A Juicy Murder

by Eryn Scott

  Hadley huffed. “And just when I’d forgiven her for leaving Sweet Pea in that hot car, since it was out of her control. This”—she pointed to the collar—“was definitely within her control.”

  “Yeah.” Luke placed the collar on the kitchen counter and then picked up Ansel and Marmalade, one in each arm. “I bet you guys are pretty freaked out too.”

  “I wonder how long she was like that.” Hadley chewed on her lip and checked the cat’s neck. “Do you think I should take her in, just in case?”

  Luke shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. And maybe it’ll give you some peace of mind.”

  “Yeah.” She nodded and pulled out her phone, dialing Dr. Murphey. She scratched Sweet Pea’s ears while the phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Danielle. It’s Hadley. I’m sorry to bother you. I know it’s—”she checked the clock on her wall—“close to your closing time, but Sweet Pea got her collar stuck on the fireplace, and I want to make sure she’s okay. Can I bring her in super quick?”

  “That should be fine.” The doctor’s words came out in a slow staccato, as if she were paging though a daily appointment schedule. “If you can get here in the next fifteen, that would be great.”

  “Gotcha. I’ll leave right now.” Hadley hung up. “She’ll check her out,” she told Luke, in case he hadn’t caught that from her end of the conversation.

  The knowledge she would see the vet made her shoulders relax. That was what she loved about Dr. Murphey. She never made Hadley feel silly for checking with her about any odd thing with her cats. As a fairly new cat owner, she was still building up her confidence to deal with the eccentricities of feline pets.

  “Why don’t I hang here?” Luke suggested. “I can get started on dinner and have it mostly ready by the time you two return. And that way I can keep these guys company.” He set down Ansel and Marmalade.

  The two other cats watched Sweet Pea, still concerned it seemed.

  Hadley nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.” She walked over to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  She grabbed her keys and set Sweet Pea down as she fished out one of her cat carriers from the hall closet. The calico was so sweet and simply peered at her from inside the crate, even after the traumatic afternoon she’d endured.

  Hadley and Sweet Pea were heading down Main Street a few minutes later. And even though she was focused on getting the cat to the vet in time, Hadley couldn’t help but let her attention stray to the juice bar as she drove by. She’d been doing the same thing ever since she and Luke had stumbled upon Laney’s body in the alley that day. She had an eerie feeling whenever she looked at the building.

  A feeling made even worse when she noticed Simone and Guy standing in the alley.

  Craning her neck, she slowed down, catching only a glimpse. But it was enough. They were arguing. Guy grabbed at papers in Simone’s hand, but she pulled them away.

  A coldness crept from the back of her neck, down her spine. Her fingers tightened on the wheel as the urge to stop the car washed over her. She wanted to get a closer look, to go investigate.

  Sweet Pea meowed at that very moment, as if reminding Hadley of her presence in the car.

  She couldn’t stop.

  Dr. Murphey was waiting for them. Investigating would mean leaving Sweet Pea in the car, something Hadley wouldn’t dare do with her, especially after what she’d gone through.

  With one last glance toward Power Juice and the alley next to it, Hadley drove toward the clinic. Danielle was waiting by the front desk when Hadley walked inside.

  “Hey,” the vet said, greeting Hadley and Sweet Pea with a broad smile. “So we got into a tight spot, it sounds?”

  Hadley followed her into an exam room. While Dr. Murphey extracted Sweet Pea from the crate and examined her, Hadley explained the scene she’d walked in on this evening.

  Dr. Murphey clicked her tongue and shook her head. “I should’ve checked that collar too, Had. I’m so sorry. We were dealing with so many other things with this poor girl that it wasn’t even on my radar.” She ran her fingers down the cat’s throat. “Luckily, she seems fine. You should keep an eye out for soreness in the area, but it sounds like she had good instincts and didn’t struggle.”

  Hadley sighed in relief. “That’s great. You don’t have any breakaway collars here, do you?”

