Joe exchanged a look with Finn. Finn shrugged.
“She’s a morning person,” he said.
“What a beautiful bird!” She bent down and made some kind of weird smooching noises at the thing, to which it oddly seemed to respond. Babs straightened and grinned at Joe. “What’s its name?”
Joe hesitated for a moment. “Um. I dunno. Bird.”
“Oh!” Babs said. “That’s no kind of name for a gorgeous little thing like this. How about Honey?”
“Honey?” Finn asked flatly.
Babs bent over and made some more clicking noises as she took the cage from Joe. “Isn’t that right, Honey? You like that name, don’t you?”
The bird squawked and seemed happy enough. Tessa turned to Joe. “Guess you’ve found your foster family.”
“Yes, absolutely,” Babs said. “And you couldn’t have found a better one. Finn is a bird expert.”
Joe shot a skeptical look at Finn. “You’re an expert?”
Finn shrugged. “Define expert.”
“Joe,” Babs said cheerfully, “I am so glad you stopped by. Your uncle has been telling me all about you.”
Joe’s surprise registered on his face. “He has? Max? Has been talking?”
Babs shook her head at the brothers. “You two. For the boys he raised into men, one would think you’d know the man a little better. Would you like some bacon and eggs, Joe? Fresh off the griddle.”
“Thanks. No. I’ve already had breakfast.” He leaned toward Tessa and spoke in low tones, but Finn could still hear him. “Do you think we could talk about something? Privately?”
Finn felt an odd stab of territorialism. Sure, he was planning on taking off and leaving her forever, but not yet. What, Joe couldn’t wait till the skidmarks were cold?
“Sure, Joe,” Tessa said, rubbing her hands over her eyes. “Can I get some coffee first?”
“Absolutely!” Babs turned back toward the kitchen, squawking bird in tow. “Coffee for everyone!”
No one followed Babs, but she didn’t seem to mind. Finn could hear her humming and clattering away in the kitchen like the madwoman she was, and he couldn’t help but smile. The woman was six different kinds of crazy, but it was part of her charm.
“Actually,” Joe said, watching the kitchen door with a slight expression of bewilderment, “I have to get to work, and it’s just a quick question.” He shot a distrustful look at Finn before turning his attention back to Tessa. “It’s about your mom.”
Tessa’s eyes widened, and Finn could see that Joe’s bomb was waking her up.
“What about her?” Tessa asked.
Joe shot another look at Finn. “Maybe we should talk in private.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Finn said.
“This doesn’t concern you,” Joe said.
“Does if it relates to my case.”
“Your case?”
“I’m investigating the fires.”
Joe cocked his head to the side. “Yeah? Who hired you?”
“Can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
Finn leaned forward in mock discretion. “Client confidentiality.”
“Oh, hell.” Tessa rolled her eyes. “Joe, Izzy hired him.”
Joe scoffed. “Izzy hired you? What’s she paying you with, Girl Scout cookies?”
“Samoas, actually. Doesn’t make it any less my case.” Joe rubbed his forehead, letting out a sigh of frustration. “Okay. Fine.” He turned to Tessa. “Do you remember the coffeemaker your mom had at the shop?”
It was Finn’s tom to scoff. “That’s the big private question you had to ask her?”
Tessa shot him a shut up look. He shut up. She turned to Joe. “Yeah. I remember it. Why?”
Joe shook his head. “Look, this is gonna sound weird, but... didn’t she break it?”
Tessa thought for a moment, then smiled. “Oh, my God. I’d totally forgotten about that.”
Joe smiled back. “It was that Saturday I was helping out at the store ...”
Tessa laughed. “Right! The day Mom burned her hand with the glue gun.”
“Yeah, and she went to make some coffee and broke the top off the well, right?”
“Yeah.” Tessa giggled. “And then she kept cursing the coffeemaker out and then Randy Williams came in with little Jana, who was like three at the time—”
Joe laughed harder. “And she kept repeating after your mom”—Joe’s voice went high-pitched—“‘Fucking coffeemaker! Fucking coffeemaker!’”
