EVERYTHING about the evening was perfect.
The moon was high and cast golden shadows on the Bay. There was music outside the tent as well as within: the gentle lapping of the water upon the sandy shore, the soft call of an owl, the hush of the breeze playing through the reeds at the far end of the lawn.
If I were ever to believe in romance, which I most certainly do not, Vanessa mused as she and Grady strolled through the Inn’s lobby into the night air, I almost could believe tonight.
Hand in hand, Vanessa and Grady walked with their hips lightly touching as they descended the front steps.
“The car’s at the far side of the lot. I’ll run and get it,” Grady told her. “I’ll be right back.”
She opened her mouth to say she didn’t mind the walk, when she saw Steffie flying up the circular drive as if in a royal snit. Seeing Vanessa, she stormed toward the steps.
“You are not going to believe this.” Steffie was wild-eyed.
“That ass Wade MacGregor, with whom I thought I was having the perfect evening, walks me outside, and of course I’m thinking, ‘Yay, big night ahead.’ But it turns out he’s walking me to my car and he tells me he has a plane to catch, but it was sure nice seeing me and catching up and maybe we’ll run into each other the next time he’s in town.”
“Oh, Stef…” Vanessa began, hoping to spare Grady the full Steffie blowout.
“No, no. I’m not finished. That was just the first part.” Steffie was on a roll. There’d be no stopping her now. “So I say, well, don’t let me keep you from your flight, and I stomp off to get into my car, and there are four cars parked behind me. Not one, but four boneheaded fools who think it’s okay to block someone in have parked behind me. I can’t even make a grand exit and blow cinders all over his car as I do wheelies and screech by him in a cloud of exhaust. Then Tina calls to tell me she can’t lock up because she just realized I forgot to leave her the key.”
Steffie blew out a long, angry breath.
“Why don’t you go in and see if someone can give you a hand finding out who owns the cars that are blocking you?” Vanessa suggested. “Write down the license-plate numbers and ask the band to announce it.”
Steffie waved a piece of paper. “I did that. It’s going to take forever, though. Want to bet that at least two of these blockheads are in the bar, drunk, and at least one of them is in the restroom? I told Tina I’d be there fifteen minutes ago.”
“I can’t help you with the guy, but I can drive you to your place so you can lock up,” Grady offered. “By the time we bring you back, the cars may have been moved.”
“Really? You wouldn’t mind?”
“Not at all. We were just on our way out. You two wait here,” Grady told them.
“Wow. He is really hot,” Steffie told Vanessa when Grady disappeared into the lot. “And nice. Hot and nice. I’m having serious envy here. I’m really sorry you saw him first.”
“I’m not.” Vanessa grinned.
“What happened to ‘I’m not interested in finding anyone, I don’t want another guy in my life’… I can’t recall your exact words, by virtue of the amount of champagne I drank tonight, but I definitely remember you saying you were not interested.”
“That was then,” Vanessa said. “Besides, it’s just for tonight. He’s leaving tomorrow. I probably won’t even see him again unless Beck and Mia have a baby and he comes to the christening.”
“What is it with these guys who blast out of here like St. Dennis is the Village of the Damned?”
“He’s made plans to do something.” Vanessa shrugged. “And that’s fine. He doesn’t have to stick around. I was serious when I said I don’t want anyone in my life. I just want someone for tonight.” She watched the car approaching, the headlights flashing across the grass.
“God, Ness, you are the very soul of romance.”
“Well, not just any someone. Him. I want him. Which doesn’t necessarily mean I want to keep him.”
“Can I have him when you’re done with him?” Steffie stage-whispered when the car stopped in front of the Inn and Grady got out to open the car doors for the two women.
“Awww,” Steffie sighed as she got into the backseat. “I love it when a guy does that.”
Grady got back behind the wheel and started out of the lot.
“Well, at least you’ll get to try Mocha Berry Vanessa,” Steffie said, and poked Vanessa’s arm to get her attention. “I did tell you that I named a newly created special flavor in your honor?”
“Grady told me.” Vanessa turned in the front passenger seat and looked around the headrest to Steffie. “And I am honored.”
