Pippa nodded. She had a highlighter pen out and was putting bright yellow lines through important paragraphs. "Yep, two weeks ago is when she starts having a fight with this guy, AriesBoy, whoever he is. Before then, it had been all mooning and pet names and them being lovey-dovey, then they start fighting."
"Fighting over what?" I asked.
Pippa looked up at me. "Anna."
I put the key in the back of the bakery door and pushed it open. Everyone had gone home for the day—we close at 1:00pm on Saturdays—but I wanted to double check the carnage that had been left behind.
Pippa raised her eyebrows as she followed me inside. "Doesn't look like Simona knows how to use a mop," she commented, her feet sticking to the tiles behind the counter. She walked over to a table and picked up a discarded wrapper. "Or a trash can."
I let out a heavy sigh. "It's a shame," I said. "Because I wanted to promote her to assistant manager." I saw Pippa's eyebrows shoot up. "When you officially take time off, I mean."
Pippa still didn't look impressed.
"Anyway," I said. "I'm unsure now." I placed a hand on my hip and looked around the messy room. I usually left it spotless after every shift. So did Pippa. Well, maybe not spotless, but she at least did a cursory cleaning. What was going on with Simona? "She's had a real attitude since she started working here," I commented. "I would have thought she'd be grateful for the job, after Bakermatic closed down."
Pippa shrugged. "Maybe she's just really missing Bakermatic."
"How could anyone miss that place?"
Anyway, I had bigger things to worry about than Simona. We were just picking up some cash from the safe, in case we had to take a bit of a journey. I had no idea what the next couple of days were going to entail, but I was glad that the bakery was closed on Sundays. One less thing to worry about.
I opened the safe and grabbed what we were going to need.
"Got it," I said, taking one last look around. I had to fight the urge to stay behind for a while and clean up. I was going to have to send a text message to Simona. Get her to come in before Monday to get this all cleaned up. She'd probably make that same offended look at her phone when she got the message, but at least I wouldn't have to see it.
"Come on, Rach," Pippa said, pulling my arm. "There's no time for cleaning."
We were back in the car with a bunch of supplies. I was still hoping we wouldn't actually have to use them, or have to travel anywhere. I was still kind of hoping that Angel would just walk through the front door, or that we'd find her close to home. I supposed Harrison was hoping the same thing.
"So, where to first?" Pippa asked quietly.
I gave her a skeptical look. "Are you sure you're up for all of this, Pippa?"
She stuck her tongue out just a little bit. "You've been worrying ever since the other day. Seriously, it's all right. I just got a bit dizzy. That's what happens when you're pregnant. You get a bit dizzy now and then."
"Okay, if you're sure. And to answer your question, first things first. We've got to find Anna."
We were parked in front of Callum Jones’ apartment. Out of sight of Drew’s prying eyes.
Stakeout time. Drew wasn't going to let us back into the building, and even if he did, Callum wasn't going to let us look around his apartment. So we were just going to have to sit and wait until he and Anna came out.
Pippa was shoving potato chips into her mouth. She was craving nothing but salt lately, apparently. Olives, feta cheese, and bags and bags of potato chips. These were salt and vinegar, and they were stinging my eyes even from the next seat over.
"So," Pippa said, between mouthfuls. "Do you really think Anna has something to do with Angel's kidnapping?"
"I'm not sure," I mused. "You read the chat transcripts, though. They were fighting over that same guy. AriesBoy. Angel thought that Anna was trying to steal him away from her. Thought that they were seeing each other behind Angel's back."
Pippa swallowed a mouthful. "But Anna is seeing Callum, right? And Callum isn't AriesBoy."
I raised an eyebrow. "Isn't he? And how do we know that exactly?" I'd had this same sinking feeling ever since I read over Angels' chat transcripts. Maybe Harrison hadn't been so quick to jump to conclusions after all.
In fact, maybe he'd been right all along.
