The Dana Potter Cozy Mystery Collection

by Liz Turner

  “Before we knew it, the convention was closing for the evening. He invited me, my friend, and a couple of friends she’d made to go to his favorite beach with him. That time at the beach is probably the fondest memory of my life now.

  “My friend was off in her own little world, so me and William had a lot of time alone, just enjoying each other’s company. He bought me some ice cream and took me out on a boat-ride. We had the time of our lives.

  “The next day was a lot more of the same. We spent the entire time at the convention together. He even got me to attend some seminars, which ended up being really fun, since I was with him. Afterwards, he showed me and my friend around the city. My friend didn’t bring anyone else with her that time, but seeing how kind William was to her as well made me like him even more.

  “That night, I told my friend I thought I was falling in love with William. Of course, she was even more excited about it than I was. She started jumping around the room, calling me ‘Mrs. Whatever-his-last-name-is.’ That was the first time I realized I hadn’t really had any small talk with him and needed to learn some basic things—like his last name and favorite color. Our conversations had been too deep to get to those trivial things…

  “I was planning to ask him and even considered telling him how I felt. And trust me, admitting I was in love with a man I’d just met was unheard of for me back then, let alone me actually telling him! Of course, my friend was putting pressure on me to get his number and marry him! But the next day was the last day of the convention, and for some reason, he never showed up.”

  “Oh, sweetheart,” Dana said, frowning, “that breaks my heart.”

  “Yeah,” Celeste said, “mine too.”

  “Well, don’t you have any pictures of him, or anything to remember him by? Don’t you have any way you could track him down at all?” Dana asked.

  “No. We didn’t think to take any pictures together. There was this one seminar we went to that third day of the convention that was about gratitude. The activity was to write a letter to someone we’re grateful for… He wrote a little letter to me.”

  “Isn’t that just the sweetest thing?” Dana exclaimed. “I sure hope you kept that letter.”

  Visibly choked up, Celeste breathed heavily and stared at the ground. “Yeah, I did…” she said after a long moment. “But I honestly don’t think he was taking the activity seriously. Still, I’ve kept that letter all this time. I know it’s silly of me, but I read it so often, it’s started to tear.”

  Dana sighed. Her heart hurt listening to the pain Celeste had kept secret for fifteen years. She could only imagine what it would be like to come so close to love and never quite reach it. Not only was the look on Celeste’s face heartbreaking, but the whole energy around her was filled with pain.

  Dana couldn’t take it. She had to do something to fix this.

  Chapter 2

  Stories of Longing

  Several minutes had passed since Celeste finished her story, but Dana could see in her face that it was still on her mind. For a while, Dana kept quiet, and thought about her own true love. She wondered if the pain she felt when he passed away was at all like the pain Celeste experienced now, longing for her love to find her.

  “Celeste, dear,” Dana said, “do you still love this man?”

  “Well, I… That would be silly of me, wouldn’t it?”

  “Enough with the excuses. Just let your heart answer. Do you still love him?”

  “Yes,” Celeste whispered. “I think so.”

  “Then what if I told you I was gonna help you track him down?”

  “What?” Celeste’s eyes widened. “No! That would be too weird…”

  “There’s nothing weird about it,” Dana said. “And so what if someone else thinks it’s weird. It’s your life, not theirs! Whatever you had with this man, you deserve to know if it was real. And if it was, I want you to be happy with him, not sitting here alone, suffering from regrets.”

  “But… what if he’s… It’s just…”

  “Just what?” Dana said. “And no silly excuses!”

  “It’s not an excuse! I just don’t know if I’d be able to handle it if he’s… forgotten me.”

  “Well, isn’t that what I’m here for?” Dana said. “If you’ll allow me to do so, I can look into this guy and find out everything you need to know about him. And if anything bad comes up, I don’t even have to tell you if you don’t want me to.”

