“Where is she?” I could hear the commotion on the other end as he left his office.
“Downstairs with me in the shop. We’ve locked up, just in case, but Josh says someone has been watching her.” I went back to the front.
“Did you see anyone?” Greg’s voice sounded calmer than I wanted. But to his credit, he hadn’t seen the pictures Josh had just shown me.
“Just get over here. Don’t bring the squad car. I don’t know if he’s looking out the window or not.” I watched my aunt sink into a chair, her hands shaking as she sipped from a glass of water. Not much got Aunt Jackie rattled, but this time, the fear had overwhelmed her.
“Stay put.” This time, Greg’s voice was hard. “If, and I mean if, there is something going on, I don’t need a hostage.” He paused and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was: or worse.
“Hurry.” I ended the call and paced the length of the shop, trying to listen for clues of what might be happening upstairs. Aunt Jackie rose from her chair and walked to stand by the front door. And we waited.
When Greg arrived, she unlocked the door and I wanted to choke him. “What are you doing? Did you even check out the apartment?”
“Relax, I’ve got Toby out on her back porch. He says someone is in the apartment, looking for something.”
I took a deep, shaky breath. “So what are you doing?”
“I’m going in the front, Toby’s going in the back, but we’re trying to go together. Give me the apartment key.” When I pulled the key out of the drawer under the cash register, he stepped around me and headed to the stairway. “I think the guy just wants his book back. Unfortunately for him, he just went too far.”
The book that Aunt Jackie had taken during her recent B&E event was safe with her attorney, not upstairs, which made her even more vulnerable. I sprinted to the front door, turned the lock, and flipped the Closed sign in the window. Two women were walking down the sidewalk and almost ran right into the locked door.
I called out, “Sorry, we’ll be back open soon.” Then I headed back to the bottom of the stairwell.
In the few seconds I’d been gone, Toby and Greg had entered the apartment. I heard yelling and then it was quiet. I watched as they escorted a man out the back door and down the steps into Toby’s waiting cruiser. Aunt Jackie stood next to me. “I can’t believe this is happening. I need a double shot of espresso. Or a shot of Jack Daniels.”
I followed and started making her coffee. She frowned as she walked toward the front of the shop. “Why is the door locked? How are our customers supposed to buy our coffee?”
When the lock turned and she flipped back the Open sign, I tipped my head so she wouldn’t see my lips curving into a grin.
CHAPTER 19
Greg flipped burgers on the grill for dinner that evening. Even though the investigation of Kent’s murder was still in process, he’d carved out time to have dinner with me. I’d invited Aunt Jackie, but she insisted on working her normal shift with Sasha. “Your aunt was lucky today. Leaving the apartment was a smart idea.”
I sipped on the beer and let the cool liquid flow down my throat. “I was a mess.”
He closed the lid of the grill and came to sit by me. He brushed my hair back out of my face, then pulled me close and I laid my head on his shoulder. “That guy could have gone off on her, especially since she didn’t have the book. Now he’s trying to bargain with the prosecutor, saying that he’ll drop the charges on Jackie if she’ll drop the charges on him.”
“Seriously?” I sat up straight. I wanted to kill the guy and he was going to walk away scot-free?
“I didn’t say the prosecutor was taking that deal. Jackie’s lawyer turned over the evidence after signing a we-don’t-know-how-we-got-this deal. The worse Jackie will get is some community service, but I’m thinking she won’t even be charged.” Greg tucked me back under his arm. “The guy will get prison time for this, even if he pays back his marks.”
“Like Mary? She’ll get her money back?” I drank in Greg’s scent. Being close to him always seemed to calm me.
“Maybe not all of it, and definitely not soon. She needs to tell Bill what happened.” Greg tilted my chin toward him to look into my eyes. “You wouldn’t hide something like that from me, would you?”
“Of course not.”
Greg laughed. “Baby, you always hide stuff from me. If you think I’m going to be mad when you’re doing your investigation stuff, you just don’t tell me.”
“I’ve told you everything this time. At least, I think I have.” I nodded to the smoking grill. “The burgers close? I’ll open the potato salad I bought at Lille’s and dump it into a pretty bowl.”