Read Between the Tines (18 page)

That was, if I could get Lisa out from under Mrs. Canfield's scrutiny. She strolled the aisles smiling as she paused at each table. I watched to see if she'd pat them on the head, but she simply smiled and moved on. She did stop and chat with Biddy Miller, a friend of Uma's and nearly her equal in gossip. Biddy had complimented Mrs. Canfield on her dress, and she was explaining the history behind the fabric.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. She seemed nice and this was the first grade. How much trouble could I get into in the first grade?

As if she possessed a real teacher's radar and knew I might be the problem student, she strolled our way. I fixed my eyes on the wall behind her much the same way I used to do with my teachers after passing notes to Lisa.

Mrs. Canfield came right up to me and pulled my fingers from my mouth. "We mustn't bite our nails. It's very unladylike."

Before I could fully turn red, a loud school bell rang, startling everyone including Mrs. Canfield.

"Your attention, please," she said while returning to her podium. "We'll begin with role call. Please respond with 'here' after I say your name." She went down her list, calling out names of the diners with crisp diction. "Lisa Winkle." She looked up. "Ah, so this is our tardy student. Tell me," she glanced at the paper then at us, "Mr. Perry Winkle. Is Lisa coming?"

Perry blushed. "She's on her way."

"Fine, fine." She laid her notepad on the podium. "Now then class, we will begin with our food orders. On your desk, you'll find paper and pens. Please look at the board and choose your courses then write them on the paper provided. Penmanship will be graded."

I looked at the table, sic desk, and found my supplies. "This is crazy," I whispered. "Why are we subjecting ourselves to school all over again?"

"Paige, we can accomplish this task without talking," Mrs. Canfield said.

The other diners snickered. They were certainly enjoying themselves, as were Perry and Adam, each neatly writing their meal choices on rough paper. The tip of Adam's tongue peeked out the side of his mouth. This must be how he looked as a child. Innocent and studious. His writing was large and bold in perfect block letters.

Mrs. Canfield tapped me on the back. "Cheating is also not very ladylike."

The class erupted. She shushed them.

I vowed not to do anything else to draw attention to myself and kept my head down. I wrote my order, not caring one whit how sloppy my letters were. Even when little tapping footsteps tripped down the hall and into our room, I kept my eyes on my desk.

"You must be Lisa," Mrs. Canfield said. "I'm Mrs. Canfield, your teacher. You may go directly to the chalkboard and write I will not be tardy five times before taking your seat. Mind your neatness."

"Yes, Mrs. Canfield," Lisa said like a compliant schoolgirl.

I looked up. Lisa gave a small wave and rushed across the room. She scratched the words on the board with a large chunk of white chalk. How was I going to get her alone? The only ways I remembered to get out of a classroom was to go to the bathroom or the nurse. Not fond of needles, the nurse was out of the question so the bathroom it was. I waited for Lisa to finish her punishment and write her order for dinner then leaned close.

"I need to talk to you. Now. I'll ask to go to the bathroom. You ask a few minutes later and meet me in the hall."

Lisa nodded, her eyes alive with the same excitement we had when we used to ditch class.

Mrs. Canfield walked the aisles and collected orders, commenting on the writing skills as she picked them up. Mine received a tsk. Adam's a glowing wow and a rather sultry smile for a schoolteacher. Not that I blamed her. The deep navy shirt he wore brought out his trim shape and enhanced his coloring. He smiled back, showing even and very white teeth. He tipped his head to the left giving me the urge to snuggle in the crook of his neck, an urge I had no right to have with the big secret hanging over us.

Mrs. Canfield clapped her hands to settle a low hum of voices. "Now class, who would like to take the orders to the office?"

My hand shot up as if it had a mind of its own. She let her gaze wander over the students, stopping at each one and thoroughly scouring them with narrowed eyes. No way she'd pick me. I'd already been in trouble with her twice. She'd probably choose Adam whose angelic face beamed at her. I frowned like a pouting first grader and waited

She held out the stack of papers. "All right, Paige. You may go. Mind your manners."

Not giving her a chance to change her mind, I grabbed the papers, gave Lisa a small jerk of my head toward the door and rushed out of the room. Breathing like an escaped felon, I leaned against the wall. I'd had enough of this night and wanted to bail, but I couldn't. I had to stay to talk with Adam.

Lisa popped into view and skipped toward me. Put her in a plaid skirt, white blouse and knee socks and you'd have a typical schoolgirl.

"Over doing the student thing, aren't you?" I asked, my tone laced with cynicism.

"But it's so much fun." She grinned and looked about ten.

"As fun as going to the dentist." I slipped my arm through hers. "C'mon. We need to get these delivered and get back to class before Attila comes looking for us."

She giggled. "You trying to prove you still know how to ditch?"

I shook my head. "I needed to tell you to keep quiet about Karen. I haven't told Adam yet."

She stopped and faced me. "You haven't told him. Are you nuts?"

"No need for the lecture. Hazel took care of that this afternoon. I plan to drop the bomb after dinner."

"Aren't you worried? Seems like you've waited too long. He'll be good and mad."

Great, even my best friend thought this was the last date I'd ever have with Adam. "There's nothing I can do about that now. So just keep quiet. Okay?"

She nodded although it was halfhearted.

"Besides you have nothing to feel so superior about. When were you going to tell me about working at the police station?"

"Oh, that. Didn't I mention it?"

"You know good and well you didn't. I would've gone ballistic, and you would've remembered."

She waved off my concerns. "You go ballistic all the time. I wouldn't remember a specific episode. This was a simple oversight. After Mitch asked me, I forgot all about it. And if it's the radio show you're all bent about, I can still do it in my lunch break. No biggie."

