The woman grumbled, “I would have expected better customer service here!” and turned away, almost bumping into McCarthy as she stormed off.
“Customer service is dead,” McCarthy droned.
I rolled my eyes and turned to a group of young girls sifting through my bow ties one more time. “Sean, I can’t talk right now. Letty and I need to pack everything up here.”
Letty leaned her elbows on the front table and batted her eyelashes at McCarthy. “Everything is half off for the next fifteen minutes. See anything here you can’t live without?”
He laughed. “Maybe one thing, but it’ll have to wait for now.”
As he turned to go, Letty called after him, “What is it? I can hold it for you!”
Chapter 5
I sold more in the next fifteen minutes than I had all afternoon. At the end, I had seven stuffed Nessies left over, a pile of table linens, and one lone bow tie in the Oliphant tartan. I clipped it into my hair and piled the rest of the stuff into boxes. At the stroke of five, Pete arrived to pick me up.
People would often tell me that Pete and I could be twins, but I didn’t think so. For one thing, he was two years older than me, and for another, he was six feet tall. I liked to say I was tall for my size at five-foot-three. Sure, we had the same thick brown hair, which he wore long over his ears and I wore down to the middle of my back. We also had the same nose, until he broke his when he got into trouble in Hollywood.
“Hey, Daria. What’s going on? There were a bunch of cops at the entrance when I got here. They took down my name before they would even let me in. I had to resist the overwhelming urge to blurt out, ‘I didn’t do anything!’”
I chuckled and handed him a box. Poor Pete! He’d paid his debt to society for doing drugs, but he sometimes felt like the police were keeping an eye on him.
“One of the athletes collapsed and later died at the hospital. It turns out he was poisoned.” I filled him in on the details as we loaded my boxes into his truck. “They probably just want your name so they know you weren’t here when it happened.”
“So, this guy was murdered, then? What is it with this town lately? Seems like there’s nothing but murders anymore.”
I shook my head. I loved Laurel Springs with all my heart, but I had to agree. Even one or two murders were shocking in our serene little town. This latest one seemed especially personal because the victim had collapsed in front of half the town.
Pete tossed the last box into his truck. “What’s up with Aileen?”
I followed his gaze to see Aileen surrounded by police officers. “She had an altercation with Ladd before the athletic events. Oh, dear, I hope the cops don’t think she poisoned him.” I hurried across the lot to Aileen, with Pete close behind me.
Aileen glared at the police officers surrounding her. With her nearly six-foot height augmented by six-inch boot heels, she towered over more than half of them. No police officer was about to intimidate Aileen!
“I’m going to ask you one more time,” a large officer with black stubble covering his head said. “What is your relationship to Ladd Foster?”
Another officer cut in before Aileen could speak, if she was even going to. “You were seen threatening Mr. Foster with your instrument. Numerous eyewitnesses claim you appeared to know him. What was the nature of your relationship?”
“I knew him a long time ago,” Aileen growled. “I’ve got no use for him.” She folded her arms on her chest. “Are we done here?”
The large officer glared right back at her. “Are you aware that the victim has died? We’re investigating a suspected murder here. I would advise you to cooperate with our questions.”
Aileen couldn’t hide the flicker of surprise in her eyes at his words. I glanced at Pete, to see that he had his phone out and was filming this entire exchange.
“What are you doing?” I whispered to him.
“I’m acting as a witness,” he said in a loud voice, drawing the attention of a couple of the officers. “I’m making a video record, in case things get out of hand.”
“What, police brutality?” I whispered back, aghast. “This is Laurel Springs, not Chicago or New York!”
“Relax,” the large officer said to Pete and me in a calmer tone than he’d yet used. He surveyed the growing crowd of onlookers. “Nothing is going to happen here.” He turned back to Aileen. “You can give a statement now or you can come down to the station with us for formal questioning.” He forced a shrug, as if he really didn’t care. “Your choice, now.”
“Fine,” Aileen shot back at him. “I’ll talk to you at the station. But I have a gig here first, so you’ll have to wait.” She hefted her guitar case and turned aside to find her way blocked by yet another police officer.
“We’d like you to come with us now,” the officer said, his hands hovering perilously close to his firearm.
Aileen bared her teeth like a wild animal about to spring. She started to swing her guitar case forward.
Pete shoved his phone into my hands and barged into the circle of cops holding Aileen at bay. He laid a hand on her arm, halting the upward motion of her guitar case. “I’ll come with you, Aileen.”
“Stay out of this, Moron,” she snapped at him. “This has nothing to do with you.”
He wrapped his hand around hers, gripping the guitar case handle. “You know how much I love a good chat down at the police station.” His light tone couldn’t mask the anxiety in his voice.
She locked eyes with him for a full minute while the crowd of police officers and onlookers all held their breath. Finally, she rolled her eyes with an exasperated grunt. “Fine!” She glared at the police. “I’ll ‘come quietly.’ Satisfied?” She pushed Pete on the chest. “You don’t have to come, Moron.”
“No. But I want to.” He held out his hand, and I pressed his phone into it with shaking fingers. He kept his other hand twined around Aileen’s.
“Tell Corgi and Pinker they might have to go on without me,” Aileen called out to me. “Frigging overbearing cops,” she muttered under her breath. She suffered herself to be led off by the police officers, her right hand still covered by Pete’s.
I heaved a sigh of relief and turned to find McCarthy and his camera standing next to me. Apparently, he was acting as a witness as well.
“You gotta hand it to Pete, being willing to confront the beast like that,” he said.
“Or maybe he’s just living up to Aileen’s nickname for him.”
He chuckled. “What, ‘Moron?’ Better him than me, that’s all I can say. I thought she was going to take a swing at that cop and we’d all have to pile in to hold her back.”
I shot him a sharp glance. He looked like he meant it. Good old McCarthy!
“Well, that danger is averted for the moment,” I said. “This isn’t going to end up on the front page of the Chronicle, is it?”
McCarthy held out his camera to me while rapidly scrolling through the photos. “I’ve taken hundreds of pictures of this entire event. I’m guessing one or two of them is more likely than Aileen to end up on the front page.” He paused on one of Letty and me posing in our booth. “This one, perhaps?”
I laughed and pushed the camera away. “Looks like it’s time for the awards ceremony.”
I found a spot on the edge of the crowd where I had a good view of the podium. McCarthy prowled throughout the crowd, taking more photos.