Free Murder and Salutations by Elizabeth Bright Page B

us, weaving in and out between my legs. After a few minutes, he grew tired of the maneuver and plopped himself down in front of the cabinet where I kept the cat food. Nash would have allowed me to spoil him all night if I’d been so inclined, but I only had so much time, and I had to shampoo my hair as well. After I fed them, I took a quick shower and was ready a good five minutes before it was time to leave. I’d changed into my nicest dress for the occasion, a burgundy number that made me look sleek and graceful, as hard as that was for most of the people who knew me to believe. I’d given up eating lunch out for a month to afford it, but it had been worth every missed bite. When I wore it, I felt good. What more could I ask from a dress?
    One of my downstairs neighbors was just coming in as I walked out the door. Barrett was a handsome man about my age, but he had a problem with an ex-girlfriend that I found irritating. Namely, he refused to let her go, and she constantly kept popping in and out of his life at the most inopportune times.
    His eyes widened when he saw me, and I swear I could hear him suck in some air. “Jennifer, you look lovely this evening.”
    “ Thanks,” I said. “I’ve got a date.” Hey, a blind date counted, didn’t it?
    “ I’m not surprised. Have you found a new place to live yet?”
    “ I just got the note yesterday,” I said. “We’ve got a week, don’t we?”
    He shook his head. “You must not have read the latest from our ungracious landlady. We now have three days to move, if we expect to get our security deposits back. She’s so eager to evict us, she even offered to return last month’s rent as a bonus. It seems she’s got a rather eager buyer lined up ready to take possession of the property.”
    “ Can she do that?” I asked. “Surely we’ve got to have some recourse. What does Jeffrey say?”
    “ Our friend has already left the premises,” Barrett said. “I’m surprised he didn’t say good-bye.”
    “ I got a note from someone,” I admitted. “I’m just not sure who it was.”
    He looked at me quizzically, and I almost left him in suspense, but I didn’t want anyone in Rebel Forge: to think I was any crazier than I actually was. “My cats shredded it. They do that.”
    He nodded sympathetically, and I found myself drawn to him again, even though I knew he was bad for me. I’d have to be a little kinder to Oggie and Nash. There were more kinds of catnip than the one they were addicted to. “So where will you go?” he asked.
    “ I’ll land on my feet,” I said. “How about you?”
    He didn’t want to tell me—I could see it in his eyes—but he finally admitted, “Penny’s asked me to move back in with her, and we’ve decided to give it another try.”
    Penny was the aforementioned girlfriend who would never quite go away. “I wish you both the best of luck,” I said, then I got out of there before I told him t how I really felt.
    As I drove the Gremlin toward the outskirts of town to the house where I was meeting Gail and her boyfriend, I found myself wondering what attracted me to certain men and not others. For the life of me, I couldn’t find a yardstick or a general rule that explained my attractions in the past. Maybe I was better off not knowing. That way I’d always be surprised. When Gail had told me her boyfriend lived in a large house, I’d expected a two-story Victorian with a large front porch. Instead, I found a gated entrance off the road, and followed a winding path through a small field of grass before I saw a mansion that must have been a hundred years old. The gray stone structure was massive, almost the size of a castle. I couldn’t imagine paying the heating bill for it, let alone what the property taxes must have amounted to. I parked the Gremlin in the looping front driveway, not sure if I wanted to get out or not. I looked as silly parked there as an elephant in tap shoes. But what could I tell Gail—that the