Chapter 14
Tuesday morning, Rarity was in the store early, cleaning.
It was a task she took upon herself every week.
Sometimes, the Monday person did it. Mostly when Shirley was the Monday person.
With Katie and Darby, they struggled to get the cleaning portions of the to-do list done, so Rarity just came in early on Tuesday.
She’d brought Killer with her, but Archer had volunteered to take him home after he closed his shop for the day. At least he wouldn’t be alone all day.
The bathrooms and the front shop area had all been done. Killer was curled on the front couch, so she’d just mopped around him. Even if he got up before the floors dried, his little paw prints wouldn’t make much of a mess as he walked around, looking for her.
Now all she needed to do was the break room. Then she’d dry a path to the couch and hang out with Killer until the floors all dried.
As she swept under the counter, something came flying out.
She frowned as she leaned over it. It was a syringe.
It must have been from the EMTs working on Mason, but typically, they were better at cleaning up after themselves.
Especially needles and syringes. She put it on the counter and finished up her cleaning tasks.
Promptly at ten, the front door opened slightly. There was a chain lock on the door from a prior owner of the building and Rarity had engaged it, hoping to keep people off the wet floors. “Hold on a second, I’ll be right there.”
She double-checked the floors with a sweep of her hand before setting the book she’d been reading down and disturbing a sleeping Killer. All dry. The back room might be the only one still a little wet.
She walked over and unhinged the chain and opened the door to Jonathon and Darby. “Come on in,” she said, then warned them about the back room.
Jonathon set the laptop bag on what he considered “his” table and then set the coffee carrier he had in his hands on the register counter. “Coffee by request. Including a mint mocha for Darby, but really, dear, that’s just really hot chocolate.”
“It has a shot of espresso in it too, so don’t be dogging on my choice of coffee. I’ve got lots of energy and burn all these calories off in minutes.” Darby took the coffee then opened the door to the back room. She leaned down to touch. “It’s still a little damp.”
“It won’t be for long.” Rarity took her coffee and took a long sip. Sure, she’d had one or two at home before coming in, but there was just something about coffee you didn’t have to make yourself. “Darby, I wanted to talk to you about Marc. Do you mind?”
“You’re going to tell me about his ex-wife and how they broke up?
” Darby guessed and then laughed at the look on Rarity’s face.
“Marc and Tyra are still friends. She told him about seeing you on Sunday morning and about telling Archer her sad story. She knew it would get back to you and that you’d feel responsible to tell me. ”
“Not quite responsible, but yes. If I know the guy you’re dating has a history of cheating, I’m going to mention it.” Rarity glanced between Darby and Jonathon. “Am I wrong?”
“I think I should stay out of this. Back in the day, when Edith and I were dating, we didn’t talk about our prior relationships quite as freely as you all do now.” Jonathon was setting up his laptop to get ready to write this morning.
“I’m not mad. In fact, I’m happy that you feel a need to protect me.
I don’t have many friends; most of them live here and will be at the book club meeting tonight.
And I have no family. I’m glad you cared enough to warn me.
Besides, Marc and I aren’t serious, yet.
He wants it to develop, but I’m not sure.
He doesn’t live here and he’s on the road a lot with that commenter contract he just signed.
I just want to be friends until we see if this is something more. ” Darby sipped her coffee.
“You’re a smart cookie,” Jonathon said as he pulled out his notebook and started making notes.
“I feel better that you know. It was like I was keeping something from you. And even if it hadn’t been my place to blow the whistle on Marc, there’s no way I was going to keep something like that from you.
Even if it hurt our friendship.” Rarity opened the register.
“I think we’re ready for customers. Can you put out the sidewalk sign? ”
“Sure, I’ll be right back.” Darby headed to the front and then disappeared outside with the sign.
“I’m glad that’s over,” Rarity said aloud. She hadn’t been sure if Jonathon was even listening until he responded.
“Friends tell each other the truth.” Then he focused on his laptop again, and he was lost.
It was an hour later when Jonathon came back out of the back room, a coffee cup in his hand. “Are you giving Killer shots for something?”
Rarity, deep into her website updating, frowned as she tried to process what he’d said, especially after she’d just moved everything from one side of the page to another. “What? No. He’s healthy. He just got his shots at his annual last month, why?”
