For Sale in Palm Springs: The Henry Wright Mystery Series

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Henry decided that he had plenty of time before he had to go shopping and before Rosie would arrive. He drove home and parked the car in the garage next to an empty space. There was a note from Charles on the refrigerator to enjoy his afternoon and that he would be spending the night with a friend. The note also said there was a surprise in the refrigerator. He opened the door and saw two bottles of the Australian Chardonnay that he had at Wayne's house last night. The note on them said "In good health and good luck" and was signed by Wayne and Elliot. He took the note and went towards his office. There were some things he wanted to research on the Internet before he went to the store. He thought he had enough time to do that.

He spent several hours looking up a variety of topics on the Internet. He couldn't find much on the Sons of Dionysus; perhaps he was looking in the wrong place. Finally he looked at his watch and decided to go to Jensen's for some groceries. He came back with several bags of all kinds of goodies, put them away and headed for the shower.

He was thinking about Mrs. Icklebee while he was in the shower and her poor sister who had come started to come down from Carpinteria to start a new life. He realized that the sister probably would have been the one that would find Thornbird's body if she had made it to Palm Springs. Janet Icklebee and her sister had to be close in age; he sure didn't wish the sight of Thornbird lying in a giant pool of blood on anyone, especially not someone that old. Amit Anchula had been freaked out enough to run out of the house. Henry himself saw the huge blood stain on the kitchen floor, which was bad enough; he was glad that he didn't see the body lying in the middle of it.

He stepped out of the shower and decided to stop thinking about all of this morbid stuff and focus on a more pleasant afternoon coming up with Rosie instead.

Henry decided to dress very casually since it was an afternoon barbecue and not dinner as it had been earlier in the week. He put on a clean pair of shorts, sandals and a Hawaiian Aloha shirt. He looked in the mirror and remembered all the Hawaiian shirts hanging in Thornbird's closet and took it off and hung it back on its hanger. He found a golf shirt from the Indian Palms Country Club and put that on instead.

Now, satisfied with his appearance he went outside by the pool and checked on the barbecue. Charles used it last and as with most things that Charles touched, it was left sparkling clean and ready to go. He really liked having Charles as a housemate, if anything ever developed between he and Rosie, he would hate to ask Charles to leave.

He couldn't see having Charles live with them though; it probably wouldn't work out at all. Though he didn't have any problems at all with Charles' way of life and his circle of friends, he could imagine that Rosie might, even if she didn't, it would most likely be awkward. He was putting the cart before the horse he realized. He thought back that he had met Rosie just last Tuesday, now it was Saturday and he was already thinking ahead to living with her!

He took one last look at his backyard, it looked great. The weather had indeed cleared up, the morning's clouds were gone and the sky was beautiful. The bright sun made the pool sparkle. He rearranged the chaise lounges and found his wedding ring still sitting on the little table where he had left it the other day. He picked it up, looked at it, looked at his ring finger on his left hand where the mark and the white band that the ring had left was pretty much gone and dropped the ring into the pocket of his shorts.

Rosie made a toast to new beginnings the other night; certainly this afternoon was a new beginning for Henry Wright, retired police chief from Eagle River, currently residing in Palm Springs, he thought, feeling good himself and the future and at the same time he was unsure about how things were going to unfold. One thing though, he thought as he felt the ring settle into the bottom of his pocket, he was not going to go back to being lonely.