Tea Cups and Carnage (13 page)

She put the cup down and put on the fake smile I’d seen at the meeting while she was entertaining the crowd.

“Family stuff.” Her face brightened. “On a brighter note, guess who has a date this afternoon?”

I pursed my lips and pretended to think. “Let’s see, you?”

She nodded, her blond hair bouncing with the action. “Blake stopped over at the shop this morning and we got to talking. Of course, he’s busy with the band every night until Monday, but we thought we’d go wander around the festival for a couple hours Saturday. Just like two tourists, getting to know South Cove.”

“It’s a great time to check out the other shops on the street.” I wished I had time to do my liaison thing with a few of the businesses this week. It would be great PR not only for the Business-to-Business meeting, but also for Coffee, Books, and More. “I’m stuck working most of the weekend since my aunt was hurt yesterday. I’m glad it was minor, but I know how you’re feeling about your cousin. It’s hard to put that kind of stuff on the back burner when it’s family.”

“Oh, no. Well, tell her to get better soon. Summer is a bad time to be laid up, you miss out on so many fun activities.” Kathi pointed to the display case. “Why don’t you get me up a couple of those cheesecake slices? Maybe if I feed my construction guys they’ll work faster.”

I knew when I was being sidelined, but I didn’t take it personally. I just changed my tactic. As I boxed up the treats, I posed a new question trying to keep her talking about her family. “So how long is Ivy staying? I heard she was looking for work. Is that just until you open and then she’ll be working with you?”

The color drained from Kathi’s face, even with the perfectly applied makeup. “She won’t be staying long. In fact, she’ll probably return to Texas with Darryl’s body. Someone has to deal with all the arrangements, and Daddy isn’t up to that kind of stress.”

“Is your dad ill?” I thought about Kori’s statement that she’d never met the guy.

Kathi took a twenty out of her purse and laid it on the counter, making a big deal of looking at the clock. “I had no idea it was that late. I really need to go.” She grabbed the bag and quick stepped to the door, faster than anyone should be able to walk in that high of heel.

“You forgot your change.” I called after her but she didn’t even turn around.

She raised her hand in a farewell gesture and called back, “Keep it.”

I rang up the purchase and put the tip into the jar. Toby and Sasha split the tip fund at the end of the week. And now, I guess Nick would be cut in on the windfall as well. I knew Toby probably brought in more of the cash during his shifts, but he was the one who insisted on the equal shares. Apparently for him, it went to the house fund. For Sasha, I expected it made sure Olivia had food and paid for daycare. And now with Nick splitting it even more, I hoped it wouldn’t cut into her budget too deep. Of course, summer was our busy season, so maybe she wouldn’t even see a decrease. The missing check entered my mind again.

My thoughts hovered around Sasha and her financial situation for the next hour or so. I knew it wasn’t my business, but I also knew the girl was fretting about something. Something she wasn’t talking about.

Harrold wheeled Aunt Jackie into the store precisely at three pm. He grinned as he pushed her toward the couch. “Your relief shift has arrived.”

“Such as it is,” Aunt Jackie muttered.

I walked over to the chair, catching his eye and raising my eyebrows in a question. Harrold just grinned. “Don’t mind her. She’s been grumpy all day.”

“You’ve been treating me like an old lady all day, no wonder I’ve been out of sorts.” She tilted her head, presenting her cheek for a kiss. “How’s the traffic been today?”

I bent over and gave her a quick kiss on the offered cheek. I sent my thanks upward for the wave of gratitude I felt that she hadn’t been more seriously hurt. “Busy. I’ve talked to the guys over at the truck and they’ve been swamped. They’ve had a line since they opened. Sasha’s replacing Toby and then she and Nick will man the truck until close.”

“Purchasing the truck was a smart business decision.” My aunt’s statement wasn’t one of pride, but more just the facts.

“We’re going to have to hire more staff if we use it often.” I thought about the long weekend ahead and knew I didn’t want to spend all my time working in the small truck kitchen. Even without really cooking anything, that metal box would be steaming hot by the middle of the day.

My aunt waved away the idea. “We’ll be fine for a while. Besides, this is our maiden run. And we have Nick until school starts. With what that college of his costs, I’m sure he’ll welcome the hours.”