“You should be. It’s pretty terrific, if I do say so myself. Right, Grady?”
Grady nodded. “It’s very good, Steffie.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty popular,” Steffie went on. “I think I’ll keep it on the board for a while.”
They merged onto the main road and headed toward the center of town.
“Hey, Ness, did I tell you I saw Candice coming out of Sips this afternoon?”
“Candice who was in my shop this week and put that white eyelet number aside?”
“Uh-huh. I’m certain it was her.”
“Oh, good. Maybe she stopped in and picked up that dress after all. I left it in the back room over the weekend, just in case she didn’t get a chance to come in yesterday.” Vanessa smiled in the dark. “I hope she did. It looked really nice on her, and she looked like someone who needed something pretty and new.”
“That could have something to do with the company she keeps. The guy she was with today…” Steffie shuddered. “Let’s just say he didn’t look like a very nice guy.” She paused. “Then again, he probably didn’t dump her after a few hours of playing cozy at a friend’s wedding, either. God, men are so annoying.” She paused again. “Present company excluded, of course.”
Grady looked at Steffie through the rearview mirror. “I guess it depends on who you talk to. I admit to having been called annoying a time or two. Actually, I’ve been called much worse than that.”
“Not by me,” Steffie told him. “I think you’re a prince.”
Grady laughed and made the left onto Kelly’s Point Road, which, except for the occasional streetlamp, was dark until they approached the municipal building, which was well illuminated. The reserved parking spots for the police cruisers were all filled.
“So do you think there’s anyone actually on duty tonight?” Steffie asked as they drove past. “I could swear I saw the entire police force at the wedding.”
“You did. Beck wanted everyone to come, but obviously they couldn’t all attend at the same time. So the night shift came early, for the ceremony and the cocktail hour, though of course they weren’t drinking anything stronger than club soda. The day shift came for dinner and dancing after the night shift clocked in.”
“Nice. Oh, Grady, turn left here into the parking lot and drive all the way down to the end,” Steffie instructed. “Go all the way to the back corner.”
“Why all the way down there?” Vanessa asked. “That’s the darkest corner of the lot.”
“Yeah, but it’s right behind my shop, see? We can go right down that path to my back door.” Steffie opened the car door as Grady came to a stop. “And there’s some light down there. See? Over the door?”
“I hope you don’t park down here when you’re working alone at night.” Vanessa frowned her disapproval.
“It’s not that far.” Steffie set off for the shop. “Looks like there are still some customers. Come on, you two. Yours is on the house.”
“You up for some Mocha Berry Vanessa?” Grady asked.
“Sure.” Vanessa got out of the car and waited for him. “I swear she must have cat eyes. I don’t know how she can see where she’s going.”
He held out his hand for her and they stumbled along together in the dark over the uneven ground. Little pieces of crushed shell from the parking lot lodged in her instep and she stopped and took off her shoes.
“You know, everyone thinks that crushed shells in the parking lots is so atmospheric, so in keeping with the whole beachy-bay thing,” Vanessa grumbled. “I think it’s one big pain in the butt.”
They reached the back door and Vanessa put her shoes back on before they went inside. Steffie had tossed an apron over her beautiful dress and was serving the few late customers who’d wandered in.
“Tina, go latch the front door after these customers leave and tell anyone else who might wander up that we’re closed. Oh, and put the ‘Closed’ sign on,” Steffie told her employee. She rang up the customers and scooped up two dishes of ice cream, which she handed to Grady and Vanessa.
“Here you go, with my thanks for the ride. I really appreciate it, Grady,” Steffie told him.
“You had to get a ride from the Inn?” Tina latched the door behind the last two customers. “What happened to your car?”
“I got blocked in.”
“So do you need a ride back?” Tina asked. “I go right by there on my way home. I don’t mind taking you.”
“That would be great. Thanks.” Steffie turned to Grady and Vanessa. “I guess you guys are free to go to… wherever it was you were headed when I so rudely interrupted.”
Vanessa nodded. “Great. But you’re going to close up right now, right?”
