Malice in Mexico Read online

  “And of course, when we’re traveling we have it closed up,” Jeff added.

  “Oh, oh,” Teddy said, “I can hear others arriving, so Jeff will continue your tour and I’ll see you later.”

  Jeff pointed out the six bathrooms and the four bedrooms. Claire gasped when they walked into the spa room.

  This room also opened out to the pool area. It was lit by gas fed torches mounted on the walls; the walls themselves were covered with vivid frescos of mythical creatures. There were stone benches sitting in alcoves along two walls; the third wall held the doorways which led to the master bedroom and a large changing room. The entire center of the room was a huge Jacuzzi tub sunk into the floor. It looked big enough to hold twenty people, and it was bubbling and frothing and steaming already, as if inviting people to try it.

  Jeff noticed her surprise and grinned. “It is somewhat hedonistic, isn’t it? But that’s my Teddy. He likes to live big and he loves his spa. I’m sure later tonight it will be very crowded in here and there will probably be some skinny dipping outside too, so if you’re shy about participating, plan to leave before the clothes start coming off,” he warned as he headed outside and took the path through some trees toward the back of the property.

  “Here’s my studio.” He threw open the double doors and turned on the lights. It was a very large space and they could see several sculptures in various stages of completion. Jeff pointed out his kilns, two giant ones allowing him to load his bigger pieces with the help of a forklift and three smaller ones he used for various methods of firing. The back wall of his studio held overhead doors which he said opened to the street on the other side of the block. Their property cut all the way through the block, as did the industrial building next to them.

  “I have to have access for a truck to unload my supplies as well as a way to get finished pieces out of here.”

  “Jeff, this is wonderful. No wonder you produce such lovely pieces.” She was very impressed with how organized and professional the space was.

  “I’m very lucky and I know it. Not only have I found the love of my life, but living here provides me the opportunity to do the work I love in the best possible environment. Believe me, I know how fortunate I am.”

  “Oh, what are these?” Claire was examining some shelves which held a series of black matte frogs squatting in rows. Each frog was slightly different and ranging in size from about six inches to about a foot. And each had such exquisite detailing it looked very real.

  Jeff laughed. “My magic frog prototypes. You kiss them and they turn into a black prince. It’s eventually going to be a larger garden sculpture for Teddy, but I haven’t quite got it right yet. I’m still working on it.”

  “I love it. What do you think, Jack?”

  Jack shrugged. “I’m afraid I’m not that fond of frogs; I think they’re kind of ugly.”

  “Oh, Jack, can’t you see it’s so ugly it’s cute?”

  “Well, don’t mention the frogs to Teddy. It’s a surprise, you know?” Jeff cautioned them.

  “A surprise? Aren’t you worried about Teddy seeing them here?” Claire asked.

  Jeff shook his head. “Teddy never comes to my studio. He says it’s my space and I should have my privacy. And to tell you the truth, I appreciate his attitude. I need peace and quiet to do my best work.” He smiled. “I seldom allow people in my studio, especially not my customers. I don’t like them to see pieces in the process.” He led the way out and carefully locked the door, explaining, “It might get a little wild later and I’d rather not worry about someone getting in here.”

  “Jeff, thank you so much for showing us your studio. I loved seeing it and the work you do. And I’m especially flattered now that I know how few people get the tour.” Claire smiled with pleasure and Jack nodded his agreement.

  When they returned to the house they could see the party was now well underway. A band was playing near a dance floor which had been set up on a portion of the lawn, and people were milling around and the noise level was already high. Claire realized there was a definite advantage to being neighbors to industrial buildings, if you liked to party as much as Teddy and Jeff did.

  They didn’t get far before they replaced their empties with Margaritas from the tray being offered by one of the waiters. Jeff left them in answer to Teddy’s frantic summons and they found themselves alone in the crowd.

  “Hello again.” Steve Carter’s tall figure loomed over them. “I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Kaye. Kaye, this is the couple I told you about, Claire and Jack. They’re staying at the Pruitts’.”

