Caught in the Act

"Merry, could you drop me at my parents' after work?" Jolene Meister asked as we leftThe Newsoffice for lunch. "My father brought me in this morning." I'd only have to go out of my way a couple of blocks, so I said, "Sure. No problem." And that easily and innocently I precipitated my involvement in murder. Again. Jolene and I walked to Ferretti's, the best eating our small town had to offer. The winter wind on this dingy December Tuesday bit through my new red coat, and I suspected my nose was turning almost as rosy as my wool blend. The two scars on my nose that I'd gotten in a bike accident when I was eight years old would be turning a contrasting blue. Ah, well, I thought. If I smile, I can have a patriotic face: red nose, white teeth and blue scars. Gene Autry was serenading downtown Amhearst about Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer over a tinny public address system by Santa's little house. How come a cowboy had made millions off a deer's red nose and all I got from mine was a color scheme? "Hey, Jolene." Ferretti's hostess, a brassy blonde named Astrid, seated us with a smile, then left. It never ceased to amaze me how everyone in Amhearst knew everyone else. As a recent arrival I found it both cozy and unnerving. "How do you know Astrid?" "I went to school with her younger sister, Elsa. She's a real dingbat." "Who? Astrid or Elsa?" "Both." Knowing Jolene as I did, that probably meant that the two women were very nice and rather intelligent. "Does anyone ever move away from Amhearst?" "Sure." Jolene indicated our waitress whose name tag read Sally. "Sally's daughter Caroline moved to California to be in the movies, right?" She looked at Sally. "Yeah," Sally said. "But she moved back home last month. Astrid's sister, Elsa, got her a job as receptionist at Bushay's. Elsa's Mr. Bushay's administrative assistant." Didn't sound like dingbat territory to me, but it sure sounded like Amhearst. I ordered a Caesar salad and Jolene ordered a huge plate of eggplant parmigiana. When Sally disappeared with her order pad, I looked at Jolene. "And how do you know Sally?" "She and my mom were in the PTA together." "And you know Caroline, the would-be movie star?" "Sure. She was three years ahead of me in school." "See? Weird." Jolene shrugged and pressed her hands to her cheeks. "Do I look flushed to you?" "Like you're getting sick, you mean?" Jolene was a hypochondriac. I looked at her big brown hair and bangs, her bright brown eyes, her flawless skin. "You look great to me." In an overblown sort of way. Our lunches came, and I looked from my salad to Jolene's spicy, cheesy dish. "How can you eat that and not gain weight? It's swimming in oil. It's not fair." "Fair?" She leveled a forkful of dripping eggplant at me. "Is it fair that you have two gorgeous men chasing you?" She snorted, a noise that sounded decidedly odd coming from her delicate nose. "Don't give me fair, Merrileigh Kramer. I'm not listening." I grinned. I'd never in my life had one man chasing me with any real enthusiasm, and suddenly I had two. It made me feel nervous and powerful. It made me giggle. It also made me check over my shoulder constantly because I hadn't quite figured out how to break the news to my new boyfriend that my old boyfriend, suddenly ardent, had come a-courting. And what was worse yet, old Jack didn't even know that a warm, delightful and charming man named Curt Carlyle existed. "So Jack just showed up at your door on Sunday?" Jolene buttered a piece of Italian bread with real butter. I crunched a particularly large chunk of romaine. "You go with a guy for six years, and he refuses to make a commitment," I began. "Six years?" Jolene's voice squeaked with disbelief. I held up a hand. "Don't ask. Just accept my word that he's charming and I was stupid. AnyRoper, Gayle G. is the author of 'Caught in the Act ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373442447 and ISBN 0373442440.