Cloche and Dagger Read online

  ‘Vivian,’ I said to the constable. ‘Is Vivian here? Does this have to do with her?’

  The constable gave me a confused look and I wanted to yell at him to get with it.

  ‘Vivian Tremont is the owner,’ Harrison explained from beside me. ‘Is she here?’

  ‘No, sir,’ the constable answered. ‘We found no one on the premises when we responded to the call.’

  ‘Scarlett, what happened?’ Andre and Nick caught up to us. Nick was winded and huffing and puffing but Andre looked fine.

  ‘At a guess, I think we were robbed,’ I said.

  I glanced at the front door and saw Inspector Franks inside. He gestured that the front door was still locked, so I quickly fished out my new key and unlocked the door. It took longer than usual as my fingers were shaking.

  I pulled the door open and Inspector Franks joined us out front.

  ‘Ms. Parker,’ he said.

  ‘Inspector,’ I returned. I was pleased that my voice wasn’t as trembly as my insides.

  ‘What happened, Inspector?’ Harrison asked.

  ‘By the looks of it, a burglary,’ Franks said. He looked tired and I wondered if he was getting sick of me yet. I doubted even a good Stetson would make him look kindly on me.

  ‘When the call came in to the station from the security company, one of the constables realized it was your shop and called me,’ he said.

  I looked past him and saw Inspector Simms, working his way through the shop, assessing the damage.

  ‘Can I ask where you were, Ms. Parker?’ Franks asked me.

  ‘Having dinner with friends,’ I said.

  ‘That would be us,’ Nick said. He had a steely look in his eye as if daring Franks to doubt him.

  ‘And me,’ Harrison said. ‘In fact, I met Andre, here in front of the shop, just a little over an hour ago, and there was no indication of any disturbance.’

  ‘How did they get in?’ I asked.

  ‘Smashed a window in the back,’ Franks said. ‘They must not have realized you’ve had an alarm put in. Still, they were long gone by the time we arrived.’

  ‘Well, at least I know the system works,’ I said. My voice was faint. The thought that I could have been suffocated again or worse ran through my mind and I trembled as if my body was shorting out in fear.

  I felt Harrison’s hand tighten on my arm. I leaned into him to let him know I was okay.

  ‘We have them sweeping for fingerprints, but given that we didn’t find any last time, I doubt we’ll have much better luck this time, assuming we’re dealing with the same person.’

  ‘We are,’ I said. ‘It’s too coincidental not to be.’

  ‘I agree,’ Harrison said. His voice was tight as if he was really angry and it was taking every bit of his self-control to keep it in check.

  ‘I’ll need you to check to see if anything is missing,’ Inspector Franks said.

  ‘Of course.’ I turned to Andre and Nick. ‘Thank you for dinner and everything.’

  I hugged them both and Andre put his hands on my shoulders and said, ‘We have a guest bedroom. Why don’t you plan to sleep at our place?’

  ‘Oh, thank you,’ I said. I put my hand on his cheek. ‘But I don’t want to leave the shop or the flat unattended.’

  Both Nick and Andre looked ready to argue, but Harrison cut in and said, ‘I’ll stay with her.’

  They gave him a look and he added, ‘On the couch, of course.’

  ‘Call us if you need us,’ Nick said.

  ‘I will, I promise.’

  Harrison and I watched as they wound their way around the police cars and continued toward their flat. Their heads were pressed together and I wondered if they were discussing what a truly unfortunate friend I had turned out to be. They’d only known me for a week and every time they turned around I was involved in some new drama. It was getting embarrassing.

  It didn’t take long to assess the situation. Whoever had done the damage had never made it upstairs. Obviously, the alarm system worked well enough to have scared them off pretty quickly. Still, the mess was depressing. It was a good thing we were closed tomorrow. I had a feeling I was going to need all day to clean up.

  Nothing seemed to be missing, but given the mess, I’m not sure I would have noticed anyway. I didn’t tidy up, thinking I’d see if Fee could pop in tomorrow and let me know if she noticed anything in particular being gone.

