Tuesday Tales: From the Word CUP

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. Our word prompt is CUP. I’m continuing with And Justice for All, my Romance/Suspense novel. Enjoy.

“I hope you aren’t going to catch cold.” He sounded like Jac admonishing Liam. “A warm shower and clean clothes will help. There’s a coffeemaker in the room with some tea bags. Make yourself a cup. My mom always swore by a cuppa. I checked on the room when I talked to the manager. Nice guy. Doing his best to be accommodating.” He handed her one of the old-fashioned brass keys. “Unit twelve. It’s the last one at the far end of the parking lot. While you clean up, I’ll go see Lacey. Apparently, she has urgent information for me. Maybe she found something else on that dark website she discovered. I’ll see you in an hour or so. Will that give you enough time?”

She nodded. “That should be plenty.”

“Do you need anything from the vehicle?”

“Yes. I want my purse and my laptop. After I feel human again, I’ll start looking up information on Clayton Moore, the Zondervan family, and Joachim Plume. I’d love to know more about the man with such an unusual name. I’ve seen Joachim used as a surname, but not a first one.”

Harry chuckled. “He probably made it up specifically for his business. Someone looking for a realtor might be attracted to the unusual name. Clay gave his first name a Hispanic pronunciation, but it could easily be French. Jac would know. She has a cousin named Isadore Joachim who has a farm outside Marionville, a commuter village on the outskirts of Ottawa. We took Liam to the sugar bush last spring.” He shook his head. “The kid loved it. I believe the man’s last name, Plume, means feather. He could be Metis—half French, half indigenous. Since I make a point of not discussing any aspect of my work with her, I’ll wait until Gabe gets back. He’s from the St Jean de Beauce region in Quebec. He’ll know.”

She frowned. “I can understand wanting to keep the uglier side of this job to yourself, but it must be awkward keeping everything bottled up inside. Cliff used to bounce ideas off his wife Mary every now and then.” She stopped speaking and looked away.

He stared at her, her words and the sorrow he’d recognized in her eyes, catching him off-guard. His breath caught in his throat. She thought he and Jac were married? How had she gotten that cockamamie idea? He put his arm on her shoulder. “You’ve got this all wrong. Jac isn’t my wife, Maggie. Hell, she twenty years older than I am. She’s Liam’s nanny.”

Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.