“All right, then.” The Colonel’s natural leadership, honed to perfection by his years in the Marine Corps, was taking over the discussion. “We can’t forget that I said two attempted murders. That snake in Sam’s bed was playing for keeps. I’d say that our first and foremost consideration is to discover just what it is that Olivia Charles and Jasmine Johnson and Sam either had in common, or all three knew.” He sat back in the chair. “It looks like we need more time to think about this, in the light of the attack on Sam.”
There was a soft current of agreement.
“Remember, it doesn’t matter if it seems important to you, just wrack your brains. Just dredge up anything that might be even vaguely pertinent and bring it to our next meeting, okay? Anything that turns out to seem to fit, we need to pass on to Lieutenant Nichols.”
There were more murmurs of ascent as the others acknowledged the wisdom of his proposal.
Samantha closed her notebook and put her pencil away, as disappointed as the others that they had achieved absolutely nothing. “Well, if that’s all we can accomplish for tonight, would anyone else care for another slice of pound cake?”
Before she stopped speaking, lightning sent blue radiance through the room in spite of the drawn draperies. Thunder crashed and rattled every window in the house. An instant later the heavens opened and heavy rain drummed down into their despondent silence.
Chapter Twenty-one
Samantha sat with her friend Laura Fulton on a rustic bench that overlooked the river at the edge of Laura’s property. Gulls mewed overhead, sunlight glinting on their wings as they wheeled and soared against a bright blue sky, their eyes eagerly searching the water for their breakfasts. The grass still had the damp of morning dew, but the sun was strong, and the humidity was no more than was usual for a spring morning in Tidewater.
Laura had been lifting some bulbs for Samantha to take over to Emilee Twiford’s new place in Greenbrier, and had just finished getting the last of them out of the ground when Samantha arrived with a thermos of tea and two cups.
“I don’t think it’ll hurt to take them up now,” Laura told her. “I was careful, so they’ll probably still bloom this season.” She tucked the newspaper on which she’d sat the clumps of flowers around them as gently as if the tulips were sleeping babies. Then, together she and Samantha packed the parcels that she’d made of them into a basket.
“I hope so. I’m sure you’ve gotten enough earth with them to keep them from feeling too much shock if they’re quickly replanted. You know Emilee will have them in the ground before I even get them out of my car.”
“Good trick if she can do it.”
Samantha uncapped the thermos and poured tea into the cup Laura held out to her.
Laura grinned, deliberately sly. “It’s kind of you to take the time out of your newly crowded social schedule to drive these out to Emilee.”
Samantha looked at Laura, startled, then laughed. “So you noticed.”
“How could I help it? I’m out here in the yard digging around all day, and I can’t help but see Janet’s car in your driveway.”
“She is becoming part of my life, isn’t she?” Samantha didn’t sound as if that prospect gave her a great deal of pleasure.
“Hey, don’t fight it. She has to come on her lunch hour, and I’ll bet you make the poor woman go with you to eat Chinese every time she does.”
Samantha chuckled. “You bet I do. Janet likes Chinese food as much as I do, and I’m certainly not going to let an opportunity like that slip by. I’ve given up trying to get you to go.”
“Just be thankful I’ll eat Mexican with you.”
“I am, believe me.”
“And pizza.”
“Don’t cheat, Laura Fulton. You’ve always liked pizza.”
“It was worth a try. I need some leverage to get you to the new Vietnamese Restaurant.”
“No thanks. Too exotic for me.” Samantha sipped her tea.
After a moment Laura said quietly, “Seriously, Samantha. I know you’re doing Janet a world of good. She must be terribly lonely without Olivia.”
“Yes, I think she is.”
They sat quietly, watching a lone destroyer making for the Destroyer Piers and sipping their tea. The breeze from the river ruffled their hair.
It was true about Janet. In the week and a half since the meeting at Samantha’s the night of the thunderstorm, the poor girl seemed to have become part of Samantha’s life. She called on the phone almost daily, and they’d already been to lunch twice. The young woman was pathetically eager to help with any plans to find out who had murdered her cousin. Samantha knew in her heart that Janet must have vowed she wouldn’t rest until they’d solved Olivia’s murder.
