Carol Higgins Clark Boxed Set - Volume 1: This eBook collection contains Zapped, Cursed, and Wrecked. (64 page)

The lights are on. Lovely! With a big smile, Devon walked across Floyd’s driveway and toward the walkway, mindless of the rain. The curtains were all closed, which was not surprising. He continued up the walkway, then hesitated. Is that yelling I hear? Inching closer until he was on the porch with his head cocked, Devon realized what he was hearing were lines from his play! Floyd was rehearsing—with a woman!

He is some devil. Of course I can’t interrupt. But it would be nice to hear what his process is when he works with someone else. This person must be someone Floyd respects. I’d be able to hear more if it were a nice quiet evening instead of all this drip drip drip. He listened intently. Hmmm. Whoever the woman is doesn’t sound as if she’s trained in theater. No, the poor dear, not at all. Maybe it’s someone he’s dating.

Devon turned. No knife presentation tonight. He went down the steps and stopped. Floyd had just yelled something that
was not a line from his play. Oh, well. Every word of his mouth can’t be a line from my play. Devon took a step, and Floyd yelled again. He sounds a little crabby.

I’d better get out of here. If he’s crabby, the last thing I want is for him to find me eavesdropping. That would be frightfully embarrassing.

Picking up the pace, Devon hurried back to his car. Who is she? Devon wondered. Did he bring her up from New York?

Oh well, that’s his business.

Tomorrow night I will show him the knife before we begin. Exactly when, I don’t know.

On Saturday morning, Regan and Jack snuck out of the house before anyone else was up. Kit knew where they were going. So did Ginny and Fran.

Adele Hopkins had been alone in the world. If her first husband could give them the name of a distant cousin, someone who cared about Adele, they’d be grateful.

One hour and fifteen minutes after they left, Regan and Jack were driving down Main Street in Long Branch, headed for Washington Middle School. They’d done some research online the previous night and learned that Jimmy Cannon still worked there as a teacher and coach.

They found the school, parked, and went out to the athletic field, where a soccer game was about to begin.

Jack and Regan walked over to one of the coaches.

“Quick question,” Jack said. “Do you know where I can find Jimmy Cannon?”

The coach pointed. “His house is right across the street from the field. Which is perfect for him.”

“Do you know if he’d be home now?”

“Probably. His team plays this afternoon.”

“I hear he’s a nice guy.”

“Salt of the earth. But to be honest, he’s really down in the dumps. He’s getting divorced, which is good because his wife is a shrew. But it’s his second divorce. Not easy.”

“That’s tough. Which house?”

“The blue one.”

Regan and Jack rang the bell. A big teddy bear of a man answered the door. He had brown hair graying at the temples, brown eyes, a sprinkling of freckles across his nose, and was wearing a sweatsuit.

He does look sad, Regan thought.

“Can I help you?”

“I hope so, but you might not want to. My family has a house on Cape Cod. Adele Hopkins was renting the house next door.”

“Adele?”

A light came into his eyes, Regan thought. He still cares, at least a little. This guy didn’t slash any pillow.

“Yes. But she had an accident yesterday”

“Oh.” The flicker in his eyes disappeared.

“The people who rented her the house have no idea who to contact. We thought you might know of other family members.”

“Not really, but come on in.”

They sat with him in his living room and told him what they knew about Adele.

“Everybody thought it was awful what she did to me,” Jimmy said. “Which is natural. But I also blame myself. She was out there at the hospital with her dying father, day in and day out. There was no one to share the burden. I was too busy coaching to take any time off. I flew out there with her for the first few
days, then left. Never came back. We were together since college. We weren’t blessed with kids, but we had each other. What did I expect? I should have been there for her.”

“It’s a shame,” Jack said. “Her marriage to Windwood wasn’t happy.”

“You mean Windbag?”

They all laughed.

“That’s exactly who I mean,” Jack said.

“We found apology cards on Adele’s dining room table,” Regan said. “I think she was filled with regret.”

“Apology cards?”

“Yes. She didn’t by any chance send you a decorative pillow did she?” Regan asked.

“Maybe she did. The woman I’m divorcing went through all my mail, my cell phone. It was crazy. I have nothing to hide.”

“When did you separate?” Regan asked.

