Circle of Shadows (10 page)

“Call you?” she repeated. “In the
middle of the night? Why? Tami and the police were there with me, and other
than locking back up, there was nothing to be done.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at home. Anna opened the
store for me this morning.”

“I’ll be right over.”

Before she could reply, he had
hung up. She dropped the phone back into its cradle with a bang. “Men. You just
can’t please the damned creatures.”

She pressed the ice
-
pack to her forehead and
leaned back into the corner of her soft sofa, closing her eyes against the
pain. She was in for it, now. He was going to take this molehill-sized problem
and turn it into a mountain of trouble.

It probably would have been
simpler to have called him last night and let him soothe his male ego by taking
over. Why hadn’t she realized he would react this way? Because her head had
been hurting too much to think, that’s why.

Ooh, men. Just when she’d been
starting to enjoy the man, too. Her mind floated back to those kisses in his
flower-scented garden Saturday night, and the wonderful sensations he had
aroused in her.

In only a few minutes the
doorbell rang. Sighing, she got up to let him in, still carrying the icepack.

He looked her over intently as
she closed the door. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look pale.”

His capable long fingers gently
touched her forehead, smoothing back her hair to examine the extent of the
injury, and sending warm remembrances of his kisses through her. She struggled
to keep things on a businesslike basis. “Yes.”

“Did your doctor check for
concussion? Were you hurt in any other way?”

His voice still had an angry
edge. He was right, she thought. She should have called him. It would have been
much simpler. He was never going to accept her as a grown-up, capable of
handling problems on her own.

“No. Only a bump on my head,” she
protested. She led the way past the kitchen to the living room, then stopped as
the delicious aroma of coffee reminded her that she’d made a fresh pot. “I just
need a little rest to get rid of this headache. Would you like some coffee?”

“I’ll get it. Do you feel up to
talking?”

“Sure. I told you, I’m okay.” She
watched him take two mugs from the tree on the counter and fill them. Then she
led the way to the living room and waved him to a soft blue chair. She sank
back onto the matching blue sofa and picked up the steaming cup he’d placed on
the coffee table in front of her.

“Now, start at the beginning and
tell me what happened,” he ordered, taking a sip of his own coffee.

“My friend, Tami and I went
shopping in Minneapolis yesterday. We had dinner after the mall closed at nine,
and got back about midnight. I asked her to stop at the store so I could check
it. I’m sure you know the routine.” She glanced at him.

His face was stony as he sipped
his hot coffee. “Yes, of course,” he said waiting for her to continue.

“Anyway, I walked through and
everything was okay on the main floor. Then I walked to the storage room to see
if Ralph had remembered to lock the back door. When I stepped inside the
storage room, something hit me. I went out like a light, as the saying goes.”

“Wait a minute. Hadn’t you turned
on the overhead lights in the main part of the store? I would think whoever it
was could have seen them and left or hidden.”

Lili shifted uncomfortably. “No.
I could see well enough with the night lights. The main lights draw a lot of
attention on the street. I don’t like to advertise the fact that I do this in
the middle of the night.”

Frowning, Ken said, “I see. Then
what happened?”

“When I woke up, Tami was bathing
my face with a cold, wet paper towel. She had gotten tired of waiting for me in
the car.”

“You didn’t see anyone?”

“No. The back door was wide open,
so obviously whoever it was, had left that way. Since Tami was outside the
front door, she didn’t see anyone either.”

“The police searched the rest of the
store, the office, basement, and bathrooms, in case he was still inside?”

“Yes. As far as I could tell last
night, nothing was missing. Anna will check further today; she knows the
stockroom better than the rest of us.”

He nodded, then leaned forward and
asked, “What did he hit you with?”

“Probably a soup can. At least,
there was one lying loose on the floor. The officers took it to check for
finger-prints, but they said he would probably have been wearing gloves.”

“Do you think it was thrown at
you? Or was someone holding it when they hit you with it? Can you remember even
seeing an arm, or clothing, anything that would help identify them?”

Lili shook her head. “It was
dark, and I just saw shadows ahead of me as I stepped into that room. Then I
felt this crack of pain as something hard connected with my head. I’m sorry I
can’t be more help.”

Ken put his cup down on the
coffee table in front of them and leaned back. “I should be the one
apologizing. I’m sorry I yelled at you. But let’s get some things straight
right now.”

Lili set the ice pack down, and
sighed. She might have known he’d go all Neanderthal on her and start limiting
her freedoms.

“I don’t want you to ever walk
into the closed store alone again, whether to check it or open it. Wait for
another employee. Second, always turn on plenty of lights.”

