Unexpected Sparks

by Gina Dartt

  Nikki seemed to have difficulty meeting her eyes. “I’m just saying that if you become my friend, other people will think you’re...like me. For someone like you, that probably wouldn’t be any good.”

  “Someone like me. What does that mean?”

  Nikki frowned, flushing furiously, obviously very uncomfortable with the whole situation. “Someone who’s preeminent in the business community. Someone who’s active in all the social things that happen around town, someone who’s on the town council. It could hurt your business, maybe even a lot.”

  “Ah.” Kate remembered how much stir she had caused in that same town council when she first began carrying gay and lesbian books, primarily from the mayor’s wife. Abigail Jenkins claimed she was carrying pornography and threatened to start a protest outside her store. Facing down the woman with the coldly logical explanation that even if these books were predominantly adult-oriented, which she wasn’t prepared to liken to pornography in any way, Kate explained that she needed to expand her customer base or the store would go under, as had a great many other businesses in the downtown. She finished by saying that she certainly wasn’t going to run her shop according to the outmoded beliefs of a woman who was obviously far more worried about what consenting adults did in the privacy of their homes than she was about keeping the downtown core active and thriving, which was what the meeting had been about in the first place.

  Kate’s cool, calm presentation had quieted Abigail, though it undoubtedly had made her a lifelong enemy. She apparently impressed the other council members, because not another thing had been said about it. But she also agreed that Nikki had a point. Was that why she had suddenly started to curtail her visits to the store? Was it an effort to protect her somehow? A glow abruptly spread through Kate that she might care so much. “I choose my own friends.”

  Nikki suddenly lifted her gaze. “You do? I mean...it really wouldn’t bother you—”

  “Nikki, I don’t invite just anyone into my home.” Kate reached out and put her hand on Nikki’s arm, feeling her warmth even through the thick coat. “I appreciate that you’re trying to protect me, but it isn’t necessary. I do thank you for the gesture, though, despite how misguided it is.”

  Nikki was looking down again. “I just don’t want you to...be embarrassed to be my friend.”

  Kate’s heart ached. Who had hurt Nikki so badly to put that amount of pain in her voice? “I can’t imagine that ever happening.”

  Nikki regarded her uncertainly for a moment and then looked away. “I still better go,” she said quietly. “It’s almost five-thirty.”

  “God, so it is.” Kate gave a brief laugh. “I have to open up in a few hours.” Nikki smiled suddenly, and Kate felt her heart give a sudden twinge.

  “I guess I’m lucky I don’t have to be at Keebler’s until ten.”

  “You’re fortunate.”

  Nikki tried to edge past Kate. “Still, I have to go.”

  “Of course.” Kate stepped aside. “I’ll see you later?”

  “Yeah, I’ll talk to you later.”

  Then she was gone, and Kate was left with the distinct impression that this night would forever change her life...in more ways than one.

  Chapter Six

  The Mayflower Diner was abuzz when Nikki walked in the next afternoon. Existing for as long as she could remember, the small restaurant was owned by a couple who provided excellent food at reasonable prices. Furthermore, the garishly colored vinyl booths along the walls and scarred wooden tables in front of the large windows looking out onto Inglish Place offered a place to socialize and chat for those who lived and worked in the downtown. The fire had been the most exciting thing to happen in years, and it was obviously good for business. The place was crowded even though it was well after lunch and a little too early for supper. Fortunately, Nikki’s timing was unnaturally perfect for just as she walked in, a couple rose from the table near the window. Nikki wasted little time in grabbing it, removing her coat, and draping it over the chair.

  “Nikki, did you hear?”

  Nikki looked up as Kim McKinnon promptly plopped down in the chair opposite her. “The fire, you mean? I saw it.”

