Читать книгу Baker's Law - Denise McDonald - Страница 10

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.

Cherry or sleep. She waffled for a moment. When her SUV crept into the intersection, she hadn’t made up her mind, but at the last minute she made a left and headed out to the far edge of town to see her friend. Sleep was highly overrated.

Marissa’s stomach rumbled in happy relief as the scent of baked bread and grilled meat engulfed her the moment she stepped through the door of Calista’s Bistro. The young girl standing behind the host stand smiled brightly when she saw Marissa.

“Hey, sweetie.” Marissa enveloped Cherry’s youngest sister in a hug.

“My mom’s been wondering when you were coming by.” Violet made a notation in the book on the stand. “Come on back. How’ve you been?”

“Good. Busy. How are the desserts selling?” Once a week, Marissa sent over a few dozen cupcakes for the restaurant’s Sunday brunch. She was pretty sure that Mrs. Humphries only ordered them to help her business along. She wasn’t going to complain, though.

“Usually gone before we can sneak one.” Violet winked at her as she guided Marissa to the kitchen where the staff was bustling about. At the back of the kitchen, at a sturdy wooden door, Violet paused to rap her knuckles quickly, but didn’t wait for a response. “Knock, knock. Momma, look who I found out front.”

Mrs. Humphries and Cherry had their heads bent over a computer and looked up together. The two women smiled broadly and stood.

“Marissa.” Mrs. Humphries held open her arms for a hug. She smelled of Chanel No. 5 and bread. It was one of the most familiar scents from Marissa’s childhood.

Marissa’s own mother had run off when she and Marlie were only two years old. It was six months later that the Humphries moved in down the street. Glen Llewellyn, at his wit’s end trying to raise two boys and twin girls, had jumped at the chance to set playdates for his girls with the Humphries children. Mrs. Humphries hadn’t hesitated to give Marissa and her sister a mother’s love despite having three girls of her own. She and her husband Chuck had been surrogate parents when her father was bogged down with work.

Marissa and Cherry and Marlie had been glued at the hip all through grade school and even into junior high. Marissa was the one who kept them all grounded when Marlie and Cherry tried their best to get them into trouble. She had always wanted them to be good, so they didn’t end up like her mother.… Once they reached their teens, though, Marlie drifted off into her own little world of high school fashionistas and Marissa simply tried to blend into the woodwork with Cherry nudging her out of her social sequestering from time to time.

Still, over all the years not a week had gone by in which she hadn’t spoken to Cherry—more often than not in person. She gave her friend a little extra squeeze. Just seeing her friend released several knots of tension she hadn’t realized had built up in her shoulders.

When all the small talk was exhausted, Cherry finally pulled her aside. “We’re going to eat, Momma.” Cherry looped her arm with Marissa’s. “Sorry, my mom’s been on a family bent since Lily moved away.”

Marissa nodded. She remembered when her brother, Tanner, had moved away from Oak Hollow she’d cried for days. To this day, she still got a wobbly pull in the pit of her stomach at her brother all the way in Iowa.

Cherry gave her a quick pat on the arm before motioning to the family’s booth. “You look like crap.”

“You always know just what to say.” Marissa gave her a wan smile. “I’m just tired. Didn’t get much sleep last night.” She told her about the break-in and Hill but left off her growing suspicions about his living arrangements. “But I don’t think he was trying to steal anything.” Besides the smallest amount of food.

“Hon, why would someone break in without the intent to steal?”

“I don’t know.” She wiped her hand across her face. “I think my brain’s too tired. My judgment’s off. When I saw Hill this afternoon I ran after him down the street. Hell, I even got in my car and chased in the direction I thought he went.”

“Hill? You know who he is?” She frowned. “Why does that name sound familiar?” She waved her sister over after she seated a couple. “Vi, why do I know the name Hill? He’s a teenager?” She looked at Marissa, who nodded.

Vi tilted her head and tapped her index finger to her pursed lips. Finally she snapped her fingers. “There was a woman who worked here a few years back. Patricia Hillman. She had a son, I think. I think they called him Hill.”

Cherry nodded. “I remember her. She died, didn’t she? Seems like it was a car accident.”

“Aw man.” Marissa slumped back in her seat. “What about his dad?”

Her friend shrugged. “Sorry. Don’t know.” She sipped from the water the waitress set down in front of her. “Did you tell the police you know who it was?”

“I didn’t know ‘til later. Oh.” Marissa widened her eyes. “Do you know who the new police chief is?” She fanned herself and gave a low whistle.

