Debts and Debtors: (A Geeks and Things Cozy Mystery Novella #3) (Geeks and Things Cozy Mysteries)

by Sarah Biglow

  “Mind pouring me a cup?” she asked.

  Daniel jumped and a plate clattered to the counter, revealing the remnants of some of her applesauce cake. He blushed bright red and she couldn’t help but giggle.

  “I won’t tell Jillian,” she said and brushed some crumbs from the front of his shirt.

  “Thanks.” The color receded a little as he reached for a mug and delivered the requested beverage.

  Kalina savored the coffee, letting the caffeine wake up her senses. She peered out the kitchen window into the backyard. To her surprise the few trees in the yard hadn’t lost any branches. “That was one crazy storm yesterday,” she said.

  “Yeah. It was.” He set his plate in the sink and ran water over it, getting rid of the evidence of his non-traditional breakfast. “You know, I heard what you said to Jillian last night about AJ working at the shop.”

  Kalina choked on the sip of coffee she’d just taken. “Oh.”

  “I agree with you. She can’t just pull him away from work whenever she feels like it. But what she probably wouldn’t tell you is that she’s been having a hard time letting him go and grow up. I mean he’s got his learner’s permit now and he’s becoming more independent. I think she’s just scared about him being out in the real world on his own in a couple of years.”

  “I get that but when I’m at work I have to treat him like an employee, not my nephew.”

  “Believe me, I understand.”

  Kalina caught sight of the clock on the microwave and nearly spit in her mug. “Is that the time?”

  Daniel glanced over his shoulder. “It’s not even eight yet.”

  “It’s Black Friday.”

  “Oh, big comic buying day, is it?”

  “Big retail day period.”

  Daniel laughed, lips spreading wide to reveal a straight, white smile. “I’m only kidding. If you need to head out, go for it. I’ll give your best to Jill and AJ and Mom.”

  “I could actually use AJ’s help.”

  Her brother-in-law looked toward the staircase. “If you can drag his butt out of bed, be my guest.”

  “Oh, and tell Jill I’ll meet her at the station when I can get a break. I want to be there when Savannah reports her husband missing.”

  “Any particular reason?”

  She pursed her lips. “I just want to make sure she gets all the important information to whoever takes the report.”

  “In other words, in case it isn’t Chris, you want to make sure the boys in blue don’t screw up.”

  Kalina held a finger to her lips. “Something like that.”

  Draining the coffee mug, she set it in the sink and headed upstairs to rouse her nephew. She knocked twice on his bedroom door before sticking her head in. The person-shaped lump beneath the covers signaled he was still in dreamland.

  “Hey, you need to get up. I need you down at the shop.”

  He moaned and poked his head out from beneath the blankets. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “I do. Now get moving, kiddo. You’re on the clock in a half hour. Don’t be late.”

  AJ pulled the blankets back over his head. Kalina turned to head back down to find her car keys and nearly knocked Savannah down the stairs. “So sorry!” she apologized.

  Savannah managed to regain her footing and rubbed at her eyes. They were red-rimmed as if she’d been crying again. “So you really think I should go to the police?”

  “Yes. I’d like to go with you. I know the lead detective in the department and I can make sure he takes the case.”

  “That’s so nice of you. You really don’t have to help me.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. My sister treats you like family, so you are family. I’ll meet you two down at the station around eleven.”

  “Thank you.” Savannah pulled Kalina into an awkward one-armed hug.

  Kalina wiggled out of the hug as best she could and took the stairs two at a time. Daniel stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding her coat out for her.

  “What a gentleman,” she said and slipped it on.

  “I’ll make sure AJ’s at work on time,” he said as she fished her keys out of her coat pocket.

  She was halfway out the door when Daniel caught her wrist and shoved her phone into her outstretched hand. She flashed him a smile before heading out. She needed to stop by her apartment and clean up before she headed into work. It would also give her time to give Chris a call and see how he was. She didn’t want to be angry with him and she figured it was a good idea to give him a heads up that they were coming in so someone would be around to take the missing person report. Once she’d maneuvered her car around the others parked in the driveway and was on the road, she gave Chris a call, making sure to put it on speaker phone. It rang three times before he picked up.

  “Hello?” He sounded exhausted.

  “Hey, I just wanted to check in and see how you were,” she said.

  “It was a long night. I just got in a couple hours ago.”

  “Jeez. It was that bad?”

  “Getting techs out in the storm was tough. Look, I’ll make it up to you about last night.”

  “Don’t worry about it. You didn’t miss much.”

  “But you made my favorite dessert.”

  She grinned at herself in the rearview mirror. “I’ll make some for you.”

  “You’re the best.” He yawned on the other end of the line.

  “Look, I just wanted to ask who is working at the precinct today.”

  “Should I be worried?”

  “No, not really. I just had to refer someone to the police to file a report and I wanted to make sure there were actually bodies at the station today given all the craziness yesterday.”

  “Yeah. Someone will be there.”

