five-star Pan-Asian restaurant, and a boutique with a tasteful display of whips, chains, and leather bras studded with metal spikes. Iowans are more discreet about specialty boutiques like this. They prefer them to be located in places that are more off the beaten path. Like…LA.
We’d made it back from Port Campbell with an hour to spare before our “Meet and Greet,” so after showering and restyling my hair, I zipped myself into a strapless black number with a peekaboo cutout in the back, slipped into stiletto slides, grabbed my shoulder bag, and rode the elevator to the lounge on the top floor.
The glass-enclosed room afforded dazzling bird’s-eye views of Melbourne’s darkening skyline and city lights. Henry sloshed punch into glasses at a buffet table, whistling slightly off-key to a tune that was being piped in over the stereo system. “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”? Hmm. Was it odd that we were in Australia’s cultural epicenter, listening to America’s greatest hits of World War II?
I took quick visual inventory, surprised when I found none of my crew in the conversational groupings scattered throughout the room. I tried to ignore a frisson of worry. Five minutes ’til showtime; they should be here by now. I hoped they weren’t all cowering in their rooms, too scared to go out, or…or stockpiling bug killer. That stuff could blow like a grenade if exposed to extreme heat, and not to put too fine a point on it, but it was poison!
“Are you Emily?” asked a man who spoke with a hint of a foreign accent. “Conrad Carver,” he said, shaking my hand. “I heard your name being called out at the Port Campbell visitor center. Did the coroner give you any idea what might have happened to the Bellows woman?”
I suspected the reason Conrad Carver looked familiar was because he had Albert Einstein’s hair and mustache. He was short and slightly built, with a unibrow that looked like a happy victim of Miracle-Gro. “He couldn’t tell me a thing, other than he’d be performing a postmortem.”
“It’s a terrible way to begin a holiday.”
“I’ll say.” Especially for Claire. “Are you traveling by yourself, Conrad?”
“No, no. My wife is with me. If you want to know the truth, this is our anniversary trip.” He smiled modestly. “Fifty years tomorrow.”
“Congratulations!” I clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s a great accomplishment, especially in this day and age.” I couldn’t place the accent. German? Russian?
“You must give all the credit to my wife for putting up with me all these years. The long work hours. The extended travel. The phone calls telling her I’d have to miss the children’s birthdays, again.”
“What kind of work did you do?”
“I was senior paleobotanist for the Smithsonian Institution, and in my spare time I wrote botany textbooks for universities.”
Guy Madelyn motioned to us with his camera. “Do you mind? I’d like to get shots of everyone.”
“Why don’t you take one of Conrad with his wife?” I suggested, stepping out of the way. “An anniversary photo. Where’s your wife, Conrad?”
“Maybe later with my wife,” he said, hooking an eager arm around my waist and yanking me close. “Say, cheese.”
Guy pressed the shutter.
Etienne strode toward us, giving me a long, lingering look up and down. “Love the dress, what there is of it.”
“Is this your wife?” Conrad asked, quickly dropping his arm.
Etienne flashed a slow smile. “She could be. All she has to do is say something other than, ‘I need time to think about it.’”
Conrad looked me in the eye. “A handsome young man asks for your hand, and you don’t say yes?”
“I brought you some punch, Em,” Duncan interrupted, cutting in front of Etienne to hand me a glass. “The dress rocks. What’s it made of? Spandex?” He planted a kiss on my bare shoulder, then lowered his hand to the peekaboo cutout at the small of my back, grazing his fingertips over the triangle of exposed skin. “Nice.”
Guy stepped forward and introduced himself to Etienne and Duncan with enthusiastic handshakes. “Could I drag you gentlemen over by the window so I can get a few photos of you against the lights of the Melbourne skyline?” He studied both of them with narrowed gaze. “Interesting bone structure. I bet…Never mind. We’ll see how it turns out. Do you mind?”
“Happy to be accommodating,” said Duncan.
Etienne hesitated before nodding agreement. He threw me a meaningful look. “Don’t move, bella. I’ll be right back.”
Conrad wagged a crooked forefinger at me. “I know now why you haven’t said yes