Denise McDonald - Baker's Law

“Hey, little sis.” He gave her a quick hug, then pushed her to arm’s length and frowned down at her. “You look like hell.” One of his blond eyebrows cocked upward as he grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a good onceover.

She elbowed her oldest brother in the ribs. “Well, you’re just a ray of sunshine, aren’t ya.”

“You love me anyway.” He gave her a quick noogie as she tried to swat him. “What do you need fixed?”

Marissa showed him the hole in the back door, then skirted the issue when he asked how she’d found it. He told her it had rust around the edges, so it was probably pretty old.

“I need to run up to the hardware store to get some supplies. Shouldn’t take me too long to get it done once I get back.”

“Thank you, big brother.” She reared up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek quickly.

Duff snorted. “None of that brother-sister kissy stuff. I want cupcakes.”

She chuckled. “Okay.” She hurried over to her desk and snagged a notepad. “Give me a list of flavors and I’ll have them ready for you when you’re done.” Duff’s sweet tooth was only surpassed by his wife’s. He and Libby were often two of her first tasters when she was working out new flavors for the shop.

After he finished the order, he left for the hardware store.

Marissa grabbed two Black Forest cupcakes, two of the vanilla bombs and four of the new orange crèmes. And for good measure she added in two of the new maple bacon and nestled them into the pink-and-white bakery box with a note atop for Duff to let her know what he and Libby thought of the new flavor. Then she took the rest of the quiet time in the back to get to work on the paperwork she’d fallen asleep over the night before. Her eyelids were again growing heavy as she scanned her employees’ time sheets. It shouldn’t be that difficult with one part-time employee and Kya working full-time, but the numbers kept swimming around the page.

Maybe if she took a quick break. She crossed her arms over the sheets and laid her head down.

The next moment, someone was tapping on her forehead. “Wake up, sleepyhead.”

Marissa lifted her head to find Duff standing over her.

“You’re lucky the only markers on your desk were permanent.” He tapped her forehead again. “You’d be sporting some wicked eyebrows and a ’stache.”

“Small favors, I guess, that you do have your standards for your sibling torture.” She leaned back in the chair and massaged a kink in her neck. “So how long do you think it will take you?”

Duff gave a quick snort. “Mar, I’ve already finished.”

Marissa’s eyes widened.

“You were sleeping like a rock.” Her brother gave her a long look. “What’s up with that? Are you having troubles?”

She debated telling him about the break-in, but what could he do about it other than worry? “No trouble. Just a lot of paperwork that seems to be interfering with my sleep.” She lifted the time sheets in front of her.

He looked like he didn’t believe her but didn’t comment further on the subject. “Come, let me show you what I did.” He motioned for her to follow him to the back door. “The patch will hold, but I would suggest you think about getting a new door altogether. And an alarm. This door’s not even wired for anything.”

She opened her mouth to complain about funds being low, but he raised his hand.

“I know they’re expensive. I’m just throwing that out there as an overprotective big brother.” They stopped at the door and he showed her the small panels he’d fastened on both sides of the door with some superglue. “And just in case someone gets the bright idea of prying the panel off, I filled the hole with caulk.”

“Thanks, Duff.” When he straightened he merely held out his hand and batted his eyelashes at her expectantly.

Marissa rolled her eyes. “Let me get your cupcakes. I’d tell you to go easy on them, but I think Libby will be lucky if there are any left by the time you get home.” She patted his belly. “And I threw in two of a new one I’m working on.”

He clapped his hands together. “What is it this time?

“Maple bacon.”

“Hmm.”

That was a noncommittal response if she ever heard one. “Trust me. You’ll love it.” She handed him the box. “You’ll be calling me begging for more. Just you wait and see.”

Once Duff left, Marissa finished the rest of the time sheets. Paying her employees was much more important than leaving a little early if she wanted to keep said employees.

Kya popped back into her office about an hour before close. “Boss, there’s a group of teens loitering outside the shop.”

Teenagers on their own weren’t that big a deal—their orders made up probably a third of her business—but for Kya to come back and bring it to her attention… The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood but she shook it off. It was probably nothing. Or it could be someone returning to the scene of the crime. Marissa sat up straighter in her chair. Would Hill be brazen enough to come back to the shop when she was open? She pushed back in her chair and followed Kya out to the front of the shop. “Where?”

“Right now they’re across the street but they’ve walked past the front of the shop at least three times.”

“Did they come in?”

The younger woman shook her head.

Under the guise of wiping down the tables, Marissa moved to the large window next to the door. A group of three guys stood next to a trash can on the opposite side of the street just as Kya said. It was hard to determine their ages, but they were dressed like typical teenagers. Hill was not with them. One of the guys, dressed in khaki pants and a loose button-down shirt, looked over at her. With his close-cropped blond hair, he didn’t stand out—he looked like any young man from the local high school—other than the way he kept eyeing her. When it looked like he might cross the street, an Oak Hollow officer drove slowly down the street. The boys walked in the opposite direction, not fast enough to look like they were running, but enough to see they didn’t want any part of the OH police force.

“They’re gone now,” Marissa said returning the rag back behind the counter. “But I’ll stay here with you ’til close just in case they decide to come in and cause trouble.”

The rest of the evening was thankfully uneventful. Marissa even managed to get the rest of her reordering done since she had the payroll out of the way. By closing time, they’d not seen the boys again and her jitters had tamped down considerably.

She and Kya went through the closing procedures in silent efficiency and said good-night in the parking lot. Marissa sat behind the wheel of her SUV, unsure where to go next. Her little power nap had energized her enough she wasn’t completely dead on her feet but wasn’t ready to head home. She’d promised her best friend since practically birth, Cherry Humphries, that she’d stop by at some point. Since it’d been at least two weeks, she might as well stop on her way home. And if she happened to pass by the bridge where she’d seen Hill’s backpack…who was to know?

She drove over the bridge three times and saw no lights, nor any sign of life for that matter. And while she may have been crazy enough to go down there in the middle of the afternoon, after dark there was no way she’d pull over, much less scale the slick embankment.

She wasn’t sure what she expected, nor was she sure what she might have done had she found Hill there, but when her side trip came up nil, it swiped at her suddenly waning energy. At the next intersection—a four-way stop that to the right would take her home or to the left to her friend’s family restaurant—she merely sat. Contemplating.