Closet Confidential (41 page)

I had three messages from Tierney asking for a truce and suggesting dinner. I had already decided not to say “yes” to truce and “no” to dinner. In the hospital I had managed to apologize to Dean Oliver for falling for DeJong’s trickery and for believing he could be a villain. He’d said we were even, as I’d saved his life. Like Jack he had a head injury that wasn’t expected to do any lasting damage.

Jack was already back at CYCotics taking care of business; the stitches in his forehead seemed to go well with the swaying palms on the latest Hawaiian shirt. I’d never mentioned his secret stash of photos in his closet, but I thought I’d figured out what it meant.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small silk-covered box with the secret I’d kept in my own closet for the past two years. It was time to let the past go and start trusting again. Ready to stop looking to the wrong kind of man. More important, I was prepared to see what was right in front of my eyes. This time, I really, actually, truly did toss that square-cut diamond solitaire into the Hudson. Two years earlier, I’d tossed a stone into the Hudson, pretended it was the ring, and enjoyed the dramatic impact on my lying hound of an ex-fiancé. It had felt good at the time, but I hadn’t done myself any favors hanging on to it. Now it felt a whole lot better to get it out of my life.

Half an hour later, I was sporting a wide grin as I used my foot to push open the door to CYCotics. I was juggling a tray of jumbo lattes and three sandwiches from Ciao! Ciao! Mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and Genoa salami on Tuscan bread.

Disaster usually improves Jack’s appetite. He met me at the door. “Only three sandwiches? Is that all?”

“Actually,” I said, “it isn’t.”

Mary Jane Maffini
is a lapsed librarian, a former mystery bookstore owner, a previous president of Crime Writers of Canada, and a lifelong lover of mysteries. In addition to the Charlotte Adams books, she is the author of the Camilla MacPhee series, the Fiona Silk adventures, and nearly two dozen short stories. She has won two Arthur Ellis awards for best mystery short story as well as the Crime Writers of Canada Derrick Murdoch Award. She is currently at work on the next Charlotte Adams adventure and is grateful for all the tips she gets from Charlotte. Mary Jane lives and plots in Ottawa, Ontario, along with her long-suffering husband and two princessy dachshunds. Visit her website at
www.maryjanemaffini.com
.