“Do I know? He’s eaten here every night this week. I think he’s—” Cherry twisted around in her seat “—here right now. Yeah, there he is over near the bar.”

Jax Carlisle was sitting alone eating his dinner. He wasn’t dressed in his dark uniform, but had on jeans and boots and a tan button-down shirt. As if he knew they were talking about him, the new chief of police shifted his gaze in their direction. A quick smile spread across his mouth and he nodded hello.

“Well, isn’t that pretty interesting.” Cherry straightened in her seat and waggled her eyebrows. “When did you and Jax hook up?”

Marissa choked on her water. “Hook up? I’ve seen him exactly one time since he moved back. I didn’t even know he was back until he walked into the shop this morning.” She wouldn’t tell her friend how she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the man.

“Not a bad choice. You’ve had a long dry spell.”

“He’s not a ‘choice.’ He was just responding to my call.”

Cherry waggled her eyebrows again. “The guy was good-looking in school. Now he’s an outstandingly fine specimen. I wonder if I should have some sort of ‘emergency’ myself. See what his, um, response time is.” She laughed herself silly until the waitress approached, then sobered enough to order food for the both of them—a Cobb salad for her and the meatloaf special for Marissa, the same meal they’d eaten a thousand times before; there was something satisfying in routine, especially when Marissa’s day had started off as anything but.

Marissa glanced back over to Jax’s table several times and every time he caught her at it, he smiled. She had to make herself not look again and eventually managed to relax into the evening with her dearest friend. Halfway through dinner, though, Cherry was called to the back to deal with a vendor.

A moment later, Jax slid into the booth with her. “How are you?”

The bite of potatoes Marissa had just stuffed into her mouth threatened to choke her. Luckily she managed to swallow without gulping too loudly, or needing CPR, though mouth-to-mouth with the chief… She had to shake herself before she could answer. “Fine, Chief. Yourself?”

A slow smile quirked up the corner of his gorgeous mouth. “I’m off duty. You can call me Jax.”

Marissa dropped her fork onto the edge of the plate knowing there was no way she could take another bite in front of the man. What, was she sixteen again? She gave herself a quick pep talk. You’re a grown woman who owns her own business. He’s just a regular man. Talk to him like any old customer. She settled her arms on the edge of the table and leaned forward. “Are you really ever off duty?

Am I? Jax smiled wider at her question. “No, I guess not.” She hadn’t changed her clothes since he’d seen her earlier in the morning but her hair was down around her shoulders. For a brief moment he imagined that hair floating around his as she lay atop him. He shifted and cleared his throat. “Any other troubles at your shop?”

“Nothing worth mentioning. I saw a cruiser go by. Thanks for that.” She ran her finger over the edge of her water glass, and then tilted it toward herself.

He started to rise. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your dinner.”

She set the glass upright, reached out and set her hand on his forearm. “You’re not. Interrupting me, that is. Stay for a minute. I’m finished.” Just as quickly as she’d touched him, she pulled her hand back and pushed her plate to the side. “I bet your mom is glad to have you home.”

Jax shrugged. His mom dithered between giving him the cold shoulder to making so many demands of his time he had to screen his calls from her. “Bunny is Bunny.”

Marissa’s eyebrows lifted quickly. “I can only imagine. Did she throw you a big gala event for a homecoming?”

There was a hint of derision in her voice. Bunny rubbed many people the wrong way.

“Believe it or not, no big gala. For which I am grateful.” He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “But I’ve also been crazy busy since I took over for Chief Kendal.”

“How has the change in jobs gone? Actually, I don’t know what you did before you came home. Maybe it’s not such a change.”

It was still weird to be “home,” but that wasn’t what she’d asked. “I was a detective in Austin. Same type of job more or less. Way more responsibilities now, though. And lots of paperwork. Probably easier than owning your own company.” He leaned his elbows onto the table. “Have you always baked?” What a stupid question. Jax all but groaned and wanted to kick himself in the ass.

Marissa gazed at him for a long moment and didn’t answer at first. Then she said, “I’m sorry. It’s just a little surreal to be sitting here with you. Chatting.” She shook her head.

Jax chuckled. “Why?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t exactly know each other in school.” She ducked her head for a moment. “What did you ask me?” She waved off the trip down memory lane. “Have I always baked? For pleasure, sure. I didn’t get into the business end of it until just a few years ago. I was working in an office and it just wasn’t fun.” She shrugged. “I needed a change and voilà, my shop was born.”

The waitress came and cleared the table.

