by Tonya Kappes
“Lipstick.” I gave it to Crissy. She immediately opened it and rolled it up to look at it. “Prescription?”
I took out a prescription bottle and looked at the label.
“Etoposide.” I tried to say the name as best I could.
Crissy looked at the bottle. “Did you see her take any prescriptions?”
“Nope. Just the vitamins.”
Crissy reminded me that I totally had forgotten to give Spencer the bag of vitamins Crissy took that I’d gotten from Stephen.
I hurried over to the coatrack and grabbed my bag.
“What are you two doing?” Bunny asked, running a damp cloth along the coffee bar to clean it up as she refilled the sugar packets, creamers, and various other items I kept there to help customers customize their coffees to their liking.
“Daisy left her purse here,” I whispered and nodded my head toward Crissy. Crissy was on her phone.
Bunny shuffled along behind me on my way back to the table. The customers were thinning out, and it was the time of the day that I was able to restock the food.
“You’re not publicizing this, are you?” I asked because I was worried Crissy would put it on social media or something.
“No,” she snapped back at me. “I’m looking up the drug.”
“And?” Bunny looked at the bottle.
“And now I know why she wore a lot of wigs, didn’t like to use chemicals on her hair, and ate clean.” Crissy held the screen of her phone out for me to look at. “It’s a chemotherapy pill. Mainly used for lung cancer.”
“Daisy has cancer?” I asked as the explanation of how she’d been living began to make sense in my head. “Oh no.” I looked up at Crissy. “Her hair was thinning?”
“Yes. She said it was from years of chemicals. That’s why she used the special dye. Oh no!” Crissy let out a cry. “I put my chemicals on her head.”
“I fed her bad food.” I bit the edge of my lip.
“Maybe she wanted to live a little before she died,” Bunny chimed in.
“That’s awful, to say she was going to die.” Crissy’s lip turned up in the corner.
“We don’t know all of this for sure, but I’ll check with Stephen. This is just between us.” I quickly put the contents back in her glitzy handbag and took it to the kitchen for safekeeping.
Before I went into the dining area, I grabbed my phone and texted Aunt Maxi. I wanted to know where she was so I could question her about anything she might’ve found out about Daisy and her past and, more importantly, if she knew Daisy had cancer.
I stuck my phone in my back pocket and grabbed the Benedictine tea sandwiches I’d premade for the lunch crowd.
It truly was a simple and light sandwich that was perfect for this time of the year. I peeled off the cling wrap and grabbed a big metal sheet I’d put in the display case where they would be arranged so pretty, but my mind was filled with Daisy’s cancer, so I just willy-nilly arranged them on the platter.
The white bread was nice and soft with the perfect combination of cucumbers, cream cheese, minced onions, and mayonnaise that made the light sandwich so tasty. I’d even used a horse-head cookie cutter to make the sandwich even cuter. It was a tradition in Kentucky to have them cut out in the shape of something our state was proud of.
Aunt Maxi still hadn’t messaged me back, which was unusual. She was generally quick. Especially when the topic was something she was passionate about. Currently, she was more than passionate about Daisy.
I gripped the edges of the display tray and used my back end to push my way through the swinging door.
Patrick was standing next to the table with his head butted up against Crissy and Bunny. When he looked over at me, there was a look of disbelief on his face. He also had a fistful of photos from Aunt Maxi’s collection she’d left here.
“I told y’all, not a word.” I sighed when I could see it on Patrick’s face that they’d told him about Daisy’s cancer.
“Like you weren’t going to tell him,” Crissy said sarcastically.
I put the tea sandwiches in the cooling display case and grabbed a couple before I slid the door shut. It probably didn’t require a pretty antique plate for Patrick to eat them, but when I made him something, I always wanted it to be pretty, and these little sandwiches were no different. I threw on a few of the kettle chips and walked the plate over to him.
“Those look so good.” Patrick went to reach for them.
