Ingrid Weaver - Winning Amelia

And she hadn’t lived that life alone. She’d had her husband, the man she had chosen over Hank.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Timmy wanted another story.”

Hank started at Amelia’s voice. He hadn’t heard her approach, likely because she was barefoot. She had loved going barefoot during the summer when they were kids. She used to be self-conscious about the size of her feet, but he’d thought they were perfect, long and slender, with a particularly ticklish spot in the center of the arch. He’d loved hearing her laugh....

Hank pushed his memories aside as Amelia returned to the living room. “It sounds as if you settled the dog down, too,” he said.

“He sleeps at the top of the stairs whenever Timmy’s up there. He thinks he’s a guard dog.” She cleared the stacks of laundry off the coffee table by putting them in the wicker basket. “The other two boys have popcorn so they should be good for a while.”

“You’ve got your hands full.”

“It’s Jenny and Will who are the busy ones. I try to give them a break when I can. It’s the least I can do.”

He waited until she sat, then took the chair across from her. “When do you expect them back?”

“Not for another hour at least. Why?”

“I was canvassing the neighbors tonight and hoped to talk to your brother and sister-in-law, too.”

“It would probably be too late. They both get up early, and Jenny needs lots of rest these days. We’ll have to do it another time.”

“I can talk to them on my own.”

“It’s no trouble. I’d prefer to be present. That way you won’t need to bother giving me updates.” She gripped her knees and leaned forward. “Speaking of which, have you made any progress?”

“I do have a lead I’ll be pursuing. One of your neighbors believes she might have seen the car of the person who bought the painting.” He summarized what he’d learned from Ruth.

“That’s great!”

“It gives me a place to begin, as long as she actually saw what she claimed she did.”

“Oh, you can believe Ruth Talmidge. She’s a sweet lady. I see her busy with her garden most nice days. She always waves hello.”

“She did seem observant.”

“Jacob was the only one I talked to at the Talmidges’. He’d promised to ask his mom but I guess it slipped his mind.”

“He likely didn’t want to get into trouble for leaving the house. He was supposed to be grounded.”

“I’m glad you went back. It’s a good thing you were thorough.”

“I’d like to talk to your sister-in-law to confirm what Ruth told me. Describing a car that distinctive might help trigger Jenny’s memory.”

“Yes, it might. I’ll ask her as soon as they get home.”

“You said it would be late.”

“Well, yes, but that wouldn’t take long. I’ll call you tomorrow if I learn anything, okay?”

That was the second time she’d put him off, as if she were reluctant to have him talk to her sister-in-law himself, but that made no sense. It was true that Jenny would indeed need a lot of rest in her condition, as Amelia had said. “Sure. I’ll see what I can do about tracking down the owner of that car. Even if he didn’t buy the painting, he did attend the sale. That alone could prove helpful.”

“There couldn’t be many canary-yellow classic cars from the fifties around. The problem is finding it.”

“Depends where you look.”

“Can you hack into the Ministry of Transport database?”

He shook his head. “Hacking the MOT would be illegal. Besides, I do have another approach I could take. I heard there was an antique car show at the fairgrounds on the weekend.”

“Last weekend? That couldn’t be a coincidence.”

“Probably not. Collectors tend to baby their cars, so they don’t use them for everyday errands. I’m guessing the owner of that yellow car your neighbor saw brought it out for the show.”

“Then you can contact the group who organized the show!”

“That’s the first step. Odds are good that the person we’re after is a member, or that I’ll find someone who knows him.”

Amelia closed her eyes briefly. She exhaled on a sigh. “Hank, this is wonderful. Thank you so much for helping me.”

“I haven’t found anything yet, Amelia.”

“I know, but at least you’ve given me hope.”

Her anxiety over the painting appeared as genuine as it had when they’d met in his office. Now that he’d seen for himself how she’d been living, he could understand how she might be feeling emotionally raw. That made it more difficult for him to broach the next subject. “Do you believe that Ruth’s observations are reliable?”

“For sure. And with all the gardening she does, she likely knows everything that goes on in the neighborhood.”

“Then I hope you could explain something to me. She was certain she saw your family celebrating on Sunday afternoon.”

“What?”

“She said you had just gotten home.”

Amelia wiped her palms on her knees. “Sunday?”

“In the afternoon. Ruth saw you hugging Jenny and Will. She said the boys joined in, too.”

“That was before I found out the painting was missing.”

“What was going on?”

“Jenny made more than five hundred dollars at the yard sale.”

“Was that what you were celebrating?”

“Five hundred dollars is a lot of money.”

“From what Ruth described, you appeared very excited. I just wondered whether there was more to it. Was there?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“You seem nervous, and you’re not looking at me.”

She rubbed her knees once more, then folded her hands in her lap. “Money’s a sensitive subject for me.”

“Sorry.”

“And I don’t appreciate being given the third degree. If I had a dollar for every time people have given me attitude about the fortune I lost, I’d be halfway to getting it back by now.”

“I wasn’t giving you attitude, Amelia, or the third degree. I was just trying to make sense of what I heard. That’s how I work.”

“Well, what Ruth observed had nothing to do with the painting. It wasn’t until we came inside that I saw it was gone.”

“I see.”

“Good. Then let’s concentrate on that. What happens next?”

“Hmm?”

“Once you find out who owns that yellow car.”

“Then I go and talk to him.”

“In person?”

“That’s right. I prefer to speak with people face-to-face whenever possible. It gets better results. It’s too easy to say no over the phone.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Why?”

“I could help. He might be more willing to talk to a couple than to a man on his own.”

“I do have some experience conducting interviews.”

“Why wouldn’t you want me along? We both want the same thing, don’t we?”

Hank always worked alone. It was one of the aspects of his profession that he truly enjoyed. He had never allowed a client to interfere with his methods, much less accompany him on an investigation. “What about your own job at Mae B’s?” he asked. “Won’t you be too busy?”

“They let me go.”

“What? When?”

“Yesterday. They gave my job to the owner’s niece.”

“Amelia, I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “I’ll find something else, but at the moment I have plenty of spare time so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t help you. It’s only fair, since you’re waiving your fee. And besides...” She smiled. “It would be more efficient if we work together. You wouldn’t need to waste time giving me updates.”

Her smile set off another flash from the past. It was the first full smile Amelia had given him in more than a decade, and like everything else she did, she put herself into it one hundred percent. Eagerness shone from her face. Her lips curved, her cheeks dimpled and her eyes gleamed the familiar, unique blue-green that made his brain shut down.