“We are. I’m just going to do a quick count and I’ll take the receipts with me, drop them off at the bank in the morning.” Stef smiled. “You’re free to go. Dismissed. With my eternal thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Grady said as he made his way to the door.
“Great ice cream, Stef,” Vanessa told her.
“Oh, you like it?” Steffie grinned.
“I do. We’re doing brunch tomorrow around eleven at Let’s Do Brunch. Meet us there, if you’re up,” Vanessa suggested.
“I’ll be awake. And I might just take you up on that if my Sunday-morning help arrives on time.” Steffie opened the cash register and began to count. “Tina, lock the back door behind them, please.”
“See you.” Grady waved and held the door for Vanessa. Once outside, they heard the lock snap with a click. “Want to walk down to the dock? The Bay looks pretty with the moon on the water.”
“Sure.”
They walked around the building to the boardwalk that led to the water.
“It’s really quiet down here,” he observed.
“Most of the boats have already been brought in and tied up,” she replied. “There’s not much activity this time of night. Once in a while, some kids-teenagers-gather over there to just hang out at the little park”-she pointed to some vague spot well beyond One Scoop or Two-“but that’s about it. And around the bend there is Captain Walt’s, but they probably don’t have much of a crowd tonight. Walt and Rexana were still on the dance floor with most of the rest of St. Dennis when we left the wedding.”
He finished his ice cream and tossed the cardboard dish into a trash receptacle on the pier.
“Here, take mine, too.” Vanessa handed over hers to be disposed of. “I’ve had enough to eat and drink to last the next twenty-four hours.”
Headlights flashed across the dock momentarily, then were gone.
“There goes Tina and Steffie.” Vanessa watched the taillights disappear at the end of the road. “Good thing Stef doesn’t have too far to drive from the Inn to her place. She probably shouldn’t be driving at all.”
“I think she’ll be okay,” Grady said. “Getting pissed off seemed to have cleared her head.”
He took her hand and they walked back to the car, through the ever-darkening parking lot. He unlocked her door and reached for the handle, but she turned to him before he could open it. She backed against the door, her arms around his neck, and drew him to her. Her lips parted as his mouth met hers, and she sighed softly. She’d been thinking of this moment all day. She leaned back slowly against the side of the car and brought him with her so that his body was against hers. He moved in closer, and she urged him closer still. His tongue parted her lips and teased hers, then traced the inside of her mouth slowly. Vanessa thought for a moment that her entire body had caught flame, the heat rushed through her so rapidly, blocking out everything but his mouth and body. She moved against him just the slightest bit and she heard the breath catch in his throat. His hands ran down her back to her waist to the back of her thighs and back again, the heat increasing at the touch of his fingers. His hands moved to her breasts, and she felt a shot to her core.
“Ah, you’re not wearing…” he whispered, his mouth on her neck, her throat, his fingers skimming her body.
“Nope.” She brought his mouth back to hers and kissed him deeply, her tongue tempting him, inciting him to take more. She felt his body respond and he pressed even closer, his hands kneading the soft mounds beneath the silken fabric. When she realized she’d implode if she didn’t feel his hands on her skin, she reached behind her to the buttons that fastened the halter top of her dress, and one by one, undid them. Slowly she peeled down the top, his mouth following every inch of skin as she exposed more and more. His lips sucked gently on her skin until they reached her breast, and she arched her back to offer more. Need and desire overtook her mind and her body, and she wanted nothing more than to have him right then and there. Every cell in her body hummed: she could have sworn she heard bells.
There. There they were again. Bells. Vanessa pulled back from him and tilted her head to listen.
Not bells. Sirens.
Grady tensed and turned toward the municipal building, where the police department appeared to be emptying, the cars flying out of the lot, lights flashing and sirens blaring, and up Kelly’s Point Road.
“I wonder if there’s been an accident,” Vanessa said.
She stared at the flashing lights, which had stopped at the top of the street where Kelly’s Point met Charles Street. It took a moment for her to realize that the patrol cars were not moving on. “Something’s going on up there.”
She watched for a moment.
