"You do realize Shadow and Skylar will be here right?" I said, having had about enough of his air of superiority. "If you and Shadow split the down, you'll cover more ground, and be back before the popcorn's gone."
"Touche," Azure transmitted.
When Jess returned and the customers were back to their conversations, I pulled her aside and said, "I'm going to call Aubrey. She can make a list of all the stores that have graffiti, and then we can solve this tonight."
"Great idea."
I took the cordless phone to the storeroom where I could relax at the bistro and not have the customers overhear me.
"Hey," she said. "You two better be cleaning, or else we won't be going to the jamboree tomorrow."
I held the phone away from my ear when she started yelling. Yup, none and done for me. She and Jess were made of tougher stuff than I.
"Everything okay?" I said.
"It's just one of those days," she laughed awkwardly.
"I don't envy you," I said. "but now I feel bad for calling."
"Oh whatever, you know you want a clan of 'em."
"Ha! Yeah, right. That definitely sounds like me."
We laughed together.
"So what's up?" she asked. "Don't you dare start feeling bad for calling me. I'd take your call during a hurricane."
"Well, if that's the case, I was going to have you do something before girl's night, but I don't want to add to your stress."
"Oh, no," she said. "Please. Anything to distract me from these crazies."
I laughed and said, "Can you put together a list of all the businesses that have graffiti? Bianca Washington was just targeted."
"Oh, no!"
"It gets better, they didn't leave a rude message like all the others."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, it says, Be a rainbow in someone's cloud."
"That's kind of sweet," Aubrey said.
"It would be if they actually credited the quote to Maya Angelou," I grumbled. "Man, I hate plagiarism. Like it's that hard to be original."
She laughed at my tried-and-true soap box moment. Whatever. I was done with this whole mess. The culprit needed to be caught so I could get back to, well, coffee.
"All right, stepping off the box," I said. "But what are the odds that the tagger has turned into an inspirational poster?"
We laughed together at my silly joke.
"You don't think it could be a copycat, do you?"
Tea! I had not even considered that option. That would be so much worse than it being Bianca out of some weird hatred for the town.
"No," I said. "But maybe."
"Either way," Aubrey said. "I'll make the list and bring it tonight. Dang it. I have to go before I end up having to follow through on my threat. If they make me miss the jamboree, I'm going to be so teaing mad."
I laughed, and she hung up the phone. That took care of the hardest part. I was confident that the four of us could put our heads together and solve this. Plus, with Azure in the sky, there was always the chance that he would catch the hooligan or hooligans in the act.
When I walked out of the storeroom, Lexi was standing at the counter chatting with Jess.
"Hailey," Lexi called. "I was just telling Jess, I'm so sorry for joking about the cafe being tagged. We've been hit too. Those darn teens have to be stopped. Like I would ever willingly give someone a mullet. You tell Aubrey, she better get William on this, or we'll have to take matters into our own hands."
It was a shame to see so many business owners being hit. The stress and shock of it coming to her salon was apparent. She had her rainbow locks in a messy bun, and anxiously tapped the counter as she waited for Bridgets iced coffee to be made.
"What are you going to do Lexi?" I asked. "Ground them?"
She laughed, which gave Jess permission to laugh. The stress of the awkwardness had been getting to her, based on the look on her face.
"You're right, but still," Lexi said. "This is ridiculous. We have tourists coming in and out of here every weekend. What are they going to think about us?"
"That we're a town with drama," I said. "Which is true, and I suspect part of the appeal to the tourists."
"Maybe, but I still say," Lexi said. "We have to do something about this."
"William is on it," I lied.
"I don't think it's the teens," Jess said. "I mean Jason is one of those skaters, and last month when my father-in-law needed help, he was there no questions asked with his friends in tow. Never missed a shift, never complained. They're good kids."
"Well someone is misbehaving," Lexi said. "And if I need to get out my mom voice, I will."
We laughed again. These ladies were too much. I could just see the moms of the town banding together to dole out spankings.
"I have to get back to the salon," Lexi said. "Thank you for the pick-me up."
"You're welcome," Jess and I said together.
"We'll catch up more Monday," Lexi waved and walked out.
Jess turned to me and asked, "Do you think it's the teens?"
"Honestly, I don't know. It could be anyone at this point. I mean, Sam and Tanner could be spray painting the town for all we know."
I rolled my eyes at the thought. Were the police even looking into the tagging? It was seeming like they were not bothering with finding a culprit. I should have asked Aubrey when we were on the phone, but I added it to my mental list of things to address that night.
"They hang out at the skate park all day, and then spend their nights down at the Marble Theater," Jess said.
"I just don't know, but I agree that Jason seems like a good kid."
"I hate to see them blamed for something they didn't do. The whole town is ready to blame the kids and that feels dirty."
"I agree."
"Sounds like delinquent kids to me," Azure transmitted.
"What do you know about kids?"
"Enough to steer clear of them."
"You and me both."
I giggled out loud, and Jess gave me a quizzical look.
"Just imagining Sam spray painting."
