Murder in the Marigolds by Dale Mayer (good books to read for 12 year olds txt) 📗

“Or he will get his little henchman to come down and search while I’m away.”

He studied her for a moment. “And all we would get though is somebody who is potentially breaking and entering.”

“Maybe but that would lead you back to Mathew, wouldn’t it?”

“It’s hard to say, depends if the guy doing the B&E talks or not. He might easily go down for such a minor charge.”

She frowned at that. “You know what? It really shouldn’t be a minor charge, when somebody goes into my house without my permission while I’m away.”

“In the grand scale of things,” he said, “it’s a minor charge, particularly if it’s a first offense.”

“What if he was hired to do it?”

“You’d have to prove that, so we must find a payment transaction or get a confession from him.”

She nodded. “Can you give me a wire?”

He looked at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Like in the TV shows, have me wear a wire, while we’re there at dinner, and maybe I can get him to talk.”

Mack hid a grin. “Do you really think he will talk to you about all the things that he has done wrong at this point?”

“I don’t know,” she said crossly. “I’m looking for ideas. You’re not helping.”

“That’s because I don’t want you going down that pathway,” he said, shaking his head.

“Well, I don’t have much time to make a decision,” she said, looking at the time on her cell phone. “I want to go because I need to know what he is up to. So the next best thing is for you to come to the same restaurant.’

“And that won’t be easy either,” he said, “because I won’t know where you’re going.”

“No,” she said, “and I need to find that out too, don’t I?”

“You sure do,” he said, “and fast.”

She frowned, looked down at her phone, and said, “I could call him. He left his new number.”

“I don’t really want his number on your phone. The last thing we need is for you to have been the last one to have called him, if he does get caught in some sting.”

“I don’t think like a criminal,” she cried out.

“No.” Then he sighed. “I really hate to see you go.”

“Follow us,” she said. “I’ll tell him that you’re jealous.” He just glared at her. She shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t want a confrontation that puts you in the middle.”

“Well, you don’t have much time,” she said, “because I have to go get changed real fast. So what’ll it be? Although you also have to go to the office.” She hopped up and said, “I will go get changed right now.”

His eyebrows shot up. “What’s wrong with what you are wearing?”

“This is my ex-husband. Remember?” she said, with a dry look. “I don’t want to appear too far off from what he used to know me as.”

“I’d go as yourself,” he said. “It’s never a bad time to start being you.”

She stopped, stared, and sat down hard. “You know what? You’ve got a point.”

“I do,” he said, “and a good one. He needs to know who you are now, not who you were.”

“But shouldn’t I still appear submissive?”

“Why?” he said. “That’s not who you are anymore. I think it’d be much better if you went as you.”

She smiled and said, “You know what? That might not be a bad idea.” She looked down at her jeans and shirt. “He would be quite offended.”

“Good. Maybe he’ll cancel dinner then.”

She laughed. “I wonder. A good test to see just how sincere he is.”

“No,” he said gently. “It’d be a test as to how desperate he is.”

“Ooh,” she muttered, “I like that.”

Just then the doorbell rang. Mugs took off toward the door, barking like a crazy man. She looked at Mack, stood, and said, “Here goes nothing.” He frowned; she shook her head. “It will be fine.”

“Famous last words,” he muttered.

She walked to the front door, opened it up, and said, “Hey, good timing. I just finished.”

He nodded in a bright cheerful way and said, “I’ll wait, while you get changed.”

So typical of him to see her as not acceptable as she was. “Where are we going? I wasn’t sure if it would be a fish-and-chip shop or if we would go to a high-class restaurant.”

“Well, the Capri is supposed to have a nice restaurant. Also The Yellow House Restaurant’s downtown too,” he said. “I wasn’t sure about that one.”

She nodded. “Either of those would be lovely,” she said. “I’ll go change.” Because, in fact, she would go change for a dinner at either of those places, and it would still be a nice evening out. Just with the wrong escort. She quickly went upstairs, put on a simple dress, brushed her hair back, and put on lipstick. She was downstairs in a few minutes. After that, she grabbed the little purse that she had given Mack, sans the USB keys, dropped in her keys and her phone, and noted the two men stood like pit bulls, staring at each other.

“Oh, have you guys met?” she asked.

Mathew looked at her and snapped, “What’s he doing here?”

“He stopped by, and I asked him if he would feed the animals and look after them, while I was gone,” she said. “He’ll be leaving in a few minutes.” She smiled at Mack, gave him a three-finger wave, and said, “Thanks so much.” With that, she turned, and she walked toward the front door. She could almost hear him gnashing his teeth behind her. But her ex quickly caught up with her, as they stepped out the front door and down the porch steps to the Jaguar. As she approached, she murmured, “I forgot how much I love these cars.”

“That’s the life with me. Remember?”

She kept her response to herself, but she absolutely didn’t want to remember so many other things about life with him. She got into the front seat and allowed herself a moment to