  Kaye smiled warmly and held out her hand. “Oh, I’m glad to meet you. Don’t you just love that house? I do so miss the Pruitts, but I heard from her only last week and she’s doing very well. They’re hoping to be back here in the summer. Steve said he ran into you at our little enchilada place, so I guess you’re finding your way around San Miguel.”

  “Yes, Teddy was kind enough to provide us with some cheat sheets so we are working our way through the restaurants and the points of interest he suggested.”

  “Well, I guess you can’t go wrong that way. I understand you’re from the San Francisco area.” She paused long enough for Claire’s nod. “I love it there. I always wanted Steve to be posted to the Presidio, but it never happened. We were only able to visit occasionally on our way to other assignments.

  “What do you do there, Claire?” she asked, barely pausing.

  Claire smiled recognizing Kaye as the inquisitive type, guessing she’d pry every secret in Claire’s life out of her in a moment if she wasn’t careful. She explained, “I own a bookshop in Bayside. That’s a small town south of San Francisco on the peninsula.”

  “Books, I love books. Have you seen our library? What kind of books do you carry? Bestsellers? New Age? What?”

  So Claire explained about Gulliver’s while out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack in conversation with Steve and another man, who had just joined them.

  “Oh, here’s Freddy.” Kaye threw her arms around the neck of a man who was passing, giving him a hug. “Freddy, dear, meet Claire, she’s from your neck of the woods.”

  Freddy turned to Claire cocked an eyebrow and said, “San Francisco? My dear, I love San Francisco. But, Denny dragged me away. He said it was too big, too everything. He just insisted he had to live in San Miguel.” He shrugged. “What could I do?

  “Now we do our best here, but really we’re rather provincial; we just can’t get the quality entertainment down here. I do so miss the opera. Do you go?”

  She shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

  “Oh, my dear, you must. It’s so available to you. You should take advantage of it.” He looked at her carefully. “Where do you live in the city?”

  So she explained again about Bayside and her bookshop. Freddy and Kaye, inspired by the thought of a travel bookshop began talking about their travels in Europe while Claire nodded politely, wondering how she could escape.

  “Excuse me if I steal Claire away, I have to check out the food before I have another drink.” Jack’s arm snaked around her waist and he skillfully moved her through the crowd.

  “Thank you, I was drowning in stories of quaint little restaurants in Rome. I needed to be saved. And I’m starved too. I know we ate way too many enchiladas, but that seemed a long time ago.”

  “It was a long time ago,” Jack growled. “Look at this spread. I may need two plates.” He let go of Claire in order to use both hands to fill his plate. When their plates could hold no more, they took their cutlery and headed for one of the tables set up on the patio.

  “Would you mind if we joined you... Well, hello. We met on the van from Leon, didn’t we?” Jack set his plate down and held a chair for Claire. When they were both seated they turned their attention to the couple sitting across from them. “This is a very small town, isn’t it? We didn’t know you knew Teddy and Jeff.”

  The woman from Houston shook her head. “We don’
t. Our real estate agent invited us. He said if we were interested in buying a place here we should get to know more of the locals.” She shrugged. “So here we are.”

  “Some place, isn’t it? I don’t think we’re looking for a house quite this grand.” Her husband said, “I’m Dale Hunsaker, and this is my wife, Molly.”

  “I think you said this was your first visit, didn’t you? It looks like you’re doing very well; I mean here you are at the party of the season.” Molly sounded a little envious.

  Claire stopped eating long enough to reassure Molly. “Actually, we’re renting a place from some friends of the hosts, so they have been very kind in making us feel welcome. But from the looks of this crowd, Teddy must have been passing out his invitations to everyone in the Jardin.” It was true, there was a very large crowd of eclectic people and, while many seemed to know each other, it didn’t seem to matter as everyone was friendly, only intent on having a good time.

  “Have you been to Guanajuato yet?” Dale asked.

  Claire shook her head. “We’ve booked a car to take us tomorrow. You?”

