Rolling up the sleeves of her flannel shirt, Poppy took that thought to heart as she waved to Avis with a half-smile.
“There you are! How delightful to be asked to coffee by such a dish!” he exclaimed, way too cheerful and exaggerated for her taste. But objectivity was the name of the game here.
She wanted to find a redeeming quality in Avis—for Rick. “Hey, thanks for meeting me.”
His eyes widened, his grin following when he reached over and patted her hand. “Anything for Rick. That you’re not hard on my eyes makes this little meeting a plus. So what can I do for you, Poppy McGuillicuddy? How can I make your transition into familiar-hood with Rick easier?”
You could start by letting go of my hand, thus removing this feeling I’m somehow dirty. Pulling her fingers from his, Poppy tucked them in her lap and decided to get down to business. She wasn’t going to pussyfoot around with him.
“Tell me about Yash.”
Avis’s shift in position was ever so slight, the change in his face, the clouding over of his eyes just as brief. And then his face went sad, almost comically mournful. “My poor chap Rick. I suppose he told you what happened?”
“He did.” And that was all she was saying. She was curious to hear Avis’s take on Yash, and she didn’t know why a statement from him made a difference, but there was this voice deep inside that told her it did—that he might have vital information about the familiar.
He sucked in his cheeks, giving his face an unintentionally long, menacing look. “You’re a woman of few words, aren’t you, Poppy?”
Leaning her chin on her hand, she purposely wanted to show him she was relaxed. “I just believe in getting to the point. So what was Yash like?”
Pressing his hand to his chest, he sighed. “I loved Yash as much as Rick did. When he all but disappeared, I was heartsick.”
Liar! The word flashed before her eyes with such clarity, Poppy almost ducked, and the smarmy, ugly tentacles clawing her insides latched on tighter.
“But he took your money, too, didn’t he?”
Avis blustered, yet his eyes were cool. “That’s almost irrelevant. The money wasn’t so much a betrayal as the lies. I thought Yash had Rick’s best interests at heart always. He was Rick’s closest confidant. I didn’t know if Rick would ever recuperate after such an agonizing break in trust.”
“So you believe Yash stole ARMD’s money and took off without a word? Just like that? It seems so out of the blue. So random after being with Rick for so many years. Why would he do such a thing?”
Leaning back against the booth, Avis nodded solemnly as his fingers toyed with the paper napkin. “Tell me something I don’t know. No one was more surprised than I, except for maybe Rick himself. We were both blindsided. But I’m not one hundred percent convinced Yash’s intentions weren’t true.”
Her eyes zeroed in on Avis’s handsome face, alarm bells singing their song. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I think it was something more. Something he couldn’t tell anyone. Something utterly dreadful.”
Cue evil music. Avis was just shy of maniacal laughter as he used the word “dreadful.” Yeah, Poppy didn’t doubt whatever had happened to Yash was dreadful, but were there no clues? No telltale signs?
“So you think something nefarious happened to him? How does that explain the missing money?”
Avis rubbed his hands together and grinned. “Nefarious is such a tasty word. And frankly, I don’t know. Call it my gut.”
“So you believe in Yash’s innocence?”
“Will this conversation be all about Yash? I thought you wanted to get to know me,” he teased, batting his eyelashes.
As the waitress dropped her coffee in front of her, granting her a reprieve from Avis’s question, he dismissed her offer to take an order.
Adding sugar to the dark liquid, she stirred, deciding to keep her acting shoes on when she answered him. Summoning her best Jessica Rabbit smoldering gaze, Poppy winked. “I guess it depends on how interesting you are. Are you more interesting than a familiar who steals millions of dollars and betrays the boy he’s virtually raised? For instance, this woman Rick mentioned who broke your heart just before you began attending Princeton. We could talk about that…”
Avis threw his head back, the weak sun glinting on his blond hair from the window beside their booth. “Hah! Touché, beautiful lady.” But when his eyes came back into focus, they were hard chips of ice. “What did he tell you?”
“Basically nothing other than you’d been hurt deeply.”
“Bah! At the time, and taking into account my age, yes, it was quite a drama, I’m sure. But it’s long since over.”
“No lingering feelings for your lost love?”