Mr. P. turned to me. “I’m ready to leave if you are,” he said.
We started for the door. “Do you think she was telling you the truth?” I asked.
“Not for a moment.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “What about you, my dear?”
I thought about all the evasive behaviors I’d seen from Dr. Durand: how she’d stiffened, hesitated, swallowed down her words. The professor was definitely keeping something from us. “Me, neither,” I said.
He reached over and patted my arm. “Now all we have to do is find out why.”
Chapter 11
We returned to the shop to find Rose using her considerable charm on a couple—a man and woman who looked to be in their early thirties.
“Thank you for accompanying me to the library, Sarah,” Mr. P. said. “I’m going to see what I can find out about our professor.” He headed for the sunporch, and since everything seemed under control, I went up to my office.
I spent the next while working on an estimate for a family that wanted us to handle the clearout of their mother’s house. Mom, it turned out, was on a South Pacific cruise and was moving into an apartment when she got back. After about forty minutes I shut off the computer and delivered a cup of tea and a butterscotch oatmeal cookie to Mr. P. in the sunporch office.
“Any luck?” I asked.
He broke the cookie in half and took a bite. “Not yet. Dr. Durand doesn’t appear to take part in any form of social media.” He reached for his tea. “However, there are still some more rocks to turn over.”
“I forgot to tell you earlier; I talked to my mom this morning,” I said. “I asked her to ask Dad if he could find out anything about Jeff and Nicole’s grandmother. I thought it might help if we knew a bit more about his background.”
“That’s a very good idea,” Mr. P. said.
“I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Avery came in the back door then. “Hey, Sarah, I’m done painting for now. What do you want me to do next?”
“Help Rose in the shop, and when you have time, change the tablecloth and the dishes on the round table, please.”
“Okay,” she said. “What do you want me to use on the table?”
“Whatever you decide,” I said. “I trust your judgment.”
She clapped her hands together like a little kid. “I know exactly what I’m going to do.”
“Can’t wait to see it,” I said. I headed outside. There was no wind and it seemed like a good time to work on my chairs.
I opened the big front doors to the former garage work space and put down a large tarp on the pavement in front of the building. Then I got out my homemade spray box, which was nothing more than the cardboard carton a commercial washing machine had come in with the bottom and front cut out. I’d scrounged three of the heavy cardboard boxes when the Laundromat one street over from Jess’s shop had been renovated.
I’d just set one of the wicker chairs in the box when Charlotte came walking up the sidewalk. I brushed off my hands on my old shirt and walked down to meet her. “Hi,” I said. “How was the gym?”
“Educational,” she said. “I learned I’m way too uncoordinated for aquacize.”
I slipped my arm around her waist. “I do not believe that,” I said.
Charlotte smiled. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but it’s true. That class was like the Rockettes’ kick line in water. I did learn a few things, though.”
“How to kick your foot up as high as your nose?” I teased.
“Heavens, no,” she said. “If I tried that—even in the water—I’d be in traction.”
I held open the back door for her and we went inside. Mac was on his way out.
“I think I found a pair of hinges that will work for that old hope chest,” he said to me. He smiled at Charlotte. “Yell if you need me.”
Charlotte waved hello to Mr. P., who was still bent over his laptop, and we headed for the shop. We walked in to find Avery high-fiving Rose.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I sold that dresser and bed that came from Edison Hall’s house,” Rose said. She looked pleased with herself, and for good reason. We’d been trying to sell that bedroom set for months.
“Rose is a selling ninja,” Avery said, nodding for emphasis.
“That’s good news,” I said.
“I got the full price,” Rose said tipping her head to one side to look at the heavy mahogany head- and footboards, which were resting against the back wall along with the side rails and dresser.
“Full price? Avery is right. You are a selling ninja,” I said, giving her a hug. “I’ll get a check ready and let Stella know it’s here.” We didn’t take many items on consignment, but the bedroom set was a special case. The money would go toward Stella’s niece’s medical bills.
“I saw Stella and Ellie at the grocery store last weekend,” Charlotte said. “Ellie is getting around with a walker now.” Stella Hall was the late Edison Hall’s sister. Ellie had been his daughter-in-law.
“That is good news,” I said. Ellie Hall had had surgery on her back about six weeks earlier. She had little ones at home. I was happy to hear she was doing well.
“Sarah, can I use some stuff in the boxes under the stairs?” Avery asked. Her eyes darted to Charlotte. “I mean, may I use some stuff in the boxes under the stairs?”
I nodded. “Go ahead.”
She headed for the storage space. Rose brushed her hands on her apron. “Alfred told me about your conversation with Dr. Durand.”
Charlotte looked from Rose to me. “Who’s Dr. Durand?”
Rose waved a hand at her friend. “I’ll explain later. What I want to know is, how was aquacize?”
“Remember when Maddie convinced us to try Zumba?” Charlotte asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rose said. I was clearly missing something, not the least of which was that I didn’t know Rose and Charlotte had tried a Zumba class.
“Maddie takes Zumba?” I said. “Maddie Hamilton?”
“Yes, dear. It’s very good exercise,” Rose said. She turned back to Charlotte. “What did you find out?”
“Nothing as far as another woman goes.”
Rose sighed.
“Jeff Cameron arrived at the gym to change and run, and that was it,” Charlotte continued. “No one saw him with a woman. Or anyone else, for that matter. He was pleasant, but he kept to himself for the most part.”
“They hadn’t been here that long,” I said. “It’s not surprising.”
Charlotte nodded. “The only thing anyone noticed about him was that he’s very competitive. He did some of the weekly timed runs the gym ran, and he always wanted to be the top person in his age group.”
“What about Leesa Cameron?” I asked.
Charlotte shook her head. “No one I spoke to remembers ever seeing her there. I think she pretty much kept to herself.”
“Maybe it was because she was doing Reece’s father,” Avery said. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the storage space under the stairs.
“Excuse me?” Charlotte said.
Avery turned to look at us over her shoulder. “Sorry,” she said. “Maybe because she was sleeping with Reece’s father.” She made air quotes around the words “sleeping with.”
“Sweetie, who’s Reece?” Rose asked.
“She goes to my school.”
“Why do you think her father was involved with Mrs. Cameron?” Charlotte said, frown lines forming between her eyebrows.
Avery shrugged. “I saw them, two or three weeks ago, maybe. I didn’t know who she was until I saw the photo of her that Mr. P. had.”
“Saw her where?” Rose said.
“Running.” Avery made a face. “She pretty much sucked at it, by the way.” She looked over at Charlotte. “I know, I know, you hate the word, but she did suck. Her arms and legs were going all over the place and she had to keep stopping.” Avery looked at me. “She didn’t look like you when you run.”