Buzz Off - By Hannah Reed Page 0,71

in the mirror. I’d never been good at this sort of thing, calling someone out when they did me wrong. Sure, I could stand up to my family in a passive-aggressive sort of way and I could go to bat for another person if I felt they were treated unfairly, like when Johnny Jay used to bully other kids or even now when he pushed around adults. But when it came to face-to-face confrontation, I wasn’t nearly as confident.

In one enlightened moment while I stared into the mirror, I realized exactly why Patti was the way she was. I understood her perfectly, scary as that was.

Patti knew people didn’t really like her too well. They didn’t want her around, but she wanted desperately to be noticed and accepted. Gossiping got attention. Whether good attention or bad attention, she didn’t really think it through that much, so long as she had her tiny little share of limelight.

She just wanted to be part of the community but she was going about it all wrong, driving people away instead of to her.

Or at least that’s what I came up with.

When I sat back down at the table, she said, “It was nice of you to apologize to me, before, at the store. And I accept your apology. You weren’t very friendly in high school. In fact, really rude and insensitive, is more like it. Hanging out with that clique of yours. Maybe now that you’ve grown up we can be real friends.”

“Sure,” I said, not sure at all, wondering what I was getting myself into, sensing a new direction I didn’t want to explore. “But I’m pretty busy with the store and my bees. I don’t have much time for girlfriends.”

Which I realized was absolutely true. I didn’t have any close female friends unless you wanted to count my younger sister or my cousin. How pathetic was that? I hadn’t had time for a personal life while I’d been living in a bubble while struggling to save the store from ruin during my marital split.

Even so, Patti wasn’t exactly my first choice for a new best friend.

“Now that we’re buddies,” Patti said, seeming to have forgotten the thread of our earlier conversation, thank God, “I didn’t get a chance to finish telling you what I know about Grace and your ex-husband.”

“Something important?”

Patti nodded. “I saw them through my telescope.”

“Your . . . telescope?” Jeez!

“I have it set up in the window facing the river so I can watch birds and water fowl and, you know, whatever.”

“Right.” I tried to picture which window she might be referring to. And whether that same one looked out over my yard and into my windows. My compassion for her socially inept manipulations was fading fast.

Patti leaned forward, conspiratorially. “Anyway, I saw them together last Thursday night right before dark. You were at the store, I think, because I couldn’t see you moving around inside your, uh, I mean your lights weren’t on and I know you work late some nights.”

P. P. Patti had been watching me through a frickin’ telescope? Oops, there went my sympathy, completely gone.

“Grace had parked in the library parking lot so no one would see where she was going.” Patti was in her element, her eyes shiny. “I know because I followed her afterward to see where she went. That’s how I found out where she’d parked. Anyway, she knocked on Clay’s door, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and when he opened the door, she slipped right in. And this was the very night before her husband was killed by bees! Of course, she didn’t know he was going to die. Later on, she must have felt pretty bad about her timing.”

“Are you sure it was Grace?” This was the proof I was looking for! Grace and Clay really were having a clandestine affair! If Patti could be believed. From her detailed account, it had to be true.

“Like I said, I followed her about an hour later when she came out, dabbing at her eyes with a hanky. She’d been crying! I’m not sure why. She could have been calling it off with Clay, or he’d dumped her, because I haven’t seen her back and believe you me, I’d know.”

“That was the only time you saw them together?” I asked.

“That I know of, but I wasn’t on high alert until that Thursday.”

“Did you mention any of this to the police chief?” I asked.

“Should I have?” P. P. Patti said. “I