Left To Die

She ran her hands along the arm rests, twisting at a couple of metal buttons. She knew she should have done better keeping in touch with Robert. He’d seen her as a daughter, and she’d just up and left.

But Robert hated goodbyes, so Adele had never offered him one.

She squirmed in her seat and stared at the flames. Perhaps, predictably, Robert had a glass of red wine set on the coffee table next to him. He lifted his book, propping it with one hand, his eyes scanning the pages while his other cupped the wine glass; cradling it with three fingers, he lifted it toward his lips. “Your old room is still available,” he said, softly. He glanced at her. “I know you won’t be here long, but you’re welcome to it. I haven’t moved anything, and the cleaners have kept it tidy.”

Adele paused and swallowed. She shrugged with one shoulder. Staying in a hotel was easier, but sleeping in one, especially for the first few nights, always interrupted her routine.

“There’s Chocapic in the kitchen,” said Robert, after a moment. He glanced over the top of his book, inclining one wispy eyebrow beneath his thick hair.

Inadvertently, Adele could feel her stomach grumble. She had packed her bowl and spoon, but she hadn’t had time to go to the grocery store.

She knew that chocolate cereal filled with sugar wasn’t the most nutritious breakfast for a law enforcement agent. But some habits were hard to shake.

“That’s not fair,” she said, “you’re tempting me.”

Robert pursed his lips and lowered his wineglass. His eyes twinkled, but he kept his expression serious. “I’m just offering a guest some cereal.”

“Aren’t you the one who gave me grief all those years for eating that, what was your word—junk?”

Robert chuckled and got to his feet, closing his book with a snapping sound. His slippers still made no noise as he padded across the room to another adjacent door. Adele followed, and they reached the large, polished kitchen with cherry wood cabinets and ebony-black countertops.

Adele went over to the cupboard where she knew Robert had kept the cereal once upon a time. She opened it, and immediately spotted three boxes of the chocolate cereal. She glanced back at her once mentor. “These look new,” she said.

Robert shrugged. “I often keep some there. Throw them out if they expire, and then replace them, just in case.” His voice trailed off at this, and he offered no further explanation.

She felt another surge of guilt.

Next to the cereal, a small stack of plastic bowls displayed Mickey Mouse cartoons. Identical to the bowl her mother had given her when she’d been a child, and the bowl she now carried in her suitcase.

She stared. “Where did you find those?”

Robert chuckled. “If I’m honest with you, I just asked someone to find them. Apparently this internet thing is all the rage. Can’t say I’m very familiar with it myself.”

Adele shook her head. “You didn’t have to.”

“I know.”

Adele could feel Robert’s eyes on her as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and then went to the fridge for the milk. A few moments passed in silence, expanding the space between the two of them, and Adele ate her first bowl of cereal in quiet.

After a moment, she lowered her spoon, tapping the metal quietly against the edge of the plastic. “I’m sorry for leaving like I did last time,” she said, softly. “I just couldn’t stay here. Not after what happened to—”

Robert shook his head, clearing his throat. “No need,” he said, hurriedly. “You don’t need to apologize. You lost your mother. I remember what that was like for me too. It’s painful. Sometimes change is warranted.”

Adele leaned against the cold counter, the ridge pressing into the small of her back. This room was colder than the study had been, but not unpleasant. “What was it you’d said back there in the office?” she said, clearing her throat and changing the subject. “Why are you only in an advisory role? They’re not trying to bully you out of the agency, are they?”

Robert waved his hand airily. “It’s the same with all these places. When I came over from homicide to work for the DGSI, they wanted me in a mentoring capacity. But now that the agency has grown, and they’ve recruited, they’re looking to replace all the old gentlemen of yore. It is what it is. Can’t cry about it.”

Adele shook her head in disgust. “You’ve closed more cases than any of them. You’re the best they have.”

Robert cleared his throat and puffed out his chest, if only a little, beneath his bathrobe. He chuckled. “You flatter me. I am quite good though, aren’t I?” He smirked and glanced away, intentionally striking a profile like a portrait of a gentleman detective from fiction.

Adele chuckled and flicked her spoon toward him, causing a couple of droplets of milk to land on his cheek.

The older man immediately clucked like a hen and hurried over to the sink, wiping his face and frantically checking his bathrobe. “This is silk,” he said, scandalized.