“Where are we going?”
“Coat room,” Freddie said, speeding down the hallway ahead of me, Sean at his side.
“Why?”
“We need to get our coats.”
I should have seen that one coming. “Why are we getting our coats?”
“Because we are going outside again.”
Dammit. That one too.
“Freddie, just tell me what’s going on.”
“I will, but we need to hurry.”
Sean at least had the decency to look back at me with an apologetic smile. He also looked kind of happy too. Excited. I knew that expression. Freddie had him drinking the chasing a hot lead Kool-Aid.
Once we were back in the main foyer, a number of people lobbed questions about Stanley to Freddie, but he batted them all away without so much as a glance. This lead had to be a pretty good one.
A moment later we were inside a room with beautiful dark wood paneling—but no furniture—just long metal racks heavy with coats. Freddie planted his hands on his hips. “Now how the hell did Tyler and his friends organize all these coats?” He spun a plastic disk with a W on it clipped around the top bar. “Is it by last name?” It looked like some of the coats had number tags, but others were filed alphabetically—maybe for the locals that the kids knew? That didn’t make much sense. Then again stealing a boat and launching into a bunch of trees didn’t make a whole lot of sense either. They were probably doing the best they could.
I headed over to where I thought I might find the B section. “Seriously, Freddie, talk. What’s going on?”
He flicked his eyes over to Sean. “Bean here came through for us.”
I cleared my throat. “You mean Sean?”
“Of course, I mean Sean,” Freddie muttered, whipping through coats like nobody’s business. “You see any other Beans around here?”
My turn to shoot Sean an apologetic smile, but he didn’t look upset. Actually, he looked kind of amused. Huh, he was extremely good-natured. Freddie needed someone who was extremely good-natured.
“Bean,” Freddie went on, making my ears cringe, “tell her what you told me.”
“Well, I knew how worried you both were about Freddie’s dog,” he began. “So I started asking the other servers if anyone remembered getting the pretty blond lady a drink with any peanuts in it or chocolate—because chocolate can be bad for dogs too.”
“You are so sweet.” I made eye contact with Freddie through some coats and smiled. Freddie’s return expression sliced down my smile like a warrior on horseback.
“Anyway, nobody remembered anything like that, but Chloe had a funny thing happen.”
Uh-oh. Chloe? Why did I suddenly have the feeling that Freddie was gathering us for a witch hunt? “When you say a funny thing happened, do you mean, funny ha-ha?”
“No,” he said, a little gleam coming to his eye. “Funny, odd.”
“Okay,” I said slowly then let out an excited yip. “Found my coat!” It was in the B section right where I had expected to find it. Of course it also had a sticky note with Blome written on it. Maybe Freddie could tackle Tyler’s spelling next … once he stopped growling with frustration.
I slipped on my jacket. “Okay, so tell me Chloe’s funny, odd story.”
“Actually,” Sean said, pushing up his glasses. “I shouldn’t have said funny at all. Chloe’s pretty upset.”
“Why?”
A pained expression crossed his face. “I think I should let her tell you.”
“We’re headed to find her next,” Freddie shouted. “Once I can find my stupid coat! How hard is it to file a coat under the name Ng? It’s two letters, N-G!”
“Can you at least tell me what it’s about?”
Sean picked up one of the coats that had slipped off its hanger in Freddie’s rampage. “Chloe thinks she’s the one who gave Candace the drink.”
“What? Seriously?” I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.
He nodded, returning the coat to its place.
I whipped my head around. “Would you hurry up already!”
“It’s not under F either!”
“Wait,” I said, looking at Sean—Freddie was beyond reaching. “Why do we even need our coats?”
“Chloe is outside going through the trash. She feels terrible. She’s trying to find the glass.”
“Or she’s destroying evidence!” Freddie shouted.
Sean shook his head in a little motion and mouthed the words I don’t think she’s destroying evidence.
I nodded.
“You know what? Forget it!” Some metal hangers jangled to the floor as Freddie yanked a fur coat off the rack.
“Um … what are you doing?”
“I am taking this one.”
I frowned. “I don’t know if taking someone’s fur is such a good idea.”
“Oh please,” Freddie muttered angrily. “It’s Mrs. Applebaum’s. She won’t care if I borrow it. I lent her husband my backhoe to … do whatever it is that people actually do with backhoes.”
Freddie had bought a backhoe a couple of years ago to dig out his own pool. He’d abandoned the project once the dirty lake water seeped up into the hole—and he realized he needed permits. More trouble than it was worth. He decided to keep the machine as a recreational backhoe, though, because he couldn’t return it for full price.
Sean shot me a bemused look.
“It’s a long story.”
He picked up another coat from the floor. “Freddie is a really interesting person, isn’t he?”
“Yes. Yes, he is.”
“Let’s go,” Freddie said, his fur-covered shoulder brushing past me.
“Should I come along?” Sean asked with feigned lightness.
“As long as you don’t slow us down,” Freddie said.
“Great,” I said, smiling at Sean before hurrying after Freddie. Once I made it to his back, I hissed into his ear, “You know, you need to be a little bit nicer to Sean.”
“Why?”
“Because if you’re not careful, you’re going to end up dying alone.”
“Oh thank God,” Freddie muttered. “And here I was worried I was going to die with you.”