After we had both hugged her, she stared at me with those eyes that always seemed to have the ability to peer into the depths of my soul. I was fairly certain she knew what I was planning to do.
"More than anything, be careful, cara mia."
* * *
The day flew by, and I was mobbed at the bakery. I had a new appreciation for Josie and her talent as I tried to handle everything alone. Gianna moved her belongings in then insisted on helping me for a while, for which I was grateful. I managed to tell several of my regulars that the bakery would be closed starting tomorrow. Everyone wished me a happy wedding and a wonderful honeymoon and said they looked forward to seeing me in about a week.
If only things were that simple. After I had finished cleaning up, tallied sales, and checked on inventory, I glanced at the wall clock and was shocked to see that it was already after seven. Ralph knew the shop closed down at six every night, so he must be wondering what I was up to. He had sat inside the bakery at one of my little tables for most of the afternoon and had then been relieved by one of his employees for a while. He was back and sitting in his car across the street at this particular moment while talking on his cell phone. He didn't appear to miss much, his eyes roaming back and forth, settling on my figure by the front window for a moment before a quick nod to me.
Gianna finished washing the dishes in the sink. "So what are you going to tell Columbo out there?"
"I have to get rid of him somehow. If my stalker sees him, they might not make an appearance."
Gianna bit into her lower lip. "This is crazy, Sal. I'm scared for you. What about calling Brian for help?"
"Well, I called his partner, Adam, earlier and asked him to have Brian call me," I said, "but haven't heard anything back yet. Maybe he's angry at me for messing things up with Ally."
Gianna frowned. "That's not your fault. Besides, there's something about Ally I don't trust. She has stalker tendencies too."
I shook my head. "Nah, she's just a bit insecure about her relationship. I've been there myself."
The bells on the front door jingled, and I jumped. Gianna and I both peered out the doorway to see Mickey standing there awkwardly. Something about the way his eyes watched me creeped me out.
"He's our new helper," I managed to say.
She placed her hands on her hips and frowned. "You forgot to lock the front door?"
Defeated, I lowered my head. God, I was a mess these days.
Gianna squeezed my arm. "Everything's okay, Sal."
We both walked out into the front room. Mickey looked from me to Gianna, and his face reddened.
"Hi, Mickey," I greeted him. "Did you want something?" Secretly I was hoping to get rid of him soon.
He shook his head. "I wondered if everything was okay. Um, like, I came by first thing this morning, but the door was locked." His eyes darkened. "I thought something bad might have happened."
Gianna narrowed her eyes at the kid, and I could guess what she was thinking. Like Josie, she thought there was something off about Mickey. I hated to admit it, but I was starting to think the same thing myself.
I managed a smile for him. "Thanks, Mickey, but everything is okay. Actually I apologize for not calling you sooner, but I've decided to close down the shop until after my honeymoon."
He stared at me, shock registering on his face. "I thought you canceled that."
Now I was confused. "Canceled what?"
"The wedding. I thought you weren't getting married because Josie got hurt."
Invisible ice skaters danced across my skin as I stared into those opaque brown eyes that were cold and could have served as a skating rink themselves. "My wedding was never canceled, Mickey."
"Oh." He acted contrite. "I, uh, didn't mean that the way it sounded."
Okay, this was getting just a tad bit uncomfortable. "How about some cookies to take home with you?" Like right now. "What kind would you like?"
He glanced absently into the case. "Chocolate chip. And the jelly filled."
I motioned at Gianna. "Give him a dozen of each while I get his pay, please." I went into the back room and hastily wrote Mickey a check. Breathe, Sal. Maybe the problem wasn't with Mickey but me instead. I was too suspicious of everyone lately. I tried to remember if Mike had been like that at Mickey's age. Perhaps in some ways. He'd been insecure and as a result of it, insanely jealous every time I'd talked to another man. Then again, we had actually been dating. Mickey seemed strangely possessive of me, and I was his employer. I walked out of the back room and handed Mickey his check.
