Hope Callaghan - Garden Girls 07 - Missing Milt (5 page)

She changed the subject.  “Where do we go from here on this missing Milt case?”

Gloria told her all that she knew so far.  How Milt had commented he thought someone was lurking around outside his apartment and shortly after, he disappeared.  How Frances was convinced he was somewhere in the vicinity.

“What do you think?” Lucy wondered.

Gloria wrinkled her nose.  “Well, my next stop is Del’s Diner in Green Springs.  Milt and his cronies ate breakfast there every morning.  I thought maybe I could head over there, do a little investigating and get his friends’ take on his disappearance.”

The pizza had arrived.  Gloria paid for the pizza since Lucy had so generously offered to help de-clutter her closet. 

Lucy cleared the table while Gloria grabbed paper plates and napkins.  The girls munched on the pizza and talked about the upcoming holidays and the welcome relief from the summer heat. 

Gloria was careful to avoid the painful topic of Bill. She lifted a mushroom from the top of her slice of pizza and popped it into her mouth.  “Why don’t we drop the clothes off together in the morning and then have breakfast at Del’s?”

Lucy picked up her napkin and wiped her mouth.  “Sure.  Sounds good to me.”

After they finished eating, Gloria took a leftover piece of pizza, sliced it into bite-size snacks and put them on two paper plates – one for Mally and one for Puddles.  She shut the lid on the pizza box.  “The leftovers are yours.”

She walked Lucy to her jeep.  The sun had set and it was dark out. The croak of bullfrogs filled the night air. 

Gloria waited for Lucy to climb into her jeep before handing her the pizza box. 

Lucy pulled the driver’s side door shut and rolled the window down.  “What time you want to leave in the morning?”

Gloria crossed her arms.  If she remembered correctly, according to Frances’ meticulous notes, Milt and his pals ate in the restaurant early.  “Would 7:30 be too early?”

Lucy was a morning person.  She nodded.  “Okie Dokie.  I’ll be here at 7:30 with bells on.”

Gloria watched Lucy’s jeep until the tail lights disappeared in the dark. She stepped back into the kitchen and locked the door behind her.  She looked down at Mally.  “I guess I better head to bed if I’m getting up at the crack of dawn.”

Gloria had just finished her first cup of coffee when Lucy arrived bright and early the next morning. 

She was happy to see that Lucy was a bit more chipper than the day before.  Gloria didn’t dare ask if perhaps she and Bill had talked. 

Traffic was light and the drive to Green Springs flew by.  On the way, the girls discussed the possibilities of what might have happened to Milt. 

Del’s Diner was packed and Lucy had to drive around the block a couple times to find an open spot.  The inside was just as busy.  The girls wandered around the maze of packed tables and squeezed into a corner booth.

Lucy studied the menu while Gloria studied the crowd.  It was mostly men, which made it difficult for Gloria to try to figure out which group was Milt’s buddies.

“Good morning, gals.  Can I get you a cup of coffee?” A young woman wearing a black uniform and dark blue apron approached their booth.

Gloria nodded.  Lucy shook her head. “I’ll take a hot chocolate, please.”

“Coffee for me,” Gloria told the woman.  When she walked away, she turned to Lucy.  “You still on that hot chocolate kick?”

Lucy nodded.  “Yeah.  I think I’m addicted to it,” she admitted, “chocolate, that is.”

Gloria smiled.  Had Lucy just figured that out?

Gloria perused the menu.  She decided to go heavy on the breakfast and skip lunch since Paul was taking her to dinner.  She glanced over the top of the menu at her friend.  She didn’t dare mention the dinner date.

The waitress returned.  She set a cup of coffee in front of Gloria and an empty mug, packet of hot chocolate and pot of hot water in front of Lucy. 

“I’ll take the chocolate chip waffle and a side of bacon,” Lucy told her.  She turned to Gloria.  “You should try chocolate and bacon together.  It’s to die for!”

Gloria scrunched her eyebrows.  Maybe she should follow Lucy’s weight loss plan: eat all the sweets you can stomach and the pounds will melt away!

The thought of that much sugar made her stomach turn.  “I’ll take a western omelet, wheat toast and a side of sausage.” She handed the menus back to the woman who turned to go.

“Wait!” 

The woman spun back around. She lifted a brow.  “Yes?”

Gloria stuck her elbow on the table.  “Say, you ever wait on a man by the name of Milton Tilton?”

The woman shoved her order pad in her pocket and clipped her pen to the front.  “Yeah,” she clucked.  “Poor guy is missing.  I saw some crazy lady on the 6:00 news last night.  She had chained herself to some restaurant because of it.”

She twirled her finger in a circular motion near the side of her head.  “There sure are a bunch of lunatics in the world.” 

Gloria covered her mouth to hide her grin.  If she only knew.  “I heard he was a regular and that he came in with a group of men most mornings.” She glanced around.  “You wouldn’t happen to know if they’re in here this morning.”

