Addison hit the brakes as she and Felix approached Joe’s Dive, which was even divier in the light of day. She whipped into a free space along the street like they were shooting a scene from Tokyo Drift.
It took a moment for Felix to release his death grip on the seat. He gave her a look, but said nothing. It’s not like he had a choice in transportation. His company van was still being dusted for prints after it was towed at the fundraiser the day before.
Addison tipped her fedora up and studied the joint, watching her mirrors to make sure she hadn’t been followed. She felt like a regular gumshoe, ready to crack the canine case. She’d even worn quiet shoes—or gumshoes, if you will—in case she needed to do some sneaking around. The fedora was just a fun accessory, though she decided to skip the trench coat. She was wearing her sexy fifties-style dress, and it would have been a shame to cover it up.
Addison grabbed a notebook from her purse and ran down a list that already included Kitty Carlisle, Melody, Julia Edwards, and—at Felix’s insistence—Phillip Montgomery III.
At least it gave her a reason to see Phillip again, to remind him of what he’s missing out on, since she’d probably never hear from him again after what had happened at his fundraiser. Not with all of his guests still blaming her for the missing dogs.
But the first one on her list was Red Bra, which is why they’d come to the bar. She clicked her pen on, holding it at the ready. “So do you think we’ve missed anyone on our list?” she asked Felix.
“Oh probably about a hundred names.”
She glared at him. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. But we can only do so much. We’re assuming that the dogs were stolen for one of two reasons. Money or competition.”
“So who else can we list with competition as their motive?”
“Well, anyone who’s had their dog stolen is automatically off the list. They can’t exactly show a dog that’s supposed to be missing. No competition there.”
Addison tapped her pen on the steering wheel. “That still leaves a lot of dogs that have the potential for Best in Show, and the potential for thieving owners. The Western Dog Show is a big competition.”
“We have to start somewhere. That’s why we’ve got your customer Julia Edwards.”
Addison was reluctant to put Julia on the list, but she recalled how Ms. Edwards had baited Penny Peacock at Phillip’s party. There was more than a healthy dose of competition between them.
Felix pointed to the list. “Why Kitty Carlisle? She hasn’t competed in years. I thought her dog was too old.”
“Yeah, but she got major creep-factor points.”
“Creep factor?” He raised a skeptical eyebrow. “So we’re basing our investigation off of your heebeegeebees now?”
“No. If that was the case, you’d still be on there.” She smiled sweetly. “But Kitty was the only one hanging around the stage area when her dog was getting groomed. She could have been casing the joint.”
Addison ran through the list of names under the “financial gain” category. “The breeders and owners wouldn’t likely steal a dog to sell it for gain,” she said. “They compete because they love animals. They wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them. It would have to be someone outside of the competition. One of the staff at the parties.”
“Right. Or someone on the outside using them as an inside man. Someone who overlapped both the cocktail mixer and Phillip’s fundraiser. That leaves our list of staff to investigate pretty small since there weren’t many who worked both.”
“Except for you,” she said, with a suggestive tone to her voice.
“And you,” he shot back.
She stuck out her tongue at him. “Don’t forget Red Bra. She was at both events too.”
His forehead wrinkled. “Who’s Red Bra?”
“The server with the red bra. The one you were flirting with at the cocktail mixer and at Joe’s Dive.”
“You mean Charlotte?” He laughed. “Jealous much?”
She felt her cheeks warm. “You wish.”
Gripping the wheel, she psyched herself up for her first interrogation. She could sense Felix eyeing her from the passenger seat.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
“Yeah. You know, just going over the plan in my head. So how are we going to do this? Are we going to drill her? Good cop, bad cop kind of thing?” She punched the palm of her hand in case it wasn’t clear who the bad cop was.
“No. We’re going to sit down with Charlotte and have a chat thing. Maybe a snack, if you’re good.”
“And if she doesn’t spill?” Addison punched her palm again.
“Stop with the gumshoe talk. And what’s with the fedora?” Plucking it off her head, he tossed it in the backseat of her convertible. “Charlotte is a friend.”
“But she was the one who drove the van away from Phillip’s house. And that’s the only way those dogs could have been taken off the property.”
