by Diana Orgain
Yolanda dropped Beepo and shoved Le Petite Frog Prince at me again. Her arms free, she half squealed and gasped as she stretched her hands toward the Manolos. “Oh my! Those are out of this world!”
I tried not to feel offended. After all, even if she bought them there’d be other shoes I could indulge in. A pair of mulberry-colored pumps caught my eye.
Yolanda flung her heels off and shoved her foot into the strappy sandals. “What size are they?” She reminded me of one of Cinderella’s stepsisters trying to squish her foot into the glass slipper. She extended her leg out gracefully. “What do you think, Maggie?”
“I think it matches Le Petite Frog Prince beautifully,” I said, holding the frog purse next to the shoe.
Yolanda’s foot recoiled, just as Beepo launched toward the purse. I suddenly felt like a matador flinging a cape outside of the bull’s reach.
Yolanda stood and collected Beepo in her arms. “I’ll take the shoes, Brenda. Can we make room for some of my bags in your window?”
Brenda looked as if she had sucked on a sour lemon. “Oh, darling. You know I’m waiting on a shipment from—”
Yolanda waved a hand around madly. “I won’t take no for an answer.” She pushed aside some shoes in the window display. “There, I found room. You know these are handcrafted and go for five hundred dollars. And yes, even though they are displayed at Designer Duds, they aren’t moving very fast—because, well, have you seen the awful things they have at that store? My bag is right next to an awful captain’s jacket with anchors. I mean, pul-ease!”
Yolanda turned from the window and squinted at me, the frog purse still in my hands. “You know, Maggie, you should keep the purse. It goes with your eyes.”
“My eyes are brown.”
“Well, that’s what I mean!” Yolanda shrieked. “Brown and green camo—it’s the latest fad.”
I looked at Brenda for help, but she was snickering as she put her window display back in order. “I’ll ring you up for those shoes now, Yolanda.”
Yolanda sashayed over to the cash register and pulled out a credit card. “Maggie, have you given any thought to the rental space at the bar? Can I please have Evie’s side?”
“Who owns the building?” Brenda asked.
“My great-uncle. He rents the space to Rachel for The Wine and Bark.”
Yolanda’s eyes grew wide. “What?”
I looked from Brenda to Yolanda then back to Brenda. Brenda grimaced. “What?” I asked.
“Can you talk to him for me? I’ve been begging Rachel to let me lease that part of The Wine and Bark for my bags for so long, but you know, maybe you can convince your uncle to lease the entire space out to me. I’ll pay good rent. And after all, who knows how long the bar can stay open with the money it’s losing.”
I froze.
The bar was losing money?
“What do you mean? The bar is losing money?” I managed to choke out.
“Well, sure, everyone knows that. It’s closed every day until Yappy Hour. I could make a storefront out of the storage room. There’s two big rooms. Rachel only uses one.”
“Evie uses the space Yolanda wants, though,” Brenda said.
Yolanda flashed her a look that would quiet a storm. Brenda’s lips thinned.
“It wouldn’t be a big deal to move the inventory. The only thing in the other space is the band equipment,” Yolanda said.
Yolanda looked at Brenda. “Do you have any coffee made, honey? I need a lift.”
Brenda glanced at me. I think she was calculating the odds of me evaporating out the door if she left the room.
I nodded to her, trying to reassure her that I’d wait for her return.
“I’ll get you a cup,” she said to Yolanda as she left the room.
Yolanda lunged at me. “How was your date with Officer Hot?”
“The date was fine, I think. But since then…”
“What?” Yolanda probed.
“I told him I was worried about Rachel and he promised he’d get to the bottom of everything. But I just saw him and he’s thinking Rachel—”
“You didn’t tell him about the target—”
“No!” I said sharply.
Yolanda’s eyes grew wide, and she said, “Me, either.”
Only I wasn’t sure if I could believe her.
“Rachel’s not on that cruise, by the way. I checked in with them when I had my interview.”
Yolanda looked offended. “What interview?”
