Blaze

by Dale Mayer

  “I have no clue,” she said. “It makes no sense to me.”

  Blaze pulled into the large parking lot outside the rec center and turned off the engine. “We should’ve come earlier if you wanted to take a good look around.”

  “Yeah, this is the time of night I’d expect somebody to cause trouble though.”

  “Are you expecting to find somebody here?” he asked in surprise. “I figured you just wanted to check and see if they’d already come.”

  She groaned. “I’m just making sure everything’s okay for tomorrow. I can imagine I’ll be back bright and early in the morning to make sure again. It’ll take several trips to get all the boxes here anyway.”

  “I can give you a hand,” he said. “It’s not like I’m leaving your place tonight anyway.” He tried to make that come out smoothly so she wouldn’t really notice. When she just hopped out and slammed the truck door as he spoke, he wasn’t sure she’d even heard him.

  But, rounding the front end of his truck, she said, “What are you talking about?”

  “Somebody tried to break into your house today with that rock trick, and then somebody did enter your house. What makes you think they’re done?”

  He could see from the look on her face that she had deliberately pushed off that issue. With nightfall coming, the darkness and the looming threat crowded in on her. “Do you really think they will?”

  “No way to know,” he said. He snagged her arm and tucked it up against him. “Come on. Let’s go check it out. Do you have keys?”

  “They were supposed to leave it unlocked after the event today.”

  “Did somebody come in and clean up?”

  “Whoever organized the event is responsible for leaving it clean. But you’re right, sometimes we have to clean it first. Particularly for something like a wedding reception. It’s amazing how absolutely perfect everything has to be.”

  “Back to that. You’re never doing anything wedding-related again, right?”

  She chuckled. “Apparently. At least I’m not planning the wedding,” she said. “That would have been much too much.”

  “So does she have somebody else planning that?”

  “Yes, because she wanted a very specific theme, and she’s got a particular minister presiding over the ceremony, all that good stuff. So they’re getting married in the park, and then they’re coming here, and that’s when I take over.”

  “Perfect. Then why did they have the rehearsal here?”

  “Because they couldn’t at the park?” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “By the time they get here, it’ll be noon, but …”

  “Got it,” he said, but honestly he didn’t. He wasn’t somebody who wanted a big wedding, although he could see if his partner was really intent on having a large one how he might bow to her wishes, but it certainly wouldn’t be his first choice. “What about you? Will you have a big expensive wedding?”

  “I’m eloping,” she said succinctly. “It would be hard for me to arrange my own, and yet, it would be almost impossible for somebody else to do it. I would probably meet a couple friends in the park and have maybe a potluck or something.” She chuckled. “Or maybe cater a meal at my house. I don’t know. I haven’t really put any thought into it.”

  “Good enough,” he said as they walked around the building. “Are you satisfied? Can we go home now?”

  Chapter 10

  “I want to go all the way around once, and then I want to check out the inside,” Camilla stated firmly. Her hand slid off his arm and snuck down to interlock her fingers with his. Holding hands, they walked the entire circumference of the building and then stepped in through the kitchen. She sniffed the air and said, “Well, that’s good news. It smells clean enough.”

  They kept walking through, turning on lights as they went. She frowned when she saw the tables. “These aren’t our tables. We have to put these all away before we can set up what we are using.”

  He said, “Tables are tables, aren’t they?”

  “No,” she said. “The bride was very specific, eight to a table, no more and no less.”

  These were smaller tables, seating six in a pinch. He shook his head. “Again, better you than me.”

  She chuckled. “We rent a lot of equipment, and I own a lot at this point. They should be here somewhere.” She looked in one of the storerooms and nodded. “The tables we use are right here. So they were dropped off earlier today.”

  “Good,” he said. “Anything else you need to look at?”

  “Let’s check the bathroom.” They did that, came back out and she smiled. “I think we’re good to go,” she said as they headed to the truck. “I should have driven myself. Then you wouldn’t have to come back to my place.”

  “Like I said before, I’m not leaving you alone tonight. Either you have a spare room where I’ll crash, or I’ll sleep on the couch. If you won’t let me inside,” he said, “I’ll sleep in my truck.”

  “It’s not that big a deal,” she said, unnerved but not sure why. He’d been a huge help, and she hadn’t been looking forward to a night alone in that big house. “You can have a spare room.”

  “So, who would hate you enough to want to hire somebody to ruin your business?”

  “I don’t know of anybody,” she said, “and why must it be somebody trying to ruin my business?”

  “Well, whose business is it,” he said, “that’s affected?”

  “Okay, fine,” she said, giving him that concession. “There really isn’t a competitor in town. Maybe that’s an issue, but it’s a small town. It’s not like I’m making money. I do this mostly because it’s fun and to help out my friends.”

  “Okay, that’s good to know. Is there any big company from one of the bigger cities trying to push into this area?”

  “It doesn’t make sense for them to want to,” she said. “With extra traveling, again it’s a small area, not too many people like outsiders homing in on the local businesses either,” she reminded him.

  “So, if it’s not somebody out of town trying to destroy your business, why is somebody local trying to destroy your business?”

