“Here’s the one we found while geocaching.
“TMBA PIDM AWUM NCV.”
She wrote down the letters and then I read off the next one. “This is the one that was left for me at the newspaper office.
“ZMWKKCXQML.”
Grandma scribbled down that one as well.
“And here’s the one we found at Florence’s house.
“ILCTBMZQMA.”
“So,” Grandma said looking at our list. “We just take each letter and count backward eight letters?”
I shrugged. “I guess so. We just assume the alphabet is one big loop. Once we end with “Z” we just start back over with the letter “A”. Right?”
“I assume so,” Grandma said. “Let’s see if we can figure this out.”
13
That night I sat at The Palm Breeze coffee shop waiting for Annalise and her friends to show up. I invited them for coffee and told them I knew the message in Piper’s bottle. I think I held my breath until they texted back that they would meet me. That was the first time since probably high school that I invited more than one person to hang out with me. It was nerve-racking and I was relieved when they all seemed to get excited to get together.
I sat at the table looking at the door, eagerly waiting to wave them over when they walked in. I hated to admit it to myself, but I was looking forward to seeing Kent. Would he notice my amazing hair? How could he not?
He did not.
He walked in with Aaron and I waved them over. They sat down across from me and Kent was excited about the code. “So, how did you figure it out?”
I shook my head a little bit, letting my soft hair bounce a little. He still didn’t seem to notice. Oh well, maybe it wasn’t the showstopper I thought it was. Then I heard a squeal.
“Nikki! Your hair!” I looked up and saw Annalise and Les coming my way. Annalise ran up to me and fluffed my hair. “Let me see the back!”
I turned so she could see it, happy it was getting the attention it deserved.
“Do you love it?” she asked, sitting next to me.
“I do,” I said honestly. “I look in the mirror and I can’t believe it’s me.”
Piper joined the group and sat on the side with us girls, much to Aaron’s obvious dismay. Then we talked about my hair for a minute, to all the guys’ dismay.
Finally, Kent seemed antsy. “So, about this code…”
“Oh yes,” I said pulling a piece of paper and pen out of my purse. “So, the code is called ROT-8.” I explained to them how it worked and then I asked Piper for the code. She pulled the little bottle out of her purse and read off the letters. I wrote them down then slid the paper to her. I handed her the pen and gave her a chance to figure it out.
Piper wrote out the alphabet at the top of the paper and started decoding right away. In less than a minute she had the whole thing.
She looked at me amazed. “It says ‘Let’s have some fun’!”
There was an excitement around the table as they all looked at the code. But I sat there with a sick feeling in my stomach. On the outside, it looked like a fun thing to put in a bottle and hide in a cache. But really, it was written by some deranged person who was turning killing into a game.
We ordered coffees and pastries and I enjoyed my time with this group of people close to my own age. Les read us a few new poems, Annalise told us some hilarious stories about customers at the antique store, and Aaron shared a sweet story about his nephew. But Kent, he was about as silent as I was.
I finally decided I should get home. I was tired after another long day. And even though I didn’t want to go to bed and have my hair fairy tale be over, I could barely keep my eyes open. To my surprise Kent offered to walk me to my truck.
When we got to my driver’s side door, he lingered and acted like there was something he wanted to say. Finally, he spoke up.
“So, um, there’s something I want to ask you.”
I was excited. Maybe he did notice my hair after all. Or at least he noticed me.
“Are Annalise and Les serious?”
Wait, what?
He must have seen the shocked look on my face because he immediately started making excuses. “If they’re serious I’ll totally back off, it’s just that he doesn’t really seem like her type.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, irritated.
“Look, I can see this was the wrong thing to ask. I just thought maybe since you were her friend, you’d know if I had a chance.”
“She’s with Les,” I said sternly.
“Okay, okay,” he said putting his hands in the air. “I’m sorry. I was just asking.”
I opened the door and started to get in.
“I think your hair looks nice,” Kent called to me.
I closed the door and rolled down my window. “First of all, it looks fabulous.” I paused for dramatic effect, something Grandma Dean taught me. But then I couldn’t think of anything else to say. In half a second’s time, I lost all mental momentum! I started to panic. No, that’s what old Nikki with the crazy hair would do. New Nikki with the great hair is calm and collected. So instead of saying something I just turned the crank, rolling up the window. It felt like it took a really long time, but I stared him down as I did it. That oughta show him.
I sat in the parking lot at the retirement community and looked at the picture on my phone. Grandma and I had decoded all three messages.
Piper’s had said, “Let’s have some fun.” Mine had said, ‘Preoccupied.” But it was the one with Kaylee’s business card that stuck out to me. It said “Adulteries.” Grandma and I had discussed it at our shop when we first realized what it said, and we came to the same conclusion. Kaylee was most likely John’s mistress, or at least someone thought she was.
14
The next afternoon I was busy hanging up cat clothes at our shop. Catalie Portman, one of Grandma’s cats, sat on the counter and dozed. I loved bringing Catalie with me. She was much nicer to me than Grandma’s other cat, Kitty Purry. Kitty was a diva, whereas Catalie was down to earth.
