Gold_Medal_Book by Die a Little (pdf)

Author:Die a Little (pdf) [Little, Die a]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Or

--I don't know who you're talking about, honey.

Or

--Try Missing Persons, lady.

Die a Little -- 110 --

The next morning, I drive by the courtyard. I can't get out of the car. I stare at the row of wan doors. I wait for signs of life.

I realize I should be talking to Alice. If the girl in the paper isn't Lois, Alice could assure me that she'd just seen her friend, just got off the phone with her not the night before. Talked together confidentially just that day about the sad fate of the girl who lived across the courtyard in, say, Number 8.

That afternoon, having promised Bill, I find myself helping Alice bake cakes for the Rotary Club bake sale. As she frantically prepares three cakes for the sale and one for dessert that night, I take a seat at the kitchen table and begin peeling apples.

"Oh, Lora, I feel like we haven't talked in weeks. And first with the Beauvaises and ... Well, we both get so caught up with the rest of our lives," she says. Then, smiling, "You with your big romance -- "

She must see me bristle at the characterization because she quickly adds, "--your busy life, and we haven't made time enough lately. I want to hear everything that's been going on."

"How's Lois?" I ask it. I ask it abruptly, like a shot to the heart.

Alice stops for just a split second, almost unnoticeably, but I see it.

She stops for a hairsbreadth of a second in folding the cake batter.

"Oh, you know Lois."

"I do," I say, watching. Then I wait, still watching, until she has to say more. She sees I will keep waiting.

"Funny you should ask." Alice shakes her head like a vaguely disapproving older sister. "I guess she's gone off on another one of her tears. From what I hear, she's headed off to San Francisco without so much as a forwarding address." Her voice, the words she chooses, seem unreal, like dialogue from a movie.

"She told you she was going to San Francisco?"

"No, not even that. A friend of hers told me. I wonder if I should put a little nutmeg in this. Do you think Bill would like that, or would it be too strong."

"Gee, Alice, I don't know. So who told you?"

"This girl who used to work at the studio." She puts the nutmeg back in the spice cabinet unopened. Then turns to me and smiles.

"Oh, how did you happen upon her?"

"We ran into each other at the Apple Pan."

I look at her. Look at her and can't figure out a thing.

"With Bill," she adds. "We went to get a quick sandwich, and she was leaving as we were arriving." just daring me to ask still more.

"What's her name?"

"I can see you're a cop's sister." She laughs, the sound like an unbearable silver bell. "Ina. Her name's Ina. Now do your sister-in-law a favor and hold that pan for me while I pour."

Die a Little -- 111 --

I hold the cake

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