by Jayne Blue
“You handle that business with Garnett’s parking spaces?” Ramona asked.
“What? I think so. At least, she hasn’t been in here to complain again, has she?”
“Not on my watch,” Crane answered. He took a seat behind his desk. “We haven’t had anything more exciting this week than two of Hollis Rayburn’s chickens going missing. Oh, and Emmett’s got a hearing in front of Judge Dupree later this morning on his suspended license. Ten o’clock.”
“Thanks for the heads up. Are Collins and Tenny on this morning? If so, send them over to the courthouse about a half an hour before that. If things go the way I think they will, Emmett’s going to try stirring up trouble. Judge Dupree’s bailiff could use a little backup saving Emmett from himself.”
Crane smiled. “Already thought of that. It’s a foregone conclusion he’ll lose his driving privileges today for good.”
I rubbed my temple. “It’s for the best. He’s going to kill someone or himself.”
“Ten to one he throws himself at Dupree and tries to take jail time instead,” Ramona offered. She was right.
I sat back in my chair. The magnolia trees outside my window swayed in the breeze. They were in full bloom so I couldn’t see across the street. Mornings like this were why I came to Crystal Falls in the first place. Quiet. Simple. Peaceful. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine another place far away that was anything but. When I first came here, it haunted me so badly I could barely appreciate something like a magnolia blossom. Slowly, day by day, it got easier. Now the terrors only came at night.
“Maybe I better make a point of being in the courthouse around ten myself,” I said. “Any of Emmett’s family come down from Austin that we know of?”
“Nope,” Ramona answered. “Far as I know, they’ve still written the old geezer off. Shame on the lot of them. You know what this means. This entire department ... hell ... maybe this entire town is going to have to be Emmett Poole’s personal cab service.”
“Small price to pay,” I said. “That is if he’ll take advantage of it. I’m more worried he’s going to hole up in that house of his and either wither away or shoot at anything that comes near him.”
“One thing at a time,” Ramona said.
I finished up on some paperwork and watched the clock. At a quarter of ten, I grabbed my hat off a hook near the door. A fresh ruckus outside drew my attention. Garnett Morris was back. My heart dropped at the sight of her. She looked uncharacteristically disheveled, her white hair flying in messy ringlets around her head. She had her cardigan sweater on inside out.
“Shit,” I muttered. Ramona caught my eye as I came out.
“Slow down, Mrs. Morris,” Ramona said.
“It’s ruined,” Garnett said, her voice wavering. “Glass everywhere. I can’t fix this. You can’t fix this.”
“Garnett,” I said, putting a gentle hand on her elbow. “Why don’t you come into my office? Tell me what’s going on.”
She ripped out of my grasp as if my touch burned her. Her eyes were wild and she took a faltering step backward. I’d never seen Garnett Morris like this. She was scared. No, she was terrified.
“What’s happened?” I said, trying to make my voice even. Trip wires went off inside me. My fingers itched to draw my weapon as danger crept in.
“They broke into my store,” she said, her voice dropping an octave. “My store!”
“Who?”
“How should I know? Isn’t that your job, Sheriff? Isn’t that what I’m paying you for?”
It wasn’t the time to argue the finer points of my government salary. I was more concerned about the state of Garnett Morris’s mental health. For as much as she’d let me, I got close enough to do a quick assessment. She was disheveled, but it didn’t look like anyone had laid a finger on her.
“Come on, Mrs. M.,” Crane said after she’d calmed down just a little. I made a circular gesture with my finger behind her back. Crane would drive her back to the antique store, I’d follow close behind.
It only took a few minutes to get downtown. When I did, my heart jumped into my throat. A crowd had gathered in front of Garnett’s Treasures and it wasn’t the kind I usually saw on a Friday morning. I parked around the back and saw immediately what had the old lady in a state. Her back door had been kicked in and a side window shattered.
As Garnett got out of Crane’s cruiser and headed for the door, I called her back. “Better stay outside,” I said. “Let my deputies and I do a sweep. The less you or anyone else disturb the scene, the better.”
