by H. P. Munro
“It’s been over twenty years. Yet I spend a moment with her, and she makes me feel as though I’m whole again. I don’t know if she’ll ever trust me or love me back, but I am going to do my damnedest to prove she can.”
Charlotte stood up and dusted off her legs. As she straightened her eyes met Erin’s.
“Did you mean that?” Erin stepped forward hesitatingly to stand in front of Charlotte.
“I did. It’s what I should have said back then.”
Erin’s lips curled into a smile. As Charlotte attempted to mirror her smile she felt another section of the wall that sheltered her heart crumble. Without thinking she leaned closer and grazed Charlotte’s lips with her own. She allowed them to rest there for a moment, reveling in Charlotte’s softness, before pulling away.
“Please don’t.” Charlotte’s voice was ragged with emotion. Seeing the questioning look on Erin’s face she continued holding both of Erin’s hands. “I have a lifetime of memories of you kissing me then running away. Don’t run this time, please.”
Erin’s confused look gave way to a smile. “I wasn’t going to run, I promise. It’s just making out in the town cemetery…”
“Oh.” Charlotte looked around as if suddenly remembering where they were. She looked back towards her father’s grave and blushed. She turned towards Erin. “I promise. I will do anything you ask of me, if only you’ll give me a chance.”
Erin smiled widely. “Well, I do have some neutering work. I could use an extra pair of hands on.”
Charlotte flinched. The hopeful look she wore was momentarily replaced with one of horror before she managed to muster a look of resolve. “As you wish.”
As Erin directed them back towards the entrance, she could almost hear the cogs turning in Charlotte’s head wondering whether she was serious about the threat. Finally, she took pity.
“Stop worrying. I’m not going to make you remove balls,” Erin said, without looking in her direction.
The sigh of relief filled Erin with a warmth that had been missing since her teenage years. It appeared that her ability to read Charlotte remained intact.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Erin hummed softly to herself as she saved the update to a patient’s record. Her time with Charlotte the day before had been unexpected and at times fraught with emotion. However, hearing Charlotte’s speech at her father’s grave almost obliterated Erin’s softening resolve. That said, there was still a part of her terrified of allowing Charlotte full access to her heart again.
As she lifted her coffee cup to her mouth, she replayed the gentle kiss Charlotte had bestowed on her when she’d dropped her back at the Anderson house. She imagined the cool ceramic pressed against her mouth were Charlotte’s soft lips. It was only when she took a sip of cold coffee that the image withered from her mind.
She sighed, stood up and crossed her office intent on replenishing her coffee from the pot in reception. As she opened her door, she heard Cindy’s voice.
“She’s good, but she’s not a miracle worker. She can’t Lazarus a dead animal!”
Erin exchanged an exasperated look with Cooper, who was completely disinterested in her personnel issues. She stepped out to apologize to whoever Cindy was no doubt upsetting, when she heard Sully’s voice in response.
“I don’t need her to bring it to life. I just want her to have a look at it.” Seeing Erin, Sully shot Cindy a glare. “Hey, Erin can you have a look at this for me?” He picked up a box from the counter and stuck his tongue out at Cindy when Erin said she would.
“So what have you brought me?” Erin asked, holding the door open for Sully.
“A dead rat.” Sully set the box down on the examination table.
Erin’s eyebrows raised as she walked over to peer into the box. “You know flowers or candy are usually the way to go if you want to woo me.”
Sully smirked. “I think Charlotte’s got the wooing sewn up if what I saw last night outside the Anderson house is anything to go by.”
Furrowing her eyebrows, Erin looked up at Sully’s smug expression. “I hate you.”
“You love me.”
“I hate you!” She pointed to the box. “So why are you bringing me a Fancy rat?”
Sully looked into the box. “It’s not fancy, it’s just dead.”
Erin shook her head. “Fancy with a capital F. It’s the domesticated breed of rat.”
“A pet?”
