Kelly, Sofie - Sleight of Paw

“Hi. What can I do?”

She frowned at the ceiling. “Hi. How about grabbing the end of the lights before they bang against the side of the ladder and break?”

I caught the end of the cord, holding it away from the ladder while Maggie finished unhooking the string. That was when I noticed the helium-filled pig. It was floating over the tables, wearing a Minnesota Wild hockey jersey and holding a sign that said BITE ME.

“Interesting choice with the pig,” I said.

“Thanks,” Maggie said. “Could you hand me those bulbs, please?”

I draped the lights over a nearby chair and grabbed the package of bulbs she pointed to. I got one out of the box and handed it to her. She screwed it in place, then looked at the adjacent fixture, twisting her mouth to one side in thought. I held up my arm, offering another bulb without speaking.

“Yeah,” she muttered to no one in particular. She twisted the second light into place and nodded with satisfaction. We ended up replacing six bulbs before Maggie was completely happy.

“Thanks,” she said, scrambling down the ladder. “I just want to see how this looks.” She walked over to the door and flipped the light switch.

There was a faint pinkish yellow cast to the light on the locker-room scene. Maggie came back and stood, studying it, with her arms crossed. “What do you think?”

“It looks kind of like those old fluorescent lights. I’m guessing that’s the effect you wanted.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I wanted it to look like a locker room. She frowned suddenly. “Do Eddie’s legs look right to you?”

“Uh-huh. Why?”

She shook her head and started for the dummy. “No,” she said. “His right leg is crooked.”

I watched her twist the dummy’s leg. Even though he was just a mannequin I caught myself cringing in sympathy.

I was still wearing my hat. I pulled it off and shook my head as Rebecca came out of the kitchen. She waved, and I dropped my toque on the chair and went over to her.

“Hello, Kathleen. What are you doing here?” she asked. She was wearing a long white apron tied at the neck and waist and she smelled like cinnamon.

“Just giving Maggie a hand.”

Maggie was on her knees now, doing something to Eddie’s knee that would’ve had him writhing on the floor if he’d been a real person.

“Have you had a chance to look at the photographs?” Rebecca asked, gesturing to the display.

“A little,” I said. “They’re fascinating.”

She pressed a hand to her chest. “They take me back.”

Behind her Everett appeared in the kitchen doorway. He was wearing an apron, too. He had a vegetable peeler in one hand and a carrot in the other. “Hello, Kathleen,” he said.

Rebecca turned at the sound of his voice and every bit of her face smiled.

Everett held up the carrot. “This is the last one. I think we need to do another bag.”

“All right,” Rebecca said. “I’ll be right there.” He lifted the peeler in acknowledgment and disappeared back into the kitchen.

I smiled at Rebecca. “The things we do for love.”

Her eyes sparkled and a blush of pink spread across her cheeks. “Isn’t it grand?” she said. She gave my arm a squeeze. “I’ll look for you tonight.”

I watched her go back to the kitchen, hoping I’d be that happy when I reached Rebecca’s age.

The door to the hall pushed open and Ruby came in. She looked around, caught sight of me, and hurried across the floor “Am I late?” she asked, yanking off her gloves.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Maggie’s adjusting Eddie’s legs.”

Ruby looked over at Mags pulling on Eddie’s leg like a demented chiropractor, and handed me a canvas bag. “These are the lights Maggie wanted.”

“Thanks,” I said. I studied her face for a moment. She seemed unsure whether to go or stay. Before I could ask her if everything was all right, Lita poked her head out of the door to the kitchen.

“Ruby, hang on for a moment,” she called. “I have something for you.” Lita skirted the long tables and joined us. She was carrying a black cloth bag from the grocery store. “I was so sorry to hear about Agatha,” she said.

Ruby nodded. “Thank you.”

“I know the two of you were close.” She held out the bag. “Agatha left this here the night she . . . died. I didn’t know what to do with it.”

“What is it?” I asked. I remembered Agatha had had the bag at Eric’s.

“Just odds and ends,” Lita said.

Ruby took the bag, hugging it to her chest. “Thank you,” she said in a low voice.

Lita nodded and went back to the kitchen.

Ruby pressed her lips together and swallowed a couple of times. “I’m not very good at this.”

“You’re doing fine,” I said. Agatha’s death had hit her hard. Her usual resilience seemed to have deserted her.

“David—Agatha’s son—called me. It’s going to be at least another three or four days before he can get here.”

“I’m sorry.”

“He asked me to pick some clothes for her to be . . .” She let the end of the sentence trail off. Then she cleared her throat and continued. “And check on the house.” She had to clear her throat again, and I could see the effort it was taking for her not to give in to tears. “I said I would, but when I think about it . . .” She took a shaky breath.

“I’ll go with you if that would help.”

Ruby looked at me. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Her shoulders sagged. “That would help a lot. Thank you.”

“When do you want to do this?”

“Any chance we could go before the supper tonight?”

“I don’t see why not,” I said. “The library is closing early because of Winterfest. Where did Agatha live?”

It turned out the older woman had lived close to the Stratton Theater, ten minutes, maybe less, from the library. We agreed to meet just before five thirty.

“It won’t take long,” Ruby promised, setting the bag on a chair and shedding her coat. She took the lights back from me. “I appreciate this, Kathleen.”

“It’s not a problem,” I told her.

Maggie was standing back studying Eddie again. From where I was standing, his legs didn’t look any different from the way they did before she started pulling and twisting them. Ruby walked over, gave Maggie the bag and studied Eddie, too. Whatever it was they were concerned about, I couldn’t see.

“Hello,” a voice said behind me.

Startled, I jumped.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” It was Ruby’s boyfriend, Justin. He smiled. “Ruby says she’s going to stick a warning bell on me. She says I must’ve been a cat in a past life.”

I thought about Hercules and Owen sneaking around the house. They were always catching me unawares.

“Hello, Justin,” I said. “Ruby’s helping Maggie. She shouldn’t be too long.”

He pulled off his gloves and stuck them in the pocket of his brown leather jacket. “Actually I was hoping to talk to you. Ruby said you’d probably be here. Could you answer a couple of questions about the reading program you set up at the library?”

I frowned. “You mean Reading Buddies?”

“Yeah,” he said. “You got a Franklin grant for that, didn’t you?”

“We did,” I said.

Reading Buddies was a program we were doing through the schools. It paired kids in kindergarten and grade one with older kids in grades four and five—supervised, of course.

“I’ve been working on a project to build a camp for at-risk kids. You know, the ones who for whatever reason don’t fit in at a regular school.” He pulled a brochure out of his pocket and handed it to me. “It’ll give them the chance to learn responsibility and life skills.” His face got dark. “We have a piece of land, but the funding for the next stage fell through.”