Recipe for Trouble

by Jackie Griffey

  Eugene looked pleased.

  "Katie knows what I like," Mattie cut Eugene off as he opened his mouth again. She looked back out the window, ignoring him.

  He turned to hide his frustrated flush as he got up and started to the door.

  Katie got up to follow Eugene. As she reached for her purse she kissed Mattie's cheek. "We won't be gone long."

  When they reached the lobby Katie suggested, "Let's go across the street. We can just walk over, and their sandwiches are good. And this is my treat, Eugene. We've imposed on you enough for one day." She led the way, jay walking in the middle of the block.

  "It's not imposing when people you care about are concerned," Eugene insisted as he hurried ahead to open the restaurant door for her.

  As soon as they were seated he took her hand. "And as for this dinner date, I'll get the check. I was going to ask you anyway before all this came up."

  "You were?" Katie knew he hadn't mentioned it when he came by the house earlier in the day to get a book she had brought home for him.

  "I know I would have remembered that, he's just being nice," Katie thought affectionately and smiled at him.

  "Well I was, tonight or tomorrow," Eugene hedged with a smile.

  "All right, then. But you order Mattie's sandwich separately and I'll pay for that. She'll insist on reimbursing me, you know," Katie added to convince him.

  "Must run in the family," Eugene shook his head at her stubbornness. "Okay, you've got a deal. I'm sure she can afford it with those two cookbooks she sold, and I doubt she was missing any meals before that!"

  Katie laughed at the thought of Mattie missing any meals.

  "They made her a mint all right, more than she was expecting. Especially that first one." Katie smiled fondly, thinking of Mattie and her writing. "And she really enjoys doing them. I'm glad she has something interesting to do."

  Their meal was leisurely and pleasantly spiced with gallant flirtation on Eugene's part. Katie was enjoying herself too much to think of the time until Eugene looked at his watch.

  "Your sister may think we got lost," Eugene said with just the right degree of reluctance. "I'll go order her sandwich while you finish your coffee. How about that burger with mushrooms I saw on the menu?"

  "That's a good choice. Mattie likes mushrooms."

  Katie sat in happy contemplation of her lot in life as she waited for Eugene. She hadn't had much of a social life since she had been divorced, and she was enjoying the attention Eugene lavished on her. She glanced at his back as he talked to the waitress who had served them. "How like him to be so considerate," she thought.

  Eugene came back with two cups of coffee. "Thought we'd have another cup while we're waiting. Would you like some pie or something?"

  "No, I couldn't eat another bite. Coffee sounds just right."

  "Speaking of coffee, would you like me to come by and take you and your sister to breakfast in the morning?"

  "Heavens, no! I know you have to be at work early. I can have coffee at the bookstore and Mattie can either go down to the coffee shop or call room service for something if she wants to. I do thank you for thinking of it, though."

  "It just occurred to me when I got back with coffee you might miss yours in the morning."

  "It won't hurt me to wait until I get to the store," Katie's voice was positive. "There will probably be some made when I go in. Don't give it another thought. And of course, with my car here, I can stop for something sweet if I want to."

  "All right, if you want to. Ah, here's the sandwich I ordered."

  Katie took the sandwich from the waitress and looked at the ticket stapled to the sack. She paid for the sandwich as they left, smiling at Eugene for understanding.

  "I wish you wouldn't insist on this." He couldn't keep from muttering.

  "Now, now. It's all settled. Shall we go? Let's go down to the corner to cross this time."

  Katie held out her hand. "We can't blame jay walking on hunger going back."

  He laughed as he took her hand, the pout gone.

  Chapter 3

  The phone on his desk offered no help with the question in his mind. Cas shook his head at it. "No, I won't call and bother Miss Minnie and Miss Mayme. I told them to let me know if they need any help for their cousins, and they know how to reach me."

  Opening a desk drawer he cleaned off the top of his desk as he looked up at the clock on the wall. His stomach seemed to be keeping better time than it did, he was hungry. He decided to go to lunch a little early and avoid the rush, if there happened to be one at the Smithy. He stopped at Gladys's desk on the way out.

