“Nope, came back a half hour ago,” Olivia replied. “I couldn’t stay away. People need their chocolates.”
“Yes, dear, but you do work yourself too hard. It would be better if you took some time off and – oh, here’s Jake. A worthy distraction if ever there was one.”
Olivia blushed and searched the store for him. He’d just entered and only had eyes for her. But these weren’t the usual romantic ‘date me’ eyes. No, something else had put a bee up his…well, his bonnet.
He rushed to the front counter, then stopped dead. “Fat Joe’s missing.”
“What?”
“That’s right,” Jake said. “Just got the report down at the station. Been missing for a day now. Lulu in absolute hysterics.”
“Wait, let me get you a glass of water.” Olivia poured one for him from the handy cooler they’d installed right on the front counter, then gave it to him. “Drink up. It’s lemon and blueberry flavored.”
Jake downed the glass in one shot, then slapped it down with a hollow pok of Styrofoam. “Better,” he said.
“Do you know what happened?”
“Well, Lulu called yesterday and said he didn’t come home from the fitness center. And she confirmed that he’s missing today. Total hysteria, as I said. Couldn’t contain herself. We could barely make out what she was saying between sobs,” Jake said, and grimaced. He’d never been good with crying women.
“The plot thickens,” Alberta said. “What do you make of it?”
“I have no idea.” This was an added layer of confusion. Had Fat Joe left or been made to leave? Why would he have returned to the gym if, as Lulu had said, he was glad to finally have a break after Tina’s hardcore attitude?
Olivia bit her lip. “I guess we can’t be sure of anything until Joe is found.”
“Easier said than done,” Jake replied.
“Not to be indelicate here,” Albie put in. “But he’s hardly a small man. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find him.”
“I don’t think it works like that.” Olivia struggled to contain a laugh at her assistant’s faux pas. “Unless you’re suggesting Joe is state-sized.”
“No, no, no. I’m just thinking that logistically –”
Thankfully, Olivia’s cell phone burst into song in her pocket and saved them from further fat shaming on Alberta’s part. Olivia whipped it out and answered. “Hello?”
“Olivia, is that you?”
“It’s me,” she said.
“Hi, sorry, I got your number from Bob, who got it from Wallace and I wasn’t sure. This is Betsy from the Stop ‘n Go Store.”
“Oh, hey Betsy.” The Stop ‘n Go was the ‘go-to’ convenience store in Chester, since it was smack dab in the middle of the town. Easy access whether the shopper was comin’ or going. “What’s up?”
“Rumor has it you’re investigating Fat Joe’s disappearance.”
“W-what? I’ve just heard about it.”
“Ah, okay,” Betsy said, and disappointment leaked through the cell. “Never mind, then.”
“Betsy wait! Wait!” The phone crackled. “Are you there?”
“Yeah.”
“Tell me what you know, please,” Olivia said, and Jake raised a quizzical eyebrow at her.
“Well, I’ve just seen Lulu come in here and buy about three months’ worth of supplies. She ran out whistling a tune and got into her cab. Headed out of town. I followed her into the street and watched which way she went. I don’t like it. Not one bit.”
Olivia’s eyes widened. Now, that was interesting. Lulu was reportedly in hysterics, then suddenly in a good mood and buying groceries? Olivia weighed up the options fast and met Jake’s confused gaze.
This warranted further investigation.
“Betsy, which way did you say she went?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Betsy said she left about five minutes ago and headed toward the Chester forest,” Olivia said.
“Well, I don’t see her,” Jake replied from behind the wheel. He stifled a yawn and sank down in his seat, low so that just the top of his head peered over the dashboard.
“It’s not that late. Why are you so tired?”
“I’ve had trouble sleeping,” he replied. “Between the case and Keane leaving the department and…” Jake trailed off and glanced at her askance.
“And what, exactly?”
He squared his shoulders. “And you, Olivia. You’re always on my mind. I told you how I feel about you and you sort of returned it in your own fashion.”
