Frame and Fortune

by Misty Simon

  His face flushed an unbecoming shade of red. He darted a glance at Bella, then cleared his throat, fidgeting with the collar of his stolen shirt. “You said you wouldn’t ask about my purchases,” he whispered out of the side of his mouth.

  “I didn’t.” I swear, steam must have been pouring out of my ears.

  “You are.” It was his turn to jam his hands on his hips. “You just did.”

  “Are we speaking the same language? That shirt is a promotional item for big buyers. I want to know if you took it out of my…” Yeah, it took me a little while, but I thought I finally had it. I grabbed his arm, waved at a curiously silent Bella, and dragged him into the back room. “Sit!” I hissed.

  He did just that, but looked at me with wariness in his eyes. I will admit here that I was probably pretty scary-looking. I doubted my hair was anywhere near as nice as it had been this morning when I’d done it. Also, I probably still had a glazed look in my eyes from being punched in the back of the head by Bella.

  He continued to watch me as I paced back and forth with my hands fisted in my hair. I stopped abruptly, shooting him the Eye of Forbiddance. “You better not lie to me when I ask this.”

  He sat up straighter in his chair, smoothing the front of his shirt. “I haven’t lied to you yet. I don’t plan on starting now. And you don’t have to ask because you already did. I got the shirt because I ordered so much stuff, once I got out of jail, that I was a top customer. I didn’t even know you had any in your office, because I don’t go in your office unless you’re with me.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Maybe this isn’t working out after all, Ivy. I might not want to go back to plumbing, but at least the people who’d hire me would trust me with their pipes. You don’t even trust me not to go into your office.” He rose gracefully from his seat.

  My spirits plummeted to somewhere in the vicinity of the basement, if I had a basement. I didn’t think I had a basement, but I guess that wasn’t really important at this point. I grabbed his arm again before I could stop myself, or think about the fact that he might not want me touching him. “Sorry.”

  “I can’t imagine why you’re trying to hold me back from leaving. I think everything’s been said.” He tone wasn’t haughty or rude. In fact, it was resigned. It made me feel like less than a heel. It made me feel like the yicky gum stuck to the bottom of someone’s heel.

  I hadn’t given him a fair shake since the moment he came in. And all he’d done was prove invaluable and been a huge moneymaker. My accounts had never been so in the black. Was I really going to throw that away because I couldn’t forgive and forget? Yeah, I knew I was being dumb, but no more.

  Instead of grabbing him this time, I gently laid a hand on his forearm, then looked up into his eyes for the first time in a long time. Long ago, I’d loved chatting with him while he installed the fountain. We’d laughed and talked. We’d had fun. Until he stole my underwear. But it had turned out he had been pressured into doing the deed by his lunatic of a mom. He’d seemed almost relieved to go to jail to get away from her and his girlfriend, the infamous and rude Jackie Sturder. Jackie Sturder, who had threatened me, but hadn’t stepped foot into the store since then. In fact, it was kind of weird that I hadn’t seen her at all.

  Anyway, I owed Charlie the apology he was still waiting patiently for. “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head.

  “No, really. I’m sorry for everything. You’ve been awesome, and I’ve been an unholy bitch.”

  He patted my back with his free hand. “You’re under a lot of stress. You have a ton of things on your mind. Not to mention that I did recently get out jail for stealing your stuff. Frankly, I couldn’t believe you let me work here when you first said yes. But I wasn’t going to turn down a chance at my dream.”

  And I felt like an even bigger bitch. Oy!

  “So are we cleared?” he asked. “Should I come in early tomorrow to get things restocked? I see Bella has picked out quite a few items, and the shelves need straightening. I’ll be here at nine.” He walked away again.

  I did something I almost never did. I tackled him from behind and gave him a big hug. We both broke apart, shocked, and then we both giggled. I had a feeling I was going to like having Charlie around again, as I had when he’d built my fountain.