“For purser.”
“Purser? What about The Wine and Bark?” she asked.
“What about it?”
“You can’t go work for the cruise line when we need you.”
Beepo sniffed at my feet, I took a step back.
“Please. You don’t need me. Rachel will be back soon. You’ll see—”
“But we like you now, you can’t leave,” Yolanda said.
I laughed. “Well, I’m not even sure I’ll get the job. I knocked over a display rack and a watercooler while I was in there.”
Yolanda smiled. “That was your subconscious sabotaging you. You know you want to stay here.”
“Don’t be silly. I was clumsy, that’s all.”
Brenda returned with a paper cup of hot coffee for Yolanda. Yolanda sipped her coffee as Brenda bagged the new shoes for her. Once she was done shopping she wiggled her fingers at us and left with Beepo yapping at her heels.
Brenda and I returned to her office. Brenda resumed her position behind the desk. “Do you have insurance for the building?” Brenda asked.
“Yes, of course.” Although now I was getting a bad feeling about something … as if my memory was trying to drag up something important that I’d forgotten. What was it?
“All right,” Brenda stated matter-of-factly. “Get me a copy of the insurance declarations and I’ll take a look. We’ll have to wait and see if Dan’s folks want to file a suit, which I have to say, I’d find highly unlikely. But in the meantime, I’ll study your policy and see if there’s anything to worry about.”
And then I remembered … the insurance bill at Grunkly’s house … it had gone unpaid.… Oh no.
Chapter Nineteen
I arrived at The Wine and Bark early enough to set up and, frankly, to think. I paced around in the darkness of the bar and thought about Dan. To think Rachel was somehow involved now seemed ludicrous, but was she really on that cruise? Through the window I could see the Howling Hounds lead singer, Evie Xtreme, approach. She had a serious expression on her face. She seemed guarded and her eyes darted around the courtyard. Flicking on the lights, I moved to the front door to let her in.
“Hi Evie, what’s up?” I said.
“Oh, hi, Maggie. How are you? I’m glad you’re here. I just came to pick up one of my guitars. I rent the back storage area.”
“Right, right,” I said, stepping aside to let her pass. She smelled of tobacco, and her hair was windblown like she had just come from the beach.
I followed her to the back storage room. It was a small cramped room, but it did have huge storefront windows. Right now the windows were painted over with dark paint that included small doggie etchings and little dancing wineglasses.
“Evie, I wanted to talk to you about the storage area … I spoke to Yolanda and it seems that she might want to rent this place.”
Evie turned sharply toward me. “Ugh, her again. She keeps nagging me about it, but Rachel said she’d rent it to us for a year and I’m only onto my sixth month of the lease.”
“Right,” I said. “I don’t want to alienate anybody. I was just thinking if we cleaned up the other room without the storefront window, maybe you could use that as storage?”
Evie shrugged. “Yeah, Yolanda always gets what she wants, doesn’t she? Everybody else has to be inconvenienced in order for her to figure her problems out.”
I studied Evie a moment: her face was suddenly red and she looked angry. “Oh, you don’t get along too well with Yolanda?” I asked.
Evie shrugged as she rummaged through some boxes that were pushed up against the back wall. “Well, it just seems that everybody needs to bend over backward to help out Yolanda, that’s all.”
I knew the feeling. Yolanda did seem very domineering. The way she pushed her bags on people. And yet, I was beginning to soften toward her. After all, she’d gotten me out of a pinch with a ride to Stag’s Leap and, if she could be believed, was keeping the secret about the creepy target there.
“And another thing,” Evie continued. “Yolanda made us rearrange our whole schedule just so we could perform on Friday for that silly fund-raiser. I had some other gigs in town lined up, but she has a way of coercing people.”
“She coerced you?” I asked.
“Well, one of my band members, Smasher, has got a mad crush on her. He’d follow her to the ends of the earth. Not that she’d ever give him the time of day, but she asked him, he said yes, and without him I can’t do my other gig.”
