Traci Tyne Hilton - Mitzi Neuhaus 03 - Buyer's Remorse (9 page)

Alice McNinch showed up at Neveah’s with her eyes wide open. Mitzy wanted to know why Neveah’s employees lived high on the hog, so she was going to find out.

She watched David ring up a customer. The customer was buying a vest.
Just one.
There wasn’t anyone else in the store. As she walked across the sales floor, watching David work, she added up the cost of his outfit in her head.
Fifty dollar v-neck t-shirt.
His earring looked like a real diamond, but she couldn’t be sure. His wristwatch had a subtle elegance, but
Alice
didn’t know if it was the one Joan had seen.

David stepped away from the counter after handing the customer her bag.
One hundred dollar jeans, if not more.
The supple leather of his pointy-toed shoes screamed
Italy
.
Alice
looked away for a moment. David was well dressed, but
Alice
thought, maybe he had a lot of credit card debt.

David sauntered over to
Alice
. “Hey darling,” he said, kissing her cheek. “What brings you to the wrong side of the tracks?”

She fingered the shoulder of the nearest garment, “I don’t know. I kind of just wanted to come. I’m a little shook up about Lara.”

“Oh, I know,” David looked at her with big brown puppy eyes, “You two were close. Far be it from me to speak ill of the dead, but boy. I don’t know how you did it.” He leaned against a rack of clothes and crossed his feet at the ankle. “Losing a friend is hard, even if she was
cra-zy
.” He drew out the word crazy but continued to give
Alice
a look of sympathy.

“Yeah,”
Alice
said. She felt the bile rise inside of her. David didn’t care that Lara had been murdered. He didn’t care at all. “How’s business been? I know they mentioned Neveah’s in the news. Has it kept people away?”

David shrugged, “Business has been better, sure. But it’s not completely dead. Whoops, sorry,” he said with a cat-like grin. “Why don’t you come in the back and sit down. Have a cup of coffee or something?” David straightened up again and nodded toward the office.

“I might as well,”
Alice
said. It looked as though David was done talking about Lara. He had stepped back to a rack of clothes that needed to be
rehung
. If customers had tried on that whole collection today then business hadn’t been too slow.

Alice
helped herself to the office. She poured herself some coffee in a Neveah’s mug and looked around. David had shuffled her off to the back room to end the conversation. But maybe she could make good out of it.

She sat down at the computer first and nudged it awake with the mouse. It was open to the internet shop. She scrolled through the items available online. A number of hers were there. A few items were marked out of stock, but not many. Perhaps Neveah’s was quick to update their website, and take down the listings when things sold out. Or maybe the out of stock items were just there to make it look like things were selling. Internet marketing wasn’t
Alice
’s strong suit. She did her best with her resale shop but it seemed like a lot of guesswork.

She scrolled back up to the top of the screen and moved away from the computer. She knew from Lara that none of the employees made much more than minimum wage. She knew that at least her items were marked up more than 200%. So there was some profit to keep the business running.

She hesitated to open the files. Who knew when Fiona would pop in again? The back door beckoned her. The dumpsters were just outside. What was Fiona throwing away? What was she recycling?
Alice
opened the door and went outside to search.

The dumpsters served the stretch of four stores that made up the building Neveah’s was in. She approached the garbage dumpster, but the smell made her change her mind. The recycling would be cleaner.

She propped open the big plastic lid and leaned into the huge recycling dumpster. There was a lot of crushed cardboard. She shifted it and looked at the labels. One was hers. There were a number with no labels. There was a whole stack tied together with twine.

Alice
pulled the stack out and untied it. The labels were mostly removed but one had a shipping to label on it. It had been sent to Neveah’s. And one had most of the return address label still on it. It was from
Idaho
.

Alice
sucked in her breath. There were seven boxes tied together, all exactly the same size. The labels that had been removed were torn off of the same spot. As far as
Alice
could tell they were from the same sender and used to contain the same thing.

Neveah’s was a local shop for local talent with a huge green agenda. What was being shipped there on a regular basis from
Idaho
?
Alice
ripped the address label off of the box. She was about to toss them all back in when she thought better of it. She stacked them back up and tied them as they had been before she pitched them into the bin. Then she shuffled some of the other boxes back on top of them.

Whatever the address meant,
Alice
was sure she didn’t want Fiona to know she had it.

Alice
went straight to Mitzy’s office.

Mitzy had convinced Joan to come downstairs and have a morning coffee with her. She didn’t want to be in her office, not with the recent break in and broken platter, but didn’t want to hang around the inn all day.