“That’s got to be scary.” Jax leaned closer. “Starting something from the ground up can’t be easy.”

“There were days when I didn’t think it would work. And days when I was so tired I didn’t know if it was worth it. But it’s gotten better and it’s all mine and I love doing it.” Marissa’s eyes lit up. “Now I can’t even imagine not baking every day.”

The waitress came back and set a single dish in the middle of the table with two spoons. It had a thick slice of chocolate cake with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Marissa picked up the spoon and scooped a bite, barely taking her eyes off him. “The best part is coming up with new recipes. I like experimenting and playing around with ingredients.” She licked a small speck from the spoon and waved it at Jax. “It’s fun to try new combinations or toppings. I like paring up flavors you might not think to use.”

“It doesn’t hurt—” he picked up a spoon and followed suit “—that the food tastes fantastic.”

A smile creased her mouth. “You tried the cupcakes I gave you?” She scooped up another bite and ate. “The orange one,” she said after she swallowed, “is new.” She scrunched up her nose. “I wasn’t sure at first.” She scooped half a spoonful of cake and half ice cream and took a bite.

His dick got hard as he watched her lips close over the spoon.

“It kept coming out way too sweet,” she said, snapping him from his fantasy of her savoring him the same way.

“What?” He shifted slightly to ease the constriction of his jeans.

She frowned for a moment. “The orange crème. When I first started working on it, it took me a while to get the right balance of orange and vanilla without it practically giving you cavities.”

“I think you found your balance. It was good. Reminded me of the orange-vanilla ice creams from when I was kid.”

She rewarded him with the biggest smile yet. “That’s what I was going for.” She tilted her head to the side. “Would you be interested in trying another flavor? I’ve been working on a maple and bacon cupcake. Something a little different for the men who come in.”

“Maple and bacon. In a cupcake?”

She laughed. She had a musical lilt to her voice when she laughed. It went straight to Jax’s gut.

“It’s not as gross as it probably sounds, I promise.”

Jax’s phone vibrated. He didn’t want to look at it, and he was off duty, but like Marissa had said, he was never truly off duty. If something came up, he had to go in. He glanced at the screen. Ada, the dispatcher, had texted him. One of the stores downtown had a break-in and the two other officers on duty were out on other calls.

“Thanks for letting me cut in on your dessert.” He waved his cell at her. “Unfortunately, duty calls.”

“Oh sure.” She licked at a bit of chocolate from the corner of her mouth.

Jax fought off a moan as he stood.

She waved the spoon at him. “Be safe.”

Marissa blinked several times at Jax’s departing back. “Be safe.” How stupid was that to say to a cop? The chief, no less. She looked down at the plate in front of her. She’d never even realized there was food in front of her. And she’d eaten half of it. In front of Jax.

Cherry slid back into her seat.

“Where the hell have you been?”

Cherry waggled her blond eyebrows. “I was giving you and the chief time to talk. You swear you haven’t hooked up with him?”

“Don’t you think I’d remember if I had?” Marissa set her spoon down. “Why’d you send this over? I looked like a pig eating all of it.”

“No you didn’t. And he was too busy staring into your eyes to worry about a little cake.”

“Shut up. He was not.” Marissa’s heart pounded. “Was he?”

“Swear to God.” Cherry held up her hand. “He looks just like he did in school but so much more. Bigger. Sturdier. I don’t know what else, just more.”

Marissa nodded. “Protective. Like it’s personal for him.”

“Exactly.” Cherry glanced at her watch. “I need to get back to work. Are we still on for the Blue Spur this weekend?”

“Absolutely.” Marissa smiled, but going out to a honky-tonk Saturday night was about the last thing she wanted to do. Jax’s face flashed in her mind. She would much rather sit and talk to Jax. Getting knocked into and hit on by a bunch of sweaty guys… It had taken her a while to be able to accept positive attention from men in a way she hadn’t in high school. The Blue Spur, however, wasn’t her favorite spot.

She shook her head. Jax hadn’t asked, and she wasn’t about to presume he would. Hell, she didn’t even know if he was single. Even if he was, she wondered if he had weekends to himself. He’d barely made it through dinner before he was called into work.

* * *

Jax was fastening his badge to his belt as he walked into the stationery store. He’d gone out back behind the building as soon as he’d gotten to the scene. He wanted to check and see if his hunch would pan out and it had. The back door had a hole similar to the one at Marissa’s shop. Just below the push bar. The stationery store hadn’t fared as well, though. Stock had been knocked off shelves. The registers were broken and several high-end gifts had been taken along with a small safe that had sat under the manager’s desk in the office.

