Diane Davidson - Chopping Spree

“No-o!” she called, making her voice sweet. She didn’t turn back.

I tried to give Shane a look that was both punitive and sympathetic. I was itching to know about their conflict. Shane rubbed his eyes, tilted his head back, and groaned.

“Goldy, so, did you get my message about tomorrow?”

His question startled me. I shivered as if unexpectedly chilled, tucked my hands hastily into my pockets, and let go of the Mace. Only then did I give him a bright smile. Even if I did have more reason to be wary of him than ever, Shane, after all, was a client.

“Yes, and I left one for you. We’ll be there at ten—” I stopped. My God, I’d forgotten something. In the bustle of last week’s events and the commotion of the last twenty-four hours, I had neglected to obtain Shane’s final payment for the lunch. I emphatically had not received the last six hundred dollars he owed Goldilocks’ Catering … which should have been paid five days ago, before he’d gone on a jewelry-leasing binge with his wife. This was not the gratuity, which I would be picking up after the event. This was the second payment for the food and service. It was just the sort of detail that I’d feared would slip between the cracks, now that I’d become so busy. My heart sank.

“But,” I continued with another blinding smile, “I’ll need the second installment before we can do the party. I’ve got all the food ready.”

“Look, Goldy, I am extremely sorry for what happened yesterday. My wife is… on medication…. Things just sort of fell apart. We’re very enthusiastic about this luncheon party, believe me.”

“I need the check, Shane.”

“There are so many things I need to talk to you about,” he countered nervously, cutting his eyes from side to side, as if looking for someone or something more important to do. “So many things that I don’t know where to begin…”

My hand slipped back into my pocket and I gripped the Mace. As Shane rattled on about how successful the luncheon was going to be, I wondered where he was going with this conversation. Make that, where Shane was going, period. Tonight he’d flailed at Ellie, then he’d asked me whether I’d received his message. Then he’d refused to address the nonpayment issue, and hopped back to yesterday’s event. My skin broke out in a chilled sweat. The only other person who jumped from topic to topic like that—to keep you off guard—was The Jerk, my ex. And he usually started leaping around verbally before he punched me in the face.

“I’m enthusiastic, too, Shane!” I said as I edged away. The last bunch of lacrosse players was straggling down the steep path from the now-deserted field. It was an idyllic scene. Street lamps brightened the parking lot. Slow-drifting snowflakes resembled feathers shaken from a pillow. Behind the gaggle of athletes stumbled Arch. He might be bigger and stronger than he’d been at eleven, but he hadn’t given up his permanent place at the back of the line. “Gotta go, Shane. Remember the check tomorrow, OK? First thing, before we set up.”

To my dismay, he bolted toward me. Should I shriek and make a run for it? I tightened my grip on the Mace.

“Look, Goldy. Don’t run off, please. ‘Cuz I… really want to talk to you. It’s important, I promise.”

If he was going to tell me that he didn’t have the money for the party, that he’d pay me next week, next month, or next year, then I was going to punch him in the face, future clients be damned.

“It’s about the mall, you see,” Shane persisted. “You’re such a great person, Goldy, I feel as if I really could tell you—” He hesitated.

“Shane, please. I’m getting cold. Tell me what?”

He lowered his voice. “It’s about Barry Dean.”

I stopped short. I had to restrain myself from grabbing Shane by his sheepskin lapels and shaking him.

“ What about Barry Dean?”

“Well, it’s just that…I don’t know how much you know about the way a mall works—”

“Look, can you just get to the point? My son’s waiting for me, Shane.”

He gulped, then brushed melting snow off his handsome, square face. His brown eyes shone with worry. And guilt? I wasn’t sure.

“I got into trouble. I… did a bad thing, but Barry made it much worse. I… cooked the books of The Gadget Guy. The reason I did it was that once we broke a certain level of sales, the amount of rent we owed Pennybaker International, according to the terms of our lease agreement, went way up. With… Page’s shopping problem, and our current level of debt, we just couldn’t pay more rent. Just could not. So… Barry, who had done next to nothing in terms of his promised promotion for mall tenants, offered to do a deal. He wouldn’t evict me if I paid him fifty thou up front in cash, off the books, and another fifty thou at the end of the year. But…I couldn’t. So he pulled the plug on me. There, I said it.” He paused to take a raspy breath and fixed me with his sad stare. “I know you’re going to ask me did I tell the police about this. The answer is no, I couldn’t do that either. Risk going to jail for cooking my own books? Forget it. So I’m trying to get into online ordering now, out of our house. But if any of my potential backers—the people who are coming to lunch tomorrow—find out I messed with the figures at the store, they’ll run away faster than a herd of elk. I didn’t cheat anybody, Goldy, I just wouldn’t pay that mall their extortionary demands. And I couldn’t afford to pay Barry his bribe. I don’t have that kind of money.”

In the near distance, a car honked. This honk came from my van. Arch was honking at me.

“Shane, why are you telling me all this?”

He ran his fingers through his tousled hair. “Because I know your young friend has been accused of Barry’s murder. I didn’t want you to think I killed Barry, in case Barry had told you about our… conflict. I can’t afford negative publicity at this point. And I’ve read how you sometimes get involved in these cases—”

“OK, OK. Is this accounting crime what you were just talking to Ellie about? Because she was close to Barry, too?”

Shane snorted. “No, we have an issue…with the school. But being in that mall, I saw the way things went. I mean, in addition to not doing the promotion he promised, Barry was not the most moral of guys, you know? He had a woman problem, and I think that’s why he wanted the payoff. To keep up his woman habit. Otherwise, he’d have to stay with old stick-in-the-mud Ellie McNeely. For a while, anyway.”

“Mom!” Arch shrieked. “Come on! Let’s split! You’ve got a cell call! I’m starving! It’s cold! Mom!”

“I have to go.” My thoughts were tangled from all the new information. Did I believe Shane, or not? I wasn’t sure. “So you think this fifty thou was for him, then, not the mall?”

“Of course it was for him! What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you here?”

“Shane, tell the cops all this.”

“You mean your husband?”

“No, no, Tom’s off the case. Anything you can tell the cops about Barry will help them get the big picture. If you have any documentation of what… Barry did, show it to them.” I did not say, Documentation of what you say Barry did. But I thought it. “Maybe Barry pulled this blackmail stuff with other store owners. Just call the department and get connected with the assigned investigators. Please? Believe me, it will look much, much better for you if you tell the cops what happened. If they find out elsewhere, they’ll come after you.”

“ Mom! Goldy Schulz! Come on !”

Shane pressed his lips together, then backed away. Somehow, I didn’t think he was bolting to a phone.