The woman tilted her head to a table not far from where the girls were sitting.  “Yeah, that’s them over there.”

She leaned in.  “Nothin’ but a bunch of cheapskates.  They come in here every morning, sit there at that same table for hours and drink coffee.” She waved her hand.  “Coffee and if I’m reaaal lucky…maybe a donut or two.”

The waitress shook her head.  “Lucky if I get a whole dollar tip from those tightwads.”

She straightened.  “Course Milt. He’s a better tipper than most of ‘em.  He’d give me fifty cents no matter what he ordered.”

The party in question was calling her name.  “Hey Fran!” She rolled her eyes.  “I gotta go.”

The girls watched as she headed over to their table with a fresh pot of coffee.  “Looks like they’re here for the long haul,” Lucy observed.

That would give the girls plenty of time to finish their breakfasts and head over there for a chat.

Their waitress, Fran, came back a short time later with breakfast.  Gloria’s mouth watered as the woman set the piping hot food in front of her.  The aroma of cooked sausage and onions wafted in the air.

Gloria eyed Lucy’s chocolate chip waffle, which came with a side of melted milk chocolate and syrup. 

Lucy promptly dumped the entire mini pitcher of melted milk chocolate on top of the waffle.  Next, she poured the syrup over the chocolate.  She picked up a slice of bacon and dipped it in the chocolatey-syrup concoction. 

She took a big bite and closed her eyes.  “Mmm.  This is so good.” She picked up a second piece, dipped that in chocolate and held it out.  “Here, you have to try this.”

Gloria scrunched her nose.  She almost refused but it did look tasty - and fattening.  She took the piece of bacon and bit the end off.  It was good, but a bit too rich for Gloria’s blood.  “Delicious,” she agreed and handed the rest of the piece back to her friend.

The girls ate their breakfast in silence. Gloria sipped her coffee – Lucy – her hot chocolate.  Lucy lifted the steamy mug to her lips.  “We should do this more often.”

Gloria nodded.  “I’d like that Lucy.”  She picked up her napkin and dabbed the corners of her mouth. 

Lucy set her cup on the table.  “I-I know that Bill took a lot of my time.  You know, we were always doing what he wanted to do.”

Lucy looked up and Gloria could see the unshed tears shining in her eyes.  “Sometimes I miss him but you know, I’m just not sure he was the one for me,” she confessed.

She drew a shaky breath.  “The more he sucked me into his life, the less of me and my opinion seemed to matter,” she said.  “If that makes sense.”

It did make sense.  Standing on the outside looking in, Gloria felt that Lucy was losing her identity.  Of course, Lucy had always been – and probably always would be – a bit of a risk taker and free spirit, doing things that Gloria herself would never even try.  But somewhere along the way, Lucy began to change in small, subtle ways.

Gloria wrapped her hands around her coffee mug.  “I love you, Lucy.  You know that, and I never want to say anything to hurt your feelings but I have to agree that you lost a little bit of yourself when you started dating Bill.”

She let go of the cup and grabbed her friend’s hand.  “If Bill isn’t the one for you, the Lord will find the right one.”

Lucy squeezed Gloria’s hand and smiled.  “You’re right.  I’m at peace with this.”  She reached for her check and lifted her purse.  “You know what else? I’m okay if there isn’t a ‘Mr. Right’ waiting in the wings.”

Lucy lifted her chin in defiance.  “Either way, after I got home last night, I made a list of all the things I want to do.  You know, the bucket list.” She pulled her wallet from inside the purse.  “One of the first things on the list is that cruise we keep promising ourselves that we’re going to take.”

Gloria nodded.  She picked up her handbag and set it in her lap. “Hey! That reminds me.  Do you remember my cousin, Millie?”

Lucy tugged on her earring.  “Oh yeah!  She was married to that jerk, Roger.  Wasn’t he the guy that ran off with one of his clients?”

Gloria nodded as she pulled some bills from her wallet. 

“Uh-uh,” Lucy stopped her.  “Breakfast is on me.” She dropped a twenty on top of the check. 

The waitress stopped by with a dash more coffee, picked up the money and the bill.  “Be back in a jiff,” she said.

“Thanks, Lucy.” Gloria watched the waitress head to the back.  “Anyways, Millie took a job on a cruise ship.  Her daughter, Beth, called the other day to tell me her mom was having a blast.” She went on.  “What do you think about going ahead and booking our cruise on Millie’s ship?”

Lucy placed her palm on the table. She leaned in.  “Really?  Can we? I mean, that would definitely give me something to look forward to.”

Gloria nodded.  “Let’s all of us girls meet for coffee at Dot’s and pick a date.”

Lucy didn’t have time to answer.  Her gaze shifted to the table of men.  One of them looked like he was getting ready to leave.  She scrambled out of the chair.  “I’ll try to hold them off from leaving.”

