AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Great.
“I’m Kate Ballantine. This is my shop.”
I scan the shop. It looks like it’s been pulled straight out of Haight-Ashbury in the sixties, from the chartreuse and orange decorations and the psychedelic artwork. Other than Constance, there’s a table with a couple of twenty-somethings with their laptops and steaming mugs of tea. “A very lovely shop, indeed.”
Kate’s eyes flick over my shoulder. “Don’t make that face, Constance. Flattery might not work on you, but it does on me.” Then she smiles at me again. “What can I get you?”
I squint at the menu. “Uh… I really don’t know where to begin.”
“Matcha,” Kate says and grabs a cup off the counter.
“Huh?”
“You don’t know what you want, you’re a coffee drinker. Which means you are going to want a matcha,” Kate says.
“Okay…” I reach into my pocket for my wallet.
She waves her hand toward me. “On the house this time, Sheriff.”
“Don’t get used to it, though,” Constance comments.
I am clearly in the middle of a back and forth that has a very rich history. Kate and Constance are practically a comedy duo. “Thank you, Kate.”
“Don’t mention it,” she says, then in a lowered voice adds, “Don’t keep her waiting, or else she’ll start breathing fire.”
“I can hear you!” Constance says.
I hold back a chuckle before I head over to join Constance at her table. “Sorry to keep you waiting. How are you this morning?”
“You know she’s married,” she says.
I shake my head in confusion. “Sorry?”
“Kate? She’s married. In case you were getting any ideas.”
Cocking my head to the side, I say, “I wasn’t.”
“Oh. Good.”
Good? What’s that supposed to mean?
“I’m fine. And you?”
I prefer not to experience this much whiplash from a conversation taking place before noon, but I’ll do my best to keep up. “Doing well, doing well.”
“Good.” Constance opens up a notebook that sits beside her cup of tea. “Who have you spoken to so far?”
I can’t read her notes upside down, but the paper is entirely covered in ink. “The Fredericksons. Harvey Collins. The owners of the neighboring properties. You.”
“All right, so you’re stalling out is what you’re saying.” She says this as though she is taking lead on the case. I can’t decide if I like the brashness or not.
“Stalling out? No, we’ve just started the case!”
“You have any idea the identity of what remains of the skeleton? Save my bones, of course?”
She says “my bones” with so much seriousness I can’t even laugh, but I still get a weird hiccup at the back of my throat when I’m reminded of how ridiculous this situation is. “No, we’re working on that. I have my people going through the missing persons databases to try and make some matches and the bones have gone to forensics.”
Constance sighs. “Okay, well, in order for this to move faster, I have a few ideas that might be helpful to you in your investigation.”
