by Jessica Beck
“I didn’t say that he was smart, just that he could be greedy.”
“It’s possible. Whatever the reason, we need to keep an eye on him,” she said.
“It might not be a bad thing to mention him to Chief Martin, and share the fact that he’s following us around Union Square.”
“We’re out of his jurisdiction,” Grace said, “but it wouldn’t hurt. How are you going to handle our bill with Angelica?”
“I don’t know. I was kind of hoping to just play it by ear.”
“Oh, good. I can’t wait to see this.”
We found Angelica acting as hostess up front, something that she was doing more and more lately. As her three daughters became more adept in the kitchen, Angelica spent more time with her clientele. I wasn’t sure whose idea it had been, but it seemed to work for them, not that I expected the switch to happen for the evening meal any time soon. Angelica was pretty possessive of her kitchen, even when her daughters were concerned.
“Ladies,” she said with a broad smile. “I’m so happy that you decided to come back and visit us again so soon.”
“We can’t stay,” I said, and I heard Grace take in a gulp of air beside me. Clearly my statement surprised her, and Angelica, too.
“And may I ask why not? Is our food no longer to your liking? I can assure you that my daughters are every bit as skilled in the kitchen as I am.”
“Oh, we love your food,” I said, “but if you’re not going to let me pay for my meals, I’m sorry to say that I won’t be coming back anytime soon.”
Angelica frowned when she heard the news, and then she asked, “Are you willing to suffer the consequences of such a threat?”
I wasn’t about to back down, though prudence told me that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do just that. “Angelica, you know me. Have you ever seen me walk away from a fight when I stated my position before?”
“No, I can’t say that I have. Very well. You may pay.” It was quite a concession on her part, and I was glad that she hadn’t called my bluff. Not that I’d been bluffing. I’d meant every word I’d said, no matter how reluctant I would have been to follow through. Jake would have killed me, too. She did her best to put on a brave face as she led us inside. “If you’ll follow me, I believe that I can find you a table.”
We walked in behind her, and Angelica quietly seated us before disappearing into the kitchen.
“Wow, I thought you were about to blow that for good,” Grace said.
“I wasn’t sure myself, but I meant every word of it.”
“I get that, but why didn’t you tell her that I wouldn’t mind if the free meals kept coming?”
I had to laugh, since Grace made five times what I brought home, and she could easily pay her bill even if she ordered the most expensive thing on the menu twice a day.
Sophia came out of the kitchen frowning, carrying a pair of menus. After she reached our table, she asked softly, “Suzanne, what did you just say to my mother?”
“Nothing,” I said. “I just let her know that the free meals had to stop. Did she really take it that hard?” The idea of hurting my dear friend hadn’t even entered my thoughts, and now I started to feel really bad about what I’d just said.
“Well, I’ve never seen her so subdued. I thought I would like it, but it’s scaring everybody in the kitchen.”
I had some fences to mend, and fast. “Bring her back out here, would you? I can’t stand the thought that I hurt her feelings.”
“Okay, but you should think hard about what you’re going to do.”
“Please, Sophia,” I urged her.
“There are too many bosses around here these days,” she said with a grin, but she did as I asked.
After a few moments, Angelica came back out into the dining room. “I understand that you wanted to see me?”
I stood up and hugged her, wrapping my arms around the woman I cared so much for. “Angelica, I was an idiot. Please find it in your heart to forgive me.”
She stroked my hair for a few seconds, and then she pulled away. “There’s nothing to forgive, Suzanne. Sometimes I get carried away. I give my food away as a way of saying I care. The last thing I wanted to do was to make you feel uncomfortable.”
“I’m just too stubborn for my own good. If you still want to feed me for free today, I’ll gladly accept it.”
“Are you sure?” Angelica asked. “I don’t want you to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
“I’m sure,” I said.
“Hey, don’t forget about me. I want to get in on this. We’re sure,” Grace said, correcting me.
It was a break in the tension that we all needed. Angelica laughed, showing her full range of good nature, as she said, “On one condition. I get to choose what you have.”
I’d tried to fight my way through her never-ending meals before, but this was no time to try to draw a line in the sand. “That sounds great, but remember, we have more work to do today, so take it easy on us, okay?”
“No promises,” Angelica said with a smile as she headed back to the kitchen.
Once the food started coming, I never thought it was going to end. By the end of the meal, Grace and I were sampling some Italian Ices, and I doubted I could get another bite down.
Angelica came over with a broad smile. “Did you two get enough to eat?”
“I’m not sure,” Grace said. “Is there someplace I could take a nap and sleep some of this off?”
“If you’re serious, you can use my office. I have an extremely comfortable couch in there.”
“She’d love to,” I said, “but unfortunately, I’m going to be keeping her busy. Angelica, may I ask you a question?”
“As long as it doesn’t concern the bill, or even leaving a tip, you can ask me anything.”
“Do you know a man in town named Fred Harmon?”
“Why are you looking for him?” she asked, her face suddenly flooded with concern.
“Jake seems to think that he might be able to help us with the case we’re working on,” I admitted.