Nodding her head Erin pulled on a pair of gloves to pick up the rat to examine it further. She turned it over to look at its underside. “If I’m not mistaken it’s a black cap. See the coloring around its head?”
“A pet?” Sully repeated, looking at where Erin was pointing. “You sure?”
“It’s hard to be absolutely sure. Typically, their behavior sets them apart from wild rats. But with this one being dead its behavior is kinda the same as a dead wild rat.” Seeing Sully start to lose his temper she coughed and returned her attention to the rat. “The coloring of this one would be extremely rare to see in a wild rat. Where’d you find it?”
Sully pointed to the rat still in Erin’s hand. “That there is my rat problem.”
“Why would a pet rat be in your bar?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Sully replied with a clenched jaw.
***
Charlotte walked through the deserted school halls looking for the right room. Although the color on the walls was different, the school still had the same smell. However, everything seemed smaller somehow. She held back a laugh as she opened the door to Teddy’s classroom and saw the group of assembled adults huddled into the chairs designed to host Teddy’s third-grade class.
“You’re late.” Teddy flicked her hand out towards the classroom. “Take a seat.”
Biting her cheek to avoid apologizing, Charlotte took a place beside a bemused looking Erin. “What are we doing here?” she whispered.
Without taking her eyes from Teddy, Erin responded out of the side of her mouth. “At the moment I’m contemplating repeating grade school ’cause I’m not sure my ass will get out of this seat ever again.”
Charlotte hastily smothered her snort as Teddy glared in her direction.
“Thank you for coming.” Teddy clapped her hands together to gather everyone’s attention. “As you all know Sully”—she nodded in Sully’s direction, who held up a hand and waved apologetically at everyone—“has had his bar closed due to a rat problem. The only problem with his rat problem is that evidence would suggest this is not a natural problem!”
“Seriously?” Ruth turned to Sully for confirmation.
Sully nodded. “Looks that way. Erin says the rat I found in the bar is more likely a pet rat than wild.”
“Seriously?” Alex turned to address Erin. “People keep rats as pets?”
“They’re actually quite intelligent and affectionate,” Erin replied, ignoring the incredulous looks on her friends’ faces.
“Focus people!” Teddy yelled, bringing their attention back to her. “So since it’s a pet rat, we can assume someone put it in the bar on purpose.” She turned to the white board she used for her classes. “So I’ve put some names up as possible suspects.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened as she spotted her name on the list. “Why am I on there?”
Teddy crossed her arms. “Just because of the timing. You appear, and the rats appear.”
Charlotte was about to object further when Sully stood up and wiped her name from the list using the heel of his hand. “It’s not Charlotte.”
“Thank you, Sully.” Charlotte smiled and nodded before returning her gaze to Teddy and narrowing her eyes. Satisfied she’d made her point, she returned to the names on the list and let out a soft snort as she read her mother’s name. “You honestly think Virginia would handle rats?”
Teddy looked at her contemplatively before shrugging and removing Virginia Grace’s name. “Good point. Although she could have got someone else to do her dirty work.” Teddy unde
rlined Brett Ford’s name with a flourish.
“Who’s he?” Charlotte whispered to Erin.
“The man your mama hired to run the lumberyard.” Erin turned to look at Charlotte for the first time since she sat down. She smiled shyly. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“When you two love birds are done. Can we focus on why we’re here?” Teddy rapped her pen against the desk to get their attention.
Reluctantly both turned to face the front of the classroom again. “Is it likely he’d do it? Do y’all know him at all?” Charlotte huffed as she attempted to sit forward on the small seat. The pain of the seat digging into her thigh muscles made her give up and sit back again.
Ruth glanced at Peter, who shrugged then raised a hand motioning her to go on. She cleared her throat before speaking. “I don’t think there’s too much love lost there. I overheard Virginia giving him a dressing down a while back when the wages were missed at the lumberyard.”
At the mention of wage issues, Charlotte ignored the discomfort and sat forward in her seat. “They’ve not been paying folks?”
