Look Always Forward (Bellingwood Book 11)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  Polly laughed. "I knew that. Maybe we should have coffee or lunch in the next couple of days and hash out all of the gossip in town."

  "We should get together," Lydia said firmly. "Another dinner with the five of us. What do you think?"

  "I'm game. The only person we need to worry about is Sylvie. She's going out of her mind. I can't force her to hire someone, but until she does, she's stretched pretty thin."

  "Let me work on her and we'll find a time. We can do it at my house again. It's been too long and I miss having you all come over."

  "That sounds great."

  "It's a plan, then. I'll make the calls tomorrow and work on a plan. I love you sweetie, have a good night."

  With that, Lydia was gone.

  Polly looked at the phone in her hand and then at Henry. "She hung up," Polly said.

  "Did you find out what you were looking for?"

  "No. She hung up. I don't know whether she deliberately ignored the reason for my call or if she was distracted by the party. And I don't know what to do now."

  He laughed. "That'll teach ya. You're too nice. You won't call her back either, will you?"

  "I can't. If she's deliberately avoiding my question, she'll just keep doing it. If she was being ditzy, I hate pointing that out. I don't know anything more now than I did before I called. Well, except that we're going to have another party."

  Henry pulled into the driveway and pressed an overhead button to raise the garage door. "Another drunken night of revelry?"

  "Oh please no." Polly shuddered. "That was a once-in-a-decade kind of thing. None of us ever want to go through that again." She opened the truck door and turned back to look at him. "But it was fun. As much as we don't want to repeat it, all of us had a blast. Even Lydia, and she was the one going through hell at the time." Polly leaned back on the seat. "Can you believe that was just six months ago? So much has happened. Everything keeps changing."

  "It does," he agreed.

  "Henry, we have a daughter who is going to be a seventh grader. She's only going to be with us for six more years and then she'll be making decisions about her future. How am I supposed to prepare for that?"

  He put his hand on the console, palm up and she placed hers on top of it. Henry squeezed it lightly. "You know you're getting ahead of yourself, right?"

  "I try not to think about it too often," Polly said. "It scares me to death. I don't want to miss anything, but I want to be ready for all of the big things that are ahead for her."

  "You'll always be ready. Just slow down and enjoy the moments. Right?"

  She nodded. "It's a nice evening. Do you have time for a long walk with the dogs?"

  "I have all the time in the world for you." He jumped out of the truck and ran around the front so that he was beside her by the time she got to the door. He kissed her cheek and she took his hand and leaned in to kiss his lips.

  "Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by my life," Polly said. "You're my only constant. When everything else is in chaos, you're steady and solid."

  He broke from the embrace and opened the door. "Well, that sounds boring."

  "Not boring. Never boring."

  "Good. Because if you think I'm boring, I'm going to start making waves." He opened the door at the bottom of their steps and flipped a light on. The dogs were on the landing, waiting to be called. "Come on down, boys. Your mama has been much too philosophical tonight. She needs to get outside where grass is green, skies are blue and life is real."

  Polly snagged two leashes and bent to kiss the top of Obiwan's head. Han bumped the older dog out of the way and she rubbed his neck, and waited for him to send his tongue across her cheek.

  "He's a sloppy kisser," she said. "You need to teach him to be neater about that."

  "I don't think so," Henry said. "That little boy has learned so much from Eliseo. I don't feel like I have much of a say in what he does after that. He's a goofy, goofy dog."

  "We have the strangest little family, don't we?" she asked.

  Henry snapped the leash onto Han's collar and they walked back outside. "Our family might look different than others, but we're happy. Now which way shall we go?"

  "We aren't in a hurry. Let's go north and wander through town," she responded.

  He nodded and clicked his teeth much like Eliseo did and Han stopped pulling and dropped in beside him.

  "It always amazes me," Polly said.

