Running on Empty (6 page)

And Maynard G. Krebs, which explained the sparse facial hair on the guy who looked
more like a young Will Smith than Bob Denver. 'There's no way you could have seen
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
. That was more Daisy's generation.'

'Excuse me,' Daisy protested. 'Only if I watched TV practically
in utero
. That was late 1950s, I think.'

''59 to '62,' Tucker said. 'It was based on a collection of short stories.'

'By Max Shulman,' AnnaLise said, getting in another shot for the written word. 'But
how did you ever see it, Tucker?'

'DVD,' Tucker said. 'If you want, I can lend them to you.'

'I'd
love
that,' Daisy jumped in. She'd wandered over to the stage and was tapping on Tucker's
bongo with a fingernail.

'Great. I'll bring volume one tonight.' Tucker turned his boyish charm on AnnaLise.
'Torch is premiering a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, featuring our very own
chanteuse. Can you make it? I'll even waive the cover charge.'

It was a thoughtful, showman-style invitation and any other time AnnaLise would have
jumped at the chance. But tonight was Frat Pack Night. You just didn't miss that,
show tunes or not.

'I'd love to, but I have a date with some old friends.' She turned to Daisy. 'Maybe
my mother...'

'Oh, she'll be here,' Tucker said.

'I certainly will.' Daisy let the drum go silent. 'I haven't missed an opening yet.'

AnnaLise was grateful to hear that she'd found a place to socialize so close to home.
As in downstairs. Especially since daughter was abandoning mother on the first of
three nights home. In order to be back at work on Wednesday, as AnnaLise had promised,
she'd need to be on the road very early on Tuesday.

'Cool,' Tucker said. 'Hey, can I get either of you an espresso?'

Daisy declined on the basis of having drunk nearly a pot of coffee at Mama's, but
AnnaLise quickly accepted. 'I'd love a large decaf, non-fat, no-foam latte. With a
sugar substitute.'

'Coming right up,' Tucker said, turning to a woman who had just appeared behind the
granite-topped counter. 'Sue, one large "what's-the-point", please.'

Daisy laughed and gave Tucker a hug. 'Isn't he just adorable, AnnaLise?'

'He is that,' AnnaLise said, and meant it.

As they left the store with her latte, AnnaLise felt completely relaxed for the first
time since Mama's call about the blood drive.

Daisy seemed as sharp as ever. And if that weren't enough, Tucker was an absolute
gem — almost like AnnaLise had a younger brother living at home to keep an eye on
things — and her mother obviously enjoyed having him there. All was right with the
world again.

As AnnaLise rounded the corner onto Second Street, her cellphone rang. She started
to hand Daisy her latte, but the older woman was lagging a bit so AnnaLise set the
drink on a window ledge and went handbag-diving.

When she finally came up with the phone it was blinking 'one missed call'. AnnaLise's
options were 'view' or 'ignore'. She chose the former and a display came up 'Ben's
cell'. She snapped the phone closed and shoved it back into her purse.

'Sorry, Daisy. I should have just ignored it.' Picking up her latte, AnnaLise looked
around.

No Mother Griggs in sight.

AnnaLise retraced her steps around the corner and onto Main Street. Daisy was back
in front of the coffeehouse/nightclub, one eye pressed to a sidelight like it was
the viewing end of a telescope.

'What's up?' AnnaLise called. 'Is Tucker waxing dirty again?'

Daisy turned, a horrified expression on her face. 'AnnaLise, quick,' she whispered.
'Tell your father to call the police. Some crazy bearded man with a drum has broken
into our market.'

'So what did you do?' Sheree Pepper asked AnnaLise.

'I didn't know what to do, but the moment only lasted for... well, a moment. Then
she was Daisy again.'

'Weird.'

'You're telling me,' AnnaLise said.

'Like she was possessed or something.' The two old friends were sitting in the parlor
of Sheree's bed and breakfast, the Sutherton Inn.

Sheree had redecorated when she bought the place, each room now virtually museum-quality.
The parlor featured bright yellow walls, whitewashed woodwork, a floral couch and
one cherry red chair.

Sheree — the third corner of what Mama had called AnnaLise's social triangle — unwound
her tanned legs and stood to retrieve an opened bottle of Cabernet from the sideboard.
'More wine?'

'It is past noon, so what the hell. Thanks.' AnnaLise held out her glass, wondering
for the umpteenth time why Chuck Greystone had preferred tiny, brunette AnnaLise to
statuesque, red-headed, sexpot Sheree. 'I know there's some rational explanation for
Daisy's behavior, but it was downright spooky.'

'Rational is as rational does,' Sheree said. 'Just what are you thinking? Alzheimer's?'

'God, no.' AnnaLise shivered involuntarily at the thought. Her friend always
had
possessed a knack for voicing scenarios that AnnaLise would be trying hard not to
envision. 'More like a vitamin deficiency. Something easy. Daisy's too young for Alzheimer's.'

Sheree remounted her chair with the grace of a ballerina. 'Early onset, maybe? I've
heard about people getting it while they were still in their forties.'

Getting
it
, AnnaLise thought. Like catching a cold.

Another shiver told AnnaLise that she couldn't get her head, or even body, around
the idea that something serious could be wrong with Daisy. AnnaLise looked at the
antique schoolhouse clock on the wall. 'It's nearly three and I haven't heard back
from Dr. Stanton.'

'Give the guy a break, huh? It's the Saturday of a long weekend, and you called him
all of an hour ago, right when you came through my front door. We haven't even finished
this bottle of wine I popped to calm you down. Besides, Daisy's OK now, right?'

'Fine, so far as I can tell. Or I wouldn't have left her.'

