Fit To Curve (An Ellen and Geoffrey Fletcher Mystery Book 1)

by Bud Crawford

  "Old married man's advice?" Geoff said. "Find out what the actual day was and do something about it, even belatedly. She remembers the date, I'll guarantee."

  "I don't know where we're at now, with everything that's happened. The watch guy's heart attack, then the guy she hooked up with goes over a cliff." Seth looked up at Geoff. "She said everybody at Juniper House knew, that the cops were all over it. She cheated. I never did, the whole time, not all the way, anyway. But I've been a little hard to reach lately, I don't exactly blame her. I hate it happened, but I can see her side. I mean, I'd try to, she hasn't said anything about it. She wouldn't even talk to me today, you saw. I wanted to be with her, I got you. No offence."

  Geoff pushed his chair back and crossed his legs. "To a casual observer, she wasn't ice cold, didn't blow you off for good. Sticking my nose in where it has no business, I would guess you still have some say whether things go forward. It isn't locked down yet."

  "She keeps calling me, I'm the one she tells things to. She called me about the watch, then she called me from that guy's cabin about the heart attack. She called me today, didn't leave a message, but that's why I rode up."

  "She told you she was calling from James' cabin?"

  "No, but it took about three minutes, you know. Caller ID and reverse lookup, got the rental office main number. Genius, two plus two."

  "You're applying to med schools?"

  "Well, I'm planning to. Have to get some kind of package, loans and grants, maybe promise to work with lepers for ten years. I need to get my head straight first, probably need to get away from here to do that. Bad company thing, except I'm other peoples' bad, at the same time."

  "Complicated."

  "Yeah. It's the old trick, how to find twelve steps that don't have a noose at the top. Plus there's Marti. If I split, I don't think she'll come. If I stay, I don't think I can keep her."

  "Have you talked to any of the detectives? You're on their list, might save trouble if you went to them. I've got a card, back at Juniper House, for the lead guy."

  "Last thing I need is a squad of detectives poking into my situation. Like you say, it's complicated." Seth shifted in his chair, bumped slightly into Apple, behind him. He didn't notice. He was clenching the sides of the table, looking straight at Geoff. "I don't want anybody calling them on my behalf, either. Like you. How come you're so interested in all this?"

  "Easy, Seth. I'm not the tale-carrying kind. And there isn't anything to tell, is there? Doesn't sound like it." Geoff leaned in. "But the guy that died at Juniper House, Harold Alden, his wife was my girlfriend, twenty-years ago. About like you and Marti, now, in age. I only saw James Richter a couple times, but I liked the guy. Seems as if both deaths were accidents. But the cops are looking at it, and if there's any chance they weren't accidents, I'd take it personally. I've got to go home, probably tomorrow, but I'd like to know what happened. So, if I'm being a little snoopy, that's why. Mostly, just making conversation."

  "Well, don't expect the cops to work it out for you. They aren't that good. But you could be putting yourself into the line of fire, if anybody was firing, you know what I mean."

  "Better let the sleeping dog sleep? You might be right. There don't seem to be any connections, just coincidences. Anyway. Let's go back. We can find out if my wife is talking to me, and if your girlfriend is talking to you."

  "Yeah, sorry I went harsh. I'm working to get over being so jumpy, but it isn't done yet. Thanks for the coffee."

  As they left, Geoff turned. Apple watched them go, face inscrutible. Her friend was still smiling.

  In the backyard of Juniper House, Alistair was standing by the bike rack. He watched Geoff lock his bike to the rack without moving or speaking.

  Geoff said, "Good evening, Alistair. Seth showed me the complicated way up Town Mountain. It's a pretty ride."

  "I'm amazed he has the balance or the legs." Alistair stood still as granite, thin stone shell over a heavy hard-wound spring. He looked directly, only, at Seth.

  "Is Marti here?" Seth asked. His voice did not crack, but the effort was apparent.

  "Marti," Alistair said, without inflection.