  Celeste frowned. “The problem is, if you do, I’d want to know. And if he’s forgotten me–or worse, if he’s already married–I know logically I would need to find that out, so I can move on and stop living in a fantasy. But right now, I just don’t think it’s worth it.”

  “What’s not worth it? Finding out he’s married or tracking down the love of your life?”

  “Both, I guess,” Celeste said. “I’m nowhere near who I was back when we met, and I’m sure he’s not the same person either. I’ve been living in a teenage fantasy for fifteen years, and it’s about time I stopped wasting my life away. I think the real reason I needed to talk about this finally was because I needed to realize it’s about time to move on. I’m done waiting for him.”

  “You’re right,” Dana said. “Not about the giving up stuff you, but about how much people can change in fifteen years. And let me tell ya, staying with someone for that long while they’re changing is probably just as hard as finding out someone you haven’t seen in years is a totally different person. But you’ve stayed loving him this whole time, and I believe that love, as an energy, is strong enough that he’s felt your love for him–wherever he is–at least enough to remember you.

  “But let me tell ya, what I don’t think is that giving up on something–or someone–you love is ever the right answer. People say all the time that life’s too short not to live it to the fullest—and that’s true. But I’d add that you lose every opportunity you neglect to take. If you don’t even try something, how will you ever know if it is or isn’t a waste of time? And is anything a waste of time, really? You learn from everything you do. The only thing that’s a waste is never doing anything to begin with.”

  Celeste nodded. “I know you’re right, I really do,” she said, “and I appreciate you taking the time to listen, and for being willing to help me find him. It’s just—my heart goes back and forth between loving him and feeling he’s a lost cause. I only know his first name and haven’t seen him in fifteen years. Last I knew, he was from New Orleans but lived in California, and honestly, I feel better about moving on than I do about the stress of trying to find him with how little I know.”

  “I understand,” Dana said. “I disagree, but I understand.”

  “Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but like you said, this is my life. It’s not like we’d ever find a man with a name as common as William, anyway.”

  “I’ve found more with less,” Dana said, shrugging her shoulders.

  “I’m sure…” Celeste said. “Anyway, it’s getting late, and all this talk of William has been exhausting. I think I’m gonna head home… Good evening, Miss Potter.” She gathered her things and stopped by the back porch to thank Mrs. Williams for the food before leaving.

  Dana sighed and considered her options for how to best help Celeste. On one hand, she didn’t want to disrespect Celeste’s wishes and look for William if it genuinely wasn’t what she wanted. On the other hand, Dana could feel how strongly Celeste still felt for William.

  Lost in thought, Dana watched idly as one-by-one, families gathered, thanked Mrs. Williams, and left to return home. Dana yawned and considered doing so herself, but the group of teenagers caught her eye once more.

  One of the girls was laughing and showing the others something on her phone. “There’s chocolate on my face in this picture, Maya! Why would you post this?” she said.

  “It was the best one we took!” Maya, Mrs. Williams’s eldest daughter, said. “And you had it on your face in all of them. It’s not my fault you
didn’t wipe your face first!”

  “Ugh, just un-tag me!” the girl said. “I can’t have something like this showing up on my Insta.”

  The girls resumed looking at their phones and talking about some picture Dana hadn’t noticed them take earlier in the evening. All the talk about things she didn’t understand gave Dana an idea.

  She stood and walked slowly to the group of teens, pausing to stand near Mrs. Williams’s daughter.

  Maya looked over her shoulder at Dana and raised one eyebrow. “Can I help you?” she said casually.

  “Yes, dear. You see, I don’t know too much about this social media thing, but it seems like you all know quite a lot about it. I was just wondering if any of you could help me with something.”

  “You need help to set up a Facebook account?” one of the boys asked. “I helped my Gran with that too.”

  “No, no, it’s nothing like that,” Dana said. “I just wonder—can you search for someone’s name and narrow down the search so it only brings up people of a certain age or area? See, I’m trying to track down an old friend.”