It was her turn to shift around. She couldn’t sit comfortably when they spoke about emotional stuff. “And I meant it. I just – I thought we’re taking it slow.”
“We are taking it slow,” he said. “Glacially. It amazes me that people even realize we’re more than friends. Or I’m more than your investigative assistant. A lap dog.”
“Jake!”
“It’s true.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you this evening, but I don’t like what you’re saying.” They’d had a date just the other day, for Pete’s sake. Why did he have to go and make things awkward when she’d finally settled into a rhythm with him?
“We don’t have to talk about it.”
“Clearly, we do,” she replied.
“No, I mean, we can’t. There’s Lulu.” He scooched up a little and peered out into the half-light that surrounded the car.
A bright green truck rumbled down the road toward them, empty but for Lulu who sat behind the wheel, small enough that it seemed she was a child driving her dad’s car.
“Block her off,” Olivia said.
Jake grunted agreement, then started the car and pulled out across the road, effectively stopping Lulu from cruising by. Whoever owned that green truck had to be giant-sized. Or Fat Joe-sized.
Lulu flashed the lights, then laid on the horn. Finally, she rolled down her window and stuck her head out. “Hey! What’s the big idea? I’m trying to – oh.”
Olivia waved as she exited the car, and Jake followed shortly after.
“Evening, Lulu,” Olivia called. “How are you today?”
The woman didn’t look too happy to see them. “I’m – uh, oh I guess I’m all right.” She sniffed. “Would you mind moving your car out of the road? I’ve got places to be.”
“Oh?” Olivia reached the side of her vehicle and peered at the bags of groceries on the passenger seat. “Where are you headed?”
Lulu opened her mouth then closed it again. “I – what’s that any business of yours?” She asked.
“We’re worried about you,” Jake piped up. “We heard that you’re really upset about Joe, and we don’t want you to do anything crazy. That’s what friends are for, right? Looking out for each other.”
The redhead narrowed her eyes first at Jake then at Olivia. Finally, she sniffled again. “Yes, it’s been so difficult. I – uh, I don’t know what I’m going to do without Joe around. He’s the love of my life.” She buried her face in her hands but snuck peeks sideways at them from between her fingers – checking if they’d bought it?
“We’re so sorry,” Olivia said, and patted her on the forearm. She hadn’t bought it at all. Lulu definitely had something to hide here, if only they could figure out what it was. “Look, we can’t let you go off on your own. We want you to be safe and you’re clearly distraught right now.”
“No,” Lulu said, quickly. “No! I’m fine. Look, I’ll just take another route. I only came this way because it’s the uh – because it’s so scenic.”
“We’re here to –”
Lulu slammed the truck into reverse and peeled off before Olivia could get the rest of the sentence out. She left them in a cloud of exhaust fumes and frustration.
“I think we freaked her out,” Jake said.
Olivia sighed. “Yeah, we definitely freaked her out.” She scratched the end of her nose and tried working this out. Lulu was definitely off somewhere and the opportunity to follow her had already
disappeared, along with her taillights.
“I guess that’s it,” Jake said. “Come on, Olivia, let’s get you home.” He slipped an arm around her waist and walked her back to the car, then opened the door for her.
“Thanks,” she said, and got in. There were too many distractions, too many thoughts to manage. Where was Lulu off to?
She’d clearly faked being upset about Fat Joe’s disappearance. Did that mean she knew where he was? Or that she’d had something to do with it? An idea formulated in her mind, the type Jake would have been shocked over, and Olivia tapped her fingers on the armrest.
This investigation wasn’t over yet. Oh no, far from it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“I ’m just saying, it seems like a strange thing to do,” Alvira said, and settled back against the passenger seat in Olivia’s car. “I would’ve thought that it would be easier to just follow Lulu to wherever it was she went.”