Alice
came in to the office breathless. She pulled a chair out from the desk and sat down with Joan and Mitzy. “I went to the shop and had a look around.” She pulled the label out of her pocket and set it on the desk.

Mitzy picked it up and read it. She raised an eyebrow.

“It’s from the recycling at Neveah’s. She had a stack of boxes tied together. Most of them had all of the labels removed but one was still there that said they went to that shop and one of the boxes had this on it.”

“And?
She gets boxes from
Idaho
.”

“Yeah.
But she’s a huge green advocate. She only sells the work of local designers. What’s she getting shipped in from
Idaho
?”

“How big were the boxes?” Mitzy asked, fingering the label.

“They were flattened but I think they were about shoe box size.”

“Does Neveah’s sell shoes?” Mitzy asked.

Alice
paused and thought. “Yes. They do have a small selection of shoes.”

“Hmm.
Well it looks like whoever makes the shoes is in
Idaho
.” Mitzy smoothed the label out on the desk. “She’s hiding it, it sounds like. But I don’t know that importing shoes from the next state over is quite what we are looking for.” Mitzy tipped her head back and rolled it from side to side with a little pop.

Alice
bit her lip, “But what if it’s not shoes? What if it is something else?”

“If it was something bad, would it have a return address on it?” Joan asked. “You don’t put a return address on your shipment of heroin.”

“That’s a good point.” Mitzy tapped the label with her pen. “It’s probably nothing.”

“It might be nothing, but what if the box the address came from was nothing.
Nothing but regular shoes that are supposed to come from
Portland
but really came from
Idaho
.
And what if the rest of the boxes had the shoes with something hiding in them?” She smiled and leaned forward in her chair. “What’s inside the toe of a shoe?”

“Toes,” Joan said.

Alice
shook her head. “No, when you pull them out of the box, what’s inside the toe?”

“A bunch of paper.”
Mitzy chewed on the end of her pencil. “And what could you hide in a bunch of paper?” she asked.

“Anything you want.”
Alice
said.

Mitzy nodded. “If you were getting something expensive and illegal shipped to you, you’d want it to come to a business address instead of your home because then it’s, I don’t know, it’s not you. You could say you know nothing about it.”

“Not if it is hiding in your shoes,”
Alice
said.

“Ooh!” Joan said, “If you have something illegal and expensive shipped to your store hidden in the toe of your shoe you could claim you didn’t know about it and you could lay the blame on an employee!”

“Especially if the employee has a lot of unexplained cash lying around,” Mitzy concluded. “Thanks for this label. It may be very important.”

Alice
grinned.
“Anything for Lara!”
She looked at her watch, “I’ve got to run. I have a ton of work to get done. I’m glad to think I may have helped out.”

The mess of computer bits still on the floor was bugging Mitzy.
Another glaring example of her recent bad decisions.

“Joan, I’ve got to get rid of this junk.” Mitzy kicked a tangle of cord. It rolled under Joan’s chair.

“I can’t help. I’m sorry. I’m meeting a client soon.”

“I’ll call Ben. He’ll come take care of it.” Mitzy reached under Joan’s chair for the wire.

“Why would he help?” Joan asked.

“Oh, um, I just thought of him. That’s all. It couldn’t hurt to ask.” Mitzy dialed his number.

Joan put her jacket on and waved to Mitzy. She had her own work to get done, much to Mitzy’s disappointment.

“Hey! Ben,” Mitzy started, “Do you have a little time to help me out today?”

“I can’t Mitz, this isn’t a good time.”

“It’s not a big
job,
I just want to get rid of all this computer junk.”

“Jenny and I are going out of town.”

“Where are you going?” Mitzy could hear papers shuffling in the background.

“I can’t say,” Ben said. Mitzy heard something like the sound of a car door shutting, “Listen, I’ve got a plan made and I’ve ordered some really good stuff. We’re going on a long weekend, and I won’t be able to get back until Thursday next week.”

“That is a long weekend.” Mitzy really wanted to know where he was going.

“No, we’re just going for a few days. But when I get back I’ll have a ton of work to do.”

“I’m glad someone is busy.”

“I’ll be back around next Thursday. Just leave everything where it is. I’ll take care of it. Is that all you needed?”

“You don’t have any time at all today?”

The rustling paper stopped. “Okay, Mitzy. Something is wrong. What is it?”

“Someone broke my platter. Lara Capet’s killer may have keys to everywhere I go, and the police don’t seem to care.”

