“Oh, sure. That’s fine. I’m not in anyhurry.”
“So you didn’t find any sign of Red Eye Sal’s gems down in that speakeasy?” Regina said. She leaned against Gilda’s desk, crossing her arms over her tailoredsuit.
“Nothing,” Leslie said. “Not even a safe or cache where they could have been hidden. But I did find a pink velvet wrap. I wanted to bring it in for you to look at, Gilda, but it’s gonemissing.”
“Gone missing?” Gildafrowned.
“Don’t tell me it was stolen! Leslie had a break-in last night,” Regina said to Gilda, then turned back to Leslie. “I’m sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but of course I heard about it. Small town, mayor’s wife, you know. I’m very glad you’re all right, and that nothing else seems to have beentaken.”
“Thank you.” Leslie smiled, but was a little put off by the fact that her business seemed to be so well known. “Well, the velvet wrap and a glove are missing, and I’m not sure whether they were taken then or not. But I was hoping you could date it for me. Not that it matters nowanyway.”
“Well, a couple rules of thumb, just in case you find something else,” Gilda said. “First, look for machine serge stitching—see, like this. Although it can be found as early as the 1920s, it wasn’t all that common until the latter part of last century. And the tag, of course—any care instructions would be after 1971, so that’s an easy one. Any tags that are black and white would be before, say, 1930. That’s a place to start. Rayon—that’s popular from 1920s through World War II; nylon became popular after that. If there are undergarments, you aren’t going to see plastic boning or hardware until much later. It’ll be metal.” She paused and looked up as if startled. “Maybe a little more than you wanted to know. But maybe that helped? Do you remember anything about the velvetwrap?”
Leslie and Regina exchanged amused glances. “I didn’t see any tags on it, but I didn’t look that closely. It had a large crystal button for a fastener on it—just one in the front, I remember that.” Leslie shrugged. “I had put it aside to examine later, and then never got to it. I’ll keep that information in mind if I find somethingelse.”
“Let me know if I can be of any help. But in the meantime—I’m starving,” Gilda said. “Want to come grab a burger at The Owl’s Roost with me, Leslie? It should be cleared out of Homecoming Dance students by now. I’d ask Regina, but burgers aren’t quite herstyle.”
“I’d love to. I haven’t eaten much all day,” Leslie replied. “You sure you don’t want to come,Regina?”
“Reggie won’t. She refuses to step foot in the Roost,” Gilda said with a grin. “Says the wine isn’t even a step up from Boone’s. What asnob.”
“I’ve got to meet Aaron anyway,” Regina said. “I just wanted to check in to see if you needed me for a fitting on thatdress.”
“Probably not till Monday,” repliedGilda.
“No problem. I’ll see youthen.”
Leslie waited while the shopkeeper locked up, checking her cell phone to make sure she hadn’t missed any calls. She had to admit she was a teeny bit disappointed Declan hadn’t reached out even by text all day…but then she remembered it was Homecoming. He’d probably been busy schlepping Stephanie around and hadn’t had a chance to even think ofLeslie.
“I can’t believe how much warmer it is tonight than last night,” she said as they walked along the sidewalk. “I was in mittens and goose down and a big hat at thegame.”
“That’s Michigan for you,” Gilda said. “Tomorrow we could have eighty-degree weather. You neverknow.”
“Wow. Trib’s is hopping tonight,” Leslie said as they approached and noticed people waiting outside to beseated.
“It’s Saturday, and Homecoming. All of the kids would have eaten there, and then gone on to the dance—leaving the adults to have to wait till later. That’s why I suggested theRoost.”
And apparently, the adults were just getting seated, for as Leslie walked by, she glanced in the large front window just in time to see a smiling, laughing Declan pulling out a chair for an equally smiling and laughing Emily Delton…in a very tight, very low-cut black t-shirt.
Well. That explained why she hadn’t heard a thing from him allday.
Twelve
In spiteof the very unpleasant shock of seeing Declan cozying up with Emily Delton (shehadasked him if he was seeing her, hadn’t she? and hehadresponded with a firm “No,” hadn’t he?), Leslie had an enjoyable time at The Owl’sRoost.
The place was a dive—that was the only way to describe it. The floor was shiny from decades of spilled beer and countless shoes scuffing it, with peanut shells crushed into dust filling in many of the cracks. Every table had its own set of graffiti: carved or written with a variety of implements. Leslie was a little leery about even putting her hands on the sticky table, so she was relieved when the server brought over large paperplacemats.
The wall was decorated with movie posters from the eighties, each one stuck inside a cheap plastic poster frame that lined the room in a single row like a charm bracelet. Many of them were scratched or dull with age, and more than a few of the posters were completely crooked in their moorings. There was one poster, ofSt. Elmo’s Fire, where part of Demi Moore’s head had been cut away to make room for a wall air conditioningunit.
No one seemed to care about the aesthetics of the joint, however, for the place was packed and loud. An acoustic guitar player sat in the corner, but Leslie couldn’t even tell what song he was playing it was so loudinside.
She’d just ordered one of B-Cubed’s beers when her cell phone lit up with a text from Cherry, wondering what she was doing for dinner. Fifteen minutes later, her aunt, Orbra, and Iva had joined Leslie and Gilda at the sticky, wobbly table in the quietest corner (which wasn’t saying much) of thebar.
“Everything go all right last night?” Cherry asked as soon as they’d ordered drinks. She looked at Gilda. “Did you hear Leslie had a break-in?”
This blithe statement launched the conversation into a long explanation, culminating with Leslie making a grosserror.
“If the ghost had made an appearance earlier, maybe whoever broke in would have been scared away,” she ended…then realized what she’dsaid.
