Chapter 7 Emma
SEVEN
Emma
Just after sunrise, I pulled into one of the angled parking spots behind Deva’s Delights and tried not to salivate over the scents of vanilla and cinnamon already billowing from the kitchen vent. Good food. Exactly what I needed to face another long day of investigating.
I let the door chime ring out my arrival and paused to take it in, the tidy tables, the mismatched chairs, and the faint sheen of the sunlight coming through the windows.
Beth was already at our usual table, tucked near the corner with her two phones and an ancient blue spiral notebook, pen stuck in the wire binding like a dart.
She looked up, blue eyes bright over the rim of a green mug.
“Hey, Em!” she called, waving as if there were any chance I’d missed her. “Sit. I’ve got our spot on lockdown.”
I slid into the seat across from her and shrugged off my coat. “You get here earlier every week,” I said.
She beamed at me. “It’s the only time I can get a whole table to myself. If I wait until seven, the old guys from Parks and Rec hog everything by the windows and never leave.” She stabbed the notebook. “Besides, I’m mid-brainstorm.”
“World domination?”
“Scheduling our entire spring,” she said, lowering her voice like the walls had ears. “You have no idea how many people in Mystic Hollow have cases they want solved. We’re going to be busy for the rest of our lives. We’ll be well into our hundreds and still be solving crimes!”
“I guess it’s nice that business is good!”
“But,” she emphasized, tapping her notebook. “I also scheduled downtime. I need to be with my kids, and they were nice enough to carve out some time from their busy lives to hang out with their old mom in the future.”
“That’s nice! I can’t wait until Travis moves here!”
“My dream is for my kids to move back.”
We grinned at each other, and something about it set me at ease.
Carol arrived two minutes later, hair clipped into twin buns that looked like tiny animal ears, and a scarf so neon I wondered if it had its own battery pack.
She plopped down next to Beth and started fussing with the menu, which was hilarious since she always ordered the same thing.
Deva swept through the room in a swirl of black linen and flour dust, a tray of fresh-out-of-the-oven buns held in one elegant hand. She deposited a plate in the center of our table, along with three sets of tongs and a little ramekin of apple butter.
“Try these,” she said, beaming at us before heading back to the kitchen.
Beth tore off a chunk. “She’s an actual angel,” she said, mouth already full.
Carol waited until both of us had served ourselves before taking a polite bite. “You know she’s been baking since three a.m.,” she said. “Her car was parked outside when I walked Arlo this morning. He wouldn’t stop sniffing her tires.”
“Arlo is in love with Deva,” Beth whispered, which was probably true.
I tried the bun. It was light, rich with honey, and had a tang that chased after each bite.
I was still savoring when the front door opened again and let in a blast of cold.
Wade Bourne paused on the threshold, arms loaded with two massive cardboard boxes, one marked LIVE FEEDERS in marker and the other, in smaller print, YOGURT & GRAIN, DO NOT MIX.
“Oh, your boyfriend is here!” I teased Beth.
She turned bright red. Still new to this whole “romance” thing. But then, she dropped her cheek onto her hand and sighed. “He is something to look at though, isn’t he?”
I glanced in his direction. He walked with a careful shuffle, wearing the kind of clothes that only a professor would wear, probably because he had been one.
His brown hair, grey at the temples, was a little messy, and his blue eyes were filled with excitement.
When he reached the counter, he set his boxes down and checked the time on his phone.
The barista, a new hire named Bryan, smiled politely but immediately started scanning for Deva.
I waved Wade over as soon as he looked our way. He shuffled to our table and sat.
“I thought you had a big morning,” Carol said. “Isn’t today the hatch day?”
His face lit up. “Yes. And yes. The crystal serpents finally laid, and I’ve got seven eggs at home. But Deva said she’d have my order ready by eight, and I can’t afford to leave them unattended for long.”
Carol cocked an eyebrow. “How are you incubating them?”
He launched into it, describing his aquarium setup with the kind of obsessive detail that made me appreciate, if not entirely share, his enthusiasm.
He’d rigged a series of heat lamps and calibrated them to the exact color spectrum required for the eggs, which looked like enormous opals studded with glitter.
Beth asked questions, teasing out specifics, but it was clear she already knew about most of it.
“I’m fostering them for a couple weeks,” Wade finished, “then releasing them near the falls, just past the old quarry. It’s the only place safe enough, and they should be able to re-establish their habitat. If they make it past the first two molts, they’re basically indestructible.”
Beth nodded, eyes soft. “He’s already named them. All seven.”
“That’s not weird,” he said, only a little defensive. “They respond to sound frequencies, so it helps if you repeat the same syllables.”
Carol and I exchanged grins. “You’re going to be a great dad,” I said, and Wade blushed from the collarbone up.
At that moment, Rose, the fairy server and part-time barista, bounced over with a tray balancing a triple espresso, two berry scones, and a mason jar of something frothy and green that I would not have put in my mouth on a dare.
