Page 30 of A Winter of Discontent for Henry Milch
“Shut up. She’s eating.” I walked around and picked up the spoon, rinsed it off in the sink. I debated sitting down and trying to feed Emerald again, but I had the feeling she was swallowing more of it with her hands. I said to my grandmother, “I’ll make you a tuna fish sandwich.”
“I’d rather have egg salad.”
“I’ll hard boil some eggs later and you can have one tomorrow.”
I set about making the sandwich. She asked, “Where did you go?”
“Do you know Bobbie LaCross?”
“I don’t know everyone.”
“Well, she’s dead. Someone strangled her.”
I stirred up the tuna salad and then spread it onto a slice of bread, then put another slice on top. I put the poor example of a sandwich down in front of my grandmother.
“No chips?”
“I’ll get some the next time I go shopping.” I’d probably been saying that for a month.
She poked at the sandwich and then sighed. I waited for her to say something snide, but instead she said, “She’s not actually a LaCross, she just married one. She’s a Campbell. They go back in the county further than we do.”
A lot of good that did Bobbie. She was still dead.
“Course, they fell on hard times after the war. That’s probably why she lets people think she’s a LaCross and doesn’t correct them.”
She took a tentative bite of the sandwich.
“What war?” I asked.
She swallowed hard, then said, “The second world war, what do you think?”
“I think the world is constantly at war so it’s good to be specific.”
“I need a glass of milk.”
As I went to the fridge, I said, “You know a lot about someone you don’t know.”
“People talk.”
As I set a glass of milk down for her, Bev and Barbara came through the back door. Barely stopping to take off their coats, they went right for the baby.
“Oh my gosh,” Barbara said. “Look at you covered in your lunch.”
“Mashed banana,” I said. Mashed banana that was now all over the baby, the high chair and the floor. I decided I should get out of there before someone asked me to clean the mess up. I said, “Excuse me” and went upstairs for a couple Ativan and a long nap.
About three hours later,I woke up when I fell out of bed. At some point Reilly had shown up and gotten into bed with me. He had a habit of parking himself in the middle of the twin-sized bed and refusing to move, which left little room for me. Which was how I ended up on the floor.
I reached up onto the bed and dragged down a pillow, then I snagged my cell phone off the nightstand. Now that I was cozier, I called Ham and caught him up. When I was finished, he said, “You should go talk to the Wiltons, the other owners. Technically, they’re also our client since Melanie is paying us out of the winery’s account. Just act like you’re updating them.”
“They live nearby? She said they were silent partners. I figured they lived somewhere else.”
“No, they live up there. Not far from you. I don’t know why they’re not involved with the winery.”
“So they have a motive as well, don’t they?”
“Yeah. Or they did until you proved Bobbie was responsible for the fall herself.”
“Do you know if they know that?”
