by H L Bur
“What’s wrong?” Fletcher asked, following my gaze.
“Uh, nothing. It’s just—” I watched as the tall man in the dark business suit talked with Rose and Dawn down by the water near a park bench.
“I’ve seen that guy a couple times over the past few days and I just have a bad feeling about him. And those two girls were in my bookstore the other day and at our booth today…the blonde one was acting very strange. I’m just surprised to see them all together.”
Fletcher focused in on the three strangers. We were too far away to hear what they were saying, but Dawn looked up and saw us watching them. I could see her lean in and say something to the Mystery Man and then she and Rose walked up toward the booths, veering wide away from where Fletcher and I stood. The Mystery Man stared back at us for a few seconds too long and then walked further down the path, headed toward the small park where I had seen him yesterday with Brent.
“I’m going to follow him,” I announced.
“Uh, no you are most certainly not,” Fletcher countered.
“I think he’s up to something and I want to find out what it is. I’ve never seen him before this week, and now I’m seeing him everywhere.”
“That doesn’t mean you go following a man that gives you the creeps. And frankly, he gives me the creeps, too.”
“I saw him yesterday talking to Quinn’s old high school boyfriend, Brent, and they exchanged something. Brent is the same guy that has all of a sudden been cozying up to Quinn again, using her and the bookstore to dig up an old book about the area. I just think something is going on, but I can’t connect all the dots,” I said, irritation painted on my face.
“Okay, well that doesn’t mean those things are connected in any way. Maybe he was getting the book for the creepy guy. He could be a client. Either way, that doesn’t sound like anything criminal.”
He was being too logical.
“I know…it’s just a feeling.” I set off, determined to follow the guy when Fletchers large hand wrapped around my upper arm.
“No way, get it out of your head.”
“Who are you, my dad? What are you going to do, arrest me?” I huffed.
“Try me.” The glower in his eyes told me he wasn’t joking. “There are ways to go about this if you are really that concerned, Cady. But chasing after a potentially dangerous man on your own is not one of them.”
“Come with me then.” I gave him my best pleading-cute-innocent look that I could muster, changing tactics from my previous lash-out-at-him method.
He hesitated, glanced around, and let out a frustrated groan. “Stay behind me,” he ordered. He grabbed my hand and we hurried toward the path. I showed him the shortcut between the two parks and we kept our eyes scanning our surroundings the whole time, looking for any sign of the man.
It was not a very large path, the back of several businesses were located about thirty feet off to the west of the path and the edge of the river another ten feet to the east of the path, with a few scattered trees and picnic tables here and there. It would have been easy to spot the Mystery Man had he still been hanging around the park. We came out into the clearing where I had seen Mystery Man and Brent meet yesterday. There was no one in sight and everything was quiet except a few birds chirping in the treetops above. I led Fletcher up the path that opened into the alley and we came out by the movie theater without encountering anyone.
“Ugh, he got away. We should have followed him right away instead of standing there bickering. I blame you for this.”
“Should I be concerned about your pent up rage?” He eyed me suspiciously.
“Only if you try to get in my way,” I retorted.
“Besides, we don’t know that he was doing anything wrong and you are not to follow anyone alone ever again, do you understand me?” he asked, ignoring my retort. “I’m serious. Promise me you won’t try to follow him on your own,” he demanded.
Despite my annoyance, I did think it was kind of cute that he was worried about me. Or, was he just trying to assert his authority?
“Fine,” I relented.
We walked up the alley, dark with shadows that danced in between the buildings on either side of us. We stepped out onto the sidewalk of Main Street and I happened to glance to my right and just made out a black SUV turning east off Main Street, the same black SUV I had seen the day before.
I grabbed Fletcher’s arm. “There! That’s the same SUV I’ve been seeing around town. I saw it turn the same way yesterday after I saw Brent and Mystery Man’s exchange! It’s got to be Mystery Man’s vehicle. I’m one hundred percent sure now!” I shouted.
“It’s too far away to make out a plate, but I’ll put the word out for all units to be on alert for black SUVs.”
“Great and when we find out who he is, we’ll be hot on his trail,” I said excitedly.
“Woah, hold your horses there. There is no we in this. First off, we don’t even know if that guy is up to anything bad. Second off, you just promised me two seconds ago that you wouldn’t go chasing him around. You are begging for trouble, Cady. Please leave this to me. If you see anything that seems off, just call me and I will look into it for you, okay?”
I thought about arguing. I didn’t like being treated as some pathetic girl who couldn’t do things on her own, but also didn’t want to make him too mad and lose his cooperation with me in the future. And besides, I wasn’t sure if he was just bluffing about arresting me, and I wasn’t ready to take that chance. I wasn’t cut out for jail. Not to mention, it was kind of nice having your own personal detective around and I didn’t want to burn that bridge yet.
“Okay,” I conceded.
He eyed me as if he didn’t believe me, but let it drop for now. We walked back to the festival and stopped to grab lunch.
We chose a gourmet hot dog food truck for lunch. I got the bacon-wrapped jalapeno dog with guacamole, Fletcher got a Chicago style dog, and we picked up a Coney dog for Quinn.
