Carrot Cake and Cryptic Clues by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters [Winters, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

“Beth! Mindy!” It was Sharon’s voice, and we turned around to see her waving at us. “Come in, we can have lunch together.”

We smiled and nodded at Sharon, and then we said goodbye to George.

I handed him my card. “Let me know if you remember anything else,” I told him.

“Sure,” he said. “I’m off to my next job in a few minutes anyhow. It was good talking to you.”

We met Sharon indoors. She was sitting at the dining table near the kitchen and said, “We’re having roast lamb, greens, and mashed potatoes. Aren’t you hungry?”

I looked at all the food laid out on the table and suddenly I was very hungry indeed.

“Thanks for inviting us to stay for lunch,” I said. Beth and I settled down at the table, just as Howard walked into the room.

He froze for a second when he saw us. “I didn’t know you were staying for lunch.”

“I found them talking to George,” said Sharon. “I thought it’d be nice to have some company. There’s always so much food.”

“I suppose so,” said Howard, sitting down opposite his daughter. “This looks delicious.”

“Helen’s a really great chef,” said Sharon. “I don’t know why Celeste kept trying to bring in new chefs.”

“Helen’s got a lot of work on her plate,” said Howard. “But you’re right. We can keep her on to do the cooking. Maybe we’ll hire someone else to do the laundry and the cleaning.”

“That sounds good,” said Sharon. “We’re lucky Helen never left us, like all the other chefs did.”

“Where’s Helen now?” I asked.

“I suppose she’s doing the beds,” said Sharon. “She’s usually cleaning upstairs when we have our lunch.”

We all served ourselves and dug into the food.

In between bites, Sharon said, “Have you learned anything useful?”

“Maybe,” I said. “I appreciate you asking us to eat all this yummy food. I don’t want to ruin the meal with awkward questions.”

“Don’t be silly,” Sharon said. “Daddy doesn’t mind. Do you, Daddy?”

I glanced at Howard, whose eyes were focused on his plate. He muttered something incomprehensible and shook his head. For a man so rich and powerful, he sure was controlled by the women in his life.

I turned to Sharon and said, “Did it bother you, that your dad and Celeste didn’t seem to have such a great marriage?”

Sharon shrugged and glanced at her father. “It did, at first. But I just want Daddy to be happy. And he explained that he was happy with Celeste, even though it wasn’t a traditional marriage. It was an agreement. We were both better off. So I stayed out of it.”

“I heard Celeste’d had an affair with your previous gardener,” I said.

Sharon shrugged. “She slept with everyone. She’d sleep with a table lamp, if it called her beautiful.”

Howard smiled and snorted in agreement.

“Have you heard about this?” I asked him. “What about your current gardener, George?”

“I did hear about it,” said Howard. “I don’t care. If Celeste wanted to sleep with the gardener, she could. Whether it’s George or whomever.”

“I thought George was gay,” I said.

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