  He patted me as I patted him back. Finally, after much mutual admiration society time, I led the way back out to the front, where Bella was testing out the strength of a fake asp. “I don’t think that would go with your new midnight blue peignoir.”

  Charlie giggled, but Bella put it down and turned back to me—no blush or anything. I wished I could master her grace, but was pretty sure it would never happen.

  “So what did you have to tell us?” Bella said, acting as if no time had passed since we were last together.

  I had almost forgotten he had said something to that effect earlier. Some sleuth I was. Ha!

  “Well, I heard about Jackson trying to come in here with a bat, so I hurried over. I don’t know if anyone told you old Mrs. Jenkins has been spouting off about Jackson for days, but no one would listen to her?” I loved, just for a second, that someone else had the little lilt sometimes at the end of their sentences. I did it all the time when I was unsure of something, so it annoyed the living hell out of me. But on Charlie it was yet one more endearing trait.

  “I heard that somewhere.” Actually, the somewhere was a someone. I hadn’t thought it was very important at the time, but Detective Bartley had told me this exact information almost in casual passing. I hadn’t fully heard her because I’d had Trev’s key in my hand. Thinking of the key tugged a memory at the back of my mind, but Charlie was still talking and the fleeting thought flew before I could grab hold of it properly.

  “Well, it’s true. I was over at the care center where she lives, visiting her, and helping out to do some of my community service. I saw what she saw, but I haven’t been able to tell anyone.”

  “And what did you see?” Bella asked, leaning forward a little.

  “And why didn’t you go to the police?” I asked right after her. But I got shushed by Bella for my trouble.

  Charlie waved his hands in the air. “I’ll answer both your questions, since they’re connected. First, I saw Jackson hanging around town three days before he said he got here. I was walking Mrs. Jenkins around the gardens at her complex, and there he was, coming out of some house down the street. But he ducked into one of the alleys before I could say anything to him. Then I heard about Trev’s death and that Jackson said he’d just gotten into town the day after.”

  I knew my eyes must have been goggling out of my head. Jackson had been in town days before the murder? Jackson, who had shown up at Bella’s as if he’d just strolled into Martha’s Point? I remembered Bella saying she wished someone would get rid of Jackson, not long ago, and fervently prayed for the same thing. Though I wasn’t stupid enough to actually say it out loud. When I did say such things audibly (good word), they invariably came true and I got blamed.

  Instead, I said, “And my question?”

  “Well, they didn’t believe Mrs. Jenkins when she called them. Do you really think they’re going to believe an ex-con who never got along with Jackson, even in high school? We were never the best of friends. Especially after that time I punched him in the nose, breaking it, in front of all his friends.”

  “You what?” Bella asked at the exact moment I had opened my mouth to say the same thing.

  “I punched him in the nose,” Charlie said, preening like a peacock. “Broke it clean and made him bleed all over his pretty-boy clothes.”

  I slapped him on the back so hard he nearly toppled over. But I was so proud of him I could barely stand myself. And, for one of the few times in her life, I could have sworn I saw a tear glisten in Bella’s eye. Here was probably one of the few people who had believed her when she left Jackson, the town’s golden boy, and caused him to hoof it out of town. All the other Martha’s Pointers had turned their backs on
her, but I’d bet almost anything that Charlie had been on her side, along with Ben, when no one else was.

  Bella grabbed Charlie to her in a fierce hug, then kissed his cheek. “You don’t know what that means to me,” she said, but it was muffled in the collar of his shirt.

  “I do,” he replied, pushing her hair back off her shoulder. “Mrs. Jenkins welcomed me back with open arms when few others would even look at me. Even Jackie started out ignoring me, until something happened to her current boyfriend.”

  Not that I wanted to interrupt their special moment, but the first part was a lie I simply couldn’t let slide. “Everyone and their mother and father has treated you with absolute welcome since I’ve seen you back. They’ve all patted you on the back and made like ‘boys will be boys.’ Even Mr. Hanks!”

  “That’s only in front of you.” He practically mumbled the words, but I had to have misunderstood him.

