Parks rang the doorbell and waited. After a few moments the door was opened by a slender, olive-complexioned woman with short, upswept dark hair. She wore a white bathrobe over burgundy satin pajamas, which caused him to realize how late it was. She looked up at him from large dark eyes expectantly.
“Mrs. Aliger?” He asked, taking off his hat. He jumped suddenly as the little mouse darted from the hole and ran across the top of his boot past her bare feet and into the apartment.
“Yes?” She never even flinched at the sight of the mouse.
“I see you have a mouse problem.” He grinned crookedly and felt foolish under her gaze.
“Are you an exterminator?” She frowned at him.
“No, ma’am.” He felt his face go red. “I’m Louis Parks of the Magnolia Springs Police Department.” She had to be one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen up close. She reminded him of Sophia Loren... no, Claudia Cardinale, or that other star who had played in the Zorro movie. He couldn’t remember her name. She had to be Italian. He just loved Italian women.
“Yes, I suppose you must be,” she said and smiled at him as if she could read his thoughts. “How can I help you?”
Parks felt his knees go weak. If only she could help him...
“I’m looking for Mr. Aliger, actually,” he managed to say. “Is he in? It’s in reference to the accident with Reggie Greene today.”
“Oh, yes, of course.” She nodded. “It would have to be that.”
She stood back to hold the door open for him and he stepped inside. Mrs. Aliger closed the door behind him and he stood nervously in the entryway holding his hat in his hands. She was too close for comfort in the dim interior. He looked at the walls. Light rosy pink. Just her color, no doubt. The carpet was new, light gray and looked expensive.
“This way.” She walked past him to a large arched doorway leading to the living room. “Please have a seat while I tell my husband you are here.”
He sat in the plush comfort a dark green upholstered sofa. The furnishings were all black lacquer with a distinctively Oriental style. The coffee table had mother of pearl inlays under a glass panel and the wall hangings seemed to be concocted of shells and other sea creatures made into fantastic landscapes with cranes, trees and lotus blossoms. The whole room smelled of oranges and cinnamon and money. Louis wondered how he had missed the massive remodeling that must have been going on in the building recently. He smiled when he noticed the little mouse watching him from atop a darkly gleaming table that held a bronze pagoda and a lamp made of brass and crystal. What he had mistaken to be a porcelain Siamese cat suddenly got up to stretch and yawn on the flagstone hearth. The cat paid no attention to the mouse. Must prefer Fancy Feast, he thought. A pair of white swans sat on a smaller table next to an exquisite vase of fresh flowers.
It was a beautiful room, but it made him feel like he was in a very expensive doctor’s office. The only thing missing were the magazines. There was no television. He was not used to being in a living room without a television. There was no stereo and stranger still, no telephone. A brass eight-day clock under a glass dome ticked on the mantle. The only thing in the room that somehow seemed out of place was a black electronic piano in one corner. Sheets of music were scattered haphazardly over its surface and the bench was slightly askew.
“Sgt. Parks?” Perry Aliger’s voice made him jump. He stood up and stuck out his hand.
The blonde man smiled at him and reached to take the proffered hand and a small blue spark of electricity jumped between their fingers as they touched.
“Ow!” Louis said involuntarily. “Must be the new carpet.”
“Yes,” Perry nodded. “Please, sit down.”
“Mr. Aliger,” Louis said as he sat on the sofa and Perry took a seat in a matching armchair. “I’m sorry to bother you so late.”
“No bother and please call me Perry.” Aliger eyed him almost as if he were amused. “My wife is making us some tea.”
“Thank you,” Louis nodded. He hoped that Mrs. Aliger would not come to sit too near him or he would have a very serious problem. Louis kicked himself mentally for thinking about the man’s wife with him sitting in the same room looking at him. It was terrible, but Louis had never been able to hide his feelings very well. Especially when it came to beautiful women and hadn’t his wife told him about it often enough? Furthermore, what had possessed him to tell this man about Larry Lipscomb? Now he was sitting in his living room having a very hard time remembering what he had come there for. “You know, I’ve always wanted to see the inside of this place," he said glancing around. "You all have done a real nice job re-modeling it. Real nice. You’d never know it from the outside.”
