Red Red Rose

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  Normally I wouldn’t be so quick to dish about my overnight guests, even with Reggie, but since this was also a chance to clear Spencer’s name, I decided not to hold back.

  “Shaw might have stayed over last night.”

  Reggie’s head snapped back and his eyebrows shot up. “And he didn’t try to serial kill you?”

  “Nope, but he did cook me breakfast. Oh, and he’s working with the FBI and cops to catch the real killer, but you can’t breathe a word of this to anyone. The only reason I’m spilling this to you is because I know if you were kidnapping girls, it wouldn’t be to strangle them. You’d make them watch Legally Blonde on repeat until they took their own lives."

  He rolled his eyes and I gave him a brief recap of the night before, skipping over all but the pertinent details of my past.

  “When this is all over, you should sell your story to Lifetime, because it would make one hell of a movie.”

  “I don’t think so. I just want to put this all behind me, and,” I glanced at the clock on the wall, “we have to be ready to open in ten minutes now. Anymore commentary is going to have to wait.”

  We got the shop open in time for the first trickle of customers. The morning wasn’t any busier than usual, but by mid-morning we’d sold several of the decadent, specialty drinks we added to the menu just for the holiday. Today wasn’t just about lovers giving gifts, but it seemed it was an occasion for most of the population to indulge themselves. We also sold a handful of last minute gift cards and a few novelty coffee items we stocked. It was shaping up to be a good day for business and we hadn’t made it to the main event yet.

  Chick flicks played on the screens, adding to the atmosphere, and making the long lines more bearable for our customers. Even with Nina here, and the three of us working smoothly and efficiently together, we stayed on our toes all morning. I didn’t even have time to give Spencer a proper hello when he walked in. When he made it to the front of the line I thrust his black coffee at him and was ready to move on to the next customer, but he reached across the counter and dragged me to his lips for a quick kiss that earned us several catcalls and romantic sighs. Only then did he take his coffee and plant himself in the corner of the shop with his computer.

  For the rest of the morning, and into the afternoon, his eyes were glued to that screen, except when he was on the phone or got up to use the restroom. I was dying to ask him what he was finding out, but the non-stop rush kept me from taking a break until almost lunch. When I finally walked over and dropped into the seat across from him, he looked up from screen. Frustration was evident in his features.

  “The search isn’t going well?” I surmised.

  “My guys sent me everything they could dig up and Monroe has his men on it too, but unfortunately we’re not getting anything solid.” He sat back in his chair, raking his hand over his hair.

  “Hey,” I said softly, getting up and rounding the table. I lowered myself onto his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. “You guys will figure it out. It’s just a matter of time.”

  “I’m just afraid that he’ll get his shot at you before we do, or he’ll realize we’re getting close and decide he’s got nothing to lose. I don’t like not knowing where the threat is coming from.”

  I dropped my forehead to his. “I trust you and if I have to stitch myself to your side until he’s caught, then so be it.”

  A faint smile touched his lips. “I think I’ll have to insist.”

  “Nothing will happen to me with my very own, personal body guard watching my back at all times.”

  I could still feel the tension in him and see the worry lines that creased his brow when he returned his attention to the information on his computer screen. “Whoever this guy is, he’s smart, but maybe you’ll see something I’m missing. I’ve poured through everything we were able to find on Lee after you were both removed from the Johnson’s care. It seems he bounced around for two years between foster homes, all over the state, before he was placed with the Reardon family in Kamiah, which if you don’t know where that is, is basically the middle of bumfuck nowhere, Idaho. He was with them for a year before it became permanent and he was adopted.

  “Now there isn’t a whole lot of information on any of the homes he was in, but we’ve managed to dig up the names of the foster parents and some of the kids who might have been in the homes at the same time. We’re working through crossing them off. We’ve managed to eliminate all but a handful. Read through those names and see if any stick out to you.”

  I scanned the list, but none of them were familiar to me. “I’m sorry,” I told him.

  “It’s okay, it was a long shot. It’s possible our guy isn’t even on this list. Monroe has people contacting each of the foster homes and the case workers to see who he might have been close with, or if he ever talked about you to anyone. They’re also trying to get in touch with the schools and local law enforcement. He was in and out of trouble, and maybe he had a partner in crime.”

  “And did you look into the fire that killed him?”

  “Yes. Reports say that the fire that burned down the Reardon family farm was caused by faulty wiring. The whole family, except for the Reardon’s biological son, Andrew, perished in the fire. Monroe also sent agents out to Kamiah to poke around and talk to people who might have known the Reardon family. So far this is looking like our most promising lead.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, we can’t find anything on Andrew Reardon after the fire. It says he was sent to live with an estranged uncle, but after that there are no records. No driver’s license, no school or employment records. We can’t find any sort of photo ID for him, and the uncle has since passed away so we can’t even get in touch with him to track Andrew down. Both properties were left to Andrew, and it seems both were sold, but there aren’t even bank records for Andrew. All we were able to dig up are a few old photos of the Reardon family that were featured in the local paper after their deaths. I enlarged a few of them, but they’re still hard to make out.”