"Thanks," he said and withdrew his wallet from his jeans pocket at the same moment I chose to hand him the box of cookies. He seemed momentarily flustered and dropped the wallet. Pictures and papers spilled out of it onto the floor.
"Sorry," he mumbled and fell to his knees to pick up the mess.
"Don't worry about it," I said. My sister and I both stooped down to help him retrieve his goodies. I gathered up some receipts and a picture. As I handed the items back to him, I stared at the photo absently. Then my mouth went dry.
It was a picture of me.
My blood ran cold as I continued to stare at the photo. I wasn't sure when it had been taken, but I was behind the bakery counter laughing with one of the customers.
Gianna peered at the picture as Mickey snatched it back, and I saw her eyes widen in surprise. "What the—"
I elbowed her in the side.
Mickey rose to his feet and shoved the wallet into his pocket. "I like taking pictures," he stammered. "It's my hobby."
The heat rose through my cheeks, and my mouth was dry as flour. "Sure, Mickey. That's cool."
His face was crimson. "Uh, I gotta go." Without another word he turned and practically ran out of the bakery.
Gianna shivered visibly. "I can't believe you hired that kid. He makes my skin crawl."
Mickey's actions had finally gotten to me as well. "He's just got a bit of a crush on me. That's all."
"That's not a crush," Gianna muttered. "That kid has potential to become a full-fledged stalker. Why did you hire him?"
"Rob knows his family. He said he was a nice kid."
She reached over to shut the door on the display case. "No offense, but you realize that you have the worst luck when it comes to hiring employees."
Defeated, I slumped against the wall. "Yeah, so I've noticed."
As I went to the front window to draw the blinds, I noticed a Chevy Cruze pull up behind Ralph's car and bump the rear end of his vehicle. Ralph, who had been talking on his cell phone, jerked forward slightly from the impact. The offending driver got out of the car immediately and trotted over to Ralph's door. I blinked twice, unable to believe my eyes. It was Marla.
Gianna was watching the scene over my shoulder. "What, is she blind? How do some people ever manage to get a license?"
"That's the woman Mike used to date. You know, Mrs. Channing's daughter."
Gianna's eyes bugged out of her head. "What the heck is she wearing?"
"As little as possible, it seems." We watched Marla as she talked to Ralph. He emerged from the vehicle looking like a very intimidating and annoyed figure next to Marla who was dressed in an extra skimpy outfit tonight. She was showing way too much cleavage in a pink tube top that left hardly anything to the imagination, along with a pair of white, knit lace shorts that exposed a good chunk of her rear and had been paired with pink, high-heeled sandals. Every time I thought about Marla putting her hands on Mike, my blood started to boil.
Gianna's face was the color of powdered sugar, and she pulled me away from the window.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Maybe she's setting some kind of trap for you. Don't take any chances. Get in the back room," she ordered.
The thought seemed absurd at first, but I didn't know who to trust or what to think anymore. We backed away from the window and moved behind the display case. Ever prepared, Gianna took a small pair of binoculars out of her purse that had be
en under the counter. She peered out at the scene while I stood behind her.
"You should see Ralph's face," Gianna remarked. "It's so obvious he's ticked off at her. They're exchanging insurance information."
I reached into my jeans pocket for my phone. "I'd better text Mike and tell him I'll be late getting home." It was strange that I hadn't heard from him all afternoon. With the sad disarray my life was in, he was usually texting every hour.
I glanced down at my phone screen. There was a weird succession of colors, and no matter what buttons I pushed, they wouldn't go away. I couldn't access anything. "There's something wrong with my phone. I can't get it to work."
Gianna put down the binoculars and examined the screen. "Oh my God. Do you think it could have been hacked?"
Swallowing hard, I wound a strand of hair around my fingers in agitation. The fear was blinding and suffocating. I was starting to feel like a mouse in a maze, the only difference being that no cheese awaited me at the end of this journey. Someone was out there who wanted to end my life. This had to stop.