I pulled out several new outfits and laughed. One was a sailor suit. One of the interesting things about Hello Beautiful was that the cat clothes had matching human counterparts. That meant that somewhere in the stack of boxes was the human version. Most likely it was just a blue and white striped shirt but still, it made me laugh. Who would dress like their cat?
The bell at the door jingled and I looked up to see who was walking in. I had expected it to be an older woman, carrying her cat, but was surprised to see it was a guy in his mid-to-late twenties. He was probably lost.
“Hello!” I greeted him. “Can I help you?”
He smiled, his perfectly white teeth lined up in a straight row. He brushed his sandy blond hair from his eyes. “I’m here to buy a gift for my grandma…and her cat. It’s her birthday.”
I chuckled. “Your grandma’s or the cat’s?”
He laughed. “I don’t know, they’re basically one and the same.”
I led him over to our French corner and stood next to our pink Eiffel Tower. “Does she like France? We have the cutest t-shirts.” I pulled out a shirt with a giant picture of a loaf of French bread.
He shook his head. “No, she’s a little more country.”
“Ah, well let’s go look in the country section.”
“You have a country section?” He laughed.
“Oh yes, and one for swimsuits, costumes, party dresses and sleep wear.”
“Wow! You guys have thought of everything.”
He had no idea. Grandma was constantly coming up with more things to carry. We were going to have to buy a bigger store soon if she kept it up.
“We have these cute little red and white checkered shirts.” I held it up and he shook his head no. “How about these?” I asked holding up t-shirts with a horse’s head on them. “We also have t-shirts with a picture of cowboy boots.” I looked through the rack. “Oh, this is cute!” I handed him a shirt with ca
t sipping lemonade in a rocking chair.
He laughed. “Does the cat version have a grandma drinking lemonade in a rocking chair?”
“As a matter of fact, it does,” I said, handing him the shirt.
When he finished laughing, he said he’d take it.
He followed me up to the counter and we chatted as I rang up his order. There was something so sweet about him, maybe it was the fact that he was buying a gift for his grandma, or maybe it was that everything he looked at while I rang up his order he made sure to return to its exact location on the counter. Whatever it was, I was enamored.
He scratched Catalie Portman behind the ears. “You’re a good little kitty, what’s your name?”
“Catalie Portman,” I answered for her.
The guy laughed again, his laugh easy and deep. “Wow! That’s quite a name. My grandma’s cat’s name is Winky.”
“That’s cute!” I answered.
“She’s a terror!” he said laughing. “An absolute terror!”
“She can’t be that bad!”
“She’s seriously that bad. My grandma makes us take our shoes off when we visit and one time when I went to put my shoes back on, I stepped on something sharp. Of course, I started yelling and I look at my foot and there’s a thumb tack sticking out of it! I look in my shoe and there’s like four or five more.”
“Winky did not do that!” I laughed.
“Yes, she did! Sometimes I think my grandma trains her to do stuff like that.”
“That’s awful,” I laughed. “And your grandma sounds like she would get along great with my grandma’s friends.” I could just picture Hattie or Irene trying to train their cat (if they had one) to put thumb tacks in people’s shoes.
I put the shirts in a bag along with the receipt. “Does your grandma live around here?”
“Yep, she lives in the Golden Acres Retirement Community.”
“Hey!” I said excited. “That’s where mine lives too!”
“Well, maybe I’ll see you around when I visit her sometime.”
“That would be nice,” I said honestly. “And maybe one day we can swap stories about Lloyd. I’m sure you have a bunch too.”
He looked at me strangely. “Who?”
“Lloyd, you know the guy that roams around in his speedo all the time, never wears regular clothes.”
He looked perplexed for a minute then smiled. “Oh yes, Lloyd. How could I forget him!”
That was my thought exactly. But maybe if you’re a guy, he leaves you alone.
“By the way, my name is Ayden, with a y.”
I smiled. “I’m Nikki, with an i.”
“Well, Nikki, it was really nice to meet you. I hope I run into you again sometime.”
For some reason I felt a little flustered. When he turned to walk away, something on the floor caught his eye. “Oh, looks like this must have fallen off the counter, or maybe out of someone’s wallet.” He bent down to pick something up and when stood up and handed it to me over the counter I froze. A slip of paper with a code on it. I looked down at the bold letters.
IVVWGIVKM
“This was on the floor too.”
He handed me a card with a basketball player on the front, smiling wildly with a ball in his hands. At the top it said Peace Pointe Community College and at the bottom was the young man’s name – Lucca Harris. I flipped the back over and saw a list of his stats.
“Are you okay?” Ayden asked me.
I looked up at him, not really feeling okay. Where did this come from? My mind was suddenly reeling, trying to remember everyone that had come in so far that day. Who knows how long it had been on the floor, how many people stepped right over it, thinking it was trash.
“Nikki, are you all right?”
My eyes finally focused on his, but I still couldn’t speak. He reached over and took the slip of paper from my hand and looked at it.
“What is this?” he asked.
