Fat Cat At Large

TEN

It was Sunday, but not a day of rest for Chase and her crew. It was September 2 and classes would start Tuesday, the fourth. The Bar None would close at six on Tuesday. They would stay closed on Wednesday to recover from the onslaught of the last week. It would be relaxing with just Vi working on Tuesday, and Laci gone for a week. After that, Anna had told Chase she was going to tell the girl she was no longer needed. Anna had said they needed to replace her with someone less histrionic. Chase hadn’t spoken up, but she was determined to do so, if they could get some uninterrupted moments. She wished they could hire a third worker, but they couldn’t afford that.

These were Chase’s thoughts as she pedaled her bike south along Fourteenth Avenue on her way home from an early ride. She’d taken a couple of pain pills at bedtime and two more this morning. The pain seemed to be easing up in the small of her back. The song “Any Dream Will Do” from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was on her lips.

The day was fine. The warm, clear autumn weather was holding. She had felt the humidity today on her ride. Crisp days weren’t too far away, though, and cooler temperatures. Brilliant fall days with bright leaves swirling from lofty tree branches were her favorite times in Minneapolis.

Her cell phone rang as she stopped for a red light at Fourth Street. It was Julie. She hadn’t called back last night. Chase would suggest a getaway for the two of them when their crunch times were over. Maybe Julie had found the identity of the witness. Chase hoisted her front tire onto the curb and answered the call.

“I came in early, before anyone else got here.” Julie was almost whispering.

“Won’t that look suspicious?”

“No, I still have lots to do today. I need to get an early start on that anyway.”

“So?”

“Yes, I found her.”

“Her? For some reason, I’ve been picturing a ‘him.’”

“The name is Hilda Bjorn. She lives almost directly across the street from Gabe Naughtly’s condo. If I’m not mistaken, she has a small house with a nice front porch. I think I’ve seen a rocker there. I’ll bet she’s as old as the hills and sits and watches everyone and everything.”

“I hope you’re right, that she sees everything. Then she’ll have seen Torvald Iversen, too. Mike says he was there quite a bit before I was. But if she’s too old, her memory might be bad.”

“Yah, there’s that. Let’s hope not. Are you going to talk to her?”

“I sure will. This should be a superbusy day in the shop. Maybe I’d better go over there right now.” She hadn’t worked up too much of a sweat. Her shower could be skipped and she could throw on her working clothes in a minute.

“Anything else interesting? Did you read Iversen’s statement?”

“I did. Nothing much to it. He states that he’s an investment broker, but it doesn’t say who any of his clients are. He made a point of saying he hadn’t been to the condo that day until he arrived and saw you with the dead body. The way this is written, it sounds like they don’t believe him. Let me know what you find out from the woman. I hear voices. Some of the others are showing up. Gotta go.”

“Thanks a million. Love you, Jules.”

Chase’s heart lifted as she stuck her phone into her jacket pocket. She turned around and rode her bike to the block where Gabe’s condo was. Iversen lied in his statement! Would an innocent person do that? Dr. Ramos had said he’d seen him there earlier. She’d have to think of a way to use this.

Meanwhile, she’d talk to Hilda Bjorn. Sure enough, right across the street was a cute little house, painted red, with a white wicker rocker on the porch. Chase leaned her bike against the railing and mounted the steps to knock on the front door. After an interval, she knocked again, but not a sound issued from inside the little red house. The front door of the neighboring house flew open. A harried young man with a disorderly mop of hair clattered down his steps, then noticed Chase on the porch.

“Are you looking for Hilda?” he asked, peering through thick glasses.

“Yes, Hilda Bjorn. Do you know when she’ll be here?”

His brow puckered in thought. “Don’t know. She’s in the hospital again. Sometimes she doesn’t stay long.”

Her hopes were dashed. She couldn’t invade an elderly woman’s hospital room to interrogate her. “Okay,” said Chase, descending the wooden steps.

“Do you want me to tell her you were here?” He seemed anxious to be helpful.

“No, no, I’ll catch her later.”

“She might appreciate a visit. She’s at the U Medical Center.”

Chase waved her thanks and hurried back to open up her shop. She pedaled across the parking lot behind her store and picked up her bike so she could carry it up the stairs. The pain meds seemed to be wearing off.

A movement caught her eye at the edge of the parking lot. The sun glinted off a head of blond hair. A tall man faced her, staring intently across the top of a sedan. The man turned and walked away quickly. Shaun Everly! He’d been standing behind a car, watching her. He knew where she lived. She unlocked her door with an unsteady hand and carried her bike in.

