NOT What I Was Expecting (8 page)

“But he seems so
nice and civilized,” I said without thinking.  Fry smiled at me as if I’d just
confirmed his suspicions.

“He is,” Fry
assured me.  “I’m just saying he knows how to handle himself in uncivilized
situations, too.  You could definitely do worse.  You know what I’m saying?”

Before I could
respond, I looked up and there on the porch was Luke.  It was one of those
moments where you blink your eyes a few times, because you know you can’t be
seeing what you think you’re seeing.  Yup, it’s really him.  I smiled, but this
time he didn’t smile back.  He quickly came down the steps with the sisters
following behind him.  We all stood up as they approached, because the look on
his face made it obvious something was wrong.

We didn’t get the
chance to ask, because Mother blurted out, “Luke can’t find Barney.  Hasn’t
seen him since right after the funeral, and he’s very worried.”

“I was hoping
maybe one of you might have seen him?” Luke asked tensely.

The worried look
on his face was gut wrenching.  Without waiting for our response he continued.

“Fry, can you come
help me look for him?” Luke wanted to know.

“Sure, Luke, it’s no
problem,” Fry said and headed toward the porch.

“Do you want me to
drive you, Fry?” CeCe offered.  “You know, you were drinking a lot earlier to
help my mother.”

“Yeah, I pretty
much sobered up with all the lemonade I’ve been drinking,” Fry told us.

“Thanks, CeCe, but
I’ll drive him to my neighborhood,” Luke told her as he and Fry started to
leave.  “Uncle Barney’s on foot, so I really need Fry to walk the
neighborhood.  We’ll cover more ground with the two of us going in different
directions.”

“How can we help?”
I offered.

Luke thought for minute.
“I wouldn’t want to send you running around this late, but if you could make
some phone calls, just to see if anyone’s seen him, that would be great.”

“We’ll take care
of that,” my mother said.  “Don’t worry.  If anyone in this town has seen him,
we’ll find out.  He’ll turn up Luke.  Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Thanks,” Luke said
but sounded unconvinced.  “I’d just like to find him
now
.”

“Would you like to
stay for a drink while we make some phone calls?” I asked.

“I’d like to, but
I better not,” he said.  “Fry and I need to get moving.  There are still some
areas I haven’t searched yet.”

Luke and Fry left,
and the sisters immediately started their phone calls.  CeCe and I decided to
clean up in the kitchen instead of making phone calls.  We would no doubt be
duplicating the sisters’ calls.

“Did you see how
upset he was?” I asked CeCe.

“Yeah,” she agreed,
“and I could see how hard it hit you.  Now you can fully understand how I feel
about Deputy Ben.”

Can I?  Hmm.

The next morning
CeCe and I opened the shop as usual.

“I’m starting the
coffee,” CeCe announced and headed straight for the back where the coffee maker
lives.  We have a small kitchenette across from the dressing rooms equipped
with a microwave, refrigerator, toaster oven, and the previously mentioned, all
important coffee maker.

The sun streamed
brightly through the front windows of the Big and Blessed shop early each
morning.  I was feeling very relaxed and contented while I enjoyed the cozy
feeling our business gave me, which was unlike me before coffee.  I started
straightening racks and thinking about how much I love this place.  In addition
to feeling at home, due to spending afternoons and weekends here while growing
up, there was the whole being my own boss thing.

CeCe and I both
had part time jobs throughout our college years, so there wasn’t a day that
went by that we didn’t appreciate working without a supervisor.  I did have a
head honcho or two in my past that I appreciated.  A couple of them were pretty
cool.  However, the bosses that stood out in my memories and still made me
cringe were the ones who fell into the categories of extremely eccentric, just plain
ignorant/lazy, or pure evil.

My thoughts were
interrupted by the tinkling door bells as customers entered.  The two women who
entered the shop looked at me expectantly as they stopped just inside the
doorway.

“Welcome to the
Big and Blessed shop,” I greeted.  “May I help you find something?”

“You’re Pearl’s
daughter, aren’t you?  My daughter Melissa is feeling a little depressed, and I
thought a new outfit might make her feel better,” the older woman explained.

I thought they
looked familiar when they walked in, but I was having trouble coming up with
the names.  When she said her daughter’s name, recognition hit me.

