“Of course I do. What I don’t know is why the hell you were hired. Pick up your feet when you walk, girl. You tromp around the house like an army of Huns.”
“Yes, Ada.”
“And stop crowding me, will you? I cannot abide hoverers.”
“Think I’ll clean up myself,” said Spence, following them up the stairs.
“You I don’t like, period, Mr. New York Office,” Ada growled at him.
“What on earth did I do?” wondered Spence, bewildered.
“You smile too much,” she told him as they disappeared upstairs. “Every studio man who ever stole money from me just smiled and smiled.”
Aaron stood there in the dining hall doorway, shaking his large head. “I would not have thought this possible, but I swear she’s getting nastier.”
“That’s just her grief talking,” Teddy said quietly. “The old girl doesn’t mean one word of it. Just give her some space.”
“Fine by me,” Aaron said. “She can have as much space as she wants.”
Jase moved over next to Jory and spoke to her, his voice a faint murmur, his eyes cast shyly down at the floor.
Jory listened to him intently before she turned to Les and said, “Do you mind if I serve Jase, too? Our stove out in the cottage is electric, and the poor thing’s famished. He can eat out in the kitchen with me.”
“Nonsense,” Les said. “He’ll eat with us in the dining room. You both will. You’re family.”
“That’s very kind of you, Les,” she said. “Sweetie, could you maybe wash up a bit? There are some Handi Wipes out in the mudroom. I’ll show you, okay?”
Jase nodded and started for the kitchen, rolling up his sleeves. Jory followed him.
“Do you suppose he eats with his hands or with his feet?” Carly wondered aloud, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Des wasn’t sure if Jase heard the nasty little crack, but Jory sure as hell did-she shot a poisonous look at Carly as she passed through the kitchen door.
“Cut him some slack,” Mitch spoke up in Jase’s defense. “He’s a good guy.”
“He smells like an animal at the zoo,” Carly pointed out. “Believe me, when I was growing up in Virginia we had a name for people like that.”
“And believe me, we really don’t want to hear what it was,” Les said coldly. “So kindly spare us.”
Carly went ballistic in response: “You were right last night, Acky,” she hissed, seething. “We shouldn’t have come here. No one wants us here. They hate us. They all hate us!” She turned on her heel and stormed off in the direction of the main stairs.
“Carly, where are you going?” Aaron called after her. “Carly…!”
“No, let her go.” Les took Aaron by the arm, holding him there. “It’s a stressful time for all of us.”
“Carly happens to be my wife, Les. I’ll thank you to stay out of my marriage.”
“You could use some help, my boy,” Teddy advised. “You’ve pretty much made a mess of it.”
“And how would you know? Have you ever even been in a relationship that’s lasted for longer than seven minutes in the front seat of a car?”
Teddy stiffened but didn’t respond. Which made him a true gentleman in Des’s book.
Les turned to Mitch and said, “I’m sorry I’ve been of no help to you guys out there. I feel pretty darned useless.”
“As do I,” Teddy said. “Mind you, I haven’t done any serious physical work in ages. You’d probably have to carry me inside on a stretcher within a half hour.”
“Not to worry,” Mitch assured them both. “The three of us are making excellent progress. At the rate we’re going, we should have those sycamores completely cleared away by the end of March.”
Les let out a halfhearted chuckle. “The power crews will dig us out before you know it.”
“The sooner the better,” Aaron grumbled. “All I want is to get Mother in the ground and me and Carly the hell out of here.”
“Believe me, we all want that,” Teddy concurred.
Aaron arched his brow at him. “I know you think you’re being terribly amusing, Uncle Teddy, but I will not take this crap from you. I’ll have you know that there are plenty of people-influential, powerful people-who actually respect me.”
“Only because they don’t know you as well as we do,” Teddy said. “But give them time, my boy. They’ll come around.”
“Where did Carly go?” Aaron wondered, ignoring him now. Or at least pretending to. “I’ll bet she’s sneaking a cigarette.” He started toward the stairs after her. “Carly…?”
“I’m going to help Jory with the serving, if you’ll excuse me,” Les said. “Would you folks care to listen to the news or some music? The batteries on the sound system are good and charged.”
“I’d rather listen to the wind,” responded Teddy.
“Sure, whatever you want.” Les headed off to the kitchen.
Teddy lingered there before the fire with Des and Mitch. “Seriously, what kind of progress are you boys making out there?”
“Seriously? We might be here for a couple of days.”
“Damn.”
“Somewhere you need to be?” Des asked Teddy.
“Sig Klein’s,” he replied glumly. “I don’t get paid if I don’t sell clothes. And this weekend is a total washout as far as my Jazzmen gig is concerned. Not that I mean to sound petty. It’s just that we all have our lives to lead, and mine isn’t particularly well-funded right now, sad to say. I have to think about these things. I have to…” Teddy trailed off mid-sentence and went over toward the windows to look out at the darkening clouds.
Mitch and Des were alone now before the fire. He immediately put his arms around her and hugged her tightly, his unshaven cheek rough and cold against hers.
“Are you happy to see me or are you just looking for a warm-up?” she wondered, hugging him back.
“Does it matter?” he murmured, his mouth finding hers, kissing hers.
“Not one bit.”
“Des, you’re putting me on another diet when we get out of here. I don’t ever want to end up like Norma-wheezing, laboring, dead.”
“That’s good, baby. I don’t want you to either.”
“But is there any way we can work just a single glass of chocolate milk per day into this one? Along with the skinless chicken breasts and all of that leafy stuff, I mean.”
“I’ll do some research and get back to you,” she said, unable to keep a silly smile off her face.
“It’s snowing again,” Teddy declared from the windows.
They joined him, gazing out at the wet snowflakes that were beginning to fall on top of the hard coating of ice.
“Ain’t it lovely?” Teddy cracked.
“Yeah, it’s a winter wonderland, all right,” Mitch responded.
Their table was all set for breakfast. Jory emerged from the kitchen lugging the oatmeal in a big serving tureen. Les followed her a few seconds later with covered platters of eggs and bacon.
“Don’t wait for the others,” Les urged them as Jory bustled back into the kitchen. “Dig right in. This stuff’s no good cold.”
“You got that right,” Mitch concurred, taking the same seat he’d had at dinner. “If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it is cold scrambled eggs. In my opinion, if they aren’t piping hot they taste exactly like yellow rubber that’s been vulcanized and then subjected to high-level centrifugal-”
Unfortunately, Mitch never got to finish sharing his strongly held personal philosophy on non-hot scrambled eggs with Les and Teddy.
Because now was when they heard the scream.
CHAPTER 9
Ada Geiger’s killer used her bedside telephone.
The phone cord was wrapped so tightly around the old lady’s throat that it had become embedded deep in her flesh. The receiver on the floor next to her was bloodied. So was the back of her head. The Queen of the B’s lay on her side next to the bed, half-dressed. She wore a long-sleeved undershirt and unbuttoned wool trousers. A heavy wool cardigan was strewn across the bed, as if she’d been about to put it on when she’d been rudely interrupted.
Very rudely interrupted, Mitch thought as he stood watching Des examine her.