by Cole,Lyndsey
Just as she opened the door to the library, her phone rang in her pocket and Piper backed away from the door. She didn’t want to attract attention to herself inside and elicit the glares of patrons searching for quiet.
Piper pulled the phone from her pocket and saw Eli’s name on the screen. Piper was completely torn. She wanted to like him—she had fun with him, even if they had their awkward moments. And come on, he worn flannel on a blind date.
But she was angry with him for giving her number to a reporter. Lydie Jackson was the last person Piper wanted in possession of her phone number.
Piper gave in to her heart rather than her head. She answered the phone. “Hi Eli,” she said, trying to hide any annoyance that he gave out her phone number without asking her first.
“Oh good, Piper. You answered. I thought you weren’t going to pick up.”
He sounded way too relieved. “What’s going on?” Piper grew concerned.
Eli hemmed and hawed on the other end of the line for a few moments. Piper was about to ask what he was so relieved about again when he finally spoke. “I wanted to apologize …” he started, but didn’t continue.
“For what?” Piper asked. He’d already made up his bar tab to her by buying her lunch yesterday.
“I might have given out your number to a reporter …”
“Oh. Yeah. That.” Piper was surprised he was admitting that. “To Lydie Jackson?” she asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t know she was a reporter until after. We were both in line for an ATM, and she must have recognized me as being Wyatt’s friend. Because she started asking me about him, and then your name came up, and when she asked for your number, I didn’t really think anything of it.” Eli’s voice raced faster and faster as he rambled on.
Piper wanted to stay upset about it, but she couldn’t. Eli had been through enough this week. “Eli, it’s okay,” Piper finally said just to get him to stop making excuses.
“It is?” He sounded surprised.
“Well, not really. But she already called me and it was nothing bad. Sure, I’d rather she didn’t have my phone number, but I’m sure it was bound to happen eventually. You just pushed it along and made it happen sooner.” Piper smiled, hoping that he would pick up on her expression without being able to see her.
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Let me make it up to you.”
Piper glanced inside the library’s glass doors. She really wanted to make progress on finding Wyatt’s murderer. And hanging out with Eli wasn’t likely to answer any of her questions. Andy Hayward sure had motive to want Wyatt gone—blaming Wyatt for the breakup of his marriage and losing his job certainly would make him want revenge. And getting out of town suddenly—and lying about it—only added fuel to that fire. Piper had a limited amount of time to talk to him before he skipped town.
“What did you have in mind?” Piper asked, rubbing her scrunched up forehead.
“What about dinner? We’ve done drinks. We’ve done lunch. Isn’t dinner the next logical meal?”
“I can’t tonight. I have dinner with my sisters every Tuesday.” Piper wasn’t brave enough to invite him to Meadow’s for their sister dinner. Sure, Autumn brought a date at least every other week, but at least she had the other aspects of her life together. Piper always got grilled about being so irresponsible, and she didn’t need Eli to witness her failings.
“Tomorrow then.”
Piper couldn’t decide what to do. Tomorrow she’d be working until seven again. This afternoon was an anomaly in her working life. Could she invite him to Meadow’s for dinner? There was always plenty of food. And then Autumn’s date wouldn’t be the only one in over his head.
“Do you want to come to dinner with me tonight? I have two sisters. One of them is married with two kids, the other will probably bring a date, too.” Piper wanted to give him as much information as possible about what he might be getting himself into.
“I’d love to,” he said, and Piper could hear the smile in his voice.
“Great. Can you pick me up at four thirty?”
“Sure. Where?” Eli sounded excited for this dinner. More excited than Piper felt.
“Umm … I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know at four?” she asked.
“Great. I’ll see you later.”
Piper stashed her phone back in her pocket and walked inside the library. She had to find out if there was anything out there to explain Andy’s motive. Why did he blame Wyatt for the breakup of his marriage and losing his job? Did Wyatt let a story get away from him that ruined Andy’s reputation?
