Beauty and the Thief

by Jeff Shelby

  It sounded more like a warning than a request.

  Aidan’s Adam’s apple bobbed a couple of times but he managed a quick nod. He stood up, wiped his hands down the front of his shorts, and picked up his plain black ball.

  He stood there for a moment, eyeballing the lane. With a deep breath, he started down the lane, launching the ball with his right hand. It looked like a good, clean serve…until it wobbled to the left and ended in the gutter.

  Another collective groan sounded from the team.

  Aidan’s cheeks burned red as he waited for his ball on the return. He stole a quick glance at me and I tried to give him an encouraging look but I wasn’t feeling particularly hopeful. He’d started out promising enough, and I’d been impressed with his form, but a gutter ball was still a gutter ball. Even I knew that.

  I picked up my glass and drained what was left of my soda. Maybe the cup would obscure my view so I wouldn’t have to see Aidan’s next roll.

  It didn’t.

  I watched, holding my breath as the ball sailed down the lane. To my surprise—and Aidan’s, by the look on his face—the ball struck the center pin, knocking all of them over.

  Rudy’s team erupted with cheers and Aidan pumped his fist, a huge smile on his face as he made his way back to his seat.

  Rudy thumped him on the back. “Nice work! Now let’s see if we can get you a strike next time. Playing like this isn’t gonna cut it.”

  Someone with a beard and a man bun picked up a ball. Part of me was curious to see how well he played, but I forced my attention away from the game.

  We weren’t there to bowl. We were there to get information.

  “You said something about secrets,” I began, once I caught Rudy’s eye.

  “I did?”

  I nodded. “Before we started the game.” I swallowed, feeling the heat once again threatening to climb up my neck and my cheeks. “When you found out about me and Aidan.”

  He grinned. “Oh, yeah. Could have knocked me down with a feather, I was so surprised. Who knew the two of you are a thing?”

  No one, I thought. Not even me.

  I gave my head a slight shake.

  Focus. I needed to focus.

  “What other secrets were you talking about?” I tried to keep my voice as casual as I could.

  But Rudy wasn’t done talking about Aidan and me. “So what’s it like dating someone you work with?” he asked. “I drive a truck by myself all day long so I wouldn’t know the first thing about trying to have a relationship with a co-worker. Of course, Mandy at the warehouse is pretty cute. I thought about asking her out a couple years back, but then she got married. Anyway, even if we ever had gotten together, we don’t really work together, you know? Not like you and Aidan do.”

  I glanced at Aidan, hoping he might jump in and try to redirect Rudy. But he just smiled and sipped his soda.

  “Right, well…” My voice trailed off because I had nothing to say. Because Aidan and I weren’t dating.

  “You guys make a nice couple,” Rudy offered.

  “Thanks,” Aidan said.

  I shot him a look. Way to speak up now.

  “Back to secrets,” I said, once again trying to redirect the conversation. “What others do you know about?”

  Rudy held up a finger, his eyes on his teammate. The guy bowled a strike and Rudy howled along with the rest of the team.

  “What?” he said to me, but his gaze was still locked on his teammates.

  “Secrets,” I prompted.

  He shook his head. “Nah, I don’t know about any other secret relationships at Oasis Ridge. Now, I do know two cashiers at the candy store are going out, and I’m pretty sure a doctor and one of the nurses are a couple over at that clinic by the bay.”

  I took a deep breath. “I didn’t mean other relationships,” I said. “I meant other secrets at Oasis Ridge.”

  His expression immediately clouded.

  “What?” I tried not to sound too eager.

  He folded his hands and looked to the ground. “She didn’t want me to say anything.”

  She? I looked at Aidan to make sure he was paying attention. This was the moment we were waiting for. The moment we got the information we needed to prove Anne was behind June’s break-in.

  Aidan’s eyes were wide, his mouth slightly agape.

  Good. He was listening.

  “Who?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I told her I’d keep it a secret. And I think I kind of want to ask her out.”

  I couldn’t hide my shock. “You want to ask Anne out?”

  He looked up, horrified. “Anne? No, of course not.” He wrinkled his nose. “She’s at least ten years older than me and as sour as a lemon. Why would I ever want to ask her out?”

  I frowned. “Then who are you talking about?”

  He was quiet for a minute, clearly torn about sharing any more information.

  “You can tell us,” I said.

  He chewed his lower lip.

  “Tell us,” I pleaded. “We won’t say anything.”

  Rudy expelled a breath. “Fine. It’s Jackie.”

  EIGHTEEN

  That was not the name I’d expected to hear.

  “Jackie?” I said.

  A telltale blush crept up Rudy’s neck.

  What kind of secret did Jackie have?

  I wanted answers.

  I shifted closer to Rudy and fixed him my sweetest smile. “I didn’t know you liked Jackie.” I didn’t care in the least about his feeling for the yoga instructor but I figured I should engage in some small talk first before grilling him with questions.

  He nodded. “What’s not to like? She’s an amazing woman.”

  “She certainly is,” I agreed. But inside I was remembering what Denise had told me regarding Jackie’s fight with June, along with what I’d heard during my own conversation with her.