Even as she said it, AnnaLise wondered whether Daisy was indeed 'fine', or prodigal
daughter had just convinced herself of that so she could escape to the normalcy of
the inn. Bobby Bradenham's mother wasn't the only one capable of ignoring things in
hopes they would just go away.

But the fact was, Daisy had shown no embarrassment at her haunted — if brief — detour
down memory lane. After an awkward hesitation, AnnaLise — partly from nerves, partly
in disbelief that her mother could be serious — had simply laughed off Daisy's panic.
'Are you kidding? Tucker playing a bongo in our old market? Daddy would have loved
it!'

Daisy squinted at her, as though it had been AnnaLise who'd departed from the main
line, then broke into a laugh herself. They'd gone into the apartment, Daisy to start
lunch and AnnaLise to unpack.

So...
could
Daisy have been kidding? Maybe she was sitting at Philomena's right now, telling Mama
about AnnaLise's brain-fart, the way AnnaLise was discussing Daisy's with Sheree.

'This place looks great,' AnnaLise said, trying to be casually social with her old
friend.

'So you've told me. Twice.' Sheree was many things, but sensitive wasn't one of them.
She leaned toward AnnaLise. 'Now you listen to me, honey. You'll talk with Dr. Stanton
when he calls you back. Until then, there's nothing―'

Neither of them had heard the door open, but suddenly in the room appeared a man,
the same one AnnaLise had seen at the restaurant.

'Jim,' Sheree said, hand to her heart. 'You scared me near senseless.'

A look of apology on the handsome face. 'I'm sorry. I thought all the other guests
were off on a frolic.'

He extended his hand to AnnaLise. 'I'm James Duende. Didn't I see you at Mama's this
morning?'

Despite the Latin surname, there was no accent in his speech beyond a trace of north-east
corridor.

'You did. I'm AnnaLise Griggs.'

'AnnaLise and I went to school together,' Sheree said.

'A pleasure to meet you.'

'Are you visiting for the weekend?' AnnaLise asked.

'And beyond,' Duende said, cracking a grin. 'I have a job that will keep me here for
the duration of the winter, God help me.'

'Hey, skiers pay big money for the pleasure of Sutherton's ivory-colored slopes,'
Sheree said, before AnnaLise could ask Duende what he did.

'Jim lives above the dining room,' the innkeeper continued, with a meaningful gleam.

'Ahh, number thirteen.' AnnaLise turned her own blind eye to the 'gleam' part. 'You're
a brave man.'

Room thirteen had become another Sutherton legend after a spurned lover barricaded
himself in it and drank poison before throwing himself out the window. His ghost would
probably still haunt the place if the 'poison' hadn't been cheap room-shampoo and
his fall barely nine feet, cushioned by newly tilled soil below.

But Sutherton didn't let go of its legends easily. More's the pity, since Daisy's
siphoning of Mrs. Bradenham was destined to become one. Probably
number
one.

'I have to admit, I'm a sucker for a good story,' Duende said. 'Besides, I can stomp
around all I want without bothering anyone below, except during breakfast.'

'Nonetheless,' Sheree said coyly, '
some
noises carry. '

Damn, thought AnnaLise. Another one bites Sheree's dust. No matter, though. AnnaLise
wasn't in search of a man and certainly not one who was living indefinitely in a rooming
house of sorts in small-town North Carolina, and shtupping the innkeeper to boot.

Still, an extra man, no matter whose, would make Frat Pack Night even more fun. 'Are
you coming to Sal's tonight?'

'What's tonight?'

Sheree looked put out. Apparently she'd had other plans for the evening. And 'Jim'.

Well, that's too bad, AnnaLise thought. It wouldn't kill Sheree to share. 'I'm sure
you've met the Frat Pack.' The sisterhood took over the inn whenever they visited.
It would be hard to miss them.

But apparently he had. 'Pardon?'

'Joy Tamarack and her gang,' Sheree explained, a tad sourly.

AnnaLise noticed. 'Why the long face, Seabiscuit?'

Duende laughed, but Sheree's scowl grew more pronounced. 'What are you, five?'

'Sorry. Coming home can regress a person.'

'You don't live around here any longer?' Duende asked.

'No, I went to college in Wisconsin and took a job there after graduation.'

'So you're back to see family. I couldn't help but notice the resemblance this morning.'

Since Daisy was blonde and blue-eyed and AnnaLise dark-haired and brown-eyed, Duende
was probably assuming Mama was AnnaLise's... well, mama. It was a common mistake.

'It's a little hard to explain, but my mother is Daisy Griggs, the blonde woman I
was sitting with this morning. Mama is her best friend.'

'Gotcha.' If he did, he was a quick study. Duende changed the subject. 'So, what do
you do in Wisconsin?'

'I'm a reporter for the city's daily, the
Urban Times
.'

'General assignment?'

The guy obviously knew something about the biz. 'No, I cover the police beat. Are
you a journalist, too?'

But James Duende was backing toward the door. 'Nope. I've just known a couple. Well,
I'd better get going. Nice to meet you, AnnaLise. See you later, Sheree.'

And he was gone.

AnnaLise looked at Sheree. 'He was in a hurry all of sudden.'

'Not always.' Now an arch look. 'Mostly he takes his time.'

The last thing AnnaLise wanted to hear about was Sheree's love life. Or, more precisely,
her sex life.

Like James Duende, change the subject. 'Why were you looking so disapproving of Joy
and her band of sisters? Did they break something again?'

So far as AnnaLise knew, the Pack had broken one lamp, two chairs and an antique chamber
pot. At least as of the last statement.

'No. They just gave me notice. They won't be back next year.'