  The doctor nodded. “Out front. And if you can wait for a few minutes, we can even get a new engraved name tag made for it.”

  Chewing on her lip, Hadley thought for a moment. “I do … have a few minutes. Would it be okay if I ran down the street and ran an errand real quick while you guys made that up?”

  Dr. Murphey waved her hand toward Hadley. “Sure. Absolutely.”

  “And Sweet Pea will be fine here for a few?”

  “She’ll be great. I’ll give her the run of this exam room if she wants it.”

  Hadley backed out of the room. “Thanks! I’ll be right back.”

  Once outside the exam room, Hadley told the receptionist she’d be right back, then she jogged outside. Her jog turned to a run as she headed for the juice bar.

  17

  All the shops downtown were either closed already or on the way there, so there wasn’t much foot traffic to compete with as Hadley ran down the sidewalk. Actually, the hardest part was how sore she was from the workout with Hunk earlier. It was catching up with her, and her limbs felt achy and stiff.

  A few blocks away from Power Juice, she slowed, not wanting to bring too much attention to herself.

  She opted for the whole “passerby” routine, walking by the shop at a leisurely pace, looking around—like one does when they’re in no hurry. Peering inside the juice bar, she saw the lights were off and the shop empty. She slowed even more as she approached the alley where she’d seen Simone and Guy.

  But it was empty. They were gone.

  Just in case, Hadley walked down the alley and peeked around the back of the building. Also, no Simone or Guy.

  “Darn,” she said under her breath.

  The fight had appeared heated. She kicked at a rock and turned back down the alley, heading toward the vet clinic. The rock settled a few yards in front of her, bringing her attention down to the broken uneven concrete in the old alley. Over to her right, just near the building, she saw the ripped corner of a piece of paper laying on the ground.

  Eyes widening, Hadley rushed forward and picked up the piece. It wasn’t just any paper, but the thick, glossy kind used for printing pictures. And while one side was simply white, the other held the bottom few inches of the corner of a printed picture.

  It was a dark picture or had been printed in black and white because there wasn’t any color in the part Hadley held in her hand. Still, she made out the shape of either a car bumper, a windowsill, or … a piece of furniture. She rotated the piece every which way, trying to recognize it.

  Hadley’s mind flashed back to watching Guy grab at the papers in Simone’s hand while they stood in this exact spot a few minutes before. Could those have been pictures in Simone’s grasp? And could Guy have torn one in his attempt to snatch them from her?

  A thrilling chill raced through Hadley’s veins. This might very well be the corner to one of the blackmail pictures Laney had on Simone and the mayor. Hadley didn’t need to find that envelope with the USB in it, after all. Paul had Laney’s hard drive. If this piece of a photograph matched the pictures she had on file, that would be proof Mayor Whitmore and Simone knew about the blackmail and had stolen the file Laney was there delivering.

  Checking her watch, Hadley realized she needed to get back to pick up Sweet Pea and the new collar. She shoved the picture corner into her pocket and jogged stiff legged back to the veterinarian. Her muscles were yelling at her to stop by the time she reached the front doors of the clinic.

  Dr. Murphey came out of the exam room with Sweet Pea in her carrier just as Hadley walked up to the receptionist.r />
  “Perfect timing. I put her new breakaway collar on too. I picked the same color she had last time,” Dr. Murphey said, pointing to the purple collar. “It looked good with her coloring. I kept it loose, so cinch it a little tighter after a few days. Kennedy will ring you up, but call if you want me to look at her again.”

  Hadley thanked the vet and paid for the check up, collar, and name tag. As much as she was eager to get home to Luke and dinner, she knew she had to make one stop first. Parking at the town hall, she texted Paul.

  You still at work?

  He texted right back. Always. I’ve decided to move in.

  Coming in, she typed, then pulled Sweet Pea’s carrier from the front seat and carried the cat inside with her.

  Sharon was gone for the day, and it was just Paul and Kevin sitting around a table in the middle of their conference room. Files were spread across the entire surface, so she couldn’t see even a square inch of the wood underneath. Paul ran a hand over his face.