“My shop is up there.” She continued to stare, an uneasy feeling flooding through her. The abrupt change from totally-turned-on-what-are-we-waiting-for to going stone cold made her knees shake. “I wonder-”
“Let’s go check it out. Here, let’s just fix this…” He pulled up the top of her dress and she redid the buttons, her eyes still on the lights. He took her hand. “We’ll walk up. If we drive, they probably won’t let us stop. Come on, Ness. We’ll see what’s what.”
She held on to his hand as they made their way past the police station and through the dark passage, moving more quickly with each step until they were running by the time they reached Charles Street. Vanessa’s heart all but stopped when she realized that Bling was the center of all the activity.
“Oh my God. My shop!” She rushed across the street and through the front door. “What’s going on?” she cried to the officers who were gathering near the rear of the building. “What’s happened?”
“You had a break-in.” Sue Dixon, one of the officers, walked back to meet her.
“A break-in?” Vanessa wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “Someone broke in to my shop?”
“Apparently.” Sue nodded. “Unless you or your help left the back door wide open and smashed the counters and tossed your merchandise all over the place.”
Vanessa followed Sue’s pointing finger to the jewelry case beneath the glass counter. “Oh, man…”
She went to the case and started to put her hand inside when Grady grabbed her by the wrist. “You probably shouldn’t touch anything until they’ve run prints.”
“Agent Shields, I’d appreciate you staying near the door,” Sue told him. “Nothing personal, but-”
“I understand about contamination.” He smiled. “But it’s not ‘agent.’”
“Oh. Sorry.” She turned back to Vanessa. “Gus just went out to get the kit out of his car. We’ll want to print you, Ness, to eliminate your prints.”
Vanessa frowned. “There have been dozens of people in and out of this shop for the past week. You’ll never be able to isolate the burglar’s fingerprints.”
“You’re probably right.” Carl Silver, another officer, came to the front of the shop from the office, holding a trash can in his gloved hand. “There are some used paper towels in here, and there’s a bottle of glass cleaner in the vanity in the powder room. Looks like the guy wiped everything down before he left.”
“We always clean the counters at the end of the day,” Vanessa told them. “I had someone new in for me tonight, but I did ask her to just give the glass a quick swipe before she left. I hate to come in to open in the morning and be met with smudgy counters. It’s one of my pet peeves.”
“Then maybe we’ll get lucky,” Sue ventured.
“Anyone smart enough to get past that lock would not be stupid enough to come in here without gloves,” Carl said. “Whoever it was did a masterful job.”
“I’ve seen a lot of smart people do stupid things since I started on this job,” Sue told him.
Vanessa glanced around her shop and almost cried to see the stacks of pretty sweaters tossed onto the floor in a heap, as if someone had simply swiped at the pile as he went past. Dresses that had been hanging on racks when she left the store the night before were now strewn across the carpet, and she could almost imagine a hand grabbing that last hanger to push the lot of them to the ground. Feeling sick to her stomach, she started toward the back of the shop.
“Do I have to stay near the door, too?” she asked.
Sue shook her head. “Your hair and fingerprints are already all over this place. Slip these on your feet, though.”
Vanessa took off her shoes and pulled on the plastic booties Sue handed her and walked into the office. Papers were strewn across her small desk and several garments that had been left on a stand, waiting for customers to pick them up, were on the floor. Thankfully, they were in their garment bags. It was all she could do to keep herself from righting the stand and picking up the dresses that lay there.
She was on her way out of the room when she thought of the white eyelet dress. She looked back at the mass on the floor, but the dress was not among the casualties.
Good for you, Candice. The woman must have been on her way into the shop when Steffie saw her leaving Sips, the takeout-only beverage bar two doors away that specialized in fresh juice drinks.
She returned to the front of the shop, where Gus Franklin was busy lifting fingerprints from the counter tops.
“I called Hal’s cell a couple of times, but he didn’t pick up,” Gus told her.
“The band’s pretty loud. He probably didn’t hear the phone. He’ll probably check his phone before long and he’ll give you a call.”
“Probably.” He nodded. “I’ll get your prints as soon as I finish here.”
“Fine. Whenever you’re ready.” Vanessa sighed and went to Grady, who was still seated patiently near the front door. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“Sorry for what?”