“Disturb?” she said, curling her lips into a snarl. “Disturb? A cyclone went off in there. You have no idea what it will take …” Her voice broke and she lost her composure completely. Crane got to her first and put an arm around her shoulder, drawing her away from the back door.
I signaled to Roland Massey and Pete Kirkus, two of my deputies. Though it was unlikely Mrs. Morris’s burglar was still inside, I wasn’t going to take any chances. We did a quick sweep of the perimeter. Pete got his phone out and started taking pictures, reading my mind.
“It’s a violation.” Mrs. Morris sobbed behind me. “Who would do something like this?”
* * *
Who, indeed? We spent the rest of the morning securing and documenting the scene. Within an hour, one thing was clear. Nothing had been stolen. Not a single thing. A few of Mrs. Morris’s more delicate items had been shattered. A hundred-year-old porcelain tea set, a couple of antique mirrors. More disturbing, a few of the Victorian-era dolls she kept on a shelf had their eyes gouged out and their heads turned backward. But thanks to her meticulous bookkeeping, her entire inventory was accounted for.
Crane did his level best to keep Mrs. Morris calm. I had Pete run to get her personal physician, Dr. LeFeorge.
“Let us do our job,” I told Mrs. Morris. “Somebody was bound to have seen something. Whoever did this was here a while last night. Breaking glass makes noise.”
“It’s obscene.” She sniffled. “In Crystal Falls? I don’t have a burglar alarm. In sixty years, I’ve never needed one. Now this?” Her tone was accusatory, but I cut her some slack. A lot of it.
“We’ll get you put right, Mrs. M.,” Crane reassured her.
“Put right? You can’t put this right. Things won’t ever be the same until you do something about this.”
“And we will,” I said. “I told you. You just let us do our job. The important thing is that you’re safe. No one got hurt.”
Her eyes widened. She raised a gnarled finger and jabbed it straight into my chest. “The important thing is that you fix the real problem. You think it’s a coincidence this happening the way it did?”
I met Crane’s eyes over Mrs. Morris’s shoulder. He looked just as confused as I felt. Dr. LeFeorge couldn’t get here fast enough, as far as I was concerned. Most of the crowd that had gathered in front of Garnett’s store had started to move off. At the raising of her voice, many of them turned and looked.
“It’s her,” she said, pointing that same finger back across the street. “I’ve been telling everybody for weeks. I tried to tell you, but apparently a little cleavage is all it takes to distract you.”
I did a double take. Garnett Morris may be losing her damn mind. “Garnett …”
“She’s probably had her people casing my joint even before she opened her little cake store. And you let it happen. If you want to crack this case, Sheriff Finch, then you march right over there and arrest that woman. She doesn’t belong here.”
That woman. She meant Lila Kelly. Crane gave me a sympathetic look and shrugged.
“Are you going to at least talk to her?” she asked.
“Of course,” I said. “I told you. Somebody’s bound to know something.” Mercifully, a white sedan with gold trim pulled up. Dr. Lawrence LeFeorge stepped out. Garnett’s blood pressure had to be through the roof. Mine wasn’t much better.
At the sight of him, Garnett softened. It was just the distraction she needed to end
her rant about Lila and the evils of newcomers to Crystal Falls.
“Don’t mind her,” Crane said. “She’ll calm down some once her place gets cleaned up and she’s open for business again. Pete’s still canvassing. You want me to see if he’s talked to Miss Kelly yet?”
“No,” I said, using a more abrupt tone than I intended. “I’ll take care of that myself.”
Crane nodded. My heart tripped at the prospect. Lila’s Cakes and Coffee closed for business just before lunch. Her lights were dim, but I had a hunch she’d still be there. As I crossed the street, I saw a shadow move inside her building. It was Lila, all right. I raised a hand to draw her attention from the window but stopped short.
Lila wasn’t alone. She was with a man I couldn’t recognize in the low light. But he was tall, towering over her. And he jerked her forward with a forceful grip.