“Melissa?  How are
you?  Remember, we went to high school at the same time, though I think you
were a little younger – maybe a grade behind me?  Oh, and yes ma’am, I’m
Maggie, Pearl’s daughter.  Is this the first baby and grandbaby?” I asked
carefully.

“First?” Melissa
shrieked.  “Try fourth.  And my mother is mistaken.  I am not a little
depressed.  I am extremely
upset
!  Do you want to know how old my third
child is?  13 months!  You know how old my first one is?  Four!”

“Now dear,” her
mother interjected.  “He’ll be five next month.  Melissa loves her children,”
she explained turning to me.  “She’s just a little, uh, surprised by this
pregnancy.”

“Idiot moron
doctor,” Melissa clarified.  Then she quoted him, “‘
I’m afraid, Mrs. Pentella,
you will not be able to have any more children.’
” As Melissa mimicked the
doctor’s words, a look came into her eyes that did not bode well for the good
doctor.  “Oh, he’ll be afraid all right, when I go over there and kick his
ass!”

Since I had no
idea how to respond to that, I decided getting down to business might be the
safe way to go.

“What kind of
outfit are you looking for today?  How about a dress?  Maybe you would like a
nice blouse and pants set?” I asked Melissa, but it was her mother who
responded.

“What about a pair
of comfortable pants and a smart looking top?  Would you like that, dear?”
Melissa’s mother encouraged.

While her mother
and I both looked hopefully at Melissa, her face turned a little pink, her eyes
grew moist, and her bottom lip began to quiver.

“I have to pee,”
she announced as she bolted for the back so we wouldn’t see her cry.  Or maybe
she really did have to pee.  What do I know?

“You go right
ahead, dear.  Maggie and I will choose some lovely things for you to try on
when you get back,” her mother assured her.  The last of her mother’s message
was yelled toward the closed bathroom door at the rear of the shop.

“Poor thing,” she
confided in a hushed tone.  “She just found out she’s pregnant this morning. 
She went to her family doctor because she couldn’t fit in most of her clothes
anymore.  She felt she wasn’t eating that much but her stomach was getting
bigger, so she was afraid it was a tumor or something.  That’s why I brought
her here after we found out.  Her husband is home with the kids, and she needs
to feel she fits something besides her bathrobe.  It seemed like a good idea. 
I’m sorry you are seeing her so upset, but she’s really . . . . ”

At that moment,
there was a loud gasp from the back of the shop near the register, followed by
a yelled, “Oh, Mother, look!”

Neither of us
realized Melissa was out of the bathroom until the gasp followed by her
beckoning.

“Isn’t this the
most precious thing you ever saw?  I spotted it as I went by, but it didn’t hit
me until I was in the bathroom.  I’ll go back to the bathroom in a minute, but
I had to come back out here to see this more closely.”  Melissa was holding a
pink lace dress and bootie set for a newborn and presenting it to us as if she
were displaying the Hope Diamond.

“This one might be
a girl!” Melissa exclaimed with a look of complete joy and awe.

Her excitement
must have been contagious, because her mother and I stood there nodding our
heads, clapping our hands, and chanting, “Yes, uh-huh, a girl.  It might be a
girl.  It could definitely be a girl.”

Melissa carefully put
the outfit back where she’d found it, clapped her hands with delight, and
returned to the ladies room with a huge smile on her face.

Her mother turned
to me and stated the obvious, “Melissa has three boys.”

I nodded as if
this fact had not occurred to me.

She went on to
explain, “She has hoped for a girl each time, but when she had her sons she was
so ecstatic you would think she wanted a boy, only a boy, and nothing but a
boy.  Now let’s find her some things to try on quickly before her mood
changes.”

As we started
collecting outfits, CeCe came out of the back with a smile on her face and
coffee on her breath.  CeCe and I continued to select possibilities in
Melissa’s size, while Melissa’s mom submitted the choices for her approval. 
Once several outfits had been given the thumbs up, Melissa’s mother paid for
them while Melissa apologized profusely for her earlier behavior.

After we assured
her she had nothing to apologize for, made her promise to come see us again,
and swore to keep our fingers crossed for a girl, we bid good day to Melissa
and her mother.

