Deadly Décor (A Caprice De Luca Mystery) (11 page)

“I want to make women feel special, to help them to look good. I might even bring a cosmetologist in once a week and do workshops. What do you think?”

“I think you’re brimming with ideas, and all of them are good.”

“And you’ll work up a design for me? I need to know the best way to position racks, how big I should make the dressing rooms.”

Just then the front door opened without a knock, and Vince stood there, looking formidable. Caprice’s inner “uh oh” alert bonged because she knew he was here to see her.

Still, in spite of his expression, Roz said pleasantly, “Hi, Vince.”

The creases on his brow eased a bit as he returned, “Hi Roz. I’ll have those papers drawn up for you by next week. I need to talk to Caprice, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind.”

As Roz moved away toward the back of her boutique, Caprice asked her brother, “Just what do you have to tell me that you couldn’t tell me over the phone?” Then she swallowed hard. “Is it Bella? Joe?”

“No, not in the way you mean. I needed to see you face-to-face. I heard you hired Kent Osgood to paint the trim on your back porch. Since when did that trim need painting?”

“Since I wanted to refresh it.”

Vince grunted. “You pummeled him with questions, didn’t you? About Bob and their relationship.”

Now she did feel a bit guilty. “I asked a few questions, not many.”

“I’m going to tell you this once, Caprice, just once. Stay out of it, or you’re going to make everything worse for Bella and Joe.”

Ever excited about her date with Seth on Saturday, Caprice tried to keep busy in her home office before he arrived. There was always work to do, but right now she couldn’t concentrate on it. The investigation into Bob’s murder revolved like a merry-go-round in her mind, as did her worry about Bella and Joe.

When Sophia sauntered into the room to investigate what Shasta was doing, Caprice pushed her wheeled chair back, held out her arms, and twirled. “What do you think?”

Sophia didn’t seem impressed, so Caprice held her arms out and did it again. Shasta barked and took a few steps back as the chair moved a little.

“Shasta approves,” Caprice told her feline.

At Secrets of the Past, she’d purchased a vintage-style sundress for tonight that was printed with big yellow, pink, and purple flowers. It was designed with a full skirt that she hoped didn’t add more pounds visually. Even though she was about ten pounds overweight, her waist was one of her good features. This dress emphasized it. She’d bought yellow pumps to go with her yellow-vinyl vintage bag.

Her doorbell rang and she jumped up, scaring both Shasta and Sophia, who scattered.

“Sorry, girls.”

Both cat and dog were already roaming the living room when she opened her front door to Seth.

He smiled at her, one of those bone-melting smiles. At least
her
bones melted. He was wearing black cargo pants and a pale green polo. If a man could be considered yummy, he certainly was tonight.

She opened the screen door, and he didn’t hesitate to come in, crouch down, and pet Shasta.

“She’s looking good.”

Seth didn’t look into her eyes as he usually did, and Caprice wondered what was going on.

But then he stood, took Caprice’s hand, and pulled her into a quick kiss. “I missed you.”

The words certainly sounded sincere, and now he did look at her from head to toe. Then he grinned. “You’re going to be the prettiest date at the Blue Moon Grille. I even think we’re going to have a full moon tonight.”

The Blue Moon Grille had an outside deck, but it was always well-populated.

“We might not be able to get a table, not on a night like this.”

Seth gave her a wink. “I just happen to know someone who works there. He put our name on a reservations list. We’re good.”

She certainly hoped they were. This relationship was so new she was concerned something would mess it up. Maybe
she’d
mess it up. Her sisters constantly told her she sabotaged new relationships because she was afraid of getting involved with anyone again. She usually pooh-poohed that and told them she was just busy. But deep down she knew there was truth in it.

Seth asked, “Do you have to let Shasta out before we go?”

“No. I took her for a walk and we played a bit. She just went out by herself after I got dressed. She was outside a lot today. And yesterday, I had the back porch trim painted, and she got friendly with the painter.”

Seth narrowed his eyes. “Did this painter work with Bob Preston?”

“Well, yes, he just happened to.”

Seth shook his head. “I’m not going to say it.”

“Good.”

She picked up her purse from where it lay on the seat of the high-back mirrored hall bench, where the foil-wrapped loaf of blueberry bread also sat. She picked up the loaf as well.

Seth opened the door for her.

