Killer Run

by Lynn Cahoon

  “Actually, better than I expected. I was concerned when that walk was scheduled for last weekend. You know, Saturday is my highest rental day of the week, but apparently, the participants are fitness nuts. I got more rentals Sunday than I have all season. And I’m expecting a tour group this weekend that’s renting over the three days.” He checked his watch and kissed Sadie on the forehead. “Sorry, sweetie, but I’ve got to go open the shop. I’ll call you tonight.”

  I watched as he walked out to the front of the shop, then I turned back to my friend. “So, things are going good?”

  She slapped my arm. “Stop teasing. I wish you hadn’t seen that.”

  “Believe me, I’ve seen two people kissing before.” I pointedly looked at the storeroom. “Although I think this is the first for this location.”

  “Austin was helping me with my deliveries this morning. We don’t get a lot of time together on the weekends.” Sadie smiled and grabbed hold of the handcart. “I bet you and Greg have the same issue right now.”

  “If tonight’s date goes as planned, this will be the second time I’ve seen him since the walk.” I held the door open for her as she maneuvered the empty cart. “I started remodeling my guest room to keep myself busy.”

  Toby snorted. “And took on the task of finding Harrold’s vandal.”

  “Jill, you didn’t.” Sadie stood the cart next to the counter. “You could be in danger. What if the person finds out you’re looking for him or her? They could go after you or your shop.”

  “Where devils fear to tread, Jill jumps in,” Toby deadpanned.

  I sat on one of the stools. “Look, I’m not doing anything dangerous. I’m just trying to help out a fellow business owner.”

  “I hope you’re having more luck than the official investigation is. Whoever’s been doing this is hiding their tracks well. And they knew that the city hasn’t turned on the cameras after the corner where Diamond Lille’s is set.” Toby sighed. “Either they are extremely smart about their actions or just plain lucky.”

  “I hate to see Harrold have to go through this.” Sadie leaned against the counter. “I can’t stand it when I see bad things happening to good people.”

  “I know. Harrold’s gone through a lot in the last few years.” I felt strands of guilt with my words. I hadn’t been focusing on The Train Station vandalism. I’d been off on some wild-goose chase with Aunt Jackie, trying to solve Sandra’s murder. Which I had no business doing. And if Toby or Greg found out, I’d be in a bunch of trouble.

  Sadie’s face brightened. “I know, I’ll drop off one of my Sweet Summer Lemon Surprise Cheesecakes to the shop right now. I’ve got one last one in the truck that I was going to give to Austin, but I think Harrold needs cheering up more.” She shrugged. “Besides, Austin just seems to devour everything I give him. I swear, he’ll consume a full cheesecake in a day.”

  “The best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” I quoted the old saying. “But it looks like you’ve already caught that guy, hook, line, and sinker.”

  She blushed and pushed the cart to the door. “I’m off to see Harrold, then home. Nick has the afternoon off, and we’re going shopping for his dorm room today. He’s so excited.”

  Nick Michaels, all-around good kid and Sadie’s pride and joy, had scored a full-ride scholarship to Stanford. In Sadie’s world, that was the best of all possible options. The kid was in a great school, but close enough to come home on the weekends. I didn’t want to burst my friend’s bubble, but I thought the chances of him coming home most weekends was as slim as if he’d been accepted to Harvard. Nick loved being involved in school projects, so I assumed by the end of his first semester, he’d be a member of, if not running, several school clubs. The kid just liked people.

  “Tell him hi for me.” I watched through the window as Sadie put the cart in the back of her car and then sped away to the other side of Main Street. I turned to Toby, who had been watching her, too. “She’s just too nice.”

  He nodded, then pushed the box holding the cheesecake toward me. “I’m afraid she’s going to get hurt.”

  I put my hands on the box but didn’t lift it. “You mean by dating Austin?”

  Toby nodded. “He’s too smooth. There’s something off about the guy.”

  I started to ask Toby more, but then Aunt Jackie burst through the back door dressed in her bright pink walking outfit, complete with a pink sun visor and oversized sunglasses. She took two bottles of water out of the front cooler and put them into a mini backpack. Then she noticed me. “What are you doing here?”

