by Tim Myers
She’d been looking out at the rose garden when she caught my eye. “Ben, is everything all right?”
“It’s great,” I said, trying to put the past behind me and focus on the future.
As we walked in, I admired the heart pine floors, the ceiling, and the delicate flowered wallpaper again. It was as elegant a place as ever. Several of the Shaker-style tables were full. The same short little man with the elegant mustache I’d seen on my last visit was standing at the front, as if he were waiting just for us.
“Welcome back, sir,” he said with great enthusiasm.
I was surprised he’d even recognized me. “Hello. I was told to tell you that I’m your raffle winner from the Fair.”
He looked delighted by the news. “Excellent, excellent. I’m so happy one of our regular patrons won. Come in, come in, we’ve got a special table reserved for you. Everything is included in making this evening yours, from cocktails to dessert. There is one stipulation you might not be aware of, though,” he said as he looked me sternly in the eye.
So there was a catch after all. “What’s that?”
“You are our guests, from the serving staff to my humble self. Please don’t insult us by leaving a tip. This evening, you are both members of our family. Agreed?”
“How can I say no to that?” I said.
He smiled broadly. “Excellent. If you’ll come with me?”
The elegant little man led us to the best table in the house, positioned by a window with a view of the garden and beyond it, the lake.
As he helped Diana into her chair, he said, “I am Robert. If you need anything, anything at all, I will be offended if you do not ask.”
“Thank you, Robert,” Diana said in a hushed voice.
After we were alone, she gazed around the room, then said, “I must say, this is the most impressive first date I’ve ever been on.”
“Then I’m glad I bought that ticket. It is nice, isn’t it?”
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “Honestly, I’m usually happy with a diner or cooking at home, but I’m really going to enjoy this.”
“So am I,” I said. “Thanks for coming on such short notice.”
She looked steadily into my eyes, and said, “Thank you for asking. I was hoping we would have the chance to do this sometime.”
I smiled. “Well, it’s not every day I get to eat at The Lakefront.”
“I’m not talking about that. I would have been just as happy eating at The Hound Dog with you.”
“You know what?” I said, enjoying the moment, and very glad I’d asked her. “I feel the same way.”
My smile froze in place as I noticed a couple come in the front door. I couldn’t believe it for a second, but unfortunately, it was really happening.
Diana asked, “Ben, what’s wrong? You look like somebody just walked across your grave.”
“It’s nothing,” I said, trying to recapture my composure.
“Don’t tell me that,” she said as she casually looked back over her shoulder. After a moment, she said softly, “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
At that moment Kelly caught us looking at her, and so did her date. She was out with her ex-husband Wade. Kelly’s face fell as she offered us a slight nod. I saw her whisper something to Robert, who glanced our way, then nodded. He led them to the other side of the restaurant, thankfully out of our sight.
Diana asked softly, “So who is she?”
“It’s not important. Not anymore.”
Diana wasn’t about to accept that answer. She put a hand on mine and said, “It’s pretty obvious it is. Did you two date?”
I nodded. “Up until pretty recently actually. That’s her ex-husband with her. They’ve decided to reconcile.”
“Oh, Ben, I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s really not important anymore. Let’s enjoy our evening, shall we?”
I tried, I honestly did, but our conversation was stilted throughout the salad course and on into the entree. Diana asked what I thought about Earnest Joy’s murder, and that just served to remind me that I was at the top of Molly’s list of suspects.
She finished a bite of her salmon, then after a long pause, Diana said, “You know, maybe we should try this another time. I don’t blame you, but it’s pretty obvious your heart’s not into this anymore. Would you like to go?”
“No,” I said a little louder than I’d intended. “I want to stay.”
Diana raised an eyebrow, then said firmly, “Then you’re going to have to do a better job of focusing on me and stop glancing in that direction every twenty seconds. I’m not high maintenance, I promise you that, but I do need some attention when I’m out on a date. Is that fair enough?”
I laughed at her abrupt directness. “I’d say that’s more than fair.” From that moment on, I started enjoying myself again. The filet mignon was wonderful, and I especially enjoyed the garlic mashed potatoes.
As we waited for our chocolate mousse desserts, a quartet began playing in the other room. “Would you like to dance?”
“I’d love to,” she said. As I led her onto the floor, I made sure my gaze never left hers. It was funny, but I’d never danced with a woman as tall as I was before. Most of the time it was easy to forget that Diana was six feet tall, but I found it nice to face her eye-to-eye as we danced. I’ve never been a fan of skinny women, and she felt full and alive in my embrace as we moved around the dance floor. I swear, it was as if we’d danced together a thousand times before.
After a break in the music, Diana said softly, “I haven’t danced nearly enough in my life.”
“You really should. You’re excellent at it.”
As the music started up again, she said, “Not many boys wanted to dance with a girl as tall as they were.”
“That was clearly their loss,” I said.
After the song ended, I noticed that our desserts had been delivered to our table. “Are you ready for dessert?”
“As long as you promise to dance with me again before we leave.”
I nodded. “That’s a promise you can be sure I’ll keep.”