  “What?”

  “He said it’s only in front of you. Surely you heard him,” Bella demanded in an uncharacteristically harsh voice.

  I wasn’t trying to be stupid, I simply couldn’t believe my ears. And apparently I’d offended both of them by making Charlie repeat himself. “Sorry.” Now I was the one mumbling.

  “No. No, it’s not a problem, but I noticed it the first day. Maybe not from Mr. Hanks, since he seemed genuinely happy to talk to me once I started helping him in the Shoppe, but we had a close relationship before I got in trouble. Everyone else, though, hasn’t exactly welcomed me back with open arms, except when you’re nearby.”

  Huh.

  “I wasn’t sure with the first few people, but I caught on eventually. I’d get nasty looks and snubbed until you appeared somewhere in the near vicinity. All of a sudden it was like a light bulb had gone on. People were nice to me, asking how I was, telling me they were happy to see me back. But as soon as you left, it was back to the snarling and snarking.” He picked an invisible piece of lint from his black shirt and wouldn’t look me in the eye. “That’s one of the reasons I was so hoping you would let me work here. I figured no one else in the area would hire me. I doubted they’d let me go back to plumbing, even if it was what I wanted to do.”

  “But, all the ladies…” I sputtered out.

  He gave a forced laugh. “That’s only because most of them can’t stand Jackie. It’s burning her up inside that they pay attention to me when I won’t even look at her or answer her calls. I don’t know why she thought I’d come back to her after she had been hooking up with someone else while I was in the clink. Not to mention jail was a nice vacation from her.”

  Well, what the hell was I supposed to say to that? I don’t know if you can imagine what a horse’s ass that made me feel like for treating him exactly the same way. Nice work there, Ivy. “Is that why she was stalking outside the Shoppe? Why she slammed my head into the counter?”

  “Christ.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m really sorry about that, if I didn’t already tell you.”

  “Yeah, well,” I said magnanimously (and ooohh, wasn’t that a fabulous word?). “You can’t control the wackos of the world, you know.”

  He laughed. I thought it might be all right after all. At least Jackie hadn’t come back around since the police had banned her from the store. She was low on my list of priorities, to be honest.

  Getting back to Charlie, I knew what it felt like to be snubbed by Martha’s Pointers. But I’d had the feeling since I’d walked into town the first day. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for Charlie to have been one of the inner fold at one time, and now be kicked out and made to feel as if he didn’t belong.

  Well, now I was even more determined to find out what the hell Jackson had been up to before he came here, or said he came here. Where had he been walking out of? How had he hidden so effectively for several days before making his presence known? Why had he been hiding in the first place, when he must have known he’d surely be welcomed back with open arms?

  Bella gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher, but it was fierce. Hooking an arm around Charlie’s waist, she led him to the front door, murmuring the whole way. Once she had him out the door, she shut it with a loud bang and leaned back against it.

  I waited to see if she was going to blast me for being so mistrusting of Charlie. Or if she had some new idea of how to go about clearing her name.

  What came out of her mouth was not at all what I expected, but it did explain the gleam in her eye.

  “I’m going to go get all dolled up to pay a visit to my dear ex-husband. You, my dear Ivy, are going to play lookout and eavesdrop to the best of your ability. We’re going to get him by the short and curlies. Let’s get ready.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “As far as I know, he should be back home after his little jaunt to the pokey,” Bella said as we drove along Main Street after a brief pause at her salon. She didn’t need much to look even more glamorous, so we got in and out of Bella’s Best in no time at all.

  “They won’t be able to keep him long,” she continued, checking to her left and right before making the turn onto a little street filled with townhouses crammed cheek to jowl with each other. Most of the brick buildings had barely a hand span between their outer walls. I had a brief thought that there was no way a person could get between the buildings if something broke. But it was cut off as we pulled to a stop in front of a building of a particularly violent purple color. The poor thing seemed to glow even in the darkness surrounding us. The hazy yellow street lamp across the street certainly didn’t help the weird look of the house, with its teal shutters. I shuddered, thanking all that was holy that Great-Aunt Gertie, the woman who had given me all I had out here, hadn’t decided to go into puke colors with the little cottage she’d left me.