Callum was upstairs with some blonde girl he was seeing. But that didn't mean that Angel wasn't also one of his girlfriends.
"Remember, Drew said that Callum had a lot of different girlfriends," I said. "He said he was seeing loads of different women at the same time. I was supposed to be jealous of them all, remember?"
Pippa finished off the bag and dusted her hands off. "Still, it doesn't make sense that Callum would take Angel."
I cut her off. "I don't think Callum took Angel," I said. "In fact, I don't think that Callum has anything to do with it, or even knows that Angel is missing. I think it's all Anna."
There was a sharp tapping on my car window and I screamed.
"Just what the heck do you think you're doing here?" Drew's voice was so loud that I could hear it even through the glass.
I wound the window down. "Just sitting. Enjoying this lovely spring day," I said with a bright smile.
He crossed his arms. "You're spying on one of my residents," he said, less weary than usual. He actually sounded angry with me. Huh, maybe he actually took his job seriously from time to time. Who knew?
"You can't prove that," I said. "We're not even in front of the building."
"Well, you didn't do a very good job of hiding," he said, interrupting me. "Seeing as I could see you from my desk. You know, Rachael Robinson, for a detective, you're not very good at being secretive."
I could feel the flush rising onto my cheeks. How did he know my full name?
"I'm not a detective," I said flatly.
"Sure, sure. You're just a jealous girlfriend of Callum Jones," he said. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and started pressing numbers.
"What are you doing?" I asked. I didn't mean to sound so frantic, to give myself away, but it came out of my mouth that way anyway.
He shrugged a little. "I'm just wondering what the real detectives—aka the local police—might have to say about that. I've given you enough chances, Rachael Robinson."
I shot a frantic look at Pippa. Not the police. We could not get them involved. Whoever had Angel had been very clear about that.
"No, please, don't do that," I said, reaching up to pull Drew's hand down.
He stood back and gave me a warning look. "Oh, you did not just try to grab my arm, young lady."
He brought the phone back up to his ear. "Is this the Belldale Police?"
"Drew! Please!" I called out. "Stop!"
He pulled the phone away from his ear again and lowered his eyes. "Are you going to tell me what is going on then?"
I looked at Pippa before sighing heavily. "Yes, Drew. I will tell you what is going on. Just please, hang up the phone."
Chapter 8
Drew shook his head and looked between the two of us, first at me and then at Pippa. "Well, well, well," he said. "Isn't this an interesting situation?"
"I know it all seems kind of crazy," I said. "But you have to believe me."
Drew blinked slowly a few times. "I don't see why you would make up such a crazy story."
I sighed and pouted at him a little. "It's all true though, Drew. My friend Pippa here is pregnant with Callum's baby. We just want to find out where the cheating, lying, fellow is going."
Drew hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket. I shot Pippa a look of relief.
"Fine then," Drew said. "I won't call the cops. I don't want to get a pregnant lady into trouble. But you can't stay out here forever, you hear me? You've got to move along."
"Aww, Drew," I said with another pout. "Can't we at least stay until we see this jerk? With this new girlfriend of his?"
Drew sighed. "Well… Hang on a second." Something caught his eye and he turn
ed his head, shielding his eyes against the glare. "Looks like you ain't got to wait much longer. He's coming out right now." Drew looked down again and shot me a look. "I gotta get out of here. This is too much drama for me."
He shuffled away on thick legs, clearly not wanting one of his residents to spot him conversing with a stalker of said resident.
I was so busy watching Drew for a moment that I forgot to be focused on Callum. "Hey, Rach," Pippa said. Her voice sounded very worried. She pointed to the foyer where Callum was exiting with a blonde woman on his arm.
"What is it?" I pulled my sunglasses back up and scooched down in my seat a bit, trying not to look too obvious.
"That's not Anna."
I glanced at the blonde woman on Callum's arm. "Of course it— Oh." My stomach dropped and I slowly sat up and leaned forward. The closer they got, the more the woman came into focus.