“I guess that fund-raiser is a pretty big deal.”
I absently wondered if Rachel would resurface for it, or if I’d be on the hook to manage it by myself.
“Oh, yeah,” Evie said. “I know the guy who died. He was against it. Of course, he was against anything to do with dogs.”
Goosebumps covered my arms.
Yes, Yolanda had been the one to find Dan. Had they been fighting?
I took a chance that Evie might have some useful gossip. “Do you know if Yolanda locked horns with Dan?”
Evie laughed. “Well, who doesn’t she lock horns with?”
“Oh…” I said, at a loss for words. I shrugged. “I guess, I don’t know her that well…”
“She’s just kind of pushy,” Evie said, pulling a guitar case from one of the boxes and slinging the strap around a shoulder. “Have you seen those stupid bags she designs?”
I had to stifle a laugh. “I’ve seen the bags,” I said.
“That’s what she wants to put in here in my storage space. She wants to open up a stupid animal bag collection, like anybody wants to carry around a handbag in the shape of a chicken.”
“She’s got a frog one and a pig one now, too,” I said. “In fact, she was trying to push her frog one on me just today.”
Evie laughed, her face suddenly lighting up. “Did she tell you it goes with your eyes or something?”
We laughed together.
“Yeah,” I said.
“She told me the chicken went with mine, like my eyes are yellow. Give me a break.”
I looked at Evie’s eyes. She had beautiful green eyes. Probably the frog would have better suited her. Although I had to admit that her eyes had a hint of yellow that was almost catlike.
We left the storage area. Evie pulled out a ring of keys and locked the door, then we walked together out to the front part of the bar.
“Would you like something to drink? I can mix you up a greyhound or a martini.”
“Do you mean a mutt-tini?”
I glanced at my watch; still an hour to opening. “Well, since it’s not Yappy Hour yet, I feel like it’s okay to say plain martini.”
She laughed. “How about just a beer?”
I served her some peanuts and a beer and we sat at one of the cocktail tables near the window watching the courtyard. Across the patio, Gus made his way toward the front door of DelVecchio’s. Alongside him was the waiter from the other night, the one who usually worked the patio tables. Gus squinted over toward us, one hand shading his eyes from the sun as he glanced in our direction.
My understanding had been that DelVecchio’s would be closed for the week. I wondered what they were doing at the restaurant.
Evie’s eyes followed mine, but she said nothing, only sipped her draft beer.
“They really have it out for the bar don’t they?” Evie asked. “What with the no-dogs sign and everything … Dan hated the dogs on the patio.…”
“Gus, too, right?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know him very well. Everyone says he’s a temperamental chef. I try to stay away from temperamental people.”
Gus hadn’t struck me as temperamental, and I wondered if I was missing something about him.
You’re probably blinded by his red-hot sex appeal, Maggie, I thought to myself.
“I can understand that people wouldn’t want dogs around their food, though,” Evie said. “But these doggie people, they want to share their lives with their dogs and bring them to the spa or make them happy or whatever.” She rolled her eyes and polished off her beer.
“You don’t like dogs?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I like dogs. I’m just not a fanatic.”
“Your band is the Howling Hounds.”
She giggled. “That’s a marketing gimmick Smasher came up with. It keeps the gigs steady.”
“How well do you know my sister?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Oh Rachel? Well, we’re pretty friendly. Why?”
“Any idea where she is? Abigail told me that Rachel had gone and eloped … and, well, I haven’t been able to locate her.…”
“Eloped?” A strange expression crossed Evie’s face. “With who? I thought she was dating Dan. What happened?”
I shrugged. How could I explain Rachel’s erratic behavior? She’d been that way her entire life and people always looked to me to rationalize it.
Evie leaned in. “I know she’s your sister and all, but it was rumored that things went down pretty bad between Dan and Rachel and now that she’s missing, it’s sort of…”
“She’s not missing,” I said. “Apparently, she’s eloped.” I said it firmly, even though I had trouble believing it myself.
