Lacy around. He had approved of Rob, though, and
so adored his infant great-nephew that he continued
to live in the room he’d been born in, even after Kate
and Rob were married.
“We’re going to fix up Lacy’s room and hire a live-
in nanny,” Kate said. “Mary Pat’s trustees have already
agreed to kick in with part of the cost.”
“Great!” I said. “But does this mean that we have to
find another place for Cal after school?”
She shook her head and gave me a mischievous smile.
“Nope. It does mean that I’m going to bill you and
Dwight for a prorated share of her salary, though.”
“Deal,” I said.
We solemnly shook hands on it, then carried the pie
and coffee out to the living room.
Cal went to bed soon after we got home, but before
Dwight and I called it a night, we let Bandit out for a
run and walked outside ourselves to admire what we’d
accomplished that weekend.
The night breeze lacked the bone chilling edge it had
carried only two days ago, yet the cool air still required
jackets and gloves. A quarter moon gave enough light
125
MARGARET MARON
to see where we were putting our feet and I could al-
most smell spring in the air.
In one of our few quiet moments the day before,
Dwight had explained why he was so late getting back
Friday night.
“I can’t believe we’ve had this whole weekend with-
out somebody finding another body part,” I said. “I
was sure you were going to get called out for the miss-
ing head.”
“I just hope the ME’s preliminary report’s on my
desk tomorrow morning and that it says they’ve found
a tattoo or a prominent scar or anything that’ll help us
make a positive ID. The only thing halfway unique to
this guy is that an X-ray of his right arm shows that he
broke the ulna about ten years ago. I bet at least twenty
percent of the guys in this country have broken a right
arm sometime in their lives.”
He told me that the Alzheimer patient’s family had
been notified and yeah, he’d heard that they’d re-
tained Zack Young to file a civil suit against the nursing
home.
I told him that Kate and Rob were going to hire a
live-in nanny and that we’d need to share the cost. “It’ll
still be cheaper than putting Cal in formal after-school
care. Better for him, too.”
