Reid hesitated, but then smiled. “She might like that. Can you be ready quickly?”
Kate opened her arms to say she was ready now. “I’ll meet you in the front.”
He turned away to go around the house, while Kate went inside to get her handbag. She paused by Lenny to say, “I’m going with Reid to see his grandmother.” She’d learned to let people know where she was going to be. Lenny nodded. She saw no one else as she went through to the front.
Reid was standing by a rental car, a Toyota. He didn’t open her door and she was glad. She didn’t want this to seem like a date.
“I hope you like haggis and Guinness,” he said as he pulled out of the driveway. He smiled at the look on her face. “Just kidding. I got her a cook to come in, but it’ll still probably be soup and a sandwich.”
“She lives alone?”
“That’s what she wants. I’ve tried to get her to go to one of those places with other people her age, but she won’t do it. The house I got her—” He broke off. “I mean, her house is nice, and she’s happy there.”
“What do you do?”
“The most boring job in the world. I sell insurance. Or at least the men who work for me do.” He paused. “Sorry. I guess I’m blowing my own horn.”
“I think you should be proud of your accomplishments. What about your parents?”
He instantly looked sad. “They were killed in a multicar pileup just after I graduated from high school. What about you? I’ve met your father but not your mother.”
Kate’s supply of mothers was too complicated to go into. “She’s around. Tell me about your grandmother.”
His face softened. “She hasn’t had an easy life. She was widowed early, then her only child, my father, was killed in that car crash.”
“And Greer?” Kate was watching him intently.
He took a deep breath. “That was the worst blow. Grans was so afraid of losing anyone else that she kept Greer at home with her. She felt she’d be safe there, but she wasn’t. My grandmother has lost everyone.”
“Except you.”
He shook his head. “It’s not easy being someone’s ‘Only.’ I’m her only surviving relative.”
“But you take care of her.”
“I do my best, but I live in St. Pete. I’m going to try to stay here more often. This trip has made me see how frail she is.”
He pulled into the driveway of a very pretty house. Light brown Florida stucco with palm trees and shrubs. Everything was perfectly trimmed. As a Realtor, Kate knew the house was worth about three hundred grand. Not cheap.
Reid didn’t open the door but turned to Kate. “My grandmother is quite old and her mind isn’t always stable. In the last few years she’s reverted to what she knew when she was a girl. Sometimes she still thinks she’s living in that remote Scottish village.”
Kate wasn’t sure how to reply to that. “It sounds charming.”
“Yes and no. For some reason, she recently decided she has Second Sight. Do you know what that is?”
“Premonitions? Able to read minds?”
“Whatever she is or not depends on the day. I just hope she doesn’t decide she’s a tight rope walker and climb on the roof.” He gave a weak smile. “Sure you can handle this?”
Kate gave a little snort. “Are you kidding? Someday I’ll tell you about the woman who raised me. I can handle anything.”
He was pleased by that. “Then let the adventure begin.”
Kate followed him into the house, and his grandmother was standing there waiting for them. Kate’s first impression of her was how mobile she was. She didn’t shuffle, didn’t use a cane. She was short and stout, but not fat. Her face was lined, but not badly. Kate doubted if she had ever been a pretty woman. Her teeth were all capped—or were dentures—and her nose was large. There were several big moles on her face.
That she reminded her of Greer, made Kate instantly like her. Her eyes were bright and alert as she listened to Reid explain who Kate was. He left out everything about the murder and the investigation. Instead, he said she and her family were guests of Billy. He made it sound like a party.
When Kate shook her hand, she was pleased to find it was quite strong. “Thank you for having me, Mrs. Graham.”
