“Do you know anyone else who was friends with them?”
Linda shook her head. “The husband, Ray, kept to himself. Kathy… Well, no one really tried to get to know her. Her English wasn’t too good either.”
“What about the daughter?”
“I assumed she had friends.” Linda leaned forward, grimaced and sat back. She gestured for Valerie to come close as she looked suspiciously at Nico. “She had one at least. Kathy said they had to leave because of bad influences on the girl.”
“Bad influences?” said Valerie, trying to look innocently confused.
Linda raised her eyebrows. “Boys, obviously. She was pretty. Looked like you. Are you Chinese?”
“Half.”
“Ah. Well, that happens.” With this ambiguous comment, Linda struggled to her feet. “They never came back to town but I still think about those dumplings Kathy made. Sad for the girl if I was right. It’s hard to have a baby without a man, let alone a mixed one. You know what people are like, even though those babies are just the cutest. Anyway, I gotta get going. Enjoy the honeycomb toffee. Tell Mickey he can drop the tray on my porch.”
Linda limped away with her walker, leaving Valerie staring after her. Themixedcomment—she didn’t bother with that. She’d heard worse. The dumplings were new. What if that was a clue? Roger had mentioned them when they were talking at the lake and she hadn’t thought anything of it.
She turned to Nico. “What if they used the money to open a dumpling store somewhere?”
“That seems a little far-fetched.”
“Roger is so desperate he hired a secret private investigator and a stranger to pretend to be his daughter and you think this is too weird to check into?”
“True,” he conceded. “I’ll suggest it to Andrew. If they didn’t open one right away, they might have eventually.”
“Better than nothing.” She looked to where Linda was making her way out, chatting with various people as she went, and totally unaware she might have played a part in bringing a family back together.
Or not. Nico could be right. The dumpling thing was a long shot, but a long shot was better than no shot at all.
Twenty-Eight
Nico admired Valerie’s tact when Brayden informed her he’d be the one catering Helena’s celebration of life. “An interesting idea, Brayden, but I’m afraid the contract has been signed with the Lakeview.”
Brayden looked disturbed that something as piddling as a legal agreement could stand in his way. “Mom said I could make protein cutlets. The prot-min in those is off thecharts.”
Valerie looked at him thoughtfully. “Could you have everything ready by tomorrow?”
“I’m hanging at Cooper’s but you can push the time back. Like, Helena’s dead. She won’t care.”
Nico wanted to thump him, but Valerie smiled. “Maybe you should talk to Mickey to see if you can help him instead?”
Brayden’s face settled in a sullen expression that Nico instantly recognized as one that screamedI’m going to tell Mom, but Valerie simply turned back to her laptop until Brayden left.
“Well done,” Nico complimented her.
“He has no sense of reality. I almost feel bad for him.”
“Almost?”
“Not so bad that I’m going to serve protein whatevers at Helena’s celebration of life.” Valerie looked grim. “This time, it’s going to be perfect.”
She began to type fiercely, frowning at the laptop. Nico moved behind her, feeling this was a moment to offer a caring touch of some kind, but unsure of which one. He refilled her empty water glass while he thought it out. She’d said after the Ren faire they could be themselves, and for him that meant cautious.
When he put the glass in front of her, she leaned her head briefly against his side as if to thank him without words. That was the encouragement he needed to put his arm around her. She buried her face against him. “I can’t blow this,” she said.
Or that’s what he thought she said, but her voice was muffled. He’d go by context clues. “This isn’t a redemption,” he said. “You have a few days to set up a memorial for a woman you’ve never met, and you’re doing it out of the kindness of your heart. Anything will be appreciated, but you’ve gone above and beyond.” Although he’d told Roger, who had decided to pay Valerie for her event work himself.
She lifted her head. “No, you don’t get it. This means I can prove to the Badgertons that I know what I’m doing.”