  "Hold the fort, Gladys. My stomach's growling loud enough to drown out the phone. Want me to bring you something from the Smithy?"

  "Yes, I do." Gladys pulled her purse from the bottom desk drawer and handed him a five.

  "Bring me a large stew with a couple of rolls. And thanks."

  She glanced at him as a mother would a child, wondering what had brought on the slightly worried look and the edginess that sent him to lunch early. There weren't any answers written across his brow, but she knew she would find out in due time.

  Cas walked through the small park in front of the courthouse, his eye on the passing traffic. He saw Tim Carpenter waiting for him across the street and waved to him.

  "Good afternoon, Judge Carpenter," he intoned in a respectfully solemn voice.

  Tim grinned, gave an exaggerated start, looked behind him, then chuckled. "I'm not used to the title yet. Guess I'll have to grow into it. You'd be a lot safer just yelling TIM if you need me in a hurry."

  "I'll keep it in mind," Cas laughed with his young friend. "How is everything going so far?"

  "Fine, thanks to some help from Connie before and after I got moved in. It's a hassle getting files set up and things organized. Maybe organized is too good a word, I should have said at least straightened up enough that I can find what I'm looking for. Most of the time. Usually half the time. Would you believe once in a while, Sheriff Larkin?"

  Cas nodded, smiling at a familiar office problem. "I know what you mean. I think I'd run for the hills some days if I didn't have Gladys standing between me and all the paperwork demons that go with my job. Muriel Davis is still working for you, isn't she?"

  Tim nodded. "I don't know what I'd do without her. Even so, there are days when I'd like to pick her up bodily and run her through the copy machine so we would have two of her. One to keep the office going and one to work for me."

  Cas was sympathetic. "Hang in there. Things will get settled down, you'll make it." He reached out to give Tim's shoulder a pat, almost at the Smithy now.

  With the Smithy's good stew under his belt Tim looked more cheerful as they parted and called after him, "Say hello to Connie."

  Neither of them glanced toward the library, unaware of the slender figure which stood watching them through the glass in the door.

  Hannah McLaughlin watched with admiring eyes as Tim walked away. Her lovely smile followed him, trying to place him as he watched his back.

  "My, I wonder who that is Cas Larkin stopped to talk to? Tall, well dressed. Can't tell much else from here."

  She frowned a little, there was something about him, his walk. Yet, she didn't know him. "It will come to me, I guess." Her heart fluttered as she watched him go into the courthouse.

  Reluctantly, she turned back to her work. She told herself he must be working in one of the offices in the courthouse and that must be why he looked vaguely familiar. So, she smiled to herself, the chances were good she would see him again.

  "Maybe he's changed his working hours or something and that's why I haven't noticed him before. And Cas seems to know him pretty well, they were laughing about something."

  She sighed, there were not very many unattached men in her age group in Maryvale, much less any who were as good looking as that one. "Not that I'm particularly looking for one." She made herself concentrate on her work, but her hope of seeing him again hovered in the
back of her mind.

  * * *

  At the hotel in Fort Craig Katie let herself in with her key, Eugene following.

  Mattie looked up from the book she was reading and marked her place.

  Eugene went to her and handed her the sack with the restaurant's logo on it. "Hope you like it," he said as if he were afraid of getting the wrong thing.

  "I'm sure I will. Thank you."

  Katie beckoned to Eugene and they sat by the window looking down at the traffic on the street. They talked softly as the city lights came on and spread their magic over the skyline.

  At the little writing desk, Mattie unwrapped her sandwich and started removing the onions from it.

  Eugene saw what she was doing and quickly apologized, "Sorry, I didn't think to ask about those onions. I know they smell pretty loud?" He actually looked a little scared.

  "Oh, it's not that." Mattie assured him, trying to put him at ease. "I can't smell them, or much of anything else for that matter."