“But I…”

“No buts. The more people that
know you’re in there the better. What if Tami hadn’t been there, and you’d been
seriously hurt, maybe shot or knifed instead of merely knocked out? You could
have bled to death before the crew arrived in the morning and found you.”

“Ken,” she exploded, “you’re
sounding just like my father. You want to wrap me in a warm cocoon, and smother
me with this protective male baloney. I didn’t like it when my father did it,
and I will not put up with it from anyone else, either. Sharing a few kisses
with you does not give you the right to run my life.”

He flushed a deep red, and his
eyes snapped angrily. “I’m not trying to run your life. It’s just common sense,
Lili…”

“It’s nonsense! This is a small
town where I know everyone, not a big city’s slum area. I am
not
going
to look over my shoulder every minute. I won’t be afraid to walk into my own
store, any more than I would be to walk into my house alone when I come home at
night.”

Why wouldn’t she listen to him
when he only wanted to keep her safe? Ken sighed and tried again in a softer
voice.

“Burglaries and even armed
robberies happen everywhere. Didn’t what happened last night teach you
anything?
”

“Perhaps next time I’ll turn on
the lights,” she admitted. “But I can’t stop living because of one little
incident, Ken. Don’t you see that?” Her eyes searched his, begging for
understanding.

His voice still doubtful, he
said, “I suppose. But I care about you, Lili. I just want you to be safe.”

She smiled at him tentatively. “I
appreciate that. And I will be more cautious,” she promised.

“You’d better change all the
locks immediately,” he added, his voice businesslike once more. “So that if he
did enter with a key, he won’t be able to do that again.”

“I’ve already called the
locksmith. He’ll have it done before closing time tonight.”

“Good.”

***

As Ken drove to his appointments,
spending several hours on the road that day, he found his thoughts kept going
back to Lili.

Why had she reacted so angrily to
his safety suggestions? Worse, would she place herself in danger again because
she refused to believe precautions were needed? She was sure it had been only a
simple robbery attempt, but what if she was wrong?

He thought over the rest of their
conversation. He’d gone over the possibilities of someone remaining in the
store after closing, the possibility of a disgruntled former employee, or of a
simple break-in. She’d been quite calm about going over details of procedures for
till safety, of changing locks, about telling him who had keys, and the
possibility of what might be missing.

No, it was only when he had
started telling her what she herself should do that she’d exploded. Had he gone
overboard on running her life? She’d said ‘sharing a few kisses’ didn’t give
him the right to ‘run her life.’ She had certainly sounded as though she didn’t
want to share much at all with him.

Well, he’d known she resented him
for buying the store. So why did it hurt so much to have her tell him to butt
out?

By Thursday Ken knew he was
running out of time. The date he had set up with Tom Harris to change Adams’
Foods over to buy from the Allied warehouse was fast approaching and he still
hadn’t told Lili about it. It was now several weeks since Robert’s death, and
he could only hope he had given her enough time to adjust to all the changes.

His thoughts seemed to be on Lili
whenever he had a free moment. All day it had been like that, a whiff of
perfume had reminded him of hers. The sweet scent of crabapple blossoms had
reminded him of their kiss in the moonlight.

Now as he headed his silver
Mercedes homeward, he knew he would never walk the shoreline of his lake in the
springtime again without remembering her softness in his arms. He just had to
see her again, and soon.

He glanced at his watch. If he
hurried, he could reach Landers when she went for dinner. He stepped on the
gas.

He found her in the dining room
of The Lander’s House as he’d hoped. He walked toward her, breathing a sigh of
relief that she was alone. She welcomed him with a smile.

He returned it with trepidation.
Would she still smile when he played the heavyweight boss, as he must?

They reminisced over the party as
they ate, then he asked, “Anything new on the break-in?”

She shook her head. “I think it
probably was filed and forgotten by now. Unfortunately, it’s not an unusual
occurrence.”

“And since we couldn’t verify
what, if anything, was stolen, and no one was seriously hurt,
it’s
given low priority?”

“You got it.”

“You had the locks changed? And
talked to your staff about more stringent lock-up procedures?”

She nodded. “I’m sure they’ll be very
careful. This has most of them pretty nervous. They’re still talking about it.”

“Good.” He hesitated, then
decided that he could put off dropping his bombshell no longer. “There’s
something else we should discuss.”

Lili tensed, and glanced up
expectantly. His serious face told her he wasn’t sure how she would react,
which meant he wasn’t discussing a minor detail. What was he up to now?

“The wholesaler you’re buying
from is fairly small.”

The unexpected topic mystified
her. “Yes, I know, but Dad was with them for years and was always satisfied.”