  “Great. Look, go back to sleep. I’ll see you later. I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  The line went dead and her phone hung up the call on its own. She pulled into the driveway of her building and raced inside to grab a quick shower. Feeling refreshed and ready to face the day, she climbed back behind the steering wheel and made the short journey to Geeks and Things. There was already a line of beleaguered adults accompanying young kids all eager to pick up their Black Friday swag. She unlocked the back door just as her nephew rolled up on his bike. He still looked half-asleep.

  “Perk up, kiddo. You play your cards right and you’ll get a bonus out of this,” she said with a smirk.

  “Black Friday is evil,” he mumbled and followed her inside.

  Kalina flipped on the lights in the game room and the front of the store and booted up the tablet so it was ready for transactions. AJ unlocked the cash drawer for the likely onslaught of cash purchases—kids saved up all of their allowance for days like today—and did a quick cash count.

  “I think we’re ready,” he said, appearing to wake up a little more as the silhouettes of eager customers shifted outside the front door.

  Kalina put on a big smile and said, “Let’s do this thing!”

  The next three hours were a blur of giddy yelps of excitement as kids bought her wares for the first time with their own, carefully saved up, money. She had some usual customers come in for their weekly orders and some new, curious faces drop by thanks to the holiday weekend. Some of the adults shooed the children accompanying them into the game room while they attempted to do some covert Christmas shopping outside the view of prying eyes.

  “Thanks so much for shopping at Geeks and Things. We hope to see you again for all your nerdy needs,” Kalina called as the last customer walked out.

  She collapsed against the counter and glanced at AJ. He looked wide awake and a bit shell shocked. He eased the cash drawer shut and slumped on to the stool behind the counter. “That was insane, Aunt K.”

  “There might still be more. And I need you to hold things down for me for a little while.”

  He let out a whine. “Where are you going?”

  “I promised your mom and Sa
vannah I’d go with them to the precinct so Savannah can file a missing person report.”

  “Oh, right. Do you think he is really missing?”

  “No idea. People don’t come home for lots of reasons. Not all of them are the worst case scenario.”

  “Don’t worry about the shop. I got it covered.”

  She reached over and ruffled his hair before she went in search of her coat and keys. Just as she climbed in behind the wheel, her phone buzzed with an incoming call from Jillian. “Hey, I’m heading over to the precinct now.”

  “Oh, good. I guess we’ll see you there. Now, you’re sure someone will be there?”

  “Yes. See you in a few minutes.”

  Tossing the phone onto the passenger seat, Kalina started the car and made a U-turn out of the parking lot. As she got situated back on Main Street, she saw a few more people wandering in the direction of the shop. She sent off a silent ‘good luck’ to her nephew. He was a smart kid and could handle the shop for a little while. She assumed she would be back by lunchtime and she could take over so he could eat. A couple minutes later, she found a spot in the parking lot outside the precinct and spotted her sister’s car two spots over.

  “Ready?” she asked Savannah once they all stood at the front door.

  “No, but I don’t have a choice.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kalina trailed the other two women as they walked in and stopped at the reception desk. Jimmy sat there with a distant look in his eyes. Kalina knew he’d been on the scene with Chris most of the night. What was he doing there now?

  “Hey, Jimmy. I’m surprised to see you here,” Kalina said, taking control of the situation.

  He yawned, barely stifling it. “When the boss says to pull a double, you do it.”

  They still didn’t have a new Chief of Police and Chris seemed adamant about not taking the position. Kalina didn’t entirely get why, since he was a good cop and everyone looked to him for guidance anyway. If they wanted to keep things in-house after the debacle of Captain Cahill, he was the logical choice.

  “I heard yesterday was rough.” She gave him a sympathetic smile. “The reason we’re here though is a friend of ours needs to file a missing person report. You can help her with that, right?”

  Jimmy looked to Savannah who gave him a plaintive look and tugged at her hair. Oh, yeah, he was definitely paying attention now. He scrambled from behind the desk and ushered them toward the bull pen and an empty desk. He dutifully pulled out a chair for Savannah to sit in before he booted up the computer. Jillian pulled over a chair from a nearby desk and settled in beside her friend. Kalina remained standing over Savannah’s right shoulder and looked around. Chris was probably still sleeping. Or maybe he was down at the crime scene. Speaking of which, she spotted some photos of a man taped to a whiteboard with ‘John Doe’ scrawled across the top. It was bloated and waterlogged but she could swear he looked familiar.

  “Okay, now Miss… ” Jimmy trailed off, waiting for Savannah to fill in the rest.

  “Mrs. Chase. I… I would like to report someone missing.”

  “And who would that be?”

  “My husband. Thomas Chase.”

  Jimmy hastily jotted down notes on a pad in front of him. Kalina tuned out of the conversation for a minute, focusing on the board across the room. She’d met Mr. Chase only once—when her friend Nadine sold her family home—but she remembered him well, with thinning, grey-brown hair and sincere, green eyes. She couldn’t verify eye color but the hair on John Doe looked right.

  She leaned over to whisper in Jillian’s ear. “Take a look at that photo on the board over there. Does he look familiar to you?”

  Savannah stopped mid-sentence—having heard Kalina’s question—and turned to look at her. She got up from her seat and inched closer, studying the picture. Her body language changed almost instantly. Kalina raced forward when Savannah started to sway and guided her back to the chair. Jillian had turned pale.