Angelica waved a hand in front of her. “Fred is quite harmless these days. I can’t imagine him hurting a fly, let alone killing a man.”
“This is about what happened to Blake Briar,” I said.
Angelica nodded. “I always wondered about him.” She took my hands in hers as she said, “I will tell you on one condition, but don’t promise me if you can’t do it. I couldn’t stand seeing our friendship shattered over this.”
“Does he really mean that much to you?”
“Not to me, but he once cared for someone very close to me. I need your word, Suzanne. If I tell you, you have to be gentle in your dealings with him.”
“I promise that I’ll do the best that I can,” I said, knowing that Angelica never would have asked me for that kind of promise without having a good reason.
“Grace, the same goes for you.”
She nodded. “You can count on both of us.”
“Then I’ll trust you both at your words. He’s in the hospice over on Claremont Avenue.”
“Is he dying?” I asked, wondering what was wrong with him.
“He’s been fading away for a long time, but no one knows how much time that he has left. If you’re serious about talking to him, I suggest that you do it as soon as possible.”
“We’ll leave right now,” I said as I stood and hugged her. “The meal was exquisite. Thank you so much for your kind hospitality.”
Grace added her own hug that echoed my sentiment.
“You are both such good girls,” she said with a broad smile. “I’ll call Fred and pave the way for you. Please, come again soon. Seeing you ladies does my heart good.”
“You can count on it,” I said as Grace nodded in agreement. “Your food is good enough to pay full price for.”
When we walked into Fred Harmon’s room at the hospice, I was afraid that we were too late. An emaciated man with thin, silver hair was sleeping there, swallowed
up by the size of his bed. It was tough to see, and I didn’t even know him. How much harder it must have been for those who cared about him, like Angelica.
Grace and I stepped back out of the room so that we wouldn’t wake him, and I found a nurse with a nametag that said her name was Nancy nearby checking a chart.
“Excuse me,” I said, “but we’re here to see Mr. Harmon. Can he have visitors?”
The woman looked at us and smiled. “First of all, don’t call him Mr. Harmon, at least not where he can hear you. It’s Fred these days, and nothing else.”
“Got it. Is he… okay?” I asked.
“No, I can’t say that he is,” the nurse said flatly.
“We can come back later,” Grace offered.
“Hang on a second. Are you the girls Angelica DeAngelis called about?”
I grinned at her. “Neither one of us has been a girl in quite a while, but yes, she said that she’d call ahead to vouch for us.”
“Honey, don’t take it personally; she calls all of us girls. That’s why we like it when she comes around. Well, that and the goodie bags she brings us. Fred asked me to wake him up when you got here. He desperately wants to speak to you. Come on back.”
We followed her back into the room, and she gently touched Fred’s shoulder when she reached his bed.
He came awake instantly, blinked a few times, and then he smiled at Nancy. “Hi there, beautiful,” Fred said in a weakened voice.
“Listen to you,” Nancy said gently. “You should know better than to flirt with me. I’m a happily married woman.”
“Where there’s life, there’s hope,” Fred said.
“Suzanne and Grace are here to see you,” she said softly.
“Do I know them?” Fred asked, clearly puzzled to come across our names.
“No, but Angelica sent them.”
“Then they’re okay by me,” he said.
As we approached the bed, he asked, “Nancy, could we have a minute?”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to hang around in case you need anything?” Nancy asked.
“Don’t worry about me; I’m not ready to check out just yet.”
“Well, don’t do it without at least saying goodbye first,” she said as she squeezed his hand.
After the pleasant nurse was gone, Fred said, “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve her, but I’m not going to say it hasn’t been welcome here in the end.”
“What exactly is wrong with you?” Grace asked in her normal blunt fashion.
“That’s none of our business,” I said. Sometimes the gear between Grace’s mouth and her brain got stuck in the open position, and I had to remind her to dial it back, especially after the promises we’d just made to Angelica.
“It’s no secret,” he said with the ghost of a smile. “It’s my liver. Nobody can drink as much as I did and get away with it forever. The bill’s been delivered, and I’m not far from paying it off in full.”
“Did you know Blake Briar?” I asked. There was no easy way to pose the question, and none of us had time to beat around the bush.
“I knew him some, but mostly, I knew your father.”
It was all I could do to keep from shouting. “How did you know him?”
“We were drinking buddies back in the bad old days,” Fred said. “That man loved your mother more than anything in the world, and it killed him to be away from her.”
“Why did he go, then?”
“In the end, it was nothing more than stubborn pride,” Fred said, his voice still calm and level. “Jack was going through the darkest part of his days, and I was there to witness them firsthand myself, but he never wavered in his love for your mother.”
“Tell us what happened,” I asked, trying to match his soft tone. I didn’t want to take the chance of upsetting a dying man, but I really did have to know. It was odd hearing my father called Jack and not Thomas, but at least that part of Morgan’s story appeared to have been true.
Fred said, “I made a mistake, and then I did something even worse by trying to hide it. It’s a long story though, and as I’m sure Nancy told you, I don’t have a lot of time.”
