by Laina Turner
“I guess she’s running late.” I shrugged. “Should we call her?”
“I’m sure something came up. We can give her some more time before we start harassing her,” Cora said. “I know she wouldn’t ditch us without a good reason.”
We were just about to break for lunch, and I decided I’d call Sally. It wasn’t like her to be this late without calling. I hoped nothing was wrong. Cora and I were discussing where to go for lunch, and I retrieved my phone back from Cody, who’d finished with his portion of cleaning and had been playing games while Cora and I continued working.
“I’m going to see where she is.”
“Good idea. I’m starting to get worried.”
I dialed her number. “Hmmm, that’s strange. It went right to voicemail.”
“Okay, now I’m officially worried.”
“Me too. Should we go to her house?”
“Why don’t we? We’ve gotten a lot done here, so we deserve a break. Then, once we see she is all right, we can grab a bite to eat.” Cora and I gathered our things, I called out to Cody, and we were just about to walk out the door when an obviously mad Sally came through the door.
“Sally, where’ve you been? Why didn’t you answer your phone?” I said. Then, noticing she was shaking, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“She is going to pay,” Sally said, her anger obvious.
“Sylvia? Why? What happened?” I asked.
“She put sugar in my gas tank, and it quit running on me about two miles from home. Good thing Jim Roth drove up behind me a few minutes after, because of course my cell phone was dead, and I didn’t have my car charger.”
“How do you know it was sugar in the tank?”
“Jim called Craig’s Car Service for me, and he came out and towed it to his shop to see what the problem was. Sugar was poured into the tank and clogged up the filter, which then prevented fuel from reaching the engine. All I know is, it’s going to cost a lot to fix. Craig was nice enough to have one of his guys drop me off, so I’m going to need to bum a ride home at some point. Tom sure as hell will be paying this bill. Just wait until I get my hands on him.” Sally stopped venting for a minute and looked around the store. “Wow, you guys got a lot done already.”
“Maybe you should thank Sylvia,” Cora said. “Her scheme got you out of the worst of the cleaning.”
“Ha! Even not having to clean doesn’t make me less angry. I can’t believe she would stoop to this level. She has what she wanted, my husband. Why can’t she just leave me alone?”
“How can you be positive it was her?” I asked. “Who else would do this?”
“Well, concrete proof would help, especially if you want to press charges.”
“I guess I don’t have that kind of concrete proof. But it must be her. No one else has it in for me.”
“True, you’re a pretty likable person.” Cora gave her a cheeky grin. “So should we get her back by messing with her car?”
“As much as I want to, I refuse to stoop to her level, but I’m not above messing with Tom.”
“Now that we know you’re okay how about grabbing a bite to eat,” I said. “Come with us, and we can plot your revenge. That should cheer you up.”
We started walking out the door and almost collided with Tom, who was walking in. Cora and I glanced at Sally, and I almost felt sorry for him, seeing the rage on her face.
“I got your voicemail,” Tom said. “What are you accusing Sylvia of?”
“Sylvia has finally pushed it too far this time.” She stood in front of him, hands on hips, glaring. If looks could kill, he’d be dead.
“Come on, Sally, stop overreacting.”
“She put sugar in my gas tank!”
“Prove it!” Tom said, defiant. “So, something happened to your car. You can’t blame Sylvia every time something in your life goes wrong.”
“The heck I can’t. My life was fine until she decided to mess with it. I know it was her, Tom. You are paying to get my car fixed, and you better tell her to leave me alone. You have too much at stake not to.”
Cora, Cody, and I continued walking out the door, to give them a little privacy. Plus, Cody didn’t really need to witness whatever else Sally was going to do or say to Tom.
“Do you really think Sylvia would do that?” Cora asked me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know her well enough, but who else would do that to Sally?”
A few seconds later, Tom followed Sally out. He was still standing. That was a good sign. Sally locked the door behind her.
“You let him live,” I said when she reached us. “Yeah. Though I don’t know why.”
“Let’s go and get something to eat and make business plans instead of dwelling on the negative,” I said. “I’m starving. Are you guys hungry?”
“I sure am,” Cody piped up. “Can we go to the pizza place? Can we, can we?”
“It’s up to you guys,” I said, looking at Sally and Cora.
“Fine with me,” said Cora.
“Me too. I could use some carbs right about now,” Sally said.
It was a little after normal lunchtime, so we were seated right away and got our order in.
I loved Gordon’s Pizza. It was deep-dish Chicago style and delicious. Each slice was weighed down with cheese and fillings. The décor was cheesy, but cute, with red-and-white checked tablecloths and a fake rose in a plastic vase next to a votive candle that was battery operated.
“Do you think we can open in a month, or is that too soon?” I said, grabbing a breadstick for myself and putting two on Cody’s plate from the basket full of the hot, garlicky goodies the waitress had just set on the table.
“It’ll be a ton of work, but I say let’s go for it. What do you think, Sally?” Cora said. “What are you looking at?” I said, noticing Sally was staring across the room. I hoped it wasn’t Tom and Sylvia walking in. That was the last thing we needed.
“Isn’t that June Tanner heading this way?” Sally said.