  I held up my hands. “Just picking up dessert for tonight. Greg’s taking me out for dinner.”

  She eyed me suspiciously. “They serve dessert at most restaurants, you know.”

  “What can I say? I like to be prepared.” I shrugged and picked up the box. “Besides, Sadie was here and I wanted to say hi.”

  “Well, I’m glad you stopped in, actually.” She looked at Toby, then dropped her voice. “The files we picked up from the courthouse aren’t complete. I’ve called Madeline and she has another stack for us. Can you go pick them up?”

  “Today? I’ve already been to Bakerstown this morning.” My hopes of getting the bed frame stripped were decreasing by the minute.

  She nodded. “If you don’t go today, we won’t be able to get them before Monday. The courthouse isn’t open on the weekends.”

  “You could have called me.”

  Aunt Jackie shrugged. “I just realized there were years missing about an hour ago. When I called Madeline, she told me she had the second file on her desk and had forgotten to give it to us. What part of this is my fault?”

  I held up my hand. “Fine, I’ll go. But I swear, this is my last trip into Bakerstown this week.”

  My aunt started to say something, but then the bell over the door rang and Josh entered the shop, dressed in his knock-off tracksuit. Aunt Jackie went around the counter and handed him the backpack. “Well, we’re off. If I don’t show up for my shift, we’re somewhere on the Mission Trail, probably dead from exhaustion.”

  “Not funny,” Josh muttered.

  I looked at Toby. He grinned and responded, “I thought it was a little funny.”

  The two disappeared out the front door, and I watched as they started walking toward the beach and the entrance to the Mission Trail.

  “I still don’t see those two together as a couple,” Toby muttered, then when the bell over the door rang, he smiled at the group of women who piled through the opening. “Looks like I’ve got work to do.”

  “I’ll talk to you later.” I picked up my box and wound my way through the chatting women. Toby knew how to draw in the customers; his personality and good looks had women driving miles just to get his coffee and a smile. He was my best marketing ploy, one that my aunt had hired without my permission. I set the cheesecake on the driver’s seat and glanced at the car clock. If I hurried, I could pick up the additional records and be back at the house in just over an hour. I threw my jacket over the cheesecake to keep it cool and out of the sun. Pulling out of the parking spot, I turned on the air-conditioning.

  When I arrived at the courthouse, I found a rock-star-front-row parking spot on my first spin around the lot. And then Madeline was at her desk and held out the papers as soon as the elevator doors opened. I parked the Jeep next to the garage and then, using the backyard gate, ran the box to the house. The day’s temperatures had even worked in my favor. Instead of the ninety-degree heat we were forecast for the weekend, today had been cloudy and fair, the breeze keeping the temperatures in the seventies.

  I slipped the cheesecake box onto the bottom shelf of my fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. Fifteen till two by the kitchen clock. Greg would pick me up at six. So that gave me four hours to strip the old paint off the bed frame. I let Emma out to the backyard and grabbed the Home Heaven bag out of my car. I sat on a small bench I’d installed outside the garage and started reading the directions. The st
uff had to set for fifteen minutes, and the warnings said to keep it off your skin. I prepped the area in the garage, laying down newspaper, went inside and got a flannel shirt and my gardening gloves, then started brushing away.

  The fumes were making me dizzy by the time I’d finished the back railing, but as I stepped away, I could already see the paint dripping away. If this worked, tomorrow I could paint and Monday I’d set up the bed in the morning in time for a new mattress to be delivered that afternoon.

  Except, as I thought through my plan, I realized I’d forgotten one thing. I’d already stripped the wood floor, but I needed to varnish it and find a large rug to go under the bed. And I didn’t want to have to set up the bed myself. I reevaluated my weekend. Okay, if the bed frame was ready to paint tomorrow, after I got that done, I’d varnish the floors. Then Sunday, I’d drive back into town to find a rug.

  But Sunday I was planning to hit a few festivals to check out the food truck option. I could do both. Why not? Maybe some of the flea markets in the area would sell a rug and I could find a quilt, too. I could do it all.