The library was nearly deserted. Piper had her pick of computers and sat down across from an elderly woman. They made eye contact and Piper smiled, then got to work.
The first place Piper checked was the Emerald Island Bulletin website. If Wyatt wrote a story about Andy that wasn’t true, she’d be most likely to find it there.
Piper typed ‘Andy Hayward’ into the search box and waited for the results to fill her screen.
Using the internet at the library was always a test of patience. Either they paid for the cheapest option available or it was always used to its limit by patrons.
Finally, the results appeared. To Piper’s dismay—and surprise—there were no hits. There wasn’t a single article about Andy Hayward.
Piper stared at the screen. She couldn’t believe it. She was so sure that Lydie’s warning that even a good reporter could get carried away with a story meant that Wyatt had published lies.
Piper shook her head once and came up with her next plan: search for Wyatt Brennan.
Unfortunately, those results were so many that she didn’t know where to start.
The first hits were written by Lydie Jackson about Wyatt’s murder. But as Piper scrolled further down the screen, every article published under Wyatt’s name appeared.
The results were overwhelming. She went from zero to sixty from one search to the next. Piper felt like she was at another dead end.
Piper considered her options as she stared at the screen. Searching for answers online was getting her nowhere. As far as she knew, Andy was still in town. She packed up her things and walked back outside. She would go back to his apartment to find out the truth.
21
Piper merged back onto the road. The mess from the morning thaw was still making her bike riding challenging. She would definitely need a shower if she was going to even half impress Eli, but she wasn’t sure she’d have a chance for that luxury.
Gone Fish’n wasn’t so far out of the way to Andy’s apartment that she couldn’t ride by. She wanted to see if Heather O’Brien was still helping at her aunt’s food truck. If she wasn’t, Piper would be able to ask Aunt Viv what she learned about Heather’s connection to Wyatt’s murder.
The line outside of Gone Fish’n was dwindling as the afternoon wore on. Piper saw only half a dozen customers milling around, and some of them were already eating.
From across the street, Piper slowed down and peered through the serving window. Heather was in Mitcheline’s regular spot, taking orders and doling out change. No information about Heather now, Piper thought as she picked up speed on her bike. She continued on to Andy’s apartment building.
Piper didn’t love house sitting in apartment buildings because they were challenging to store her bike. Thankfully she wouldn’t be staying at Andy’s—at least not until her time at the Morettis’ was over in six weeks, if he was gone for that long—so she could just lock her bike outside. She found a relatively dry spot away from the danger of passing cars spraying mud all over the seat and locked it to a blue mailbox.
Piper took the stairs to the second floor for the second time that day. When she opened the door from the stairwell, she was surprised to see someone in the hallway outside Andy’s apartment.
Piper held back. Andy was nowhere in sight, but the woman outside his apartment looked like she was on a mission. Her back was straight, her knocks on the door were rapid and unending, and
her feet lifted one after the other in anticipation of the door opening.
Andy’s apartment door remained closed. Was Piper too late? Did Andy already leave town? She silenced her phone so it didn’t risk giving her hiding spot away.
As Piper kept herself hidden behind the partially cracked door in the stairwell, she mulled over how to approach the angry woman. Who was she, anyway? While she waited, Piper heard footsteps rushing up the stairs from below. This could be awkward, especially if it was Andy.
She looked for an escape route but didn’t make a move in time before a figure popped into view. “Eli? What are you doing here?” Piper asked. He was the last person she expected to see. “Did you follow me?”
“Ah, hi Piper. No, I was hoping to talk to Andy. What are you doing here?”
Shouting diverted their attention before either one of them could sort out their reasons for being in the stairwell outside Andy’s apartment. Eli looked at Piper and whispered, “What’s going on?”
Piper peeked around the doorway and pulled her head back quickly. “I’m not sure, but there’s a woman pounding on Andy’s door and she’s not a happy camper.”
Eli pushed in front of Piper and took a peek before retreating back to the stairwell and pulling Piper with him. “This is weird. The woman at Andy’s door is Amber Choate.”