Fletcher hung out with us at our booth for part of the afternoon. When Sam came at two o’clock after she had closed the store for us, he got up letting her have his stool.
“Well, I better go find Gramps and get him ready for his birthday dinner. We’re going to The Beacon tonight. It’s his favorite restaurant.”
The restaurant Fletcher was talking about was the old lighthouse on the shores of Lake Huron that had been turned into restaurant. The owners bought the property in an auction from the state and built a restaurant that connected to the lighthouse. They boasted magnificent views of the rocky shores of Lake Huron and there were even several tables set up on the top tier of the lighthouse, which gave panoramic views of the city. It truly was one of the best places for both food and views in Northern Michigan.
“Mmm, that’s one of my favorites, too,” I gushed.
“You ladies are welcome to join us, if you’d like. It will just be me and Gramps tonight.”
I wasn’t sure if it was my heart or my stomach that did a flip inside of me, but I was pleasantly surprised by the offer. But, no matter how much I would’ve loved to spend more time with Fletcher and meet his grandfather, I was determined to check out the old sawmill tonight.
“That is so sweet of you to offer, but Quinn and I already have plans tonight.”
“We do?” Quinn asked.
I shot her a warning glare and explained. “My dad and step-mom always have me over for dinner the night before my birthday. It’s lasagna, garlic bread, and pie for us tonight.”
“Oh yeah, I totally forgot!” Quinn recovered.
Hey, it wasn’t a lie. We were going to my dad’s for dinner tonight, but Fletcher didn’t need to know about my after-dinner plans. Heck, Quinn didn’t even know about them yet. My only concern was that she wouldn’t be able to come with me because of her ankle, but really it didn’t matter. One way or another, I had to get out there tonight and see what I could find.
Chapter Nine
Ξ
Now that Fletcher wa
s gone, I caught Quinn up to speed on the Mystery Man and the two girls from earlier.
“Hmm, that’s definitely suspicious!”
“I know! I wish we could find out more about those girls.”
“Well, Rose did fill out a raffle ticket. We could try calling her,” Quinn suggested.
“Genius. Pure genius,” I said with excitement.
We asked several people we knew throughout the afternoon if they had noticed the man in the black business suit, but no one had noticed him. Maybe it didn’t mean anything, but I knew that if this guy had spent any significant time in Riverton somebody would know or recognize him. Riverton is a small town and everyone knows everyone.
At dusk, the white running lights of the large pavilion turned on to signal the start of the live concert in the park, we closed up our booth for the night. We packed our inventory back into the rolling cooler along with our raffle box. Sam went off with one of her friends, who had been working the farmer’s market booth and I started toward the sidewalk to head back to the bookstore. I was headed to drop off our inventory, feed Henri for the night, and swing back to pick up Quinn. I didn’t get more than ten feet before I suddenly felt as if someone was watching me. As I turned onto the sidewalk, I glanced behind me and saw Brent following me with his gaze. I did a double take and sure enough, he was standing by his realtor booth, his gaze focused intently on me. I watched as his attention shifted toward Quinn, who was still sitting at our booth.
I froze for a second, but decided I should try to act normal. I shot him a quick smile and a wave. Quinn noticed me and looked behind her to see who I was waving at. I could see her spine stiffen, but she recovered quickly and waved his way. He started making his way over to her and I started to backtrack toward her, but she shook her head at me and waved me on. I hesitated, but conceded and turned, heading for the bookstore. I quickened my pace, so I could hurry up and get back to Quinn. I knew there were still enough people around that she wasn’t in any danger, and I kept trying to remind myself that we didn’t know for sure that Brent was up to anything bad.
I unlocked the front door of the bookstore and locked it behind me once I was inside. I unloaded the inventory, quickly refilled Henri’s food dish and headed out the back door, locked it behind me, and crossed the parking lot to my SUV. The breeze picked up and sent a chill up my spine as I unlocked my car doors. As I pulled out of our parking lot I turned right onto the small road that ran behind our shop to head back to the Town Center. I saw a black SUV parked on the opposite side of the road, facing me. My heart began to race. I strained my neck to look inside as I passed, but the windows were tinted dark and I couldn’t see into the vehicle. I twisted in my seat to try to get the license plate number, but due to the odd angle the vehicle was parked and the quickly dimming light, I couldn’t see it. I glanced back to the road in front of me and narrowly missed plowing down Mrs. Grant, the local florist, who was crossing the road. I slammed on the brakes and waved my apology at her. She shook her head at me and continued on her way. I stared in my rearview mirror for a few seconds before continuing on, but it didn’t look like the other vehicle was going to follow me.
I put the pedal to the metal and raced to the Town Center, being more careful not to run over any pedestrians on my way. I slowed and made a U-turn so I was on the same side of the road as the Town Center and pulled up in front of the park. Quinn was waiting for me on the sidewalk and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I scanned the park while she climbed in, but didn’t see Brent anywhere.
“Thank God you’re all right. I shouldn’t have left you.”
“No, it’s fine.” She flicked her wrist in dismissal. “I wanted to see what he had to say and thought maybe I could get some information out of him if we were alone.”
