5
Phantastic Candies was both a place I loved and the bane of my existence. Just walking through the door nearly induced a chocolate and sugar overload. Instead of a bell, the sound of a large piece of candy being unwrapped met me as I stepped inside. And the smell . . .
All I can say is, “Mmmm.”
“Hi, Jules, I—” I jerked to a stop when I saw what had become of my favorite candy store.
Most of the shelves looked as if rabid wolverines had gotten to them. Chocolates were tossed into bubblegum bins. Price tags were scattered, half-torn on the floor. The chutes that ran along the walls were intact, but empty of the candy that normally shot through them into the waiting, grimy hands of the kids who’d purchased them.
“Hi, Krissy,” Jules said, wiping sweat from his brow. An open box sat beside him, filled with wrapped chocolate bars. “You here for the candy canes?”
I nodded mutely, still trying to come to terms with what I was seeing.
Jules cracked his back and grimaced. “You’ve come at a good time. I’ve been positively slammed today. It was a lot worse than yesterday, and I’d barely made it through that.”
No one was in the store now, but that could be because the shelves were almost empty. “That’s a good thing, right?” I eyed the bin of chocolate-covered caramels. Only a single wrapper lay inside.
“Good for profits. Not so good on my joints.” Jules stretched his neck from side to side with a wince. “Lance has a lot on his plate today or he’d be here to help. I’m hoping to coax him into it after I’ve cleaned up a bit.”
It looked as though he couldn’t get there soon enough. “If you want me to come back later . . . ?”
“No, I could use the break. Give me one second.” Jules headed for the back room, leaving me alone in the remains of the candy store.
I wandered from bin to bin, hoping to spot something to sate my sweet tooth, but decided that candy could wait. Some of the more delicate candies were crushed, likely by the greedy hands of the kids who’d looted the place. It was almost enough to bring me to tears. Is there anything sadder than an empty candy store?
I wound my way over to the counter to wait for Jules. A gift box wrapped in blue paper sat atop it. There was no tag, no indicator as to whom it was from.
“That appeared on my doorstep this morning,” Jules said, returning with two stacked boxes of candy canes. Each box held another dozen smaller boxes, each packed with the candies themselves. “I thought you or Caitlin might have left it.”
“I didn’t,” I said. “And if Caitlin did, she didn’t leave one for me.” Then again, I hadn’t exactly looked for a present sitting outside my front door when I’d left that morning. I could have walked right by it and not noticed. “What’s in it?”
“No clue.” Jules set the candy boxes onto the counter with a grunt. “I brought it to work with me so I could open it up and have a look-see, but I’ve been so busy, I haven’t gotten the chance.”
As if on cue, the door opened and a gaggle of kids ranging from four to fifteen came pouring into the store. They were trailed by a pair of harried-looking adults. The kids immediately started ransacking what little was left of the place.
I picked up the candy cane boxes. “Have fun,” I told Jules over the sound of a seven-year-old wailing that his favorite candy wasn’t in stock.
“Send help,” Jules mouthed, before bursting into a wide grin. “Children! If you find a shelf empty, fear not! I have the candies hidden away in their secret compartments in my lab. If you tell me what you’re looking for, I will do everything in my power to conjure your heart’s desire.”
That was met was a cheer from the younger kids, and a sniffle from the seven-year-old. I slipped out before anyone noticed me.
On the way back to Death by Coffee, I found myself slowing outside of Andrew’s Gifts. The store had police tape strung across the door, but I could see movement inside. There were no police cars parked at the curb, no sign that anyone was supposed to be there. With the tape across the door, it was obvious they weren’t open, so who could possibly be inside?
A burglar? In the morning? Or the killer returned to clean up evidence?
No, Krissy. Whatever is happening, it’s none of your business.
I gritted my teeth and drove on.
Curiosity gnawed at me as I unloaded the candy canes and carried them into Death by Coffee. I had no reason to believe that whatever was happening at Andrew’s Gifts was illegal, yet I couldn’t imagine the police letting anyone inside to mess up their scene. It was possible they’d finished everything up last night and what I’d seen was a very confused and soon-to-be-unemployed employee wandering the store, but I doubted it.
I set the boxes down on the counter where Jeff was waiting.
“Did I miss much while I was gone?” I asked him.
“Not really, Ms. Hancock. It’s slowed enough that we’ve mostly caught up.”
All the unoccupied tables were clean and the pastries stocked. Lena was upstairs, shelving books with Pooky Cooper, who was talking her ear off. No matter how hard you tried to keep everything organized, someone always ended up putting books in the wrong place, which meant reshelving was a near constant job. Sometimes it was accidental. Other times, not so much.
I watched Lena a long moment. She had a faraway look in her eye, but seemed to be listening to Pooky. Every so often, she would reach up and rub at her arm where she’d been bruised. Questions about Zay and their breakup surfaced, but I swallowed them back. Like with the mysterious person at Andrew’s Gifts, I was determined not to pry.
Okay, maybe not pry directly. “How’s she doing?” I asked, nodding in Lena’s direction.
Jeff was silent a moment before he answered. “She seems kind of sad. I think she misses it here. Pine Hills, I mean. And I guess, Death by Coffee too. I’m not sure she wants to go back.”
“Back to college?”
Jeff shrugged, scuffed his foot on the floor. He wouldn’t meet my eye, but that wasn’t abnormal for him. I couldn’t even get him to call me by my first name, though I’d told him to do so at least a hundred times already.
“I guess.” He glanced up toward Lena, and then looked away. “I get the feeling that she wants something, but doesn’t know how to go about getting it.”