  "Hello, Seth," Honoria sounded pleased, cheery, walking up from the gardens. "Marti said you were giving Geoffrey a tour of the back-roads and byways. Did you have a good ride?"

  "We had the best ride of which I was capable. A year without riding, or any other training, takes a toll. Geoff was nice enough to pretend that my limit was adequate for him."

  "Seth," Geoff said, "has me beat six ways from Sunday on form. I've always been better for endurance than beauty or speed. Give him a few weeks to build his strength, and I couldn't catch him."

  "I think you're beautiful," Ellen came down from the patio, still in running clothes. Stephanie had changed into a light summer dress. "I waited my shower for you. Marti said she was taking a nap until dessert, Seth. She said you could come back then, or she'd see you for lunch tomorrow."

  "I could have waited," Stephanie said, "if I'd known about sharing showers." She looked at Seth, his face flashing through a quick series of expressions. "Sorry, Seth, didn't mean to set off a crisis. Number one, I've not yet got any widow skills. Number two, you must not be frightened by the thought of people over thirty without clothes."

  "Sorry for how I looked, wasn't either of those. Tell Marti, Ellen, I'll catch her for lunch. Alistair has cause, I won't quarrel with it. Evening, everybody. Thanks for the ride and talk and coffee, Geoff." Seth wheeled around, and pushed his bike out to the street.

  "Damn it," Alistair said. "Whenever I think I can just settle into hating the little weasel, he yanks me around."

  "There are specifics, unique to this instance, but don't discount the daddy/boyfriend dynamic, dear Alistair." Honoria was smiling, and after a minute so was Alistair.

  "But, don't discount this, either. The guy really is a jerk." Alistair shook his arms and shoulders loose.

  Geoff said, "I expect he has been, but I had the sense he was genuinely trying to emerge from his mess. Probably not for the first time."

  "Afterwards," Alistair said, "I'll congratulate him afterwards."

  ~

  Sprague held the phone against his ear. "No, Apple, thanks. I'm glad you called. Now get back to your night on the town. A play then dinner, right? Yeah, they're supposed to be real good. Enjoy. You and Annie. Say, hey. We'll work this over tomorrow, soon enough."

  He leaned forward to hang up, and pushed his dinner dishes against the microwave pouches and boxes. He tilted his chair onto the back legs and crossed his ankles on the table where dinner had been. He could just reach the glass of neat whiskey. After a slow sip, a long exhalation. Was Geoffrey Fletcher their new best friend on the case? Or the most astonishing screw-up he'd ever run into? Thanks for getting us a conversation that verged on confession, at least an anti-alibi. No thanks for bringing it in a form we can't legally use. Thanks for animating a whole new line of investigation. No thanks, 'cause we can't use it unless we pretend to work it out ourselves. Well, we had worked it out, it's always been on the list. But before we were hypothesizing, now we have something concrete. Except we don't, thanks to you.

  If Capt'n Huff gets his way, we give it all up. No connections, no crimes, no case. Hard to argue with him. Kind of thing as obvious as a brick wall. Ramsey knows, Fletcher knows, Apple knows, bless her heart. But Huff thinks brick walls just happen sometimes. Sucks when the Captain never was a detective, you have to explain stuff you can't explain.

  So, Marti Spence still looks good, both murders, maybe pushing Vance. Seth Harper has just invited himself into the club, either working alone, or with Spence. Nothing with him and Vance, except that it's possible. Nothing really for Spence and Vance, either. But one out of our three accidents could have been an accident. Then there's Vingood, alone, or with one of the others. Or all three together. Vingood's got ample capacity, opportunity just barely, plausible motives (except Vance, again). Flies in the face of the aggrieve
d host and angry papa, but those could be show business. Knowing any one single damn thing for certain, the rest would be easy. Billings. I really like Billings, but except for an apparent lack of outraged maternal instincts, she fits as well as the rest of them. Worth checking on Vance, been to the Inn a couple times before. Maybe something happened, previous trip. Main thing next, on-the-record with the boyfriend.

