by Misty Simon
What could he need so badly?
“Look.” He growled the word. I hadn’t thought that was physically possible but had since been proved wrong a few times. “As soon as my old lady kicks the bucket, I’ll have the access I need, and then I’ll give you what you want. I don’t know if I can pay it all at once…” He trailed off, and I could swear I almost heard the person on the other end of the line screaming. “Fine, fine, fine.” I heard something thwack the wall, making me wonder if he’d kicked the brick, or punched a fist into it.
“Stupid fucking son of a bitch,” I heard him say after a brief pause. I assumed here that he must have already hung up with whoever was on the other end of the line. He’d sounded scared then, but he was full of bravado now as he talked to himself.
Don’t you just love when people think they’re alone? They utter all kinds of interesting things.
“It’s all falling to shit. She won’t give me the money, and that stupid fat bitch cow is all over the place. I can’t get a single thing done. What kind of trick did she pull on Bella so I can’t get her to beg and bend to what I want like I used to when we were married? Shit!”
Of course, the downside to eavesdropping was that sometimes you heard very unflattering things about yourself in the process. I was pretty sure no one had called me a stupid fat bitch cow until then, though they had called me various two-word combinations of it all. But the snarl that came out of his mouth next nearly made my blood run cold. He sounded really pissed. My busy little brain was still trying to figure out what exactly he meant about money and how this all involved his mother. I thought she had moved ages ago, according to Bella.
But everything went out of my head when I heard him hit the brick wall again and start to move. His footsteps echoed off the walls of the alley, making it impossible to tell in which direction. I couldn’t quite tell, but I thought they were coming my way instead of heading in the opposite direction. What the hell was I going to do now? I flattened myself even more against the wall. Not that it did me any good, since I still stuck out farther than anything else back here. I had no cover that didn’t involve running. Running and I weren’t friends, as I’ve said before, so that was completely out. Crap!
But just as I was about to have a full-fledged panic attack, or pee my pants, Bella’s back door flew open, blocking me from view.
“Don’t stand back here all day, Jackson. I don’t need some idiot from across the way thinking I’ve got drug sales going on. I won’t be able to get rid of them. I already have a problem keeping them from smelling the hair dye packages.” Bella held the door open as he strode inside, smoothing back his hair. But before she let it slam shut behind him, she peeked out around the edge and shooed me away after giving me a thumbs up and a smile.
I hustled out of the back alley so fast I thought my feet were on fire. I’d call Bella in a few minutes, but first I had to make contact with Ben. We might actually have some kind of suspect. Woo-hoo!
Before I could press his speed dial digit, though, I had an incoming call from a number I didn’t immediately recognize. I was a little wary about picking it up. Who knew what kind of crazy telemarketers could have gotten hold of my number? I definitely wasn’t up to talking my way out of a new cable system right now.
But answer it I did, since it could have been important. You know how I am about ringing phones. “Hello?”
“Meet me at Carrie’s Coffee and Cream in ten minutes. Go up to the counter and ask for Snicker Doodles. Carrie will lead you into the back.” Then the woman hung up, leaving me with absolutely no idea what the hell to do.
Chapter Twelve
Now, I had been by Carrie’s Coffee and Cream a couple of times. (And don’t you love how it was yet another alliteratively named shop? These people were killing me.) I had, however, never gone in, since I always went to Martha’s if I needed something of a pick-me-up.
Once I got there, I wasn’t sure why I had never let the enticing smells wafting toward my nostrils lure me into this delightful shop before. Cinnamon and chocolate along with hickory and hazelnut hit me right in the nose. I was like one of those old cartoons where the steamy hand lifted me up by the jaw and let me float behind it on the excellent smells. And I really did feel like my feet were inches above the ground as I drifted in, making a straight shot for the glass counter with even more goodies in it. I didn’t need to smell the éclairs to make me drool on the highly polished glass. All I knew was that I was going to be having one of those and a cup of the hazelnut coffee along with my Snicker Doodle.
“Can I help you?” an angel of a woman said from behind the counter, all smiles and waiting hands to deliver my sweet treats.
“I’d…” I wiped the drool off my chin then started again. “I’d like an éclair and a cup of hazelnut with a shot of espresso.” She set immediately to work. She reached into the refrigerated counter in front of her, using tongs to get my little éclair out. “Make that two,” I said before I could stop myself. I hadn’t really eaten anything for lunch today, and it was almost one o’clock. Surely I could have a seat to enjoy my éclairs and coffee before I muttered the secret word to Carrie, wherever she was.
As I was about to take my plate and cup to a small round table out on the main floor, I saw Jackson stroll by through the big, long window to my left. Where was he going now? I thought for a second about dropping everything on the counter so I could stealthily follow him. But the food beckoned—my decision made for me. I could find Jackson any time, I only had to look for the stench of his smarmy passing. But it was possible my Snicker Doodle wouldn’t be here forever.
Out of the side of my mouth I said what I figured was the password as the woman came back along the counter. I saw her nametag, and she was indeed Carrie.
She stared at me for a brief moment before a huge smile broke out on her face. “Oh, I can’t wait for this,” she said, her teeth gleaming.