“It’s gonna cost you.” I tapped my free finger to my lips. He bent down and kissed me. “Good payment.” I handed him the plate. “Where’s Sassy?” I looked around the coffeehouse for our sweet poodle.
“She’s at the office. She didn’t feel like going for a ride.” He took a bite of the sandwich. “What’s all this about?”
Crissy and Bunny walked away, giving Patrick and me some private time. I quickly gave him an update on what I’d discovered when I was at the Cocoon Hotel and how it’d been found out that Stephen’s production company was about to go belly up.
“I can’t find Aunt Maxi. She took one look at this photo and darted out.” I picked up the photo off the table and handed it him.
“That’s Rodney. Poor guy, he’s been looking all over for odds-and-ends jobs before Vanessa has the baby.” Patrick didn’t seem to think the guy raised a red flag, but he sure did with me.
“He needs money?” I questioned. My stomach started to get a little sick feeling in the depths. “That’s the truck that took Daisy.”
“No.” Patrick shook his head. “He’s a great guy. A little backward. They live in a cabin in the woods, and he hunts for most of their food, but he’s harmless.”
“Harmless if he’s having a baby and needs the money?” I questioned. “I’m telling you. I know that’s the truck that took Daisy.”
“Roxy.” Patrick said my name in a way that told me to be reasonable. “There’s a ton of trucks that were made that look like this.”
Leave it to Patrick to always see the good side in people, when in reality, I’d seen many bad sides of good people. Rodney Crenshaw was no exception just because Patrick thought he was a good guy.
“Good people do bad things when they are in a pickle.” I looked at the photo again.
“Do you want me to take you to his house?” Patrick asked.
“Yes. I do.” I slipped the photo into my pocket and headed back toward the counter. “But it’s going to have to wait until we see if we get Daisy back this afternoon. The drop is at four.”
“And you are going?” He had a disgusted look on his face.
“Yes. I’m going. Stephen Lemon is my client.” I left out the details about Stephen borrowing my car and how I was going to let them use my car.
Patrick hadn’t fully supported me since he totally didn’t understand the desire I had to get this solved, but he also wasn’t stopping me, so the less he knew, the better.
“I’ll take Pepper on home and let Sassy out.” Patrick gave me a kiss. “After you get your fill of sleuthing in, we’ll head over to his house.”
“Sounds good.” I smiled and gave him another kiss and Pepper a good scratch before I sent them on their way.
“And be careful, or I’ll have a big beef with a certain sheriff,” he called before he left the coffeehouse.
Bunny was busy finishing up her list of to-dos before her shift was over, and I took the time to grab another cup of coffee and sit down at the window bar with my list of clues I’d collected over the past twenty-four hours.
On the piece of paper, I wrote Daisy’s name on one side and Stephen’s on the other. The couple was as far apart as you could get. According to Stephen, Daisy never ate meat or sweets. I witnessed that lie for myself. Daisy for sure took a drink of the latte and a bite of the quiche before she was kidnapped. Stephen’s people told Crissy how Daisy had her own products, but in reality, she didn’t want to use chemicals but was all too eager to use Crissy’s hair dye that was full of chemicals. Which led me to the vitami
ns Stephen thought Daisy took as a way to keep herself healthy, but I couldn’t help wondering if she was doing that because of the cancer.
Did Stephen know Daisy had cancer? If he did, wouldn’t he be yelling that she needed her medicine?
Daisy did keep the sweets and meat from Stephen. Did she also keep the fact that she had cancer from him too?
Then there was the issue with the money. The production company needed the money to not only pay this crew but also save them from bankruptcy. Was it coincidence that the amount needed to dig them out of bankruptcy was the same as the kidnapper requested?
Did Daisy know about the bankruptcy and go rogue? Did she plan her own kidnapping, figuring she would have a latte and a quiche before she was taken? Did she love Stephen that much to pull off such a stunt? Did she want the publicity to spark her career or even spark the movie?