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.” Perry looked at him blandly. “We are planning to give the place a face-up as well.”
“You mean a facelift?” Louis frowned at him.
“Yes, that’s right. A little paint and some new wood here and there and lots of flowers.”
“Yeah, flowers,” Louis agreed. “My personal favorite is caladiums. You know them fancy colored leaves? My wife always plants them every where. She digs up the bulbs in the fall and keeps them in the garage in baggies. Boy, you don’t how many times I’ve found those weird looking things and almost throwed ’em away. Ugly things, like some kind of alien seedpods from outer space. You know, like the Body Snatchers?” Louis discovered he was rambling again. He felt foolish, but Perry seemed to be listening to him with the greatest interest. His strange eyes gleamed with curiosity.
“Do you think something like that will ever happen?” Perry asked him when he fell silent.
Louis thought it just might be possible. “Naw, of course not. I can’t see me bein’ taken in by some plant creature.” He laughed nervously.
“You’re right,” Perry agreed. “Plants and animals. I doubt that assimilation of one by the other would be genetically feasible, though we might form some sort of symbiotic relationship with plants from outer space. We already have several types of fungus and microscopic organisms living in us and on us. But intelligent plants are not likely. Of course they do have feelings of a sort, but they exist on an entirely different plane from us. If the...”
Louis had been lost from the start. He stared at Perry as if he were, indeed, a body snatching plant from outer space. Thankfully, Mrs. Aliger chose that moment to interrupt her husband’s strange discourse.
She stood in the open door leading to the kitchen holding a bamboo serving tray with an Oriental tea service on it. Perry got up immediately leaving his last statement unfinished to help her with it. She moved the swans and set about pouring three cups of greenish tea in small, ornately decorated cups without handles.
“Here you are, Mr. Parks.” She handed him one of the little cups. “Has my husband been boring you with his ramblings?”
“Oh, no ma’am.” Louis held the cup in his big hands as if it was alive and he was afraid he would crush it. “I thought it was very interesting.”
Angelica handed a cup to Perry who had resumed his seat and was now watching Louis with a peculiar look on his face. Louis sipped the green tea carefully. He’d never seen green tea before and he wasn’t much of a tea drinker at all. In fact, he liked his dark, over ice with plenty of sugar. The taste of the tea surprised him.
“Hmmm,” he commented on the flavor. “This is pretty good.”
“The flavor stands alone,” Perry told him and smiled at Angelica.
“So, have you lived in Magnolia springs all your life, Mr. Parks?” Angelica asked him.
“Please call me Louis if you don’t mind,” he told her, but was afraid to look at her. “Yes, ma’am, born and raised here.”
“Born and raised here,” Perry nodded. “That would surely account for the greater part of your life.”
Louis raised one eyebrow. “And where do you folks hail from?” He asked as the opportunity seemed to present itself. Angelica’s dark eyes were much more severe on the nerves than Perry�
�s odd-colored pair. Louis did not know where to look. He watched the slinky Siamese that was giving himself a thorough cleaning on the hearth. The little mouse had vacated the table.
“California,” Angelica answered immediately.
“Really?” Louis glanced at her. “What part?”
“The north part,” she told him.
“North California,” Louis repeated the odd phrase. He wondered why she was lying. “I spent some time in California. I was in the Navy.”
“The Navy?” Perry blinked at him. “Ships and all that.”
“Yeah, ships.” Louis looked at him over his cup of tea.
“Yes, Peregrin.” Angelica looked at her husband adoringly. “Ships. I’m sorry, Sgt. Parks, I mean Louis, didn’t you have some questions you wanted to ask my husband?”
“Oh, yeah.” Louis felt his face going red again under her gaze. “That’s right. I almost forgot.”
Louis used the excuse to set his cup on the coffee table and took a small notebook from his pocket and got out his pen to make notes.
“Did you actually see the accident?” He asked.
