Three Bedrooms, One Corpse - By Charlaine Harris Page 0,69

her elbow. Terry Sternholtz and Eileen came up, Terry looking very pretty in the dark blue, her curly red locks tamed into a striking hairdo. It felt strange to realize that Terry had dressed up as much for her date with Eileen as I had for my date with Martin.

“I’ll be late Monday,” Terry told her boss. “I have an early appointment with the Stanfords.”

“I’ll be in Atlanta all day,” Franklin said casually. “I’ll see you Tuesday.”

But as Eileen, Franklin, and his date walked away, I gripped Terry’s arm. I must not have been gentle; she looked surprised as she asked me what I wanted.

“Terry. Do you remember saying, when we were at the Greenhouse’s, that a self-defense course wouldn’t have helped Tonia Lee? Because she had been tied up?”

Terry groped in her memory. “Sure,” she said finally. “I remember. So?”

“Do you by any chance remember who told you Tonia Lee had been tied?”

“Oh. Yeah, it was Franklin, next morning at the office. I get sick at grisly stuff like that, but Franklin gets into it.”

“Thanks, Terry. I was just curious.” Terry looked at me doubtfully, but then Eileen called her impatiently from the door, and she left, giving me a suspicious glance.

Donnie Greenhouse’s stupidity had maybe saved his life. He’d heard Terry make the comment about Tonia Lee’s being tied and realized its significance long before I did—well, maybe he wasn’t so dumb after all. He’d probably been plotting some elaborate revenge against Terry, never thinking to ask her where she’d gotten that damning piece of information. All the time, it had been secondhand.

I stood lost in thought until I realized Arthur had taken my hand. His wife was across the room talking to my mother.

I was eager to tell Arthur what I’d seen; okay, napkin-folding can’t be used as evidence, but at least I’d get a message to Lynn surreptitiously, an indicator that the police should look Franklin’s way very quickly.

But Arthur had his own agenda, and in a particularly maddening gesture I remembered vividly from our relationship, he raised his hand when I started to talk.

“Roe, that guy is bad news,” he said, fixing me with his flat blue eyes. His voice was low and steady and absolutely sincere. “Because of the good times we had together, I’m warning you. Get away from him, and stay away. This isn’t sour grapes on my part. We’ve done a background check on him, and he’s not. . .”

“Arthur,” I said with great force, to stop whatever he was going to say. I was thrown completely off-track. “I appreciate your concern. But I am telling you that I am in love. Now, you listen to this ...”

“If you won’t shuck him, I can’t make you.”

“You are so right...”

“But you have to know that that man is dangerous.”

“Who’s dangerous?” asked Martin with a ferocious cheerfulness.

“Mr. Bartell,” Arthur said, hostility in his voice. “I’m Arthur Smith, a detective on the local force.”

Martin and Arthur shook hands, but looked as if they would just as soon have arm-wrestled.

If they’d had fur around their necks, it would have been standing on end.

“Glad I met you,” Martin said enigmatically. “Roe, I brought the car around.”

“Thanks, honey,” I said, and Martin slid an arm around me and we turned to go to the car.

“Tell Lynn I need to speak to her,” I told Arthur over my shoulder.

“What’s‘happening, Roe?” Martin said after we’d left the Carriage House parking lot. “Are you really feeling sick?”

“No. But something happened tonight, and we have to talk about it.” Who else was more qualified to handle dangerous situations than Martin? He was dangerous himself. Maybe he would have an idea.

“Does it concern that policeman? Is he someone you’ve gone out with?”

“He’s married and has a baby,” I said firmly. “I went out with him a long time ago.”

“Was he warning you about me?”

“Yes, but that’s not what I want—”

“He said I was dangerous. Do you believe that?”

“Oh, yes. But—”

And suddenly we were in the middle of our first argument, which I couldn’t quite figure out. Somehow he was angry because Arthur had enough feelings for me to want to warn me off Martin, and I gathered it wasn’t the warning but the feelings that upset Martin. And then also, he felt that Lizanne’s engagement ring had overshadowed the beautiful earrings he’d given me, and he was mortified. And I was trying to tell Martin I loved the earrings and wouldn’t have taken an engagement ring if he’d given it to me,