  “Well, on Facebook, you can search someone’s name and make it so it only brings up people in a certain city, state, or zip code. Dunno about the age thing, but you can adjust it to search certain professions or hometowns, if you know any of that about him,” Maya said.

  “Oh, perfect!” Dana clapped her hands together. “Can you look him up for me?”

  The two girls looked at each other and then back at Dana, as if trying to decide which of them was more willing to do it.

  “Yeah, fine,” Maya finally said. “What’s his name?”

  “William,” Dana said.

  “William…?”

  “Oh, I don’t know his last name. His name is William though, and he’s in his thirties. From New Orleans, but lived in Cali for a while.”

  Maya sighed and set down her phone. The other girl bit her lip, but the boys weren’t ashamed and burst out laughing.

  Dana glared at them, put off by their disrespect. She had to admit though, she knew she may have been asking for too much. Nevertheless, she put her hands on her hips and gave them a piece of her mind. “Now, I may need to chat with you boys’ mothers about disrespecting your elders. I’m sincerely asking for help even though I’ve got many years on you, and you’re gonna poke fun? What’s wrong with what I’m asking of you? Is it really that hard?”

  “No, ma’am,” the boys said, suddenly sitting stiff in their chairs.

  “That’s more like it,” Dana said, nodding approvingly. “Now, if you don’t mind, could someone please explain to me what’s the problem?”

  “Uh, excuse me, ma’am,” one of the younger boys said, raising his hand, “it’s not that I was laughing at you, and I meant no disrespect. It’s just that William is a very common name. You put that into Facebook, you’re gonna get hundreds of results, and a half of them won’t even be real profiles. That’s why I was laughing.”

  “But I gave you a whole lot of information about him,” Dana said. “I told you where he lived and where he moved to. What good is a social tool if you can’t even use it to find your associates?”

  All the boys except the one to speak up sat still as ever.

  At least their mothers must have taught them something about respect, Dana thought.

  The girl sat with her head rested in her hands and her brow furrowed, seemingly trying to figure something out. Dana hoped she was determining how to help her track William down.

  After a moment, Maya sighed, stood, and placed her hand on Dana’s shoulder. “Miss Potter,” she said, “it’s not that I don’t want to help you, because I really do—but like Daniel said, there’s not much we can do with a name like William. But the good news is that you live right next door to me, and I’m home pretty much all the time. So how about for tonight, I help you to get back home and you can sleep on it and see if you remember his last name in the morning?”

  “I don’t need your help to get home. I can walk just fine on my own,” Dana said, brushing Maya’s hands away. “You’ve known me for how long and you don’t know that? I ain’t no old lady!”

  “Except when you’ve got yard work you don’t wanna do and then it’s, ‘Please, can someone help an old lady out? My whole body aches!’” Maya said, imitating Dana.

  “Girl, you’re just about as sassy as your mother was at this age,” Dana said, putting her hands back on her hips.

  Maya grinned. “She raised me well.”

  “Yeah, well, looks like I’m not any closer to solving my mystery though,” Dana said.

  “Don’t worry your pretty little head, Miss Potter,” Maya said. “I’ve got you. The kids at school know me as somewhat of a social media guru.”

  “No they don’t,” one of the boys scoffed.

  “Come back to me when you have a name,” Maya said, ignoring him, “and rest assured, I’ll help you out.”

  Dana chuckled and patted Maya on the shoulder. “Well, tell your mother thanks for dinner. I’d tell her myself, but I don’t see her out here anymore, and it’s getting to be passed my bedtime.”

  “You should be thanking me for the dinner, but whatever. It’s cool,” Maya said.

  “Wait now… you made this?” Dana said, stunned.

  “Sure did!” Maya beamed. “Well, except the meat. Mama did that part. But everything else was all me!”

  “Look at you!” Dana said. “You did a wonderful job. Well, thank you for the dinner!”

  “You’re welcome,” Maya said, nodding proudly.

