Chapter Fifteen

I landed with a thump on my butt. George looming over me and barking anxiously. My groggy brain didn’t understand what was happening.

“George. Shhh. It’s night, night time. They’re just headphones, and they were not attacking me.” He tugged on my arm again. This was a new one. Maybe he really needed to go outside.

I followed him down the stairs and opened the door. Then he just stood there, half in and half out.

The wind whipped around the house bringing a chill. “Dude, don’t be such a scaredy-cat. They’re just deer. They won’t hurt you.”

He grunted and turned back at me. Then he cocked his head.

“Sorry. Still can’t read your mind. Go potty and hurry up, it’s cold.” I wrapped my arms around me, wishing I’d grabbed my robe on the way down.

He stayed where he was, but he kept looking back at me.

“In or out?” I used my almost stern voice. Anything more and he’d pout for days—possibly chewing up a favorite sofa pillow or something else I liked. “Please,” I added and smiled at him. Though, it probably came as more of a sneer.

He huffed. Went to the nearest fence post, hiked his leg for all of a second and then trotted back to the porch, sat down and stared at me.

“Seriously, all that drama and I’m not even sure you did anything. Come on.”

But he wouldn’t budge. I finally reached out and grabbed him by the collar. If someone was out there, he’d be going nuts like he did with the deer.

I had to use all of my weight, but I finally had him back in the house. I shut the door quickly and locked it. And then I turned all the lights on in the back and stared through the window.

Nothing.

“George. Uh.” I lowered the sharpness of my tone. “I love ya, big guy, but yanking me out of bed is not nice. I mean, it’s better than peeing on the floor, but still.”

To avoid it happening again, I shoved his ginormous dog bed up to my room and put his favorite blanket on it. “Stay,” I ordered. Then I did the two-finger motion that meant he wasn’t supposed to get off the bed.

He grunted, and I swear he rolled his eyes at me.

I’m not sure what he’d been trying to tell me, but he wasn’t happy about my cluelessness.

I yawned. “We’ll talk about it in the morning, okay?”

He grunted again but did the three-circle spin that Great Danes are so fond of, and then settled down. I put the blanket over him, and he sighed.

Then I stared at the ceiling for the next four hours.

When my alarm clock went off, I put the pillow over my head. But George was at the end of my bed staring and whining. It was slightly higher pitched, and meant he needed to pee really bad.

I let him out the back and made my coffee, thought better of it, and added a shot of espresso. I still had a couple of hours before we had to head to the store, but there’d be no going back to bed.

When I glanced out the back door to see how he was doing, he sat there staring at me.

“George. Come on. You ready for breakfast?”

He lay down.

Well that’s new.

“Come on, boy.” I rattled his dish, which usually had him salivating. As in, could cover my entire kitchen in slobber in a matter of seconds.

He didn’t budge.

Not again.

“No games, okay? I’m tired and grumpy, and I have to get ready for work.”

He backed up and then barked sharply.

I jumped, sloshed my coffee on my hand and nearly dropped the cup.

“That’s it!” I put it on the counter and headed outside. But as I tried to grab his collar, he darted away and barked.

“George, I really do not like this new game. I haven’t had my coffee. You know how dangerous that is.”

He barked again.

“Fine. You do you. I’m going to get ready.”

I turned around, and then took a step back.

George was there by my side.

There on the siding next to the back door was a sign.

Stop or your next.

The English professor in me couldn’t help it. “They spelled you’re wrong,” I said.

George grunted.

The enormity of what I was seeing wasn’t lost on me. I just couldn’t process it.

“George. Stay.”

The last time I’d left the sign on the back door and run inside, it had disappeared. No way that was happening if George guarded it.

I quickly grabbed a pair of plastic gloves and a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Carefully, I pulled the note, tape and all, off the back wall, and put it in the bag.

I was about to pick up my phone, when it rang. It scared me I dropped it, hit the wrong button and it went to voice mail.

Really?

George came inside, and then butt-checked the door, so it slammed shut. If I hadn’t been scared out of my mind, I would have laughed. The sign—that’s what he’d been trying to show me last night. And so weird that Jake had just been there.

The deer hadn’t been the only thing in the woods.

A voice mail popped up and it was from the store. I hit play.

“Ainsley,” Maria said. “Don just found something. You need to get down here quick. We’ve already called the police.”

Oh. No. What now?

I didn’t even think about trying to call back—I just had to get there. Less than fifteen minutes later, I made it to the shop.

