by Nan Sampson
The line shuffled forward and the woman at the head of the line, who had just collected her sack of food turned and stopped abruptly, staring at Ellie.
“You!”
It was Jeanne Hertz, and Ellie couldn’t tell whether the sour expression on her face was her usual sourness, or something special just for her. “Hi. It’s Mrs. Hertz, isn’t it?”
“You poor dear. I heard about what happened at your shop. Is there anything I can do?”
Ellie was taken by surprise at both the attitude and the offer. “Um, thanks, but no, I think I have – or rather, Marg and I have it under control. But it’s very sweet of you to offer.”
“I just feel terrible that your first few days in town have been so… well, harrowing. We here in Horizon pride ourselves on being good Christian neighbors. I hope none of this puts you in mind to leave.”
Ellie shook her head resolutely. “No. Not at all. I love it here.”
“Well, let me do my part in being neighborly. We’re having our monthly Ladies Auxiliary dinner at the Inn at the end of the month – why don’t you join us? It’ll be a great way to get to know folks – a great many of our citizens go to our church and we’re all very anxious to try your coffee shop.”
Ellie felt like running in the other direction. Fast. “Oh, I really couldn’t impose on a church gathering. Not being a congregation member and all, that just wouldn’t seem right.”
“Nonsense. I insist. You’ll be most welcome. Besides. My son, Todd, said he ran into you the other day at the Kwik Trip. He’ll be there – he always helps me – and I know he’d appreciate someone his own age to talk to. He gets a little tired of us old biddies, although he’d never say so, of course.”
People were watching them. Ellie could feel it. Watching and waiting to see what she’d say. She supposed she was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. “Well, if you’re sure it wouldn’t be an imposition”
“None at all. Good then. We’ll see you at 5:00. And here. She fished a piece of paper out of her pocket. “This is my business line – you had asked about a phone number the other day and I’ve been meaning to hunt you up to give this to you. But I knew I’d run into you sooner or later. If you need any fresh herbs – or even select dried ones – you let me know.”
Ellie tucked the piece of paper in her pocket. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
Jeanne gave her a small smile – an expression that looked unfamiliar on her normally pinched face. “Good then. Well. I should get this over to Todd.” She patted the large paper sack she carried. “I bring him his dinner now and again. Bachelors just don’t seem able to fend for themselves properly, do they?”
Ellie smiled noncommittally. Todd hadn’t looked as though he were incapable of caring for himself. “Thanks again, Mrs. Hertz.”
“You’re very welcome. See you around.”
Ellie gave her a wave, then realized it was her turn at the counter. The woman behind the counter was waiting, rather bemusedly, to take her order.
“Hi. You must be Ellie.” The chunky blond in the white and blue striped apron stuck out a plastic gloved hand. “I’m Madchen Schuler – one of your fellow shop owners.”
Ellie shook her hand, responding to the firm, solid grip. “I’m beginning to think someone passed around mug shots of me before I got to town.”
“I’m sure it’s disconcerting. It’s just that we get new blood so rarely – it’s a big deal! But I’ll bet you didn’t come in here to be accosted by ‘the church lady’ or to make small talk with me. What can I get you?”
Ellie glanced up at the menu board, realized she hadn’t even looked at it till now. “What have you got that’s vegetarian?”
Madchen grinned. “I can make almost anything veggie. But if you’d like a recommendation, I’d go with the Summer Corn Chowder, a fresh potato roll and a side of quinoa with cranberries. They’re not locally sourced of course, but they’re from a small, family run place in Maine.”
“Oh, wow. That sounds fabulous. Can I get that, times four?”
Madchen looked her up and down. “You don’t look like you could possibly eat that much.”
Ellie laughed. “It’s not all for me. I’ve got some helpers over at the shop – thought I’d bring them a bite for their trouble.”
Madchen’s sunny face fell. “I’m so sorry about what’s happened. Marg stopped in earlier.”
Trying to brush off any whiff of doom and gloom, Ellie gave a shrug. “It’ll be fixed up in no time.”