I pulled away from the curb, flipped another U-turn, and headed south toward my dad’s house, glancing at the clock on my dash. We were running late - as usual. I rolled my eyes at myself. I hated being late, but lately it seemed like I was going to be late for my own funeral. “What did he say? Oh, and the black SUV was parked behind the bookstore when I left.”
“Are you kidding me?” she asked, a note of worry in her voice.
“He probably noticed Fletcher and me watching him earlier today. I don’t like it, though. We’ve got to figure this out, Quinn.”
“I know,” she agreed. “Brent was mainly making small talk. I think he was trying to get a feel for what we knew. He kept asking what we’ve been up to lately. He did make one comment that threw me off.”
“What was it?” I asked eagerly.
“He said something about us going on another date and about how after next week he’d have more time. He talked about things being different after next week,” she recounted. “I tried to press him, but he seemed to get nervous and then stupid Joy Rhodes came up and I said I had to go wait for you.”
“Of course Joy would mess things up.” I gripped my steering wheel harder in silent anger. “At least we didn’t run into her today. If we can carry that luck over to tomorrow, I’ll count myself blessed.”
We drove the rest of the way to my dad’s house in silence, both of us inwardly contemplating the different pieces of the puzzle.
I pulled into the drive and remembered I hadn’t mentioned my plan for tonight. “By the way, I’m going to check out the old sawmill tonight to see if there are any clues out there about what’s going on around here.”
“Okay! I’m in,” she readily agreed.
I looked at her pensively. “Do you think you’ll be okay with your ankle?”
“Eh.” She shrugged. “It should be fine.”
Although I doubted the strength of her ankle if we were to get in a bad situation, I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to go alone. And this way, I wouldn’t be breaking my promise to Fletcher about not investigate anything on my own. I wasn’t really sure why I was worried about breaking a promise to Fletcher, but I was pretty sure it was just because I didn’t want to get on the Detective’s bad side. Sure, that’s it, I convinced myself. I nodded, pleased with my theory and got out of the car.
We walked up to the two-story house, the tops of a huge cluster of maple trees in the backyard looming visible over the rooftop. The garage door was rolled up and my dad was sitting in his favorite chair by the steps that led into the house.
“Hey, there’s my birthday girl,” he said happily as he stood to give me a hug hello.
“Hi, Dad! How’s it going?”
“What the heck happened to you?” he said, turning to Quinn.
“Mowing accident,” she replied shortly.
My dad laughed and nodded his head as if he understood. He reached to the fridge next to him and offered us each a beer.
I hesitated knowing I needed to stay sharp for this evening, but figured it would help calm my nerves. I accepted his offer, as did Quinn.
“Jean’s in the kitchen, working on supper,” he called after us as we made our way up the steps and into the foyer.
“Hellooo-hoooo,” Jean called from the kitchen as she heard us come in.
“Smells delicious!” I said as my mouth started watering.
“Come on in. Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes.”
She turned around to greet us and her eyes immediately fell on Quinn’s wrapped ankle. “What happened to you?”
“Mowing accident.”
Jean furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but decided not to press the issue. “Okay, whatever you say.” She took a sip of her own beer and turned back to the oven. “Make yourselves comfortable,” she said.
We sat down around the kitchen table as my dad came in to join us.
“So, what’s new with you girls?” my dad asked.
I recapped how things with the store were going and our adventure at Aunt Liddy’s this morning, purposely leaving out my extracurricular activities the past couple days.
My dad and Jean were both laughing at my recount of the events.
“Sounds like
your Aunt Liddy,” my dad teased.
“Oh, Pete! That’s not very nice to say, for goodness sakes, her daughter is right here,” Jean said, pointing at Quinn.
“No, really, it’s fine…and true,” Quinn admitted.
“So, what else is new?” Jean asked as she came and sat around the table with the rest of us.
Quinn, apparently tired of the attention being on her, blurted, “Cady’s dating someone.”
I whipped my head toward her, pursed my lips together, and glared at her. “I am not dating anyone!” I blinked my eyes slowly to regain my composure and turned my head back to my dad and Jean. “I’m not dating anyone,” I repeated, more controlled this time.
“Okay, so who is this person you’re not dating?”
Quinn jumped in again, “He’s a detective.”
“Do you want me to hurt your other ankle, too?” I threatened.
“Sorry.” At least she had the grace to look like she meant it.
“Do we know him?” Jean asked again.
I knew she was asking because she and my dad are good friends with Chief Kowalski and they knew several members of the police force.
“No, I wouldn’t think so. He’s new to town. And seriously, we aren’t dating.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. We were starting to wonder if you had turned gay, too,” she said in reference to my sister Sloane, who was now married to her wife, Alena.
“Nope, not yet,” I replied curtly. This wasn’t the first time my stepmother had asked me if I was gay. Once in college, she had asked me the same thing. I had been dating the same guy for three years (a guy they had met several times and had been to their house for multiple holiday events) when she asked me.
“Well, I hope we get to meet him soon. You should have invited him out tonight,” my dad chimed in.
“We’re not dating,” I stressed again.
“Besides, he had a birthday dinner for his grandfather. He invited Cady,” Quinn piped in again.