by Joyce Tremel
As we reached the top of the stairs, I heard the front door open. “Paisley must have come back.” I was about to call to her when I heard a man’s voice.
“Who’s there? Whoever you are, you’d better come out now. And for the record, I have a gun.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Candy shoved me behind her.
“I’m saying it one more time,” he said. “Who’s there?”
It had taken me a few seconds, but I recognized the voice. “Bruce?” I came out from behind Candy. “It’s me. Max O’Hara.” I moved to the dining room with Candy right behind me.
“Max?” Bruce Hoffman stood at the other end. He wasn’t carrying a gun. “What are you doing here?”
“Paisley let me in.” I told him the same tale we’d given Paisley—that we knew someone who was interested in buying the house.
“Leave it to Paisley to scare both of us half to death.” He gave us a half smile. “Sorry about the gun thing. I thought you might be burglars.”
Candy glared at him. “Do we look like burglars? You’re lucky we aren’t. If you ran into a real intruder who was armed, you’d be dead by now.”
I put a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. He’ll know better for next time.”
She gave him one last glare, then said she’d be on the front porch.
“What’s up with her?” Bruce asked.
“She’s just a little sensitive on the subject of guns.” I couldn’t very well tell him it probably reminded her a little of the encounter with Felix in Prague all those years ago. “What brings you here?”
“I stopped to pick up a few more things. Rhonda doesn’t need or want any of the household goods, so I’m getting rid of them for her. I gave Manny the TV, and a buddy of his is going to take the sofa.”
“It’s nice of you to help them out.”
He shrugged. “Rhonda said you’d been to see her.”
I told him about the visit and that I’d seen a couple of Doodle’s paintings.
“Doodle was pretty good with the brush.”
“He was,” I said. “Rhonda told me he took most of his paintings with him when he moved out but I didn’t see any here.”
“I took them for safekeeping. Empty house and all that. I didn’t want someone coming in and stealing them.”
“Makes sense to me.”
There was a pause, then Bruce said, “Well, if you’re done here, I can lock up.”
I took the hint and started for the door.
“By the way,” Bruce said, “did you ever figure out why Doodle called you?”
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, no.”
I still thought it had something to do with Felix and Candy and what had happened in the past, but I didn’t want Bruce to know that. The first thing he’d do would be to tell Felix.
Candy opened the door. “Are you ready to go yet?”
“I’m coming.” I was glad she’d interrupted. I told Bruce good-bye, and within minutes Candy and I were on our way back to Lawrenceville.
• • •
It was eight by the time I got back to the pub. I had dropped Candy off at her house first, declining her invitation to come in. The pub wasn’t especially busy, and when I told Nicole she could leave early, she took me up on it. I’d been working about an hour when Marcus Crawford came in. I grabbed a couple of menus and greeted him. “Is Philip joining you?” I asked.
“Nope. I’m all by my lonesome tonight.”
I led him to a small corner table. “How’s this?”
“Perfect.”
“How is the store coming along? Do you have an opening date yet?”
Marcus smiled. “It’s going great. I’m shooting for a soft opening the last week of this month then the grand opening will be the first of October.”
“That’s great. I think your place will be very popular. We needed something like that in the neighborhood.”
He gave me his drink order, and I left him to peruse the menu. When I returned with the stout he’d ordered, he asked me to join him. I went back to the bar and pulled a stout for myself and returned to the table. He gave his meal order to Cassie, who asked if I wanted anything. I started to tell her no, then realized I was hungry so I ordered my favorite appetizer—Buffalo chicken pierogies.
“That sounds like a winner.” Marcus grinned. “Not exactly a health food, though.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll share.”
“I love this neighborhood,” he said. “Everyone is so nice. Candy keeps trying to feed me. Daisy brought me a plant yesterday. Ken at the deli wants to stock some of my tea. Ralph up at the hardware store is giving me a huge discount. And Kristie has the best coffee anywhere.” He grinned. “Before you ask, I consider coffee a health food.” He held up his glass. “And so is this. They’re both full of antioxidants.”
I laughed. “Good to know.”
He asked if I planned on coming to the gallery on Thursday evening.
“I’m not sure.”
“I don’t blame you. I don’t think I’d be going if it wasn’t for Philip.”
I asked him why although I was pretty sure I knew the reason.
“Let’s just say I’m not exactly fond of that client and leave it at that.” Marcus sipped his beer. “So, why don’t you know if you’re coming to the gallery on Thursday?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Let me guess.” He sat up straight in his chair. He raised his hand like he was flipping imaginary hair over his shoulder. In a falsetto voice he said, “I was engaged to Jake when he was a famous hockey player, you know. I keep trying to get him a job in a real restaurant in a real city where he can be famous again. That Max person is a bad influence on him.”
I barely heard the last part because I was laughing so hard. “She actually said that?”