She was still breathing more quickly than usual when she came down to the shop with Quincy. Anna had gotten in before her and made coffee. After Chase deposited Quincy in the office and shut the door tightly, she saw Anna notice her tremor as she poured herself a cup. Well, if Anna could have secrets, so could she. Anna hadn’t told her why she’d left before closing the day before, what the appointment was for, or what was bothering her so much that she couldn’t look Chase in the eye this morning.

Soon, the Bar None was thrumming along and almost felt normal. Anna was mixing up batter for Amaretto Lemon Bars, Laci and Vi were swamped with customers, too busy to bicker, and Chase was humming “Circle of Life” from The Lion King and cutting up a batch of Cherry Oat Bars and placing them on a tray to slide into the display case in front.

The sight of Shaun, staring at her across the pavement, stayed with her, though. Every once in a while, she shivered and broke off her song. She had no idea what to do about his presence.

In the middle of the morning, the strident tones of Doris Naughtly drifted to the kitchen. Chase saw Anna’s back stiffen, but neither of them commented . . . until Chase heard Torvald Iversen’s disturbing, spooky voice no more than two minutes later. Doris raised hers, becoming even louder than usual. Was she upset? Chase wondered. She wouldn’t put anything past that horrible man.

Chase wiped her hands on her apron and poked her head through the double doors. Doris was backed up to the pink shelves on the side wall, hemmed in by Torvald. He stood over her, leaning in, his long, thin arms surrounding her, with his hands on the shelves. She wasn’t making an effort to escape. In fact, she was tilting her head and giving him coy looks. Evidently, thought Chase, she wasn’t wasting any time getting over the death of her husband.

Stealing up behind the man, Chase asked, “Can I help you?”

She stifled a smile when he jumped at her being so near without his detecting her arrival. He threw Chase a glare and straightened up. Doris smiled at Chase and smoothed her hair, although it was sprayed so vigorously that it couldn’t possibly be disarranged.

“Yes, please,” breathed Doris. She grabbed a carton of Lemon Bars from the shelf behind her. “I’d like these, please.”

“Violet will help you at the register, Mrs. Naughtly.” Chase gestured toward the sales counter in the rear of the shop.

Torvald had no choice but to step aside, glowering, and let Doris proceed to the cash register.

Chase kept her voice low. “I need to ask you a question.”

He gave her a haughty look, easy to do from his height.

“What were your dealings with Gabe? I know you and he were doing business together. I also know you weren’t there for a dinner meeting, like you told me.” It was a bluff. Would it work?

She seemed to have penetrated his armor. A line of worry appeared between his pale eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

“I know he wanted to buy my shop. Were you helping him do that?”

“Ha.” It was a mere syllable, devoid of humor. “It’s none of your business.”

“Is that what you killed him over?”

“The man led me to believe he could pull his weight, financially. I was a fool to believe him. It was nothing worth killing over.”

He spun on his heel and left the shop.

Would Torvald be in hot water for not securing the deal for his client? Would it be worthwhile for him to kill Gabe? It didn’t seem too likely. But the man had lied to the police. Something was very off-kilter about that man.

Chase returned to the sales counter, where Vi was ringing up Mrs. Naughtly’s purchase.

“What was that about?” Chase asked her.

“That horrid man was coming on to me,” Doris Naughtly said. “He wanted to have dinner! And my husband still warm in his grave, poor soul.”

Chase shuddered. For one thing, she was sure the man in his grave was not still warm. Graves were cold places. For another, the thought of being hit on by Torvald Iversen made her skin itch. For yet another, Doris hadn’t acted upset about him until Chase had interrupted them.

After Doris calmed down and left, Chase went back to the kitchen.

“Doris was being a drama queen again?” Anna asked. She drew out the word drama with an unattractive sneer.

“Anna, I wish you’d tell me what’s going on.”

The older woman walked to the storage shelves and ran her fingers along the bins, examining them, probably not for anything except an excuse to ignore Chase.

“Doris was . . . well, Torvald Iversen was . . . He had her cornered.”

“Good.” She kept her face away from Chase. “She’s probably sleeping with him.”

“She didn’t seem to mind it until after he’d left. Anna, I love you. You’re like my grandmother and my mother. I couldn’t make it without you. It hurts when you shut me out.”

Chase’s grandparents had passed away before her parents’ deaths. She had one dim memory of watching her grandfather fill his pipe, but didn’t even remember her grandmother at all.

Anna turned from the shelves slowly, dropping her hands to her sides.

“I suppose I’m overreacting. But Doris is . . .”

“Yes?”

Anna slumped onto a stool and propped her elbows on the counter. “She’s always been like this. I should be used to it.”

Chase sat beside her business partner–cum–beloved substitute grandmother and waited for her to continue. Chase lifted a hand to pat Anna’s back, then hesitated. Maybe she’d wait for Anna to get whatever it was off her chest first.

