“Do you know who he is?” the woman demanded in a loud voice, pointing at a man standing off to the side.
He had nondescript looks with close-cropped, frizzy light hair and a benign expression. I looked at him-and then looked again. An “Oh no” escaped my lips, and Dinah gave me a funny look. The man was Bennett Franklyn. I absolutely recognized him from the rerun of the
CeeCee’s description of him floated through my mind. “People always think they know him from somewhere, but they can never place where. Usually they think they went to school with him.”
Apparently the airline employee didn’t recognize him, though, and this set the woman off even more. By now I had figured the plain woman in the denim pantsuit must be the wife/manager, Nora, CeeCee had mentioned. Dinah noticed me staring.
“Obnoxious isn’t she?” Dinah said, jutting her chin toward the confrontation. “But not our problem.”
I smiled weakly. “Maybe it is. I’m pretty sure that’s our substitute acting instructor, Bennett Franklyn, and his wife, Nora. Since they’re on the way to the workshop, they’re kind of my responsibility. Maybe I should step in.”
Dinah grabbed my arm to keep me from moving. “Your watch starts when the retreat does.”
Finally the airline employee handed Nora Franklyn two boarding passes and said it was the best she could do, and let them board the plane first.
“See, they worked out their own problem,” Dinah said as we boarded the small plane. Bennett and Nora were seated in the first row, and I noticed her talking to the people in the seats behind them. No matter what Dinah said, I had the feeling the peace with the Franklyns was only temporary.
A little over an hour later, the tiny plane landed at the equally tiny Monterey airport. Nora and Bennett had deplaned quickly, and I saw them entering the terminal building as we came down the stairway from the plane. I was right about the peace only being temporary. As soon as Dinah and I walked into the miniature terminal, I heard myself being paged over the loudspeaker. Well, I figured it was me, even though the page was for Polly Mink.
If the Franklyns noticed we’d been on the plane with them, they didn’t show it as I approached and introduced myself with the correct name.
“You can tell the driver to pick up our bags. We’ll just go directly to the car,” Nora said, glancing around. I had to explain there wasn’t a driver, and said I’d help them get a cab. Nora appeared exasperated at my suggestion. “I don’t suppose you arranged for a rental car, either?” As soon as she saw the negative shake of my head, she let out a hopeless groan and gestured for Bennett to follow her as they headed toward the rental car counter.
“That went well,” Dinah said with a roll of her eyes.
“Too bad CeeCee had to cancel. She would have gone along with us in a cab,” I said, my shoulders sagging. “What have I gotten myself into?”
Dinah tried to reassure me. “Once they get to the conference center, they’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
We got our bags and headed through the door to the short line of cabs that stood waiting. A fellow passenger followed us outside. “Did I hear someone call you Polly Pink?” the silver-haired man asked me. I nodded with an uncertain smile. Now what, I wondered as he held out his hand.
“Commander Blaine,” he said in an upbeat voice, introducing himself as he shook my hand. He’d caught me off guard, and I struggled to place the name.
“Pamela Shedd called me and told me you’d be taking over for her,” he said to me, but his gaze kept darting toward Dinah and I wondered if he even heard me give my correct name. “And you are?” he said to her. He couldn’t have been more obvious with his interest. If I was a person who believed in love at first sight, that would have been it.
Dinah was divorced and had been trying to meet someone forever. So far she’d met nothing but duds. I wasn’t sure if Commander was his first name, a nickname, or his title, but he appeared a lot more promising than any of the guys she’d described to me. I expected her to pick up on the way his gaze stayed on her and at least smile. Instead, she looked away in a dismissive manner.
Dinah was somewhere in her fifties, though the exact place was a deeply held secret even I, her best friend, didn’t know. After all the wild-goose chases and murder investigations we’d been through, you’d think she would have trusted that I wouldn’t judge her by her age, but she still wouldn’t tell. Dinah is a bundle of energy, and even though I’d just met Commander Blaine, he seemed to have a similar enthusiastic attitude. So why did she seem to be ignoring him?
Not that Dinah’s reaction dampened Commander Blaine’s enthusiasm as he suggested we share a cab. He seemed to pick up on my confusion of how to address him. “You can just call me Commander,” he said, “and I’ll call you Molly.” He turned toward Dinah, and for a moment I thought he was going to say he’d call her Sweetheart or something like it, which I knew wouldn’t have gone over well with her. Luckily, he used her first name and said everyone was informal at the retreats. Apparently even Mrs. Shedd had always gone by her first name. He looked up at the blue sky. “Beautiful here, isn’t it? Smell that air.”
Actually I was a little surprised at the bright sun and warm temperature, but he told me the airport was inland and to wait until we got on the other side of the mountains. “You’ll get plenty of misty, cool air then.”
We caught our cab and in a few moments were on our way. Whoever said men don’t talk much apparently hadn’t met Commander Blaine. He leaned over the front seat and for the whole ride kept a running commentary about the workshop he was responsible for.
“I’ve been coming to the creative weekend for the past three years,” he said as we drove along the twisty road that led between the mountains. “Pamela saw the column I write in the
Though Dinah was looking out the window, I knew she was listening as he continued. “You can thank your lucky stars I’m not a prima donna like that other couple. I don’t know if Pamela Shedd told you, but I always handle the extra weekend social activities in addition to putting on my workshop. Just say the word and I’ll put together a murder mystery event.”
I thanked him but said no. My plan was to stay as far away as possible from murder, even a fictional one.
Dinah couldn’t stand it anymore and turned toward him. She asked him if he made his living putting on parties. His smile deepened when she spoke, and he explained that he had a day job. He owned the Tarzana Mail and Office Center. He conveniently had several coupons available and gave them to us.
As the road began to go through a forest of giant pine trees, the sun disappeared and a silvery mist blew in through the driver’s open window. The temperature dropped, and I pulled on the thick black cardigan I’d brought.
We entered the small town of Pacific Grove, which Commander said was referred to as PG by people in the know. “Too bad the butterflies aren’t here,” he said as we turned off the highway onto a street that seemed to be on the edge of a forest.
“Butterflies?” I said.
“Every year between October and February thousands of monarch butterflies flock to Pacific Grove. There’s a sanctuary over there,” he said, pointing in the distance. There’s something about the microclimate of the area, with its Monterey pines and eucalyptus trees, that makes it perfect for the creatures.” He directed his comment at Dinah. “You really ought to come up when they’re here. It’s magical the way they cluster in the trees.”
Why was Dinah pretending not to be interested?
“Here we are,” Commander Blaine said as the cab slid between two tall stone markers with “Asilomar” emblazoned on them. It felt like we were entering another world. On either side of the driveway there were tall trees with tangled growth below them. The cab stopped next to a low building, and we all got out.
“I thought you said this was a resort,” Dinah said, looking at the rustic building and the forest and ground below that had been left wild. I knew what Dinah meant. I’d been expecting something different, too-something