The two of them laughed comfortably together, like old friends. Which, of course, was exactly what they were. Joe had been here, all these years, and had developed a relationship with Tessa that was independent of Finn. Big deal. It was only natural. This knowledge, however, did nothing to lessen Finn’s desire to throw his brother through the front window; in fact it was growing stronger by the moment.
Finally, Tessa’s laughter subsided, and she looked at Joe, her eyes serious. “So, what’s with the coffeemaker?” Joe looked from Finn to Tessa and headed toward the dining room, motioning for them to follow. Tessa gave Finn a questioning look, which Finn ignored, still rankled by the buddy-buddy display he’d just witnessed.
“Oh, Christ,” Tessa muttered. By the time they caught up to Joe, he had already pulled some pictures from a manila envelope and laid them out flat on the table. He pointed to one of them.
“That was only about a week before the fire. Did your mother get a new coffeemaker?” he asked.
Tessa leaned over the photo, examined it for a few seconds, then shook her head and looked at Finn.
“I don’t think so.” She pointed to a detail on the picture. “And this one doesn’t have a clock display. She wouldn’t have bought one without a clock display.”
Finn leaned over the pictures, spreading them out on the table. “Where’d you get these?”
“Matt Tarpey made a call to County for me so I could get a look at the files,” Joe said. “Something has bugged me about that fire since day one, but I could never put my finger on it.”
Finn clapped his hand down on his brother’s shoulder. “Congratulations, bro. It only took ten years, but I think that’s exactly what you just did.” He leaned over the photos. “They determined it was the coffeemaker that started the fire?”
Joe nodded. “Yeah, it had just been recalled. For shorting out and catching on fire.”
“So someone planted it in Mom’s shop,” Tessa said. “Could be the same someone who put that insane array of extension cords in Vickie Kemp’s office,” Finn said. “A fire inspector sees that, they wouldn’t necessarily look any deeper. Right?”
Joe looked from Finn to Tessa, then back to Finn. “You think Vickie’s fire is related to Karen’s?”
“That’s the prevailing theory, yeah,” Tessa said.
Joe nodded. “I think so, too. I think Matt Tarpey has suspicions as well. The case went to the county Cause and Origin team, but I saw some pictures he’d taken himself in his office.”
“Great,” Tessa said. “What are we gonna do about it?”
“Gee,” Finn said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t know. Maybe... and I’m just free-associating here... go to the police?”
Tessa closed her eyes and sighed.
“What?” Joe said, looking back and forth between Finn and Tessa. “Look, you know I’d be the last one to say this, but I think Finn’s making sense.”
“We can’t go to the police,” Tessa said. “We don’t have enough evidence, and Izzy kinda bent a few laws getting us what we do have. I don’t want her in trouble.”
Joe let out an exasperated sigh and looked to Finn, who held up his hands. “Preachin’ to the choir, bro.”
“All right,” Joe said. “What are you thinking? You’re gonna just go after this guy yourselves? That’s just stupid.”
“Hey, just a minute there—” Finn started, then looked to Tessa. “Oh, no. Wait. He’s right. Imagine that.”
“I
’m not saying go after the bad guy ourselves,” Tessa said. “I’m saying get something more substantial than my memory of my mother’s coffeemaker. If we give the police strong enough evidence, they can take it from there. But right now, if we give them what we’ve got, they’re only going to ask questions about Izzy, and I can’t risk the knowledge of her involvement getting out to whoever’s doing this.”
“So,” Finn said, looking at Joe. “It’s quite a quandary. If only we knew someone who had access to privileged information . . .”
He focused on Joe, and counted internally.
One... two... three...
Joe’s eyes widened.
Bingo.
“What?” Joe said. “Me? What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know,” Finn said. “For starters, maybe break into Matt Tarpey’s office and get us those pictures of his? Then, on your way home, you could pick up a pizza or something.”
Joe laughed. “Break in?” His eyes connected with Finn’s and he stopped laughing. “You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack.”