Harrold had gone to the counter, washed his hands and donned an apron. “So who wants to show me how to make coffee?”

Welcoming a distraction, I trained him in how to run the cash register, make the menu coffee drinks, and where we kept the extra cheesecakes just in case he sold out. It was almost four by the time Aunt Jackie told me to leave.

Glancing at my watch, I shrugged. “I have to make Josh’s bank deposit anyway.” I froze, hoping Aunt Jackie hadn’t heard, but I felt her gaze bore into me.

“Why?” Her tone was cold and hard.

I grabbed our own banking pouch and tucked it into my tote. “I told him I would.” When I got to the door, I added, “He’s out of town for a while.” Then I powered through the door before she could ask a follow-up question. I figured my cell would ring in about two point five seconds, but that I could ignore. At least I knew one thing. Josh’s disappearance was a surprise to my aunt as well.

The bell rang as I pushed open the door to Antiques by Thomas. Kyle stood at the counter, working on a laptop. His smile deepened as I walked toward him. “Hey, neighbor.”

“Hey, yourself. How has business been today?” I had a funny feeling my aunt wouldn’t be the only one to call tonight and I wanted to be able to give Josh an update when he checked in about the store.

“So so. I had a guy come in and ask about selling some pieces, but since I didn’t know what Mr. Thomas would offer, I had to just take his name and number. Mr. Thomas said I might be estimating purchases later this year, but for now, I’m in sales only.”

“I’m sure it’s a science.” I didn’t know much about the antique business except I was sure Josh’s business plan consisted of four words. Buy low, sell high.

Kyle pulled out a matching bank deposit bag to our own and handed it to me. “I think it’s more of a feel thing. Thanks for doing this. I know it made Mr. Thomas feel better about being able to leave me alone in the shop.”

“No worries, I have to do my own deposits anyway.” I took the pouch and considered how much they looked alike. Was this the cause of the missing money? It could have been an honest mistake by someone at the bank. I slipped the deposit bag into my purse. Distracted by the idea, I asked about Kyle’s boss. “So do you know where Josh went this weekend?”

Kyle frowned, his hand tapping on the counter as he considered my question. “He didn’t tell you either?”

I glanced at my watch. I still wasn’t good at sneaking information out of people. “Oops, if I’m going to make it to the bank, I better get running. Let me know if you need anything while Josh is away.”

I dashed out the door and heard Kyle call out a goodbye, but I’m sure he knew I was avoiding the question. So Josh hadn’t told the one guy who worked with him where he was going either. This was getting curiouser and curiouser. He could be trying to buy an estate before anyone got wind of the sale, but I didn’t think so. This felt more personal.

I mulled over possible answers to the Josh mystery as I walked to the bank. When I got there, the line was almost out the door. Margie’s line was ten people deep, but the new teller, Allie, was filing her nails.

I headed to the new teller’s window. The bank was closing in a few minutes and I didn’t want to be carrying around both our shop deposit and Josh’s all the way home. She didn’t look up when I put the moneybags on the counter, keeping her eyes on one of her glittery nails which I swore had real gold mixed in the polish color.

When she didn’t speak, I did. “Your window is open, right?”

She looked up at me and rolled her eyes. “Duh. I guess people just like Margie more than me. I haven’t had a transaction all day.”

I wanted to tell her that maybe she needed to learn some social skills, but I didn’t need an argument. Let Claire teach her employee customer service skills or figure out a way to fire the boss’s relative. Instead, I pushed the bank bags closer since she hadn’t attempted to pick one up. “These are both commercial deposits so there’s a mixture of cash, coins, and checks.”

The girl opened one and sighed. “This is going to take forever.” She glanced at the clock. “I’ll need Claire or Margie to walk me through this kind of deposit.” She zipped up the bag and put it and the other one under her counter. “You can pick up your deposit slips tomorrow.”

“Usually Margie does it while I wait.” I wasn’t sure how to press the point, but didn’t want to take a chance of more money going missing.

Allie pointed to the line. “Well, she’s got a ton of people and Claire just stepped out for a district meeting with my dad. So there’s no one to help me with this. You’re just going to have to wait. You do want the deposit done correctly, right?” She opened each of the bags, took the deposit slip out and made a copy on the printer behind her. She shoved the paper toward me and then picked up the nail file again. When she saw I hadn’t moved to take the copy, she cocked her head. “Can I help you with something else?”

