by Lena Gregory
“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.” She scanned the freezer once more, then turned to leave. Her gaze fell on something in the far corner behind the rows of ice cream, a few tubs of which lay scattered on their sides on the floor. She squinted and moved closer.
An arm stuck out from behind the shelves, its fingers frozen closed in a fist.
“Oh, no.” Gia squeezed her eyes closed, then opened them again, but the arm remained where it was, a wide gold watch encircling its wrist.
“What’s wrong?” Cole’s gaze followed hers to the corner. “Ah, man.”
Gia started toward the corner, but Cole held out a hand to stop her.
He crossed the freezer, squatted down beside the arm, and closed his fingers over the wrist, then rubbed his free hand over his face. “Why don’t you go back and see how Trevor’s doing and wait for the police? I’ll stay here.”
“Is he…?”
Cole shoved to his feet, his knees cracking loudly. “Yeah.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Gia backed away. “Can you tell who it is?”
“No. Not without moving anything. There’s an apron over his head and chest, and I don’t want to disturb any more than we already have.”
Gia pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed her sort-of-boyfriend Detective Hunter Quinn’s number.
Hunt answered on the first ring. “Yeah, I already heard,” he said before she could get a word out. “Where are you?”
“Storm Scoopers, but I’m going to head back to the café. Cole will wait here with the…uh—”
“Just don’t touch anything. I’m on my way.”
Gia bristled. “Oh, please. You think I don’t know better than to touch anything?”
Silence hummed over the line.
Okay, in all fairness, though she might know better, that hadn’t always stopped her from getting involved in things better left alone. She sighed. “Fine. I won’t touch anything. I’m going to see how Trevor’s holding up.”
“I’ll see you there.” He disconnected before she could say anything else.
“He on his way?” Cole asked as soon as she stuffed her phone back into her pocket.
“Yes, but if it’s okay, I’d like a chance to talk to Trevor before they take him to the hospital.” If I can make it back to the café before Detective Tall, Dark, and Snippy gets there.
“Yes, of course. Go ahead.”
Gia turned toward the front door. “You’re sure you’re okay here?”
“I’ll be fine.” He walked her to the front of the shop, then stepped outside onto the sidewalk and rubbed the back of his neck. “Better to wait out here.”
Gia nodded and hurried back down the block.
A police cruiser and an ambulance already sat in front of the café, lights flashing. A small crowd had gathered on the sidewalk. For a second, Gia hoped Savannah’s fiancé, Officer Leo Dumont, would be the first officer to arrive. Then she remembered he’d been promoted to detective when Hunt had been assigned as temporary Captain, until Captain Hayes could return or be replaced.
Gia’s heart ached for Trevor. He was a good guy, sensitive and caring. Something like this would hit him hard. She also grieved for whomever had been left in Trevor’s freezer. Though it didn’t seem likely whoever it was had ended up there by accident, she held onto the hope that he had. It was better than the alternative. Who knew? Maybe he accidentally got locked in the freezer and froze to death. Was that even possible?
She strode through the front door someone had left propped open and stopped short.
Trevor sat at the table nearest the door, elbows propped on the table, head resting in his hands.
Two police officers stood behind him, and an EMT bent over a blood pressure cuff on Trevor’s arm, whispering in his ear.
Trevor shook his head, then straightened his arm and tried to pull away. “I told you, I’m fine.”
“Well, you can’t be too careful.” The petite woman clutched his arm tighter between her elbow and her side and continued taking his vitals as if he’d never protested, apparently used to treating reluctant patients.
Savannah grabbed Gia’s arm and pulled her to the far side of the door where Earl stood waiting. “Well?”
Gia looked back and forth between them and nodded.
Savannah’s breath whooshed out. “Ah, jeez.”
“Yeah,” Gia agreed.
“What happened?” Willow rushed to Gia’s side. “I was in the stock room when he came in.”
With a quick glance at Trevor, Skyla followed right behind Willow. “I was at the salad bar down the street when I saw the police car and ambulance pull up. What happened? Is Trevor all right?”
Gia closed her eyes, blocking out the chaos for a brief moment, then opened them again and faced Skyla and Willow. “He found a body in his freezer.”
“A body?” Skyla paled and pressed a hand against her chest.
Gia held her gaze and nodded.
“Oh, no,” Skyla said. “Do you know who it was?”
“I didn’t go all the way in. Cole came in behind me and felt for a pulse, but it was too late. He’s still there, waiting for the police.”
Earl crowded against Gia’s other side. “When Trevor first woke up, he started rambling something about Ron Parker.”
Skyla gasped. “You think it’s Ron Parker?”
Earl shook his head. “No idea. He wasn’t makin’ much sense. I don’t know if he was saying it was Ron in the freezer, or if he was just babbling something about him.”
Gia recalled the gold watch and dark hair on what she could see of the arm. Try as she might, she couldn’t recall if Ron had been wearing a gold watch when he’d come in the day before. “From the little I saw, I think it was a man, but I couldn’t say who.”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital. I’m fine.” Trevor slid his chair back away from the EMT and shoved himself to his feet.