Today, Janet had taken time off to go to the hospital to visit Jasmine with her, and Samantha was grateful. Jasmine was better now. Everything but her leg had healed, and she was fretting at being stuck in a hospital bed. Samantha knew it had to be awful waiting to get out of traction, and was trying hard to keep her friend occupied and entertained. After she took Emilee’s flowers out to Greenbrier to her, she was going to meet Janet in the hospital parking lot and take her up to visit Jasmine.
She glanced at her watch. “Oh, dear. Look at the time, Laurie. I better get going. Janet’s meeting me at twelve fifteen.”
“Okay.” Laura grinned up at her as Samantha stood. “I’ll help you out by finishing off the tea.”
“Thanks a lot, Laurie Fulton.”
“Hey. I’ll even wash your thermos. Cups, too.”
“That’ll be good. I’ll see you this afternoon when I get back, okay?”
“Great. Look for me in the peonies. They need more feeding, the pigs.”
“Peonies surely are, aren’t they? But look how they pay us back with all those extravagant blossoms.”
“Plus a great smell. If you don’t inhale an ant.” Laura wrinkled her nose.
“That’s a definite risk. The little pests really like Peonies. I think they feed on the aphids in the blossoms.”
“To borrow a word from our friend the Colonel, ‘true’.” Laura grinned at Samantha’s instant frown. “See you later.”
Samantha picked up their basket of plants and left Laura to finish the tea.
At home she put the flowers in a shady spot and hurried in to dress. She could hardly go to Norfolk General in her blue jeans. It was already nine, and Greenbrier was a good half hour away—if the traffic wasn’t bad, longer if it was.
All the water in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area made it impossible to add more highways, and the region was really crowded now that so many people were moving into it from New York and New Jersey.
Greenbrier and Great Bridge in the City of Chesapeake, which Samantha remembered used to be lovely, quiet country, were both packed with new homes now. Even Virginia Beach was feeling the pinch and talking about moving the Green Line that protected the farmland on the other side of it from encroachment. Samantha really hoped they wouldn’t.
As she rushed into the house, Rags greeted her and followed her back to her room. Samantha was shedding her gardening clothes as she walked. Standing in her closet she asked him, “What shall I wear, Rags?”
Rags put his head on his paws and moaned.
“Honestly. You’re no help at all.”
The tiny dog’s head shot up.
Samantha grabbed a blue-striped shirt with a buttoned-down collar, a navy linen blazer and a pair of light tan slacks. “There. That ought to do.”
She looked around the floor of the closet because the cubby hole that usually held her navy blue loafers was empty. After a fruitless search she muttered, “Oh, Glory I miss you, Jasmine.” Guilt hit her and she added as if Jasmine was there to be placated, “Not just because you keep everything in order, of course, but that part surely is nice.” She searched the closet floor again. “Now where are my loafers? Did I kick them off somewhere?”
She knew that in the evening if she was tired she often for
got to put things back where they belonged. And with as little sleep as she’d been getting lately, she was frequently tired. Without her wonderful Jasmine to keep her in order . . . “Where are my shoes!”
She came out of the closet to find Rags sitting with one of her loafers in front of him.
“Oh, Rags. Thank you, dear.” She bent to give him a pat. “Where’s the other one.”
Rags whirled around and led the way to the slipper chair next to the phone. Poking his nose under it he indicated Samantha’s other navy blue loafer. Sitting back, he looked immensely pleased with himself.
“Yes, you’re a wonderful dog. Good boy.” She could swear she saw Rags smirk.
Samantha smoothed his head. “I must have left it there when I was talking to Laura.”
“Yap.”
“Thank you.”
“Errrf.”
She blew her bangs back and grimaced. “Rags, I really must stop this. First I begin forgetting where I put things when my mind is otherwise occupied, and now I think I’m actually having a conversation with a dog. I . . .”
The phone rang, interrupting her thought. “Hello?”
“We still on to go to the hospital?”
