“Really?”
Marissa couldn’t see the deputy’s expression, but he sounded as skeptical as the opposing party in a presidential debate.
“Really.” Connor crossed his arms. “If the attack on Randon in the hospital is connected with the break-in at Cross Enterprises—”
“Break-in? Nobody reported a break-in.”
They had now.
“And…” Connor continued as if uninterrupted. “They both involved hacking into security systems. Then whoever the perp is, he probably had the skills to hack into your computer and find out where the safehouse was located.”
Marissa leaned sideways to peek around Tandy’s legs to find Romero in a staring contest with her fiancé. Go Connor.
The deputy turned toward his computer, pretending he hadn’t lost the stare down. “Do you want me to find you a safehouse or not?” he asked as if he had better things to do.
“We want you to find whoever is trying to kill her,” Connor shot back.
Romero rubbed his face. “Sure. Fine. If you think this fire is related to the break-in at Cross Enterprises, then tell me about that.”
The front door swung open. Troy strode in. Marissa’s heart leaped with hope despite how his backwards baseball cap and basketball shorts signaled him to be off duty. His pert little wife followed, toddler on her hip.
Marissa waved to the shy little girl before looking up at Troy. “Did you find what started the fire?”
“Yeah, that’s actually why I’m here.” He ignored her as he spoke to Connor, Tandy, then the deputy. “The fire was caused by illegal fireworks.”
Marissa’s lips parted. Fireworks? They did cause a lot of trouble this time of year. But did that mean the fire was an accident?
“Likely some kids fooling around who took off so as not to get in trouble.” He shrugged a brawny shoulder before focusing on the ground in front of Marissa. “We’ll keep looking, but I didn’t want you to worry someone was after you if they weren’t.”
Marissa leaned her head against the wall. She’d almost died because kids were playing with fireworks?
She should be relieved, right? This was good news. Except for the fact that while they’d thought they were hot on the trail of a murderer, they were really chasing their own tails. Unless the killer only used fireworks to set the fire to make it look like an accident…
Connor clapped Troy on the back. “Thank you for letting us know.”
“Yeah,” Kristin chimed in as if she had some personal stake in this. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t help Connor get any closer to finding the killer.”
“You okay, Marissa?” asked Troy. “I stopped in at the hospital after we got the fire out to check on you. Griffin was there and said you only had a sprain.”
His wife cleared her throat. She had to be incensed as well. The nerve of Troy calling Marissa’s injury “only a sprain.” And Griffin was “only” a little nauseous.
This wasn’t Troy’s fault though. She lifted her head to give him a brave smile. “I got another boot for my shoe collection.”
“Atta girl.”
Troy’s wife grabbed his hand. “Come on, babe. Hailey has been waiting all day to go to the pool with you.”
Marissa waved again at the cute toddler. Maybe one day she and Connor would have a daughter like that. You know, if she survived all the fireworks the following night. Because apparently the patriotic holiday was out to get her.
Tandy grimaced as Troy and his family walked out. As much as she was glad nobody had hacked into the police computer in order to kill her best friend, she really, really did not want to turn around and admit they were wrong to Deputy Know-It-All. He wasn’t creepy the way Marissa had thought. He was an arrogant punk.
“Maybe you don’t need to go back into a safehouse at all,” she offered as a consolation prize.
“I don’t know.” Connor’s jaw softened as his eyes caressed Marissa’s face. “There’s still the matter of the threatening note.”
“Put on the door by a woman,” Tandy added. Did that make it less threatening or not?
“A woman?” Kristin echoed.
“Yeah.” Tandy turned to face the deputy, hand on hip. If Griffin had been too sick to confront the deputy about his relationship to Randon’s sister, she would. “Interesting that the only female suspect is Moria Evans.”
Romero shook his head. “Not again.”
“Yes again.” Tandy argued. “Because now we know that you moved here to be closer to Moria Evans. You could be biased when investigating her. Or…”
Romero lowered his chin. “Or?”
