She laughed. “As you leave today,” she said, “I’ll take you inside, and you can meet the gang.”
“Well, that would give me an excuse for being late tonight,” he said, beaming. “The only reason I got to come was because it was your house.”
“Sounds like you and your wife have a lovely marriage,” she said, chuckling.
“He’s under lock and key,” Tony said with a big and affable grin. “And that’s the way he likes it.”
She smiled. “Hey, if you can make a marriage work for you, all the power to you.”
The men had many jokes regarding marriage right now, and, as she listened to them, she realized that some were married and some weren’t. Tony was divorced and living with a second girlfriend. And another guy, whose name was Sam, had been divorced four times. She looked at him in surprise.
He shrugged, smiled sheepishly, and said, “I keep falling in love.”
“But do you fall out of love just as fast?” she asked cautiously.
The other men laughed. “I didn’t think so,” he said. “But apparently, I’m not there for the long term.”
“What about your wives?”
“They aren’t either somehow,” he said. “But I really love the whole engagement stage, the first flush of marriage. After that, well, it’s not quite the same anymore.”
She chuckled. “So, how many are you going for? A half dozen?”
The others joked, “An even dozen.”
“A baker’s dozen,” Mack said, chuckling.
Sam smiled and said, “I’ll find true love one day.” He looked over at Doreen. “Are you married?”
“Still working on the divorce,” she said wistfully.
“But only one divorce?”
She laughed. “Personally I think one is enough for anyone,” she said. “I don’t want to go through it as many times as you.”
“True enough,” he said. But almost wistfully, he added, “But falling in love is beautiful.”
She smiled at him. “Yes, I can see that,” she said. “But then there’s the rest of it.”
And, for all that was said and done, it was suddenly time for everybody to pack up and go.
Chapter 14
Sunday Evening …
With Mack and everybody else gone, Doreen was exhausted. She struggled to get back inside her house, having to go around to the front door. All the tools and everything had been left as is because it was impossible to walk anywhere just yet. Boards were resting on top of the curing concrete framework though, little crossing bridges to make it easier to get around. And no one was allowed on the curing deck either, so everybody had to stay on the boards to get to the front yard. All promised to come back the next day to clean up. She smiled and said to Mugs, “I don’t care honestly. It’ll be gone tomorrow for sure. And I’ll like being alone after all this togetherness.”
He woofed, exhausted and unhappy that he’d been locked up inside all day but delighted that she was with him. “Let’s go for a bit of a walk,” she said, and she headed out the front door. She wanted to go down to the creek, but that would be a longer walk. So she headed toward Nan’s instead. She pulled out her phone as she got closer and called Nan.
“Hello, Doreen,” Nan answered, but her voice sounded tired and frail.
“I’m walking toward you,” she said, “but I know it’s late.”
“It’d still be nice to see you,” Nan said.
And just enough sadness was in the tone of her voice that Doreen picked up the pace. “We’re right around the corner,” she said.
“It’s too late for tea,” Nan said.
As Doreen got there, she could see Nan in a long fluffy housecoat. Feeling bad for having disturbed her, Doreen walked up to the patio and bent over to give her a big kiss. “Are you having an early night?”
“Yes,” Nan said. “I admit that Rosie’s death hit me a little harder than I ever expected.”
“I’m so sorry,” Doreen said. “I know it’s tough to lose a friend at any time. But when you think something wrong is going on …”
“Well, I can’t help but think that that grandson might have done something to move her along.”
“It’s possible,” she said.
“I don’t want to even think about any more of my friends passing.”
“It’s hard to be left behind, isn’t it?” Doreen whispered gently.
Nan’s eyes filled with tears. “That’s the thing,” she said. “It’s really tough to watch everybody go before you. It’s hard to be the one left behind, yet I don’t want to leave you behind.”
“And I appreciate that,” Doreen said. “I’ll never be ready to lose you.”
Nan patted her hand, and they sat here, comfortable and enjoying the evening air. Doreen didn’t want to stay too long though, so she said, “Please don’t go for any walks on your own.”
“No,” Nan said. “Not until you solve this.” She smiled up at her. “I know you’ll do Rosie justice.”
“Nan, I know you believe in me,” Doreen said, “but you can’t put too much on me with this one because it is an active investigation.”
“I know,” she said. “But, by the time the drug test results come back to prove that she was given something, it’d be awfully hard to have waited that long.”
“That’s true,” Doreen said. “Who is this grandson anyway?”
“He’s been in her room all day,” Nan said with a sniff. “Trying to clean it out, but I don’t know what’s there to clean out.”
“Is he here now?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. Maybe,” she said, looking back toward her apartment. “I’m pretty tired of having anything to do with him. He’s just so despicable.”
“Is that really true though, that he wanted her to die early?” Doreen asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I know that Rosie was always worried about it. She was always afraid of him.”
“And that’s not nice,” she said.
Just then they heard yelling
