Mid-Sunday morning Thayer sat across from Gilda in Café Beanz and flagged the waitress for a coffee. Puffy dark circles shadowed his eyes. "We have a lot to talk about."
She set aside her breakfast sandwich, her meager appetite squelched not only by Thayer's presence but the sight of Gary's car out front. "If you want to talk to me about Walter, I'll come down to the station. If this is personal, can it. I've heard everything from you I want to hear."
"How many times do I have to apologize?" he asked. "What else can I say? I'm sorry. I messed up."
"So you've said." She took the bag out of her tea.
"Then why won't you take me back?" His voice took on the hint of a whine. "We made a really great team."
She hugged her cup. "Experience. Like Happy says, 'A tiger never changes his spots.'"
"Doesn't he know tigers have stripes?" Thayer winced. "Since when have you ever taken dating advice from him?"
Gilda scowled and shot him a glare. "Around the same time you let the barista grind your beans behind the counter."
His bronze face deepened to burnt umber. "That was a one-time thing."
"Yeah. The one time I caught you. Before that, she sweetened your coffee for six months." She met his sour glare. "I know about the other girls too, Thayer. The blonde from the quilt shop. The redhead from the ice cream shop. The Goth girl from Happy's. The yoga teacher from Erie.
"I'm a changed man, Gilda." When the waitress set his coffee on the table, he leaned over to watch her walk away.
Gilda grimaced. "Yeah, that's blatantly obvious."
He held out both hands. "What? I'm a man who appreciates a woman's natural assets. Is that a crime?"
"Only if you're dating me at the time. Go ahead and do whatever you want." She slid out of the booth, taking her leftover food and coffee. "You're not my problem, and you haven't been for years."
"I'm serious, Gilda. You should really reconsider. We made a great team. All those other women meant nothing. You were the only person who made me feel good about myself. That little house we looked at just came on the market again."
She stopped. "The only thing you and I made well together were headlines right after I threw you into a fifty-pound bag of coffee beans and split your scalp open with the grinder."
Chuckles erupted from other patrons. One lady even applauded.
"You really need to get over it." Thayer frowned. "You've always had a bad temper. That girl left me, you know."
"Good for her. So did I." Gilda handed her sandwich to the waitress and asked for it to go. "In case you haven't noticed, Thayer, I've done pretty well since I kicked you to the curb. I wouldn't take you back even if you begged and bought me a pink Porsche."
She turned to walk away but only got as far as the next booth.
"What about Mick?" he asked.
Gilda had a perfectly good explanation for "What about Mick?" She'd practiced it in front of her bathroom mirror every night for a year until she'd convinced herself of all the reasons Mick Williams was off limits in her personal life. He never listened to her. He made her do all the work yet took all the praise. He was only gorgeous on the outside. He was more bull-headed than Gilda.
"What about Mick?" Thayer asked again.
"Mick won't date you either."
A man at the counter applauded. "Good for you, honey. You tell him."
"I don't need your approval, Fabio," she said.
Fabio sat hunched over his coffee. "Probably not. From your sudden departure, I take it my partner asked a few questions about Walter you didn't like."
She took her wrapped sandwich from the waitress. "He didn't ask any questions about Walter. All he wants is for me to drop my defenses and take him back."
"Huh." He shoved the last of a Danish into his mouth. "It's not good to let one's lust cloud their judgment. Have a seat. I'll ask the questions he was supposed to."
"Like I told your lunatic partner, I'll go to the station to answer any questions you both have," she said. "For now, I have other things to do."
Fabio nodded. "The karate school's closed until after the funeral, and you're stuck here for the weekend and have no family to tend to. What's so pressing?"
"My life. Good-bye, Fabio."
He stirred his coffee. "I see. Good-bye, Gilda. Enjoy the rest of your breakfast. Don't choke on your guilt."
She left the café daydreaming about dumping scalding coffee over both their heads.
"You seem to be a social butterfly early today." Gary's deep voice startled her. "Thayer and Fabio aren't stupid enough to think someone like you could kill Walter, are they?"
She walked around the front of his car. "No."
"Then Thayer must be trying to win you back again." He grinned when her mouth dropped open. "Don't look so surprised. I hear a lot of things in my business."
Gilda stopped near the driver's window. "What do you want with me?"
"Actually, I was watching them." He pointed up the street.
Mick and Chloe stood in front of the school in heated discussion. Chloe scowled and thrust a handful of papers at Mick then shoved past him. Mick remained in front of the school, mouth agape, staring after her yellow Ferrari when she sped away. He flipped through the papers and cursed, kicking the brick wall before he disappeared inside the school.
"Now there's a man with things to hide," Gary said.
"Tell it to the police. They're inside." Gilda scuttled to the far side of the street. She would have felt sorry for Mick but figured whatever happened was likely his fault anyway. As much as she wanted to know what was going on, she wasn't ready for another confrontation so soon after seeing Thayer.
Things around Sandstone Cove were getting stranger by the minute.