by Cole,Lyndsey
Piper’s hand rooted around next to her, searching for her phone. She just wanted to make the horrible noise stop.
When she found it, she looked at the screen. Aria’s face greeted her on caller ID.
“Aria? What time is it?” Piper asked. She could hear the sleepiness in her own voice.
“Wyatt’s dead.”
2
Piper bolted upright. The dogs jumped off the couch and started yipping. They liked being woken up from a dead sleep as much as Piper did.
“What do you mean? What happened? Where are you?” Piper asked, rapid fire.
“I’m home,” Aria answered calmly. “I just got off the phone with my dad. Wyatt was killed. He wanted to know what we did last night.”
“Go back. Wyatt was killed? Where? How? When?”
Aria sighed. “At Spiced Up.”
“Noooo.” Piper let the one word drag out. She shifted so her feet rested on the floor and the dogs made their way back to the couch. They settled in on either side of her.
“Yeah. Stabbed. Sometime between two in the morning and now.”
Piper looked at the TV’s cable box. It was four o’clock. “You stayed out until two?” Piper shook her head. That wasn’t the question she wanted to ask. “I mean, what else did your dad tell you?”
“Nothing. You know how he is. He can’t tell me what I actually want to know.” Aria sighed.
Piper rubbed her eyes with her free hand. It was rare that she saw this hour of night. Or was it morning?
“I’ll let you get back to sleep,” Aria said when Piper remained silent.
The wheels were turning in Piper’s mind but she couldn’t make sense of everything. Her brain was too cobwebby from not enough sleep.
“Sorry about Wyatt,” Piper said. She knew it should have been the first thing out of her mouth.
“Yeah. I really didn’t know him that well,” Aria admitted. “See you tomorrow night at Cocktails and Canvas? Well, tonight, I guess now.”
“Yeah. Good night.” Piper was thankful for the reminder. She might have forgotten otherwise.
“Night.”
Piper hung up and stood from the couch. Since she was awake, she made her way to her bedroom and slipped between the sheets. Even though Jacqueline and Giovanni were on vacation in South America’s Patagonia region and Piper was house sitting, their housekeeper was still coming daily. Piper’s bed wouldn’t be made otherwise.
As soon as Piper slid between the warm flannel sheets, she closed her eyes but there was nothing she could do to keep her brain from rehashing what Aria told her.
Wyatt dead? She tossed and turned as she tried to remember every detail until, eventually, she managed to drift off.
The only sound that made it through the dense fog in her brain was the sound of the dogs yapping.
Piper rolled over. She had no idea how long she slept. But it wasn’t nearly long enough. She pressed one ear into the pillow and draped her arm over the other. It didn’t block out the sound of the dogs.
Finally, Piper gave up. She groaned and got out of bed. She had the curtains drawn so she still had no idea what time it could be, or even if the sun was up.
When she opened the bedroom door, she was blinded by sunshine streaming through the windows in the bedroom across the hall. She raised her hand to block the brightness.
“What do you dogs want?” she asked when she reached the kitchen. Ivory and Cherry were barking at the refrigerator. “Is it breakfast already?”
The clock on the microwave told Piper it was ten o’clock.
“Shoot.” She frantically fed the dogs, cleaned their boxes of grass, and stood in the shower long enough to pretend she was clean. Quick showers was reason enough to keep her hair no longer than her shoulders.
With nearly a dozen layers of clothes on, including her pink windbreaker, winter beanie, and black scarf, Piper retrieved her bike from the garage. She checked the time. If she pedaled hard, she’d make it to work in time.
The ride from the Moretti’s neighborhood to Gone Fish’n took a half hour. On a good day. And with no food in her stomach and a poor night’s sleep, this wasn’t a good day for Piper.
Piper had to dismount at the gate to the community to punch in a code. Her bicycle wasn’t heavy enough to alert the sensor to open the gate. Most mornings she slipped out with a car. But this morning, there was no car in sight.
Her stop only added more time to her commute, and more anxiety to her already growing concern.
