“Thank you,” I said, the tears welling once again.
“You, my lovely lady, are very welcome. You had me worried there for a minute, though. I thought we may not have got to you in time.”
“Riley, this is the man who helped Lizzie at the café,” said Allison, smiling brightly at Jim.
Riley instantly rushed to him, his hand outstretched.
“What can I say that will convey how grateful I am?”
“You don’t need to say anything. I’m just happy this lovely lady is okay,” said Jim, taking Riley’s hand.
“Well, thank you.” Riley too seemed at a loss for words.
“You stay away from peanut oil from now on, okay?” said Jim, smiling at me. “I don’t want to see you in the back of my ambulance again anytime soon.”
“I was staying away from it then. Or at least I thought I was.” I looked to Allison and wondered if she had actually passed the message to the waitress about my allergy. Of course she had. No one could be that mean.
Could they?
* * *
The rest of the week went past in a bit of a blur as I helped Riley gut the kitchen. By the time Friday came around, I was exhausted. Every muscle I had ached, including the muscles in my little toe. Actually, that had more to do with the hammer I dropped on it, but Riley told me it wasn’t broken so I sucked up the pain and hobbled around silently. Well, my version of silent anyway.
I was just thinking about relaxing in a nice hot bath when my phone rang. It was my brother Danny.
“Hi Danny,” I said.
“What’s happening tonight?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
Friday night was the usual night I got together with my siblings. It was kind of a ritual. Sure, we saw each other every Sunday at Mum’s for family dinner night, but Friday was the night we could all get together and discuss the subjects you couldn’t talk about in front of Mum.
“Aren’t we going to your house?”
“No. Andrew’s mum’s here and I need a night out. She’s driving me crazy.”
I laughed. “Well, what about Molly’s? Can we go there?”
“I can’t get hold of her. What about Riley’s place? Can we meet there?”
“Yeah, okay. He won’t be home until late because he’s got a meeting with a client. Apparently tonight is the only night they could do it.” I sighed. Friday nights were sacred to me. I hated it when he had to work.
“Oh, okay. Well, Andrew won’t be there either so it’s just the three of us. We’ll have fun without them.”
“Yeah, I’ll text Molly and tell her where to be.”
“See you soon.”
After I hung up the phone and sent a message to Molly, I kissed Riley and headed to his house for a quick clean up before my visitors arrived.
I’d only just finished when there was a knock on the door. I ran down the stairs and opened the door to find Danny. Today he was dressed in his usual skinny jeans, which he’d accompanied with a bright yellow t-shirt and his hair was slicked back showing his diamond earring off to perfection. Ever stylish was Danny.
“Wow, you’re bright today,” I commented as he handed me a bottle of wine and pushed his way past me.
“I get sick and tired of wearing black at work so I have to make up for it on my time off. Besides that, Andrew’s mother hates yellow and it annoyed the hell out of her.” Danny smiled wickedly.
“I thought you liked Andrew’s mother,” I said, closing the door and moving to the kitchen to put the wine in the fridge.
“That was before she lived with us.”
“How long is she staying for?”
“Too bloody long. It was only supposed to be for a week, but Andrew’s concerned about her health as she’s getting a bit older now. He’s trying to talk me into letting her live with us.” Danny followed me, sitting himself on a stool at the kitchen bench.
I looked at him shocked. “What about his dad? Where’s he?”
“He went back home, quite happy to leave her with us for a while.”
I looked closer at Danny and for the first time saw the strain around his eyes.
“Is she really that hard to live with?”
“You have no idea, Lizzie,” said Danny, his eyes filling with tears. “She hates my cooking, says I can’t clean for shit, and she even complained about the hairdo I gave her! I spent all bloody afternoon on that.”
I sucked in my breath. You could complain to Danny about a lot of things and he would accept the criticism in the spirit it was given, but never, ever complain about his hairdressing abilities.
“Danny, you’re an amazing hairdresser,” I said, giving him a quick hug.
“I know! Look what I can do with your hair,” he said, flicking his tears away.
