Murder on Opening Night: Myrtle Clover #9

Chapter Eighteen

By late afternoon and after unloading the bags of groceries, Myrtle had to admit that Miles was right. Her feet were telling her she should sit down for a while. And ever since Miles had mentioned the lake, it had made her want to go outside and enjoy it. She had a rocking chair on the dock where her yard rolled down to the water. She'd long since given the boat to Red and his family, but she still liked to sit on the dock and feel the breeze and watch the boats on the lake.

Myrtle took a towel to sit on since it had been a rainy morning, a pair of sunglasses, slipped her cell phone into her pocket, and made her way down the hill to the dock. The rain had finally stopped and the air smelled fresh. She put the towel on the seat of the rocking chair and plopped down.

There weren't as many boaters out as there would usually be. She saw Gordon Millford fishing in the middle of the lake and waved at him. A few minutes later there was a lone boat with a boy water-skiing behind it and whooping it up. Then she spotted a third boat after a while. It held a couple who seemed very engrossed with each other. She squinted at the boat. She saw the sun glinting off the woman's red hair. Her companion had blond, curly hair. Myrtle could have sworn they were Blaine and Veronica.

She didn't want to go back up to the house and find her binoculars. By the time she did, the boat would likely be long gone, even as slow as it was going. So Myrtle opened her cell phone to the camera and zoomed in as far as the device would let her go. Although the resulting image was a bit blurry, it was clear-it was Blaine and Veronica.

She dialed Miles. "Miles?" she asked excitedly.

Miles sounded as if he might have been enjoying a late-afternoon nap. "Mmm?"

"Blaine and Veronica! I'm seeing them together right now! I'm sitting by the lake and they're together in a boat."

Miles asked groggily, "Together? So, are they just sitting and talking? Because that's kind of a coincidence if they're suddenly in a relationship when we were just talking about that."

"Maybe it's a coincidence, but it makes sense that they wouldn't want to be seen together in town where everyone would talk. They'd have more privacy on a boat. Maybe they didn't want everyone to know that they're a couple," said Myrtle.

"But are you sure they're a couple? Could they just be two cast members talking about their really bad week?" asked Miles.

Myrtle took her phone away from her ear and zoomed in once again with her camera in time to see Blaine give Veronica a light kiss on the mouth. Veronica turned away.

"Oh, they're definitely a couple," she said. "At least, Blaine seems to think they are."

"Okay. Although I'm not sure it really changes anything. So they're having a relationship. Big deal. They're both attractive people working with each other. It happens," said Miles.

"Does this mean that Blaine was involved with both Nandina and Veronica? Or is this a recent development?" mused Myrtle.