I laughed. “Oh my God! I wonder what he was thinking when you asked for cleaning supplies.”
“Probably thinking about what his house would sell for,” Ida Belle said. “He listed it the day after he got Gertie out of there.”
“I’m sure he got more for it since I cleaned his bathroom,” Gertie groused. “Anyway, that was a fluke.”
“Oh Lord,” I said. “Another fluke. What does that make, like ten million flukes in your lifetime?”
“Keep laughing,” Gertie said. “But one day, Carter will have less hair and teeth and you’ll be lucky if he ever leaves the seat down.”
“Less hair and teeth I can deal with,” I said. “But he knows I’ll shoot him if I fall in the toilet in the middle of the night.”
“Threat of death is a good motivator,” Ida Belle said. “I’ll have to remember that for when Walter thinks he’s going to impose man stuff in my space.”
“So is Walter moving into your house?” I asked.
Ida Belle had never been one to talk at length about her personal life, but she’d been even quieter than usual when it came to her and Walter’s future, especially their living arrangements.
“We haven’t really decided,” she said. “But I’m making a note of things. I like to be prepared.”
“You’re getting married next Saturday,” Gertie said. “How can you not know where you’ll be living after that?”
“I know where I’ll be living,” Ida Belle said. “It’s Walter who’s unsure.”
“Is he unsure because he doesn’t want to leave his house or because he’s not sure if he’ll be shot for moving a toothbrush into yours?” Gertie asked.
“Don’t be silly,” I said. “There’s plenty of room for Walter’s bathroom essentials and his clothes. Not like Ida Belle is girling it up in either of those areas. The question is whether he gets any garage or freezer space.”
Ida Belle nodded. “So you see my dilemma.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” I said. “Maybe you should add on to the garage. Or just keep extra frozen goods at the General Store. He’s got tons of freezer space.”
Ida Belle threw her hands in the air. “Which is exactly what I keep telling him. But then he’s all like ‘this law’ and ‘that inspection’ and you just can’t reason with the man.”
“I think you should build a guesthouse in the backyard,” Gertie said. “At least then he’d have a place to go when he’s tired of everything being your way.”
“He already has a place to go,” Ida Belle said. “His house.”
Gertie shook her head in dismay, then looked at me. “Please tell me you aren’t going to make Carter live in his own home when you two tie the knot.”
I held my hands up. “Whoa! I’m not even to the point where marriage is a passing thought. No way am I having a conversation about it.”
“Is Carter aware that he’s not a passing thought?” Gertie asked.
“I think about Carter all the time,” I said. “I just don’t think about marrying Carter.”
Gertie gave me a mischievous grin. “Is he naked when you think about him?”
“Oh good God!” Ida Belle threw her hands in the air.
My cell phone rang and I checked it.
“Speaking of naked thoughts,” I said.
“I knew it!” Gertie said.
I laughed and answered, but I could tell right away that something was wrong.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Is Ida Belle with you?” he asked.
“Yeah, she’s right here,” I said. “Why? Was there an explosion somewhere? Because I swear, we spent the last couple hours eating ourselves into oblivion and then crashing in my living room.”
“Were you by any chance at Miss Molly’s house earlier today?” he asked.
“Sure, hence the eating ourselves into oblivion,” I said. “Ida Belle dropped off the catering money.”
“Did you see Molly?” he asked.
“Well, we didn’t break into her house and steal her food,” I said. “What’s going on? Did something happen to her?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m trying to figure that out.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “She’s either okay or she’s not.”
“She’s missing,” he said. “So I can’t tell you whether or not she’s okay.”
“We just saw her shortly after noon,” I said. “How long could she possibly be missing?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I got a call about an hour ago from a woman saying Molly called her but the call was cutting in and out and was hard to hear over engine noise. All she could make out was ‘he’s going to kill me.’ Then she heard Molly yell and the phone went dead. I came out here right away to check. Her boat’s gone from the dock and there’s no sign of Molly.”
“What about her boyfriend?” I asked. “He was there when we were.”
“That idiot claims he didn’t know she’d left.”
“Do you buy it?”
“I don’t know if I do or not. It’s too weird right now. Anyway, there was a contract on her desk with Ida Belle’s name on it dated today, so I figured I’d call and ask.”
“Was the money there?”
“I, uh, listen, I need to stop talking about this. If this turns into a missing persons case…”
“I know. I know. Civilians can’t be involved in law enforcement business. But will you at least call as soon as you know something about Molly? Friend business trumps law enforcement.”
“I will. Gotta go.”
He disconnected and I relayed the conversation to Ida Belle and Gertie, who’d already figured out from my tone and just half the conversation that something was seriously wrong.
“Oh no,” Gertie said. “I hope something hasn’t happened to her.”
“I think we have to assume something has,” Ida Belle said. “Otherwise, why would she have made that phone call?”
“Maybe not,” I said. “The call was cutting in and out and this friend was trying to listen over engine noise. For all we know, Molly could have called her to talk about an upcoming cage match and then a statement like ‘he’s going to kill me’ takes on a whole different meaning.”
“What about the yelling?” Gertie asked.
“Someone passed too close or too fast in a boat,” I said. “Birds swooped down. Someone waved from across the lake. People yell in boats all the time.”
“I see your point,” Ida Belle said. “I’m just not sure Molly would ever admit that someone was going to get the best of her.”
“And why call in the middle of driving your boat?” Gertie asked. “Why not wait until she stopped when it was easier to talk? You have to be pretty worked up to try both at the same time.”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to believe that something bad had happened to Molly, but I couldn’t disagree with Ida Belle and Gertie either. The truth was, it sounded odd.