License to Shop (19 page)

So glad to see you, too, I
thought.

“
Early enough to catch the
volcano eruption. Come watch it with us.” I tried to keep my voice
neutral so he wouldn’t know how much I wanted him to leap up from
his video game and rush to join the others.

“
It’s not a real volcano.
It’s just a dumb paper volcano.”

“
Elliot doesn’t seem to
think so.”

“
Elliot’s a
dork.”

I couldn’t argue with
that. I tried one more time. “It won’t take long. It will make Anna
happy if you watch, too.”

He put his headphones back
on. “Call me if the fire engines have to come.”

As if. Norma had wisely
taken out a permit for her backyard volcano. She was definitely a
stellar example of someone who doesn’t make the same mistake
twice.

I stood there for a
moment, torn. Should I insist that he come watch the volcano? Or
should I let him exert his own independence?

I thought about Mrs.
Quartermaine. Her sons were grown, but they obeyed her without
hesitation. Was that a good thing? I wasn’t sure.

In the end, I let him play
his game until Norma, Anna, Elliott, Team Volcano, and I, had
watched the successful eruption. We celebrated with ginger raisin
cookies and fizzy water in the mismatched yard sale champagne
flutes that Norma had collected, just for such
occasions.

Then, as I fixed dinner, I
resurrected part of our work-trashed routine, and sent them to
collect their laundry, and do their homework.

“
How did it go?” Seth asked, as he drenched his
spinach salad with raspberry vinegar and olive oil.

“
Interesting,” I said.
“Apparently, there was important student recruitment information on
Robert Quartermaine’s laptop, and Penny and I are supposed to
recreate it all by next week.”

“
That sounds important,
Mommy. Do you think you can do it?”

I looked at Anna,
wondering why she had asked that. Had she picked up on my
nervousness? That’s not good. She shouldn’t worry about my job
concerns.

“
It is important, sweetie,
and I’m going to do my best. But it will be okay if it doesn’t all
get done. My boss will understand.” I wondered if she would, but
that was not something I wanted to say aloud, to Anna or
Seth.

“
I can’t see how Henriette
can possibly fail to hire you, after this.” He was very pleased
with himself.

I wondered how he’d feel
if he knew I’d spent my lunch hour snooping in a dead man’s office
for the FBI? Probably not quite as pleased.

“
I would hire you, mommy,”
Anna declared. “You looked good in your work clothes.”

“
I don’t want to count my
eggs before they hatch,” I said, dredging up the tiredest cliche I
could. “I thought I held my own against Penny, though. And Dr.
Stubbs picked me to drive the Quartermaines from the airport to the
hotel.”

Seth looked up at that,
approving. He reached for the peppermill and grated it forcefully
as he said, “Don’t forget, there are now two openings to
fill.”

“
And don’t you forget that
there are more than two candidates who made it to the second
interview.”

He countered my argument.
“But only two of you were asked to temp.”

“
Or, possibly, only two of
us were available to temp. I didn’t have a job, and Penny just
moved to the area, so she didn’t either.”

Seth put down his knife
and fork and stared at me. “Molly, it’s okay if you think
positively about this.”

“
But what if I don’t…” I
stopped, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“
If you don’t get the job,
then you’ll get the next one. We’ll survive. The point is, that
you’ve made your decision, and you’re on your way to being employed
in a real job. That’s something to celebrate.”

I remembered the whole
reason I wanted to be employed in a real job. “True. How soon do
you think we should reschedule the dinner party?”

He shrugged. “Next
week?”

I wasn’t sure whether my
negative reaction to rescheduling so soon stemmed from my
reluctance to host a party at all, or from the fact that Henriette
Stubbs was on the guest list, and Robert Quartermaine hadn’t been
dead a full week. “Maybe I’ll ask Deirdre.”

“
Good idea.”

The thumb drive nagged at
me, but I didn’t have a chance to check it until after dinner. When
I did, I was disappointed to find that there was no student data on
it that I could use. It only seemed to hold a bunch of spreadsheets
with numbers and letters that made no sense to me. Maybe Connery’s
team could make sense of it.

I was going to have to try
to catch up to Penny on my own merits tomorrow. Bummer.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

Goodbye, Mr. Counselor

The second morning went almost as smoothly,
despite the fact that Seth couldn’t take the kids to
school.

I dropped them off on the
playground a little early, ignoring the glares of the mothers who
had brought their children in early so they could have some
mommy-child supervised time on the swings.

Anna’s anxiety kicked in,
as she unbuckled her seat belt. “There aren’t any teachers here
yet.”

I checked the clock on the
dashboard. “They’ll be here in ten minutes. Don’t worry, there are
plenty of mothers here.”

“
But what if I fall down
and no one notices?”

Ryan sighed. “Don’t fall
down, dork.”

Anna looked at him, a
frown on her face. “What if I do?”

Before I could think of an
answer to allay her anxiety, Ryan spoke up, “Why don’t I stay and
watch you until the teachers get here.”

I was shocked, but also
very pleased. “Ryan, that would be thoughtful of you.”

Anna smiled, also pleased.
“Would you play kickball with me?”

He sighed. “If you
insist.”

As they climbed out of the
car, I said, “Remember, Anna, Ryan needs to head up the hill to his
school as soon as a teacher is on the playground. Otherwise, he
could get a tardy slip. Don’t ask him to stay longer.
Okay?”

Anna nodded. “I promise,”
she said, crossing her heart solemnly.

Ryan rolled his eyes at
me. “Don’t worry, Mom. I know what time to get to school. I won’t
let the rug rat make me late.”