I got a distinctly uneasy feeling in my stomach. Thank goodness I hadn’t eaten my éclair first. I might well have brought it back up, once I followed Carrie down the short hallway behind the counter.
She was close in size to yours truly, and I wondered why I hadn’t seen her at the Masked Shoppe yet. I’d bet I had some great things in my back room for her to wear. Speaking of which, I really had to get back there soon, since I’d left Charlie on his own for an hour. I was kind of dreading what the store would look like when I got back. This was his first test; he damn well better pass it, I thought.
But that was completely off topic. Right now, I was still following Carrie, thinking I had a bra in the Shoppe that wouldn’t cut into her back nearly as much as the one she was wearing. And it would be a hell of a lot more comfortable. I’d found myself doing this a lot lately. It was fine for now, but if I started checking out people’s panty lines, I might have to scratch my eyes out.
Anyway, all other thoughts flew out of my mind when Carrie opened a door on our right and ushered me in. She closed the door before I could thank her, leaving me face to face with someone in a hooded jacket and gloves.
My first thought was that it was awfully hot to be sitting in gloves and a jacket. Even I, with my thin Californian blood, was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. The temperatures had been in the upper fifties and low sixties for weeks now, with the coming of spring. I couldn’t imagine walking around in something so very hot.
The hood came down and the gloves came off a moment later. I was left staring at Detective Bartley. To say I was baffled would have been a severe understatement here. The last time I’d spoken to her, she’d blown me off like I was an annoying bug lingering over her head. Now she’d called me with a secret password and was meeting me in a back room with all the blinds drawn. What the bloody heck was going on?
“Just sit down,” she said before I could voice any of the thousands of questions whirling around inside my head. Why was she here? Why was she meeting me in secret? Why did she feel she had to meet me in secret at all? What was
I going to get out of this meeting other than a tongue-lashing saying I shouldn’t be sticking my nose in where it didn’t belong?
Why was I still standing when she’d just given me what had distinctly sounded like an order? I wouldn’t get anything at all out of her if I didn’t listen when she barked at me. I’d learned that long ago, though she was rarely the barker. That was usually Detective Jameson.
I took the only other seat in the small room, then put my coffee cup and éclairs down on the low table next to me. I crossed my legs, uncrossed them, then crossed them again. I picked up my coffee cup, but, since my hand was shaking, I put it back down. The last time I’d been in such close proximity with her, she’d been interrogating me regarding my whereabouts when Martha’s cousin Horace had appeared to be poisoned by a glass of water at Martha’s wedding reception.
But I wasn’t going to think about that right now. I had enough on my plate without rehashing all the times I’d had to talk to the police since I’d moved here over six months ago. A lot more times than I ever had when I lived a much quieter life in California. Since the number there was none.
I wouldn’t change a thing, though, I thought, even as the woman across from me kept staring at me as if I were a bug under a microscope.
“What?” I said, wiping at my upper lip. No telling if I had a coffee mustache, or something hanging out of my nose. I was notorious for always having something go wrong when I most wanted to look like a professional, competent woman. It was my lot in life, and I didn’t think it was going to change anytime soon.
“You have to swear—swear—that you won’t breathe a word of this outside this room.” Her blue eyes were intent. They seemed to be trying to drill inside my head.
My own eyes tried to dart left and right, but I was having no real luck breaking her stare. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to keep much from Ben, especially whatever a member of the police force had to say to me. And I wasn’t going to lie to her while I was sitting in this small room across from her. I sucked at lying to begin with, but having to stare someone in the eye while I told an outright untruth was not going to work at all, no matter how hard I tried.
So I decided to tell the truth. It might lose me this conversation, or it might not, but I couldn’t lie. No one said I was smart all the time. “I’m going to have to tell Ben. I wouldn’t be able to keep it from him.”
“Ah, yes, because he’s practically living with you at this point. I thought I’d heard something on the vine about you two shacking up.”
Is that what people were saying about us? A little flutter of panic welled in my chest, but I put it down like a bovine with Mad Cow disease. She hadn’t said she wouldn’t tell me what this was about, and the fact that I’d tell Ben hadn’t completely turned her off. So I pushed my luck a little.
“What did you want to talk to me about? You made this sound like a clandestine meeting, with a secret password and all.” And wasn’t that a fantastic word? I kept my smile to myself, though, since I didn’t want her to think I was laughing at her.
She peered at me, taking quite a long time going over the features of my face, the little flip in my bangs, my hands resting in my lap. I hoped she found whatever she was looking for, because I really had to cut this meeting short, and soon. I needed to get back to Charlie before I didn’t have any underwear left in the store.
I fidgeted in my chair, which made her gaze zoom back to me. “I’m going to trust you with this information. I want you to put your brains to work here like never before. But if you breathe a word of this to anyone but Ben, if I hear it on the grapevine at all, I’ll have your ass in jail so fast your pretty blonde highlights will spin. Got it?”
I had pretty highlights? Okay, okay. Not on topic.
I wasn’t sure I wanted the information, at this point. What if it got out somehow else, and she blamed me? I couldn’t be responsible for keeping everyone and their mother quiet around here. That was a task all on its own, if I ever heard one. I bit my lip, though, and said, “Okay, I’ll do the best I can. I promise.”