Humph.
Before we got any further with our conversation, there was another knock on the door. This time it was Molly.
As I stepped back to let her in, I noticed she was a bit over-dressed for the occasion. She wore a very short dress she looked like she’d been poured into and that barely covered her ass. Her abundant assets sat proud, ready to give any man a heart attack. Her hair was piled high on her head, ensuring the view of those assets was unobstructed, and her make-up was perfect, but very overdone for a night of pizza and wine with her siblings. She kicked off her spiked heels and barefooted it across the room towards Danny.
Danny looked up from blowing his nose and frowned. “God girl, you look like a pole dancer.”
“Geez, thanks Danny,” she responded, glaring at him.
“You are a bit over–dressed, don’t you think?” I added.
“I’m not staying. I’m heading into the city to that new club they’ve just opened.”
“Are you the entertainment?” asked Danny, looking at her skirt as she pulled it a bit lower.
Molly sucked in her breath. I giggled. “No, I am not the entertainment!” she cried indignantly.
I had to admit, Danny had a point. “Who’s your date?”
She turned to me, and her scowl changed to a smile. “Matt.”
“Where’s Harper?” I asked. “Don’t you want me to have him if you’re staying in the city tonight?”
“Oh no, I’m not staying. It’s only my first date with Matt, so I thought it would be best if I didn’t drink too much and drove home later.”
“Yeah, you don’t want to give him the wrong idea,” added Danny sarcastically, now looking at her chest.
Molly rolled her eyes and walked back to the door, stepping into her heels as she went.
“Well, have a good time,” I said, kissing her on the cheek and getting a noseful of the new Roberto Cavalli perfume as I did so.
“I will,” she replied, her eyes twinkling.
After she left, Danny and I ordered a pizza, filled our wine glasses and sat on the floor with my laptop, Googling Molly’s date Matt Wilson. We found he was a reporter with the Westport Independent Network (WIN) newsroom, he was thirty-four years old and had moved to Westport a year ago. Before that he’d been working overseas.
“Why would he have left New York to move to Westport and work for our crappy local newsroom?” asked Danny.
“I have no idea. I was actually wondering if I could get Molly to ask him to do some investigating into the skeleton they dug up from my garden. Bradley gave me some interesting information the other day about a missing person he thinks was the original owner of the bones.”
Danny turned to look at me, his eyebrows raised. “What kind of information?”
“Well he didn’t have a lot to tell, only that an old man at the pub told him about a guy who went missing around the time and perhaps his bones were buried.”
“What else did the old guy have to say?”
“I have no idea. That’s all Bradley could tell me.”
“Why don’t you go to the pub and ask the old guy yourself?”
“Maybe ... Riley wants me to stay out of it though. He already hates my nightmares and he
thinks this will only make them worse.”
“The Mystery of the Skeleton in the Garden would give me more nightmares.”
“Is that what you’re calling it is it?”
“Yep, it’s like a Famous Five novel. The Mystery of the Skeleton In The Garden,” Danny added. “Do you remember those books Grandma gave you as a kid?”
I nodded. “They were my favorite.”
Danny took a swig of his wine. “We could be the Famous Five,” he said excitedly. “We’d have to leave Riley out of it of course.”
“Famous Five?” I questioned.
“Yeah...me, you, Andrew, Molly and Harper.”
I shrugged. It sounded like a good idea, but then a lot of things sounded like a good idea after a glass of wine.
“Where do we start?” I asked.
Danny stood and put his glass on the coffee table. “We’ll start at the pub. See if we can find this old guy and ask him what he knows. Come on, it’ll be fun.” He held out his hand for me to take. Pulling me to my feet, his excitement was contagious. “Which pub?” he asked.
“The Grinning Dog.”
“Okay, you’ll have to drive. I’m already on my third glass of wine.”
“What about the pizza?”
“We’ll drive past and pick it up.”
“What about Riley?” I asked, biting my lip. “I don’t want to upset him.”
