Waffling in Belgium: A Sleuthing Circle Cozy Mystery by Claire Gardner

Author:Claire Gardner [Gardner, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rose Garden Press
Published: 2024-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter thirty-three

The Head of the Nail

“What on earth is that?” asked Emma.

“Old paper, crumpled into a ball, obviously,” Hilde replied.

I climbed up onto the table. Maine looked at me cautiously. I think he was going to tell me I couldn’t go near the findings, but then he backed off.

I kept a cautious distance. Truthfully, I did not want to feel the least impulse to bat the paper across the table.

“We’ll see what it is,” said the detective and promptly pulled a pen out of his pocket. He then asked if any of my friends had a handkerchief. Hilde had several and offered him one.

The detective nimbly took the paper ball and fixed it with one hand through the hankie and with the other, using the pen, began to spread it out. After a couple of minutes and using the surface of the table to support him in the process, he managed to spread the paper out completely.

We all looked at it in amazement.

There before us lay a piece of paper that had clearly been torn off of a full sheet in haste. It looked ancient, and the writing was beautiful. A work of art. It also seemed like the piece of paper was stained in some areas.

“Science, faith, and beauty. Wow . . .” Vivien said.

“Ahhh, that Loveling sure knew what life was all about,” Emma exclaimed. “I would love to have met and chatted with him. You can tell he was someone who was inspired, oriented by what makes men and women sublime—science, faith, and beauty. Oh . . . it’s so interesting to have found this. I’m so excited to see the writing of this wise and sublime man. If only my father could see this . . .”

Instinctively I looked at Hilde’s face. I could not help it. I’m a gossip by nature. I don’t like all gossip because I’m respectful of people’s privacy—most of the time. But you know what they say about the curiosity of cats, and what I’m most curious about—or rather, what I most like to see—are Hilde’s expressions of outrage and disapproval toward Emma’s crazy ideas. The best part is that they couldn’t live without each other. They love each other like sisters, but they couldn’t be more different.

I looked at Hilde and waited for her comment.

“Emma, how do you know he was a sublime man?” she asked, unable to contain herself. “What does that really mean?

“Mu, meow.”

“Friends, Detective,” Vivien interjected. “The important thing here is that Yvonne apparently hid the chocolates and this piece of paper, that as you can see has a stain—probably from chocolate—from someone close to her who might have realized that she was breaking the diet she was supposedly on. I saw the list of foods she was allowed to eat daily posted on the refrigerator door. Far from chocolate.”

I liked it when she talked that way.

“That’s right, ma’am,” said Maine. “You’ve hit the nail on the head. Yvonne would be hiding the chocolates from someone close to her.

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