by S. Y. Robins
Detective Tate just nodded before walking away and Hannah started towards the door. If the detective wasn’t going to help she was going to figure it out on her own. Clearly he didn’t really care about anyone except himself. Just as she was about to walk out of the building the door opened and Chris walked through, appearing taken aback by seeing her. “Hannah. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“Just getting an update on the case from the detective so I have something to tell my customers. I’m sorry, I have to get going.”
Hannah thought it was weird that Chris was at the police station and when she glanced back she saw the officer at the desk smiling slightly at him. That alone indicated to her that it wasn’t his first visit, and that was confirmed when Detective Tate shook his hand and they walked through another door together. It didn’t make sense to her that Chris would be friendly with those at the police station, especially since he didn’t appear to know anything. It was suspicious and with her newfound interest in solving the case, she made a mental note not to forget it and to watch Chris more closely.
4
While baking that afternoon Hannah came to the conclusion that the only logical explanation would be that it was one of the guys in the group Jared was with. They had seemed close and he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would go into an alley with someone he didn’t know. She also wasn’t entirely sure on Andrea, mostly because she didn’t truly know her, but she couldn’t focus on all of them at the same time. Now that her mind was made up she was determined to find a way to at least track their movements and see if she could detect anything suspicious. After all, those who had committed a serious crime often acted differently or suspicious.
The following day Hannah was bored out of her mind. She had the sporadic customer but never more than two at a time and they were all orders to go. Nobody stayed to eat or have a drink. It was as if there was a curse on the whole place and everybody was afraid to stay inside and eat. Or if it was because of her. Maybe no one wanted to be close to her. They just wanted the basics for their mornings or their lunches and they were on their way.
The whole thing made Hannah angry and it also hurt her quite a bit. She had worked her fingers to the bone trying to establish a nice business that was going to cater to the needs of the community and just when it seemed that all of her dreams were coming true, they were dashed to bits in the blink of an eye. She was sorry that guy had been killed but she had not done anything to put him in harm’s way. For people to think that she had something to do with it was absurd. How could people believe something as idiotic as that?
Guess people just loved juicy gossip and drama because their own lives were so meaningless. Now that she really thought about it when she was cleaning off tables and serving customers she did pick up on bits and pieces of conversation. She had tried not to listen but it was almost impossible when you were that close. It seemed that everyone was constantly going on about some person who was having some crisis or were putting them in a crisis. It was just drama and more drama. Hannah found the entire thing silly and she tried not to laugh at the customers when she listened to their petty and moronic problems.
About the only ones who didn’t talk about drama was that group of hooligans. In fact they did nothing but goof off and bust jokes. They didn’t take anything seriously did they? No, but they did seem very serious about their friend that had been killed. She couldn’t believe that guy, Matt who had straight out accused her. They were going to keep a watch on her!
Well she could keep a watch on them too.
One of those guys had to know something about what had happened. There had to be something that one of them was not telling the others. The man who had been killed had more enemies than anyone realized. He had to. A guy who will go around grabbing random women that way and just acting all cavalier about it must have made some bad enemies somewhere. All it took was for him to make one wrong step towards the wrong person.
Hannah decided right then that she would watch every step these guys took starting now. One of those guys must have killed Jared. Or they knew who did and she was going to get to the bottom of it.
Hannah watched the few customers who came into the cafe that day as carefully as she could without appearing odd or creepy. Most of them already thought she was a killer and the last thing she wanted was to add creepy to the list. She just wanted to make sure that no one else seemed suspicious and she was also trying to place anybody who appeared to be a regular and she was trying to see if there were any customers who might have seen the altercation with Jared the other day when he had grabbed her.
But she had not been able to recognize anybody. The only regular who had seen it was Chris, and he had not come in. Yea... Chris. Where was he all of a sudden? Hannah’s thoughts kept returning to seeing him at the police station and wondering what he was doing there. He had been caught completely off guard, but he hid it very well. She wondered what else he was good at hiding and how much he knew that the police knew. Most of it was probably false information that he had given them himself. But why would he do that? She thought Chris liked her and wanted to at least be her friend. Maybe Chris had lost his temper and when push came to shove he always put himself first no matter what.
Hannah had to admit the day was a slow moving drudgery with all of this hanging over her head and the nearly dead customer base she had actually been privileged enough to serve that day. Andrea had been completely bored and Hannah had even offered to let her leave early, but Andrea said she didn’t mind and that she needed the hours.
Hannah figured that Andrea did need the extra hours and the extra cash but if her business dried up like this it would be over before it ever really got started and they would both be out of work. But she agreed to let Andrea stay on till the end of closing. It was actually nice having someone there to talk to. Without customers there wasn’t that much to really do because there were few dishes, few dirty tables, and Hannah sure wasn’t going to waste her ingredients on making anything special for the next day as was her habit, no matter how much she would have loved to actually keep her mind focused on something that she did love to do. After a day like today she just couldn’t afford it.