  She laughed at that. “Maybe to shut me down? But, if they’re not a competitor, why?”

  “Somebody who doesn’t like the job you’re doing? Did you ever have a dissatisfied customer?”

  “Sure,” she said, “everybody does. I do my best, but sometimes, due to circumstances beyond my control …”

  “Like what?”

  “Mother Nature, for one,” she said. “One of the seniors groups wanted an outdoor luncheon catered for their lawn-mowing competition, but it rained. We had tents set up, but the tents weren’t meant to handle too much rain, and it poured. So we ended up with great big rivers coming off the tents and ruining a bunch of the food and getting the tablecloths soaked, and of course, everybody outside was soaked too.”

  “That wouldn’t have been much fun,” he said. “On the other hand, it would have been quite a chuckle.”

  “It was a chuckle for anybody who wasn’t there. It was the talk of the town afterward. But I can hardly be blamed for that.”

  “No, but I can see people would be disgruntled.”

  “That they were,” she said. “Other than that, I don’t have too many disgruntled clients.”

  “It just takes one upset customer to want their money back or to see you lose money because of something you did or didn’t do for them.”

  “As far as I know, I did the best job I could in every circumstance, but it doesn’t always work out. In Sammy’s wedding, she wanted blue flowers. Do you know how hard it is to get blue flowers sometimes? But that was all she would accept, and she wouldn’t have just a few. She wanted hundreds. I could get a hundred twenty-five, I think it was, but she wanted two-fifty, so she was quite angry.”

  “Enough to be really angry?”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “She asked me to be the godmother of her first child, so I presume she’s over it,” Cam
illa joked. “But, at the time, oh my God, it was one of the nastiest scenes I’ve ever seen.”

  “And you’re still friends with her?”

  “Well, I declined the godmother invitation,” she said. “So maybe we’re not that good friends anymore. But we’re cordial. I don’t think she still holds me as a monster who ruined her wedding or anything.”

  “What did you end up doing for the other flowers?”

  “White with blue ribbons,” she said with a shrug. “It’s all we could come up with at the time.”

  “That seems like a reasonable solution,” he said.

  She shrugged. “For me, it’s easy to toss off the substitution as part of running a business. But, for somebody who had their heart set on all blue flowers, I guess it was traumatic. And honestly, nothing is more traumatic than a wedding day for a bride. I know that sounds silly because it’s supposed to be their best day ever, but it’s so stressful.”

  “You’re right. It doesn’t sound very smart or sensible,” he said. “Interesting how it works. Obviously I’ve heard stories about angry brides, but I’ve never seen one.”

  “Not many have,” she said. “Sammy had one of those screaming fits which I had to endure with her bridesmaids looking on. Not exactly a fun time.”

  “You really don’t think she’d have anything to do with this?”

  Camilla shook her head. “No, I really don’t. No reason for her to do this now. This was about three years ago when I first started the business, so what would trigger this issue now?”

  “Did she just get divorced, because that could be a trigger.”

  “No, she’s expecting her second child,” Camilla said. “And honestly, I think she just wants to forget her behavior. I know her bridesmaids took her to task for it afterward, but nobody dared say anything to her on the day of.”

  “That’s sounds rough,” he said.

  “It was.” She chuckled. “I do various conventions. I do business meetings. We handle many charity events. Often things go wrong. I order sixty-nine tables, and I get sixty-two. I order, you know, dinner service for fourteen, and I get dinner service for sixteen. You do your best, but you’re depending on other companies to do their job as well.”

  “So, then we’re back to shutting you down. If you were to shut down, what would happen?”

  “I’d be lost,” she said bluntly. “Can’t say I really like this turn of questioning. I understand the need for it, but it’s not comfortable to think about. Before I inherited everything from my grandmother, I would have probably moved. I wouldn’t stay here knowing somebody had done this deliberately. That someone hated me that much, and I wouldn’t have known who it was. I’d have constantly looked over my shoulder. But now that I have a home, and I have money, and I don’t have to work, I’m not sure I would leave,” she said honestly.

  “Interesting. I presume everybody in town knows you inherited the house?”

  “Yes,” she said. “And, as far as leaving, well, I don’t even know where I’d go.”

  “Would your mom want you to move West?”

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe now I’d be welcome. Back then she wanted to get away from the fact I had inherited the house and all the money. And, no, it wasn’t all the money. Just more money than the others got.”

  “Right, and of course she hasn’t made any move to ask you to move West, correct?”

  “No,” she said with a shake of her head. “If anything, she wants me to stay here.”

  “Well, that knocks out that line of thinking then.”

  “Exactly.” They pulled up in front of Camilla’s house, and he parked again. She hopped out, waited for him to get out and then said, “You know that you don’t have to stay.”

  He gave a wave of his hand. “Let’s not even go there right now. Did you ever hear back from the sheriff?”

  She frowned and shook her head. “And it’s too late to contact him now.”

  “You would think he’d have at least responded to your call.”

  She nodded. “He’s normally very good about that.”

  “Do you want me to give him a call?”

  “You can,” she said, “if you think it’s something we should do.”