I knew the feeling. I just hoped that whatever was bothering her, it was something fixable. “Call me if you think she needs to talk to someone,” I said. “Or if her mood gets worse.”
Jeff nodded, and then carried the candy canes to the back without another word. Upstairs, while Pooky was retrieving more books to shelve, Lena turned, saw me looking, and waved. She put on a smile that never quite reached her eyes.
I wondered if it was homesickness like Jeff thought, if it was trouble with Zay, or if it had more to do with the season. A lot of people found themselves fighting off depression during the holidays. The darker, colder weather got to some. The loneliness and lack of family and friends to celebrate with for others. I didn’t think Lena was lonely, but then again, I’d only seen her a couple times since she’d been back. There was a whole life she’d been living that I didn’t know about and it made me sad to think that that life hadn’t been happy.
The door opened and my friend Cassie Wise entered, dressed for running. She was Black, extremely pretty, and was short enough it made me feel tall.
Phantom throbbing started in my legs almost immediately. They knew what was coming and were none too happy about it.
“Cass!” I said, giving her a hug. Since everyone else had been getting one lately, I figured, why not?
“Krissy.” She flashed me a warm smile. “Are you ready for this?”
I stretched a few times, though I had no idea what I was doing. “I think so. It’s cold out there.”
“Tell me about it. I hope you brought some tissues.”
I was confused at first, thinking she meant the workout might make me cry, but then I got it. Runny noses and cold weather went hand in hand.
A few moments later, we were out the door and moving at a slow jog. In warmer months, we had to dodge past pedestrians and leashed pets, around signs and the occasional skateboarder. In the winter, we pretty much had the sidewalks to ourselves.
I’d only recently started exercising with Cassie, but I’d already started to see a difference in my endurance. Sure, I still couldn’t handle a full run without passing out, and my legs absolutely hated me every time I jogged with her, but I was getting better. We had plans to join a new gym that was supposed to come to Pine Hills a month ago, but it had yet to open. I wasn’t sure why.
We went left from Death by Coffee, jogged a good distance that way, and then crossed the street near Scream for Ice Cream, which was open, despite the season. We then headed back the way we’d come, past Lawyer’s Insurance where Mason’s dad, Raymond, worked, and which sat across from Death by Coffee, before we moved on toward the church, where I slowed, but not from exhaustion.
Someone was still in Andrew’s Gifts across the street.
I wanted to know why.
“Do you need to take a break?” Cassie asked. She sounded barely winded.
I considered pausing there, but knew if I stopped now, I wouldn’t start running again. “No,” I managed between gasps for air. “Let’s keep going.”
Cassie gave me a worried look, but didn’t object. I picked up the pace and did my best to focus on the run, but I kept thinking about that movement I’d seen, about the body being carried out of the building the night before. A man was murdered, and the killer could very well be destroying evidence at that very moment.
When we reached Phantastic Candies, we crossed the street, and started on our way back toward Death by Coffee. It wasn’t all that long of a loop, truth be told, but we’d learned early on in our runs that I couldn’t handle much more. Not yet anyway. Maybe in a year, I might be able to stretch it out some.
Maybe.
Andrew’s Gifts came into view again. That nagging feeling that I had to do something surged, causing my pace to falter until I’d come to a complete stop just outside the police-taped door.
“I heard about this,” Cassie said, coming to a stop next to me. “Should we cross the street so we don’t step all over a crime scene?” She looked down at her feet as if she expected to find blood on the sidewalk.
I shook my head, too winded to respond quite yet. I could see the person inside now. She was middle-aged, hair a mess atop her head. She was wearing a flannel shirt which sagged on her body like it didn’t belong to her. Every so often, she would raise the collar to her nose, and would just stand there, staring straight ahead, doing nothing more than breathing.
No, it wasn’t a thief or a killer.
It was one of Andrew’s loved ones.
I was about to tell Cassie that we should move on when the woman noticed us through the window. She wiped at her eyes and then crossed the store to open the door.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was thick with tears. “We’re closed. There’s been—” Her words caught in her throat.
“No, it’s me who should apologize,” I said. “I saw someone inside and was worried that it might have been a break-in. I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“You aren’t.” She wiped at her eyes again, cleared her throat. “The police gave me permission to look around today to make sure nothing was missing. I’m Erin. Andrew’s wife. Or . . . I was.” She started blinking rapidly as she fought a losing battle not to cry.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” It felt inadequate, but I didn’t know what else to say.
“Thank you.” She lifted the shirt to her nose, let it drop without smelling it. “This was Andrew’s.” She plucked at the hem with a sad smile. “I threw it on when I left this morning. I really don’t know why. It’s making me feel worse.”
“We should go,” Cassie said, edging away, “and let you get back to what you were doing.”
Erin nodded her thanks and started to close the door.
That’s when I noticed what was sitting on the counter beside the register.
“Wait!” I didn’t mean to shout, but I couldn’t help myself. “What is that?”
Erin turned to look at what I was pointing at. “What do you mean? The present?”
My nod was on the frantic side. “Yeah. The present.”
Cassie gave me a look like she thought I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had, but that box looked awfully familiar. It was wrapped in plain blue wrapping paper, just like the one that was currently sitting on the counter at Phantastic Candies.
Except this one was open.
Erin frowned and then shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t know what was in it. The box is empty now. It showed up on our doorstep early yesterday morning, but Andrew didn’t get a chance to look at it until last night right before he . . . before he . . .”
Before he died.
Jules!
Without another word, and despite the throbbing agony in my legs, I spun and started running as if my life depended on it.
Because if I was right, Jules’s life very well might.