Cass rested her head against the booth’s seat back and closed her eyes, thankful for a moment of peace before she’d have to recap her day for Bee and Stephanie. The rhythm of the pop music pulsed through her. She’d left Beast at Mystical Musings with Emmett to fix the air-conditioning and prayed it would be fixed tonight and cooled off by morning. She didn’t have it in her to suffer another day in the sweltering heat.
“Do we get to hear what’s going on now?” Bee looked at her over the top of his open menu.
“Yes. Let’s order, and I’ll tell you everything while we wait for our food.”
Stephanie closed her menu and laid it on the table. “Sounds like you had an eventful day.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“That’s right, we don’t,” Bee whined. “Because you haven’t told us anything.”
The waitress approached and pulled a pad from her pocket. “Good evening. What can I get for you?”
The woman wasn’t familiar to Cass, and for one fleeting moment she wished they’d gone to the diner instead. James Ingram, the owner of Island Grill, didn’t live on Bay Island, and instead of hiring locals he mostly hired people who enjoyed spending the summers on Bay Island but couldn’t afford the astronomical prices many of the inns charged during the height of tourist season. Then again, going to the diner would have given her the comfort of familiarity, but it wouldn’t have offered the same anonymity the grill did.
Stephanie ordered a Caesar salad.
In need of something more substantial than greens, Cass ordered a steak and shrimp combo with mashed potatoes with a side of garlicky string beans. And a Caesar side salad.
Bee lowered his menu a little. “Are you done now?”
“Ha-ha.”
He grinned and pointed to something on the menu. “I’ll take today’s special.”
They handed their menus to the waitress and she hurried off.
Cass was pretty sure the special of the day consisted of a variety of fried seafoods with rich creamy sauces. “What happened to your diet, Bee?”
“What do you mean? I ordered seafood. That’s good for you.”
“Not when it’s fried.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t see what difference it makes. Seafood is seafood. Right?”
Cass let it drop. Bee was in no dire need of a diet, though a lifestyle change probably wouldn’t hurt. His cholesterol levels had to be through the roof with all the junk he ate.
“Thank you for waiting outside for me when you got back to the shop. I’m sorry I held you up.” If he’d have come in while she was speaking to Emmett, she might still not be aware the woman trying to contact her was Emmett’s wife.
“No worries. When you didn’t come right out, I peeked in the window and saw you with Emmett. I figured you were trying to help—he made air quotes around the word help—then wiggled his fingers. “I didn’t want to get in the way of any of your hocus-pocus.”
“I appreciate it.” Her connection to Emmett had been tenuous at best. The slightest interruption would probably have made him clam right up.
“Yeah, well, wouldn’t want to get whammied or anything,” Bee mumbled.
“Very funny.” Cass sat up straighter before she risked dozing off. She’d already tried Bee’s patience making him wait so long. But where to start?
“I know you won’t go into specifics, but how’s Emmett holding up?” Bee asked.
“He’s doing okay, all things considered. Mostly, he’s worried about Joey, about what would happen to him if Emmett went to jail.”
“That’s got to be a scary thought.” Stephanie leaned back to allow the waitress to set their drinks on the table.
Cass waited for her to finish before continuing. “I told him if anything ever happened to him, I’d take care of Joey. I also told him you two would help.”
“Of course we would.” Typical Bee, no hesitation whatsoever, just jump right in to help a friend in need. “Did that make him feel better?”
“I don’t really know. It seemed to.” She couldn’t imagine a scenario where Emmett actually went to prison for a crime he didn’t commit, but it had been known to happen. “Did Tank say anything to you, Steph? Do they really think he did it?”
Stephanie twirled the straw around in her water, seemingly mesmerized by the small whirlpool and the clacking of the ice cubes.
“Stephanie?”
She sighed and let go of the straw without taking a drink. “He said they don’t know. All evidence points to him, and yet, he knows Emmett. He doesn’t want to believe he killed him, but Dirk had a way of getting under your skin.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Bee said a little too loudly.