“When?” Perry asked distractedly as the Siamese jumped into his lap.
“This afternoon!” Louis looked at him in surprise. “The accident.”
“Yes, I know. Reggie Greene. How is he?” Perry looked at him with the same peculiar expression as earlier.
“He’s fine. Went home about an hour or so after he woke up. Only a couple of stitches. I guess you broke his fall.”
“Always,” Angelica said softly as if to herself.
“I didn’t actually see the accident in the sense that you mean as actually seeing the accident. No,” Perry answered his question. “But I did catch him. Yes.”
“What were you doing there? I mean, why were you there at the time of the accident?” Louis frowned at his notebook trying to decide what to write.
“I was on my way back from the bank.” Perry stroked the cat’s head.
“First National?” Louis looked up.
“Is there another bank in town?” Angelica asked him.
“No, there’s not. But the bank is three blocks this side of the accident and you were on your way back...”
“How is Mrs. Lipscomb?” Perry interrupted him.
“I took her home. She got to make her statement and sign it.” Louis was frustrated. “I guess that made her happy. Seems her story and the truck driver’s was about the same. There won’t be any charges filed. It was an accident. The boy’s fault. As far as Hannah goes, she’s probably home right now tyin’ one on.”
“Tying what on?” Perry leaned forward in the chair and dumped the cat on the carpet.
“He means drinking alcohol, Sweetheart,” Angelica explained.
“Oh, that again.” Perry leaned back. “A very bad habit.”
“How long have you two been in town?” Louis asked them point blank.
“About two weeks now,” Angelica answered. “Of course we have been here before when we were looking for a home. We took this building for the view, didn’t we? We just love the view, don’t we?”
“Yes, of course.” Perry smiled at his wife. “Did you know, Louis, that Mr. Grayson was in ill health?”
“Yeah, I guess everybody knew it,” Louis nodded. Mr. Grayson suffered from emphysema and had to drag an oxygen bottle around with him.
“They retired to Arizona,” Angelica told him. “The weather will do him good.”
“Mrs. Grayson’s arthritis will improve as well,” Perry added.
“I see.” Louis made a mental note to check it out. Mr. and Mrs. Grayson had lived in Magnolia Springs forever. Why would they up and leave without a word?
“Yes. The climate is wonderful there,” Perry continued. “The human body is not well adapted for these hot, humid climes. Drier conditions. That’s what we need. Colorado is a nice place, too.”
“Yes, I suppose it would be,” Louis agreed and failed to keep his eyes from wandering to Angelica’s face. She smiled at him and he melted in the sofa.
He tore his eyes from her and looked at Perry wondering if perhaps he had suffered a concussion. “What did the doctor say about your head injury? That was a pretty ugly cut you got there.”
“He didn’t say anything,” Perry told him truthfully. “What do you think of the tea?”
“It’s wonderful,” he said without thinking.
“Good.” Angelica stood up. “Let me give you some to take home to your wife.”
“No, really. I can’t take your tea.” Louis was flustered. He didn’t remember telling her that he had a wife. Did he look that married, he wondered?
Perry stood as well. “Nonsense. We have plenty.”
Angelica hurried from the room. Perry leaned to put his teacup on the coffee table and Louis raised up to look at the back of his head. There was no sign of any injury beneath the neatly combed hair.
“Are you sure the doctor looked at that cut?” He could not help but ask.
Louis was quite positive that the doctor had not even seen Aliger at all.
“He was much too busy to be bothered,” Perry answered non-committally. “He had Reggie to worry with.”
“I guess I’ll be goin’ then.” Louis wondered why he had come. He had gotten absolutely nothing from them. “I’ve taken too much of your time already.”
Perry reached for his hand again. Louis looked at it apprehensively before taking it. The same shock occurred again.
“It was a pleasure seeing you once more.” Perry smiled at him.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?” Louis shook his head.
“I said it was a pleasure.” Perry frowned slightly and then looked up as Angelica joined them.