“We’re only asking an eighty-year-old man to tell us a story. What harm can that cause? Besides, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Okay, but if he gets angry you can say you’re investigating and not me. I just tagged along for the ride.”
“Sure. Whatever. Let’s go.”
* * *
It didn’t take long to get to the pub, but it appeared that The Grinning Dog was a popular place on a Friday night. Now, I will confess to not being the most patient person in the world, so by the time I had followed a family to their car and waited while the dad carefully belted all the kids into their seats, then slowly got in himself and finally reversed out of the park, I was feeling quite agitated. Unlike Danny, I’d only had half a glass of wine and I was starting to worry about doing this behind Riley’s back.
“I think you can do all the talking,” I said to Danny, pulling the car into the spot and turning off the engine.
“Why? What’s wrong with your voice?”
“Nothing, but you’re Julian.”
“What are you talking about?” Danny looked at me like I was crazy.
“The Famous Five. Remember? You can be Julian – the leader.”
“Oh, but I don’t want to be Julian. He was stuck up and boring. I want to be George. Or Dick. I liked Dick.”
I looked at Danny and stifled a giggle. “Okay. You’re a Dick,” I said, opening my car door and stepping into the evening air. The evening had turned out quite humid and I welcomed getting back inside to the air conditioning. Danny quickly followed me as I walked towards the entrance doors and beeped the car locked.
“I heard that,” he said. “And I am not a dick. I am Dick. He was the braver one, courageous and strong.” Danny held his head high and walked ahead of me, opening the heavy glass door as I approached.
The Grinning Dog was more a family-friendly pub with a large restaurant at the front and the bar in the far corner. One side of the bar serviced the restaurant whilst the other side was the more traditional area with smaller tables and bar stools. A large Harley Davidson motorcycle sat in the centre of the bar separating the two areas. I moved to a small round table in the furthest corner and pulled out a chair.
“So what does this guy look like?” asked Danny, moving to sit next to me.
“All Bradley could tell me was that he was in his eighties, bald–headed and wore a turtleneck.”
“A turtleneck? It’s like thirty degrees outside.”
“Yeah, apparently he’s got scarring or something and doesn’t like people seeing it,” I shrugged. Why he wore a turtleneck was really none of my business.
“Well go get me a drink and scope out the bar. I’ll wait here and look around,” said Danny, glancing around the room.
“Why do I have to buy the drinks?”
“Because this is your mystery.”
I sighed. Fair enough. I stood and moved to the bar, scanning the crowd as I went. It didn’t take long for me to spot the person we were looking for. He actually seemed to be the only person in here over the age of fifty. I ordered Danny a white wine and myself a coke, and moved back to the table.
“He’s at the end of the bar, sitting alone,” I said, handing Danny his drink.
“Yeah, I saw him. He’s not alone though. He seems quite happy sitting next to that really ugly woman.”
I smiled looking at the seven-foot tall statue of the dog wearing a dress and lipstick, seductively sitting on the bar stool next to him. I guess that’s why they call this the Grinning Dog.
“What do we do now?” asked Danny more seriously.
“You’re Dick remember? You tell me.” Danny picked up his drink and took a sip thoughtfully. We sat in silence for a few minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. “Maybe I should buy him a drink and ask to sit next to him?” I added.
“Sure. It’s probably the closest he’s come to getting lucky in a long time.”
I whipped my head to look at Danny. “I’m not trying to pick him up!”
“Sounds like you are, but who am I to judge? If that’s your thing then go for it. I reckon you’d be guaranteed to get the information you’re after ... providing he doesn’t have a heart attack first.”
Humph. “Well, what do you suggest?”
“I’d go the direct approach. Walk over there and ask him.”
I looked at the man in question. He didn’t look scary. In fact, he looked quite the opposite. He sat watching the football match showing on the big screen above the bar, his bald head reflecting the overhead lights. If anything, he looked lonely.
“If you talk to him then I won’t actually be guilty of going behind Riley’s back, will I?”
Danny looked at me and sighed. “If I do this for you, you’ll owe me, okay?”
“Yep, no worries.”
