“What was that all about?” he asked.
“Oh, no big deal.” I told him about the phone call that might or might not have been a real call but was very likely not from a dead person. “So she now thinks she murdered a kid who didn’t exist.” I looked at Rickie. “Be warned. That’s what happens to kids who insult my cat.”
He shrugged. “Whatever.”
I was getting really tired of that word really fast.
Chapter Nine
Saturday was a short workday…thank goodness. I got home in time to take a brief nap before everybody arrived. I had planned to do a bit of housecleaning, but decided a hostess with her eyes open was more important than a clean house.
Paula came over early to help me get ready. She was still pretending to be a little put out with me for inviting Matthew, but I could tell she was secretly pleased. Well, I hoped she was secretly pleased.
My back yard is protected from the sun by large trees and bushes, so even in the August heat, it wasn’t completely unbearable. However, after spending my days in the kitchen at Death by Chocolate where at least a couple of ovens are always going, I probably gauge heat differently than most people. In deference to everybody else, I set a box fan on one side of the patio to move the torpid air around.
I knew the exact moment Trent and Rickie arrived. Paula was inside making iced tea and I was outside cleaning spiders, leaves and dust off the chairs on the patio when Zach and Henry ran out the back door making noises of protest. Henry was grumbling under his breath and Zach was shouting, “Anlinny! Anlinny!”
Henry darted off into the bushes and Zach closed the door firmly behind himself before he ran down the three back steps and over to me. “That boy that broke my green truck is here!”
I leaned down and brushed the soft hair off his concerned forehead. “If he breaks any more of your toys, I’ll break his face.”
“Okay. I’ll go tell him.” He started back up the steps, but the screen door flew open, barely missing him as he scuttled down the steps and over to my side.
Rickie strolled out clutching a Coke in one hand. That boy had a Coke problem. “Hi, Aunt Lindsay. Uncle Adam said I need to come out and help you.”
Aunt Lindsay? Uncle Adam?
“Yeah, sure, why don’t you clean off the grill?”
He walked over to the grill and stood beside it, looking blank.
“First you lift the lid.” I performed the action. “Then you take this brush.” I removed the metal brush from its holder on the side. “And you scrub the grill on both sides until it’s clean and shiny instead of black and gunky.”
“Why? You’re just gonna cook on it and it’s gonna get dirty again.”
I snatched his Coke away from him. “You want a reason why? Because you don’t get the soda back until that grill is clean and shiny.”
He took the brush and began to move it back and forth across the grill in a lackadaisical manner. At that rate we wouldn’t be ready to cook the burgers and brats before Labor Day, but maybe the activity would keep him out of trouble for a while.
Trent came out and took in the scene. “Hey, Zach, I think your mother needs your help in the house.”
“Okay.” Zach scurried past Rickie, giving the boy plenty of space, but on the top step he turned back. “If you break my toys, Anlinny’s going to break your face.”
Rickie shrugged. “Whatever.” He kept brushing at the grill. It was probably one of the more benign threats he’d heard in his short lifetime.
Trent looked at me.
I returned his gaze. “Hey, I never claimed to have any maternal instincts.”
He smiled, came over and gave me a quick peck of a kiss. In deference to the heat he was wearing shorts and a tank top. He has really nice, muscular legs. And arms. And chest. I’d have liked more than a peck, but that wasn’t going to happen with Rickie around. How did couples ever manage to have a second child?
“Did you two have fun today?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. Lots of fun. I took him to the zoo but they made me bring him back. Didn’t have a cage strong enough to hold him. Did you find anybody?” He tilted his head in Rickie’s direction. Anybody who’d take care of the kid until his parents got back.
I shook my head. “I have no idea where to start.”
“You could have asked me.” I turned at the sound of Fred’s voice. He was making his way through the bushes with a picnic basket on each arm.
“I suppose I could have,” I replied. “Okay, where would you suggest I start?”
