Page 46 of The Man Next Door
“Stay and have pizza,” Louise urged Gilda.
“I should get home,” Gilda said. “See you tomorrow bright and early. We’ll get you all spiffed up. Then I’ve got the DVD forThe Woman in the Window. I’ll bring it.”
“Sounds good,” Louise said with a smile.
“It looks like you two are getting along great,” Zona observed after she returned from seeing Gilda out.
“I like her,” said Louise.
Her mother was smiling. That made Zona smile.
They ate their pizza, filling each other in on their days. Zona’s had been uneventful.
“Not much went on here, either,” said Louise. “Except Martin came over and brought doughnuts.”
“You don’t deserve him,” Zona teased.
“Of course I do. I’m a good friend. I’d be doing the same for him if he was laid up.”
“You know what I mean,” Zona said.
“I’m afraid the spark isn’t there.”
“Sparks can blind you,” Zona said. She’d had plenty of sparks when she met both Luke and Gary and look where they’d gotten her.
“I had a happy marriage with your father. He was a wonderful man—fun and loving and so handsome. Why should I settle for less after that?”
Good point. “I guess you shouldn’t. But I’m not sure I’d label Martin as less.”
Louise shrugged. “He’s a little too mellow for my tastes. I need a man with some male energy.”
Zona thought of their next-door neighbor. He was not lacking in male energy. But she was willing to bet all that male energy drew a lot from the poor woman staying with him. What had happened to make him come home so angry? Shouldn’t a man be glad to come home after a hard day’s work? The way he’d stormed into his house, he had to be taking out his anger on her. Why didn’t she leave? Couldn’t she see behind the façade?
Ha! Just like Zona had? When it came to love, people could be so stupid.
Thank God she was done being stupid.
After dinner, Louise started reading her murder mystery and Zona pulled out her ancient laptop and checked the bids on her items. Holy moly! Bidders were going berserk over the purse she’d listed and three people were watching and waiting. The bidding on the vintage cookie jar she’d found was hot and heavy and that was up to fifty dollars. At the rate the bidding was going, Zona was going to make a tidy profit. Maybe she would be visiting some more garage sales.
Her smile faded. Garage sale season wouldn’t last forever. What would she do for a side hustle when that died down? Having her mother home with a broken leg complicated matters. There had to be something though. She’d think of something.
LOUISE WAS READYto face the day, maybe even ready to think about that mystery she wanted to write. She sat stretched out on the couch with her cup of coffee and the notebook Bree had brought her, Gilda sitting in a nearby armchair with the half-finished blanket she was crocheting.
“I think I definitely want to have the murder take place on a cruise ship,” Louise said, “but now that I’m not cruising I have no way to do my research.”
“I’ve been on a cruise. I can help you with some of the details. Just don’t push the person overboard. That’s so cliché.”
“How do I write something that isn’t cliché?” Louise bemoaned. “Everything’s been done.”
“True. But there’s always a new way to tell an old story. One thing we know. Money is a powerful motivator, and if someone is married, it’s almost always the spouse who bumps the poor schlub off for their money,” Gilda said.
“So, a man and woman go on a cruise to celebrate their... tenth anniversary. Maybe he has gambling debts she doesn’t know about,” Louise continued, thinking of Zona. It would be very satisfying to make her daughter’s ex the bad guy in a novel. Let him get arrested. Or have fate take a hand just when he thought he’d succeeded. He could accidentally fall overboard. Or fall off his surfboard and knock himself unconscious, then get eaten by sharks. Maybe he should just get caught and the detective who got him would look exactly like Zona.
“An anniversary, I like that,” Gilda said with a nod.
“Of course, he would look like a loving husband.”
“But have her heavily insured.”
