Chapter 9

D oreen drove home, setting her animals free, now happy to be out of the vehicle again. Once inside the house, she headed directly for the kitchen and made a sandwich. Almost immediately Mack called her.

“Well?” he asked. She filled him in on what happened. “So, Frankie really was behind the break-in?” he asked in astonishment.

“Yeah, that’s apparently what friends do for each other now. I feel so sorry for Arnold.”

“Absolutely, but then it may not come as a surprise to him. Arnold suspected Frankie from the beginning, but nobody ever wants a suspicion like that confirmed.”

“ Right . Of course now that the repercussions are growing, Frankie admitted that he lives with Jed. Frankie didn’t say anything more about his roommate and took off. So my understanding from part of the conversation was that Jed was the one who did the looting and then dealt with selling the loot.”

“Right, so he did the pawning off of whatever they hauled in. So Frankie’s been aligned with this Jed then for at least the past decade.” Mack muttered, “Birds of a feather.”

“I suspect that, after Frankie got kicked out of Arnold’s house, Frankie moved in with Jed, but I don’t know that it happened immediately,” she clarified. “Yet it happened at some point. There were lots of years in between, and Frankie needed money for drugs. He did say he’s off drugs now, but I have no idea how much of what he said was true, though I’m confident that some of it was. And, when you think about it, selling drugs was a way for Frankie to make money and to keep his criminal lifestyle going.”

“Yeah, and the minute drugs get involved,” Mack added, “common sense goes right out the window.”

She smiled at that. “Anyway, I’m home and making a sandwich, while I contemplate my next move.”

“How about doing nothing more on this one?” Mack asked. “I don’t like the sound of this Jed guy at all.”

“Me neither, so you may want to have a talk with the parties involved. I would like to stay out of this, if that’s even possible now.”

Mack offered, “I’ll do it this afternoon.”

“Good enough,” she noted. “Tammy, the woman living in the house with Jed and Frankie, seemed to know a fair bit about what went on back then too. She’s not Frankie’s partner, but she knew him well.”

“But you don’t know what their relationship is?”

“No, just something about sharing a house with four tenants. Jed must be one of them. However, the original theft happened ten years ago, yet she seemed to know at least something about it. So I don’t know if she’s been there in that house the whole time or how she may have heard about it.”

“Right, more secrets.”

“Not so much secrets in this case,” she noted cautiously, “but I didn’t get a chance to ask all the questions that needed to be asked.”

“I’ll follow up,” he told her. “You liked her, didn’t you?”

“It’s not so much that I liked her but that I understood where she was at. Life hasn’t been the easiest for her, and she needed a roof over her head. She was bitter, but that is life. People like that are more than ready to talk.”

“Something which you are very sensitive to.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, you can bet I am.”

“So have you heard from Scott at all about the sale of the antiques?”

“No, not yet, but I plan to give him a phone call in the next day or two.”

“If he doesn’t contact you, then you should definitely call him,” he suggested. “You should be hearing something by now.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll hear lots, and it’ll probably all happen at the same time. We’ll have a big party when that check comes in.”

“That’s the time when you must be sensible with spending it and saving it,” he warned.

“I’ll be sensible, but that doesn’t mean I won’t provide beer and pizza for a few people who helped me get through this stage of my life.”

“Got it, and count me in. I’ll never say no to that.”

She burst out laughing. “No? Even though you just had a big pizza fest?”

“Hey, one can never get too much pizza,” he protested.

She wasn’t so sure about that because it wasn’t her most favorite food.

What she really did enjoy was a chance to have everybody over and to just chill out and relax. Of course the reason they had been over last time wasn’t the best event, but, hey, all kinds of things could be done to make life a little easier. Having friends around was one of them.

After the phone call, she took her sandwich outside onto the deck and just relaxed, with her animals close by. She wasn’t even sure that she had an avenue to pursue, except for this scary Jed guy. He was definitely dodgy, and she was really lucky not to have encountered him earlier. The female housemate might have more information. But Doreen didn’t have any way to contact her directly.

Pondering that, she quickly sent Frankie a text, asking who the other three roommates were at his place. Doreen didn’t get an answer, which was really no surprise. Maybe it was better that way because then Tammy wouldn’t get asked about it, although it was probably already too late for that. Tammy seemed she could handle things herself though. Sad to see that people had to be in that position in this day and age.

Still pondering things, Doreen munched her way through the sandwich. When her phone rang, she looked down to see Millicent was calling. She smiled and answered, “Hey. How’s the garden doing?”

“Fussy,” she muttered.

“Uh-oh, have some weeds gotten out of hand?”

“They just keep coming back where I don’t want them to,” she fretted. “Any chance you could give me an hour this week?”

“Absolutely,” Doreen stated. “I could come by now, if you want—or at least as soon as I’m done with my lunch,” she added, with a note of humor.

Millicent cried out in joy, “If you wouldn’t mind, I would really appreciate it.”

“That’s all right with me,” Doreen replied. “I’ll see you in about thirty minutes then, okay?”

And, with a much happier Millicent ending the call, Doreen quickly sent Mack a text, saying she was heading to his mom’s place to work on those pesky weeds. He sent her a thumbs-up, and she smiled at that. He was still underwriting her bills in a way, something she felt bad about, yet didn’t want to feel bad about it. Knowing she had plenty of money on the horizon made it all easier. She gathered her animals to go over to Millicent’s and was looking for her gardening gloves, when she got an email. Checking it, she stared at the message in surprise.

It was from the city, inviting her to put in a design for one of the new gardens downtown. She stared at it for a long moment, then pocketed her phone and headed out to Millicent’s. While she and her animals walked over there, it gave Doreen time to process what new opportunity had just come in. She knew she hadn’t put in for the odd job, so how would they have even gotten her email address?

