Blackberry Crumble (25 page)

Desperate for a moment to compose herself, she turned back to the oven and took a deep breath while she turned it off. There were probably several perfectly reasonable reasons May’s brother was having dinner with Keith Kelly last night. The problem was that Sadie couldn’t think of a single one.

“Are you making Dad’s ice cream?”

Food. Thank goodness.
That
was a topic she could always talk about.

Sadie schooled her thoughts and her expression and turned to face him. “Yes,” she said. “May didn’t dare show up at the picnic without bacon ice cream, so I’m trying my hand at it. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever made before.”

Hugh’s smile was polite, but he stared at the bacon with an almost nostalgic expression. She wondered if her making his father’s signature dessert made him uncomfortable, but wasn’t sure how to ask about it.

“Hey, Hugh.”

May came out of the hallway and entered the kitchen. She set the half-full yogurt container on the counter and put the spoon in the sink. So much for Jolene’s appetite. Sadie watched for the siblings to embrace or something, but they kept their greeting rather cool. There was no way to know if it was because they had already had several days to become reacquainted or because they simply weren’t close. Sadie sensed it was the latter.

“Hey, how’s Jolene?”

May shrugged. “She ate about a tablespoon of yogurt.” She flicked her eyes up to meet Hugh. “It’s hard to say that’s progress.”

“Try organic unsweetened applesauce next time,” Hugh suggested. “The chemicals in those store-bought yogurts aren’t good for her, and her body is probably rebelling against them.”

Ah, Hugh was a health nut.

The room was silent; May caught sight of the bacon and forced a smile. “Candied bacon,” she said, seemingly eager to change the subject. “It’s been a long time.”

Hugh’s tight expression caught Sadie’s eye. “Not long enough, if you ask me.”

May sighed. “Let’s not go there right now,” she said under her breath, pulling open the cupboard beneath the sink and throwing away the unfinished yogurt. “We’re making the ice cream one final time in Dad’s memory.”

“If you ask me,
going there
when he was still alive might have made all the difference.”

Sadie looked between the two of them, but was hesitant to insert herself. May, however, caught her eye and took pity on her position of ignorance in all this. “My father had heart issues,” she reminded her.

“And ate things like bacon ice cream,” Hugh added.

“Once a year,” May countered.

“And pasteurized eggs for breakfast every morning, and homogenized milk three times a day that came from cows fed all kinds of antibiotics and chemicals,” Hugh continued, getting more worked up by the minute. “He knew better. Making this in his place is morbid, if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t ask, did I?” May said in a tired voice. She put one hand on her hip and raised the other to massage the newly formed lines on her forehead. Hugh didn’t seem to bring out the best in his little sister. “Lois wants you to come to the picnic too, so consider the invitation officially extended.”

“I have some things to finish up at the shop,” Hugh said in a neutral tone. Maybe he’d realized how he was coming across. “I’ll come by if I can.”

“I’ll tell her,” May said. She picked up the plate Sadie had fixed for her and lifted the tone of her voice in what Sadie assumed was a desire to get along with her brother. “Did you want to look in on Jolene? Is that why you stopped by?”

Hugh paused for a moment, then nodded, heading down the hallway.

Sadie watched him go but wondered if he really wanted to check on his sister, or if he’d stopped by specifically to steal the mail. As soon as he turned the corner, May gave Sadie an embarrassed smile. “Hugh’s a vegan and only eats organic,” she explained, getting herself a fork and sitting down on the same barstool Sadie had when she’d had her lunch. “And he thinks everyone else should too. He’s convinced that the hormones in traditionally processed meat and dairy cause cancer, and it made him crazy that Dad didn’t buy into it.”

“Sounds like you don’t buy into it either,” Sadie suggested.

