Page 37 of Apple of My Eye
"I can check my records to see if she's ever bought anything here, but you know I'm just now getting computerized, and Jeremiah did a lot of cash business. Is she old? Young?"
"I'll look in the files," Eleanor said, heading for the back room. We had a couple of file cabinets of Jeremiah's old transactions, filed alphabetically, for the most part. Usually by last name, but sometimes by first name or even by object. My former boss, Jack's late uncle, hadn't been a stickler for paperwork—it's hard to top the frustration of spending an hour searching for Jane Smith's pawn records under J, S, and even C for computer and then finally finding it in L for laptop.
"She's twenty-five," Susan said. "I've got a county-wide search going on right now, and I've put out the word statewide plus called the feds. We'regoingto find her. I just hope it's not too late."
"P-Ops?" Jack pulled out his phone. "Do you want me to call Alejandro and see if he can lend a hand?"
The P-Ops, or Paranormal Operations division, of the FBI had far more resources than we had in Dead End, and one of their special agents was a friend of Jack's and had become a friend to me and my family too, after he'd helped us with Shelley's adoption.
"I already tried," Susan said. "Alejandro is out on another case, but they put me in touch with someone in his office who's going to look into this and give me a call back this afternoon."
I suddenly remembered the expert Susan had told us was coming to town. "What about the magical resonance expert? Can she do something with the finger?"
"She had a family emergency, so we had to reschedule. We boxed the skeleton up and put it in the evidence locker for now."
I made a face. The thought of the skeleton just hanging out in the jail gave me the creeps.
"What can we do, Susan?"
"I was hoping you'd thought of something—anything—that might give us a clue as to who might be fixating attention on you."
I shook my head. "I wish I had. The only thing we came up with is Brigham Hammermill the Fourth, and he died a couple of months ago."
Susan raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
I filled her in on Brig, and Jack told her what he'd discovered.
"We didn't want to bother you with it if it turned out to be nothing, and it did, so…" I shrugged.
Susan nodded, but she didn't look happy. "In the future, maybe tell me about any suspects you come up with, and let us do our job."
Jack gave her a flat stare. "We had a personal stake in this one, considering it's Tess that this lunatic has taken such an interest in."
She sighed. "Yeah. I get that. But, still, at least let me know too, okay? We have resources you don't."
"Andy was going to go look at the grove of palm trees," I said, interrupting them before they started to arm wrestle over jurisdiction or something equally ridiculous. "Nothing there?"
"Unfortunately, no. Just a lot of tree stumps where they got carried away harvesting for the festival." Susan's phone buzzed, and she headed for the door. "Call me if you think of anything, Tess. And Shepherd? You too, okay?"
"Same right back at you, Sheriff," he said.
She paused but then nodded and pushed open the door, answering her phone as she went. "Gonzalez."
Now that it was just me and Jack in the shop, memories of the date and the kiss flooded into my brain, and I could feel my cheeks heat up.
Jack grinned. "You have the most amazing tendency to blush that I've ever seen."
"Argh. It's embarrassing. I'm a grown woman."
"I remember," he said, his eyes flashing with heat. "What are you doing tonight?"
"Very busy. I have that thing to do." I avoided his gaze and picked up the discarded mugs. I wasn't quite ready for another date with Jack until I had time to analyze my feelings and discuss them with Molly.
"That thing?" He followed me into the back. "What thing? And you have donuts you didn't tell me about?"
"Um, the thing. Take an entire box of donuts, if you want. Susan forgot hers."
He took the box I shoved at him and then pinned me in place with a steady look. "What thing are you doing tonight, Tess? Will you be with other people? Somewhere safe?"
