Tea Cups and Carnage (17 page)

I looked at her and she shrugged. “The kid’s pretty new. He wanted me to call back in a few minutes because he was setting up the band. He’ll learn that the boss comes first, always. Or at least, I hope…” She broke off her tirade and listened. “Yep, that’s the one. Find an application from Ivy Corbin and give me the home address and phone number.”

She flipped her pad to a clean page and wrote down the information. “Thanks,” she said then hung up on her employee.

I looked at Darla. “Well?”

“She lists a Texas address as primary, but right under that is a local hotel. One I’d never even considered Ivy staying at. She’s got a room at The Castle.”

The Castle was the primo hotel-slash-tourist attraction in the area. When Craig Morgan ran the place, he was friends with the mayor and sucked up all the city’s marketing funding. After he died—well, was killed—his ex-wife took over management of the place. We were all much more cooperative now.

Rooms at the art deco museum were pricy. How was Ivy managing with no job and no visible means of support? And why was she looking for part-time work when she could save a bundle by staying somewhere cheaper? The problem nagged at me during the last few hours of my shift. Luckily, I got a rush of customers right after Darla left which lasted until just a few minutes before Aunt Jackie and Harrold emerged from the apartment.

Aunt Jackie look rested and her cheeks were actually pink. She’d been so drawn when I sent her upstairs, I had begun to worry that we’d have to close either the annex or the shop without the manpower to keep both open.

“You look better.” I kissed her cheek as she hobbled around me, using crutches to stay off her bad ankle.

“Don’t start with the
I told you so
. I was perfectly fine before I left, but I’ll admit, the nap did feel good.” She set up on the couch and waved me over. “Bring that laptop over here and I’ll go through the event sign ups.”

“Already done, or at least up to two o’clock today. Then I got busy with customers.” I still took the laptop over. “You could look over the to-do list I’ve started and see if there’s anything I need to do tomorrow or Monday. I can’t believe this thing is happening in less than a week.”

“Did you hear from Claire?” My aunt didn’t look up from the computer screen as she reviewed my work on the spreadsheet.

“She said she should know more on Monday. I guess they’re doing some sort of computer upgrade.” I kept my voice low, hoping Harrold hadn’t heard our conversation. “It’s been a mad house over there too.”

I explained about the new teller, including the part where Allie had almost lost ours deposit. I had to leave out the part about me doing Josh’s deposits since Jackie would ask why and where he was, two questions I didn’t know how to answer.

I glanced at the clock, almost four thirty. “I gotta run. I’m meeting Greg for dinner at the house.”

“A thoughtful man would have taken you out so you didn’t have to cook.” My aunt sniffed.

Sometimes I didn’t know if she liked Greg or if she just tolerated him on my behalf. “He’s been crazy busy this weekend too. Besides, I can throw something together faster than it would take us to drive someplace to eat.”

“I ordered in a pizza from Lille’s for later tonight.” Harrold flung a white towel over his shoulder. Barista Babe, Senior Division, I thought, trying to keep my grin on the inside. “Why don’t you two come down and eat with us? Jackie, isn’t that a great idea?”

Jackie rolled her eyes at me and then turned on Harrold. “No, I don’t think that’s a great idea. I’m sure you only ordered one pizza and have you seen the boy eat? I swear, we’d be lucky to get a piece of crust when he was done.”

“So not fair.” I grabbed my tote bag. “Partially true, but still unfair to talk about someone who’s not here to defend themselves.”

“Having a healthy appetite is never a bad thing in anyone.” Harrold leaned against the couch, holding my aunt’s hand. Another sweet moment. The universe seems to be telling me something. Like how my life could be someday.

“Anyway, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. You are off the hook for your shift at the food truck. There’s not enough room in there for you, your crutches, and your personal slave.” I nodded to Harrold.

“Then I’ll see you on Wednesday. I have a follow-up appointment on Monday so we’ll ask him to release me for a full schedule.” My aunt put her reading glasses back on and stared at the computer. I’d been dismissed.

“It will probably be more like a few weeks before you can count on having her full time.” Harrold squeezed Aunt Jackie’s hand. “Although she is pretty stubborn.”

“You’ve noticed that?” I hurried out the door before I could hear my aunt’s response.

