Spirited Away

by Lena Gregory

  “I know you won’t go into specifics, but how’s Emmett holding up?” Bee asked.

  “He’s doing okay, all things considered. Mostly, he’s worried about Joey, about what would happen to him if Emmett went to jail.”

  “That’s got to be a scary thought.” Stephanie leaned back to allow the waitress to set their drinks on the table.

  Cass waited for her to finish before continuing. “I told him if anything ever happened to him, I’d take care of Joey. I also told him you two would help.”

  “Of course we would.” Typical Bee, no hesitation whatsoever, just jump right in to help a friend in need. “Did that make him feel better?”

  “I don’t really know. It seemed to.” She couldn’t imagine a scenario where Emmett actually went to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, but it had been known to happen. “Did Tank say anything to you, Steph? Do they really think he did it?”

  Stephanie twirled the straw around in her water, seemingly mesmerized by the small whirlpool and the clacking of the ice cubes.

  “Stephanie?”

  She sighed and let go of the straw without taking a drink. “He said they don’t know. All evidence points to him, and yet, he knows Emmett. He doesn’t want to believe he killed him, but Dirk had a way of getting under your skin.”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Bee said a little too loudly.

  Cass looked around to make sure no one could overhear their conversation. Their booth sat in a corner and no one on either side of them seemed to be paying them any mind. Stephanie had said all evidence pointed to Emmett, but how could there be evidence if he didn’t commit the crime he was accused of? “Did he tell you what kind of evidence they have?”

  Stephanie looked around and lowered her voice. “Witnesses from the reading, timing, opportunity, motive . . .”

  Bee waved it off. “All circumstantial. I heard that much in the deli, the bakery, and the diner today.”

  Stephanie stared at him and lifted a brow.

  “What? Did you expect anything else? Now . . .” He took a sip of his Diet Coke then sat back. “Skip all that and get to the good stuff. You know, the stuff you’re not supposed to share with us, but Tank knows full well you will.”

  Stephanie eyed him for a moment, then leaned across the table a bit.

  Cass and Bee leaned in closer.

  “Supposedly, they found a bat with Emmett’s fingerprints on it by the back of the car where Dirk was found.”

  “Aha . . .” Bee pointed a finger at Cass. “That’s why they asked me if Emmett played baseball. Now it makes sense.”

  “Was it, you know . . . ?” Cass couldn’t bring herself to ask if it had been the murder weapon. As much as she wanted to believe Emmett, having his fingerprints all over the murder weapon found at the scene would not bode well.

  Stephanie nodded.

  Bee sank back and rubbed a hand over his face. “Is there any other physical evidence?”

  “Not that he told me, and to be honest, I think he only told me that much so we wouldn’t get involved.”

  She was probably right, not that it was going to stop Cass. “Is that all he said?”

  “No, he also said, and I quote, ‘I don’t want you and your buddies getting involved in this. Stay out of it, and let us handle it.’”

  Bee looked Cass in the eye. “Are you going to stay out of it and let the police handle it?”

  She tried to gauge Stephanie’s reaction, but Stephanie kept her expression blank as she studied Cass and waited for her answer.

  “I can’t. I’m sorry, Stephanie, and you don’t have to help, but Emmett asked for my help, and I can’t say no.”

  Stephanie smiled. “I figured as much. You can count me in, if there’s anything you need help with.”

  “Me too,” Bee groaned.

  “Unless it involves breaking and entering.” Stephanie shot her a warning glare. “Then you can leave me out.”

  “Thanks, guys, and no breaking and entering. I promise.” Probably. Cass relaxed a little, comforted now that she knew she’d have help, though it had never really been a question.

  A familiar-looking man waved to her from the to-go counter.

  She waved back and squinted to bring his face into focus in the dim lighting.

  He put his arm around the woman he was with and gave Cass a thumbs-up, then lifted a picnic basket and headed out the door.

