Chapter 14
The next morning I puttered around the house, brooding. I missed Benjamin and Katie. Not even the idea of uncovering the reason for Irwin’s presence could lure me from the doldrums.
Midmorning, I took a break from doing nothing and admired the view from my living room window. It was a picture postcard. Snow clung to the branches of the elms, a perfect backdrop for the azure sky and bright sun. A red baseball cap floating along the veranda railing caught my eye. Leroy was paying me a visit.
I opened the door and invited him in, but he refused to budge from his position on the stoop.
“How’d you know Alex?” he asked.
For Leroy to know that, he'd been watching my house again. I didn't take offense. Actually, it comforted me. His terseness didn’t bother me, either. Obviously, my haunted house frightened him, and he dispensed with the cordial banalities he might normally extend at the onset of conversation.
“Leroy, wouldn’t you be more comfortable inside? It’s freezing out there.” I knew he'd refuse the invitation again, but I had to ask.
He vigorously shook his head. “This’ll only take a minute.”
“Okay.” Since he brought up the subject, I figured on sucking dry this fount of information, even if it meant freezing my toes. “I met him the first night we moved in. Why? Is there something I should know about him?”
"No." Leroy pulled a blue and white polka dot hankie from the back pocket of his denim coveralls and mopped his brow. My house caused him a great deal of anxiety and yet here he was wanting to help.
“What can you tell me about him?” I asked, wrapping my arms across my chest to ward off a chill.
“He’s a successful businessman.”
At first, that came as a surprise, then I remembered my earlier chat with Alex. “Oh, you mean the investment he stumbled onto.”
He stared at me blankly a moment before asking, “Investment?”
“Y... yes.” Goose bumps broke out on my forearms as I repeated what Alex had told me. "The investment that affords him his lifestyle today." Leroy continued to look at me in the same vacant way. I couldn't determine whether he'd had a momentary lapse from reality or if he thought I had. Alarmed, I couldn't outwait him.
"If there's something I should know about him, I'd appreciate knowing." Mug shots of rapists, murderers, child molesters and thieves flashed before my eyes. Alex could have a rap sheet an arm long and I not only spent time alone with him, but also enjoyed myself, which had me questioning my good sense. Maybe I wasn't sane. Maybe I wasn't fit to raise children.
“You have nothing to fear from him, Susan,” Leroy finally said.
“No?” I asked around a catch in my throat.
“No.”
Leroy would know. He seemed to know everything. So would Jonathan, I realized now that my heartbeat wasn't pounding in my ears and could think straight. Jonathan would have already checked out Alex. If there had been anything to find, my cop ex-husband would surely have found it. Since Jonathan hadn't confronted me, I assumed there was nothing sinister in Alex's background. I relaxed.
“Why didn't Alex ever marry?”
“I can see you think of him more than just a friend.”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “Maybe. He likes women, though?” What a stupid question. Of course he liked women.
“Aye, that he does.”
"Is there anything else you can tell me about him?”
“Only hearsay and the suspicions of an old, old man.”
Gossip had never interested me more. I opened my mouth to ask what he'd heard and what his suspicions were but he was already waving me farewell and dashing across my lawn.