“We don’t know that for sure yet. The police are still searching the van for clues. Besides, I know Charlotte wouldn’t do something like that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I trust her,” he said, in an end-of-story kind of way.
But Addison wasn’t about to take his word for it. She’d be the judge of that.
“We’re just going to see if she knows anything,” Felix said. “Maybe she’s heard something from the other staff. She hangs out with some of them outside of work.”
“And you don’t?”
“No. I go home after work. I tend to keep my work life and personal life separate.” He reached for the door handle. “Come on. I’ve already texted her. She’s expecting us.”
Addison looked at him in surprise. She thought he’d be more the party type. But she kept this thought to herself as they got out of the car and headed across the street to Joe’s Dive.
The afternoon sun hit the dirt on the bar’s windows, making them look like they hadn’t been cleaned in years. Addison skirted around a suspicious stain on the sidewalk that she thought could use a good hosing off. Beneath the grime and the neglect, she imagined the bar could be a pretty cute place if Joe took a little pride in it.
Felix held the door open for her and they stepped into the dim interior. The dirt caking the windows didn’t allow much light to filter in, but she figured those already drinking at one in the afternoon probably wanted to hide in dark corners.
Addison scanned the room and spotted Red Bra, or Charlotte, right away. She was picking up an order of drinks at the bar.
Felix waved and she smiled back, nodding her head to the side of the room. Heading for the corner, Felix slid into a booth. Addison sat across from him. She watched as Charlotte finished serving a table their sandwiches and beer.
“So when are we going to go talk to your assistant?” Felix punched his own palm, making fun of her earlier good cop, bad cop routine.
“Not yet,” she said. “I can’t just roll up and ask her, ‘So, steal any dogs lately?’ We’ve got to be crafty about it. If she’s hiding something, then she’s hiding it well. Otherwise the police would have arrested her by now.”
Besides, Addison really liked Melody. She didn’t like even suspecting her, but facts were facts. However, if it turned out she really was innocent, she didn’t want to lose Melody as an assistant because she’d wrongly accused her.
Charlotte finished up with her table and went to talk to an older guy with a shaved head behind the bar. The guy nodded and held up a hand showing five fingers. Charlotte nodded and took off her apron, crossing over to join their booth.
“Hey Felix,” she said, with a smile Addison thought too cheerful and friendly to be real.
“Hey,” he said. “Thanks for talking to us.”
“No problem. Joe says I’ve only got five minutes. We’re working short staffed today. Jayden never showed up for his shift. Apparently he came down with food poisoning or something.” She dropped her voice. “Between you and me, I think he helped himself to some of that leftover quiche after it had been out in the sun too long.”
Addison took her pen and pad out of her purse and wrote down JAYDEN.
When she looked up, both Felix and Charlotte were staring at her.
“Don’t worry about her,” Felix told his friend. “How have you been?”
“Okay. It could have been worse. I didn’t get much backlash from the Montgomery event. I just got pulled from the high-profile events for the week. But what about you?” She laid her hand on Felix’s arm. “Joe said you’re done.”
Felix shrugged. “I’m only laid off for the time being. I’ll be fine. I have some savings set aside.”
“But what about your down payment?” Charlotte asked. “You won’t save up enough by the deadline.”
Addison frowned. Down payment? She resisted the urge to start jotting down questions she needed to ask Felix too.
“That’s exactly why we need your help, Charlotte.”
“Of course, anything for you.” She beamed at him. “What did you have in mind?”
It was like Addison wasn’t even in the room. Okay, well, she hadn’t really said anything, so that might be why. She pretended to jot a note down on the pad just to feel useful.
Felix lowered his voice, as though he might be overheard. “If we can figure out whodunit, then I can clear my name.”
“Our names,” Addison cut in.
“Our names,” Felix corrected. “And I can pick up extra gigs to make up for lost pay. I can still make the deadline.”
DEADLINE? Addison wrote down.
“Oh sure,” Charlotte said. “I’ll help if I can. What did you need to know?” She sat up straighter, finally pulling away from Felix. Not that Addison noticed or anything.
“When you were at the Montgomery event getting ready to head back to the bar, did you see anyone hanging around? One of the guests, maybe? Did anyone help you load up the empty kegs or crates?”
