Death of the Family Recipe (A Scotti Fitzgerald Murder Mystery Book 3) (4 page)

I shook my head. "Not trouble. Need." His blue eyes bore into me and I looked away. "I don’t know how to ask this…"

"You can tell me anything child. No need to fret, just get it off your chest."

I nodded and stared at him for a long moment. "Would you find my mother?"

Joe scratched his chin and studied me. "You sure you wanna open that can of worms? Because if she can be found, I’ll find her. Y’all ready for what that could mean?"

I shuddered and shrugged. "Ready? Who the hell knows? I only know that I need some answers." I blew out a breath. "I thought I could do it myself — even started on it." I shook my head. "I’m just too close to it." I laughed nervously. "It scares the hell out of me, but not knowing scares me more. Does that make any sense at all?"

Joe nodded and thought about it for a while. "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Knock yourself out."

"You had a long time to look into this, but you never did. Least, I expect you never did. So what’s changed? The baby?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I’m getting married, I’m having a baby…" My weepiness returned. "My mother should be here. Helping me and giving me advice. And reassuring me." I swatted at my tears. "So, why isn’t she?" I stared at my beautiful engagement ring. "Some day, my daughter will want to know about her grandmother, and I want to have an answer for her."

Gently Joe asked, "Just for her?"

I raised my head. "For both of us. Ted has this big crazy family, and they’re so close, and they know each other so well. Why didn’t I have that? Birthdays and holidays? I want her to tell me why I didn’t deserve to have that."

Joe nodded. "All righty then, we’ll get you some answers."

I raised my brows. "You’ll do it? Really?"

He took my hand and squeezed it. "Course I will, sunshine."

I pulled out my checkbook before he could change his mind. "What’s your standard retainer?"

Joe held up his hands and frowned. "Put that checkbook away."

I continued making out the check. "The hell I will. I’m not asking for a favor. This is a business transaction."

Joe shrugged. "Then we’ll make it a wedding gift."

I shook my head. "No. Thank you, but no. It needs to be official." I tore the check out of the book and lay it on his desk. "Do you understand?"

Joe pursed his lips and tucked the check into his top pocket. "Yeah, I understand."

We signed a contract, and I was officially a client of Enders Investigations. It was a relief because Joe was probably the only person I’d trust to find the woman who’d abandoned me almost thirty years ago. Because he really was the closest thing I had to a father — he was family. My heart raced at the thought of finally facing her and asking the questions that haunted me all my life. All he had to do was find her and convince her to talk to me. And all I had to do was get up the nerve to ask the questions. "Will it take long?"

Joe sucked in a cheek and chewed on it. "Hard to say. If she don’t want to be found, then probably." He patted my back. "But could be she’s looking for you too."

My heart triple-axled at the thought. "You think she could be looking for me?"

"You’re looking for her, ain’t you?" He cupped my chin. "My advice? Try not to expect too much."

I frowned and pushed his hand away. "But you just said she might be looking for me."

He nodded in his slow southern gentleman way. "I did. But it’s been a long time since you was left in that church, Scotti. A lotta things can happen in that kind of time."

The brakes slammed on what little hope I felt. "Like what?"

Joe flapped a hand to chase away my question. "Let me do what I do. We’ll see what falls out when I shake the tree." A little disheartened, I gathered my things and started for the door. "Scotti?" I turned back to him. "Does Ted know you’re looking for your mama?"

I shook my head slowly. "No. If you find her, I’ll tell him."

Joe scratched at the stubble on his chin. "It ain’t the kind of secret you wanna keep from your future husband."

I pursed my lips. "It’s not a secret. But this is my battle, not Ted’s. If we come up empty, he’ll feel sorry for me. Think it’s his job to make it up to me. I don’t want to put that on him." I looked to Joe for approval. "You know what I mean?"

Joe hugged me. "It’s going to be all right, child. Don’t you fret."

