Tea Cups and Carnage (4 page)

I headed into town again. Traffic was busy, but most of the cars had the South Cove resident sticker on the bumper. The mayor, or probably Amy, had come up with the sticker as a way to keep the police from ticketing local cars for parking too long on the street. Of course, when festivals occurred, the sticker could also keep you from parking in visitor spots without getting a ticket. It was a double-edged sword, but I figured the mayor was making money off selling the stickers and ticketing the town folk. Mayor Baylor always had the bottom line in mind with his best ideas.

The tour bus had already loaded their charges and left town. The city council had bought advertising in the local tourist agency monthly, which got us quite a bit of bus stop visits. I’d seen an uptick in sales on days the tour bus came through. Or I guess I should say Aunt Jackie had noticed and shown me the increase. Starting in the fall, I was taking two classes in a Masters of Business degree. I had finally decided I needed to understand what my aunt was talking about when she went over the state of the business on a monthly basis.

Toby was at the counter when I entered the shop. He jerked his thumb behind him. “Her majesty is in the office. And boy, she’s in a mood today.”

“I got that feeling when I got my command performance notice.” I grinned at Toby Killian. He’d been Aunt Jackie’s first hire at a time I didn’t think we needed any employees. The good thing about hiring Toby was he brought in a lot of customers. I was considering doing a photo shoot with him for a Coffee, Books, and More calendar that we’d sell at the shop. I had all the months planned out. Toby fake-skiing for January. Holding a heart-shaped cake for February. It would at least sell to all of Toby’s girls as we called the students from the cosmetology school who drove the ten miles into town for their coffee, lunch, and study breaks.

“Good luck,” he called out as I walked through the doorway into the back.

Aunt Jackie sat at what I still pretended was my desk and looked up at me when I came in. Her face was ashen. When she saw me come into the room, she sighed. “We’re in trouble.”

My mind went first to her health. She wasn’t a spring chicken even though she acted like one. “Are you okay?” I stepped around the desk and put my hand on her forehead.

She slapped my hand away. “I’m not sick. I thought we’d go over the entire project, but then . . .” She pointed to the chair. “Sit down, we need to talk.”

“What’s going on?” Now I
was
worried. My aunt was typically in control of everything, but now, looking at her, a chill ran down my back.

“It’s about the check the city sent us to cover the space rental for the library event,” Aunt Jackie said, her gaze still focused on the empty desktop.

“Yeah, Amy told me the council voted down Mayor Baylor and we got the sponsorship. Are you telling me they backed out? Did he get the money blocked? Crap, I just talked to her.” I sat up in the chair. If this was true, I was going to march down to the jerk’s office and turn in my council liaison badge. He could find someone else to herd the cats, I mean, business owners in town. I’d done a good job. The least he could do was support a library event. It’s not like the money was going directly into my pocket. But then wouldn’t Amy have known about the problem at lunch?

“Calm down. The payment came through. I saw the envelope come from city hall last week.” My aunt still wasn’t meeting my gaze.

“So what happened? Why are we in trouble?” I didn’t understand, but I saw the beads of sweat on her forehead. Seriously, she was going to the hospital if she didn’t perk up in the next few minutes.

“I can’t find the check.” My aunt finally met my eyes. “The day it came in the mail, Harrold and I had plans in the city so I slipped it into the desk and planned to deposit it the next day. But I forgot about it until today when I was finalizing the event details. I’ve looked everywhere, the check is gone.”

“Maybe you deposited it.” I started rummaging through the piles on the desk.

Aunt Jackie slapped my hand and I sat back. “You don’t think I checked there? Or that I’d forget a $3000 deposit?”

“Amy will just issue us a new check, no worries. Have you called her?” I didn’t understand why my aunt was so upset. We’d figure it out. The event was over two weeks away, plenty of time for Amy to cut a second check.

This time my aunt sank back into the chair. “I called her. The check’s been cashed. She asked the bank for a copy but it takes a few days since their record department is in Omaha.”