“Not that I can remember.” She glanced back at the bald man behind the bar, who Addison assumed was Joe.
Joe gave her a pointed look, tapping his watch.
“I can’t say for sure,” she added quickly. “It was a pretty busy event. I was in and out making kitchen runs around that time.”
“How about any of the other staff from either that event or the cocktail mixer? Have you heard any talk going around?”
“No. Nothing much just—”
“Charlotte!” Joe barked from behind the bar. “Orders are backing up. Break’s over.”
“Coming!” she called, slipping out of the stall.
Addison leaned forward, not ready to let her go. “‘Just’ what? What were you going to say?”
Charlotte raised a red bra–strapped shoulder. “Just the usual gossip, but nothing that would be of any help to you.”
Addison wanted to ask her more, but Joe dinged the bell sitting on the counter and threw her a sour look.
Charlotte rolled her eyes.
“Thanks for talking to us,” Felix said.
“Yeah, no problem. Sorry I can’t be of more help.” She gave him an apologetic wave over her shoulder as she ran back for her apron. “Good luck!”
The moment they were out of the bar, Addison returned to her bubbly self. “Okay, where to next?”
Felix gave her a weird look.
“What?” she asked.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” She unconsciously reached for her hair to check that every curl was perfectly in place.
“You could have been a little nicer.”
She began walking back to the car, not meeting his gaze. “There’s something off about her. I just don’t trust Red Bra.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand. “It’s not jealousy.”
“What’s the big deal about wearing a red bra, anyway? Is it a fashion faux pas?”
“Nothing’s wrong with it. I have plenty of colored bras. Red ones, pink ones, blue ones, animal print ones…” She tapered off as his eyes drifted down to her dress’s neckline, as though he was wondering what color she was wearing today. “But I don’t show everyone. That’s reserved for VIP eyes only.”
“Really? How does one get on this VIP list?” His lips curled into that hungry wolfish smile she recalled from the night at the bar.
As they passed a bespoke tailors shop, she glanced into the window. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s a black tie event.”
Addison paused to gaze at the storefront display. Three mannequins lined up in the window were dressed in quality suits, handmade from the finest fabrics.
“There’s just something about a man in a suit, you know?”
“Can’t say I do,” he said.
“A well-tailored suit is to a woman what lingerie is to a man.”
“I can assure you that’s not true,” he said, eyeing up her neckline again like he had Superman’s X-ray vision.
“Oh but it is,” she argued. “It’s romantic. It’s mysterious. It takes a man’s game to a whole new level. Heck, it might even clean you up a little.”
Addison eyed up the tux in the middle, practically drooling as she imagined Felix filling it out to perfection. “Men in Black wouldn’t be the same if Will Smith ran around in sweatpants. James Bond would otherwise be just a ruffian, but the suit transforms him into a gentleman. A tuxedo on Bruce Wayne is as powerful as the Batsuit on Batman.”
When she finally turned away from the window, Felix was staring at her. “What’s your obsession with movies, anyway?”
The abrupt question caught her off guard, and it took her a moment to recover. She blinked, wondering why he cared. “My parents ran a corner store that rented videos. I watched a lot of movies growing up.”
Addison headed back for the car, weaving in and out of people window-shopping, mostly so she wouldn’t have to talk about it anymore. She didn’t have the worst of childhoods, but there were aspects she didn’t exactly reflect fondly upon.
He trailed behind her, not dropping the subject. “I bet you had the perfect life growing up. Let me guess. Cheerleader? Homecoming queen?” he teased. “Life must have been so easy for you. Like one of your fairy tale movies.”
Addison snorted. It was far from a fairy tale. Maybe that’s why she escaped into movies growing up. So she could imagine herself in a different life, with a mom around, and a dad who didn’t have to work all the time. Instead, she was raised by the Addams Family, Willy Wonka, and good old Walt Disney.
“My mom left when I was seven. My dad had to raise me on his own while trying to keep the corner store he owned afloat. It kept him pretty busy so I had to entertain myself.” She shrugged. “So I watched movies. It was like a free babysitter.”
“Sounds rough,” he said. “I’m sorry. A kid needs both parents.”
