Read Online Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 03 - In Good Faith by Catharine Bramkamp - Free Book Online Page A

the closet.
    The space was empty, not a sandal, not a pair of white pants, not a single linen suit in sight. It was completely empty.
    “ She was going somewhere. And she was going somewhere warm.” I announced.
    “ What?”  Ben had followed me.
    “ See? No summer clothes.”
    “Maybe she packed them away. It is winter .” He pointed out. In  his world, that argument was completely rational. However, when it comes to our wardrobes, women are not always rational.  Could the closet be the window to a woman’s soul? 
    “God, look at all this crap.”  He looked around as if finally remembering his life here.
    “We never did decorate this room. It was a guest room, but we had no guests.”
    “ No friends? A gorgeous, gregarious guy like you?”
    “ Not so gregarious.” He shook his head.  “I had a lot of friends in college, but once I married Beverley … .” he trailed off.  He pushed some magazines off the edge of the bed and sat down rubbing his face.
    He changed his name and sequestered himself with his grandmother. That’s a long time to nurse pain. It was like the scene in Lilo and Stitch, when Stitch realizes he doesn’t have a family, when he reads the story of the ugly duckling.
    I almost cried as I remembered that scene ; it always makes me cry.
    Ben gathered himself. “You’re right. She kept her off season clothes in this room.”
    “And your clothes?”  I prompted.
    “ The other room. I kept them in the room I used for a study.”
    “Of course .” The woman couldn’t even share her closet. My, my. I was looking better every minute.  Thank you, Beverley.
    Ben rubbed his shaven chin absently, as if stroking a phantom beard. He could be; we haven’t been together that long. I wondered how he’d look with a beard.
    “Beverley never operated alone; it wasn’t in her nature. She always had someone with her. She loved, needed, to have people around. She loved being loved.”
    “ You loved her?”
    “ Yes.” He rose and moved restlessly back to the master bedroom. I followed him, there was nothing more to see in the guest room.
    He ran his hand over the surface of the dresser.  “Yes, I did. But I couldn’t now tell you why or even how. She needed me. I knew that, I enjoyed it.”
    She had cleared off the surface of the two chests of drawers, per my request. In fact, it was one of the few cleaning jobs she accomplished. The two bureaus had been packed with silver framed photographs and personal photos, all of which would have distracted buyers from the room. People tend to concentrate on the pictures of cute babies or wedding photos from the early 1970s, and forget to look at the wainscoting or the double hung windows. The photos were all gone.
    “ It’s nice to be needed.” I offered.
    He opened the top dresser drawer and pulled out a dozen small, framed pictures.
    “Yeah, but I wasn’t the last to be needed.”
    He sorted through the photos as if he were dealing out a stack of cards. The frames clicked together in the silent room.
    “A different guy in each one.  Cruise, benefit, cruise, benefit, benefit.  Cruise.  She loved cruises didn’t she?”
    “Do you love cruises?”  I asked him. Did he miss her?  Even after all these years?  Or was being upset normal?  Did he kill her?  Oh, that’s ridiculous.
    “No, I vacation in the Sierra Foothills.”  He lifted his head and offered me a ghost of a smile.  I smiled back. We “vacationed” in the Sierra foothills this last September. It took us weeks to recover from our time off.
    “It was all about dressing up and showing off for her. She needed to be seen. Thus, the men.”  He tossed the pictures back into the drawer. I heard glass crack but didn’t point it out to Ben. It didn’t matter.
    “Did the police have any ideas?”  What I really meant was did they share anything with him?  I looked around the room. The new carpet was soft and cushy under my feet;  new padding, always buy the best. I hired