I found the body on April 12. It was a warm spring day, and I was surprised to see her sitting in the pickup, windows up, and engine turned off. It wasn’t the best part of town, but the vehicle was in decent shape. I stared through the windshield. She appeared to be asleep, head back against the headrest, eyes closed. Then I saw the bruising around her neck so very reminiscent of my own. The tie lying on the seat next to her was familiar too.
#
“Nice tie,” I said to the customer standing in front of me. It was a lovely shade of steel blue with gray stripes and went beautifully with the dark gray suit.
Of course, there isn’t much that wouldn’t look good on the man. Marcus Cantono was gorgeous. He was tall with jet-black hair and startling blue eyes. His face was classically handsome and his body—well—he had a great body. Typically when I saw him, he was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that showed off his strong legs and broad shoulders, but he was on his way to work. In spite of the clothes, Marcus looked dangerous. He was a big man, not fat but muscular, and he radiated danger. Being part of a former drug-dealing clan added to the image. He was trying to steer the family to the legitimate side of the law. So far, he had only been marginally successful.
“Thanks, Leah,” he said giving me a grin. My heartbeat sped up, my knees went weak, and a slight flush filled my face like a romance novel heroine. It was a natural reaction. One I couldn’t have controlled even if I tried. Marcus’s smile was something to behold. The problem was he knew it. His eyes roamed my face, and his grin widened.
“Stop it,” I said sharply, glaring at him with narrowed eyes. He simply laughed.
An odd chain of events had made us friends. When Marcus returned to town to care for his aging mother, his family had been involved in a drug-dealing operation. Selling drugs was the family business, but Marcus had moved to California as a nineteen-year-old to escape that life.
I had accidentally intercepted a shipment of heroin and had come to the attention of his family. They had tried to intimidate me so I would stop asking questions. I’d been looking for a murderer—not a drug smuggler; although for a while, I thought they were the same. The encounter with the Cantonos had frightened me, but I wasn’t about back down, and that had impressed Marcus. He had put the word out on the street that I was under his protection. A couple of weeks later, the whole drug operation had been taken down by the police, and some members of his family were arrested. Marcus swooped in to rescue the rest.
The younger members of the family were now working at the restaurant he had opened and trying to learn how to fit into mainstream society. The oldest Cantono brother, Damian, had been running the whole operation. He was out on bail and also trying to go straight. I had my doubts, but Marcus was determined to save his family, and I admired him for that.
I had been shocked when Marcus flirted with me and then asked me out. He was not the type of man I normally dated. I’m what most people would call average. Average height, average weight, average looks. Marcus was anything but average.
We’d gone on one date on New Year’s Eve. He had kissed me at the stroke of midnight, and that was all it had taken for us to realize we were destined to be just friends. We didn’t have that special chemistry, but the man’s smile still made my toes curl.
“Tell your mother happy birthday,” I said, handing him the bag with a packaged set of Rose in Bloom.
My store, Scents and Sensibility, sold lotions, soaps, and perfume in various fragrances. Rose in Bloom was one of our most popular. The packaged set came with all of the fragrance options. Marcus had purchased the exact same set for his mother at Christmas.
“You can tell her yourself,” he said to me. “This Sunday evening we’re having a private party at the restaurant. You’re invited.”
I smiled. The restaurant in question, Bella’s, was one he had opened in late February. It was one of the finest in town, and the food was superb. He had an excellent chef and an attentive staff.
“Great. What time?”
“We’re eating at six. Mama doesn’t like to stay out late. Come by around five-thirty.”
I’d met Marcus’s mother, Arabella, on a couple of occasions. She hadn’t liked me much the first time, but as soon as she realized I wasn’t after her son, she became quite friendly. She liked me fine as a friend of the family. She just didn’t want me marrying her youngest son. Arabella had said numerous times that Marcus needed a real Italian wife. In her mind, that meant someone who didn’t work outside the home, was a great cook, and would worship the ground her son walked on. I didn’t fit any of those categories.
Marcus didn’t need that type of woman. He was already used to getting his way. One flash of his devastating smile and he usually got what he wanted. Marcus needed a woman who would stand up to him—someone who wasn’t intimated by his good looks. Mama Arabella and I would have to disagree.
“I’ll be there,” I told him. “Now you need to leave. It’s six, we’re closing, and I’ve got a date.”
“Ah. Our chief of police finally got a night off?”
Alexander Griggs was the police chief of our small city, Reed Hill, Texas. He had started his position in November. A few weeks later, I found the body of a woman in the dumpster behind my store. The woman in question had been shipping drugs for the Cantonos through the store she managed.
Isabel Meeks had not been a pleasant person, and few of us liked her. Because I had threatened her earlier in the day, I had been the lead suspect for a short time. It turned out the murder had nothing to do with the drugs or my dislike of Isabel. It had been the jealousy of an extremely troubled woman. Candace Hager had killed twice before trying to shoot a pregnant woman and strangle me. The murders had thrown our city into an uproar, but Griggs and I had worked together. We flirted a little and shared one steamy kiss. I had thought that meant something, but I didn’t see him again until I found another body a couple of months later.
It had been a misunderstanding that had caused Griggs to disappear from my life. He had shown up at my apartment on New Year’s Eve just in time to see me get into a car with Marcus. Believing I was involved with someone else, Griggs had removed himself from my life until the next murder. When he realized Marcus and I weren’t dating, he warmed back up. Griggs and I saw each other fairly often. I would go to the police station to take him lunch or drop off one of my famous strawberry pies. He would stop by the store on his way to or from work or an interview. We just hadn’t been on many official dates. Actually, we had been on four. Three others had to be canceled before they ever started. Two of the four dates had been interrupted by some police crisis mid-way through the evening, but the two dates we made it through to the end had been nice.
