The Milburn Big Box Set

by Nancy McGovern

Faith took a seat on the veranda edge. “Nope. Though this is the first time I feel like I’ve ever really done hard work. All my other jobs have been a total bust.”

  “Oh, me too, before I got into landscaping,” he said. “In my last year of high school I got voted ‘the coolest guy ever’ for the yearbook. But what everyone really meant was ‘least likely to do anything with their life’. And they were right. Well, until I got into this.”

  Faith laughed. “The coolest guy ever? Some school you went to.”

  He smiled and straightened up. He pushed his auburn hair back away from his face, as he always did, and looked at her with his chocolate eyes. She was caught off guard by her heart skipping a beat. “So, what did people in your high school say about you?” he asked.

  Immediately, Faith’s mind went to the bullying incident. She was over that, she told herself, but she did have to admit that the memory of it still stung a bit, even though it was a long time ago. She smiled and tried to be positive. “Well, I was really into baking even before I started high school. So I guess I was famous for having friends who were... appreciative of pies and cakes and pastries.”

  He grinned. “So not the jocks and the cheerleaders, then?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Not so much.”

  “But you have a great figure,” he said, kneeling back down to tend the plant again. “When you bake so much, aren’t you tempted to eat it all?”

  Faith found herself blushing and was so glad he wasn’t looking in her direction. She felt all the more silly for her face flushing because he’d said it in such a casual way, like it was just an observation, not a compliment. So why was she getting so flustered?

  “I have to go jogging all the time,” she said quickly. “Otherwise I’d end up ballooning and ballooning. But the truth is by the time I’m done baking, and I’ve had little taste tests here and there, I’m usually full. When it comes out of the oven I’m already sick of it.”

  He laughed. “So you do it for other people to enjoy, then, I guess?”

  “Sure,” Faith said. “I really like when people like it. You know, comfort food and all that.”

  He nodded.

  “I can’t pretend to be too altruistic, though,” she said with a smile. “I guess my favorite part is like inventing new stuff. Like even when I have a recipe I always add my own twist, even if it’s just in the decoration.”

  His face brightened up. “I totally get that. It’s like… you’re creating something. Where nothing was there before, you make something.”

  “Exactly. It feels good to make something nice. Especially something that looks beautiful.”

  “I think we’re in the same business,” he said, grinning and looking around the garden he’d made. “Except you shouldn’t eat palms.”

  Faith laughed and flicked her hand at him. “Nah,” she said casually. “Might hurt a bit.”

  “Just a little.”

  “Hey,” Faith said, surprising even herself. “Wanna go to the beach for a minute?” She checked her ancient flip phone. “We’ve got about fifteen minutes before Ellis closes up. Maybe we could catch the sunset.”

  Nathan got up, his brown eyes deep as he gazed at her. “Sure.”

  *****

  Chapter 15

  It was a short walk through winding paths arched over with bright trailing flowers. Nathan paused as they walked by to look at them. “Who’s the main gardener here, do you know?”

  Faith shook her head. “I’m not sure. Laura said they come on Mondays when everything’s shut, mostly.”

  “Okay.”

  She smiled teasingly. “Done a poor job, have they?”

  “Nah.” He smiled back. “Really good, actually. I was gonna see if I could work with them. I usually do private yards for people, but… well, it’s always been my dream to work somewhere like this. It’s really incredible what they’ve done here.”

  “It is,” Faith said. “I came here when I was younger, you know, to visit my grandma, and it wasn’t anything like this.”

  Soon a gap in the foliage led them onto the beach. It was wide and sprawling and calm, the waves lapping up gently and making the most comforting hushing sound. The golden sunlight rippled across the water all the way to the horizon. Faith slipped off her sandals and sunk her feet into the warm sand. “Ahh, I’m so glad we came here.”

  “Me, too,” Nathan said. “It’s like another world. Even though it’s just a couple minutes away.”