“You’ll have to repay the favor in any way I see fit?”
“Sure ... whatever you need, I’m your girl.” That was a statement I knew I’d live to regret but right now, it seemed like the best choice.
“Alright, here goes.”
Danny took the last swig of his drink and moved across the room to sit next to the old man. Now this is where I should mention that Danny’s sexuality oozes out of him. There is no mistaking what his orientation is. The old man picked up on it immediately and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. I crossed my fingers and hoped he wasn’t homophobic.
Danny’s skill at talking to people and making them feel at ease kicked in pretty quickly though, and within a minute the man relaxed and not surprisingly, he started to talk. I sat back and waited for Danny to return watching them closely for any clues. About ten minutes later, Danny returned smiling broadly.
“What did you find out?” I asked.
“I found out that Jim’s wife died five years ago and that he’s really lonely. His kids don’t visit, even though I think they should. He had a heart attack a few months ago and they didn’t even go to see him in the hospital. Spoilt brats... you work hard all your life to provide for them and that’s what you get in return. Thank God I’m never having any.” Danny sat and picked up his empty glass. “You didn’t even buy me a drink?” he asked, incredulously.
“Danny, what useful information did you find out?”
“Lizzie, have some sensitivity. That old man is a person with feelings, you know!”
“Sorry, Danny. Would you like to invite him over for a drink with us?”
“I already did, but he’s watching the game. I hate football so I left him to it.”
“Did you ask about the missing person?”
“Of course I did,
but he didn’t tell me much more than you already know. Except I did find out that the house you are living in had a bit of scandal surrounding it in its day.”
Now he had my interest. “Really? Like what?”
“There’s rumors of an illegitimate child being born there.”
“Really? How long ago?”
“About sixty five years.” Danny’s eye twinkled as he spoke. He loved gossip.
“That’s about the same time the body was buried.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s also about the time of the missing person report.”
“Did Jim say who the missing person was?”
“He said he couldn’t remember the guy’s name, but he did remember he worked for the local butcher and had a weird thing about stuffing things.”
“Well that makes sense if he was a butcher. They stuff chickens all time.” Personally I hated stuffing but Mum cooked with it all the bloody time.
“Yeah, but not that kind of stuffing. I mean, he stuffed animals like dogs and cats and put them on his mantle.”
“Ooooh,” I said, my lip curling. “Was his butchery very popular in the unusual meats section?”
Danny laughed. “Ha! Sometimes you can be quite funny, Lizzie.”
I beamed. Danny never told me I was funny. Unfashionable – yes, unkempt – yes. He even complimented me once and told me I was pretty – but he had never told me I was funny.
“What do we do now?” I asked, sipping my drink.
“I think you should talk to that police officer who has the hots for you.”
“Danny, he does not have the hots for me. And anyway, what happened to you doing the questioning so that Riley doesn’t know I’m up to anything?”
“I’m pretty sure you’d get more out of the policeman than I would.”
Yeah, but I bet if Danny had seen Officer Ed Helms, he wouldn’t be arguing with me right about now. “I’ll think about it.” I sighed and finished my drink, looking at the clock on the wall. “Anyway, I’ve got to go. Riley will be home soon.”
“Yeah. I’d better get home to Andrew. Don’t want him thinking I had too much fun without him.”
We stood to leave and I followed Danny to the door. I looked around the restaurant as we passed and noticed the crowd had thinned out quite a bit. I guess as it was now just after nine pm, the mums and dads would have taken the kids home to bed. I smiled and was just about to walk through the door behind Danny when I stopped. My heart skipped a beat and I felt the air being sucked out of me as I looked into the far corner of the room and saw Riley. Sitting with a very beautiful looking Allison, her hand rubbing his forearm affectionately. He had his back to me so I couldn’t see his face but it was definitely him. There was no mistaking it, especially when I heard his deep throaty laugh drift towards me across the room. Time stood still for a moment until I felt Danny grab my arm and drag me into the night air.
Give Murder A Hand: Lizzie. Book 2 (The Westport Mysteries) Page 10