hour ago looking for her fiancée, Dickey Spia.
“Naturally, when my honey-bear didn’t return my calls I got worried,” Jade told us as she carefully placed the white mug down on the coaster on my coffee table.
“Naturally,” I said feeling a bit woozy from all the excitement.
Lisa also sat on sofa still wearing my oversized baby-blue flannel pajamas with the golden stars and quarter moons, sipping tea like it meant something. My mother sat in the rocker dressed in a deep red granny skirt she kept rolled at her waist and a floral peasant blouse with sleeves that covered her hands, also sipping on a cup of Palm Court tea. Go figure. I was perched on the arm of my sofa, next to Lisa, unable to commit to either sitting or standing, staring at our guest, who looked vaguely familiar in that extended-honorary-family sort of way.
And Dickey’s pinky finger was stashed in the back of my freezer, tucked inside a snack-sized Ziplock.
“What time did you last talk to him?” I asked, still working on that timeline for Dickey’s murder.
“I guess it was about seven-ish because that’s when the hybrid ferry docks to take some of us back to the city. I work for National Parks and Recreation and my shift ends at six-thirty, but the ferry doesn’t arrive until about seven. Anyway, that’s when I make all my phone calls or Twitter or text my friends. While I’m waiting for the ferry. One of my friends, Monica, wouldn’t stop talking, ya know? She’s like that, always talking even when she doesn’t have anything to say, ya know? Don’t you hate that?”
I nodded.
She continued without prompting. “That’s why I didn’t call Dickey until I got on the ferry. But we talked all the way in.”
“And how long did that take?”
“The usual time, fifteen minutes. I didn’t want to get off the phone with him, but he said he had to go because somebody wanted to talk to him. Then the phone cut out. I tried to call him back ‘cause I thought it was my phone, sometimes it does that, ya know? But when I called him he didn’t answer.”
“Did he ever pick up again?”
But I already knew the answer to that one.
She shook her head. “No. Isn’t that weird? I mean, I had no choice but to come looking for him. Right? He coulda been dead on the road or something, ya know? But when I pulled in by that barn building, like Benny told me to, and saw Dickey’s black SUV was still here, I was relieved that he wasn’t dead, ya know? Or lying in some hospital hurt and lonely for his baby-girl. That’s what he calls me, his baby girl ‘cause I’m so much younger than him. Not that it matters when you’re in love. Age doesn’t mean a damn thing when you’re in love, ya know?”
We nodded in unison.
“Anyway, where is he? I mean, I know how much my honey-bear has looked forward to sleeping in. They don’t get to do that in prison, what with all the noise. Plus, the guards wake ‘em early for breakfast.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s getting close to lunchtime. He likes that meal and probably won’t want to miss it. You think he’s still sleeping?”
We nodded again, like bobbing heads on a spring.
“Well, I don’t want to wake him, but—” she paused, placing her bent index finger up to her glossy pink lips, tapping, as if she was thinking of something. It was the first time I noticed the rather large pink rock on her ring finger, no doubt an engagement ring from Dickey. An engagement ring that was worth more money than an ex-con should be able to put together in the short time he’d been a free man, but I was digressing.
Jade’s blond hair was pulled up in a tight ponytail. Large silver hoops hung from her earlobes. “Maybe if you guys don’t mind, you can tell me where he is and I can surprise him. He might like that.”
“Sure,” my mother agreed, and before I could stop her, she was standing. “I put all his things in one of my upstairs bedrooms.”
Mom had me completely stymied. I couldn’t figure out what the woman was thinking. Either she had no clue that Dickey was actually dead, or she was simply playing some sort of elaborate game with Jade. Either way, from the look on Jade’s innocent face, Mom had her wrapped around her finger.
Jade smiled and stood