“With the dynamic duo helping you, that’s a slam dunk.” She passed Ellie’s order into the back where a young man worked making sandwiches and ladling soup into containers. “How about a round of lemonades too? Homemade.”
“Sounds perfect.” Ellie was glad the woman hadn’t offered her some sort of iced cappuccino drink. The less overlap between their establishments the better. She also noticed there wasn’t much in the way of sweets on her menu either – another good thing.
She rang up the order and took Ellie’s credit card, then while it was processing, leaned to look around Ellie. “Be right with you, Bill.”
Ellie glanced behind her with a start. She hadn’t heard the man come up from behind, nor had she sensed him there, which annoyed her. Something about the man defied what Charlie referred to as her “witchy” senses.
Gruetzmacher smirked at her – or at least she thought that was a smirk.
“Chief.”
“Ms. Gooden. Heard you got the Kemp twins on the job. Don’t think you’ll have to worry about that health inspector now.”
The twins apparently had an amazing reputation. “Thanks. I hope so.” She stepped aside to wait for her order to be ready and to let Gruetzmacher order. But he didn’t, just waited patiently at the counter while Madchen ran back into the kitchen, emerging a moment later with a sack.
“Here you go, Bill.” She passed the sack over to him with a brilliant smile. “I put extra mayo on the sandwich, just the way you like it.”
“Thanks, May. See you tomorrow night.” Then he tipped his hat, including Ellie in the gesture. “If you have some time tomorrow, Ms. Gooden, I’d appreciate it if you’d stop by the office for a few minutes.”
“Sure. Sometime in the afternoon be okay?”
“Just phone before you come, make sure I’m not out on a call.” He gave both of them a wave. “Night, then.”
Ellie watched him leave with trepidation, wondering what on earth he wanted to talk to her about. Had he made progress? In which case why didn’t he just say so?
She watched, feeling unsettled, as Madchen packaged up her order.
“Oh, don’t let him rattle you, Ellie. He likes to be all mysterious. Thinks it makes him look tough. But he’s just a big old teddy bear.” She looked pointedly at Ellie’s left hand. “You’re single, aren’t you, Ellie?”
“Yes. And determined to stay that way, before you or anyone else get any ideas.” She glanced at Madchen’s left hand, saw no ring on her finger. “You can have him.”
Madchen laughed. “I can see you’re going to be a lot of people’s favorite pet project.” She handed Ellie a large sack and the cardboard tray of drinks. “There’s a whole cadre of women who just can’t stand to see a woman our age without a masculine attachment. They’ve driven Laura Lincoln nearly mad trying to fix her up.”
Ellie groaned. “Poor Laura.”
“Yeah. A year or so ago, I thought that maybe they’d done it – she and Todd Hertz had been seen out together. But…” She leaned forward, forearms resting on the countertop, and dropped her voice. “Rumor has it Mama Hertz didn’t cotton to Laura. By the holidays, it was over, and Todd was back eating his meals at his mom’s.”
“Really?”
Madchen shrugged. “Well, that’s the scuttle butt anyway. But at that point Laura had enough to worry about anyway. That was when she got so sick.”
Heartsick, Ellie wondered? “Sick how?”
“Some kind of virus, I guess. They
never really could figure it out. Totally decimated her immune system. For a while, she thought she was going to have to sell the shop and move back in with her folks. But she’s tougher than she looks. She got through it, and now you’d never know.”
“How awful. Well, I’m glad she recovered. I like Laura.”
“Me too. Listen, has anyone told you about our little monthly get-togethers?”
Ellie shook her head.
“After the Business Association dinners, a few of us – a select few of us – get together for drinks over at the Salty Dog Tavern. You’ll come and join us, won’t you?”
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“Oh, you’ll fit right in. It’s me, Laura, Terri Kohler, Marta Krieger and JohnPeter Franklin. We’re either known as the fun ones or the trouble makers, depending on who you talk to. Please say you’ll come.”
