A Fatal Slip (17 page)

“If you’re looking for the dancing monkey, she’s next door.”

The blonde curled her upper lip. “There’s actually a monkey there? How gross.”

“Is it a good dancer, or does it just shift from foot to foot? Or is it paw? What do you call a monkey’s foot?”

“Why don’t you go ask the woman with the monkey?” I said. I could just imagine them approaching Kendra at Hat-tie’s Attic, demanding to see a dancing monkey she’d never heard of. I was in the crafting business, and while I hoped my customers were entertained by what they did at Fire at Will, I wasn’t exactly a stand up comic.

“Enough talk about the monkey,” the redhead said. She pointed to one of David’s surrealist teapots in the display window. “I want to make one of those. Teach me.”

“Would you like to build one from raw clay, or would you rather just paint one?” Maybe I’d get some extra income from the pair.

“After we decorate them, can we just take them home?” the blonde asked me.

“No, they have to be fired in the kiln. You can pick them up in a few days.”

She shook her head. “We don’t have days to wait.”

“Are you leaving tomorrow?” I asked. I could do a priority firing if I had to, but I was going to charge them for the privilege.

“No, we’re stuck here for the next four days while our husbands attend some kind of corporate retreat.”

“Then they’ll be ready for you before you go. I promise.” The blonde looked at the redhead, and they both shook their empty little heads in near perfect unison. “We don’t want to wait.”

“Well then, your only option is to buy one already made.”

The redhead looked toward the window. “But there’s just one of them on display.”

The blonde said, “I’m sure she has a dozen more in back.”

“Ladies, these items are one-of-a-kind handmade pieces of art. They don’t come off a production line, and you won’t see a duplicate in any of your friends’ kitchens.”

“I want it,” the blonde said suddenly.

“It’s mine,” the redhead retorted. “I saw it first.”

The blonde lunged for it, and the redhead hit her hand, shattering the teapot on the floor.

“Now look what you’ve done,” the blonde said accusingly.

“You dropped it,” the redhead said.

I moved between them and the front door. “I don’t care who pays for it, but one of you is going to cough up the money.”

“It was an accident,” the blonde said. “That makes it nobody’s fault.”

“You’ve got insurance. Let them cover your losses,” the redhead said.

I didn’t budge. “Ladies, there’s a deputy sheriff in the other room, and all I have to do is raise my voice and he’ll come out here. He’s a pottery buff, and he visits here on his day off.”

“You’re bluffing,” the blonde said. “There’s nobody back there.”

I raised my voice and said, “David, could you come here a second?”

My assistant popped his head around the corner. “Is something wrong?”

“I was just telling these young ladies about—”

“Nothing. We don’t need you. We’re fine,” the redhead said.

“Absolutely fine,” the blonde agreed. “We’ve got it covered.”

“Carolyn?” David asked.

“Go back to what you were doing.”

He looked puzzled by the summons, but David quickly disappeared again.

“You didn’t have to call him out here,” the blonde said in an accusatory tone of voice.

“We were going to pay you,” the redhead said.

I was tired of them both. “Then I suggest you do so.”

I inflated the price, which they paid without batting their heavily done eyelashes. It wasn’t out of spite or meanness. Okay, maybe a little, but the main reason was because I’d loved that teapot, and I’d wanted it to go to a good home, not to end up shattered into shards on the floor of the shop. They each handed me a credit card, ordering me to split the bill in half, and they were still grumbling as they left a few minutes later. As I swept up the pieces, I put the usable sections aside for a mosaic and discarded the rest.

A little later, David came out with his students and said to me, “Carolyn, could you ring up two lessons? They’re coming back in a few days for the next session, but I told them unless we made other arrangements, it’s a pay-as-you-go proposition.”

I took the girls’ fees, and David walked them out the door.

When he came back in, I asked, “How was class?” “Suzy did a good job, but Helen kept asking me the most inane questions. I was ready to scream.”