  As they walked into her house, she stopped, listened and then smiled. “It doesn’t sound like anybody’s here.”

  He gave a shallow laugh. “Is that how you check?”

  “I did turn the security on, and I did lock the doors.” She walked to the couch and sat down. “I’m hungry again,” she announced.

  “The Chinese is all gone, sorry,” he said.

  “I’m not all that hungry, just picky,” she said, frowning. “I could use a hot cup of coffee though.”

  “It’s almost nine, you know?”

  She sighed. “I didn’t know. I am tired. I shouldn’t eat at this point.”

  “Unless you’re hungry, and it’ll wake you up.”

  “I’ll have some yogurt.” She got up, opened the fridge, pulled out some yogurt and said, “Instead of coffee, how about a cup of tea?” She put on the kettle and sat down, having several spoons of vanilla yogurt.

  “What do you do to unwind?” he asked bluntly. “You look like you’re stretched too thin, worrying about tomorrow.”

  She smiled. “I look that bad, huh?”

  He appeared stuck for an answer.

  She laughed at him. “It’s okay. I’m sorry, but I do like to tease.”

  “That’s fine,” he said. “I like to tease back too.”

  She nodded as she put away the yogurt, looked at the kettle and said, “It’s still not boiling. I can’t be bothered now. Come on. Let me show you to the spare room, and then I’ll have a shower and crash. Tomorrow is another day, and it’s starting to look like it’ll be a long one.”

  “I highly suspect these days are always long when wedding-related,” he said.

  “Yes,” she nodded. “But tomorrow … I don’t know, it just has a rough feeling about it.”

  “Because of your intruder?”

  “I would hate to think he’d do anything to disrupt the reception. If someone was trying to destroy my business, that would do it.”

  Upstairs she pointed out the spare bedroom at the end of the hall. “There’s a bathroom attached,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning.” And, with a tired wave, she walked back to her room, stepped inside and closed the double doors behind her. Her room looked normal, and that was a good thing because she didn’t think she could handle more stress today. Stripping off her clothes, she headed in for a quick shower and then took her long blond hair, turned it into a braid, got into her nightclothes and climbed into bed. She was out within minutes.

  He heard the water turn on and then stop. He hadn’t brought any overnight clothes with him but figured a shower wasn’t a bad idea. He’d helped out with the glass repairs and didn’t want to see any of that stay on his skin. It was amazing how fine glass dust could be when you were cutting it. He had a quick shower himself, gave his clothes a really good shake out on the balcony in the dark and then crawled into bed. He wondered what the hell was going on here in Camilla’s life.

  He hadn’t contacted his father all day and sent him a text. When his father called him, he asked, “What the hell’s going on?”

  “I don’t know,” Blaze said. He related the day’s events, adding, “I called the sheriff’s number just before we came into the house, but he didn’t answer.”

  “Guess you didn’t hear, but the sheriff was struck over the head. He’s in the hospital.”

  Blaze bolted upright. “When did that happen?”

  “This morning. You didn’t hear about it?”

  Blaze frowned, shaking his head. “No, I was back and forth helping Scott with the glass repair at the rec center, and then I was fixing glass here,” he said, “so I heard nothing.”

  “It happened before you fixed the glass,” his father said. “He was at the center early, and I guess somebody dr
ove past and saw the sheriff’s cruiser with his car door open and him lying on the ground.”

  “I presume they’re opening an investigation? That’s usually standard procedure when law enforcement is attacked.”

  “Absolutely, but there’s only one deputy here, Henry Brown,” he said, “and I don’t know that he’s done very much about it. He’s just a young kid.”

  Blaze swore under his breath. “Well, I hope he knows what’s going on. Our only communication so far has been with the sheriff, who was here early this morning to check out Camilla’s broken glass door. We also contacted him this afternoon and sent multiple emails about the vehicle seen outside her house,” he said. “Maybe you recognize it. When we get off this call, I’ll send you a picture from that security feed from Thomas.”

  “If they’ve got the picture of the vehicle, they should be able to at least track down the owner.”

  “It’s old. It’s banged up. It’s just a small car, and, from the looks of it, it didn’t have any license plate because I came up behind it and didn’t see one.”

  “Interesting. The deputy probably didn’t check the sheriff’s emails and so probably nobody even knows about them.”

  “And I stopped by earlier, but nobody was at the station.”

  “Exactly,” his father said. “So, you’re staying at her place, are you?”

  “Yes, in the spare bedroom,” Blaze said drily.

  “Too bad,” his father said, chuckling. “Not sure how her mom’ll handle that though.”

  “Why?”

  “Her mom and your mom had a doozy of a fight, remember?”

  “What does that have to do with me? What was the fight about?”

  “Me,” his father said bluntly. “Lily thought I was making advances toward her, and she wanted Enid to do the right thing and leave me.”

  Blaze froze and then asked, “Are you serious?”

  “Yes,” his father said with a weary sigh. “It’s the one time Enid and I had a real humdinger of a fight. Because she wanted to know if there was anything to Lily’s accusations, and of course, the answer was absolutely nothing. I never cheated on your mother. But Lily was of the opinion we were heading that way.”