Goody Goody Gunshots

by Rose Pressey

  “You know, just the usual stuff,” she said.

  “Isn’t that the point of having him fill out the application?”

  “You have to ask more than what’s on there. Like where he’s from.”

  “What his parents do? Those questions aren’t relevant to the job,” I said.

  She waved her hand. “Well, you’ll think of something.”

  We headed back over toward Hunter. He still didn’t look up. He was so intent on filling out the information. Mary Jane pretended like she wasn’t watching as well, but she kept her eye on him. Every once in a while she looked over at me and then back at him suspiciously, wondering what he was up to.

  It was more about the fact she didn’t want anyone else in our little circle until she knew them well. It was just her nature to be suspicious of everyone. She would eventually accept him when she realized he just wanted a job. I just hoped that if I hired him that things would work out. What if he wasn’t a good employee and I had to fire him? I’d never done that before and I wasn’t looking forward to it. Though I knew it would probably be in my future at some point if I continued the candy business. I had to hire someone at some point. Maybe I should make it now and get started. Maybe Hunter would work with me for many years to come.

  It was taking him quite a while to fill out that paper. I kept glancing over to see how much he had left. He was almost to the end. I would definitely have to check out his references.

  Finally, he looked up from the paper and smiled. “I’m all finished.”

  I walked over to him and took the paper from his outstretched hand. I scanned down all the information. He had worked in the food industry previously, which was a plus. And in retail. He had been working at his last job for a couple of years, but I wasn’t quite sure the reason he listed for no longer being employed there. It said that he’d moved, but he had his address listed as Cinnamon.

  “It says here that you left your last job because you moved.”

  “Oh, no. It’s because the company moved. I’ve been here all along,” he said with a big smile.

  Mary Jane sighed. I knew that was her way of letting me know she wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth. Why would he lie about something like that? I could easily look into the information and see if the company was still here.

  Everything looked good and I couldn’t see any reason not to hire him, but I still needed to check out the references. If he hadn’t lied about anything else on there, surely he wouldn’t lie about them.

  He was looking at me with sad eyes again. And I wasn’t sure how I would tell him that he had to wait for me to call references before hiring him. This was making me feel extremely guilty. This wasn’t how I should run a business though. I supposed this one time I could let it go and go ahead and hire him. Mary Jane would not be pleased about this though. She would eventually understand. Also, Grandma Honey would tell me that I made the wrong decision. Probably I had, but I had to do what I felt was right. Plus, neither of them was the one who was being stared at with puppy-dog eyes.

  In the future I wouldn’t do this. I would be tougher as I got more used to doing this. The first time was the hardest. So, I decided I would go ahead and hire him. How bad could it be? I felt confident that things would work out just fine. Eventually the others would see it my way as well. In order to get him to stop looking at me like that I would tell him now.

  “Okay, Hunter, you have the job if you want it,” I said with a smile.

  “Are you serious? This is great. Of course I want the job. When do I start?”

  “Can you start tomorrow?” I asked.

  “I can start right now,” he said.

  “Okay, I guess that would be fine. Welcome aboard,” I said.

  “I can’t thank you enough,” he said.

  I suppose I should tell him what I needed him to do. Actually, he’d never even asked.

  “Mostly I need help with cleaning, stocking the jars, and occasionally helping the customers. Just a little bit of everything,” I said.

  “Do I have a uniform or something specific you’d like for me to wear?” he asked.

  I looked him up and down. I wondered how he’d feel about wearing a pink polka dot apron.

  “Well, the only uniform I have is the aprons.” I pointed.

  He looked at mine. “Cool. I can wear that.”

  My eyes widened. “Well, great.”

  I grabbed one from the hook behind me. I was glad that I’d ordered extra. I figured I would just need them because I’d probably spill something on mine that I couldn’t get out. I may be able to make candy, but I was always sloppy when I did it.

  He draped the apron around his neck and tied it behind his back. Next, he picked up the broom. “I’ll just go ahead and sweep the floor.”

  Wow, and I hadn’t even asked him to do that. Mary Jane quirked an eyebrow. She’d been giving him strange looks since he’d arrived.

  I moved closer to her so that Hunter wouldn’t hear us. “Okay, so what is wrong? I see the way that you’ve been looking at him.”

  She shrugged and gave him another glance.

  “Let me have it. What do you want to say?” I wiggled my fingers, asking her to spill it.

  “I don’t know… there’s just something about him. Why does he seem so eager?” Mary Jane watched him.

  “Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked.

  “Normally yes, but I’m suspicious.”

  “Oh, he is fine,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  Grandma Honey walked through the door. Her big black pocketbook was dangling from her arm. She waved wildly when she saw us watching her. “Good afternoon, sugar.”

  “Grandma Honey, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I came to help.” She placed her purse under the counter and grabbed an apron.

  As soon as she had it on she paused. Her gaze stopped on Hunter. “Who is that?” she asked with a frown.

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” Mary Jane said with a click of her tongue.

