The Lovely Chocolate Mob - By Richard J. Bennett Page 0,49
regular guy was sick and couldn’t make it, so they were sending a fill-in, who supposedly had a good reputation in the business… Franklin, what’s this all about?”
“Nothing, dear, nothing. I’m just being … careful. You can’t be too sure of anything these days.”
Helen looked at him but didn’t say anything.
Franklin then looked as though he thought of something. He turned to her again, saying, “Helen, is anything missing, or have you noticed anything misplaced around the house?”
Helen looked puzzled and said, “Why no, no, I haven’t noticed anything missing. Have you? What’s wrong, Franklin? What’s going on?”
“Where do you keep our wedding album?” he insisted. “Where are our wedding and family photographs?”
“In the library, where we keep most of our photographs, in records and albums. Many of them are on display on the wall in the hallway. Some of the albums are upstairs in our closets. Why?”
“I’ve seen some of our family pictures recently. If somebody got into the house, they could have taken photographs of the hallway portraits.”
He focused on Helen to ask more questions, saying, “Who’s been here recently? Plumbers? Electricians? Who?”
“Franklin, you’re almost out-of-control; you’re scaring me!”
“Just tell me what I want to know!”
“Daddy, do you want to open presents now?” asked Lucia, who walked up on them without suspecting that anything was wrong.
“Not now, dear,” said Franklin. “Soon.”
“Okay. We’ll play some more games,” Lucia said, then turned to go back to the other children.
“Lucia!” Franklin said loudly.
She stopped and turned back to her father. “Yes, Daddy?”
Franklin looked down at Lucia, got down closer on her level, and hugged her. “Thank you for reminding Daddy. I love you,” he said and kissed her on the cheek.
She hugged her Daddy, Franklin stood up, and Lucia returned to playing with the other children, as though everything were normal.
Helen watched all this, knowing something was wrong, but figured the quickest way to remedy things was to answer Franklin’s questions. “Franklin, we did have some work done on the back guestroom; we had a painter in to touch it up last week. I was volunteering at the animal shelter, and Sylvia let him in. He’d have to go through the long hallway on the way back there… he’d see all the family photographs, but no pictures are missing. Why would anybody want our photographs, Franklin?”
“That would explain it,” said Dr. Burke. “I’ve just seen some pictures pop up that shouldn’t be out there, but now I know how they did it. Did you pay him by check?”
“No, I left money for Sylvia to pay him with cash; some of them prefer it that way, you know.”
He looked down at Helen, realizing he’d caused some tension in the home; Franklin winced, then said, “It’s nothing, dear, just some people playing a prank on me for my birthday.”
“Must be some prank! For a minute there, you had me worried, dear.”
“Fellow workers at the hospital were wishing me a happy birthday and somehow they got our photographs, pictures of me when I was younger, you know, the typical birthday stuff.”
“They must have really gone out of their way to mix with painters. Maybe they came in with them?”
“Yes. Maybe. Perhaps,” thought Dr. Burke. “Maybe they weren’t doctors.”
“You must really be well-liked at the hospital for your co-workers to do something like this,” said Helen, still hoping for a better explanation.
“They do this sort of thing a lot,” said Dr. Burke. “At the hospital.”
“Maybe you could invite me to some of the birthday parties so I could see for myself.”
“Oh, it’s just foolish stuff, dear. Nothing to worry your pretty little head about.”
“If you say so,” said Helen. “Happy birthday, dear.”
“Thank you.”
He kissed his bride, but kept an eye open, looking for anything, or anyone, out of place in the room full of children; anyone was suspect, now.
At Estella’s
David had joined Walter and me at a back table, being waited on by Kim, who brought us our drinks, then left us alone to talk about whatever it was that older gentlemen wanted to talk about in secret; she really didn’t want to know. David was looking around, soaking in the atmosphere; I was accustomed to it by now, and Walter was in his second home.
We refrained, or tried to refrain from congratulating each other, even though there was an obvious feeling which was mutual among us; we had accomplished something of worth. We had taken a bold step to save a family and directed a wayward husband back to the fold, where he ought