  Harrison boarded up the window with some old shelves Mim had stored in her garden shed. I held the boards while he nailed them, and even though they didn’t cover the window completely, I figured it would be tough for anyone to squeeze through the two-inch gaps.

  Harrison swept up the glass once the police said it was okay to do so. While he dumped it in the trash, I set about making a pot of tea.

  Inspectors Franks and Simms left with their entourage. They promised to be in touch if they found anything, but I wasn’t feeling very optimistic.

  ‘Come on,’ Harrison said as he pulled out a seat at the worktable for me. ‘Have a seat. Have some tea. It’ll calm your nerves before bed.’

  ‘Not to be argumentative,’ I said, ‘but I don’t think anything is really going to calm me down.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’ll be here to watch over you.’

  The words were so comforting that I felt my throat get tight with an excess of emotion.

  ‘You don’t have to do that,’ I said. ‘I’ll be fine.’

  ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for my own peace of mind. You can’t deny me that, now can you?’

  Oh, how manipulative, making me feel guilty if I didn’t let him stay.

  ‘Well played, Harry,’ I said.

  He lifted his cup at me in a toast and then took a long sip. ‘Hey, is this your first pot of tea?’

  ‘Yes, I think it is,’ I said. I hadn’t really noticed that I was making tea. I had just needed something to do.

  ‘Not bad,’ he said.

  I tasted mine and was relieved to discover that I hadn’t messed it up.

  ‘Seriously,’ he said. ‘I want to stay. I’d worry.’

  I glanced quickly at the window.

  ‘Oh, not about anyone breaking in,’ he said. ‘I think the fact that they never made it upstairs shows that the alarm system works. But I’d be worried that you were frightened and that’s unacceptable.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘It’s very kind of you.’

  He waved off my thanks, but still, I realized I was racking up quite a lot of debt with him. There had to be some way I could show my gratitude for his help.

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ he asked.

  ‘That I need to find a way to thank you for all that you’ve done,’ I said.

  To my surprise, Harrison Wentworth actually blushed.

  ‘Not like that!’ I snapped.

  He gave me a sheepish grin that was ridiculously charming and shrugged and said, ‘A man can dream.’

  Now it was my turn to blush.

  ‘Just drink your tea,’ I ordered.

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said. But I noticed when he lifted the cup to his lips, he was grinning.

  Chapter 35

  This time I slept in my old room and insisted that Harrison take the bedroom on the main floor. I simply couldn’t have him sleep on the sofa, which was too short for him and unforgiving in its firmness. And given this new and somewhat alarming tension between us, I felt the distance of separate floors might be required. No, not for him; definitely, for me.

  I was only a few weeks out of the worst breakup, as in most public and most humiliating, of my life. I was not, I repeat not, going to get involved with the first good-looking, okay, hot, man who came along. Just because he had wicked green eyes and a lovely, deep, gravelly voice and a bod that—whoa, stop right there.

  I was not going to start thinking of Harrison that way. Other than some fuzzy childhood memories and the recent week we’d spent together, I hardly kn
ew the man. The fact that I was even thinking about him just proved that what my mother had said was true. How had I never really noticed before that I always had a boyfriend? It wasn’t on purpose. Or was it?

  This was more self-analysis than I wanted to delve into at the moment. No, my time would be much better spent trying to figure out who had killed Lady Ellis, who had tried to kill me and why was my shop under siege?

  I couldn’t hear Harrison snoring from up here. Crazy as it sounds, that bummed me out. There was something comforting about having audible proof that I was not alone in the flat. I tossed and turned a bit and finally punched my pillow until I’d flattened it enough.

  I stared into the dark, wondering if I didn’t hear him sleeping because he wasn’t asleep. Maybe he was having the same hard time that I was. It was quite the adrenaline rush to come home and find your business has been violated, and twice in one week made it particularly disturbing.