Marcus was laughing, too. “Not in those exact words, but yeah. She likes to rub it in that Jake played professional hockey while I only played college football.”
“That’s terrible.”
“She’s nice as anything to Philip. It bugs me that he thinks she’s this sweet, wonderful woman.”
“He’s not the only person who fell for her act,” I said. “She didn’t show her true colors to Jake for a long time.”
“She seems pretty good at showing her best side to only people who can help her. I’m not one of them, so I get to see what she’s really like. I tried saying something to Philip, but he thinks I’m imagining it.”
“You’re not.”
Cassie brought the Buffalo chicken pierogies and two plates to the table, and conversation halted for a bit while we ate.
“These are awesome,” Marcus said. “And definitely not health food.”
I wiped my fingers on a napkin. “Comfort food.”
He picked up another pierogi and dipped it into the ranch dressing. “In that case, I may need to order a second platter.”
When his meal arrived, I left Marcus to eat in peace and went back behind the bar. The rest of the evening was quiet. We were able to get a head start on the daily cleanup, which usually only began after we locked the doors for the night. It seemed like a long time since I’d stayed this late. My staff knew exactly what to do even when I wasn’t there to supervise, but it felt good to participate for a change. By eleven p.m., we had almost all of the work done and everyone got out on time.
Once I got home, I fed and played with Hops. Jake called after he got home from the game. He said the game had been tied and finally ended in a shootout with the Pens scoring the winning goal. After the game he and Mike had gone to a local bar with a few of his former teammates. Jake had to put up with a lot of ribbing because he’d been wearing a Penguins T-shirt. It was all good-natured and I think it did Jake good to hang out with them.
After that, I filled him in on what he’d mi
ssed while he was at the game, ending with, “Bruce said he took the paintings because he was worried about someone breaking in and taking them.”
“If someone broke in, I doubt they’d bother stealing paintings,” Jake said. “I don’t think a common burglar would know how to fence something like that. If anything, the burglar would vandalize them.”
“True. In any case, they’re not there. Not that it matters. Candy asked why I was so focused on seeing Doodle’s paintings, and I didn’t know what to tell her. I said I was just trying to make sense of things. I don’t like unanswered questions.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Jake said.
“I know.” I paused for a second. “Marcus stopped in tonight. He wanted to know if we were going to the gallery on Thursday.”
“Did you tell him no?”
“I said I didn’t think we were.”
“Good.”
“I’m not so sure that’s the right decision,” I said. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Oh, no.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “I warned you about that.”
“Ha ha. Very funny. I seem to remember saying exactly the same thing to you. I changed my mind about Thursday night. I think we should go.” Jake didn’t say anything so I continued. “Felix was there the last time when the painting was revealed, and if he’s that interested in the Vermeer, there’s a good chance he’ll show up again. It might be the only way to find out what he’s up to. Candy and Tommy are going, and if Felix really is after Candy, which I’m not sure he is at this point because he hasn’t tried anything, we’d be there to protect her.”
“I’m impressed,” Jake said.
“Really?”
“Yeah. You managed to say all that in one breath.”
“You’re lucky this is a phone call, Lambert. Seriously, what do you think?”
“I’ll go on one condition,” he said.
“And what’s that?”
“A condition is—”
“Jake! Be serious for a second.”
“Like I started to say, I’ll go on one condition. Keep Victoria as far away from me as possible.”
“Deal.” I was sure that Candy would be more than happy to help with that. It might not even be an issue. Victoria would be preening for the cameras and hobnobbing with the museum folks—provided that they lived up to her high standards.
We talked a little more then said good night. Hops sat on the bathroom sink while I got washed up, then made herself comfortable on the bed and fell asleep. Within minutes, I did the same.
• • •
Hops’s claws digging into my stomach woke me at three a.m. I groggily lifted her off me and put her on the bed beside me. She let out a loud meow that was nothing like any of her usual noises. I sat up. “What’s wrong, kitty?” I scratched the top of her head.
She meowed again, hopped down to the floor, and went to the bedroom doorway. She turned and looked at me like she expected me to follow.
“If you lead me to your food dish, you’re in big trouble.” I slid out of bed. I always kept the bedroom door partially open so Hops could come and go as she pleased and didn’t have to wake me to use her litter box. I opened the door all the way and followed Hops into the living room.
And that’s when I heard the noise. Someone was rattling the handle and fiddling with my front door.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Hops slunk to the door and hissed. Even though the deadbolt was locked, I rushed back into the bedroom and dumped a pile of clothes off the old straight-backed chair in the bedroom. I carried the chair into the living room and jammed the back of it under the doorknob. Then I grabbed my phone and dialed 911. I was tempted to yell at whoever was outside my door that I’d called the police, but if I did, I’d scare them away. It would be better if he was still there when the police arrived.
