Page 23 of Death on Riddle Road

Having spent these past weeks with Kit could do that, because of the example she set.

I’d once compared her to Vlad the Impaler on the patience scale and he’d come out better.Not that my great-aunt ever impaled anyone...physically, anyway.With words, with looks...Oh, yeah.

So, a few weeks in her company might have shifted me toward a less patient mode than usual.

I looked around while I waited — patiently — for Clara to catch up.

I’d been at Teague’s place a few times, always for brief and practical purposes.In other words, for the dog.Not for Teague and me.

The apartment building struck me as looking like it should have been part of a big complex, instead of two buildings with a total of ten units.Maybe big had been the intention, but since these buildings were two or three decades old, adding more seemed unlikely.They were built from a mix of brick and siding with large windows sticking out in a pattern.Each unit had a garage taking up half of the bottom floor.

“Okay, got the key.”Clara led the way.

Murphy greeted us with joy.

We didn’t take it personally.He’s a lab mix and would have greeted old Vlad the Impaler with joy.

Teague’s apartment had the essentials, but not much more.The only frivolities were dog toys.They were also the only elements not tidied up.

Teague wasn’t obsessive, but from watching him work on carpentry projects for my house, I knew he tended to clean up as he went.

Did it bother him that I had a finish-then-straighten approach?He’d never indicated that, but maybe I hadn’t paid close enough attention to notice.

“What’s wrong?”Clara asked abruptly as we got back in my sedan, Murphy happily ensconced in the back seat.

“Nothing.”

“You always get moody when we stop by Teague’s place.”

“I’m not moody.”

“Yeah, right.It’s not like we find women’s underwear strewn around the place.So what bugs you?”

What bugged me was wondering how he’d react when I replaced the tale I’d told him of a former English teacher who inherited enough to move here and live without a job with the truth.

How could it possibly be good for his law enforcement career to be tied to someone pretending not to be the person who’d pretended to be something other than she really was for so long?

Much less personal considerations of my hiding a major chunk of my life from him.

But since I was hiding that same chunk from Clara, I went another direction and blurted out, “How well do I really know him?”

“Hah.You do realize that nobody really knows their partner when they commit to each other, don’t you?You like what you know — you love what you know — and you hope for the best.Then you spend decades and decades and decades learning about each other and still liking and loving what you find out, if you’re very, very fortunate.”

Stopped at the turn onto the highway, I looked over at her.“You and Ned haven’t known each other that many decades.”

“Nope.I’m quoting Gran.That’s how she was with my grandfather.And now she’s hoping for the same with her boyfriend.”

From photos I’d seen,Granand thatboyfriendmade Kit look like an ingenue.I’d only seen photos because the pair had decamped to Belize before I moved here.They did look happy in the photos.

“As for Ned and me, we’re still finding out.And liking and loving as we go.”

Her smile hadn’t left when I dropped her off to make dinner with her husband, then spend their evening together.

CHAPTER TEN

Without Teague tocuddle with in front of them, my living room holiday decorations didn’t feel as festive as I’d have liked.And, yes, I knew that was partly from shallow comparison of my current state to Clara’s, while also recognizing the demands of his job were part of the package that made Teague Teague, and I accepted that.

I just hoped he accepted—