Greg stood and let Emma inside. She went directly to her kitchen bed and curled up to sleep. “Either way, they could do a lot of damage, especially if they're running in a pack.”
“Better tell Esmeralda, too. I'd hate to see something happen to Maggie.” I turned off the eggs and checked on the potatoes. “I need about twenty minutes on this salad before we can start the brats.”
“Then why don't we go sit outside and you can catch me up on what you and your aunt did today.” Greg headed to the fridge. “You want a soda?”
What I wanted was to not talk about my day. “Sure, but can I show you what I got done on the guest room instead?” I took the soda can and leaned in to him. “I'd like your opinion on a few things.”
He groaned but nodded, kissing the top of my head. “Let's go.” As we took the stairs, he opened his cola. “Who's Maggie?”
It was still early by the time we'd finished cooking, eating, and cleaning up after dinner. Wiping down the counter, I put my hand on the coffeepot. “You want some dessert and coffee? Or popcorn and a movie?”
He came behind me and put his arms around me. “Sorry, I'm going to have to take option three and head back to the apartment. I'm beat. Can I buy you dinner Friday night?”
“Dress up or fast food?” I sank into his hug, feeling the warmth of his arms and body ease the tension in my own. I closed my eyes and swayed with him.
“How about somewhere in between? There's a new diner over in Bakerstown. Kind of American casual, or that's what the signs are saying.” He kissed my neck, then turned me around for a proper kiss. My knees buckled as I fell into the softness of his lips.
When we came up for air, I smiled. “I guess I won't wear my LBD then.”
Greg stared into my eyes. “I'll bite, what's an LBD?”
“Little black dress. I've got a new one that's backless that I was going to wear on the cruise for the Captain's Dinner.” I started walking with him toward the front door.
“Maybe once this case is done, we can go up to Napa Valley and spend a night at that winery we like. You can wear the LBD then.” He paused again at the door. “You know, you're pretty special. Most women would have gone on the cruise without me.”
“What fun would that be?” I touched the curve of his face and felt the stubble from his beard breaking through. “I would have had to find my own dance partners for each evening.”
He touched my hair, then tapped me on the nose. “Honey, you wouldn't have to look far.”
I stood in the doorway as he walked to his truck, the plastic Baggie in hand. When he saw me he waved me inside with a hand gesture that said,
Lock the door, now.
I gave him one last wave and retreated into my house.
When I knew he was gone, I unlocked the door and headed to the car.
CHAPTER 13
B
y two that morning, all I'd found in my reading of the Promote Your Event filing reports was that the couple was often late on reporting and fairly incomplete with their accounting. And the reports were always filed by Sandra, according to the signatures on the receipts. “A hundred pages down, twice that to go.” I stood and walked the pile into my office, placing them on the top of my desk. I shut the door after me and grabbed a bottle of water to take with me upstairs to bed. Time to crash.
I'd turned off my alarm for the week since I didn't have to be anywhere anytime, but my phone rang promptly at seven. I didn't check the caller ID before answering. “Yes?”
“Is this Jill?” A man's voice that seemed familiar brought me out of my sleep daze. I guessed five hours' sleep would have to do today.
“You're talking to her. Who is this?” I swung my feet over the side of the bed, waiting for an answer.
“Harrold, down at The Train Station? They hit again last night. You have to come see this.” He swore a few choice words that I didn't realize he knew and then came back on the line. “Sorry, but it's bad. Can you come down?”
“I'll be right there.” So much for sleeping in. I grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom to freshen up, which mostly meant washing my face, brushing my teeth, and pulling my hair back into a ponytail. Getting dressed took another three minutes, so even with the five-minute walk, I was at The Train Station in less than ten.
This time the damage was more severe. Instead of the windows being painted, the front window had been smashed. The park bench that typically sat on the edge of the sidewalk to provide seating for holiday parades now tilted awkwardly on the edge of the windowsill. Harrold was talking to Toby when I arrived.
As I walked up to the pair, Harrold turned toward me. “See? I can't take all of this. I thought you were going to find out who was doing this and stop it!”
“Sir, we are looking for the guy.” Toby looked at me with a shrug and took Harrold's arm. “Now, if we can just finish your statement.”
Harrold pulled his arm away from Toby. “Not you. You and your boss are worthless. I asked Jill to solve this problem. But all that seems to be happening is that it's getting worse.”
I pulled Harrold to one side. “Look, I'm working on it, but you need to talk to Toby right now and we'll talk later.” I waited for Harrold's nod, then I waved Toby over. “He's ready.”
Toby looked at me. “Greg's not going to be happy when I tell him about this.”
