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“Well, his ghost,” I explained. “And I suppose it’s more that he just showed up rather than he walked in. But still, he appeared and asked me to help him find out who killed him. Was I supposed to refuse a plea from a dead man?”
“Selena….” My name trailed off, as though Calvin honestly wasn’t sure what he had meant to say to me. I could almost see him shrug before he continued. “Are you really trying to tell me that you had a conversation with a ghost?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Another pause. “True. But I also don’t want to see you come afoul of Henry Lewis in all this.”
“That also wouldn’t be the first time,” I said wryly. “At least this time I have a cast-iron alibi, so he can’t try to pin Danny’s murder on me.”
“I suppose I should be grateful for that.”
“Look,” I said before Calvin could comment further. “I’m trying to be discreet. And Jennifer Espinoza is going to help me as much as she can.”
“Why would she do that?”
I realized that Calvin probably wasn’t as dialed in to the various goings-on in Globe as Josie or my cursed cat. He lived out on San Ramon Apache lands, after all, and was far more occupied with the doings of his own people. It probably was a little much to expect that he would know all about Danny Ortega’s love life.
“She dated him for a while — cared about him, as far as I can tell,” I explained. “I thought she might be a suspect, but I’m pretty sure she’s innocent. But she said she would do what she could to help me figure out who the real murderer is.”
“Hmm,” Calvin replied, which in Calvin-speak could mean almost anything. In this particular case, I had a feeling it meant he couldn’t entirely approve…but he also wasn’t going to tell me to stay out of it.
When he spoke again, it was in a much different tone.
“Actually, I didn’t just call to check in. I wanted to know if you were free Thursday night to have dinner at my parents’ house.”
Although I’d been hoping and praying that such an invitation would be extended at some point, now that it had come, my heart gave a quick, nervous leap. “‘Dinner’?” I repeated, knowing how silly I must have sounded.
“Yes, dinner,” Calvin said, infinitely patient. “My mother apologized for not asking you over sooner, but they’ve been doing some remodeling on the house and it hasn’t been fit for guests before now.”
A rush of relief went through me at those words. Maybe it wasn’t that Calvin’s parents hated me — maybe it was just that they didn’t want to have me over while their house was torn up.
Of course, as soon as that thought passed through my head, I couldn’t quite hold back a creep of suspicion. This was the first I’d heard about any kind of renovations at his parents’ home.
“You never told me your parents were working on their house,” I said, my tone almost but not quite accusatory.
“You never asked,” Calvin replied.
Well, that was true.
Before I could respond, he went on, “I’m sorry if I never mentioned it. I suppose I didn’t think it was that big a deal.”
No, he probably wouldn’t. Everything had been going swimmingly between us, and he couldn’t have had any idea how much it worried me that there hadn’t been a single overture from his parents in the four months Calvin and I had been seeing each other.
Now, though, it sounded as though the issue had been logistics and nothing else.
At least, that was what I preferred to believe.
“It’s fine,” I said, and told myself it was. “And of course I’m free Thursday night. What time?”
“Six-thirty? My parents are early-to-bed, early-to-rise types.”
Calvin and I usually didn’t sit down to dinner until seven-thirty or even later, depending on what his work schedule looked like, but I certainly wasn’t going to let the early hour bother me. “Six-thirty is fine.”
“Great. I’ll pick you up a little after six, then.”
I wanted to tell him that it was silly for him to drive all the way into downtown Globe, only to turn around and take me back to San Ramon…but I didn’t. It seemed clear enough to me that he wanted to do this the old-fashioned way, with the two of us showing up together at the same time at his parents’ house.
“It’s a date,” I said, and tried to hold back a shiver.