  Rudy sighed, a dreamy expression on his face. “She’s a beauty. And such a kind spirit. Did you know she has me thinking about taking up yoga?” He shook his head and then, in a lowered voice, said, “Don’t tell these guys that.”

  I smiled. “I won’t.” I waited a beat before glancing at Aidan, who nodded his head in support. “So Jackie has a secret, huh? Is she opening up a new yoga studio or something?”

  Rudy shook his head. “No, nothing like that. But I’m sure if business goes as well as she thinks it will, that might not be out of the question.”

  “Oh? She’s doing well?”

  “Well, she’s trying to grow her business,” he said. “That’s why she’s at Oasis Ridge.”

  That didn’t make a lot of sense to me. “But she volunteers there.”

  He nodded. “Right.”

  “I’m not following…”

  He hesitated for a minute before slowly pulling his wallet from his back pocket. He opened it and fished out a card. He handed it to me.

  “This is a business card,” I said as I read the words printed on the small white card. “For Jackie. Private lessons?”

  He nodded again.

  “Why do you have them?”

  “This is the part I’m not supposed to talk about,” he said with a sheepish smile. “As much for her as for me.” His voice dropped to a whisper again. “It could get me fired, you know.”

  I actually didn’t know because I was still clueless as to what he was talking about.

  “How?” I asked.

  He raked a hand over his greased back hair. “She’s trying to grow her private lessons,” he said, a little haltingly. “And, well, she asked me if I could help distribute her business cards.”

  Aidan spoke up. “In the community?”

  “No, at Oasis Ridge.”

  I frowned. “Why would she ask you to do that?”

  “Because I could get them into residents’ apartments.”

  I wasn’t sure I’d heard him correctly. “What?”

  “She gave me a bunch of them,” he explained. “And she asked if I could
drop them off with packages I delivered. Or slip them inside packages if I left them at the front desk.”

  That sounded completely unethical, on both of their parts.

  Rudy must have noticed something in my expression because he got defensive. “Look, I deliver stuff all the time. Prescriptions, gifts, even groceries. And Jackie is really passionate about helping the residents be the best they can be. She thinks yoga is the ticket to a healthier life and, well, I tend to agree. If she could convince even one of them to spend more time doing her classes, it would be for the better.”

  He sounded sincere, albeit a little brainwashed.

  “Rudy,” a guy with thick glasses and a goatee said. “You’re up!”

  Rudy bounced to his feet, instantly shifting his focus back to the game. “You can do this,” he said to himself. He cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck from side to side. It looked like he was heading into the ring. With a look of fierce determination, he headed for the ball return and picked up his neon green ball.

  I immediately turned to Aidan. He looked as dumbfounded as I felt.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know,” he whispered back. “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking this adds new information to what we already know about Jackie.”

  He nodded.

  “But we still don’t know the most important thing,” I said. “The whole reason we came here in the first place.”

  “Why Rudy was in June’s apartment that morning,” Aidan said with a frown, voicing my thoughts.

  “Exactly.”

  “We need to ask him,” I said. “I’m going to. As soon as he comes back. We need answers.”

  The sound of a ball cracking pins and cheers from the team pulled my attention away from the conversation.

  And soon Aidan was pulled away, too.

  “You’re up,” Rudy told him, rubbing his hands together. “Do me proud, kid. Match my strike.”

  I took a deep breath, readying myself to ask my next question.

  Aidan gave me a warning look. “Wait.”

  It was a single word. To anyone who heard it, it could have meant a multitude of things. Wait to order food. Wait to get another drink. Wait here for me.

  But I knew exactly what he was referring to.

  He didn’t want me to ask Rudy anything until he was done with his turn.

  I just smiled and nodded and watched him walk toward the lane, grabbing his plain black ball along the way.

  As soon as he was poised to launch it down the polished wood, I whirled back to face Rudy.

  “I have one more question.”

  He was watching Aidan but after a few seconds his eyes drifted to me.

  I didn’t look away, even though my heart thundered against my ribcage.

  “What were you doing in June’s room the morning all of her stuff was destroyed?”

  NINETEEN

  The color drained from Rudy’s face.

  I leaned closer. “Well?”

  The team erupted in another cheer but our eyes were firmly locked on each other, even after Aidan returned and asked, in a somewhat confused voice, “What did I miss?”

  I didn’t look at him. “Rudy was just about to tell me why he was in June’s apartment the morning of the vandalism and robbery.”

  “Sunny…” Aidan’s voice was thick with disappointment. He’d asked me to wait and I’d forged ahead without him.

  A tiny part of me felt bad.

  But I didn’t feel bad enough to stand down.

  Rudy shoved his hands in his pockets. “It’s none of your business,” he muttered.

  On any other day, my response to this statement probably would have been different. I would have acknowledged—internally, at least—that it really wasn’t any of my business. Self-doubt would kick in, and I would back down a little, rephrase and try a new approach.

  But today was different.

  I was tired of dead-ends and tired of rounding a corner and finding another roadblock. Rudy knew something, something he wasn’t telling us, and I was determined to find out what it was.

