LITMIR.BIZ

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up baguettes from our bowling game.

      “It’s a shame to waste all this French bread,” she said. “Waste not, want not, as my aunt liked to say.”

      “We’ll leave it for the birds. They’ll be thrilled.” I helped Lurleen break up the pieces of bread and scatter them around the yard. Together we untangled the Eiffel Tower from the Japanese maple and carried it carefully to her car where it just managed to fit into the back seat.

      “Do you need help on the other end unloading this?”

      “No, no. I’m stronger than I look thanks to my interval training and body-sculpting classes.” She flexed her muscles to show me some very fine biceps. “I love not working. It gives me time for all the things I do enjoy. If I missed a single exercise class, which I wouldn’t, my instructor Wendy would e-mail me to make sure I was all right.”

      We packed the rest of the supplies in her trunk and passenger seat while I thanked her again for her magnificent party.

      “It was nothing. Rien du tout. If I’d known children could be this delightful, I’d have had a couple.”

      We walked together up the driveway to the porch. She settled herself in the swing and looked up at me expectantly.

      “Of course, the cake,” I said. I grabbed a cup of coffee and a slice of cake for each of us from the kitchen and put them on a tray Lurleen had given me for Christmas. I’d just moved back to Atlanta, and Lurleen insisted I’d finally moved home. She gave me a tray with the picture of what she called her spiritual home. Paris, of course. A black-and-white photo from the fifties shot at night. The city looked like a sparkling jewel.

      I left the house door open, so I’d hear the kids if they stirred, and sat beside Lurleen. The sky was an intense blue, and the temperature was perfect. Early April in Atlanta—one of my favorite times in a place that got too exuberant by June and too hot in August. My giant Southern magnolia was getting ready to display her creamy white blossoms. The small patch of lawn in the front yard needed mowing, but that could wait another week.

      Lurleen and I rocked gently back and forth on the swing, sipping our coffee and eating our cake. One of the many things I loved about Lurleen was that she was never in a hurry. She could get anxious and buzz around like a copper-colored dragonfly, but when it came to friendship, she had all the time in the world.

      She waited for me to begin.

      “I’m worried about the kids,” I said. “They may be in danger.”

      “In danger?” Lurleen leaned toward me. “What’s going on?”

      “You missed some of the conversation with Mason.”

      “Mason?”

      “Detective Garrett. He told me a detective was killed last week. Someone who worked in the Cyber Crimes Unit and talked to Ellie two weeks ago. Who knows what Ellie got herself into this time? And I have a gut feeling Lucie is lying about where Jason got his Transformer. She says it wasn’t from her father, but I don’t believe her.”

      Lurleen looked thoughtful. “She must be scared,” she said. “I know—not from personal experience, mind you, just from what people have told me—that sometimes a kid is threatened into keeping secrets.”

      “I know that too from my work,” I said. I looked at Lurleen, and I wondered for a moment if she might be talking about herself. She never mentioned her childhood and changed the subject whenever I asked about it.

      Before I could continue, my cell phone rang. It was Tommy.

      “Hi, Mabel. Didn’t hear from you, so I’m calling you back. You thought about my plan?”

      “I’ve been busy, Tommy. There’s a lot going on here. A lot of bad stuff. You remember Ellie Winston?”

      Tommy, never at a loss for words, was silent for a couple of beats. “Sure I remember Ellie. The girl you were glued to growing up? The one who wouldn’t give me the time of day? Yeah, I remember her.”

      “Well, she died. She was murdered two days ago. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it.” Tommy wasn’t exactly an ambulance chaser, but he did keep up with people who might need his services. He was always on the lookout for a case that would put him on the news as an up-and-coming Alan Dershowitz. “Oh, no,” was all he said.

      “I’ve got her two kids with me.”

      “I’m sorry, Mabel. Do the police know who did it?”

      “No.”

      I filled him in on what the police did know. “Don’t spread it around that the kids are with me, okay? I’m just not sure how safe they are.”

      “Who would I tell? Of course I won’t say anything,” Tommy said. “If I can help, let me know. I really liked Ellie.” He sounded genuinely sad.

      “So did I. Thanks. I haven’t thought any more about your proposal, but my answer won’t change. I’m not selling the farm.”

      “Let’s talk about that later. Let me know if I can help you out. I could babysit, whatever you need.”

      “Babysit? You, Tommy? I’ve never seen you around kids.”

      “You underestimate me, Mabel. You always have. You think I only care about myself, but you’ve got that wrong.”

      I did think Tommy cared entirely about himself. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll try to revise my view. How about dinner tomorrow night, so the kids can meet you and then we’ll see about your babysitting later on.”

      “Let me check my calendar.” Silence. “Sorry, Mabe. Can’t do it tomorrow. Booked. Booked all week, but next week looks good.”

      “Next week they may not even be with me. I gotta go.” I hung up on him.

      Lurleen gave me that look that said she understood about siblings even though she didn’t have one.

      “I just don’t get Tommy,” I said. “One minute I think maybe he really does have empathy for other people, like when I told him about Ellie. He sounded genuinely upset. Then he offers to help and takes it back as soon as I ask him to follow through.”

      “He’s a man with secrets,” Lurleen said to me. “Maybe someday he’ll share them with you.” She swept crumbs off her lap and gave me her full attention. “Now, tell me about everything I missed in your conversations with Detective Garrett, or should I say Mason?” She smiled innocently at me.

      “Some men were threatening Ellie. The note we found in Jason’s Transformer—on a Sandler’s note pad—warned her that the kids would be harmed if she didn’t give them what they wanted. Lucie described one of the men—someone named William with a scar along his forehead.”

      Lurleen put her half-eaten cake down on a side table near the swing. “How does Sandler’s figure into this?”

      “I don’t know. Ellie said she used to work at Sandler’s and they were going to make her a nice severance offer. I mentioned that you used to work there, but she said she didn’t know you.”

      Lurleen ran a hand through her thick hair and pushed a few auburn curls behind her ear. “I have a good friend, Marie Vanderling, who still works there. She knows everyone and everything. Whenever anyone left Sandler’s, Marie said another one had gotten ‘over the wall.’ I felt bad about leaving Marie behind, but I think she has her own reasons for staying. And she can help us now.”

      “Help us?” I said.

      “Solve the murder of course. Marie loves intrigue. She has the scoop on everyone at Sandler’s, and she’ll be glad to help us. You can be Nancy Drew and I’ll be your faithful sidekick. Nancy did have a sidekick, didn’t she? Remember, you and I watched that old movie of hers, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.”

      “I think the sidekick was named Ned.”

      “A

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