“I think so. She looks mad,” I said, as June reached the table and looked at all of us before staring at Sally. I don’t know what Sally had done, but June looked livid.
“How dare you!” June snapped to Sally, shaking her finger in Sally’s face.
Sally leaned back in her chair a bit to get out of June’s reach, a shocked look on her face. “June, I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play stupid with me, young lady. I heard you’re opening a coffee shop. How could you steal business from me!”
“June, we’re doing nothing of the sort,” Sally said.
“So, you’re not opening a business?”
Now I started to understand. June and her husband, Herb, owned the diner in town. Was she afraid we would cut in on her business by opening our place?
“June, we’re talking about opening a used bookstore, not a diner,” I tried to interject.
“You’re serving coffee and food, aren’t you?” she snapped.
“Yes, but it’s not a restaurant,” Sally said in a sweet tone. I could tell she was being extra nice, hoping June would calm down. “The bakery serves coffee and pastries, and it doesn’t hurt your business.”
“But you can’t hang out at the bakery. There’s no seating. People hang out at the diner. I’m warning you, stay away from my customers!” With that, she turned and stalked off.
“Wow!” Cora said. “What was that all about?”
“I don’t know. She’s awfully worked up,” Sally said.
“Yeah. Something’s going on there. I’ve never known June to be so aggressive,” I said. “Especially toward you.”
“She’s hated me, and Tom, ever since he refused to do their taxes unless they quit claiming their yearly cruises as business expenses.”
“Maybe she put sugar in your tank,” Cora suggested.
“She did look pretty mad,” I said.
“June is all bark. I know that was Sylvia. If only she knew what I do. It wou
ld kill her. And I wouldn’t be one bit sorry.”
Chapter 8
There was a knock on my front door later that evening, and I opened it to find Jared standing there. I’d been expecting him. He was supposed to pick up Cody.
“Cody, your dad is here,” I called up to my son, who had run upstairs to his room to grab his baseball glove. Cody had been anxiously waiting on his dad, who was taking him to the park to play catch.
“Coming, Mom!” I heard Cody yell.
“I have some papers for you to sign,” I said, turning to face him.
“For what?” he said, looking confused.
“For the money you stole from me,” I replied over my shoulder, as I walked back to the kitchen where I had left the papers Jack had drawn up for me. He’d emailed them to me earlier and had also asked me if I wanted to hang out tonight. I hadn’t yet responded. I didn’t want to spend time with him and not ask about that woman, but I still wasn’t ready to ask.
I picked the papers up off the table and handed them to my ex, staying silent while he read them over. I was hoping he wouldn’t be stupid enough to argue with me over this. He’d better realize how lucky he was he wasn’t sitting in jail about now.
Jared looked back up at me, raising his eyebrows. “Fifty dollars a week for infinity?”
“Unless, of course, you choose to pay it off in a lump sum early, for which you will receive a twenty-percent pre-payment discount. I believe that it is line eleven,” I said sweetly.
“But—”
I held up my hand to stop him from talking. “Listen, Jared. You’re lucky Clive stuck up for you and talked me out of throwing you in jail for theft. The only reason you are standing here right now is because it wasn’t in Cody’s best interest for you to end up behind bars. You stole from me, and I’m not going to let it slide. That was a lot of money. That was my future,” I said firmly.
“You’re opening a business, so you must have money.”
“Whether I do or not is really none of your concern,” I said, not caring to have a conversation with him about it, or anything, for that matter, except how I wanted my money back.
“I think it’s my business if you throw your money away on something stupid. What about Cody’s college?”
“Really? You’re saying this to me? Sometimes I can’t even begin to understand how your mind works. Once again, that’s none of your business. And as far as Cody’s college fund, I’m not planning on using it. Even if I did, it’s money I have saved, not you. Maybe you should focus on writing me checks that don’t bounce.” Jared was very selfish. He never liked me spending money on anything that wouldn’t benefit him, and he never liked to spend his own money on anything that didn’t benefit him either. That was evident by his actions the entire time I had known him.
“You don’t think opening a business in this economy is just a little irresponsible, Trixie?” he said, completely glossing over my comment about the bounced check and the fact he’d stolen thousands from me. Typical of him. He just ignored whatever he didn’t want to deal with, trying to turn the heat off his actions by questioning mine. I started to regret not pressing charges.
Luckily, I was saved from further comment by Cody barreling down the stairs with his baseball glove and overnight bag. I grabbed him for a hug, which he reciprocated. He was already getting to the age where it was hit or miss. I guess today it was okay to show his mom affection. My baby was growing up all too fast. “Have a good time, baby cakes,” I said, ruffling his hair. “What time do you want me to pick him up tomorrow?”
“Anytime in the afternoon is fine.”
“You guys have fun,” I said, closing the door behind them as they walked out. I hated it when Cody left. The house was so empty without him, but now I had my business to keep me busy.
Chapter 9
“What the hell happened here?” I exclaimed, walking into ReadWine the next morning to find it wasn’t how we’d left it the night before. So much hard work down the drain. It made me want to cry.
