“Alright, go ahead,” I prompted. He was obviously waiting for me to have some sort of reaction to whatever this bit of gossip was.
Finally, he exploded. “She’s been seeing someone new. I just don’t know who it is, but whoever it is, they have her on lockdown.”
“Where do you get your information?” I asked. And then I looked him up and down. “You don’t look a bit sick.”
“I’m not. I was nauseous and tired yesterday. Thought I was coming down with something. It cleared up not long after I’d texted you that I wouldn’t be coming in today.”
“Uh-huh… So how did you find out Maggie is dating someone?” It was always so easy for our conversations to get sidetracked.
“At night, when I was better, I ate at Vincenzo’s. That place near my apartment with the best marinara sauce? Anyway, I sat by myself at a small booth, but I didn’t notice who was in the next booth. I’m just minding my own business. But as I’m looking through the menu—which was pointless ‘cause I always order the same thing—I heard a woman’s voice that I wouldn’t ever not recognize. It would be like me picking your voice out of a lineup. I’d recognize it from the first word you spoke. Well, same with Maggie.”
“Maggie was at the same restaurant as you. So?”
“I’ll tell you if you don’t interrupt,” he said, one eyebrow lifted high.
“Oh, my goodness! Go on.” I put my finger to my mouth like someone silencing a child.
Grant’s name was called at that moment. We walked up to the counter to pick up our order. Grant handed me a bag and my coffee. When I looked inside the bag, there sat my favorite coffee cake.
“Thank you,” I said, raising the bag and the coffee slightly.
“No problem,” he said offhandedly while reaching for extra sugar packets.
We sat down at a small table by the back entrance, and I waited for him to finish his story.
“It turns out that she was on a date with the new guy. From their conversation, it sounded as if they’d been dating a while. It wasn’t even a conversation. More like a heated argument. She kept calling him ‘love.’ One time she did use his name. It sounded like Brandon?”
“What were they arguing about?”
“He seemed to believe she wasn’t being truthful about something. She swore she was, but he kept getting more and more upset. At one point he left and came back about 15 minutes later. It was a rough evening out for them, that’s for sure. I ate and left before they had finished. Their food probably got cold with all the arguing.”
“That’s so bizarre. Even more bizarre with what I have to tell you.” I cringed internally at having to divulge how I had seen that Maggie had called Colin, but I held my breath and let it all out. I told him about the airport and the dinner date last night and finally got to the part about his outright lie about who had called him.
I kept from meeting Grant’s eyes throughout my explanation. My gaze focused on the steady stream of people making their way through the door of the coffee shop.
“Did you kiss?” he asked, and finally our eyes met.
“No.”
“Are you going out with him again?”
“How can I, knowing he lied? Unless there’s a good, secret business reason,” I said, verbalizing the possible excuses I’d imagined since waking up. “But it still feels icky.”
He didn’t ask or suggest anything else, so I asked him, “Is it possible Brandon suspects something between Maggie and Colin?”
“That may have been the argument. I failed to catch what the real dispute was about.” He sounded lost in thought, as if his mind were somewhere else.
“What if this all connects to her disappearance?” I asked.
“Or we overreacted. If Maggie’s having an affair with Colin and this Brandon guy is jealous, it sounds like a messy situation, and I want nothing to do with it.”
“Well, I do now! And how can you say that after we tried to get into Maggie’s apartment and rummaged through her office? It’s sounding more and more like that ‘family emergency’ of hers is a lie. I’m not convinced that she evenhasfamily. And Maggie would have done everything in her power to call any of us to say she wasn’t coming in.”
He shrugged at me. I shrugged back, an exaggerated gesture to show that I wasn’t accepting this indifferent attitude. All I received in reply was another half-hearted shrug.
“I guess I should thank you for that information. It looks like I’ll continue this investigation on my own now. Are you coming into work?”
Grant nodded. “Yes, let’s go.” He stood up.