I dropped off my extra bank bags to Kyle along with the deposit slips. “Put these in the cash register where they’ll be safe.” I could have hung on to them, but honestly, I was afraid if I lost them, Josh would blame me.

“Good idea.” He put them into the register while I watched. “I’m closing up for the night but I didn’t make any more sales after you took the deposit. So I’ll just put the cash drawer in the safe for Tuesday.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I put my hand on the doorknob, but turned back. “Have you heard from Josh?”

“You mean since he left on Friday?” Kyle shook his head. “Man, I’m beginning to worry about the dude—I mean, Mr. Thomas. He never goes a day without checking in on the store, even when he’s on big buying trips. Have you heard anything?”

I wanted to ease his fears, but I was climbing on the crazy bus along with Kyle. Josh should have at least checked in. Josh could be hiding something. Something could be wrong. I would mention his disappearance to Greg tonight. Maybe he could look at John Does and hospital admit lists to assure me that Josh really was just on a vacation. One he didn’t want us to know about. To Kyle, I said the only thing I could: “I’m sure he’s fine.”

Kyle nodded and I could see him swallowing hard to keep back the crack in his voice before he answered. “I’m sure you’re right.”

As I walked home, I couldn’t help but wonder which of us had lied more convincingly. I sent a prayer up for protection for the wayward Josh.

I’d had time for a shower and a quick change of clothes before I heard Greg’s truck pull into the drive. I was sitting on the back porch in the swing sipping iced tea. I could see him climb out and then reached back in to the cab and pulled out a bag. Even from my distance, I could see the logo. Diamond Lille’s. It was like Greg had overheard my conversation with Aunt Jackie earlier and brought dinner just to spite her. The man was an angel. No matter how it happened, I was ecstatic about not having to cook. He saw me on the swing and announced. “Dinner is served.”

I put the book down that I’d been reading and stood to greet him. I motioned for him to set the bag on our outdoor table. “I’ll go get plates and silverware. What do you want to drink?”

“Iced tea will be fine.” He sank into a chair and started pulling out containers. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and a side salad. When I was growing up a feast like this only happened on Sundays. I brought out real plates and he dished me up my meal, making sure I got the breast piece rather than a thigh. He handed it to me. “This okay? You’ve been starving yourself since your aunt was hurt.”

I took a bite of the mashed potatoes and felt the tension ease from my shoulders. Food shouldn’t ease my concerns this much, but it did. At least for a while. And so, since I had an unhealthy relationship with food, I ran. This meal would mean I needed to run a marathon. And then maybe an extra couple miles.

I didn’t care. “It’s great. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”

We ate in companionable silence for a while. Greg threw Emma a biscuit and she wolfed it down like it was a marshmallow. He shook a finger at her. “If you don’t chew your food, you can’t enjoy the flavors.”

Emma looked up at him like he was the smartest person on earth. Besides, she still wanted another biscuit.

When we’d eaten our fill, I glanced at my watch. “When do you need to go back?”

“I thought I’d walk down with you and leave the truck here. Parking in the lot is a nightmare. When are you going?”

“I’m closing so I need to be there by seven to start the process. Sasha will handle the late walk ups and I’ll get everything ready for opening tomorrow.” I leaned back and closed my eyes. “I’ll be so glad when the festival is over. Remind me never to support one of Mary’s ideas again.”

“You will, you know it.” He threw Emma another biscuit and she ate it as quickly as the last. “Have you heard anything about the baby? Weight, name, hair color, sex. I hear all those things are important.”

“You forgot length.” I shook my head. “I need to call Bill and see what’s going on. I just haven’t had the time.”

“You’ll see him Monday night.”

A distant roar filled my ears. “Monday night?”

“You’re giving a report to the council on the festival. I know I saw your name on the agenda.” Emma dropped the wet, slobbery ball at his feet and wiggled her butt in anticipation. Greg shook his head at the dog before returning his gaze to me. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

“Another reason not to support one of Mary’s crazy ideas. Frankly I’m trying to forget, but people keep bringing it up. I hate going to those things, especially when Mayor Baylor is on a roll about something.” I looked at Greg who was watching Emma throw the tennis ball in the air for herself and catch it. The dog was talented and knew how to entertain herself. “Maybe you could read my presentation. Say I was sick with something, like a cold or the plague or maybe swine flu. That way they’d be glad I didn’t attend.”