“Here you are.” She placed a red and gold box tied with a red ribbon in his hands. “Please give our regards to Mrs. Parks and tell her that she must stop by when we have our grand opening. We’ll have a full line of imported teas and coffees.”
“I’ll tell her.”
Louis thanked them again and found himself outside on the landing. His head reeled as if he were drunk. He wondered why he had not bothered to ask more questions. The interview had gone very badly. He’d forgotten to ask him why he had been in the examination room with Reggie at the hospital. The nurse at the E.R. had told him the story and even hinted that she thought he might be some sort of weirdo. Louis walked down the stairs to the sidewalk where a gazillion bugs whirred and buzzed and zoomed around the streetlight on the corner. He walked a bit further up the sidewalk to take a look behind the building at the vehicles parked in the carport. The light was dim, but he could make out the outline of a new VW Bug and a sleek Mercedes sports model of some sort. Impressive.
Money did not seem to be problem for the Aligers. He wondered why they had come to Magnolia Springs. He walked back to the front of the building and down the sidewalk near the street where his patrol car was parked on the curb. The windows of the old Castle Gift Shop had been cleaned and he could make out the shadowy shapes of jumbled boxes and shelves inside by the light of the streetlamps. He wondered what other products they planned to sell besides coffee and tea. He doubted there would be much of a rush by the local populace to buy such fancy items as imported tea. He would be keeping a close eye on the Aligers. He also looked forward to the grand opening. It would give him a chance to look at Mrs. Aliger again. Angelica. What a suitable name for such a lovely woman. He felt a pang of guilt as he looked down at the red and gold box she had given him for his wife. Almost unwillingly he brought the gift up to his nose and smelled it. The aroma of cinnamon and oranges wafted from the little bow on top. Surely there was no harm in appreciating beauty. Just as long as it was from very, very afar.
Chapter Four:.
Tyler McDaniels sat in his usual spot at Harold’s though it was unusual for him to be there on Wednesday night. Especially when he would have to be at work on Thursday morning. He hated these rotating days off. Why couldn’t he have a job like everyon
e else? Work five days and off two. The same two. But then didn’t everything that could go wrong, always go wrong in the middle of the night and on the weekends, too? He supposed that he was lucky just to have a good paying job the way things were around Magnolia Springs. He picked up his beer bottle and took a long draw off it.
Mike Padgett and Billy Johnson sat on either side of the table facing each other. All three of them were dressed in white tee shirts and jeans and cowboy boots in various stages of disrepair. The standard uniform for after hours in Magnolia Springs. All three draped or hovered over their beers as if they were afraid something would fall into them from the ceiling. Billy puffed on a stinky HavaTampa cigar and Mike kept cracking roasted peanuts with his front teeth, spitting the shells on the rough board floor. Tyler could not understand why Mike was not as big as the truck he drove for the Highway Department. He ate all the time. Every time Tyler saw him he was stuffing his skinny little face. He was a short, wiry man with large brown eyes and a thin shock of light brown hair. Furthermore, Mike could drink the biggest man in town under the table. He’d drink till he could barely stand up and then go take a swim in the creek and come back and drink some more. Tyler expected some night to be called to come help the fire department drag for his body, but not tonight. Harold’s was dead. There were hardly enough patrons to keep the place open. Two younger men played pool in the back room and a couple of the die hards sat at the bar talking in low voices.
“Damn!” Billy Johnson shifted his considerable weight in the wobbly ladderback chair. “If that old geezer plays that song one more time I’m gonna walk the floor over him. Why can’t he play some Brookes and Dunn or somethin’?” One of the men at the bar had been playing the same Hank Williams song continuously for over an hour.
“Maybe he’s got a broke heart.” Mike laughed and poked another peanut in his mouth.
“He’s gonna have somethin’ broke and it ain’t gonna be his heart!” Billy slammed one, meaty fist down on the table making their beers jump.
“Speakin’ of broken hearts,” Tyler tried to change the subject before Billy got out of hand. “Have ya’ll seen that new guy that bought the old junk shop?”
The Pandora Effect Page 4
