The wording made Talia frown for a minute. It was fast enough that later, Rarity would doubt that she’d even seen it. “Oh, a few business interests that will fall to me, and some personal ones as well. And of course, Oscar.”
“Oscar? Do you have a son together?”
Talia’s laugh came easy again. Whatever line Rarity had crossed before had been either forgotten or filed away. “Oh, honey. Oscar is Mason’s pet spider. The poor dear is coming up on twenty. I’m sure Mason thought he’d be gone by now; he got him as a joke when we were together. The tenth anniversary of the movie’s release. Now, I get to finish raising a spider.”
Soon after, with most of her salad left untouched, Talia left to go get ready for tonight’s events. Rarity stayed and finished her salad. All of it.
As she finished, she took out a small notebook and made notes on the highlights of their discussion. And more questions. Was Talia, Mason’s heir? What did she get besides Oscar? And who knew about this? Besides the lawyer.
She paused as she thought about her dinner with Talia. She’d started to warm up to the woman, until Talia had started talking about finding a man to take care of her. Man, she’d hate Archer. He loved hiking. It would never make him rich financially, but he did what he loved. Just like she did. She decided that Talia’s idea of being financially comfortable was way different than her own. Then there was the silent judgment about Rarity eating bread. That alone was enough to restrict the woman from Rarity’s could-be-friends-with list.
One question answered, more added. The math on this investigation wasn’t going in Rarity’s favor.
* * *
Archer slipped into his seat about thirty minutes into the first film. He kissed her on the cheek as he got settled. “Did I miss much?”
Rarity smiled and shook her head. “The plot’s a little thin. I’m sure you’ll get caught up quick. Long drive?”
“I couldn’t get the group to leave. Finally, I said I was heading up to the apartment to get ready and that Jack would see them out. They got the hint then. Anyway, they booked two more hikes next week. I’m loving this film bunch. They like to hike and they tip well. They said I wasn’t missing out on the movies showing tonight anyway. Tomorrow night’s films are the contenders. Tonight’s were just filling the ballot.”
“Shhhh,” said a voice from behind him.
She squeezed his hand and tried to keep from giggling. The best thing about watching movies at home was that you could pause them and talk anytime you wanted to. Here, you had to be mindful of others in the theater.
When they started walking home, he helped her put on her sweater. “It’s cooled down. The wind.”
“It’s fine. We can walk. Unless you drove to the theater.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I parked the truck in your driveway. Then jogged into town.”
“So you had film industry guys on the hike?” She wanted to hear if they’d said anything else. “Any talk about Mason?”
“Not much that was good. You’ve heard the expression not wanting to talk bad about the dead? These guys had no problem breaking that rule. They said the movie proved he was washed up and not connected with anything remotely modern. Apparently, this is the first movie he’d directed in years. They weren’t very nice toward him, but they pay and tip well.”
“I had the same feeling about Talia when we had dinner today. Just not very nice. Kind of judgy of other people. Snarky but trying to be funny about it.”
“Wait, you had dinner with Talia? How did that happen? I didn’t take you for the fangirl type.” Archer looked over at Rarity as they walked.
“Then you know me well. Anyway, ‘someone’ stood me up, so when I went to Carole’s to grab something to eat, she was sitting alone. I took a chance and asked if I could join her. She said yes, then started asking me about how I wound up here. She told me that she’d rented Darby’s house last year when they came to the festival. So that’s probably why the stalker thought she was there.”
“She admitted to having a stalker?”
“No, I put that piece together. I actually think, and so does Drew, that Darby’s stalker was really just looking for Talia.” She waited for a response, but when he didn’t say anything, she turned toward him. He was just looking around as they walked. “Thoughts?”
“Not really, but it makes more sense that it would be someone famous and not Darby. So why would someone stalk Talia?”
“That I don’t know. Unless it was Bret. He knew about last year’s rental. Maybe we’ve been looking at the contacts wrong.” She thought about the incidents. “The break-in could have been him just trying to get in. The note, he missed Talia because he was there and she wasn’t. The flowers. The only thing it doesn’t explain is the black truck almost hitting Darby. Maybe that was just an accident.”
“You should send this to Drew.” He paused. “Or tell Jonathon. He’s been at the bookstore during the day, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll talk it over with him tomorrow. Do you have to get home early?” Rarity wanted to suggest hanging out, but she didn’t want Archer to feel obligated to stay when he was tired. But he hadn’t fallen asleep in the theater, which was a good thing.
“Nope, I’m opening the store at nine, then Jack takes over and I’ve got a morning hike to take out. These guys from today asked if I’d do a private hike for them. So more movies tomorrow night?”
“I’m not sure it’s helping find Mason’s killer, but if the guys say these are the good films, I’d like to see them.” She nodded to the house. “Come in for a bit?”
“I was thinking you’d never ask,” he said as he reached for her keys.