“Just hit the highlights, then,” Grace suggested, matching our gentle tones of voice.
“I can do that. Jack, that’s how he introduced himself back then, tried to bury his troubles in a bottle, and we happened to share the same kind of poison. You sit beside a man on the next barstool night after night, and you get to learn a lot about him—his history, his habits, even personal stuff he wouldn’t tell his own mother. Anyway, we were drinking one night, and he kept passing out on me. Something was bothering him, but for once, I couldn’t get it out of him. I finally grabbed his keys and drove him home, though I was not in much better shape than he was at the time. Somehow we made it back to his place, and I helped him into the room that he was renting. I realized when I got back outside that I had some use for his car myself, and I didn’t have to think about it more than a second to borrow it without his permission.”
Fred began to wheeze a little, and I was sure that he’d spoken more to us than he had in weeks. Nancy peeked in, but he waved her away, and she agreed with a silent nod, but not before giving us each a stern look.
“We can stop so that you can rest, if you need to,” I said, but Fred wouldn’t hear of it.
“I’ve been trying to get this off my chest for more years than I care to think about. It’s about time to do it right now.”
“Okay, but take your time. We’re not in any hurry.”
Fred smiled a little. “Maybe you’re not, but I’ve got one last ride to catch myself, and it won’t be too far away. Back to what happened. I ran my errands, but instead of taking the car back to Jack’s place, I stuck it in my garage. When I woke up the next morning, I’d forgotten all about having it. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even think about it again until Jake told me that his car had been stolen. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I had it, and I planned to take it back to his place that night. I decided to turn in while I could still see the road, and I was on my way to his place when a squirrel jumped out in front of the car. At least I think it was a squirrel. It’s been so many years, I’m not sure anymore if it was real or just in my imagination. I don’t guess that it matters much now one way or the other. I jerked the wheel just as Blake was crossing the road. He never had a chance. I didn’t even slow down, and I didn’t stop until I was so far out of town that I was afraid I’d never make it back in time. I did, but just barely. When I got home, I turned on the radio and heard the bulletin that Blake was dead. I started to call the cops, and I would have told them everything if Jack had been arrested, but the police gave up pretty quick on that one. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one drinking that night, and evidently Blake had quite a snootful himself. Whether it was my fault or not, I don’t know to this day. Then, when Morgan was arrested for attacking Jack, I couldn’t say anything. I was stuck, and there was nothing that I could do to make things right. If it matters,” he asked, looking at both of us in turn, “I quit drinking. Oh, not right away, and never for very long, but my intentions were good, even if my spirit was weak.”
Fred seemed to collapse back onto the bed, and Nancy came hurrying in. Before she could get rid of us, though, he said one last thing. “It was me all along. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“You two need to leave,” Nancy said sternly. “I hope your business with this man is done, because I don’t think he could take it if you decided to come back.”
I thought about telling Chief Martin what we’d just learned, if nothing else than to clear my father’s name, but I couldn’t do it to Fred, not and keep my word to Angelica. I’d tell Momma as soon as I got the chance, but it would be up to her to pursue it any further. I was pretty sure that I would tell Jake, but only if he promised not to do anything about it. I didn’t have the heart to put this man through anything else.
It turned out that I needn’t have worried about it
, though.
Nancy caught us in the parking lot before we could even drive away.
“He passed away right after you left,” she said. “I thought you should know.”
“Did we kill him with our questioning?” I asked, mortified that I might have had a hand in killing this poor man.
“If you ask me, you did him a real service,” Nancy said. “I knew that he was hanging onto what was left of his life because of some important unfinished business, but I had no idea that it would be with you. Telling you must have released him of whatever burden he unloaded onto you, and he just quietly slipped away. I swear, there was a smile on that man’s face when he died that I never thought I’d see again.”
“Thanks for telling us,” I said as the tears started to flow unbidden down my cheeks.
Nancy touched my shoulder softly. “You have nothing to mourn, Suzanne. You honestly did him a favor by coming here today. Both of you did.”
I just wished that I could find a way in my heart to believe that it was true.
Light Sticks
No, these don’t light up, but faces do when they taste them! This is from another experiment I made looking through the freezers in my grocery store. Again, these are simple to make, but too delicious not to include. We like to eat these while still warm, and spread our favorite jellies and jams on top. They are impressive when you feed them to family and friends, and they’ll make you look like a real pro when you put these out.
INGREDIENTS
Breadstick dough, 1 canister (I like the 11 oz. pack)
4 Tablespoons cinnamon sugar mix (3 Tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with 3 teaspoons cinnamon)
Assorted toppings of jams, jellies, butters, and spreads
Canola oil for frying (the amount depends on your pot or fryer)
INSTRUCTIONS
Here’s another recipe that’s easy to make, yet impressive to serve. Those are my favorites. If baking, see the directions for the proper length of time and temperature (375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes works for me). If you are frying, cook in hot canola oil (360 to 370 degrees F) 1 1/2 to 3 minutes, turning halfway through.
