License to Shop (20 page)

Seth shrugged. “She drew
the short straw. We didn’t want to close the office on the last
week of classes before finals.”

“
Smart.” Over the years of
talking to Gracie at department functions I had learned that if
there was anything worth knowing on campus, Gracie would know it.
The administrative assistants on campus had a spy network to rival
the FBI or the CIA. Gracie just called it ‘the network’ when she
referred to it. As in “‘The network’ says Dr. Parker is looking for
a job at MIT.” If I wanted to confirm any rumor, I just stopped by
the department to chat with Gracie. I always brought her
Snickerdoodles, which made her chatty.

I wondered if she could
tell me anything about Robert Quartermaine? He was definitely the
kind of person ‘the network’ would have loved to talk
about.

His eldest brother
certainly hadn’t revealed anything much when he spoke. Apparently
Rob liked oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast, and rooted for
the Dallas Cowboys despite having been born in Boston and worked in
Maine. Neither one explained the murder. Well, I suppose being a
Cowboys fan in the midst of Patriots people. But no Patriot would
have stolen his backpack.

I did see Mrs.
Quartermaine break down, once, when an impossibly young-looking
freshman stood up to say that his influence had gotten her to come
to the university and she would always be grateful to him for
that.

I tried not to imagine how
it would feel if I were sitting at the funeral of my own child. The
tiniest tip of a toe into my imagination told me it would be worse
than anything even I could ever imagine.

As soon as the service was
over, I kissed Seth and told him I had to get Kecia back to the
office right away.

“
I was hoping we could
grab lunch together,” he said. “Shake off some of this
purposelessness.” He looked at Robert Quartermaine’s picture again.
“He was so young.”

“
Brownie points,” I
reminded him, feeling guilty that he didn’t know I was trying to
collect two sets of Brownie points, one for temp Molly, and one for
spy Molly.

“
Brownie points,” he
agreed, with a resigned squeeze of my hand.

On my way out to the car,
I saw James Connery looking at me. I started over, but he shook his
head, and I redirected myself toward the car. Maybe he intended to
follow me? I wasn’t sure how I was going to get him the thumb drive
if I couldn’t talk to him.

As I unlocked the car
door, Deb called to me, “Molly, hi!” She was acting so
TV-sitcom-casual, I instantly knew she was on a mission from James
Connery.

I smiled and kept my voice
low as I said, “I found a thumb drive in Robert Quartermaine’s
office. Can you get it to Connery?”

“
Wasn’t it a wonderful
service?” she said loudly, as if responding to something I
said.

“
It’s in here somewhere,”
I grumbled as I dug in my purse, looking for the thumb drive, which
I had thankfully remembered to put into a plastic bag.
Theoretically, that would make it easier to find and protect it
from any melting chocolate mints that might be nesting in the
lining of the purse.

“
Do you have a tissue?”
She asked loudly.

I took her meaning, and
handed her a tissue along with the wadded up plastic bag containing
the thumb drive.

“
Thanks! See you at the
PTA meeting.” She hurried off again, just as Kecia arrived at the
car.

“
You aren’t in trouble,
are you, Molly?” She stared after the departing Deb as if she
recognized her, but didn’t know how.

I laughed. “No.” I
realized that Deb had been wearing her uniform. “She’s my best
friend. She wanted to snag a tissue from me. I guess the memorial
service got to her.”

“
I saw her talking to the
FBI agent.” Kecia watched Deb as she reached James
Connery.

“
She’s ambitious,” I said,
vaguely. Would Kecia be part of Gracie’s ‘network’ if she was only
a temp? I didn’t know. “I think the FBI is here to investigate
Robert Quartermaine’s murder.”

Hoping Kecia had not
noticed there was anything besides a tissue in Deb’s hand, I added
aimlessly, “She never remembers to carry tissues with her to events
like this.”

“
She must not be a mom,”
Kecia said with a laugh, rubbing the butterfly tattoo at her wrist
with nervous energy.

I smiled but didn’t laugh.
I’d already thrown Deb under the bus more than she deserved. She
was a mother, a good one. And she did usually carry tissues with
her, right next to her pepper spray, and her Taser.

Kecia turned to look at
where Deb and James Connery stood. “Why would the FBI be
investigating a campus murder? I thought they did big crimes, like
kidnapping, or crime syndicates.”

“
There has been a rash of
identity theft going on. Maybe they’re here to investigate that.” I
said, hoping I was being vague enough. The news had certainly been
all over the stories, including the student paper.

“
Some people deserve to
have their identities stolen, so they can start over with new
ones,” she said as she got into the car.

“
You wouldn’t be thinking
of that perfect princess who had her phone stolen on her campus
tour, would you?”

“
Exactly. She could use an
identity makeover.”

“
Can’t we all,” I joked,
glad that Kecia had not witnessed Deb hand James Connery the thumb
drive. If she were a part of Gracie’s ‘network,’ I didn’t want that
news traveling around with the speed of light-fingered
admins.

We came back from the funeral quietly. No one
seemed to know what to say.

Kecia sheltered behind the
bulkhead of her reception desk, while Penny and I took refuge in
our files.

Robert had been young. Too
young. It was sobering to think how easily a life could
end.

Dr. Stubbs came in about
an hour after we’d returned, and the mood turned sad again, when
she came in said, “Thank you again for coming to see him
off.”

“
I was glad to,” I
said.

Penny nodded her
agreement, but didn’t say anything.

Dr. Stubbs continued to
look at us, before she asked, “How is it going?”

“
I’m over halfway through
my files,” I said.

Penny said, “I’m about
three-quarters of the way through mine.”

Dr. Stubbs frowned. “Hmmm.
I had hoped you’d have been finished the files by now.”

