Chapter 9 The Ride Home #2
“I know, but I’m doing it anyway. And while you’re busy doing your thing, I’ll make a sketch for camera placement.
I’ll also make sure no more stuff got moved.
” Alarm flashed in her eyes, and he instantly regretted putting it there.
Striking a casual vibe, he grinned at her.
“Gotta make sure the coffee beans are safe. Imagine the frenzy this town would go into if they couldn’t get their fix. ”
Amy inserted her key into the lock with a mild chuckle that sent relief through his bloodstream. “And the day-old pastries, I’m sure.”
He exaggerated mock surprise. “You have leftover pastries and didn’t tell me?”
“Come on in, Deputy, and let’s see what I can rustle up. I can’t believe you’re hungry after all that food you put away at Miners.”
She had paid attention to what he’d eaten? Even though he’d barely had a chance to talk to her? The thought she’d noticed kind of tickled him. But that was Amy. Always thinking of everyone else, always doing for everyone but herself.
She flicked on a few lights and moved toward the kitchen. He followed, a question that had been percolating all day finally surfacing, but she tossed out one of her own first.
“I noticed you and Micky talking at Miners. It seemed pretty serious.” She let it hang there, no doubt waiting for him to explain.
“You know how it is,” he replied casually.
“We start talking engines, and things get intense.” He wasn’t about to give her the low-down on what they’d really been discussing.
“Let me ask you something. Right before the train pulled in, Micky was talking to a lanky guy wearing a dark beanie. Any idea who he is?”
She came to a stop in front of an industrial refrigerator and parked her hands on her hips.
She didn’t look at him. Instead, her eyes darted around when she said, “His name’s Benny.
I met him once when he and Micky were on their way to go fishing.
Micky says he’s a friend from high school.
” She turned her back to him. The motion seemed off for her, but he let it go.
Shane racked his brain but didn’t remember a Benny from high school. “Did Mick say if the dude was older or younger than us?” If he’d been a few grades ahead or behind, Shane might not have remembered him. “Or if he lives around here?”
She shook her head again, and her hair feathered over her shoulders like a glossy, jet-black curtain. “I honestly don’t know. I only met him briefly, and he wasn’t exactly the chatty type. Is there something important about this guy?”
“Nope. I’m just naturally curious about faces I haven’t seen in town before.” He pointed toward the fridge. “What are we looking at?”
She pivoted toward the appliance once again. “Nothing. I’m just wondering whether I’m the one who left the fridge door ajar.” She pushed on the door to close it, then opened it again.
“Did anything spoil?”
“I don’t think so. Either it wasn’t open for very long or it’s cold enough in here that the interior doesn’t need to cool down too much. Otherwise, the seal would have made it a lot harder to open just now.” She pulled the door a little wider and peered inside. “Huh.”
“What?”
She turned to look at him, pleats between her dark brows. “A few items aren’t in the same place.” She chewed on her thumbnail. “It’s possible Cade did that after the Big Event.”
“I thought you said he doesn’t have a key.”
“He doesn’t, but it could have happened while I was here with him, and I just didn’t notice.” The creases deepened, and thoughts seemed to cloud her eyes, as if she were trying to solve a riddle.
“Do you want me to take a look?”
“No, it’s all good.” In the next breath, her expression transformed to her usual cheerful one. “Let’s see about those pastries.”
She opened a cabinet door and pulled out several plastic containers. “In exchange, you’re going to have to tell me your secret because I don’t understand how you can eat as much as you do without ever gaining weight.”
He leaned against the counter and folded his arms. “I don’t know. Maybe because I train for SAR? Why?”
“Because every time I look at food, I gain ten pounds. Makes it hard when you have a sweet tooth like mine.”
“You don’t need to lose weight.”
She gaped at him. “Oh, puh-leeze.” With her hands, she gestured along both sides of her body. “These bones do not need any more meat.”