“The city uses a Nebraska bank?” Now that didn’t make a bit of sense as we had a branch of Rotary Bank just down the street. The new manager, Claire LaRue, was a frequent customer, not just for her coffee fix, but she also was a little obsessed with the New Adult books we sold. The last time she was in and bought a stack, I told her I was going to have to start putting an upper age limit on buying the books as I had to keep reordering once she visited.

“I can’t help myself,” she’d giggled. “I need something that I can dive into after a day at the bank. These types of books fit the bill.”

I smiled at the memory and then realized my aunt sat glaring at me. “What?”

“I said, the city uses the Rotary Bank just like we do, but their records department is in Omaha. I guess the overhead is cheaper there than locally.” She waved a hand, changing the subject. “That doesn’t matter. What does is the check is missing and there are only a few people who had access to the office.”

“So you checked the account online?” My head was buzzing. This couldn’t be happening.

“You think I’m an idiot? Of course I checked our account.” She blew out a hard breath. “No, we have to face the facts that someone else deposited the check into their account.”

Her implication stunned me. “You think Toby or Sasha took the check? What, like we wouldn’t miss $3000? That’s crazy. I trust them. Heck, they’ve been making bank deposits forever. If money was to go missing, it would be easier to skim off the cash.”

“Who’s to say it hasn’t already happened? Maybe they got desperate. You did say Sasha was having daycare issues, right?” Aunt Jackie leaned forward. “And Toby’s next to homeless.”

“He’s not homeless. He’s living in the shed until the sub-lease on his apartment is up.” My mind started to whirl—wasn’t that supposed to have happened already? Why
was
Toby still living in the shed? I turned and looked at the door separating the shop from the office.

“See, now you’re putting the pieces together.” My aunt threw the pen she’d been tapping across the desk. “I hate even thinking this, but we have to keep the best interests of the business in the forefront of our minds.”

“Look, let’s hold off convicting either one of them on circumstantial evidence until we find out about the check. I’m sure Amy will get a copy and we’ll find the money.” I nodded to the computer. “Go ahead and transfer the money out of our savings to cover the event site. We’ll put it back when the money shows up.”

“I don’t have three thousand in the savings. We almost emptied it when we bought the food truck. I told you that.”

Now my headache was screaming at me. “I thought we were getting a loan for the truck?” I did need to be more involved in the financial end. Thank goodness I’d planned on taking classes this fall. “Just in case?”

“When I talked to Claire, she advised against it. She said our interest rate on a vehicle that old would be high and if we could swing the purchase in cash, that would be a better business decision. I thought I told you that.” She clicked on some keys. “I have a couple thousand in the account, but I’ve ordered almost that in books for the event.” We’d ordered a wide variety so people could donate real books rather than only writing a check during the event.

That had been my brainchild. We’d done a successful book donation for the Bakerstown Child Care center last Christmas and I’d seen how happy people had been to share their favorite book from raising their own children. I dug in my tote for my checkbook. “How much do I need to give you to hold the business over?”

As I wrote out the check, I blessed Miss Emily for the unexpected inheritance she’d left me. Right now, the money was keeping my business afloat. I ripped the check from the holder and handed it to my aunt. “Don’t deposit this until tomorrow. I need to transfer money into that account.”

She reached for the check but I held it firmly as she met my gaze. “And don’t lose it.” Aunt Jackie’s face flushed as I released the check. Immediately, I felt bad. “Just kidding.”

We made plans to sit down on Sunday morning to go over the event details and by the time Toby stuck his head into the office, her color was better.

“Do you need me to stick around late tonight?” He looked back and forth from Aunt Jackie to me, a frown growing on his face. “Something wrong?”

My aunt took a breath and shook her head. “Nothing. Let me get this computer shut down and I’ll be out to relieve you. I don’t want you going to patrol on an empty stomach.”

Toby shrugged. “I’ve already got my order called into Lille’s for dinner. I was going to pick it up on the way home.” He looked at me. “You want a ride back?”

I glanced at my watch. Greg would be at the house in an hour. I could walk the distance home in ten minutes and it would take Toby at least that long to stop to get his food. “I’ll walk.”

Toby closed the door, but not until he divided one more look between the two of us.

I watched my aunt close the laptop. “Let’s just keep this between us. Well, us and Amy.”

