“Well, in that case,” she said, “maybe we can track down what else Robin was doing here.” After a few moments of silence, Nan went on. “Any contact from him?” she asked.
“Who?”
“Your former husband.”
“Ugh, no! Why would he contact me?”
“I don’t know. It was just a question, dear,” Nan said. “It wouldn’t hurt to make sure you haven’t gotten a clue somehow from someone.”
“Yeah, will do,” she said. “I should check my email at least. I haven’t checked it at all today or yesterday.”
“Well, you do that,” she said, “and then come down here and have some tea with me.”
“I’m drinking coffee right now,” she said perversely. And then she looked down at Thaddeus and Mugs. “But the animals would really love a visit.”
“We all would,” Nan said. “So finish your coffee, check your emails, check to make sure your ex or someone else didn’t contact you. Then come on down here and have some tea with me. It will do you some good.”
“And, in the meantime, you’ll check around and see if anybody at the home has any information?”
“I’d be delighted to,” she said, with sheer joy in her voice.
Doreen was thankful for her grandmother, who could nearly always lift her spirits. Laughing, Doreen hung up the phone. She got up, refilled her coffee cup with the last of the pot, and went upstairs to change into company-ready clothing, since she had just thrown on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt earlier. She put on capris and a little dressier T-shirt, then slipped on her sandals. Sipping her coffee as she wandered up and down the garden, she was really just avoiding her emails.
With a sigh, walking straight to her laptop, she sat down and checked. And then groaned. Because, sure enough, her ex-husband had contacted her late last night. First, she took a picture of the screen, showing that the message was unread, and then she clicked on the email.
Coming to town and I need to talk to you. I’ll make it worth your while.
She winced at that, took a photo of it, and forwarded both images to Mack. When her phone rang a moment later, she picked it up and said, “I didn’t know. I just found it. Nan suggested I should check my emails.”
“Is that all he said?” His tone was briskly efficient.
“Yes.”
“And did he give a location?”
“Um …” She went through the email again and said, “No, nothing here. Just that he wants to meet.”
“Check your phone,” he said.
“Okay, hang on.” She went through her phone messages and said, “No, nothing’s here either.”
“Does he even have your phone number?”
“I don’t think so. But he’d remember Nan, of course, so would likely know to look for me here at her place, even if he didn’t know that she’d moved.”
“Right. I wonder if he’s contacted her?”
“It’s possible,” she said, “but I don’t know why she would give him the time of day.”
“Of course not, but that doesn’t stop somebody who’s on a mission from doing it.”
“I wonder what he wanted to talk to me about,” she said out loud.
“Well, my brother filed some things on your behalf, as well as the complaints against your divorce attorney,” Mack said, “so we should expect some pushback there.”
“Maybe,” she muttered, “but, at the same time, I would have thought it would have just been the lawyers haggling. It confuses me that he tried to contact me directly.”
“Maybe he was trying to find something to make you feel guilty about or to appeal to your emotions.”
“Maybe,” she muttered. “It’s hard to know what’s on his mind.”
“Did you often give in to him?”
“Oh, yeah, all the time,” she said. “It was just so much easier. Besides, that’s the way he groomed me.”
“So, when he wanted something out of you, he would have gone to you directly. And that’s what he’s likely done in this case.”
“Right, trying to get me to drop the whole thing, I presume, or whatever it is that Nick has instigated, and have it all go away possibly?”
“Exactly,” he said. “The fact that his girlfriend, and your ex-lawyer, has been killed in the process is a whole different matter.”
“And it doesn’t make me feel any better at all.”
“Of course not,” he said, his voice gentle. “How are you doing?”
“Still bewildered. Still feeling upset and shocked.”
“Sure you are,” he said, his tone a little bit more distant. “She was with your husband.”
“I’m not—” And then she stopped. “Look. I’m not upset about the fact that it’s my husband’s girlfriend or my ex-lawyer for that matter, although maybe I should be, and I guess I will be when I have a chance to really process what went on,” she said, “but that’s not why I’m upset. I’m upset that you came and had to ask me all those questions. Like I was actually a suspect or something.”
“I get that,” he said. “But remember, if I don’t investigate and document the case properly, it will get thrown out, or I will get reassigned, and you’ll be dealing with somebody else. So I had to ask those questions, with legitimate witnesses, in order to let everybody know that it was all aboveboard.”
“Right,” she said, taking a deep breath, “and I get that on one level. But, on another level, it feels like a terrible betrayal.”
He sighed. “Well, I was hoping you wouldn’t take it that way,” he said, “because I certainly didn’t intend it that way. Just the opposite, in fact.”
“And I’ll deal with it,” she said. “I’m heading down to Nan’s for some tea in a minute.”
“You do that,” he said. “Nan will rally the troops around you to make you feel better.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Anyway I’ve got to go.” And she hung up on him.
Chapter 2
Saturday Midmorning …
With that, Doreen grabbed up leashes, deciding that Goliath on a leash was a bit of a distant memory, and maybe she should try it again. Goliath had other ideas, however, and Doreen finally gave up and tossed it to the side and said, “What a waste of money that was.”
It had worked for a while, but then she’d gotten out of the habit of using it, and that just meant that putting it on the stubborn cat didn’t go so well now, since consistency was the key in these things, but that was hardly Goliath’s fault. With the animals in tow, and, as unsteady as Doreen felt, she better avoid the river, so she and her animals headed down the other side instead. When she got to Nan’s, her grandmother sat outside, waiting for her.
The spritely old woman bounced to her feet and came running across the grass on the little stepping stones and gave Doreen a big hug, careful of her injured shoulder. “You don’t look so well,” Nan said instantly.
At that, Doreen grimaced. “Thanks.”