“I don’t not think that they’ll come back,” Beau said. “If I’m right that you interrupted them, they might have unfinished business.”
Unfinished business. I didn’t like the sound of that.
“It could be worse,” Tansy said, coming over to grab a garbage bag. “I’m just happy they didn’t go after the shop. Yes, they made a mess, but it’s still better than them trashing our inventory.”
“At least Sip & Spin has an alarm, and security cameras,” Beau said.
Tansy and I looked at each other.
“You don’t think…?” I asked.
“Yeah, I do think,” she replied.
“What’s going on here?” Beau asked.
“This weird dude came into the shop an hour or so before we got home. He asked specifically to speak with Tansy, but he didn’t seem to know anything about music, and didn’t have any questions.”
“I distinctly remember him asking when we closed,” Tansy added. “I got a weird vibe off him, like he was casing Sip & Spin, but now I wonder if he was just trying to verify we wouldn’t be home anytime soon.”
“I’m going to need your security footage,” Beau said.
“Of course,” Tansy agreed. “Juni, you have access on your laptop, don’t you?”
“Yup.” We automatically backed up all the footage to the cloud. As the most tech savvy of us sisters, I was the one who had remote access. “It’s in my room. I’ll go get it.”
When I reached my bedroom and opened the door, I had to admit that Beau had a point that an outsider might have a hard time telling if my room had been tossed by whomever had searched the kitchen and living room. My room was chaos, but I liked it that way. I found my laptop right where I’d left it and hugged it to my chest. At least the intruders hadn’t taken it.
Beau joined me in my room, and I cleared a spot for him on the bed. “You okay, Junebug?” he asked as he sat. “I know how disconcerting this can be.”
“‘Disconcerting’ is one word for it,” I said, sitting cross-legged next to him. My laptop booted up. I bypassed the password with my fingerprint on the scanner before logging into the video feed. I jumped through the footage. It wasn’t hard locating the strange man with the bulbous nose since we hadn’t had many customers today. I passed the laptop to Beau.
After watching the footage a few times, he said, “There’s not much to go on. He didn’t do or say anything threatening?”
I shook my head. “He gave me the willies, and the timing is suspect. That’s all.”
“I don’t think I can put out an APB because some guy gave you the willies, but when we catch these guys, this could be evidence. I’ll need a copy of this.”
“I’ll email it to you,” I said, taking my laptop back. I checked the website’s email. We had several online orders. At least the scandal hadn’t affected the online store yet. I was expecting cancellations for the upcoming Arts & Crafts Night, but there were none. Either people would rather not default on the price of admission, or they were so invested in learning how to make picture frames out of old vinyl that they were willing to risk spending a few hours with a possible murderer.
“You don’t have to stay here tonight,” I blurted out.
“It’s no biggie,” he said. The doorbell rang. Beau stood. “That’s probably the pizza.” He went to answer the door, leaving me alone in my bedroom. After putting my laptop away, I followed him.
Beau, my sister, and I sat around the kitchen table eating pizza and sipping cold beer straight from the bottle. “What kind of person would break into someone else’s home and empty their freezer?” Tansy asked between bites.
“You’d be surprised,” Beau replied. At our expectant stares, he continued. “People hide stuff in the weirdest places. I’ve found drugs in fake beer cans in a refrigerator, an urn stuffed with cash on a mantle, and a priceless stamp collection hidden in a family-size box of Cheerios. You don’t even want to know all the things that can be stashed in a cookie jar. People store contraband in their freezer, evidence in their toilet tank, and stolen goods in their fireplace all the time. You’re just lucky you came home before they started prying up floorboards and smashing holes in the walls.”
“They wouldn’t,” I said.
“They would,” Beau said. “And that’s why I have to ask again. Do you have any idea what they were looking for?” I shook my head. “Anything at all?” he asked Tansy.
“No. We don’t keep cash in the house. Or artwork. Or jewelry,” she replied.
“There is another possibility,” Beau said slowly, as if he wanted to make sure we didn’t miss a single word. “Someone’s trying to scare you.”
“In that case, it worked,” Tansy said.
“I’m not kidding,” Beau said.
My sister stared at him from the opposite side of the table. “Neither am I.”
“Ladies, I’m not an idiot.”
My sister muttered, “Could have fooled me.”
Beau continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “I know y’all. You’re out there playing detective, and someone doesn’t like it. Maybe if you’d share who you’ve been talking to and who’s on your suspect list, I can check their alibis and see who might have done this.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tansy said.
“You’re lying,” Beau countered. He turned to me. “Junebug, talk to me.”
I glanced at my sister. She shook her head. I jiggled my leg under the table, and Beau put one hand on my knee to still it. I could never betray my sisters. But I couldn’t lie to Beau, either. Not Beau, my friend, and certainly not Beau, the detective. But there was a thin line between lying and bending the truth. “We’re not investigators.”