These were all good questions that needed to be answered, and I had a gut feeling something wasn’t right. But I wasn’t sure if it was Stephen or if Daisy had staged her own kidnapping.
On paper, Stephen Lemon sure didn’t look like an innocent husband. On the flip side, Daisy sure wasn’t innocent in this situation either.
TEN
The afternoon seemed to fly by, especially since I’d made more tea sandwiches and some of the new Easy Peasy Lemon Cookies from scratch. Those would definitely be a hit with the afternoon crowd, which was mostly high school students hanging out before they had practice or the row team before they had practice on Lake Honey Springs.
“Do you think you could help us set up the new coffee shop in the cafeteria?” Becca English, my newest afternoon employee, asked over her shoulder as she tidied up the coffee station. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to, but I thought you could help mentor us.”
“Tell me about the project.” I never jumped at any sort of proposal, but I sure did find anything to do with coffee and teaching the world about it intriguing. Please, she’d called me a mentor. That felt good.
“We got a small business grant from the state for our finance department. The student council took suggestions from the finance teachers, and we came up with a way to make some extra school spirit money.” She gestured around the coffeehouse. “The students come here and spend their money. Why not put that money toward our school?”
“So you’re saying the students would stop coming here?” I asked.
“No.” Becca shook her head. “We would open it up during lunch hours and on the weekends when we have extracurricular activities. It would be all students who work in there, but we don’t know how to make fancy drinks or come up with ideas.”
“You’ve gotten very good at making those coffees.” I was very proud of how the designs in her lattes had turned out. Granted, it took her a couple of months, but Becca was determined, and she was reliable.
“Thanks, but I can’t work the shop all the time.” She shrugged, pushing back one of the many braids in her hair behind her shoulder. “I’ve got track plus all my studies.”
“When is the opening?” I asked for a time frame.
“It will open next fall. The new school year.” She walked over to the tea station and refilled all the necessary items before it was her time to work behind the counter and time for me to meet with Stephen Lemon. “We have to wait for the grant money to come in and see what all we need. That’s also where we are going to need some advice. We have no idea what cups to buy or even how much it’s going to cost us, so we wanted to start working on those things so when we do get the grant money, we can quickly get everything we need and be open for the first day of school.”
“Like a business plan?” I asked and got a tickle in my stomach.
I remembered when Aunt Maxi had begged me to come to Honey Springs to live with her after my awful divorce. When she talked me into following my dream and opening a coffeehouse, making a business plan then seeing it come to life was actually my favorite part. It wasn’t easy, but it was enjoyable.
“What do you say?” Becca walked around the counter, passing me on my way to hang my apron back up and get my bag.
“I’d love to. But”—I stopped her from jumping up and down and thanking me—“I can’t start on your business plan for a couple of weeks.”
I gave myself some leeway in case this whole Daisy Lemon kidnapping situation hadn’t been resolved and if the media continued to use the coffeehouse as their favorite meme.
“It’s all good.” A big smile curled up on Becca’s face and her blue eyes twinkled. “We aren’t even going to meet again until next month, so you have three weeks.”
“Perfect.” I gave a hard nod and looked around to make sure everything looked to be in order. “Are you all good here?”
“Yep.” She looked at her digital watch. “I’ve got about ten minutes until the school crowd gets here, so everything is stocked, and Pepper isn’t here for me to take for a quick walk, so I’m all good.”
She walked over and picked up the cat. My phone chirped a text, and I pulled it out from my back pocket. Spencer told me to meet them in the employee parking lot on the far side of the hotel. I was sure this was to elude the media.
“I’m going to love on this sweetie until I get a customer.” Callie purred so loudly, I could hear her from the other side of the coffeehouse.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” It was so nice to be able to leave and know everything was going to run smoothly. I’d been lucky with the afternoon staff and finding good kids to work for me.