  “You were in her apartment,” I said evenly. “Uninvited.”

  Rudy glared at me. “That’s not true.”

  “Then tell us why you were there. What you were doing. Because we know you weren’t delivering packages. You came back later that morning with your delivery. We saw you.”

  Anger and uncertainty flickered across his features as he took a step toward me.

  Aidan, perhaps sensing some kind of danger I didn’t, moved forward and planted himself between the two of us.

  He held up a hand. “Take it easy.” The words were benign but an unmistakable warning was threaded in his voice.

  Rudy glanced over at his teammates. Someone from the opposing team was up, and everyone was watching as he stood ready at the lane.

  “Fine,” Rudy snapped, bringing his attention back to us. “You want answers? Come outside.”

  He spun on his heel and stormed away from his team and down the aisle toward a side exit.

  “I told you to wait,” Aidan muttered.

  “I know.” Now I felt bad. “What do we do?”

  “Well, do you want answers?”

  I nodded.

  “Then I guess we head outside.”

  I balked. “But what if he does something crazy? Like try to kill us?” All kinds of scenarios flitted through my mind.

  The look on Aidan’s face told me he hadn’t considered this possibility. “Kill us?” he repeated.

  I nodded. Anything was possible.

  I looked around us. “Do you see anything we could use to protect us?” I briefly considered a bowling ball. Launching that at someone’s head could stun them or knock them out.

  Aidan just stared at me.

  “You don’t happen to carry any plant-based poisons around, do you?” I asked, remembering how his knowledge of poisons was what led us to discover who had been responsible for Arthur Griggs’s death. “Although that probably wouldn’t be good for self-defense, would it?”

  His headshake was faint, almost imperceptible.

  My eyes swept a nearby table and I hurried toward it, with Aidan reluctantly following behind. “Here,” I said, whirling around to face him.

  “A spork?”

  I held it out to him. “You take one and I’ll take one, too. The ends are kind of sharp.”

  He used a finger to easily break off a prong, then held it up without comment.

  I swallowed. “It’s better than nothing.”

  He tossed his broken spork into a nearby trashcan and headed toward the exit, and I was suddenly on his heels, hurrying along to keep up with him.

  The night air was warm and muggy when Aidan pushed the door open, a stark contrast to the icy air conditioning pumping through the bowling alley. The smell of old cigarette smoke and fried food gave way to the subtle scent of the sea, carried on a steady breeze that immediately ruffled my hair.

  Rudy stood near the door. His left hand cupped his mouth as he lit a cigarette.

  I eyed him warily. He didn’t look like much of a threat, not with the way he was standing, his shoulders hunched over, his head hung low. A car turned into the parking lot out front, and its headlights flashed across Rudy’s face, revealing eyes bright with tears.

  I was taken aback.

  Was he crying?

  I cleared my throat. Part of me wanted to ask him if he was okay but I refrained. Instead, I said, “Why did you want us to come outside?”

  He didn’t answer.

  I looked at Aidan. His eyes were on Rudy’s cigarette, which was now dangling by his side.

  Rudy brought the cigarette to his mouth and took a long drag. He held the smoke in his lungs for a minute before blowing a plume of white into the air.

  “Look, there’s a code of honor, okay?”

  “A what?” I asked.

  He sucked on the cigarette again.
“A code. Among delivery people. Especially at VIPS.”

  I wasn’t following at all. “What kind of code?”

  He drew an impatient breath. “We don’t mess with packages, alright?”

  My confusion grew. “What does that have to do with being in June’s apartment? That was all I asked about.”

  “I know.” Rudy nodded impatiently. “I…I was delivering packages.”

  “But you were delivering packages later that day,” Aidan said. He took a step closer to me, and I didn’t know if it was to more fully join the conversation or because he felt like he needed to protect me.

  “Why did you come twice?” I asked.

  Rudy glanced at the ground. He toed the pavement with his bowling shoe and shirked away from ash that fell from his cigarette.

  “Because I was bringing packages I hadn’t delivered.” His voice shook. “From before.”

  “From earlier that day?” I asked. “Were they the kind that needed to be delivered in the morning? Like a rush delivery or something?”

  He shook his head. “No. From before that.”

  “Like the previous day?”

  “And then some.”

  I was trying to understand what he was telling us. “So these were packages that were supposed to be delivered prior to that day, and you came early to drop them off?”

  His shoulder drooped so much he was almost half his size. “I was running late the day before and…well, I didn’t want to deliver her packages. It takes forever with the elevators, and a delivery that should take less than five minutes can sometimes take close to twenty, especially if she has a lot that I need to unload or if there are wheelchairs in the elevators.”

  I didn’t know what to make of what he was telling us.

  He sighed heavily. “Anyway, I felt bad about it so I thought I’d sneak them in early the next morning and just add them to her supplies. And hope she didn’t notice.”

  His gaze shifted so he was looking squarely at me. “That was all I did,” he said. “I didn’t damage anything. I swear it.”

  His eyes were still wet with tears, but there was something else in his expression that caught my attention.

  Worry.

  And a little bit of desperation.