Janet Evanovich - Love in a Nutshell

“Okay,” he said. “So, nice it is. And I’m moving you to the taproom on Monday. I need to have you someplace where you can keep an eye on Jerry when I’m not there. You were right. He takes off, and I don’t know what he’s up to. And Laila’s going to be out a minimum of this next week with her ankle sprain.”

“I can do that,” she said.

Early Monday morning, Kate pulled into Depot Brewing’s parking lot. She was exactly on time for the training session Matt wanted to get in before the rest of the staff arrived. Matt, however, was not. With not a heck of a lot else to do, Kate exited her Jeep and meandered toward the building’s front entry. She smiled down at the mosaic of Chuck and allowed herself a moment of yearning for Stella. She missed her dog every single day.

Pushing doggie thoughts from her mind f missed, she glanced into the Depot’s interior through the narrow window to the right of the front door. The large potted tree in the entry lay on its side. Kate moved closer and peered into the lobby. Opposite the tree, the low table that usually held brochures had been upended. She could have bought one tipped thing as an accident, but not both.

Running on sheer instinct, she pulled on the door’s large bronze handle. The door swung outward. And because she was terminally curious, she stepped inside.

“Hello?” She paused to bring the tree upright. “Anyone here?”

Apparently not. She set the table on its feet, scooped up the brochures and replaced them. She also picked up a bit of string or something that the cleaning person must have missed. She tucked that into the front pocket of her khakis, along with a crumpled cocktail napkin. If she was going to tidy up, she might as well do it properly.

As she left the entry, Kate was greeted by a stale beer aroma she’d last smelled in Bagger’s Tavern. Except unlike Bagger’s, this place was all clean slate, wood, and ceramic tile. There was no obnoxiously absorbent carpet to be found.

Kate followed her nose to the taproom.

“This is so not good.”

Every table and chair had been flipped. Beer was running, but with no pitcher or pilsner glass to catch the brew. She sprinted behind the bar and realized that not only had the taps been left running but every keg had been shot full of holes. A note had been spray painted on the mirror behind the bar in giant red letters: You’re Next .

One foot hit where the rubber mats should have been, but weren’t. Momentum carried her forward. The wet floor brought her feet out from beneath her. And then she went down. Hard.

KATE WASN’T the most predictable woman on Earth. Still, Matt felt pretty sure if her Jeep was in the lot, she couldn’t be too far away.

“Kate?” he called before he unlocked the brewery’s employee door.

No answer. Odd, he thought. She wasn’t in her Jeep, she wasn’t waiting at the door, and she hadn’t answered his call. He was hit with a shot of protective male concern. He walked from the kitchen down the short hall, being drawn to a sound he’d caught plenty before, but never at this hour. A beer tap was spitting, then blowing. He hustled to the taproom and stopped dead at the bar’s back side.

“What the-”

Kate sat propped on her elbows, feet splayed out in front of her.

She looked up at him. “It’s a little swampy back here.”

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Everything but my tailbone and dignity. I was just working my way back k my›* to my feet.”

“Let me help you.”

Matt scooped her up and held her tight to his body. He reached around her with his free arm and pushed each of the eight beer taps back into their closed positions. The act was a formality, since all the barrels were now drained. No wonder Kate had gone down. The keg system’s drains couldn’t handle the volume, and that floor was damn slick.

“You’re soaked,” he said.

“Half of me, at least.”

He grabbed a clean bar towel from the stack on the counter and began to mop her off. He was somewhere in the vicinity of her backside when she took the towel from him.

“I think I can handle it from here,” she said.

“Sorry,” he said, but not with a whole lot of repentance.

She smiled. “So I see. You might want to grab a towel for yourself now, too.”

“I’ve smelled like beer before,” he said, but wiped his hands just the same. After he tossed the towel back to the counter, he gestured at the floor. “Sorry about this.”

Kate gestured toward the vandalized mirror. “The note is what’s really freaked me out. Is this the first time the saboteur’s ever targeted you personally?”

Matt shrugged. “Yeah. This is sort of new.”

“Well, personally, I can’t wait to have a chat with the jerk who did this,” Kate said. “But right now, I’m wet and gross-smelling. I’d like to go home and change before we start my training.”

“No training today,” Matt said. “We’ll start fresh tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to lose a day over a bruised butt. How about if I go home and get cleaned up? I’ll come back at lunchtime and observe for the afternoon. It’s not going to do me or you any good to have me sit home.”

“True,” he said. “Are you okay to drive?”

“Yes. I’ll take some extra towels so I don’t soak my seat.”

Once he had Kate safely to her Jeep and on her way, Matt pulled out his cell phone and called in the law. Ten minutes later, just as he’d finished mopping the spilled beer, Lizzie arrived.

Lizzie surveyed the taproom. “Someone sure was busy.”

She set her clipboard down and pulled a digital camera from her uniform pocket. “I’m going to take a few pics.”

“No problem.”

“So, tell me what you know,” she said between shots.

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Matt looked at the messed-up room and felt his frustration surge.

“Kate and I were going to meet here at seven-thirty. She got here first, found the front door unlocked, and the mess inside. Beer was free-pouring in here. She went behind the bar to catch the taps and fell. The mats were still rolled from the floor mopping last night, and the back of the bar had standing beer.”

Lizzie pocketed the camera and picked up her clipboard. “The front door is usually locked, right?”

“Yes, unless someone screws up in a major way.”

“Who has keys?”

Matt righted a café table. “Jerry, Bart, Laila, and I. No one else that I’m aware of. I closed last night, and I know for sure I locked that door, which means someone else has a copy.”

“Or Jerry, Bart, or Laila were here just a little while ago,” she said as she jotted notes.

“Laila’s down with an ankle sprain from Friday night, so she’s out. You can check with Bart and Jerry, but neither of them had reason to be here. Though Jerry isn’t exactly up for employee of the month at the moment.”

“What’s up with Jerry?”

Matt picked up a chair. “I’ve been told that he’s been leaving work when I’m not around. It could mean something, or it could mean nothing at all.”

“Told by who?” Lizzie asked.

“Kate. She’ll be back here at lunchtime if you want to talk to her. She’s pretty sharp. I trust her observations.”

“Okay, but why didn’t someone else on staff tell you about Jerry before this?”

Matt shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but most everyone has been around for a long time. This place is family, and just like we did when we were kids, these guys tend to cover for one another. Which is why I don’t want to believe that Jerry would sabotage the bar. We’ve been friends for too long.”

“You don’t have any real enemies, Matt,” Lizzie said. “No matter who did this, it’s going to be bad news, once we find out.”