Nick nodded and shuffled out of sight. I could almost hear his sigh of relief. His brothers followed.
Nonna clapped her hands together and focused on me. “All right. Are you ready to solve this case and find this mutinous Cupid who dared to shoot you with an arrow?”
Chapter35
Itook a deep breath. “I’d love to solve this case, but chances are, the main Cupid has left town.” I hoped.
Nonna appeared to be every inch the gumshoe in her beige trench coat, lace-up brown boots, and scarf over her salt-and-pepper hair. The sunglasses had been tucked into her right pocket. “Did you bring your trench coat?”
“My gray coat,” I said.
She sighed. “I brought you glasses. We really do have to get going, Anna. Daylight is wasting, and I’d like to get this taken care of before lunch.” She turned and led the way down the hall, pausing at the reception area. “Oliver, I hope you have a wonderful day.”
Oliver stood and beamed. “You, too, Nonna.”
Apparently, she had given him the instruction to call her Nonna.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll order in lunch today, Anna. I know I’ve been buying a lot of protein lately and thought you might want to choose.”
It also seemed as if Nonna had reminded him to use his manners. “How about something from Margo’s Thai?”
“You’ve got it. I’ll have it here by noon,” he said, half-bowing to my grandmother. “Would you like to join us?”
She patted his muscled arm. “You’re a sweetie, Oliver, but I’ll need to work through the lunch hour. We don’t have much time to solve this case, you know.”
Bud sighed, not so quietly.
She moved toward him, and he hastily opened the door. “I’m so glad you’ll be accompanying us today, Officer Orlov.” She gifted him with a dazzling smile.
He shuffled his feet. “Of course. I’m more than happy to help out.”
How did she do that? I followed them out of the office and into the parking area behind the building.
Nonna easily won the argument with Bud, and we took her Cadillac to the Sunnyside Retirement Community, with Bud driving and Nonna in the passenger side seat, her glasses in place.
I sat in the back, secretly gleeful that she had won, and we weren’t arriving in a marked police car. Bud had given in gracefully because he didn’t have a choice. There was no way he was going to haul my grandmother into a police car.
“There you go. Turn left,” she said. We drove by Thelma and Georgiana’s duplex, and I noted that their sidewalk hadn’t been shoveled in quite a while. They weren’t due home for about a week, but I made a mental note to get that ice and snow off with some de-icer before they returned.
When they traveled, they sometimes hired me to water their plants, yet they hadn’t done so this time. I may have killed one or two last time, so I kind of understood.
“Another left,” Nonna said. Bud obliged. “There you go. That little house right there.” Nonna pointed to a cute ranch-style home painted a light purple with bright white trim. I blinked. That purple was something. It was kind of pretty, considering it was close to Valentine’s Day.
Bud stopped the car and stepped out before crossing around to open my grandmother’s door. I jumped out and noted what looked like lovely holly bushes against the whole front side of the home.
We walked along the freshly shoveled walk to the stark-white front door that held an adorable heart-shaped pink decoration where a wreath would be at Christmastime.
My grandmother rang the bell. The door opened, and a woman who appeared to be in her late fifties stood there, a good foot taller than me. I don’t know why, but I expected Camille to be around my height, or at least petite, considering Lenny couldn’t have been more than five-and-a-half feet tall.
“Elda Albertini,” the woman said, holding out her hand. “My goodness, come in. What are you wearing?”
“It’s my work outfit,” Nonna said, taking the woman’s hand. “We’re so sorry to bother you like this.”
“Oh, no, not at all.”
Nonna turned. “Anna, this is Camille. Camille, this is my granddaughter, Anna Albertini.” We shook hands.
Camille had curly blondish-gray hair piled on the top of her head and light-green eyes. Her skin was surprisingly smooth, and when she smiled, not much of her face moved. My guess was Botox. But her eyes twinkled. “I have seen you featured in the paper quite a bit, Anna. It’s nice to meet you in person.”