Greg watched Emma for a bit longer, then turned back to the table. “What, has Amy already turned you down?”

“Flat.” Sometimes I hated that my boyfriend understood me. I couldn’t pull anything over on him, not lately. “You any further on the murder investigation? Or have you been breaking up fights at the beach all day?”

“About half and half. Of course, part of my day was dealing with the fallout from that idiot driving his motorcycle down the sidewalks of Main Street. Just once, I’d like to have someone close by when he’s pulling one of these stunts.” Greg pushed his fork through his mashed potatoes absently.

“I asked Lille if the guy was local. She said no one local would wear a pig as part of their colors. Apparently that’s low class even for a biker gang.” I ate the last bite of chicken and eyed the bag. Was I still hungry or did I just want more because of the perfectly awful day, no, week, I’d been having? I decided that a wing wouldn’t hurt and pulled one out of the bag, breaking it apart as I continued. “Who knew even gangs had pecking orders?”

“Oh, I think there’s a lot you don’t know about gangs or motorcycle clubs.” Greg pointed his fork at me. “And I’d rather you didn’t go off and try to find out more information. This guy doesn’t care who he hurts, from his actions today. I’m just glad the only incident so far has been your aunt’s ankle. I really have got to figure out why he’s here.”

Greg had that faraway look he got when he was thinking about a problem and I wondered if he realized what he’d even said aloud. I finished my chicken and looked at my watch. “Ugh, I’ve got to get back to the truck. Are you done?”

It was kind of a rhetorical question since Greg belonged to the clean plate club and he’d earned his membership that night. The only thing left on his plate were leg bones from the chicken. He stood and looked into the bag. “Should we put these leftovers in Toby’s fridge? I don’t think he’s had time for a real meal for days now.”

I nodded. “The key’s on the rack by my kitchen door. Make sure you leave him a note too. I’d hate to see this go bad because he didn’t realize it was there.”

Greg followed me into the kitchen, wrote up a note, grabbed the tape and the food bag and then went out to my back yard where his second in command lived. I had to say, I kind of liked the company now and then. Toby had coffee and donuts with me on Monday mornings, keeping me entertained with his stories from late night patrols as well as interesting customers that had come into the shop the week before. The one thing we didn’t talk about was his dating Sasha. Toby kept that side of his world separate and since the two of them worked for me, I appreciated that. The boy had gotten his heart broken, not too long ago, from a woman that he’d thought had been the one. Now he was protecting it from both Sasha and her daughter. A practice that was probably good for him, but maybe not so great for Sasha.

I cleaned up the dinner dishes, rinsing and putting them into the dishwasher, and put the trash into a can in the laundry room where I could lock Emma out when I wasn’t around. The girl did love dumpster diving.

I was ready to go by the time Greg returned. He slapped a bank deposit bag down on the table. “You need to make sure your employees return these to the shop after they make a deposit. Claire’s always complaining about having to buy new ones for the local businesses.”

I stared at the bag, not wanting to touch it. Toby hadn’t done a deposit in over a week. Why would he have a bag in his apartment? I unzipped the bag and there were two deposit slips. The one looked like our normal take for a day. It was the second one that had me shaking inside. It was for $3000 and had a different account number than the first one. I sank back into my chair. “Crap.”

Greg sat next to me. “Are you okay? You’re doing way too much. You need to slow down, or you’ll be the one in the hospital. “

“I’m fine.” I fingered the deposit slips. Monday, I’d take this into the bank and let Claire tell me who owned the account number on the slip. I just prayed it wasn’t Toby.

With Emma in the house with a chew bone, I locked up the house and we started walking to the beach. I tried to focus on anything but Toby and the money. “Hey, did you know that Ivy was staying at The Castle?”

He didn’t even look at me as he responded. “And?”

“Don’t you think it’s a little out of her price range? I mean, she was looking for work a few days ago and now we find out she’s living in one of the most upscale hotels in the area?” I was thinking aloud, more than asking him a question, but his words surprised me.