"We'll tell Ralph about it when he gets done with Miss Floozy out there. Let me go upstairs and grab my phone." Gianna's brow furrowed as she looked at me. "I think I left it in the kitchen when I was talking to Johnny earlier. I'll text Mike for you."
She ran upstairs, and I continued to watch the scene play out between Ralph and Marla. She kept putting her hand on his arm while she pointed at the fender of her car. Did she really think her so-called charm or that skimpy outfit would gain her any points with this man? Ralph's face was full of annoyance as Marla's arms continued to flail around him wildly.
I grabbed the bag of garbage and reached for the back door, unlocked it, and stepped onto the top step, glancing to the right and left before I exited. There was no one in sight. At that moment I heard a cracking sound from beneath me. I glanced down in time to watch the step collapse beneath me. I pitched forward onto the cement, letting go of the bag and extending my arms out in front to protect my face from the fall. It was only a few feet drop but still managed to momentarily knock the wind out of me. I'd meant to ask Mike to look at the stairs before but had forgotten all about it.
As I lay there, a vision of Josie's body from last night entered my head. I pictured her facedown, lying in the rain, motionless. The blood on her shoulder, a whispered plea. How defenseless she must have felt. Tears pricked my eyes, and a chill surged through me as I slowly rose to my feet.
A shadow moved into view from behind the dumpster. I glimpsed sneakered feet, jeans, and a white T-shirt topped off with a creepy clown mask. My body failed me, and I stood there motionless as the person stopped a few feet away and raised a gun between their hands.
I couldn't move or speak. My feet were frozen to the cement, and my hand was resting on the useless phone in my pocket. The blood started to roar in my ears, and my heart thumped wildly against my chest.
Run. Run away. Still, I couldn't move.
"Any last words, Sally?" a menacing male voice, unrecognizable, asked as he pointed the revolver straight in my direction.
The sound of his voice dragged me out of my mental stupor. Anger set in and flashed across my body, triggering a switch on in my brain. Was this really the way my life was going to end?
No. Oh, hell no.
My hand was still wrapped around the dysfunctional phone. Without thinking clearly and in a last-ditch effort of hope and frustration, I threw the phone at my assailant. At the same time a roar of an engine and sirens sounded behind me. Clown Man nervously fired the gun, but the shot went wide. In a panic, he turned on his heel and raced down the alley in the opposite direction.
Brian screeched the police car to a stop by me. Adam was riding shotgun and immediately jumped out of the vehicle to chase after the culprit. He pointed his gun at Clown Man's retreating figure.
"Drop the weapon, or I'll shoot!" Adam shouted.
The man kept running, and Adam fired the gun. The noise thudded and kept reverberating inside my head until I thought my brain might explode. Clown Man faltered for a second in mid stride then his body hit the cement with a loud thud. He lay there motionless as Adam ran toward him, gun still in hand. Brian was at my side, helping me to my feet. His face was pinched tight with worry as he looked me over. "Are you all right?"
I stumbled against him and nodded mutely, still too shocked to say anything. He placed an arm around my waist for support. The back door burst open, and Ralph appeared, gun in hand. Gianna was right behind him. Before Brian or I could attempt to say anything, Gianna moved forward past Ralph. He noticed the missing step and tried to grab her but was too late. She fell and landed on the cement. Without missing a beat she rose back up and threw herself at my body. Her arms wrapped around me.
"Oh my God!" she sobbed. "I heard the shot and thought the worst. Are you okay?"
My legs trembled like Jell-O as I sank back down onto the cement. Gianna dropped to her knees at my side and held me in her arms.
I spoke into her shoulder. "If Brian and Adam hadn't shown up, I wouldn't have been."
Brian frowned. "I sent you three separate texts after Adam gave me your message. You never responded, and I thought that was kind of odd. We were investigating a domestic dispute a couple of blocks away, so we decided to swing by and see what was going on." He stared at me soberly. "I'm glad we did."
Adam jogged back toward us. He and Brian exchanged a wordless message between them then Adam's brown eyes met mine. "Your assailant's dead. He won't be bothering you anymore, Sally."