She was blonde and skinny, sure, but that's about where the similarities to Anna ended. This woman was older...probably even older than Callum, in fact. She was at least thirty-five.
Not eighteen.
Not Anna.
Pippa and I just looked at each other in distress. So we were just sitting there, stalking some random blonde woman and Callum Jones? I hit my head back on the headrest. "So this has all been a giant waste of time then." I almost wanted to scream in frustration. Mostly, I was just angry at myself for not having better instincts. We'd been on another wild-goose chase, and meanwhile, Angel was still out there somewhere. And the clock was ticking.
"We need to go," I said, turning the key in the ignition. "We seriously cannot waste another second on Callum Jones."
"Rach, wait!" Pippa shouted. "At least wait till—" But it was too late. I'd already started the ignition, loudly, loud enough for Callum Jones and his companion to look up in shock.
"What the…" Callum's lips mouthed the words, though I couldn't hear him.
"Shoot," I said, desperately trying to move the car away, quickly but without running both of them down. Callum made that very difficult by running straight towards the vehicle.
"What are you two doing?" I heard him shouting through the window. I was wrestling with the steering wheel, trying not to end up with Callum caught underneath the wheels. "Come back!" he screamed when I finally pulled away, tires screeching while Callum spluttered and yelled after the car.
And in the rearview mirror I could see him, Drew. Staring at me.
"They texted me again. Twenty-four hours." Harrison's face was white.
I sat down across from him at his dining room table. "Let's go over everything again," I said, as calmly as I could. "When was the last time you saw Angel?"
He just shot me a look of utter disbelief. "Back to the start? What have you been wasting time doing, up until now?"
I shot a look at Pippa. Better he didn't know.
He frowned and told me the story again, although I'd heard it before.
"I got home from work early. Usually I finish late, ten o’clock, eleven o’clock... You know, that's just the life of a lawyer." He shot me a look as though I was supposed to be impressed. "Angel knew that. Now that she's a bit older, it bothers her less, but originally... Well, it was one of the reasons she lived with her mother."
I double-checked something in my notepad. "And she hadn't lived with you since she was ten years old, right?"
He shot me a look. "Yes. That's the age she was when Olive and I got divorced. But Olive passed away last year, as you well know."
Okay, now he was giving me a look. The kind that made me want to shrivel up. "Yes," I said quietly. "I do know that."
I could still feel his glare on me, hotter than the sun. "Yes. She died in your bakery, didn't she?"
Not an event I really loved reliving. "She was poisoned," I said.
"By a member of your staff."
He turned his gaze from me and then to Pippa, who'd been standing there quietly up until that point. Now she was getting his heat.
"Pippa wasn't working there at the time. She was sick." Morning sickness. I cleared my throat. "The guilty party has been fired. Of course." I cringed at what I'd just said. I had a habit of saying the most cringe-worthy things in situations like these. Of course she had been fired. What a stupid, stupid thing to say. I could see by the look on Harrison's face that he was in complete agreement with me on that front. "She's awaiting trial," I said meekly.
"And you hired this woman right? This...Chloe?"
I hadn't really wanted to speak her name. Her name was kind of forbidden in our house. Or presence. "Yes," I said. "I hired her. I own the bakery."
"So you would admit that everything that happens in that bakery is your responsibility then?"
We were getting way off track. And I had no idea what Harrison's angle was. Why did he hire me if he was still so angry with me? "Harrison, if you want my help," I said firmly, "then you'll need to clarify a few questions I have about the night that Angel went missing." There, back on track.
He leaned back a bit. Retreated. "Of course I want your help, Rachael," he said in a strange voice. "You're the one who caught Olive's killer, after all." His words were heated. Caught, yes. And hired.
"Harrison. That night Angel went missing. Did you call the police?"
He narrowed his eyes. At least I'd brought the subject back on track and he finally returned to his story. "Like I was saying," he said, annoyed at having to repeat himself, or annoyed at having to take a step back from his accusations towards me, I couldn't quite tell.