Chapter Four
Lila
“You need to go!” His grip was strong, digging into my upper arms. It always amazed me how someone with such clear, blue eyes could look so dark. But they cut right through me, striking a button of fear he’d installed in me himself when I was just a kid.
A shadow crossed the front door of the shop. I was afraid to look. Afraid to take my gaze from Tommy for even a second. But he looked. He loosened his grip and lifted one hand, smoothing it through his hair. He’d worn it the same for as long as I could remember, shaved close at the sides, longer on top, the front grazing his brow.
“Looks like you better open for business. Wouldn’t want you to turn away any customers on my account.” Tommy’s sly smile devastated most women, made them weak in the knees. I’d seen him use it a thousand times to get what he wanted. He was handsome. Rakishly so, with deep-set eyes and a full, bee-stung mouth. He had just the slightest hint of an Irish brogue that deepened when he got angry or drunk. When he got both, he was dangerous. Sober, he was downright lethal.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” I said. “We’ve got nothing to talk about. Nothing’s changed.”
Tommy raised a finger and pointed at me. He winced and shook his head, his rage bubbling just below the surface. “See, that’s where you’re wrong. That’s where you’re always wrong, but not for the reasons you think. You’re right nothing’s ever going to change. It’s you who needs to get that through your head. We’re not finished. We never will be. You can’t change who you are and you’ll never be able to run far enough.”
“We are finished!” I shouted it in a whisper. Fear stabbed through me as the shadow at the front door turned to an insistent knock. This time, I did look and my breath left me. He had his hat square on his head. God. Why couldn’t it be anybody but Beckett Finch?
“Tommy, get out of here. I mean it. Go back to Boston. To anywhere. I’m not worth your time.”
Beckett knocked on the door again. I could see him cupping his hand over his brow, peering through the glass. With the lights off, I was fairly certain he couldn’t see anything but blurry shadows.
“Tommy, go! Out the back. That’s the town sheriff, probably. I know you haven’t turned stupid all of a sudden. You can’t have anyone know you’re here, least of all him.”
Tommy reached for me again as Beckett knocked on the door a third time and shouted my name.
“Lila? Is everything okay? I just need to talk to you for a minute or two.”
Tommy had a hold of my arm. He cocked his head and smiled. “Don’t want to keep the man waiting, lovey.” He moved so quick, I didn’t expect it. Tommy leaned forward and gave me a peck on the cheek. “We’ll talk soon, sis.”
Beckett’s shadow receded and for an instant, I thought he was leaving. My heart felt torn. Finding Tommy here would raise questions I didn’t want to answer. But instinct drew me straight to Beckett. He was safe, good. He had to be.
Tommy turned on his heel with fluid grace and let himself out through the kitchen. Thank God Addy and Arlene were running late. As soon as I heard the back door click shut, I smoothed my blouse and found a smile.
“Hold on!” I shouted. “Be right there!”
Beckett stepped away from the door. I clicked the lights on and unlatched the front door. I kept the closed sign facing out but let Beckett in. He had a smile for me too, but his seemed just as put on as mine. Tension drew his shoulders back. He stood with his feet apart, the fingers of his right hand hovering near the handle of his service weapon. He knew something. Beckett Finch had that almost preternatural sense of threat like good cops do. I had to defuse him ... quickly.
“Sorry,” I said, almost gushing. “We’re all running a little late this morning. Pastry emergency, if you can believe that. Grab a seat at the counter. Coffee’s already on.”
“How long you been here?” he asked. He dropped his shoulders a fraction of an inch, but he didn’t move from the doorway. His dark eyes scanned the room and he focused on the doorway leading to the kitchen.
“What? Oh. A couple of hours. I don’t sleep much. If I’m not here by four to start baking, it’s a train wreck.”
“You alone?” he asked. My throat ran dry.
“You mean other than you? Yes.”
“Hmm.” Beckett eased up a little. He put his hat on the counter and slid onto a stool. His warm smile worked on me as I poured his coffee and slid it to him.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I tend to get into my own little world when I’m back in the kitchen. It’s kind of my happy place.”
