Tea Cups and Carnage

by Lynn Cahoon

  I wanted to ease his fears, but I was climbing on the crazy bus along with Kyle. Josh should have at least checked in. Josh could be hiding something. Something could be wrong. I would mention his disappearance to Greg tonight. Maybe he could look at John Does and hospital admit lists to assure me that Josh really was just on a vacation. One he didn’t want us to know about. To Kyle, I said the only thing I could: “I’m sure he’s fine.”

  Kyle nodded and I could see him swallowing hard to keep back the crack in his voice before he answered. “I’m sure you’re right.”

  As I walked home, I couldn’t help but wonder which of us had lied more convincingly. I sent a prayer up for protection for the wayward Josh.

  I’d had time for a shower and a quick change of clothes before I heard Greg’s truck pull into the drive. I was sitting on the back porch in the swing sipping iced tea. I could see him climb out and then reached back in to the cab and pulled out a bag. Even from my distance, I could see the logo. Diamond Lille’s. It was like Greg had overheard my conversation with Aunt Jackie earlier and brought dinner just to spite her. The man was an angel. No matter how it happened, I was ecstatic about not having to cook. He saw me on the swing and announced. “Dinner is served.”

  I put the book down that I’d been reading and stood to greet him. I motioned for him to set the bag on our outdoor table. “I’ll go get plates and silverware. What do you want to drink?”

  “Iced tea will be fine.” He sank into a chair and started pulling out containers. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a side salad. When I was growing up a feast like this only happened on Sundays. I brought out real plates and he dished me up my meal, making sure I got the breast piece rather than a thigh. He handed it to me. “This okay? You’ve been starving yourself since your aunt was hurt.”

  I took a bite of the mashed potatoes and felt the tension ease from my shoulders. Food shouldn’t ease my concerns this much, but it did. At least for a while. And so, since I had an unhealthy relationship with food, I ran. This meal would mean I needed to run a marathon. And then maybe an extra couple miles.

  I didn’t care. “It’s great. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

  We ate in companionable silence for a while. Greg threw Emma a biscuit and she wolfed it down like it was a marshmallow. He shook a finger at her. “If you don’t chew your food, you can’t enjoy the flavors.”

  Emma looked up at him like he was the smartest person on earth. Besides, she still wanted another biscuit.

  When we’d eaten our fill, I glanced at my watch. “When do you need to go back?”

  “I thought I’d walk down with you and leave the truck here. Parking in the lot is a nightmare. When are you going?”

  “I’m closing so I need to be there by seven to start the process. Sasha will handle the late walk ups and I’ll get everything ready for opening tomorrow.” I leaned back and closed my eyes. “I’ll be so glad when the festival is over. Remind me never to support one of Mary’s ideas again.”

  “You will, you know it.” He threw Emma another biscuit and she ate it as quickly as the last. “Have you heard anything about the baby? Weight, name, hair color, sex. I hear all those things are important.”

  “You forgot length.” I shook my head. “I need to call Bill and see what’s going on. I just haven’t had the time.”

  “You’ll see him Monday night.”

  A distant roar filled my ears. “Monday night?”

  “You’re giving a report to the council on the festival. I know I saw your name on the agenda.” Emma dropped the wet, slobbery ball at his feet and wiggled her butt in anticipation. Greg shook his head at the dog before returning his gaze to me. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

  “Another reason not to support one of Mary’s crazy ideas. Frankly I’m trying to forget, but people keep bringing it up. I hate going to those things, especially when Mayor Baylor is on a roll about something.” I looked at Greg who was watching Emma throw the tennis ball in the air for herself and catch it. The dog was talented and knew how to entertain herself. “Maybe you could read my presentation. Say I was sick with something, like a cold or the plague or maybe swine flu. That way they’d be glad I didn’t attend.”

  Greg watched Emma for a bit longer, then turned back to the table. “What, has Amy already turned you down?”

  “Flat.” Sometimes I hated that my boyfriend understood me. I couldn’t pull anything over on him, not lately. “You any further on the murder investigation? Or have you been breaking up fights at the beach all day?”