“We went to high school together. I did date Gabe a couple of times. Nothing serious. But Doris, for some reason, has always been jealous of me. She lured Gabe away, then dropped him. Years later, I found out they were getting married. I actually went to Gabe and told him I didn’t think it was a good idea. He laughed, so that was the end of that.”

Now Chase patted Anna’s shoulder. Anna put her own warm hand over Chase’s. “I can’t ever complain about the man I ended up with. My goodness, that man could dance. We went out almost every weekend when we started dating, not very long after high school.”

Anna’s face softened and the haggard look of the past few days fell away. She tilted her head upward, remembering her young romance. Chase didn’t have a hard time picturing Anna dancing the night away with Allan. She was in her seventies now and still looked capable of it. In fact, Chase was sure Anna would be able to outdance her.

Anna smiled, then a couple of tears ran down her weathered cheeks. “I still miss that man.”

Vi pushed the double doors open. “Almost out of Cherry Almond.”

“There’s a batch ready in”—Anna checked the oven timer—“two minutes.” Anna jumped up the get the oven mitts.

Chase didn’t get another chance to find out more about the history between Doris and Anna that morning.

The long Sunday morning bustled on until it was time for the sales clerks to take lunch breaks.

Chase rubbed her back. If she got a chance, she’d run upstairs for another pain pill. She stuck her head into the store. “Who’s first today for lunch?”

Vi waved her hand. “I need to run out. Can I have the first break?”

Laci assumed a put-upon pout that said she disapproved, but she didn’t say anything. Vi grabbed her big tote bag from under the counter and dashed out the front door, almost knocking over a pair of gangly freshman women.

Seeing her flee, apparently in no better shape than she’d been in the past few days, Chase was reminded that she still needed to talk to Vi about her troubles. She hadn’t gotten far talking about Anna’s with her yet. Laci was another matter. The poor girl’s heart was on her frilly, lace-trimmed sleeve. Anna probably hadn’t talked to Ted either.

Ted Naughtly chose that moment to enter the shop. With only Laci to tend to sales and customers, Chase decided to stay out front. She whipped off her apron and stowed it beneath the counter when Laci minced her way to the front of the store to greet Ted.

As the two of them spoke, heads together and nearly touching, a gang of college students swarmed in. It seemed like a whole fraternity, at least a dozen good-size potential football tackles.

They scattered, browsing the tables, the shelves, and some perusing the glass case.

“Hey, lady, could you tell me what these are?” One curly-headed giant beckoned from the front of the store, on the opposite side from where Laci and Ted communed. Laci wore a frown instead of her usual besotted look in Ted’s presence.

Chase sighed and left her post of guarding the cash drawer from Ted and went up front to tell the young man what the contents of a box labeled Cherry Almond Oatmeal Bars contained. She assured him there was no coconut and he gathered up three boxes. For the next ten or fifteen minutes she was kept busy reciting contents for the others. She would never get upstairs for a pain pill at this rate.

When she returned to the cash register to ring up their purchases, Ted and Laci were there. At least the cash drawer wasn’t open.

Chase drew a deep breath. She didn’t want to lose her temper in front of these very good customers. She yanked Laci’s arm and drew her close. “Miss Laci Carlson,” she hissed under her breath, directly into Laci’s ear. “Have I or have I not told you that Ted does not belong here behind the counter?”

Laci’s eyes opened wide. “Well . . .”

“Have I or have I not?” Chase repeated through gritted teeth. “Tell him to leave the store right now.”

She shooed both of them from behind the counter. Ted gave Chase a glum stare as he slid past her. Laci looked near to tears. The burly guy customers didn’t seem to notice the scene, talking loudly among themselves and occasionally punching each other’s arm.

After they left with a considerable number of purchases, Chase and Laci were alone in the salesroom. What would Anna say? Chase wondered. She tried to summon up the older woman’s wisdom and experience. She also needed to make sure Anna didn’t fire Laci.

Laci shrank as Chase faced her. “That will not happen again. Do you understand me?”

“What do you have against poor Ted?”

“Poor Ted is stealing from us! I’ve told you that. I’m about to ban him from the store. You will tell me if he comes in here again.” Was she going overboard? If only her back didn’t ache so. It was making her extra grouchy.

Laci started sobbing.

“Go into the kitchen until you can straighten up and do your job.”

Chase felt like Cinderella’s evil stepmother as Laci slunk through the double doors with her hands to her teary face. It occurred to Chase that this was perfect passive-aggressive behavior on Laci’s part. Chase disliked being manipulated. She heaved a sigh. What next?

One more rush day, Chase told herself that night as she brushed her teeth for bed. She just needed to get through Monday.