Chapter 17 #2
Amie closed her eyes so he couldn’t see her rolling them. “Okay, well … that wasn’t me.”
“Huh. Weird.”
“Ben.” The woman rubbed Benny’s arm as Amie opened her eyes again. “Can we go on the Ferris wheel now?”
“Sure.” Benny gave Amie an awkward shrug. “No harm, no foul, I guess. Enjoy your night.”
“You too.” Amie gave a stiff wave as they walked off.
A third imitation phone call. That explained what Benny had been doing in Amie’s apartment that night. Whoever made the call must have photographed Benny entering, then sent them to Amie to make her think he’d left the message.
Amie shivered, this time not from the autumn breeze. Was it Savannah’s murderer? And if so, why would they want Amie to think Benny had wanted her to stop looking into Savannah’s death? If it was Madeline, she had no connection to Benny, as far as Amie knew.
One thing at a time. She was looking for Grayson.
Not wanting to keep David waiting, she decided to finish her quick scan of the carnival games area, then head over to the Eons booth. She could stand in line and look to see if Grayson walked past.
Thankfully, the line for the café’s booth had shortened by the time Amie arrived. She took her spot at the end, turning around so she could scour the crowd of people walking past.
“Hi!”
Amie ignored the greeting, assuming it was for someone else. Then:
“Amie?”
Raina stepped into Amie’s line of sight. She was wearing a green windbreaker and holding a white paper bag in one hand. A few autumn leaves were painted on her cheek, which danced as she smiled tentatively.
“Oh, hi!” Amie flashed her a quick smile before returning to her surveillance. Realizing this new arrival could be of assistance, she added, “Have you seen Grayson tonight?”
“Grayson?” Raina looked surprised. “Yeah, I saw him a little while ago by the rides. Do you guys know each other?”
“Not really. I just need to ask him something.”
“I can text him for you,” Raina offered, pulling out her phone. She sent off the text as Amie thanked her profusely.
“Fried Oreo while you wait?” Raina offered, holding out the white paper bag. “My friends went on the Zipper, so I got these to keep me occupied until they’re done.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Amie had returned to keeping an eye out for Raina’s coworker. “I’m picking up hot chocolates for me and David.”
“What do you need Grayson for?” Raina asked, noticing Amie’s preoccupation. “You don’t have to tell me, of course.”
Amie hesitated. She didn’t want to go around accusing Madeline without stronger proof, especially so close to a handful of her employees.
“I’m still looking into Savannah’s death,” she said in a low voice. “And I had some questions for him about Madeline.”
“Because of the incident with Andrew?”
“That, plus a few other things. I think there’s a chance she was lying about Savannah selling the store to her.”
Raina’s eyebrows shot up. “Madeline said Savannah sold the store to her?”
Amie winced. She hadn’t meant to share that. But if it turned out Madeline had lied, she supposed it wouldn’t matter. “You didn’t know anything about it?”
Raina shook her head slowly, returning to her phone as it dinged. “Grayson says to meet him at the lake. He’s by the paddle boats.”
“Great.” Hopefully Grayson would stick around long enough for Amie to get the hot chocolates, find David, and head over there.
They reached the front of the line. Jess took Amie’s order.
“Do you know how Madeline’s doing?” Amie asked as the barista took her money.
“Not sure,” Jess said, grabbing two cups and writing on them. “But she said she was going to try to stop by this evening, so sounds like she’s okay.” They smiled, passing off the cups to another employee. “They’ll call out your name when it’s ready.”
“Thanks.” Amie made a mental note to keep an eye out for Madeline. What she would do once she saw her … that was still being workshopped.
“So what does Grayson have to do with this?” Raina asked, opening the paper bag as they moved off to the side. She fished out a fried Oreo and popped it into her mouth.
Amie tried to think of the most abridged way to explain things to Raina.
“Basically,” she said, “I think whoever killed Savannah wanted her out of the store the morning before she died. If Madeline thought Savannah was getting cold feet about selling the store, she might have snuck into the back and forged the paperwork with Savannah’s name.
” The more she said this theory out loud, the better it sounded.
“So I want to ask Grayson if there’s any way someone could have snuck into the back room without him noticing. ”
“Oh!” Raina dusted powdered sugar off her hands. “I can answer that for you. The store was pretty quiet that morning, so it would’ve been hard for someone to get back there without one of us noticing. But I guess if she somehow managed to sneak in the back door—”
“No, I’m talking about Monday morning,” Amie clarified.