  “About half and half. Of course, part of my day was dealing with the fallout from that idiot driving his motorcycle down the sidewalks of Main Street. Just once, I’d like to have someone close by when he’s pulling one of these stunts.” Greg pushed his fork through his mashed potatoes absently.

  “I asked Lille if the guy was local. She said no one local would wear a pig as part of their colors. Apparently that’s low class even for a biker gang.” I ate the last bite of chicken and eyed the bag. Was I still hungry or did I just want more because of the perfectly awful day, no, week, I’d been having? I decided that a wing wouldn’t hurt and pulled one out of the bag, breaking it apart as I continued. “Who knew even gangs had pecking orders?”

  “Oh, I think there’s a lot you don’t know about gangs or motorcycle clubs.” Greg pointed his fork at me. “And I’d rather you didn’t go off and try to find out more information. This guy doesn’t care who he hurts, from his actions today. I’m just glad the only incident so far has been your aunt’s ankle. I really have got to figure out why he’s here.”

  Greg had that faraway look he got when he was thinking about a problem and I wondered if he realized what he’d even said aloud. I finished my chicken and looked at my watch. “Ugh, I’ve got to get back to the truck. Are you done?”

  It was kind of a rhetorical question since Greg belonged to the clean plate club and he’d earned his membership that night. The only thing left on his plate were leg bones from the chicken. He stood and looked into the bag. “Should we put these leftovers in Toby’s fridge? I don’t think he’s had time for a real meal for days now.”

  I nodded. “The key’s on the rack by my kitchen door. Make sure you leave him a note too. I’d hate to see this go bad because he didn’t realize it was there.”

  Greg followed me into the kitchen, wrote up a note, grabbed the tape and the food bag and then went out to my back yard where his second in command lived. I had to say, I kind of liked the company now and then. Toby had coffee and donuts with me on Monday mornings, keeping me entertained with his stories from late night patrols as well as interesting customers that had come into the shop the week before. The one thing we didn’t talk about was his dating Sasha. Toby kept that side of his world separate and since the two of them worked for me, I appreciated that. The boy had gotten his heart broken, not too long ago, from a woman that he’d thought had been the one. Now he was protecting it from both Sasha and her daughter. A practice that was probably good for him, but maybe not so great for Sasha.

  I cleaned up the dinner dishes, rinsing and putting them into the dishwasher, and put the trash into a can in the laundry room where I could lock Emma out when I wasn’t around. The girl did love dumpster diving.

  I was ready to go by the time Greg returned. He slapped a bank deposit bag down on the table. “You need to make sure your employees return these to the shop after they make a deposit. Claire’s always complaining about having to buy new ones for the local businesses.”

  I stared at the bag, not wanting to touch it. Toby hadn’t done a deposit in over a week. Why would he have a bag in his apartment? I unzipped the bag and there were two deposit slips. The one looked like our normal take for a day. It was the second one that had me shaking inside. It was for $3000 and had a different account number than the first one. I sank back into my chair. “Crap.”

  Greg sat next to me. “Are you okay? You’
re doing way too much. You need to slow down, or you’ll be the one in the hospital. “

  “I’m fine.” I fingered the deposit slips. Monday, I’d take this into the bank and let Claire tell me who owned the account number on the slip. I just prayed it wasn’t Toby.

  With Emma in the house with a chew bone, I locked up the house and we started walking to the beach. I tried to focus on anything but Toby and the money. “Hey, did you know that Ivy was staying at The Castle?”

  He didn’t even look at me as he responded. “And?”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little out of her price range? I mean, she was looking for work a few days ago and now we find out she’s living in one of the most upscale hotels in the area?” I was thinking aloud, more than asking him a question, but his words surprised me.

  “And why are you so concerned about where someone is living? He put his hand on my arm and stopped our progress to get my attention before we continued. “Please tell me you’re not trying to investigate this murder.”

