Chapter 11
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“Mack also makes me feel good about myself,” Doreen added, her smile beaming as she gazed at Nan affectionately. “All in all, I think he’s been a very special addition to my life. And, no, I’m still not pushing for a wedding yet.”
Nan slumped back and glared at her.
“I know. I know. You all want it in your time frame,” Doreen noted.
“We want it while we’re alive, child,” Nan muttered. “As you just told me, we don’t know when or how any of us will leave.”
“And that goes for me too,” Doreen noted. “I have no way of knowing if I’ll be here in another few days.”
Nan’s eyes widened, and she paled.
“Relax, Nan. I don’t say that to worry you. I’m just saying that I won’t get pushed into this wedding.”
“You’re so stubborn,” Nan noted, and then she laughed. “And I heartily approve of it.”
“That’s good,” Doreen agreed, rolling her eyes, “because you still won’t get me to jump into it before I’m ready.”
“You need to be comfortable doing this on your own,” she agreed, with a nod. “And, as much as we all may want you to jump right in, it does have to be your choice.”
“Thank you,” Doreen replied, a smile on her face and in her tone. “Hopefully you’ll remember that, even in a few days.”
“No, I probably won’t—particularly if I won’t be around for much longer,” she muttered.
“Are you actually having that feeling, or is this more about I’m feeling rough and don’t like my life just now, so I’m hoping I won’t be here in a few days?”
“No, it’s never that,” Nan admitted. “It’s just when I get tired.”
“But you also know what the fatigue is from.” At that, Nan turned and glared at her. Doreen just held up a hand. “I’m just calling it the way it is.”
“Yeah, but what if I don’t want to hear the way it is?”
Doreen grinned at her. “But you do want to hear it because you already know what the right thing to do is. You just don’t want to do it. Maybe I’ll set up a betting pool as to how long the two of you will be on the outs.”
Nan gasped in shock.
Doreen shook her head. “Don’t look at me like that. That’s exactly what you would do,” she pointed out. “For all I know, somebody has already set it up.”
“They wouldn’t dare,” Nan snapped, but she frowned, as if going through all the people she knew, and then nodded. “I bet somebody already has.”
“I bet somebody already has too,” Doreen agreed, with a chuckle.
They sat down with their tea as Nan started going through the list in her head again. “I wouldn’t be happy if they did that though,” she added.
“But you do it all the time, and you do it with everybody in your life. So you have to expect that, when you’re on the outs with somebody, they’ll do it to you too.
” Nan just glared at her, and Doreen nodded.
“I know you don’t want to hear that, and I get it.
Yet you’re telling me that it doesn’t matter with your bets, so why not with theirs?
” she pointed out. “You can’t do things like that to other people without their jumping at the chance to do it to you. ”
“Fine,” Nan muttered, then she glared at her. “Who would you bet on?”
Doreen shook her head. “Oh, no way,” she said. “You’re not asking me that. First off, I don’t know anything about the betting that you’re doing, and, second, no way I would pit myself against you guys. You’re both stubborn enough to confirm nobody won.”
At that, a real smile crinkled up on Nan’s face, and she had a good laugh. “You do know me, don’t you?”
“I absolutely do,” she stated, “and I know that Richie is just as stubborn as you are. He’s also a good friend.
Good friends are hard to find these days, Nan.
You’ve got a lot of people here you are friendly with, but Richie?
… He is somebody who’s been here for you all the time.
And it’ll hit you awfully hard when he goes one day. ”
Nan slowly nodded. “You’re right about that,” she muttered. “Just having him as part of all these cases has made life so much more fun.”
“True enough, and here we are in the middle of another one. It’s surprising to me that you’re not hot on the trail to help me out.”
“That’s because you haven’t given us a job,” she noted.
“Didn’t think I had to,” Doreen replied. “Remind me of a single time when that happened? Did you ever wait? Or listen?”
Nan’s gaze widened. “Oh, now that’s an interesting point. I hadn’t considered that.”
“Of course not, but, from my point of view, you’re all sitting here, waiting for me to solve it, and I could use a hand,” she pointed out.
Even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t tell her grandmother that.
It seemed to be the one thing that kept everybody here happy and involved.
“I think the day you guys all decide that it’s not worth doing is the day you might as well not get out of bed. ”
“It’ll be the day that we don’t get out of bed,” Nan declared, looking at her. “It’ll be the day we can’t get out of bed.”
“Exactly, so pitch in and give me a hand on this one,” Doreen said. “I would think we could get it done, but, at the moment, we’re still stuck.”
“So, what do you want us to do?”
“I need to know who’s working at that restaurant, and we need to talk to them in such a way that Mack doesn’t think we’re interfering.”
