It’s Tuesday again and welcome to this edition of Tuesday Tales. Can you believe it? We’re only ten days away from the first day of spring 2026. This winter has been a long one and despite what the calendar says, it isn’t over yet, but today we have sunshine, and for now, most of the snow is gone. Today, our authors are writing to the word prompt CONFIDENT. I’m continuing with The Case of the Missing Prince, my Evie Chambers Mystery.
“Let me get this straight. Zandro wasn’t supposed to be in Calgary at all, let alone in the hotel where you arranged to meet Andressa.”
Viktor nodded. “That’s right. We hadn’t even set a time to meet until I called her, but I had no reason to suspect that she and Zandro knew each other. Her name never came up in his background check. I never suspected that they were acquainted.”
I snorted. “I would say they were more than acquainted if they spent the night together.”
“That may be, but their personal lives are none of my business.”
“He claimed they hadn’t seen one another in years, although he did seem to follow her career.” I mentioned the paper he mentioned they’d discussed.
“She’s brilliant and has risen to the top of her discipline. Andreea frequently guest-lectures at foreign universities. She’d just come back from Japan, when I contacted her after Leo’s brush with ZCE, so I didn’t expect her to go off again so soon. She was staying at a hotel close to the university, but since I had meetings at our hotel that afternoon, she agreed to come to me at four. I didn’t expect anyone from the team to be in the bar. I had checked on Anton, and then made arrangements to meet the others downstairs for a pre-dinner drink at seven. I assumed we would’ve finished our drink long before that. She spotted me and was heading my way when someone called her name—”
“Wait! Zandro called her name?”
“Yes. Didn’t he tell you that? She said his name aloud when she recognized him and hurried over to the bar where he sat. I hadn’t even noticed him until then. Since the last thing I wanted was for Zandro to know that she and I were supposed to meet, I hurried over to them and pretended not to know her. She was surprised, but when you work in espionage, you need to be prepared for anything.” He rubbed the back of his neck, no longer as confident as he’d been. “It seemed that she and Zandro had been very close at university years ago, but she ended the relationship and married another. She and her husband divorced last year. I won’t condone or denounce what happened between them. People get lonely, and old love is better than none.”
The melancholy note in his voice had me thinking he might be speaking from personal experience.
Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.
Living the Dream 