  Thrilled he’d taken her advice, Cass watched them go, Marilyn tucked beneath John’s arm, snuggling close to him. After twenty-four years of marriage, they still looked like newlyweds. She hoped Marilyn would come in for her reading so Cass could see how their date had gone.

  Stephanie returned to swirling her straw. “Did you ever mention the guy in the deli to Luke?”

  “Not yet.” She wasn’t about to bother him with that nonsense while he was in the middle of the art theft investigation, which had been consuming every minute of his time, and now a murder investigation on top of it. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him.”

  “Well, good thing I mentioned it to Tank then.” Stephanie fidgeted with a sugar packet, tapping it up and down against the tabletop, spinning it between her fingers, then tapping it some more.

  “And?”

  “He’s going to look into it, but without knowing what the guy looks like or anything, he wasn’t optimistic. He was going to check if the deli has security cameras, so we’ll see.”

  “Hey, does anyone know if Emmett has security cameras at the garage?” She couldn’t recall ever seeing any out there, but she’d never specifically looked for them either.

  Stephanie shook her head. “Tank already said he didn’t. And the garage is pretty secluded out there, other than the hotel—”

  “What about—”

  “And before you ask, I don’t know. He didn’t say if the hotel’s security cameras showed any of Emmett’s lot or caught anything else.” She tossed the sugar packet back into its box.

  Even if they didn’t show the lot, they might have caught someone coming or going down the street. Cass added a trip to the Bay Side Hotel to her mental to-do list. If Henry, who owned the hotel, wouldn’t tell her anything, she could always grab Elaina Stevens, Henry’s niece, who worked as a maid at the hotel. Since she also worked as a waitress at the diner, Cass would have to be careful what she said to her, but it couldn’t hurt to ask if the cameras had picked up anything or if any of the guests had seen anything.

  “Why are you so fidgety today?” Bee pointed at the cardboard coaster Stephanie was bouncing on the table.

  She put it down and folded her hands.

  Bee studied her another minute before turning to Cass. “Anyway, enough of this. I’ve been waiting all day to hear what happened with Aiden’s date.”

  “Or is it confidential because it was a reading?” Stephanie asked.

  Bee glared daggers.

  “I never ended up doing the reading. She was pretty upset, not only with Aiden but with me too, because the crystals I’d given her to aid in her love life didn’t work out.”

  Bee tilted his head. “How do you figure?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Bee said. “Seems to me the crystals worked just fine.”

  Seemed to Cass Bee’s definition of fine needed work. “How can you even say that?”

  He shrugged. “Well, now that she’s rid of the loser who was cheating on her, she can move on and find someone else. Sounds like a win to me.”

  Leave it to Bee, who didn’t even believe in the power of crystals, to find a way to defend Cass. “If you weren’t sitting across the table from me, I’d give you a great big kiss right now.”

  He waggled his eyebrows. “I’ll take a raincheck, sugar.”

  The waitress returned and set their food in front of them. “Can I get you anything else?”

  Cass ordered another water with lemon. Sitting in the sweltering heat all day had made her unbearably thirsty. The aroma of melted butter, garli
c, and herbs made saliva pool beneath her tongue.

  “You were saying?” Bee dug into his fried calamari, dipping a piece into the lemon-garlic aioli sauce.

  “Um . . .” The scent of the food and intense hunger had distracted her, and she’d lost track of the conversation.

  “Aiden’s date . . .” Bee rolled the hand holding his fork for her to continue.

  “Oh, right.” She cut a piece of steak. It melted like butter beneath her knife, and her stomach growled. “She said she overheard him on the phone, and it was someone else’s idea for him to attend the reading.”

  Bee chewed and swallowed. “Now, that makes more sense. I found it odd he’d attend a reading in the first place but even more so after I saw his attitude there. He definitely doesn’t believe in the occult. At least, it doesn’t seem like he does.”

  “No, I got the same impression.”

  “Did she say who talked him into going?” Stephanie pushed lettuce around her plate, then finally speared a piece of grilled chicken.

