Софи Келли - A Night's Tail

I leaned against the back of my chair and stretched one arm over my head. It could have been a coincidence that Lewis Wallace had ended up at a bar where Zach/Michael worked. On the other hand . . .

“I need to talk to him,” I said to Hercules.

The cat’s response was to stretch out a paw and bat my cell phone closer, then he jumped down and headed back to the porch. Clearly the next part of this fact-finding mission was up to me.

I picked up the phone and called Maggie. “Hi,” she said. “I was just talking about you. Well, actually, about Owen and Hercules. Another customer came in and asked about the calendar. I really think Ruby is going to have to do a second one.”

Owen and Hercules had posed for a series of photos taken by my friend, artist Ruby Blackthorne, at various landmarks around Mayville Heights—the library, of course, the Stratton Theatre, on the walking trail along the river—with the resulting photos made into a calendar to promote the town. Everett Henderson had funded the project. The response had been even better than we’d hoped. The first printing had sold out and so had the second. And people were still asking for copies or wondering if there was going to be a version for next year.

“I guess that will depend on whether or not Ruby and Everett can reach a deal with the ‘talent.’” I laughed. “Sometimes I feel like I’m just part of the celebrity entourage.”

“Only you carry sardine crackers instead of a water bottle,” Maggie teased. “What’s up?”

“I need to go back to The Brick. Do you have plans tonight?” I picked up my hot chocolate and realized the mug was empty.

“Nothing I can’t change,” she said. “Does this mean you’ve decided to buy yourself some peacock feathers?”

“No, it does not,” I said firmly. I explained about Zach Redmond and his connection to Lewis Wallace. “I know he’s a friend, Mags, and I’m not saying he killed Wallace, it’s just an awfully big coincidence.”

“You’re right.” I heard her exhale on the other end of the phone. “You should talk to Zach, and I do want to come with you.”

“Thanks,” I said. It would be a lot easier having her with me. Not only did Maggie know Zach, but she was funny and kind and wherever she went she just drew people to her. Which probably explained Ethan’s attraction, now that I thought about it.

“What about Roma?” Maggie said. “The three of us haven’t been on a road trip in ages.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “I’ll call her and get back to you.”

I ended the call and made one to Roma.

“How do you feel about a road trip?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said almost before I finished asking the question.

“You don’t even know where we’re going.”

“I don’t care.” She sounded a little frazzled. “Just tell me what time and I’ll pick up you and Maggie.”

I pulled my legs up underneath me and shifted sideways on the chair. “What’s going on?”

“My living room has been invaded by ginormous hockey players who can somehow fly down the ice at lightning speed and swat a little piece of frozen rubber into a net but can’t walk across the floor without bumping into something.”

I stifled the impulse to laugh, remembering that Marcus had mentioned three of Eddie’s former teammates were in town. Roma and I settled on a time and I took her up on her offer to pick Maggie and me up in her SUV. Unlike my truck, it had heated seats. I sent Maggie a text letting her know Roma would be stopping for her and when. Then I got up to make another cup of hot chocolate.

I heard a noise behind me and turned to see Owen at the basement door. He cocked his head and seemed surprised to see me.

“I live here, too, remember?” I said.

He wandered over to his bowl, peered into it and then nudged it with a paw before looking at me again.

“It’s not supper time,” I said.

The microwave buzzed and I took my mug out. Owen crossed the floor and sat at my feet. He meowed loudly, then looked at the cupboard where I kept the stinky crackers.

“Two,” I said, holding up the corresponding number of fingers. “And I’m only giving you those because your brother already had two.”

I got out the two kitty treats and set them on the floor in front of me. He gave a small murp of thanks and then bent his head to sniff each cracker. He’d been that way since he was a kitten, always suspicious, it seemed, that his food might be off somehow.

“‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,’” I said.

A furry gray ear twitched, but that was the only reaction I got. It seemed Owen wasn’t a fan of Shakespeare.

After I finished my drink and gave Owen a scratch behind the ears and carried him upstairs because he was suddenly too tired to walk, I called Marcus. “I have to cancel our plans for tonight.”

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“I’m going out to The Brick to talk to the bartender. He has a connection to Lewis Wallace. Don’t worry, Roma and Maggie are going with me.”

Marcus paused for a long moment. “Zach Redmond,” he said at last. “He was working the night we were all there.”

“Yes,” I said.

“I already talked to him. There’s nothing there, Kathleen.”

“I still want to talk to him myself.”

“Okay,” he said after another silence. “Just come up when you’re done. It doesn’t matter how late it is.”

Roma pulled into the driveway at five to nine. I climbed into the backseat of her SUV. Maggie turned and smiled at me.

“Thank you for coming with me, both of you,” I said.

“Anytime,” Roma said as she backed out onto the street. She was wearing a heavy off-white sweater with a quilted purple vest. Her dark hair was cut in a sleek bob.

“Do you remember the first time we did something like this?” Maggie asked.

“You mean the time you and Kathleen hijacked me,” Roma retorted, brown eyes fixed on the road. I could see a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. We’d had a version of this conversation before.

Maggie and I had been following someone—at least we were trying to—but her car wouldn’t start and it was before I had my truck. Maggie had dragged me over to Roma’s SUV and convinced her to give chase.

Maggie laughed. “You don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to questioning our adventures because the one with Faux Eddie brought you and the real Eddie together.”

Maggie had crafted a full-sized replica of Eddie for a display at the town’s Winterfest celebration. Getting the not-real Eddie from Maggie’s studio all the way downtown had started a rumor that Roma and the hockey player were “seeing” each other. Eventually it wasn’t a rumor anymore.

The smile Roma had been trying to stifle got loose. She was always that way when Eddie’s name was mentioned.

Roma managed to find a parking space squeezed in between two extended-cab pickups in the crowded parking lot. “I want fries,” she announced the moment we stepped inside The Brick. Once again it was crowded and loud.

We made our way over to the bar. Somehow there were two free stools and a guy with beautiful gray eyes and a sleeve of tattoos up his left arm slid off his seat next to the empty two and gave it to Maggie. She smiled at him and he almost fell over a chair as he walked away with his friends.

“How do you do that?” I said.

She looked at me genuinely confused. “Do what?”

“Turn men into goofy ten-year-olds,” Roma said.

“I don’t do that,” Maggie said.

“Yes, you do,” Roma retorted as she slid onto a vacant stool. “It’s your superpower.”

Zach came down the bar and it was his turn to smile when he caught sight of Maggie. “Hi, Maggie,” he said. “What can I get you?”