Apparently giving up on getting Trevor to cooperate, the EMT went and spoke quietly to one of the police officers.
“Excuse me.” Gia started toward Trevor, but she needn’t have bothered excusing herself as Savannah, Earl, Skyla, and Willow stayed glued to her side. When Gia reached him, she laid a tentative hand on his arm. “Are you okay, Trevor?”
He stared at the floor and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Gia’s heart ached for him.
“Willow, could you get Trevor some water, please?” Skyla asked.
“Of course.” She headed toward the small refrigerator behind the counter for a bottle of water.
Skyla watched her for a moment, then moved to his other side and gripped his wrist. “Trevor, Earl said you were rambling about Ron Parker when you came to. Does he have anything to do with this?”
Trevor looked around, then pitched his voice low and leaned closer to Skyla.
Savannah, Gia, and Earl leaned in too.
Trevor met Skyla’s gaze. “I only lifted the apron for a second, but it looked an awful lot like Ron Parker.”
Skyla slapped a shaky hand over her mouth, then leaned even closer and whispered, “Are you sure?”
“No, I’m not sure,” Trevor snapped. “Why do you think I said it looked like Ron?”
“Trevor!” Shocked at his tone, Gia jerked back.
“No, it’s okay.” Skyla also backed away from their small circle.
Sirens blared, coming closer.
Skyla looked over her shoulder toward the front door. “I have to go. I’m sorry.”
“Here you go, Trevor.” Willow held the bottle of water out to him, then glanced at her mother, who’d paled even more since finding out it might be Ron. She frowned. “Are you all right, Mom?”
“I’m fine, but we have to go now.” She made a beeline
for the door.
Willow looked at Gia and raised a brow.
Gia simply shook her head. She had no idea why Skyla was acting so strange.
Savannah laid a hand on Willow’s arm. “Go ahead, Willow. Your mom seems like she needs you. This week’s been kind of slow at the office, and I’m going to hang around here, anyway.”
“Thanks, Savannah. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. I hope you feel better, Trevor.” Willow waved as she followed her mother.
“Thank you, Willow,” Trevor called after her, then uncapped the bottle and took a tentative sip. He pressed a hand against his stomach, put the cap back on the bottle, and set it down on the table.
Gia racked her brain, but she hadn’t paid much attention to what Ron was wearing when he’d come into the café the day before. “Do any of you remember if Ron was wearing a gold watch when he was in yesterday morning?”
Savannah caught her lip between her teeth and scowled. After a moment, she shook her head. “I can’t swear he wasn’t, but I just don’t know.”
Not wanting to have to explain herself, Gia dropped the subject. “Do you know what that was about, Trevor? Does Skyla know Ron Parker?”
Trevor’s gaze shifted a little too quickly away from Gia. “I have no idea.”
Chapter 4
Acting Captain Hunter Quinn strode through the door with newly promoted Detective Leo Dumont on his heels.
Leo dropped a quick kiss on Savannah’s head on his way by.
Hunt nodded toward Gia. “Could you guys give us a few minutes, please?”
“Of course.” She led Earl and Savannah toward the back of the café, then rounded the counter while Savannah and Earl each took a seat on stools at the far end. When Hunt didn’t protest, she figured it was far enough.
As he approached Trevor, he gestured to the two officers still standing behind him.
The officers walked out without saying anything.
“What was that all about?” Savannah whispered.
Gia shrugged. “No idea.”
Hunt turned a chair around, then straddled it and rested his hands on the back and faced Trevor. “You all right?”
Trevor nodded. “I’m fine.”
“Want to tell me what happened?”
Leo took out his notepad and pen and took a seat at the table on the other side of Trevor.
Trevor spared him a quick glance before turning his attention back to Hunt. He leaned back, spread his hands wide, and shook his head again. “I have no idea. I opened the shop this morning, and everything seemed fine. Then, when I went into the freezer…”
Hunt waited a minute, but when Trevor made no attempt to continue, he shifted to rest his forearms on the chair back. “Why don’t you start from the beginning and just walk me through your morning routine.”
Trevor nodded, his gaze riveted on the floor. “I went in—”
“The front or the back?” Hunt asked.
“The front.”
“Was the door locked?”
“Yes.”
“Do you usually use the front door in the morning?”
“Yes, okay?” he snapped.
Hunt nodded to Leo, who wrote something down in his notepad.
Gia tore her attention from them for a moment to glance back and forth between Earl and Savannah. They both shook their heads but remained silent. None of them wanted to chance missing what was going on.
“Okay, then what did you do?” Hunt continued.
Trevor’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. I…uh…I guess I did what I always do. I was running late, so I ran in. I locked the door behind me, turned on the lights, looked around to see if anything got left undone last night. I checked the cases and made a list of flavors I had to restock.”
“Do you always restock in the morning?”
When Trevor spoke, his tone held none of the tension it had a moment before. “Not always. Sometimes I do it at night after we close or while we’re still open even, if we’re not too crowded, but the high school musical was last night, so we were swamped all night, and then we had a big clean up, so I just left restocking for this morning.”
Hunt nodded.
