Читать книгу Scrub-a-dub Dead - Barbara Colley - Страница 11

When Charlotte pulled into her driveway, she noticed that Louis’s car was still missing, and later that evening, when she left again for her date with Mack, Louis still hadn’t returned.

Where are you, Louis?

As prearranged, Mack was waiting for Charlotte inside the vestibule near the front door of the restaurant.

“You look gorgeous,” he said as he took her hands and kissed her on the cheek. Charlotte bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. Once again she’d opted for her little black dress, the gold chain, and gold hoops.

Though returning the compliment would have been the polite thing to do, “Thanks” was all that Charlotte said.

Personally, she thought that Mack looked like he’d been through the wringer. Besides having bags under his bloodshot eyes, his dark suit hung on him like a sack…or like he’d slept in it, his shirt was wrinkled, and unless she was mistaken, that spot on his tie looked suspiciously like dried-up ketchup or spaghetti sauce.

“You’re welcome,” he responded. Then, looking very uncomfortable, he said, “Before we go into the restaurant, I have a confession to make.”

Uh-oh, here it comes.

“We’ll be joining a few others tonight for dinner. I would have told you last night, but I was afraid you wouldn’t come. Frank—he’s my son-in-law—is having a dinner for the staff of his CPA firm, and since I’m the managing partner for the firm, I’m expected to attend as well.”

Though Charlotte forced a smile, inside she was seething. If it had been anyone but Mack, she would have immediately turned around and gone home. “I don’t like surprises, Mack,” she warned.

A flush stole up Mack’s cheeks, and he looked so uncomfortable that Charlotte took pity on him. “But what’s done is done,” she said. “Just don’t ever do that again. Now, shall we join the others?”

The oblong table was located near the front of the restaurant in an alcove near huge windows that overlooked the sidewalk and street. The others they joined included Belinda, Lisa, two men, and another woman.

Mack escorted her to where one of the men was seated at the head of the table. On either side of the man, facing each other, were Belinda and Lisa.

Belinda smiled at Charlotte, but the expression on Lisa’s face was anything but welcoming. And no wonder, thought Charlotte. Once Lisa had realized who she was, she had probably also realized that there was a good possibility that Charlotte had overheard the argument she’d had earlier with Christopher.

“Frank, this is Charlotte LaRue,” Mack said. “She’s the friend that I told you about. Charlotte, this is Frank Morgan.” Mack’s gaze slid to Lisa then back to Charlotte. “Frank is my son-in-law as well as the head of Morgan and Associates, the firm I work for.”

When Frank Morgan smiled, stood, and Charlotte clasped the hand that he proffered, she suddenly realized why his wife Tessa was so obsessed with youth and beauty. Frank was an extremely handsome man in a dark brooding sort of way, and unless Charlotte missed her guess, he was also a bit younger than Tessa.

“Nice to meet you, Charlotte,” he said, giving her hand a firm but gentle squeeze. “Glad you could join us tonight.”

Charlotte nodded and smiled. “Nice meeting you, too.”

When Frank released her hand, he faced the other guests at the table. “Listen up, everyone,” he told the group. “We have a special guest joining us tonight, a friend of Mack’s from his college days.” He pointed out each person at the table. “Lisa, Belinda, John, and Tanya, this is Charlotte LaRue. Please make her feel welcomed.”

All eyes turned toward Charlotte, and though she smiled, she felt her face grow warm with embarrassment.

Again, Belinda smiled at her, and again, Lisa simply glared at her, but the man named John and the woman named Tanya gave her a friendly acknowledging nod as Mack nudged her toward the other end of the table.

“I believe these two places are for us,” Mack said.

Once they were seated, a waiter appeared to take their drink order.

“Unsweetened tea,” Charlotte told him.

“A Bloody Mary for me,” Mack said. Then he turned to Charlotte. “So, have you worked for the hotel long?”

“No, I haven’t. I’m just filling in temporarily as a favor for an old friend. Actually, I run my own cleaning service, Maid-for-a-Day.”

When a puzzled frown crossed Mack’s face, Charlotte explained. “I employ two full-time maids and one part-time. We specialize in clients who live in the Garden District.”

Mack shook his head in amazement. “How in the devil did you end up being a maid? Not that there’s anything wrong with being a maid,” he hastened to add. “It’s just that with your brains, I always figured that you’d end up a college professor or something.”

