Миранда Джеймс - Digging Up The Dirt

“They’re good company when everybody else is out of the house,” Clementine said, her voice husky from decades of smoking. “You don’t be worrying about us. We get along fine.”

Thus reassured, An’gel headed out. Twenty minutes later she pulled the car into a parking space near the building where Dr. Gandy had his office. The building stood on a side street about three blocks from the square, and once An’gel had finished with the doctor, she had only a short trip to the hotel.

The waiting room was empty when An’gel entered. She went straight to the frosted glass window and rapped gently. The receptionist opened the window right away and smiled at her. “You can go right on back, Miss Ducote. The doctor’s ready for you.”

An’gel thanked the young woman and went through a nearby door into a hallway. The doctor’s office lay at the end. She paused at the open door and cleared her throat.

Elmo Gandy turned his chair to face the doorway, and his homely hound-dog face split into a huge grin at the sight of her. He rose and came around the desk to usher her to a chair. “Lovely as ever, An’gel. Now, tell me. What’s bothering you?” He perched on a corner of the desk and straightened his tie.

Though she had rehearsed what she planned to say during the drive into town, An’gel nevertheless hesitated. She had never before asked the doctor to violate the confidence of another patient, even a deceased one, and she wasn’t sure how he was going to react. She took a deep breath. She had to know.

“I’m personally fine, Elmo,” she said. “Except that I’m really upset over Sarinda Hetherington’s death.”

At the mention of his late patient’s name, Dr. Gandy frowned. He got up from the desk and went around to resume his seat behind it. Arms on the desk, he leaned forward and regarded An’gel. “Sarinda’s death came as quite a shock to me, too, I have to say.” He shook his head. “Poor soul.”

“Have the police spoken to you yet about it?” An’gel asked.

Dr. Gandy nodded. “First thing this morning.”

“I was shocked to hear,” An’gel said, “that she had been drinking heavily and fell down the stairs to her death. I had no idea she drank like that.” She watched the doctor to register his reaction to her words.

Dr. Gandy frowned again and leaned back in his chair. He stared at her for a long moment. “Why are you so interested in this?”

An’gel knew she had to be completely honest with him. “I’m worried that there was something odd about Sarinda’s death. I wonder if she really did have a drinking problem.”

“The police asked me the same thing,” the doctor said. “I will tell you what I told them. Ordinarily I wouldn’t tell even you this, An’gel, even though I know you have Sarinda’s best interests at heart.” He paused.

An’gel nodded. “I understand that you wouldn’t want to violate a patient’s confidentiality, even once that patient was dead.”

“Yes,” the doctor said. “Normally I wouldn’t share this, but I don’t want to see Sarinda’s name blackened, have her labeled an alcoholic when I know damn well she wasn’t one.”

Dickce couldn’t tear her eyes away from the table in the corner. “Just look at them,” she muttered.

Benjy looked up from the menu he had been perusing with great interest. “Who are you talking about?” He glanced around.

“That table in the far corner,” Dickce said in an undertone. She picked up her own menu and stared at it. “The silver-haired man and the redheaded woman. See them?”

“Yes,” Benjy said. “Who are they? I don’t think I’ve seen either of them before.”

“Hadley Partridge,” Dickce said. “And Arliss McGonigal. Hadley has come back to Athena after being gone for forty years. Arliss is a friend of mine and An’gel’s. She’s a member of the garden club board.”

“Is there anything strange about the two of them being together?” Benjy asked, obviously puzzled. “I guess they know each other, right?”

Dickce grimaced. “They do, and I wonder just how well they know each other.” Every time she glanced over at their table, Dickce saw Arliss touching Hadley, and Hadley didn’t appear to be bothered by it. There was an air of intimacy between the two, and Dickce found it unsettling.

Exactly why she found it unsettling, she refused to consider. She thought Arliss was behaving in a slightly brazen manner.

“Why don’t you go over and say hi to them?” Benjy asked.

Dickce stared with suspicion at his bland expression. Then she laughed as the humor of the situation struck her. Here she was, dining with an attractive young man sixty years her junior, and she thought Arliss brazen for dining with Hadley, a man roughly her own age.

She decided she had better come clean with Benjy about Hadley Partridge. “All the women in town were in love with him forty years ago,” she said. “Even An’gel and I were both a little smitten with him. He was always the handsomest and the most charming man we all knew. He dated lots of women but he never would settle down with any one woman. We all thought he was carrying a torch for his brother’s wife, and that’s why he wouldn’t commit to anyone else.”

“Sounds like an old movie,” Benjy said. “You said he was back in town after forty years. Why did he leave? Didn’t he ever come back for a visit?”

“The story was that he left because his brother threatened to kill him if he didn’t leave his wife alone. Hadley never did get along well with Hamish,” Dickce said. “Hamish wasn’t easy to live with, and they all lived together at Ashton Hall.”

“That’s the old house down the road from Riverhill,” Benjy said. “Didn’t you tell me the guy that owned it died recently?”

Dickce nodded. “Yes, Hamish Partridge. That’s why Hadley came back, apparently. Hamish left everything to him.”

“What about Mrs. Partridge?” Benjy asked. “Is she still living?”

“That’s what’s so mysterious,” Dickce said. “Callie left town right after Hadley did. Most of us thought she ran away to be with Hadley, but at the garden club board meeting yesterday Hadley swore to us he never saw Callie again once he left Athena.”

“Now it really does sound like an old movie,” Benjy said.

The waitress arrived to take their order, and they both decided on the day’s special, chicken and dumplings. The waitress noted their orders, removed the menus, and left them.

“They won’t be as good as Clementine’s,” Dickce said. “But they’re still pretty good.”

“Nothing’s as good as Clementine’s cooking.” Benjy leaned back and patted his stomach. “I’m proof of that.” He grinned.

“Look,” Dickce said in a low tone. “They’re getting ready to leave. I wonder if they’ve seen us.”

Benjy turned his head, and Dickce watched as Hadley, courtly as ever, pulled back Arliss’s chair for her and extended his arm when she stood. Arliss leaned against him and looked up into his face with what she no doubt thought—Dickce guessed—was a seductive glance. Dickce was pleased to note that Hadley appeared unaffected by the lingering gaze. The couple left the dining room without a glance in Dickce’s direction.

Dickce would have given a lot to have heard the conversation between the two. She couldn’t wait to tell An’gel about seeing Arliss and Hadley together.

“Do you think Miss An’gel is going to join us?” Benjy asked.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Dickce replied. Then she glanced over Benjy’s shoulder to see her sister advancing toward them. “No, I was wrong, because here she is.”

An’gel reached them, and Benjy jumped up to pull out a chair for her. An’gel smiled her thanks, and Benjy reseated himself.