“Could it really be a coincidence? I’ve sold less than fifty.”
“Are you suggesting someone orchestrated a gathering of those particular people? They all said in their interviews they have no ties to the victim and no connection to one another.”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” I said stubbornly. “Somebody added those expiration dates.”
“Okay,” Jamie said. “Give me the gift certificates and I’ll make sure Lieutenant Binder knows about them.”
“Back in a jiff.” I ran upstairs and opened the cigar box on my desk. The gift certificates were gone! I riffled through the small amount of cash and change I’d left in it. Nothing. Where could they be? I swore, ransacking the items neatly stacked on my desk. I scattered papers, opened folders. Still nothing.
“Everything all right up there?” Jamie called up the stairs.
“No,” I answered in a voice that brought him running. “I can’t find the gift certificates!”
“It’s okay, Julia.” Jamie laid a hand on my arm. “I’m sure you will. I don’t even know if Binder and Flynn will be back in town today. There’s time.”
“But they have to be here.” Frustration brought tears to my eyes and a quaver to my voice. “I think someone took them.”
“Took them?” I couldn’t blame his skepticism. “Is anything else missing?”
My laptop and the cigar box, with the cash I’d left to make change in it, sat right on my desk. “No. I don’t think so. But Gus said the door was unlocked when he came in this morning.”
That got his attention. “Julia, you have to lock your doors.” Door locking wasn’t common in Busman’s Harbor.
“We did lock them. That’s the point.”
“You did, personally?”
“No, Chris did, when he came back after Sam Rockmaker’s poker game.”
Jamie rolled his eyes. “Julia—”
“I know,” I said. “You’re going to say it was late. Chris had a few beers. But he wouldn’t—” Chris was careful about stuff that was important to him. He was careful about me.
“It’s okay.” Jamie tried to calm me. “Tell me this. Did the victim pay with a gift certificate?”
“No,” I admitted in a small voice.
“So it’s unlikely there’s a connection.”
“Maybe. The certificates were bought in a lot of five, but the fifth one hasn’t been redeemed. I have the spreadsheet that shows the day they were sold and the transaction number. Can Binder use that to get the credit card company to tell him who bought them?”
“Sure. Do you have the address where you sent them?”
“No. I must have thrown it away. I’m sorry I can’t remember it.” Selling five gift certificates wasn’t an everyday occurrence at Gus’s Too. I had a vague memory of the transaction, which had taken place in early November, but no memory of the details.
Jamie shook his head. The police department required him to keep his hair short, but to me he would always be my old friend, with the floppy blond hair, peeling nose, and sky blue eyes. “The credit card info should be enough. E-mail it to me.”
While he stood watching, I e-mailed the spreadsheet to his official Busman’s Harbor PD address, and then he disappeared down the stairs.
Chapter 10
When Gus and Chris returned from shopping, I helped them carry the refrigerated items up to my apartment. Le Roi fussed at the intrusion. He still wasn’t keen on Chris, and he viewed the sudden appearance of Gus as beyond the pale.
When we got back downstairs, Gus turned to us and said, “Time for you two to go. I’ll be fine here.” We both protested, but Gus said firmly, “I’m sure you have things to do. Gus’s is first and always a one-man operation. Now scat.”
Chris said, “I do have summer houses to check on.” One of his myriad jobs, an extension of his landscaping service, was tending to empty houses over the winter. With the recent ice and cold snap, he needed to make sure there weren’t any plumbing issues or tree damage. When Gus went back to the grill, Chris turned to me. “What are you up to?”
I told him the sad saga of the gift certificates. I didn’t say specifically that I thought they’d been stolen. I didn’t want to discuss it in front of Gus.
“That doesn’t sound like you, to lose something important like that,” Chris said.
“I keep thinking about that guy in the walk-in, going over and over what everyone said and did that night. I’m convinced the couples in the restaurant were brought there that night for a reason, even though they all said they didn’t know the dead guy or each other when they talked to the cops. While Binder and Flynn are in Augusta today, I want to check a few things out,” I said.