  Molly and Dale both started enthusiastically describing the old silver mining town in the mountain behind San Miguel. Meanwhile, Jack had finished his plate and with a nod at Claire, got up to visit the buffet table once again. Claire sat finishing her plate of food and asking questions about the town they would see the next day. Two other people joined them and finally Claire noticed Jack had not returned. She excused herself and went looking for him.

  She squeezed through the people crowded around the food laid out in the dining room. She saw and spoke to Isobelle, nodded to the man, Graves, across several people, but didn’t get close enough to speak to him. She saw Kaye in a group of people with the Mondot sisters she met on Tuesday night and finally saw Teddy, checking on the status of the food displayed.

  “Teddy, this is a marvelous party and the food is wonderful.”

  “Isn’t it? I wish I could take credit, but it is all from my wonderful caterers. Are you having fun?” He was slightly distracted as he was trying to remember which dishes needed to be replenished.

  “Oh, yes, but at the moment I’m trying to locate Jack. You haven’t seen him, have you?”

  “Umm, yes I just saw him, wait let me think. Oh right, I think he was in the living room with Kathleen. Yes, I’m sure that’s where I saw him. Good luck in finding him, love.” Then he turned to the waiters, who were arriving with more platters, directing where he wanted them to go.

  Since Claire was right there she couldn’t resist helping herself to one of the pumpkin empanadas and a couple of the sweet, raisin and nut filled tamales along with some chocolates and cookies. When she headed for the living room she was carrying a heaping plate and another set of utensils.

  She saw Jack standing next to a ravishing looking brunette, who was not only standing very close to him, but she was helping herself to food on the plate he held. Claire couldn’t help but notice what an attractive couple they made, then she stamped down that fizzle of jealousy and moved over to join them.

  “There you are. I wondered where you had gotten to.”

  Jack looked up and smiled at her, obviously not annoyed at her interruption, as his attractive friend seemed to be.

  “Hi Claire, this is Kathleen. Kathleen, this is Claire,” he said turning to put his free arm around her and give her an affectionate little squeeze.

  Claire couldn’t help the small twinge of satisfaction she felt at the expression in Kathleen’s eyes as she observed Jack’s obvious affection for her. She smiled, and nodded hello.

  “Jack has been singing your praises, Claire. I was looking forward to meeting you.”

  Not, thought Claire. She noticed Kathleen didn’t try very hard to mask her annoyance as she flashed a tight smile at Claire. But Claire chose to ignore her irritation and just offered her plate. “Try some of these little tamales. They’re wonderful.”

  One of the waiters passing took Jack’s decimated plate and the three of them concentrated on the sweets piled on Claire’s while they chatted about San Miguel.

  “Did you catch the bus to the supermarket?” a voice asked from her left and Claire turned to see the woman she spoke to in the Jardin.

  “Yes, well no, we didn’t take the bus, but we did go to the Gigantic to shop. We ended up taking a taxi.” She laughed a little at her embarrassment.

  “What else have you been finding to entertain yourselves, besides visiting the supermarkets and attending parties?” the woman asked with interest.

  “We were at the library today. It is very nice. I was a librarian for many years in San Francisco, and I appreciate a town which values their library.”

  She and the woman talked for a while before the woman excused herself to move on through the crowd. Claire turned back to Jack and Kathleen, who had now been joined by a few more people. Claire knew she was being petty, but she wondered just why Kathleen felt the need to put her hand on Jack constantly while she was talking to him. She wanted to push her hand away and say, “Mine,” but she realized how juvenile that would be. So she decided to try and ignore her. After all, Jack didn’t seem to notice.

  “Kathleen, I didn’t know you were back.” Monica, the artist they met at Mama Mia’s their first night in town launched herself at Kathleen. “It’s good to see you.” Then realizing she had interrupted the whole discussion, she turned around and smiled an apology at the same time Kathleen reached out to return her hug resulting in knocking Monica’s drink out of her hand, spilling the contents all over Claire.

  For just a moment the group was stunned into silence and then everybody moved into action, dabbing at Claire, apologizing, picking up the glass. Finally, Claire stepped back, warding off all the ineffectual blotting with paper napkins.