“Everything and nothing causes cancer,” May said, using her fork to spear a blackberry, a strawberry, a spinach leaf, and a candied walnut to make a perfect bite. “You’re either going to get it or you’re not, and other than avoiding the obvious—like smoking and asbestos and radiation—there’s not much you can do to prevent it if you’re in the crosshairs.” She took a bite and chewed quickly.

“You have a pretty strong opinion of that,” Sadie said, leaning against the counter.

May focused on putting together her next bite. “My mother did all kinds of weird things to keep from getting cancer, and then to keep from dying from it—coffee enemas, liquid diets, homeopathic stuff. Nothing worked for her, or her sisters, or . . . anyone else I’ve ever known.”

Sadie watched her, waiting for her to confide more information; this was the first she’d heard about May’s mother’s cancer from May herself.

May took another bite and smiled up at Sadie. “This is really good,” she said. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Sadie said and refrained from giving the woman a hug. She looked as though she could use one, but an uninvited hug didn’t seem appropriate. Sadie was trying to decide whether to tell May about the stolen mail when Hugh returned.

“I’m back to the shop,” he said, tapping the pile of mail he hadn’t put into his shorts. “I brought this in.” He looked between the two of them and might have smiled for a split second, it was hard to tell. He pulled his keys from his pocket, and Sadie couldn’t help but notice the bright blue-and-red poker chip with a hole drilled through it that served as the key ring. He jiggled the keys in his hand as he turned toward the door. “I’ll catch you later.”

“Nice meeting you,” Sadie said on the heels of May’s “Bye.” Hugh said good-bye and left through the front door, pulling it closed behind him with a snap.

“Hugh seems quite a bit older than you,” Sadie finally said, hoping to keep May talking about her brother without touching on anything too sensitive.

“Five years,” May said. “Jolene is two years older than he is.”

“Quite a gap,” Sadie said. “Is that one of the reasons why you aren’t close?”

“One of them,” May said simply. She took the last bite of her salad and swallowed. “You wanted the ice cream freezer, right?”

Sadie nodded, willing to let May off the conversation hook. They went out to the garage and eventually found the ice cream freezer, a 1970s model with a bucket made to look like a wooden barrel. Sadie thought of the hand-crank unit her parents had years and years ago. It was hard to imagine the determination it took to make ice cream back then, and she was grateful Jim’s ice cream freezer had a motor.

In the kitchen, Sadie washed all the parts and laid them out on a dishtowel to dry while May ate her muffin and went through the stack of mail with her free hand, sorting it into piles.

“What’s the criteria?” Sadie asked, nodding at the three stacks of mail.

May held half of the muffin aloft. “One for bills, one for junk, and one for everything else. Dad’s attorney is taking care of the bills for us, so that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about.”

“And Hugh’s running the business, right?” Sadie asked.

May nodded and took another bite as she finished sorting.

“Is Jolene still doing the books?”

May shook her head. “Dad hired a gal last year when Jolene was diagnosed. She does all the books and office management stuff. Hugh does the rest.”

“Quite a lot on Hugh’s shoulders all of a sudden,” Sadie said. “Is he doing okay having to do it all himself?”

May looked up at Sadie and held her eyes for a moment. “I don’t mean to be rude,” she said in a hesitant tone. “But I really prefer not to talk so much about my family.”

She might not have meant to be rude, but Sadie was a little stung by the comment nonetheless. There were soft parts to May’s personality, but she had an edge to her as well, and Sadie didn’t like that part. Sadie shrugged and looked away. “I wasn’t trying to be nosy, but knowing about your family helps me get a better feel for your dad and his life.”

“I can see that,” May said. “I just want to make sure we both keep our focus. Quite frankly, my family is dealing with so much that I don’t want to violate their privacy right now. I also want to get things figured out as quick as possible, and spending time investigating my family isn’t what I hired you to do.”

“Of course,” Sadie said, forcing a smile that wouldn’t show her hurt feelings. Hurt or not, May was right; Sadie wasn’t here to learn about May’s family. If Sadie would stay on track, she wouldn’t need reminders. “Speaking of which, I’d better get back to work until it’s time to make the ice cream.” She glanced at the bacon and decided it would be fine on the counter for a little while.

