by Selena Scott
But Andrea was thinking what to do next. She could continue to dial Sally’s cell, and she would, but she knew there was nothing practical to be gained from it. She would have to get straight back to Cup Character and see her. That was the only way she could be at ease with herself that Sally was all right.
Then Andrea pulled her head back and stopped herself. She looked up at Will as she pulled her tanned, laced-up boots on. “The shop?”
“Cup Character?”
“No, Los Pollos Hermanos,” Andrea threw a smile. Will liked how sharp she was, even in moments of stress. “Yes, of course Cup Character.” She threw a playful punch into Will’s upper arm. His muscles didn’t quiver.
Andrea dialed the shop number. It rang. And then she heard her own voice.
She hadn’t heard the voice recording in a while. Why would she? But she was certain of one thing. If Sally was in the shop, she would have answered.
“No answer,” she said as Will pulled his jacket on.
Andrea pulled two bottles of water from the fridge and handed one to Will.
“That doesn’t mean anything, necessarily.” Will saw no lack of reason in what he was saying; however, he was veering on the positive side as he felt the situation required it.
“Trust me, Will, as bad as Sally is with her cell, she always answers the shop phone.”
“Even after closing?”
“Even after closing.” Andrea was sure.
“Okay, but they might be gone; she and Jay. We were gone a couple of hours.”
“We were?” Andrea was genuinely surprised.
“We got distracted.” Will smiled.
Andrea couldn’t control her brief laugh, and would have blushed marginally more, if the circumstances were a little altered.
“We did. But they had all that broken glass to clean up and Jay probably had to get a glazier in to replace the glass, right? That makes sense.”
“That does make sense, but Jay uses the same guy. Always does, trusts him. And they don’t do nights. I’d say Jay has it boarded up, nice and tidy, and that the pair of them have gone off for a beer together to unwind.”
“Please!” Andrea laughed briefly.
Then they looked at each other, as if to say, why hadn’t they thought of this already.
“Jay,” they said in unison.
Will swiped his cell and swiped the message notifications and all the other crap that he was used to popping up on his phone but hadn’t bothered to work out how to disable. He wasn’t far behind Sally, he thought briefly, when it came to using his phone.
Will pressed Jay’s contact icon and the number rang. There was no question about it, Jay would answer. He was the opposite of him, always on that damn thing. Jay had a son in New Haven, Connecticut and two granddaughters who were ten and seven, whom he adored. They didn’t really do phone calls of late. Not really cool, Pop, they had told him. But What’s App. That was okay.
As he thought he would, Jay answered within seconds.
“Will, what’s up?” Jay’s voice was calm.
“Nothing man, just checking everything’s okay there with you and Sally.” Will looked at Andrea and he already felt better, and his face conveyed this to Andrea. Andrea herself relaxed a little.
“Well, you know, I didn’t see myself spending my Thursday night doing a job on the side door to Cup Character, but hey. Thanks, buddy. I’ve you to thank for that.”
Will chuckled politely. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be there. Is Sally all right?”
“What you talking about? All right? That woman.”
Will could tell by the way his voice trailed off that while Sally had obviously and inevitably irked him, things were pretty normal.
“Okay, okay. Andrea just got a strange call from Sally and was a little worried.”
“Andrea?” Jay answered. “I see.” And he did see, Will thought, Jay had fed him a bit of information about Will and Andrea, inadvertently. Jay, though, he trusted.
“Anyway, Sally’s fine.”
Will spoke away from the phone for a moment, more mouthing than speaking to Andrea, saying Sally was okay.
“Ask him if I can speak to her,” Andrea requested, still not completely at ease. She would hear her voice and then she could relax, she thought.
Will relayed the request.
“I’m busy, Will, cleaning up your shit.”
There was the shortness of temper that was rarely more than a flash and usually held with good humor.
“Just for a second. Andrea just wants to speak to her for a moment, that’s all.”
“Okay,” Jay answered. “Jesus, goddamn bits of glass. Christ, Will, through a glass door?”
But he wasn’t really annoyed. There was a real fondness that worked both ways between the two.
“Thanks, Jay.”
“Yeah, yeah. She went out the back there a few minutes ago to the garbage area. To be fair, she worked hard cleaning up. Maybe she’s still out there. Maybe she’s in the restroom, actually.”
Jay pushed the door that opened out into the shared waste area which Cup Character shared with a couple of other shops. The differing waste containers stood against the cold, undecorated block work. Both other shops were closed for the evening.
That’s what made what Jay saw next unusual.
He now knew that something was wrong.
CHAPTER NINE
Will sped through the lights. He was now only a minute or two away from Foxfield Shopping Mall. Andrea sat in the passenger’s seat. Not quite ashen-faced, but not appearing too comfortable either.
“For someone who keeps telling me there is nothing to be worried about, you seem pretty anxious to get to Foxfield.”
“I’m not worried.” Will thought a bit of positive reinforcement would be more beneficial than admitting his own instincts were going the same way as Andrea’s. There was something off at Foxfield earlier that evening.