  “No, but she seemed to think it might have been the brunette Aiden was staring at, though I don’t know what led her to that conclusion.” She took another bite of the juicy meat. She hadn’t done a reading, and Nanette was certainly not a patient, so sharing information didn’t seem a betrayal of trust. “I was a bit concerned when she left.”

  Bee’s fork halted partway to his mouth. “Why?”

  “She basically threatened to confront Aiden and the brunette. Seems the two had a history of some sort, and Nanette wanted answers.”

  Bee shrugged. “Maybe she needs the closure before she can move on.”

  “Maybe.” But Cass wasn’t so sure. Her eyes had turned cold, calculating, filled more with anger than sadness. “I’ll probably never know. It’s not like she left a business card or anything, though she did say her name, so I guess I could look her up. Maybe she’ll post something on social media.”

  “Maybe.” Bee ate a piece of coconut shrimp. “Now, do you want to share whatever went on in the shop today that you’ve avoided talking about?”

  Cass paused when a familiar duo walked in and zeroed in on Cass’s booth. Great, just what she needed, those two showing up right when Bee was demanding answers to questions she’d rather not discuss.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tank approached the booth. “Got room for two more?”

  Bee slid out of the booth and let Luke and Cass slide into his side, leaving Stephanie and Tank sitting together across from them. While they took a few minutes to rearrange their food and let Tank and Luke place their orders, Cass tried to decide how much to tell them. She didn’t want to worry them with things that weren’t important, but at the same time, she had no clue what was going on or what might be important, and past experience had taught her she may as well just tell them everything and let them sort it out.

  Bee returned to his meal. “Now, if that’s all settled, you guys are just in time. Cass was about to get to the good stuff.”

  “What are you talking about, Bee?” She didn’t need their curiosity piqued any more than it already was.

  “You know, the stuff you’ve avoided talking about until now, like how the glass case got broken and why you had blood gushing from your nose when I got to the shop.”

  Thanks, Bee.

  Luke snapped his head toward her, pinning her with those incredible blue eyes framed by thick, dark lashes.

  For just a few moments, Cass wanted to lose herself in their depths.

  His arm across the seat back behind her head caged her in, making her feel safe, protected.

  Bee cleared his throat.

  If she could have glared holes through him, she would have.

  “What?” He feigned innocence. “Did you think you were going to get away without telling me what happened?”

  No, she really hadn’t. Bee was like Beast with a bone when it came to information gathering. She sighed, accepting the moment with Luke had passed. “Aiden Hargrove’s brother came into the shop with a couple of his buddies.”

  Luke’s expression hardened. Obviously, someone, probably Emmett, had told him about the fiasco with Aiden at the reading. “Did they do something to you?”

  “No, not at all. He just warned me that Aiden wasn’t going to let the matter drop, that he would see to it the shop got shut down.”

  Bee leaned forward around Luke so he could see her. “So that makes twice in one day someone threatened you.”

  “Wait.” Luke held up a hand. “What do you mean twice, and did the bloody nose have anything to do with Hargrove and his goons?”

  “No, the bloody nose came later.” She gave him a quick recap of what had gone on in the deli that morning.

  “And you don’t know who the man was?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “All right. How’d you get the bloody nose?” Cass knew Luke well enough to know he’d never let the matter drop that easily. He’d look into it the minute he walked out the door.

  Now came the tricky part. If Luke and Tank knew she was looking into the situation with Emmett, they’d want her to back off. “I was just doing a reading, sort of, using the crystal ball, when my nose started to bleed.”

  “What do you mean, sort of?” Leave it to Tank to pick up on that one little phrase.

  “My customer had just left when I got a weird feeling and heard a voice in my head.”

  Bee sighed. “The same woman?”

  “Yes.”

  “Explain.” Luke was down to one-word sentences. That was never good.

  “I’ve been hearing a woman’s voice in my head. She always says pretty much the same thing. ‘Help him. He needs you.’ Like that. So, when Ellie left, I heard the voice again, and it said ‘Find him,’ which was different. I thought it might be talking about Jay, and I still had the crystal ball on the table, so I tried to focus on seeing the woman.”

