This was going to look really bad in my personnel file. My first month as counter manager and I’d gotten one of my employees killed. And not just any employee, but the storeowner’s daughter. I should’ve let her go get her latte like she wanted. If I had, she’d be happily texting and sipping, I’d be unhappily brooding and working my ass off, the store would be open, cops wouldn’t be swarming the place, and no one would be carting a body bag out the door. But nooo, I had to go and assert my stupid authority.

At least I knew now how Shasta had gotten a job she wasn’t qualified for or interested in and why Daryl hadn’t fired her.

Xavier put his arm across my shoulders. “Well, at least old man Stratford knows who you are now.”

I gave him a get-bent glare. I hadn’t shared Mr. Stratford’s little revelation with Tabitha and Xavier. Not long after the police had arrived, Mr. Stratford had pulled me aside and insisted—no, insisted was too nice a word, threatened was really more accurate—me not to tell anyone Shasta was his daughter.

“It’s really not your fault,” Tabitha offered.

I transferred the glare to her. “You’re almost convincing.”

“That’s not what I meant. I mean it’s totally not your fault. How were you supposed to know that shelving unit was going to fall on her? Who could know that? No one. That’s who. I wouldn’t have known. You couldn’t have known.”

I put a hand up to stop her. Tabitha always jibber-jabbered when she was nervous.

“I bet her family could sue for the shelves not being strapped to the wall,” Xavier said.

I swiveled my head in his direction. “What?”

“No strapping. Didn’t you notice?”

Come to think of it, I had, but I guessed I’d been so distracted by Daddy Department Store’s declaration and threatening aside that the shelves not being bolted to the wall had kinda taken a backseat. Why hadn’t that shelving unit been fixed to the wall?

Lance strolled over and inserted himself between Tabitha and me. “Terrible tragedy. Terrible.” He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me to him. “How’re you holding up, love?”

Xavier tightened his hold and brought me closer to him. He hated Lance. “She’s fine.”

“Indeed she is.” Lance dug his fingers into the flesh on my hip and jerked me closer. “Now that I’m here.”

I suddenly found myself the center of a tug of war, my head bobbling back and forth. I finally had enough of them and elbowed them in the sides. “If one of you tries to pee on me, you’ll both be pissing sideways for the rest of your lives. Knock it off.”

They dropped their arms.

Xavier crossed his over his chest. “She was fine before you got here,” he grumbled at Lance.

My retort caught in my throat as they brought Shasta’s body out of the stockroom and hefted the body bag onto a stretcher. Even though she was nearly as tall as me at five foot nine, the black bag seemed too big for her young body. The nervous chitchat was suspended for a moment as we all watched them wheel her body out of the store.

“Why was she even over on that side of the stockroom?” Lance’s voice held the same disbelief we were all feeling.

For once His Fake Highness was making sense. Annoying, tactless sense, but sense nonetheless. The shelving unit that had fallen on Shasta held Shy Kitty products, not Estelle Landers. Our products were on the other side of the stockroom. So what had made her turn right instead of left?

“Maybe she saw something shiny and climbed up for a closer look.” Tabitha clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. “I can’t believe I just disrespected the dead like that.”

“Did you or one of your counter mates ask Shasta to get some product down for you?” I asked Xavier.

“No. We pulled stock this morning.”

Curiouser and curiouser. The shelves weren’t attached to the wall like they were supposed to be. Shasta had been on the wrong side of the stockroom at the wrong time. There was a seldom-used door at the other end of the stockroom. Someone could’ve lured her in, brought the shelving unit down on top of her and then easily escaped. Everything about this “accident” just didn’t feel right to me, like the very real possibility that it hadn’t been an accident at all. That maybe, just maybe someone had unstrapped that shelving unit and used it to kill.