“Thanks.” He started toward the wide and graceful staircase. “How is she?”
“Better every day. Upset still she can’t remember what happened, but better. She’ll be happy to see you.”
Eli walked up, turned at the top of the steps to the east wing.
As Carmel predicted, his grandmother sat at the desk, tapping away at her laptop.
Back and shoulders ruler-straight, he noted, under her tidy green cardigan. Her silver-streaked dark hair stylishly coiffed.
No walker, he noted with a shake of his head, but her cane with its silver tip in the shape of a lion leaned against the desk.
“Rabble-rousing again?”
He came up behind her, pressed his lips to the top of her head. She just reached up, took his hand. “I’ve been rousing the rabble all my life. Why stop now? Let me look at you.”
She nudged him back while she swiveled in the chair. Those nut-brown eyes studied him without mercy. Then her lips curved, just a little.
“Whiskey Beach is good for you. Still too thin, but not so pale, not so sad. You brought me some springtime.”
“Abra gets the credit. She told me to get them.”
“You were smart enough to listen to her.”
“She’s the type who rarely if ever takes no for an answer. I figure that’s why you like her.”
“Among other reasons.” Her hand reached out, gripped his for a moment. “You are better.”
“Today.”
“Today’s what we’ve got. Sit down. You’re so damn tall you’re giving me a crick in my neck. Sit, and tell me what you’ve been up to.”
“Working, brooding, feeling sorry for myself, and decided the only thing in that mix that makes me feel like me is working. So I’m going to try to do something to eliminate the need for brooding and self-pity.”
Hester gave him a satisfied smile. “There now. That’s my grandson.”
“Where’s your walker?”
Her face reset into haughty lines. “I retired it. The doctors put enough hardware in me to hold a battleship together. The physical therapist works me like a drill sergeant. If I can tolerate that, I can damn well get around without an old-lady walker.”
“Are you still hurting?”
“Here and there, from time to time, and less than I was. I’d say, about the same as you. They won’t beat us, Eli.”
She, too, had lost weight, and the accident as well as the difficult recovery had dug more lines into her face. But her eyes were as fierce as ever, and he took comfort in that.
“I’m starting to believe that.”
While Eli talked with his grandmother, Duncan pulled his car to the curb, studied the house through the long lens of his camera. Then, lowering it, he took out his recorder to add to his notes for the day.
He settled in to wait.
Seven
PART OF THE JOB WAS BOREDOM. KIRBY DUNCAN SLOUCHED in his nondescript sedan, nibbling on carrot sticks. He had a new lady friend, and the potential for sex convinced him to drop ten pounds.
He’d managed two.
He’d moved the car once in the past two hours, and considered moving it again. Instinct told him Landon was probably settled in for a while—family dinner most likely as Duncan had snapped shots of the mother, the father and most recently the sister with husband and toddler in tow.
But his job was to sit on Landon, so sit he would.
He followed the job into Boston—an easy tail even with traffic—to the building that housed Landon’s lawyer. That had given him an opportunity to do a casual walk-around of Landon’s car. Nothing to see there.
Some ninety minutes later he’d followed Landon around the Commons, then tailed him to a high-priced salon, waiting while Landon got a trim. Not that Duncan saw much difference for the fifty-plus the snip cost.
But it took all kinds, Christ knew.
Landon made another stop at a florist, came out loaded.
Just a guy running a few errands in the city before he paid a visit to family. Ordinary crap.
In fact, as far as Duncan could see, all Landon did was ordinary crap, and not a hell of a lot of that. If the guy killed his wife and got away with it, Landon sure wasn’t out celebrating.
His report, to date, ran pretty thin. A few walks on the beach, the encounter with the sexy housekeeper and the woman who’d given Landon a solid squeeze—and turned out to be the married mother of three.
He figured there was some heat between Landon and the housekeeper, but he couldn’t connect them prior to Landon’s return to the house at the beach.