50 Harbor Street - Debbie Macomber [44]
“Thanks. Speaking of that, where was your doctor friend?”
Linnette tugged at the seat belt as if it was suddenly too tight. “With his family, I guess. He didn’t say anything to me.” This was stated with disappointment.
Corrie suspected Chad wasn’t interested in dating Linnette. The one time she’d met him, at the clinic’s official opening, he’d seemed more interested in Gloria, her daughter’s neighbor, than in Linnette.
“I was worried for a while that he might have spent it with Gloria,” Linnette continued.
“Does she have family in the area?”
“Apparently not. I invited her to come over and join us, but she couldn’t. She had to work, too.” Linnette paused. “I like Gloria, but I have to admit the real reason I asked her was to make sure she wasn’t spending the day with Chad.” Linnette heaved a deep sigh. “That was insincere of me and I regret it. I wish Gloria had been able to come. Dinner with you and Dad was great, don’t get me wrong, but I think she would’ve enjoyed having it with us. Gloria and Dad would get along really well. They’re both in police work and all that.”
“Your father’s not in police work anymore.”
“I know, but it doesn’t matter. He’s such a cop.”
Linnette certainly had her father pegged. “It was a cozy family dinner,” Corrie murmured, paying attention to the road. “And there’s nothing wrong with that.”
She concentrated on her driving, and they didn’t speak for the next few minutes.
The silence was broken by Linnette. “Any further developments?”
Her daughter didn’t need to elaborate; Corrie understood what she meant. “Some,” she admitted reluctantly. Perhaps if she shared what was happening, Linnette would feel freer to talk about her own life.
Linnette waited for her to explain and then nudged her lightly when she didn’t. “You can’t leave it at that, Mom.”
“It’s probably nothing.”
“Tell me.”
Corrie disliked this subject in the extreme, but talking to Roy about it was impossible. He kept so many of his thoughts and feelings hidden inside. She knew this came from long habit, the natural caution of a cop. And it came from his deep-seated desire to protect her. Still, after all these years of married life, Corrie sometimes found her husband a stranger.
“Mom,” Linnette whined. “Tell me.”
“Sorry, I was thinking.” She sighed. “At work during the last few weeks I’ve been getting an inordinate number of hang-ups.”
“What do you mean?” Linnette asked. “You pick up the phone and the person on the other end slams down the receiver?”
“No. But he or she doesn’t say anything and then disconnects as soon as I start to ask who’s there.”
“What about caller ID?”
“That’s interesting. The calls are coming from pay phones in different parts of the county. There was even one from Seattle.”
“Pay phones,” Linnette repeated slowly.
“Your father isn’t amused.”
“I can’t imagine that he is,” her daughter murmured. “Whoever’s doing this certainly gets around.”
“So it seems. And then—” Corrie stopped abruptly. She hadn’t meant to let this other part slip.
Linnette was too observant not to notice. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
Hands clenching the steering wheel, Corrie nodded. “Wednesday afternoon, your father and I left the office early. Shortly after we got home, Willows, Weeds and Flowers made a delivery to the house.”
“The local florist?”
Corrie nodded. “Someone sent us a gorgeous floral arrangement for our Thanksgiving centerpiece.”
“Who?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“It wasn’t on the table.”
“I know…Your father didn’t want anything to do with it. We didn’t have that arrangement one minute before he was on the phone, trying to find out who sent it. Apparently it came as an order from another florist. Your dad was out the door before I could stop him.” He’d left her to worry for nearly two hours while he tried to track down this lead.
“Did he learn anything?”
“Not much. But I doubt your father will let it drop that easily.”
“What did he learn?”
Corrie had been curious herself and it’d taken a good hour to get the information out of him. In the end, he’d told