Lisa was as transparent as plastic wrap. If she were lying, I'd know it. She was telling the truth, and I was disappointed. If she'd kept this from me, I'd feel better about my own deceit. Deceit I had to remedy tonight and couldn't do until after dinner. I needed to get these orders turned in.

"You're right, no biggie. You better go so we don't come back to class at the same time." I waited for her to turn around before making my way to the office. The secretary took my pages, gave me a pink paper to return to my teacher and dismissed me with a warning not to dawdle in the hallway.

I didn't plan to. The sooner this night was over the better as far as I was concerned. Near the classroom door, my cell vibrated. I checked caller ID. Karen.

While pulling the phone free from my pocket, I took a few steps back so teacher dearest wouldn't hear my conversation.

"Karen," I greeted her with a cheerful tone even though my insides were churning from thoughts of my upcoming conversation with Adam.

"Someone broke into my house. Thankfully we weren't here." Her tone was more indigent than scared.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I replied as if surprised, even though I'd already heard about it at the police station. "Can you still stay there?"

"Mom already had the locks changed and super heavy deadbolts installed."

I would be afraid to stay there after a breakin, but I didn't want to tell her that. If she and Yolanda had the courage, more power to them. "I hope they didn't take anything important to you."

She scoffed. "Not really. Just took my computer. Didn't even mess the place up like you see on TV. The officer seemed to think they were looking for something in particular and since they took the computer that was what they wanted."

"And what do you think?"

"I think I'm glad I gave you
Gary
's laptop. That's probably what they were after. And that's why I'm calling. Have you had a chance to look at it?"

"Some, but not enough to share any breakthroughs with you. I plan to spend the night scouring it for information."

"You'll call if you find anything that you think these thieves might have been after?"

"Yes, of course," I said and ended the call. I rushed down the hall and into our room. Mrs. Canfield was sitting at her desk and the students chatted as if they were in a real restaurant. I delivered my note.

"Good," she said. "I've handed out word puzzles to complete while dinner is being prepared. Yours is at your desk. You may talk quietly while working."

While Perry and Adam conversed, Lisa seemed enthralled with the topic. I slipped into my chair. Hopefully they were still discussing sports. I listened, expecting baseball, but when I heard the discussion of Perry's job offers and the potential move, I sat back with a sigh and listened to Adam extol the virtues of big city life. Lisa joined in, her face animated when she spoke of the possibility of living in
Portland
. I wanted to say, I'd been there done that, but this wasn't my decision.

The moving conversation continued through dinner. My stomach had tightened over the thought of losing Lisa and probably losing Adam once dinner ended, and I ate very little. No one seemed to notice. Not even Momma Lisa. Over a large slice of cheesecake I couldn't eat, I tuned them out and stared out the window. How was I going to start the conversation with Adam? I mean, how did one admit keeping something from someone and still expect the other person to remain enamored? Was this a lesson my mom forgot to teach me? No, her lesson would be how not to hide the truth from your significant other in the first place.

Lisa clasped my hand. "Why didn't you tell me about Daisy?" Her tone was all testy and irritated.

Really, what had I done now?

"About what?" I asked.

Perry looked up with a fork of creamy dessert ready to pop into his mouth. "Your little Daisy wasn't totally honest."

Huh? Daisy? What happened to the moving topic and the discussion about all the fun things there was to do in
Portland
?

"Paige doesn't know about this yet." Adam set his fork on his plate and pushed it away. "I heard about it in my meeting with Lawson this morning." Adam slid his chair to face me. "Lawson found evidence on
Gary
's computer that Daisy had seen him more than she admitted. They were in the process of filing a harassment lawsuit against five men in the office."

"So that's what they meant by harassment," I muttered.

"What?" Adam asked.

I said that out loud?
I had to watch what I said. "What did the guys do?"

Adam leaned closer. "You're not going to believe this, but they used a code to announce on the PA system when a beautiful woman came into the office. Once the men heard the location, they'd hang around and ogle the woman until she left."

"I've heard of that happening in stores but not in an office," Lisa said.

"Yeah, well it allegedly happened at Pacific Pickles. Daisy couldn't identify the men so last Thursday
Gary
promised to put in a hidden surveillance camera. When Daisy came to pick up her paycheck on Friday, he'd catch the men in action."

"Did he do it?" Perry asked, his voice as excited as I felt inside.

"Daisy's convinced he did, but Lawson found no evidence of it."

I perked up. The clue I'd been waiting for. This was how Nathan Jacobs saw Daisy every week. I was certain he was one of the freaky five. One of the men who had a great reason for killing
Gary
. I leaned forward. "If this is true and
Gary
had a case against these guys, one of them could have killed him to stop him from proceeding. We just need to find out who they are."

"We?" Adam raised his right brow.

Great. Open mouth, insert pointy dress shoe. "Well, I mean, someone has to find out who they are."

Perry reached for his soda and winked at me. "Someone who's a little more subtle than you were at the police station today."

Adam's eyes tightened. "Were you at the station today?"

I forgot Perry had a police connection. I was busted. So busted. But I couldn't be. Not here in front of everyone. It would be bad enough to confess when we were alone, but I couldn't tell Adam what I'd done with onlookers sitting around.

"The plants needed water," I said and looked at my lap.

"And that's the only reason you were there?" Adam asked, his tone all suspicious

"Hey, what's the big deal with being down at the station?" Perry asked. "Gotta go where the clues are if you're gonna find the killer for Karen."

I glanced at Lisa who gave me her I-told-you-so look then turned to Perry. I'd have to reconsider the plant name I'd given him. I'd dubbed him a yarrow plant for its ability to stem bleeding, but he had just cut me to the quick, and I was bleeding profusely.