On Tuesday morning, the mediums of Beach Drive, along with some of their non-medium neighbors, met at Pier Café for breakfast. Heather came without Brian because he was already at work.
Connor sat on a booster seat in a chair at the end of the table, with his mother, Lily, to his left, and his father, Ian, sitting to his right. Chris and Heather sat on the same side of the table as Lily, with Chris sitting between the two women. Danielle sat across the table from Chris, between Ian and Walt.
They had been discussing yesterday’s events involving Clay Bowman and debating if they should tell the chief what had happened at the pharmacy and later in Heather’s driveway.
“After Walt and I left the chief’s house yesterday, I started wondering if we shouldn’t have said anything about what happened at the station,” Danielle confessed.
“Why?” Lily asked.
Danielle shrugged. “He’s got a lot on his mind right now. Going in for major surgery and he’s got the boys to worry about. It’s not like he has a wife to help him team parent and deal with all this. Now, he’s worrying about his replacement.”
“I don’t need to say anything to the chief about it right now,” Heather said. “Brian knows what happened, and I imagine he’ll let everyone at the station know what’s going on. It would be better not to stress him out before his surgery, any more than he already is.”
While they continued to discuss the pros and cons of going to the chief, or waiting until after the surgery when he was on the mend, a young woman with two young boys walked into Pier Café. After sitting in a booth across the diner, Carla brought the woman some menus and chatted with her for a few minutes before leaving to pick up a food order.
* * *
The discussion of Chief MacDonald’s replacement came to a halt when Carla arrived at the table with their food. She returned to the kitchen one more time to pick up the rest of the order. After distributing all the food, she said, “I met the new police chief’s wife.”
Heather looked up from her food at Carla. “Please don’t call him the police chief. Call him the chief’s temporary replacement.”
Carla shrugged. “He is the police chief right now. At least that’s what he told me.”
“When did he tell you that?” Chris asked.
“He stopped in here late yesterday afternoon, right when I was getting off work. Introduced himself, told us he was the new police chief. Of course, I already knew who he was. I mean, I didn’t know he was going to be the acting police chief. But I used to wait on him when he was a cop here. The first time.”
“He had his wife with him?” Lily asked.
“No. He was alone.”
Lily frowned. “You said you met his wife.”
“I didn’t mean last night.” Carla turned from the table and nodded across the diner. “The woman over there with the two boys? That’s her.” Everyone glanced over at the table and then back at Carla.
“You never met his wife when he lived here before?” Heather asked.
“I recognized her. But I never met her before,” Carla explained. “Her older sister is married to the city manager, Fred Lyons. She always kept to herself. I remember she wasn’t particularly friendly. When she came in a few minutes ago, I thought that was her. I asked her if she was the new police chief’s wife. Did you know they have twins?” Carla looked at Danielle. “You should talk to her. I bet she might have some good twin tips.”
Danielle smiled at Carla. “Umm, we’ll see.”
* * *
Zack looked at his mother. “I want to see if they’re catching anything.”
“Mom, let us go,” Eric said. “Dad’s not even here yet.”
Debbie frowned. “I don’t want you boys out on the pier without me.”
“Aww, come on, Mom, we’re on the pier right now. We’re not babies. We’re not gonna fall off,” Zack nagged.
“Okay, but keep an eye out for your father, and when he gets here, I want you both to come in.”
The twins jumped up from the booth and raced off. Debbie watched as they hurried outside. Just as she was about to turn her attention back to the menu in her hands, Camilla Henderson entered the diner.
Debbie quickly raised her menu, concealing her face, while slouching down in the booth. This can’t be happening, she thought. To Debbie’s horror, Camilla joined a woman sitting in a booth behind her. Debbie crouched down even farther, hoping Camilla wouldn’t notice her. As Debbie sat quietly in the booth, she soon discovered it wasn’t difficult to overhear the women’s conversation, considering they both spoke loudly.
* * *
“Are you sure you want to eat here, Cam?” Lucy asked her sister.
“Why?” Camilla picked up the menu. “They used to have good food here. Have you seen something to the contrary?”
“I was speaking more of the company. Check out who’s sitting on the other side of the diner. At the table with the little kid.”
Camilla looked across the diner. “Oh gawd, is that the little savage who’s latched onto Brian?”
“I doubt there are two of them.”
“What’s her name, Heather? She looks like a Transylvania street walker.”
“Where do you come up with stuff like that? First, you call her a savage and now a Transylvania street walker.” Lucy giggled.
“What I should do is file charges on that little tramp. She assaulted me. I should have her arrested.”