Joe looked at Tessa, then back at Finn. “I’m not going to break into his office. Why don’t I just ask him?”
“Because we don’t have time to fart around playing Mother, May I?" Finn said.
“No,” Joe said firmly, looking at Finn. “I don’t do stuff like that. That’s your area. You do it.”
“I’d love to,” Finn said. “But I don’t know that place near as well as you do. And if you get caught there, it’s easier to create a cover story.”
“You two could go together,” Tessa said.
“No,” Joe and Finn said in unison.
“Fine,” Tessa said, gathering up the pictures on the table. “Then I’ll do it.”
“Yeah, right,” Finn said, as Joe said, “No way.”
Joe grabbed the pictures from Tessa and tucked them in the envelope, then turned to Finn, the displeasure on his face crystal clear. Not great at masking the emotions, that Joe.
“Tarpey usually leaves the office around six,” he bit out after a few moments.
Finn grinned at his brother. “Wear something black.” Joe grumbled something rude under his breath and shook his head.
“If I go to jail,” he said, shooting a harsh look at Finn, “I am so going to kick your ass.”
Chapter Eighteen
Izzy put the last of the potted baby roses on the Valentine’s display table in the middle of the gift shop, then wiped her hands on her apron. She glanced at the clock; it was 3:05. Quitting time was usually around three.
Not that there was any big rush to go home. It wasn’t like she was going to be included in anything, anyway. She’d woken up that morning to Babs singing and cooking in the kitchen, Tessa and Finn looking tense but pretending nothing was going on, and some weird bird sitting in a cage in the living room. Izzy asked a couple of questions about what was happening, and received three variations on the simple but classic, “Eat your breakfast and get to school.”
Part of her felt better that she’d told everyone what she knew. Sorta like a weight had been lifted. But now, she was just a kid again, on the outside. Nothing to offer, nothing to do but lie low and be protected.
Pffffft. Boring.
She pulled the strings on her apron loose and headed out toward the front. Margie was finishing up with a customer, so Izzy waited until she was done before leaning forward and tapping the counter with her fingertips to get Margie’s attention.
“I’m gonna head on out,” Izzy said. “If I don’t get home on time, Tessa’ll freak.”
“Oh.” Margie bit her lip. “Okay. I actually... I had something...” She leaned over the counter, looked around. Izzy looked, too. There was nobody there. February in Vermont on a weekday—not a huge crunch time for a nursery. Margie looked back at Izzy, her face crinkled in thought. Izzy stood up straight.
“What?”
Margie held up her index finger, sped around the counter, locked the front door, and flicked the open/closed sign to CLOSED.
“Margie—what?”
Margie held up her finger again, hurried back to Izzy, grabbed her by the hand, and led her through the back door of the greenhouse, locking that behind her as well.
“Margie,” Izzy said as Margie led her up the short path that connected the greenhouse with Margie’s house. “What’s going on?”
“You’ll see in just a minute,” Margie said.
Two minutes later, they were headed down the stairs into Margie’s basement, and Izzy was starting to get a little creeped out.
“Margie, I really think Tessa might start to—”
Izzy stopped talking as they hit the bottom step. The basement... It was... crazy. Bright orange floors. A weird avocado green minibar in the corner. A big futon. Beanbag chairs. And...
“Oh, my God, is that a disco ball?” Izzy said, pointing to the sparkly sphere hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
“Yes,” Margie said, “but that’s not what I brought you here to show you. Vick!”
It was then that Izzy noticed a door slightly ajar at the back of the room, and the sound of running water.
“Just a minute,” a voice came from behind the door. There was the sound of spitting, and then the water turned off.
“I was brushing my teeth. Jesus cannoli, can’t a girl brush her—”
Vickie Kemp stopped mid-sentence as her eyes fell on Izzy. Izzy felt her mouth drop open in similar surprise.
“Hey, Vickie,” Izzy said. “Have you been in Margie’s basement all this time?”
Vickie smiled at her, then turned a significantly less pleased expression on Margie. “So, this is your plan B?” Vickie said.