  Henry chuckled. "To be honest, it amazes me, too. It's like it's an on-off button. Eliseo should teach classes. We'd have a town filled with obedient dogs and even better, smart pet owners. You were lucky with Obiwan, but I'm pretty sure this one left his brains in New Mexico."

  "Come on," she said as they crossed the highway. "He's a great dog."

  "Yes," he agreed. "He's a great dog. But intuitive he isn't." They got to the other side and Henry bent down and slipped a treat out of his pocket. "I love you though. You're a good boy."

  Han wagged his tail, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. Henry handed another one to Obiwan. "You're just a good dog all around."

  "Wow," Polly said. "They even have you trained."

  It was still early enough that there was plenty of activity in and around the restaurants and bars. People waved from their cars or smiled and said hello. She enjoyed being out on summer evenings. Next week the stores would stay open in the evenings as people prepared for the start of school. Then she had one more community band concert over Labor Day weekend. It was hard to believe they were coming up on three years in Sycamore House. So much had happened and she'd gotten to know more people than she could have ever imagined.

  This was her home now. Story City was her dad's home and Boston was just a place where she used to live. Bellingwood was home. She no longer relied on Henry to tell her who people were in town. There were a few that she didn't immediately recognize. For the most part, though, even if she didn't know people well, she was familiar with who they were.

  "What's that about?" Henry asked, startling Polly out of her thoughts.

  "What's what?"

  "Is tomorrow a big day at the coffee shop?"

  "I don't think so. Why?" Polly asked.

  "Lights are on. Do you have your keys?"

  Polly patted her pockets. "No. You don't?"

  "I dumped all the keys in the tray before we left for dinner."

  She gave a one shoulder shrug. "Maybe it's Camille."

  They crossed the street and stopped in front of the door to the coffee shop. Henry tugged on it and both of them were surprised when it opened.

  "What in the heck?" he asked.

  Polly put her hand on his arm. "I don't want to go in."

  "How bad do you not want to go in?"

  She looked down at the dogs. "Bad enough that I want Obiwan with me."

  "Fine." Henry took her elbow. "Let's see what's going on."

  He pulled the door open and Polly stepped in first, calling out "Camille? Are you here?"

  The light coming from the bakery showed a mess in the main room. Books had been pulled off the shelves, tables and chairs were overturned and mugs that had been neatly stacked on the counter were broken on the floor.

  "Damn it," she said. "What happened?"

  "I'll call Ken," Henry responded.

  "Let's see what the rest of the place looks like first," she said. "I don't want to tell Sal about this. She's going to freak out."

  Henry flipped the main lights on. The damage wasn't awful, but it was apparent that someone had gone through the place.

  "I can't believe no one saw this," Polly said. She strode across the floor and looked behind the bar. Everything was still in place.

  Henry used his phone to capture pictures of the damage and she went down the back hallway to the kitchen, terrified of what she might find. Obiwan followed along quietly and stopped beside her in the doorway. She breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing there. It still looked as fresh and new as it had when she'd been here earlier. At least she didn't have to give ba
d news to Sylvie. One friend in distress at a time was plenty.

  The back door was open and Polly crossed the room to pull it shut. Who left things like this? They'd have to find out who had been the last person in and out of this place. Yes, Bellingwood was a small town, but obviously there needed to be some security.

  When she got to the back door, Obiwan tugged on the leash. He pulled her outside to the back dock, filled with empty cardboard boxes and pallets.

  "You aren't giving me a lot of confidence, Obiwan," she whispered as she let him pull her. She went down the steps to the alley and the dog walked to the end of their building. He sniffed at a stack of pallets and looked up at her.

  "What's there?" she asked.

  "Polly, are you out here?" Henry called from the back door.

  "Just a second," she said and walked in front of Obiwan. It was pretty dark in this corner, so she took out her phone and turned the flashlight on. "Crap," she said, then bent down to rub Obiwan's neck. "You are the good dog. Thanks for finding her."

  Polly called back to Henry. "Don't bother with Ken. I'm calling Aaron."

