Rachel Alexander 02 - The Dog who knew too much by Benjamin Carol Lea

Author:Benjamin, Carol Lea [Benjamin, Carol Lea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

19

She Rolled Her Eyes When She Read It

SITTING ON LISA’S couch, I tore open the envelope I had retrieved from Paul’s pocket and by the light of the lamppost coming in through the windows discovered what it was that Paul Wilcox had not wanted me to see. As soon as I had, I went through the rest of the mail, finding yet another real surprise.

I pushed the play button on Lisa’s answering machine, listening to the lonely sound of the dial tone as I got dressed. Then I woke Dashiell, locked up, and took the stairs down to the lobby.

“Ms. Alexander?” the concierge said as soon as he saw me. “Wait up. I have something for you.”

“For me?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t catch you on your way in. I must have been on my break. I see he’s back,” he said, handing me a bouquet of roses. “These came this afternoon. I guess he wanted you to have them, you know, before.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking for a card and not finding one.

“The old boyfriend. I mean, Mr. Wilcox. I guess he wanted you to get those before he came over,” he said. Then he began shining up his brass name tag with the heel of his hand to distract me from the fact that, according to his job description, he was out of line in commenting on my personal life. Since I didn’t raise my eyebrows or inhale sharply, he looked back up after a moment

“You mean Mr. Wilcox sent these, Eddie? There’s no card.“

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he said. He leaned over the high desk. “After he and Ms. Jacobs split,” he said, “he got pretty weird. Used to stand across the street, the other side of the ball field, so he’d like be out of the way, looking up at her window.” He shook his head. “He must of had it real bad for her, to do that No chick’s worth that, far as I’m concerned, but, hey, not everyone thinks the same, am I right?“

“What are you talking about?” I asked him.

He leaned over the counter. “Well, I guess they had some kind of fight, you know, a breakup, like over the holidays. But he kept coming around for a while, asking if Ms. Jacobs was home. But when I went to ring her, he always said, Never mind, and he’d just leave. I was really embarrassed for the guy, coming around like that but not even calling up. It was pretty humiliating.”

“And he’d go wait across the street, like until she walked the dog?”

“No, it was way later, like after midnight. Ms. Jacobs, she never walked Charlie that late unless she worked late and Charlie’s last walk was the walk home. This was when my shift was over. Twelve thirty, one o’clock.”

“When you were leaving for the night?”

“Yeah, right. I’d see him, not right here, you know, not so obvious, but way on the other side of the ball field, where the bums hang out?“

“You mean the boccie court?”

“Around there, right.

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