Margie nodded, put one arm around Izzy’s shoulders. “If she’s smart enough to get this whole ball rolling, well, then she’s smart enough to help us stop it.”
Izzy felt pride swell in her chest.
She was smart.
They needed her help.
She was plan B.
Vickie crossed her arms over her stomach, then finally smiled and nodded.
“All right, fine.” She looked at Izzy. “You’d better call Tessa first, honey. You’re gonna be here awhile.”
***
Tessa sat on her sofa, watching two stupid Irish brothers bicker like a couple of old church ladies.
“I told you to be inconspicuous,” Finn said, motioning at Joe’s top-to-bottom black outfit—knit cap, coat, turtle-neck, jeans, boots, all dark as pitch.
“You said wear black,” Joe said. “So I wore black.”
“It was a joke,” Finn said. “I was being ironic. I didn’t mean it literally.”
“Then you shouldn’t have said it literally,” Joe said. “I’m not a criminal. I never got the criminal codebook where ‘black’ means ‘inconspicuous.’ ”
“I’m not a criminal, either,” Finn said. Joe raised an eyebrow and Finn added, “Anymore.”
“Speaking of which,” Joe said, “what the hell have you been doing all these years, anyway? And don’t try to sell me that private detective crap, because I don’t buy that for a minute.”
Finn’s eyes widened. “You want me to explain myself to you? You look like a fucking ninja on holiday.”
Tessa glanced at the clock: 5:47. This had been going on for eight minutes, and there was no end in sight.
“And what the hell is this?” Finn said, pointing to the big white canvas laundry bag Joe had slung over his shoulder.
“If there’s evidence, we’re gonna need something to carry it in,” Joe said.
Finn flicked a finger at the tremendous bag. “What kind of evidence are you planning on taking? You think we’re gonna find a confession scribbled on some dry cleaning?”
Tessa patted the sofa a couple of times as an invite to Wallace, who accepted it without a moment’s hesitation. She looked down at him and made a kissy face, and he slobbered all over her. She wiped her face on her sleeve and scratched his head as
they watched Finn and Joe dig in for another round.
“I don’t know what kind of evidence we’re going to get,” Joe said. “I’m an electrician. This isn’t the kind of thing I do on a regular basis.”
“What the hell does being an electrician have to do with not having common fucking sense?”
“Any more of this,” Tessa said to Wallace in cutesy tones, “I’m going to have to go find a fork and stab myself with it.”
Wallace licked her face again.
“Whatever, man,” Finn said, dismissing his brother and turning to Tessa with a Do you believe this guy? expression.
Tessa sighed and pushed herself up from the sofa. “Do you girls think you could possibly put aside your catfight long enough to get this done? Because you’re both starting to freak me out.”
Finn huffed and gestured to indicate Joe’s ninja-on- holiday outfit, as though that was all the defense he needed. Tessa put her hand to her forehead.
“Look, just...” She glanced at the clock. “Go now.”
Finn checked his watch. “Might as well.”
“But Tarpey’s probably still there,” Joe said.
Finn sighed heavily and spoke to Joe with a tone most people reserved for petulant toddlers. “That’s why we wait outside, in the car. We watch him leave, we’ll know he’s gone, then we go inside.”
“You can do this by yourself, you know,” Joe said. “I don’t have to help you, you freakin’ leprechaun. What is up with the hair, anyway?”
Finn’s eyes went wide and Tessa stepped in between them.
“You know what, guys?” Tessa said. “Just go. Izzy’s gonna be home from dinner at Margie’s soon and...” She looked at Joe. “I don’t want her getting weirded out by you two.”
“He said wear black!” Joe said.
“I meant—” Finn started, but Tessa grabbed his hand and squeezed it to silence him.
“Joe, would you go warm up the car, please?” She reached into her pocket and gave him her keys. “Take the Mazda. It’s the darkest-colored car we’ve got.”
Joe looked from Tessa to Finn, then took the keys, slung the laundry bag over his shoulder, and left. Tessa turned to Finn.
The Comeback Kiss Page 19