They were companionably quiet on the drive to the Blue Moon, which was a bit unusual because they always had a lot to say to each other. But Seth seemed to be in a reflective mood, and she remembered the last time she saw him, the way he’d held back when he’d kissed her. Her sixth sense told her something was going on, and her sixth sense was rarely wrong. Her Nana Celia had helped her develop it.

From the time she was a little girl, when Nana would see an expression on her face, she’d asked, “What’s your stomach telling you?” It had taken Caprice a while to realize exactly what Nana was talking about. But soon she’d learned to follow the stomach quivers, the sighs that came from deep within, the little warning bells that rang in more than her head.

Nana’s coaching over the years had paid off. So, now, she didn’t know what to expect tonight. Not at all.

The line at the Blue Moon Grille stretched through its reception area on the first floor of an arts and crafts mall and practically out the front door. But Seth wasn’t daunted by it. He took her hand and led her to the hostess.

“Reservation,” he said. “For the deck. Seth Randolph.”

As a doctor, Seth had to be confident in his diagnoses and in his decisions. He seemed to treat the rest of his life with that same confidence. That was one of the qualities she admired about him. There were so many others.

Always a gentleman, Seth let Caprice precede him up the stairs that led to the second-floor dining area and the deck outside. The chatter in the main dining room was loud around the bar and at the tables. They were glad to escape through sliding-glass doors to the outside deck, where the hostess showed them to a corner table. Caprice liked that idea because they wouldn’t have other patrons at their sides or at their backs, just in front of them. Those corner tables were a little more quiet and hard to reserve. There was a vase of wildflowers on the table, which was surrounded by two black wrought-iron chairs that might have been uncomfortable but weren’t because cushy cushions had been tied to the rounded backs and the seats. The glass-topped table held two white place mats, silverware, and crystal.

Caprice motioned to it all. “Thank you for this. It’s lovely.”

“I wanted to bring you someplace nice where we wouldn’t be interrupted.”

As he held her chair for her and she sat, she looked up at him over her shoulder. “So we won’t be interrupted tonight?”

She knew Seth couldn’t always control that. Sometimes, whether he was on call or not, when an emergency popped up he had to go.

“There are two doctors covering tonight, and no one is supposed to call me.”

She laughed. “You must have bribed them.”

“You, Miss De Luca, are way too smart for your age. I promised them tickets to Orioles games.”

“You certainly do have connections.”

“I meet a lot of people in the course of a day, and not just patients. Patients have friends and families. Some of them are grateful for what we do. They give me their cards, and they say ‘If ever I can help you in any way’ . . . So once in a while, I make a call.”

“That’s nice.”

He could see she meant it.

She went on, “Maybe we should just go back to using the barter system. It would be a lot friendlier and a lot fairer, don’t you think?”

“If someone changed my oil, I could give him a physical for free.”

“Or if someone gave me blueberries, I could bake blueberry bread and return the favor. I made a loaf for you. That’s what I left in your car. Put it in the refrigerator when you get home.”

“I think I like this bartering. Just what would you and I barter?”

“Maybe if you use your imagination . . .” she teased.

“Oh, no. You’re not going to give me a kitten for taking your temperature.”

Now she really laughed. “You’ve got my number.”

Seth smiled, then looked away, and she wondered if she’d said something wrong. But the waiter came to take their order.

“No expense spared tonight,” Seth said. “Order whatever you want, from soup to nuts.”

“It’s a good thing I joined the gym last month.”

“You mentioned that. Are you using weights?”

“No. Mostly I’m swimming. It’s the one form of exercise I actually enjoy. The problem is finding the time to do it. Lately I don’t get there till around seven in the evening. Lap swimming is from seven to eight.”

Caprice started her evening with a strawberry daiquiri. The bartender used fresh strawberries, and that was rare. She knew the price reflected that, but Seth had said to spare no expense tonight. They ordered two plates of appetizers—fried cheese sticks and an artichoke, cheese, and spinach dip that was warm and served with toasted rounds. Nikki made a similar dip, and this was almost as good.

Over the best ribs in town, glazed by a blackberry barbeque sauce, they laughed, licked sticky fingers, and shared a monumental dish of steak fries dripping with cheese. It wasn’t long before Caprice was telling Seth everything she’d found out about Bob. He listened well, asked perceptive questions, and didn’t wag his finger at her, maybe because he was an investigator at heart. After all, he had to solve the puzzle of people’s illnesses. He took a look at all the information she’d gathered and linked it together in pretty much the same way she had. This early, no one person was an obvious suspect, if you didn’t believe Bella or Joe did it.

Seth shook his head when she brought up that point again.