Ellie grinned. She liked being lumped in with trouble makers. “Sure. Why not?”
“Great. Then we’ll see you then – or hopefully before, if you like my soup.”
“I have a feeling I’m going to become a regular, if it tastes as good as it smells.”
The bell over the door jangled as a handful of boisterous teenagers burst inside. Madchen gave Ellie and eye roll, then a wave, as the counter was mobbed.
Ellie waved back then headed out into the midnight blue evening and high tailed it across the street to her shop, hoping the soup wasn’t already getting cold.
Chapter 25
The kitchen sparkled. It gleamed. It shone like the bangles on the annual Christmas tree at the Daley Center. The workers, on the other hand, looked like something that had crawled out of a swamp after a hurricane.
But they were smiling. Laughing even. And when they saw the food, they were practically salaaming.
Marg made the introductions while she handed out the lemonade. “Ellie, this is Sara and this is Silas. They did the bulk of the work. I mostly just handed them things.”
“Oh, you did not. You did plenty of scrubbing.” That was Sara. Blonde haired and blue eyed, she was the good twin to her brother’s evil one. He was dark haired, dark eyed and his grin was full of mischief.
He flashed Ellie a grin. “Got anything stronger than lemonade?”
Ellie shook her head. “Sorry. Didn’t think about that.”
Sara gave her brother a scolding look. “Don’t mind him.”
“How on earth did you manage to do this so quickly?”
Marg relieved of the food and doled it out. “Bill and Sam finished up early - they ended up not calling in the guys from Madison. So we were in here just after 4:00. And these two are workhorses. In fact, Silas was telling me they just got a contract for crime scene clean up from the County.”
Ellie shuddered. “I don’t think I could do that. I imagine you need special equipment for that, don’t you?”
Sara nodded. “And training. But it’s a good gig, and we like to think we’re helping the families by getting things back to normal as quickly as we can. We even got to use some of the equipment today. Made things go a lot faster.” She took a bite of her dinner and groaned in delight. “Thank you so much. This was so thoughtful of you.”
“It’s the least I could do. It also gave me a chance to check out The Crock Pot again. This time I finally got to meet Madchen – she was out on deliveries the last couple of times I stopped in. I’m happy to see I won’t be competing with her for customers. Terri had told me that she primarily catered to the lunch crowd and I was afraid we’d be stepping on each other’s toes, even though she told me not.”
“Nah. May serves coffee, but it’s the stuff that comes out of a box. Some tea, iced tea in the summer and hot tea in the winter, but it’s the typical supermarket brands.” Marg grinned. “You two are perfectly complimentary.”
There was silence for some time as the three workers dug in. Soup containers rapidly emptied, and the couscous disappeared.
The food was wonderful – it seemed this whole town was conspiring to help Ellie gain weight – but Ellie was really hungry. When the other three had begun to slow down, she said, “So Madchen said that sometime in the not too distant past, Laura Lincoln and Todd Hertz were an item. Is that true?”
The two cousins looked at one another, then both looked curiously at Ellie. Sara said, “Why? Are you interested?”
Silas tossed in, “And if so, in which one? Laura or Todd?”
Marg coughed up some lemonade. “Silas!”
Ellie laughed. “Neither actually. I just wondered what Laura saw in Todd. They don’t seem to be much of a match.”
Sara toyed with her straw. “I hate to gossip—”
Her brother looked at her in mock surprise, but she continued after poking him in the ribs with an elbow. “But… I heard it was more Todd pursuing Laura than the other way round. When Mama Hertz decided Todd was getting too involved, she pulled the plug.”
Silas shook his head. “It wasn’t that. No, she was all for the match in the beginning. It wasn’t until she found out Laura was pagan that she had a seizure and made Todd call it quits.” Silas looked over at Ellie. “No offense to you, Ellie.”
Ellie shrugged. “None taken.” She finished off the last of her soup and sat back. She felt a little sorry for Todd. He seemed destined to pick the wrong women, at least where his mother was concerned. He definitely had a habit of dating ‘bad girls’ – bad in the sense that they didn’t fit his mother’s mold.