Nan started to laugh. “Oh my.” Nan tried to stifle her laugh and failed badly. “If he finds out …”
“I know, and he won’t be happy, which is why I need help.”
“Oh, perfect, and it is a restaurant, right?”
“It is a restaurant, yes, though I don’t know if they’re open after the two deaths. Who’ll run the kitchen? How many people does it even take to run a whole restaurant, I wonder.”
Nan frowned. “I think Cleavis might help. He’s a chef and has been around the restaurant scene a lot, so we should talk to him.”
“That’s nice, but who is he? Do I know him?” Doreen asked.
“He’s relatively new,” Nan began.
“When you say relatively, what does that mean?”
“I don’t know, a couple months, maybe a couple weeks. I don’t know.”
Doreen heard an odd note in her tone. “Nan, have you been stepping out on Richie with this chef?”
“Richie and I are not an item.”
“Is that what this is all about?”
“No,” she stated, glaring at her. “I just think Cleavis is a more interesting character.”
“Of course, because he’s new. However, if you start breaking hearts around here again, you’ve been fairly …” She stopped.
“Fairly what?” Nan asked, turning that gaze on her.
“Fairly quiet about your little alliances.”
“I’m no different now,” she stated, “but Richie did seem to think I was stepping out.”
“If you weren’t, and he doesn’t believe you, shame on him. However, if you were, and you’re lying to him, then shame on you.”
Nan’s jaw dropped. “My goodness, you certainly ended up picking a side very quickly.”
“I’m not picking a side,” Doreen clarified. “There are no sides here. You and I both know that life is far too short for that. Who is this Cleavis, and what does it take to talk with him?”
“Probably not much since he’s hanging around me pretty consistently.”
“I would say, good for him. You’re a mighty fine woman to hang around with.”
Nan looked at her, preened slightly, and added, “He mentioned that too.”
“Of course he did, and he sounds like a bit of a ladies’ man.”
Nan thought about it, then nodded reluctantly. “That’s probably a good way to put it.”
“In that case you’re pushing all the buttons to trigger Richie’s insecurities.”
“He shouldn’t have so many,” she snapped. “We’re friends.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear that.”
“And it would be nice if Richie would believe it too.” Nan sniffed as she pulled out her phone and left a quick text. “Cleavis is coming down,” she announced, setting aside her phone.
“Okay, good.” Doreen eyed her grandmother and asked carefully, “What about inviting Richie too?”
“Oh, that’ll just set off a fight, and it won’t be pretty. You have no idea.”
“No, I don’t, but it would be nice to think we wouldn’t have fights at your age.”
“That would imply we’re not worth fighting over,” she snapped, “and that won’t work out so well.” Nan gave Doreen a curt nod.
When a heavy knock came on Nan’s door, Doreen got up to answer it. She found a large man, similar in size to Richie, leaning heavily on his cane.
He slowly made his way into the room, then took one look at Nan and smiled. “There she is. How’s the prettiest woman in the place doing today?”
Doreen looked over at her grandmother, not at all surprised to see her blushing. “Good Lord,” Doreen muttered to herself. Just then she heard a shout from the hallway, and she looked out to see Richie. “Hey, Richie,” she greeted him. “How are you doing?”
He moved slowly toward her and sighed, then took one look at Cleavis, and his face closed up.
Doreen quickly stepped out into the hallway and whispered, “Richie, I asked Nan to call him, so I could pick his brain about the restaurant industry, a chef’s life and all.
I don’t know if you heard, but we had a second death at the same restaurant. ”
Immediately his face lit up with curiosity. “Really?” he asked, as he glanced back at the room and sniffed.
“You know that we need to find out as much as we can.”
He nodded. “That’s possible, but still, he’s a little too flirty.”
“That may be, but you also know, as soon as you make a scene, she’ll go in the opposite direction.”
He laughed. “She already has. That woman will always drive me nuts.”
“Maybe so, yet I hope you guys are willing to get past all this, before the betting gets a little too crazy.” He stared at her, and she nodded. “Do you really think people aren’t doing that here?”
“I would hope not.” He sniffed again.
“Think about it,” she suggested, patting his shoulder.
“You and I both know how many times you two have had bets on other people around here. So it would make sense that somebody was already putting something together about you two. Unless you guys can, you know, bury your differences and fast, that’s just the way it’ll be. ”
“But it’s not fair.”
“Nothing is fair in life.” Doreen smiled at him, wondering why they hadn’t considered the possible fallout from their own riff. “You two can settle your differences on your own. Now, if you want to come in and be a part of this conversation, you have to behave yourself.”
His big, unruly brows pushed together, and he glared at her.
She nodded. “I won’t tolerate any fighting, but I could really use all the help I can get on this case.”
Immediately he relented. “That makes sense. … Okay, fine. I’m coming in.”
“Leave the attitude outside.”