by Emmie Lyn
“That was my plan. Carla basically threw Greg under the bus and the others are all looking at each other wondering who did what.”
“So, who did kill Ginger?” he asked.
“I wish I knew the answer to that question,” I said out of the side of my mouth as I took the order for a banana strawberry supreme shake.
“Oh, hi, Hitch,” a syrupy voice said from the other side of the counter. “Fancy seeing you here.”
I recognized that phony baby doll purr and looked up to see Ashley with her eyes glued to Hitch, flirting as if no one was looking. And, I hadn’t warned him yet.
“Ashley?” Hitch said. “What can I do for you?”
She giggled. “Seriously, Hitch? I can think of plenty.”
I pinched myself before I jumped over the counter and throttled her. And, in case she’d decided that I was invisible, I squeezed myself in front of Hitch and forced a smile.
“Good morning, Ashley,” I said, taking charge of the situation. I gave Hitch a shove away from us and hoped he’d take the hint and make himself scarce. “Have you decided what you want to order?”
Her eyes narrowed into slits. “I was talking to Hitch.”
I turned around and looked behind me. “Well, he has other duties to take care of, so now you’re talking to me.” I leaned over the counter close to Ashley’s face and dropped my friendly voice like a rock. “What are you doing here?”
She crossed her arms and tilted her chin. “I have information for Hitch. Not you. I’ll be sitting at that table over there.” She nodded her head toward a corner table. “Tell him, if he wants to know what I saw, he’d better find a minute to spare. Believe me, it’ll be worth it.”
I didn’t believe her or trust her, but I did want to know what she had to say.
Tilly arrived at the counter and put in several orders from a party at the table by the window. “What’s up with her? Didn’t she do enough damage already by siccing Officer Walker on me? She was sitting in her car when I went into Hitch’s house yesterday. She’s definitely got some strange habits.”
“You saw her?” I said. I stuck the orders in the queue. Business was heating up again, four orders ahead of these. “She told me you didn’t.” I needed to get busy making shakes and serving cakes, but I needed to hear Tilly’s news.
“Of course, that’s what she’d say, Sunny. I didn’t wave or even look at her, but I saw her sitting in that old beater she has, tapping her fingernails on the steering wheel. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was waiting for someone.”
That fit with what I knew about Ashley. “Probably Hitch. She told me she likes to accidentally on purpose bump into him.”
Tilly shook her head. “Pathetic. Listen, she was parked in front of the apartment when I arrived, but when I left, her car was empty. I guess she’d finally gone inside. What’s she doing here?”
I looked at her sitting at the table, tapping the heel of her foot on the floor. I wondered how long she’d wait. “She wants to talk to Hitch. She said she has something interesting to tell him.”
An evil grin spread across Tilly’s face. “I have something to tell her.”
I reached across the counter to grab Tilly’s arm but came up with a handful of air. She was halfway across the shop making a beeline to Ashley. I rushed over to Hitch. He’d had his back to us, restocking the pastry display. “Get over there before Tilly makes a scene. Ashley wants to talk to you. She says it will be worth your time.”
“She’s nothing but trouble.” He wiped his hands on his apron and arrived at Ashley’s table as quietly as a cheetah. Ashley and Tilly were going at it, their voices drowning out everything in the shop.
Ashley looked startled to see him and her eyes widened. “Hitch. You look angry.”
“Let’s go outside, Ashley.” Not giving her a choice, he took her arm, but Tilly maneuvered her way between them and took over the task of pulling Ashley to the door.
Dani pushed me away from the shake area. “Get out there with him before she accuses one of them of harassment or something. I’ll stay here.”
I wiped my brow and followed the trio outside. The salty breeze dried the sweat on my forehead as I joined them.
“What’s so important, Ashley?” Hitch asked. I could see the fire in his eyes and some fear in Ashley’s.
“I only want to help,” she whimpered. “That guy’s been sitting in his car outside our apartment building for at least an hour. Maybe longer.”