“Just that once I think,” Ruth added hastily. “I think maybe cash flow’s been a problem of late.”
“People!” Teddy barked. “Less lumber talk, more rats!”
“Anyways, I’m not sure he’d do what Virginia asked,” Ruth concluded.
Sully seemed to consider the conversation for a moment before speaking. “What if he’s doing it on his own?” All eyes in the room turned to look at him. “He’s always drank up a storm at the bar. But he never appeared the type to be an angry drunk, more just beaten down by life. But that whole scene about ladies’ night seemed to spark a rage in him. He’s never been back in the bar since. I figured he’d just found somewhere else to spend his dollars.”
“I think we might have just spotted our prime suspect.” Teddy circled Brett Ford’s name. “Now we just need proof. What we should do is—”
Teddy halted at the sound of Charlotte’s cell phone ringing, sheepishly she rushed to pull it from her pocket. Seeing Molly’s name flash on the screen, she apologized and hauled herself, with the help of a gentle push from Erin, out from the seat. She turned to thank her and smiled at the blush on Erin’s face.
“Thanks, I owe you one.”
Her smile turned into a wide grin when Erin’s blush deepened. She ignored Teddy’s death glare as she left the room and answered the FaceTime request.
“So you’re alive!” Molly yelled before Charlotte had the phone up to her face.
“Sorry, Moll.”
“You don’t call. You don’t text. I’ve been out of my mind with worry.”
“Really?”
“No, not really. I used that ‘find your phone’ thing and saw where you were. Figured you would contact me eventually. However, since that started to look unlikely...”
“I’ve just been so busy since I got here.”
It was a surprise to Charlotte that it wasn’t an excuse. Her life back in Manhattan felt like an entire lifetime away and much to her chagrin, she hadn’t given her friends back there a second thought since her return to Grace Falls.
Molly let out a huff and rolled her eyes.
“Honestly, I’m sorry,” Charlotte said pitifully, giving Molly her best puppy eyes.
“Oh, stop with the eyes.” Molly groaned, placing her hand over the screen to avoid looking at Charlotte. “You done?” She lifted her hand and peeked. Seeing Charlotte was now grinning at her, she took her hand away completely. “So I suppose you’ve been too busy to even check your email?”
Charlotte winced. “I’m sorry.”
“You want the good news or the bad news?”
“Good news?” Charlotte replied warily.
“You look really relaxed.” Molly grinned. “Now I’m going to give you the bad news which might impact that whole relaxed Big Easy thing you’ve got going on.”
“That’s New Orleans,” Charlotte correctly absently. She briefly considered Molly’s observation and was surprised. She did feel relaxed.
“What’s the bad news.”
“Grace Timber. Being a private company there’s not much we can get our hands on officially to make an assessment of the accounts. The company’s too small to even register on the databases we usually use. However, we have been able to do some data mining.” Molly hesitated, biting her bottom lip.
Charlotte recognized the facial expression and immediately caught onto Molly’s use of ‘data mining.’ This meant that the channels Molly had gone down may not be strictly legal. “And?”
“Not good,” Molly concluded. “Up until your father died the business was growing. It looked like they were producing good quality products, and a wide range too. Just like you thought. They had bulk contracts with some big builders in the state. Your father had it sewn up from the felling, cutting and finishing. The reputation was good.”
Charlotte barely had time to acknowledge that Molly must have been doing her homework on all aspects of the lumberyard before the ‘but’ that had been lurking in Molly’s tone finally appeared.
“But since your father…well, they’ve lost some contracts with house builders, which made up the bulk of their income. They have some low-level debts, much like the one with the mechanic you paid off. Nothing too major. Their wage bill caused them to go into a credit line at the bank, which they’d never done before. While it’s not terrible, it’s just not sustainable the way they’re going.” Molly winced as she finished her assessment of the current situation.
“How long they got?” Charlotte asked.