And she had to admit that she was plain exhausted.
The next three days did not fare any better and were simply repeats of the day before. The whole thing was just enough to tie your head in knots and Hannah felt as if she was ready to throw in the towel on the whole thing. She had still not heard anything from the police, Chris had not showed back up since the night at the police station, and those guys came back to give her the stink eye and to make her feel uncomfortable. After the one day absence she was hoping they were gone for good, but no such luck. She would have just thrown them out but with the business tanking she needed any bit of paying customers that she could find. Besides, they were actually calm and cordial the past few times. It was actually very creepy and it made her uncomfortable. She knew that they were watching her.
But she had been watching them right back.
With so much free time she would peer at their office any chance she could. They worked for a very small brokerage firm that dealt exclusively in penny stocks. Their entire office was only about twice the size of the diner. From what she had ascertained the building used to be a small insurance office. The investment firm of Mathers and Clark had been there only one year. They hired a bunch of guys right out of high school and trained them themselves. They did not want brokers and they did not want guys with college degrees.
Hannah found this odd and toyed with the idea of applying for a job there if her business went belly up.
During her observations Hannah had become more and more bold in her endeavors. That night she asked Andrea to watch the diner while she went to the bank. She wanted to get there before it closed at six. It was going to be close but if she hurried she might just make it. Andrea agreed without so much as batting an eye. She was deeply involved with an issue of Vogue magazine.
Hannah went out the front door and doubled back around to the back of the building so she could sneak next door and creep in the back door of Mathers and Clark. The office was warm and inviting but she hid just inside the door. She had been here before and so far had not been seen. She went to the ladies room and hid in the toilet stall.
She knew that the employees typically left at six pm sharp and she wanted to get a closer look where they went after work. She couldn’t follow all of them, but so far she had been able to follow several different guys from the group. Howard, Ryan, and Charlie. They all led painfully boring lives and were all somewhat nerdy. In fact twice a week it seemed that after work they went to Billy’s bar, ate dinner, got drunk and then went to Ryan’s to play video games. These guys were total dorks. It was almost laughable.
But last night she had stumbled onto something. Hannah had followed Matt to his house, where he lived with his wife and son. It was a modest ranch style house about six blocks from the diner. She found it odd that the same guy who acted like that during the day was a family man.
Hannah got a strange feeling about Matt. The whole family thing seemed to be some sort of cover up. It just looked too perfect and too fake for some reason. There was something she just couldn’t put her finger on about the whole thing. So she decided that Matt deserved an encore and tonight she was going to follow him.
The bathroom was close by the door and she could always hear Virginia, the receptionist leaving first. When she heard her go that was her cue. Hannah snuck back out through the bathroom door and peered around the corner of the far hallway that led out the back. The guys always left out the front door.
When she saw Matt pack up and leave she took her cue to run out the back. She needed to get to the street so she could hail a cab and follow Matt’s cab. It was a long shot but so far she had been pretty successful at doing this and the cab drivers did not seem at all unnerved or perplexed as to why she was ordering them to follow another taxi. It was a “don’t ask don’t tell” situation.
But as she rounded the corner she saw Matt jogging towards her and the second she realized it she ducked back out of sight behind the building and hid behind the big bush that sat beside the sidewalk. She tried to hold her breath but her heart was beating so fast in her chest that she didn’t think it would ever stop pounding.
Matt walked right past her then and didn’t blink an eye. He had not seen her. She began to breathe a little easier at that moment. All she had to do now was wait until he was way past her and then she could tip-toe back out of sight and get on with her evening.
But first she had to find out what Matt was doing here. He was jogging over towards the back alley that ran behind their respective places of business. Hannah’s curiosity got the better of her again and she began to jog slowly behind him. She had to see where he was going and what he was up to. It could not have been anything good. The guy was a rat and there was no honor in someone like that.
As Hannah rounded the corner slowly she saw Andrea waiting there for Matt. He ran up to her, swept her up in his arms and kissed her deeply.
Hannah was a bit shocked and flabbergasted. Matt and Andrea were together! But Matt was married with a family. Hannah was having a bit of trouble wrapping her mind around this whole thing, but that was exactly what she was witnessing here. Matt was a dog in more ways than one.
Hannah decided to get out of there and began to jog the other way down the alley. She did not look back. If she had she would have seen Andrea looking right at her, glaring daggers.
5
“Well, look what the cat dragged in!”
