Chapter 11 #2
There was no other excuse. The sidewalk was level. My shoelaces were tied. But one foot somehow caught on something, and for the third day in a row, my coffee went flying and…
“Hey now,” Gideon said, easily catching me by my arm so I didn’t splatter over the concrete like my coffee.
He yanked me upright, and I slammed right into his chest. Luckily, I’d already dropped my coffee cup, or I would’ve doused him in another coffee. Instead, it was my body plastered against his chest this time.
And… holy… the man was built. I mean, I figured as much just from looking at him, but to feel his muscular chest against mine… To have his big hand wrapped around my biceps… To look up into his amber eyes…
Heat. So much freaking heat.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with the sun.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
His nostrils flared, and I swore he was sniffing the air… or sniffing me? His eyes flashed. Was that a sign of the wolf he said lived inside him? That was kind of sexy. If I stared into his eyes long enough, would they do that again?
I swallowed and nodded. “Uh… yeah… I, uh, tripped.”
He nodded. Then he stepped back. Right. He probably didn’t appreciate me being all up in his space.
“Watch out! Coming through,” someone shouted from behind us.
This time, it was me tugging Gideon by the arm as I stepped to the side. A man with rainbow-colored hair moved by us in a cloud of perfumed air that reminded me of a hair salon. He was pushing a chartreuse-colored wheelbarrow full of boxes and plastic bottles. He must be one of the vendors.
“Sorry, Mason,” Gideon called after the man.
Mason just waved over his shoulder. I scooped up my sadly empty coffee cup and dropped it in a trash can.
Now that I was no longer daydreaming about a naked Gideon, I took a moment to admire the festival preparations.
Everything was coming together. The tents were being filled with tables and banners.
Lily had claimed a spot right by the park gate.
Most vendors wore light summer clothing like sundresses, shorts, or t-shirts, but not Lily.
She was wearing another boxy polyester pantsuit, this time in a dreary rusty brown color. Not exactly the picture of summer fun.
Closer to the fountain in the center of the park, Leon was making his stall resemble a medieval room with dusty tapestries hanging along the back, tables full of chunky jewelry, a collection of fancy swords and daggers, and bulky-looking furniture. He even had a suit of armor.
If I was a kid, that’s the booth that’d interest me.
Heck, it interested me now, too. If he decorated his store like that, he’d make a lot of money.
But I wondered if Leon realized his display would attract kids.
He didn’t seem like a kid-friendly kind of guy.
But I could see how he might think the LARP and SCA people would be drawn to a magical festival.
Among the many people scurrying around, I saw a few other familiar faces, too. Avery was stringing up garlands of flowers around her space. Wouldn’t they be droopy and wilted by the time the festival started? I hoped not. What she was doing looked amazing.
Another woman, who I remembered as running the quilt shop, was arranging gorgeous quilts at the next table.
She was wearing an outlandish hat. And Mei was arranging colorful balls of wool at her spot.
I doubted she’d sell much this weekend, not if the weather kept up like it was.
Who would want to think about wool and sweaters in this heat?
But I didn’t see Jim.
“Do you see him?”
Gideon was taller. He might have more luck.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Was that someone hammering something? We both turned toward the sound.
Jim was building a platform in front of the statue commemorating Ravenstone’s founding mothers and fathers.
He had several people helping him. Was this his full crew?
If the rumors were true, none of these people had been paid for their work because Winston’s bills were overdue.
Could any of these people be mad enough to kill over that?
I frowned. We were trying to eliminate suspects, not add more.
Gideon and I approached them. Jim scowled when he saw us.
“What do you want?” Jim wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his hand.
“We wanted to ask a couple of questions…” Gideon started.
Somehow Jim’s face twisted into an even deeper scowl. “Take a break, guys. Get some water. We need to stay hydrated today.”
“And gals,” one of his female employees muttered. She had an athletic build and moved with a purposeful gait. Her dirty blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail.
“Not now, Paula,” Jim said without looking at her. In fact, he hadn’t taken his eyes off Gideon and me. It was almost as if he didn’t trust us.
“Whatever.” Paula winked at me. Then she grabbed several water bottles from a cooler. She tossed one to Jim before she and the others wandered a few feet away to gather under the shade of a tree.
“Ask your damned questions,” Jim said as he cracked open the bottle. “You have until I finish this water, then I’m going back to work.”