“Wyatt’s ex-girlfriend? The crazy person I’ve heard about?”
“Uh-huh. The one and only. I wonder what she wants from Andy.” Eli leaned against the wall. “What should we do now?”
“We? Andy hired me to water his plants while he’s away and I was hoping to catch him before he leaves; to double check his list of instructions.” Piper wasn’t sure she wanted to tell Eli her real reason for coming to Andy’s apartment—to ask Andy why he was fighting with Wyatt at Spiced Up on Saturday night. “What do you want to talk to him about? Accuse him of murdering Wyatt and get yourself into a fight at the same time? Andy proved he has a temper.”
“You’ve got a good point. I was going to confront Andy. This whole thing has me on edge and I want to figure out what happened to my best friend.”
Piper felt sorry for Eli. He looked sad and vulnerable and she understood that finding Wyatt’s killer was the least of what he could do for his friend. She would feel the same way if anything ever happened to Aria; an unthinkable possibility she quickly shoved from her brain. “You know Amber.” Piper tilted her head toward the hallway. “Go talk to her before she gives up and leaves. Find out what her angle is. I’ll wait here.”
“Good idea. So there could be a we?” Eli’s eyes met Piper’s and she knew he wasn’t referring only to them working together to find the truth about Wyatt. Her heart skipped a beat. After all, they both loved flannel. Wasn’t that a sign?
“Just see what information you can squeeze out of Amber. We’ll figure out where to go from there.” Piper gave Eli a push through the doorway, but made sure the door remain cracked open so she could hear the conversation.
“Hey … Amber?” Piper heard Eli call out. “Fancy meeting you here.”
There was a pause in the knocking on Andy’s door. “Eli? You were with Wyatt Saturday. Did you kill him?” Amber’s voice snarled.
“Whoa,” Eli said sternly.
Amber didn’t waste any time getting to her point, Piper thought. She imagined Eli holding his hands up to ward off Amber’s evil voice.
“You know we were best friends,” he continued. “I want to find out what happened just as much as you do.”
Smart answer, Piper told herself, Eli was working to get on the same side with Amber, have her lower her guard, and with any luck, give up some information.
“Is that so? How come Wyatt told me you were jealous of him? He was always watching his back around you, never sure if you were going to turn on him.”
Piper had to risk peeking around the doorway to see Eli’s reaction to this turn of events. She crossed her fingers that Amber’s back was toward her. As she glanced around the corner, she could see Eli’s shocked face beyond Amber’s shoulder. His mouth was open and his fists clenched and unclenched rapidly. Piper held her hands up, hoping it would help him calm down instead of letting Amber push his buttons.
Amber laughed but it wasn’t a pleasant sound, more like nails scratching on a blackboard. “You didn’t know that about your best friend, did you? There’s a lot he never shared with you.” She banged on Andy’s door again and yelled, “Come on out, you chicken. What are you hiding from?”
What indeed, Piper wondered. That was one thing she could agree with Amber about. With Amber’s attention back on Andy’s closed door, Piper saw Eli’s hands relax.
“What were you doing at Spiced Up Saturday night, Amber? Stalking your ex-boyfriend?”
Piper nodded at Eli, hoping he understood she thought that was a good question.
Amber’s head spun back to focus on Eli. Good, Piper thought, he had the upper hand now.
“Watching, not stalking, for your information. I told Wyatt I liked to keep an eye on any of his new friends.” Amber ran her hands through her hair. “Interesting choice for dates—a rich detective’s daughter and a poor food truck worker. Which one did Wyatt stick you with?” Piper heard another spine-tingling chortle.
Piper retreated further into the stairwell for a moment to calm her breathing. She and Aria were on this crazy person’s radar? That thought gave her chills even though she was sweating under all her cycling layers. She moved back to the crack in the doorway.