She laughed in agreement.
CHAPTER SIX
Saturday, April 11th
Girls' Night was precisely what we all needed. A reason to do some self care, and not worry about kids, customers or dragons. Not that we ever purposely banned the cats from hanging out in the apartment.
They usually used it as an opportunity to prowl together. On more than one occasion I had caught myself pondering if Shadow and Azure, spending more time than usual together, would influence tribe dynamics. Which would then turn into me harping on myself for not keeping a notebook of questions I needed to ask him. I was great at trying to rely solely on my fantastic memory for all the things, even though it was rarely reliable.
But tonight they were flying around the town to keep an eye out, in case the tagger struck again. Unfortunately, at this point the dragons were our best bet for catching the culprit. To make matters worse, it drove me batty that I could not tell Jess and Aubrey. I shook the disappointment out of my mind as I popped popcorn in the microwave upstairs.
My subconscious might have known just how much I would want to bond with a fellow dragon protector when I thought to drag Skylar into our girls' nights last month.
I filled a large bowl with 3 bags of popcorn and added a little extra butter on top for good measure. There could never be enough butter on popcorn.
I plugged a projector into my laptop and pointed it at the side wall to create a home theater. The laptop was able to connect directly into the building's speaker system. Who ever thought to wire both spaces for sound was a genius. It was not as nice as Marble Theater, but it was a close second!
"Movie, or town drama first?" I asked as I set the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.
The girls had already turned the couch to face the wall again, and I decided at that moment to stop moving it back to face the tv. It was not like I ever watched it.
Everyone wo
re pajama bottoms and oversized shirts, as had become the official dress code for girls' night. I could not help but smile at our little group. Life changed in a blink, and I was so grateful mine had changed for the better. Not even four short months ago, I was bored out of my mind every Saturday night wishing Aubrey could come out and play.
"I say drama first, I'm so out of the loop!" Skylar said. "Living in a town of only 500 people has its perks. No one will be tagging my business any time soon."
We all laughed.
She had a point. I was jealous of the fact that she had wilderness as a backyard. While all the neighboring towns were small, Cottonwood had to take the cup for being the smallest. They had a few eateries, and a gas station, but would have to drive into Marble Falls for the average shopping, and Burnet if they wanted the single big box store.
Burnet had a population about twice the size of Marble Falls. While our town focused on tourism and retirement, Burnet had taken the name brand means growth approach. Allowing many bigger companies to build, pushing out smaller mom and pop stores. It still had a small town feel, just modernized to resemble the big city life.
"It has to be someone—" Aubrey said.
"Or someones," Jess added.
"Right," Aubrey continued. "That has real artistic talent. I went by and looked at the businesses, and none of the artwork looks amateur or rushed. It's all beautiful, aside from the words."
"Not going to lie, I totally took a photo of the one on the cafe," Skylar said, laughing.
I gave her an over dramatic wide mouth shocked face. Tourists would know us for our roaches if I wasted any more time in getting it covered up.
"Did you make a list?" I asked.
"I did in fact, since I was visiting them," Aubrey smiled and placed a piece of paper on the table, showing her beautiful handwriting.
Tagged Businesses
Tuesday Night, Sunrise Market, "Chock-full of salmonella"
Wednesday Night, Aconite Cafe, "Roasted with roaches"
Thursday Night, Love and Lather, "We specialize in mullets"
Friday Night, A Splash of Color Art Gallery, "Be a rainbow in someone's cloud"
"So many?" Skylar asked before I could.
"I was thinking it was more than that already," Jess said.
She looked as if she was counting to see if Aubrey had missed any.
"What does William think?" I said.
"Honestly," Aubrey said and leaned closer to us, "and this doesn't leave this room, William and Barry aren't dealing with it at all. There's not enough of them to patrol the entire town all night and keep an eye out on the rest of the county during the day. With no leads, and nothing being actually damaged, William told me they are just letting it be."
"I don't know who did it," Jess said, "but I am so fed up with everyone blaming the teens! It isn't them! At least not Jason!"
"Okay?" I asked, curious why she was so sure it was not him.
Her tone of zero to a hundred on the frustration chart startled me. I had not realized just how upset the teen talk had been making her.
Jess took a bite of popcorn and then said, "Jason is an artist. In fact, he has an art studio on the property, and he mostly works with spray paint."
"Well then," Aubrey said, she was clearly as baffled at this development as I was. "Why do you think it's not him?"
"And why didn't you tell us sooner?" I asked.
"Because Jason is a good kid," Jess said. "We're still getting over the harm caused by the town's witch hunt from Charlie's poisoning, and I refused to help fuel the hunt against Jason. He's helped us out so much, and I just don't believe it could have been him."
There were tears at the corner of her eyes. Skylar leaned over and gave her a hug. Which I was grateful for, because even though I felt horrible for not realizing this, hugging would never be my thing.
"Well tea," I said. "I'm sorry, Jess."
"Oh hon," Aubrey said. "I didn't even think of that, if you say it wasn't Jason, we believe you."