  Feeling proud of my ability to time-manage all my tasks into the weekend, I started clearing off the old paint. An hour later, I’d only finished the first pass on the back side. I’d have to reapply the stripper and work harder. As I used the putty knife, I suddenly realized the one flaw in my carefully planned-out weekend. I didn’t have wood varnish to finish the floors. I’d have to drive into Bakerstown again sometime on Saturday and buy some from Home Heaven.

  I was still sure I could do it all by the time my cell rang. I put the phone on speaker so I didn’t have to pick it up, as my hands were still in gloves and covered in old paint and stripper. “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself. Where are you? You sound like you’re in a tunnel.” Greg’s voice boomed through the speaker and I heard Emma’s excited whine from the backyard.

  “Working in the garage stripping this bed frame I found.” I reached my arm up and pushed my hair back out of my eyes with my forearm. “I’m considering the wisdom of purchasing new right at this juncture.”

  He chuckled. “You like doing things the hard way. And it usually works out for you. I’m on my way over. Do you need anything?”

  I looked down in horror at my worn and stained clothes. I’d been hoping for an hour to shower and change. “You’re leaving the station now?”

  “Actually I’m in Bakerstown. I was with Doc Ames this afternoon.” Which meant he’d been looking over the autopsy records and talking about the cause of death, but we both skipped that part of the sentence.

  “Hey, can you stop at Home Heaven and get five gallons of wood floor sealer? I need the clear stuff. Ask Joe, if he’s working. He knows what I’ve been using on the house.” My weekend just got a little less complicated, and I’d have time to get ready for date night. I started putting away my tools from today’s activities. At least I’d gotten one thing done and I’d learned a better way to finish the other end first thing in the morning.

  “I was thinking something simple like picking up your dry cleaning or a bottle of wine.” Greg sighed. “But yeah, I can stop.”

  “I’ll see you in thirty to forty minutes?” I pulled off the gloves and took off the oversized man’s button-down shirt to reveal a soaked tank below. I really needed a shower. I picked up my phone and turned it off speaker.

  “You’re going to owe me,” Greg said.

  I let myself into the backyard. “You offered,” I countered. “That doesn’t count as a favor. Now, if you’re available to actually help seal the floor tomorrow, then I’d owe you.”

  “Sorry, kid. I’m tied up with the case. Otherwise, I’d be there first thing.”

  I entered the cool kitchen and grabbed a cold bottle of water from the fridge. “Somehow I doubt that. See you in a few.” I headed upstairs to turn myself from Frank the Furniture Restorer into something at least a little sexy and feminine.

  He chuckled before he signed off with his normal, “Love you.”

  I thought about those two words as I got ready for date night. He’d been closing out our phone conversations that way for the last couple of months. Love you. Two little words that could mean so much. Or so little, I reminded myself. My ex-husband had said it for months even though he’d been seeing someone else during that time. Did Greg’s sign-off mean I adore you, I want you in my life forever, marry me now? Or I’m glad you’re here and I want to see if there’s a future for us?

  Words. So many ways to misunderstand and misconstrue. I finished drying off and decided to banish the heavy thinking for another time. Tonight we were going to have a fun evening out. I might even take a stab at karaoke if we ended our night at the independent brewery and pub nestled above Highway One a few miles away. I sang a mean Mary Chapin Carpenter if you asked me. I took a blue sundress out of the closet with the flowered flip-flops Amy had dared me to buy on our last girls’ shopping day and finished getting ready for the evening.

  Digging through the refrigerator, I found a few items for a fruit tray to have as an appetizer, but since Greg was more of a meat and potato fan, I thought he’d probably ignore the offering. Considering an opened half-gone bag of pepperoni, I was digging through my pickle jars to see if I had any pepperoncini peppers when I heard a knock on the door. “Come on in. I’m in the kitchen,” I called out.

  When the knock sounded again, I closed the fridge door and strolled to the living room. “Sorry, I thought I’d unlocked,” I said, but when my hand went to the doorknob, I realized I had unlocked the door earlier. I slowly opened the door, knowing now it wasn’t Greg.

