Dog Helps Those (Golden Retriever Mysteries) (32 page)

“I can tell you all about it,” I said. “If you’re still up for that late lunch. But I’m at my office, and I don’t have the energy to drive Rochester back home and then go upriver to New Hope to meet you. Do you think maybe he and I could just come over to your house and we could order out?”

“You bet. I’m here. You sound exhausted. You want me to pick you guys up?”

“I can make the drive.”

“I’ll throw something together. You just bring yourself and your dog.”

“I’ll see you soon. I love you.”

I realized it was the first time I’d said it to Lili. But after all I’d been through, I knew that I meant it.

“I love you too, Steve. And I’m very glad you’re all right.”

I hung up, then put Rochester’s leash on and we walked outside. A nice breeze had picked up, and the air was fresh with the smell of new-mown grass and humidity from the placid Delaware, just a few blocks away. Graduation was over and the campus had cleared out. My car was one of the few left in the parking lot.

Leighville was crowded with celebratory graduates, their families and their friends. I took a couple of side streets to reach Lili’s and was glad to snag a parking space only a block from her apartment.

Lili kissed me as soon as she opened her front door, then stepped back. “What happened to your forehead?” she asked.

I reached up. “I guess I bruised it when I went down after the dog.”

“After him how?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Well, come on in and sit down. Have something to eat, and then you can tell me.”

Lili had made us croque monsieurs, ham and cheese sandwiches grilled on thick slices of farm bread, which she served with thick potato chips and bottles of French orange soda. In between bites, I told her the whole story. “Poor Verri,” she said, when I was finished.

“I do feel bad for her,” I said. “She wasn’t a nice person, and neither was Rita Gaines. But both of them made contributions to Eastern, and neither of them deserved to be murdered.”

I drank some soda, and we were quiet for a while. “I do wish I’d been at graduation, though,” I said. “There were a couple of students I wanted to see graduate.”

“Good ones or bad ones? I know I had a couple I’m eager to see move on.”

I laughed. “I guess some of each.”

I leaned over to kiss her, and while I wasn’t paying attention, Rochester sat up and wolfed a couple of potato chips from my plate.

“Go on, help yourself, dog,” I said, sitting back and laughing. “You earned it.”

If you’ve enjoyed Steve and Rochester, and haven’t read their two earlier adventures, I hope you’ll consider
In Dog We Trust
and
The Kingdom of Dog
.