“Granted, I haven’t known them very long, but you’ve told me a lot about your sister Bella, and how the two of you grew up with Nikki and Vince. She might
think
about murdering somebody, but she’d never do it. Joe I really don’t know as well. But the few times I’ve talked with him, he seems like a solid guy. He wants what’s good for his family, even though he might not know the best way to get it. I don’t think he’d put himself or them in jeopardy by doing something so stupid.”

“Now that he’s explained about his gambling,” Caprice said, “I don’t think so, either. I haven’t heard from Bella since the police searched their house, so I don’t know what happened after he told her.”

“But you’ll be calling her soon to find out.”

“I have to nudge sometimes. That’s what sisters do.”

“I think it’s great your family is as close as it is.”

Was he telling her the truth? Could he ever be part of a large family like hers?

This time their conversation slowed to a stop because a guitarist strolled around the deck. Caprice recognized the folk melodies, beginning with “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

She leaned close to Seth, asking him, “Did you ask him to play that tonight?”

“Could be I told him to stick to the sixties and seventies. I know that’s some of your favorite music.”

Dusk had fallen, and the moon was already a whitish-silver ball hanging in the black sky. Caprice didn’t know if she’d ever been anywhere as romantic, if she’d ever been with anyone as romantic. Seth wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close for a kiss. They were in their own world, surrounded by the falling night.

Nevertheless, when he leaned away, he didn’t look happy.

“What’s going on, Seth?” she asked quietly, needing to know.

“I have something to tell you. The truth is, I don’t know how you’re going to react.”

She definitely didn’t like the start of that. “Do you want to tell me here, or do you want to tell me in private?” Now she was feeling a little scared.

He must have decided “here” was as good a place as any because he said, “I’ve applied for a one-year trauma and surgical critical care fellowship at Johns Hopkins in Maryland.”

Her stomach jumped. “One year starting when?”

“Starting in September.”

“That’s only a month off.”

“I know. Someone dropped out of the program. I read about it and applied. I’ll find out soon.”

Baltimore wasn’t that far away—about an hour and a half tops. But Caprice had been burned by a long-distance relationship once before. Still, she cared about Seth a lot.

Seth took her hand again. “It might not come through. If it doesn’t, nothing will change. But if it does . . . then we’ll both have a lot to think about.”

Yes, they would.

Seth must have seen the disappointment in her expression, and maybe more. He asked, “Do you want to go, or do you want to stay?”

Caprice was all about enjoying the present moment, as much as any she might forfeit or gain in the future. “That depends,” she said, shoving worry onto the back burner for later. “Are you going to share a piece of that chocolate cheesecake the Blue Moon is known for with me?”

“I’ll do better than that,” he said, standing. He held out his hand to her. “Will you dance with me?”

She took his hand, stood, and went to the postage-stamp-size area of the deck where a few couples were dancing. When Seth took her into his arms, she chose not to think about tomorrow.

Caprice waited in the garden behind Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on Sunday morning for her parents to extricate themselves from their many friends. She really should get going. She had an open house to see to.

But after Mass, her mother had leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I have some news you’ll want to hear. Meet me near Saint Francis.”

Saint Francis was one of Caprice’s favorite saints. Maybe her love of animals had been nurtured through her mom’s and Nana Celia’s stories about the saint, and his connection with furry creatures. The statue of him had been in the center of the garden in the back of the church for as far back as she could remember. It had been refaced and refurbished like so many things about the old church. But it had withstood the buffeting of time.

The rectory’s housekeeper saw to the bright flowers that surrounded it during the growing season. Right now, the saint, the bird on his shoulder, and the little bunny at his feet were surrounded by red and white geraniums.

She often stood out here after an early Mass feeling the morning breeze on her face, sitting on the concrete bench near Saint Francis, thinking about all the things one should think about after church and before the day shifted into high gear. She wondered if Joe and Bella would be coming to a later Mass, or if they weren’t venturing out today. Nikki and Vince often attended Saturday night services to keep their Sunday free. But Caprice enjoyed this early-morning quiet and the well wishes of friends and parishioners she’d known all her life.

Caprice’s mom, dressed in a pale blue summer skirt and blouse, left the group where Nana and her dad were still talking to friends. She sat down next to Caprice on the bench. “I know you need to get going, but I thought you might be interested in what I found out.”

Suddenly her mom was on her feet again, waving to a woman who’d come out of the back of the church. She called, “Melinda,” and motioned the blonde to join them.