“Or you’re covering for her!” Marissa cried.
Tandy had planned to stop with the insinuation, but Marissa’s drugs must have affected her filter. Though she’d probably been looking for an opportunity to make such an accusation.
Romero’s dark eyes smoldered. “If I had the power to protect Moria from anything, I would have done it by now. Her adopted brother died in my arms after an IED explosion in Iran. Her twin turns his back on her when she calls him on his ransomware virus. Her loser boyfriend is in jail for going after her twin. Princess here…” he motioned toward Marissa, “…let her go from the wedding planner position she needed in order to pay her bills.”
Marissa held a hand to her heart. Good night. She was going soft.
The deputy continued as if once he found his voice, he couldn’t be quieted. Or maybe he just had something to say for a change. “Don’t you think Moria’s been through enough without you claiming she’s a killer based on some random informant telling you a woman left the note on Marissa’s door?” He turned the full heat of his glare on Tandy. “Where did you get that idea anyway?”
Tandy sized him up. Was he being sincere about Moria? And had Griffin really not told him to question Opal again? “Opal lied to you. Zam read her lips at the coffee shop when she was talking to her grandson, the private investigator Joseph Cross hired. She wanted him to solve the crime before the police department.”
Romero crossed an ankle over one knee. “Zam read their lips?” His eyebrows arched like question marks. “Is this Phillip Zamorano who used to own the bar in town?”
Tandy glanced at Connor. He’d wanted her to check out Zam’s background. Well, now that she knew his name, she could. “I don’t know his first name.”
Romero nodded. “Deaf guy with a dog named Sheila?”
Connor snickered. “Sheila.”
Kristin grinned at him as if sharing an inside joke.
Tandy shook her head. This wasn’t the time. “Yes,” she answered the deputy. Her pulse picked up speed as she forced herself to ask one of her own. One his mocking expression told her she wouldn’t like the answer to. “How do you know him?”
Romero rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I broke up a bar fight between him and Randon a month ago. He blamed Randon for the ransomware virus that destroyed his records and ultimately made him lose his liquor license.”
Chapter Twenty
“I suspected that guy all along!” Connor declared on the way out the door of the police station. They were meeting Greg for dinner at Mama’s Kitchen, which was a good thing, as Marissa hadn’t had the opportunity to pig out on wedding cake for lunch the way Tandy had.
Marissa hobbled along, happy about appeasing her rumbling stomach, but unsure how to take the news about Zam. She didn’t know him, so the pieces didn’t all fit together so easily for her.
Tandy wasn’t as thrilled as Connor. “I thought Zam was a new Christian. I thought that’s why he left the bar industry.”
“He probably told you that to gain your trust.” Connor held the door open for Marissa to climb into the rear of the cab. Though with as high as the truck was off the ground and as low as her energy had gone, she couldn’t hoist herself all the way up.
He squatted, wrapped his arms around her thighs, and lifted her as if she didn’t weigh a thing. It would have been romantic if not for the throb in her ankle and the gi
ant boot she was afraid could accidentally kick him when he sat her down.
“Hon, you don’t have to be a witness anymore. You don’t have to worry about being forced to start a new life away from our home.”
She held his shoulders to steady her from tipping over. “I don’t?”
“No.” He lowered her gently despite his boyish enthusiasm. “If Romero arrests Zam, he can testify against Cash Hudson for a lighter sentence. Or Cash can testify against Zam if Zam’s the one who hired him as a contract killer in the first place.” Connor looked up to where Tandy opened the front passenger door. “That’s how it works, right? We should ask Greg at dinner.” He closed Marissa’s door to climb in his own.
Tandy plopped into the front seat across from him, and slammed her door shut. “I’m not ready to declare Zam guilty. He seemed so sincere about believing in the fear of the Lord.” She sighed. “But I guess he could have been as sincere as Marissa claiming not to be afraid for her life anymore when she was doped up on pain killer.”