“What guy?”
“The same guy I saw yesterday.”
I jumped in and fired questions at her. “What does he look like? What kind of car?”
“A sporty car. Dark. He was slouched down in the seat so I couldn’t really see him. He’s been wearing sunglasses even though it’s been mostly cloudy all day. He gave me the creeps.”
Tears slid down her cheeks, and I almost felt sorry for her. Almost because I couldn’t tell if this was an act, a lie, or something real. That’s the problem when someone has already spun a tale to get someone else in trouble.
Ashley put her hand on Hitch’s arm. “Please, I’m really worried. Especially,” she glanced at me. “After she told me the killer might come after me if he knows I heard something through the wall that separates our kitchens.”
Tilly pulled me away from Ashley’s tear-filled story.
“Do you remember seeing a dark sports car when we left Violet’s house last night?”
I closed my eyes, letting the scene replay in my memory. Tilly and I had walked away from Carla, Laura, and Greg, passing Officer Walker. I recalled Chief Bullock standing with Violet, ready to take her inside for questioning. I visualized Violet’s path bordered by flower beds until we got to the street. It was quiet.
“Yes!” I said. “There was a dark sports car parked in front of Violet’s house. It wasn’t there when we first walked over. Do you think it was Greg’s car?”
Tilly nodded. She pulled me toward her car. “Let’s go.”
23
“Wait!” I shouted and stopped. Tilly jerked backwards since our arms were linked together. “We have to tell Hitch what we’re doing or he’ll worry.”
“There’s no time,” Tilly said and yanked hard on my wrist, trying to make me budge. “The guy in the car might drive away.”
I unhooked myself from Tilly and said, “You go if you want. But I’m getting Hitch. Maybe we should call the police instead.”
Tilly threw up her hands, clearly frustrated. “And tell them what? That there’s someone sitting in his car on the side of the road? Officer Walker is already out to get me. Calling in some vague complaint will surely put me right back in his crosshairs.”
“Okay,” I said, heading back to the shop. “I get it. Just wait here for two seconds.”
I jogged back to Hitch who was busy trying to calm Ashley down. As she blubbered on his shoulder, he patted her back and made some shushing noises. He looked over her head at me and rolled his eyes like he was stuck being her savior whether he liked it or not. I felt like throwing up.
Was Ashley putting on a helpless act to get Hitch’s sympathy? Who knew? She’d already proven to be someone prone to exaggeration at best and an outright liar at the worst.
“Hitch?” I jerked my thumb to the side to let him know I needed to talk to him. In private.
He held Ashley at arm’s length and forced her to look at him. “Ashley. Go inside. Tell Dani to fix you a mint chocolate chip milkshake. My treat. Then, sit down at one of the tables and pull yourself together. I’ll be in when I’m done out here. Okay?”
She nodded and swiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand, leaving big, dark streaks of mascara under her eyes. Not a look she’d like but I wasn’t going to say anything to her.
“You two have something cooked up?” Hitch said once Ashley had disappeared inside our shop. He didn’t sound happy about it either. “Does it have something to do with the dark sports car Ashley told us about?”
&
nbsp; “Who’s driving?” Tilly yelled at us as she dug in her bag for her keys, which more or less answered her own question. “Hitch, Sunny and I both remember seeing a dark sports car in front of Violet’s house last night. We think it belongs to Greg, so let’s get a move on before he vanishes.”
She was already behind the steering wheel of her bug and had the engine revving. There was no slowing Tilly down when she had her eye on the prize. Or suspect, in this case.
Hitch held my arm, catching me with one foot in Tilly’s car. “One of us has to stay here. We do have a business to run.” He ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick out in all directions. “I see Tilly won’t be stopped, but please don’t do anything foolish. Just drive by the car and get the license plate number. Under no circumstances should you try to talk to the person. Understand? He could be dangerous. I’ll stay here to keep an eye on Ashley. I’m not sure what her game is.”