  Eugene cast an uncomfortable look at Mattie, wondering if she might be pulling his leg again. She seemed to enjoy that for some reason, especially when he was trying to put his best foot forward.

  "It's a physical thing. Something with a long medical name," Mattie explained. "I couldn't pronounce it even if I could remember what it is."

  Mattie gave him one of her wintry smiles. "But there's nothing wrong with my taste buds, and I like onions. They just don't seem to like me. So I've learned not to eat them very often. But I do like these mushrooms. They're delicious, Eugene, nice plump ones cooked just right. And I see they've had the good sense to include a little gravy."

  She favored him with an appreciative glance. "Was this your choice, Eugene?"

  "Yes!" Katie answered for him, delighted he had done something Mattie approved of. "He saw it on the menu and suggested it." Katie beamed at the accomplishment and good taste he had shown as if Eugene were a star pupil in a course she was teaching.

  "Katie told me you like mushrooms. I'm sure sorry about the onions."

  "Methinks he doth protest too much," Mattie mentally quoted Shakespeare as she looked down at her sandwich. She didn't want to meet Eugene's eyes and risk having her true feelings read.

  "He's so anxious to please, he's downright obnoxious," Mattie thought. "But these mushrooms are good, and Katie seems pleased as she can be with his company. I just can't help but wonder about him. I've never seen anybody that anxious to please who wasn't selling something or running for public office." Mattie bent and hid her smirk behind her sandwich, "Or wasn't about to abscond with somebody's funds." She pushed another bite into her mouth as Eugene turned back to listen to some comment from Katie.

  * * *

  Cas had just arrived home and stood with his arms around Connie. "I guess I'm going to have to hear about the shower before I can get enough nourishment to hold body and soul together, right?"

  "Well!" Connie made a face at him. "Welcome home anyway, Mr. Cynical. And as well as I know you, if I don't tell you anything about it, you'll wonder what it is I'm hiding."

  She looked up at him, weighing the evidence against his suspicious nature, "Sometimes I think you've been sheriff entirely too long."

  "You may be right but it's too late to get rid of any ingrained habits, so I might as well get paid. Do I get to eat leftover goodies while I listen?" His eyes were on the counter beyond the table.

  "No," the answer was firm. "Those are for dessert. To make a long story short about the shower, everything went fine and everybody had a good time. Hannah McLaughlin came."

  "Oh, good. I meant to tell you she still wasn't sure about it when I gave her the invitation you sent."

  "I guess her friend couldn't visit for some reason. Anyway, she had on the prettiest green dress. It brought out her green eyes. I wish I could have invited some young men to the shower to see how she looked in that dress."

  She moved back, narrowing her eyes, "I see that smirk you're trying to hide. I don't want any comments about matchmaking. Sometimes cupid needs a little help getting people together. But Hannah at least did have a good time. She enjoyed being with some people her own age and met some new friends today."

  "Connie Larkin, has the possibility never once occurred to you that everybody doesn't want to get married or even should be married? That some people might be happy as they can be, unencumbered and single?"

  "No. It certainly has not. That's just one of the many excuses for he or she hasn't found the right one yet. Go and take your boots off, before I decide not to feed you."

  "Yes, ma'am." Cas wrinkled his nose at her, detoured around the table, and surreptitiously stuck his finger in some rich frosting as he left.

  Through dinner as he listened to Connie's conversation about the shower and the coming wedding, he wondered about Hannah's friends and why they had postponed their visit.

  "Cas Larkin?" Connie's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Are you hearing anything I'm saying, or is all your attention on your appetite?"

  Helping himself to more leftover cake, Cas pleaded guilty to being more interested in pastry than in Hannah McLaughlin's social life.

  "Too bad there weren't more of those petit fours left, but this cake is good. You have my permission to do this again whenever you want to."

  He frowned at his almost empty cup. "You've let me run out of coffee, you're going to blow your tip!"

  "No kidding? I've got a pretty good idea what kind of a tip I'll get, but I'll let you have more coffee anyway. I doubt our middle-aged figures could stand very many of these bakery pastries."