Paranoid about someone watching him? Sure. But he was always paranoid. He had left a trail behind him and whether what he did before he left the navy was right or wrong, it was done now. And there was one person who would have been very, very pissed at him. But he covered his tracks well. At least he thought he did.
And the jeep. That deep red Jeep Cherokee. He had seen it twice. He was sure he had. And it had slowed the second time, on New Boston Road. Outside Andrea’s house. It had definitely slowed. Slow enough to drink in the details.
It was a 4x4 Cherokee Nation. An automatic, 2.4 liter. Will had always liked the look of them and knew the specifics from looking. What he liked in its ruggedness he thought it lost a little in excessive space. He’d probably be more partial to one if he had kids. But he didn’t. And he wasn’t sure if he ever would. He wasn’t old. 38 was still plenty of time. But it just felt out of reach. He never lost that yearning, though.
What struck him about this Cherokee was the color. It was bold and extravagant, but in this particular car it was undermined by a sharp scratch along the groove in the rear, side panel on the passenger side. It was fresh and was possibly there without the driver’s knowledge. It wasn’t overtly obvious, but it was there, clear as anything. If it was his, he would have had it in the body shop the next day. Its owner, though, maybe didn’t share his pride.
But why had he seen it twice? Was it just that there was a distinctive feature? Or just a coincidence that he was reading too much into?
Andrea looked across at Will. He looked like his mind was roaming. She looked to press him about what he was thinking about – what direction his mind was meandering in. But she thought better off to leave it. This was turning into a night of real intensity. Maybe it was better not to push him. She felt like he was holding something back. It would be hard to believe that he would have deeper secrets than the fact that he was a fucking wolf! Jesus, she thought. It should have rocked her, but it didn’t. It just encompassed for her everything that he was. Strong, safe, athletic.
A day earlier, the thought would h
ave seemed preposterous. But it wasn’t. And the sex. Well, act one had been cut prematurely. But her legs weakened briefly at the thought. His ass cheeks melting in her hands. His manhood about to be released. His erection bulging. The way she felt as his hands explored her. His lips on her breasts. Her stomach. She shook herself, almost visibly, to come out of this imagery. She had more pressing issues.
Most of which was Sally. Something was amiss. Jay had caused them concern with what he found. But surely Will didn’t know more than he was letting on? She had laid down the law clearly about how she felt about lies and holding back.
Surely, he had learnt his lesson.
But she couldn’t scare him either. He had shared the most incredible thing with her. But he had also shown he could keep her from the truth, about something that mattered directly to her. She got why he did it. But it still annoyed her. She had wanted to look Lloyd dead in the eyes and kick him the fuck out of her house.
But that opportunity was taken from her. However, what Will and Sally had done was done with goodness in their hearts. She knew that without doubt.
But Will. Yeah, he was worried about Sally, too. But there was something else. Something in his quietness.
And who was she to talk, she pondered. Will wasn’t the only one who hadn’t laid bare all that he was holding back.
Her own Mom was an English teacher in a New Hampshire High School in Keene, Cheshire County. Just shy of thirty years she had spent in a public high school. Her name, some said, made the school’s name. Kids came from Harrisville, Winchester and Sullivan. The school had a good name. But it derived from a teacher there that matched her love of English with the wisdom it took to teach it to young people.
If her Dad was abrasive but fair, her Mom was moderate, sage and insightful. One of her mantras was that there were easy things to do in life. But nothing was easier than to judge people.
Give someone a voice and a functioning mind, and the effort needed to criticize was minimal. The intelligence, of equal measure. But to try and understand something or someone, that took real effort. That took concentration and toil.
That always stayed with Andrea. She had, thus, always had a real fairness in how she dealt with people. Although some people she gave too much opportunity to. Too much latitude. Maybe some people were just assholes. And with that, her mind briefly sailed to thoughts of Lloyd.
But that same core principle. She had to apply it to Will. It would be easy to slate him for holding back. But she was holding back. Everyone’s a hypocrite, Andrea thought. But that’s human nature. She couldn’t help but resent if he was. But again, she stopped herself. She was holding back, too.
Okay, her thing wasn’t something she was going to spill on the first date. If that’s what you could call this most unorthodox of nights. But that wasn’t the point, she was holding it back.
But no, she thought. She would just tell him. Later. Hopefully. When things had settled down. If things settled down.
Will’s phone vibrated in his pocket.
“Jesus, Jay, can you just ring the goddamn thing?”
Andrea looked across at Will and for the first time in a few minutes, they smiled at each other.
“He can’t just ring me. What’s App messages. That’s not even enough for him. He wants me to join Snapchat and Twitter. Because, what, he needs a few different forums to contact me on?”
Andrea laughed again. Jay and Sally were of the same generation, but of different mindsets. Sally would answer a call and make one. That’s it. Jay, though, was the opposite. He’d take a call all right, but everything else was messaging apps and social media. But, hey, she thought, it just gave Jay and Sally something extra to argue about.
Sally, though. Sally was sensible. She was outgoing and chatty and quick to pull down anyone off any kind of soapbox. But she was sensible. Her life had made her that way. She was sociable and she was practical. Her own parents were long gone. But their parenting, it had shaped her into what she was now, a grandma herself. Although she hated anyone calling her one. Which only encouraged Jay.
