Who Kissed Charlie Fine?

Chapter 19

As Charlie was about to pull up to Sterling's place, a small, red Fiat was backing out of the driveway. He caught a slightly obscured glimpse of Miss Natalie Blair as she passed him and hoped she was an early riser as opposed to someone fleeing an all-nighter.

He was relieved to find Martin sitting at the small kitchen table, grasping the handle of a mug of coffee, though not as much to see the smug, taunting look on his face as he blew into the cup to cool it.

"Well, well! Looks like we both had eventful evenings," he said, over-enunciating every syllable. "Please tell me you're still wearing the clothes you left for your date in."

"Is Natalie coming back?"

"No, no. She has flitted away for good. But she did stay the night, and she did stay for breakfast."

"You ordered breakfast?"

"Leftover cold-cuts from Wednesday," Martin said, his mug thumb pointing to the fridge behind him.

"I think I already know the answer to this, but will you see her again when we get back to the city?"

"Sadly no. After our meat roll-ups she gave me the old, 'It was nice, but,' routine. I have to admit, we had a lot to drink last night and I don't think either of us gave our best performances. I mean, the bed broke, but that was the termites."

"I see."

"Still, it was a great night. I had planned to hold this vacation against you for the rest of your life, but now that I've enjoyed myself, I guess I can't."

"I'm glad for you."

"Yeah, well enough about me. Where are you coming back from, anyway? It better be Pam's and not Opal's."

"Mary's, actually," Charlie said, bracing for the reaction that would surely follow.

Martin gaped excitedly, his eyes bulging and squinting at the same time. "You trollop!" he shouted.

"Martin, please."

"Left something back at the house so you could go and get it, did ya? A little, Sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but is your husband home?"

"Martin," Charlie grumbled.

"Yeah," said Martin, thinking about it. "I like her for you! She's sort of...ooh, sort of – "

"Martin!" Charlie snapped, before immediately returning to calm. "Please, no jokes. I'm probably going to marry her some day so...don't make it weird."

"Got it," Martin said, trying not to grin. "I guess she's not going to jail then?"

"No."

"All right. Who is?"

Charlie recounted everything for Martin, starting with Opal's involvement and ending with Mary's confession and evidence to back it up.

"That's Creed in the hole for assault," said Martin, "but without Cleave Hawkins' body that might be it."

"I think I know where the body is," Charlie said, "but I'm going to need back-up."

"So, vacation's over?"

"Vacation is over."

Martin brought the arm not holding his mug out from under the table to display a glue trap stuck to his entire palm. "I was done with it anyway," he said.

******

A sinus sucking look of disdain was on Graham Dear's face as he opened his door to find Martin on his front porch.