But I was fretting. A lot of things can happen in thirty years, and I was doing my damnedest to avoid thinking about those things. But the ball was in motion. And I had no idea if it would be a dream come true or the worst nightmare of my life.

It was great to be back with Zelda on the food truck. Because of all that business with Eric and Henry, it’d been weeks since we’d worked together. But we slid back into our routine as though nothing had ever changed. We zipped around the city in our lime green pie-mobile, hawking pie and coffee like nobody’s business.

And she’d even refrained from needling me about breaking the wedding and baby news to Ted’s family that night. Which for her, was quite a feat. But as we headed home she asked, "Nervous?"

I glanced at her. "I don’t know if they’ll freak out or throw me a party."

Zelda chuckled. "You always wanted a big family." She nudged my arm. "Now, you’ve got one. Gotta take the bad with the good." She flicked me a look. "What’s the deal with Joe?"

I turned to her and frowned. "We were just talking about my future in-laws and now we’re onto Joe?" I cranked down the window and closed my eyes against the breeze. "What does Joe have to do with anything?"

Zelda snickered. "Nice try." She gave my braid a yank. "I know who you make those blueberry muffins for, so give."

I gave her the innocent eyes. "Can’t I do something nice without an ulterior motive?" I shrugged. "We were baking anyway."

Zelda wasn’t buying it. "Yeah, right. Come on, tell me."

I shook my head and sucked in my lips. "Leave it alone, Zee."

Zelda stared at me for moment then turned onto Hillcrest. Wise move on her part, she knew better than to push it. Especially since she just got off my shit list. So, she drove and I stared out the window. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell her I’d finally decided to find my mother. I was dying to tell her — but if I told Zelda I told the whole world. And I wasn’t ready to share it with the whole world. For the time being, the search for my mother was between me and Joe. If things worked, then maybe, I’d tell Ted and Zelda. But not now. Definitely not now.

When I looked up again, Zelda was pulling onto the parking pad. She parked the truck by the back wall and switched off the engine. "And so ends another successful day in Pieville."

I climbed out of the truck and opened up the back. "Let’s restock now, so we don’t have to worry about it later."

Zelda grumbled, but we got it done quickly, and I didn’t think of the family dinner the entire time. When we were finished, I locked the truck and stared at it.

Zelda paused at the front door. "We forget something?"

"If I hid in there, do you think anyone would find me?"

Zelda rolled her eyes and went into the house. I leaned against the truck and closed my eyes. In three days, I’d gotten engaged, learned I was pregnant, set a wedding date and hired Joe to find my mother. Even for me that was some kind of record.

Boomer zoomed around from the back and proudly displayed the dead lizard in his mouth. He wagged his stub and dropped the lizard at my feet.

With the tips of my fingernails, I picked up the lizard and held it away from me. "Boomer, didn’t we just have a lizard burial?" He led the way to the back patio, and I grabbed a hand trowel from the potting bench. I smiled at my little black beast — a perfect miniature version of a Rottweiler. "Find a spot."

Boomer yapped and sniffed along the wall where lilies and irises nestled. He stopped in front of a calle lily plant, sniffed then started digging. When he was finished, he looked up and yapped. I dropped the lizard into the hole, covered it and planted the hand trowel in the dirt like headstone. "Off to lizard heaven you go, my friend."

Boomer whimpered once, then shot into the house through the open patio slider. I frowned at my fallow garden. Ordinarily, I’d have gone into the house, put on my gardening sweats and got to work tearing it all down. But in six weeks I’d be married. This wouldn’t be home anymore. Come spring, I’d be too pregnant to start a garden. I felt the waterworks rising.

Zelda stuck her head out. "What are you doing out here?"

"Thinking."

Zelda made a face at the garden. "What a mess. We should tear it out. Winter’s coming."

I glanced at her hopefully. "You’ll keep the garden going?"

Zelda chewed on her thumb. "Right. You won’t be here." She squinted at me. "Don’t start crying again."

I threw up my hands. "I can’t help it — it’s the hormones."

