Bundle of Trouble - By Diana Orgain Page 0,41

the hormones racing through my body, I wasn’t able to hold them back.

“Not you, too.” Mrs. Avery dabbed at her eyes. “All we need now is for the little one to start.” She guided me to the couch.

The maid appeared in the doorway with a tray full of tea and small butter cookies. She set the tray on the coffee table and left.

“Help yourself, dear.” Mrs. Avery circled the car seat. “May I hold her? I haven’t held a tiny baby, since . . .”

I waited for her to continue, but she paused and looked at me pleadingly.

“Of course you can hold her.” I pulled a pink and green striped burp cloth out of the diaper bag at my feet and handed it to Mrs. Avery, then unbuckled Laurie from the car seat.

Laurie extended her arms over her head in a cat stretch. I scooped her up and made sure she was dry before passing her to Mrs. Avery. The last thing I needed was for Laurie to leak all over Mrs. Avery’s expensive suit.

“She smells so sweet.” Mrs. Avery breathed Laurie in. “I haven’t held a baby since Penny.” She sighed, then walked over to the mantel and pointed at the family portrait I had been looking at. “Here she is. Penny drowned five years ago.”

My throat constricted. I fought back more tears. “I know.”

Mrs. Avery looked surprised. “You do?”

“Svetlana told me.”

Mrs. Avery looked solemn. “Marta said you were here on behalf of Mr. Galigani.”

“Yes. I’m afraid he’s had a heart attack. He’s in the hospital. He’s scheduled for open heart surgery tomorrow.”

Mrs. Avery’s forehead creased. “Poor man. What hospital?”

“California Pacific.”

She rose, walked to the edge of the room, and called for Marta. When Marta appeared, Mrs. Avery requested flowers be sent to Galigani.

I felt a flash of guilt as I remembered the thank-you cards I had forgotten to write.

Well, in all fairness, I didn’t have a “Marta” to delegate to, but still. Our friends and coworkers had found time to send me and Laurie stuff. I had to make the time to thank them.

I pulled out my notebook and jotted down: “Stop being rude.”

Mrs. Avery seated herself across from me in a green and gold upholstered occasional chair. Her face had relaxed a bit. She seemed to enjoy holding Laurie. She motioned to the notebook in my lap. “Are you Mr. Galigani’s assistant?”

Why would she think I was his assistant and not his replacement? Did I look that unqualified?

I wavered a second, then astonished myself by saying, “I’m an investigator myself, ma’am.”

Mrs. Avery nodded vaguely, tickling Laurie under the chin, causing her to warble and drool.

Emboldened by Mrs. Avery’s nonreaction, I pressed, “Mr. Galigani won’t be able to finish the investigation.”

“I need to find out what happened to Bradley. And now, of course, Michelle. The police are absolutely worthless. They pointed the finger at Michelle almost immediately. Now they tried to tell me that perhaps she killed Brad and then herself.” She shook her head sadly. “That scenario doesn’t make any sense to me.”

“What do you think happened to Brad?”

“Hasn’t Mr. Galigani filled you in?”

Oh, shit.

“I’ve been on another case.”

Not exactly a lie. I had been looking for George.

She pressed her lips together in thought and seemed to accept my response. “I believed, well, I should say, I still believe Michelle’s story. She visited me on June sixteenth, the day after Bradley left her. She told me he’d left her for another woman. She was very upset. Michelle and I were close. Her own mother had passed. She relied on me. And Bradley, I must say, he always had a problem with women. Like his father. One woman wasn’t enough for him. Always needed to find . . .” Her eyes flickered about the room. “Never mind. The point of the matter is, I thought Bradley was off with another woman. In Costa Rica or Bora Bora or another of his preferred locations. After all, he left Svetlana like that, told her he was in love with someone else—Michelle. Bradley and Michelle were in Bali for three months.” She let out a cynical laugh that jarred Laurie, sleeping in her arms. “But the other woman never thinks that there will be another woman. She believes him when he says that she’s the one. The special one.”

Laurie opened her eyes slightly. Mrs. Avery rocked and shushed her back to sleep.

“Do you know who she was?”

“The other woman? I have no idea. Bradley never spoke to me about his affairs.”

“Do