"Exactly," I said. "There is nothing saying it was even a teenager. All we have is some grainy video of a person."
"You guys have video footage!" Skylar said. "Let's see it."
I pulled up the copy I made from Jeremiah's disc and played it for Skylar.
"Yeah, that was about zero help," Skylar laughed at the grainy footage. "I can't believe the gossips are dead set on it being teenagers from that. How many tallish, slender people are in this town?? That could be anyone!"
"Right!" Jess said, cheering up a bit.
This girls' night had really taken a strange turn. I needed to be a better friend, if she thought she could not come to us with her fears.
"Even if it was a teenager, they aren't really damaging anything," I said. "I did plenty of crazy non-destroying property things as a teenager."
"There was that one time with the fountain though," Aubrey said.
"That may have gotten out of hand," I said.
"What thing with the fountain," Jess said, sitting up straighter in her chair with anticipation.
"When we were in high school, I pulled a senior prank," I said. "It was supposed to be funny and not that big of a deal."
"It got everywhere," Aubrey laughed.
I shook my head, and said, "I put an economy-sized bottle of dish soap into the park fountain while Aubrey and William were lookouts. It was just supposed to bubble up and then fade away."
"It foamed up the entire hill," Aubrey kept laughing.
"That was you?" Jess asked.
Skylar laughed, almost choking on her soda, and then said, "That's hilarious, I totally remember that!"
"Yup," I admitted. "It was only so bad because we did it on Friday, and it bubbled all weekend."
"They had to drain the fountain and clean it," Aubrey said.
"I know," I said. "And I felt horrible. I still do. That's why I believe you," I looked to Jess. "I don't think the kids would have done it, and certainly not this many times."
"Our senior prank was nowhere near as fun. They just toilet papered the hallways," Skylar said.
"Speaking of stupid things, we did when we were younger," Aubrey said. "Do you remember all the times we'd tell your mom we were going to sixth street after you got your license? I swear her heart stopped every time we said it, even though she had to have known we weren't serious."
"Oh gosh," I said, letting the hysterical laughter bubble out of me. "I still have those photos somewhere, of us with the Marble Falls sixth street sign."
Aubrey could barely breathe from laughing herself, "Then when we went to the real thing, while you were in college at UT, such a disappointment."
"Yeah it was. Dirty sixth indeed," Skylar said. "How people flocked there I will never get."
We all laughed with the folly of childhood bouncing in our minds.
"What about you?" I asked Jess. "What kind of trouble did you get into?"
"None," she laughed. "I was a good kid."
"Oh, yeah?" Aubrey asked.
"Little miss goody two-shoes," Skylar giggled.
"Well," Jess said. "I may have been caught out late with a few boys my senior year, but we weren't doing anything but walking. Not like the fountain."
After another fit of laughter, we got back to the subject at hand.
"So, who do we think could have done it then?" Aubrey asked.
"At this point, Bianca seems like the most likely suspect to me," I said.
"Totally could have been her," Skylar said. "Why would the culprit change their tune just for one business?"
"Exactly," Jess said. "She could have tagged her own building to make it less obvious, but couldn't bring herself to put something rude on the wall."
"I guess I'll be having a talk with our local artist on Monday," I said.
"I can see if Jason would be willing to come talk to us tomorrow," Jess said. "If it's one of the other skaters, he might know and be willing to tell us. There's always a chance there's a bad one in the bunch."
"William might not know who did it, but I can see if he knows how we can at least fix what's already done," Aubrey said.
"That would be great," I said. "I'm really tired of having my cafe mentioning roaches."
"I'll give you guys all the moral support you need," Skylar said. With a hilarious grin on her face.
We laughed, and I took a bite of the popcorn. It was getting cold, and the butter was hardening. But the salty snack was exactly what my stomach craved.
"Guess we should start the movie?" I asked.
"Yes," they said together.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sunday, April 12th
Jason came by to speak with us in the mid-morning before the after-church rush. If he was nervous about it, he hid it well. When I came into the cafe, he was already seated with an iced coffee chatting with Jess about school.
He was a typical farm boy, in jeans and a white t-shirt. He looked so much like his brother Joshua. Could almost pass for twins had they been closer in age. Really, all of the siblings looked so much like David, Sharon could have denied a few of them, and some folks probably would have believed her.
Jason being a talented painter was a surprise to me, just goes to show, one can never judge someone by their upbringing. Joshua and a few of their other siblings did the rodeo circuits around the state, but Jason had always been more than happy to forge his own path. All of this made me realize that I knew way too much about the people in this town. Way more than I ever thought I would know. Or wanted to know.
Kindrick was bustling around the cafe getting it ready for the rush. I waved to him as I walked out of the serving area. He reminded me of a surfer with his shaggy hair and ridiculous smile.
I did not get the point of keeping his hair swept to the side when his part clearly wanted to be down the middle. It made for a weird head jerking motion when he tried to get it out of his eyes. But I was also a decade removed from whatever was in fashion for his generation, so it just made me giggle to watch him bebop around.
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