Zelda rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well your hormones kept me up most of Saturday night."

I threw back my head and laughed. "Oh, you and Eric wanted to sleep?" I nudged her into the house. "What happened to best sex of your life?"

She grumbled something, but I was distracted by a wave of nostalgia. Everywhere I looked was a memory. The bookshelves we found at a flea market and refinished. The sofa we rescued from the curb and reupholstered. The old china teacups I’d collected over the years. The curtains we’d made and remade. My desk, the kitchen stools, even the paint on the walls reminded me of some adventure that Zelda and I had shared.

Zelda sighed and put her arm around my shoulder. "Look, we’ve been roomies for twenty years — and as great as that’s been, things change."

I rested my head on her shoulder and put my arm around her. "What’ll I do without you?"

Zelda hip-bumped me. "Without me? Am I moving to China? I’ll be twenty minutes away. You’ll be here, and I’ll be there. We have a business."

"I’ll have a baby. And a husband. And they won’t let me play like I used to." I sighed. "Come live with us? It’s a big house."

"Maybe I’ve got other plans." She wiggled her eyebrows and walked away whistling.

I followed her into the kitchen. "What kind of plans?"

Zelda pulled out a handful of chocolate chip cookies from the cookie jar and put them on a plate. "I thought I’d get another roommate."

My head snapped back like she’d slapped me in the face. "You’re already looking for my replacement?" I snapped my fingers. "Just like that?"

She put the platter of cookies on the butcher block. "Okay, drama queen take a breath. I meant that Eric could move in here."

I pulled up a stool. "You two have gotten that close, huh?"

Zelda shrugged. "We’ve talked about living together." She pulled a couple of sodas out of the fridge and plopped onto a barstool. "Not here — until this weekend, anyway. But since you’re getting married so soon, why not?"

I grabbed a cookie, took a bite, then put it back on the platter. "What would you do with my room, make Eric a hacker cave?"

Her dark eyes sparkled and she nodded. "Excellent idea! He’ll love that!"

I sipped my soda then pushed it away because it tasted like gym socks. Yet another thing the baby didn’t like. "Yeah, I’m sure he will."

So, we were all moving on. I was marrying Ted. Eric was moving in with Zelda. And the runaway train of my life had one more passenger.

<<>>

The thing about being pregnant, aside from the morning sickness and weight gain is that your sense of smell is on overdrive. From the late blooms on the rose bushes to the aroma of spaghetti sauce wafting from the kitchen, my nose was on overload. If I moved too suddenly I got dizzy. If I breathed too deeply I got nauseous. I didn’t know if I’d make it through dinner much less breaking the wedding date and baby news.

For moral support, I made Zelda come with us, who in turn made Eric come with her. The larger the crowd the easier to hide. While everyone else was yakking it up, I slipped into the library to watch the last rays of the sun paint the sky and daydream about my baby.

But my escape was short-lived because everyone was summoned to the family room. I heard the murmurs and shuffling feet but stayed put — rubbing circles on my nervous belly. Ted appeared in the doorway and held out his hand. I pouted. "Do I have to?"

Ted pulled me to my feet and put his arm around me. "Time to face the music, babe."

Ted tried to hurry me along but I dragged my feet as we approached the room. "I’m scared. I’m really not ready."

Ted whispered. "Take a breath. It’s like a bandage — once you rip it off, it’s over."

I rolled my eyes. "You have any other bad analogies that won’t help at all? Or is that the best you’ve got?"

When we stepped into the room, all eyes turned to us and I gulped. Everyone held champagne glasses poised to toast. Ted and I were passed glasses of our own, and I stared at the sweet, bubbly liquid, wondering how to fake-drink it.

Melinda looked at me like she knew I had a secret, then faced the room. "To our Ted and his lovely bride to be, Scotti." Everyone raised their glasses. "Cheers."

As everyone drank, Ted planted a big kiss on me, eliciting chuckles and whoops. "Good move, honey," I whispered.