  He opened up a new window with a picture of the family standing on a rickety looking front porch. The house behind them didn’t look to be faring much better. Mr. and Mrs. Reardon stood stoic behind three kids. A pre-teen girl and two older boys. The newspaper photo was grainy and in black and white, I almost couldn’t pick out Aaron. Both boys were about the same height and had a similar build and wore glasses. The other boy was just a little taller and lankier. They couldn’t have been older than fourteen in the picture, so it must have been taken shortly after Aaron went to live with them.

  “Honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to tell if I’d ever seen him before. It’s such a terrible picture.”

  “I know. That’s what worries me. We’ll have to try and identify him some other way.”

  “You really can’t find anything else on him?”

  “We haven’t yet, doesn’t mean we won’t. We’ll just have to dig deeper, and it might take some time for Monroe’s people and cooperating law enforcement to do the ground work and talk to the people who could have the information we need. What we do know is that this guy is smart. Smart enough to have either hidden his identity, or assumed a new one. Neither of those things is easy to do.”

  I got a sinking feeling in my gut. “Someone like Danny could do it.” He was also tall and lean and wore glasses.

  I watched it sink in for him as well, and then he looked at me grimly. “Someone like Danny would definitely be capable of that and a lot more. I’ve checked him out, but only on the surface. I’ll connect with Monroe and my guys again and get them on it.”

  My eyes scanned the shop, but Danny was unusually absent today.

  Twenty-Four

  “What are you still doing here?” Carlie poked her head into the office. “I thought you were taking the night off.”

  I blinked and lifted my eyes from my computer screen and the spreadsheet of numbers that had started to blur after three minutes of staring blankly at it. I
had accomplished almost nothing since I came back here, but after Spencer left to go have a chat with Monroe about my nerdy friend, I was terrified that any second Danny was going to walk through the door of the shop and I wouldn’t be able to keep my cool. Spencer warned me that if he came in, I should act like everything was normal, be friendly with him like always. He said there was an undercover cop sitting on my building, ready to tail Danny if he showed up here.

  “My plans changed and I decided it was too big of a night for me to take off.” It was the only explanation I offered. I didn’t confide in her the way I did Cass and Reggie.

  “Okay, we’re still pretty packed out there. The movies, games and dessert are a big hit.”

  I smiled. Today was definitely a success. “That’s great. Do you guys need an extra hand out there?”

  “I think we have it covered. Do you want me to stay until closing tonight?”

  “We’ll see how busy we stay in the next hour, but I think you should be fine to leave at eight.”

  She nodded and then returned to the front.

  By eight I expected we wouldn’t have too many new groups or couples coming in, so things should start tapering off and Mitch, Cassie and I would be fine to cover the last hour and closing. However, after watching Carlie pine over Mitch earlier, I didn’t think she’d mind if I had to ask her to stay an extra hour. It would probably do her good if I stopped scheduling those two on the same shift. I just kept hoping an opportunity would pop up for him elsewhere so it didn’t come down to me having to let him go. Spencer had managed to pry from Parker that his issue with authority was the biggest roadblock keeping him from making it as a cop. That and his apparent inability to take responsibility for his actions. After the last few weeks, I could see why they would have picked up on those things and why that might not make him the best candidate for law enforcement. Sadly, not exactly uncommon traits these days.

  As the evening wore on, I ventured out of the office to check on things up front. Everyone seemed to be having a good time and enjoying themselves, and there was still no sign of Danny. Will however, had showed up and was currently distracting my manager on duty.

  “Hey lovebirds, knock it off. One of you is supposed to be doing your job.” I gave the two of them a teasing grin, and Cass just rolled her eyes, but pushed herself up off the table she’d been leaning her hip on and pretended to go back to work.

  When the couples started trickling out, I insisted they take bunches of roses with them, as it would save me from having to get rid of them or take them home. I doubted if I’d ever be able to look at roses the same. The few that were left after all the customers were gone, I started to throw into the trash until Cassie stopped me.

  “What are you doing? You can’t throw away roses! Where is your romantic spirit?”

  I gave her a pointed look.

  “Okay, just because some crazed stalker has been sending you roses and leaving them on dead bodies–” her face twisted into a grimace. “Okay yeah, they do seem a little creepy now. Go ahead and toss them,” she sighed and then cringed as I unceremoniously threw the last remaining flowers into the bin.

  Once I’d gathered the trash, I looked around for Mitch to have him take it out back. “Hey, where did Mitch go?” I asked Cassie, who was busy cleaning the espresso machine.

  “I think he went out back for a smoke break.”

  I wrinkled my nose, but at least he’d waited until the end of the night. With two large trash bags in hand, I headed toward the back door. I caught Mitch on his way in so I passed the garbage off to him and he took it out while Cass and I finished getting the shop set for opening tomorrow. Will sat with his feet up on another chair and watched.