  An image of Harrison lying awake downstairs flashed through my mind. Nope. I was not going downstairs to check on him. That would only invite the sort of trouble of which I was determined to steer clear. No men. Not for a while, at least a year. Oh, that seemed unduly harsh. Six months. I cringed. That seemed a long time to go without a date, but not impossible. Okay, six months it was.

  I turned over the idea in my head. Six months without a man calling or sending flowers or taking me to dinner. Hmm. Then I thought of the humiliation of walking into that reception at the hotel and seeing the enormous cake with the diamond necklace sitting on it and seeing the man I thought I loved smooching his wife.

  The wife he was supposed to be separated from, the one he described as controlling, who didn’t understand him and support his dreams like I did. I could feel the bile rise up into the back of my throat and my chest got tight as if a giant hand had reached inside and squeezed my insides into mush.

  A year. I was definitely taking a year off from men. I never, ever wanted to feel so stupid and worthless again. And the next man I got involved with was going to be worth loving, this I promised myself and felt infinitely better for it.

  I turned my attention back to the situation at hand. Someone had broken into the shop. The question that gave me the willies, of course, was, had they come looking for me? Given that someone had tried to suffocate me, this did not seem an unreasonable thing to wonder. But since they never made it upstairs from the shop below, I wondered. Maybe they hadn’t been after me this time. Maybe they had been looking for something in the shop. But what?

  The wake tomorrow should be informative. I wanted to see the ladies from the tea today at the wake. Did I think any of them had anything to do with Lady Ellis’s death? I suppose it was possible. Marianne had all but admitted that Victoria Ellis was no longer the friend they had once enjoyed.

  But if they disliked her so much, surely they could bow out of the friendship? And yet, they had all shown up today to pick over her leavings. Was it sentimentality that made them do so, or were they more like vultures, picking at the carcass of their dead friend? Hard to say.

  It was not the best thought to lead me into dreamland, and my unconscious made powerful work of it, giving me dreams about the rat bastard being chased by a vulture, which turned out to be me.

  I awoke to the smell of bacon with my heart thrumming through my chest like a train in the tube. I was sweating and shivering at the same time. I splashed cold water on my face and headed downstairs. I needed coffee with the strength to disintegrate a spoon.

  I didn’t care that I had a wicked case of bed head or that I was in my bubble-gum pajamas. Having sworn off men was liberating like that.

  I found Harrison in the kitchen, sipping a cup of coffee and looking as bleary-eyed as I felt.

  ‘Morning, Harry,’ I said.

  ‘Harrison,’ he grumbled.

  ‘Sleep well?’ I asked.

  He looked me up and down and a small smile played on his lips. ‘About as well as you, I’d say.’

  ‘In that case, I’m sorry,’ I said.

  He gave me a sympathetic look and poured me a cup of coffee, which he pushed toward me. ‘Bad dreams?’

  ‘You could say that,’ I said. ‘How about you?’

  ‘No, not bad dreams,’ he said.

  He didn’t say anything more, and I almost questioned him, but he had an intense look on his face that made me hesitate, so instead I doctored my coffee and tried to ignore the fact that my face felt warm.

  ‘What’s your agenda for today?’ he asked.

  ‘Clean the shop,’ I said with a sigh. Remembering how much work I’d put in yesterday to spiff it up made me irritated, so I tried to put it out of my mind. ‘And then we have the viewing tonight?’

  ‘I’ll collect you at half five,’ he said. ‘All right?’

  ‘I’ll be ready.’

  ‘Eat,’ he ordered. ‘Judging by the mess downstairs, you’re going to need your strength.’

  He handed me a plate with a bagel loaded with bacon, a fried egg and cheese and I glanced at him through my eyelashes.

  ‘You’re quite handy to have around,’ I said.

  He stared at me for a beat and then his gaze strayed to my lips. His green eyes scorched, and I realized it was me. I did that. I was flirting with him. What was wrong with me?

  ‘And I mean that in the most casual-friendship sort of way,’ I said. I sat up straight and tried to look stern, as in not flirtatious. Good grief, I was going to have to relearn my very way of talking to men.

  When I glanced back at him, he was smiling at me as if he knew what I was doing and it amused him.