Coming from anyone else Charlotte would have been highly offended by Mack’s assumption that only people of low intellect would choose to be a maid. “I never finished my degree,” she told him bluntly. “I was finishing up my junior year when my parents were both killed in an accident—”

“I had no idea,” Mack interrupted, his expression full of sympathy. “That’s terrible.”

Charlotte nodded. “Yes, at the time it was terrible. My father had never been able to afford life insurance, and their deaths left me with not only the welfare of my young son to think about, but also my younger sister to support. Thanks to Professor McGee—you remember her, don’t you? She was an English Professor at Tulane.” When Mack nodded, she continued. “Anyway, she was the one who suggested that I could make quite a bit of money cleaning houses, and she even recommended me to several of her more wealthy friends.” Charlotte smiled. “Turned out she was right. And the rest is, as they say, history.”

From the expression on Mack’s face, Charlotte could already see questions forming. Still not comfortable talking to him about how she ended up with a fatherless son, she decided a subject change was in order. In her experience, asking the other person questions was the best way to change the subject. “So, what about you, Mack? How did you end up being an accountant?”

At that moment, the waiter returned with their salads. No sooner had he placed Charlotte’s salad in front of her than a woman rushed through the door. Charlotte immediately recognized her as the same woman who had received a phone call from Tessa. Charlotte frowned, racking her brain for the woman’s name. Maybe Margaret. Yes, Margaret was her name.

“So sorry I’m late,” Margaret gushed as she seated herself next to Belinda.

Frank nodded then cleared his throat. “Ah, excuse me.” All eyes turned to him. “I believe most of you already know Margaret, my secretary and my right-hand man, so-to-speak. Of course rumor has it that she’s really the one running the company.”

As expected, everyone laughed at Frank’s little joke, and a flush of embarrassment stole up Margaret’s cheeks. When the laughter died down, Frank motioned toward the other end of the table where Charlotte and Mack were seated. “Margaret, meet Charlotte. She and Mack are old friends.”

A spark of recognition lit Margaret’s eyes as she and Charlotte nodded and smiled to each other. Then, Margaret turned to Frank. “Just so you know, I was able to finish typing that document you need for tomorrow’s meeting.”

Frank laughed. “That’s my girl. Hey, everybody,” he said, still laughing, “not only does she run the firm, but she’s got the fastest fingers in the south.”

Again, as if on cue, everyone laughed, but this time the laughter seemed even more forced than before, and it was all that Charlotte could do to keep from rolling her eyes.

Oh, brother. If this stuff gets much deeper, I’m going to need hip boots.

Appalled at her thoughts, Charlotte tucked her head and forked up a mouthful of salad. Thankfully, everyone else followed suit, then slowly, once again the murmur of conversation filled the room.

Afraid that Mack would resume giving her the third degree, Charlotte swallowed the bite of salad, then said, “Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, you were going to tell me how you ended up being an accountant.”

Mack smiled. “After Nam, I finished up my degree and was working towards becoming a CPA when I met Joanne, Tessa’s mother. Tessa was just a little girl at the time, and Joanne was struggling to hold on to the money that she’d inherited from her father. Joanne’s first husband had turned out to be a drunk and had just about spent her inheritance before she realized what was happening. She’d already divorced him when we met, and—like I said—was struggling to hold on to what money she had left. Anyway, Joanne hired me to look after her investments. One thing led to another, we got married, then, together we worked until her finances were back on solid ground. Just as everything was looking up, Joanne discovered that she had breast cancer. Six months later she died.”

His face bleak with sorrow, Mack paused and for several moments a muscle in his jaw quivered.

Remembering her own pain after Hank and her parents were killed, Charlotte could truly sympathize. “That had to be a painful time for you,” she said softly.

Mack sighed then nodded. “Yes it was. Joanne was a wonderful woman, and I still miss her. But then you know all about that kind of pain, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do,” she said, realizing how much in common they had with each other. “But whether we like it or not, life does go on.”

“I guess.” Mack cleared his throat. “Anyway, when Joanne died, Tessa was a young teenager, and since she had no one else, I finished raising her.”

“What happened to her father?”

Mack shrugged. “He was a loser. For Tessa’s sake, I tried to locate him after Joanne died. It took several years to track him down, and when I finally found him, he was in prison. There was no way I could bring myself to tell Tessa that her father was a jailbird, so, like I said, I raised her.”

“Raising a teenager by yourself had to be hard.”