  Christ! Huff could be right. Except he's not.

  ~

  "It was creepy," Ellen said, "ratting him out."

  "Only the one table?" Geoff said. "I didn't see her when we came in? We'd already ordered?"

  "Creepy."

  "I asked the same questions I would have asked anyway."

  "Makes it worse."

  'I don't agree," Jerry said, "but I'd give up on changing Ellen's mind, I think."

  Mary Beth said, "I understand where Ellen's coming from, but given the situation, I think it was the best option."

  "I'll go with creepy," Stephanie said.

  They were eating dinner at a restaurant across the road from the entrance to the Biltmore House. It was the last spot on Ellen's list, for her food sidebar. Dwight was being watched, overnight, at the hospital. Jerry had come by Juniper House to gather stuff so he could stay in the room. He joined the dinner party, to his own surprise, after a few seconds of recollection of the hospital food he'd had all day. He'd smuggle the leftovers in for Dwight.

  Honoria asked Geoff, "Have you considered the legal aspect?"

  Geoff said, "There are two aspects, me and the case. In an extreme reading, I could be charged with interference or obstruction. That's my jeopardy. And, at the least, I compromised the value of the evidence. Worse, from a moral standpoint, I betrayed an implicit trust."

  "Creepy," Ellen said, "that's what. You had lots of choices. You picked out the laziest and most corrupt one."

  "No," Beth-Ann said. "Either Seth is guilty of some awful things, maybe with help. In that case the detectives need to check him out, arrest him, stop him. Tea party manners don't apply. If he's completely innocent, the sooner he gets his story proved, the sooner he's off the hook. He should thank Geoff."

  Stephanie said, "It isn't that easy. Sounds to me like there may be all sorts of things in his life he doesn't want police looking at, that have nothing at all to do with Harold and James. Not fair setting him up to say things in a private conversation he'd never say to a detective. And if the cops glom on to him as the prime suspect, and it's actually somebody else, the real killer could get away." She stopped and covered her mouth. "I just said 'killer.' Does that mean I believe Harold was murdered? And James? I thought I thought it was possible, not very likely. I don't like my mind changing by itself. If it has."

  "Stef," Ellen said, reaching across the table to take her hand. "It is just a possibility, there's no evidence."

  "Everything in my life changed when Harold died. But it would change again, change worse, if it wasn't just his heart. If somebody killed him."

  Jerry said, "The cops will get it straight. Sprague is a solid guy. Don't worry about possible things."

  "What if the killer is really smart, or really lucky," Stephanie asked, "and they never get him?"

  "You still have to do what you have to do," Honoria said. "You've got to put your life together for you and for your baby."

  "Harold's baby," Ellen said, looking directly at Stephanie, still holding her hand. She looked up. "Meanwhile, y'all, I've got the check. Thanks for your notes. I have enough for a whole article on Asheville restaurants, never mind my sidebar. We should drive back now, so we don't miss Alistair's dessert."

  "You have that hole in your coverage," Honoria said, "no desserts but Alistair's. You'll need to spend all next week just eating dessert."

  "I could help," Jerry said, "except we're leaving tomorrow, soon as they release him. Monday's back to work as usual, gotta be there. I'll pack up first thing, way before breakfast. So. It's been a pleasure meeting all of you. Putting aside the bad stuff that's happened. I'll convey your good wishes to Dwight. Oh, and, Geoff, I'll have him call you. Sorry I forgot to ask him today."

  ~

  "We could be doing this in my room," David said, taking hold of her wrist.

  "Doubles your pleasure if you double your trouble," Madison said while she unbuckled his belt. "Safe sex is for sissies."

  "Hold on, Maddy. No, that's not what I mean. We have company, at least passing through."

  "Oh, goody." Madison turned to look. Across the garden, halfway between their bench and the patio, one of the Farley sisters slipped through the hedge and crossed to the kitchen door. A minute behind her, Andy Ross took the same route in. "Those two, sneaking out and back? Just no telling anymore is there?"