There was police tape cordoning off the back where I normally parked. I had to go around front.

What happened?

Please tell me someone wasn’t murdered back there. The roiling in my gut turned sour and burned my throat.

My phone rang as I pulled onto Main Street.

“Ainsley, where are you?” my brother asked.

“In front of the store—I’m about to come inside. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

The gnawing pit of dread tightening in my belly pulled tighter. I put the leash on George, and he walked inside with me.

There were customers and everyone acted like there was nothing wrong. Maria was at the register. “I’ll take George. Your brother needs to talk to you in the back.”

“What is it? I need to know.”

“Don found something in the back. I don’t know what. He told me to call Greg, act like nothing happened so we don’t freak the customers out. But I thought I should let you know.”

So, no answers there. I left George with her and met my brother back in the break room.

Several of his deputies stood with him. One of them made a motion toward me and Greg turned.

“Good, you’re here,” he said, his face a mask of concern.

“Just tell me what happened.” The words came out terse and his eyebrow went up, but I didn’t care. “Has there been another murder?”

That would not be great PR for the store, nor would it look so great for Michael who worked here.

“Calm down, Ains.”

There is nothing that annoys me more than my brother’s tone sometimes.

“I’m about as calm as someone can get when they’ve had nothing but cryptic messages about something happening but I’m about to lose my temper.”

“There’s evidence someone tried to break in, and it looks like your security system has been tampered with.”

I crossed my arms in more of a protection mode. At least, no one died.

Mind whirling, I forced myself to focus. “I had a problem with the security feed the other day—it got stuck on a certain picture. I called the service and they’re supposed to be out today.”

“Convenient. Did anyone else know?”

“Know about the broken security system? No. I didn’t tell anyone. I thought it best if no one knew. Word travels fast in this town. Do you think they were trying to rob the store? Or was it something else?”

“Chief, did you want them to fingerprint everyone who works here?” one of the deputies asked. I couldn’t remember his name.

My brother nodded. Before I could protest, he held up a hand.

“You have a lot of folks going in and out the back. This way we can narrow it down. It’ll save a ton of time. Okay?”

“Yes. Do you want me to go first?”

“I’ve already got your prints on file, remember? We did that when you found the body.”

No. I didn’t remember. I’d tried my best to forget what happened that night. But I wasn’t about to admit that to him.

“Right. If it’s easier, you can set up in one of the conference rooms. One of the upstairs ones would be best.”

He frowned. “What’s wrong with the one right around the corner?”

I rubbed my temple. It’d been a stressful couple of weeks with the opening of the store and the murder. My brother seeing the murder board was high on the last-thing-I-wanted-to-happen list.

“Inventory stuff. I’d rather it not get messed up.”

“Uh-huh.” His eyebrow went up again. “You don’t want me to see the murder board.”

“Right now, I just want you to figure out who tried to break into my store, which I need to check on.” This conversation was going into dangerous territory.

I turned around.

Before I could take a step, he said, “Ainsley, wait.”

I glanced back. “What?”

“You said you wondered if they were trying to rob the store, or if it was something else. What did you mean by that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know—something to do with the murder, maybe. Why? Oh, did they actually get in?”

“If they did, they locked the door behind them. Your friend Maria says that you keep a good inventory of everything that comes in and out of here. Can you take a look and make sure nothing is missing?”

Sure, it’s not like I have anything else going on.

He’s just trying to help.

This was one of those days where the only good option was to go back to bed and start over.

“Yes. I’ll check.”

It took several hours but with the help of the booth owners we went through inventory fairly quickly. Nothing was missing. My brother and his team had wrapped up, but he was still upstairs going over a few things with Don.

Danny Avery was coming out of the storeroom with a case of wine. “Hi, Ainsley.”

“Hey,” I said. “You helping Michael out again?” I smiled.

“Yes. I thought I’d hang out until he was free and clear. You know, just in case they needed something.”

“That’s nice of you.” And it was.

“Nah. Just doing what friends do.” Then he gave me a big smile.

“Well, it’s great just the same. I’d imagine you have a job to get back to, though.”

I really just couldn’t help myself.

“Well, technically, my company sees this as work. I’m helping out one of our clients.”

“That’s right. I think Shannon told me that Michael was working with you on distribution or something.” But this was still going above and beyond the call of duty.

“That’s the plan. Well, I guess I better get the shelves restocked before you close. Have a good one.”