“The salad was wonderful,” May said again, standing as Sadie headed out of the kitchen.

“I’m glad you liked it,” Sadie said. She could hear the clip in her own words but doubted May would pick it up. She didn’t know Sadie well enough to translate her tones.

Sadie picked up the stack of original files she’d made copies off—the copies were in her car—and headed toward the study. As she methodically sorted and stored, her thoughts kept returning to Hugh Sanderson. What had last night’s dinner been about? Was it possible May knew about the meeting? She had seemed so incensed by the letter from Keith, it was hard to imagine she wouldn’t care about Hugh meeting with him. What about the felonious mail theft? Maybe Hugh received some of his mail at the house. It was possible, but then why tuck it away like he did? The more she thought about things, she more she realized she needed to know. Things weren’t lining up.

But May didn’t want Sadie digging into family matters. As hard as it was to admit, May’s resistance simply equated to increased curiosity on Sadie’s part. Was May trying to hide something? It didn’t make much sense for her to hire Sadie to investigate Keith Kelly if there was something suspect within May’s own family. That line of thinking only brought Sadie back to needing to take May at her word—she wanted Sadie’s focus on Keith Kelly and no one else. Not talking about her family was simply part of keeping Sadie from becoming too distracted. Still, it didn’t settle right in Sadie’s mind, though she tried to tell herself it was fine.

Nearly an hour passed before Sadie took a break from the files to work on the ice cream some more. May was on a stepladder, emptying the top cabinets. When she saw Sadie enter the kitchen, she offered a smile. “I was rude, wasn’t I? About not wanting to talk about my family.”

Sadie looked away and headed for the ice cream freezer parts she’d laid out. “I understand—you want me to focus. It’s okay.”

“I get a little sharp sometimes,” May said, focusing on the cupboards and giving Sadie the impression that she didn’t apologize easily and wanted to keep her hands busy.

“No big deal,” Sadie said, committing to let it go since she was acting as though she was far less bothered than she had been.

She pulled a paper towel off the roll and wiped it along the inside of the ice cream canister, hoping to accelerate the drying process. She hadn’t considered that the humidity made drying dishes on the counter less effective than she was used to.

“My parents lived here for almost thirty years,” May said, lifting a stack of plates from a high cupboard and taking careful steps down the ladder. She set them on the counter. “It makes for a lot of years to pack up.”

“Yes, it does,” Sadie said, putting the canister back on the counter and heading to the refrigerator for the milk and cream.

“What is it you do back in Ohio?”

“I’m a receptionist,” May said. “For a research and development company.”

“And you don’t want to move back to Portland?” Sadie asked, hoping that asking questions about May wasn’t as touchy as asking questions about her family.

“I’m not sure there’s enough to come back to,” she said, climbing the ladder again. “Now that Dad’s gone, and with Jolene sick, I just . . . I don’t know that there’s more here than there is in Cleveland.”

Sadie wanted to ask more questions, but didn’t since the questions were about Jolene and Hugh and whether May would have much of a relationship with them once she left. It was sad to think she wouldn’t.

“So, have you found anything else out about Keith? I haven’t even asked you about yesterday’s surveillance.”

“It was pretty boring,” Sadie said, and that was true . . . for the first eight hours. The last two hours, however, had been pretty interesting. She wasn’t ready to tell May about that, yet. Sadie doubted May would take Hugh’s dinner with the Kellys well right now. She chose to focus on something else. “From what I’ve read in your dad’s files, I don’t think he trusted Keith, even when they were partners. The contracts were so fastidious and to the letter; they don’t read like an agreement between friends.” Yet even as Sadie talked about Keith, her thoughts were on Hugh and his secrets. The fact was that right now, Hugh was far more interesting than Keith.