Cass looked around to make sure no one could overhear their conversation. Their booth sat in a corner and no one on either side of them seemed to be paying them any mind. Stephanie had said all evidence pointed to Emmett, but how could there be evidence if he didn’t commit the crime he was accused of? “Did he tell you what kind of evidence they have?”
Stephanie looked around and lowered her voice. “Witnesses from the reading, timing, opportunity, motive . . .”
Bee waved it off. “All circumstantial. I heard that much in the deli, the bakery, and the diner today.”
Stephanie stared at him and lifted a brow.
“What? Did you expect anything else? Now . . .” He took a sip of his Diet Coke then sat back. “Skip all that and get to the good stuff. You know, the stuff you’re not supposed to share with us, but Tank knows full well you will.”
Stephanie eyed him for a moment, then leaned across the table a bit.
Cass and Bee leaned in closer.
“Supposedly, they found a bat with Emmett’s fingerprints on it by the back of the car where Dirk was found.”
“Aha . . .” Bee pointed a finger at Cass. “That’s why they asked me if Emmett played baseball. Now it makes sense.”
“Was it, you know . . . ?” Cass couldn’t bring herself to ask if it had been the murder weapon. As much as she wanted to believe Emmett, having his fingerprints all over the murder weapon found at the scene would not bode well.
Stephanie nodded.
Bee sank back and rubbed a hand over his face. “Is there any other physical evidence?”
“Not that he told me, and to be honest, I think he only told me that much so we wouldn’t get involved.”
She was probably right, not that it was going to stop Cass. “Is that all he said?”
“No, he also said, and I quote, ‘I don’t want you and your buddies getting involved in this. Stay out of it, and let us handle it.’”
Bee looked Cass in the eye. “Are you going to stay out of it and let the police handle it?”
She tried to gauge Stephanie’s reaction, but Stephanie kept her expression blank as she studied Cass and waited for her answer.
“I can’t. I’m sorry, Stephanie, and you don’t have to help, but Emmett asked for my help, and I can’t say no.”
Stephanie smiled. “I figured as much. You can count me in, if there’s anything you need help with.”
“Me too,” Bee groaned.
“Unless it involves breaking and entering.” Stephanie shot her a warning glare. “Then you can leave me out.”
“Thanks, guys, and no breaking and entering. I promise.” Probably. Cass relaxed a little, comforted now that she knew she’d have help, though it had never really been a question.
A familiar-looking man waved to her from the to-go counter.
She waved back and squinted to bring his face into focus in the dim lighting.
He put his arm around the woman he was with and gave Cass a thumbs-up, then lifted a picnic basket and headed out the door.
Thrilled he’d taken her advice, Cass watched them go, Marilyn tucked beneath John’s arm, snuggling close to him. After twenty-four years of marriage, they still looked like newlyweds. She hoped Marilyn would come in for her reading so Cass could see how their date had gone.
Stephanie returned to swirling her straw. “Did you ever mention the guy in the deli to Luke?”
“Not yet.” She wasn’t about to bother him with that nonsense while he was in the middle of the art theft investigation, which had been consuming every minute of his time, and now a murder investigation on top of it. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to him.”
“Well, good thing I mentioned it to Tank then.” Stephanie fidgeted with a sugar packet, tapping it up and down against the tabletop, spinning it between her fingers, then tapping it some more.
“And?”
“He’s going to look into it, but without knowing what the guy looks like or anything, he wasn’t optimistic. He was going to check if the deli has security cameras, so we’ll see.”
“Hey, does anyone know if Emmett has security cameras at the garage?” She couldn’t recall ever seeing any out there, but she’d never specifically looked for them either.