Neither of us said
anything, as she considered. And then she asked, “Do you think you
could stay just a bit longer this evening?”

When I say “asked,” I mean
she asked as if she assumed we could. Dr. Stubbs was no dummy. She
knew we wouldn’t be here, doing temp work if we didn’t want the
job. We knew she was the one who would, ultimately, decide. So we’d
dance to her tune or worry that we’d crossed ourselves off her
short list for “failure to be a team player.”

I nodded. “I’ll just let
my husband know. He can pick up the kids.”

Penny said, “My husband
normally gets the kids, but I’ll text him to let him know to keep
my dinner warm.” Braggart.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Working Mom Blues

When I got home, well after dinner time, I found
Seth and the kids were eating soup.

“
Why are you eating so
late? And why soup?” I asked. “I thought I emailed you instructions
for heating the casserole.”

Seth had heated it
uncovered in the microwave, which likely meant that I would have to
scrub bits of chicken and dried noodle off the insides of the
microwave. But I wouldn’t have to make dinner tomorrow night, I
could just serve what I’d planned to serve tonight.

“
Jasmine ate Dad’s shoe!”
Anna exclaimed. And then she barfed it up.”

“
It was gross,” Ryan said,
as if gross was a synonym for cool.

“
Glad I missed it.” I
looked at Seth. “I guess we’re going to have to look into puppy
training sooner rather than later.”

“
It was just a shoe,” he
replied. “I’ll get her some more interesting chew toys at the pet
store tomorrow.”

“
One of his good shoes,”
Anna said, unaware she was undermining her father’s attempt to play
it cool about Jasmine’s tendency to chew on non-approved chew
toys.

I was definitely feeling
tired. Who knew a full day at the office — even with time off for a
good memorial service — could exhaust a person? “Did everything go
well at Norma’s?” I asked?

Ryan glared at me sullenly
as Anna chirped, “We played Addition Bingo and saved the planet.
And we made a snack for Ryan and brought it over for him. He didn’t
say thank you. He was too busy playing his games.”

Seth frowned. “I must say,
we need to talk about what happens when Norma is watching them.
They didn’t get any of their homework done.”

My intention to be a great
mother, and not let a day at work affect my parental oversight was
rapidly evaporating, but I clung to it like a dying rat clings to a
styrofoam cup in a drain sewer. “No problem, we’ll get to it right
after dinner.”

Seth gave me a skeptical
look as I quickly ate the remaining soup. I was hungrier than I
should have been. I’d eaten lunch at Robert Quartermaine’s desk
again. I may have been distracted by my snooping, but I had still
finished my sandwich.

I noticed the potatoes in
my soup, but rather than pick them out, I ate them ravenously. Who
knew potatoes could taste so good?

After I cleared the table,
I discovered that the soup had indeed boiled over in the microwave.
I didn’t even ask who had done it. Seth may have delegated the
soup-heating to Ryan. I didn’t have time for the finger
pointing.

I started scrubbing out
the microwave and decided I could multitask well enough, so I
asked, “Ryan, what do you have due for tomorrow?”

“
History.”

I tried not to let the
tension that one word caused me undermine all the good of the
massage. “Lots of reading?”

“
Yep.”

Anna said, “But Ryan, you
told Penelope’s mom that you were working on your homework and
couldn’t play games with us.”

Ryan scowled at his little
sister. “I did work on it. But who could concentrate with you
always checking on me every fifteen minutes.”

Anna, in typical little
sister fashion, stuck out her tongue.

Seth loaded his bowl into
the dishwasher. “Jasmine’s indigestion threw my evening off. I have
to write my exam and prepare for tomorrow’s review
session.”

No sarcasm, I warned
myself. But it had been a long day, so I didn’t pay a bit of
attention to my own warning. “Well, thanks so much for taking the
five minutes it takes to open a can of soup, dump it into a pot—not
bothering to find a lid, might I add—and zap it hot.”

“
Molly, that’s unfair.
Jasmine was really sick. We had to clean up. You weren’t here. You
have no idea.”

I closed my eyes, and
sighed. “Fine. I’m just adjusting to the new schedule,
too.”

Seth kissed me. “It will
be okay. You just had a rough first two days. After you get past
the shock of losing Robert Quartermaine, you’ll be
okay.”

“
I know.” I didn’t, but I
didn’t want to argue. I was very afraid that I was one of those
people who couldn’t juggle too many plates at once, without
crashing them all to the ground.

I don’t know if he read
that truth in my face, or not, but he said, “Why don’t you take a
shower and go to bed and read for a while. I’ll take care of the
kids and their homework. We can all do our work
together.”

“
Really?” I felt
guilty.

“
Really.”

I didn’t argue any
further, I just did exactly as he had suggested.

In the morning, I was feeling better for the
extra sleep.

I woke up to see Jasmine
growling and playing with one of her chew toys in the corner of our
room. At least, I thought it was a toy, until my eyes adjusted to
the light and I realized it was one of my slippers.

“
No, Jasmine,” I said,
taking the slipper from her. It was slimy and no longer usable as a
slipper. “That was my favorite pair of slippers.”

She seemed to know she had
done something wrong. She dropped her head and whined pathetically.
I petted her head awkwardly. “Never mind. You’re a puppy. Just
don’t do it again.”

Seth’s voice came from the
depths of his pillows. “She’s a puppy, Molly. She doesn’t
understand.”

“
Well, the slipper is
ruined. I think we’re going to have to keep her in the bathroom
with the door closed at night.”

“
She’ll whine.”

“
What’s your
suggestion?”

“
We should make sure
there’s nothing she can chew on the floor.”

I looked around the floor,
counting at least a dozen yummy looking — to a puppy — objects.
“Okay. You do that, while I hit the shower.”