with North’s fantasy just like I’d given him the rides, no questions asked.
“Just be nice to him, nothing more,” Peter warned before he hung up.
“No problem on that one,” I said out loud to myself as I walked into the kitchen.
I flinched when I heard a voice.
“Who are you talking to?” Barry asked. He was unloading white containers of Chinese food on the counter and had taken out a couple of plates.
“Just to myself,” I said. Jeffrey came in the room looking glum. He glared at his father with a hopeless expression and turned to me. I asked him if something was wrong. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Barry rocking his head and rolling his eyes.
“Autumn came back from camp, but she started hanging out with some other kids. Well, some other guy,” he added sadly.
Barry doled out a plate of food for him and said they could eat together in the dining room. Jeffrey sighed dramatically and said he’d eat in his room, that he wanted to be alone.
Barry sighed. “I’m trying to be understanding. I don’t know what to do with his moping around.” He gestured toward the containers. “There’s plenty. Help yourself.” He started to leave it at that, but then added with an edge. “I’m sure after being out all night you don’t feel like cooking.”
For a moment I thought of explaining, but then thought why should I? It was bad enough being judged by my sons, but now by Barry, too. We were just supposed to be like roommates. I gave him a “no thank you” on the chow mein and marched out of the kitchen with the last of my energy.
I was more tired than hungry, anyway, and just fell on my bed in my clothes. Mason called and I awoke long enough to talk to him. He was shocked to hear about the storage locker but I was so tired I was beyond sharing in his disbelief. Two seconds after we hung up I was out for the night.
In the morning I felt like a new person. I bounced out of bed, showered and got dressed. It was only as I was walking across the house that I thought about Barry. I hoped he was gone. I couldn’t handle another reproachful stare. No such luck. He was in the kitchen, sitting at the table, drinking coffee and eating some cereal while he checked the screen on his smart phone.
I was relieved when my house phone rang and it was Dinah. She said it had been bugging her about the lamp I’d seen. She couldn’t remember what it looked like.
“I didn’t take it out of the box and there wasn’t much light so I couldn’t make out the pattern in the leaded glass. But when I saw it at Kelly’s it had some kind of blue and green pattern. Flowers maybe. I don’t know.” We arranged to meet later and I hung up.
Barry looked up with a question in his eyes. I just cut to the chase. “Dinah wanted to know about a lamp I saw in Kelly’s storage locker. I suppose Detective Heather has told you all about it by now. How I took her on a wild-goose chase and led her to an empty storage unit. Well, when I went there the first time, it wasn’t empty.” I let out my breath in a huff. “How’s that decorating coming at your place? Will they be done soon?”
Barry had on his inscrutable cop face. “No, Heather didn’t tell me. It will just be a little longer until I can leave.”
I spent the day at the bookstore immersed in work. I didn’t want to think about anything else. Dinah came in just as I was finishing up.
“Let’s get far away from here.” She stuck her fingers in her ears. “It’s even noiser at my place.” The production crew was shooting a scene that had a helicopter landing up the street in the yard of the middle school. The thwack of the rotor was annoyingly loud even inside.
They weren’t actually filming any scenes with actors until later. Most of them had some time off and when we left the bookstore, they were hanging around the café. North was among them. He looked over at me and gave me what he must have considered his special wink. I offered a weak smile in return.
I still wondered why he had lied about knowing Kelly. Was there any way I could question him without