  She eyed the temptations. "Cathy's smart," she confided as she poured him more coffee. "We split the refreshment expenses but she would only take what she could use for dessert tonight. I put some petit fours in a package for her freezer anyway, but I had to insist and point out again we shared expenses on them."

  Cas nodded, his mouth too full for conversation.

  Connie grinned at him, so obviously enjoying all that sweet dessert. "I told her she had to take them. We might hurt ourselves!"

  "Oh well, I know you're right." He licked icing off his lip, "But I'd die happy. I'm glad the shower turned out so well." He tilted his head, his suspicious look settling over his features, "What are you daydreaming about?"

  "I was thinking about how Hannah looked in that green dress, and no male admirers around to appreciate it, and she's such a sweet person, too."

  Cas slipped subtly into his teasing mode, "Strange you should say that."

  "Strange? Why is it strange?"

  "When you first started helping at the library, you thought she was a witch!"

  "I did not!" Connie glared at him, "I never said that! Never!"

  Cas tried to hide his smirk behind his coffee cup.

  "Oh, you rat, you never miss a chance to aggravate, do you? I see you hiding that smart aleck grin behind your cup, you coward. And in case you really don't remember, all I said, way back then, was it was strange the way she and that medium that held the séance looked at each other. But I can't explain it to you," she sighed. "You'd have to have been there to understand what I meant."

  "So you've decided she's not a witch?"

  "Um, well," Connie paused as she gave that some serious thought, her cup arrested in mid air. "If she is, she's a good and beautiful witch like Glenda the Good in the Wizard of Oz." That decided, Connie continued sipping her coffee.

  Exasperated, Cas rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "You're as hard as a granddaddy snapping turtle to shake loose from an idea once you've got your teeth in it! How come you're not trying to fix her up with a warlock? Or do you think Tim is one?"

  Cas sat back in his chair, letting his coffee and digestive juices deal with the overload of dessert.

  "He's the youngest judge we've ever had." Cas raised his eyebrows, looking cynical, "Could it be he's got hidden talents?"

  That Tim was a warlock was such a new and intriguing idea, Connie was daydreaming again. "I don't know,
but if not, do you know of any warlocks in Maryvale?"

  Cas pushed back his empty cup, "No." he stated emphatically. All sheriff again. "And I'm certainly not going to ask around."

  "Nuts," Connie shrugged and shot him a disgusted frown. "So much for any cooperation from you then." She snapped her fingers and shook her head, but the frown melted into a grin.

  Cas smiled. "At least Tim's safe from being thought a warlock."

  "No, not a warlock by any stretch of the imagination. He's a classic example of what you see is what you get." She signed, looking romantic again. "You know, sometimes, he sort of sort of reminds me a little of you when you were young."

  "When I was young! You think I'm getting old?" Cas wavered between shocked surprised and indignation.

  Connie got up and headed for the door, pointedly ignoring the question. "I think I'll go up and run my bath water now."

  Cas reached for the last bit of pastry on a plate and popped the last bite of it into his mouth.

  "I'll show you OLD!" He leered like the villain in a silent movie, getting up to follow as she glanced back from the door, still not commenting.

  Connie paused to look over her shoulder as she started up the stairs, stifling the laughter that tried to bubble up. Way ahead of him she reached the bedroom door, and stuck her head back out to call, "Watch those stairs, old man!"

  Cas took the rest of them two at a time, echoing her laughter, reaching for her.

  * * *

  The office was quiet, the day promised to be one of routine business as Cas picked up his phone.

  "Gladys, get me the fire department in Fort Craig, will you? I don't know who I want to talk to. Just get me the switchboard, or whoever answers the phone."

  He wasn't making much progress. "I'm glad this is not officially any of my business," he consoled himself. "Everyone who can give me any information is out for some reason, and I don't want to leave my number."

  Contemplating the silent phone, he picked it up again and dialed his home number. Connie answered on the first ring.

  "You must have been in the kitchen. Are you busy doing something?"