Hannah looked up to see Chris walking into the cafe. She was totally taken aback by his friendly nature and the fact that he had chosen to grace her humble abode with his presence. And add to that the fact that he had been at the police station obviously doing something she wasn’t going to approve of because whatever he said was going to hurt her case, it almost made her angry. How dare he come here? But as was her sweet and gently nature she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and at least talk to him to see what was going on. He may not have said anything damaging to the cops, but with the way he disappeared after that it kind of made him look guilty.
“Hi there stranger. You want the usual?” Hannah asked.
“Thought you would never ask,” Chris smiled taking his usual seat in the corner.
“So how have you been?” Hannah asked as she poured his coffee.
“I’m well. How about yourself?”
“Well, I could complain but it wouldn’t change anything.”
“Ouch. That rough huh?”
Hannah smiled as she walked back behind the counter with the coffee pot. She was trying to stay a bit mysterious and let Chris know that while she appreciated seeing him and his business that he had hurt her feelings and he wasn’t off the hook yet.
She was actually marveling at the way this day had been. It had been busy enough that she had almost enjoyed herself and felt like she was a successful business owner once again. Maybe the cloud of the dead body in the alley and the idea that the sweet chef and proprietor was no longer the chief suspect. She had not been ruled out by the police but then again she had not heard anything from the police, so it was tough to say with those guys.
Andrea had even been super nice to her, which was a bit out of character. Andrea was usually pretty nice as far as an employee and boss could be without being friends, but it was never the kind of chummy relationship that Hannah had wanted to find in an employee. She had actually dreamed of finding a best friend that she could work with all day. That would have been ideal, but she had to face facts and realize that she and Andrea were two completely different types of people.
As Hannah was sauntering back over to Chris’ table to do some more small talk the door to the diner swung open wide and in a threatening manner. Hannah’s heart sprung into her chest and she at first thought that she was being robbed or that maybe whoever had killed Jared had come to silence her in case she knew something.
Detective Tate came barging through the door. His gruff demeanor seemed even more business than usual as he walked into the restaurant taking long, slow, and authoritative strides.
The other customers noticed immediately and stopped eating. They were all glued to the events that were beginning to unfold. Their eyes were plastered wide with anticipation.
Hannah felt a lump grow in her throat and for some reason she became very afraid.
“Can I help you Detective?” Hannah asked.
“You are under arrest for the murder of Jared Snyder. I would say you have helped enough.”
Hannah’s ears could not believe what she was hearing as the words echoed in her mind. Her mouth was frozen with numbness as all of the heat left her body. She could not believe this was happening and she could hardly put a thought together to even spit out a reply. Tears began to well up inside of her and she tried her best to keep it together.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t kill anybody.”
Her voice was shaky and she wanted to scream as loud as she could so that everybody would know that this was a horrible mistake. She wanted everyone to know she was innocent. It was the worst feeling in the world to be accused of something you didn’t do. And it was even worse when deep down she knew that in people’s minds she was already guilty and they were planning to send her to the big house. How was she going to prove her innocence? Her mind worked feverishly as Tate began to put the cuffs on her. She wanted to jerk away and just run out the door, but she knew that was a surefire way to destroy her case.
“You can tell us all about it down at the station,” Tate said snapping the cuffs locked on her wrists tightly.
As she began to be led out of the cafe, her cafe, she caught an eye view of Chris at the table shoving pie nonchalantly into his face. His face was expressionless.
Hannah had no idea what to make of that. Was Chris even a bit concerned for her? Did he really
care anything for her? Or anybody? Was he the one who was responsible for her being arrested? For all she knew he purposely came here right then just to watch her be arrested. He might just be sick enough for that sort of thing.
The interrogation room was cold and dark for the most part. A bright light was placed in the center of the room right above the table that Hannah was currently seated at. She was shivering slightly both from the cold and also from the humiliation and fear that was running through her mind right now. She could never recall a time when she had been as angry and as scared as she was right at that moment.
Tate was sitting very relaxed across the table from her. He had not said anything to her for about three minutes. He just kept shoving licorice in his mouth and looking over the file in front of him. It was unnerving to say the least. Hannah had wanted to shout at him and show him exactly how she was feeling but she was able to keep it under control. It would not do her any good to act like a maniac. It would only hurt her chances. Right now the ball was in Tate’s court and she had to play by his rules. She was innocent and there was no way she could be proven guilty.
“So you are probably wondering exactly why we have brought you down here.” Tate finally spoke.
“Well, I seem to remember you saying something about being charged for murder but I may have misunderstood you.”
Tate smiled that condescending smile of his.
“Yea, this is a very serious thing.”
“I have done nothing wrong. You haven’t told me what concrete evidence you have that is tying me to this crime,” Hannah said.
“Your friend Andrea kind of mentioned that you said you were going to kill the victim.”
Hannah felt as if she had been punched in the gut. The breath left her body and she could feel the blood rush from her face.
“What? I never said any such thing!”