I brought up Spenser Futterman and the reappearing pages. “There’s certainly something fishy with him and the woman who he claims is his niece or his cousin.”
“Did you tell Sergeant French that the maid ID’d him?”
“No, and I’m not going to. After his amateur sleuthing comment, I’m sure he wouldn’t pay any attention.” I mentioned the connections that Izabelle had with some of the others. Jeen admitted knowing her from before, and Jym had seemed to know her as well. I mentioned Commander Blaine’s postal center and the social events he planned for his customers. “Maybe there was more to their relationship than he said. Maybe he tried to be friendly and she blew him off. Maybe he took it badly,” I offered.
“What about the ex-husband?” Mason suggested.
“Interesting,” I said, brightening. “I was going to say that when I talked to him, he was in Tarzana. But who knows if he really was? I could have been calling him on his cell phone and he could have been anywhere. Even up here.”
“He certainly would have known about her peanut allergy,” Mason added.
The trouble was, there were a lot of possibilities, but nothing pointing to any one person. I reached for my wine-glass, and as I did, something appeared in my peripheral vision that made me almost drop it. I suddenly bent forward in the chair, doing my best to hide. Mason reacted, and I pointed toward a table by the windows. The host pulled out the chairs for Nora and Bennett.
“They can’t see me here,” I said under my breath. “How would it look after the number I did on her, trying to convince her how great the food is at Asilomar?” I could feel my shoulders hunching as I spoke. “That woman has done nothing but complain all weekend. She’ll make an issue about me leaving Asilomar to eat, and tell the others. I’ll never hear the end of it. Look, she even made a problem with your tai chi. What was that about?”
Mason waved his hand in front of my face to get my attention. “Molly, take a breath,” he said in a reassuring tone. “They’re not paying any attention to you. They’re so wrapped up in themselves, they won’t notice you. The thing at the beach was nothing. She said something about the damp sand bothering Bennett, so I moved us.”
I stole a look and realized he was probably right about them not noticing me. Nora had a pleased smile, no doubt because the waiter appeared to be fawning over them. At last they were getting the treatment she thought they deserved.
“She’s been so angry all weekend. Why did she even agree to come?”
Mason reminded me that I’d said something that made it obvious it hadn’t been her choice and that Bennett had agreed without consulting her.
“Okay, then why would he do it?”
“I don’t know, but I bet there’s something in it for him,” Mason said.
It sounded possible, and I started to nod in agreement when my cell phone began to ring. I’d recently adjusted it so it went right to ring and turned the volume up as high as it would go. I was afraid that otherwise I’d miss calls during the weekend. My ring of choice was a royal flourish that kept playing while I searched in my bag for it. It slipped out of my hand and landed on the floor before I finally retrieved it.
I hastily flipped it open to stop the noise.
“Hello,” I said in a low voice, praying that it wasn’t Dinah with a catastrophe. It was worse. It was Barry.
“Don’t hang up,” he said right after his initial hello. Several times before when he’d called, I just said I couldn’t talk and clicked off.
“This isn’t a good time,” I said, but Barry got my attention by saying it was something about my house. I sensed people coming from the side, and when I turned, the waiter and host were approaching.
“I’m sorry, but no cell phones in the dining room,” the host said in a low voice. I gave him an apologetic smile and flipped the phone shut. But before I could put it away, it began to ring again, and I noticed that I now had the attention of most of the diners.
“I’ll have to ask you to step out into the lounge,” the host said firmly, taking my arm in a helpful but determined manner.
I answered the phone to stop the ringing and accidentally hit the speaker phone button as I did. Barry’s voice blared out, demanding to know what was going on and not to hang up. I caught sight of Nora’s expression as I rushed toward the exit. She didn’t look happy to see me.
I slumped into one of the easy chairs in the lobby. “What is it?” I said, looking over my shoulder toward the dining room. Only a few people were still looking in my direction.
“What’s going on?” Barry said. “What were all those voices?”
Mason came out a moment later and said our dinner had just arrived.
“Who’s that?” Barry’s voice squawked as I tried to shut off the speaker phone feature.
Mason was chuckling as he headed back to the table after I told him I’d be there momentarily.
Detective Barry by now had figured out who the voice belonged to, and when someone from the bar came by and asked me if I’d like a drink, he made an educated guess that I wasn’t at Asilomar.
He sounded hurt, and I rushed to tell him about being too tense to eat, that being in charge was turning out to be more than I thought, particularly with Izabelle’s death, which I now believed was murder. “Mason was just trying to help release some of my tension.”
“I just bet he was,” Barry said in a low voice. “I can help you release some tension, too. Leave the investigating to the Pacific Grove PD.”
“How’d you know?” I finally asked him.
“I know you, Molly, and if you think it’s murder, you’re getting in the middle of it. Babe, it’s not your responsibility.” His voice softened. “I bet your shoulders are all hunched up. If I was there, I’d get the knots out.” I knew that Barry was clenching his jaw and probably pacing. “I don’t mean to add to your concerns, but when I stopped by your house, the dogs barely ate and didn’t care about going outside to play. It was almost as if they’d already been fed and someone had played a lot of fetch with them.” I pleaded ignorance and got off the phone quickly. Who knew Barry and my sons would all do their job?
When I finally came back to the table, Mason looked far too amused. “I never have fun like this with my other friends.”
I noted with relief that he didn’t say his other girlfriends. Even though technically I’m a girl and a friend, I’m not what the words used together connote. I knew Mason well enough to know his choice of words was no accident.
CHAPTER 17
IT LOOKED LIKE ALL OF ASILOMAR WAS ASLEEP when we drove back through the entrance.
When we’d finally left the restaurant, after Mason talked me into having the super deluxe flaming bananas over ice cream, Nora and Bennett were having after-dinner drinks at their table. I think she must have been trying to delay going back as long as possible. No doubt this was the kind of place Nora thought they were coming to. All I could do was hope that neither Nora nor Bennett would mention where they’d seen me.
Mason thought I was overreacting, but I had been promoting the rustic accommodations and the hearty camp food, saying it was all part of the workshop atmosphere. How would it look if the retreaters knew I’d run off for flaming bananas over ice cream?
Mason walked me to my room and stopped. He reminded me that he was going to his aunt’s birthday brunch in Santa Cruz the next day.
“You’re welcome to join me,” he said in a soft voice. He didn’t argue when I said I couldn’t leave. His point wasn’t whether I went or didn’t go, but that he’d invited me. It was his way of telling me his definition of casual had changed. That had been the stumbling block when it looked like Mason and I were on the road to becoming a couple. When he’d made it clear that his idea of a casual relationship meant keeping his girlfriends separate from his family, I’d seen red. First, it sounded like he had a parade of women going through his life, and second, not being included in his family made any relationship seem kind of cheesy.