Still shaking, I blew out a long ragged sigh of relief and continued to cling to Gianna as she helped me slowly to my feet. I'd given new meaning to the phrase trembling like a leaf. Adam went to the patrol car to call in the incident while Brian placed a hand on each of our shoulders and guided us down the alley.
"Let's go see who this sick bastard is." He instructed us both to move behind him and kept one hand on his gun as he led the way. Gianna and I held hands as we cautiously followed his lead.
Clown Man was lying motionless on his stomach. I spotted the bullet hole in his back and instinctively brought a hand to my mouth. Brian leaned down to roll the man over onto his back. Brown, curly hair framed the demented clown mask. Brian lifted it off his face, and we all stared down.
"Oh God," Gianna said as realization set in.
Brown curly hair, a babylike face, and large brown eyes that were open but unseeing, staring upward at a sky on fire, the sun sinking rapidly behind the clouds. On Clown Man's right wrist there was the vexing rose tattoo with a letter M beside it.
May you always have good fortune.
It was the waiter from my bridal shower.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"The guy's name was Pat Milton," Brian said. "He'd been in a mental hospital in Upstate New York for several years and was released about a week ago. The guy was staying at a hotel outside of Colwestern up until last Saturday. After that we're not sure where he wound up. Maybe he was hanging around on the streets trying to get a shot at Sally."
We were seated in the living room of our house. Mike and I were on the couch, and Brian sat across from us in an armchair. Spike was lying at our feet, sound asleep. My parents and Grandma Rosa were at home, Gianna had gone to meet Johnny, and Josie would be discharged from the hospital first thing tomorrow morning. Everything was slowly getting back to normal.
Mike had come to the bakery looking for me right after the incident. He'd tried to text me a couple of times, but with my phone being hacked, I'd never received it, and he'd become worried. When he hadn't been able to reach Ralph because of the incident with Marla, he'd grown alarmed and headed over himself. Mike said that when he'd spotted the police cars with their lights flashing, he'd thought the worst for a moment.
I didn't think I would ever forget that expression on Mike's face when I looked up from talking with Ralph and Brian and saw him standing there watching me. His arm was now wrapped tightly around my shoulders as if he never
intended to let go. He was tired and dirty and like me, exhausted from the entire ordeal. At least we could breathe more easily now.
"This doesn't make any sense," Mike said. "Why did this guy have it in for Sal? She didn't even know him."
Brian shrugged. "He's been in the facility on and off since the age of eighteen. I don't want to upset you with all the details of how he got there, so let's just say he has killed before. I haven't been able to find any information on his family yet. We're checking on former visitors at the facility, so if I come up with any names of significance, I'll let you know."
Mike blew out a sigh. "Jenkins, I may not have always been your biggest fan, but if it wasn't for you and Adam looking out for Sal tonight—" He stopped midsentence and closed his eyes for a second then brushed a hand across them wearily. His voice shook as he released me and extended a hand for Brian to shake. "Thank you. Thank you for saving her life."
"Yes." My voice trembled. "I'm so grateful to you and Adam."
Brian's face flushed red. "To be honest it wasn't all pure coincidence. Sure, I thought I'd stop over to see why you hadn't answered my texts, but I also wanted to tell you that I heard back from my friend and fellow officer, Carl Riley, in Vermont. He stopped over to see Mitzi Graber earlier today. She had an alibi for Saturday when the shooting occurred at DeAngelo's Bakery. Apparently Mitzi has been working at her parents' shop in Bennington for the last three months. Several people reported seeing her there on Saturday as well."
"Her parents were fellow contestants on Cookie Crusades with Josie and me last January," I put in. "Mitzi had mentioned that they wanted to start up a storefront at the time, so I'm happy that worked out for them. How did she seem to Officer Riley?"
Brian grinned. "Carl said she acted normal, even flirted with him a bit. She admitted to him that she had stolen a recipe from you and Josie in the past and wasn't proud of her actions. Mitzi told him she was going forward in her life and not looking back anymore. She said she was going to phone you one of these days to apologize for her behavior."
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