“Yes. He’s off, and you need to go.”
I pushed Marcus to the door. He laughed softly and wished me a good night. I locked the door behind him and headed to the back. My assistant manager, Emma Mayfield, was with another last minute shopper.
Normally, I didn’t mind staying late. I loved my store, my employees, and my customers. Scents and Sensibility belonged to my two best friends and me. Gabriel Weston, Olivia Graham, and I met in college. Gabe and Olivia married and moved back to Gabe’s hometown. With no other prospects, I followed. I fell in love with Reed Hill but was working a dead-end job. Olivia was bored at hers, and Gabe had been handed the reins to his family’s manufacturing business. One night of a little too much wine and our dream store was born. Olivia was a chemist. She mixed and designed our fragrances, Gabe’s company produced them, and I sold them. For the last couple of years, we had turned a healthy profit, and we were all happy.
But I was anxious to leave. I hadn’t seen Griggs for almost two weeks. During the shutdown of the Cantono’s drug operation in December, the involvement of one of the local police captains had come to light. Raymond Hunter was still in prison, but his arrest had left a hole in the police department. Griggs had replaced him with an officer by the name of Megan Ross. She was smart, competent, and willing but lacked any real experience as a detective. Griggs had to spend a lot of time training her. She had been thrown into the deep end on her first case which had been the murder of a distant cousin of mine. That was the case that had brought Griggs back into my life.
Hunter had been the mastermind behind the drug operation, but he wasn’t the only police officer involved. It had taken Griggs several months to weed out the rest which had left his department short-staffed.
If that had been the only thing in our way, Griggs and I would’ve found time to get together, but at the end of March, the flu arrived in town. It was late for a flu epidemic so everyone was surprised and unprepared. It started in the schools but swiftly spread. Emma, who had three young children, had to take off the whole first week of April. Usually, that wouldn’t have been a problem as one of my other employees could have stepped in, but Myra, who was a retired teacher, had been helping out at the high school because so many were out sick. Our other option for help was Olivia, but two of her boys had also caught the flu. Kara and I were the only two left standing. Working a lot of hours didn’t leave me much time for dating.
About the time, my employees returned to work, the flu made its way to the police and fire departments. Having emergency services short-handed was not anything anyone wanted. Griggs stepped in when Megan went down, and several other officers clocked a lot of overtime.
My phone rang as I walked into the backroom of the store. My heart sank when I saw it was Griggs. He wouldn’t be calling unless he had to cancel. With a quiet sigh, I answered.
“I’m sorry,” he said immediately. His deep, smoky voice sent a shiver down my spine—the good kind of shiver. I loved his voice.
“It’s okay,” I replied as I sat dejectedly in the chair behind my desk.
“No. It’s not,” he said sharply, “but I can’t do anything about it. I found David in the bathroom throwing up.”
David Reddish was the other captain on the Reed Hill force. He was in his late fifties, attractive, and had a crush on Myra. He was one of the most competent officers I had ever met as well as being a great guy.
“Flu?”
“Yep. He wasn’t even going to tell me.”
“He knows you need the time off.”
“Yeah, but…”
“It’s okay. I understand.”
“I’m really sorry, Leah.”
“I know.”
“Listen, Megan is supposed to be back tomorrow. I’ll brief her in the morning, and then we can grab lunch. Do you think you could get the afternoon off? We can make a day of it.”
I leaned back in the chair with a silly look on my face. “I think I can arrange that.”
“Great.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll call you in the morning.”
We chatted a few more minutes before he was called away. I had just gotten off the phone when Emma came in.
“What are you still doing here?” she exclaimed. “Go. I’ll lock up.”
“No need,” I replied. “He had to cancel.”
“Oh, no. Not again.”
“David has the flu.”
Emma’s eyes flew open wide. A small smile started forming on her face and quickly became a huge grin.
“Do you think he got it from Myra?” she asked.
The two of us had been trying to get Myra and David together for a couple of months. Myra had a bad relationship in her past. Her ex-husband, Leon, had been abusive, and she was skittish. David was making headway, but her ex had recently resurfaced which brought back a lot of unpleasant memories. He had been working with the man who had killed my distant cousin. Leon had held Myra and the oldest Weston boy hostage to make me cooperate. Myra had hit him over the head with a pitchfork. I think that did more for her relationship with David than anything. By defending herself and Aaron, she had freed herself from Leon’s influence. She had accepted a couple of David’s invitations to dinner.
“I don’t think Myra had the flu,” I said with a laugh.
“No,” Emma agreed, “but she might be a carrier. She was around all those kids. I’m going to assume he contracted it because he was close to her. It’s much more romantic that way.”
“The flu’s not romantic.”
“No, but how he caught it could be.”
“True,” I said with a sigh. “It would be nice to be close enough to catch the flu.”
“Sorry about your date. The two of you have had the worst luck.”
“I know, but he said Megan will be back tomorrow. He’s going to meet me for lunch, and we’re going to spend the day together. You and Kara will be on your own tomorrow afternoon.”
“Not a problem. Why don’t you take the whole day off? Aren’t you meeting Tracy tomorrow morning?”
Tracy Hamilton was my real estate agent. I was in the market for a house. My search had been put on hold with everything that had been going on, but she had called me earlier in the day stating she had found a great deal.
“I am, but it’s early. We’re meeting at eight. I should have plenty of time to view the house and still get here before we open.”
“Well, good luck.”
“Thanks. Now let’s go home.”