“See ya later.”

I trudged up the rest of the stairs.

“And when you arrived, the door was locked. You’re sure of that?”

“Yes. I had to use my key to get in. Like I told you, I had a box in my hands, and I tried to put the key in, but it got jammed. I jiggled it a bit and it worked. I came inside, went to grab the key, and that’s when I noticed the scratches around the door. I honestly didn’t think much about it. This is an old place, but then I saw the red spots and I thought it might be blood. I got suspicious and called you.”

Blood? No one said anything about blood.

“When you drove up, do you remember seeing anyone else, maybe in the park? There are lots of people out jogging that time of the morning.”

“Could have been. I can’t honestly say one way or another. It was my first time opening up, and I just wanted to make sure we had everything ready. It’s why I came in so early.” Don sounded sad, like he felt responsible because he didn’t know any more of the facts.

I cleared my throat.

My brother frowned, seemed to be his natural state lately. “Thanks, Don. If we have any follow-ups, I’ll give you a call. But if you think of anything, even if it was someone you passed on the drive in, you let me know.”

Don started to leave but stopped as I passed him in the doorway. “Ainsley, I should have paid more attention, especially after all the trouble.”

Nothing like a sad Santa to break my heart.

“Hey, don’t you worry about it.” I put a hand on his arm. “I’ll be honest, I’m just glad it wasn’t me. I’m not sure I’d have stayed as calm as you did, and I might have messed up the crime scene. I’m so grateful to you, and I’m the one who is sorry that you had to go through this today. If you need to take tomorrow off, I understand.”

“Nah,” he said. “A man needs to work and keep his hands busy. Besides, everyone in town is going to find out what happened, and we might have another rush tomorrow.”

I sighed. “There is that.”

My brother chuckled.

“You go on home, though. I’m sure Peggy’s worried. I’ll close up tonight.”

The older gentleman gave me a stern look. “My wife would have my hide if I left you here alone, especially with someone trying to break in.”

“I’ll be here,” Greg said. “I’m having dinner at Ainsley’s tonight and I’ll help her close up.”

Don glanced at me. “You sure?”

I nodded and then gave him what I thought was a kind smile. I definitely wasn’t feeling it. The last thing I wanted was the interrogation that was about to happen. I so wasn’t in the mood.

“I came up to tell you that the inventory checked out. Nothing was missing. Whoever it was probably didn’t get in. And why didn’t you tell me about the blood?”

“I don’t know what kind of blood it is, or if it is. There were only a few drops on the door, and we’ve sent it off to forensics.”

“I thought Kane could do that sort of thing.”

“He could type it, for us, usually. But he’s working a homicide case in Round Top. We’re sending it in to Dallas.”

“Okay. Well, you don’t need to stay. I’ll be fine. We haven’t had anyone in the store the last fifteen minutes, so I’m closing early. I think we could all use a little break from the crazy.”

“Good. But I’ll be staying and helping you out. And I meant it about dinner. We can stop and get some and take it out to your place. I want to check on your security.”

“Between you and Jake—he followed a family of deer. Did he tell you? That’s what was driving George nuts.”

“Yes, he told me. Still, someone messed with the system here. The tech confirmed it. There was something on the feed that someone didn’t want anyone to see.”

Yep. That wasn’t creepy at all. It’d have to be someone with access, since the main system is in my office of the main conference room, which stays locked most of the time.

“It can’t be anyone who works here.”

He stood, and then followed me out. “Ains, you have good people here. But you said before that area has limited access. It’s time for you to think about this with a rational mind. Someone you know, or who works here, could be trying to steal or hide something. Maybe drug traffickers.”

“Wow. You just went to a dark place. Who do you think it is? Mrs. Whedon? Maybe the avocado wardrobe is used to distract us. Or maybe it’s Don, a.k.a. Santa, who makes wooden animals and has a wife who makes pies and cakes that make a body weep with joy? Or Maria and her five kids are a secret group of thieves.”

“I hear what you’re saying but even good people make mistakes sometimes.”

I turned on him then. “So, what are you telling me? That this isn’t really Mayberry? That some of my dearest friends might be thieves who don’t take anything? I get it. You worked in the big cities for a few years and you saw a lot of—I don’t even want to think about what you’ve seen. But you convinced me to come to this town because the people were kind, and loving. They look out for one another.

“And I’ve absolutely found that to be true. So, stop trying to put doubt in my head and making me suspicious of everyone.”