At least the owners of the store had an alarm. When it’d gone off, the alarm company had alerted them, as well as the police department. One of his officers, Jeff Connors, had finished on his call and had met him at the store, but the thieves had already cut out.

“The owners are on the way. They were in Fort Worth at a show.” Jeff flipped through a little notepad. “They closed up about two hours ago. It’s the first time they’ve had a break-in since they’ve been open.”

Jax nodded. It was the same story he’d read in a month-old report from the dry cleaners a couple of blocks over. Hole in the door and everything. There was a pattern emerging. The only problem was, it didn’t jibe with Marissa’s break-in. Her shop, the suspect had stayed on the premises. He’d all but made himself at home from the sound of it. The cleaners and this store had been a “grab what you can and get out.” Granted, both of those places had alarm systems in place and Marissa’s didn’t.

He made a mental note to talk to her about installing something as soon as she could.

After three hours helping Jeff write up the report, then going over what the owners lost in the robbery, Jax was nearly as wiped out as he had been in the morning when he left Marissa’s. Chief Kendal had warned him there would be a rough transition period taking over an entire police department. He just hadn’t expected it to all hit in the span of a few days on next to no sleep.

The next morning he was running on coffee and carbs as he went through a pile of paperwork. Jeff had found him the file on a break-in at a clothing boutique that had happened before he’d taken over. That made three robberies on the strip downtown. There was no notation of there being a hole in the back door, so he was headed over to the boutique after lunch.

He filed the newest report and headed through the station looking for his daytime dispatcher, Chief Kendal’s granddaughter, Macey. She was Otto’s older brother’s kid. It was a little disconcerting to think kids he’d grown up with had kids old enough to vote or drink beer. Or work for him.

“Hey, Mace.”

Macey shifted one of the earpieces from her headset back. “Hey, Jax. I mean Chief.” She gave him a quick little salute. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you know that cupcake place over on Flower Tree?”

“Marissa’s.” She nodded. “Sure.”

“What was there before that went in? I know it’s been there less than a year.”

She tapped her manicured nail to her lip. “Um. It was a burger place. No, last it was a pizza place. For a couple of years. Before that it was a burger place. It lasted almost as long, I guess.” She settled her headset back into place. “Man, now I’m hungry,” she mumbled just as the phone lit up.

He made a mental note to look for reports for either business when he had a little more time. As it was, he barely had time to grab a quick lunch from a fast-food chain a block away from the station.

Jax drove out to the clothing boutique. The last time he’d been in town, nearly ten years earlier, the “business district” was an odd assortment of storefronts mixed with houses. Now it was all commerce with new storefronts mixed in with the businesses that had been around since he was a kid. The small, three-by-four street section of the town had been transformed into a mini shopping mecca. Flower Tree was on the far edge of the shopping center. Two of the burglaries had been there. The cleaners was two streets over and the boutique was on the opposite edge.

He parked his SUV cruiser three stores down from the clothing store. All the other spaces were filled with minivans and station wagons. He was glad to see the downtown area had picked up from when he was a kid. Back then the stores had been hard-pressed to get any customers on weekdays. Weekends were the main haul.

When he stepped from the cruiser he glanced up and down the street. Houses lined the backs of the business. A tree-lined alleyway separated the commerce district from the residential area. It gave a false sense of separation of the two, and made for easy access to cross through. He’d reread the report of the break-in of the clothing store. The alarm had tripped just before four in the morning. The small safe had been completely lifted from its spot under the manager’s desk. A few pieces of clothing had been stolen—nothing high end—and all the costume jewelry on display had been taken. Worse seemed to be the umpteen displays the thieves broke for no apparent reason than to cause additional damage. The department had responded within six minutes and by the time they got there, the store was empty. If there’d been a hole in the door it hadn’t been reported.

A bell tinkled above the door when Jax walked in. He removed his sunglasses while his eyes adjusted. Several startled females froze. The store catered solely to women. Dresses and blouses hung from the walls as displays. One corner had a variety of lingerie, the other had a small group of dressing rooms. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been in a store like it.

A tall blonde came from behind the register and hurried toward him. She was dressed in a form-fitting teal dress. Could she sit in it—and still breathe? Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with her store logo—covered in flour—Marissa was more beautiful than this done-up woman and her scary high heels.

She stopped a few feet from him. A hesitant smile crossed her mouth. “Chief Carlisle. How are you? Was there something I can help you with?” She glanced over her shoulder and one of the patrons giggled.

