Mia was so tense her shoulders were hunched up to her chin and Mary was openly looking daggers at Victor from across the room.
“I need Mia here,” I said. “But I can help you with whatever you’re looking for.”
Victor hesitated, then he nodded. “Thank you, Kathleen. I was wondering what you could recommend for some escapist reading. I like mysteries with some kind of historical connection.”
“I can think of several series you might like,” I said.
He glanced at Mia again. “I hope we can spend some time together before I leave.”
“School takes up a lot of my time, Uncle Victor,” Mia said in a tight voice.
I led Victor over to the shelves and showed him two different authors’ books. He chose one but since he didn’t even look at the back cover or flip through the pages I doubted that he’d really come for reading material. He seemed desperate to connect with what family he had left, which was understandable given that he’d just lost his only brother.
I wanted to tell him not to try so hard, but it wasn’t any of my business.
It wasn’t any of Mary’s business, either, but that didn’t stop her. Mia was gone when we got back to the checkout desk. Mary took the book and Victor’s temporary card and checked the book out for him.
“Victor, let the child be,” she said when she handed them back to him.
I shot her a warning look, which she ignored.
“She’s my niece, Mary,” he said.
“That you’ve seen how many times in the last seventeen and a half years?”
“And you know who prevented that.”
She nodded. “I know whose actions did.”
His jaw muscles tightened. He took a deep breath and let it out and then swallowed down whatever had been his first impulse to say. “I can’t argue that with that, Mary,” he said. “But I don’t exactly have a lot of time to right all the wrongs.”
Mary’s expression softened. “Don’t push, Victor,” she said. “It’s not going to get you anywhere.” She looked at me then. “I’m just going to straighten up the magazines.” She came around the desk and headed across the room.
Victor looked at me. “I’m sorry, Kathleen,” he said. “My family is . . . messy.”
“All families are messy,” I said.
“You’ve probably heard that I have some time constraints as far as fixing my relationships.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t have enough time to fix things with my brother,” he continued. “I knew that could happen but I never thought Leo would be the one who would end up dead.” He gave his head a shake and held up the book. “Thank you for your help,” he said, and with that he made his way to the front doors.
Mary must have been watching for Victor to leave. She came back to the desk. “I owe you an apology, Kathleen,” she said.
“If you’re trying to apologize for looking out for Mia you’re wasting your time,” I said, “because there’s nothing to apologize for.”
She smiled and patted my arm. “I like you,” she said. She looked over at the front doors. “I don’t like Victor. I’m sorry he’s sick and I’m sorry he lost his brother but I can’t pretend I like him.”
“Were you ever friends?” I asked. “I mean when you were kids?”
She gave a snort of disgust. “No. To use an expression of my mother’s since we were talking about her, he’s always been as useless as a bag of smoke.”
“But you and Leo were friends.”
Mary nodded and brushed a bit of lint off the front of her sweater.
“You know, we actually went out for a bit. Nothing came of it and I’m glad we were able to stay friends because we were much better friends than anything romantic.”
I knew I could beat around the bush to try to find out what I wanted to know or I could just ask. It seemed easier to do the latter.
“Did Leo tell you that he was looking into his wife’s death?” I asked.
Mary wasn’t one for prevaricating, either. “Yes,” she said. She narrowed her eyes. “How did you find out? Did Simon tell you?”
I nodded. “Do you know what happened that made Leo think there was something to find?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. He said time has a way of catching up with you sometimes. I asked him what the heck did that mean? He laughed and said, ‘You might say I came upon a key fact that changed everything.’ That’s all he’d say.”
The phone rang then and she leaned over the counter to answer it.
Based on what he’d told Mary, Leo had found some new piece of information, something that had changed his opinion about the accident that killed his estranged wife. But how had he found that piece of information? And more important, what was it?
chapter 10
I headed home after work to change and have a quick bite of supper. I was meeting Maggie and Roma at Abel’s to look for a wedding dress.
Maggie was standing on the sidewalk outside the small boutique when I got out of my truck. She was wearing a red duffel coat and a red-and-white-striped scarf. “Roma is on her way,” she said.
“What are the chances we’re going to be able to find her a dress?” I asked.
Maggie held out one hand and waggled her fingers from side to side. “Fifty–fifty,” she said.
“This is where Rebecca’s wedding dress came from and it was beautiful,” I said, pulling up the collar of my black peacoat. “I’m going to think positively.”
Roma arrived then, parking at the curb behind my truck. She hugged us both and then studied the display of holiday dresses in the front window of the shop. “Are you sure I’m not too—”
Maggie held up a hand. “If the next word out of your mouth was going to be ‘old’ you might want to rethink what you were going to say.”
Roma closed her mouth, pressing her lips together, but there was an amused sparkle in her dark brown eyes.
We headed inside. Avis, who owned the store, was behind the cash register, her silver-framed glasses slipping down her nose as she waited on a customer. She smiled at us. “Go ahead and look around,” she said. “I’ll be with you in just a minute.”
Maggie led us to the back of the store, where the more formal dresses were displayed. Roma fingered the chiffon overskirt of a petal pink, knee-length gown. “This is pretty,” she said.
Maggie shook her head. She reached for the fabric and draped it over the back of her hand. “Uh-uh,” she said. “That color is too pale for you.” Something on the back wall caught her attention and she moved ahead of us.
“Kathleen, what if I really can’t find a dress I like?” Roma said.
I put my arm around her shoulders. “Then I’ll loan you my big fuzzy bathrobe.”
“Be serious,” she said.
“Who’s saying I’m not?” I retorted. “Look, we want your special day to be, well, special, but if you want to get married in your jeans or my fuzzy bathrobe or a garbage bag held up by duct tape that’s fine with us. We love you no matter what.”
Roma swallowed hard. Then she shook her finger at me. “You better not make me cry. I promised Olivia I’d send her pictures of the dresses and I don’t want my nose to be all red.”
Olivia was Roma’s daughter and I knew Roma wished she could have been with us.
I held up both hands. “I promise not to be nice for the rest of the night.”
Avis joined us then and after a bit of consultation Roma decided she would like to try on a couple of more traditional gowns. The first was a strapless sheath.
Roma disappeared into the dressing room and Avis grabbed her tablet to see if she could order the chiffon wrap that went with the dress. She didn’t have it in stock. She tapped the screen a couple of times and exhaled loudly. “I cannot get used to this new tablet,” she said, her voice edged with frustration. “I just got it yesterday and I’m still figuring out the new software.” She rolled her eyes. “I left my old one too close to the radiator. It turns out heat isn’t good for rechargeable batteries.”