  He tucked into his bagel and I did the same, relieved that the nuclear reaction between us, if not totally gone, had definitely slipped back down to DEFCON five, maybe four.

  True to my word, I spent the day cleaning up. Fee came by but couldn’t identify anything that might be missing. I could see she was as freaked out as I was that there’d been two incidents in a matter of days. I didn’t know what to tell her to reassure her, except that she would never be in the shop alone.

  She waved me off, but I think she was trying to be brave. She stayed to help clean but I shooed her out after an hour, knowing that she had studying to do.

  I called my mother and my aunt. I did not tell them about the break-in. I figured it would only worry them needlessly. There was no news from Viv and now it was officially a week that she’d been gone, and I hated to think the worst, but where could she be that she hadn’t heard about what had happened to Lady Ellis?

  Nowhere. The planet just wasn’t that big anymore. I realized this was why Inspector Franks was so suspicious. He had to be thinking that Viv’s history with Rupert Ellis and the fact that she went missing when his wife was murdered was too convenient.

  I decided to wear my all-purpose black chemise dress, very Audrey Hepburn, to the wake. I twisted my red hair up into a sleek knot on the back of my head and chose a pair of black pearl earrings with a matching strand for around my throat.

  These were a gift from the boyfriend before the rat bastard. Seth. He had been a medical student, completely committed to his studies with very little time for a girlfriend. I was twenty-four when we broke up, mistakenly thinking I had met my soul mate in the rat bastard.

  As I fastened the pearls, I hoped Seth had met someone more deserving and had finished medical school. Then I had to wonder why hindsight was always twenty-twenty.

  A glance at the clock told me that Harrison would be here any moment. I zipped the back of my dress, getting it halfway up my back. I tried to get the zipper all the way up, but to no avail. I just couldn’t contort myself to pull it up. I tried to remember how I usually got my zipper up, and I realized I usually had a boyfriend to finish it for me. Suddenly, I felt like such a loser.

  ‘Scarlett!’ Harrison’s voice called up the staircase. ‘Are you ready?’

  ‘Just about!’ I yelled.

  I tried reaching over my back, but my fingers just brushed the zipper but co
uldn’t grab the tab. I tried pushing it from the bottom. No luck. It was just out of reach. A thick strand of hair fell out of the knot on my head and swung across my cheek as I tried another round of gymnastics to get my zipper up.

  ‘I’d be happy to help you with that, you know.’

  I snapped my head around to find Harrison, leaning against the doorjamb and watching me as if I were a show and, judging by his smile, a comedy.

  I blew out a breath. ‘Fine. Thank you.’

  The words came out grudging and I turned my back to him. In the mirror I watched him walk toward me. His fingers barely brushed the skin of my back as he moved the zipper up and fastened the clasp at the top of the dress.

  ‘Better?’ he asked. His usually low voice was even more gruff and when our eyes met in the mirror, I could feel the tension between us rocket back up to DEFCON one. Uh-oh.

  ‘Much, thanks,’ I said. I quickly stepped away from him and slipped on my black pumps. One year, I told myself, one whole year with no men.

  Newly resolved, I turned back to face him with a polite smile on my face.

  ‘Ready when you are,’ I said.

  He tipped his head as he considered me, as if trying to get my measure. Then he gave me a rueful smile and gestured for me to lead. I did, fully aware that his eyes were on me all the way down the stairs, which naturally led me to repeat the phrase ‘Please, don’t let me trip’ in my head until I was safely on the floor below.

  * * *

  Harrison drove us to the funeral home. He had a dark blue Audi that he’d parked in front of the shop. I still wasn’t used to sitting on the left side as a passenger. It felt awkward, and I remembered that it always took me a while to adjust. Usually just when I had gotten used to it, I went home. This time I wouldn’t be.

  We were quiet as we navigated the traffic. I had read Lady Ellis’s obituary in The Times this morning and I knew that the wake and funeral were to be private. I wondered how Harrison had gotten us included in the visitation.