“A month ago.”

Jack and Regan looked at each other, then told him about the slashed pillow postmarked Long Branch.

“What?” He folded his arms and shook his head. “I’ll have to remember that if I ever have second thoughts. I’m sorry. I would have liked to talk to Adele.
GRUDGE ME, GRUDGE ME NOT.
She was funny, she really was. On our first date, we went rowing in a park, and she was standing up in the boat and giggling. We were eighteen.” He exhaled. “What can you do?”

“Adele had a little rowboat on Cape Cod. She was out there in all kinds of weather,” Regan told him.

“She did? When we were married, we never went rowing. We were too busy with coaching the kids’ teams. And Windbag’s estate doesn’t sound like a place you’d row. Well, maybe he had a lake. I don’t know.” His voice trailed off.

“So you don’t know any relatives we can call?”

“I don’t. I can look through old address books in the attic.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack said. “We were really hoping to find someone out there who loved Adele Hopkins.”

We just did, Regan thought.

Hello strangers!” Ginny called. “We’re in the den.”

It was too much to hope that Jack and I would ever spend time in this house alone, Regan thought, as she and Jack walked into the kitchen.

“How are you Ginny?” Jack asked.

“Better now.”

“Fran?”

“Good. We’re sitting here reading about you in the paper. You saved that girl’s life. Ellen’s lucky Kit forgot her cell phone, huh?”

“She is,” Jack agreed.

“Well thanks to your heroics,” Ginny said. “We’re all invited to the cocktail party at The Castle by the Sea tonight.”

“What’s the occasion?” Regan asked.

“A traveling theater group just hit town. They’re performing a play under a tent at The Castle for a month, starting Memorial Day. They’ll read one scene at the party, hopefully not for long, and then everyone can go back to having a good time. Six o’clock to eight o’clock. We should leave here by 5:45.”

“Who invited us?”

“The director himself.”

“What’s the play?”

“Grandpa, Go Home.”

I’m not going near that one, Regan thought. “Sounds good.”

“Eh, we’ll see.”

“Where’s Kit?”

“She took a cab to Pillow Talk. I can’t believe Kit and Ellen were making fun of Ellen’s old boss, and there he was, locked in the closet!” Ginny exclaimed.

“Did Kit tell you that?”

“No. It’s on the front page of the paper.”

“What about Dorie and Dan?” Regan asked.

“Haven’t heard a peep out of them.”

“Maybe they’d like to come to the party.”

“Sure, invite them. The more the merrier.”

Not always, Regan thought.

Adele
you have inspired me.”

“That’s good.”

“I will never act again with a fake weapon. Those prop knives drain the lifeblood of an actor. It’s insulting. We’re not children playing a game of cops and robbers. I never thought of it that way, Adele. We’re doing
Theater!
I cannot wait to perform this evening. Your eyes look a little droopy. Did you have a good rest last night?”

“Tied to a chair?”

“Oh yes. It would be better if the chair had a cushion.” Floyd picked up his script. “Time to do lines.”

“I just need to put my head down for a minute.”

“Are you crazy? We must rehearse!” He picked up his script from the chair. “Tonight I must shine!” he said as he turned the pages. A funny noise made him look up.

Adele was asleep on the couch. Even worse, she was snoring.

“You can’t do this to me, Adele. Wake up!”

Slowly she opened her eyes.

“There you go.”

She tried to sit up, but the effort was too great. She fell back and was out cold.

At quarter to six, Ginny opened the front door of the Reilly home. “Ready to go, everybody?” she called out. “Fran and I will wait in the car.”

“We’re all ready,” Regan answered from the hallway where she’d been standing by Kit’s bedroom door, chatting as Kit put on her makeup.

Kit spritzed herself with perfume. “Ready. Should I take my car, Regan? I’m so happy it’s finally fixed.”

“No. Don’t be silly. We’ll all ride together.”

“Okay. I’ll be leaving first thing in the morning.”

“Please. Stay as long as you want.”

Jack came out of the bedroom. “We’re all set. Dan and Dorie will meet us there?”

“Yes,” Regan answered. “I’m glad they’re coming. Dan really wanted to stay home because of something about work but Dorie insisted. I still can’t believe they found Adele’s plaque under the bed.”