Миранда Джеймс - Digging Up The Dirt

“Sounds like a plan,” Dickce said. “Call her, and even if she can’t join us, we can still have that coffee and pastry.” She put the car in gear and headed for the town square.

An’gel pulled out her phone and found the number in her contacts. Moments later she was speaking to Barbie.

“We’re in town this morning on business,” An’gel said. “We’re heading over to Helen Louise’s bistro for coffee and a pastry, and we thought it would be fun if you could join us. Can you?”

“Love to,” Barbie said. “What a nice surprise. I’ll be there in two shakes.” She ended the call.

“She’s coming,” An’gel said. “Now if we can only get her to tell us what we want to know.”

Dickce found a parking space near the entrance to the bistro, and when the sisters walked inside, Helen Louise Brady, the owner, looked up from the cash register and smiled. She came around from behind the counter to greet them.

“Miss An’gel, Miss Dickce, how lovely to see you. I hope you’ve both been well.” Helen Louise gave them each a quick hug.

An’gel had to look up slightly when she returned Helen Louise’s greeting. The bistro owner was around six feet tall, a striking woman with dark hair and a sense of elegance about her, even in her work clothes and baker’s apron.

“We’re doing fine,” An’gel said. “We thought we’d have lunch here. A friend is going to join us. Barbie Gross. Do you know her?”

“Yes, I do. She’s a regular.” Helen Louise escorted them to the table she reserved for special guests. “What would you like to drink?”

“Water for now, I think,” An’gel said. “What is the special today?”

“Chicken cassoulet,” Helen Louise replied. “I can promise you it is vraiment délicieux , even if I prepared it myself.” She smiled broadly.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had anything here that wasn’t vraiment délicieux ,” Dickce said with an answering smile.

“Sounds perfect to me,” An’gel said. “I agree with Sister. The food here is always magnifique .”

“Merci beaucoup, Mesdames,” Helen Louise replied with a tilt of the head. “Cassoulet for two, then. Anything besides water to drink?”

“I’ll have a glass of whatever wine you think appropriate,” An’gel said, and Dickce echoed her.

“Barbie ought to be here soon,” Dickce added.

“I won’t serve the cassoulet until I know what she wants,” Helen Louise assured them. “I’ll be back in a moment with water for you.”

Right after An’gel and Dickce received their water with slices of lemon, Barbie breezed in. She spotted them immediately but paused on the way to the table to speak to another customer—an older man, quite distinguished looking, An’gel thought. She didn’t know him, though.

Barbie, dressed in a silk warm-up suit and sneakers and sporting pearls around her neck and on her ears, sat down across from An’gel. She stuck her purse on the vacant chair to her left.

“I’m so glad you called,” she said. “I was getting bored. Lottie had something she just had to do, and I didn’t feel like TV or a book. I’ve been feeling so restless lately, all these odd things happening.”

“I know what you mean,” An’gel said, rather mendaciously. She and Dickce rarely ran out of things to do and so were seldom bored.

“Yes, these terrible things.” Dickce shook her head. “First Sarinda, and then Arliss. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

“There’s a lunatic out there.” Barbie shivered. “I’m surprised the police or the sheriff’s department hasn’t tracked him down yet. Surely they can find the person who ran Arliss off the road.”

“They are looking,” An’gel said. She debated whether to mention her own experience to Barbie. She decided she would, simply to gauge the reaction.

“As a matter of fact, I had a similar experience,” An’gel said. “To what happened to Arliss, that is.”

“Seriously?” Barbie’s eyes fairly popped. “When?”

“Right after we all left Ashton Hall yesterday afternoon,” An’gel said. She thought Barbie’s astonishment wasn’t feigned.

Helen Louise came to the table then with water for Barbie, who also decided on the cassoulet for lunch, along with wine. “Just bring the bottle,” she told Helen Louise.

Barbie turned back to An’gel. “Exactly what happened? Why aren’t you in the hospital?”

An’gel gave her a quick summary of the incident. After she finished, she waited for Barbie’s reaction.

“Are you sure it wasn’t simply a coincidence?” Barbie asked. “Seems to me if the person who hit you really wanted you in that ditch, he would have tried again.”

“It’s entirely possible,” An’gel said. “I’d much rather think that than think someone was trying to kill me.”

Helen Louise arrived with their servings of cassoulet before they could discuss the subject further. For several minutes all three women concentrated on the delicious dish.

An’gel ate about half of hers before deciding she had eaten more than enough. The rest could go home with them. “This is superb, but I think I’ve had enough for now.” She picked up her wineglass and finished off the contents.

“Yes, it is. I think I’m about done, too,” Dickce said. An’gel noticed Dickce had about half of hers left as well.

Barbie showed no signs of stopping. An’gel could see that there was little of her cassoulet left, and she seemed determined to finish it. She caught An’gel’s glance and grinned.

“I’ll burn it off on the tennis court,” she said. Three more bites, and she was done. She refilled her wineglass and drank half of it at one go.

Barbie was certainly a woman of healthy appetites, An’gel thought. Now that Barbie was full of wine and cassoulet, and hopefully in a somewhat mellow mood, An’gel decided to ask a question.

“Did you have an affair with Hadley before he left town forty years ago?”

CHAPTER 30

Barbie had been about to drink more wine when An’gel posed her question. She set the glass on the table and laughed, nervously, An’gel thought.

“Gracious, you certainly don’t mess around, An’gel,” Barbie said. “Why on the Lord’s green earth are you asking me such a question?”

“Because of the bones we found at Ashton Hall,” An’gel said. “Something terrible happened there, and the roots of that and the terrible things that have happened here recently all connect to the past. The common denominator in all this is Hadley Partridge.”

Barbie stared at her as if dazed. She licked her lips and started to speak. No sound came out. She took a breath and tried again. “Why should me having an affair with Hadley back then—and I’m not saying I did, mind you—why should that have anything to do with the rest?”

“Because,” An’gel said, pausing deliberately, “someone is evidently so desperate to have Hadley that she’s been willing to kill for him. Forty years ago, and again now.”

Barbie emitted another nervous laugh. “That’s crazy. The man is incredibly attractive, even now, and he oozes charm like nobody’s business. But kill in order to have him?” She shook her head. “That’s nuts.”

“To a sane person, yes,” An’gel said. “But to someone whose reason is warped, whose passion is out of control, it’s not. I have tried to come up with some other explanation for everything that’s happened, and I always come back to this.” She stared hard at Barbie. “Did you have an affair with Hadley back then?”

Barbie held up her hands. “All right, I give. I’ll tell you the whole pathetic story. I didn’t have an affair with him, but I would have given just about anything to get him into bed with me back then.” Her mouth twisted in a grimace of distaste. “My husband was good for maybe once a week, if you know what I mean. And not all that exciting even then. He cared more about hunting and fishing than he did about having an intimate relationship with me. I was ready for the first really good-looking man who came along. The minute I met Hadley, he was the one I wanted and thought I had to have.” She picked up her glass and drained the rest of the wine. When she set the glass back on the table, her hand shook a little.