I said, “I trust you.”
Even though a part of me wondered if it were too soon. Was he
really ready? And another part knew that the only way to find out
was to let him try.

Penny was already at her desk working when I got in. I
comforted myself with the knowledge that Dr. Stubbs wasn’t there to
notice my late entrance.

Kecia smiled when she saw
me. “Molly, I have a favor to ask.”

“
Sure. What is
it?”

“
Could you give me a ride
to the funeral?”

I had been planning to
walk, since it was on campus, but I said, “Sure.” Why not? Maybe
Kecia would put a good word in for me.

“
Thanks. I could walk, but
it is all the way across campus, and even though Dr. Stubbs is
going to close the office for the time we’re at the funeral, she
won’t be happy if that includes the fifteen minutes it will take me
to walk there and back.” She grinned wryly.

I nodded. “How about I do
door-to-door service?”

“
Would you?”

“
For the prospective
students? Anything.”

She laughed. “Thanks, I
owe you. Here, let me give you my cell phone. You can text me when
you’re downstairs, and I’ll lock up and run downstairs.”

We exchanged cell phone
numbers and then, realizing that my work day was going to be
shorter than usual, I hurried to my desk.

“
Finding anything
interesting?” I asked Penny as I turned on the computer and started
the browser program.

Penny laughed. “More like
terrifying. I hope my children will have more sense than to post
pictures of themselves holding a can of beer when they aren’t legal
drinking age.”

“
I know.”

We chuckled to ourselves,
and then Penny and I put our heads down and worked as hard as we
could. I couldn’t help but notice that Penny’s “done” stack was
growing faster than mine.

I tried not to let it
affect my work. She’d come in a little earlier than me, I told
myself. I had a pattern going. I’d take the student file, then pull
up all the social media profiles the student had listed on their
application. Then, I’d do a search on the student’s name to see if
there were more things I should look at, like articles about a
student athlete, articles by a student, etc.

Once I had all the
information on the student up, then I’d pull up the university
departmental overview site, so I could easily look to see what
courses, programs and majors the university offered that might
appeal to said student.

Only then did I start
going through my gathered information and taking notes, documenting
when and where I’d found the information, and how it could be used
to persuade the student that our university was the best place for
their bright little brain — beer-holding selfies
notwithstanding.

When Kecia came in to let
us know it was time to close the office to go to the funeral, I had
a moment of dizzying transition. I’d been so engrossed in trying to
figure out what this marine-mammal-loving student would find
interesting about the university’s programs, that I had forgotten
where I was.

I grabbed my purse, and
said to Kecia, “I’ll text you when I pull up outside.”

“
Great.”

I hurried to the parking
lot, glad that I’d been able to get a close parking space this
morning.

I pulled up in front of
the building, and texted Kecia to come down.

She must have been
waiting, because it only took her two minutes to show
up.

I got the last parking
space in the university chapel lot. “He was very popular,” I
commented.

“
He knew everybody and
everything,” Kecia said. Then she added, “Maybe that’s what got him
killed.”

What an odd thing to say,
I thought. I was going to ask her more, but Dr. Stubbs saw us and
beckoned us to join her. Penny was already by her side, of
course.

“
You drove?” she asked,
disapproval clear in her tone.

Kecia said brightly, “I
asked Molly to drive me, so that I could make sure the office was
closed for the absolute minimum time possible.”

Dr. Stubbs couldn’t argue
with that logic, so she contented herself with a regal nod. “Good
thinking Kecia. Rob would have wanted it that way.”

I wanted to say, “Rob
would probably rather not have died at all,” but it seemed too
lighthearted.

I spotted Seth in one of
the pews. “I should go sit with my husband,” I said. “Kecia, meet
me at the car after the funeral, so I can get you back to the
office as quickly as possible. Okay?”

Kecia nodded and Dr.
Stubbs gave me a mildly approving look before she led Penny and
Kecia to a pew near her.

I slipped into the seat next to Seth and he
looked a little surprised to see me.

“
Dr. Stubbs closed the
office so that everyone in Admissions could attend,” I
explained.

He nodded at the giant
poster-board-sized picture of Robert Quartermaine. “This feels
wrong. The last funeral here was Henry Simmons, from Chemistry. He
was ninety-three. He died in his sleep.”

I thought of what Kecia
had said, about Robert’s knowing everything and everyone. About
that being what may have gotten him killed. “Did you know
him?”

“
Not well. He worked with
me to help recruit some prospective students to the department.” He
glanced around. “I probably knew him better than half the people
here, though.”

“
Death and chocolate, you
know, both please a crowd.” The funeral was jammed with university
people — I had the curious feeling that most of them were more
likely enjoying a little time off work than actually mourning
someone they knew. But then I felt guilty. Wasn’t that my
situation, too?

The Quartermaines were
there, at the front, all dressed in black. But even the black
couldn’t hide the sheer charisma that emanated from everyone in the
family. They sat as if apart, though, unmoved when anyone came up
to express condolences. They were an island of unchanging volcanic
stone in a moving sea of grieving university employees and
students.

As the ceremony began, I
twined my arm in Seth’s. His pants were covered with dog hair.
“Where’s Jasmine?” I whispered, picturing the puppy happily chewing
up a giant volume of Fluid Dynamics.

“
Gracie is watching her
for me.” He whispered back.

Of course. Gracie was the
Physics department’s admin. She was always cheerful, always nosy,
and always willing to lend a helping hand when she could. “I’m
surprised she didn’t come today.”