and her family walked away with all the cash. They owe us something.”
“You got something. You settled your pension case in court three years ago. It’s over.”
“It’s not over,” Jeb said. “We want answers.”
“Well, Jeb, why don’t you write down your questions and I’ll see if Miss Elodie would be interested in answering them in a more civilized setting. Take the boys here and sit down. Put everything on paper and I’ll talk to her. She says she’s going to be here for at least a week.”
That seemed to pacify the crowd and they gradually dispersed. Kyle walked over, an apologetic look on his face. “Sorry, boss.”
“Two of those guys had guns and they were all drinking. It could have gone bad real quick. Your first duty was to call for backup.”
“It won’t happen again,” he said.
“No, it won’t. Now I’m going to ask you to take my mother home. Stop by the grocery store if she needs to pick up something for dinner.”
Dev grabbed his own grocery bags from the back of the cruiser, then strode up the front walk.
“Thank goodness you’re here,” his mother said. “Those men were very angry.”
“Mom, Kyle is going to take you home.”
“But I have more work to do,” she said.
“No,” Elodie said. “You’ve been wonderful, but Dev is right. It’s time to go home.”
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Mary said.
Elodie glanced over at Dev, and he gave her a shrug. “Come at ten,” she said. “No earlier.”
“Good,” Mary said. “That will give me a chance to shop for supplies.”
She ran inside to collect her things, then hurried down the walk to Kyle’s squad car. Dev turned to Elodie and held up the shopping bags. “I picked up a few groceries for you. I wasn’t sure whether you wanted to be seen around town.”
“I guess everyone knows I’m here. What was that all about? What did those men want?”
“Why don’t we go around to the back? There’s a nice breeze from that direction.”
He followed her along the veranda, and when they reached the rear of the house, Dev set the bags down and pulled out a bottle of white wine. It was still cold. He grabbed the package of plastic cups and handed them to her.
“You bought me wine?”
“I figured you might need a few necessities. I also got you coffee, some bread and eggs. Ham. You drink wine, right?”
“I drink wine all the time,” she said. She tore open the package of cups and handed him two. “And it is nearly four, so I think we’re safe. My mother always said a proper lady never has alcohol before four p.m. Except at weddings and funerals.”
“I’m the last guy who wants to break the rules,” Dev said.
They sat down on the porch steps, staring out onto what was left of the gardens. Everything was overgrown and had long ago gone to seed. A few rosebushes still bloomed, but most of the rest was brown and dry from the heat. Dev glanced over at Elodie and caught her staring at him. He smiled. God, she was beautiful, and not in that overblown, beauty-queen style that so many women favored.
She had the elegance of another time, a past when women weren’t judged based on their surgically enhanced breasts and carefully applied cosmetics. She had a simple, natural beauty that came from a lucky combination of genes and attitude. Elodie had never been conscious of how sexy she really was, and that’s exactly why he’d fallen in love with her all those years ago.
“Are you going to tell me what that was all about?” she asked.
“You need to be careful around town. There are still a lot of hard feelings, especially over what your family did with the millworkers’ pension money.”
“I can understand that. It was a terrible thing my father did, to steal their security. He should have realized long before that time that he was in trouble. And if I could give that money back to them, I would. There’s just nothing left.”
“They don’t know that. They assume that your family took it all and got out of town.”
“That’s not true,” Elodie said. “We had what was left in the trust funds that our grandfather gave us, but that couldn’t be touched in the lawsuit. I gave most of my trust money to my mother. She was devastated by all of this.”
“How is she?”
“After the divorce, she went to live with her sister in San Diego. She has a job that she loves and a few grandchildren. It’s as if her life here in Winchester never existed. She never talks about it—or my father. I think he’s still in love with her, but the betrayal was just too much for her to forgive.” She leaned back against the porch post and sighed softly. “I’m glad I wasn’t here at the end.”
“Why is that?” Dev asked.
“My memories of this house weren’t spoiled. I think about this place all the time. I loved my life here, until they sent me away.”
“What happened to you?” Dev asked.
“Swiss boarding school,” she said. “It was just one of those extravagant expenses that brought the family business down. And all to keep me away from you.” She laughed softly. “And here I am anyway.”
“Because of the house,” he said.
“I wanted to see it once more,” she said. “I never expected to find you here. I thought you’d get out of this town as soon as you could.”
“I did, but I came home. Even then, I didn’t plan to stay for long, but things just happened. And now I’ve got a job that I love and people who need me.”
“But no wife,” she said.
“Ah, I see you’ve been talking to my mother.” A blush colored her cheeks and she covered her face. “Don’t worry. I don’t mind. It means I have the right to ask about you. You’re not married?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Why is that?”
“I guess I’ve just been looking for someone...special,” she said. “I almost got married, but then I realized I wasn’t really doing it for the right reasons.”
“What happened?”
“I was twenty and had met a man who swept me off my feet. And, in the beginning, it felt like what we had when we spent that whole summer together. It was exciting and passionate and I thought I was in love. But I was just trying to re-create a happier time.”
“I guess we never had a chance to find out whether we’d last,” he said.
“We were so young and so crazy,” Elodie said. “I lived on those memories for years.”
“Me, too.” He paused. “You never wrote or called.”
She reached for the wine bottle and added more to her cup. “You didn’t, either.”
“Your father told me that if I tried to contact you, he’d fire my mother and evict us from our house.”
“He told me the same thing. I guess I figured you’d find someone else. You were too charming and handsome to be single for long.”
“You give me too much credit,” he teased. “Nowadays, I can barely find a date.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“No one wants to date the police chief. It’s like dating a minister. You can never really enjoy yourself.”
“I’m