Jane snorts. “I don’t think so either.”
“So maybe you got it from me. Maybe I can shed a little light on your case. Give a fresh perspective on things, what do you think?”
“I’m not so sure, Ma.”
“I may not be a cop, and I know it’s easy to underestimate me because I’m an older woman and all, but—”
“That,” Alice interjects, waving her wineglass in the air, “is society’s fault. We women lose all our value when we age beyond our reproductive prime.”
“Yeah, okay. I don’t know about that reproductive prime stuff. I just like being listened to.” I look at Jane. “If something’s bothering you, I might be able to help.”
Jane sighs. “I don’t know what’s bothering me.”
“But you know something’s not right, is that it? Yeah, I get that. The same way I knew something wasn’t right when your brother Frankie told me he was spending the night at Mike Popovich’s house and he was really down by the quarry smoking pot. I knew it because I have instincts.”
“I just have to think about it,” she says.
And I can see her doing just that as we move on to tiramisu for dessert and I polish off a fourth glass of wine. She’s had only one glass all evening because she’s my designated driver. That’s the public servant in her. She’s dedicated to enforcing the law, which means she hasn’t really relaxed all evening. And her mind is clearly somewhere else.
She’s still distracted when we climb into her car and buckle up. She and Gabriel drove here separately, and he’s taking Regina straight home to bed, so it’s just me and Jane sitting together. I wish I had more time alone with my daughter. Life moves too fast, she is too busy, and when I do have Jane to myself, she always seems in a rush to be somewhere else.
“That was some dinner, hey, Ma?” she says.
“Alice picked a good one.” I pat the precious box of leftovers on my lap. “I guess that woman isn’t all hot air.”
“That sounds suspiciously like a compliment.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” I look out the window at Alice and Barry, climbing into their car. A man as nice as Barry deserves a kinder woman, but when it comes to love, there’s no accounting for taste.
Jane starts the car and we pull out of the restaurant parking lot.
Up ahead, there’s a cruiser with flashing lights that’s just pulled over a pickup truck and they’ve both stopped at the side of the road. Naturally, Jane slows down to scope out the situation, to see if it’s something requiring her intervention. That’s my daughter, always sniffing for trouble.
The way I do.
“I think the Greens must have moved out,” I say.
“Yeah?” she asks. She’s not really listening to me because her attention is still focused on the stopped cruiser.
“I haven’t seen either one of them for a few days. But I have seen lights on inside the house, so I think they must have one of those automatic timers. The ones that turn on your lights when it gets dark, to scare away burglars.”
“Ma, with you watching that house all the time, a burglar doesn’t have a chance.”
That makes me laugh. “Yeah. I think you’re right.”
“When you see something, say something. You take that to a whole new level.” Satisfied that the cruiser has things under control, she drives past it. “The Greens probably got fed up with you spying on them.”
“I’m just keeping an eye on my neighborhood. If I didn’t, Larry Leopold would be dead now and Rick Talley would be facing a murder charge.”
“Have you spoken to Jackie yet?”
“I think she’s too embarrassed to talk to me.”
“Because of her affair, you mean?”
“No, I think it’s more because of who she had the affair with. Larry Leopold? Really?” I snort.
“You just never know, Ma. He might be a tiger in bed.”
Just for an instant I think about Jonas and his sculpted pectorals. I admit, he did catch my eye. I also admit that in a weak moment, with a few too many martinis under my belt, I might have entertained some carnal thoughts. Luckily, Agnes has set me straight. From the beginning, Agnes saw right through him.
Now I feel guilty for not inviting her to dinner tonight. As annoying as Agnes can be, she stood by me in my time of crisis. Gasping for breath, to be sure, but she did stand by me.
When Jane drops me off at home, I notice that Agnes’s lights are still on. I know she keeps late hours and she’s probably sitting in front of her TV right now, smoking her beloved Virginia Slims. She’d probably welcome my company. And my precious leftovers.