Fat Cat Takes The Cake

How did she know everything like that? Patrice should employ Anna when she did her fortune-telling act. “I don’t really want to keep seeing him. My mind tells me that, it really does. But I end up with him whenever he calls. There’s such a . . . pull. It’s like magnetism.”

Anna nodded again. She patted the back of Chase’s hand. “Yes, it is. It’s chemistry. And sometimes it happens with the wrong people.”

“What should I do about it?”

“You know the answer. Stop seeing Eddie.” She squeezed Chase’s hand.

Chase slapped her other palm flat on the counter. “I will. I’ll do that. As soon as . . . I do have to touch base with him once more. I need to know why he was being blackmailed by Ron North.”

“He was? Do you think he killed Ron?”

“Probably. I don’t know. I would like him to be guilty and for Julie to be in the clear.”

“Then you don’t see him again, you ninny. You give your information to the detective.”

“But I don’t think there’s enough to go on.”

“Let the police decide. Don’t you dare get close to that man again. Charity? You hear me?”

“I hear you,” she said, but she didn’t look at Anna when she said it and she knew Anna must have known she didn’t mean it. She wouldn’t see him alone, though. She would see him with Julie by her side.

“Meanwhile,” Anna said, “you should take some dessert bars to Dr. Michael Ramos. He’s gone without them for too long. Lemon, right? The same kind you like?”

“Right. I’ll do that.” This time she looked at Anna. “That’s such a good idea. Maybe I’ll take some over tonight.”

“Wait a minute. Let me tell you about when this chemistry thing happened to me. Maybe you can learn something from it. When I was engaged to my husband, about a year before we got married, I met a guy at the roller rink. I first noticed him because of his fancy skating—crossovers and spins and even some hops—then I noticed how tall he was. And blond as he could be. Like a beacon in the dim roller rink.

“Well, he saw me watching him and gave me the sexiest wink you can imagine. I was a decent skater and I was skating along just fine, but took a tumble when he did that. He was right there to help me up and, I’ll tell you, our hands touched and fireworks exploded right there inside the roller rink.”

Chase could picture the young, graceful Anna on skates. She couldn’t quite picture her going end over end, but she was getting a vision of the tall stranger.

“I didn’t know a thing about him, but we went to the ice cream store for sundaes as soon as we could get our skates off. We met for lunch two, maybe three times, then he asked me out on a car date. Dinner and a movie, he said. Meanwhile, I was keeping all this from my fiancé and it was giving me stomachaches. I hadn’t told my parents or anyone about him. But I fell asleep dreaming about him and woke up hoping I’d see him that day.

“We finally went out on a real date and I found out what a mistake I had made. Instead of dinner, he drove to a secluded parking lot out near Lake Minnetonka. I asked him what we were doing there and he said he wanted to talk and get to know me a little better. We had talked and talked at our lunches, but mostly about him. About how he was going to go to Harvard and probably would go into politics, or maybe law. He had, he said, graduated at the top of his class and the Ivy Leagues were fighting over him. To be sure, we hadn’t talked about me much, so I agreed. But, deep down, I knew this wasn’t right. I got that slight prickle you get when things are off.

“We only talked about me for a minute before he grabbed me and started kissing me. Even then, I didn’t resist. He was a great kisser. But then, it seemed like there were four guys in the car, or one guy with eight arms. He was all over me, trying to get my clothes off.”

“Anna! What did you do?”

“I pushed him away, but he kept coming. I started to panic, then I got out of the car and ran to the nearest house, which wasn’t very close. Thank goodness he didn’t follow me. I called my dad and he came to get me.”

“Did you ever see him again?”

“No, and—it’s funny—I don’t even remember his name anymore.”

Would Chase ever forget Eddie Heath’s name? Of course, she was older now than Anna had been at the time of the skating masher. So probably not.

“Charity, I’m not saying this is the same situation, but I am saying you need to trust what your good sense is telling you and ignore the fireworks. They aren’t reliable.”

If only she could remember that when the fireworks were going off.

THIRTY-ONE

When Chase called Mike, Patrice answered the phone and told her he was doing emergency surgery and would be tied up for at least another hour. Chase decided she would surprise him. Would he be happy to see her? She wasn’t sure. Should she go or not? Yes, she had to. But she was afraid she’d get a cold reception.