  Luke twisted to face her more directly. “And did you? See her, I mean?”

  Cass couldn’t tell if he was honestly interested or just humoring her. She answered anyway. “Yes.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t know who she was telling me to find, but later on, when Emmett came in, I heard the voice again. I described the image I’d seen in the crystal ball and asked him if she sounded familiar. He showed me a picture of his wife. It’s the same woman.”

  Bee choked and jumped out of the booth, bent at the waist and wheezing.

  Luke scooted out of the booth. “Are you all right?”

  Bee nodded and held up a finger. He sucked in a couple of deep breaths, then took a sip of his soda. “I’m . . . okay. Thanks.”

  Luke returned to his seat, and Bee excused himself to the men’s room, most likely to avoid the conversation he knew was coming. Oh, well, served him right. If he didn’t want to hear the answer, he shouldn’t have asked the question.

  The waitress arrived with Luke and Tank’s dinners and set them on the table.

  Once they started eating, Luke continued their discussion, interrogation, whatever. “So, what do you think it means?”

  “I have no idea. I thought she meant to help Emmett, which makes sense, but why would she say find him? Emmett wasn’t with me at the time, but I knew he was in police custody, so it’s not like he was lost. Unless Tanya didn’t realize that, but I have no way to know that.”

  “You have no way to know anything about her, and yet, somehow you did,” Luke pointed out. Could it be he was starting to believe in her abilities? Though they’d never discussed it outright, she’d always gotten the impression he was skeptical.

  Heck, she couldn’t blame him. Until recently, she’d been skeptical herself. “I guess, but I still don’t know who she wants me to find. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Why did you think she meant Jay Callahan?” Tank had been uncharacteristically quiet until then.

  “Ellie said she’s seen him, that he’s back on Bay Island.”

  Tank’s gaze met Luke’s and hel
d. Something there . . .

  “Listen, Cass . . .” Luke put down his fork and took one of her hands. “Please, leave this to us. I know Emmett’s your friend, and I know you want to help, but there’s a lot going on here, and I don’t want you to end up in trouble . . .”

  Though he stopped just short of saying again, the implication was still there.

  He leaned close, the musky scent of his aftershave enveloping her, and kept his voice low. “I can’t talk here, but please trust me. Let this go. We’ll handle it.”

  Cass leaned against him and nodded. What could she really do anyway? Other than talk to Elaina in the morning, but technically, anything she said was just gossip anyway, so that didn’t count. Maybe she’d talk Bee into going to the diner for breakfast. She couldn’t help it if Elaina just happened to be there.

  “And if you get any more visions, or whatever . . .” Luke shifted in his seat and avoided eye contact, clearly uncomfortable with the prospect. “Would you mind letting me know?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Coincidentally, Bee returned right after everyone started eating again. “Did I miss anything important?”

  “Just Cass telling us about the ghost woman talking to her, and Luke telling her to stay out of it.” Stephanie grinned. “Nothing new.”

  “In case you didn’t realize, that was a rhetorical question, dear. Now, on another note.” Apparently, conversations with ghosts weren’t gossip-worthy enough for Bee. “What time do you think I need to open the shop on Saturday for the festival?”

  The Bay Island Mid-Summer Festival was one of the rare occasions when Bee got up and opened the shop early. Every year, Bay Island celebrated the peak of tourist season with a giant festival. Thousands of tourists flocked to the island for the weekend to watch both semi-famous and local bands play on the beach bandstand, and to enjoy the carnival games and rides that would line the boardwalk, great food, drinks, music, and a host of beach-themed tournaments.

  “I’m planning to open at eight. There’s not a lot of traffic that early, but I enjoy getting to spend some less-hectic time with customers before things get crazy.” At least she hoped they’d get crazy. Once the Mid-Summer Festival passed, they’d be headed toward fall, and the rush of tourists flocking to Bay Island would slow to a trickle. She needed to get some savings put away before that happened, or it was going to be a very long winter.