“Well, you know…” She gestured in the direction of Kelly’s Point Road and the general direction of the parking lot where fifteen minutes earlier they’d been hot and heavy and well on their way to what should have been an unforgettable night.
He reached out and took her hand and slowly ran his thumb across her knuckles. “You have nothing to apologize for. Your shop has been broken into, vandalized, and it looks like you’ve been robbed of some valuable merchandise. You do not owe me an apology, Ness. I’m just sorry this happened to you. I know how upset you must be.”
She was on the verge of tears when Sue’s phone rang. The officer unhooked the phone from her belt and looked at the caller ID.
“Oh,” she said. “It’s the chief.”
“Do not tell him about this.” Vanessa spun around. “Sue, don’t tell him. He’ll feel obligated to come back here and he’ll miss his honeymoon.”
“But if he asks me what’s going on…”
“Tell him it’s just another quiet Saturday night. Please. His honeymoon will be over before it starts.” Seeing that Sue was still hesitant, Vanessa added, “I will take full responsibility for this.”
“I can’t lie to him,” Sue told her. “He’s my boss. If he asks, I have to tell him.”
“Only if he asks.”
“Dixon.” Sue answered the call. “Oh, hi, Chief. Yeah, I had a great time. Sorry I couldn’t have stayed longer. I hear the band kicked ass. I hope someone reminded Hal where he is to bring the leftover cake.” She met Vanessa’s eyes and shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, sure, I’ll take care of that. Not a problem. Are you still at the airport? Is your flight on time? Good… yes, will do. Have a great time, Chief. And congratulations to you and to Mia…”
Sue ended the call. “He didn’t ask,” she told Vanessa. “He just wanted someone to run past his house and make sure his back door was locked.”
“Thank you for not volunteering…” She waved her hand around the shop.
“Yeah, well, I hope I can count on you to give me a good reference when he finds out we were here when he called.” Sue shook her head and walked outside.
Gus motioned Vanessa over to the counter he’d just finished dusting. “I thought the glass would be stripped of prints but I found quite a few smudges and a few good prints, one a partial palm print. I’ll run them through the records when I get back to the station. Meanwhile, I’ll get your prints now.”
One by one, he dipped her fingers in ink, then pressed each onto a card.
“Will this wash off?” she asked.
“Sure,” Gus told her. “Eventually.”
Not sure if he was kidding or not, she went into the powder room and proceeded to scrub at the ink. When she was satisfied she’d gotten off all she was going to get that night, she came back out to the shop floor. Carl was near the cash register, pulling on a pair of thin rubber gloves.
“Vanessa, I need to ask you to prepare a list of what you think is missing,” he told her as he squatted down.
“I have no idea how much the sales were from today. I’ll have to call Cathy Williams and ask her.” She looked over the counter and saw he was picking up a pile of receipts. “Those would help. May I see them?”
He tossed her a pair of gloves and she slipped them on.
“I’m going to want her to stop by tomorrow so I can take her prints as well. She might be able to help you figure out what was sold as opposed to what was taken.” Gus glanced up from his work on the contents of the jewelry case.
“Cathy was only here for a few hours. Nan Silvestri was here most of the day, and several days this week. She’s away until tomorrow night, though.”
“We’ll catch up with her.” Gus picked carefully through the broken glass. “You think you could tell what jewelry might be missing?”
“Not without knowing what was sold today. It’s mostly costume, not fine jewelry. The best pieces I have are silver with some semiprecious stones. Nothing real expensive, certainly nothing rare. No gold. No platinum. No precious gems.” She looked over each receipt, touching them only on the edges to lift them or turn them over. Even wearing the gloves, she felt as if she were doing something she shouldn’t be doing. “Do you need to know everything that’s missing tonight?”
“No.” Gus shook his head. “But the sooner you can get it together, the better.”
Vanessa stripped off the gloves.
“Vanessa, have you noticed any strange activity lately? Customers who acted peculiar? Anyone hanging around the store?”
She shook her head. “No, no one strange. Gus, if you don’t need me anymore, then I think I’d like to leave now.”
“Go on home. We’ll call you if anything comes up,” Gus told her without looking up from his work.