She eyed me for a few more moments while I squirmed in my chair. I twisted the ring on my middle finger around and around. I patted my hair, ran a finger along the neckline of my T-shirt, and blew a breath into my fringe of bangs.
“All right. I’m going to trust you with this, Ivy, against Jameson’s better judgment. But I think we need you this time even more than we did last time.”
“Why me?” It was out before I thought better of it. Of course, I had helped them with other cases, but always going behind their backs. Then I’d give them the solution on a silver platter, usually tied up with belly dancing scarves, or slicked with oil. But that was beside the point. And the point was that last time they’d given me full access to Officer Jared and some info. This time it sounded like I was going to be a partner.
Of course, that’s never the way things work in my life, so I don’t know why hope sprang eternal in my bulky chest.
“You because everyone already doesn’t like you but Bella does, so no one is going to blink an eye while you try to find out what Jackson Stewart is up to, or why he’s here. And it’s not only him. I have someone else roaming around town since last night, trying to find out where Trev is. This guy is only saying that Trev owes him something, but he won’t say what. He seems to think it’s between him and Trev, but with Trev dead, I don’t think he’s getting anything unless it’s in a will.” She sat back in her chair as if done. Continuing to stare at me, she took a sip from the cup I hadn’t noticed at her elbow.
That gave me the idea to sip from my own cup while I tried to give myself a little time to think of an appropriate response. So they suspected Jackson, did they? It made sense to want an already hated person to go after him, since he was the town’s golden boy, even all these years later. I understood, too, that they wouldn’t want to take the flak if it wasn’t him after they’d harassed him. Of course, it was perfectly fine for me to do it, though. Sigh.
“You’ll have to give me any information you have on him, so I can get started,” I said with forced resignation, trying hard not to think about the lead I already had from this morning in the alleyway. Just because the police were willing to share didn’t mean I was necessarily going to do the same.
I had a brief moment to think I had promised myself I wasn’t going to get involved in another murder before Bella’s face floated into my mind’s eye for a second. She’d helped me in so many ways, both big and small, I couldn’t duck out on her now when she needed me most. I would be a terrible friend if I did that, and I wasn’t a terrible friend, no matter what else was said about me.
“All right, tell me what you know, and I’ll see what I can do. Am I going to have carte blanche with Officer Jared, again, or has Bella made him stop wanting to help?”
****
Twenty minutes later, I tried to sneak in through the back of my Shoppe. Two things made me do this. For one, I wanted to see if I could catch Charlie doing anything bad. I’d done the same to his mom months and months ago when I’d first moved here and she was my assistant. Turned out she was trying to kill me. But this time I only wanted to see if Charlie had an extra pair of panties stuffed in his pockets. For two, I didn’t want to alert anyone to my presence.
I walked into barely controlled chaos, with the cash register in the back ringing merrily. Women flocked around Charlie, holding up their purchases, waving their money in the air. It was a sight to warm my heart—and my feelings toward the man standing in the middle of the throng. With his usual sunniness, he was smiling and winking at everyone. He wore a pair of jeans and a black polo shirt with a purple plumed feather on it. I wondered briefly where I’d seen that shirt before, but then dismissed the thought when Charlie looked my way, gave me a thumb’s up, and took money from the next woman.
I waved to him as I passed through the back room into the small room separating it from the front. I managed to stop waving once I was in the main part of the shop with
its costumes and props. This part was nearly deserted but for two people in the far corner bending over a bin filled with feather boas in a multitude of colors. The image on Charlie’s shirt bothered me. With a start, I remembered where I’d seen the emblem before. It was on a box I’d received last week to replenish some of my supplies. The box had held a few promotional items for my Shoppe, to encourage us to sell more of the company’s products. The shirt had been sitting in a box in my locked office yesterday afternoon when I’d left for the night.
How had Charlie managed to get it out of the secured room and put it on?
****
Thirty minutes later found me flipping through a magazine. I had called Ben and actually gotten him this time. He was out and about trying to get information from a source regarding the picture frame thefts. No luck so far, but he was still optimistic. He planned on stopping by on his way to work so I could talk to him about what Detective Bartley had told me earlier.
On the tail end of that thought, I felt a breath of warm air on the back of my neck a split second before someone whispered in my ear.
“Still delicious. Still mine,” Ben said, trailing his knuckles down the back of my shirt. Once he was done nearly making me a puddle, he wrapped his fingers around my thick waist. Fortunately, he had pretty big hands. I let the shiver run its course through my body while relishing the tickling feeling as my nerve endings popped.
I turned to him, attacking his mouth before I could think better of it. I nearly devoured him as I played games with my tongue and his. While I licked the roof of his mouth, I enjoyed the slight tremor under my fingers where I gripped his arm. Yummy.
Someone cleared his throat to my left. Oops! My face flushing, I sprang back from Ben’s delectable mouth. He tried to follow me, obviously not done with our kiss. But I’d caught the smirk on Charlie’s face, so I tried to stop Ben’s forward momentum by jamming my hand onto his chest.