  "I think they're on separate checks," David said. "But maybe one of the biddies is hiding things from the other one. But, look, the show goes on, on the other side. It's our little girlfriend's boyfriend. He's seen us."

  Seth waited for the middle-aged woman to clear, then he waited just a second longer. Lucky hesitation, he thought as the little guy came through behind her. He gave another couple seconds, and caught the sound of whispers and a rustley stir. He couldn't see who was on the bench, just that somebody was. As he stepped through into the garden, he got a little closer and the sight line was better. Man and woman. The fat guy and the bombshell. He'd noticed her, alright, yesterday at tea, the talking boobs.

  "Hey, Seth," Madison spoke softly, "come here a minute. I want to ask you something."

  The man shifted on the bench. Was he buckling his belt? What kind of games are going on here, Seth wondered. Like a French farce, bedroom doors whooshing open and shut, partners swapping like a square dance with an invisible caller. He giggled. Too many images, all funny. Excellent hash Kerry had brought him, clean, very visual. Sure, why the fuck not. He walked towards the bench.

  "Sit right here," the woman patted the middle of the bench. The man had moved to the far end, leaning away, his legs crossed. As he sat between them, the woman put her hand on Seth's leg. "Good lad. Now we won't mess up anybody else's action, if we keep quiet. I'm Madison, we met yesterday, almost. That's David."

  "Hi, Madison, David. What's going down? Is all this stuff connected?"

  "I'd like to think so, just because it makes such an amusing story." Madison leaned in close and hugged Seth. "Um, you smell good. But it probably isn't. Bunch of back door action, though. You come looking for action, Seth, with that gorgeous girlfriend of yours?"

  "Hoping she'll see me," Seth said. "Not sure she wants to."

  "She's making the desserts now, right?" Madison slid closer. "We have a few minutes to ourselves, then. Do you like to cuddle up with strangers? With brand new friends?"

  She held the back of his head, and leaned in briefly to kiss, leaned in again, swinging her head slightly side-to-side, brushing her lips over his. Her hand slid higher on his leg while another hand, David's, pulled his knee away, opening him for Madison's caress. David reached his other arm along the back of the bench, behind Seth, to tangle his fingers in Madison's hair. His arm was snug across Seth's shoulders. It must be the hash, Seth thought, the slow motion unfolding. He was out-of-body, he could see himself on the bench between them. Curiosity rules. Where was this going to go? Where could it go, here almost in public? David's finger slipped lightly against Seth's lips as Madison pulled away. Two distinct vibrations trembled against his nerves, interference like an inharmonious chord. It was a fascinating buzz. Madison wrapped her lips around David's finger, as it slid between Seth's lips. Her tongue reached over, Seth pushed his tongue under, the sliding finger.

  Seth had never experienced arousal of such intensity. Weird and troubling and supercharged, also a little bit revolting. He twisted slowly, away and around, to stand between them looking down.

  "I can't. I'm sorry. That was intense. I'm working on something else now. I can't do it. Whatever it was going to be. Where would you have stopped?"

  "Well, now we'll never kn
ow," Madison said. "Stopping wasn't what I was thinking about. Not you either, from the look of your pants. Fun for a minute, though. Rain check?"

  "Never say never." Seth looked at David. His lips were pressed into a smile, legs spread apart. No secrets there, either. Madison's eyes were wide, her lips wet, slightly parted. "But probably not. No harm, no foul. And, you know what? It kind of cleared my head. Thanks. I've gotta go now." There was only one way to take Marti back, and it wasn't here. Now he knew. He walked out through the gap in the hedge, just as the patio lights cut on.

  ~

  "It sounds like everybody's leaving by tomorrow morning," Geoff said. "The Herter herd gone this afternoon. Jerry wants to drive Dwight home first thing. Stef is ready, we're ready. David goes after breakfast. Ross, I don't know, isn't his house ready? Shouldn't he already be gone? The Farleys either tomorrow or Monday. Honoria will have the whole place to herself."