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He grilled skewers of chicken and veggies, and I summoned the energy to do some rice in the Instant Pot to go along with them. Sadie was thrilled with these preparations, mostly because she knew the skewers would provide plenty of opportunity to be fed some choice morsels during dinner.
After Calvin had poured some San Pellegrino for the two of us, he said, “So…Jeffrey Sellers.”
“What did you find out?” I asked.
“He definitely was a private detective, just as we’d already guessed,” my husband replied, then took a bite of grilled chicken. “He was thirty-five, and had been practicing for about seven years.”
That seemed young to me to be a P.I., although I reminded myself that what you saw on TV and in the movies didn’t necessarily match what was going on in the real world. “And the ballroom dancing?”
“He’s been doing that for about four years,” Calvin replied. “Still in the novice category, although he’s competed in a couple of pro-am events. Sort of middle of the road, I guess — he’s made it to third place a couple of times, but he definitely wasn’t lighting up the competition scene the way Victoria and Archie have.”
Which seemed like a perfect reason for him to be jealous of the two of them. “Partner?” I asked, and ate a mouthful of rice.
“He’s had a couple,” Calvin said. “Which isn’t super strange, I guess — it sounds like people in the dance world change their partners all the time. The woman he was currently dancing with is someone named Sara Tilden. She lives in Gilbert.”
Which was nice and close to Globe…comparatively speaking. “Maybe I should go talk to her,” I suggested, and Calvin’s dark eyes narrowed.
“I’m not sure that’s a very good idea,” he told me. “Selena, you can’t go around putting yourself in danger right now. I was never on board with the chances you take in the first place, and now….”
His words trailed off, but I got the point. It was one thing for me to decide whether or not a risk was acceptable when it was just my own safety I was putting on the line, but now that I was pregnant, I really needed to be doubly cautious.
“Are you saying this Sara Tilden person is a risk?” I inquired.
“Probably not,” he said. “The little research I could do on her makes it seem as if she’s an ordinary enough person. She’s a respiratory therapist at Dignity Health in Gilbert, and she’d been dancing with Jeffrey Sellers for about eight months.”
“Were they an item?”
One of Calvin’s eyebrows lifted a fraction of an inch, but I just gazed back at him calmly. It really wasn’t such a strange question to ask — from what I’d been able to tell, a lot of dancers seemed to develop physical relationships with their partners, although of course it wasn’t a given.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “If they were dating, it’s not the sort of thing that would show up on a simple background check.”
No, it wouldn’t. If she’d been married to Jeffrey Sellers, that would have been one thing, but as it was….
“See, that’s even more reason for me to go talk to her,” I said. “I don’t have to work tomorrow, and neither do you. We could go together. That would be safe enough, wouldn’t it?”
A long pause as my husband eyed me, obviously trying to figure out whether this latest scheme would be better or worse than me going on my own. “Henry would skin me alive if he found out I was directly interfering with his investigation,” Calvin said slowly.
“So, I’ll go alone.”
“No,” he responded, an amused light in his dark eyes. “I’ll drive you and wait in the car. And you’ll call me at the first sign of trouble. Okay?”
The offer was honestly more than I’d expected. While there wasn’t technically anything Henry could do to Calvin for interviewing someone who might or might not be connected to Jeffrey Sellers’ death, at the same time, he could try his darnedest to make life miserable for both of us if he really wanted to. Just acting as my chauffeur and muscle might be enough to invite the police chief’s ire, but clearly, concern for my safety — and the safety of our unborn child — outweighed any of those concerns.
“It’s a deal,” I said, and Calvin made an odd little twist of his mouth, as if he wasn’t sure whether he should be relieved or worried that I’d agreed to his plan so quickly.
Honestly, I didn’t think either of us had anything to worry about. Henry had probably already interviewed Sara Tilden, so there shouldn’t be any reason for him to visit her after their initial conversation. No, Calvin and I could just skate over to Gilbert tomorrow when we thought it most likely that Sara would be at home, I’d ask her a few questions, and then we’d be back in Globe before anyone even noticed we’d briefly popped out of town.
Now I just had to hope she’d have something to say that would be worth the trip.
9
Dancing Queen
That Sunday was so picture-perfect, I almost wished Calvin and I could use it for a picnic or a nice, mellow hike. But we’d already decided that catching Sara Tilden at home around eleven was our best strategy, so I had to put that idea aside for now.
“We can have lunch at Zinburger, though,” I told Calvin as he guided my Jeep Renegade down the gravel lane that led to the main road. Normally, we would have been driving his big Dodge Durango, but since it had the San Ramon tribal police’s seal on the doors, it wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.
He sent me an amused glance. “So that’s what this is really about, huh? Are you having a craving for one of their Samburgers?”
