"What's going on between you and Jo?" Henry asks Abe one morning over breakfast. He's noticed the calls and private conversations. Both his son and his detective friend have gotten closer, and it seems a little odd. They wouldn't have a reason to know each other without Henry, and he doesn't like being excluded.
"It's nothing," Abe says, his eyes lighting with the usual mischief.
Henry levels him with the look that used to make the boy quake in his short pants. Now it does nothing except for the occasional laugh.
"Henry, not everything is about you or needs you in it," Abe says, punctuating his conversation with the butter knife. "Now eat your breakfast before I have to heat it in the microwave."
"You tried that trick on me before," he complains. "We don't have a microwave."
"I went out and bought one," he says as he opens his paper. The tone he uses doesn't let Henry know whether or not he is joking or being serious.
Henry gives him the eyes of exasperation but eats his breakfast before going off to a relatively quiet day in the Office of the Medical Examiner.
A few days later on the weekend, Jo shows up unexpectedly at the antiques shop. Henry immediately jumps to immediate interest. There is a dead body. There always has to be a dead body. That's part of the relationship he's forged with Jo.
"I'm here to see Abe," she answers after Henry gives his barrage of questions.
He is learning detective tricks from her and sees that she's hiding something from him. He can't say what, and he doesn't really have a right to know. The fact that she is most definitely not telling him is cause for him to burst with questions. It is his ever expanding curiosity that can't be contained like the snakes that have sprung from a can of fake peanut brittle.
Abe saves the day by sweeping into the room like the gracious man his father has raised him to be. "Jo! May I offer you some coffee before we head out?"
"I have some in the car," she says with a warm smile. "I got it just the way you like."
"Excellent," he tells her. Abe then instructs Henry that they might be gone the rest of the afternoon, so he should lock up if he goes anywhere.
Together, Abe and Jo leave Henry alone in the shop, and he's at a loss. He has no guesses or suppositions. It is only that his two favorite mortals are together enjoying their company without him. How could that have ever happened?
More time passes, and Henry watches Jo and Abe together developing their own bond. Abraham knows his father well. He practically reads his mind one morning as Henry is sitting at the breakfast table turning the question over in his mind like an irritation in the gums.
"Do you have something to say, Henry?" he asks mildly.
"Why are you and Jo so chummy lately?" he asks his son.
"I'm a charming man, and women like me," he says as he sets his paper down on the table. The fact that both statements are true makes the answer all the more infuriating for Henry.
"Besides," Abe adds softly, "she doesn't want me to tell you."
Henry scrunches his face. "You're not planning a surprise of some sort for me are you? It won't be a birthday celebration, will it?"
"You would be surprised to know that the world does not revolve around you. This is entirely about Jo," Abe says with the tone he uses to let his father know the topic is finished.
Henry is having no part of it. "Is she okay?"
"Why wouldn't she be?" Abe asks right back, but that doesn't give Henry any more details for his curious quest.
Over yet another dead body, Henry glances at Jo, and even though the situation is dire, she looks lighter. There is something inside her that is happier enough that it is giving her a spring in her step. Henry's mind races with the possibilities, some rational and others more absurd than the ones that came before.
"Jo, I noticed you've been spending a lot of time with Abraham lately. What have you been doing?" he asks, keeping his tone light as if he is not raging inside with curiosity.
She shrugs and evades, but then she gives him an answer she feels is acceptable to share. "I was inspired by something a few cases ago, and he helped me make a purchase. He's good at making the best deals."
"He is at that," Henry says, turning his head toward the body. "It sure seems that you've spent a lot of time with him for a one time purchase."
Jo laughs and stretches her fingers out before her. "You're not his father, and he's not a misbehaving child. I'll tell you if I want you to know. I'm not ready yet."
"So there is something going on?" Henry asks, looking at her with personal interest.
Jo gives him her lovely smirk but evades the question like a champion athlete clearing hurdles.
A few weeks later Lucas has managed to get Henry out for drinks. He thought Hanson, Jo and Reece would be there, but he was alone with his assistant. Then he used Henry to get into the more upscale places like the Gilded Cage. When Lucas is letting his freak flag fly appropriately high, Dr. Morgan begs off to go home and rest his sometimes too weary bones.
He is tired in mind more than body. He wishes to rest in his room and enjoy what he has with his son. He lets himself inside the antiques shop to be greeted with loud music. At first Henry groans because he's just left a loud music in a club. Abe always did like to play his jazz records when he wasn't around.
Before he can form a proper curmudgeonly opinion, Henry realizes it is the sound of a piano playing. He smiles as he thinks of the hours of joy he and his son have shared at the keyboard together. That fond memory is interrupted by the sound of female laughter. The sound draws him like a magnet to true north.
Inside the room, Abe and Jo share a piano bench. They laugh together about music they have just shared. Henry realizes that they have been duetting together. The smile on Jo's face is pure joy in that transcendent way that only music can do for a person. Because of that smile, he shrinks back to observe and not interrupt their moment.
"Do you have a favorite song?" Abe asks her.
"A song I can play? There are a few," Jo answers and her hands hover over the keyboard. "You said Henry was out, right?"
"I'll hear him when he comes in," Abe says confidently, making Henry smirk from his hiding place. "Why didn't you want him to know you played piano?"
"I was out of practice. I hadn't played since I was a teenager. I was too embarrassed to play badly in front of him," she admits. "When he knows something, he's such a know-it-all."
Abe laughs with her, but then says, "He's not that bad. We've played many times together. You might try it. You can always do 'Heart and Soul.'"
Jo laughs again with him, and they launch into a very vaudeville style performance of the piano classic. Henry takes the chance to back to the door and make lots of noise to alert them that he has come back. His guess that they will stop is correct. Both Abe and Jo come out to meet him in the main part of the shop.
"Detective," he says with a slight incline to his head. "Abraham."
"Henry," she says. Then Jo starts to make noises as if she must leave.
"Don't leave on my account," he says gently. "I was out with Lucas, and some friendly faces are just what I need. I did hear a nice tune on the way home, though. Maybe you can help me place it."
With that bit of conversational acrobatics, Henry has urged the two back into the piano room while he plays a tune that he might have heard on the subway or maybe one he just made up.
"That's pretty, Henry," Jo says as she strokes the keyboard.
"Do you play?" he asks directly, giving her a chance to tell him herself.
She smiles shyly while Abraham waits silently. "I do. I fell out of practice after high school, but I started up again recently. That's actually why I've been talking to Abe. He helped me buy my own piano."
"That's lovely, Jo. Congratulations," he says as he lightly squeezes her arched fingertips. "Will you play for me?"
She is hesitant at first, but like Henry she doesn't shy away from challenges. She fixes her courage and plays a simple but pretty song. Her tempo is surprisingly good. After some unspoken moment later, Henry adds a low bass line. Then Abe tinkles in the high octaves while Jo controls the middle.
It is a true impromptu, and Henry loves every note they play together. Jo's smiling and glowing face in response to the music is a beautiful accompaniment to the sounds they make. She doesn't go home until much later once they have eaten, laughed and exhausted her repertoire.