She figured it was probably from some electronic database, yet it was still curious. It was also exciting and certainly something she was interested in. She just had to figure out which garden it was for. Then she could work out a design that might fit, whatever that meant for now.

Once she’d arrived, Millicent pointed out the various weeds now bothering her, and Doreen set to work. By the time she’d worked for an hour, she was loose, limber, and sweating freely.

Millicent stopped her and waved her over. “That all looks very lovely. I guess that’s good enough for now.”

Doreen frowned at her. “Are you sure?”

Millicent nodded. “You work way too hard, and I feel bad. I shouldn’t have you doing this.”

“Of course you should,” she murmured. “I’ve been doing it for you this whole summer and most of the fall now. It’s really no bother at all.”

“Pretty soon it’ll be time to put the garden to bed for the winter.”

Doreen nodded. “Not quite yet, though.”

“No, not yet,” Millicent agreed. Then she gave her a bashful grin. “I really should have the boys do it.”

At that, Doreen burst out laughing. “I don’t think the boys would particularly like it if you had them gardening,” she guessed. “It’s definitely not something in their wheelhouse. Mack can certainly do all the heavy work, but I’m not at all sure he would want to be involved in all of it.”

“No, but they could do it,” she argued.

“They could, but the time involved is important. I’m not working, so I have the time to do this.”

“Right,” Millicent noted. “I just feel bad because you’re always so busy helping other people, and nobody is out there helping you.”

Doreen raised her eyebrows. “Actually they’ve helped me a lot,” she shared. “I certainly don’t feel as if anybody owes me anything. People here have been really good to me.” Millicent looked somewhat mollified but still a little worried. Doreen shook her head. “Don’t you worry about it. I’m fine.”

At that, the older woman relaxed a little more and pointed back at the house. “I made tea. Will you stay for a cup?”

As it was part of their ritual more times than not, Doreen nodded. “Sure, that sounds lovely. Thank you. I can help carry something for you.”

Millicent beamed and disappeared into the house.

Doreen texted Mack. One hour, now teatime. Then she walked in behind Millicent and stood in the kitchen doorway. “It’s still nice out. Do you want to sit outside?”

Millicent nodded. “Every chance I get, I love to be outside. Some of the days are chilly, but outside is way better than inside.” And, with that, the two of them sat outside with a pot of tea and some homemade cookies.

Doreen asked, “Did you make these?”

Millicent nodded. “Every once in a while, I get into a baking frenzy.… The boys seem to enjoy it.”

“I’m sure they do,” Doreen said, with a chuckle, “I’m sure those two eat anything that you want to fix.”

“They’re men,” Millicent noted, with an eye roll. “The way to their heart is definitely through their stomachs.”

“Too bad in my case,” Doreen replied cheerfully. “I can’t cook worth a dime.”

“Yet you are working on it, aren’t you?” Millicent sounded almost anxious about it.

“Sure, I am,” she shared. “It’s just not something that comes to me naturally, so it takes a little longer.”

“I understand what you mean there,” Millicent stated. “I wasn’t much of a cook either when I married the boys’ father, but I did learn.”

“That’s the thing. Cooking takes time. And, while I’m out working on these cold cases, I’m not exactly cooking.”

Millicent nodded. “That is very true. We all only have so many hours in a day. Still, it’s important in a marriage if you do know how to cook.”

Doreen had an inkling of what was coming. “That might be the norm for most marriages, but it certainly wasn’t part of my marriage. Nowadays, I think whoever has the skill and the desire to cook should be in the kitchen. Same thing with yard work.”

“Oh right, you were married before, weren’t you?”

“Yes.… Does that bother you?”

Immediately Millicent shook her head. “No, it doesn’t bother me at all. I just want to know that the boys are happy.”

“Ah, this comes back to the relationship between Mack and me?”

Millicent hesitated but nodded. “Yes, and I’m just an old woman worried for nothing, but it would be nice to see the boys settle down before I pass.”

“That sounds very much like a conversation I just had with my own grandmother,” Doreen said, with a chuckle.

At that, Millicent grinned. “Hey, you can’t blame us. We want to arrange everybody’s life just so, more or less, because it suits us to see everybody happy.” Then she sighed. “It doesn’t always work out that way, though.”

“No, it definitely doesn’t,” Doreen agreed. “Since my ex, Mathew, is no longer in the picture, it’s a whole lot easier for me to move forward in a new relationship.”

“With Mack?” she asked anxiously.

“With Mack,” Doreen confirmed, “but no pushing allowed.”

Millicent sat back and nodded. “No, I wouldn’t want to do that, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize it.” She patted Doreen’s hand. “Mack’s done a lovely job in picking you. Now we just have to find somebody for Nick.”

“Ah, I would have helped if I could, but I’m not into matchmaking, so don’t look at me.”

At that, Millicent laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. You’ve picked Mack, so you’ve done very well.”

Doreen chuckled. “That’s true, but still it’s a bit out of my wheelhouse.”

“If you do meet any eligible young ladies who would suit Nick, be sure and let me know.”

“And you’ll just throw them together somehow?” Doreen asked, with a twitch of her lips.

“Somehow, yes,” Millicent replied. “I really do want to see him settled. Of course I want to see Mack settled too,” she added, with a sideways glance at Doreen.

“Oh, I got the message,” Doreen replied. “However, remember that no pushing part?”

“Yes, but remember that I’m old and dying part?”

“We’re all dying,” Doreen noted. “It’s just a matter of when.”

“It’s not as if we get a heads-up when it’ll happen either.”

“How much easier would life be if we knew?”

“Maybe so, but it’s not among our options at this point in time.”