Death of a Suitor #18

Chapter Ten

Bailey was a rather nerdy-looking fellow. He had a wiry frame, steel-gray hair, and black-framed glasses. He gave Myrtle a tight smile.

Myrtle was glad that Marigold had left because she'd been hoping to speak with Bailey on his own. She was about to launch into her questioning when a voice behind her said, "Hi there, Myrtle! May I squeeze in with you?"

Eloise. Myrtle turned around and snapped, "No, unfortunately, you may not. We're saving these seats for Miles and Marigold."

"But there's plenty of room. I'll just scootch a chair in between these two."

Myrtle had had entirely enough of this. She bared her gritted teeth at Bailey. "I'll be right back. Do save my spot."

"Of course," he said in a rather bemused tone.

Myrtle stood up and grasped Eloise's arm, pulling her out of earshot of others. "Now listen to me and mark my words, Eloise. You are done with stalking Miles. You were unfaithful to him and your relationship is over. He ended it. You clearly have no understanding of what this means, but here it is in a nutshell: you don't see each other anymore socially."

Eloise narrowed her eyes. "You're not the boss of me, Myrtle."

"I'm just letting you know that if you continue hounding Miles, I'll be sure to make your life miserable."

Eloise snorted. "How would you manage to do that?"

"Ask Red. I make his miserable all the time."

Eloise opened her mouth to say something, then thought better of it. Scowling at Myrtle, she slunk away.

Myrtle looked up just in time to see Red quirking an inquiring eyebrow at her from several tables away. She gave him a small smile.

Myrtle rejoined Bailey. "Now then!" she said gaily.

Bailey pushed his glasses up and gave her a small grin. "I'm glad you dodged that one, Miss Myrtle. I wasn't wanting to share a table with Eloise. You might not know it, but she's been spreading rumors that Marigold killed Jax."

"I didn't know it, but I'm certainly not surprised. That's just the type of thing Eloise would do. Now how have you been doing? I haven't seen you around for a while. Been working a lot, I suppose?"

He gave her a solemn look. "Indeed I have, Miss Myrtle. Lots and lots of travel."

Myrtle politely inquired, "What type of work do you do? I can't remember."

"I work in information technology. I sell security software to corporations."

That was decidedly a conversational dead-end since Myrtle knew next to nothing about that. Besides, that wasn't really what she wanted to hear about in the first place. She needed to get information from Bailey before Marigold came back to the table. Fortunately, it appeared that Marigold had no intention of hurrying back over.

"You're not about to retire, then? Spend more time at home?" asked Myrtle.

Bailey pushed his glasses up his nose and regarded Myrtle with that same serious look. "Do you think I should be spending more time at home?"

This question flustered Myrtle a little. "I don't think that's for me to decide."

Bailey said, "I have the feeling you know a bit about Marigold's extracurricular activities."

Myrtle flushed a little. "I might have heard some things. You know how small towns can be."

Bailey nodded. "I was upset when I found out, of course. Marigold and I have been married for a long time. I admit that I've been away from home quite a bit, as you pointed out. The truth of the matter is that I like working and I like the software I'm selling. I also don't really mind traveling to different places and getting a different perspective on the world. It didn't really occur to me that Marigold would be finding someone else to spend time with while I was gone."