“She has something wrong with her eyes?” Tom asked.

“No, Tom.” Ed poked his chest with his index finger. “I disease. As in I want things to go like this and I am sure you’ll listen since I am the one in charge.”

“Oh,” I said. “Money can do that to you, I guess.”

“Don’t get me wrong. She’s a fine, upstandin’ lady. Bighearted, too. But I’m not comfortable around all that silver and polished wood.” He swigged his tea and then set the glass down hard. “What else you wanna know about her?”

“Have you seen her recently?” I said. “I mean, she might have dementia or something, and maybe her cat would be better off in a new home.”

“She calls me up regular every Christmas.” Ed blinked several times, and his next words seemed forced. “Always says, ‘How you doing, Ed? I miss you, Ed.’ And that’s what happened this past year. Nothin’ wrong that I could tell.”

I don’t know what made me ask the next question. Just intuition, I suppose. “Were you in love with her?”

A flush rose from Ed’s neck up to his face, producing two red circles on his cheeks right above his beard. “Fell head over heels for that woman, I did.” He let out a humph. “Me and plenty of others.”

Five

Ed, still red-faced with embarrassment, turned to Tom. “But your mother’s the only one for me now.”

Tom held his hands out, palms facing Ed. “Hey. We all have stuff in our past. Some of it’s good, some of it’s bad and most of it’s forgotten.”

Ed nodded in agreement. “But Karen doesn’t need to hear about this. See, I’ve never mentioned Rita. I always called her plain Rita. Made a very complicated woman seem simpler, I always said.”

“I can safely say Ritaestelle has problems,” I said. “Good example—you mentioned she loved her cats. And yet Shawn found her Isis wandering outside.”