“Smart thinking,” Nina said to him when the waitress walked away. “I don’t mind getting kicked out, but I’d like to finish eating first.”
“Good thing I’m off-duty, Nina, or I’d have to arrest you.”
Nina laughed.
“Why would someone run Daisy off the road?” Gretchen said. “Unless they thought she was my mother.”
“If we can believe her account,” Matt said, “that would be a logical assumption. But why? Where’s the motive? I think she’s covering for herself, making excuses for her own inattentive driving.”
“I don’t think Caroline ran away from the police,” Nina said. “I think she’s hiding from someone. The attack on Daisy proves she’s in danger.”
“Sounds melodramatic,” Matt said, biting into a piece of pizza.
“Is Daisy being charged with anything?” Gretchen asked.
“No. She had a valid driver’s license and cooperated with the investigation. We could find something to charge her with, but why bother? There’s an issue of whether she had permission to drive the car, but until we locate Caroline, we have to assume she drove it with the proper approval. Unless you know something we don’t.”
Gretchen shook her head distractedly. She was surprised that Daisy had a driver’s license. She sliced into the macadamia nut cheesecake with the side of her fork.
“Do either of you know someone named the Inspector?” Matt asked.
“I’ve heard that name before,” Nina said, frowning in concentration.
Gretchen remembered exactly where she’d heard the name. Martha had complained to Joseph about someone called the Inspector. “Why do you ask?” she said.
“Martha mentioned him to Daisy. According to Daisy, she was extremely upset over something he had done. Daisy said she never saw Martha so angry. I want to find him.”
“Or her,” Nina said. “This Inspector could be a woman. Right?”
“I suppose,” Matt said, reluctantly. “I just assumed it was a man.”
“What kind of inspector? A building inspector?” Gretchen asked. “Housing inspector?” Gretchen thought about Nacho’s makeshift home and wondered if the state had laws against cardboard construction on public land. Probably.
They rearranged the puppies in their respective purses, and Gretchen wandered ahead while Nina and Matt traded witty repartees. Their laughter floated on the breeze. The palm trees in the mall’s courtyard swayed, and the sun vanished in a darkening sky. The monsoon and another rain squall were moving in.
Gretchen felt useless here. She seriously considered going back to Boston to deal with her own crumbling personal life, which was spiraling out of control.
She needed a steady job and income, and she needed to decide what to do about Steve. In a brief interlude of self-pity she listed her current problems. A mother wanted for questioning in a murder, clearly the most pressing problem at the moment. A cheating long-term boyfriend who was afraid of commitment, another monumental problem. Her lack of employment and a dwindling savings account. Right this minute she didn’t even own a phone.
Anything else? Oh yes, let’s add a few physical problems. A broken wrist and second-degree burns on her face and feet.
And she had absolutely nothing to show for her efforts to save her mother except a key of unknown origin. Instead of clearing her mother’s name, she’d implicated her further. If she stayed longer, who knew how much more physical harm she could inflict on herself, how much more physical evidence she could dredge up against her mother.
She decided to call Steve from the house, then catch the next flight home before Courtney permanently displaced her.
She lifted Nimrod out of his purse and held him on her shoulder. He licked her ear. “Right now,” Gretchen said to him, “you’re the best thing I’ve got going for me, and you’re only a temporary visitor. Sad, isn’t it?”
“You can’t go home!” Nina wailed. “I can’t handle this by myself. What about the key? It’s going to open the right door. You’ll see. If you don’t stay and fight for Caroline, who will?”
“Why isn’t she here fighting for herself?” Gretchen threw clothes into her open suitcase lying on the bed. Wobbles watched the action with a steady gaze, his ears flatter on his head than usual.
“What about a flight? You can’t go to the airport without a ticket.”
“I’ll wait on standby. Nina, I’m desperate. I can’t let my whole life pass before my eyes.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Name one thing that’s going right in my life.”
“Let me make you a cup of green tea.” Nina pulled several pairs of shorts out of the suitcase and returned them to the dresser. “This is impulsive. Let’s talk about it. I know, call Steve. Work it out on the phone.”
Gretchen tossed her hiking boots into the suitcase and stomped into the kitchen to retrieve the cordless phone. “I’ll call and let him know I’m on my way,” she said, carrying the phone into the bedroom and closing the door.
“Explain,” she said to him after waiting an inordinate amount of time while his secretary located him, annoyed that she still wasn’t on the interruptible list, that special group of coddled clients that commanded instant attention. Instead she had to resort to intimidating an overworked secretary.
“This is bad timing, Gretchen.” Steve said, sounding rushed. “I’m in the middle of sensitive negotiations. Why didn’t you return my call earlier?”
In a meeting at 9:30 in the evening, Boston time? “I needed time to think.”
“I don’t know what to say for myself. I love you, you know. Sometimes, I admit, I’m a bit misguided.”
“That’s it?” Gretchen said. “That’s all you have to say?”
“It’s over with Courtney. It hadn’t really even started. She got carried away.”
“Does she understand that? That you were a little misguided and she expected more than you were willing to deliver?”
Steve hesitated, and Gretchen could hear his breath, labored and anxious. “Yes. She understands clearly.”
“Maybe I should give her a call,” Gretchen suggested lightly. “After all, she’s practically a child. She must be devastated.”
“Ah. That wouldn’t be wise. Might even make the situation worse. Besides, she’s on vacation. Someplace in South Carolina.”
How convenient, Gretchen thought. She watched Wobbles snuggle into the suitcase surrounded by her clothes. “You haven’t asked about me or my mother, about what’s happening in Phoenix.”
“I really don’t have time right now, but I want to ask. I’ve been thinking about you. Later. I’ll call later after my meetings.”
Later, Gretchen thought wearily, wait till later. Wasn’t that always the response? Maybe later. Gretchen had waited all these years for a later that never arrived.
She saw a flash of lightning out the window and heard the immediate crash of thunder. Rain pounded hard against the roof, and she thought about flipping on the bedroom light. Instead she sat in the gathering gloom and watched nature’s dramatic interpretation of fireworks.
“What about us, Steve? I’m coming home so we can figure out where to go from here.”
“I love you, Gretchen. We can work this out. We can’t throw away the last seven years.”
“I’ll come then.”
“I have to go to Hilton Head for a few days. Business. A conference, and I’m the keynote speaker. Right after that we can get together. I know I’ve disappointed you, but I’ll make it up to you. Promise.”
Gretchen stared in the mirror, her eyes pale and pained. Courtney vacationing in South Carolina, Steve on his way to Hilton Head. Gretchen hoped Steve was more convincing when he went to trial with his court cases. Was it a nervous slip of the tongue or merely coincidental these two people would be traveling to the same state?
No, Gretchen thought, I’m becoming exactly like Nina. I no longer believe in coincidence.