“Thankfully, Dani stepped right in and has been super helpful,” I said. “I can’t say I’d choose to spend my day off volunteering at someone else’s business, but I’ll take it. We’ll owe her big time after today.”
“Yeah. Maybe a kitten?” He grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back. He had that way about him to know how to ease even a bad situation.
“Let Sunny go, Hitch, or she might lose a leg.”
To prove her point, Tilly revved the engine again. I felt the vibration in the sole of my foot that rested on the mat in front of the passenger seat. The problem was that the rest of me was still outside the car. If Tilly got any more impatient, I’d likely lose more than my leg, which was not a pleasant thought.
Hitch gave me one last squeeze for good luck and let go. I plopped onto the seat in the bug, and Tilly started backing out before I’d slammed my door closed.
“Geez, Tilly. You’re going to kill us both if you don’t slow down.”
“Close your eyes if you don’t like my driving. I’m not slowing down.”
I pulled my seat belt extra tight and gripped the edges of the seat. How many times had I told myself not to ride with this maniac? Too many, but here I was.
“Watch out!” I screamed as she drove over the dividing line.
Tilly laughed and swerved back into her lane. “Oops! I got a little distracted.”
“If you aren’t careful, Officer Walker will pull you over. How many warnings do you already have?” I knew this wasn’t really playing fair but scaring her a little was my strategy to arrive in one piece.
The car immediately slowed to a reasonable speed. One that was barely over the thirty-five-mile per hour speed limit in this residential area. My survival increased by a hundred percent. I let out a big sigh of relief.
“You really know how to be a killjoy, Sunny.” Tilly rocked the steering wheel back and forth making the bug do a little dance. But at least she stayed in her lane.
“Just looking out for your future, Tilly,” I said. And mine I added silently.
She turned onto Hitch’s street. “Here we are. Do you see that dark sports car?”
Tilly inched along at barely five miles an hour now. She could control herself when she needed to.
“There!” I saw what we were looking for about a quarter mile ahead. “That’s it, parked opposite Hitch’s apartment. Just drive by slowly, and I’ll jot down the license plate number. I promised Hitch we wouldn’t stop.”
“I never promised him I’d do a simple drive-by, Sunny. Didn’t you know that it’s a lot more fun to break some rules?” And so much more dangerous. Instead of passing the car in question, Tilly stopped right behind it.
My heart rate jumped at least twenty beats a minute higher. Knowing Tilly, I should have seen this action coming, but if I acted quickly, I could keep her in the car. But as I jotted down the out of state plate number, Tilly opened her door.
“What are you doing?”
“What? You think I drove over here to sit and twiddle my thumbs? I want to talk to this guy and find out what he’s up to.”
Before I could stop her, she slid out of the car. I reached for her arm, but with the seat belt still tight across my chest, I came up short and Tilly slipped out of my grasp.
“He could be dangerous,” I said.
Tilly hiked up her skirt to reveal a thigh holster. “Come on, Sunny. Do you really think that I’d jump into an adventure unprepared for the unexpected?”
Yes, as a matter of fact, that was a distinct possibility in Tilly’s world.
“Never!” she said with a pleased chuckle. She closed the door and approached the driver’s door.
I fumbled with my seat belt determined to join her. If nothing else, two against one made for better odds. I hoped I was right.
I watched as Tilly leaned down to look through the driver’s window. She squinted, moved closer with her face practically squished against the glass.
Something was wrong inside Greg’s flashy sports car.
24
My stomach twisted into a knot when I saw Tilly cup her hands around her face and peer through the sports car’s window.
“What are you looking at?” I whispered, not sure I wanted to hear her answer.
“I’m not sure. Do you think he’s dead?” She tapped her fingernails on the window… click, click, click.
Dead? This couldn’t be happening.
I pushed her away and looked for myself. It was definitely Greg inside, slumped forward with his chin resting on his chest. At least I didn’t see any blood oozing from any wounds. He had his phone clutched in his hand. I pulled on the door handle.
