The Bitter With The Sweet by J A Whiting

Author:J A Whiting [Whiting, J A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Whitemark Publishing
Published: 2018-11-12T22:00:00+00:00

15

When eighty-two-year old Roger Winthrop stepped onto the side porch of the Victorian and knocked at the door of the bake shop, Angie answered and greeted him.

“Thank you for coming,” she told Roger with a smile. “Would you like to sit inside or out here on the porch?”

Roger eyed the table and chairs set up on the porch with the flower boxes on the railing and the pots of colorful blooms. “Outside would be nice. It’s not as hot today as it has been. Is the shop closed for the day or do you need to be inside?”

“We closed at 3pm. I’ll text Mr. Finch. He’s going to join us.” Angie asked Roger to take a seat and told him she’d bring out some refreshments.

Once the three were settled, they talked about her sisters and their businesses, the Victorian mansion and how Angie came to inherit it, and how Mr. Finch had become an honorary member of the family.

“It’s all fascinating,” Roger said as he sipped his lemonade cooler and took a sugar cookie from the plate in the center of the table. “You’re very lucky, Mr. Finch.”

“Please call me Victor. And you’re quite right. I am a very lucky man.”

“That’s why I moved into the boarding house,” Roger said. “I was tired of living alone and I certainly didn’t want to move to California to live with my son. Too far away. Too much change. I didn’t want to leave everything I know. I’ve lived two towns over from Sweet Cove all of my life. This area is my home.”

“That’s understandable,” Finch said.

“Tell me,” Roger began, “why did the police ask me to speak with you?”

Angie cleared her throat. “We have experience as consultants to the police doing interviews and research for them. We help out when they need a hand.”

“I see.” Roger didn’t look like he understood any better why Angie and Finch were interviewing him, but he didn’t ask any more about it.

Finch asked, “What did you do for work?”

“I had my own business selling medical supplies, did it for over fifty years before I finally retired,” Roger said. “My wife died five years ago. I lived alone for two years, then had enough of that and moved into Maribeth’s boarding house.”

“How do you like it there?” Angie asked.

“I’m glad I did it. I have my privacy when I want it and there are people to talk with when I want that. I like the mixed ages in the house, it’s not just a bunch of old people waiting around to die.”

Angie smiled inwardly at Roger’s bluntness.

“You must have known Perry fairly well since you and he had been at the house the longest,” Angie said.

“Megan has lived there almost as long as Perry and there was the other woman who lived there until recently. She left for a nursing home. Agnes had been at the house since Maribeth opened the place to lessees. Someone new has signed a lease for that suite of rooms. It’s another older woman in her early seventies.

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