“She was out of sight before Jake and I could even think to give chase. And if we had, what then? Lulu was hyper alert by that point and if she’d spotted us she’d likely have called the police,” Olivia replied. Not that there were many police to call, what with Keane out of commission.
Alvira clicked her tongue. “I don’t like any of it.”
“Alvie, I told you, you don’t have to be here.” Olivia turned from her assistant and looked up at the long drive that led to Lulu’s front door. The lights were off, and that garish green truck was nowhere to be seen.
“Yeah right, like I’d let you come out here on your own. I know what type of trouble you get into when you’re unsupervised.”
“Now you just sound like Jake.”
“Even supervised it’s touch and go,” Alvira continued, but her voice brimmed with mirth.
“I just want to see if she comes back here.” Olivia scratched her chin and fathomed it out. For all intents and purposes, it looked as if Lulu had stocked up on food and other necessities and hauled butt out of town. But why? Why leave now, unless she had had a hand in either Tina’s death or Fat Joe’s disappearance?
She clearly wasn’t home or coming home any time soon. The little house, with its two front steps and miniature porch spoke of careful care, but the front gate of the chain link fence swung and clinked in the slight breeze.
“– think that everyone in Chester is crazy. Don’t you? It’s hard not to think that after the umpteenth murder. And some of the folks who come into the shop are just beyond belief,” Alvira said.
Olivia clunked open her car door and slipped into the night, glancing left and right at the neighbors’ houses. The noise from a TV – the Late Night Show specifically – leaked from an open window in one of the houses, but all the curtains in the street were drawn, lights off or not, and folks hardly expected a snooper in their neighborhood.
“Olivia?” Alvira hissed. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to check it out.”
“Unbelievable. As if to prove my point about the craziness.”
“You stay here, I’ll be back in a moment,” Olivia said, and hurried across the sidewalk and to the front gate.
“Olivia! I don’t think this is a good idea,” Alvira whispered.
Olivia shushed her, then opened the gate and entered the yard. She high-tailed it up the path and right to the front door, then bit her lip. Okay, so what had she expected to find here? She couldn’t knock – there was no one home, after all.
Frustration and the certainty that Lulu was up to something scratched at the surface of Olivia’s calm. The woman had left town the day her boyfriend had disappeared. If only she could get inside the house and check it out, maybe do a quick search for evidence…
Olivia rose on tiptoes and checked for a key on top of the lamp beside the door. Nothing but dust met her fingertips. “Ugh,” she said. “Maybe I’m wrong.”
But folks in Chester weren’t as paranoid as they should be. They usually hid their keys outside and in obvious places, just in case they lost the other set. She tapped her chin with the clean hand, then bent and lifted the welcome mat.
A scandalized hiss escaped the car. Alvira had figured out what she was up to.
Olivia’s hand touched cold metal and her heart leaped. Got it! She rose with the key, inserted it into the keyhole, and grinned when the lock clicked and the door swung inward, soundlessly.
She fumbled her cell phone out of her pocket, nerves dancing now, positively tingling from the excitement and the prospect that she might get caught trespassing…again.
Olivia stepped over the threshold and switched on her flashlight app, illuminating the silent front hall, chasing shadows from nooks and crannies. An archway at the end of the short corridor drew her attention.
She made her way toward it, then stepped through and noted the pictures on the wall. Family pictures of Joe and Lulu together, immaculately clean. The frames spanned the entire hall, and Olivia stopped beneath each one. All Joe and Lulu in various poses or places, on different days.
“Interesting,” she whispered. Lulu loved Joe deeply, that much was plain, but how did Joe feel about the outright display of love bordering on obsession?
Olivia found the master bedroom at the end of the hall and entered it, casting her light on the made bed, and the open drawers and closet. Everything had been cleared out, apart from a few jackets on coat hangers, and what looked like a teddy bear and – what was that? A journal?
She swept the book off the second rack in the closet, then carried it to the dressing table and placed it on top of it. She opened it, tension building in her gut, then sighed.