  “You brought me a cat?” he asked dryly.

  “No,” she scoffed. “I brought you a clue.”

  Fishing the corner out of her pocket, she laid it on the papers in front of her brother.

  “I saw Mayor Whitmore and Simone fighting in the alley by the juice shop. She had something, papers she wasn’t giving to him. When I walked by a little later, I found this in the same spot.”

  “How much later?” Paul’s jaw tightened, a muscle tremor running along the trimmed edge of his beard.

  “Huh?” she asked innocently.

  “Hadley …” His tone was low, a warning.

  Kevin excused himself, saying something about needing to make a call but seeming every bit like someone who didn’t want to get caught in a twin squabble.

  Hadley squinted up at the ceiling. “At least five minutes later.” Meeting his gaze again, she pointed to the picture. “If you can match this to any of the blackmail pictures on Laney’s hard drive, this would be proof that one or both of them intercepted the blackmail she was dropping off, which would put them exactly at the scene of the crime, at the time of the crime, with really good motive to commit the crime.”

  Nodding slowly, Paul said, “This is good, Had. Thank you.”

  “Any news on the CPU Knight front?”

  “From what we can tell, from what hasn’t been scrubbed clean, it looks like it was most likely Laney’s business. McKay’s working on getting a list of all the people who purchased the program, so we can double-check that against our suspect list. There might be others out there we don’t know about.”

  “Gran will be one of them.”

  Paul chuckled. “Let’s hope she doesn’t have any skeletons in her closet.”

  “Are you kidding?” Hadley spat out a laugh. “All Gran has in her closet are perfectly pressed slacks and blouses that are twenty years old, but look like new. She’s squeaky clean to the core.”

  Paul nodded in concession.

  “Speaking of squeaky clean …” Hadley started, “and someone who’s not. What’s happening with Owen? Coach told us he left to go to the hardware store, so he could’ve been around the juice bar at the same time as Laney. Why haven’t you arrested him yet?”

  “Something doesn’t feel right,” Paul said through a sigh. “I mean, someone did a thorough job at wiping certain things from Laney’s digital life. A person who’s so adept at covering tracks wouldn’t think breaking the screen on a laptop and smashing it up would do anything to ruin the information inside.”

  “Agreed. Owen doesn’t seem like a technological criminal mastermind.”

  Paul exhaled. “Yeah. It could’ve been two different people. Someone who knows what they’re doing got to that computer before Owen smashed it.”

  “Which might mean that Owen is just an internet pervert trying to cover his tracks, rather than a murderer,” Hadley said.

  “The fact that I’m not sure is what’s holding me back.”

  Hadley dipped her head. “Makes sense. And maybe something will come from this.” She motioned to the photograph piece. “I don’t know how techie Mayor Whitmore is, but he definitely has the money to hire someone to do things for him.”

  Kevin walked back into the room holding two mugs of black coffee.

  “I should get going,” Hadley said, checking her watch. “I’ve gotta get back for dinner.”

  “With Luke?” Paul asked with a wink.

  Hadley rolled her eyes. “This town …”

  “I’ll take that as a yes. Have fun, Had.” Paul grinned up at her. “I’m happy for you two.”

  She picked up Sweet Pea’s carrier, and they headed for the car. A few minutes later, they pulled into Hadley’s driveway. Now that Sweet Pea was confirmed sound, and she’d gotten that piece of evidence handed over to Paul, she was ready to relax. A smile curled over her lips at the thought of Luke inside.

  “She’s all good, you two,” Hadley assured the other two cats as they greeted Sweet Pea. They acted as if she’d been gone for an entire year instead of less than an hour.

  It was the sweetest greeting she’d ever witnessed.

  But it was nothing compared to the greeting Luke gave Hadley, as if he’d been waiting for her his whole life. His welcome kiss made her legs feel even more useless than they had after Hunk’s workout.

