Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 07 - Vague Images (7 page)

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I remembered seeing her near the cafeteria a few minutes before the time they think she died, but I only remember because of her purple cape. They kept asking if I had seen anyone suspicious, but they didn’t say what that meant.”

We drove the rest of the way to my house in silence
. I’d been a bit nervous about Lucas talking to the police about his time at the hospital. It didn’t sound as if they had any real leads, and I worried they might focus on him simply because he was in some security camera’s field of vision. That didn’t seem to be an issue.

We just made it onto my front porch as huge raindrops started plopping onto the sidewalk
. And everything else.

Jazz bounded to the front door as I unlocked it
. Pebbles waddled behind her until she saw Lucas. Then she turned and made for my bedroom.

Lucas stooped to pick up Jazz
. “What’s with that skunk?” 

“Who knows?  She was the former owner’s pet and I inherited her.” 

Lucas placed Jazz on the floor as I sat on the couch and stretched my injured foot in front of me.

“Jolie, do you have an umbrella I can borrow?”

“You’re going out in this?”

He stared at me very directly
. “If she’s out there, I should be too.”

“Sure
. It’s in the closet with Pebbles’ litter box.” 

“I’ll let the rain wash off the smell.” He grinned.

We exchanged mobile phone numbers and he left, refusing my offer to use my car.

Now what?
  I needed to stop thinking about Tanya Weiss’ murder. I had found her and it rattled me, but she had nothing to do with my life, so I needed to let go of my temptation to look into her death.
As if.

CH
APTER SIX

ON FRIDAY MORNING, Scoobie and I were careful not to clang pots or drop silverware as we fixed breakfast. Now that Lucas had been to the police, Scoobie seemed okay about Lucas continuing to stay with us.

I glanced at Scoobie, who was expertly flipping pancakes as he stood at the stove
. When he moved in a few months ago, we’d been kind of awkward around each other. I wondered if we’d get closer than best buds. I’m pretty sure he thought about this, too. After a week we achieved an undemanding coexistence. I still wonder, but I’m glad we didn’t rush into anything. George and I were able to get back to a friendship footing because we hadn’t been together, heck known each other, all that long. With Scoobie, I figured I had to be sure. Nothing would be the same if we broke up.

I did an involuntary sigh.

Scoobie looked at me as he slid a couple pancakes from a spatula to my plate. “What?”

“I was just, uh, thinking that it’s not fair that Lucas is in your bedroom.”

He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “I didn’t know you went for younger men.”

“Jerk
. I meant we should probably set him up in part of the living room. You need to study.”

“Yeah, I don’t mind if he keeps his stuff in there, but it would be easier if he slept out here.”  He thought for a moment
. “Why don’t you go see Ramona?  I bet the Purple Cow has portable partitions like they use in offices.”

“Cubicle walls
. Good idea.”  Ramona and I didn’t hang out in high school, but we had geometry together. She once said that I did better than she did, and I reminded her that I had to battle to get a C for a final average. Since she said nothing, I guess my C was better.

A rumpled Lucas appeared in the kitchen doorway
. “Morning.”

“You’re drier.”  Scoobie nodded to a plate sitting on the stove
. “I left you a couple pancakes.”

“Thanks
. I should maybe pay you for…”

“Get real,” I said.

“You don’t have a secret trust fund, do you?” Scoobie asked.

That got a full grin
. “No secret fund.”  He grew serious as he leaned against the counter to eat. “I saved a lot of money from my job, and I’m searching on the cheap. Ditched my rental car when I figured I could walk most places here. My company said I could take a couple of weeks of leave without pay to look for Kim.”

My guess was that a lot was a very different, probably lesser, amount for a twenty-two year old than someone who’d been working for a while.

“That was good of them,” Scoobie said. “Jolie may know what you do, but I don’t.”

“I guess we only talked about Kim and stuff like that
. I’m a computer programmer. For a hospital, actually. In Atlanta.”

No wonder he can hack into a business
.
“Gee. My buddy is all grown up.”

