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“Beth!” Lean and athletic, hair graying and face darkly tanned, he broke away from the others.
Tony set down the sandwich he’d just picked up. The man, who appeared to be about her father’s age, looked first at Beth, then, with curiosity, at Tony.
“What’s this I hear about you finding your mother’s body?”
Beth set down her fork.
Irritated, Tony thought, Thank you, that’s just what we want to talk about over our meal.
“Dr. Schuh. Oh, um, this is Tony Navarro. Tony, Alan Schuh. Dr. Schuh was our pediatrician.”
“And friend,” the man said firmly. “My wife and I got to be good friends with Beth’s parents,” he told Tony, who smiled noncommittally.
“We did find Mom’s remains,” she admitted, voice constrained. “It’s been very difficult.”
“Where did you hear about it?” Tony asked before she could continue. He saw the other two men looking their way.
“I ran into Howard Farrar.”
“The admissions director at Wakefield,” Beth murmured to Tony.
“Ah. We didn’t meet, but I saw him.”
Schuh’s gaze moved between them but settled again on Beth. “Are you all right? Sounds like Matt was pretty shaken.”
“We all were, but…it’s a relief, in a way, to know what happened. That she didn’t leave us.”
“But murdered! And it had to be murder, didn’t it?”
Tony decided it was time to intervene. “I’m the detective leading this investigation. I’d be interested in speaking to you when you have time.”
“Me? Good lord, why?”
Tony didn’t read too much into the doctor’s alarm. He got that reaction a lot.
“I’d like to hear about Christine from different perspectives. She may have said something to you or your wife that will be relevant.”
“Oh. Well.”
Tony whipped out a pen and small notebook. “If you’ll give me your number, we can set something up later.”
Schuh gave work and personal numbers, then beat a retreat after telling Beth to give him a call if she needed anything. Anything at all.
The two of them remained silent for a moment. Then she sighed. “Howard has a big mouth.”
“You know him?”
She wrinkled her nose in the way he thought was cute. “Only secondhand. Matt talks about him constantly, worries about what he thinks, brags about his approval.”
“Not surprising.”
“No.” She sighed. “Maybe I should say, Matt has a big mouth.”
Tony laughed and reached for his sandwich again. “You might well say that.”
“He could at least have asked his boss not to gossip. I hate the idea that everyone is going to be talking about us in no time.” She tipped her head toward the three men, who were talking animatedly but in low voices with an occasional stolen look their way. “What do you want to bet Dr. Schuh is spreading the news this very instant?”
“I wouldn’t bet against it. Do you know either of the others?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’m afraid this was inevitable.” Although he could have wished otherwise for Beth’s sake. “Did you tell your co-workers why you were taking time off?”
“No. They probably think I’m doing something fun.”
None of this was fun. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
She met his eyes. “Thank you. But this part isn’t anything you could control.”
“No.”
She started eating her ropa vieja with apparent pleasure, which led her to ask her questions about the Cuban food on the menu. Tony told her that his father’s side of the family had come from Cuba.
“My grandparents,” he explained. “My dad was a little boy then. Tia Paloma is one of his sisters, born here.” He paused. “I’m told Navarro is a Basque name.”
“And your mother’s side?”
Hearing genuine interest, he said, “Mexico. Tia Paloma didn’t think a Cuban restaurant would make it here, so she started with only a few Cuban items among the Mexican. Over the years, she’s added more, until the menu is close to fifty-fifty.”
“I guess I’m just timid, sticking to the familiar,” she said with a sigh.