He took a deep breath. "I came home early that night. Angel had been a little upset recently. I wasn’t sure what had caused it, but she'd been moody, crying a lot...the usual teenage stuff, I suppose. Of course, with her mom having just passed away, it was to be expected as well. So, I figured I should spend some more time at home. More time with her. So that I could keep more of an eye on what she was doing."
I raised my eyebrows. "And was Angel happy about this?"
"About what?"
I thought about the computer room downstairs and him confiscating her cell phone. And the journal entries. Didn't seem to me like she would have appreciated even more parental supervision from Harrison.
"It doesn't matter what she wants, I am her father!" Harrison snapped at me, a little too quickly. He took a second or two to calm down while Pippa and I exchanged a look. I made a note in my notepad.
Harrison composed himself. "I got home early," he said. "Around four. I thought I'd surprise Angel—"
Surprise her, or try to catch her?
"She was grounded," Harrison said. "So she was supposed to be at home, not out with friends."
Pippa spoke up. "Can you ground an eighteen year old?"
He gave her a stony stare. "You can when she is living under your roof."
I interrupted. "Why was she grounded?" I looked over my notes. I couldn't see any evidence that I'd noted this, or asked it the first time we'd been over all this.
"Because of what I found in her room," Harrison said.
"The chat messages with AriesBoy?" I asked. "The chats you thought were with Callum Jones?"
Harrison shook his head and his face dropped a little. "The...the stuff I found." He was mumbling, swallowing the words.
I sat up straighter. "What stuff? Harrison, what did you find in Angel's room?"
He was still reluctant to answer. "Some stuff," he said again and my mind began to race. I knew teenagers experimented with stuff.
"Drugs?" I whispered.
His mouth fell open. "No!" he said forcefully. "Angel would never do that. No, not drugs. Just...some jewelry. Stuff that didn't belong to her. When I asked her about it, where she got it, she wouldn't tell me. I knew they weren't hers. They were expensive pieces as well. Since she wouldn't tell me anything, I had to ground her."
I stared at him. "Why didn't you tell us about this earlier?"
"I didn't want Angel to get into trouble."
"We're not the police."
&nbs
p; He thumped his fingertips against the tabletop, and wouldn't meet my eyes. "I didn't think it was such a big deal. Do you think this has anything to do with her kidnapping?"
"I don't know," I said quietly.
Harrison sat up straighter. "When I got home at four, she wasn't here. I was furious, of course, that she had disobeyed me. I checked every room, and the garden, even the shed, though she'd never stepped foot in there before in her life. But she wasn't anywhere. I wasn't worried at first, just angry. Then I got the first text."
"At what time?"
Harrison frowned and his face looked even more withered. He looked like he hadn't had a wink of sleep in weeks. "About four-fifteen," he said.
"Right." I closed my notepad and stood up.
Harrison stood up after me. "Well, that was a pointless exercise then, wasn't it? What did you get out of hearing all that again?"
I placed my purse strap over my shoulder. "Thank you, Harrison."
He shook his head, frustrated. "I don't know why you're thanking me. That was a waste of time."
I pulled Pippa away. She seemed to have zoned out a little, leaning forward against the kitchen island. "Come on, Pips, I think we ought to go," I whispered, trying to pull her back to reality. "Are you okay?"
She nodded and we headed out with an annoyed Harrison hot on our heels.
As soon as we were through the door, I turned to Pippa. "That wasn't a waste of time at all," I said to her pointedly. "And I got plenty out of it." I shot a look back over my shoulder, knowing that Harrison would be watching us right until we got into our car and drove away. I lingered for a bit and made eye contact with him.
Pippa was still bleary-eyed. "You did?" she asked in surprise as she struggled to get down the steps of Harrison's balcony with her belly bulging. I grabbed her arm and helped her. Just to be safe, I waited until we were out of earshot from Harrison before I spoke.
Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Books 7 - 9 Page 5