Like she helped me at all?
I shook my head. I’d wanted to talk to Claire about the missing deposit as she said she should have a report from Nebraska today, but since she was out of the branch, asking Allie would be a waste of time. I took the pages and folded them into my purse. “Nope, I’m good. Have a nice day.”

She didn’t respond. I glanced at Margie who met my gaze and shrugged in a non-verbal ‘what can you do’ message. But at least she saw me come in, so if the bank bags disappeared, I had at least one witness and I had the photocopy. Poor Claire, this girl was going to ruin her branch’s reputation.

I shouldn’t be thinking bad things about someone I didn’t know, but Allie had instilled absolutely zero confidence that the deposit would be done tonight. More likely, she’d hand it over to Margie in the morning and have Margie ‘show’ her how to process a commercial deposit for both mine and Josh’s deposits.

Tomorrow, I’d come in earlier, or just wait until Monday when I had all day. I hated leaving money in the store, but we had an old safe built into the floor, so nothing should happen.

I started walking toward the beach, wanting to check in with Sasha on how the traffic had been with CBM Annex, or as most people called it, the food truck. I wasn’t convinced yet that the truck was worth the extra staffing, nor was I convinced we actually had enough staffing to do it right. Thank God Nick had decided he’d done enough dishwashing for Lille’s for a lifetime. As soon as Sadie had mentioned he was looking for a summer job, I’d hired him on the spot. Or at least his mom had called and let me hire him over the phone. The kid was a hard worker.

As I walked by Diamond Lille’s, a Harley pulled out of the lot and I saw Lille wave to the rider. Before she could disappear into the restaurant, I called out to her. Even across the parking lot I saw her roll her eyes. I didn’t really want to deal with Lille with an attitude, but I took a deep breath and hurried over to meet her.

She took a pack of cigarettes out of her purse, lit one, and walked over to meet me in the middle of the parking lot where she’d set a bench and, more importantly, an ashtray. She blew out a puff of smoke as I walked up. “What do you want?”

“Good evening to you too.” Holding my hand up, I tried to stop the next words out of Lille’s mouth. “Sorry, bad habit. I’ve been dealing with people all day. Anyway, I needed to ask a favor from you.”

Now she raised her eyebrows in the universal Are You Freaking Kidding Me motion. Instead of speaking, she took another puff off her cigarette. Then as she exhaled, she asked, again, in a softer tone, “Seriously, what do you want?”

“Did you hear that my aunt was almost run down by a motorcycle? Luckily she didn’t break anything, just a bad sprain to her ankle and her pride, but it could have been worse.” I paused, wondering how to say what I wanted to ask without sounding like a royal jerk. “Another elderly woman was almost hit earlier this week, right there.” I pointed to the road in front of Diamond Lille’s.

“I heard about both incidents.” Lille put out her cigarette even though it was only half way smoked. “But I still don’t know what you want from me.”

Pulling up my big girl panties, I pressed on. “I wondered if you could talk to the local motorcycle, uhm, club you know people from and see if this rider is from there. All I know is he is a huge guy and wears a cut with a pig on the back.”

A smile curved on Lille’s lips. “You’re saying he’s a porker?”

“I don’t know what the name of the, uhm, club is. I thought maybe someone from the local group could help us identify the guy and then Greg could go tell him to slow it down while he’s in town.” I exhaled, not realizing how fast I’d been talking.

“You can call them gangs, I know that’s what you’re thinking.” Lille tucked her half-smoked cigarette back into her pack and stood from the bench. “I don’t know if I can help, but I’m tired of these guys coming in and making problems for the local group. They’re a bunch of sweethearts.”

Sweethearts that ran the local drug trade
, I thought but was able to keep the words from flying out of my mouth and getting me on some sort of gang hit list--or kicked out of Diamond Lille’s. “I appreciate it.”

Lille walked back to the restaurant’s side door. She paused, then turned back. “How’s Nick doing?”

“He’s a hard worker, you must be sad you lost him.” Now those were words I hadn’t planned on saying. Lille’s face turned a brighter shade of red, but then she actually smiled.

“You’re right, I am sad. I got used to the little twerp being around.” And with that, she left me standing in the parking lot.