Retirement Can Be Murder

CHAPTER 16

The next day, Kaylie knocked at his door. This time he was wearing pants that fit.

He’d been trying to learn more about Sunset Cove. At the same time, he had to schedule times to see different banquet spaces-he made an appointment for the next day with Jerry Rubenstein at the Palmstead. He’d write a little about good times and good friends. Maybe pad it with some stats about social gatherings and cardiac health. The daily grind.

He answered the door and Kaylie was smiling. It was neighborly. She had on the same outfit as before, but different colors. A blue t-shirt and shorts, still barefoot. She walked past him and inside.

“I’ve come for the proverbial cup of sugar.” She had a measuring cup and a smirk.

“How are you?”

“Do you have any?”

“I try not to use sugar.”

“Oh.” She cringed. “Your little diet.”

“I just don’t cook.”

“Right. I was also wondering if you knew when our rent is due.”

“Two days ago.”

“Oh. Well. I wanted sugar too.”

“Sorry. I’m sure the building manager will understand.”

She sat down on the bed and crossed her legs. She pointed her toes at the floor.

“Were you working?”

“I was. Would you like water?”

“I’m fine.”

He came in from the kitchen with a glass for himself.

“I’m sorry, I checked. I don’t have sugar.”

“What about flour?” she said and tilted her head.

“What are you making?”

“I’m just trying to squeeze you dry.”

“I see.”

“What were you working on?”

“Just this thing.”

“That’s descriptive. You really must be a writer.” She yawned and stretched. He looked at his water glass instead of her.

“My editor wants me to write something about banquet spaces.”

“Oh, how exciting.”

“It’s OK. It won’t be a hard job, necessarily.”

She got up and walked over to his window. She looked out. He couldn’t tell if they were the same shorts as before. But he wasn’t looking at his water glass.

“I used to work at banquets,” she said and turned around. “I was a caterer.”

“You were?”

“I was. The pay was terrible and so were the people. Will that go in your article?”

“I don’t know,” he said and laughed. When she walked, she kept her feet slightly-barely-arched. She moved to his desk and picked up his notebook. He walked forward and reached for it, but she turned around and held it.

“What’s all this? I was expecting descriptions of appetizers and sound systems. Not all these drawings of the beach. And what’s this? Rumors?”

He grabbed it from her. She held onto the end and looked at him.

“That’s nothing,” he said. “Just doodles.”

“I see.” She leaned against his desk and ran her finger across it. Slow.

“You’re clean.”

“I like a clean place.”

“You like control.”

“I think you dropped your measuring cup,” he told her.

“Will you find it for me?”

“I should get back to work.”

She stepped closer and looked him up and down.

“This fits better.”

“It does.”

“Did you get a suit?”

“I did.”

“Can I see it?”

He started laughing.

“Do you act like this with all your neighbors, Kaylie? How many times have I met you? Once?”

“No, Jake, I don’t act like this with all my neighbors.”

She sat back on the bed. He got the suit and changed in the bathroom. Felt his hair. It was hard. Hers, that red brown color, seemed like it would be soft. He knotted the tie with both hands and splashed water on his face. She deserved to see the suit, he thought. She had told him about it.

When he came out of the room, he buttoned his jacket and looked up. She was holding a Hershey wrapper with two fingers, like it was soiled.

“Kaylie, where did you get that?”

“Tsk, tsk.” She shook her head. “A moment of weakness?”

“Were you digging through my garbage?”

“I threw away my gum and saw this. I’m disappointed in you.”

“You can’t just burst in and do that. I don’t even know you.”

“It looks good, by the way.”

“The suit?”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad I got it. I wouldn’t have known where that place was.”

She dropped the wrapper on his desk and wiped her hands on her shorts.

“So what caused your moment of weakness?”

He sat down on the bed. He didn’t care if the suit wrinkled. He unbuttoned his jacket and let it fall loose around him.

“Nothing.”

“Come on. There must have been something that pushed you over the edge. I know that the guy you are now didn’t lose all that weight by relapsing.”

She tilted her head to the side. Strands of hair fell out from behind her ears.

“It’s nothing.”

“What happened?”

“Just something with work.”

“Banquet spaces?”

“No. I had a friend pass away.”

She sat down beside him, a half foot away. He could see the lines on her lips. No lipstick.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s stupid. I shouldn’t have eaten the Hershey bar.”

“Not about that. I’m sorry about your friend.”

“I hardly knew her.”

“Oh.”

“But it was very sudden.”

“I see. Well, that’s enough.”

“And…” he started then stopped. She leaned forward and nodded.

“And what? What is it?”

“I’m not sure what happened. There’s just a lot going on that I don’t understand. I’m not sure if she was crazy or right. Or maybe both. It makes it difficult to know what to do.”

Kaylie looked at the wrapper on the desk and then back at him. He leaned forward and the jacket covered his knees. He put his head in his hands. She rubbed his shoulders.

“It’s OK.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is.”

“Anyway, I’m sorry. I’m telling this to a stranger.”

“I think,” she said quietly, “you should come out with me and some friends. Sometime this week. We’ll have drinks. You can forget about all of this, right?”

“I don’t want to forget about all of this. I don’t think I know what happened yet.”

“Your friend-what happened to them?”

“Well, fine.” He sighed. “She was old. And she went for a walk on the beach. I admit that she seemed a little crazy when I met her. Scared. She didn’t know what she was doing. She had weird theories. But she was worried something would happen to her.”

“And what happened?”

“Sometime that night…two nights ago, I guess. It seems like it was years ago. But sometime that night she passed away on the beach. And I just didn’t think that she could go like that. So quickly. The police don’t suspect anything, but I know it must have happened for a reason.”

She leaned in closer.

“I don’t know what happened.” She shrugged and smiled. “But I think it’s just a part of your job you aren’t used to yet. This is what it’s like. You have to get used to that. It’s natural. It’s something that just…happens.”

“You think so?”

“You can’t fix it by reporting on her. Right?”

“No.”

She walked forward to his desk and picked up the wrapper.

“You have to deal with this in other ways. Ones with less fat content.” She tilted her head and laughed a little. It sounded different than he’d expected. It rang more. “I know what you should do. You should come out and have fun. Just have a few drinks, take it easy. It’s the neighborly thing to do.”

“I’ve never known any of my neighbors before you.”

“Then that’s your problem.”

“Right.”

“So just don’t worry about it. Right?”

“Right.”

She crossed the room and he watched her from the bed. She walked like she was testing out her hips. They worked. She found the measuring cup she’d dropped on the floor and picked it up. She put the handle in her front pocket, the cup sticking out.

“I’ll talk to you later.”

Before she walked toward the door, she stopped in front of him and crouched down. She leaned in close and took the knot of his tie in her hands. She took the back tail with one hand and the front in the other. She pulled on them hard and whispered to him.

“I’m good at knots.”

She walked out the door and shut it behind her. He stood in front of the mirror. The tie was almost strangling him. This was what it was like to have a new jacket. He took it and threw it on the floor. He loosened the tie enough to pull it straight over his head. He didn’t even bother to untie it.