I stomped off, only to stop short at the bottom of the stairs. The door to where we kept the murder board was wide open and the lights were on. I swear it hadn’t been that way when I’d walked up to talk to Greg.

“I thought I told you guys to stay out of the big conference room.”

“We have the right to search the premises, Ains. There was probable cause for break-in. Besides, the tech was working in your office, remember.”

“I—” The words stuck in my throat.

I stood there dumbfounded.

STOP OR DIE, was written on the board, the rest of the clues having been erased.

For some reason it made me think of that old Monty Python sketch: “Cake or Death.”

Cake actually sounded really good.

“That’s not funny or nice.”

“What?” Greg asked behind me, and then I was being pulled backward. “Ains, don’t touch anything.”

He pushed the button on his shoulder. “Bring the team back to my sister’s place. You guys missed something big. We’ll be having a chat about that.”

“No,” I said. “I don’t think they did. This just happened. The door was shut when I went up to see you. The light was off. That’s why I was surprised. We’ve been keeping it dark so customers don’t wander in and most of the time the door is locked.”

“Run and lock the front door right now. I’ll get the back. Everyone who is in here needs to stay.” For once, I didn’t ask questions. I ran to the front counter, grabbed my keys.

“What’s the rush?” Maria asked.

I blew out a breath. “Someone left a threatening note on the murder board.”

Her hand went to her chest.

“Who else is still here?” My brother came to the front. “I don’t see anyone else in the store.”

“Ainsley said she wanted to close early and give folks a break. So, we all cleaned up, restocked, and everyone left except for me. I was closing out the register, so it took me a bit longer. I’m scared.” She did the same thing I was doing, which was wrapping her arms around herself.

Some jerk scared my friend, and for that—well, darn, they were going to pay. “This is ridiculous,” I said. “The sheriff is upstairs, and someone thinks it’s a game to write that on the whiteboard and destroy all of our hard work. Never in my life have I wanted to punch someone like I do right now. I thought it was your guys,” I said to Greg.

He shook his head. “They wouldn’t do that. And except for the security guy, as far as I know, no one else was in there—at least when my team was here.”

“We had the board covered, so it’s not like a—” I blanched. I’d forgotten all about it.

“What?” my brother and Maria said at the same time.

His guys banged on the front door and he let them in. While he did that, I grabbed my purse.

“What is it?” Greg asked.

I handed him the note that had been taped to the back of the door and told him where I found it.

His hands turned to fists and his face went red. My brother didn’t have much of a temper—it’s what made him great at his job—but we were about to see it full force.

“Do. Not. Yell. At. Me,” I said probably a little louder than I should. Some of his guys were walking past and stopped. “I forgot. Okay. With all the craziness going on here today. It just slipped my mind.”

“A note threatening you, slipped your mind?”

I held up a hand. “Yes. Remember there was a lot going on right after I found it this morning on my back door. It was probably on there, the night before. I thought George was playing some kind of game. But—that doesn’t matter. What you need to know, is it’s not the first one. There was another one on the back door a few days ago—at least I think there was. It was there and then it was gone, when I went to check.”

My brother placed the letter on the counter and his fisted hands went to his hips.

George grumbled. Goodness. I’d forgotten to take him on his afternoon walk.

“George, Greg, let’s take a walk,” I said. Then without waiting for an answer, I grabbed the leash and headed toward the back door.

“Kevin, tag this and log it into evidence,” my brother said behind me. “Then I want you to send it to Dallas. Tell them, prints, paper stock—everything they can tell us, we need to know.”

“Got it, Boss.”

As we passed by the team in the back, he stopped to brief them. They were dusting everything and doing whatever it is forensic folks do in a small town.

“Talk to Maria. I want to know everyone she can remember who was in the store today—focus on the last hour, first. Then do follow-up interviews with the booth owners who were in today. One of them may have seen something. And I want round-the-clock security here on Main Street, the park and a patrol running at least once an hour out at Ainsley’s place.”

The other man nodded.

Then Greg motioned we could go through the back door, for which George was most grateful.

“Ainsley McGregor.”

“That’s my name.”

“You’re going to tell me everything you know.”

I almost laughed but decided against it. He was worried about me and if I were in his place, I wouldn’t want jokes.

Just then, George tugged me toward a tree and I nearly bumped into it. That’s when it hit me—

“I think I know what happened to Rick Dean.”