“But you’ve talked to people,” he prodded.
“Of course we have. I mean, it’s a small town. People talk. That’s what they do.”
“Fine. Then tell me everyone you’ve talked to in the past few days.”
“That would be impossible,” Tansy said. “We run a popular business. Plus, with the Bluebonnet Festival, it would be easier to list all the people we haven’t talked to.”
“Tansy’s right,” I agreed.
“Fine. We’ll do this the hard way. I’m guessing you’ve talked to the widow?”
“Maggie and I brought her cookies this morning when we stopped by to offer our condolences,” I admitted.
“And the town council?” he mused. “Or were you at Town Hall to interrogate Leanna Lydell-Waite specifically?”
“We were checking up on a friend,” Tansy said.
“Nonsense. We’ve already established that you and Leanna aren’t friends,” Beau said.
“We could be,” she argued.
“And who else? Pete Digby? Hank Akers? Jen Rachet? Samuel Davis?”
“What do Hank or Samuel have to do with this?” I asked, leaning forward and taking mental notes. I knew Samuel wasn’t involved. My honorary uncle wasn’t the killing type. I didn’t know Hank well enough to tell one way or another. I had no idea how either of them might be connected, but I was determined to find out.
“Nothing,” Beau said. “But now you’ve confirmed that you have spoken with Pete Digby and Jen Rachet.”
“I’ve also talked to Esméralda Martín-Brown, Miss Edie, Marcus Best, and pretty much everyone at the Garza dairy farm.”
“Marcus Best? The used car dealer?” he asked, leaning toward me. “What did he have to say?”
“Other than trying to get me to buy a Juke? Not much,” I said.
“He’s dating our mom,” Tansy volunteered.
Beau leaned back in his seat. “I didn’t know your mom was seeing anyone. Maybe we could double date some time.”
Tansy let out a distinctly unladylike snort. “That’s quite possibly the worst idea I’ve ever heard in the entire history of bad ideas,” she said. She finished the last bite of her pizza crust, got up, and rinsed her hands at the sink. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some cleaning to get to.”
“Sometimes I get the impression that your sister doesn’t like me,” Beau quipped.
“Oh no, you’re wrong about that.”
He lifted one eyebrow. “I am?”
I nodded. “Tansy doesn’t dislike you. She hates your guts.”
“Gee, that makes me feel better.” He stood and carried our empty plates to the sink and started on the dishes.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” I asked him, leaning against the counter while he washed. “Like catching killers or whoever did this?”
“It’s my night off,” he said. “And I don’t have any plans since my date flaked on me.” He turned off the water and turned to face me. “Junebug, don’t get your hopes up. Most home invasions aren’t solved unless the perp is caught in the act.”
“And the murderer?” I asked.
“Him, we’ll catch.”
“Him?” I asked, wondering if I’d missed something.
“Him or her,” he corrected himself. “Or them. Can’t discount the possibility that there are two or more people working together.”
“Like the people that broke in here,” I prodded.
He nodded solemnly. “I know it looks like I’m doing nothing, but while we’re waiting for reports and results and computer searches to come back, I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“Babysitting me and my sister in case the burglars come back?”
“Doing dishes,” he answered. He handed me a damp plate. “Unless you want to wash and I’ll dry?”
I chuckled. “Nah I like it this way. Wouldn’t want to ruin my manicure.” I held up my hands. My fingernails were short and uneven, with flakes of blue polish on my right pinky. The rest of my nails were bare and could seriously use some attention. If I ever had the free time, or the free money, I might worry about them, but for now they were fine.
While I put away dishes, Beau went back to work on the fridge. Tansy turned on music and the house started to feel more like a party and less like a crime scene. By the time everything was back in order, it was getting late. I stifled a yawn. “You don’t have to stay, you know,” I told him again.
“I know.” He got one of the remaining beers out of the refrigerator and untwisted the top. “You thirsty?”
“Yeah,” I said.
He held out a Shiner, and as soon as I reached for it, pulled it back. “First, promise me something, Juniper.”
I grimaced. Beau didn’t call me by my full name unless he meant business. “What?”
“Promise me you’ll stop looking into Bob Bobbert’s murder. I know you’re worried about your sister, but you running around interrogating people is just painting a target on both your backs. If anything, it’s making Tansy look guilty when you and I both know she isn’t, and while I can’t prove that your not-so-friendly intruders were here because of your nosiness, I can’t prove they weren’t, either.”
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“I know I’m asking too much, but promise me you’ll be careful.”
“Deal,” I told him. I reached for the beer, and this time he let me take it. “Want to watch TV or something?” Since Tansy was still organizing her hope chest in the living room, we set up my laptop between us on my bed and streamed nature documentaries on Netflix until I fell asleep.