  “No, I’m talking about the body they pulled out of the rubble early this afternoon.” Kim shrugged out of her jacket, which sported a logo for the Sportsplex where she was an aerobics instructor. A wiry strawberry blonde, she had always been into sports, and her basketball records at Truro High would probably stand for years. Kim and her partner, Lynn, an accountant with her own business, had been the first gay people Nikki had ever met when she hesitantly walked into their potluck gathering not long after she had graduated high school. They had helped make the acknowledgment of who she truly was a much easier transition. Nikki was aware that she could easily have fallen in with another type of crowd during such a delicate stage in her life, one which didn’t consist primarily of couples in long-term relationships...one where she could have developed a somewhat damaging perception of what being gay was all about.

  Nikki felt dizzy. “Body?”

  “A lot of people think it’s Sam Madison. But there’s been no official identification yet.” Kim leaned closer, lowering her voice. “I also heard there was a hole in the corpse’s head...maybe even a bullet hole.”

  “Jesus,” Nikki blurted. She took a breath and composed herself. “Are you sure?”

  Kim shrugged. “It’s not as if I was there when they hauled it out. I’m just repeating what I heard from people who were.”

  “A murder.” Nikki leaned back in her seat and found it somewhat difficult to breathe. She wasn’t sure why the news was impacting her this hard, unless it was the fact she had watched the fire last night from Kate’s apartment and didn’t for one moment think of someone being inside, burning in the flames, their flesh shriveling... She swallowed hard and cursed her overactive imagination. She couldn’t imagine a worse way to die. “That’s just...incredible.”

  “Did you see anything last night, Nikki?” Kim and Lynn lived across the Salmon River Bridge in Bible Hill, and it was unlikely they had even seen the smoke from their house.

  “Just a lot of firemen and spectators.” Nikki hesitated, not sure if she should add this last part but decided to go ahead. “Mrs. Shannon invited me in to watch the fire from her apartment.”

  Now it was Kim’s turn to lean back in her chair as she stared at Nikki. “Kate Shannon? The owner of the bookstore?”

  Nikki nodded.

  “Why would she invite you in?”

  Nikki started to respond, hesitated, and then shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Nikki seemed about to add more when Addy, the diner’s primary waitress and part owner, finally made it over to their table to take their order. Kim ordered a hamburger platter, totally at odds to the image of health and fitness she was supposed to represent. Nikki ordered only a glass of milk.

  Once the waitress had slipped away, Nikki asked, “What have you heard about Kate?”

  “‘Kate,’ is it?” Kim eyed her narrowly. “What happened to ‘Mrs. Shannon’?”

  Nikki’s face grew warm. She felt like she was about to be forced into admitting something she wasn’t ready to face, and finally Kim relented when she didn’t say anything further.

  “I haven’t heard much, Nikki. She’s active in everything in town, yet at the same time, she’s pretty private. Since her divorce, she’s stayed out of circulation, at least as far as sleeping around is concerned, unless she and her partner, or partners, are far more discreet than this town is known for.” She shrugged. “The basic conclusion is that ‘Kate don’t date.’ You don’t think she’s hanging in the closet?”

  “No.” Nikki felt a tug of regret at her certainty. “She’s just...really nice.” She glanced down and felt awkward. “I like her.”

  “God, let’s not go there again,” Kim said, and Nikki raised her eyes sharply.

  “I’m not, so forget it.”

  Startled, Kim looked at her a
nd nodded. “Sorry. It’s just...there’s no future in straight chicks, Nik. You should know that, especially after Anne. Even if they do give it a try, it’s only because they’re curious, and it’s only on their terms. Once the fun has worn off, they’re back to what they’re most comfortable with, and they don’t even want to know you exist anymore.”

  That was what had hurt most about the whole situation, Nikki remembered. Not so much that it hadn’t worked out, but that when it was over, Anne no longer wanted to talk to her, not even in passing, apparently wanting to forget the relationship had ever happened. As if it had been embarrassing…as if being with Nikki had been shameful. With an effort, she swallowed back the misery that rose in her chest whenever she thought of the woman she had fallen so hard for, had actually moved into the city to be near, leaving behind her friends and family. It had been hard to give up her heart so completely, only to have it handed back dismissively as nothing anyone would want.

  “I’m just saying Kate’s friendly. What’s wrong with being friends?”

