She put her hand on mine and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry to hear that. Are you sure you can’t find a way around it?”
“I don’t think so. Marcus can be pretty black and white about some things.”
She put a hand up to her mouth, but I could still see the smile.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
She laughed, shaking her head. “Sweetie, you can be pretty black and white about certain things, too. Detective Gordon sounds like he’s perfect for you.”
“I’m not rigid about things.”
“Really?” Her eyes were sparkling. She picked up her teacup. “All right. I’m not going to argue with you.” She took a sip from her cup. “Could we change places?”
“Why? Is something wrong?” I said.
“The light coming through the door makes me squint.” She patted her cheeks. “I don’t need any more wrinkles. HD already makes me look like I’m ninety.”
I pulled out the chair to my left. “You can sit here.”
She gestured at me. “You just scoot over and I’ll sit at your place. It’s easier.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I know what you’re doing,” I said.
“What am I doing?”
“You’re trying to show me that I can be stubborn and rigid because I don’t want to switch seats with you.”
“So slide over,” she said, making a move like she was going to get up.
I got my cup and moved to the chair beside me.
Mom smiled and sipped her tea.
“So are you going to sit there or not?”
She shook her head. “No. I think I’m going to sit here after all.”
She put more marmalade on another bite of muffin and popped it in her mouth.
I shifted in the chair, trying to get comfortable. It shouldn’t have been a problem. All four chairs were exactly the same, but this one didn’t feel right. I moved back to where I’d been sitting. “This doesn’t prove you were right,” I said.
“Of course not,” she said solemnly.
“Tell me what you know about Hugh Davis,” I said, mostly to change the subject.
Mom yawned and stretched. She reminded me of the cats. Owen was leaning against my leg now, while Hercules was still watching my mother with interest. “I’d heard his name, but I really didn’t know anything about him, so after I talked to you I made a few phone calls.”
“And?”
“And he was a decent enough director, although he hadn’t done much that was significant in the last year and a half.”
That would explain why he’d been pushing Hannah so hard.
“Do you know why?” I asked.
Mom set her cup down. “He may have been a decent director, but it appears he wasn’t a decent person.”
“Not a decent person how?” I asked. “Did he drink too much? Cheat on his taxes?”
She shook her head. “I heard from an unimpeachable source that he pushed one of his leading ladies so hard she started cutting herself and another ended up having some kind of breakdown.”
“Wait a minute. Did Ben know that?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “At first all anyone would say was that Hugh could be ‘challenging.’ That can mean anything from ‘he throws things in rehearsal’ to ‘he likes to wear frilly undies.’”
I pulled both feet up under me. “Those are pretty serious accusations. Are you sure your source is accurate?”
“Very.”
I blew out a breath. “Do you know who the two actresses were?”
She poured the last of the tea into her cup. “That I don’t know. But it strikes me that they’d have family and friends. If someone treated you that badly, I don’t know what I’d do.” She smothered another yawn.
“How about you go fill the tub full of hot water while I make you a fresh pot of tea?” I said, getting to my feet.
“Umm, that does sound good.” She stood up as well and wrapped me in a warm hug. “I’m so glad I decided to come, Katydid.”
“Me too,” I said.
I put the kettle on to boil again and took Mom up to her room. When the tea was ready I poured a cup and took it up to her. She’d already put on a fuzzy yellow robe and taken off her makeup. With her face scrubbed clean and her hair pulled back in a messy bun, she looked more like she was my older sister than my mother.
“Take your time,” I said, kissing her cheek.
I went back to the kitchen and started clearing the table. Owen was sniffing Mom’s purse, which she’d left on the floor next to her chair. “There’s nothing in that for you, nosy,” I said. One ear twitched, but that was the only indication I got that he’d heard me.
Hercules wound his way around my legs and I bent down and picked him up. “So Hugh Davis wasn’t a very nice person,” I said.
He murped his agreement.
“Mom’s right, you know. Those women must have family and friends who wanted Hugh to pay for what he did. So how do we find out if that’s what someone did?”
19
Maggie called about eight thirty that evening. She sounded tired but not at all worried. “It went well,” she said. “Now it’s in the hands of the universe.”
“My fingers are crossed.” Owen had climbed onto my lap when I answered the phone and he put one paw on the receiver. “And Owen sends his love.”
Maggie laughed. “Thanks. I know they’ll both help. Give Owen a scratch from me.”
Mom poked her head around the doorway to the kitchen. “Ask Maggie to join us for breakfast,” she stage-whispered.
“Mom would like to know if you can meet us for breakfast,” I said.
“Yes,” Maggie immediately said.
“Are you sure you don’t want to think about it?” I teased.
“I have been thinking about it,” she said. “I really want to meet your mother. I’ve heard so much about her from you. The fact that she’s on my show is just a bonus.”
We settled on a time and said good night. I gave Owen a scratch under his chin. “This is from Maggie,” I said. His golden eyes closed to slits and he started to purr.
It was the alarm clock that woke me in the morning, not a furry face with sardine breath. When I went downstairs I found Mom, sitting on the floor by the refrigerator. She had a fork in each hand with half a sardine speared on each one. Hercules was methodically licking fish oil off one chunk. Owen was biting off bits from the other and setting them on the floor so he could eat them.
Mom looked up and smiled. “Good morning, sweetie.” She gestured at the counter. “I made you coffee.”
“Oh, umm, thank you,” I said. Mom could do only two things in the kitchen and making coffee wasn’t one of them.
“My internal clock is completely out of whack,” she said. “I made some tea and fed the cats. I hope that’s okay. Owen seemed hungry.”
“What did you feed them?”
She tipped her head in the direction of the counter, where an empty can sat waiting to be washed and recycled. “That canned food.” Her right hand moved and Hercules’s head bobbed up and down as he tried to keep licking without missing a beat.
“They’re very intelligent cats,” Mom said. “Hercules took me right to the cupboard with the cat food and Owen showed me the sardines in the refrigerator.”
“Yes, they are something,” I said darkly, eyeing both cats as I moved to the fridge to get the cream for my coffee. “Why are you feeding them sardines like that?” Each cat was less than a foot away from my mother. Most people, with the exception of Maggie, didn’t get that close.
Mom looked up at me, frowning. “You did tell me not to touch them, Katydid.”
“I mean why are you feeding them sardines at all?”
She shifted slightly. “I was having my tea and half of one of those wonderful blueberry muffins. It just seemed wrong for me to have a treat and them to have nothing.”