“Yes,” Samantha gave her caller the name she’d neglected to supply, “Janet. I’m getting ready to run some plants over to Emilee Twiford in Greenbrier, then I’ll meet you there in the parking lot. Twelve fifteen, right?”
“Good.” Janet Wilson hung up without saying ‘goodbye.’
Samantha frowned at the handset. “So many young people are doing away with the traditional courtesies these days, Rags.” She shook her head. “I wish I didn’t mind.”
Rags cocked an ear her way.
“I’m just going to have to learn to overlook it, I suppose. Glory! It makes me feel like a dinosaur. Thank heaven Alison isn’t that way.”
At Alison’s name, Rags perked up and yapped.
“Me, too, boy. She’s a honey.” She sighed. “I hope she’s feeling better about that vandal business. She was feeling so guilty. All of us understand why she did it. And none of us minds a bit now that she’s explained. But she was so solemn last time we saw her wasn’t she?”
“Errrr.”
“Well, try not to worry,” she told the dog. “Youth is nothing if not resilient. I expect she’ll be her old self in a day or two.”
Rags’s “Erf!” seemed to have a more positive note.
Samantha ruffled the hair on the back of his neck and hurried to get her purse. “Gotta go. Don’t want Janet to have to wait at the hospital.”
She snatched up her navy blue purse, put him in his kennel and told her dog, “See you later, Rags.”
Great Scott! She really was having conversations with a dog!
***
Jasmine was pitifully glad to see them. Samantha’s heart went out to her. Lying on her back day after day had to be getting old. After the introductions, she looked up from her hospital bed and smiled at Janet Wilson.
Janet sat quietly on the smallest chair by the window, the sunlight coming in through the blinds touched highlights of gold in her smooth blonde hair. “So you were Benny’s maid, Jasmine?”
Jasmine answered firmly, “I was the Stoddards’s housekeeper.”
“Oh, of course,” Janet smiled disarmingly. “Sorry. Nobody says maid anymore, do they?”
“Not much.”
Samantha hoped Janet wasn’t offended by Jasmine’s mild correction. She also hoped Janet hadn’t offended Jasmine by calling her a maid.
Drat it. This was why she never liked introducing people to each other. She was always on pins and needles for fear they might not click. She always felt stuck in the middle and somehow responsible for the outcome. She was relieved when the younger woman didn’t seem to notice Jasmine’s correction.
“I hear you as good as raised young Benny Stoddard.” Janet smiled. “That was nice of you. He must have been a lonely boy.” She gestured with one hand. “I mean, having been away so much he probably didn’t have many friends here.”
“He had a few.”
“Oh, who were they? Do they still live around here?”
Jasmine frowned a little, remembering.
“I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to get them together for Benny?” Janet turned to Samantha. “Wouldn’t it, Mrs. Masters?”
But it was Jasmine who spoke next. “Huh. Don’t seem like Benny cares much for his old friends to me.”
“Why, what do you mean?” Janet was wide-eyed.
“Well, he hasn’t exactly beat a path to my door, and tied up here like this,” she indicated her leg, “I’m never out, so he doesn’t have to worry about missing me if he comes by. I’m stuck right here.”
Oh, dear, Samantha thought, Jasmine’s obviously hurt that young Ben Stoddard hasn’t been by to visit with her. No wonder there was tension in the room. Jasmine was smarting under Benny Stoddard’s neglect. Not the best time to bring over a new acquaintance. Samantha wanted to sigh. Life could get so awkward. She felt herself frown. She was doing that a lot lately.
“You must have known Benny well.” Janet seemed to be unaware that Jasmine was feeling neglected and Benny Stoddard might not be the best subject to linger on.
“As well as anybody but his folks, I guess.”
“I thought Mrs. Talley said he was away at school or camp most of the time.”
Jasmine tried to change position a little and gave up, held in place by the paraphernalia cradling her broken leg. “Yes. He was. The Stoddards didn’t think anything was too much to do for Benny. They never guessed he’d rather have just been home. He was too sweet a boy to tell ‘em any different.”
Janet looked at her blankly. “Why couldn’t he just come out and tell them? Weren’t they close?”
