In March, Ruth’s attacker, Kenneth Parks, a sixteen-year-old student from Annapolis High was apprehended. Fresh out of Ruth’s cash, he attempted to use her cancelled VISA to buy a laptop computer on the Internet, asking that it be shipped to his home address. Needless to say, Kenny’s parents’ car didn’t sport a ‘My child is an honor roll student at…’ bumper sticker.
Eventually, we learned that lab analysis had identified the formulation of the thallium contained in Jay’s talcum powder as identical to Jardines Rat-a-Tué which hadn’t been sold in the US since 1978.
I was thinking about this one day while staring at Eva across her kitchen table.
Eva raised any eyebrow. ‘What? Do I have spinach on my teeth?’
‘Not your teeth. Your hair. I’m remembering your roots.’
‘Roots?’ She tugged on a lock of silver bangs and stared up at it, cross-eyed. ‘Thanks to Wally, I don’t have any roots.’
‘But when you did, wasn’t it because you used some off-brand hair dye that was years past its sell-by date?’
Eva laughed. ‘In Stanley, Utah, rotating stock was an alien concept. They never took stuff off the shelves in the stores. I saw thirty-year-old merchandise gathering dust, still wearing their original price tags.’ She grinned. ‘Never know when you’re going to need a tube of Ipana toothpaste.’
‘Maybe Hard Bargain, Texas has some old-fashioned farm supply stores, too,’ I mused.
I made this suggestion to the nice detective who’d given me his card when he drove all the way down from Baltimore, Maryland to relieve me of Jay’s gym bag. He’d said, ‘Thank you, ma’am,’ which I figured was nicer than ‘buzz off’. Nevertheless, he called later on to report that a clerk at Finkel’s Fair Store in Hard Bargain, Texas, had said yes-indeedy-do, Miss Kay Giannotti had bought some of that there Rat-a-Tué for her mother-in-law’s mouse problem, why it must have been over a year ago now, and they only had two cans left at $2.95 and should he hold them?
I paid a call on my spiritual advisor at her home in the parsonage to report on this interesting development. Eva invited me into the kitchen, and together we rustled up some tea while the gray Chartreux watched with round, copper eyes from her basket near the stove. ‘Hello, Bella,’ I said, kneeling down to give the animal a good scratch behind the ears.
‘I’ve changed her name,’ Eva told me. ‘She now answers to Magnificat.’
‘Certainly appropriate for a church-going cat,’ I said, getting to my feet, ‘but quite a mouthful. I can’t see you standing in the back yard calling, Here Magnificat, here Magnificat!, can you?’
Eva shook her head. ‘That’s why she’ll be Cat for short, although her breeder in Fulton, Maryland might think the name’s a bit undignified for such a fine, blue-blooded feline.’
As Eva poured hot water into our cups, she asked, ‘I know you talked to Don recently, and I’m curious. What was it that Kay said to him just before she died?’
‘It was a line from the movie, Dirty Dancing. “Nobody sticks Baby in a corner.”’
Eva plopped a teabag into her cup. ‘Poor thing. Thinking her husband was having an affair must have gnawed at her, but being told he was a pedophile would have sent anybody over the edge And I should know.’
‘Jay didn’t exactly win any prizes for faithfulness, but from everything I hear, he really loved her. And speaking of love,’ I continued with a grin, ‘how’s Jeremy?’
‘Fully recovered. He emails that during his hospital stay God came to him in a dream and suggested that he might not be cut out for life in the fast lane with a priest for a wife.’
Eva set the kettle back on the stove, and sat down. ‘Looking for guidance, Jeremy opened his Bible, closed his eyes and stabbed his finger down at Solomon 2:16: “My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.” Believe it or not, Jeremy’s now dating a lovely girl who works as a sales associate in the greenhouse at Homestead Gardens. God has spoken, what more can I say?’
‘That reminds me.’ I opened my purse and pulled out a narrow box. ‘Now that you’re back in the parsonage, I think you’ll be needing this.’ I slid the box across the table.
Eva tipped up the top and peeked in. ‘Pastor Barbie! I don’t believe it!’ Tenderly, she withdrew from the box a Barbie doll decked out in full priest regalia. It had been made as an ordination gift for Eva by her sister. I’d rescued Barbie from the trash can where a despondent Eva had tossed her when she left St Cat’s on sabbatical. For the past several months, Barbie’d slept on a bookshelf at my house.
Tears trickled down Eva’s cheeks as she stroked the doll’s hair. ‘Poor Pastor Barbie, I treated you very shabbily.’ She smiled across the table. ‘Thanks, Hannah, for saving her for me.’
Eva tucked Barbie back in her comfortable bed of bubble wrap. ‘It’s back to the office for you in the morning.’ And almost in the same breath, she said, ‘Want to stay for dinner?’
‘I can’t tonight, sorry. Ruth’s got her cast off, so Hutch has invited us to Dance Night at the Davidsonville Dance Club. Cast of thousands, but I haven’t been dancing since… well, since Jay was still alive. I find I’m looking forward to it.’
Later that evening, seated in a family group at the end of a long table at the popular dance hall in Davidsonville, Hutch stood up, raised a glass of wine and shocked us all. ‘A toast! To my wife, Mrs Gaylord Hutchinson.’
Hutch winked, and shot me a goofy grin. ‘I told you I was going to do something constructive with the time I set aside for Shall We Dance?’
‘What? When?’ Daddy sputtered.
‘Ruth and I were married this afternoon at the County Courthouse.’
Ruth beamed at her new husband, and then turned the brights on us. ‘I said the hell with the flowers, the cake and the dress. Screw the hotel and the band! I have everything I need right here.’
Remembering the Bridesmaid’s Dress from Hell that I was obliged to wear when Connie married Dennis, I couldn’t have been happier about the dress part, either.
‘And Maya Tulum was more than happy to move up our reservations, so in two days, we’re off to the Yucatan!’ Hutch added.
Hutch took Ruth’s hand, raised her gently to her feet, and led her out on to the dance floor. I watched them waltz happily away.
I listened to the music for a bar or two. ‘I don’t recognize that tune. Do you, Paul?’
Paul slipped his arm around my shoulders. ‘It’s called ‘Lost in the Darkness’ from the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Come on.’
He grabbed my hand, tucked it under his arm, and led me out to join the others on the floor. While we waltzed, Paul hummed and dum-de-dummed along with the music as if he were unsure of the words, but toward the end of the song, he began to sing softly in my ear, ‘I’ll never desert you, I promise you this, Til the day that I die.’
I smiled up at him, and his lips found my mouth, and for one magic moment we danced completely alone.
About the Author
MARCIA TALLEY is the author of four previous books featuring Hannah Ives. A winner of the Malice Domestic writing grant and an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel, Ms. Talley won an Agatha and an Anthony Award for her short story “Too Many Cooks.” She is the editor of two mystery collaborations, and her short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. She lives with her husband in Annapolis, Maryland. You can visit her website at www.marciatalley.com.
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