A small huffing noise came out of Vida's mouth,which I took as a prelude to a testy retort. But Vida merely patted my arm and smiled. I pretended that I didn't notice the glint of grateful tears in her eyes.
“Come to dinner tomorrow night,” I said, the invitation popping out of my mouth. “I've already asked Milo.”
“That sounds enjoyable,” Vida replied. “Unless,” she added, seeing me to the door, “you two want to be alone.”
I stared. “No, of course not! I mean, it's Milo and me. Why would we want to be alone?”
Vida had blinked away the tears. She now looked very ingenuous. “Oh—let's say that a little bird told me.
I refused to rise to the bait. “I'll see you around five-thirty. Good night, Vida.”
On Wednesday afternoon The Alpine Advocate broke its exclusive coverage of the Stan Levine homicide investigation. Milo Dodge was covered in righteous glory. I was covered with a sense of professional achievement. It's rare that a small-town weekly gets a jump on the rest of the media.
I had written all the copy myself, except for the cut-lines. I let Carta do that, figuring she couldn't get us into any trouble. Of course I was wrong: She'd spelled Fannucci's first name as Bleak, Nobody on the staff had caught the mistake.
Ironically, Milo was the first to call. “Great job,” he said trying to sound modest. “You make me sound like a hero. But somebody misspelled Blake.”
That was when I reread the front-page cutline. “Damn,” I breathed. “You're right. We're wrong.”
“Not entirely,” Milo said in his laconic manner. “In a way, it's accurate. Last week I was feeling pretty bleak myself.”
“You were too willing to give up too soon,” I noted, juggling the phone with one hand and the newspaper with the other. “You're usually more tenacious. Frankly, I was a little surprised at your attitude.”
“Maybe it's because I didn't want the killer to be someone from Alpine. That could have really put this town on its ear. There's enough gloom and doom without setting a precedent for killing off anybody with new ideas.”
“I can understand that part,” I replied. “But this is a good lesson in perseverance.”
“Perseverance.” Milo's voice took on a strangely musing tone. “You mean in not giving up even when you think there's absolutely no hope?”
I couldn't quite figure out why Milo sounded so odd. “Right. Persistence.”
“But once in a while something happens that's encouraging?”
“Right. That's when you get a new dose of hope.”
“Even if you get invited to dinner and Vida Runkel shows up wearing a sombrero?”
“That wasn't a sombrero, it was a gaucho hat. Hey, wait a minute, Milo—what are you talking about?”
The sheriff chuckled. “Persistence. Perseverance. Hope. Got to go, Emma. Jack Mullins just got a report of a cougar prowling the golf course. See you.”
I sat there staring at the phone for about three minutes. Surely Milo didn't mean what I thought he meant? When had he ever shown persistence or perseverance in advancing our relationship? Coming off of the Levine investigation, the sheriff was in a good mood. He must have been teasing.
Then again, there was always hope. Vida had said the same thing.
And when was Vida ever wrong?
In Alpine, murder always seems to occur
in alphabetical order …
THE ALPINE ADVOCATE
THE ALPINE BETRAYAL
THE ALPINE CHRISTMAS
THE ALPINE DECOY
THE ALPINE ESCAPE
THE ALPINE GAMBLE
THE ALPINE HERO
THE ALPINE ICON
THE ALPINE JOURNEY
THE ALPINE KINDRED
THE ALPINE LEGACY
THE ALPINE MENACE
THE ALPINE NEMESIS
THE ALPINE OBITUARY
THE ALPINE PURSUIT
THE ALPINE QUILT THE ALPINE RECLUSE
… and you can be sure Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, is there to report every detail.
THE EMMA LORD MYSTERIES
by Mary Daheim
Published by Ballantine Books.
Available wherever books are sold.
A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright ©1994 by Mary Daheim
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-96149
eISBN: 978-0-307-55424-6
v3.0