Katie nodded. “I can live with that.” She stood. “Do you mind if I take a look at the basement?”
“Why?”
“I just want to take a look. When you and Quinn are talking about the area, I come up with nothing to visualize. It’ll help to have a picture in my mind of the place you or Quinn refer to. Have you been back down there since everything happened?”
“Yes. This morning.”
Of course he would have. He’d have checked every nook and cranny after the detectives and CSU left and the scene was released. “Did you find anything?”
“No. Just cleaned up all the residue left by law enforcement and swept out some dirt that had been tracked in.” He gestured toward the back of the restaurant. “But I’m more than happy to take you down.”
“Thanks.”
She followed him through the restaurant, then down the stairs, taking note of the fine décor detail. The brick steps, the wooden banister, the old pictures on the stairwell wall. “You like history.”
“Love it. It fascinates me for some reason. I like to think that if I know the mistakes made by others before me, I’ll be smart enough to learn from them.”
“Hmm. I know what you mean.”
At the bottom of the steps, she stopped and looked around. Full wine racks, storage shelves, and containers. “You’re very organized.”
He laughed. “You can thank my manager for that. She’s amazing.”
“You’ve got some good people working for you.”
His eyes clouded. “And maybe some not so good.”
“The woman who misrepresented you to Quinn?”
“Yes. I wonder if that was deliberate or if she just really misunderstood what I said to Maurice.”
“I’d like to know that too. Can you think of who it might be?”
“No. Unfortunately. As far as I’m concerned, I have a good working relationship with all of my employees. I have about a hundred people working for me—just with this restaurant alone. Another hundred at the restaurant that burned. A mixture of full and part time. I don’t know them all on a personal level, of course, but I have met each one at some point over the course of the time they’ve worked for me. I checked the records of those who were working that day. This is a large restaurant. We stay busy. Sometimes I have fifty people on duty. That day there were forty-three workers.”
“Wow. It would take a while to question them all.”
“Yes. Even going over the list, no name jumped out at me.”
“It might not be important. If Quinn thinks it is, he’ll work on it.”
“Like a dog with a bone.”
She laughed. “Exactly.” Katie ran a hand down the interior wall. “What was this place before it was a restaurant?”
“An old inn. The second floor above the restaurant used to be living quarters. I plan to restore them with profits from the restaurant and then rent them out.”
She nodded to the floor. “Looks like you didn’t get all the dirt.”
“What?” He walked closer, looked where she pointed, and placed his hands on his hips. “Huh.” He went to a small closet on the other side of the room and came back with a broom. She opened the basement door and he swept the dirt out. “That’s weird. Maybe one of the staff came down here after I did and had dirt on his shoes or something.”
A thud at the back made him look up. “What was that?”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t know. I think it came from back here.” She looked around. “Or upstairs.” She walked toward where she thought she’d heard the noise and placed her hand on the wall. “What’s back there?”
“Nothing. Just storage. The access door is around here.” He led her to the other side of the U-shaped section. He twisted the knob. “Locked.” He knocked on the door. “Hey, is anyone in there?”
No answer.
“You have the keys?”
“Of course.” He pulled a set of keys from his pocket. He started to open the door when a loud crash shook the floor just above them. “What in the—” He raced to the steps and Katie followed behind him at a fast clip. At the top, just inside the restaurant, he rushed over to the small crowd gathered around their waitress. Sarah, he’d called her. Katie watched him wade through and take Sarah’s hand. “What happened?”
“I’m sorry, Daniel,” Sarah said.
A pitcher lay shattered on the floor, with pieces of glass swimming in the tea. “It’s fine,” he told her. “Really. Don’t worry about the pitcher. Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine, just stupid. One of the customers grabbed my rear as I walked past, and even through all the layers of this silly dress, it startled me so bad I dropped the pitcher.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Where is he?”
Sarah waved a hand. “He left.” She indicated his overturned chair.
Daniel righted it and slid it under the table. “Is he a regular?”
“No, I’ve never seen him before.” Two other waitresses appeared with towels and a broom and began to clean up the mess. Sarah smiled at them. “Thanks, ladies.”
Daniel walked to the door and looked out. Stiffened. “What was he wearing?”
“A flannel shirt and I think he pulled on a brown coat. But—”
Daniel strode out and Katie hurried to follow him. “Daniel?”
He kept going until he came face-to-face with a man who was wearing the clothing Sarah had described and getting ready to get into his white Buick. “You just assaulted one of my waitresses.”
The tall man turned. Katie stood back, ready to jump in and help if Daniel needed backup. Bare hands against a gun or a knife sometimes ended badly for the unarmed person. Then again, Daniel had his gun on him but she was fairly certain he wouldn’t pull it unless his life was in danger.
“I didn’t assault anyone,” the man sputtered. “What are you talking about?”
“Are you denying you placed your hand on one of my waitresses? That you grabbed her?”
The man bristled. “I didn’t touch anyone, and if she says I did, she’s a liar.”
“What about the video footage I’m getting ready to pull up from my security camera? Is that going to lie too?” Daniel’s soft voice belied the deadly intent displayed by his body language.
The man slammed his car door and swore. He faced Daniel, fists clenched at his sides. Katie shifted into a better position to watch his hands.
“What’s your name?” Daniel asked.
“John Doe.” The man sneered. “And I didn’t grab anyone. You look at your video and see I’m telling the truth.”
“If she said you did, you did. She’s playing the part of a southern belle in an historical restaurant. And if you’re a gentleman, you keep your hands to yourself. You’re not welcome here again. I’ll be getting your face from the video footage and making sure my staff knows it. You show up here again and you’ll be charged with assault.” He paused. “If she doesn’t decide to press charges today.”
“She’s crazy! She brushed up against me, I didn’t grab her!”
“Then why are you running?”
“Because my marriage is already on the rocks, and if this gets back to my wife, I’m done, you understand? I can’t let that happen. And you sure don’t have to worry about me coming back. I’m getting out of here before this day gets any worse.” The man let out another string of choice words, opened his car door, and climbed inside. Within seconds, he was squealing from the parking lot.
“You get his plate?” Katie asked.
“Yep.”
“Me too.”
When he turned, a slow anger burned in his eyes. He looked past Katie. She turned to see Sarah standing in the doorway looking regal and southern—and a bit teary-eyed. “Thank you, Daniel. No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.”
He scowled. “Guys like that are creeps. Are you going to press charges?”
She flinched. “No. I just want to forget it happened.”
“You could teach him a lesson.”
Sarah shook her head and backed up. “No, I think you might have been the better teacher in this instance.”
“Still think you should press charges.”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No.”
“Fine. But next time, bash the pitcher over his head.”
Sarah gave a short bark of laughter. “Good idea. Hopefully there won’t be a next time.”
Katie bit her lip, her admiration for the man growing the more she got to know him. Sarah disappeared back into the restaurant. The curious rubberneckers dispersed. Some back into the restaurant and some to their vehicles.
They walked back into the restaurant and took their seats once more while he closed his laptop. He looked at Katie. “I think I’m done here. Now what?”
“While Quinn’s checking on Tim Shepherd, we can be proactive.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“One, why don’t we do a little digging into Maurice Armstrong?”
“And two?”
“I promised Riley I’d talk to your neighbors and see if anyone saw anything last night.”
He shoved his laptop into his black bag. “I’m going to leave too. I’d feel better working from home and being close to Riley after hearing there was some unknown person outside my house last night.”
“Of course.”
He led the way, then held the door for her.
She lifted a brow. “Thanks.” She stepped outside and pulled her coat tighter around her.
Daniel shut the door behind him.
A crack sounded and something slammed him to the sidewalk.