A Fatal Chapter

“I think she’d love it!”

FOURTEEN

“I’m so happy, I think I might explode!” Angelica gushed as she started her car and put it in gear.

“Calm down, girl,” Tricia said, and laughed. It was well past eleven. The di

“I was so worried Gi

“Gi

“A good employer makes sure her people are happy. If we were a bigger company, I’d have on-site day care.”

“How big do you expect NRA to get?” Tricia asked. Did she have a megalomaniac for a sister?

Angelica shrugged. “That depends on Antonio and the next generation of Barberos.”

“Do you want to make NRA a dynasty?”

“Why not?” Angelica said, and laughed.

“I hate to shatter your good mood, but we’ve still got to put silk flowers in the rest of the hanging baskets.”

“Even that boring task couldn’t upset me,” Angelica declared, and she turned left onto Main Street.

Every other business except the Dog-Eared Page had long since shuttered its doors for the day. The pub’s windows positively glowed, and Angelica slowed the car, hitting the power button on the driver’s window. They could hear music and laughter. “I knew opening that pub would be good for the village,” she said.

They rolled on past, and a few seconds later she turned right into the municipal parking lot. Angelica parked and they got out of the car. “We’ll change clothes and then get straight to work.”

But as they walked toward Main Street, Tricia looked toward the gas lamp nearest the entrance and her breath caught in her throat. “Oh, no,” she cried.

“What?” Angelica asked.

“Look!” Tricia pointed to the hanging basket. When they’d left for the Brookview I

Angelica let out a breath that sounded like a sob. “No!”

Tricia snagged Angelica’s arm, pulling her up the street. Every basket they’d worked on the night before had been denuded.

“How could someone have done this? Why didn’t anyone see it happen?” Angelica cried.

“It’s too late to call the police,” Tricia said.

“Grant didn’t take me seriously when I reported the vandalism in the first place—he’s not going to care about the theft of the silk flowers, either.” Angelica’s voice broke on the last word, and tears filled her eyes.

“There must be something we can do,” Tricia said, looking up and down the empty street. Up ahead and across the street, she noticed a light glowing at the Stoneham Weekly News. “Look, Russ must be working late. Let’s talk to him. Maybe he can put something in the paper about it.”

“I’ll put a bounty on the head of whoever is responsible,” Angelica threatened, and stalked off in the direction of the weekly newspaper. Tricia had to hurry to catch up.

Angelica banged on the big glass door. “Russ! Russ Smith! If you’re in there, open the door.”

It took a few moments, but finally Russ stuck his head out of his office door.

“Russ!” Tricia called.

He hurried for the door and quickly unlocked it. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s the flowers! They’re gone!” Angelica cried.

“Calm down—calm down. Come on in and sit down and tell me what on earth is going on.”

Angelica was so upset that her explanation made no sense, so Tricia took over.

Finally Russ waved his hands to end the tirade. “Okay, I got it, I got it. But it’s too late to put an item in the paper. It’s already gone to bed for the week.”

“Oh, no!” Angelica wailed.

“Now, now—don’t panic. I’ve got another idea,” Russ said. “You say you’ve still got fake flowers you can put in some of the baskets?”

Tricia nodded.

“We can capture the guy on video.”

“How?” Angelica demanded.

“Boris and Alexa Kozlov over at the Coffee Bean bought a camera when someone was filling their Dumpsters with trash. I’ll bet if you asked Alexa, she’d be fine with loaning it to you.”

“She loves the flowers—she’s told me that many times,” Angelica agreed.

“Maybe she could even get Boris to set it up for you.”

“That’s a great idea,” Tricia said.

“I’ll go over to the Coffee Bean the second they open in the morning and ask,” Angelica said.

“But first we’ve got to beautify all those pots of greenery,” Tricia said, starting to feel weary. Like Angelica, her good mood had evaporated when they’d found the flowers missing once more.

“There’s no point in replacing the flowers until we get that camera installed,” Angelica said, and stood.

Tricia and Russ stood as well. “I agree,” Tricia said. She looked at Russ for a long moment. “By the way, what are you doing here at the office so late at night when your wife is about to give birth?”

Russ shook his head. “Nikki’s not due for at least another week. I waited for her to fall asleep before coming here. If she wakes up, she knows where I am. I can be home in two minutes.”

Tricia frowned. Two minutes could be a long time if you needed to get to the hospital fast. But that was Russ and Nikki’s decision, and she wasn’t about to voice her opinion on the subject.

Angelica reached the door and turned. “Thank you, Russ. I was so distraught, I don’t think I’d have ever remembered the Koslov’s had that surveillance camera. But even if they didn’t, I’d pay big-time to get one put up so we could catch the vandal who’s ruining our flowers.”

“Keep me posted. It might make a fun story for next week’s issue,” he said before closing and locking the door behind them.

The sisters stood on the sidewalk outside the office. “I’m glad you saw Russ’s light on. Maybe by tomorrow we’ll have this mess with the flowers cleared up.”

“You mean two days from now,” Tricia complained, and shook her head.

“At least we’ll get to bed at a halfway decent hour tonight,” Angelica said. “For now, I’m going to put it out of my head and fall asleep and dream about my new grandchild.”

“You. A grandma. And you look spectacular,” Tricia teased.

“Don’t I just?” They laughed. It felt good. “Okay, it’s time for us to go our separate ways. I’ll see you in the morning.” Angelica gave Tricia a hug and they split up, with Tricia heading north for the Chamber and Angelica south for the Cookery. Tricia’s footfalls echoed—something she never heard during daylight hours. Main Street was well lit, and she often walked home alone at night from the Dog-Eared Page without fear. But the hairs on the back of her neck prickled as though someone were watching her. She quickened her pace.

She was about to turn up the Chamber’s driveway and walk to the back door when she saw one of the silk flowers lying on the sidewalk. She picked it up and looked around, but saw no one. Turning, she hurried for the door. The security light snapped on, bathing her in harsh light as she fumbled to unlock the door. Once inside, she double-locked the door and fought the urge to turn on every light in the place. Instead, she padded through the converted house to the darkened office up front and peered out the window. Across the way she thought she could see movement. Yes, someone dressed in dark clothing and a hoodie carried a large black garbage bag and skulked away.