He clamped down on the urge to let his gaze follow her movements and wander up down her form. Amy was on the curvy side, but he liked her curves. A lot. He liked how they filled her jeans in the back and her T-shirts in front. Gave a man’s hands something to—
Stop it right fucking now.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “You look fine to me,” he muttered.
He was about to add that Micky surely appreciated her figure, but then he remembered overhearing the dude complain once about Amy being fat.
Besides being an idiot, Micky was apparently blind because Amy was not fat.
She was … all the things that set women apart from men.
All the things he appreciated. Pure femininity.
She flapped a dismissive hand at him before turning to lift a few pastries into a white bag. “I appreciate you trying to spare my feelings, Shane, but you really don’t have to. I see my own reflection in the mirror every day, and it doesn’t lie.”
An image of Amy standing stark naked in front of a full-length mirror, her lush curves on full display, popped into his pervy brain, and he smacked it the hell down just as she turned toward him and held out the bag with a brilliant smile. “There you are, Deputy. Just for you.”
Swallowing hard, he accepted the bag and tried not to think of her in nothing but a white wrapper and those words on her tongue. “Uh, thanks. I’d like to look around and get an idea where the cameras will go.”
“Inside too?”
“Mostly outside, but maybe one in your office and one in your kitchen.”
She gestured toward the door that led to her office. “Have at it. Light switch is on the right. I have a few things to take care of inside the café.”
“Have you got a spare piece of paper I can use?”
“Should be some copy paper on one of the shelves. Help yourself.” She withdrew into the shadowed interior of her store.
Shane had never been inside her inner sanctum, and once light flooded the space, he let his eyes drift.
A utilitarian desk, file cabinet, chairs, some shelves.
Standard stuff, neat and organized. He zeroed in on a few reams of paper stacked on one side of a shelf.
The wrapper on one ream was open, and he tugged on a piece of blank paper, jostling the shelf.
Something behind the shelf shifted, as if it had been pinned there and the movement had loosened it.
He bent and plucked it out, realizing he held a folded topo map.
Markings in different colors of Sharpie piqued his curiosity, and he unfolded the map for a better look.
Several red triangles were among numbered black dots with circles drawn around them.
In the middle was a blue square with St inside its perimeter.
Another blue square, smaller and off by itself, was marked with a C.
He stared at it, trying to make sense of the markings.
Something familiar niggled at the back of his brain but zeroing in on it was like trying to capture mist.
What did it mean, and what was it doing tucked away behind a shelf in Amy’s office?
“Almost done,” Amy sing-songed from somewhere in the store.
“Yeah, me too.” He quickly folded the map along its creases and slid it back into its hiding place.
Hiding place. The odd way it was stowed struck him as exactly that, like it was placed there so anyone looking around with a casual eye wouldn’t spot it.
By the time Amy appeared in her office doorway, he was making a crude sketch he hoped resembled the actual space.
He wasn’t sure it did because he wasn’t paying close attention.
Rather, he was going for the illusion that he was doing what he’d set out to do, instead of what he had actually wound up doing—snooping through her stuff.
She didn’t seem to notice his drawing as she leaned against the frame and crossed her arms, her body language conveying relaxed ease. “Truly, I can walk home from here.”
Pulling in a steadying breath, he folded his fake diagram and held up the bag of goodies she’d given him. “Nope. You just paid my fare, so I’m sticking around and earning it. I’ll deliver you to your door.”
While he was at it, he’d satisfy himself that no one was messing with stuff in her house. The map was none of his business and could have been a mystery even Amy knew nothing about, so he deposited it inside his brain’s vault with other debris that didn’t matter.
“You sound like an Uber driver instead of a deputy sheriff.” She laughed, a beautiful, musical sound that warmed him all over.
He loved hearing her laugh. More and more often, he found himself trying to amuse her just so he could hear that melodious lilt and know he was the one responsible for bringing her that bright moment.
Something was seriously wrong with him.