“But it has no fresh meat
program, so that you’re buying fresh meats from several companies, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Arthur doesn’t seem to
mind, although it does take more time because he has to deal with different sales
people and check in the various deliveries. And of course, I have to keep track
of invoices and payments to each of those companies.”

Ken nodded. “Your wholesaler’s
pricing is a bit on the high side, and also you’re still doing your orders from
the order book and sending them through the mail. Telephone ordering by
computer is much faster.”

“I know. I discussed it with Dad
several times. But the warehouse charges a hefty weekly fee for using their
computer system, for keeping the shelf numbers up to date, and so on. Dad
thought the fees were an unnecessary expense.”

“I don’t agree. I’m sure you know
that the whims of the public are impossible to predict. Your lost sales from
outages are costing you far more than those weekly fees.”

“So you want us to change to
computer ordering?”

“Yes. But not with your
warehouse. With Allied.”

Lili gasped, staring at him in
dismay. “You want me to change wholesalers?”

Ken nodded. He didn’t want to
tell her that one of his reasons was the possibility that the loss problem
could be at the warehouse level. Better to skip that. He couldn’t, after all,
be sure Lili herself wasn’t involved. That idea sent a shaft of pain through
him, and he pushed it away. It just couldn’t be true. “All my stores are with
Allied. Having them all use the same warehouse simplifies my contacts with
salesmen and also gets us good deals for quantity buying.”

“I’m sure,” she said, biting back
the urge to argue. She hesitated, then met his eyes and took the plunge. “Have
you thought over my offer to buy back your shares of Adams’ Foods?”

“Yes.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Will you sell them back to me? I
can’t imagine why you want the store when it’s losing money, anyway.”

Ken frowned. Could she be
involved and this was all a scheme to get him to sell it back to her? No, that
didn’t add up, Robert had told him about the problem before she knew about the
sale. None of this made sense.

Looking up, Ken saw that she was
impatiently waiting for his answer. “No, Lili, I won’t.”

His voice was gentle, but firm.
It was the answer she’d expected, but it still hurt. She had already learned
that when Ken made up his mind, it was useless to try to change it. Her throat
was suddenly very dry. Lili looked away and swallowed some coffee.

Changing warehouses. She had
known there would be changes, of course. She just hadn’t expected such a major
one as this. She knew so many people at her warehouse: the reps who came to
visit the stores, the phone contacts for ordering, the truck drivers,
the
people in accounting. Now she would have to start fresh
with a new warehouse and all new people.

Once again, the feeling of lack
of control of her situation sent swirls of panic through her. She bit her lip,
and forced her voice to remain calm and even, as she asked, “When do you want
to change over
?
”

“In about two weeks. I’ve already
notified both warehouses. You met our Allied rep, Tom Harris at the party
?
”

At her nod, he went on, “He will
be out to help us begin the change a week from Monday. In the meantime,
probably one day this week, he will come out to look over the store, go over
the company policies with you, and also teach you the use of the ordering
machine. It’s a small, hand-held box that you punch in the item numbers from
the shelves…”

Lili frowned. “Ken, I used one
when I worked in St. Louis.”

“Good. That will simplify
things.”

She sipped her coffee and glanced
at him. He sounded surprised. Did he think other chains were backward? Or just
that she was untrained in anything modern? The closeness she had experienced
with him at his housewarming party seemed like an impossible dream. Perhaps she
had only imagined it.

The pager on her portable phone
buzzed. She put down her cup and said with relief, “I must get back to work.
Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Lili.” He watched her
small, slim figure depart, her long hair swinging behind her. He longed to take
her somewhere private where he could enjoy sliding his fingers through those
strawberry blond tresses, kiss her senseless and much more. Instead, he could
only watch her walk away. There was still a chance that she knew what was going
on.

***

Monday Tom Harris, the new
wholesaler’s representative, arrived. He was a tall, confident man who
chain-smoked cigarettes, and never seemed to be far away from a Styrofoam cup
of coffee. But he had a friendly smile and seemed to know his job.

He walked the store with Lili,
his sharp blue eyes missing little. “Well, at least the shelving’s fairly new
and of good quality, so we won’t have to replace that. The freezer space is
adequate for now.”

Lili nodded. “My father replaced
the shelving about six years ago. The freezers are so new, we’re still making
payments on the last five doors.”

Tom smiled. “Those are good
basics. Makes our job a lot easier, Lili. I think the arrangement of quite a
bit of the merchandise could be improved, though. Some changes would improve
the traffic patterns, too. Best thing would be to reset it.”