“This is exactly why Jenny doesn’t want me working for you,” Ben said.

“I suppose it is. Well, sorry to bother you.”

“It’s okay. But, if you’re being threatened …” he trailed off.

“I’ll be fine.”

“If you are being threatened and you need me, just call.” Ben made his offer in a deep manly voice, which was just the laugh Mitzy needed to cheer her up.

“Enjoy your long weekend,” Mitzy said.

“Okay,” Ben said.

“Okay what?”

“Okay I’ll come down. I’ll be there this afternoon. Can you manage alone for a few hours?”

“I’ll find something to do.” A wave of relief washed over Mitzy. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Ben said.

Mitzy put her cell phone back in her purse. She knew how she could spend a few hours. She could go see Hector again. But first she’d get Alonzo.

Mitzy drove out to Alonzo’s worksite to beg his company for a long lunch break.

“I feel like I want to tell Hector about what’s been going on,” Mitzy said.

“About the cat?”

“No, about the threats,” Mitzy rubbed her knuckle up and down Alonzo’s arm absently as she spoke. “He is so heartbroken about Lara. Don’t you think he’d want to know that it might not have been about her? It seems like it would be a comfort to know people didn’t want to see your lover dead.”

“I don’t know
,
it’s kind of sexy to have a woman with a price on her head.” Alonzo put his arm around Mitzy’s waist and pulled her to himself. He kissed her cheek lightly.

“I don’t think Hector would agree. He’s one of those big teddy bears.”

“And I’m not?”

“No. You’re not.” Mitzy pulled away from his embrace, and opened the door to the job site trailer. “Go with me to the
Hawthorne
district so we can talk to Hector.”

“All right.
If you’re going to be running around seeing big teddy bear men I’d rather be with you.” He put his hand on her lower back and led her out the door. He locked his trailer behind him. He drove her little red Miata back to the
Hawthorne
district.

Alonzo parked in the first spot he could find, which left them with a little walk to get to Hector’s shop, Bloody Ink.

“Too bad.”
Two men had just stepped out of the shop, one with his shoulder bandaged. A woman in leather pants entered right after them. Then a group of skaters with their pants hanging off of their skinny hips entered. “I guess it’s not a good time.”

“We’re here. Let’s just go in.”

Inside the teenagers were engrossed in a discussion of the designs hanging on the wall. Hector was sitting on his stool with the leather pants woman draped over his shoulder. He had a grin like the cat that got in the cream. The woman with the leather pants had a very low cut sweater and as she leaned over talking in Hector’s ear Mitzy could see a little green gecko jiggling on the top of her breast.

“They’re not real,” Alonzo whispered in Mitzy’s ear.

The woman with the gecko let her hand drop down Hector’s chest as she leaned in and kissed his ear.

“Good afternoon,” Mitzy said. The presence of the gecko lady made her angry. Hector was grieving; he didn’t need some tramp seducing him. She watched his face. He didn’t look sad at all. He didn’t look annoyed by the woman. In fact, he looked satisfied and a little guilty.

He looked up at her greeting. “Mitzy, right?” he said.

“That’s right. And this is Alonzo, my fiancé.”

Hector stood up, a good three inches taller than Alonzo. The woman let her arm slide down Hector’s back while he stood, and then she slipped her hand into the back pocket of his jeans.

“Alonzo.
Good to meet you. Did you find out something new about Lara?” Hector asked.

The gecko lady, who Hector had not introduced, rolled her eyes.

“Maybe,” Mitzy said. “It might be nothing. You look busy. Maybe we can talk later.”

Hector looked at the skater kids. “You guys going to get any work done today?” he asked.

A few of the kids turned and shook their heads.

“Then get out. Come back later to look. I’ve got to have a meeting.”

The skater kids shuffled out.

“What do you know?” Hector asked.

“I think we’d prefer to talk to you alone,” Alonzo said.

“You can trust Trish.”

Trish chomped her gum a few times and then gave a tight-lipped smile. From where Mitzy was standing it looked for
all the
world like Trish gave Hector’s bottom a squeeze.

“Mum’s the word,” Trish said.

“How long has Trish been in the picture?” Mitzy asked.

“That’s not important,” Hector said.

“I’d say it is,” Alonzo glowered at Hector from under his thick eyebrows.

“I’m good comfort, all right? The man’s girlfriend was just murdered. Go easy on him.” Trish was still chomping her gum.

“Did Lara know about you guys?” Mitzy directed her question to Trish.