“I’m guessing you got stuck with the one that likes to ride her bike all year. She seems like your type—a loser. She probably loves that outdoorsy flannel crap you love so much. Wyatt always wished you’d develop better fashion sense. He always knew how to put himself together.” Amber tossed her head and her bleached-blond hair swung back and forth. “Ms. Foodtruck better be extra careful with all the snow and ice on the roads or she might find herself having an accident.”
Eli grabbed her arm. “Is that a threat?”
“Take it any way you want, loser. If you see Andy, tell him I’ll be back. I’ve got a bone to pick with him and he’s not going to like it.”
Piper flattened herself against the wall even though she knew this crazy person couldn’t see her. She waited until she heard the elevator doors open and close before she dared to breathe again.
The door flew open and Eli looked for Piper. “Did you hear all that?”
Piper nodded.
“I told you she’s crazy.” He leaned against the wall next to Piper. “What now?”
“Andy seems to be a dead-end at the moment and I’m not sure what information we’d get from him anyway.” Piper headed down the stairs.
“We could talk about it more if I’m still picking you up for dinner tonight?” Eli asked with a catch in his voice. He obviously wasn’t sure where he stood with Piper.
“Yeah, if you’re sure you want to submit yourself to my sister’s cooking and kids.” Piper was used to the chaos and the conflicts she had with her sisters and wanted to give Eli every chance to back out.
He didn’t.
“Looking forward to it.” He touched her arm. “Where am I picking you up? Do you know yet?”
“I’ll meet you in front of the library at four thirty.” After she made time to talk to Aunt Viv and find out what information she was able to glean from Heather. Maybe Amber had stalked Wyatt all night and Heather saw her at Spiced Up. Or someone else.
22
Piper and Eli trudged down the stairs.
“Amber knows how to push people’s buttons. Do you believe what she said about Wyatt not trusting you?” Piper asked, hoping to give Eli a chance to vent about Amber’s shocking comments without coming right out and asking him directly if it bothered him.
Eli stopped at the landing for the first floor. “No, but the shock value threw me off. Thanks for risking exposing yourself to get me back to the real issue of keeping her talking. Wyatt and I were friends since before we coul
d walk. There wouldn’t be any reason for him not to trust me. But that’s how Amber is—a master at knowing exactly where to hurt someone.” He looked at Piper. “I hope you weren’t offended by the nickname she called you. I think it’s interesting that you work at your aunt’s food truck.”
Piper flicked her hand dismissively. “Not at all. Someone like Amber doesn’t get under my skin. It didn’t take me long to figure out that she has perfected the art of how to needle people to deflect prying questions about herself. My sisters, on the other hand, they know how to push my buttons, but with any luck, they’ll be on their best behavior tonight.”
They reached Piper’s bike which, by some miracle, managed to stay dry from cars sending a splashy slushy spray from the road.
“At least I won’t have a wet and dirty butt when I get to my sister’s house tonight.” Piper rolled her eyes. “I’d never hear the end of it.” She changed her voice into a patronizing scold, “‘Piper, you didn’t even bother to change your clothes? Piper, when are you going to grow up? Piper—”
Eli put his hand over her mouth and laughed. “Sounds like you have a couple of issues to deal with, but at least you get a free meal out of the visit.”
Piper pushed her bike in the direction of Gone Fish’n and Eli kept her company.
“True. And I get to spend time with my niece who adores me more than anything else, which might annoy my sister a tiny bit.”
“Ah. The truth comes out. And does that have anything to do with you bringing her gifts?”
Piper stopped and looked at Eli. “How did you know my secret?”
“Lucky guess.” His lips turned up at the corners. “Isn’t that called How to be the Good Aunt 101?
“It helps, which reminds me, I didn’t get her anything yet.” She tilted her head to look up at Eli. “Want to come to the Giggling Goose with me? It’s a great store. If you’re into kid stuff.”
Eli shook his head. “Sounds awesome but I have a couple of things to finish up for work before I meet you at the library.” He pointed at her and had a big grin. “Four thirty, sharp. Don’t make me wait.” He turned around and walked away at a brisk clip.