“I was hoping to speak to the owner about the break-in the store had several months back.”

The blonde’s smile fell away as her brow pulled down slightly. “I’m the owner. Joan Barkley. Follow me. We’ll go to my office.” She motioned for him to follow. When they went into the stock room, she told a young sales girl to go out and watch the store.

Her office consisted of a little cubby in the back corner of the stockroom. A small desk sat with a computer atop it, as well as a couple of dainty, girlie chairs in front. There was a door that he presumed led outside and another door that looked like it might be a restroom. The rest of the stockroom was lined with shelves and racks loaded down with merchandise.

Once they were alone, she offered him one of the small chairs. “No thanks.” He was afraid it might break under his weight.

He ran her name through his head. It was so strange coming back to town. So many people knew who he was thanks to the Oak Hollow Country Club or school. He’d been told all the rumors skittering around when he’d been hired, his name on everyone’s lips. Some speculated he was a bad cop who’d been ousted from his job in Austin and was coming home with his tail tucked between his legs. Others said he was leaving behind a scorned woman whose husband had threatened to kill him. If only his life had been half as interesting.

Now he was running across people, wondering, when they knew immediately who he was, if he’d forgotten some long-lost connection to them. Most he found knew of him, but didn’t actually know him. Joan Barkley didn’t ring any mental bells so he stated his business. “I was hoping you could walk me through what happened after your break-in.”

Joan hugged her arms around herself. She replayed the story as it had been in the report.

“How did they get in?”

Joan shrugged. “Don’t know. We were never quite sure. Nothing looked disturbed. They ran out the back door, though. A scarf was hung up on it when the police got here.”

“This door?” Jax moved over to the large metal door.

“Yes.”

He squatted and examined the door. There wasn’t a hole in it like at the other locations.

“Well, yes, but no.”

He swiveled to look up at Joan. “Beg pardon?”

“We had to replace that door. A delivery truck backed into it a couple of months ago. The kid was talking on his phone.” She waved her hand. “He took out the door and the A/C unit. I lost a week of business. It was too hot without the A/C.”

Jax stood and nodded. The door could have had a similar hole at the time of the robbery. They’d never know for sure. “Have you had any other trouble since then? Any other robberies?”

“No. Why all the questions now? The officers who took my statements back in September got all the information.”

Jax didn’t want to panic the business owners. Definitely an emerging pattern, though he didn’t have enough info yet. So he said, “I’m just going over some of the unsolved crimes.” That was true enough, even though there weren’t all that many crimes in Oak Hollow that went unsolved. Nestled far north of Fort Worth, it wasn’t like they had a lot of carryover crime from the “big city.”

The blonde morphed before his eyes. Gone was the worried store owner, in her place was a smiling, flirty female. She shifted her stance, stuck out her hip. “That’s very kind of you, Chief. To be so conscientious.”

He nodded slowly. “It’s my job.”

“Oh sure.” She lifted one thin eyebrow. “How have you adjusted to town? I’ve heard you’ve been eating all alone every night. That’s no fun.” She took a few steps toward Jax.

“It’s okay.” He backed up and suddenly the small stockroom seemed to shrink by half as she cornered him. In high school, he would have loved flirtation like this. He’d have soaked it up. Hell, when he’d first come back to town, he might have been flattered, and responsive to a degree, but his mind zipped to Marissa. He wasn’t the least bit interested in Joan Barkley.

“Aw, now, that can’t be true.” She tilted her head and battered her eyelashes. “You know, if you’re free Friday night, I’d be more than happy to have dinner with you, help you get reacquainted with Oak Hollow.”

“That’s awful kind of you, ma’am.” He backed up another step and his back bumped a stack of boxes next to the wall. The only way to get out of there was to push past Joan. He wasn’t quite that desperate…yet. “But I have a pretty busy schedule with my new job and all.”

“They obviously let you out to eat. No point in doing it all by your lonesome.”

He nodded. “Something to consider.” He took a step closer to her. “Tell you what. Let me check what’s going on and I’ll get back to you.”

The shy smile he’d seen when he’d first walked into her store was nowhere near the thousand-watt gleam he got in response to that noncommittal answer.

Joan stepped aside. “I look forward to hearing from you. Welcome home, Chief.”

Back out on the street, Jax only glanced back at the store once. The way the ladies had giggled when he left, there would be new gossip going around town about him before he could even get back to his vehicle. He shook his head. “Welcome home.”