Софи Райан - Telling Tails

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. It wouldn’t hurt to mention it to Michelle.”

Glenn shrugged. “Sure.”

I unlocked the door of the SUV and set Elvis on the seat.

“If you’re not in a hurry, why don’t you follow me back to the shop?” Glenn said. “After all this, you at least have to let me give you half a dozen of those chocolate cupcakes with the mocha frosting you like.”

“There’s no way I’m going to say no to your cupcakes,” I said.

I slid behind the wheel. Elvis had settled himself in his usual spot on the passenger side. He looked at me and yawned. “Tiring work,” I said.

“Mrr,” he said in agreement.

“You did a good job,” I told him as we started for the sandwich shop. “What do you say? If Glenn ends up hiring us to clear some of the things out of that house, are you willing to go back for another safari?”

He looked up at me and licked his whiskers. I took that as a yes.

Chapter 13

There was very little traffic on the way to the sandwich shop. I’d already decided I was going to get another big cup of coffee to go along with my cupcakes. As usual Elvis was watching the road intently. We both saw the moving van blocking the street at the same time, which was, unfortunately a little too late to take a different direction.

I looked in the rearview mirror. There were three cars behind me. “It’s just backing up,” I told the cat. “It shouldn’t take long.”

There was just enough space in the alley for the truck to back up. I watched how skillfully the driver used his mirrors as he inched his way back. Glenn had taken a different route, and up ahead I saw him pulling into his parking lot. And then I caught sight of Liz. She was standing on the sidewalk in front of McNamara’s with . . . Michelle? As I watched, Liz gave her a hug. Michelle crossed the street and Liz got in her car, which was parked right in front of the shop.

“What were they doing?” I said to Elvis.

He gave me a blank look.

“Please tell me Liz isn’t trying to get information out of Michelle.”

The cat almost seemed to shrug. I tipped my head back and looked at the roof of the car. There were no answers up there, either.

Glenn sent me back to my own shop with a large cup of coffee and six of his chocolate mocha cupcakes—which became five very quickly.

I was in my office changing my shoes when Rose poked her head around the door. “Sarah, do you have a minute?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said. “What is it?”

“Did you know Cleveland has a younger sister?”

“Our Cleveland?” I asked. I’d been buying from the trash picker since Second Chance opened.

She nodded. “Actually he has three younger sisters and four younger brothers, all half-siblings. Cleveland’s father was not the poster child for monogamy.”

“Duly noted,” I said. “Why is Cleveland’s sister important?”

“Because she goes to Cahill College.” Rose gave me a knowing smile. “I won’t bore you with all the details about Logan’s friends—that’s Cleveland’s sister’s name, Logan. Lovely young woman, by the way.”

“Is this the reason you didn’t come to the library?”

“I was waiting for one of them to call me back.”

“And?” I nudged.

“And it seems that Chloe Sanders was what we would have called a teacher’s pet in my day, although that’s not the expression Logan used.”

I had a pretty good idea what expression Cleveland’s sister had used. “Dr. Durand,” I said.

She nodded. “It appears that Chloe was an excellent student. She even did a couple of projects for extra credit.” Rose twisted the thin gold wedding ring she still wore around her finger. “Unfortunately that kind of thing doesn’t always make you very popular with your fellow students.”

“What does this have to do with Jeff Cameron?”

“It seems that when he was giving that lecture at Cahill, he said he was planning on hiring an assistant for the summer. Two of Logan’s friends said that Chloe really wanted that job. She called it her big chance.”

I rubbed the side of my neck. “Big chance for what?”

“I’m still working on that,” Rose said. “I just wanted to keep you in the loop.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. “Before you go, Glenn told me something that may or may not be important.”

Rose raised an eyebrow. “What did he say?”

“That he saw Jeff Cameron early Thursday morning.”

She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. “More evidence that he faked his death.”

“You know what Nick and Michelle will say,” I said.

“That people mistake identities of people in cars and mix up dates all the time and this kind of information is very unreliable. As my mother used to say, ‘Horsefeathers!’” She reached over, plucked a dust ball out of my hair, patted my cheek and left.

It was a busy afternoon. It seemed as if every tourist passing by North Harbor decided to visit the store. No one had specifically asked me if I’d call Michelle so we could update her on what Mr. P. had learned about Jeff Cameron. By the end of the day they just all seemed to decide that that’s what would happen.

Rose and Mr. P. were having dinner with Charlotte. “Why don’t you join us?” Charlotte said.

“Thank you,” I said. “But I want to go for a run. Next time, though.”

Mac was crewing for someone who’d lost one of his regulars when the man had eloped to Las Vegas. I’d sent him off an hour earlier.

“Is your grandmother picking you up?” I asked Avery.

She shook her head. “Nonna’s having dinner with Mr. Caulfield.”

I did a double take. “Channing Caulfield?”

“Yeah. The money guy. Nonna said he wore her down.” She had her backpack and the accordion in a brown paper shopping bag.

“Do you need a ride?”

She hiked the backpack up onto one shoulder. “Nope. I’m going to the library. This is totally the best day of the anime festival— Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess , Mei and the Kitten Bus and two films from the Dragon Ball series.”

“Have fun,” I said.

Elvis was waiting for me at the back door. “Looks like it’s just you and me,” I said. He climbed into the front seat of the SUV and I set a bag of tea towels on the floor of the passenger-side seat. The cat eyed the brown paper bag, whiskers twitching. Then he looked at me.

“Yes, the cupcakes are in there,” I said.

He licked his whiskers.

“Cupcakes are people food.”

His green eyes went to slits, making his skepticism very clear.

“What should we have for supper?” I asked once I’d backed the SUV into the driveway at home and gotten out.

Elvis eyed the paper shopping bag still on the floor at his feet.

“Cupcakes are not supper,” I said.

“Merow,” he said, and I could have sworn I could detect sarcasm in his tone. Did cats even understand sarcasm? I wondered.

“Yes, I know we’ve had cupcakes for supper before, but I’m trying to turn over a new leaf.”

He tilted his head to one side and regarded me unblinkingly. I was pretty sure this cat, at least, got sarcasm.

I leaned across the seat to grab the bag of tea towels. I was going to wash and iron them and Jess was going to make pillow covers out of them for me. Elvis walked along the seat and jumped down to the driveway. I backed out of the car. “Hey, where are you going?” I said.

“Murp,” he said, and then he disappeared around the side of the house. Translation: backyard.

Friday night and even my cat seemed to have plans. I thought about my brother, Liam, teasing me about my lack of a love life or a social life. He’d been back and forth for the last several months, consulting on a development project for part of the harbor front that after too many delays and roadblocks would finally be getting under way at the end of August.