Read Murder at the Villa Maria-Sedona Retirement Home Page 21
Chapter Fourteen
Dallas whizzed around her bedroom, snatching clothes from drawers and pulling on jeans. “Hurry, Noah. We’re going to be late.”
“Anyone worth their fashion sense knows it’s unseemly to arrive early to a soirée.”
This was what she put up with the last day and a half since Lily’s invitation. “I’d like time to study Abbott.” Oddly, she had never met the man. Noah and Abbott hadn’t been friends that long, and it wasn’t as though he lived in Bracebridge and worked at the police station where the opportunity was there to see each other frequently. Then, of course, Abbott giving Noah the cold shoulder after he questioned him about Katie didn’t help introductions any, either.
But things would change now.
“Did you really mean it when you said you were thinking about relocating here?” she asked, hauling on a boot and smoothing a jean leg over it.
“Of course. I like Hampstead. It’s quaint and the pace is slower than Bracebridge and the crime less, and you’re here. All positives as far as I can see.”
“What about your seniority in the department?”
“I can take an early retirement. I’ve got twenty-five years in.”
Dallas studied him, determining he seriously considered moving. She had envisioned going back to Bracebridge once Katie’s killer was apprehended. It had never entered her mind it would turn out the other way around. Go figure. “Then what?”
Noah lounged on the queen-size bed atop the cranberry satin spread. “I take off some time, relax a little, take up a hobby maybe, then look around for something to fill my hours. I’m too young to retire.” He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her on top of him. “Unless, of course, you want to quit your job and stay home with me.” He bit her ear lobe. “So’s I won’t get bored.”
She laughed. “I’d give it all of two weeks.” She playfully fought him off. “Let me up.”
The telephone ringing captured their attention.
When she made a dash for the bedside table, he said, “Don’t answer. We’ll be late for the soirée.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hello,” she sing-songed.
“Dallas, it’s Allison. I came across Katie’s family tree she was working on. I thought you might like to have it.”
“I would.” The words jumped out of her mouth. She frowned, wondering why she thought the Hall family tree important to her. Who her ancestors were and what ship, train or motorcar they arrived on in this country never interested her before, not like it had Katie. She smiled, remembering how Katie always took interest in the oddest things.
“I hoped you’d say that. Katie would be so pleased.”
Dallas heard the smile in Allison’s voice.
“I can bring it by if you like.”
“That’s okay, Allison. Noah and I are on our way out for the evening.”
“Look out your bedroom window.”
From the edge of the bed, Dallas reached past Noah and his groping hands and located Allison in the back yard. “I see you. I’ll be right down.” She hung up and said before Noah had a chance to ask, “Allison’s here. She has Katie’s binder on the Hall family tree.”