Free Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) by Tim Myers Page B

attention, joined 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