Lavender Morning (35 page)

over the rain. David started to say something to her, but then hobbled toward the back of the house to find

another door. He was back minutes later.

“Anything?” she shouted, the rain running down her face; her clothes were drenched, her hair straggling

about her face.

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“Nothing. The place is locked up.”

“There has to be something we can do,” Edi said. “Break the window.”

“What?”

“Break it down. Get inside. Look for the bloody magazine!”

“If this is supposed to be a secret,” he shouted, “that will expose it.”

“Do you have a better idea?” she yelled back.

“Yeah, we could—”

David didn’t say anything more because the front door opened, and Mrs. Pettigrew peeped out.

“Come in,” she said. “You’re soaking.”

Edi practically pushed David aside as she went into the restaurant. “Did you see a magazine?” she blurted

out.

“Oh, yes, the
Time.
We don’t see them much around here. It was nice to see about the Cavendishes and

the—”

“Where is it?” Edi asked, her question a demand.

David stepped in front of her. “What she means is that she promised the magazine to her uncle and it was

my fault it was left behind. Do you have it?”

“Sorry, but I don’t,” Mrs. Pettigrew said, smiling. “But I have some very nice issues of
Country Life.

Maybe your uncle would like a couple of those.”

“No,” David said before Edi could speak. “That magazine has an article in it about her cousin and she

needs
that
issue.”

“Oh, well, then, I think that Mr. Farquar has some old
Time
magazines. Maybe he has that issue.”

“We want
that
magazine,” Edi said, her teeth clenched. “What happened to it?”

“Aggie took it.”

“Aggie took it,” Edi said in barely a whisper.

“Aggie Trumbull. She works for me two days a week. I can’t afford to pay her much, but I let her keep bits

and pieces that the guests leave behind.” She looked at Edi in reproach. “Like old magazines. Usually, people

don’t mind.”

David put his arm out, as though to keep Edi from attacking the woman. “So where can we find this Aggie?

”

“She goes home where she lives with her grandfather. If you come back in three days, she’ll be here and

we can ask her about the magazine. I’m sure she took it for her old grandfather. He loves to read.”

“Three days,” Edi said. “Three days?”

“Maybe we could go to her grandfather and get the magazine ourselves,” David said. “Could you tell us

where he lives?”

“Three villages over,” Mrs. Pettigrew said, “but in this rain you’ll never make it in a car. The bridge goes

out at half this much rain, and at this time of year the river will be flooded. No, you’d better stay here for a

couple of nights and wait. I could put you up. Do you want one room or two?”

Again, David stepped between Edi and the woman. “No, we won’t be needing any rooms, but maybe you

could draw us a map of the way to Aggie’s grandfather’s house. And if it wouldn’t be too much trouble maybe

you could pack some lunches for us.”

“It’s past time for lunch,” she said, looking as though she wasn’t going to move.

“Tea, supper, and something for breakfast,” Edi said coldly. “We’ll buy all the food you have. Now will

you draw us a map?”

“I’d be happy to,” Mrs. Pettigrew said. “And it’ll just take me a minute or two to fix you a few boxed

meals.” She left the room.

Edi gave David a look like she wanted to murder him.

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Ed

3/16/2010 i gave David a look like she wanted to murder him.

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“Don’t look at me like that. This is your fault for not telling me what was going on,” he said under his breath

so he wouldn’t be heard. “If you’d told me that that blasted magazine held some kind of secret, I would have—”

“What, Sergeant Clare? Not gone snooping in my bag and stolen it, then left my private property on a chair

so someone else could steal it? If the safety of our countries depended on
you
we’d have lost this war years

ago.”

“If you weren’t such an uptight snob who thought she knew everything and no one else in the world had a

brain, we wouldn’t be here now.”

“Snob? You call taking care of Top Secret information snobbery? Is that what you’re labeling it?”

“Top Secret? Since when does a secretary have Top Secret security clearance?”

“When it is necessary.”

“To console some widow? There are thousands of widows right now and they—” Halting, he looked at

her. “There is no widow, is there? This is something altogether different, and neither you nor that loudmouthed

general you kiss up to told
me
anything. Damn you!” he said. “You’re talking something dangerous, aren’t you?”

“It’s none of your business what’s going on. You’re just the driver.”

“And you’re just the secretary!” he said, his face nearly touching hers.

“Oh, dear,” came the woman’s voice from the doorway. “I’m afraid I’ve caused a bit of a tiff between you

two. That’ll be ten pounds six,” she said.

“Ten pounds?” Edi said, aghast. It was an enormous amount of money. “I don’t think—”

“I think that’s fine,” David said, getting out his wallet. “Could I have the map now?”

“Of course, dear,” she said, not looking at Edi. She handed him a folded piece of paper, and he took it

without looking at it.

“I’d help you out with the boxes but it’s a bit damp out there, so…” She trailed off, then left the room.

On one of the tables were six large white boxes, each tied with string for handles. “I think she did this on

purpose,” Edi said, “and I think she had these ready and waiting for dumb Americans to come back and pay a

king’s ransom for them. Give me the map.”

“Not in this lifetime,” David said as he picked up four of the boxes. He reached for the other two, but Edi

took them.

“I want the map now.”

“No,” he said as he opened the front door and ran out. He tossed the boxes in the backseat of the car, then

held open the front passenger door for Edi. It was raining so hard she could barely see the car and she didn’t

want to take the time to fight with him. Besides, she wanted that map.

She got into the passenger seat, put the boxes in the back, then waited for him to get in the car. He put his

stiff left leg in, then had to twist his whole body to get his other leg in.

She pulled a handkerchief from her handbag and wiped her face. “What happened to your leg? Did you

shoot yourself?”

