the table. I’d forgotten that the wait staff at Silv
io’s carried those little silver change-makers, so they could take care of the check at tableside. When she left, Laura and I sat for another minute or two.
“I was serious, Jeremy,” she said. “I’d have been glad to sit with you while you ate dessert. It’s just that I usually don’t have dessert during the week.” Then, with a little laugh, she added, “Of course, the weekend is another matter altogether.”
“I’m pretty much the same way,” I told her. “As I get older, I find that it gets harder to keep in shape.”
“Oh, wait,” Laura said, with a smile. “I know what comes next. This is the part where each of us compliments the other on being in such great shape and looking so good, right?”
“Works for me,” I said.
“Meanwhile,” she said, “as much fun as I’m having, I have to get going.”
I walked her out to her car, which was in the parking lot beside the restaurant, just a few spaces down from mine.
“This was fun, Jeremy,” she said, as she opened the door to the Malibu. “Thanks for asking me. I don’t usually do something like this on a school night, but I’m glad I did today.”
“I’m glad you did, too,” I said. “And speaking of asking you things, how about getting together this Saturday? I know it’s Easter weekend, so I’ll understand if you already have some plans.”
“No, I don’t,” she said, “and I’d love to get together again. What do you have in mind?”
“Give me a day or two, okay?” I asked. “I’ll call you around the middle of the week with a couple of suggestions.”
“A man of mystery, huh?” she said. “That sounds very interesting. I can’t wait to hear from you.”
She got into her car and put the window down.
“Thanks again, Jeremy.”
“My pleasure, Ms. Fleming,” I replied. “Oh, and by the way, whatever we end up doing, I can assure you that there will definitely be dessert somewhere among the evening’s activities.”
“Oh, good,” she said.
And I think I saw a twinkle in her eye.
Chapter 30
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