Lucy pushed in her chair.  “Tell Fran to keep the change.”

Gloria watched as Lucy headed to the table. The man sat back down as Lucy waved her hands in the air. 

Gloria grinned. She had no idea what tactic Lucy was using to stall them!

Fran was back with a receipt and change. 

Gloria waved her off.  “You can keep it.”

Fran looked at the five-dollar bill and coins in her hand.  “Really?  That’s the best tip I’ve had all day!”

Gloria got to her feet.

Fran held out a hand.  “Say.  I just thought of something.  Milt was in here a couple days before he went missing.  He came in with a woman.”

She looked around then lowered her voice.  “It was for lunch and the only reason I remember is that Milt was in here with his friends for breakfast and then came back a couple hours later with this woman.”

“And?” Gloria prompted.

“Well, I could tell they were having a kind of serious conversation, you know.  From the looks on their faces,” she paused.  “I’m a pretty good judge of that, what with having to deal with people every day.”

Gloria’s pulse raced.  “Did you hear what was being said?”

Fran frowned.  “Nope.  Every time I came close, they would stop talking, which is another reason I think there was something to it.  You know, more than just a regular conversation.”

Gloria pointed to Fran’s pad of paper and pen.  “Can I borrow that for a minute?”

Fran handed it to Gloria, who grabbed her reading glasses and slipped them on.  “Do you recall what the woman looked like?”

Fran tapped the side of her cheek and stared at the ceiling.  “She was – uh.” Fran snapped her fingers.  “Yeah.  She had gray hair with black streaks.  It was kinda short and curly…like she permed it or something.”

Gloria frowned.  That could be just about anyone!  “Anything about her stand out like a mole or a tattoo?”

Fran shook her head.  “No. Not that I can recall.”

Gloria scribbled her cell number on the pad of paper and handed that and the pen to the woman.  “If you think of anything, anything at all, call me.  Please.”

Fran slipped the pad in her apron pocket.  “Will do.”

Luckily, Lucy was doing a great job of entertaining the gentleman, all of whom were still at the table.  She was waving her hands in the air.  “…and then I came down with a whoosh and landed flat on my back.  When I opened my eyes, I was staring straight up at the bluest skies.  At first, I thought I had died.”

Gloria tapped her shoulder.  Lucy swung around.  “Oh, there you are.”

One of the men eyed Gloria curiously.  “Your friend here was telling us about her first skydiving adventure.” He pointed to the men around the table.  “We were just talking about trying it ourselves.”

The man on the other side of the table spoke up. He looked to be the youngest of the bunch with only a smattering of gray in his hair.  “You never can be too sure how long we’ll be here on earth so we decided to try something adventurous.”

“Lucy, here, is quite the daredevil.” Gloria cleared her throat and changed the subject.  “My sister lives over in Dreamwood.  They have an interesting situation on their hands what with that Milt Tilton missing.”

“Yeah, he’s our morning coffee partner.” The man paused. His eyes narrowed.  “Say, you look familiar. He lifted an index finger and pointed it at Gloria.  “I caught a glimpse of you on the evening news!”

“Yeah!” The guy seated next to Gloria nodded. “I saw her, too.”

Gloria’s face reddened.  Lucy jumped in.  “Some of the residents at Dreamwood asked Gloria here to see what she could find out about Milt’s disappearance.”

“Ahh.” Several of the men nodded.  Then they clammed up.

Gloria shifted her purse on her shoulder. “Did Milt say anything about odd occurrences or weird phone calls?”

All of them shook their head. No one spoke. 

Gloria tried again. “What about people he may have known that didn’t like him?”

Chirp. Chirp. There was only the sound of silence.

Gloria was striking out so Lucy tried to help.  “Listen, your friend is missing.  Aren’t any of you concerned for his well-being?”

Finally, the man closest to Lucy spoke up.  “Well, he did mention someone was peeping into his house days before he disappeared.”

Gloria’s brows formed a V.  Clyde Ward had said the exact same thing.  “Were there any business dealings that might have gone bad?”

“Naw.” The young man in the back spoke up.  “He did say some crazy lady was stalking him.” He whacked the arm of the man next to him.  “What was her name?  Janet…Janice…”

The man on Lucy’s left snapped his fingers.  “Francine, I think.”

Gloria shifted her foot.  They were talking about Frances!

The men didn’t seem to be able to offer any additional information.  Gloria thanked them for what they did tell her and the girls headed toward the front entrance. 

Lucy grabbed her keys and unlocked the doors of the jeep. She started to slide into the driver’s seat. 

“Excuse me!”

Gloria spun around.  One of the men that had been sitting at the table hurried over to the jeep.  He stopped next to Lucy.  “Most of the other guys didn’t know this, but Milt, he had a few dealings on the side.  You know…a small gambling habit.”