  "Wh..." he started, then walked along the dock to where she was standing. "I shouldn't even ask, should I? What did you find?"

  She pointed at the body of Julie Smith, one of the new employees, lying behind the stack of pallets.

  Han tried to leap off the dock, but Henry held tightly to his leash. Polly and Obiwan walked back over to the stairs, she sat down and swiped a call open.

  "Don't you have someone else to call when this happens?" Aaron said upon answering the phone.

  "Maybe I'll buy you a cape and bright red oversized underwear you can wear over your uniform," Polly said. "You're my hero."

  "You're about to mess up my perfectly calm evening, aren't you?"

  "I can call Ken," she replied.

  "Okay, why don't you do that?"

  "Hey! I call you when I find a body. I call him when other things happen. I like to spread the joy."

  She heard Lydia's voice in the background and Aaron said, "Yes, Polly found someone." He hesitated and said, "No, you can't come with me. You can talk to her tomorrow."

  He came back to Polly. "Are you okay? Is it someone you know?"

  "I know who she is. We just hired her at the coffee shop. But no, I don't know her very well and I'm fine."

  He relayed the information to his wife and then said. "I'll call in the team. Why are you there anyway?"

  "Lights were on inside and the place was messed up. There are broken mugs and books were pulled off the shelves. Tables and chairs were tossed around too. The place was all unlocked."

  "Okay. We'll be there in a few minutes. Stay out of things, will you?"

  "You're training me," Polly said. "You know I'll be good."

  She put her phone back into her pocket and looked up at Henry. "There's a good walk ruined."

  "Does Aaron want us to stay?"

  Polly nodded. "Yeah. And I don't want to call Sal."

  "You should wait to do that. Let them get in and started before she shows up all worried."

  "You're right." She patted the step beside her. "Wanna join me?"

  "I'll take the dogs home and come back. That shouldn't make a difference, should it?"

  Polly stood up. "Would you? That would reduce the amount of chaos. I'll stay here with Julie." Her shoulders drooped. "I don't know anything about her. I don't know where she's from."

  "It will be okay." Henry put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't take all of that on right now. Get through tonight and take care of the rest as it comes."

  "I need to call Jeff. And Camille. Maybe I'll let him tell Camille. The rest of the kids are going to be upset. I don't want to tell Andrew, Rebecca and Kayla. They had fun with those older kids the last couple of days." She paused and handed Obiwan's leash to Henry. "Sometimes I think I have too much death in my life."

  "We've been over this before. The death was already there. This isn't about you."

  "You're right." She kissed him. "Thanks for dealing with the dogs. I'll just be sitting here in this creepy alley waiting for the Sheriff to show up."

  He chuckled. "I'm not too worried about you. You're a scary woman. You'll take care of 'em." He walked with the dogs down the alley to the sidewalk and turned south to go home.

  Polly took her phone back out and hovered over the keypad. Jeff first. He'd have more information. She swiped the call to him.

  "Hey Polly." She understood the concern in his voice. She never called him in the evening. "What's going on?"

  "Jeff," she started. "You aren't going to believe it."

  "Believe what? If it were a dead body, you'd be calling the Sheriff. So what is it?"

  "Well, actually."

  She heard him take a deep breath and then say, "Excuse me. I need to take this in private."

  "I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to interrupt you."

  "It's okay. Now, what's going on?"

  Polly explained to him what had happened in the last half hour and he quietly took it in. Then she said, "Jeff?"

  "What?"

  "You're not talking."

  "I don't know what to say. Do you need me to come back to Bellingwood?"

  "No," she responded. "I don't think so. There's nothing you can do. I'll call Sal and tell her about this. Aaron will probably want Julie's employment records so he can reach out to her family."

  "You know where those are in the computer. And we should talk to Camille."

  "Maybe we should let Aaron tell us what to do next and who to talk to," she said.