After I led her back to our table, Diana took a bite, and her face lit up. “That is unbelievably good. We’ll have to dance till midnight, I’ve eaten so much.”
“I’m game if you are,” I said.
To my credit, as we were leaving, I didn’t even look around for Kelly and her ex-husband. Not that I didn’t think about it, but doing so would have been a disservice to Diana and our evening together.
Robert smiled at us as we approached him. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you two are a perfect match. Watching you dance together reminded me of my late wife. I trust everything was to your satisfaction?”
“It was outstanding,” I said as I shook his hand. Diana leaned down and kissed his cheek, and to my surprise, Robert’s face reddened.
She said, “Thank you for a truly special evening.”
“Mademoiselle, you are always welcome here.”
As I drove Diana back to her apartment, there was a comfortable silence between us, one that normally took time to develop. I glanced over at her and said, “It was great, wasn’t it?”
“I had the time of my life. Honestly, I feel like Cinderella right now.”
I looked at my watch. “If that’s the case, you’re in serious trouble. We’re half an hour past your deadline.”
“I don’t like to think of it as a deadline, more like a suggestion,” she said, laughing.
Once we were at her apartment, I walked her to her door, unsure about how to handle the good-night kiss. It had always been the most awkward moment of any first date for me, and that hadn’t changed, even though I was a grown man now.
She settled the question for me, turning slowly and offering me a kiss. After a full minute, Diana said, “I hope you had as tenth a good time as I did, Ben.”
“I did,” I said.
“Then next time I’ll treat, but I’m afraid I can’t offer you anything as eleg
ant as tonight.”
“In all honesty, The Hound Dog is normally more my speed anyway,” I said.
“Then we’ll try that next. How’s Friday sound?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
She hesitated, then said, “Ben, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push.”
“It’s not that,” I said. “I’m just not sure I can wait till then to see you again.”
Her laughter was infectious. “You’ll just have to manage. Besides, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“But tomorrow’s Tuesday,” I said.
“Not for dinner, for class. Surely you haven’t forgotten about that.”
“To be honest with you, it completely slipped my mind.”
This time I kissed her, and it was quite a bit longer than a minute before I let her go.
As I drove back to my apartment, I marveled about how the evening had turned out. There had been a rough patch when Kelly and Wade had walked in, but Diana had stopped me from ruining a wonderful evening. And I’d had a great time, there was no denying it. A slight hint of her perfume lingered in the car, just enough to remind me of our evening together. I was still enjoying the feeling when I walked into my apartment and saw that there was a message on my machine. I hit the play button and heard Kelly’s voice.
She managed to choke out, “Ben, I’m so sorry. About everything,” before she hung up.
What did she mean by that? Was she sorry she’d nearly ruined my meal, or was she regretting our breakup? Either way, there was nothing I could do about it. I played the message one more time, then hit the erase button.
Still, it managed to steal some of the euphoria I’d been feeling just a few seconds before.
It would be better for me if I could put Kelly behind me and focus on Diana, but I’d never been one to give my heart easily, and it always took me time to rebound. But knowing Diana, she wasn’t about to put up with much foolishness on my part.
And that was exactly what I needed at the moment.
The next morning, thirty minutes before class was due to start, I got a telephone call at Where There’s Soap that dramatically altered my plans for the day.
As Cindy and I were preparing for our class—the last one on hand-milling—Kate came into the teaching area.
“Ben, Grandpa is on the phone for you.”
Cindy said, “Oh, no, you’re not going to do that to me again.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said as I headed for the door.
“Benjamin, I won’t teach this class alone. We’ll just cancel and you can help me on the makeup session.”
We were going to be teaching our class today to make soaps with ingredients like luffa, peppermint, mango, honey, lavender, and even strawberries. It was the best class to teach, since the students got to decide what kind of soap they wanted to make. We had everything they might want to put in a soap, and our inventory of additives was wide open to them. Half the fun was watching them choose and helping them mold their ideas into reality.
Kate stared at us both, then said, “It’s probably nothing. I’m sure it’s just a phone call.”
Cindy protested, “Yeah, that’s what he said yesterday, and I ended up teaching all by myself.”
“I couldn’t do anything about that,” I said, which was not entirely true.
Kate said, “What’s the big deal? If Ben can’t help you, I’d love to. This is my favorite class session to teach.”
“Slow down,” I said. “I’m not planning to go anywhere, okay? I’ll be right back.”
I grabbed the nearest phone and said, “You needed me?”
Paulus had a defeated tone in his voice that shocked me. “Ben, I should have left the detecting to you. I’ve botched it all up.”
“What happened, Paulus?”
He hesitated, then said, “I’ve been digging into Earnest Joy’s murder, and I’m afraid I’ve attracted the wrong attention. My boy, I could be in some serious trouble.”
“Where are you right now?” I asked. I could have Molly there in record time, despite our differences lately. She loved the old man almost as much as I did.
“I’m safe enough, but I’m so paranoid right now, I can’t stop looking over my shoulder. I need you to meet me somewhere nearby so we can talk. You have to fix this, Ben.”