“Anyway, when I went into the freezer, I started collecting the flavors I’d need. When I rounded the back shelf, I…I…” He started to hyperventilate.
“Relax, Trevor. Do you want me to call the EMT back in?”
He shook his head, but continued to suck in deep gulps of air.
“Gia?” Hunt called.
Startled, Gia did her best to appear as if she wasn’t staring right at them hanging on every word.
Hunt just rolled his eyes. What could she say? He knew her too well.
“Could you bring Trevor a glass of water, please?”
“That’s his on the table.” Gia gestured toward the water bottle Trevor had set down earlier.
“Thanks.” He uncapped the bottle and held it out to Trevor.
Trevor sucked down half the bottle, then handed it back to Hunt and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I still can’t even believe it’s real. It was him, right? Ron Parker?”
Hunt nodded. “You knew him?”
“Not really.”
Hunt frowned and looked over at Leo.
Leo shook his head, barely noticeable, just a slightest twitch, the sort of subtle communication people who’d been friends for a long time could get away with.
Hunt’s eyebrows drew together as he turned his attention back to Trevor. “If I remember correctly, you two used to hang out together, back in the day.”
Trevor shrugged. “That was a lifetime ago.”
Hunt’s posture stiffened. “I thought you guys used to be pretty tight?”
“Look.” Trevor glared at Hunt. “It was a long time ago. I haven’t even spoken two words to the man in almost nineteen years.”
Hunt laced his fingers together, letting his hands hang casually over the back of the chair, but his back remained rigid. He waited.
Trevor grabbed the water bottle Hunt had put back on the table and rolled it against his forehead, then lowered it without taking a drink, still clutching it tightly as if needing to hold onto something. “Look, man, I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”
Gia’s gaze shot to the clock hanging above the cutout. Not even eleven o’clock in the morning. In all fairness, he probably didn’t even realize less than an hour had passed since he’d walked into work and found a dead man in his shop. Even if they hadn’t spoken in years, it was still someone he’d obviously known and been friends with at some point in his life. Odd that he’d remember it had been nineteen years, though. Why not just say almost twenty or a long time? Almost nineteen years. As if he knew exactly when they’d last spoken.
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing more I can tell you,” Trevor said.
“You said you haven’t spoken two words to Mr. Parker in almost nineteen years. What about when you ran into him on the street? Or when he came into the shop? Did you two say hello, how are you, catch up on old times?”
Trevor tightened his fist, crushing the water bottle, then slammed the bottle onto the table. “I already told you, I haven’t spoken to him since before we graduated high school. He didn’t come into my shop. Ever.”
“Well, he obviously came in last night.”
“No.” Trevor lurched to his feet, knocking the chair over behind him. “That’s just it. He didn’t come in. Didn’t you hear me? He never came in. He wouldn’t have come in. Someone had to have put him there after… Well, after.”
Hunt took his time standing and righting Trevor’s overturned chair before standing toe to toe with him. “Why didn’t he ever come in, Trevor? Did you two have some kind of a falling out?”
Trevor’s eyes widened, and he took a step back. “I’m done answering questions.”<
br />
“You can answer my questions here or at the station, but you are not done answering questions.”
Trevor’s jaw clenched, and he lifted his chin. “Then I’ll answer them at the station. With my lawyer present.”
Hunt stared at him for a moment, his expression too neutral for Gia to read, then nodded, took Trevor’s arm, and gestured toward the door.
Trevor yanked his arm from Hunt’s grasp, whirled around, and stormed out with Hunt and Leo right behind him.
Gia started after them.
Earl put a hand up to stop her and shook his head.
“But—”
“Let it go,” Savannah said.
“Now’s not the time,” Earl whispered.
She watched them get into Hunt’s jeep and pull away. “What do you think that was all about?”
Savannah shook her head. “I have no idea, but that sure was a side of Trevor I’ve never seen before.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Gia could barely believe the man who’d just stormed out was the same affable, easygoing friend she’d become so fond of. When they’d first met outside her café, he’d almost fallen over himself he was so clumsy. Adorable, really. Then she’d gotten to know him better. While he could trip over his own feet trying to walk, he was as graceful as could be while paddleboarding and kayaking. He’d introduced her to a whole side of Florida she never would have experienced otherwise, showed her the most beautiful lakes and forests, always gentle and kind to both her and any wildlife they encountered. The man didn’t have a mean bone in his body. “I wonder what got into him.”
Earl returned to his usual seat. “Cut him a little slack, you two. Trevor’s a delicate soul, and walking in and finding someone who used to be a friend, even if it was a lifetime ago, couldn’t have been easy for him. People react to stress and grief in different ways.”
Gia nodded. Earl was right. She knew Trevor. He was kind and loving and sensitive. His outburst didn’t change that. “Besides, Hunt was grilling him kind of hard.”
“What do you mean hard?” Savannah stood. “There was a dead body in his freezer, and he was hostile while Hunt was trying to ask him questions.”
“Hostile?” Gia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How could Savannah possibly think Trevor had been hostile? “If Hunt hadn’t kept pushing him, maybe he wouldn’t have blown up.”
