“You can’t stop me because it’s already done. Here’s your tail number. They asked about catering. I told them to order you a chicken salad. Hope that’s okay.”
“But-”
“No buts,” Ali said. “I owe you, Gil. Brenda’s alive. If it hadn’t been for you, she probably wouldn’t be.”
“All right,” he said. After a moment’s reflection he took the piece of paper with the tail number on it and slipped it into his pocket. “But I won’t be able to pay you back anytime soon. I did a lot of thinking about the money situation last night,” he said. “I’m not going to keep it.”
Ali looked at him and smiled. “I never thought you would,” she said. “You’re not that kind of guy.”
He raised his coffee cup. “You aren’t either.”
By noon, the kitchen was back in order. They were packed and ready to leave. “I need to stop by and see Velma one last time,” Ali told him.
“You do that,” Gil said. “I’ll take the bags downstairs and wait for you in the lobby.”
As soon as Ali rang the doorbell on the penthouse floor, there was the expected response-frantic barking from the three dogs, followed by a stern “Quiet,” followed by “Get on your rug.” When Maddy Watkins opened the door, the room was perfectly quiet.
“I’m not sure she’s awake,” Maddy said.
“Who is it?” Velma asked from her hospital bed by the window.
“It’s Ali,” Maddy replied. “Ali Reynolds.”
“I’m awake,” Velma said. “Send her over.”
Ali was surprised by the difference even a single day had made. Maddy was right. Velma was losing ground, physically if not mentally.
“Have you been to the bank yet?” Velma wanted to know.
“Not yet,” Ali said. “I’m on my way to the airport. I’ll probably see a bank branch somewhere along the way.”
“Good,” Velma said. “I want you to have that money. Actually, I want your scholarship kids to have the money. If I put it as a bequest in my will, my son might figure out a way to keep it from happening. I love him, you see. I just don’t trust him.”
Ali went over to Velma’s bed and gathered Velma’s rail-thin hand in her own. “I have to go now,” Ali said, leaning over to kiss Velma’s weathered cheek.
“I do too,” Velma said with a slight smile. “Don’t bother coming to the funeral,” she added. “It’s going to be what my son wants, not what I want, but it won’t make a bit of difference to me. Having you here to drink Maddiccinos with Maddy and me was a lot more my speed. Goodbye, Ali. Thanks for everything.”
Blinking back tears, Ali paused long enough to hug Maddy on her way out. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said.
Maddy nodded. “So am I,” she said.
The day after a bank holiday was a busy one at the Bank of America branch Ali found on their way to the airport. Ali was halfway through the teller line waiting to deposit Velma’s check when her cell phone rang. It was Chris.
“Hey, Grandma,” her son said. “If you want to see your grandkids make their grand entrance, you’d better head home. We’re on our way to the hospital in Flagstaff right now. Dr. Dixon said she’ll meet us there.”
“Did you say right now?” Ali asked.
“I said right now.”
“Okay,” Ali said. “I’ll do my best.”
Her next call was to operations at You-Go. “Do you have another CJ available this afternoon?”
“From where to where?”
“The first one is due to go from John Wayne to Grass Valley. I’d like to take that one for myself and fly from KSNA to Flagstaff, Arizona. When the second aircraft arrives, that one can take Detective Morris from KSNA back to KGOO in Grass Valley.”
“The soonest I could have another aircraft at John Wayne is two thirty,” the operations clerk said. “That’s an hour and a half after Mr. Morris’s scheduled departure. Are you sure that’s all right with him?”
“It’ll be fine,” Ali said. “He doesn’t care what time he gets home as long as it’s today. My son and daughter- in-law are on their way to a hospital. They’re about to have twins, and I want to be there.”
“Your aircraft is about twenty minutes out,” the young woman said. “I’ll advise your pilot of the change in plans and that you need a very short turnaround. What about catering?”
“We’ll both have chicken salad.”
Gil was waiting patiently in the car when Ali emerged from the bank.
“It seems there’s been a slight change in plans,” Ali told him. “I’m going home to Arizona in your plane, and they’re sending another one for you.”
Gil looked at her anxiously. “I hope it’s not some kind of emergency.”
“It’s not an emergency of any kind. I’m about to become a grandmother,” Ali said with a smile. “And I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