“Hey.” Marissa would have frowned if she had the energy for it. “I may have been doped up, but I was sincere.”
Tandy twisted in her seat. “You’re not afraid of what man can do to you?”
She’d quoted that verse, hadn’t she? Well it was a good verse. “If I was afraid, you think I would have risked my life to leave the safehouse and check on your wedding planning?”
Connor snorted as he started the engine. “There’s a fine line between fearless and senseless.”
Senseless? Really? Marissa let it go. Wow, these drugs really did help her relax. “You know what? I knew what I was doing. God loved me so much that He gave me a wedding dress, and why would He do that if I wasn’t going to get a chance to wear it?”
“Hmm.” Tandy studied her, the wrinkle between her eyebrows signaling deep thought. She wasn’t feeling as loved.
“I’m sorry, Tandy.” Marissa reached up and squeezed her shoulder. “I know you enjoyed working with Zam. Looking back, can you see suspicious behaviors you might have overlooked?”
Tandy jabbed a thumb at Connor. “I know Connor did.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I was right about him putting words in Opal’s mouth.”
Marissa had missed so much of the investigation. “You mean the part where he said a woman left the note on my door? Obviously, he was trying to throw suspicion off himself. Though if Griffin hadn’t gotten sick, he probably would have had the deputy question Opal again. Or even Trenton. If that was a lie, Zam couldn’t keep it going.”
As for causing Griffin’s illness, Marissa couldn’t be sure how Zam would have pulled that one off. Leave eggs in the sun for a day? Sneak into the church and add them to the potato salad? Let a bunch of other people also get sick in the process?
Tandy groaned. “Do you think Zam was only offering to help at Caffeine Conundrum in order to point us in the wrong direction?”
Connor shrugged and turned a corner. “Or he could have been spying on you. You’re getting quite the reputation as a detective.”
Tandy gazed out the window. “He did only show up after he found out our connection to Randon at the pet costume contest.”
Connor slapped the steering wheel. “That’s right.”
Tandy looked down at her lap. “He also pretended not to know about Randon. Now that I think about it, he once said Randon’s last name without me ever telling him what it was.”
Their discussion helped put all the pieces in place. Zam hired Cash Hudson. Zam threatened Marissa so Cash wouldn’t fear going to prison and turn him in as part of a plea bargain. Zam tried to finish the job on Randon and had been there when Tandy found out about it. So he’d befriended Tandy to keep anyone from suspecting him.
Tandy had been betrayed by someone she considered a friend.
Marissa wanted to show her she had real friends. She’d be that friend to Tandy even if it meant risking her life. She wanted Tandy to feel the kind of love she felt.
With determination she nodded toward the rearview mirror to look her fiancé in the eye. “Connor, if you’re right that I won’t need to be a witness anymore, then I’m going to go ahead and tell Griffin now. That way he won’t have to waste any time trying to find me another safehouse, and I won’t have to worry about someone trying to kill me to keep me quiet.”
Connor pulled to the curb on Main Street and twisted to face her. “I support your decision one- hundred percent. Though maybe Tandy should stay with you until Zam’s arrested.” He pulled the keys from the ignition. “Is that all right with you, Tandy? I mean I’d let her keep Ranger again, but I don’t know that she wants to.”
Marissa nodded at her friend. “He has a point.” Also, they’d never had a sleepover before.
Tandy’s blue eyes zinged her way. “What if Zam’s not guilty?”
Marissa waited for Connor to tug his door handle, hop out, and close the door before sharing her plan.
“We’re going to find out for sure if Zam is guilty or not,” she assured her friend. “Without me as a witness, the police can’t keep Cash in jail. So as soon as he gets out tomorrow, we’ll follow Zam to see if they meet up.”
Tandy held her gaze, eyes darkening. “And if they don’t?”
“Do you really believe they won’t?”
Tandy faced forward. “At least I’ll be able to believe it because I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“Exactly.”