  Bella squeezed into a spot between a Cadillac with Jersey plates and a little Geo Metro, which reminded me of my first car. Her parallel parking was nothing to sneeze at, but her muttered swearing made me wince.

  “Damn big cars,” she snarled, inching back and forth for the twelfth time to get close enough to the curb. Which was one of her mild diatribes. I won’t chronicle the more inventive ones here.

  A dome light popped on in the Cadillac in front of us, then just as quickly went out as the engine roared to life.

  “Of course, the idiot decides to move as soon as I’ve finally got us in here like a cork.” She shook her fist and yelled “Bitches!” through the windshield.

  I had no idea if the person heard her, but he did go squealing off into the night without a backward glance.

  Light shone behind a closed curtain in the weirdly colored house. I couldn’t tell if this was the place we were looking for or if she’d only parked here because it was the sole remaining parking spot on the street. I hesitated to ask, since she was still snarling and hissing under her breath. I didn’t want to get spit at, so I waited patiently, watching the window for some movement.

  Nothing happened for a few moments, while Bella got herself under control. She flipped down the visor to check her lipstick. She fussed with her hair, opened her shirt a few extra buttons, then sprayed herself with perfume, nearly choking me.

  “Do you really think he’s going to see you, or talk to you, after you plastic handcuffed him tonight and turned him over to the police? Don’t you think he’s going to be pissed? Send you packing?” It was something that had been worrying me since we’d jumped into the car. I hadn’t thought to voice it until now, when we were sitting outside, moments away from what could be a very ugly confrontation. I waved a hand through the air, attempting to disperse some of the cloud of scent. I was half tempted to roll down the window, but it was getting colder out there with every passing minute.

  Bella gave a particularly derisive laugh (I was just full to bursting with good words tonight, I’ll mention, in case you didn’t notice “diatribes” a little earlier).

  “Puh-lease,” she said in her caustic way. “Jackson will only see it as me crawling
back to him because I can’t stand to be away from his human perfection. It will occur to him to be mad about it, but he’ll dismiss it as my playing hard to get. In his mind, I really want him fiercely if I’ll go to such lengths to get him to notice me. It happened many, many times. I guarantee it won’t fail me during this one.”

  “And you don’t find that a little weird and a lot egotistical?” I had to admit I thought he was a loon, but I didn’t say it out loud, since she might get rolling on what a boob and jackass he was. We’d never get out of this creepy neighborhood if she went there. It would take time. Goosebumps erupted up and down my arms under my heavier, insulated coat. Bella had laughed at me when I’d grabbed it because it had been mild, temperature-wise, earlier. Now, it was freezing, especially with the car turned off. I was happy for the covering.

  I looked back out the side window, shivering from something that had absolutely nothing to do with the temperature. Despite the garish paint of the building in front of us, the rest looked run down and in need of serious tender loving care. Trash billowed along the street, forced forward by the wind whipping against the car. It had been balmy earlier, but now the gentle breeze had teeth.

  Bella flipped the visor back up against the ceiling, breathed into her hand, then shook her hair back off her shoulders. She looked perfect. If Jackson was as egotistical as most people made him out to be, this was going to run like clockwork.

  Yeah, when will I ever learn?

  ****

  I twiddled my thumbs, thinking I should probably put on a coat of nail polish one of these days. Bella had left the car no more than three minutes ago, and already I was bored. I sighed and looked out the window, then screamed because I saw a gnarled face pressed up against the glass looking back at me.

  The face twisted into a nasty sneer, and the person laughed before running away. It was more like scampering, but that made me feel I was being unfair to scampering critters around the world. I made sure the car doors were securely locked; I didn’t want some bozo to think they could get in if scaring me didn’t give them their proper jollies. Yeesh! I couldn’t wait to get out of here. Seriously.