“For what it’s worth, I honestly don’t think he’s on the edge of flipping out or anything,” Jason said.
“He’ll be at the birthday party. You can see for yourself.”
“It isn’t us he has to convince,” Hackett muttered. “It’s Mom and Gordon and the Old Man.”
“Okay, that could be a problem,” Jason said.
Twenty-Two
The sound of Luke’s SUV in the drive interrupted Irene just as she was preparing to come up into ull teaser position. Two sharp, demanding knocks a short time later told her that the driver was no n a great mood.
“Come in,” she said, holding the V-shaped pose, her legs and arms in the air, toes pointed, balance n her sitting bones.
Luke opened the door and looked at her. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Pilates exercises.” She came out of the movement and rolled to her feet. “I took it up a couple of years ago. It’s all about core strength. A lot of dancers use it. It didn’t replace leaving the lights on all night long. But it did take the place of needing to check the kitchen sink half a dozen times to make sure the water was turned off every time I left my apartment. That was getting bad.”
“Replace one obsessive little habit with another? Yeah, I know all about that theory.”
He closed th oor. “But do us both a favor. Don’t let any of the locals see you practice your Pilates, okay? We don’t need to add any more layers of weird-ness to your image.”
Definitely not a good mood.
“I find the exercises helpful when I’m trying to clarify my thoughts.”
“Getting away from Dunsley for a while would help me clarify mine.” He walked into the kitchenette. “What do you say we take a drive?”
She watched him open the refrigerator, acting like he owned the place. She reminded herself that he did own it.
“All right,” she said, oddly cautious.
He took out a bottle of water and snapped off the top. “Figured we could have dinner in Kirbyville.”
It wasn’t what anyone would call a romantic invitation, she thought. On the other hand, dinner on the other side of the lake sounded like a lot more fun than the two outings she had recently organized fo im.
“Okay,” she said. “But first tell me what’s wrong.”
He settled back against the counter. “For over five months I have been a model citizen here in Dunsley. Not even a speeding ticket. Today the chief of police felt it necessary to deliver a warning.”
Guilt and dread splashed through her like acid. “Sam McPherson threatened you?”
“It was a little more subtle than that, but yeah, that was the bottom line. Kind of ticked me off, if you want to know the truth, given my exemplary behavior and all.”
“Luke, this is all my fault.”
“That,” he said, tossing his car keys into the air, “has not escaped my notice.” He caught the keys and started toward her. “Come on, let’s blow this Popsicle stand.”
* * *
The farther they got from Dunsley the more relaxed Irene felt. It occurred to her that she had not
p. realized how much stress and tension had been locked up in her muscles since she arrived in town.
Night was falling fast. The waters of the lake were almost black under a dark, heavy sky that promised rain sometime before dawn. She was intimately aware of Luke’s presence next to her in the front compartment of the big vehicle.
The road that wound around the long, convoluted border of the lake was a two-lane strip of pavement that twisted and curved in a whimsical fashion. Luke drove it with efficiency and precision but he too is time. She got the impression that he was in no rush to reach their destination.
“I talked to Addy today,” she said after a while. “She told me that I shouldn’t bother going to San Francisco to cover Pamela’s funeral. She said it’s bound to be a carefully orchestrated event and that I’d be wasting my time because I won’t be able to ask any tough questions.”
“She’s probably right.”
She looked at him. “What did Phil Carpenter have to say?”
“He confirmed what Connie Watson told us. No indication that Pamela had a man with her when she arrived in Dunsley on her last visit.”
Irene watched the evening shadows move out of the trees and swallow up the rest of the landscape.
“The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Pamela did not follow her usual routine this time.
She had a special reason for traveling to Dunsley and it wasn’t to kill herself.”
“She wanted to meet with you.”
“Yes.”
He chose a restaurant that he had discovered by accident shortly after moving to the lake. The Kirbyville Marina Cafe was a tad ritzier than most of the other eateries in the vicinity. He hoped Irene would find the fake Italian palazzo atmosphere cozy maybe even intimate. Like every other establishment in the area, the place was only lightly crowded at this time of year. He had no trouble convincing the hostes o produce a table near the windows.
Irene sat down and looked around curiously. “This is new. It wasn’t here when I lived in Dunsley.”
Luke opened his menu. “Contrary to popular opinion, some things do change.”
She smiled. “Maybe on this side of the lake. Not over in Dunsley, at least not as far as I can tell. It’ cary how little that town has changed.”
“We came over here to get away from Dunsley for a while. What do you say we talk about something else?”
“Good idea.” She gave the menu her full attention. “I think I’ll have the sauteed shrimp and the avocado salad.”
“I’m going for the spaghetti. Same salad.”
“I don’t see any Elena Creek Vineyards wines on the list,” she said.
“Check out the Rain Creek selections. It’s the label Elena Creek Vineyards uses to market some less expensive blends.”
“I know that label. I can actually afford Rain Creek wines. I especially like the sauvignon blanc.”
“Rain Creek was my brother Hackett’s idea. He wanted to go after the mid-range customer, but he had a heck of a time convincing the Old Man and Gordon to buy into the idea. They liked the exclusive image they’d cultivated all these years. So Hackett came up with the idea of using another label. It’s worked well.”
“What do you think about using another label?”
He shrugged. “Not my problem. I decided long ago that I wasn’t going to be an asset to the family business. After I got out of the Marines, I let the Old Man and Gordon talk me into giving it a shot,