  “I know, right?” Faith looked way over the horizon, wondering at how strange life could be. Just a few days before she had been baking brownies in cold Minnesota, thinking that life had nothing in store for her. That it would never be exciting. And now she was in Florida on a sunset beach with a young man with a tangle of auburn hair and deep dark eyes that made her heart flip. She was about to open a tearoom, fulfilling her main life dream. And she was clearing her name from a murder investigation. Though life was perhaps not all good, it certainly was exciting. And in such a short space of time. It was weird. She felt more alive than ever, and also like she was in a dream, both at once.

  “Once your dream’s come true in life, what do you do next?” she said. She hadn’t quite realized until then how much she enjoyed dreaming about the tearoom, about as much as she enjoyed actually making it a reality. Though there was still so much to do - recipes to create, the veranda to finish, the floral napkins to sew and a fundraiser to successfully put on - she was already missing having a dream, something hazy and far away that would always go right, without the messy hassles of reality.

  “What was your dream? To have a café?”

  “Yep.”

  They walked along in silence for a moment, toward Josiah’s juice and smoothie shack.

  “I guess you put all your effort in it, to make sure your dreams stay alive,” he said. “I can tell you from seeing some places, a lot of dreams die. Like one landscaping job I did. This older guy. He had gotten married to this lady and they were so happy, his son was telling me. They bought this amazing mansion, like Key West style, and the garden was spectacular. I mean like, something blooming everywhere you looked. The son showed me the pictures of them standing in the garden. It was seriously incredible, and they had a whole wall of these passionflowers, really amazing. But then they got divorced, and he just didn’t care about any of it anymore. He let the garden grow wild, and he didn’t even clean the house much. The son kept bugging him to do something about it, but he never did. But then it got so crazy the son couldn’t even drive up the driveway, ‘cause it was covered in vines and all that. So he called in my friend and me. That was my second job, actually. It was like… the overgrowth was insane. It was like being in a jungle, I swear.”

  “Whoah.”

  “Yeah. I wanted to recreate the garden from the pictures, but the son said that would be way too much upkeep. They just wanted it all cut back and burned, and a couple of palms put in.” He shook his head. “It couldn’t hold a candle to the garden they had before. A shame, really.”

  Faith nodded. Images popped into her head of the tearoom being swallowed up by a whole rioting tangle of vines. “I’ll take care of the tearoom. Not only for me, but Grandma Bessie as well.”

  “Sure,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, though.”

  She looked at him with a smile. “Gardening is a lot of work, too.”

  “It’s worth it,” he said. “When you get to stand back and see what you’ve done.”

  Faith nodded decisively. “Then you know exactly how I feel about baking.”

  They shared a smile for a moment. It was really nice and warm for the first second, like sunshine was surrounding them, then it got awkward. Nathan nodded to Josiah’s shack, just a little way in front of them. The bar itself was closed but a light shone inside. “Looks like he’s still open. Think we can convince him to whip us something up?”

  Faith grinned. “I doubt it, but I guess it’s worth a try.”

  But as they reached the door, Josi
ah came out, his knapsack on his back. “Jeez,” he said, startled, putting his hand to his chest. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people.”

  “Sorry, bud,” Nathan said. “That’s the problem with sand, doesn’t make any noise.”

  Josiah gave him a poor effort at a fake smile. “Don’t you know there’s a killer on the loose?”

  “We were just trying to catch you before you left,” Faith said. “To see if you had anything we could drink. I’m super thirsty.”

  Josiah paused, then rolled his eyes and went back inside. “I have water or juice in the fridge. What do you want?”

  “What kind of juice?” Faith asked.

  “Apple,” Josiah said acidly. “Want it or not?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Nathan called out, “And I’ll have the water.”

  A couple of moments later Josiah appeared with two bottles, a plastic bottle of water for Nathan and a glass bottle of apple juice for Faith. “The cash register’s closed. You can pay me tomorrow, right?”

  “Cool,” Nathan said. “Night.”

  Josiah walked off without another word.

  Nathan shook his head as he opened his water. “That guy.”