“Then don't tell him.” I put my hand on his chest. “Seriously, don't say anything. If I find something that implicates someone in this problem, I'll tell you. I'm not going to run out and get myself hurt. I'm just doing some of the legwork since you guys are all involved in solving Sandra's murder.”
We stood frozen for a second while Toby considered his options. He shuffled back and forth on his feet, and with that one movement, I knew I'd won the argument.
“Fine, but if you find out anything, you tell me so I can check it out. You don't need to be talking to whatever nut job could have done this.” He frowned down at me. “Promise me?”
I nodded. “Paper chasing only.” I held my hand up. “Scout's honor.”
“From what your aunt's told me, you were never a scout.” A smile creased his face.
“Details don't matter. I'm sure I would have been an excellent Girl Scout.”
“Don't make me regret this.”
I nodded to the matching park bench still on the sidewalk in front of Diamond Lille's. “I'll wait over there for you to finish your report.”
I took my notebook out of my tote and started writing notes about Harrold's misfortunes. My thoughts kept going back to Carrie's comment about Lille and why Harrold didn't visit the diner anymore.
Before I could finish the thought, a black Harley pulled up next to the diner and Lille got off. She kissed the man driving, and as he turned back around to leave South Cove, she watched until we could no longer see the bike. As she turned, the wide smile that had been gracing her face fell as she saw me sitting on the bench.
“What are you doing here?” She put her hands on her hips. “Trying to steal my breakfast customers with your little cookie stand?”
“Coffee, Books, and More isn't a cookie stand,” I countered. Taking a deep breath, I pushed past Lille's barb. “I'm waiting on Harrold. We're coming in for breakfast right after he deals with the latest attack on his shop.”
Lille turned and gasped when she saw the bench through the window. Her shock seemed real to me. “Oh my God. Poor Harrold. First the paint, then the display being trashed, and now this?” She turned and frowned. “What's your boyfriend doing about this? You know, any one of our businesses could be the next target. We have to find this guy.”
I went with my standard line. “Greg and I don't discuss open investigations with each other. You really think that the other businesses are in danger?”
Lille turned toward me and held out her arms. “Diamond Lille's is right next door. You know the little creep will get tired of harassing an old man. Then where's he going to attack? Not the winery on the other side of town. My place, that's where.” She pointed to the camera attached to the street lamp. “Why did we pay for a system that's not keeping us safe? You take that to the city council and tell them to get the rest of those cameras activated right now.”
As she started to stomp away, I called out, “Who dropped you off?”
She spun around and glared at me. “Why do you want to know? Want someone else to pay attention to you so you can make your man jealous?”
“I've told you before, I don't need to make Greg jealous. I was just wondering who you were dating now. I've seen the two of you around a few times. Is he a local?” I turned in the bench so I could see her face.
“He is, but of course, you knew that from his club leathers.” Her gaze moved to the road where the guy and his motorcycle had disappeared. “Let's just say he's someone I'm hanging out with, and if and when I think you need to know more, I'll call Darla and have her publish it in that little newspaper of hers.”
I watched as Lille finished her trek into the diner. Her prior good mood had all but dissipated into a rage. And rage was caused by fear. So if Lille was afraid of the vandal attacking her diner, it stood to reason she wasn't the one who'd hired the guy to scare off Harrold. Which took my one and only theory regarding the case down the tubes.
I wrote a note in my list of to-dos. I needed to talk to Mayor Baylor and see what it would take to get the rest of the cameras online. That was the only way Greg would be able to catch whoever was doing this. As I closed the notebook, Harrold came and sat beside me. His body almost crumpled into the bench as he heaved out a sigh.
“This is getting hard to deal with,” he muttered. “Who would hate me this much to damage my store?” His head turned to the side, and he focused on the diner.
“You think Lille had something to do with this?” I needed to know what the argument was between the two.
He rubbed his hands together. “I don't think even she's this conniving. But a month ago, she came to talk to me about selling The Train Station. She said she was looking at expanding the diner.”
“What did you say?”
He laughed a short bark. “I told her that I would keep The Station open until they dragged my dead body out of the building. Why would I want to sell? I get great walk-in traffic during the weekends, and now with the online business, I'm selling twice the number of model trains I did two years ago.”
“So you told her no, and the vandalism started.” I said what both of us had been thinking.
He shook his head. “I know Lille. She's prickly and hard to like, but she has a good heart. She and my Agnes were best friends for years. In fact, Agnes developed Diamond Lille's first menu and taught Lille how to cook the dishes. There's no way she'd turn on me, not like this.”
“Then we'll find out who is doing this.” I put my hand on Harrold's blue button-down shirt, which made him look like he was going to work in an office, not a model train store. “I promise.”
