Watchin' The Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance (7 page)

Ooh Kay
…, Isabella says to herself.
Then she tells him, “Maybe we can see about getting your windshield
fixed tonight.”

“It’s too late. I’ll take care of it
tomorrow.”

“Where do you keep your coffee cart?”

“The company I work for stores it, along with
the truck that hauls it around.”

“Do you need a ride to work?”

“No. I’m not going. I’ll call my boss and
tell him that I need to buy a new windshield.”

“Do you need a ride to get the
windshield?”

“Sweetie,” he says, “I’ll take care of it.
Stop worrying about me.” He reaches under the table and squeezes
her knee. His hand travels up and comes in contact with her Spankx.
He says, “What do you have under there? A chastity belt?”

She laughs and says, “It’s a girl thing.”

“Well, I hope you’ll be able to get it off
later.” He tries reaching up again and she slaps his hand,
playfully.

“Later,” she promises him.

He looks around the room and says, “Where’d
the waitress go with our check? We need to get out of here before
my roommate comes back to the apartment.”

*******

There’s no sign of Jake when they enter his
apartment. Joshua tells her to have a seat on the sofa while he
lights some candles and puts on some music. She watches him going
about his errands.
I wonder what he looks like without any
clothes on?

He walks over to her and puts out his hand,
saying, “Madame, may I have this dance?”

She starts laughing and says, “You really
have been watching old movies.”

He raises his index finger to her lips and
says, “Shush!”, and slowly moves her around the floor. She’s
surprised by how good a dancer he is and how skillfully he
moves.

“Have you taken Arthur Murray dance lessons?”
she asks. He whispers in her ear, “Hush…Take off your chastity
belt.”

She obeys and wiggles out of her Spankx as
gracefully as possible, trying not to trip. Then, she slowly undoes
his tie and unbuttons his shirt, tossing them both on the
ground.

He tells her, “Your turn,” and pulls her
dress over her head. He unhooks the front clasp of her bra and lets
free her large breasts. He takes in a deep breath as he admires
her. “I’ve been wanting to see those babies for the longest
time.”

“You like what you see?”

“Are you kidding?” he says, cupping her
breasts and burying his face in them.

She pushes him away and says, “Let’s see what
you got.”

“Undress me,” he says, pulling off his belt
and dropping it to the floor.

She undoes the button on his pants, loosely
unzips them about half an inch, and, with her index finger, slowly
traces the circumference of his waist, stopping at his firm abs. He
shutters with pleasure at her touch. She slowly unzips the rest of
his pants, teasing his hardness with her other fingers. At the
moment when she pushes down his pants to admire his package, they
hear loud banging at the front door. “Who the hell is it?” Joshua
calls out.

The knocking gets louder. “Open up, Josh.
It’s me. I forgot my keys.”

“Argggg!” Joshua yells.

Isabella quickly gathers up her clothing and
runs to the bathroom. Joshua puts on his pants and storms over to
the front door.

Jake walks in. “Sorry, dude. It looks like I
interrupted something,” he says, looking at the pile of Joshua’s
clothes on the floor.

Joshua is furious. He gets up in his
roommate’s face and shakes his finger. “Later,” is all he can
say.

Isabella sheepishly comes out of the bathroom
and asks, “Could you please walk me to my car, Joshua?”

“Of course,” he says and puts on his shirt
and shoes. When they arrive at her car, he says, “I’m sorry about
all that.”

She gives him a kiss on the cheek and says,
“Don’t be sorry. I had fun.”

“Really?”

“Really. Call me tomorrow if you need a ride
anywhere, okay?”

“Okay,” he says, then watches her drive
away.

At the Reference Desk the next morning,
Isabella reads as many articles on the Internet as she can find
about the murder at the dinner theater. She writes down the names
of the victim’s wife and in-laws who were sitting at the table with
him when he was murdered. She read somewhere that the first people
the police suspect are the ones who are the closest to the victim:
their spouses, siblings, in-laws, or parents. She Googles the name
of the victim’s wife.

