“You are kind.”
“I often wonder if such a trial occurs in my lifetime will I be equal to it? I was too young during the war and I think my father kept a lot from me. Youth can be inflamed.”
“Indeed.” Yancy laughed. “I often wonder how we lived through it.”
They visited for another half hour then Yancy mounted up with help from DoRe.
Jeffrey walked up to the house, where his wife was giving orders in the garden, shoots popping up, lilacs ready to bloom.
She turned. “My tulips, spectacular though they were, are now asleep.”
“You have such an eye for color, my dear.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ve had an interesting proposal, an interesting visit.”
He presented everything to her.
“Half of the winnings should he win?”
“Yes.”
“And does he want us to pay part of Black Knight’s feed and training now?”
“No, no. He wishes to rent William, as I said.”
She sat on a Chinese-inspired bench. “That really means he gets the benefit of DoRe.”
“DoRe will remain here, of course, but yes, my angel, William has been at DoRe’s knee since he was about that tall.”
She laughed. “Well, he has grown since then.”
“An advantage in this case.”
“Is.” She scanned the garden, eyes falling on the azaleas, some weeks from revealing their treasures. “I have no objection and I do think this is an opportunity for you to do business.”
“I hope so.” He now held her hand. “I’m looking forward to the races.”
“Yes,” she simply said, sighed. “I must call upon Catherine. Now is a good time. But I don’t want her to think we are actually competing against her. She bought Serenissma, Francisco’s blooded mare, for a princely sum. It’s important to keep good relations.”
“I’m sure she will be grateful for your call.”
Maureen picked up his hand, the one holding hers, kissed it. “I always wanted children. You know that but this dream never came to pass. When I see or hear of the sufferings of women I know, I think perhaps I was spared. Oh yes, she has JohnJohn—two, I think—but so many diseases carry the little ones away. It has to have crossed her mind that she can take nothing for granted.”
“You would have been a perfect mother.” He halfway believed it. “And to be surrounded by children as beautiful as their mother. And who knows, we might yet…”
“Oh, now, Jeffrey. Much as I would love to have your child, I am soon out of reach.” She lifted her shoulders. “I think there was only one Abraham and Sarah.” She quoted the old couple in the Bible who conceived.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t try.” Jeffrey knew just how to handle her.
35
February 9, 2017
Thursday
Hurrying in, she picked it up. “Hello.”
“Harry, do you know what has happened?” Anne de Vault’s voice registered worry.
“No. About what?”
“I opened the store today like always and heard a bit of commotion down the hall. So I walked down there and, Harry, Nature First is blocked off with the horrible yellow crime scene tape.”
“What?”
“No one can go in.”
“Where are Felipe and Raynell?”
“I don’t know but I expect if they came to work today they are somewhere being questioned again. I mean this is now a crime, right?”
“Anne, the crime is murder. Why else would there be tape up?”
“This is awful. She was found slumped at her desk, no violence. Murder?” Anne couldn’t believe it, well, she didn’t want to believe it.
Who would?
“There are ways to kill without leaving a mark or at least an obvious mark. Was Cooper there?”
“No. The young lady who noticed me told me they were the forensic team. I told her I owned the bookstore down the hall.”
“Anne, I am terribly sorry. This is upsetting and you are right there. Is there anything I can do?”
“Yes. Can you think of a reason the rest of us might be in danger?”
“No. I’m not saying that to pacify you, but we’ve had two unexplained deaths of two people who knew each other, shared common interests, and worked together in so far as redoing the office is working together. They liked each other.”
“Yes,” Anne said that slowly. “Other than design, I mean what did Gary and Lisa have in common?”
“Little things. I mean they seem like little things to me. She was obsessed with dinosaurs. He kept little rubber dinosaurs on his shelves.”
“Lots of people have a keen interest in dinosaurs.”
“Yes, but they are usually eight or nine years old.”
A very long pause followed this. “You’ve got a point there.”
“The other thing—again, such a little thing—when I helped Tazio set up her office—well, I really sat on the floor to go through Gary’s file books but I did move a chair or two and I polished desks. Anyway, I found an article about frogs surviving dinosaurs. Lisa had the same article.”
“It’s possible they spoke to each other, suggested books and magazines. It’s not far-fetched.”
“No, but now they are both dead. Murdered.”
“Should I close the store?”
“No. You might want to gather the other shop owners there, discuss it, and go back to business. I always think the worst thing to do is react before you know enough. It’s important to keep calm.”
“Easy to say.”
“I know. You asked me a question and I answered it. Let’s take a worst-case scenario. The killer is close by. Don’t show panic. Make him wonder.”
“That’s not the worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is he comes after me.”
“You’re right. But, Anne, you don’t share the same interests the two of them did. I mean, you have aesthetic tastes, you like architecture, but that’s not front and center. And whatever took Gary, I don’t think it was architecture.”
“I hope not.” She took a deep breath. “What is the saying? Keep calm and carry on. I’ll try.”