Locked.
I slammed my palm against the window and shouted, “Greg! Are you okay?” I knew my voice wouldn’t bring him back if he was dead but I hoped it would wake him if he was asleep.
“Get out of the way, Sunny,” Tilly ordered. “I’ll shoot that door open.”
She stood a couple of feet away from me, her legs set apart, and with both hands she gripped her pistol and pointed it at the car door.
I leaped forward before she pulled the trigger. “No! Put that thing away. You might hit him.” Or me. I turned back to the window and pounded on it some more. Please, please, please, open your eyes. Do something.
The next thing I knew, Tilly had the passenger door open. Okay, I had to admit she was thinking much more clearly than I was in this bizarre situation. She reached across the passenger seat and gave Greg’s shoulder a hard shake.
Finally, thank goodness, he lifted his head and blinked. “What? Where am I? What’s going on?” he mumbled and wiped some drool off his chin.
My body crumpled against the car. I could barely stay upright after the shock of seeing him come back to life, but I managed to knock on his window and point to the buttons. “Unlock. Your. Door,” I said slowly and clearly.
He didn’t move.
Tilly reached over Greg and hit the unlock button so I could pull the door open.
The odor of alcohol practically overpowered me. That explained a lot about Greg’s situation.
I coughed and breathed through my mouth to avoid a cloud of whatever rotgut had put him in this condition. “What are you doing here?” From his wrinkled shirt, disheveled hair, and empty bottle of cheap whiskey on the floor, he looked like someone who’d given up on caring about much of anything.
Greg stared at me, or more accurately, he stared right through me.
Tilly gave his shoulder another good shake. “Greg. Get out of this car right now. You’re coming with us.”
“What?” I squeaked. “That’s not necessary.” What I really wanted to say was, now that we know he’s not dead, we don’t want anything to do with him in case he’s the killer.
“You’re coming to my house for a strong cup of coffee. If you behave, I might even share my mint chocolate chip ice cream with you. That fixes everything.” She gave him a push. Instinctively, I caught him before he crashed face first onto the curb.
“Help me over here, Tilly. He’s more unmanagea
ble than a sack of potatoes.”
“Just don’t take me back to Carla and her friends,” he mumbled while I struggled to get him out of the car and onto his feet. “I can’t deal with them anymore. I only came along this weekend so I could be with Ginger and now…”
I gripped him under one armpit, and Tilly supported his other side as we pulled, and he stumbled along with us to her bug.
“And now she’s gone.” He blubbered like a two-year-old who’d skinned his knee.
We shoved him in the back of Tilly’s bug, headfirst, where he collapsed in a heap. I gulped in air after the exertion of moving almost two hundred pounds of dead weight. Then I looked at her over the roof of her car. “What now?”
“Coffee. Didn’t you hear me half a minute ago? We need to sober him up and pick his brain about Ginger.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? We don’t know anything about this guy.”
“Exactly.”
When Tilly rolled her eyes, I knew she’d lost her patience with me.
“Now get in,” she said in her stern, no-nonsense voice. “This is our chance to find out everything he knows. This guy probably has all the scoop on those roommates’ secrets. Or, do you want to wait for our friendly Officer Walker to drum up something else against me and haul me back to the police station? You know he has it in for me one way or another.”
I looked at Greg, slouched on the back seat with his eyes closed over a tear-streaked face. A loud snort erupted. At the moment, he did look fairly harmless.
“Okay,” I said after I’d slipped onto the front seat. “I hope he doesn’t throw up in your brand spanking new car, though.”
“He’d better not or I’ll shoot him.” She patted her leg. Her pistol made a slight bulge under her skirt as a reminder.
“That’s a great idea, Tilly. You know what?” I looked at her with my best serious face. “That way you’ll turn the inside of your car into the same nice red color as the outside AND give Officer Walker a real reason to lock you up.”
