A Real Pickle Read Free

surprisingly easy just then.”
    “What can I say?” I asked with a grin.  “Growing up, I was always taught to respect my elders.”
    He just laughed, and I was happy to see my mother willingly giving up the cleaning supplies to her father-in-law.  
    “Ellen,” my mother said, “if you bus the tables, I’ll get things started in back.  We should easily be ready to reopen in under an hour.”  Mom looked back at me as she added, “If that’s still the plan.”
    “I don’t see why not,” I said.  “What do you think, Moose?”
    “The quicker we’re open again, the less time rumors have to spread that we killed somebody here today,” he said matter-of-factly.
    “Do you honestly think that anyone’s going to say that?” I asked him.
    “You’re naïve if you think for one second that they’re not,” he said.  “Don’t worry, Victoria.  This too shall pass.”
    “I hope you’re right,” I said, but I suspected that my grandfather was wrong.
    I just didn’t know how wrong at the time.
     

 
     
    Chapter 2
     
     
    “He didn’t make it,” Jeffrey said solemnly as he walked back into The Charming Moose two hours later.  He looked as though he’d just lost his best friend, and I didn’t doubt that it was true.  I knew from past experience that the two of them had been very close.
    “I’m so sorry for your loss,” I said as I touched his shoulder lightly.
    “Thanks.  I appreciate that,” he said.  “You know, Curtis hired me away from his sister, Charlotte, and brought me here three years ago.  I’ve been an orphan most of my life, and that man ended up being the only family that I ever really had.”
    “How did that all come about?” I asked.  Clearly the man needed to talk to someone, and I would have to do.  
    “Charlotte hired me out of high school to drive for her in San Francisco,” he said.  “The odd thing was, she was only at the house for a month or two each year.  The rest of time, the staff just tried to entertain ourselves waiting for her to come back.  Three years ago though, her brother showed up unexpectedly, and Curtis and I hit it off from the start.  He asked me to come work for him back here on a full-time basis, and I jumped at the chance.”  Jeffrey let out a deep sigh, and then he added, “That was a long time ago, though.  I still can’t believe that he’s gone.”
    “What are you going to do with yourself now?” I asked him.
    “I’m not quite sure, but I know one thing: I’m not going back to work for Charlotte.”
    “Was she that bad as an employer?”
    “I don’t know if I can say that, but once I worked for Curtis, I knew that she and I were finished.  I suppose I’ll find something, but I saved my money, so I don’t have to do anything drastic right away.”  He looked back at the limo, and then Jeffrey added, “After I take that back to the house, I suppose my work is done.  You don’t happen to know of any places around here for rent, do you?  I don’t need much, just a one bedroom apartment.”
    “Let me call a real estate agent I know,” I said.  “If you can wait, I’ll see if she’s free right now.”
    “Don’t go to any trouble on my account,” Jeffrey said.
    “It’s no trouble at all.  She’s a customer here.”  I dialed Diane Meadows’s number.
    She picked up on the first ring.  “Meadows Properties,” she said automatically.
    “Diane, it’s Victoria Nelson.  I need a favor.  Do you have any one-bedroom apartments available?”
    “Oh, no.  I can’t believe this,” she said.  Diane was clearly upset about something.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked her.
    “You and Greg are splitting up.  Victoria, how can you be so calm about it?”
    “What?  No.  We’re not.  Where did you even get that idea?”
    “You just asked me for a one-bedroom apartment, Victoria.  It doesn’t take a leap in logic to know what that means.”
    “You need to get that imagination of yours in check,” I