He’d never asked me for my help in his entire life, and I knew he really was desperate. “Why can’t you come here?”
“I don’t want anyone to see me going into Where There’s Soap, okay? Name someplace else.”
I named the first thing I could think of. “Then how about The Hound Dog? Would that do?”
“Yeah, that would be perfect. I’ll see you in five minutes.”
He hung up before I could say another word. I hurried back to the classroom, and found Kate and Cindy still chatting about hand-milling. “Cindy, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to bail out on you after all.”
“Ben, you can’t do this to me.”
I met her glare with one of my own. “Our grandfather is in trouble. He needs me.”
Kate snapped, “What are you doing standing around here, then? Go. I’ll help with the class.”
I looked at Cindy and said, “Will you be all right?”
“I’ll be fine. She’s right. You need to go.”
I tore out of there, and jumped into the Miata. It was a short walk to the cafe, but I didn’t have the time today. Thankfully there was a parking spot on the street near the diner, and I was there less than two minutes after my phone call with Paulus.
I didn’t see his car anywhere nearby, but if he was as paranoid as he’d sounded, my grandfather may have parked pretty far away so no one would know where he was.
Ruby was behind the counter singing along with Elvis. I looked around the diner, but no Paulus.
As “Viva Las Vegas” ended, I asked, “Have you seen Paulus?”
She shook her head. “Not in a few weeks. What’s the old scoundrel been up to?”
“I wouldn’t mind knowing that myself. I’ll just wait on him in a booth.”
She cleared a diner’s dishes at the counter. “Do you want anything while you’re waiting?”
“Why not? Bring me a glass of sweet tea, would you?”
She shot me with a finger. “Coming right your way.”
I found a seat where I could watch the front door and look out one of the picture windows at the sidewalk as well. There was light foot traffic outside, and quite a few interesting people passed by, but I only cared about my grandfather. The defeated tone I’d heard in his voice had shaken me more than I wanted to admit. Paulus had always been such a vigorous and vital man. On the phone, he’d sounded beaten, and worse yet, afraid.
Ruby brought me a sweet tea along with a mini pitcher. “I thought you might be thirsty.”
“Thanks,” I said absently, still staring out the window.
“Ben, is everything okay? You’re acting a little odd today.”
“I’m fine,” I said as I tried to offer her a smile. “Just a little distracted, I guess.”
She nodded. “It’s a busy world these days, isn’t it?” Just then, Elvis started singing about being caught in a trap, and for once, I knew just how he felt.
Ruby’s eyes lit up. “I just love this song.”
“Is there an Elvis tune you don’t?”
She smiled. “No, now that you mention it, I can’t say there is.”
I waited a good half hour, growing more fidgety by the second. Where was my grandfather? His demand that I meet him had been urgent enough, so why wasn’t he there yet? I was getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, and the longer I waited, the worse it got. Where was he? I’d killed my tea and half the pitcher, so the caffeine and sugar were just exacerbating the situation. I should have asked for water instead.
By the time an hour had passed, I couldn’t wait around any longer. It was obvious Paulus, for whatever reason, wasn’t going to show up. So where did that leave me? He’d been digging into
Earnest Joy’s murder, he’d admitted that much to me over the phone yesterday and today. I’d been a little remiss in my own investigation, but it was time to start gearing it up. The reason I hadn’t been more adamant about digging deeper into it myself was because there was no way in the world I could believe that Molly might actually think I could have killed the man. I was sure she would do her utmost to prove my innocence, and Molly was the professional, while I was just an amateur dabbling into detection, though I’d had some success in the past.
There was more at stake now, though. Paulus might be in trouble—real or imagined—and if he wasn’t going to tell me what he’d done, then I was just going to have to figure it out myself, arid try to fix whatever mess he’d claimed he’d made.
The logical place to start digging was at the Joy jewelry store. At least one of Earnest’s kids would be there running the place, and it would give me the perfect opportunity to conduct an informal interview. I might even get something out of Andrew or Terri that Molly had missed. Most people were guarded when they talked to the police, but I had a way of listening that encouraged people to open up, and I’d cultivated the talent over the years.
I paid Ruby, then said, “If Paulus shows up, will you tell him to call me on my cell phone?”
“He hates those things and you know it,” Ruby said.
“I’m not asking him to use one,” I said. “Just have him call me. It’s important.”
“I’ll do it. Are you sure everything’s all right?”
I wished I could reassure her with some kind of sincerity, but all I managed was a nod. “I’m just sorry I missed him.”
I drove the Miata to the jewelry store, and was glad to see that the parking lot was nearly deserted. That suited me just fine. I didn’t want a crowd around while I grilled Earnest’s children about his murder, and if they were innocent, I’d do my best to make it up to them. But at the moment, I had a family member at risk myself. That meant that everyone else in the world was fair game.
I was surprised as I walked in to see that there was a sign on the door announcing that the shop closed at one. Those were good hours if you could get them. Then I remembered that their father had just died, and no matter how big a scoundrel I’d thought him to be, his children must have loved him. When I thought about it that way, I was kind of stunned they were even open at all.