“I said you could ask me. I didn’t say I had any answers.” He set his picnic baskets on the table and opened them to reveal three bottles of wine in one and six wine glasses in the other. “I brought the cheap crystal in case things get ugly.”
I cringed at his words. This was supposed to be a happy get together of friends, a welcome to the neighborhood event for Sophie and a get to know Matthew event for Paula with lots of fun and laughter and chocolate. However, the gathering did hold a few possibilities for violence. Rickie, who had a talent for making people want to kill him. Sophie who thought she might be a murderer. And, of course, Paula who might decide to kill me if Matthew turned out to be a jerk. I could only hope I had enough chocolate to keep everybody mellow. I had made something called Suicide by Chocolate especially for the party. With chocolate chip cookie dough, Oreo cookies, brownies, ice cream, chocolate syrup and caramel syrup, it should keep people smiling.
The back door opened again and Zach charged out waving a half-eaten brownie in one hand. Paula caught the door with her foot and emerged carrying a tray of condiments. She was smiling. Matthew was behind her with a pitcher of tea. He was smiling too. Fred’s wine glasses appeared safe so far.
Zach made a wide circle around the grill where Rickie stood and ran over to greet Fred. “We got more brownies in the house.” He waved his prize around and left a chocolate stain on the crease in Fred’s left pants leg. “You can have some.”
“Thank you.” Fred barely flinched. Being around Zach was good for Fred. It either taught him a degree of tolerance or gave him the ability to hide his stress. Either one was a good thing.
Trent checked Rickie’s progress on the grill. “Good job. We can burn off the rest of it. Do you want to help me start the fire?”
“Whatever.” That word again. Maybe I could have it tattooed on his forehead then smack him upside the head every time he said it.
“Look what I found.”
I turned at the sound of Zach’s voice. He was holding out a small grubby hand for Paula and Matthew to see the long legged spider he’d captured.
Paula flinched but remained calm. A mom thing. It wasn’t the first spider she’d seen, and even I recognized it as a harmless daddy longlegs. “That’s nice,” she said. “Put him down and go wash your hands.”
“No! I’m going to keep him for Henry. He likes to play with spiders.”
“That spider has a family, you know,” Matthew said softly. “He’s got a mother and father and brother and sister, and they’re going to be worried about him if he doesn’t come home.”
Concern filled Zach’s blue eyes as he looked at Matthew then at the spider which had recovered from shock and was crawling up his arm. “Did your brother go away and never come home and make everybody sad?”
It was a silly question, the kind of question little kids ask, but for an instant Matthew’s face tensed and his eyes darkened as if the question had meaning for him, struck a painful nerve. He recovered almost immediately and the smile returned. “No, none of my brothers ran away from home, but I’d have been very upset if one of them had.”
Zach nodded, accepting the answer. He went to the edge of the patio and carefully settled the creature back into the grass then returned to show Matthew his empty hands.
“Good job! You’ve just made that spider’s family very happy. Now go wash those spider tracks off your hands so you can get ready to eat a hamburger.”
Zach looked caref
ully at his hands. “Oh, yeah, spider tracks!” He ran up the steps and back into the house.
“You’re good with him.” Paula sounded a little surprised but pleased.
He looked at her, his expression soft. “I love kids. I’m the youngest in a big family, and by the time I came along, I had nieces and nephews running around everywhere.”
He loved kids. He was gazing at Paula adoringly. Two marks in the plus column. So far there weren’t any marks in the negative column.
Fred came up beside me. “I poured you a glass of wine. Drink it and stop staring.”
I took the glass and followed him to sit in a chair on the far side of the patio, maybe the chair that spider and his family had called home until a short time ago.
“Matthew seems really nice.” I took a sip of wine. It was delicious, of course. “You didn’t find anything bad about him.”
“Which doesn’t mean there’s nothing bad out there. Paula knows she has to be careful.”