“He knew how hard they were working to get Stoddard and Company off the ground, and none of them thought they wouldn’t have time later.” Jasmine’s eyes grew moist.
“I’m upsetting you. I’m so sorry.” Janet rose and handed Jasmine a tissue. “I was too full of the idea of giving a party with all Benny’s old friends to think.”
“That’s all right.”
“I guess the party’s a bad idea, huh?”
“Well, all of Benny’s friends have gone off, now. Nobody’s left ‘round here. Seems like children don’t stay put much anymore, doesn’t it?”
Janet smiled at her. “I guess not. I know I couldn’t wait to try my wings in the big city.”
Samantha laughed. “When I was young, we all had to go to New York. We were sure it was the only place in the world sufficiently challenging to test our mettle.”
Janet looked at her, inquiringly.
Samantha responded with, “Well, now there’s Atlanta and, now that the gangster image has faded a bit, Chicago, and of course San Francisco. That mecca of the 60s still holds a lot of attraction.” She smiled and told them, “But in my day there was only New York.”
“Oh.” Janet looked down at her watch. “Oh! Look at the time. I have to get back to work!” She jumped up and headed for the door. “Nice to have met you, Jasmine,” she threw back as she left. “See you later, Samantha!” And she was gone.
Jasmine and Samantha looked at each other.
“You don’t think I offended her, do you?” Samantha asked.
Jasmine considered. “No, I think the time just got away from her.”
They sat quietly, each lost in her thoughts.
Finally Jasmine broke the silence. “It was nice of her to want to give a get-together for Benny and his friends.”
“Yes,” Samantha agreed, “It was.”
Jasmine sighed. “I jus’ wish he’d come to visit me.”
Right then and there Samantha solemnly vowed that Benny Stoddard was going to visit Jasmine Johnson before this week was out or she was going to know the reason why he didn’t.
And it was already Tuesday.
Chapter Twenty-two
Samantha was on her knees in her garden, her
favorite place to be, when she heard the faint pad, pad, pad of running shoes on the asphalt of the street in front of her house. She scowled and wondered what the Colonel was doing running on the short street that passed in front of her house on the way to Laura’s gate. She hoped he wasn’t coming to see her.
Hope died as the light footsteps crossed then left the cement of her driveway and disappeared altogether. Drat! He was coming to where she knelt. Why did some people have to work so hard at their genius for spoiling the pleasure of others?
She kept her head bent over her flower bed until the shadow of her unwelcome visitor fell across the peonies. Then she reluctantly craned her neck to turn her face to the intruder. “What do you want?”
“Don’t die of joy at seeing me, Sam, I can’t stay long enough to bury you.”
She sat back on her heels and looked up at him to fire off the statement he was waiting for. “I prefer not to be called Sam.” Her lips tightened as she saw his lips silently form the words in sync with her own. “Honestly, Colonel McLain! Why does a grown man work at making himself unpleasant.”
“Just habit.” He grinned at her. “Marine, you know.”
“I have known several very pleasant Marine Corps officers.”
“Huh, they must not have been doing the job right.”
“I . . .” Samantha heard the heat in her voice, saw the grin on his face, and stopped before the next word. Rising, she brushed dirt off the knees of her jeans. She didn’t need to be at a disadvantage with this man, and kneeling certainly qualified as one. “May I ask to what I owe the honor of this visit, Colonel?” Her voice was gentle—she’d worked at it.
All teasing disappeared from his face. “Just dashed by to see if you’d gotten any feedback from anyone in the neighborhood about the night that Olivia Charles was knifed.”
Samantha joined him in putting aside their mutual animosity. “No. No one has said anything. Not even old Mrs. Carter up near the Yacht Club entrance heard any cars she didn’t recognize.”
The Colonel quirked a corner of his mouth as he frowned. Correctly interpreting that as a request for an explanation, Samantha explained. “Mrs. Carter is losing her eyesight to macular degeneration, poor dear. As a result, she seems to hear more acutely. She prides herself on being able to identify every resident by the sound of their car engines, and she said no one came into Riverhaven that way except those who belong here. Right on up until the ambulance arrived.
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