When Tandy agreed to Marissa’s crazy scheme, she hadn’t realized how hard it would be to work with Zam the next day at the Red, White, and Brew booth. While she suspected him of attempted murder, among other things, she felt like a liar and backstabber.
He grinned at her. “Okay, I’m going to toss both these mugs over my head. I’ll catch one behind my back, and you’ll catch the other. Then I’ll turn, reach around you, and flip my cup under your arm to catch it in my opposite hand.”
He made it sound so simple, but she was kind of glad it wasn’t. This way she could completely concentrate on the juggling routine rather than on her frayed nerves. “Right. Then we’ll both flip our mugs in the air, spin, and catch them.”
Zam sipped his iced coffee through a straw in one hand while he flipped the mug in his other. Without spilling a drop, he grabbed a second mug to juggle one handed. Though she thought that impressive, it was nothing to the way he lowered his drink to the counter and began juggling two mugs in the second hand as well.
A crowd of early birds formed around the coffee stand Connor had painted completely in chalkboard paint. Marissa had drawn chalk art on one side with their drink prices and patriotic designs then left the other side blank for patrons to draw on while waiting for their brew.
“Three…two…one…” Zam counted down before a mug flew through the air toward her head. Perhaps this was how he was going to take her out. It could at least give her a concussion.
Or not. She gripped the smooth porcelain and swung around as planned to prevent herself from sustaining injury. Then she got into the act, flipping and spinning before sticking her final pose to the sound of cheers and wolf-whistles.
Zam bowed. “Who will be our first customer today?” He scanned faces for a response. A couple of teens stepped forward.
Tandy returned to her regularly scheduled program—slinging drinks and taking payments. The crowd didn’t let up and neither did the heat. It was only going to get busier as the day progressed. All leading up to the fireworks show their town was known for.
Greg stole her for lunch. “Are we trying donut burgers or gumbo tater tots or fried gummy bears? And more importantly, why is Zam still working with you?”
Tandy glanced over her shoulder at the guy filling a little paper cup with whipped cream for a customer’s dog. “What am I supposed to tell him? That it’s only a matter of time until Griffin is healthy enough to make an arrest?”
Greg tugged her behind a food truck to sit at a picnic table. He slapped a folder on the table in front of her. “Well, I did
a background check, and it looks like this won’t be the first time Zam gets arrested.”
Tandy’s heart plummeted. Memories of Zam’s sermon on the fear of the Lord came flooding back. She’d told him he spoke like someone who had been the bad guy before. Haven’t we all? he’d asked. She should have known then. Though her heart still didn’t want to believe.
Twisting her lips to one side, she flipped the top of the folder open. Zam’s DUIs started as a minor. Drug dealing. Armed robbery. Larceny.
Greg pointed to addresses. “It looks like he lived in Cincinnati. Was probably part of a gang.”
Tandy pictured a younger Zam. His likability would have made him good at selling drugs, though that probably only added to his problem. “He must have gotten clean at some point.”
“Tandy.” Greg tilted his head in compassion. “I know you. What’s going on?”
Tandy closed the folder. “I’m from Cincinnati too, Greg.”
“Hence the tough girl act.”
She looked away. “When Mom left, my dad turned to alcohol. Sometimes he went on bender’s for weeks. I had to take care of him.”
He reached for her hand. Dear, sweet, perfect Greg. The guy who’d lived her summer vacation life year-round. How could he possibly understand?
If they were going to have a chance at a future, she’d have to be honest about her past. The same way she’d been honest with Marissa about setting the oven on fire. Now her beans were perfectly roasted and ready to spill.
Her heart shivered as she bared it. “If someone offered you a place to live but said there would be a time when they needed the favor returned, would you accept their offer?”
Greg’s eyes twitched as if confused why this was even a question. “No.”
She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “What if your only other option was to live on the streets?”
Greg’s jaw slackened. He nodded in understanding. “You did some things you didn’t want to do out of fear.”
That same fear trickled down her spine, cold and consuming. “I did.”
A Latte Difficulty Page 18