“Just you and the dough, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Listen,” he said, blowing over the steam in his mug. “I’d love to tell you I’m just here for the coffee, but I’m not. You really going to pretend you don’t know what’s going on?”
My heart hadn’t stopped its wild beating. Tommy went out the back door; it didn’t mean he was gone. It would be just like him to walk straight through the front again and take a seat next to Beckett. He would do it just for spite. To intimidate me. To get Beckett asking questions he wouldn’t like the answers to.
No. I would not let him rattle me. Not today. Not now. I’d worked too damn hard to get out from the crap Tommy and everything about him brought. That wasn’t my life. It never had been, no matter how much he tried to bully me into thinking otherwise.
“I think you better tell me,” I said.
He paused for a second, considering his words. In the span of one breath, I waited for the bottom to fall out from under me again.
“Somebody broke into Mrs. Morris’s store early this morning. Made a real mess of things and scared her half to death.”
I felt as if I were hung, suspended on a wire. The room spun and I slid my hands over the counter just so I could feel something solid and real. I kept the smile on my face and hoped Beckett Finch was no good at reading people’s eyes.
“Is she okay?”
He raised a brow. “She’s shook up. But thank God she wasn’t there when it happened. You’re saying you didn’t see anything?”
“What? No. I mean ... I would have called you immediately. You know I live in the rooms above the shop here. I always go to bed by nine or ten. I get up early. By three most days.”
Beckett nodded, considering my words. He ran his fingertip over the rim of his coffee mug. He had strong hands. Clean, tapered nails. I felt a flash of desire, wondering what they would feel like skimming my hips. I snapped my eyes wide. What in the world had gotten into me?
“Three, huh?”
“Do you know when this happened? I mean, doesn’t she have security cameras or something?” The moment I asked it, my blood ran stone cold. What if she did?
“No,” Beckett said, and my heart started beating again. “Mrs. M.’s a little old-fashioned. Everything about this town tends to be, in case you hadn’t noticed.” His eyes lifted, meeting mine.
A moment ago, Tommy reminded me how dangerous he could be. As Beckett Finch’s eyes studied me, I had the sense he could be just as cunning. What was it about him? He had the small-town, aw-
shucks sheriff thing down to a tee. And yet, something brewed under the surface of Beckett’s gaze. Cold. Calculating. Though he tried to pretend this was a casual call, instinct told me it was something else.
“I’m glad she’s all right,” I said. “Goodness. Did they take anything?”
Beckett sipped his coffee. “I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss too much. Ongoing investigation and all. You’re just ... sure you didn’t see or hear anything? I mean, haven’t you even looked out your front window this morning?”
I regarded him, then stepped around the counter. I flicked one set of blinds open next to the front door. Three patrol cars were parked at angles in front of Garnett’s Treasures across the street. Half the town had gathered, gawking. Shards of glass littered the sidewalk in front of her store where the window had been broken in.
I put a hand over my mouth. No. He didn’t. He wouldn’t. This wasn’t Tommy’s style. “Oh my God. You sure she’s all right?”
“I shouldn’t keep you,” Beckett said, sliding off the stool. He downed the last of his coffee and came to me, gripping his hat with both hands. “And I hope you don’t get the wrong idea about this but …”
I turned to him. Beckett’s expression changed from concern to something far grimmer. That same chill ran through my blood as I recognized it. “Are you accusing me of something?”
His eyes widened. “Lila …”
“No.” I stepped back. A little voice inside of me warned me to keep my cool. Dammit. If Tommy hadn’t shown up when he did, none of this would have rattled me. I couldn’t let Beckett sense anything. Not again. I would not let Tommy’s bullshit drag me down. Not here. Not this time.
“Did she say something? Does she actually think that I …”
Beckett held his hands up in surrender. “Now, just calm down. I’m just doing my job, Lila. You were here last night. I just wanted to know if you heard or saw anything. Mrs. Morris is an old woman and she’s upset.”