Nicole joins her at the reference desk and
asks, “How was your date last night?”

“It was nice. He’s sweet.”

“Did you guys get it on yet?”

In mocked surprise, Isabella tells her
friend, “What a thing to ask, Miss Nosey.”

“I’m just curious.”

“Shame on you.”

“Okay. Forget it.”

“Maybe you want him for yourself?”

“I like him. I have to admit it.”

“Well, then, you’ll be glad to hear that I’m
breaking it off with him, when it comes to the boyfriend/girlfriend
thing.”

“Why?”

“He’s just too young for me. I’m too old to
have to deal with guys who live with their mothers or roommates. I
want a guy who has his own place, so we don’t get interrupted when
we’re trying to make love.”

“Is that what happened?”

“Yes.”

Nicole starts laughing.

“I’m glad you find this so humorous.”

“I can just imagine the look on your face
during the coitus interruptus.”

Isabella laughs and says, “You should have
seen me trying to gracefully take off my Spanx in front of
Joshua.”

They both start laughing. Isabella says, “I’m
through with boys. I want a man.”

“A man who happens to be a detective?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your next move?”

“Well, I’m hoping that if I help the
detective solve the case, then maybe he’d go out with me. So I’m
planning on paying a visit to the dinner theater to look for clues
as to what happened that night. I thought we could go there under
the guise of playing golf and I could snoop around a bit.”

“Like Nancy Drew?”

“Yeah. Can’t you just see me on the cover of
a Nancy Drew book with my flashlight? ‘Discover what terrors lurk
behind the doors of the murder mystery dinner theater’.”

Nicole starts laughing and says, “What did
you mean by ‘we could go there’?”

“You like playing golf, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Miniature Golf.”

“Have you ever played a real golf game?”

“Yeah. In high school.”

“Well, there you go. We can ask Josh to join
us,” she suggests as a further temptation.

“That might be fun.”

“You like him, don’t you Nicole?”

“What’s not to like?”

“He’s a really good dancer and he’s very
romantic.”

“You better let him down easy. I don’t want
to be the one who has to come in to sweep up the mess.”

“Are you kidding? He’s going to be the one to
drop
me
like a hot potato when he realizes
that you’re the one for him.”

“We shall see.”

“I’ll call him later. Right now, he’s in a
bit of a bad mood about his car.”

“What happened to his car?”

“Someone stole the front windshield.”

“You’re kidding?”

“No. I’m not.”

“Did this happen on your date last
night?”

“I was with him when he found out.”

“Poor Joshua.”

“Yeah. Maybe you might want to call and
console him?”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I’m just saying.”

“Okay. I think I will.”

“Great! Hey…I just thought of something. Why
don’t
you
be the one to invite him to play
a round of golf with us? That way, the focus will be more on you.
And, while you’re entertaining him, I can go snoop around.”

“That might be fun.”

“Give him a call this afternoon and maybe we
can all meet at the dinner theater after work tonight.”

“I hope he’s had a new windshield installed
by then.”

“Me, too. Poor guy,” Isabella says.

*******

Around 5:30 PM, Isabella and Nicole pull into
the parking lot of the golf course. They look around for Joshua’s
car, but don’t see it yet. Nicole has changed into some cut-offs
which show off her great legs. Isabella is wearing sweat pants and
a baggy t-shirt that has some olive oil stains on it. She wants
Joshua’s attention to be totally focused on her friend and how good
Nicole looks.

“There he is!” Nicole says, recognizing his
VW.

He waves at them and pulls into to the
parking spot next to Isabella’s car.

He gets out of his car and walks over to
Isabella and gives her a kiss.

She says, “Hi, Joshua. Well, I see you have a
windshield now. Was it a big hassle?”

“No. It wasn’t too bad,” he says and notices
Nicole for the first time. “Hi, how are you doing?” he asks her.
Try as he may, he can’t help but notice how good she looks in her
cut offs.

Isabella is doing her best not to get
jealous.
This was my
idea, after all. It isn’t his
fault,
she reminds herself. She breaks up the awkwardness of
the situation by saying, “So, are you two kids ready to play some
golf?”