“The syringe you use is the one that Edith uses on Romeo. She said she could give him his shots since she was a nurse before she retired. So why do you have a syringe?” Now Jonathon was watching her.
“I found it under the cabinet when I swept. I thought it was from the EMT visit for Mason. Are you telling me it’s not?”
Jonathon shook his head. “These guys are anal about making sure all the sharps are accounted for. If they’d lost one, someone would have come and checked the area.”
She stared at him, wondering if they were thinking the same thing. “We need to get this to Drew.”
“Yes. And don’t touch the needle end. If it was the one that injected the poison, it might still have some on it.” He grabbed Darby’s arm as she started to go into the back room.
“Hey.” She turned to him. “What’s the matter?”
He held up a hand. “Give me a second before you go in. Rarity, do you have a box we can put that in? Then I’ll walk it over to the station. Order lunch and I’ll pick it up on my way back.”
“Sounds good. Hold on a second, Darby. We need to get something out of there before you can go inside.” Rarity didn’t want to mention the needle or Mason since Darby had been one of the last people, besides the killer, to see Mason alive that night.
She handed her a menu from Carole’s. “Pick out your lunch while you’re waiting. ”
Rarity found a box under the cabinet behind the register. She handed it to Jonathon with some bubble wrap. “So hopefully it won’t poke through the box.”
He raised his eyebrows, then took the packing material and disappeared into the back room.
Rarity watched from the door as he used a glove to move the needle onto the bubble wrap, then into the box. He closed the box, put some tape on the top, then let out a long breath.
“There, it should be safe, but just in case, I’m putting it into a bag and carrying that. Not the box. I’ve got stuff I still want to do with my one and precious life. Like see Drew get married.”
Rarity took the lunch order, and after adding her and Jonathon’s order to the list, she called it in as Jonathon left the building.
Now that she knew what it was, she was glad it was out of the store and safely on its way to the police station.
Let them deal with the potential poisoning issue.
She hung up the phone and then noticed that Darby hadn’t left the spot where she’d been since Jonathon stopped her. “Lunch will be here soon.”
“That’s what killed Pike, right? That syringe and whatever was inside it? That’s why you didn’t want Jonathon touching it and why you kept me out of the room. I’m not that sensitive. I know Pike was poisoned. I didn’t kill him.”
“Oh, dear. I don’t think you killed him. I just didn’t want you upset. You’ve had a lot going on the last couple weeks.”
“I’m an adult, Rarity. You need to treat me that way.” Darby went off with a box of books to shelve.
Rarity wanted to apologize, but she wasn’t sure which sin in Darby’s eyes was the bigger one: trying to save her from Marc or not letting her go into the back room because of the syringe?
* * *
Darby was still upset with Rarity when book club started, but she hid it well—almost. Rarity saw the questioning looks the others gave Darby, then Rarity, whenever Darby spoke directly to her. Which wasn’t often.
“Jonathon? Since you’re hanging out at Drew’s and keeping us from getting into trouble, do you want to run the meeting tonight?
” Rarity held out the whiteboard pen. She’d specifically chosen purple to see if he’d change to his regular black or use the purple.
It was the little things that made her smile. Like messing with Jonathon.
“I can do that,” Jonathon said, then switched the pen out to a black on the tray under the board. He saw Rarity’s smile and shook the pen at her. “Anyway, what have we found out since last week? Who wants to go first?”
Rarity raised her hand. “I’ll go first since my answer is not much.
I checked out Mason’s social media along with Talia’s, his ex-girlfriend, and there’s not a lot there.
They’ve been broken up for a while, according to Talia’s posts.
Mason’s doesn’t mention Talia since the breakup.
And it looks like he hired a professional to make his posts.
Comparing those to Marc Billings, his look almost like a machine did them.
No humor, no emotion, no life.” Rarity saw the look Darby gave her.
“And the reason I looked at Marc’s was for the second question we had last time, who was stalking Darby.
Marc’s social media is open and seems to be a lot like him.
Nothing came out of any of the digging, except for one creepy comment on Marc’s and that has now been explained. ”
“And…” Jonathon prompted her. When Rarity shrugged, unsure of what he was leading her toward, he added, “You found today…”