Lucas gave his trademark shrug
. “It was kind of weird picking a major. Our Marshal kept saying I shouldn’t pick something that
would put me in the public eye
.”  Lucas said the last few words with a heavy degree of disdain.

“Because someone might see you and find your parents?” I asked.

He nodded. “They said Kim was only six when we left here, and no one would recognize her now. I was ten, and they say my face is a lot the same. I don’t think it is.”

“When your dad dies, it won’t matter?” I winced as Scoobie asked this.

“Supposedly. I guess he really made some people angry. My parents never talked about it, and I asked a lot of questions they wouldn’t answer. The Marshal thinks if whoever my dad ticked off knows who I am, they could take me to get back at him.”  He shrugged again.

I thought for a second
. “Or convince him to give them something they want.”

“On that unhappy note,” Scoobie stood, “I’ve got to do a couple things before I head over to campus.”  He pointed a finger at Lucas
. “I’ll help you look for her this weekend.”

Lucas stared at me when Scoobie had gone into his bedroom.

“Scoobie thinks I sometimes…get interested in things that are none of my business. I consider you my business.”

His look was impassive
. “Thanks. You have ideas for where I should look?”

“I’m going to the food pantry this morning. Without saying who you are, I’ll see if some of the volunteers know where a young woman with little money would stay
. Come by about ten this morning.”

BEFORE HARVEST FOR ALL I stopped at Ocean Alley’s office supply store, the Purple Cow. Ramona has worked there since before we graduated from high school. She went to college, but she worked at the store during holidays and went full-time afterwards. Art is her passion, and she doesn’t want a job that keeps her mind so busy that she thinks about it too much. She loves to know what’s going on in town. Aunt Madge knows a lot, but she won’t pass on gossip. Ramona isn’t mean about it, but she’ll let me know who’s doing what to whom.

I parked in front of the store, noting the white board on its easel on the sidewalk just outside. Ramona writes sayings on the board every day that she’s working, and she now suspects that Scoobie is the one who rewrites them sometimes. She isn’t sure, though, and I’m not about to play tattle tale
. She told me a few weeks ago she’s ignoring the graffitist, as she has begun calling the person. She figures if she ignores them they’ll stop.

Today the sign said:

To be or not to be, that is the question.

Shakespeare, in Hamlet

Below it someone had written:

If you know the answer, get on Jeopardy
.

Ramona saw me coming and opened the door. Her long blonde hair was piled on the crown of her head with a clip, and she was in her normal garb, which is a mid-calf skirt in what I think of as a gauzy material. She loves the fashions of the 1970s, and wears them well. She should look good; she makes almost all of her clothes. Sometimes I think she should be a fashion designer.

Ramona glanced at the sign, ignored its change, and said, “Jolie, you’re looking better than Scoobie said you would.”

I almost groaned. “You must have learned never to believe him.”

She smiled
. “There’s usually a kernel of truth, you just have to figure out which part it is.”

“What did he say?”

“Something about a large cast and you swinging about in some kind of traction.”

“Great.”  I looked around the store
. “What’s different?”

The Purple Cow has hardwood floors and a few wood bookshelves that display decorative items that are not for sale
. In December there are things like engines from old train sets, or an antique manger scene. The vintage look also includes leather-bound books (also not for sale) on some of the shelves. Other shelves have things that are for sale.

“I thought it would be good to have some of the greeting cards and personal stationary items near the front
. If they’re in the back we miss impulse buying opportunities. Roland liked the idea.”

Ramona’s boss appreciates her design skills
. It’s probably one reason she is content to keep working in the store.

“You didn’t come here to see if I’d rearranged some items.”  A smile played
on her lips.

Like Aunt Madge and her husband Harry, Ramona thinks I should leave well enough alone
. I tell them I will when whatever I’m interested in moves from bad enough to well enough.

“Thanks for the card, by the way.”  Ramona nodded and I continued
. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that woman who was killed.”

“Jolie!  She was nothing to you
. Let the police handle it.”

“I am.”

Ramona gave a sort of ladylike snort.