“Sure. Let’s rock and roll,” Joshua says.

They rent some clubs and set off for the
first hole. Isabella says, “You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up later.
I have some business to attend to in the clubhouse.”

“What business?” Joshua says.

“I’ll tell you later,” she reassures him.

“Do you want us to wait for you?” Joshua
asks.

“No. You guys go ahead. It’ll only take a few
minutes.” She thinks, ‘He is so sweet and considerate.’

“Okay. Bye for now,” Joshua says, as Isabella
watches two of her favorite people walk off together.

Do I really want to give him up?
she
wonders.
Think about that gorgeous detective right now. He’s the
one you
want, she reminds herself.

She sets her clubs against the wall and walks
into the restaurant where the mystery dinner theater performs. She
looks around and doesn’t see anyone; so, she walks over to the
table where she was sitting on the night of the murder and sits
down in the chair where she had sat that night. She looks across
the room to where the man was shot. Then looks over to where the
actors came out with their flashlights. There is a partition that
separates the dining room from the kitchen, so she gets up and
looks behind the screen.

She feels a hand on her shoulder and jumps,
trying her best not to scream.

She spins around and finds herself
face-to-face with Hamid, the prime suspect, (at least according to
her reckoning).

He asks her, “May I help you?”

She has to think fast on her feet and says,
“Oh, I’m just scouting for locations to have a sweet-sixteen party
for my niece. I understand you have murder mystery performances
here?”

“You know that we do, Madame. You were just
here.”

Isabella shudders.
Damn. He recognizes
me
.

“Well, okay then. I’ll be moving on. I’m
playing a round of golf with my friends out there,” she tells him,
pointing towards the golf course.

He tells her, “Enjoy your game.”

Or else
, she imagines the creep
saying.

As she is leaving the restaurant, she
recognizes one of the waitresses and “Henri”, from the other night,
talking to each other in the bar.

When she heads out towards the golf course,
she is in for another shocker—there in the parking lot is Detective
Sterling getting out of his car.

“Holy crap!” she says aloud.
I don’t want
him to see me dressed like this!

She tries to dodge into the restroom before
he sees her, but it’s too late.

“Isabella? Is that you?” he asks.

Damn!
she thinks. Despite her
embarrassment, she is thrilled to be in his charismatic presence
once again. She tells him, “I’m here playing golf with some
friends.”

“It’s a nice day for it. Enjoy your
game.”

“Okay. I gotta go catch up with them,” she
says, wishing she’d worn different clothes.

“Oh, okay. See you later,” he says and walks
into the restaurant.

She wants to call out, ‘Wait! Come back! Take
me to your house in San Juan Capistrano.’ But that isn’t happening
today, or maybe ever.
I wonder what
he’s doing here
?
she thinks.
I’d sure like to know if Hamid is his prime suspect,
too.

In resignation, she heads back out to the
course to catch up with Nicole and Joshua. They are already on the
fifth hole. Nicole sets a ball on the tee and hits a beautiful
stroke that lands her right on the green, almost a hole in one. She
hollers, “Yes!” and raises her fist. He pats her on the back,
laughing and sharing her joy.
They sure are having fun without
me
, Isabella pouts.
Talk about three’s a crowd.

She changes her mind about joining them, and
lugs her clubs back to the patio outside the restaurant, deciding
to stay there and wait for their game to be over. She would only
slow them down.
Besides, they’re having so much fun without
me.

After about twenty minutes, she is still
sitting in the patio and looking out at the course, trying to catch
sight of them, when she hears her name. She turns around and says,
“Detective! Hi! It’s so nice to see you!” She temporarily forgets
the way she’s dressed; she so happy to see him again right now.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he
asks.

God bless you
, she wants to say. She
was starting to feel like she didn’t have a friend in the world. “A
Diet-Coke would be great,” she tells him.

He buys two Diet Cokes out of a vending
machine and comes back to sit next to her at a table. He says,
“It’s a beautiful evening, isn’t it?”