We drove in silence as I consumed the first muffin. Then I leaned back in the seat and thought about all that had happened.
“You really don’t have anything linking Taylor to the murder except our testimony?” I aimed the heater vents to blow the warm air toward me. The rain was still falling, making it hard to see out the window to the road. Thankful Greg was driving, I put my leg up under me and turned toward him.
“Nada. At least not yet. I wish I could put him in South Cove the evening of Kacey’s death.” He put his hand on my knee.
“Did you check Kacey’s planner? Maybe she made a note about meeting him.” I leaned my head against the seat. I felt so tired, I was going to sleep for days after this.
“What planner? How do you know she had a planner?”
I yawned. “She told me when Austin was trying to get her away from me before I told her about him and Sadie. She said she’d bought it in Bakerstown when they started working on the food truck.”
“Interesting.” Greg’s voice seemed very far away. When I woke up, we were in my driveway.
“I guess I was tired.” I turned toward the door, but paused. “So Toby turned on the GPS on my phone, that little tattletale. I’m going to have to give him a piece of my mind when I see him.”
Greg smoothed down my hair. “I guess I should tell you all of it. I was having Toby spy on you.”
“That’s why he moved into the shed?” I looked out to the back of the driveway. Toby’s truck wasn’t there yet.
“No, that was all the two of you.” Greg chuckled. “I asked him to keep an eye on your investigating since I knew you were up to something and I couldn’t figure it out. He gave me reports daily, then we decided what information to feed you to hopefully keep you safe and out of harm’s way. The friend thing was supposed to keep you researching on Facebook, not locked in an abandoned mine shaft.”
“Now I’m really going to have words with the boy. He tricked me.” Actually, he’d tricked me several times, but I wasn’t going to admit that to Greg. I was just happy to be home, where I could listen to the raindrops hitting the roof without worrying about anything.
CHAPTER 21
I got a text from Aunt Jackie Monday night. Actually, two.
Are you all right?
When I sent back a yes with a smiley face, I got a quick response: Stay home tomorrow, I’ll cover your shift.
Okay.
And that was how I came to sleep in this morning. But as usual, my body had other plans, and I was up and wandering the house by seven. I called Aunt Jackie at the shop to see how things were going.
“You need to be resting. I swear, you get in more trouble than anyone I know.” She called out to Heidi, one of my regulars who only came in the morning, mostly to avoid talking to my aunt. “I’ve got to go. Customers to serve. I suppose you’ll want to work tomorrow?”
“I suppose so.” When I chuckled, she hung up on me. I knew she was just worried about me, and that gave me a warm feeling. Emma whined at my feet. “Your aunt says hello.”
I got a bark from that, and she headed to the door. After letting her out, I called Greg.
“Hey, sunshine. I figured you’d sleep in today,” Greg said.
I slumped into a chair. “I tried. No luck. Anything in Kacey’s planner about meeting with Taylor?”
“Yep. And she was going to cut him from the club. There was a whole discussion written out on a sheet of paper about how she caught him skimming from the treasury. We asked him, and the guy confessed to everything.” Greg chuckled. “I guess he thought your testimony was going to send him up the river anyway.”
“What did his lawyer say?”
“He talked before his court-appointed lawyer got there. We tried to get him to shut up, but he waived counsel. Man, that woman was hot when she got to the station. But it was all on tape, and we didn’t do anything wrong. John is over the moon since he only has to do the sentencing part of the trial.” I could hear Greg tapping on his computer.
“Sounds like you’re busy tying up loose ends. I’ll let you go.”
He stopped typing. “Just want you to know I love you. And stay out of trouble.”
“Trouble seems to follow me.” I tried to remember what the line was from the movie, but it wasn’t coming to me.
“Honey, you dive in feet first. It doesn’t follow you, you find trouble.” When I started to object, he laughed. “Go read and take care of yourself. I’ve got a delivery coming from Lille’s for your lunch.”
A knock on the front door had me distracted. “Is it here already?”
“Shouldn’t be. I told them to deliver about noon. Don’t hang up until you check to see who’s there.” Greg didn’t like me having unscheduled visitors, especially living so close to the highway.