Grady was still leaning against the doorjamb. She walked over and said, “We can go.”
“Do you want me to run down and get the car and come back for you?”
“No.” She took his hand. “I want to stay with you.”
He nodded and they walked out of the shop and across the street. The town was pin-drop quiet, the only sounds the tap-tap of her heels on the pavement. There was a fine silver mist rolling in off the Bay that made her skin feel damp. She wanted to go home and take a very hot shower and she wanted to take him with her. She was tired and worn out and dispirited and she felt sick. Bling was everything to her, and someone had trashed it. She’d have to close for God only knew how long and she probably was out hundreds of dollars’ worth of her carefully selected merchandise. The day that had begun so perfectly had turned out to be perfectly awful.
They went through the dark area off Charles Street and passed under the streetlights that marked the end of the municipal building’s lot. Across the road was the lot where Grady had left the car. Before her, the walk through the unlit lot appeared endless. Their shadows, cast by the lights from the municipal building, grew longer and longer as they walked farther and farther into the lot. Finally, they were at the car and Vanessa let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding. She’d never been afraid of the dark, but tonight, on the heels of the break-in at Bling, she felt spooked.
At first, Vanessa thought the loud crunching she heard was the sound of the oyster shells in the lot crushing beneath their feet. But something sharp stabbed through the sole of her shoe and she cried out.
“What?” Grady caught her arm as she stumbled.
“Something went right through the bottom of my shoe.” She stopped and stood on one foot. She removed the shoe, and when she touched the side of her foot, she felt something wet and thick. “I think my foot is bleeding. I must have stepped on a piece of broken glass.”
Grady started toward the car for a flashlight, but after he’d taken two steps closer, he began to curse softly.
“What?” she asked. “What is it?”
“Do you have a tissue in your bag?” he asked.
“I think so. You never go to a wedding without tissues.” She opened her bag and felt around inside until her fingers closed around one. “Here you go.”
He reached out in the darkness and took it, then walked to the car, using the tissue to cover the handle as he opened the car door and reached inside to turn on the headlights.
Vanessa stared at the ground, then at the car door. “Grady, is that…”
“Yeah. Glass. Someone’s broken all the windows out of the car.”
“What…?” She stepped closer.
“Don’t. I don’t want you to step on anything else.” He held a hand out to stop her. “Let’s go back to the police station and get someone over here.”
“I can’t believe this.” She felt stunned. “This whole night has turned into one big nightmare. My shop, your car…”
“My rental car.”
“This is such a quiet town, this is just crazy, that someone would break into Bling and someone else would vandalize your car.”
They were nearing the edge of the lot, and in the dim light, she could see him shaking his head.
“I’m not so sure it was someone else,” he told her.
“You think the same person did this? The shop and the car?”
He nodded.
“Damn. That is the most bizarre coincidence, isn’t it?”
“Stop and think, Ness. First your shop, then the car you were riding in? Uh-uh.” His jaw was squared, and for the first time since she’d met him, he was angry. “No coincidence there, babe. I think someone’s trying to send you a message.”
He opened the front door of the municipal building and held it for her to enter.
“What’s that supposed to mean? What kind of message?”
“I’m not certain, but I’m guessing it isn’t a love note.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“You should be scared,” he told her. “You have every reason to be scared.”
“Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe it isn’t what you think. Maybe it’s kids, just out causing mischief.”
“What happened in your shop is more than mischief. The smashing up of the car? Coming immediately after the break-in? I don’t think this is the work of mischievous kids. Whoever did this is angry, and that anger is being directed at you for some reason. You must have really pissed off someone.” He took her by the hand. “Which way is the police department?”
She pointed to the hall on the right. As she did so, Sue walked out of one of the offices. Seeing them, she said, “Did you forget something?”
“No. We’re here for round two,” Grady told her.
“Round two?” Sue raised her eyebrows.
“Someone took a sledgehammer or something equally heavy and knocked out all the windows of my car while we were at the shop.”
“Son of a bitch…” Sue’s eyes grew wide. “What are the chances of that?”
“Yeah.” He nodded wryly. “Go figure…”