  Adam Truman stood there, his hands folded together. “Miss Gardner? I apologize for the late visit.”

  I leaned against the doorframe, leaving the screen door closed between us. My finger itched to reach up and lock the screen, but even I knew the tiny lock was only a delaying tactic if the guy was really up to no good. I folded my arms in front of me. “Adam. This is a surprise. Is there something I can do for you?”

  “I was wondering if Sandra left a package with you.” He tensed as he asked the question. “She had said, well, I mean …”

  “You’re talking about Sandra Ashford? Why would she leave a package with me? If it was about the Mission Run, she probably gave it to Darla.” I turned my head and considered the suited man in front of me. Why hadn’t he brought this package up during our meeting at the winery? Something was off. Bells and whistles were going off in my head, but I couldn’t put the pieces together. “Did you ask her?”

  “Look, I know you’ve been snooping around Sandra’s death, and if it’s because of what she gave you, you have to understand. I didn’t do what she said.” He reached his hand toward the door handle. “Just give me the package and I’ll be on my way.”

  I reached the screen lock faster than he could open the door. I saw anger flash in his eyes. “Go away. I don’t know anything about a package.”

  He considered the cheap metal frame that stood between us. “I don’t believe you. Why else would you pull up the records from the courthouse? I have my sources there, too.”

  “Obviously, there is something more to Sandra’s death than just a hit-and-run.” I saw Greg’s truck slow down on the road in front of the house. I decided to push the issue since the cavalry was pulling into the driveway. “Did you kill her?”

  Confusion filled Adam’s face. “What? No. I didn’t kill Sandra.” He turned to see Greg step out of his truck. “Look, I just want the package back. Then I’ll leave you alone.”

  He turned away from the door and went down the steps, greeting Greg as he passed. I unlocked the screen and stepped out on the porch to watch him drive away.

  Greg watched him from beside his truck. I knew he probably had a hand on his service revolver in the bed of the cab, just in case. When Adam’s car disappeared toward the highway, Greg shut the truck door and walked up to greet me on the porch. “Do I want to know what that was about?”

  I leaned
into his arms and melted, the fear from the visit overwhelming me for a moment. “Honestly, I’m not sure. He said he’s looking for something Sandra had. Something he thought she gave me.”

  Greg tilted my chin toward him. “Did she give you something?”

  I shook my head. “I only saw her that one time at the shop. Well, and on the trail, dead. Darla was the one working closely with the marketing and promotion for the run. Why would Sandra give me anything?”

  Greg turned his head to scan toward the highway. He couldn’t see the car anymore, but I knew he was thinking about Adam’s reasoning. “Now, that’s not the only question. What did Sandra have that he wants back so bad and why?”

  I groaned as I watched him go into cop mode and consider the questions. “I suppose this means we aren’t going to dinner.”

  Greg squeezed me and laughed. “Actually, it means I need to pay closer attention to you. Obviously I missed something in this case. And like most problems, the roads all lead to you.”

  I pulled away. “That’s not fair. I haven’t done anything …” My words trailed off as I thought about snooping with Aunt Jackie a few days ago. Adam had said someone had seen me at the courthouse. Me and my aunt. “Maybe we need to talk.”

  Greg nodded to the door. “Go get your purse and take care of Emma. I’m starving and you can tell me what you’ve been up to over a steak dinner.”

  CHAPTER 16

  As we drove to the restaurant, I used my cell to call my aunt at the shop.

  “Coffee, Books, and More, how can I help you?” my aunt’s voice greeted me, and my shoulders dropped a few inches.

  “Hey, it’s Jill. Has Adam Truman been in the store?” Greg glanced at me as he pulled the truck to a stop at the junction of Main Street and the highway. I saw him glance in his rearview mirror, then just wait for me to finish the call.

  “Okay, that’s weird. Yes. He just stopped in about a half hour ago and asked where you were.” Aunt Jackie called out a good-bye to a customer. “I told him you were at the house. Is this about next year’s Mission Run? Did we lose the event?”