  “He’s not exactly friendly,” Faith said. “But I guess everyone is on edge right now, what with the whole Joanne thing. Hey! You don’t think… Maybe he’s so stressed because of what Ellis said.”

  Nathan nodded. “Maybe. Maybe not. We’ve gotta do some digging.”

  “You’re right,” Faith said. “Do you remember, though, at that meeting we went to? He was being all flirty with Joanne and she was being really cold back? Maybe he was in love with her or something, and she wouldn’t reciprocate, so he just flipped?”

  Nathan shook his head. “I don’t know. He seemed like he was kind of joking around. But… maybe he was just doing that to hide how he really felt.”

  “Exactly,” Faith said. “But you’re right. We have so much digging to do.” She sipped on her apple juice. The sun was going down beautifully, painting the sky and its rippling reflection on the sea below in pinks and purples and glowing oranges. She sighed deeply, just watching it for a moment, and wondering how they were ever going to unravel the puzzle that was Joanne’s murder.

  “I think we had better go now,” Nathan said, checking his phone. “It’s getting kinda late. Don’t want to get locked in.”

  “You’re right.”

  Faith slipped her sandals back on and they made their way back through the paths of Paradise Point. The white lights were dotted around in some places, which made it all look so magical, but in other places there were no lights at all. They kept up a brisk pace, trying to make sure they got to the gate in time, but Faith felt like anxiety was following up behind her just as fast, and waiting to meet her around every new corner. She tried to tell herself that the feeling of dread she had in the pit of her stomach was natural - after all, she was out after dark, not long after someone had been murdered in that very park. But the thought didn’t comfort her at all. In fact, it made her feel her throat tightening, like she was going to have another panic attack. Even with Nathan there, that was about the worst place and time to have one, in the dark, outside, where no ambulance or car could get to her to take her home quickly. She felt her breath quickening.

  Nathan said. “This is just a little bit spooky, huh?” He laughed. “Not that I’m scared or anything, but--”

  Faith laughed along, all her dread seeping away. “Yes, you are,” she said, determined to stay laughing and happy. “You’re super scared.”

  “I’m not!” he said in mock outrage. “Although, now don’t you tell anyone this, but when I was a little kid I was so scared of the dark I had to have this little nightlight. It was shaped like an owl, and I used to call it Olly the Owly. Oh, gosh, I’ve told you too much already. I’m never gonna hear the end of this from Laura, am I?”

  “I won’t tell,” Faith said. “Though it’s not exactly the most embarrassing secret in the world. You were a little kid. Sounds pretty normal to me.” She giggled, trying to keep herself cheerful. “Got any better embarrassing stories? That one was embarrassingly non-embarrassing.”

  “Embarrassingly non-embarrassing,” Nathan said carefully. “Now that’s a mouthful. Try say it quickly, like embarrassingly non-embarrassing, embarrassingly non-embarrassing, embarrassingly non-embarrassing, embairinglynembarrasing.”

  “Oh, get out of here! My mom used to make me do those on car rides. Red truck, yellow truck, red truck, yellow truck.”

  “Jumping Jehosaphat!” Nathan said, then collapsed into laughter.

  Faith shook her head, descending into giggles. “Say what?”

  Nathan couldn’t stop laughing. “Oh, gosh… I don’t know why, but you just reminded me… My granddad used to say that whenever he was surprised, when we were kids. It was so, so funny. I think you had to be there, though. Oh yeah, and his eyebrows would pop up as well, and his eyes would go all wide.” He was laughing so much that Faith joined in, even though it wasn’t that funny. “I’d be like, ‘Granddad, look at that man with all the tattoos’, and his eyes would pop out of his head. ‘Jumping Jehosaphat!’ And me and Laura and my other cousins would just die of giggles and he’d get mad. Ahh, good memories. Now he says ‘sugar and spice’ instead.”

  “That’s a pretty creative curse word,” Faith said, feeling a lot better.

  Nathan laughed. “Curse phrase, if you want to be technical. Though I’m not sure it’s that either.”