Once on the road, Piper pedaled as hard as she could. She was sweating in no time as her pink windbreaker kept the warmth in.
As she rode closer and closer to Gone Fish’n’s downtown location, Piper could hear Aunt Viv already reprimanding her.
You think you can just strut in here whenever you want because you’re family.
Piper didn’t think that. And it didn’t happen often. Today was the first time in months that she was in real danger of being late.
Well, you can’t. There are consequences to your actions, Piper. We’re depending on you. Just because Mitch is your mom and I’m your aunt doesn’t mean you can slack on your responsibilities.
Piper grimaced as Aunt Viv’s imaginary voice played over and over in her head.
Your mom and I have been here for hours. You want real responsibility? Come in at seven to prep that day’s food with us.
Piper would never make it in by seven. Maybe the first day. But not the second. Rolling out of bed at ten was more her speed. It was just that at her current residence, ten was too late.
Who would even hire you if you didn’t work here? Eleven is halfway through most work days. And you can’t even get here on time.
“Ahh!” Piper shouted to get out some frustration as she sped down a short hill past a church. She glanced at the clock on the church tower—less than five minutes to eleven. She wasn’t going to make it.
Piper pedaled harder. She could still try. Maybe this would be the day that Aunt Viv would be late. Sure, Piper’s mom would still know about her tardiness, but she wouldn’t fire her own daughter.
She hoped.
As Piper neared downtown, stoplights turned red as she approached, slowing her progress to a crawl. She couldn’t afford to lose this job. The Aunt Viv of Piper’s nightmares was right—she was totally unemployable.
Gone Fish’n finally came into view and Piper’s heart sank. The serving window was already open. Aunt Viv wasn’t late. She wasn’t even late opening the window of the food truck.
Piper was in serious trouble.
3
“Good morning,” Mitcheline and Aunt Viv chorused when Piper entered Gone Fish’n.
“Morning,” she mumbled, quickly stowing her extra layers under the counter. “Sorry I’m late,” she added under her breath. She didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that she was late, but she couldn’t exactly ignore it either.
Aunt Viv smiled but Piper could tell it was insincere. Her eyes held frustration as her lips twitched upward into a forced smile.
“Fried fish tacos,” Mitcheline called over her shoulder to Piper.
There was no time to waste—Piper had to get to work.
“You read the paper this morning?” Mitcheline asked Aunt Viv, turning her head in the other direction from Piper.
Aunt Viv let out one laugh. “You know I don’t read the paper. I’m convinced you only do because Jude does. He has time to read it now that he’s retired. I don’t know how you keep up with it.”
“Hey. I read it even when he was still working,” Mitcheline defended herself.
Piper’s dad, Jude, was happily retired and made a point of reading the paper every morning. If he got a day behind, he’d read the oldest one first. He liked to know what was happening in Emerald Island.
“Okay, okay,” Aunt Viv said while she prepared a spicy shrimp salad. “What’s worth reporting?”
Mitcheline glanced over her other shoulder at Piper, probably to see if she was listen
ing. Piper often kept her thoughts to herself when Mitcheline updated her and Aunt Viv on local news.
“Some guy was found dead at Spiced Up early this morning,” Mitcheline stated emotionlessly.
Piper had been listening but now she was on full alert. She didn’t regularly read the paper, but she knew from personal experience that certain reporters—Lydie Jackson, just to name one—made it a habit of embellishing the truth. Piper wanted to know what Lydie had come up with this time.
“Isn’t that the truck Heather O’Brien owns?” Aunt Viv asked.
“Mm hmm,” Mitcheline confirmed.
“Who was the victim?” Aunt Viv sounded only half interested.
Piper couldn’t hold her tongue anymore. Her mother and aunt were too nonchalant about the whole thing. “His name was Wyatt Brennan.”
Both heads turned in Piper’s direction and all work stopped for a full four seconds. Piper was the first to look away and resume her preparation of fish tacos and fish and chips.
“You know him?” Mitcheline asked.