“It’s a code,” I said, barely above a whisper.
He handed it back to me and looked concerned. “A code? What does it mean?”
It meant that the killer had been in the store that day, or had someone else bring it in. I looked up at Ayden and wanted to tell him everything. I needed to talk about it. I hadn’t told Annalise and the others the night before and it was building up inside of me – the stress, the worry. I probably shouldn’t have unloaded like that on a stranger, but the whole story came bubbling out – tripping over the body, the codes, a woman who makes dolls out of human hair – everything.
When I was done, I looked at him and expected him to laugh or turn and run away. However, I didn’t expect what actually happened. He came around the counter and asked if he could hug me. I collapsed into his chest and held on for dear life. I needed that hug more than I thought I did. He hugged me back while whispering, “It’s okay. It will all be alright.”
For the first time in days I felt safe. And for the first time since Joe the hot fireman and I broke up, I felt cared for. For just a brief moment everything felt ok. And then the door jingled.
From my safe place in Ayden’s arms I looked up to see Owen walk in, his mouth open in shock. I didn’t even have time to pull away when the door swung open again and Kent barged in yelling, “Nikki, we need to talk!”
15
It was an odd moment, all four of us standing there, staring at each other. Then all eyes were on me, each silently demanding I explain who everyone was. I thought about running out the back of the store and away from the eyes and the men behind them. But then I had a thought. I’m not doing anything wrong! I’m not dating any of them!
I straightened myself up and did my best Grandma Dean impression. “What is going on here?” I demanded. “This is my place of business and you hooligans are barging in here like you own the place.” Too far Nikki, I told myself. Dial it back a bit. I didn’t have an old person to young person translator in my brain, so this was going to take extra effort.
“I’m sorry,” Owen said, looking at Ayden instead of me. “I…I stopped by to bring you this.”
He walked over and put a to-go cup on the counter. I realized I was still holding onto Ayden so I let go and took a step away from him.
“Thank you,” I said picking up the drink. “That was really nice of you.”
Owen looked at me and he looked hurt. “Call me later…if you want.”
I wanted to stop him from walking out, but I knew I couldn’t. And even if I had, it wasn’t like we could have a private conversation with Ayden and Kent around. Oh ya, why was Kent there?
Owen walked past Kent and I noticed they both tensed their shoulders.
“What are you doing here?” I asked Kent once Owen was outside.
Kent looked over Ayden and acted like he wasn’t sure he should talk in front of him. Finally, he barked out, “I’ve tried to talk to Annalise all day and she won’t answer any of my calls or texts! And I have a feeling it’s because you told her I wanted to ask her out.”
“I didn’t tell her anything!” I yelled back. “If she’s not talking to you it’s because she doesn’t want to talk to you.”
Suddenly something Grandma Dean had said that morning came to mind. “Actually,” I said to Kent, “She’s out of town. My grandma had her run to Miami to pick up a few things for the antique store.”
He looked at me ashamed. “Oh. You really didn’t say anything to her?”
“No,” I answered. Though honestly, I had intended to, I’ve just been a little busy lately.
Kent stood there looking at me a for a moment, not sure what to do or say next. What did I originally see in that guy? He was kind of a jerk.
Finally, he walked in a little further and reached out his hand to Ayden and introduced himself. Ayden shook his hand and did the same.
“Nikki, you coming with us on Saturday?” Kent asked as he walked back to the door.
“I’m not sure yet,” I answered. “I’ll let you know.”
He nodd
ed, said a quick goodbye and left.
“Wow,” Ayden said looking at me. “You’re popular.”
“Not really,” I confided. “My world just has a tendency to implode from time to time and you just happened to be here for one such event.”
“Ah, so hanging out with you should be interesting then.”
When Ayden left a few minutes later I called Grandma and told her about the code and the basketball card.
“What do you think the card is for?” I asked her. “The name sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. I hate that I’ve always been so bad at names.”
“I don’t know what it could mean,” Grandma said on the other end of the line. “Have you Googled his name?”
“Not yet,” I answered, turning the card over in my hand, trying to see if there was anything on the card that stood out.
“We really need to get some kind of security camera in the store,” Grandma said. “I’ll give Brittney a call and see if she can remember who came in the store this morning before you got there. I’m here at the antique store covering for Annalise and it’s been dead for the last hour. It will give me something to do.”
I hung up the phone and looked around the store, hoping maybe whoever left the code and basketball card had left some other clue behind. Fifteen minutes later when my phone rang, I was still looking and still hadn’t come up with anything.
“Hello,” I answered.
“I just got off the phone with Brittney. She only had one customer this morning and you’ll never guess who it was.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Delores Vaughn.”
That night after dinner, Grandma and I were cleaning off the table. She had made lasagna and I put the leftovers in the fridge. I looked at the container for a minute before I closed the door. I really wanted another serving, but Grandma said the grannies would be over soon and Greta was bringing pie. I leaned toward the remaining lasagna and whispered. “I’ll see you tomorrow. I promise.”
Crack the Code (Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery Book 5) Page 6