Gideon tensed beside me. I got the impression very few people talked to him so rudely.
“So, how’s it going?” I asked.
Jim’s dark eyes bore into mine. He’d been so sweet the other day when he’d come into the shop looking for a gift for his girlfriend’s mother, but today he was like an entirely different person. His arm muscles flexed, and his mouth flattened in a grim line. “That’s what you want to ask? Really?”
Gideon stepped closer to Jim, drawing the contractor’s attention from me.
Then Gideon edged ever so slightly between us, like he thought Jim might lash out, and he wanted to take the brunt of the attack.
But yeah, that didn’t work for me. Not that I wanted to be hit, but I wasn’t some kid in need of coddling either.
I inched to the side a bit so I could see Jim better again.
“We want to ask you about what happened the night Winston told you to quit working,” Gideon said.
“The night he was killed, you mean.” Jim took a large swallow of his water.
Gideon nodded.
“The bastard damn-near begged me to work late. Said he wouldn’t pay us anything more until the job was done. Then he tells me to stop?” Jim shook his head. “What an ass.”
To say his attitude toward Winston surprised me would be an understatement. I’d expected him to pretend everything was hunky-dory.
Wait, was I using that right? And what did hunky-dory even mean? I must’ve spent too much time with Elwood when I was a kid. Sometimes the strangest phrases popped into my head.
But would a murderer call his victim a bastard and an ass?
“You, uh, didn’t like him?” I ventured.
“No.” Jim snorted and flipped his hammer in his hand. Yeah, that wasn’t menacing at all. “I’ve heard what everyone’s saying about the shit he was causing for me. I know how that looks, but I’m not going to lie. And I’m not sorry he’s dead. I just wish he’d paid me before he got offed.”
“What did you do that night, after he asked you to stop working?” Gideon asked.
“I left and didn’t look back.” Jim frowned. “I should’ve packed up my shit that night, too. I would have done it if I’d known he was going to die, and the police weren’t going to let me back into the Nook to get my stuff.”
“Can anyone vouch for you?” I asked, because how could I not? We’d heard him banging around in that shop after Winston left the meeting, which meant Jim was lying.
“Like an alibi?” Jim scowled. “No. I was home alone.”
Liar!
“Did you kill him?” Gideon asked.
Jim shook his head. He rubbed the cool water bottle across the back of his neck. “How the hell am I supposed to get paid if he’s dead?”
Well, if that was true, why would he lie about where he was?
“So, who do you think killed him?” I asked.
“How would I know? Like I said, I was home.” Jim shot me a hard smile.
Then his gaze was drawn to the gate. I glanced over my shoulder to see more vendors arriving and asking an irritated Lily for directions.
His gaze darted around to a couple of the other attendees before returning to us.
Hmm… if he didn’t want people to hear what he was saying, maybe it was something juicy.
Or was he hesitating for some other reason?
“No guesses?” I prodded.
“He got around a bit, didn’t he?” Jim said slowly, as if weighing his words carefully. He mopped more sweat off his forehead. If it wasn’t so hot outside, I’d think he was sweating because he was lying.
“Are you talking about Tulip?” I asked.
“Who?” Jim asked.
“Brooke. She goes by Tulip now.”
“Nah. Not her. She’s weird, sure, but I don’t think Winston was all that serious about her. That assistant of his, though? Now she had her claws into him pretty deep. He could barely take a piss without her demanding it be added to his schedule first.”
“Janis?” Gideon sounded surprised.
“Yeah. That’s the one.” Jim downed the last of his water. “Your time is up. I need to get this stage built before Leon loses his shit.”
As we were walking back through the festival site, Gideon’s phone pinged. He glanced at it, then tapped his screen. He frowned as he read his message.
“Grady texted. They’re finished with the crime scene. They didn’t find anything significant.”
I glanced back at the contractor. “Do you think Jim did it?”
“Hard to tell. He was lying about something.”
“Well, he lied about his alibi for one thing. We heard him over in that store later that night. But the way he talked so candidly about not liking Winston makes me think he isn’t worried about being accused of murder.
” I stifled a yawn. Man, I wished I hadn’t dropped my coffee.
I could really use it about now. “But we don’t have any evidence to point at someone else either. ”
“Let’s see what Janis has to say about her relationship with Winston,” Gideon suggested. “And she might also know who the other bidder on the property was.”
I hoped she had something interesting to say, because if she didn’t, then what?