Bernadine Fagan - Nora Lassiter 02 - Murder in the Maine Woods

by Bernadine Fagan

  I slipped into new undies from Victoria’s bombshell collection, black with a partial overlay of pink lace. I covered up these beauties with jeans and my wool blend rustic cable turtleneck in deep blue heather with the interesting mini cable detail at the neck.

  I could smell the bacon before I hit the stairs. I could hear Ida humming before I entered the kitchen. Humming? On the day I was thinking about leaving?

  I didn’t see the women until I walked through the door.

  They all started to talk at once.

  Margaret said, “Nora, there have been thefts at the library. Miller looked into it a while back and wasn’t able to find out a thing. He gave up. I was wondering—“

  “Books? You call that important? Nonsense,” Aunt Ellie interrupted with a smirk. “Nora, you have to help me. A stalker’s been prowling in the woods around my house. Maybe more of a peeping tom and—“

  “You wish,” said a woman I didn’t know. “I have something really important, and from what I’ve heard, Nora, you’re just the woman to look into it. I will pay whatever you ask. Price is not an object.”

  Price was not an object?

  I loved those words. They were among my favorite words. I didn’t know what to say.

  The knock at the door was a relief. “Please excuse me,” I said, catching Ida’s smile. I spun around and practically ran down the hall.

  Nick walked in before I reached the door. My breath caught as it often did when I saw him.

  Instead of saying good morning, how are you, do your hands feel better, did you get a good night’s sleep, he got right to the kissing part. He gathered me in his arms and kissed me until my arms were anchored around his neck and I was pressed tightly against him.

  With my good hand, I took off his sheriff’s hat and tossed it on a chair in the front room.

  We kissed some more.

  “I have a spaghetti dinner with your name on it. You weren’t planning on leaving until you came for dinner, were you?”

  “My call?” I asked.

  “I did say that, didn’t I?”

  “You did.”

  I relaxed in his arms and we kissed again.

  “Then I say it’s a date, Nick Renzo.”

  “Good. I’m ready for that.”

  The impatient kitchen ladies appeared in the hall and began talking all at once, not caring that serious kissing was going on. Above their voices, I heard Aunt Ida call, “Breakfast, Nora. And a phone call from your brother.”

  With tremendous reluctance, I broke away from Nick’s embrace and answered the phone.

  “Yes, Howie,” I said. “The story about the tank is true. I’ll call back later and tell you all about it.”

  “You could have been killed. You need to leave Maine. Why not come down to Florida?”

  “Florida is great this time of year, Howie, but Ce-Ce’s missing, and there are three troubled women in Ida’s kitchen who need my help, and the hot water needs fixing, and I still have to sell most of the land, and there’s this spaghetti dinner … I can’t leave just yet. I have things to do. I’ll make a list and let you know.”

  When I hung up, I smiled my way back to the kitchen where Nick was sitting with my new clients.

  The End