“Unfortunately, no one saw her hit you. They only saw you slap her.”
“Yeah, I slapped her. I would slap her again. Someone comes at me; I’ll go after them.”
“Do you want to stay?” Lucy asked.
“No. But you know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“She’s with that guy again. He’s hot. No idea what he sees in her. And I certainly don’t understand what Brian sees in her. I wonder if Brian knows she’s not exclusive.”
Lucy glanced over at Heather’s table and back at her sister. “Maybe they’re only friends. She’s at the table with two other couples and a kid.”
“Yeah, two other couples. Couples. There are three couples at that table. Yet she claims to be Brian’s girlfriend. She’s playing him for a fool. I bet she only attacked me because she was trying to convince him she was crazy jealous of him.” Camilla let out a snort.
“You said Brian hired her to pretend to be his girlfriend. If that’s the case, you can’t really say she’s playing him for a fool. He knows exactly what is what.”
Camilla shrugged. “Either way, it makes Brian look ridiculous.”
“Do you want to go? We haven’t ordered yet. We could just go.”
Camilla considered the suggestion a moment before standing up. “Yeah, let’s get out of here. We can go to Lucy’s. They serve breakfast.”
* * *
Debbie peeked over her menu and watched as the two women exited the restaurant. Would her husband run into Camilla on the pier? The possibility made her nauseous.
* * *
“Oh crap, look who just walked into the restaurant,” Heather groaned as she stopped eating. Everyone at her table, except for Connor, turned to the front of the restaurant.
“It’s the new police chief,” Chris said.
“So that’s him?” Lily murmured.
“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, considering his wife is here,” Danielle said.
“You want to go over there now and ask her for some twin tips?” Chris teased.
“Oh, shut up.” Danielle stabbed a piece of scrambled egg with her fork.
Chris chuckled and looked at Walt. “Hey, Walt, Brian wanted to slug our new police chief for the crap he was saying about Heather. But Heather and I convinced him it wasn’t a smart move for his career. Especially considering the chief is on leave and Lyons is his brother-in-law. We reminded him there are other ways to vent our frustration until the chief is back at work and can deal with him. We figured you or Marie might want to do something. If you get what I mean.”
Walt looked over at the booth with Bowman and his wife.
* * *
“Where are the boys? They were on the pier waiting for you,” Debbie asked as her husband joined her at the table.
“They’re watching someone pull in a fish.”
“I told them to come in with you.” She sounded annoyed.
“I told them to stay outside. I’ll get them when they bring the food. Have you ordered yet?”
“No. I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”
Clay picked a menu up from the table and started reading it.
“Umm… I saw someone I recognized. She just left. Wondered if you ran into her outside.”
Clay looked up from his menu with a frown. “I didn’t see anyone I knew. Who?”
“Camilla Henderson. Brian Henderson’s wife.”
Clay frowned. “No. It must be someone who looks like her. They got divorced around the same time we moved. I heard she left Frederickport after the divorce. In fact, I met Henderson’s current girlfriend. What a skank.” Clay shook his head and looked back at the menu.
“No. It was her. In fact, she was talking about Brian’s girlfriend. I overheard her talking. She and another woman were sitting in the booth behind me. Brian’s new girlfriend is sitting across the restaurant right now.”
Abruptly, Clay looked up from the menu and glanced across the restaurant and spied Heather. He looked back to his wife without noticing Walt Marlow looking his way.
“I guess Camilla just moved back to Frederickport.” Debbie didn’t mention she hadn’t learned that tidbit by eavesdropping.
“Did you talk to her?”
Debbie shook her head. “No. It’s not like we were friends back then. I said nothing, and I don’t think she even noticed I was sitting here. I just heard her going on about Brian’s new girlfriend. She doesn’t like her.”
“What was she saying about the girlfriend?” Clay asked.
“They said she attacked Camilla. Camilla slapped her back, but no one saw how the girlfriend hit her first. She said she wanted to press charges, but because no one witnessed the attack on her, only that she slapped the woman, she couldn’t do anything.”
Clay looked back at Heather’s table. “I was right about her. I can always tell.”
Carla walked up to their table and asked Clay if they wanted coffee and were ready to order. Clay wanted coffee, but they were not ready to order yet. After Carla filled Clay’s mug with hot coffee, she left the table.
Just as Clay was about to take his first sip of the coffee, his hand holding the mug shook.
Debbie frowned at her husband. “Clay, what’s wrong?”
The next moment, the mug turned upside down, spilling hot coffee onto his crotch.