“Not to mention the boyfriends,” Doreen said, with a roll of her eyes.
“Yes, well,” she said, in a complacent tone, “that wouldn’t stop no matter where I lived.”
Doreen burst out laughing. “You’re such fun to have around.”
“Yep,” she said, “that’s what they all say too.” Then she waggled her eyebrows at her granddaughter, who was lost in a fit of laughter.
Still chuckling a few minutes later, Doreen sniffed the air and said, “Oh my, I smell cake. I’m sure of it.”
“And it’s starting to smell delicious. Let’s go check,” Nan said, hopping to her feet and racing into the kitchen. With Doreen behind her, and two animals excited and running at their feet, Nan opened the oven and clapped her hands. “See? Look at this.”
Inside the oven were two beautiful loaf pans, in which the cake batter had risen. Not high above the edge of the pans but enough to form a beautiful gentle curve of a slightly golden color.
“Now they still need a little bit more time,” Nan said. “I’m thinking another twenty minutes or so.”
And, with that, they went back outside. Doreen looked at her and asked, “Are you hungry?”
“Oh no, dear,” she said, “I ate before I came.”
“Good,” she said, “because I don’t have any food.” And then she burst out laughing. “I was supposed to go shopping, but I didn’t get there yet.”
“Didn’t get there or couldn’t afford to get there?” Nan asked, with her usual directness.
Doreen winced. “Well, I am a little worried,” she said. “There’s been absolutely no movement on the antiques yet. I know it’s coming, but it’ll still be months, and I did splurge on this deck, even though it was incredibly cheap because everybody pitched in. But it still cost me a fair bit.”
“You had that bowl of money. Do you still have that?”
“I do, but I’ve had to tap into it quite a bit,” she whispered. “I did work at Millicent’s yesterday, so Mack will bring that money for me today.”
“And is that enough to buy you some groceries?” Nan asked doubtfully. “Because I don’t think so.”
“It’ll get me the basics,” she said, “like coffee and eggs, plus bread and peanut butter.”
“Are you still living on toast and peanut butter?” she asked in horror.
“Nope, I’m not. I do make a lot of sandwiches still though, and I eat a ton of eggs,” she admitted. “I didn’t think omelets would wear on me, but Mack promised to teach me how to make more breakfast meals that I could fix by myself.”
“Good, but how about dinners and other things for lunch? Besides a salad and a sandwich I mean?”
“Well, the salad is easy, and it’s healthy,” she said, “so I’m not too bothered with that. I can cook hard-boiled eggs now because Mack showed me how to do those. Plus I have cans of tuna. Other than that, I do cobb salads or chef salads.”
“Good,” Nan said, with a bright smile. “And now you’ll have cake, and that’ll make your tummy that much happier.”
“Yes, and I think happy tummies are really good for keeping emotions happy too,” Doreen admitted.
“Absolutely they are, dear. That’s part of the reason people end up as drunks. Because the taste of the alcohol makes them very happy.” At that, Doreen howled with laughter. Then right out of the blue, Nan said, “Did you find out anything more about Robin?”
“No,” she said, “outside of the fact that she was stabbed and that she had a rental car and was due to fly back out the same day. I went to the new Chinese food place—or the one that I didn’t know about beforehand, the one on the way from the airport back to here—and they said that she was there, waiting for somebody who didn’t show, so she left after eating.”
“Interesting,” Nan said, fascinated. “I wonder where she went.”
“Well, Mack thinks she went to meet this same person but at another location.”
“And where would you go after a meal?”
“Well, for me, it would be coffee,” Doreen said instantly.
“But not everybody drinks coffee after their meal,” Nan reminded her.
“Maybe not, but a lot of people do. And, if the person didn’t eat, maybe coffee is what they wanted instead.”
The two women mulled over that possibility, and then Nan said, “You know what? If I’m thinking of the same Chinese food place, then a Starbucks is not far from there.”
Doreen thought about it and said, “I saw one. It’s inside a grocery store though. I don’t think it’s a real Starbucks.”
“Oh, it is so,” Nan said in a dry tone.
Doreen waved off her comment. “You know what I mean. It’s not a place where you could go in and sit down to meet with somebody.”
“Well, that’s true,” Nan said, “but there are so many in town. There’s probably one within walking distance from anywhere in Kelowna.”
“But neither her body nor the rental vehicle were found in that same area as the Chinese food place,” Doreen said, “so she must have gone somewhere else, and then she was found a few hours after that.”
“Ah, so the killer had to be whoever she went to meet then.”
“Maybe not had to be but it sure makes that person the prime suspect,” Doreen said. Then she went on, “Guess who phoned me this morning?”
Nan looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “Who?”
“Mathew,” she said.
Nan’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“Yeah,” and then she told her about the odd conversation.
Nan immediately started shaking her head. “Good Lord, please tell me that you’re not considering it.”
“Considering what?” she asked.
“Going back to him.”
“Oh, of course not!” she exclaimed. “Jeez, Nan. Ugh. No. I had a terrible time when I was with him. Why would I ever go back to that? Look what I have here,” she said, and she waved her arm around at the house and the garden. “And thanks to you, I actually have a good life and fun,” she said, “and I get to do things on my own.”
“Good,” Nan said, “because that makes the move to Rosemoor all the more worthwhile.”
“Ouch,” Doreen said, “you’re making me feel bad.”
“Nonsense,” she said firmly. “It had been on my mind for a long time, but I never thought I would get you to leave him.”
“No,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t have. Not until he actually made the move to do it himself.”
“That’s only because he had replaced you.”
Doreen shuddered at the word. “Can we call it something else?” she muttered. “That’s a little harsh.”
“It’s not harsh at all,” Nan said. “It’s reality.”
“Ouch again,” she said, “but you’re right. It’s one of those realities that I don’t really like to look at very much.”
“That’s too bad because this is one that you need to take a good hard look at, so you don’t ever get into that same situation again.”