Harrold glanced over at the damaged shop window. “I hope so.”
I stood and nodded toward the diner. “You want some breakfast? I'm buying.”
“I can't. Christopher is on his way in from Bakerstown along with a fellow from one of the glass shops to do the repair. But I appreciate the offer.” He stood and shook my hand. “You just go do your snooping around and figure out who's responsible. I'd appreciate that more than a free meal. And I'm sorry about the outburst earlier.”
I walked him back to his shop and then decided to head home. After my run-in with Lille, I didn't want to eat breakfast at the diner. You had to let the woman calm down or she had a habit of erupting like a volcano. I'd probably be okay to resume visiting the diner in a few days. One thing about Lille was that she didn't hold a grudge for long. Too many other people to be angry at, I guess.
When I got home, I sat for a minute and then made a new to-do list. My vacation days were disappearing faster than I wanted, so I needed to make a plan about what I had to get done before I went back to work next Tuesday. I wandered upstairs to peek at the paint in Project Guest Room. It needed one more coat and then I could put up wainscoting around the ceiling. Which I still needed to buy and paint. I wrote down these items on my list and thought about the pieces I'd found at Antiques by Thomas. As long as I could find the right bed frame, each one of the other items would be a perfect match. I drew out a rough look on what I would put where and then took measurements of the room.
As I was considering the window treatment, my cell rang. Glancing at the caller ID, I punched the button to answer. “Hey, Aunt Jackie. What's on your plate today?”
“Good morning to you, too.” She paused. “I was calling to see if you got through the filings. I didn't hear from you last night.”
“Come with me to Bakerstown and I'll give you what I've gone through and we can talk on the drive.” I paused, knowing there was one thing I could say that would make her say yes. I decided to push that button. “Unless you're not feeling well enough?”
“To drive to Bakerstown? I'm not dead, you know,” she grumbled. “Give me twenty minutes to get ready. I haven't even showered yet.”
“No problem. Let's make it an hour and that way I can take Emma for a quick run.” I looked around the room.
“You're going to owe me lunch, you know.” And with that, my aunt hung up. I guess she didn't think her statement needed an answer. I was going to owe her lunch, but spending time with her this week wasn't going to be a problem. I wanted to. I found the camera app on my phone and took several pictures at different angles of the guest room so we could compare furniture as we shopped.
Then I changed into my running clothes and Emma and I took off for thirty minutes of joyful not talking, thinking, or doing anything but running. Well, Emma found a dead fish, but I convinced her to leave it for the gulls and thankfully she didn't decide to roll in it today.
As I got ready for the trip to Bakerstown, I stashed my couch pillows in my study and grabbed the part of the Ashford filings I'd read through last night. I still had a pile to get through tonight, but Greg wasn't coming over for dinner, so I should have lots of quality time to read.
I just wished it was a novel I was reading rather than the boring accounting that had made my eyes cross last night a few pages into the pile.
With Emma safely in the house and my pillows safely in another room where she couldn't use them for chew toys, I started up the Jeep and headed into town. When I passed by The Train Station, the bench was already back in its place on the street and the broken glass had all been cleaned up. By the time I returned to town, the window would be replaced and the shop back to normal. Three attacks in three days. No wonder Harrold looked like he'd been up for days. The guy probably wasn't sleeping, listening for problems.
I passed Coffee, Books, and More, then did a U-turn at the next block, parking on the same side of the street as the shop. This time I entered through the front, where Sasha was finishing an order for a local customer.
“Hey, boss. Coming in to check up on me?” Sasha put a sleeve on the cup and handed it to the customer. She focused on the woman and added a quick, “Thanks for visiting.”
As the customer went out the front door, I glanced around the empty shop. “Thursday mornings, got to love them.”
Sasha laughed, throwing a clean bar towel over her shoulder. “I have to admit, you do have the easy shift. Once the commuters are caffeinated and on their way to work, it's kind of dead around here until Toby arrives in at noon.”
“Exactly why I love this shift.” I grabbed the phone and dialed my aunt's number. “Hey, I'm downstairs talking to Sasha, so whenever you're ready . . .”
My aunt mumbled something about distracting the help and hung up on me again.
“So, you and Jackie taking off again? Didn't you road-trip yesterday?” Sasha sipped on a glass of water she had behind the counter.
“We did. And today we're going to a flea market to find a bed frame. I hope that we're successful so I can also buy a new mattress while we're there. I like shopping, but I don't want to spend all of my vacation in stores.” I nodded to the coffee. “Pour me a large black hazelnut to go, will you?”
“No problem.” Sasha grabbed a cup and filled it with the coffee. “I heard you're redoing the guest room. What colors are you using?”