Evie played with her empty beer mug. “Don’t get mad. I didn’t mean anything by it. You just showed up out of nowhere to take over the bar.”
“I’m not taking over the bar,” I said. “I’m just running it while Rachel is away.” I stuttered through it feeling like an idiot.
Evie held up her hands to me to stop me in my tracks. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” she repeated. “No offense. The band likes playing here. I like renting out the storage room. I hope we can do business together just like I did with Rachel.”
“Right, of course.”
She leveled a gaze at me. I understood she didn’t want to offend me, she wanted to continue business with The Wine and Bark. She bussed the empty beer mug to the bar.
“Do you want another?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I have to go, and we’re performing tonight at the Magic Read.”
There was a strange energy between us now. How had I gotten at loggerheads with Evie? Now she must think I’m a lunatic.
With a hand on the door, she asked, “Who’s the lucky guy?”
“I think his name is Chuck Hazelton. Computer guy.…”
“Oh well, congratulations! Chuck is Max’s business partner. Techie guy. They’re going to cash in some day with some major stock, I’m sure.”
Chuck was Max’s partner? I couldn’t believe Max hadn’t said anything to me. I suddenly felt disoriented. It seemed everyone in this town had secrets they were keeping from each other. Why hadn’t Max told me? What else was he hiding?
She left and I cleared our table. Soon the crew would be arriving, and I needed to get things in order before the bar was ready to open.
* * *
A few minutes to five and I began to organize the bar. Since it was only a Tuesday night, I didn’t expect it to be crowded, but still, my chance to think things through would evaporate as soon as I had company. Why hadn’t Max told me about his partner? And what exactly was I going to do about the possibility of Dan’s parents suing?
The first person to arrive was Abigail with her white Shih Tzu, Missy.
She was in the mood for a chardonnay, which I happily uncorked and poured. At least I didn’t have to get jiggy with the shaker without Max to pick up the pieces. I gave Missy a Bark Bite and asked Abigail, “So, what
can you tell me about the guy Rachel eloped with? Is he really a partner of Max’s?”
Abigail munched on some bar peanuts. “Oh yeah. I was surprised to hear it, too, believe me, but Max and Chuck will make out in the long run. They’re working on some robotic app. Did you know? Anyway, so even though I wouldn’t have picked Chuck as a good match for Rachel, he is a good catch. They’ll be rich in just a few years.”
It wasn’t so much the financial picture I was concerned about, it was feeling betrayed by Max.
Through the window I could see Max approaching. He had Bowser with him. The dog dropped his pink plush bunny at the door of The Wine and Bark, ready for Max to play with him. Instead, Max picked up the bunny and sauntered inside, Bowser trailing along.
“Howdy? Just you two so far?” Max sang out.
I bristled at the confrontation I knew was brewing. Abigail must have sensed something, because she excused herself to the restroom.
“Why didn’t you tell me Rachel had eloped with your business partner?” I challenged.
Max stiffened and automatically looked down the corridor to the ladies’ room. “Oh, did Abigail tell you that?”
“More or less,” I said.
He nodded sagely. “I’m sorry. Chuck and Rachel swore me to secrecy.”
“But why?”
He shrugged. “She didn’t think you’d understand. Said you were so cynical about men and that you’d never believe in love at first sight.”
I felt like I’d just been punched in the gut.
Me? Cynical about love?
Okay, maybe there was some truth to that. I definitely wouldn’t have advised my sister to elope. Especially not with a guy she’d been dating only recently.
“Do you know where they are?”
“I thought they were going on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera.”
I poured myself a glass of wine from the open bottle of chardonnay, then poured a glass for Max. He accepted without hesitation. “I can’t locate them on that cruise and neither can the police.”
Max twirled the wineglass stem in his fingers. “I really don’t know. They told me they were booked for the cruise, but maybe Chuck thought I’d slip up and covered his tracks?”
Abigail returned from the restroom to overhear the end of our conversation. “Rachel told me the same thing. Mexican Riviera cruise.”