“Yeah. Me too.”
Amie frowned. She’d been struggling with some memory issues, sure, but she was positive that every time she’d gone to the grocery store with David on Monday morning, Raina had been there. “You weren’t at the bookshop then. You said you had the morning off.”
“No, I didn’t,” Raina said, confused. “When did I tell you that?”
“When—” Amie stopped. When we talked at the grocery store on a different version of the same day would have probably led to more follow-up questions than Amie was willing to deal with at that moment.
“I … must have gotten confused,” she said haltingly. “I thought Grayson was alone at the bookshop while Savannah was at the grocery store.”
Raina snorted. “Absolutely not. We never leave Grayson alone in the store. I’m working full time now that Andrew is out of commission.”
“Two hot chocolates for Amie!”
Amie vaguely acknowledged the announcement as she fell into her thoughts.
Raina’s words had dragged a memory to the front of her mind.
Grayson had told Amie that he’d never been left in the store alone.
He said nothing unusual happened on Monday.
Raina was telling the truth; she’d been at the bookshop that morning on the final day of the time loop.
So why did Amie see her at the grocery store all those other times?
“Sometimes, Amie, the most important person you need to consider is you.”
“How familiar are you with the grocery store?” Amie asked.
Raina looked puzzled by the non sequitur. “What?”
“The grocery store. The one where Savannah had her regular flower order delivered from. Do you go there often?”
“Yeah.” Raina seemed concerned, which made sense. Amie knew she probably looked and sounded unusually eager for a conversation about a grocery store. “I do all my food shopping there.”
“That’s strange,” Amie murmured.
Raina chuckled lightly. “Why?”
It was clear to Amie that Raina had lied to her, even if Raina herself didn’t know. Amie had become so accustomed to her time loop habits at the grocery store that she’d nearly forgotten what had happened the first loop day she’d accompanied David there.
It had been a couple days after she’d finally told her neighbor about the time loop.
She’d gone to visit him early, catching him right as he was leaving his apartment.
He’d told her on a previous day that he’d nearly gotten escorted out by the store’s security for arguing with Savannah, so Amie wanted to see if her presence could possibly prevent that from happening.
They heard Savannah start to yell as they reached the cereal aisle. David had needed a basket for his groceries, so she went to fetch it to keep him away from Savannah.
Then she’d run into Raina. Raina said she had the morning off. Raina needed help searching for granola. And peanut butter—crunchy, not smooth. Then she’d knocked over a display of pinto beans, and Amie helped her clean it up.
By the time Amie was finished assisting Raina, David and Savannah were at each other’s throats, Savannah’s original grievance long forgotten as she screamed at David to stay out of her business. Amie managed to drag David away before security arrived.
After that day, she quickly learned how to keep David away from Savannah.
She could never convince him to go to the store at a different time (mentioning Savannah only made him more determined), but she knew how the timing worked.
She knew to get a basket as they arrived.
She knew to collect the groceries Raina needed as they shopped, so she could swiftly give them to her and return to David before he could make his way to the flower counter.
She managed to change the story of what happened that day, because in the time loop, anything that changed was because of Amie.
Raina was at the bookshop Monday morning. So why was she at the grocery store all those other days during the time loop?
Because of Amie. Because Raina knew David was going to the grocery store that Monday, as he did every Monday. She’d see him walking past the bookshop. And when Amie was with him, she’d see Amie, too.
“You didn’t want me to stop David and Savannah from arguing,” Amie said, her words slow and careful.
She gazed at the bright lights of the carnival rides in the distance as she worked through her thoughts.
“You knew I could. You’d seen me do it before.
You wanted them to fight. To be seen fighting.
You—” Oh my god, David was right. Someone was trying to frame him.
“I what?” Raina asked. Her eyes were searching Amie’s face. She still looked concerned, but something in her expression had shifted. She was no longer concerned for Amie. She was concerned because of Amie.
“You … should probably get back to your friends.” Amie suddenly felt like she very much needed to leave. “David’s waiting for me …”
“Sure, of course.” Raina balled up the white paper bag, tossing it into a nearby trash can before digging into her purse. “Are you still going to meet Grayson?”