“Stop being such a cynic.” I wondered if his cynicism extended to his nightly visitor. “Sophie came to my house after she left yours. She dreamed she got a call from Carolyn accusing her of murder.”
“There’s no way to know for certain what the caller said, but she did get a twenty second phone call at 2:43 this morning from a prepaid cell phone.”
Of course he knew about the phone call. He’d had all day to talk to Sophie. I wondered how much of that day he’d spent talking to her. Interesting. He’d never before shown any interest in a woman.
“Speaking of somebody who’s good with kids, check out your boyfriend.”
I looked at Trent and Rickie where they presided over the grill. They’d managed to get the fire going without burning down the house. With Rickie participating, a house fire was always a possibility.
“Slide the turner under the patty in the direction of the grill,” Trent instructed. “If you go across the grill, you could tear off pieces of the meat.” The scene was sweet, but nothing I wanted to contemplate in any depth. Trent and I were still early in our relationship, much too early to think in terms of a family. But that wasn’t the worst part. I had a bad feeling about Rickie. I didn’t trust him. Yet Trent seemed to think he could be a mentor, maybe save the kid. That could be disastrous.
The back door opened and Zach came out, smiling and showing his clean hands.
“Looks good!” Matthew said. “I don’t see any spider tracks. Come get your hamburger bun ready.”
Zach ran over to the table, and Paula handed him a plate and bun then leaned over and kissed the top of his head.
I looked back at Trent whose attention was focused on explaining the finer points of barbecue to Rickie, but Rickie was watching the little scene with Zach. As soon as he saw me watching him, his expression changed from wistful to angry and he turned his attention back to the meat on the grill. With a quick flip, he rolled a brat off the grill and onto the patio.
I couldn’t decide if I felt sorry for him or wanted to smack him. Probably a little of both.
“Hello, Sophie,” Fred said, rising to his feet.
I turned to see Sophie in a white sundress and white strappy sandals coming around the side of the house. She smiled and waved a hand with perfect nails and a ring with a single perfect diamond.
“Glad you could make it. Would you like a glass of wine?” Fred offered.
“I rang the doorbell, but nobody answered.”
“We’re all out here.” I rose so she could sit next to Fred. “You’re just in time. Looks like the meat will be done any minute. Grab some wine to fortify yourself and I’ll introduce you to everybody.”
Fred handed her a glass and she stood beside him.
“Everybody, this is my new neighbor, Sophie Fleming.” When I finished the introductions, I noticed Matthew watching her intently. Was that the first mark in his negative column? Of course, she was beautiful, and looking at a beautiful person was sort of like looking at beautiful artwork. If Simon Baker walked into my backyard, I’d probably stare at him for a very long time but it wouldn’t mean anything except that he was nice to look at. I decided I shouldn’t condemn Matthew for looking at a beautiful woman. If he didn’t look too long.
Trent declared the burgers and brats done, and everybody moved around, smearing mustard on buns, adding pickles and ketchup, heaping their plates.
In an effort to make our newest guest feel comfortable, I took a seat beside her. That put me on one side and Fred on the other, people she knew. Okay, it also insulated her from Matthew, but that was just a coincidence.
Trent took a seat on my other side while Matthew remained close to Paula even though he continued to sneak glances at Sophie. At some point I might have to reconsider putting a mark in the negative column.
Everybody settled into the activity of eating. Even Rickie, seated in a chair on the far corner of the patio, seemed momentarily content as he opened a fresh Coke and dove into the two burgers, one brat, potato salad, baked beans and Cheetos heaped on his plate. I considered sneaking something into his food that would mellow him out for a few hours, but of course I didn’t. If I’d had something like that I’d have taken it myself.
Everybody ate, everybody talked and everybody laughed. True to his word, Matthew brought a wonderful watermelon, the best I’d tasted in years. When everyone was properly stuffed, we put the leftovers in the refrigerator, shoved the paper plates and napkins into a large trash can, then relaxed to give our food time to settle before we started on dessert.
