Софи Райан - A Whisker Оf Trouble

“I can’t do that,” I said. “Not that I want to anyway. What if things didn’t work out? Mac works for me and so does Charlotte. How messy could that get?”

“Yeah, blah, blah, blah,” Liam said. He leaned in and kissed my cheek and then headed for the door.

“My life is not dull,” I called after him. Saying that out loud was probably just tempting fate.

Chapter 10

I thought Liam had forgotten that he’d said he’d buy me breakfast, but he knocked on my door about twenty-five after seven the next morning. We drove over to McNamara’s and after he and Glenn had talked about the Red Sox we spent the rest of the meal talking about the new harbor-front development proposal. I dropped him back at the house and picked up Elvis and the clothes I was going to wear out to lunch before I headed for the shop.

Michelle pulled in behind me in the store’s lot. Elvis jumped down from the seat and instead of heading for the back door walked over to her. I followed.

Michelle leaned forward and held out her hand to Elvis. “Good morning,” she said.

He sniffed her with curiosity and then rubbed his cheek against her fingers. She began to stroke his fur and he seemed to smile at her.

Michelle looked up at me and smiled. “Hi, Sarah,” she said. “I just came by to let you know we released the Hall house. You’ll probably hear from Stella sometime today.”

My phone buzzed then. “Excuse me a second,” I said, pulling it out of my pocket. It was Stella with the news Michelle had just given me. She wanted us to get back to work as soon as we could.

“I think we might be able to get there this morning,” I said.

“Thank you, Sarah,” she said. “If you find anything that . . . might be worth something . . .”

“I’ll call you first thing,” I promised.

Michelle talked to Elvis while I was talking to Stella. When I ended the call she gave the cat one last scratch on the top of his head and straightened up. He meowed softly at her and started across the parking lot toward the back door.

“That was Stella, as you probably guessed,” I said.

She nodded. “You’re going to start again this morning?”

I slid the strap of my carryall up on my shoulder. “I’m going to try. I promised Stella we’d get the place cleaned out as quickly as we could once you were done.”

She gave me a thoughtful look. “Stella told you about Ellie.”

I sighed softly. “About the operation? Yes, she did.”

“Any chance there’re some valuable antiques in that house?”

I gave her a wry smile. “I don’t think so. Mac and I did a walk-through before we said yes to Stella, and nothing we saw looked like it was worth much. We didn’t see everything, though, so maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“I hope so,” she said. Her expression changed. “If you find any more bottles of wine, will you call me, please?”

“Of course,” I said. I studied her face for a moment. “Michelle, do you think that wine collection had anything to do with Ronan Quinn’s death?”

She shrugged. “Right now everything’s a possibility. And we’re looking into the fraud as a separate case.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I said. “Whoever took advantage of Edison Hall like that is despicable.”

She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her black jacket. “You’d be surprised how many scams there are that target seniors. I don’t mean small potatoes, either. These are sophisticated cons.”

I nodded, remembering what I’d read the night before about faking the bottles of wine and how those fakes had fooled more than one expert.

“I’d like to put together an information session for people,” Michelle said. “Just to go over some of the more popular cons out there. Do you think Rose and Alfred Peterson would be willing to get involved?”

“Yes,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure exactly what to say next.

Michelle smiled as though she could read my mind. Or maybe it was my face that was giving me away.

“You’re thinking I’m crazy,” she said.

I shifted from one foot to the other. “No,” I said. “Not crazy. Just . . .” I hesitated. “Okay, yes. Crazy. But just a little.”

Michelle smiled. “You know what they’re like, Rose, Nick’s mom, Alfred Peterson. Do you really think they’re going to listen to me telling them about the Big Bad Wolf?”

“No,” I said.

“But they will listen to their friends, people their own age.” She rolled her eyes. “And I’m sure Mr. Peterson has come across a scam or two during his travels down the information superhighway.”

I laughed. “I’m guessing Nick told you that Mr. P. is a licensed private investigator now.”

“I already knew,” Michelle said with a smile. “He did tell me that Stella hired them to look into Mr. Quinn’s death.” She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, glanced at it and put it back again. “Rose called me yesterday and told me about Teresa Reynard seeing Quinn at the house the morning he died. It gives us more of a window around when he was killed.”

“Do you think he was there to meet someone about the wine collection?”

She opened her mouth, but I spoke again before she could. “I know, you can’t answer that.”

“I have to get going, Sarah,” she said. “Be careful and if you find anything at the house call me or even Nick.”

“I will,” I said. I hugged her and headed for the back door. Elvis was waiting, not very patiently. He made a huffy noise as I unlocked the door, stalking through the workroom, the tip of his tail flicking back and forth.

Mac’s feet were sticking out of the storage space under the stairs. Elvis meowed at him and then poked his head in the opening next to him.

“Sarah, are you there?” Mac’s muffled voice asked.

“I’m here,” I said. “What are you looking for?”

“That little box of glass doorknobs.”

“Top shelf on the right at the back out in the garage.”

Elvis pulled his head back and shook himself. A couple of dust bunnies floated to the floor. He batted at one with his paw before stopping to wash one side of his face.

Mac backed out of the slanted storage space and stood up, brushing dust off the front of his long-sleeved blue T-shirt. Another dust bunny, cousin probably to the ones that had been clinging to Elvis’s fur, was on his shoulder. I leaned over and brushed it away. “I think I should get Avery to run the vacuum in there,” I said.

“Good idea,” Mac said. “I think the dust bunnies may be amassing an army so they can try to take over the building.”

“Michelle was here and the police have released the Hall house. Do you think we could get out there today?”

He smoothed a hand over his hair. “I don’t see why not. But don’t you and Liz have that lunch thing with the former bank manager?”

I held up the garment bag that I was carrying. “We do, but not until one o’clock.”

Mac pushed a box back into the storage area with one foot. “Do you want me to call Rose and see if she can come with us?”

“Please,” I said. “Charlotte and Avery should be able to handle things here for the morning. I’m just going to put this stuff in my office.” I started up the stairs.

I thought about Liam’s suggestion to make a move on Mac as I hung up the garment bag. It was a really bad idea. He was more than my employee, he was my right hand and my friend. I wasn’t willing to do anything to mess that up.

“It would make more sense to get involved with Nick,” I said.

Elvis stopped washing his chest and looked at me, green eyes narrowed almost as though he’d understood my words and wanted to know if I was kidding or serious.

“I don’t mean I would,” I said. “If Nick and I were going out, both Charlotte and Gram would be picking out baby names.” The image of Nick holding a baby popped into my mind.