Page 27 of The Hard Way

“I don’t know why Andy would lie. I still can’t get my head around it. Maybe he was drunk or something.”

“Ice,” Thor said. “Your sisters are being framed.”

I straightened. Not like I should be surprised. What other explanation could there be? “Who would frame them?”

Thor shook his head and pulled out his notebook to give us the rundown. “Here’s what everyone agrees on: One of the coolers in the cheese production area got accidentally unplugged—they think it got kicked out of the wall. Apparently it happened once before, but this time nobody noticed. A cooler full of sheep brie went unrefrigerated for nearly twenty-four hours.”

“A whole cooler. Ouch.” I said.

“They had to throw it all away.”

“Of course, that’s what you do,” I said. “It’s the law. My sisters would never, no matter how hard up they were for money, they would never sell a soft cheese that got warmed. That didn't happen—it just didn’t—”

Thor raised his eyebrows—not the sexy kind of raised eyebrows, but rather thestop fucking interruptingkind. “That what they said, too. It was all wrapped and labeled and ready for transport to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store, but when they found it unrefrigerated for that long, yeah, they dumped it in the dumpster out back.”

“Exactly.”

“So the cheese is out in the trash. The only other person who knew about the trashed cheese and the cooler thing is this part-time guy, Andy Miller, who helps with the packaging and delivery end. They think Andy took the cheese out of the garbage and brought it to the store along with the new batch.”

“What the fuck,” I whispered.

“What do you know about this Andy?”

“He grew up on the next farm over. He was in my high school—a football-playing farm boy. The most devious thought he’d ever have would be how to weasel out of losing his deposit on a dented keg. He’s a dairy farm kid. And he would take food safety really seriously.”

“Vanessa says Andy’s family has recently approached her to buy the farm if they have to sell. She wondered if that was the plan, to destroy the business so they have to sell.”

“Wow,” I said.

“What?”

“How do the Millers have that cash? And I knew they wanted to expand, but…”

“What?”

“I don’t know. I’m telling you, Andy is not a bad guy. Maybe somebody is pressuring him…”

“Your sisters are shocked, too.”

Zeus gave me a suspicious look. “You were friends with this Andy?”

“Sort of.”

“Friends or not friends?”

“Well…” All three of my guys turned to me now. “Nothing,” I said. “We ran in different circles, but we did go on a few dates. But Andy Miller, he dated everyone.”

“He’s an oldboyfriend?” Thor said.

“Not really even a boyfriend. It wasn’t serious!”

“Did you sleep with him?” Zeus demanded.

“Come on,” I said. “I’m not going into it. It’s not important.”

“It’s important to me,” Zeus said.

“Seriously?” I said. “Maybe you should sniff my crotch and then sniff his and see if there’s any overlap of scents.”

---