The sun was getting low and the cool shadows of evening had begun to spread around our little party when Matthew strolled over to talk to Sophie. I had abandoned my chair in the business of cleaning up, and he took my place.
I moved a little closer and poured myself another glass of wine. Okay, I moved closer to hear what they were saying. It was a small patio, not like I had to go out of my way to eavesdrop.
They exchanged the usual polite jibber jabber about the good food and hot weather, and I was ready to move on to more interesting eavesdropping when he brought up the subject of her residence there as a child. “You left here when you were pretty young. You must have some really good memories of living here to want to come back.”
It was an innocuous comment, certainly not flirtatious, but it got my attention because of the Carolyn thing. I lifted the glass of wine to my lips and pretended to be fascinated with the big oak tree on one side of my patio.
“You’re not very good at being inconspicuous.” Fred had sneaked up behind me. Not that he had to be very sneaky. I’d been too intent on listening to Matthew and Sophie to notice.
I gave him a quick glare then returned to studying the oak tree and sipping my wine. From the corner of my eye, I saw him pour more wine then move away, but not far. He was listening too.
“Yes,” Sophie said. “That house contains a lot of good memories.”
“How about the other houses around here? This one, the one next door? Did you have friends in the neighborhood?”
Again, the question was innocent enough, and I might not have noticed the tension in Matthew’s voice if I’d been looking directly at him instead of at the tree. But I was focused only on his voice and I did hear the tension.
Sophie hesitated. “No,” she finally said. “I didn’t have friends. I don’t remember friends. Just my family.”
“Family’s important. I can understand why you’d want to reconnect.”
A hand clutched my shoulder. I gasped and whirled around, expecting to see Sophie or Matthew and be forced to justify my eavesdropping.
Trent smiled and wrapped an arm about my waist. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. You were really off in your own little world.”
“Yeah, just thinking about, uh, things.”
“Why don’t you think about some chocolate dessert to complete this evening of gluttony?”
I grinned up at him. “I can do that.”
Suicide by Chocolate was a huge success, and we a
ll relaxed in a stupor as the shadows of evening settled around us.
Trent sat beside me and took my hand in his. There’s something incredibly romantic about sitting under the stars in a lawn chair holding hands with somebody you care about. I could have sat there all night or at least until I went to sleep and my head dropped over and I woke with a horrible crick in my neck.
Paula was the first to announce she had to leave. Zach had fallen asleep in Matthew’s lap. “I need to get home and put him to bed.” She stood and reached for her son.
“I’ll carry him,” Matthew offered.
She didn’t object, and the three of them set off through my yard toward her house. I watched them in the moonlight. It was a nice image, Zach with his head resting on Matthew’s shoulder, Paula walking beside them. So what if Matthew had looked at Sophie a long time and asked her questions about the house? Since he had no knowledge of her problems, he couldn’t have known those questions would sound suspicious to someone who happened to overhear.
Sophie stood. “Thank you so much for inviting me. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and the food was wonderful. As soon as I get everything settled in my house, we’ll have to do this again at my place, provided you’ll bring the dessert, Lindsay.”
“I’ll walk you home.” Fred rose from his chair. “Lindsay, as always, it was wonderful.”
The two of them strolled off toward the street. Trent, Rickie and I were left alone in the warm summer evening under a beautiful full moon. Could have been romantic. Wasn’t.
“Grab those Coke cans,” Trent instructed Rickie, “and Lindsay and I will get the rest.”
I think the kid mumbled whatever under his breath, but he did pick up a couple of cans.
We stuffed the last of the party debris into the trash can and went inside.
“Okay, Rickie,” I said, “you can have the bathroom first. I’m sure you’ll want to shower after being outside in the heat all evening.”
“Nah.” He slumped on the sofa and turned on the TV.
Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 04 - Chocolate Mousse Attack Page 8