“The way they’re going. A year. Eighteen months tops,” Molly surmised. “That’s not all. The guy running the business…”
“Brett Ford?”
“That’s him. His resume is a crock. He’s never managed on this scale, and his last employer sacked him for drinking on the job. Apparently he went off the rails when his wife …wait for it.”
“Ran off with another woman?”
Molly’s face fell. “Holy shit, is that a gaydar thing?”
“Nope, it just explains a whole lot.”
“What do you want me to do about Grace Timber?”
Charlotte took in a deep breath. “Make her an offer.”
Molly leaned closer to the camera. “Did you just hear what I said?”
“I did, and I didn’t hear anything that wasn’t insurmountable.”
“You honestly want to make a go of it there, ’cause this isn’t something you’re going to be able to manage from here.” Molly waved her arm around to indicate the city behind her.
“I do.” Charlotte chewed on her lower lip. “I can’t describe it exactly, but it just feels right. I had no idea how lost I felt until I came back here.”
Molly’s eye’s widened. “You’re serious? You’re considering not coming back? You do realize how crazy this sounds, right?”
Charlotte thought back to her conversation with Maddie and what she’d given up for Alex. Whilst nothing was guaranteed with Erin, Charlotte couldn’t help but hope that staying in Grace Falls would at least provide them with the opportunity to explore whether they had a future.
“I know you’re worried, but honestly, this feels like it’s what I was meant to do.” She knew what would make her friend realize she was serious. “I deleted the folder with Tina’s photos. I’m ready to move on.”
“Get me the details of your mother’s lawyer and I’ll get something drawn up. I’ll send it over so you can review before we submit.”
“It’s important this can’t be traced back to me. Otherwise, she’ll never agree.”
“Leave it with me.”
Charlotte could see how unhappy Molly was at her revelation. However, she felt content with her decision.
“You know I love you!” Charlotte said, smiling at her friend.
“Yeah, I love you too, assface,” Molly grumbled. “An’ just so you know, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder, ’cause I love you mo
re when you’re here to help me manage Joanne.”
“I’ll be back soon to help you with her and get things sorted.” Charlotte laughed. “I’ll call soon.”
Molly nodded and ended the connection. Pausing, Charlotte looked at the screen of her cell. During the call, she’d come to the conclusion about her future that had been eluding her since she sold her business. The smile on her face grew as she became excited at the prospect. Putting her phone back in her pocket she reentered the room.
“So we’re all clear?” Teddy looked at each of her friends in turn and ignored Charlotte rejoining the group.
Erin held her hand up to speak, then dropped it and rolled her eyes as if realizing she’d automatically fallen into school habits. “You know he might not have bought them local.”
Waving her hand to dismiss Erin’s point, Teddy shook her head. “We have to start somewhere and where we’re starting is with Ruth. She will snap a photo of him and you and Charlotte will go to the suppliers of rats. Peter and Sully will start surveillance tonight on Ford’s home to see whether he tries something else.”
Sully grinned towards Peter. “I’ll bring the coffee. You get the donuts.”
Teddy clapped her hands together. “Okay then. Let’s be careful out there.” Fully engaged in teacher mode, she turned and started to erase the names from the whiteboard.
“How come we didn’t get anything,” Alex grumbled as she stood up, ignoring Maddie’s shushing noises. “I’d be great at this. I wanna chase him down and do that ass slide thing over the hood of the car.”
Maddie grinned and spoke quietly into Alex’s ear. “I’ll let you be Cagney to my Lacey tonight.”
A slight blush appeared on Alex’s cheeks as she laced her fingers through Maddie’s. “Okay that sounds like more fun.” She waved a hand towards her friends. “Let me know how you get on and, Peter, I’ll have the donuts in the coffee shop waiting for you.”
Charlotte watched as the friends slowly dispersed. She felt envious of Alex and Maddie and their relationship. She wanted that easy banter, and the ability to make her lover blush just from her words. Turning to face Erin, she smiled. “So we’re going to check out rat suppliers?”