“Just met him last night,” Piper started explaining. “Aria and I went on a double blind date. He was Aria’s date.”
Mitcheline and Aunt Viv didn’t respond. Mitcheline took orders as fast as they came and relayed them over her shoulders to Piper and Aunt Viv.
Finally, Aunt Viv told Piper, “I hope that wasn’t your excuse for being late today. You stayed out too late on a date.”
Piper sighed. She knew it was only a matter of time before her aunt started in on her tardiness. Piper knew she wasn’t perfect, and she knew she was late. She didn’t need her aunt to remind her of her shortcomings.
“No, it wasn’t my excuse.”
“So what was it this time, then? House sitting gig is too far from Gone Fish’n and you couldn’t roll out of bed on time? Dogs you’re taking care of needed an extra long walk? You got a flat tire on your bike?”
Piper tried her best to ignore her aunt but those were all past excuses of Piper’s for previous late arrivals. Not that they weren’t valid excuses, but hearing Aunt Viv list them all together made her realize how tired they must sound to her aunt and mom.
“Dad finally got rid of your car. You should thank him,” Mitcheline told Piper before she had a chance to explain her tardiness.
“Thanks,” she said quietly to her mother. Her car had been sitting in her parents’ driveway for months, collecting rust. Now there was no chance of improving her transportation options, not that she could have afforded to make her car road-worthy anyway.
“Don’t thank me,” her mother said coldly.
“Well, why were you late?” Aunt Viv pressed. “We have a business to run and we depend on you. You have to be more reliable.”
Piper threw a pile of fries into a serving basket. “You think I don’t know that?” she fumed. She let her temper get the better of her.
“You sure don’t act like you do,” Aunt Viv retaliated. “Who would ever consider hiring you outside of family?”
Piper felt a sense of déjà vu. Aunt Viv was asking everything Piper knew she would and had prepared for on her ride. Only, her answers were lost in some deep crevice of her brain that she couldn’t seem to access.
Aunt Viv stared at Piper and waited for an answer. “Well? Why were you late today?”
“Aria called me at four in the morning—”
“Oh don’t give me that, I was too tired. I didn’t wake up in time, line again.” Aunt Viv’s voice rose in a mock imitation of Piper. She put one hand on her hip and waved the other in the air as she spoke. She looked and sounded nothing like Piper.
Piper sighed and started again. “Aria called me at four in the morning to tell me Wyatt had been killed. It took me forever to get back to sleep after that.” Piper had to raise her voice to talk over Aunt Viv’s huffing.
Business continued and Mitcheline kept calling out orders over her shoulders for Aunt Viv and Piper to fill.
“You think you can solve this murder, too? You don’t think you were just lucky last time?” Aunt Viv sneered.
“Don’t go getting yourself mixed up in another murder investigation,” Mitcheline cautioned without turning around.
Piper shook her head. “I’m not planning to get involved. It wasn’t like I had a choice last time. I was kind of their first suspect,” she reminded her mother and aunt.
Just as the words left her mouth, Detective Garth Bankston approached the serving window of Gone Fish’n.
“Good morning, Detective,” Mitcheline greeted him. “What can I get you for lunch today?”
Detective Bankston smiled but his cheeks barely moved. “I’m not here for food.” His eyes traveled behind Mitcheline and landed on Piper briefly before meeting Mitcheline’s gaze again. “Can I have a word with your daughter?”
4
Before Piper or Mitcheline could answer, Aunt Viv stepped in front of the serving window. “I’m sorry, Detective, but no, you can’t have a word with Piper. She just got here, and as you can see,” her hand waved for Detective Bankston to turn around, “we have quite the line of customers waiting for food.”
Detective Bankston chuckled. “Vivienne, let me rephrase that. Piper, come with me.” He didn’t take his eyes off of Aunt Viv. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I understand she was with a murder victim last night.”
Piper maneuvered out the door of Gone Fish’n while Aunt Viv’s hard stare bore a hole in her back. “Sorry,” she mumbled as she shut the door. She wasn’t sure what she was apologizing for, but she felt like it had to be said.