“Nah,” Trish said. “She was so self-absorbed. Hector could have had ten women on the side and she’d never have known. He probably does.”

Hector pulled away from Trish’s groping hand, and gave her a quick look of anger. His face contorted and reddened.

He pulled it back together and looked at Mitzy again. “I should be so lucky to have a woman like Trish with me at a time like this. Love is a funny thing. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love Lara, that I don’t want justice for her. What did you learn?”

Mitzy didn’t know what to say. Trish looked menacing, her hair slicked back into a greasy ponytail, her leather pants clinging tight to her body. How badly had Trish wanted Hector to herself? What would Trish be willing to do to keep Mitzy from the truth? But then she remembered the voice on the message machine. It had been male. Muffled, yes, but not feminine like Trish’s voice. She wanted to get Hector to talk a little more so she could see if his voice fit the message.

“Lara didn’t make enough money at Neveah’s to save up for that condo. We’re sure of it now,” Alonzo said. Mitzy thanked him with her eyes, for picking that as their reason. “We wanted to tell you that we think the money is behind the murder. Do you know anything at all about how she got all that money?”

“Lara got bonuses,” Trish said. “She used to brag about them all the time. They’d all be at the bar or whatever and she’d flash her card and buy the drinks bragging about her bonus.”

“You all went drinking together?” Mitzy grimaced. She was revolted by the idea of Lara and her lover partying with the other women he was sleeping with.

Trish laughed. “They drink at my bar. I don’t have to party with girls like her.”

Hector didn’t show even a flicker of disapproval at Trish’s words this time.

“I thought you said Lara didn’t know about you?”

“She knew me.” Trish rolled her eyes, “But that don’t mean she knew about Hector and me.”

Mitzy flexed her jaw. She had a strong urge to knock Trish down. Trish just smirked and stroked the back of Hector’s neck.

“Bonuses?
From Neveah’s?”
Alonzo turned the conversation again. Gratitude filled Mitzy again. She’d thank him for this.

“Where else?
That’s where she worked.” Hector brushed Trish’s wandering hand away. “They all get big cash bonuses over there. Probably so Fiona won’t have to pay tax on it.”

The door behind Hector jingled again and a middle-aged man in bike shorts came in.

“I’m
Gary
,” he said. “I’m here for my color.”

Hector raised his eyebrow at Mitzy and Alonzo. “Is that all?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Mitzy said.

They left the building feeling dirty and disappointed.

“Nice teddy bear,” Alonzo said.

“I swear when I met him the first time he was deeply grieved.”

“And now he has Trish to make him feel all better.”

“I wonder how bad Trish wanted Hector all to herself,” Mitzy asked.

“Trish isn’t smart enough to be the killer.” Alonzo shook his head. “Either someone wanted you dead or someone wants you to think they wanted you dead. That can’t be Trish.”

“But it could be Trish and Hector. He’s no dummy.”

“Yes, I guess it could be. He wouldn’t have killed Lara. But if Trish had killed Lara he might help her cover for it.”

“It didn’t seem to me that he liked her all that much.”

“Murdering the other woman in a jealous rage does funny things to a relationship.”

Alonzo took Mitzy’s arm in his. The familiar comfort of his support calmed her.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“Are you coming back to the site with me?” Alonzo asked. He let Mitzy into her car and then took the driver’s seat.

“I don’t have to this time, babe. I’m meeting Ben at the office to talk about the server.”

“I don’t want you going to the office,” Alonzo said.

“I’m sure you don’t. But I should try and get some work done.”

“You don’t need a server if you aren’t trying to sell houses.”

“It’s better to get the bugs out now, while I’m not relying on it. It’s okay.” Mitzy watched the review mirror while she spoke and wondered if anyone was following them, “We’ll look over his plans and then we’ll leave. I’ll go back to the inn and wait for you when we’re done. I’m not in a hurry to get killed.”

“I know you aren’t.” Alonzo braked hard at the light. “I don’t see what the rush is on the computer.”

“This is the chance Ben has. I’m going to take it. He’ll show me what he’s setting up and he’ll remove all that old stuff from Free Geek while he’s there. Kill two birds with one stone.”

Alonzo raised an eyebrow.

“Take care of two jobs at once then. Just go to work and build something. You’ll feel better. Meet me at the inn after work.”

“Fine.”
Alonzo’s jaw flexed.

“Don’t pout. If you’re freaked out, just pray.”

“You can count on that.” The light changed and he revved the engine.