The noise outside the door stopped. Hops alternated between pacing back and forth in front of the door and coming over to where I stood and butting her head against my leg. I thought I was handling the situation very calmly until a hard knock on the door just about made me jump out of my skin. My voice was shaky when I asked who was there.
“Police.” He gave me his name and I recognized him as the officer who had responded to a call at the pub a few months ago.
I moved the chair, picked up Hops so she wouldn’t escape, and unlocked the door.
“You might want to see this.” The officer pointed to his side of the door.
I pulled the door open all the way. Whoever had been messing with the handle had left a note for me, written directly on the door with a bold black marker.
GIVE IT UP.
“Give what up?” I said aloud. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You don’t have any idea?”
I had plenty of ideas but none of them made any sense. There were footsteps on the metal stairs and the officer shooed me back into my apartment. I hoped it was the note-leaver coming back so he could be arrested—after he cleaned the ink from my door. I was slightly disappointed it wasn’t, and more than slightly surprised that it was Vincent Falk.
“Is everything okay here?” he asked.
The officer looked a little confused. “Fine. Why are you here? I didn’t request a detective.”
“I was in the neighborhood and heard the call,” Vince said.
I stepped back out into the hallway. “Vince and I are friends.” It was probably news to Vince. To me as well.
The officer looked at Vince then at me and smiled. “Oh, I get it.”
My face grew hot and I was sure it was beet red. “Not that kind of friend! We’re acquaintances. Actually he almost arrested me once . . .” I didn’t know what else to say.
Vince looked like he was trying not to smile. “I believe this is the first time I’ve ever seen you speechless, Max.” He turned to the officer. “Her dad and I are partners. When I heard the call, I thought I should check and make sure she was all right.”
After a bit of back slapping between the two, we finally went inside and I gave the officer my report. He photographed the note on the door, and Vince dusted the lock and the door for fingerprints. Unfortunately they were all smudged. Now I not only had black marker to clean off the door, I had black fingerprint dust as well.
The officer went on his way, but Vince didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave. It was almost my normal time to get up so I offered him coffee. He took a seat on the sofa. Hops decided he was trustworthy and curled up beside him. I handed him a mug and sat down.
“You were in the neighborhood?” I raised an eyebrow and gave him a slight smile. I knew where he must have been.
His cheeks got a little pink. It was kind of cute. “Yes, I was.”
The romance between Vince and Kristie must be really heating up if he only left her place at three a.m. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
“It’s not a secret. We’re just keeping it low-key.”
I laughed. “Low-key? With Kristie?”
“Good point,” he said. “That’s not why I’m here, though. What’s going on that someone would put that message on your door? What does it mean?”
“I’m not sure what it means.”
“Are you poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong again?”
Two months ago that question would have made me angry. At the time Vince and I hadn’t seen eye to eye on his case—the one in which he’d been sure that Jake and I had committed murder. When I had uncovered the real killer, he’d apologized and admitted he’d been wrong so I was willing to forgive and forget. “No. Not exactly anyway.”
“Not exactly. I don’t like the sound of that. Tell me it doesn’t have anything to do with that body you found.”
I couldn’t do that so I didn’t say anything.
“You can’t stay out of trouble, can you?”
He let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’m probably going to regret this, but tell me everything.”
So I did. Most of it anyway. As far as Candy’s story, I told him only that she had known Felix by another name when she was younger.
Vince finished his coffee and set his cup on the end table beside him. “Do you mind if I give you some advice?”
“I’d say I did mind, but I know you’d give it to me anyway.”
“You’ve obviously shaken someone up enough to leave that note on your door. Take it seriously.”
“That’s it? That’s your advice?”
He gave me a slight smile. “Don’t worry, there’s more. Tell Mitch Raines everything you’ve told me. Although it could be a coincidence that the woman’s husband and brother died in apparent break-ins, he needs to know—if he doesn’t already. He’ll want to look into that.” He stood. “I’d better get going.”
I walked him to the door. “Thanks for checking on me.”
He nodded. “Once you talk to Mitch, leave the investigating to him. Talk to your father, too—or I will.”
“You’d tattle on me?”
“In a heartbeat,” he said. He wasn’t smiling—he was serious. “If something bad happens and Sean finds out I knew about this and didn’t tell him . . .”
He didn’t have to finish the sentence. “I get the picture. I’ll make the calls.”
“It was nice chatting with you, Miss O’Hara.”
I smiled at the formality. I’d kind of missed it. “Likewise, Detective Falk.”
After he left, I managed to clean the fingerprint dust off the door, but the marker was permanent. Three different cleaners did nothing. I even tried nail polish remover, but all it did was smear the letters. I didn’t want to bother the rental company, so I’d get some paint and fix it myself. But first, I had to shower and get to work.
• • •
I was meeting Daisy at Beautiful Blooms at nine so I had just enough time to check all the fermenters before heading up the street. She had just unlocked the door to the shop when I arrived.