  “Well, you could do worse than to make friends with Kate Shannon,” Kim said, glancing sideways as her meal arrived. “She knows just about everyone in town, and if there are any better jobs floating around, she can probably put you on an inside track for them. Have you come across any?”

  “Not yet.” Nikki sipped her drink. She had been attempting to find a better-paying, more stable position than her clerical job at Keebler’s, but such positions were scarce in Truro. “Besides, that’s not why I want to be friends with her.”

  “Nikki.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t do this again.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Good.” Kim bit vigorously into her hamburger. “I really don’t want you to get hurt or move away again.” She nudged over her plate. “Have some fries, will you? They always pile on way too many.”

  Which was exactly why she had ordered the platter, Nikki knew, but she didn’t demur, readily helping herself to the crispy home-cut potatoes and dipping them in the barbeque sauce that Kim had poured onto the side of her plate.

  “Listen, why don’t you come over Saturday night? We’ll get some of the girls together, have a few drinks, and commiserate over your new state of affairs.”

  “I could use some cheering up.” Nikki felt a flash of genuine enthusiasm. As far as the town’s small, tightly knit community of lesbians and gays went, Kim and Lynn were, without question, the leaders. They coordinated all of the social events, with some smaller gatherings occurring right in their home. Though Nikki sometimes felt very much like a fifth wheel because everyone else in the group was paired off, it still promised her a good time, something she desperately needed.

  “It’ll work out.” Kim took another bite of her hamburger before dragging the subject back to the hot topic of the moment. “If it was Sam they dragged out of the ashes, I wonder who did him in.”

  “Kate said...” Nikki began, and then stopped.

  Kim’s eyes assessed her alertly. “What?”

  Nikki sighed and repeated what Kate had told her the night before. “Don’t spread it around.”

  “I won’t.” Kim looked thoughtful. “If a woman was visiting Sam last night, it’s pretty quiet as to who it could have been, which is unusual for him. He couldn’t keep anything secret.”

  “Did he really get around that much?”

  “If it had breasts and breathed, he had a go at it. Christ, he even made a pass at me one night while I was working the front desk. He was really nice about it, though.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  Kim shrugged. “I’m not saying I was interested. I’m just saying that he had a way of doing it that was charming in an odd sort of way.”

  Nikki wondered if Kate Shannon had ever succumbed to his apparent charms, conscious of the card, which she had retrieved from her trash basket and now had tucked into her jacket pocket. “How do you know about...the others?”

  “Hey, you pick up a lot where I work. The Sportsplex is the only place in town, with the exception of the liquor store, where everyone shows up at least once.”

  Nikki granted that was true. Built only a few years earlier as part of the effort to revitalize the downtown core, the large structure sprawled over the area where a gigantic old warehouse had once been located, not far from where the insurance office had burned down. It included a heated pool, a gym, and a virtual golfing range, providing a lot of jobs and a central recreational facility for Truro. It had also significantly increased business in the surrounding area. Its use wasn’t limited to the sporting community either, also providing space, at a very minimal charge, for various organizations, from the War Veterans to the local Quilting Society, to hold their meetings.

  Nikki had attended classes there for her computer courses and had visited the gym often for her morning workouts. The local Gay & Lesbian Support Group held their committee meetings there once a month. Sooner or later, everyone who participated in any activity in Truro visited the complex.

  “Listen, was Sam a regular?”

  Kim nodded. “Religiously. He worked out every day, even on Sundays and holidays. To my knowledge, the only time he missed was a weekend in January when he was out of town.”

  “Where’d he go?” Nikki asked, remembering the message on the card.

  “How would I know?” Kim tilted her head slightly. “Why are you so interested? Trying to solve the mystery all on your own?”

  Nikki laughed and shook her head. “I’m just thinking out loud. Do you think one of the women he was involved with killed him?”

  Kim frowned. “You know, I’d be quicker to think it was a husband or boyfriend rather than any of the women.” She popped a fry into her mouth. “Or maybe it had nothing to do with sex.”