  They reached the gate before long.

  “Uh oh,” Faith said. A thick chain was wrapped around the bars and a heavy padlock was hanging down. “He’s already locked it.”

  *****

  Chapter 16

  “Oh, man. We’ll have to climb over somewhere.” He looked at his phone again. “It’s only four minutes past six. Why does the guy have to be so on time? This is all my fault, I should have suggested we leave earlier.”

  Faith shook her head. “Nope, not letting you take the blame for that one. We both had phones. We just got lost in… well, the sunset, I guess.”

  He paused for a moment, looking at her. The sky was now a dark blue around them, with only the light at the gate illuminating them like moonlight. With a shadow cast over half his face, and the other bathed in faux-moonlight, he looked even more handsome. Faith noticed the curve of his lip. “Yeah,” he said, then turned away, changing the tone in his voice. “I’ll find a place for us to climb over, don’t worry.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll get out fine.”

  And they did. After walking down one edge of the fence, they found a place it was possible to climb over if they worked together. Nathan helped her up to the firm ledge at the top, then climbed up himself. Then he walked her back to the apartments, chatting animatedly about what he was going to do to the gardens next. She went in the apartment building and he left to get the bus home, and the evening was without incident.

  Except that it wasn’t, and that someone was lying unconscious, blood weeping from their head, just steps from where they had been standing by the gate, and had been there the whole time.

  *****

  “No way,” Laura said, her bottom lip trembling. “No. No way.”

  Sandy pushed her lips out and shrugged, looking deeply worried herself as she leaned back in her chair at the kiosk desk. “I’m afraid so. One more incident like this and the council are going to shut the whole place down, Ellis told me. As if we didn’t have enough going wrong, already. A killer’s picking us off one by one and now I’ll lose my job?”

  “But… so Ellis got attacked last night?” Faith asked, trying to work out the timings.

  “Right after he locked up,” Sandy said. “He’s out of the hospital now, though. At home, resting up.”

  Laura wiped her eyes quickly. “How horrible. It’s like there’s someone out to get us. You know, all the people that work here.”

  “Maybe,” Sandy said. “Though it’s my bet that it
’s one of us. I mean, it’s not like Joanne and Ellis move in the same circles outside work. I can’t think of anyone who would know them both from outside.” She shook her head. “Nah, it’s definitely someone from within. It’s horrible, thinking that. Puts you on edge all the time, like you can’t trust anyone.”

  “Tell me about it,” Faith said. “Did Ellis not see who it was?”

  “No. He said that there were three people, and they attacked him from behind just as he’d put the keys in his pocket. It was so fast he didn’t get a good look at them.”

  Laura shook her head. “That’s terrible. Just terrible.” Then she looked positively panic stricken. “They didn’t…” She paused, like it was too terrible to say. “They didn’t get the keys, did they? Because if they did, they could sneak in whenever, and hide, or anything.”

  “Thankfully not.” Sandy still looked around, though, like mystery attackers might be hiding right in the kiosk with her, behind the filing cabinet, or under the desk. “Ellis said that was about the only saving grace in the whole thing. And that they didn’t kill him, of course. Obviously we’d just have to get the locks changed, but the council are tightening the budget as it is, and the whole padlock system is rather expensive, apparently. That would just give them another reason to shut the whole thing down.”

  Faith felt like her dream of having a café was slipping right through her fingers like sand, but this was life or death. “Maybe it’s the best thing,” she said, “you know, to close. Who knows who’ll get targeted next?”

  Laura bit her lip. “Couldn’t we have like… some police presence? Even now, I feel a bit shaky about going in, I must admit. The Sheriff’s Department could send someone to come stand guard at the gate.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about right now,” Sandy said. “Haven’t you noticed, these things are always happening at night?”

  Faith leaned against the kiosk. “But what I don’t get is that three people attacked Ellis physically, but didn’t kill him. It’s not like three people attacked Joanne, is it? They poisoned the cherry. The two are so different. How can we be sure they’re connected?”