“You’re cold as ice.” Marvella put her hand on Harry’s cherry red cheek.
“I swear it would feel better if it snowed some more.”
“I think you’ll get your wish. Here, let me take your coat.” Marvella helped Harry out of her knee-length coat. “This weighs a ton.”
“Does but it’s warm.”
“Come into the kitchen. Wednesday is my girl’s day off.”
Following the slender woman to her kitchen, Harry appreciated the works on the wall. The kitchen, itself modern, spotless, still radiated some warmth, something a bit cozy.
“Coffee, tea, or how about some hot chocolate?”
“Hot chocolate sounds good.”
“You know when the Spaniards conquered the Incas, the Aztecs, whoever they conquered down there, they were fascinated by chocolate. No chocolate in the Old World or bananas or tomatoes. Hard to imagine. Well, no coffee, either.”
“Or cocaine.”
“You’re right.” Marvella poured milk into a saucepan. No shortcuts for her.
“All these outlawed drugs have useful applications. They are a natural form of medicine, of painkillers, but…well, you know.”
“I do. All a government has to do to create illegal fortunes is outlaw a substance or a service. Prostitution, for example.”
“Hard work, I would think.” Harry inhaled the aroma.
Marvella folded in expensive ground chocolate with the milk, poured that into a cup for Harry. She sat down to join her.
“As you know I was over at Cloudcroft. They’ve made a lot of progress.”
“So have I. I am very close to getting Rankin Construction’s agreement to underwrite the Russian exhibit.”
“You know Sean well?”
“As you saw, we get along fine but it’s a social friendship, not a deep friendship. Given my work for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, best I stay on everyone’s good side.”
Harry laughed. “I’m sure they feel the same way about you.”
“I hope so.” Marvella smiled. “I truly hope so.”
“It’s just the two of us and I know I am a newer person in your life, but I have to ask: Do you trust Sean Rankin?”
Eyebrows knitting together, Marvella replied, “I have no reason not to trust him.”
“What about his father?”
“When Tinsdale and I moved here, Reg Rankin was slowing down, beginning to hand over, in bits, the company to Sean. I only met him a few times. Older generation. Proper. A man of his time.”
“Honest?”
“Well, again I don’t know. I’ve never heard anything to the contrary. Now let me ask you, why these questions?”
“Over the years a few deaths have occurred at construction sites.”
“Harry, that’s natural. Construction can be dangerous.”
“I know, but in going through Gary Gardner’s files, his building code files, I’ve found dates written in the margins for jobs wherein someone died. And 1984’s file is missing. That’s the year the man whose skeleton we found died. Now Gary is dead as is Lisa Roudabush, both of whom shared a fascination for earlier epochs, for dinosaurs, architecture later, obviously. Somehow it’s too close for comfort.”
“Be careful. If you mention this without hard proof you have just angered, or at the very least irritated, a powerful man, a powerful company with many employees.”
“That’s why I came to you. I’m not mentioning it.”
She breathed deeply. “I’m old enough to know there are many reasons to kill, a lot to cover up. Illegal transactions, that sort of thing. At least in private business if they have affairs it’s usually not fatal. In politics it used to be, but now they cling to Jesus, apologize, cry, and appear to be forgiven.” She let out a peal of laughter.
“I’ve often wondered if God has no sex, no women as partners in his life, how can he forgive infidelity for one?”
Marvella laughed again. “Because he doesn’t understand it.”
“Well, whatever this is about, I think sex has nothing to do with it.”
“But wouldn’t it be more interesting if it did?”
“You’re awful.”
“No, I’m not. I’m honest. Financial misdeeds are dull and those who commit them are dull. Now a roaring sexcapade? The best. Think of the South Carolina governor caught with his pants down. Oh, I so loved it.”
Harry laughed. “Too good to be true.”
“Too good to be true. You’re too young to remember, you weren’t even born, when Wilbur Mills, head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in Congress, and always will be…Well, the esteemed congressman was found disheveled and drunk at a public fountain in D.C., cavorting, or hoping to cavort with, a stripper who had indeed shed some unnecessary garments. It was so public the press couldn’t cover it up. The gentleman’s agreement unraveled.” She shook with mirth.
“You’d think those guys would figure it out, especially now that the gentleman’s agreement is over.”
“Oh, Harry, men think they’re only as old as the woman they’re sleeping with.”
“It’s not working,” Harry shot back, and they both doubled over.
“You know, it’s not that I think women are better than men, truly, but I do think we are more realistic, especially about sex.”
“Marvella, don’t you think we have to be and always will?”
The elegant older woman nodded. “I don’t know if I would go so far as to say gender or race or the time at which you were born is destiny, but in many ways it fulfills the definition.”
On and on they chatted, delighted with each other’s company, then Harry glanced at the superb grandfather clock. “Marvella, forgive me. I have overstayed my welcome. You should have thrown me out.”
“I enjoy your company. You are a generation younger than I. I find our exchanges invigorating, and the fact that you were an Art History major is an extra bonus.”
“Thank you.” Harry stood up, leaned over to give Marvella a kiss on her smooth cheek.
Marvella stood. “Isn’t it fate that we meet people whom we feel we have known all our lives?”
“Yes.” As she walked to the door, Harry slowed for a moment. “You know, there are many dimensions to existence and we see only one. I think there are more and when we have these feelings, whether it’s knowing someone or déjà vu, I think we just get a peep of another dimension.”
“I do, too, but we are hag-ridden by logic. Speaking of which, your piecing together these disparate bits of information is logical, but with a leap of faith, if that’s what one can call it. Best to remember, that killer is out there and whatever is at stake remains at stake.”