  “You could be right. Most crime does seem to come down to one thing, and it usually isn’t passion.”

  “Money,” they both said in the same breath, and then laughed. They quickly stopped as they remembered what they were laughing about.

  “God, he’s really dead, isn’t he?”

  “Someone is.” Nikki shook her head. “A hell of a thing to happen in a town this small.”

  “Don’t kid yourself. There are a lot of secrets in small towns. In this case, one of them was terrible enough to kill for.”

  Nikki lifted her brows. “Or die for.”

  Chapter Seven

  As Kate went over the invoice for the next week’s order, noting which of her books needed to be shipped back due to slow sales, Sheila Fisher waited on the Thursday-evening customers. The high school student worked two evenings, as well as on Saturdays, freeing Kate from spending her entire time in the store. Though Kate often worked anyway, the latitude Sheila’s help afforded her made every penny of the teenager’s wages worth it.

  When the bell above the door jangled, Kate glanced up from her invoice and was astounded at the way her stomach clenched as Nikki walked in. She immediately rose and motioned for her to come over, almost overwhelmed by Nikki’s smile. The open expression made Nikki’s previous withdrawal even more striking, and Kate’s reaching out to her the previous night had obviously played a part in the change. Once more, Nikki was the warm, sweet person she had come to know, and Kate experienced a small moment of disorientation, wondering just where their friendship would lead. Then Nikki was standing in front of her, and she forgot everything but the devastating blue of her eyes.

  “Hi,” Nikki said, seeming breathless.

  “Hi.” Kate decided she had pretty much used up her inanity quotient for the day. She swallowed and smiled. “Two visits in one week. I’m amazed.”

  When Nikki flushed and drew back, Kate mentally kicked herself. Becoming more intimate with the young woman would apparently be similar to befriending a wild animal. It would take both time and patience, not to mention a great deal of care. What surprised her was how much she needed and wanted to do it, regardless of how much work it took or what the end result would be.


  “I wanted your opinion on something.” Nikki peered at her from beneath lowered lashes. “If you’re not too busy.”

  “Of course.” Kate motioned toward the back of the store. “Come on up to the apartment, and you can tell me over some hot chocolate.” She glanced over at the counter. “Sheila, I’ll be upstairs for awhile.”

  The teen raised her hand absently, seeming to be completely focused on the customer she was helping, and Kate led Nikki through the used section to the rear staircase. Upstairs, Kate took her jacket and hung it in the closet. “Have a seat.” She gestured at the chairs lining the breakfast bar as she walked into the kitchen.

  While Nikki perched on the high, wooden stool, Kate prepared the drinks, remembering how many spoonfuls of hot chocolate Nikki had used the night before and pouring a coffee for herself. Kate placed the mug in front of Nikki as she sat down beside her. “What’s up?”

  Nikki dug into her pocket and placed a card on the counter. “I found it in the book I bought yesterday. Maybe Madison is the ‘Sam’ who signed it.”

  Kate picked up the card and read the inscription inside, then frowned as she looked at Nikki. “Possibly, but I would have no way of knowing.”

  Nikki looked extremely uncomfortable. “I thought…Does the card belong to you?”

  “Did you honestly think it did?” She wondered if she should be insulted. First, Rick and now Nikki...did everyone think she was that desperate? “I’ve never been out with Sam.”

  Nikki nodded, her features relaxing. “Okay…I’m glad.”

  “Why?” Kate eyed her keenly. “Why are you glad?”

  Nikki flushed. “I didn’t…” She floundered. “It’s...” She swallowed so hard that the muscles in her throat moved visibly. “You could do a lot better than being Sam Madison’s mistress. I’m just glad that you know that, too.”

  Kate was suddenly amused. “Ah.” She regarded Nikki evenly, then added with a touch of wickedness, “What constitutes ‘better’?” Nikki’s eyes rose to meet hers intently, warm and frightened at the same time, but she didn’t respond, and Kate’s common sense urged her not to pursue the subject...not yet. Instead she asked, “Why do you think this might be a ‘clue’?”