  “You don’t know the man?” Grandma Honey raised an eyebrow.

  “I hired him,” I said, trying to sound confident.

  “Well, where did he come from?” she asked.

  “He just walked in off the street,” Mary Jane said with a wave of her hand.

  Grandma Honey would ask him a million questions. She pushed way more than I ever would. I supposed that was what made her so spunky. She said after a few more years’ practice that I’d be the same way. As she moved toward Hunter she kept her gaze on him, like a tiger moving in for its prey. He must’ve felt her gaze on him because he looked up from the packages that he was putting together. At first, he looked a little terrified, but he attempted to smile. I supposed he figured that would make Grandma Honey happy. It wouldn’t work. She would ask questions first, and if she didn’t get the right answers then she wouldn’t smile at him. If he answered to her satisfaction, then he would have a friend for life.

  Grandma Honey was just about to start her questioning when Hunter turned and walked away into the kitchen area.

  Grandma Honey placed her hands on her slender hips. “Well, what do you make of that?”

  I shrugged. “I guess he’s intimidated by you.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I won’t let him get away without answering my questions. Now that he’s in the kitchen we can corner him. There’s no way he will be able to get away from us now.”

  “Actually, there’s a door back there that leads out into the alley behind the shop. He could just go out that way if he wants to get away from your questions,” I said.

  Grandma Honey frowned. I suppose that wasn’t the answer she was looking for. Now that Hunter had upset Grandma Honey she would probably want to ask even more questions. Grandma Honey was the most stubborn person I knew, and she wouldn’t let this go.

  “I can get him to answer any questions,” Mary Jane said.

  Oh, no, what was she going to do to him? We watched as she
marched back to the kitchen area. Grandma Honey and I followed along. When we entered Hunter looked up. He had that look that said, Oh, no, not again.

  “So how are you enjoying working so far?” Mary Jane asked in her sweetest voice.

  “It’s really great.”

  “So you like it?”

  This was terrible. I thought Mary Jane was going to really give it to him and make him answer questions.

  “I like chocolate,” Hunter said with a smile.

  “Well, who doesn’t?” Grandma Honey said. “So where do you live now?”

  He knew why we were all back here.

  “I live over on Second Street in an apartment above a building. I’m single, not married, and I don’t have a girlfriend. But maybe someday I’ll find that special someone. And yes, I would like to have children. My parents live in Atlanta. I moved here because a friend offered to give me the job that I had listed on my application. When the company moved I needed another job and I have friends here, so I decided to stay. Does that answer all the questions?” he asked.

  Mary Jane nodded. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Thanks.”

  Grandma Honey and Mary Jane came out from the kitchen. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Detective Monroe entering the shop. I looked him up and down and immediately he moved closer.

  “Who is this?” Grandma Honey asked, as if I had just brought home a date for prom.

  “This is the detective who is in charge of the case.”

  Grandma Honey’s eyes lit up. “Oh, the one you told me about last night.”

  Okay, now I wanted to crawl under a rock or a hide behind the counter. It was too late and s smile had appeared on his face. I had to say something to save myself. “I was just telling her about the case last night.”

  “Did you find the killer?” Mary Jane asked.

  “No, not yet,” the detective said with a laugh in his voice.

  “So, where are you from, Detective?” my grandmother asked.

  Where someone lived was an important piece of information for my grandmother. She didn’t want someone to live too far away from me because that might make it a little harder for me to date him. I knew what she was thinking. If he lived the next block over she would be ecstatic. At least he didn’t seem surprised by her question.

  “I’m from Savannah, ma’am. Born and raised,” he said with a big smile.

  “Oh, you can call me Honey,” she said.

  He couldn’t take the smile off his face.

  “This is my grandmother Honey,” I said. “And this is my best friend Mary Jane. But you already know that. They help me here at the shop.”

  “Yes, I remember Mary Jane,” he said. “Like I said, I was just popping in to see if either of you recall anything from yesterday.”

  “Have you been a detective long?” my grandmother asked.

  “It’s been about ten years now,” he said. “I was a patrol officer before I moved over to homicide.”

  “Just like that man on that show that I watch. He always gets the bad guy,” Grandma Honey said.

  “Well, that’s what I intend to do as well,” he said.

  I had to get Grandma Honey and Mary Jane away from him before they embarrassed me any further. “Grandma Honey, I don’t think he came here to answer your questions. He came to ask us questions.”

  “He doesn’t mind, do you?” she asked.

  “No, I don’t mind,” he said with laughter in his voice. “But I do need to get back to work.”

  “Well, you come by anytime you want,” she said.

  “I’ll make sure to do that,” he said. “Thank you for being so hospitable.”

  “Nice to see you again,” Mary Jane said.

  The detective nodded and then turned for the door.

  When the detective stepped out of the store, Grandma Honey said, “He’s a tall drink of water.”