CeCe and I had
almost all of Melissa’s rejects back on the racks when we turned toward the
tinkling door chimes and saw Fry enter.  The fact that we weren’t expecting him
this early on a Thursday coupled with his troubled demeanor suggested something
was wrong.

“Morning, Fry,” I
said tentatively.  He didn’t respond.  As he stood there barely inside the shop
and looked from CeCe to me and back to CeCe again, we each put down the clothes
we were hanging and walked toward the doorway.

When we’d almost
reached him, he stopped us with, “He’s dead.  Uncle Barney is dead.”

“Dead?” CeCe
asked, unable to process the news any faster than I could, apparently.

“Oh, no,” I said
softly, when I’d found my voice.  “We saw him at the funeral yesterday, and he
seemed overwhelmed with grief, but to take it this hard?  Was this his first
attack or had he had trouble with his heart before?”

I was studying Fry
carefully, waiting for his answer, but my mind was also remembering the
grieving man I met at the funeral.  Then I thought of the nephew who adored
him.  “Luke must be so sad,” I added, feeling bad for him and his loss.

Fry took a second
to process my questions and comments then responded, “It wasn’t a heart attack,
Maggie.  Luke and I found him around two this morning.  He’d been murdered.”

CeCe looked as
shocked as I felt but recovered her words first.  “Murdered?  Are you
positive?  I mean, he did seem pretty shaken at the funeral.  Are you sure it
wasn’t a heart attack, or stroke, or something like that?”

Fry took a deep
breath and exhaled slowly.  He appeared to be summoning the strength to
explain, but the details were obviously difficult for him to relive.  “When
Luke and I found him, he had been strangled with his tie – the one he wore to
the funeral.”

“Maybe it was an
accident,” I said hopefully.  “His tie might have caught on something and he
couldn’t loosen it, and if nobody was around at the time, maybe . . . .”

“I saw him and trust
me – there was nothing natural or accidental about his death.”  Although Fry
was speaking softly, the intensity behind his words made me stop trying to make
sense of a senseless death.

I needed to be
worried about Fry at the moment.  CeCe must have been thinking the same thing,
because she took Fry by the arm and began leading him to the back of the shop. 
“Why don’t you sit down, and let me get you some coffee?  Have you had anything
to eat today?  I can make you a sandwich.”

“Just coffee would
be great.  Sitting down sounds pretty cool right now, too.  Luke and I were at
the police station giving our statements for the rest of the night after we
found him,” Fry explained.

Luke.  He must be
devastated.  I flashed to my reaction if my Aunt Shirley had died so
unexpectedly and violently.  I shook the thought from my mind.  It was too
awful to think about, yet Luke was living a similar nightmare.

Fry must have been
shocked and exhausted, but his ability to sympathize with someone else’s
distress wasn’t dampened.  “Luke is pretty shaken,” he said, watching my
expression.  “But he’s been through this serious loss thing before with his
parents, and he’ll be okay.”

“You should go.”

“You need to be
there for him.”

CeCe and I spoke
at the same time.  At least that got us a brief chuckle from Fry.

“I don’t think we
meant that the way it sounded,” I clarified.

“Finish your
coffee, have some more if you want, stay as long as you want.  We just meant .
. . ,” CeCe encouraged.

“I didn’t laugh at
your rudeness,” Fry said smiling for the first time since he came in the door. 
“I just found it funny that you both seemed to be inside my head.  I came here
to let you know what was going on and to ask if you really need me in the shop
today.  I was thinking, if it’s all right with you, I would kind of hang out
with Luke today.  Barney was his only family, so there’s nobody to help him
with arrangements and everything.”

“No problem
whatsoever,” CeCe agreed.

“We’ll be fine at
the shop for the next few days, Fry,” I assured him.  “Do whatever you need to
do, because you’re right.  You can’t let Luke go through this alone.”  I tried
to keep the emotion out of my voice, but the earlier thought of Aunt Shirley
combined with the ache I felt for Luke’s loss made it very difficult.

Apparently, I was
unsuccessful since CeCe reached over and patted my arm, while Fry stood up and
gave me a hug.

“You know,
Maggie,” Fry confided.  “Luke hasn’t been back in town very long and doesn’t
have a lot of friends besides me.  He spends so much time working he hasn’t had
the time to reconnect with anyone from high school except you and CeCe.  It
would be great if you guys could stop by his place tonight after you close the
shop.”