  I was getting ready to count the till out when I realized no one had brought in the sandwich board from out front. I looked over to ask Will to grab it, but he was headed toward the bathroom, leaving me to retrieve it myself. It was big, awkward and heavy and always fun for me to haul around. I banged my shin and cursed, and then someone called out my name. I turned in the direction of the voice and froze. Danny was making a beeline for me with something in his hand that I couldn’t make out in the dark. I scanned the street but it was pretty quiet. I knew the cop had to be out there somewhere, hopefully getting ready to act. A peek over my shoulder told me Cassie had heard him calling out and was now watching out the window. For safety reasons, I’d filled her in on our suspicions about Danny, but I doubted if she could see who was approaching me from her position.

  I acknowledged Danny but resumed dragging the sandwich board toward the door, hoping he would see I didn’t have time to stand around outside, in the dark, chatting with a possible serial killer. “Hey Danny, we’re just closing up for the night.”

  “I know, I won’t keep you. I just couldn’t make it in today. I had to be at the office and it was a long day, but I wanted to make sure I saw you before the day was over, so I could give you these.” He held up what he’d been holding in his hand, and peeled back tissue to reveal a bouquet of red and white roses.

  My first instinct was, run, he’s going to murder you and cover your body in those flowers. But thankfully after an awkward second of no reaction, I pulled it together and plastered what I hoped appeared to be a genuine smile on my face. “That’s really sweet, Danny.” Oh, shit. Was I the “girl”?

  “I hope I’m not giving you the wrong impression, it’s just that you seemed a little sad or upset yesterday, and I hoped that these might, um, I don’t know,” he shifted uncomfortably and looked away for a second, and then hesitantly met my gaze again. “You’ve just always been very kind to me, so I wanted to do something for you.”

  His words sounded sweet, I just wished I could believe them. “Well thank you.” I took the flowers from him. “It was very thoughtful of you, but I better get back inside.” Before I could, Will stepped out.

  “What’s going on, Nora?”

  Danny’s eyes flashed nervously to Will.

  “Danny just stopped by to give me these.” I held up the flowers and watched as Will ran a suspicious look over Danny. I just wanted out of this awkward moment and away from Danny, so that he would leave and the officer watching could do his job and follow him.

  “Thank you for the flowers,” I told Danny again. “Have a good night.” Will held the door for me and I almost made it inside.

  “Um, Nora?” I sighed and set the sandwich board against the building before I turned back around to face Danny.

  “Yeah?”

  “Could I talk to you about something else real quick?”

  I didn’t bother to hide my reluctance.

  “I promise, it won’t take long.”

  “I’m sorry, I really need to finish closing so the rest of these guys can get home, but if you stop by in the morning, we can talk then?”

  Something slipped on his face and I got a sense of desperation for him. I thought he was going to argue, but then he glanced at Will and covered it up. “Yeah, sure. Of course. Tomorrow. Have a good night guys.” He turned his back and slipped away. Will grabbed the sandwich board and we ducked inside. I locked the door behind us. Will set the sandwich board aside and I went to finish closing out the till.

  “What did the creep want?” Cassie asked.

  I tossed the flowers down on the counter. “To give me these.”

  “And probably to stuff you in his trunk so he can chop you into pieces later.” Will had followed me over to the counter. I glared and Cassie shoved his shoulder.

  “Don’t joke about that.”

  “I’m not joking. Whatever you do, don’t be alone with him,” Will warned.

  “Don’t worry, wasn’t planning to be,” I assured him and then shooed them both away so I could count the money without distraction.

  Mitch was back from taking out the trash and he and Cassie worked quickly to get the last load of dirty dishes through the washer so we could get out of here as soon as I was done. Once the money was in the safe and everything looke
d good, we shut down the lights, set the alarm and all headed out the back door. I’d asked everyone not to take up parking out front, knowing it was going to be busy today.

  Mitch said goodnight and cut through the alley. He’d parked on the side street. Will saw Cassie and me safely to our cars. While they said a very intimate goodnight, I pulled out my phone to let Spencer know I was leaving, and to find out where he was.

  “Hey, you still at the shop?” he answered.

  “Just leaving. Where are you?”

  “Just leaving the station. Want me to swing by and follow you home?”

  “No, I’ll just meet you at home.”

  “And you can tell me what Danny said.”

  Good, that meant a cop had been watching. “Is Monroe having him followed?”

  “Yes. He’ll let us know if he leads them anywhere interesting.”

  “Okay, then I’ll race you home. Last one there gives winner a back massage.”

  “You’re on.” I could hear his grin through the phone.

  When I ended the call, Cassie was eyeing me with a wide grin that she then turned on Will. “You sure I can’t talk you into coming over for a back massage tonight?”

  He leaned in and kissed her. “As tempting as that offer is, you’re the one who told me if you fail your exam tomorrow, you’ll fail the class. So go home, study and we’ll celebrate after you’ve passed your test.”

  “Fine,” she pouted, planting a quick kiss on his lips. “But tomorrow, I expect the back massage.”

  “Of course.”

  I couldn’t help but smile watching the two of them. They’d surprised me. They were good for each other. “Night, Cass.”

  “Night. Go have some fun for me since it looks like I won’t be having any tonight,” she winked and then climbed into her car.

  I laughed and Will just rolled his eyes at her.

  “Night Will.” I wrapped an arm around his side and squeezed. “Thanks for being good to her.”

  “She’s a good girl. A little crazy, but I find I like it.”