She flitted between chairs, dropping off items, the iridescent streaks in her hair catching the light.
“This is for you, Professor,” she said, setting the espresso before Wade. “Deva’s still prepping the bread, but she says hi.”
He sipped the espresso and closed his eyes in near-religious appreciation. “Tell her thank you,” he said.
Rose nodded, but instead of leaving, she turned to Carol and me. “You two going to Vale Provision after this? There’s a sale on bone meal and garden salts.”
Carol perked up. “I hadn’t heard about that. But yes, absolutely I want to check it out, when we’re done with our… errands.”
Ah, yes, our “errands.” Henry’s devastated face flashed in my mind, and the room became instantly colder. We had another day ahead of us to find Alice, save the wedding, and help my brother. After breakfast, we’d be completely focused.
Rose winked and skipped back to the counter, all energy and color.
Wade checked the time again. “I should get going. If the eggs get too cold, it’s over. The runt, especially. She’s not strong like the others.”
Beth stood to walk him out, but he stopped her with a gentle touch on her arm. I couldn’t tell if it was intentional or if he was still getting used to the ritual of affection, but it made Beth’s cheeks go pink.
He grinned sheepishly, and then kissed her, right on the lips, quick and unselfconscious. She closed her eyes and leaned into it. It wasn’t showy or hungry, just a press of warm affection. Then Wade squeezed her hand and left, careful with the boxes, and the door chime signaled his exit.
Carol and I both looked at Beth, who stood with her fingers to her lips, eyes a little glassy.
“Shut up,” she said, but she was smiling too hard for it to have any bite.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I said, then, “Okay, maybe I was.”
Carol rested her chin on her hand. “How’s it going?”
Beth sat again, smoothing her dress and picking at the corner of her phone case. “It’s good. We’re taking it slow, obviously, but—” She hesitated. “I’m not as nervous as I thought I’d be. There’s something very safe about him. And he never talks about my past, or my sister, or any of it.”
I nodded, understanding. Beth’s ex had detonated her life in such a spectacular fashion that the shrapnel still flew, even years later.
Not many of us could imagine a worse way for their marriage to end than for their husband to end up with the sister they raised.
The wounds had healed, but the scars never faded.
Carol reached over and squeezed Beth’s forearm. “We’re happy for you.”
“Thanks,” Beth said. “It’s weird. Sometimes I still feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“That’s normal,” I said. “Therapy helps. And so do carbs.” I pushed the plate of buns toward her. “You’re not allowed to be self-critical on carb day.”
She laughed and wiped at her eyes. “Deal.”
It was only after a few minutes, and the arrival of our second round of coffee, that Deva finally emerged from the back, wiping her hands on her apron.
She sat at the table and exhaled in relief.
“It’s a madhouse back there. Bryan already broke the dishwasher.
I might have to start threatening his life. ” Deva shrugged. “How’s everyone?”
There was a brief, companionable silence as we all checked in on each other.
Carol’s fabric shop, Yarns and Yards, was doing well and staying busy.
She’d managed to get two days off this week, with the older woman, Hazel, completely running her shop, which meant more time with her garden and less with local drama.
Beth was handling her own business, Private Pysch, and her twins, with the usual combination of caffeine and stubbornness.
Deva’s business was such a success that she teased the idea of opening another location.
When everyone was done talking, all eyes fell on me. We all knew that the only reason they were talking was to try to get my mind off the situation with Alice and Henry. And it’d worked. Mostly. Until all eyes were on me, and I pictured my brother again, a sick feeling washing over me.
Deva looked at me with that slight tilt of the head she used when things were about to get serious. “Any update on Alice?”
I hesitated, picking at the corner of my napkin.
“Daniel says there’s nothing new. He went through the footage from all over town, days leading up to her disappearance.
She shows up on the square, by the river, even near the marina, but after that nothing.
Not even a car leaving, or a trace of her in the woods.
Cops didn’t see anything suspicious on the tapes. ”
Carol frowned. “What about her parents?”
“They’re devastated, obviously,” I said. “But they keep thinking she’ll walk back in the door. Like it’s a magic trick, or she’s out testing a new spell and forgot to call home.”
Beth made a small sound, something between a sigh and a murmur.
Deva reached for my hand, her touch both grounding and soft. “We’ll keep looking,” she said. “It’s what we do.”
Beth shuffled through her notebook. “So, her last two days she went to the library, Vale Provisions, the gaming store, the movies, book club, a coffee shop, and she said something about helping her friend Krissy with her collectibles. So, we should hit one of these places next.”
“How about Vale Provisions?” Carol suggested, not mentioning the sale she was interested in.
“We might as well,” I said.
Beth closed her notebook. “We can find out what they know about Alice, hit the bone meal sale and then come back for lunch?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, trying to sound cheerier than I felt.
We finished our breakfast in a quieter mood, fueled by carbs and caffeine and a little collective hope.