Beverly Connor - One Grave Too Many

Diane headed for the kitchen to make coffee. Frank followed and began stuffing her refrigerator with Italian food.

“It’ll just spoil in mine,” he said. “And I’ll have to clean it out, and I hate cleaning out the refrigerator.”

She filled the coffeemaker with water and turned around into Frank’s arms. She had forgotten what a good kisser he was.

“I missed you,” said Frank. “I should have mailed you all those letters I wrote. I should have come to find you in the jungle.”

Diane looked into his eyes; they were more blue than green at the moment. “It’s good to be back. It’s good to be standing right here, right now,” she said and kissed him again.

“Can I stay the night?” he whispered against her ear.

“I told myself if we ever got together again, I was going to go slower this time,” said Diane. “Go places with you, get to know you. .”

“So can I stay the night?”

She giggled as the kitchen filled with the aroma of coffee. How long had it been since she actually giggled?

“What the hell? Maybe we’ll get tired of each other-then we can go on dates and get to know each other.”

“I can tell you my deepest, darkest secret right now-you know that and you’d know the worst about me.” He rubbed her back under her shirt and his touch both chilled and warmed her skin.

“What’s that? What’s the worst thing to know about you?”

He pulled her closer and nuzzled her ear. “I know how to play the accordion.”

Diane pulled back and looked him in the eye. “No, you’re kidding. That’s not true.”

“It is.” He put his forehead against hers.

“I’m not sure I can handle that,” she said. “What if some evening I find you playing a polka under my window?”

“You don’t have to worry. I have it under control.”

He kissed her again, and Diane felt the strains of “Ode to Joy” vibrating against her breasts.

Frank stepped away, pulled out his phone and looked at the display. “Cindy,” he said, pushing the ANSWER button.

“Hey,” he said. “How’s Kevin?”

While he was talking, Diane filled two cups with fresh coffee and took them into the living room on a tray with cream and sugar.

Frank came out of the kitchen holding his hand over the phone. “She wants us to come over for dinner this Saturday.” He raised his eyebrows and shrugged as he said it, smiling, perhaps at Cindy’s bad timing.

Diane felt the hand of Mark Grayson at work. “Tell her I’d love to and I’ve got a bottle of wine I’ve been dying to open, but it’ll have to wait until I get some museum business resolved that’s hanging over my head.”

Frank put the phone back up to his ear and repeated almost verbatim what Diane had said. He listened for several seconds. “I’ll give her that argument, but this thing at the museum really has her tied up right now. She’s not been able to go anywhere.” He paused. “I’ll do that and get back to you. Can I speak with Kevin?” The pause was shorter. “Homework, in the summer?” Pause. “Yeah, I’d forgotten about that. I’ll give you a call later.” He pushed the END button and put the phone back in his pocket.

“I suppose you heard that. It looks like you’re right-David must want to pressure you. She was pretty insistent we come for dinner.”

“She was asking you to convince me?”

“Yes.”

“Not being able to talk to Kevin wasn’t a part of it, was it?”

“I don’t know. I hope not.” Frank was pensive for a long moment. “That wouldn’t be like Cindy-unless she’s under a lot of pressure from David. I can tell her no. It’s not a problem.”

“I don’t mind going. But let’s wait a few days and see how much pressure comes our way over it. You know, it could just be her way of letting you know that it’s OK with her if you and I are together.”

“That wouldn’t be like Cindy either. So where were we?”

“Drinking our coffee?” Diane handed him a cup she had dressed with cream and sugar.

“Was that it? I thought we were going to drink it in the bedroom.”

He took Diane’s hand, backed away and led her into the bedroom.

A long while later, Diane lay her head on Frank’s chest, and gently stroked his skin with her fingertips. “Why didn’t you mail the letters?” she asked.

“I wanted to-I wanted to a little too much, and it scared me. I’d been divorced from Cindy for less than two years. I’d been through some rough times. I didn’t trust myself anymore. I didn’t know what I was feeling. Why did you stay gone for so long?” he asked.

Diane didn’t say anything for a long time. Instead of answering, she kissed his chest, then his lips.

“If this is a way of getting out of telling me, it’s very charming.” He slid both arms around her and pulled her on top of him. “And it will work.” He kissed her again.

It was dark in the jungle. One bright spotlight illuminated a circle of the dark gray-green foliage, then another, darting around like the eye of a predator. The music crept in from the distance. Diane heard it and ran toward it. She kept running, and it grew louder and louder until she was surrounded by the engulfing, deafening strains of “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” Where was it? She had to find it. She stopped, looking around her everywhere for the source of the music. The ground; it was coming from the ground. She knelt and dug in the hard jungle soil with her hands until they were bleeding. Fingers dug into her shoulders, dragging her back. No, she screamed. No!

“Diane, Diane. Are you all right? Diane.”

It was still dark, but she could see the bright moon shining through an opening. She sat up, confused for a moment before realizing she was in her bed-with Frank.

Frank reached over and switched on the lamp at her side of the bed. “Are you all right? You were crying in your sleep.”

“I’m fine.” She was cold and shivering. She hugged the bedcovers around her body. “It was just a nightmare.”

He cleared his throat to get the sleep out of his voice. “You want to talk about it?”

“I just need to get a drink of water.” She slipped out of bed and grabbed her silk robe hanging on the footboard.

She took a bottle of water from the kitchen and went into the living room with it and sat on the sofa, pulling a soft faux zebra throw next to her to snuggle up against. Frank came in wearing jeans and an open white shirt. He sat down on the couch beside her.

“I know something bad happened in South America,” he said. He hesitated, as though looking for words. “Something you haven’t wanted to talk about, and I understand that. Sometimes mistakes happen. . ” He trailed off, as if the words he finally found were inadequate.

“Mistakes?” Diane watched him and took a sip of water.

“I’ve heard,” he started uneasily, “that there was some mistake that led to a tragedy, and you lost your job. Whatever happened made it difficult to find another one for almost a year.”

Diane’s heart was still pounding from the dream. “You heard that from your friend Izzy?”

“He heard things. I think he just wanted to give me some kind of heads up.”

“I saw him the other day. We had a break-in at the museum. I felt then that he had some issue with me.”

“He just wanted me to know everything.”

Diane shook her head. A smile that felt more like anger than humor played around her lips. “That couldn’t be true. If he really wanted you to know everything, he would have checked his information. It’s what I would have done for a friend. And you believed him. Is that why you kept asking me if I was sure about my calculations?”