Page 87 of Half Baked

I figured it wouldn’t hurt to tell her. “Andrea Baker. Gina knew her about twenty years ago.”

“Then why does she need to talk to you now?” Susan asked in confusion.

“Is Ms. Moore available?” Noah asked. “Is she here?”

Susan’s gaze shifted to him, and she hesitated before she said, “She’s gone for the day.”

“You’re sure about that?” Noah asked in his deep, authoritative cop voice.

She swallowed, then nodded. “Yes.”

“Do you know if she went home?”

“I think she’s running errands. It’s Friday and all,” she said, her eyes shifting even more as her fingers twitched. “And I have no idea where she went.”

Noah pulled out a business card and placed it on her desk with a tap. “Be sure to let her know that we need to talk to her sooner rather than later.”

Susan glanced at the card but didn’t touch it. “You’re that police officer they talked about in the paper, aren’t you?”

Noah flinched, but it was barely noticeable. “The detective who has focused on making Cockamamie safer? That’s me.”

“I know the paper’s trying to stir up trouble, but you’re doin’ a good thing.” She picked up the card and looked at it with a wary expression. “Youaremakin’ this place safer, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

Noah swallowed, surprise in his eyes. “Thank you.”

“But I still don’t know where Gina is.”

“We thank you for your time,” I said as Noah turned to walk out, leaving me to follow.

Once we were out on the sidewalk, he turned to me grimly. “She’s lying.”

“About Gina? Yeah, I figured, but not about how she felt about the editorial.”

His jaw set. “The editorial’s not important.”

“Of courseit’s important. You care what the people in this town think, and there’s nothing wrong with that, Noah. And from what I’ve seen, everyone seems to be on your side.”

He gave me a grim look. “Working on your mother’s case is what we need to focus on.”

“Just admit that you care what people think and I’ll let it drop.”

He drew in a breath then pushed it out. “Okay, I care. I shouldn’t, but I do. Now you promised to let it drop, so let’s get back to Gina. I’d bet ten bucks she’s in an office in the back.” He turned to face Susan through the window. She was still sitting at her desk, watching us on the sidewalk. “She’s going to head straight back there as soon as we walk away.”

I wanted to push him more on how he felt about the editorial, but I’d promised to let it go. I would…for now. “I don’t suppose we can do anything about that?”

“Not a damn thing,” Noah said. “Our only recourse is to find Gina out in the open somewhere. We could stake out the parking lot behind the building, but for all we know, her car’s on the street.”

I put my hands on my hips, my frustration simmering. “Now what?”

“We could run by Everly’s place. I had Neil look up her address, but we don’t know if she’ll talk, and if she does, how long it’ll take. It’s already after four. We need to get to your house so you can show me what I need to do to take care of your aunt before you head to work.”

I ran a hand over my head. “I’d call in sick, but that would leave Petra in a bind, not to mention Linda leaves at five anyway. Someone needs to be at the house with Aunt Deidre.”

“It’s okay,” he said, placing a hand on my arm. “We’ll talk to Gina. Maybe not today, but we will.”

“Yeah. What about Bergan? We could try to talk to him again.”

“I still think we should wait and try to talk to Gina first. The more we know, the better to make him squirm and talk.”

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