The Throwbacks, Book 1 of The Scotland Yard Exchange Program Series

The Throwbacks, Excerpt # 17

Dear Readers, Technical difficulties finally resolved.

Thanks for your patience!

Stephanie Queen

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Grace’s legs wobbled as if she were a newborn lamb—no, make that a lamb ready for the slaughter.  Batman had arrived.   She looked at Oscar and couldn’t help the thought that leapt to her mind—in her comic strip character scenario he’d be cast as the Joker.  The smile leapt to her face and she knew Oscar wouldn’t appreciate the title, but he’d laugh at her imagination.  He always had.

Oscar had that look of restrained amusement that reminded her of David.  But there the difference ended.  Oscar didn’t do restraint his for long before exploding then ebbing.  David stayed even keeled.  She knew this even in the course of their short relationship.  After all, she was practically his partner in crime-solving.

“…lucky that I got here tonight at all,” David said as he walked with Mabel through the door to her parlor where they all stood waiting for him.  Whether he’d finished his sentence or not, he stopped speaking and snapped his head around the room, first looking at her with a warm if fleeting smile and then bouncing off Pixie-Sophia, doing a double take to Noodles who trembled in Pixie’s arms and then landed on Oscar.

She’d never seen anything like the shuttering of all response that she saw in that moment.  It was impossible to see what he was thinking.  She knew there was turmoil—there had to be because he wasn’t really made of stone even though he gave every appearance of that now.

The thoughts that sprinted through his head—no, bulleted through his head like a silver-liner rail car—were first, what the hell was Oscar doing here?—he hoped to God if it was about the murder attempt and smuggling operation that he had information and not trouble.  Next, he wondered why Oscar had come to Mabel’s, but then remembered she’d always been his neutral ground and like everyone’s godmother.  Third, he wondered what the hell Grace knew, and finally, what were the pooch and Pixie doing here?  Was this some Alice through the looking glass party?  Had his drink at Dan’s house been laced with LSD and was he on some kind of rabbit hole trip to wonderland?

The Pixie and Mabel at least looked like they were enjoying the tableau.  What had his life come to but a series of mini-dramas, coincidentally since he met Grace Rogers.  He looked back at her and gave her a smile.  She looked expectant and he knew how she felt.  But since no one else was stepping up, it looked like it was up to him to run the show.

“Naturally.  This is exactly the cast of characters I would have expected to round out a rather interesting evening,” he looked around at them.  They all seemed to breathe easier.  He turned to Oscar.

“It’s been a long while,” he stretched out his hand and was pulled in by the man who only towered him by an inch but outweighed him by 80 pounds.  Nothing had changed, he thought as his old friend pounded his back in the age old men’s expression of affection.

“I’ll forgive you for not looking me up sooner. You look well.  As expected—why else would my girl Grace even look at you,” Oscar said.

“’Your girl Grace?”  David now knew the real meaning of the term dumbfounded.

“Pretty possessive for a guy who just ditched a girl aren’t you?” Oscar said and then walked further into the room with a gesture for the rest of them to follow.

“I’m sure David is surprised that I was ever ‘your girl’ since I never mentioned you to him.  I never thought there would be a reason to mention you. I didn’t realize how wrong I was.  Boyhood friends?” Grace looked from him to Oscar and back again.  How could he interpret that look as an accusation when it was more likely the same dumbfounded experience he was having, only layered with hurt.  He felt a roll in his gut at the knowledge that he caused that hurt.