No, not a journal, just another photo album filled with images of Fat Joe and Lulu. More happiness and laughter, and sunny days spent picnicking in the park. She flipped through the pages listlessly, reached the back of the book and frowned.
The back of the album seemed puffier than it should be. Attached to the inside, the back cover seemed a little loose. Olivia wormed her fingers beneath it and drew out a series of what appeared to be Polaroids.
The hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
Every single one of the pictures had been taken from afar, right outside the Chester Fitness Center, and they were all of Tina Hobb. Tina walking to her car, talking on a cell, standing in front of the building, and rummaging in her handbag. There was another of Tina talking to Fat Joe, her hand on one of his shoulders, her head tilted to the side in sympathy.
“Oh heavens,” Olivia whispered. Things had just become interesting, and exceptionally dangerous, especially for Fat Joe.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Surely, he couldn’t stay mad at her forever. Olivia checked her watch, then picked up her chai latté and took a sip. She rolled the fluid around her mouth and swallowed, savoring the taste. It did wonders to help her relax.
This morning had already driven her up the wall – it’d been crazy busy in the store, with everyone and their cousin’s mother’s brother in to talk about Fat Joe’s disappearance, and Lulu’s weird behavior.
Alberta manned the register permanently, terrified she’d be drawn into the gossip circle and never manage to extricate herself to serve customers. As it was, folks lingered far too long during the chocolate purchasing process at the front.
Alvira worked the floor, sweeping between the tables and stopping to offer a smile and a plate, or a refill for those who’d ordered Americanos. She never involved herself in gossip, and it sure saved Alberta the hassle.
Olivia licked her lips and placed her cup back on the table, with the soft tock of wood. “Jake, you can’t be angry at me for this long. We’ve got an investigation to discuss.”
“It’s been fifteen minutes,” he said, gruffly. “Fifteen minutes since I arrived to find out that you broke into someone’s house last night.”
“Not so loud,” Olivia said, though he’d whispered it. People in the store could pick up gossip through osmosis. A whisper was as good as a shout here.
“You know it was the
wrong thing to do,” Jake replied. “You know you could’ve wound up in a load of trouble. In jail, for heaven’s sake. When will you learn?”
“Spare me the lecture,” Olivia said, and waved a hand. “I took a calculated risk. Keane isn’t working at the moment, and the cops on duty wouldn’t know what to do with the murder case if the murderer waltzed into the station and proclaimed he’d done it.”
“How do we know it’s a he?”
“Hypothetical example,” Olivia said. “My point is, I know it was wrong and it’s not going to stand up in court, but I didn’t take anything out of the house. I just needed a clue. A lead, see?”
“You need a good talking to,” Jake said.
“Isn’t that what you’re doing, right now?” Olivia sighed. “Jake, I know it was wrong, but can we please talk about what I found? What does it matter how I found it, if it’s important and pertains to the case?”
Jake worked his jaw. He wasn’t about to let this go any time soon, but he had to be desperate to know the details. He was as inquisitive as she was, though he did handle himself better. “Fine,” he whispered. “What did you find?”
“A photo album full of pictures of Joe and Lulu together, and in the back –” she cut off and looked around, made sure that those closest to their table in the corner couldn’t listen in. “I found pictures Lulu had taken of Tina Hobb. And some of them with both Tina and Joe together.”
Jake’s eyebrows crept upward. “You think Tina and Joe might’ve been having an affair?”
“Honestly, I can’t say for sure. The pictures looked more like Tina supporting Joe than hitting on him, but I don’t want to assume too much. The fact that Lulu took those pictures, however, that’s worrying. It’s not exactly damning evidence, but it does indicate an unhealthy obsession with either Joe or Tina.”
“I follow you,” Jake said, and nodded.
“And here’s something else, Lulu’s house is stuffed with picture frames, all of Joe and her together. It doesn’t seem like she’s got a healthy attachment to the man. I don’t want to say it was a creepy vibe, but it unsettled me a little.”
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