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They were seated on a sagging floral couch, next to each other, the old lady across the room in her chair, a La-Z-Boy with worn arms and headrest that she must’ve owned since sometime in the previous century.
Though Rex had watched Ravinia in action following Kim Cochran at the Ivy and again at Casa del Mar, and he’d been impressed at how fast she’d found out the information from Mrs. Holcomb at Wembley Grade School, he couldn’t bring himself to really think of her as an investigator. How could he? She was only nineteen and her experiences in the world were practically nil. Still, she hadn’t been made yet. No one had found her out. And well, she got results.
He certainly wasn’t planning on brin
ging her into his company. If he wanted a young woman as a sort of business partner, he already had Bonnie, which wasn’t all that comforting a thought, the more he considered it.
As he observed Ravinia speaking with Marlena, he had to admit the kid had a knack for digging out information. People either didn’t notice her—she could make herself blend into the surroundings—or if they did spy her, they didn’t find her intimidating. Her refreshing directness coupled with her youth was somehow nonthreatening.
Ravinia handed Marlena a small red box of special truffles they’d purchased at a See’s store on the way—her idea. The elderly woman accepted the unexpected gift of chocolates readily, sliding the slim box to a side table next to a lamp and a worn copy of the Bible. She made no indication that she planned to open the gift or share any of its contents.
Yep, the ploy was masterful.
Ravinia started in on her lie. “It’s just that our family has become so splintered,” she was saying, holding Marlena’s attention in the airless room. In a long-sleeved T-shirt, jeans, and boots, without a speck of makeup, Ravinia appeared younger, fresher, and more ingenuous than she had in her tight dress and short heels when she’d followed Kim Cochran.
“It’s a bad thing,” the older woman was agreeing. “All these families splitting up the way they do nowadays.” She reached to the table, her fingers touching the worn, leather-bound Bible. “A sin, if you ask me.”
Ravinia nodded. Her blond braid moving gently between her shoulder blades, she leaned forward as if rapt. “That’s why it’s so important I find Elizabeth. For my family.” She actually blinked as if she were on the verge of tearing up and Rex had to cough into his fist to hide a smile. “My mother is very upset by it. I don’t know how many candles she’s lit.” Bald-faced lies tripped off her tongue so easily.
Marlena hitched her chin toward Ravinia, but spoke to Rex. “She’s your client. Right?” This fact had already been established, but obviously the older woman didn’t completely trust that Rex had been honest with her. “You shoulda brought her with you the other day.”
“He shoulda,” Ravinia agreed. “I came down from Oregon and hired Mr. Kingston to help me find Elizabeth.”
“Huh.” Marlena’s eyes thinned as she looked from Ravinia to Rex and back again as if she suspected a little hanky-panky might be going on.
Ravinia soothed over the moment. “Mr. Kingston has been so helpful in helping me try to put my family back together. I can’t really complain.”
“Well, I can’t tell you much more than I did the last time,” Marlena told her.
“You said Elizabeth was an odd child,” Rex prompted when Marlena seemed to have shut down.
“You woulda thought so, too, if you’d heard her go on about that bridge.” She shook her head.
“Mr. Kingston told me about that,” Ravinia said, sounding concerned. “I don’t understand how she could have known that it collapsed . . . before it did.”
Marlena pursed her lips. “Who’s to say she really did. She was screechin’ about a bridge and then one goes down and everybody thinks she can see into the future or somethin’. She was different. That’s all. But her daddy sure thought she was a gold mine. Got the two of them squabblin’, he and his wife, but then they were always at it. When she took off, though, Lendel got kinda quiet then.”
Rex’s head snapped up at the name. Lendel? Weren’t we talking about Ralph Gaines?
He was just about to ask when Ravinia did it for him. “Lendel?” she queried.
“Isn’t that why you’re here?” Marlena asked, annoyed. “Lendel Gaines?”
Rex was about to step in again, when Ravinia looked thoughtful. “Well, um, Mom always called Elizabeth’s father Ralph. . . .”
“Don’t recall anyone calling him Ralph around here,” Marlena said tartly as if pleased they’d gotten it wrong.
“But his daughter was Elizabeth and his wife was Joy?” Rex asked.
“That’s what I said.”
“Maybe he changed his name,” Ravinia suggested. “It just sounds like I’m on the right track to reconnecting with my family.”
Marlena frowned and glanced at the chocolates. “Y’know, I did see R. Lendel on something once, I think. The man was always puttin’ on airs, tryin’ to convince everyone he was somebody when he wasn’t. Him usin’ an initial like that? Seemed like the kinda thing he’d do. Tryin’ to always get one up on everyone. Claimin’ the best parkin’ space, or that he had a right to more of the common area than the rest of us.” She threw up a hand in disgust.
“I can’t say I wasn’t glad to see his backside, but I don’t know where he went. I did feel sorry for the kid, though. Wasn’t her fault those parents of hers didn’t stick together and raise her right.” Marlena placed her hand on the Bible. “Shoulda spent more time in church and payin’ attention to the family instead of out runnin’ around. That’s what I think.”
Ravinia tried to come at Marlena a couple different ways, hoping for more information, but apart from twisting her faded lips into a mask of disapproval, the older woman couldn’t give them any further information. Rex sensed they’d definitely tapped her out, and he was glad to see that Ravinia, on his wavelength for once, thanked her and got to her feet.