  “Is something wrong, Mrs. Chase?” Jimmy asked. Poor guy wasn’t exactly the world’s most perceptive investigator.

  “Why … why is there a photo of my husband on that board?”

  Jimmy cleared his throat, opened his mouth and closed it again. “Um … you’re sure that’s your husband?”

  “Yes. We’ve been married for three years. I think I’d know the man I share a bed with.”

  Jimmy looked to Kalina as if she held the answers to his questions but she shook her head and gestured to her phone. She mouthed ‘Chris’ and his cheeks flushed. He took a deep breath and picked up the receiver. “I’m going to call Detective Harper. He should really talk to you about this.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jillian went in search of tissues for Savannah while Jimmy made the call to Chris. Kalina stayed standing, observing the whole situation with a growing sense of unease. A million questions flooded her thoughts. Namely, how had Thomas Chase ended up dead in the last day? At least his death explained why he hadn’t gone home the day before Thanksgiving. Jimmy tapped his fingers nervously against the desk while he waited for Chris to answer the call.

  “Detective Harper, it’s Jimmy. I need you to get down to the station right away. We’ve got an ID on the”—he glanced over at Kalina—“case from yesterday.” He paused. “His wife came in to report him missing.”

  He nodded his head as Chris said something on the other end of the line. Jillian returned and handed a wad of crumpled napkins from the kitchen area to Savannah. She wiped at her eyes and sniffled loudly while Jimmy wrapped up the call. Finally, he set the receiver back in the cradle and cleared his throat again.

  “Detective Harper will be down shortly to speak with you about your husband. I’m sorry for your loss, ma’am.”

  Kalina felt bad for Jimmy. He’d no doubt never had to notify anyone about the death of a loved one before. The only other big cases he’d been involved with had victims who didn’t have any living relatives or were already aware of the crime. Thinking back on those cases, Kalina wondered how Nadine was faring. They’d talked and emailed around Halloween and she’d been settling in but the family holidays were probably still rough for her.

  “Can I ask … where he was found? And what happened?” Savannah asked between sniffles.

  “It’s probably better if you just wait for the detective. I’m not really handling the case.”

  An awkward silence fell over the station. Jimmy stood up and hurried back to the front desk, leaving the grieving widow in the care of Jillian and Kalina. For her part, Jillian made soft shushing noises and wrapped her friend in a wordless hug. Kalina moved away, wanting to give them privacy, and she approached the front desk.

  “You okay? You look a little freaked out.”

  “I’ve never had to tell someone their husband was dead.”

  “It’s part of the job, right? They train you for it.”

  “I know. I just feel so bad for her. This is supposed to be a time that’s all about family and being thankful and now she’s got to bury the man she loves.”

  “I’m sure you could help ease her mind if you shared just a couple details. Nothing gruesome. But maybe if he was alone when it happened?” Sure, she wanted the details herself but she wanted Jimmy to be able to handle things on his own as a cop. Chris wouldn’t always be around to steer him.

  He stood up straighter and pivoted to head back to the desk where Savannah and Jillian sat huddled together. He’d only a few steps before the front doors opened and Chris rushed in looking disheveled. His shirt wasn’t tucked in and his hair was more bed-head than naturally tussled. Kalina motioned for Jimmy to continue his task and she spun to stop Chris before he got too far.

  “You want to fill me in?” he asked as she smoothed down his hair and straightened his shirt.

  “Savannah Chase. Wife of Thomas Chase. He’s a real estate broker I think. She ended up at my sister’s house yesterday because she hadn’t seen her husband in a day and she was worried.”

&n
bsp; “Why’d she go to your sister?”

  “They’re college friends. I convinced her to come in and report him missing. Looks like there’s a reason he didn’t come home.”

  “Thanks.” He gave her a quick kiss before stepping around her and sidling up to the group.

  Suspecting the conversation would be longer than the previous one, Kalina grabbed an empty chair and pulled it up. Chris didn’t even comment on her and Jillian’s continued presence during the interview. He retrieved a notepad and pen from his own desk and settled in.

  “Mrs. Chase, I’m very sorry to have to inform you that your husband was found last night.”

  “Where was he? What happened?”

  “He was in an abandoned property down by the beach. He’d been shot.”

  Savannah devolved into another fit of hysterics and rocked back and forth. Jimmy visibly recoiled at the emotional outburst. Chris sat patiently, pen at the ready to jot down notes. Kalina had to admit she liked watching him work.

  “I’m sorry,” Savannah mumbled into the wad of damp napkins. “I don’t understand who would want to hurt him.”

  “Remind me what your husband did for a living.”

  “He was a real estate broker in town. Everyone liked him. He’d never hurt a fly. Please, do you have any suspects?”

  “We’re still investigating. It would help us establish a better timeline if you could give us some information about the last time you saw him.”

  “It was the day before Thanksgiving. He went into work like he always does. He didn’t come home at the normal time but that’s not unusual. He’ll always call me and tell me if he’s running late so I don’t worry.”