  He wore one of her aprons, but the pink fabric did nothing to take away from his manly charms. The sleeves of his flannel were rolled up, revealing tanned and toned forearms. There was a tiny fleck of tomato sauce on his rough cheek. She used her thumb to wipe it off.

  It was odd to get to touch Luke whenever she wanted, to give into her impulse to kiss him. The sensation made her realize how long she’d wanted this.

  “Tomato sauce?” She peered into the kitchen. “What are you making?”

  “Manicotti, of course.”

  Hadley couldn’t tell if she wanted to laugh or cry. Manicotti had been her favorite dish growing up.

  He’d remembered.

  Taking her hand, he led her into the kitchen where he poured them each a glass of red wine.

  “I’m hoping it’s still your favorite.”

  She nodded. While she hadn’t had the dish in a while, she still loved it.

  “It’s just got a little longer in the oven,” he said, taking a sip of the wine. “I’m putting a little Fenton flair on the recipe.”

  Hadley cocked an eyebrow in question. A quick inventory of the stovetop told her there wasn’t just red sauce, but pesto and a white sauce as well.

  “There’s a little Italian place in Seattle that makes lasagna with a layer of each sauce. It’s my favorite dish in the whole city, so I thought I’d incorporate it into this. It’ll be like an Italian flag of manicotti.” He grinned.

  “This new foodie version of you is really proving to be a plus for me.” She moved closer and wrapped her arms around him.

  He laughed. “Yeah, it’s a good thing you didn’t date me ten years ago. That Luke would’ve made you ramen noodles, or mac n’ cheese if he was feeling fancy.”

  She fiddled with her wineglass. “I’m sorry we got our signals so crossed back then, Luke.”

  Kissing the top of her head, he sighed. “Me too. But maybe this is just the path we needed to take to make it work.”

  “That’s a nice way to think about it.” She hoped he was right. She definitely wanted this to work between them.

  As they sat down to eat, Hadley knew for sure one thing Luke had been right about: the manicotti was delicious. He’d drizzled each piece with a mixture of the three sauces, and the result was to die for. The fact that everything except the pasta was local to their valley made her proud of their sustainable little slice of heaven. They chatted about the case, and Hadley filled Luke in on the newest clue she’d found while taking Sweet Pea to the vet.

  As they wound down on the couch, she felt the whirlwind of the day settle around her. Not only had it been a big day with the case, but also she couldn’t believe it was just
a few hours ago that Luke had kissed her on the steps of the town hall. It felt like they’d already been together for years, instead of mere hours.

  But maybe that was what it was like when you’d known someone your whole life and had been in love with them—one way or another—the whole time. They didn’t have to go through any of the getting to know each other phase.

  Proving what a long day it had been, Luke was asleep on the couch an hour later. He had his arms crossed in front of him. It was how he’d always fallen asleep when they’d taken naps in the sunshine by the river after a morning of playing, as kids.

  Hadley loved that he’d never grown out of that sleeping position. Marmalade had curled into the crook of his arm, her little pink nose almost touching Luke’s. Sweet Pea was stretched out, asleep on Luke’s lap. The pile of them looked so peaceful, Hadley didn’t have the heart to wake them.

  She smoothed down Ansel’s black-and-white fur. He was settled on her stomach, staring at her lovingly, just as he’d done since she took over taking care of him. His body rumbled with a low purr, and his green eyes blinked closed.

  Hadley sighed as she watched the sun set behind the gorgeous mountains outside her back windows.

  But even though her little world seemed to be coming together, Laney’s killer was still out there. An unsettled feeling rested on her shoulders, and an unease filled her stomach.

  18

  The next day, Hadley’s jam shop was hopping. The weather was lovely: sun shining, a cool breeze wafting off the river, and a beautiful turquoise sky topping it all off—literally.

  It was also a day Gran didn’t normally work, so Hadley ran the whole day to take care of the influx of customers.

  By the time she turned the sign in the front door, she was beat. She settled onto one of the stools around her worktables and let her forehead rest on the cool metal of the countertop. The jingling of the bell on the front door told her she’d forgotten to lock it after turning the sign.