by LR Wright
“I never met her husband,” said the sergeant. “I’ll go tell him, anyway.” He was back in a couple of minutes. “Yeah, it’s him. It’s kinda touching, don’t you think?” He sat down. “Guy says he’s retired, now he can spend more time with his wife.” His eyes scanned the notices on Alberg’s bulletin board. “Yeah, but—” He looked quizzically at Alberg. “Does that mean he plans to park himself on that bench every day?”
“You’ve got me,” said Alberg.
“Spend the whole damn day there?”
Alberg shrugged.
“We might have ourselves a problem here,” said the sergeant worriedly.
“What did you want to see me about?”
“Oh, yeah. Right.” He held his shoulders back. “I’ve made my decision. I’m not gonna do it. Not gonna retire early after all.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear it, Sid,” said Alberg. “Surprised, though.”
“Yeah.” Sokolowski shuffled his feet. “Well, it’s been a while, now, since she left. More than a year. And she hasn’t told me why. And she hasn’t said if she’s ever coming back. So I figure I gotta hold on to something. My kids are all grown up, and they’ve always been closer to Elsie, being as how they’re girls. And I haven’t got her anymore. I don’t want the damn house, I’m gonna sell the damn house. So I might as well hang on to the job. Right?”
“Right, Sid. Whatever you say.”
Sid slapped his thighs and stood up. “Right. I’m going back to my desk now.”
Alberg, watching him go, thought about the sergeant’s scrapbooks. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. If you could literally close the book on something, on somebody…
For the next hour and a half he dealt grimly with paperwork.
Then he took off his glasses and picked up the phone to call Janey, in Calgary.
He hadn’t thought about what day of the week it was, or what time, or whether she was likely to be home; but as the phone rang he asked some god or other to please not let the musician answer.
It rang so many times he thought he was going to get their machine, and then Janey answered, breathless.
“Hi. It’s your dad. Why are you laughing?”
“I’m just glad to hear your voice, that’s all.”
Alberg thought, I stand on such shaky ground with my kids. Especially with this one.
“Janey—” he said.
But then he didn’t know how to put it. If he said, What are you doing for Christmas? she’d think he was going to invite them to Sechelt, and he’d have to listen to her searching frantically for a refusal that wouldn’t sound insulting. But if he said, Can I spend Christmas with you? that might be even worse. What if she’d already invited Maura and the accountant? and had to say, No, Dad, I’m afraid you can’t…
At that moment Isabella opened his office door and sailed in, unannounced, without knocking. Alberg felt his jaw drop.
She stood tall and straight, with her head flung back proudly, and her golden eyes gleamed triumphantly.
“What do you think?” she said to Alberg, ignoring the fact that he was on the phone.
“One moment, Janey,” he said. “Isabella has had her hair cut, and I am trying to absorb this.”
“Say hi for me,” said Janey.
“Hi,” said Alberg, dazed. “Isabella. It’s beautiful.”
It came to her jawline, and from a center part fell gracefully to cup her face.
“Beautiful.”
The gray was no longer gray, but streaks of gold amid the brown.
“Thank you,” she said. “I am now going to show Richard. It will be a great shock to him. I hope it will shock him back to life.”
“Janey,” said Alberg. “I’m back.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Cassandra’s going to Edmonton for Christmas. With her mother. Could I come to you and—uh, Daniel?” Christ. He’d forgotten the musician’s name, for a minute.
“Sure. Love to have you. Diana will be here, too.”
It was as easy as that.
Alberg stood up and went to his window. The sun was shining again. Parked next to the curb was a big old Chrysler, green, and a bright red Firebird. No brown Silverado. He almost missed the damn thing.
Alberg went back to his desk and picked up the phone to call Eliot Gardener’s lawyer. “He’s started talking,” he said, when he got her on the line. “So now—what can I do to help?”
For more “Karl Alberg” novels by L.R. Wright
and other Felony & Mayhem mysteries, including
mysteries by Canadian authors such as Anna Porter
and John Norman Harris,
please visit our website:
FelonyAndMayhem.com
All the characters and events portrayed in this work are fictitious.
STRANGERS AMONG US
A Felony & Mayhem “Foreign” mystery
PUBLISHING HISTORY
First Canadian print edition (Doubleday Canada): 1996
Felony & Mayhem print and digital editions: 2019
Copyright © 1996 by L.R. Wright
All rights reserved
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63194-190-0