  Chapter 9

  The next day when the bell on the door jangled, I looked up. It wasn’t a customer, but the detective again. Instantly my anxiety spiked, and flashbacks of the crime came to my mind. Had he found the murderer? My fingers were crossed that it would be that easy. We made eye contact. He was a handsome man. He walked across the room, checking out some of the candy along the way.

  “Good afternoon. Detective Monroe, right?” I asked.

  Why was I trying to act cool? Of course I remembered his name.

  He smiled. “Yes, I’m glad you remembered, Reese.”

  Wow, he had remembered my name too. Grandma Honey and my mother would claim he wanted to marry me because he’d simply recalled my name. The detective had an undeniable charm though. Maybe it was his aura. Or perhaps just the way his blue eyes gleamed when he looked at me. His expression was serious most of the time, but when he smiled his face lit up.

  “I’m surprised to see you again so soon. Did you come to tell me that you found the murderer?” I asked.

  He chuckled. “No, I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.”

  “Are you close? Do you have a suspect?” I asked.

  “We have some things. It takes quite a while before we can narrow things down. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of clues, and that’s why I came back to talk with you again. Did you remember more about what you saw?”

  “Well, I don’t have any clues for you,” I said, filling up a jar of jelly beans and putting the lid back on top.

  “I was hoping maybe you remembered something… any kind of clue.”

  And I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to rethink all of this. But I supposed if that would help them solve the case then I would do it. No matter that I would be traumatized even more.

  “I gave you a description of the man, and I can’t think of anything I left out. I told you about the ring, correct?”

  “Yes, you mentioned that,” he said.

  So, he could just look for a man wearing a ring, right? Yeah, if it were only that easy.

  “Oh, we could look for stores that sell that kind of ring. Maybe a jewelry store in the area?”

  He chuckled. “There are a lot of stores. That would take quite a bit of time.”

  Did he want to solve this case or not? It would require a lot of work to get to the bottom of this.

  “Yes, but I think the killer must live somewhere close by. That means he possibly bought the ring from a local jeweler.”

  “What makes you think the killer is from around here?” he asked as he studied my face.

  Okay, now I was feeling a bit nervous. What made me think I should give him advice on solving the case? Thought I felt I was right about what I’d said.

  I shrugged. “He just seemed comfortable with the area. I mean, he didn’t mind shooting right there on the sidewalk.”

  He smiled. “Yes, you’re right about that.”

  Ha. So I was kind of good with the detective stuff.

  Detective Monroe looked around the room. “You said he went to the back. Do you think he was looking for someone? Or perhaps looking for you?”

  My anxiety spiked again. This was worse than being on a rollercoaster. I hadn’t really thought about that. What if he had been looking for me and he came back?

  “Did the former owner leave anything here that you know about?”

  I shook my head. “No, not that I’m aware of. He took everything out, and we did a lot of remodeling since it was a dry cleaner before.”

  “Right,” he said, shaking his head and staring at me.

  What was he thinking? He was making me self-conscious. I wanted to ask what had made him become a detective. He looked more like he could be a model on the cover of a magazine. I supposed he liked solving crimes. What if he did both? That would be awesome.

  “You have no major clues yet about who did this?” I asked.

  “I can’t really give out information about what we know so far.”

  Did that mean he knew nothing so far? That was disheartening.

  “I feel confident that we’l
l have the killer in custody soon,” he said.

  That made me feel better.

  Grandma Honey walked through the door. She eyed the detective, wiggling her eyebrows when he wasn’t watching. Detective Monroe looked over at Grandma Honey. He smiled and she returned the gesture.

  “Do you happen to remember anything?” he asked Mary Jane.

  She just shook her head. I knew the mere mention had terrified her all over again.

  “I don’t recall anything,” she finally managed.

  Just then Hunter came out from the back area. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted the detective. Immediately the detective looked Hunter up and down.

  “Oh, this is my new employee,” I said, gesturing toward Hunter.

  Hunter inched forward as if he was afraid of the detective.

  “Detective Monroe was just asking questions about what happened yesterday,” Grandma Honey said.

  I hadn’t even told Hunter about what had happened. I’d just assumed he knew, but he had come to the shop after the scene was all cleared up. Had he seen it on the news? He hadn’t mentioned it. I would have thought that would be something he would have brought up.

  “There was a murder here. Did I not mention that?” I asked.

  Mary Jane started coughing.

  “No, you didn’t mention that,” he said.

  “Well, yes, someone was murdered. It was the previous owner of the building.”

  Hunter’s eyes widened.

  “So you don’t know anything about what happened? You didn’t see anything?” the detective asked Hunter.

  He held his hands up. “I just came here to work. I just started.”

  “Like I said, he won’t know anything,” I said. “He just started.”

  The detective stared at Hunter for a moment longer and then looked at me again. “All right, you’ll call me if you think of anything else?”

  “Absolutely, yes, I will,” I said.

  The detective studied me “Thank you for all your help. It’s been great, and I appreciate it. I guess I’ll leave you to the candy-making and selling,” he said with a smile.

  A customer entered the shop.

  “I’ll let you know if I think of anything,” I said.