“I can’t tell you that. It’s a surprise.”
“Mother,” Joanna objected, “you know I don’t like surprises.”
“A surprise?” Jenny said, sitting bolt-upright in bed. “Grandma Lathrop’s coming and bringing a surprise? What kind of surprise, something to eat?”
“Jenny, hush. I can’t hear what Grandma is say‑
Jenny dove out of bed and began pulling on her clothes. “Of course, I’ll reserve the rooms, Mother. It’s just that ... No, the dining room is plenty large. I’m sure it won’t be any trouble to add two more places to the dinner reservation.”
Fully if hurriedly dressed, Jenny was already making for the door. “Wait a minute. No, Mother, not you. I was talking to Jenny.” Joanna held the mouthpiece at arm’s length. “Just where do you think you’re going?”
“Down to have breakfast with the Gs. The sooner I eat, the sooner I can go swimming.”
“Wait for me,” Joanna said. “We can go down together.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, you have to.”
Sulking, Jenny switched on the television set, flipped through the channels with the remote, then settled on the floor in front of an old Roadrunner cartoon.
“Sorry, Mother,” Joanna said, returning to her phone conversation. “What were you saying? Yes, I’ll get on the room situation right away. But I’ll need a name, for the reservation. Hotels require names, you know.... All right. Fine. I’ll put both rooms under your name.”
In the interest of holiday spirit, Joanna tried to keep the irritation out of her voice. For weeks her mother had refused every suggestion that she come along on this Thanksgiving weekend outing. Now she was going to show up after all, at the very last minute, at a time when making room and dinner reservations was likely to be reasonably complicated.
Not only was Eleanor coming herself, she was bringing along an undisclosed guest. Read boyfriend, Joanna thought.
“What time do you think you’ll get here? Around three? We’ll try to be down in the lobby right around then. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding us. If we’re not in the lobby, try the pool. See you then.”
Joanna put down the phone and turned to her daughter. “The surprise is whoever Grandma is bringing along to dinner.”
“Who’s that?” Jenny asked, her eyes on the television set.
“She didn’t tell me. If she did, it wouldn’t be a surprise. But my guess is it’s a man.”
“You mean like a man who’s a friend, or a man who’s a boyfriend?”
“I don’t have any idea, but I do have a word of warning for you, young lady.”
“What’s that?”
“Just because this guy, whoever he is, is showing up for Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t mean Grandma Lathrop is going to marry him. In other words, you are not to mention the M word. Do you understand?”
Jenny nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Now can we breakfast? I’m starved.”
The Bradys were already at a table when Joanna and Jenny wended their way through the tables.
“Well, look here,” Jim Bob said. “We’ve already read the paper and had two cups of coffee. It’s about time you two slugabeds showed up. Where’ve you been?”
“Talking to Grandma Lathrop,” Jenny said, slipping into the chair next to her grandfather. “She’s coming here for Thanksgiving dinner after all, and she’s bringing somebody with her.”
“Really, who?” Eva Lou asked.
Jenny shook her head. “She wouldn’t tell us, not even Mom. She says it’s a surprise, but Morn thinks it’s a man.” Jenny added, rolling her eyes, “She’s afraid I’ll use the M word and embarrass everybody.”
“M word?” Jim Bob asked. “What’s an M word?”
“Never mind, Jimmy,” Eva Lou said. “I’ll tell you later. Will there be enough room for everybody, Joanna? You already said those two friends of yours would be joining us.”
“Remind me. After breakfast I need to stop by the concierge desk and add two more places to the dinner reservation.”
Just then a harried waitress stopped by the table slapping an insulated coffee carafe down on the table next to Joanna. Pulling out her pencil and tie pad, she focused on Jenny. “What’ll you have this morning, young lady?” she asked.
Once the waitress left with their orders, Joanna poured herself a cup of coffee and turned to her mother-in-law. “How’d you sleep?” she asked,
Eva Lou shook her head. “Fine, up until one o’clock or so. Then all those sirens woke me up.” The busboy appeared, bearing a pitcher of ice water. “What was that all about, anyway?” Eva Lou asked, turning a questioning eye on him. “All those sirens in the middle of the night?”
The busboy shrugged. “Some lady fell out of a truck right in front of another car. At least that’s what I heard. There were still cops outside when I came on shift this morning.”
“More than likely it’s a fatality accident, then,” Joanna put in. “They take a lot longer to investigate than nonfatal ones.”
The pained look on Jenny’s face at the mention of the accident caused Joanna to drop the subject. After breakfast and with both room and dinner reservations safely in hand, Joanna and Jenny set off on a walking excursion to the APOA campus.
From the sidewalk outside the hotel lobby, Joanna pointed directly across Grand Avenue. “See there?” she said. “That’s the running track right there on the other side of the railroad. And the first building you see on the other side—the long one—is the dorm.”
Jenny immediately headed for the street, but Joanna stopped her. “We can’t cross here. We’ll have to walk down to Olive and cross there.”
“How come?” Jenny asked, looking up and down the street. “There’s not that much traffic. We could make it.”
“Maybe we could, but we’re not going to. This must be right about where that accident happened last night. Let’s don’t tempt fate.”
They started up Seventy-fifth along the APOA’s outside wall. Jenny looked longingly back at the few strands of barbed wire that separated the back of the APOA campus from the railroad tracks. “Couldn’t we go that way?” she asked, pointing.
‘Why not?” Joanna returned, with a shrug. “It looks like a shortcut to me.”
Mother and daughter were both old hands at negotiating barbed wire. Moments later they were striding across the running track heading for the back of the dorm. Joanna had known there was a patio of some kind between the dorm building and Dave Thompson’s unit on the end of the classroom
building. What she hadn’t realized was that it was a walled fort. The only way to reach Joanna’s room was to go around the far end of the dorm.
Lulled into a sense of well-being, they ambled around the corner of the building. Once they could see the parking lot, Joanna was startled by the number of cars parked haphazardly just outside the student lounge at the dorm’s opposite end.
Joanna and Jenny had barely started down the breezeway when a woman, a stranger, erupted out of Leann’s room and marched toward them, tripping along on three-inch-high heels. She was tiny—five foot nothing, even counting the heels. Her small frame was burdened by a voluptuous figure that easily rivaled Dolly Parton’s, although a well-cut wool blazer provided some artful camouflage. Also like Dolly, this woman believed in big hair. A glossy froth of coal-black hair blossomed out around her head like a cloud of licorice-flavored cotton candy.
“I’m sorry,” she said, still moving forward. “No one’s allowed in here at the moment. You’ll have to leave.”
“Why?” Joanna asked. “I’m a student here. I know the campus is pretty well shut down for the holiday weekend. All I wanted to do was show the place to my daughter.”
The other woman was wearing a name tag of some kind fastened to her lapel. Only then did the distance between them close enough that Joanna could read what was printed there. DETECTIVE CAROL STRONG, CITY OF PEORIA POLICE DEPARTMENT.