  "Yeah. You're right. I'm really flustered."

  Polly heard a car door open and then she heard the sound of the car starting in the background. "Jeff, what are you doing?"

  "I don't know. I guess I'm coming up to Bellingwood."

  "Did you just leave someone in a restaurant?" she asked with a small chuckle.

  "Holy cow, I did!" he said. "What am I thinking? I need to go back in and apologize and then I'll be right there."

  Polly smiled. She wasn't going to let him forget this anytime soon. "Stop talking and stop doing anything. If Aaron wants to speak with you tonight, he'll call. Otherwise, let them do their job and take care of Julie. I'm here. I can get into the system and give them any information they want. Camille is at Sycamore House if they want to talk to her. Handle your date and I'll let you know if there's anything else."

  She heard the car turn back off. "I'm sorry I was such a dope," he said. "I'll be fine. He's never going to believe this."

  "Who's that?" Polly asked.

  "Uh huh. Whatever. I'll talk to you later. Have you called Sal yet?"

  "No. You were my first call. I expected you to be the least crazy. If Sal ends up being the calm one about this, my world is upside down. You know that, right?"

  "Good luck with it. Call me later."

  "You won't still be on your date?"

  "Uhh. No. If it wasn't dead before now, this effectively killed it. Call me. Okay?"

  "I will."

  Lights came down the alley and Polly grinned at her phone. She was rescued from calling her friend. Stu Decker got out of his SUV and walked over to her.

  "I always look forward to spending time with you, Ms. Giller."

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a brat."

  He smiled at her, then turned serious. "Where is she?"

  Polly stood up and walked with him over to where the girl's body was, then backed away, knowing that he would want to get right to work. He knelt down on his haunches and took in the scene, then stood back up.

  "Did you see this stick?" he asked. "Do you know what it is?"

  She walked back over to him and looked to where he was pointing. A long walking stick, covered in blood, was tucked up against the girl's body.

  "I do," she said flatly. "It belongs to the man we just hired to run Sycamore Inn."

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Even though she had tried, Polly's respite from the conversatio
n with Sal didn't last long. Just after Henry came back, her phone rang.

  "What in the hell is going on?" Sal demanded.

  "There's been a murder," Polly said, as matter of factly as possible.

  "In my shop?"

  Technically, this wasn't inside the shop. "Well, not really," Polly said.

  "What exactly do you mean by 'not really'? Denis just called and said the place was crawling with Sheriff's vehicles. And he said that he saw you and Henry go inside. Are you still there?"

  She didn't want to point out the obvious. And maybe Sal wasn't quite as alert to Polly's superhero status as everyone else was, but she said, "There's been a murder. That means there was a dead body. So ... that means I'm here."

  "Was it inside the shop or not?"

  "Sal, honey. I think the first question you should probably ask is if we know the person. And yes, we do. It was Julie Smith."

  "Oh for god's sake, it's going to be known as the jinxed coffee shop. I can't believe this has happened again. I can't catch a break."

  "Salliane Judith Kahane, you stop talking right now and think about what you have just said to me," Polly said. "I can't believe you are being this self-centered when a young girl has been murdered. Get over yourself and start asking the right questions."

  The phone went dead and when Polly looked at it, she realized Sal had just hung up on her. Sometimes being that girl's friend was full-time work. They had known each other for over fifteen years and there were times it was more difficult than others.

  Aaron had walked over to stand beside her and asked, "We need to speak with Jeff Lyndsay, the woman you've hired to manage the shop, and Mr. Greyson. I understand he's been hired at the inn?"

  Polly nodded. "Camille is staying at Sycamore House. Jeff will come back tonight if necessary and Grey should be in the apartment at the inn. He moved in today. Was his walking stick the murder weapon?"

  He gave her a weak smile. "You know I'm not making any assumptions until we have more information."

  "You need to see what happened inside, too," Polly said. "I can't tell if there was a fight or if someone deliberately tossed the place."