Stephanie shook her head. “Tank already said he didn’t. And the garage is pretty secluded out there, other than the hotel—”
“What about—”
“And before you ask, I don’t know. He didn’t say if the hotel’s security cameras showed any of Emmett’s lot or caught anything else.” She tossed the sugar packet back into its box.
Even if they didn’t show the lot, they might have caught someone coming or going down the street. Cass added a trip to the Bay Side Hotel to her mental to-do list. If Henry, who owned the hotel, wouldn’t tell her anything, she could always grab Elaina Stevens, Henry’s niece, who worked as a maid at the hotel. Since she also worked as a waitress at the diner, Cass would have to be careful what she said to her, but it couldn’t hurt to ask if the cameras had picked up anything or if any of the guests had seen anything.
“Why are you so fidgety today?” Bee pointed at the cardboard coaster Stephanie was bouncing on the table.
She put it down and folded her hands.
Bee studied her another minute before turning to Cass. “Anyway, enough of this. I’ve been waiting all day to hear what happened with Aiden’s date.”
“Or is it confidential because it was a reading?” Stephanie asked.
Bee glared daggers.
“I never ended up doing the reading. She was pretty upset, not only with Aiden but with me too, because the crystals I’d given her to aid in her love life didn’t work out.”
Bee tilted his head. “How do you figure?”
“Seriously?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Bee said. “Seems to me the crystals worked just fine.”
Seemed to Cass Bee’s definition of fine needed work. “How can you even say that?”
He shrugged. “Well, now that she’s rid of the loser who was cheating on her, she can move on and find someone else. Sounds like a win to me.”
Leave it to Bee, who didn’t even believe in the power of crystals, to find a way to defend Cass. “If you weren’t sitting across the table from me, I’d give you a great big kiss right now.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “I’ll take a raincheck, sugar.”
The waitress returned and set their food in front of them. “Can I get you anything else?”
Cass ordered another water with lemon. Sitting in the sweltering heat all day had made her unbearably thirsty. The aroma of melted butter, garlic, and herbs made saliva pool beneath her tongue.
“You were saying?” Bee dug into his fried calamari, dipping a piece into the lemon-garlic aioli sauce.
“Um . . .” The scent of the food and intense hunger had distracted her, and she’d lost track of the conversation.
“Aiden’s date . . .” Bee rolled the hand holding his fork for her to continue.
“Oh, right.” She cut a piece of steak. It melted like butter beneath her knife, and her stomach growled. “She said she overheard him on the phone, and it was someone else’s idea for him to attend the reading.”
Bee chewed and swallowed. “Now, that makes more sense. I found it odd he’d attend a reading in the first place but even more so after I saw his attitude there. He definitely doesn’t believe in the occult. At least, it doesn’t seem like he does.”
“No, I got the same impression.”
“Did she say who talked him into going?” Stephanie pushed lettuce around her plate, then finally speared a piece of grilled chicken.
“No, but she seemed to think it might have been the brunette Aiden was staring at, though I don’t know what led her to that conclusion.” She took another bite of the juicy meat. She hadn’t done a reading, and Nanette was certainly not a patient, so sharing information didn’t seem a betrayal of trust. “I was a bit concerned when she left.”
Bee’s fork halted partway to his mouth. “Why?”
“She basically threatened to confront Aiden and the brunette. Seems the two had a history of some sort, and Nanette wanted answers.”
Bee shrugged. “Maybe she needs the closure before she can move on.”
“Maybe.” But Cass wasn’t so sure. Her eyes had turned cold, calculating, filled more with anger than sadness. “I’ll probably never know. It’s not like she left a business card or anything, though she did say her name, so I guess I could look her up. Maybe she’ll post something on social media.”
“Maybe.” Bee ate a piece of coconut shrimp. “Now, do you want to share whatever went on in the shop today that you’ve avoided talking about?”
Cass paused when a familiar duo walked in and zeroed in on Cass’s booth. Great, just what she needed, those two showing up right when Bee was demanding answers to questions she’d rather not discuss.