They finished up their meal, cleaned up the table and Ellie sent them all packing after thanking them again.
Finally aone, she pulled a smudge stick out of her purse, lit it and did a quick but thorough smudging of the space. Then, just in case Louisa decided to come back for an encore, she salted the thresholds. Later, she thought, when she had more time, she’d do a more serious protection spell, one her Aunt Tabitha had taught her, one that was supposed to reflect back negative energy. But she’d need a black candle and a mirror for that, and those were things she didn’t routinely carry in her purse.
Feeling a little better when she’d finished, she stood for a moment, looking at her shop, feeling as though things might actually start turning around now. The Health Inspector was due on Friday morning and based on what she could see, she stood a good chance of passing. Smiling, hopeful again, she locked up and headed back to the Inn.
Chapter 26
The dining room of the Inn was swamped the next morning. Mostly locals, but a few Inn guests as well, eating pancakes and waffles and omelets the size of footballs. The scent of coffee brewing and bacon frying was overpowering, and Ellie was happy to grab her cuppa and head out onto the veranda for a little fresh air.
Arabella came out a few minutes after Ellie sat down and collapsed into the Adirondack chair next to her. “Phew. What a morning. Thursdays are always All You Can Eat Waffle Day, so we always do a bang up business. But it was busier than usual today since everybody had to come in to talk about the memorial service. We’re having it here, you know. Tonight.”
“Oh, wow, I had completely forgotten. What time does it start? Is there any way I can help you?”
“No, dear. It’s all under control. It starts at 7:00, ends at 10:00.” She took a long drink from her cup of tea. “It’s all buffet, so there’ll be no serving. I have a podium for the minister, and for anyone who wants to get up and say a few words. I just hope…” She frowned. “I just hope no one gets up and says anything unpleasant. I don’t think Ingrid can take much more.”
“Will Louisa be there?”
“Oh, I imagine so. That’s why I’m worried. Why wouldn’t she be?”
Ellie wanted to say, ‘because she should be in jail’, but didn’t. “I wondered, since there was bad blood there…”
Arabella chewed on her lip. “I just hope she can be civil for the evening.” She sighed, stood. “Well. I’ve got to get started on lunch. And Marg said you were planning on running into Madison today. If I sent you with a very short list, do you think y
ou could pick up a couple of things for me?”
“Of course. I’d be happy to.”
An hour or so later, with list in hand, Ellie hopped in the car and headed down the highway for the big city.
If there was a god of traffic and directions, he clearly had it out for Ellie. It took her longer than she’d anticipated to drive into Madison proper because of a nasty accident then she found herself quickly lost on the one-way streets surrounding the city center. She found the three addresses she had been looking for, checked off the items on her list and stowed everything in the back of her car. Now she had just a little time left to window shop.
One store that drew her like a magnet, full of kitschy décor and other off the wall knick-knacks. She knew with a certainty she was going to find something perfect in there – had known since she’d first spotted the shop. Sure enough, ten minutes later, she walked out with her prize, a ceramic, black and white clock in the shape of a cow. It was so perfect, she wished there were someone with her to show it to.
Piling her treasures into her car, she wound her way out of the city and into the surrounding suburbs then turned off on an exit to fill up the gas tank before heading back to Horizon. The car was making that funny ticking sound again and she sent a quick prayer up to the Goddess that she made it back to Horizon before something under the hood blew.
She was standing at the pump, munching on an energy bar, watching the numbers click towards ten gallons when the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She felt as if she were being watched. She turned in a slow circle, but saw no one. Replacing the nozzle, she hit ‘yes’ for a receipt, but the moment she moved to face the pump again, the feeling of being watched returned.
Moving very slowly, focusing her attention on the direction the sensation was emanating from, she turned and found herself facing the corner of the station. And there, in the shadows, almost at ground level, was a pair of eyes shining in the gloom. She reached out with her mind, sensed fear. And hunger.