The sun was still riding high in the afternoon sky and not a cloud, which made me feel like it was a perfect time to get Daisy back. Instead of going down the boardwalk and passing all the media crew still camped out on the lawn of the Cocoon Hotel, I’d decided to go the opposite way down the boardwalk and around the shops.
It’d been a long time since I’d taken a day to walk around the shops on that end of the boardwalk, which included Knick Knacks, Rebellions Bar, Walk In The Bark Animal Boutique, Touched By An Angel Spa, and the Crooked Cat Book Shop, all amazing and wonderful shops. Like me, all of the other shop owners were forced during the winter months to have different schedules for opening, but with the tourist season on the rise, we would all be open to accommodate what was needed.
I made sure to keep my head down on my way around the boardwalk and hurried behind the Cocoon Hotel, where I could see Spencer standing next to Stephen and Perry along with another man, who I assumed to be the plainclothes officer Spencer had mentioned would also be coming.
“I’ve given him all the instructions. After you pull up, he gets the bag out of the trunk of the car.” Spencer handed Stephen the money bag. “He will place the bag next to the yield sign in the fork of the road and wait. According to the last text, the kidnapper will then give instructions to where we need to go to find Daisy.”
Stephen took the bag to my car and popped open the trunk while Spencer finished giving me the instructions. “I’m going to have you drive your car, because it’s the fork right past your place, heading out of town near the county line, where you can take that left down toward Clover Bottom.” He referred to a small community on the lake.
“I know exactly where that is. I’m assuming you’ll be there somewhere?” I asked.
“Yes. I’m not going to tell you because I don’t want you to be looking for me and tip off the kidnappers.” He unclipped one of two walkie-talkies off his belt. “I’m going to communicate with you through this.” I took it from him. “Leave it in your lap. You will not need to talk back to me. I’ll simply give you instructions.”
“Got it.” I let out a long sigh. “You ready?” I asked Stephen when he walked back over to us.
“I’m ready to get my Daisy back.” He handed me my keys.
After Spencer reconfirmed all the steps we were going to take, we were all in the cars. Apparently, Spencer knew of a different way because he didn’t follow behind me in his car.
“Everything is going to be fine,” I assured Stephen, w
ho looked as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. “Daisy is good. We’ve got the money. You’ve met their demands.”
It took everything I had not to question him about Daisy and her cancer along with the bankruptcy and what the crew members had told Spencer at the hotel earlier. I’d decided if things went south during the drop-off, then I would have to question him.
“I just want my Daisy back.” He rubbed his hands nervously from the passenger seat and looked out the window. There was a bead of sweat along his brow and his upper lip. “I’m not sure what I’d ever do without her.”
My words didn’t help, so I decided to change the subject. “Around this bend is my house.” I took it a little slower than normal so he would get a look at it. “It was so run-down when I first moved to Honey Springs, and it was all I could afford.”
“It’s very quaint.” He referred to the small cabin.
“I’m sure it’s nothing like what you and Daisy have, but it’s all I need.” I gripped the wheel as the tires hugged the edge of the old road as it winded down toward the fork in the road that would lead us to Daisy.
“Everything around here is so green and alive.” He repositioned himself in the seat. “Do you think Daisy is alive?”
“Of course I do.” This time, I offered a reassuring smile instead of words. “We have a lot of limestone around here. That makes all the blue tint in the Kentucky bluegrass. It also feeds the soil the perfect nutrients for growing all the foliage you see. Especially around the lake.”
“It’s also what makes Kentucky such a great state to film movies.” He waved his hands in front of him like he was framing a picture. “The vibrant colors of the area really translate well to the big screen.”
I slowed down, knowing the next bend in the road was the fork where the kidnapper had told us to do the drop.
“Are we here?” Stephen scooted in his seat, propping himself up a little more.
“Right around here,” I said and slowly drove the car around the bend where the fork became visible. “Down there takes you to Clover Bottom, a community where citizens live on the lake. Not much to rent down there for tourists. That way is out of town. This is the fork.”