Addison glanced at him, wondering if he spoke from experience. By the furrow between his brow she thought he might, but she didn’t want to pry.
Addison could still remember the night she’d woken up from a bad dream and stumbled into her parents’ bedroom to find her mother loading her belongings into a suitcase. When she’d asked her mother why she was leaving, she’d said it was because they didn’t have enough money for all three of them to survive on. Like she was being selfless.
For years Addison wondered about that. How could one less income earner in the household make things any better? But what her mother had really meant was that there wasn’t enough money for her.
The almighty dollar had ripped their family apart, had left her father working sixteen-hour days to keep the convenience store they owned afloat. Had left Addison in her cousin’s hand-me-downs. Had left her without a mother.
But she was an adult now. Her life could be whatever she wanted it to be. A choose-your-own-story adventure. She wasn’t going to settle for anything less than her happily ever after, something she’d been imagining since she was a kid watching those movies in the back room of the store.
So she waved the heavy mood away. “I don’t have any regrets. If my mom didn’t want to be a part of my life, then no big loss. My dad did the best he could. He worked very hard to take care of me and keep a roof over our heads. And I hope to return the favor one day. As in soon, since he’s about to lose his roof. And his wife.”
“His wife?”
“Well, not really,” she said. “But money problems can tear relationships apart, you know?”
“Not if your relationship is strong enough.” Felix spoke with such certainty, that again, she wondered about his past.
She made a noncommittal noise. It wasn’t like she’d been old enough to really understand the dynamics between her parents. “I just worry. Dad’s been through a lot. He deserves to be happy, and Dora makes him happy. I just don’t want to see them struggle.”
Felix gave her an amused look. “So you’re going to save them.”
“Well, I can help. But first things first.” She gave a peppy go-get-’em fist pump as she rounded the car. “We have a mystery to solve.”
Felix stood on the other side of the car regarding her with a curious look. Not giving him the opportunity to throw her a pity party, she gave him a wink and hopped behind the wheel.
The moment Felix slid into the passenger seat, she whipped out her notepad. “Okay, so who’s this Jayden character that Charlotte mentioned?”
“He’s a new kid,” he said. “I don’t know him too well. We’ll put him on the list to check out.”
Addison flipped back a couple of pages in her notebook and added Jayden’s name to the list, then returned to her questions. “Charlotte mentioned a down payment, that you had a deadline. What was she talking about?”
“Is that part of your investigation?”
“Maybe,” she said vaguely. “I have to consider all angles.”
He sighed, but his mouth quirked into a smile. “I am going to buy a bar. Or at least I’m hoping to.”
“Really? A bar?” she practically blurted. “You want to start your own business?”
“Well, you don’t have to say it like that.” He actually looked affronted.
“No. That’s great. It … it just surprised me, is all. I had no idea.”
Felix stared at her for a moment, and she felt the weight of his next words. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
Addison was certainly beginning to think so.
“I’ve got goals,” he said. “What do you think? I want to be a minimum-wage wonder for the rest of my life?”
Addison shrugged. In fact, that was exactly what she’d assumed. “No. Of course not.”
“A buddy of mine is going to sell his Irish pub in the South of Market area. He knew I was interested so he’s letting me have first crack at it before putting it on the market. But I have to come up with the down payment by the end of this month. I’ve been working my ass off.” His hand clenched into a fist on his knee. “I almost had it too.”
Addison could see how much this meant to him. It looked like they both had dreams to protect.
“And you still will. It’s not over yet,” she said with conviction. “Let’s see, who’s next on our list today? Ah, yes. William Jackson. Do you have an address for him?”
“You bet I do.”
“Great. I just want to make a quick stop at the Regency Center first.”
Felix was reading the list over her shoulder curiously. He reached over and pointed at RED BRA written on the notepad. “You can cross Charlotte’s name off the list.”
Her pen hovered over the page uncertainly. “Did you notice how cagey she got when we started asking her questions?”
“She wasn’t cagey.” Felix leaned back and put his seatbelt on. “Joe was rushing her. He can be a total dick sometimes.”
Addison pretended to scratch her name off the list, but closed it before Felix could see that she actually put a star next to it.