One Night Stand novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Tea With Eleanor

"I didn't know he kept it," I said.

Eleanor Kincaid set her cup down in its saucer.

"Kept what, dear?"

"The lens cap. I lost it that night. I looked for it for a week."

"You lost it in his hotel room."

"I lost it in his suite."

"I see." She did not smile, but something in her face turned a degree warmer. "You can have the interrogation or the toast. I recommend the toast."

I took the toast.

She sat very straight at the end of the kitchen island with her cane hooked on the edge.

She was seventy-four and about the size of a twelve-year-old, and I had met bank managers who looked less in charge.

"I'll be plain," she said. "I raised that boy after his parents died."

She turned her cup a quarter turn.

"I know when he's lying, and I know when he's lying to himself."

"Which is he doing?"

"Both. Four years ago he came home from some night out in a foul mood.

"It lasted a month. Then he put a plastic lens cap in his desk and never mentioned it again."

I looked at my toast.

"He told me his name was Matt," I said.

"Of course he did. He thinks it makes him sound ordinary." She picked up the cup again. "Do you want the money?"

"No."

"Good. Do you want the name?"

"I want Otto to have a father who shows up."

She nodded slowly.

"Then I'll tell you what you're up against," she said. "My late husband left a trust."

"What does it do?"

"It votes to the grandson who keeps this family out of the papers. For eleven years that has been Mateo."

She tapped the table once.

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