The contractors had been working hard the last couple weeks painting and installing the bookcases, a pastry case, and other fixtures we had picked up here and there. We bought things used to save money, so it ended up being an eclectic mix of furniture and fixtures, but the final effect was going to be amazing. At least, I hoped it was. The three of us had spent twelve hours the day before buying used books from people who were happy to earn a few cents from their dusty tomes. We’d worked hard organizing everything and putting it on the bookshelves, and now it was completely ripped apart. Books were scattered across the floor, some with pages ripped out of them. The bookcases that weren’t bolted to the wall were toppled over. Someone had thrown red paint all over the floors we had just paid to have refinished. I could only hope it would come off with minimal damage and we wouldn’t need to refinish the floors again.
“You said it, sister.” Cora shook her head. “Who would do this?”
“All our hard work down the drain,” I said, dejected and close to tears. I couldn’t imagine something like this happening. “Why would anyone want to do this?”
“We need to call Clive,” said Cora. “Report a break-in.”
“Yeah, but first, we need to get to work cleaning up this mess. We open in two days,” Sally said, bending over to pick up some books.
“Sally, shouldn’t we call Clive first, so he can come take a look before we clean?” I said.
She sighed. “Good point. Call Clive, and I’ll make some coffee.”
A few minutes later, Clive showed up. He’d been eating breakfast at Tanner’s, which was right around the corner. “Wow,” Clive said. “What happened here?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t have called you,” said Sally.
Clive walked around and surveyed the damage, taking pictures and making notes. He finally spoke up. “Do you have any thoughts on who would do this?”
“Sylvia!” Sally immediately said.
“Do you think maybe this was just an act of random vandalism by kids? Maybe we left the front door open?” I said, ignoring Sally. I knew she would blame Sylvia regardless, and I wanted to be objective.
“Could be, but I swear that door was locked when we left. Didn’t you double-check it after locking the deadbolt?” Sally said.
“Yeah, but maybe it was sticking, and it just felt locked. I mean, the door doesn’t look tampered with, and the windows aren’t broken. Unless someone had a key, how could they have gotten in to do this?”
“I don’t know.” Sally paused a minute to think. “A key. That’s it. It has to be Sylvia!”
“Why do you think Sylvia did this?” Clive said, eyebrows raised.
“It has to be. She’s the only one who would have it in for us, or for me, rather, who would have access to a key,” Sally said.
“You think she would actually do something like this?” Clive said skeptically.
“I wouldn’t put anything past her,” Sally said, walking over to her purse, where she grabbed her cell phone. “I’m calling Bill to change the locks. We should have done that from the beginning.”
“Who would have thought Sylvia would be this vicious? If she is the one who did it. We can’t be positive it was her,” I said.
“Who else—hi, Bill, it’s Sally Greeves. I need you to come down to 1387 Main Street and change the locks. Yes, both front and back door. Thanks, Bill.” Sally snapped her phone shut. “He’ll be here this afternoon.”
“I’ll talk to Sylvia, see what she has to say and get back to you,” Clive said.
“Thanks, Clive,” I said.
A few minutes later, Cora rushed in, face flushed. She’d left after we called Clive to get some cleaning supplies.
“You guys are not going to believe what I just heard,” she said, out of breath, as if she had run all the way from the market at the end of the street. “I was comparing the prices on floor cleaner when I heard Maxine Overstreet and Tilly Greenfield talking in the next aisle. I heard them say s
omething about ReadWine, and so I walked to the end of the aisle to hear better. I heard Maxine tell Tilly she overheard June and Herb talking at the diner, saying ReadWine would never open. I think June really has it out for us. Maybe she did this!”
“That’s crazy. June might be mad, but she’s seventy-something years old. She wouldn’t stoop to doing something like this. Not to mention, these bookcases are heavy. I don’t think she has the strength to knock them over,” I said.
“People are known to have super strength when their adrenaline’s going,” Cora said.
I looked at Cora skeptically. “Isn’t that more for when a car falls on a baby or something?”
“It could happen,” she agreed.
“I kind of agree with Trixie,” said Sally. “I can’t see June doing this. It’s got to be Sylvia.”
“What about you, Clive? You think June or Herb could have sabotaged this place?”
He shook his head. “Not really, but I’ll talk to them,” he said and closed his notebook, putting it back in his pocket. “I’ll be in touch.”
As Clive left, we all looked at each other dejectedly.
“We aren’t going to put Tanner’s Diner out of business,” I said.
“I agree. I’m sure it was Sylvia,” Sally snapped.
“Whoever it was, Clive will figure it out. Let’s just get to work cleaning this mess up,” said Cora.
Chapter 10
“Well, look who it is,” Sally said to Cora and me as we walked up to the building where Jack’s office was located. We were meeting him this morning to sign the partnership paperwork he’d drawn up for us. She wasn’t looking at us, so we looked in the direction of her gaze to see Sylvia walking to her car.
“I need to talk to her and tell her to leave me alone,” Sally said, and hurried in Sylvia’s direction. Cora and I followed. “We know it was you, Sylvia.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Sally?” Sylvia snapped.
“Oh, come off it, Sylvia. Don’t play stupid. You’re the only one who had access and motive.”