Mack simply shook his head. “Hard doesn’t begin to describe it. As a child Tessa had a stubborn streak, not to mention that Joanne and I had both spoiled her. After her mother’s death, she was even worse—staying out to all hours of the night and constantly in trouble at school. Once, she even ran away, and for months I didn’t know where she was or even if she was dead or alive. Then one day, out of the blue, she showed up at the front door. I don’t know what happened to her during that time—and she’s never told me—but whatever happened totally changed her. She went back to school, graduated with honors, and even went on to get a college degree. I’ll tell you one thing, the day she graduated from college was one of the proudest days of my life.”

At that moment two waiters showed up. While one of the waiters whisked away the salad plates, the other one served the entrées.

Immediately recognizing the dish, Charlotte’s mouth watered: pecan-crusted catfish with Creole meuniére sauce. “I think I just died and went to heaven,” she murmured.

Mack glanced her way quizzically. “Pardon?”

Realizing that she’d actually spoken her thoughts, Charlotte laughed. “Don’t mind me. Just thinking out loud.”

As she and Mack settled into a companionable silence while they ate, Charlotte caught bits and pieces of conversations going on farther down the table. While Tanya and John discussed the pros and cons of an advertising campaign, Margaret seemed enthralled by whatever Lisa was telling her. But even with the buzz of voices, Charlotte could still hear every word Frank said to Belinda, and it was disgustingly clear that he was badgering her about Tessa.

“She’d listen to you,” Frank insisted. “Look, you know how miserable we’ve all been. If you could persuade her to sign the divorce papers, then maybe she’d get on with her life. Can’t you see that it’s the best thing for all of us?”

“You mean best for you, don’t you?” Belinda retorted angrily. “The only reason everyone is so miserable is because of her.” Belinda shot Lisa a hateful look.

At that moment Tanya and John burst into laughter over something, and though Charlotte was unable to hear Lisa’s retort to Belinda’s jab, the furious look on her face said it all.

Charlotte quickly glanced down at the half-eaten catfish on her plate in an attempt to hide the sudden anger she felt and promptly lost her appetite. The very idea of a father pressuring his own daughter to go against her mother was reprehensible. What a sleazeball!

“Are you feeling okay?”

The sound of Mack’s voice startled Charlotte, and for a moment she wondered if once again she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. “I’m fine,” she answered, realizing that her cheeks were probably flushed. She looked up at Mack and forced a smile. How could he stand to be a part of the company when his son-in-law was making his daughter Tessa so miserable? “That last bite was kind of spicy.” She reached for her tea and took several swallows.

Just as she set the glass down, at the other end of the table, Belinda suddenly shoved back her chair and stood. “I don’t care what you say, I won’t do it!” she shouted. “And you can’t make me,” she added, tears running down her cheeks. Then she turned and fled the room.

With Belinda’s departure, for a moment the restaurant grew so quiet that Charlotte could hear pots and pans clanging back in the kitchen and felt every eye in the restaurant staring at their table. Then, just as abruptly, the other patrons seemed to lose interest and turned their attention back to their own tables.

Frank leveled a pointed look at Margaret. “Go after her, and see if you can talk some sense into her.”

Margaret nodded, but as she pushed back her chair, Lisa said, “No, I’ll do it.” She motioned to Margaret’s plate. “Go ahead and finish your meal.” Before anyone had time to object, Lisa shoved her chair back and hurried toward the front entrance.

“Sorry about all of that,” Mack said.

Charlotte shrugged. “Stuff happens even in the best of families.”

Outside, Lisa hurried past the window, then disappeared out of sight. Just seconds later, a man hurried past, headed in the same direction that Lisa had taken.

Charlotte frowned. Christopher. Unless her eyes were playing tricks on her, she could swear that the man who had just gone past was Lisa’s ex-boyfriend Christopher. Charlotte’s frown deepened. Was it simply coincidence that he just happened to be passing by at that particular moment?

Not coincidence, Charlotte decided. In spite of Lisa’s threat to call the police on him, he’d more than likely followed Lisa and had been waiting outside on the chance that he might get to talk to her again.

…it’s only over when I say it’s over…and I don’t intend for another man to raise my baby!

A sudden chill seized Charlotte at the memory of Christopher’s words earlier that day. No, his being outside the restaurant was definitely not a coincidence, and for reasons she couldn’t explain, she couldn’t help thinking that Christopher was up to no good.