Sally’s mother was as tough as anything or anyone she had come up against in life. She had controlled her as a young girl, even into life as a young woman. But she had taught her sense. Her father was soft. Not strong enough for her mom, there was no question about that. But that’s where she got her considerate side from. And she was considerate. Which is why Andrea thought – no – she wouldn’t just walk off into the night without a word. Sally and Jay were like adolescents, who couldn’t help but fight. But to storm off without a word? No. Not Sally.
But then again, nothing about this night was going by any kind of set script.
It appeared as if anything was possible.
CHAPTER TEN
Will swung into the main parking lot and pulled up right outside Cup Character. It was an unconventional place to park; the curb outside the coffee shop was narrow and so was that slip of access in the lot. But he wasn’t in a position to carefully consider where to park.
Will hopped out and Andrea followed suit. Jay was rarely stressed. Overseeing the whole of Foxfield Mall wasn’t a small task. But he took it in his stride mainly. He kept problems in context. Maybe that was why he had lasted so long there in the first place.
But now. Now he looked stressed. Will didn’t have to speak to him to see it.
Will pushed the side door open and briefly admired Jay’s handiwork at how he had cut the plywood into a temporary wooden pane. It was 6mm hardwood faced ply. It would have been easy enough to kick in but this was cosmetic work. Jay would have his guy out in the morning.
Jay looked at Will and Andrea and beckoned them to follow him. This concerned Andrea. It was unlike Jay to be taciturn. She really didn’t know him all that well; but still, his glumness wasn’t a good sign.
They pushed through the seating area and briefly Andrea got a shiver when she thought of the moment the gun was pulled on her as she went to clear the table of the two men who had hung around ‘til the death. She thought it more an irritant than anything else that these two men were taking such deliberation over a couple of coffees. But she didn’t feel intimidated. It was only when she hinted that she was closing soon that it happened. Their conversation, while relatively hushed, didn’t seem staged and appeared relaxed. That’s when the replica was produced. And she had frozen.
Andrea pushed this thought aside. She let it fall from her mind. She had a more pressing issue.
Jay pushed open the back door to the kitchen and after turning left through a minute storage area that was just wide enough to transport the garbage, he pushed the back door open.
There was nothing extraordinary on view. Just the garbage containers, heaving with junk. The relatively bearable smell of waste and a small bike rack that sat empty but for a discarded kryptonite bike lock that was now adding a golden rusty finish to its silver body.
“This,” was all Jay had to say. The small area was relatively well lit but it was moderate security lighting that flashed on and off, depending on human traffic. He turned on a torch on his phone and the three of them moved over to the metallic, silver gate that was always padlocked.
The padlock wasn’t forced. It sat unlocked on the latch. The unwritten rule between the three store owners was that the lock was only left open during moments of access. Andrea had never seen it left open for any period of time.
But what was equally strange was that it wasn’t forced.
“I’ve no idea.” Jay looked concerned.
“What exactly happened, Jay?” Will asked. This wasn’t a line of questioning and didn’t feel like one. But Will was anxious to get a few facts before they decided what to do next.
“Nothing.” Jay looked tired. “I mean, well, nothing really.”
Will drew out his Chesterfield and handed his friend and boss a cigarette. He briefly looked at Andrea to see if she would partake. She shook her head. Very briefly, Will felt a ripple of surprise course through him. Surpris
e that he and Andrea had been so intimate. It felt a little surreal. But that was the theme of the night.
“Okay, so when we left, what did you and Sally do?” Nothing in Will’s voice was accusatory and even if there wasn’t a closeness between the two men, it was hard to imagine Will’s tone could have been inflammatory.
Andrea looked admirably at Will, and thought what a good cop he could make.
“Will, this is what we did. We drank a soda each to get a bit of a sugar boost. We then got going, cleaning up. But we didn’t get stuck in for a while. I had to go off and get the plywood. When I came back, Sally was scrubbing the base of the white-wood table. Looks like some blood splatter made its way over to it.”
“What happened when you came back then? Was she off with you?” Will was still threading gently.
“Sally? Are you asking a serious question, Will? Sally was always off with me. Even when we were sipping our sodas and talking about you guys, she was never far away from snapping at me.”
“It’s called attraction, Jay.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Andrea was taken aback that she had said them. She felt almost embarrassed at having said it.
“Yeah, sure, Andrea.” Jay was taken by surprise and seemed a little embarrassed. Andrea felt bad. But she felt justified. His reaction told her two things. That he did, as she always expected, care about Sally. And that if he did, he was unlikely to have done anything to hurt her.
“Anyway…” Will looked at Andrea and smiled briefly, then turned his attention back to Jay.
“Anyway,” Jay continued, “I came back and all was good, you know. I was measuring up the plywood and shaping it slightly. Sally came in and told me to get on with it, that she didn’t have all night.” Jay pulled deeply on his cigarette and appeared pensive. As if he was trying to relive the last few words the two had shared. To ensure he wasn’t missing anything. Questioning himself that it wasn’t a bigger deal than he thought at the time.