Piper sighed once the door was separating her from Aunt Viv. She knew she was at fault for her aunt’s venomous words, but it was still tough to stomach her wrath.
“Hi Piper,” Detective Bankston greeted her casually behind the food truck.
“Mr. Bankston.” She paused. “I guess you’re Detective Bankston today.” Piper always felt like a teen in his presence. She’d spent so much time at Aria’s house in high school that she was immediately transported back to that age when she was around her best friend’s dad.
“You can even call me Garth if it’ll make you more comfortable.” Detective Bankston stopped walking and faced Piper. Throngs of businessmen and women passed them on either side, making Piper feel like a rock in a stream.
“Okay. Garth.” Piper didn’t usually call him that but she tried it out anyway. They were both adults. “Nope. I’ll stick to Mr. Bankston.”
He smiled and twirled his wedding band. “I understand you were out with Wyatt Brennan last night.”
Piper looked up the sidewalk. Storefronts had Valentine displays that made her feel depressed. The commercialism of the holiday far outweighed its romanticism, in her opinion. She refused to admit that her feeling had anything to do with the fact that Valentine’s Day was a week away and she had no plans or any potential prospects.
“I was,” she said, bringing her gaze back to the detective.
“Did he tell you anything that made you fear for his safety?” he asked.
Detective Bankston’s line of questioning was different from the last time she was questioned in a murder case. Then, she’d been a suspect. Now, his evasiveness to reveal any details made Piper think, at least for now, she wasn’t on that list.
Piper shook her head. “No. But I didn’t really talk to him that much. I mostly just talked to Eli.”
“Eli Smith-Michaels,” Detective Bankston stated. Piper nodded. “Have you talked to him today?”
Piper shook her head again, her short hair falling into her face. “No. We just met last night. Aria set it all up.”
The conversation was heading into awkward territory. “How long has Aria known Wyatt?”
Piper tilted her head to the side. “Have you talked to your daughter? Shouldn’t you be asking her this?”
Detective Bankston nodded. “I talked to her early this morning. Her phone seems to be off now and I don’t want to wake her up again by showing up at her house
. I just want to double check everyone’s stories.”
“You don’t believe your own daughter?” Piper asked, disbelievingly.
“I do. But I have to do my job. Just because she’s my daughter doesn’t give her a free pass. Nor do you get one.” He looked at her pointedly.
“I didn’t expect one.” Piper combed through her hair with her fingers and looked away. Maybe she wasn’t off the suspect list like she hoped.
Piper felt his eyes remain on her while he asked again, “So how long has Aria known Wyatt?”
“She just met him yesterday,” Piper admitted. If she felt uncomfortable telling Detective Bankston about her own dating life, she felt even weirder telling him about his daughter’s.
He raised an eyebrow. “Where did she meet him? At a bar?”
Piper wasn’t sure if that was the better option in his mind. But she told him the truth. “No. Online.”
He nodded once. “And Eli? You met him online, too?”
Piper shook her head. “No. I don’t do online dating.” She wasn’t opposed to it, per se, but she didn’t seek it out either. “Aria and Wyatt both brought a friend. We were setup on a blind date.”
“Are you going to see Eli again?”
Piper laughed. “I don’t really know. I had fun last night but we didn’t really talk about another date. I guess I should at least send my apologies about losing his friend.” The thought hadn’t crossed Piper’s mind before now.
“Could you do that right now?”
Something about Detective Bankston’s tone set Piper on edge. She didn’t dare question his intentions. “Okay,” she answered slowly, pulling her phone from her pocket.
It had been a last minute decision the night before to exchange numbers. Maybe that meant Eli was interested in another date. Maybe he thought that meant she was interested in another date. This whole dating thing left too many areas for making the wrong assumptions in Piper’s opinion.
Would calling him today be too soon? What kind of message would it send? Would Piper look desperate?
Piper held her phone in one hand and looked up at Detective Bankston with squinty eyes. “Why do you want me to call him? It feels weird to call him the day after our first date.”