  “Of course not, I just thought it was interesting, that’s all.” The lie felt heavy in my mouth. Thinking about my conversations with Kathi and Darla, I knew I’d been investigating all along. Especially after I found out the dead guy was Kathi’s cousin. Something in all this craziness wasn’t adding up right and I wanted to get it solved.

  I had actually written up a suspects pool in my notebook. The only thing I hadn’t done was label the page “people who could have killed Darryl.”

  As we continued our path down to the beach, I wondered if I’d ever stop my investigations. I knew it was a bone of contention between Greg and me. Was it my fault that I found things interesting and wanted to learn as much as I could?

  The kiss he gave me when he left me at the food truck was brief and I could tell we both felt like there were things unspoken, but we didn’t have time for a real fight, and I wasn’t sure what I’d say if Greg gave me an ultimatum.

  If I didn’t stop sleuthing, would we have to break up?

  I let the food truck door slam behind me as I entered and Sasha spilled coffee on her hand as she jumped.

  “Ouch.” She sat the cup down and grabbed a napkin as she looked at me. “Are you okay?”

  I shook my head, tears filling my eyes. I so wasn’t okay, but I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t even want to think about it. I found a napkin, wiped my eyes, and as Aunt Jackie would say, bucked up. Which basically meant quit being emotional and just do the job at hand. The relationship stuff could wait for another day. “Fine, I’m just tired.”

  Sasha seemed to consider this as she handed the now-full cup to the waiting customer. “Enjoy the festival,” she called out the window, then she turned to me. “Mercury is in retrograde. Which means you shouldn’t make any decisions about relationships or business ventures until after the 20th.”

  I poured a cup of coffee for myself and leaned against the counter, looking at her. “I didn’t know you believed in all this horoscope stuff. Or have you been talking to Esmeralda?”

  I would have sworn that Sasha blushed at that question, but with her dark skin tone, I couldn’t really tell. I did see her gaze drop and she grabbed a rag, washing up a spill that I couldn’t see. “So, yeah, I went and got a reading the other day. She had come into the store and when she touched me, she said that things were happening in my life that we needed to explore.”

  “I wish I could do that to sell coffee.” I sipped the dark brew, letting the warmth ease out the crazy I’d felt just a few minutes ago. Sometimes just saying nothing was the best response to a problem.

  “Don’t tease. It was really helpful for me to sort out some things that had been bothering me. I wasn’t sure what was happening in my world and when she told me that the climate was wrong to make any big decisions, I realized she was right.” Sasha squared her shoulders. “And I think the advice can be given to you as well. You looked ready to shoot a bear when you walked in, and I know you and Greg just had dinner together.”

  “We did. And nothing’s wrong.” I put my coffee down and grabbed the closing checklist that Aunt Jackie had modified for the truck.

  Sasha shrugged. “If you say so. Just remember, no big decisions.”

  “Until after the 20th. I get it.” I didn’t like being snippy, but even if I put on a happy face, Sasha would see through it. That’s what happens when you work closely with someone. They know your moods. And this was one time I didn’t want to examine my feelings even if it meant keeping my co-worker at arm’s length. Greg and I are fine became my mantra as I worked through the check list. And as I finished the close, I’d almost convinced myself of the fact.

  Almost.

  Chapter 14

  Toby came into the truck right at nine. He grabbed a cookie from the display and leaned against the counter, right where I’d been two hours ago with my conversation with Sasha. The truck wasn’t that big, so leaning areas were limited.

  “What are you doing here?” I had just turned off the last machine and was putting the cash register money into a bag.

  “Greg gave me a dinner break and told me about the leftovers in my fridge. Since I’m heading that way, I thought I’d walk you home.” He pointed to the coffeepot I’d just turned off. “Did you dump that yet? I could use a refill.”

  “Go ahead. I was just about to shut it down for the night.” I looked around the small kitchen and grabbed my tote. I knew I needed to ask him about the bank bag in the apartment, but maybe this wasn’t the right time. Not that I thought Toby would go all serial killer crazy on me, but stranger things have happened. “Dump whatever’s left and let’s go.”