  Dana smiled, fighting to hide her disappointment that she had been fooled into thinking she’d finally gotten to taste Mrs. Williams’s cooking. Not to say the meal wasn’t wonderful, but Dana specifically remembered telling Mrs. Williams that she wanted to try her cooking, and Mrs. Williams saying that she would taste it tonight.

  Just like Mrs. Williams to pull something like this, Dana thought.

  Just as Dana was opening the gate to leave the backyard, Mrs. Williams appeared in the window, waving her down. Dana glared and put her hands on her hips, but Mrs. Williams just smirked.

  “Did you find out about Celeste?” Mrs. Williams asked.

  “Sure did. And I found out about you too!”

  “Me?” Mrs. Williams raised her eyebrows. “What about me?”

  “Your daughter cooked this meal, didn’t she?”

  “Yeah. I guess Maya did do most the work. Well, what of it? Is it wrong to let my daughter cook with me when I’ve got a whole barbeque to prepare?”

  “No, ma’am. What’s wrong is that you told me you did the cooking! I’m sitting here thinking I’m eating your home-cooking, but I’m eating your daughter’s the whole time! And don’t get me wrong—she did a fantastic job—but everyone on the block thought they were eating food prepared by the legendary Mrs. Williams! How could you take credit for your daughter’s work?”

  “Take credit? When did I do that? And since when is my daughter’s cooking–using my recipes–not my cooking? I told everyone who came to thank me that my daughter did the work. You just never came to thank me, so I never told you, plain as that.”

  “Okay, okay,” Dana said. “But you know how I don’t like being tricked! Anyway, thanks for hosting. I already told Maya thanks for the meal.”

  “Sure, thanks for coming!”

  “Well, see ya,” Dana said, smiling.

  She shuffled home, exhausted and ready to go to bed. As soon as she crawled under the covers on her memory foam mattress, she sighed loudly. The pain she heard in Celeste’s voice while she described her long-lost love haunted her, reminding her of her own grief after losing her long-time boyfriend.

  Thoughts of Celeste and William swirled in Dana’s head, keeping her from falling asleep despite her tiredness.

  “Can’t imagine keeping something like that to myself for fifteen years,” Dana muttered to herself. “That poor girl must be hurting something fierce.”

  She replayed e
verything Celeste said in her mind, trying to pick out a detail that might give her an actual lead on finding William. Yet, after an hour or so, she still couldn’t recall anything particularly helpful.

  She considered contacting the friend Celeste had gone to California with, but knew that would be a violation of Celeste’s trust after promising she would keep the conversation between the two of them.

  Dana thought of other approaches she could use for this investigation, but most seemed like a long-shot at best. When she thought of looking through social media again, she remembered the teenagers laughing. Her heart raced, and she clenched her fists, huffing.

  “How was I supposed to know Facebook’s not as efficient as the detectives I’ve worked with to find people?” she muttered. “Although, I suppose it’s fair to say that I didn’t give them much to work with. Still, I should’ve found those boys’ mamas before they left. Give ‘em a good talking to!

  “This investigation definitely isn’t gonna be easy without the resources I had back in Atlanta.” She sighed. “Look what I’ve come to in my old age, turning to teenagers for help because I don’t have the know-how with technology. Is this what I’ve been reduced to? There’s gotta be some way I can get more than the name William, whether I got the technology know-how or not!”

  The more she thought about it though, the more lost she felt. She couldn’t ask Celeste for more information, because even if she was willing to cooperate, Dana didn’t want to cause her any more stress than she was already facing.

  She couldn’t ask Celeste’s friend if she happened to catch William’s last name during the convention, because that would make her question why he’d come back up after so many years, and she would likely pester Celeste about it.

  The only lead Dana really had was the convention in L.A. If she could somehow find the guest list or registration documents from it, assuming she could figure out what it was called back between 2001 and 2003, hopefully she would be able to find Celeste’s name on one of the lists. Then she could take the list back to Maya to get help to search all the attendees named William until they found the right one.