“Reset?” Lili swallowed. The very
word conjured up images of the huge reorganizing job she had helped with once
in St. Louis. She remembered what a time-consuming and messy job it had been to
move all the groceries around to different positions on the shelves. She
shuddered at the thought. “You mean the whole store?”

Tom nodded. “It’s not so
difficult. I’ve done lots of them. We bring in extra help and do it in just a
few days. I’ll draw up a plan to fit your store from our basic one; we
shouldn’t have to vary it too much. Let’s schedule it—” he pulled a brown
leather notebook from his pocket, and flipped the pages, frowning at it. “I
could do it next Monday and Tuesday.”

Lili asked in dismay, “A week
from today? So soon? I mean, couldn’t it wait a few weeks
?
”

“No. It badly needs reorganizing.
Since we’re changing warehouses, we have to put up all the new item numbers
now. It would just be double the work to redo them all after we reset.” His
tone and explanations took on a patronizing tone, as though he were explaining
it all to a child.

Lili bristled at his attitude.
The past weeks had been emotionally draining for her, but pride kept her from
explaining. He would think she was just making excuses, he wouldn’t understand
that her objections had more to do with fatigue than distrust of his abilities.

“I’m sorry, Tom, but I can’t give
you permission to do that without talking to Ken. I really think we should
consult him on such a big decision as this.”

Besides, that would give her a
chance to talk him out of doing it. There was no good reason to turn the whole
store upside down on the whim of one man, who probably liked doing it just to
have all the stores in his division arranged his way.

Tom eyed her thoughtfully. “Ken
was the one who suggested that the store needed resetting in the first place,
Lili. He said if I agreed, to draw up the plan, set a date, and he would
arrange for some help for doing it.”

Lili flushed in embarrassment. “I
see,” she said tightly. “Well, in that case, go ahead.” Why-ever had Tom asked
her anything? Damn Ken anyway. He had decided this without even telling her. He
was just as bossy and domineering as her father had been; he had turned her
whole life upside down in a matter of weeks.

“Who does the grocery ordering,
Lili?”

“Anna, usually, but she’s not
working today.”

“Would you ask her not to order anything
but the bare essentials until after the reset? The less stuff we have to move,
the easier our job will be.”

“Yes, of course. I’ve already
told her not to reorder any of our former wholesaler’s house brands, since
we’ll be replacing them with your line. Anything else?”

“If I could borrow one of the
stock-boys for a while, that would be a big help. He could hold the other end
of my measuring tape while I measure and write down the footage of each aisle,
and make notes of what is where now.”

“I’ll send Billy to help you,
Tom.” Lili did so, then retreated to her office, but accomplished little.
Several sales reps interrupted her work. To Lili’s irritation, each was already
aware of her impending change of warehouse affiliation, and wanted to know how that
would affect her dealings with them, or to assure her that it wouldn’t.

The grocery industry’s grapevine
was working fine. Miles might separate the various stores, but news and gossip,
good or bad, traveled between them as fast as a company rep’s car, or delivery
man’s truck, and usually by that method. As a rule, she enjoyed the camaraderie
of that friendly gossip. Today it bugged her, and it was all Ken’s fault. No,
she thought, a mixture of pain and grief surging through her. It was her
father’s fault. He had set up this whole change that was turning her life
upside down.

She couldn’t blame Ken for
wanting her store to conform to the rest of his corporation. She could hardly
expect him to have two sets of rules, one for her, and another for the rest of
the stores. No, it was up to her to fit in with the others.

She flipped through the fat new
Allied grocery order book Tom Harris had given her, and spot-checked a few
prices. Undeniably, Ken was right;
Allied’s
prices
were lower.

She spent some time going through
the manual for the ordering machine, and then ran through a practice order.

She would put the first order in
herself. Since this would be a slow week for ordering and stocking shelves, she
had given Anna a couple of days off. It was just as well, since Anna was not
likely to be pleased at this development.

About five o’clock, Arthur stuck
his head in her office to say, “Will it be all right if I miss that video
tonight, Lili? Tommy’s playing T-ball tonight, you know.”

“Miss what video?” Lili asked,
frowning.

“You know, the one Mr. Mills is
coming to show us at seven o’clock tonight? Remember, he re-scheduled it when
he couldn’t get the video a couple of weeks ago?”

“Oh.” Lili stared at her
calendar. Written on today’s square was “Ken’s video at 7.” How could she have
forgotten?

She frowned, knowing how
important going to his son’s ball games was to Arthur. Since his divorce, it
was one of the few things he did with his son. Surely that was more important
than watching a video. “Of course, Arthur. I’ll explain to Ken.”