  “Look, I’ll just duck into the bathroom and wash it out.” Claire backed away from the group and their efforts to clean her up. She thought Monica’s inordinate apologies were most likely fueled by the Margaritas she had already consumed so she added, “Don’t worry. I’m sure it will come out. Accidents happen.” She caught Jack’s eye and with a little shake of her head conveyed she didn’t need him to accompany her. She excused herself to find one of the many bathrooms Jeff had pointed out earlier.

  The powder room between the kitchen and family room had a queue so she moved on to the one in the guest bedroom only to find a group waiting there. The next guest room was empty, so she had hopes the bathroom was too. As she approached the door to the bathroom it opened suddenly and four raucously laughing people, tripping over each other in their attempt to exit the small room, spilled out. The last one out said, too brightly, over his shoulder, “Sorry, we’re done. No more just now.” He winked broadly, and hurried to catch up with his friends.

  Claire looked around the bathroom carefully before locking herself in. She found a washcloth and towel in the cupboard under the sink and went to work cleaning the Margarita off her blouse and skirt. She managed to replace the spilled drink with large wet spots, but she thought they would dry fairly quickly. She took the opportunity to use the facilities and then left to rejoin the party. As she wended her way through the rooms to rejoin Jack, she noticed the party was even louder; many people were showing signs of the alcohol they were drinking, or perhaps it was from smoking the marijuana she kept catching whiffs of on the breeze. And she remembered the group exiting the bathroom and thought cynically that there were other substances in use tonight, ones people gathered behind locked doors to use. She thought it was about time to leave.

  Jack was not in the living room, so she wandered outside and saw he was dancing with Kathleen. She watched a moment, decided his face didn’t show any evidence that he was feeling any pain, so the fast dance must be okay, then she went to the bar and asked for a glass of water. When she headed for one of the tables to sit and watch the dancers, Jack materialized at her side.

  “There you are. Did it come out?”

  “Yes, I think it’s go
ing to be fine. Really it wasn’t much of a problem, not like red wine.” She looked around. “What happened to Kathleen?”

  “Oh, I handed her off to another dance partner. I know I’m out of shape; one of those dances is just about all I can take. But I’ve noticed that after a couple of fast ones the band plays something slow, so maybe we could have a dance?”

  She smiled. “Maybe.”

  Just then the band changed tempo and began playing an oldie and Claire set her glass of water on a nearby table and followed Jack out to the dance floor.

  “It’s been too long since we danced,” he whispered in her ear.

  She nodded, dreamily, remembering that night one September on the terrace at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. They seemed to fit together perfectly, allowing them to drift dreamily to the soft music.

  When it was over they reluctantly moved off the dance floor. “Well, had enough?” Jack asked.

  She nodded. “Let’s go home.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Kathleen was on the patio having breakfast when he found her. “Ah, you’re finally up. Too much party for you?”

  She frowned, then realizing she was being teased she shook her head. “Not! But I have to admit Teddy does throw a great party. Was there any one in town who missed it? I left about three and it was still going strong.”

  Her uncle sat down at the table and filled a cup with coffee from the thermos carafe on the table. “I saw you made contact with our friends. What did you find out? What’s your take of the situation?”

  “I thought she was a little bit of nothing. I can hardly credit her with causing anyone any trouble, but I will take your word for it. But it must have been accidental, because I don’t think she is clever enough to have done it on purpose. But him? He’s a different story.

  “Oh, he’s good.” Her eyes glazed over and she had a dreamy expression on her face. “I wouldn’t have known he was an agent if you hadn’t told me. He was that good. I talked to him for quite a while; I gave him my best shot and he didn’t betray himself at all. In some ways he reminded me of Reynald. He has that same calmness, that same deep center that so attracted me to Reynald.” Then realizing she was being distracted, and didn’t have time to daydream about her deceased husband, she firmly shook her head as if to dislodge those memories. “But, that only proves how dangerous he is. I think you shouldn’t take any chances. I think they need to go. And the sooner the better.”