“It just…”  I stopped
. Ramona didn’t know Lucas, much less that he’d been questioned, and she didn’t know how rude Tanya Weiss had been to Nelson Hornsby.

“It just what?”

“I did have an encounter with her not long before she died. Well, not exactly an encounter.”  I explained my accidental eavesdropping without relaying Nelson’s probably metaphorical death wish for Tanya.

“That’s too bad
. Nelson is a good person. He…”

The bells above the door jingled as two men, one older and one younger, walked in
. Roland doesn’t mind Ramona chatting, in fact he says it brings people into the store. However, at the first sign of a customer, she is supposed to wrap up a conversation.

I half-listened as she made note of the dimensions of a wall in their office
. They wanted a desk that was a good size, but would not be longer than the wall. I gave myself a mental head slap. I was supposed to be here looking at screens or maybe cubicle walls that would give Lucas some privacy in the living room.

I crutched to a display of miniature cubicles, next to which was a price list
. Yikes. If I had that kind of money lying around I’d get a garbage disposal.

Ramona suggested that the men look in one of the furniture catalogs because none of the display desks would be big enough
. “I won’t bug you while you look for a couple of minutes, but call me if you need me.”

She strolled over to me
. “Getting cubicles for Steele Appraisals?”

“No, but I was thinking of one for my living room
. These are a bit pricey for me.”

“Your living room is tiny
. Why would you need a screen?”

“Some brands are cheaper.”  Roland had walked out of his office at the back of the store
. Ramona walked back to the two men.

“I’m afraid even half the cost would be a bit much for what I want it for.”  I was now envisioning using Aunt Madge’s sewing machine to rig up some kind of a curtain
. Preferably without running the needle through a finger.

Roland stared at me
. “Does it have to look good?”

“Nope
. A kid I used to babysit for needs a place to stay for a couple of weeks.”  I have always found it better to have a bit of truth in every fabrication or omission. Makes it easier to keep track of, as Mark Twain would say.

“Come back here.” 

I crutched behind him as he walked toward his office, which was in the storage area.

“Sorry you had to find that woman,” he said
. “Terrible situation up there.”

My ears perked up
. “Besides her murder?”

“My wife works part-time as a medical coder.”  He saw my blank look
. “Every bit of treatment has a separate code, for billing purposes.”

“And she doesn’t like some of the changes?”

“No one knows what they will be. Everybody’s on edge.”

We had entered the storage area and he pointed
. “If you only need it for a short while, you can borrow that. The customer didn’t like the color and kept it so long I can’t send it back. The scuff marks wouldn’t have let me return it anyway.”

“Ouch
. They can return it damaged?”

“Not at a bigger store.”

I focused more on the wall, which had large plastic feet at the bottom so it didn’t tip over. It was maybe five feet tall and six feet wide, in mauve. “It’s perfect.”

“Good.”  He smiled
. “George has an SUV. Make him pick it up for you.”

“I’ll give him a call
. And thank you.”  I decided not to push him on his wife’s thoughts. Roland is not a gossip. More to the point, he would talk to Ramona about my questions and she’d warn me about minding someone else’s business.
As if a lot of what she hears in here isn’t someone else’s business.

The two men were leaving with a catalog under the arm of the older one
. Ramona turned to me. “Is Roland giving you that piece in the back?”

“Lending
. It’s perfect.”

“Why do you need it?”

This would be a trickier explanation than the one I had given to Roland. Ramona probably hadn’t known the Finch family, but their abrupt departure during our junior year had been a topic of conversation in the cafeteria.

“The mom of a kid I used to sit for…”

“Ten years ago?”

“More like twelve years ago
. They moved away, and his mom just died. I guess he was feeling kind of melancholy and came back here for a few days. When I ran into him and he told me the story, I told him he could bunk at my place for a few days.”

“That was nice
. Scoobie okay with it?”

“After he got to know him
. Anyway, you talk to everybody. What do you hear about the hospital?”

“Before she died, two women in my yoga class regularly castigated the Weiss woman
. They thought she was going to recommend letting a lot of people go, and she hadn’t really gotten to know what people did. Plus they said she was bitchy to women and not to men.”