To the edge of the table.
Because at that point, Jennifer got out of her chair and stomped on the spider. I didn’t have time to turn away. Poor spider. Of course, that was exactly what I would have done. I had no love of spiders. At that point, Jennifer sat again. I started moving again. And this time, I moved quickly. Once out from under the table, I stood and fairly ran for the door. As I went, I used the lock spell to make sure the door was unlocked. As I reached it, I heard the chair scrape. I had no time. I jerked open the door and shut it quickly.
Not quickly enough.
I heard Jennifer coming, and I did the only thing I could think to do. I flattened myself against the wall, even as the door opened. Jennifer stepped out, phone to ear.
“That’s odd,” Jennifer said. “Oh, I thought I locked the front door, and now it’s unlocked. I must be getting old. A senior moment, yeah.”
She closed the door and locked it. I took the opportunity to dash off the porch and head for the sidewalk. As I stepped on the concrete, I felt the invisibility spell stop. If Jennifer were looking out the window, she would have seen me suddenly appear out of nowhere. Well, she would just have to believe it was another “senior moment”. I laughed, as Andromeda appeared.
I could have used some help back there.
You saw her in the kitchen.
Yes, but you could have given me a bit more warning.
You’re saying I should have been outside?
No, no, you did just fine. No harm done.
We walked along, and I considered what I had found out.
Do you know anything about Jennifer and a lover?
I’m a cat, not a marriage counselor.
You know what I mean. Don’t you talk to other cats?
No.
I laughed. I suppose you don’t for sure. In any case, there were a number of love letters in the office, and I don’t know if they’re from Thomas or to Jennifer. Any suggestions?
Who do you consider more careful?
I don’t know. Jennifer, I suppose. I mean, Thomas drank to excess. Drunks aren’t known for discretion.
Then, they were to her, and she made sure they wouldn’t implicate them if they were found.
That makes sense. Unless, Thomas wrote them for the same reason. To keep his lover from being discovered.
Women always seem to know.
Yes, they do, don’t they. Jennifer must have known if Thomas was having an affair, despite his constant flirting.
We walked in silence for a bit, as I ruminated on what I had learned. Not that much. Jennifer and Thomas suffered from the usual problems in a marriage. Alcohol, money, infidelity, any one of them was enough to cause a divorce. If all three were present, the marriage was doomed. I told myself to remember that, should I ever get married. Of course, I wasn’t considering that any time in the near future, but the times were changing.
By the time we reached the house, Andromeda had disappeared. I expected no less. He lived on his own schedule. I locked all the doors and went to bed, trying to devise a method whereby I could discover who the letters were meant for. Sleep took me before a plan formed in my mind.
The next morning, I packed up the Tiffany lamp, which made Roxanne cry. She mumbled that the lamp was her favorite, and I shouldn’t be selling it. Orchid and Zephyr tried to convince Roxanne that sooner or later all the items inside Richardson’s Antiques would be sold and moved out. Besides, if I didn’t sell them, I would starve, and they wouldn’t have a happy home.
Gwen arrived to take over the store for the short time it would take to deliver the lamp. Gwen had no patience for Roxanne and little patience for Orchid and Zephyr. So, Gwen banished them to the upstairs, promising to send them outside for the soul reapers, if they stayed on the first floor. The ghosts disappeared in a hurry.
“I should try that more often,” I said to Gwen.
“You are far too kind to them,” she answered. “Not that they don’t need a modicum of kindness. Especially Roxanne. She doesn’t seem to be getting better.”
“She’s been doing the same thing for a couple hundred years. I wouldn’t expect her to change.”
“Pity. Hurry back.”
“As soon as I pick up the check.”
I drove to Jennifer’s house in my little Toyota. I had a pickup truck I used for larger items, but the lamp was small enough to go in the back of the SUV. As I lifted the box from the SUV, I heard Jennifer...SCREAM.
Chapter 9
I almost dropped the box right then. While I had packed the lamp carefully, it wouldn't have been good dropped onto concrete. Instead, I hurried to the front door. I didn’t take the chance of facing a locked door, so I used a spell to unlock the door, even as I pressed the doorbell. Having given warning, I pushed open the door and entered.
“JENNIFER!” I called out.
“IN THE KITCHEN,” she called back.
“ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?”
I hurried forward and found myself in the kitchen, where Jennifer was sweeping something into a wastebasket tipped on its side.
“I THOUGHT I HEARD A SCREAM,” I said.
She pointed at the waste basket. “You did. I reopened a box of Cheerios and found a nice little nest of baby mice. That’s enough to make anyone scream.”
“I’m with you,” I said. “No one would want that.”
“So, now, I have another problem on my hands. Because where there are baby mice...”
“There are adult mice,” I finished.
“You brought the lamp?”
“I did, and you know what? While I was cleaning up a letter desk I want to show you, I ran across an old love letter left in one of the cubby holes. Imagine that.”
“Was it really syrupy?” Jennifer asked. “Lots of eyes like limpid pools and lips like red cherries?”
“More like you are my sunshine, and your beauty excites me. Pretty cliché, if you ask me.”
Jennifer offered an odd look for a moment. “Don’t tell me the letters were unsigned,” she said.
“How did you know? I mean, they were signed, but the writer ended with yours always. Pretty trite, no?”
“Whoever wrote that must have taken lessons from Thomas,” Jennifer said.
“Thomas wrote you love letters?” I asked.
“Once upon a time. Not lately. He wrote some for a woman I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care. He must have written them by the dozen, because I found a bunch of them in his desk. No date, not a signature, no names. They could have come from some website.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. It had to hurt.”
“It did sting...a lot. But I got over it. And now, he’s gone, and he did me the best favor ever. He kept up his life insurance. And he didn’t change beneficiaries. That’s a blessing I hadn’t expected. I bet you want a check.”
“Can I ask you a personal question?”
“As long as I don’t have to answer it.”
“Did Thomas really have affairs? I mean, he was always chasing women. Did he ever catch any?”
Jennifer eyed me for a moment, as if sizing up the question.
“I get it,” she said. “You found the body, and the police think maybe you shot that arrow. Well, to answer your question, yes. Thomas did have real, live contact with some women. Not as many as he might say, and certainly not anywhere close to the number of women he propositioned. I think you might be familiar with that. And his philandering was one reason I filed for divorce. I wasn’t so much upset by his antics, I was scared he would bring something home. You know how wicked sexually transmitted diseases can be. I wasn’t going to risk my health so he could run with the fillies. I’ll be right back.