She nodded. “Believe me, I don’t want to admit to anyone that I’d left money lying around, waiting to be stolen.”

“The money’s not stolen.” I left the shop hoping that my words were true.

By the time Greg arrived, I’d worked myself into a tizzy. I couldn’t believe that either Sasha or Toby would have taken money from the store. Or, for that matter, from me. I’d offered Sasha money more than once to help ease a financial problem she’d been having, but she’d always waved it off, explaining she needed to solve the problem herself. I’d been proud of her determination, I couldn’t believe now that it was all a sham.

Greg knocked on the screen but when he saw me sitting on the couch, he let himself in. “You should keep the screen locked at least. What if I’d been some drifter off the highway?”

“Then you would have killed me and put me out of my misery.” I saw the surprise flare in his eyes from my answer, so I stood and folded myself into his arms. “Sorry, I’m just worried about something.”

“Tell me, maybe I can help.” Greg stroked my hair as he held me close.

Sure, he could help. He could start an investigation on the missing money and then arrest the guilty party, which appeared to be one of our friends. Sighing, I sank deeper into the hug. “Just hold me for a minute. Then we can head down to the restaurant. I’m starving and I’m sure I’ll feel better with some food in me.”

“Whatever you need.” He tipped my head up and kissed me, long and slow. I let the warmth of his kiss seep through my body and wash away all the stress I’d felt since I’d talked to Jackie. Afterward, he gazed into my eyes. “Are you sure you’re hungry?”

I breathed a quiet laugh. “I’m starving. Do you mind?”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “I’m a patient man. Besides, I’ve seen you hungry. It’s not a pretty sight.”

I let Emma in and closed up the house. Toby would be leaving soon for his evening shift, so I didn’t want to leave her outside after dark without anyone around. In reviewing the town’s security feeds, Greg had seen packs of wild dogs roaming the streets at night. My luck, they’d wander our way and Emma would think they wanted to play.

As we turned off onto the highway, I could see the lights the city had strung all around the beach area. Even though the area was empty, the lights illuminated it like some abandoned carnival show.

I hoped the festival would bring in the customers Mary had promised the group. The Business-to-Business group could get a little grumpy when they’d spent money on an activity that didn’t bring in people. Or as Josh had said, the wrong type of people.

“Have you had any complaints about speeding motorcyclists?” I turned away from the beach and watched Greg drive.

He turned down the music. “How did you know?” He shook his head. “Never mind, sometimes, it’s like you’re in my head. Or do you have a bug placed in my office?”

I smiled. “Maybe I’m just psychic, like Esmeralda?”

“I didn’t think you believed in her gift?” He slowed for a set of tight turns in the road. “Don’t answer that, I’m not sure I want to know. Anyway, yes, I had three different reports of some guy racing through Main Street at three different times of day. But never when Tim was anywhere close to be able to find him. Esmeralda was ready to shoot the guy herself.”

“I saw him during the meeting and then again after lunch. The guy was huge! He about ran over an old lady with a walker. And she was a tourist.”

“The reports we got were for a skinny kid. Most of the callers thought he was in high school.” He took my hand in the dark. “Heaven forbid, we wouldn’t want a tourist to be hurt on our streets. You’re beginning to sound like Marvin. It’s kind of creepy.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.” Okay, maybe I had, but the woman had been using a walker for gosh sakes. Didn’t the rider have a grandma somewhere? “But I saw the guy, he was football defensive lineman big. I don’t know how he didn’t blow out a tire.”

“Eyewitnesses are typically a little off, but this is kind of crazy.” Greg pulled the truck into the parking lot tucked between the highway and the mountain. He turned off the engine and turned to look at me. “You ready to forget what’s been worrying you and have a relaxing dinner with the handsomest man on the South Cove police force?”

“I didn’t know Toby was meeting us here.” I rubbed my finger over the stubble on Greg’s face. When he had meetings at night, he typically shaved twice a day. I kind of liked the rough look being unshaven gave him.

“Funny girl.” He slid out of the truck and shut the door, walking around to my side to let me out. He caught me halfway down and let my body slide down skimming his own. The guy knew all the right moves. He led me toward the front door. “Let’s get some food now, I’m starving.”