“You know, if you weren’t a girl, I’d—”

“You’d what?” she asked, her eyes narrowed at him.

“Don’t use that tone with me and don’t tempt me.” He slammed the door, then spent the next ten minutes

trying to get the old car to start.

“I thought you could fix any mechanical engine.”

“I was given this piece of junk this morning. I didn’t even get to see the motor.” When it started, he gave a

sigh of relief and turned out of the parking lot.

“So let me see the map,” Edi said, and David reached inside his shirt and pulled it out. It was damp, but the

ink hadn’t run.

“Ten pounds for this,” she said in disgust. “It says you go to the church, turn right, then keep going until you

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reach Hamish Trumbulls’s farm. That seems easy enough that even you can do it.”

David gave her a look that told her she was treading on thin ice with him and she’d better watch out.

18

W
ELL,” JOCELYN SAID when she’d finished reading. Between them, she and Luke had eaten nearly

everything in the basket, plus Luke had eaten a large serving of pot roast. “Not a great way for love to start, is it?

”

“Sounds all right to me,” Luke said. He was stretched out on the cloth, his hands behind his head. “What

else do you want?”

“I don’t know, a meeting of the minds. I guess I thought that Miss Edi and her David looked across a

room, their eyes met, and they were in love. Instant and without any doubt to it. I thought that they’d go out to

dinner and talk, and find out that they were exactly alike in everything. But this man…”

“This man, what?”

“He doesn’t sound like her…I don’t know how to say it without sounding like a snob. He doesn’t seem

like her type. She’s educated, from a long lineage of, well, society, but this man is…”

“What? Like the gardener and the lady of the manor?”

“Are you going to start on me again?”

“I’d like to,” he said softly as he gave her a look up and down.

She couldn’t help herself as she moved toward him, but he rolled away and got to his feet.

“There’s something bothering me about this story,” Luke said as he picked up his shovel again.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, but something about all of it is puzzling me. Uncle Alex and Miss Edi, you meeting Miss Edi,

everything. Something about it keeps going ’round and ’round in my head, and it always seems like we’re missing

something.”

“I don’t see any mystery,” Joce said. “My grandparents and Alexander McDowell were friends, that’s why

he bought that house in Boca and that’s why Miss Edi moved there.

“I guess,” Luke said, “but there’s something odd about it all. Alex McDowell didn’t make friends. He was

grumpy and he liked to work. And you know what Edilean is like. Everybody knows everything. The last time I

had to play golf with my grandfather I asked him when and where Uncle Alex had made friends with your

grandparents, and Gramps said that to his knowledge Alex rarely left town.”

“What about World War II?” Joce asked. “My grandfather manufactured helmets and he traveled to

Europe several times. Maybe they met then.”

“Uncle Alex didn’t go to the war. He had some disability that kept him out of it, so he stayed in the U.S.

and moved money around.”

“He was a banker?” Joce said, but Luke didn’t answer her. He was concentrating on his digging. She

began to clean up the picnic, and she put the precious story on top of the basket. “I’m going to type this.”

“Computer got a battery?” Luke asked.

“Sure, it—” She smiled. “Okay, I’ll bring it out here.” As she stood up, she noticed that there were some

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plants in a cardboard box in the back of Luke’s truck. “What are those?”

“Some things I dug up here and there. There used to be a lot of cultivated gardens around here, and some

of the plants have survived.”

To her, all of them looked like weeds. “So if you’re just walking around and you see a plant, you know

what it is and how to dig it up so you don’t kill it?”

“Yeah,” he said, seeming to be amused by her question.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, smiling, but he seemed to be so preoccupied that he didn’t notice.

The minute Jocelyn got to the house and closed the door behind her, Luke opened his cell phone and called

his grandfather.

“Hey! Luke!” Dr. Dave said, “I just made a hole in one.”

“Congratulations,” Luke said quickly. “Mind if I come over tonight? I want to talk to you about something.”

“About my lie to Jocelyn about part two having the car wreck in it?”

“No,” Luke said slowly, “she didn’t mention that particular lie to me. This is about something else. Who

knows the most about what Uncle Alex was up to?”

“I’d say his wife.”

“Someone who is alive.”

“I guess that would be me.”

“Did Uncle Alex leave any diaries?”

“Diaries are made of paper, and paper costs money,” Dr. Dave said. “Why don’t you come over now and

we can play a few rounds together and talk?”

“As much as I’d like to do that, Joce is bringing her computer outside and she’s going to type the story

while I work.”

“Good. I like that.”

“Me too,” Luke said. “Listen, I have to go. She’s coming.”

“So whatever you want to talk to me about tonight is to be kept secret from her?”

“Add it to the secrets you told her about me and you should have a full load.”

Dr. Dave was laughing as Luke hung up the phone.

“You’re frowning,” Joce said, “so whoever you were talking to wasn’t a friend?”

“Just my grandfather. He and I argue all the time.”

“Your grandfather who no one got along with was your best buddy, but Dr. Dave, who is beloved by

everyone, drives you crazy.”

“You got it.”

“So,” she said, “do you think that’s you or them?”

“Them.”

“Now why did I know that answer before I asked?” she said as she sat down on the ground and opened

her laptop.

“So how fast do you type?”

“Very fast, then I spend two hours with the speller as I correct every word because they all have typos.

What about you? Can you type?”

He gave her one of his looks that said he found her amusing, then looked back at the dirt.

“So what did you talk to your grandfather about?”

“Nothing important. He wants me to go to their house for dinner tonight.”

“That sounds nice,” Joce said, then stared at him hard, but he bent his head over the shovel and didn’t look

at her. “I haven’t met your grandmother.”

“Haven’t you?” He went to the truck and got out a digging fork.