  I’d closed up the outside of the truck and was just locking up the windows when he came out, turning out the lights as he left. He held out his hand. “Give me the keys and I’ll lock the door.”

  “I can do it.” I moved in between him and the closed door and turned the last lock. The truck had been vandalized once before I’d bought it. One of the things I’d had done at the truck was being repainted from the cheery Good For You Desserts truck that never opened, was to get all new locks installed. Now, Aunt Jackie and I had the only keys, besides the one I left in the shop for whoever was opening the truck.

  “Fine. Just don’t tell my mom. She’d be upset to find out that I didn’t act like a gentleman.”

  We walked toward the house in silence. Finally, Toby looked up at the stars. “Nice night.”

  “You don’t have to make small talk.” I looked over at him. “I appreciate you walking me home, but it really was unnecessary.”

  “Like I said, I was heading this way.” He shrugged. “You’re in a mood.”

  “I’m not in a mood,” I snapped back. Okay, so maybe I was. Taking a deep breath, “Sorry, I’m beat and grumpy.”

  “So is my other boss. You two have a fight?” We crossed the highway and now headed up the small hill to my house. The county had put sidewalks all the way from Diamond Lille’s to the highway for easier access to the beach for tourists. I also appreciated not having to share the side of the road with traffic.

  “No, we didn’t have a fight.” That much was true. We probably would have one in future, but as for tonight, there had been no argument. Just the unease that things were a little off between the two of us. “Mercury in retrograde,” I murmured.

  “Oh, don’t you start that too.” He groaned as we turned into my driveway and we paused at the gate to the front yard. “Sasha’s been out of sorts for a month now, blaming it all on this retrograde stuff. I’ll be glad when the darn thing moves.”

  That made me smile. Before I opened the gate, I turned to look at him. “Greg put some leftover chicken in your fridge tonight. And found one of our deposit bags.” I paused, waiting for his reaction.

  “Cool. I’m starving and I didn’t want to have to go get something.” He stepped toward the shed, but noticed I was still standing there with my hand on the gate latch. “So what’s th
e other shoe that’s got you all wound up?”

  “Why did you have a bank bag on your table?”

  Toby grinned. “It’s been there for over a week. Every morning I swear I’m going to take it to the shop and it’s still sitting there when I get home. Lately, it’s been a contest to see when I’d finally remember to bring it back.” He groaned. “Jackie’s not upset about the deposit slips not being put into the cash register like we’re supposed to, is she?”

  “You knew about the deposit slip policy?” I swore as soon as this weekend was over, my aunt and I were having a sit-down where we talked about all the rules she’d developed for the shop. I was tired of being out of the loop. I pushed the thought away. I was getting distracted. “No, she’s upset because one of the deposits didn’t hit the shop’s account.”

  “Wait, you’re saying that shop money was stolen?” He put a hand on his cell. “We should call Greg.”

  “Hold on. I don’t have all the facts yet. But it looks like the missing deposit was one of the two in your bank bag.” I could see him physically react.

  “Good, I would hate to think we had a thief in the area.” He looked toward his apartment and I was certain his mind was back on the chicken. I needed to ask the question.

  “Toby, did you put a $3000 check from the city into your account?”

  He had started walking to the shed but my question stopped him cold. “You think I took the money?”

  “You didn’t answer my question.” I wasn’t going to apologize. I had a right to know.

  He looked at me for a long time. “No Jill, I didn’t put any money that’s not my own into my account. I won’t steal from you or anyone.”

  With that he turned away and walked to the apartment, pulling out his key and entering without another word.

  And I felt like a heel. I went into the house and locked the front door. I let Emma out for a quick potty break before we trudged upstairs with a book and a bottle of water. I was done for the day. If I kept having conversations about missing money with my staff, pretty soon I’d be back to working all by myself. I could still hear the music playing out on the beach and I wondered when Greg would pull the cop card and have them shut down. I glanced at my clock, it was already ten-thirty and the last band had been scheduled to end by ten. But the music was nice as it floated into my bedroom on the evening breeze and I fell asleep listening to the eighties cover band that somehow knew all my favorite songs.