“You didn’t, though, because I would have heard you. What did you think of my customers?”

He shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly sure why you called me out here. You weren’t trying to fix me up with one of them, were you?”

I laughed at the suggestion. David misinterpreted it. “Come on. Be nice. I’m not that hideous, am I?”

“David, my friend, neither one of those women were worthy of you. Trust me on that.”

“So why the summons?”

“I told them you were a deputy in town,” I admitted.

“You what? Why on earth would you do that?”

I pointed to the shattered teapot pieces. “They broke your pot, and then they tried to duck out without paying. You’re not too upset, are you?”

He shook his head as he looked at the ruined work. “I’m kind of glad they did it.”

“Why would you say something like that?” Sometimes my assistant surprised me. Out of the reactions I’d been expecting, gratitude was not even on the list.

“The handle was out of line, and the spout had a twist in it that I never could get right.”

“I thought it was a beautiful piece,” I said.

“You’re prejudiced though, aren’t you? How much did you charge them?”

When I told him, his jaw dropped. “I should get a raise, if that’s what you’re getting for my work.”

I went to the cash register and pulled out a twenty. “Don’t let it go to your head, but here’s a bonus for you. I clipped them at a pretty good rate myself.”

He took the twenty without protest and folded it before he stuck in his front pocket. “Carolyn, do you make a habit of gouging people?”

“Just if they annoy me,” I said. “Think of that as a tip.”

“But you didn’t get one,” he protested.

“Don’t worry, I made a little for myself, too. Why don’t you get busy and make a replacement for the teapot they broke? And watch that twist, would you?”

I was teasing, but he didn’t catch it. “I’ll get it right this time.”

Fascinated, I watched David as he quickly hand-built the basic teapot shape out of rolled sheets of clay. In no time at all, he had the basic frame, with a sealed bottom and a lid for the top. “I thought you usually turned the lids for your teapots on the wheel out of the clay left over after you finish turning the pot,” I said.

“I do, but I’ve been experimenting lately, and I like the look I get this way.”

“It’s still fun to watch you turn a pot and then make the top out of the same matching piece of clay.”

“Yeah, but I can get some pretty extraordinary shapes building them by hand.” He studied his box shape, then said, “I’ll do the handle and the spout as soon as this gets leather hard. That’s when I’ll add the embellishments, too.”

“Why don’t you make a few more while you’re at it?”

“Carolyn, I don’t do production work, and you know it.” I looked at our inventory. “Somebody’s got to, and if you won’t, I’ll have to get Robert Owens back in here.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll do it,” David said as he started wedging another block of clay.

“I’ll do some cleaning while you do that,” I said.

“You can make some pots, too, you know.”

“What, and deprive you of all the fun? No, I’ll make something later.”

It was twenty minutes before David’s lunch break when the front door opened. Butch Hardcastle came in with a broad grin on his face. “Is David here?”

“He’s working in back,” I said. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Come out here a second,” he said.

I followed him out, wondering what could make Butch smile like that. He pointed to a shiny red Triumph TR3. “What do you think?”

“It’s pretty, but how in the world do you get in and out of it? You must need a shoehorn and a tub of bacon grease.”

“It was a tight fit coming over,” Butch admitted, “but it’s not for me. I picked it up for David.”

I looked at the car, then looked at Butch. “You know he can’t afford anything that nice.”

“That’s the thing. I got it in a sweet deal, and I thought it would be perfect for him. I can make his payments so tiny he won’t even notice them.”

I could just imagine how Hannah would react to that suggestion, but I had to be careful about what I said to Butch. “I don’t know how to put this, but is it on the up-and-up?”

“Carolyn Emerson, do you think for one second I would bring your assistant a hot car? This one’s not even warm to the touch,” he said as he stroked the rear fender.

“Then how did you get it? Wait a second, that didn’t come out right. How can you afford to give it to David so inexpensively? There, that’s better.”

Butch shrugged. “A friend of a friend of a friend owed me a favor, and this is how he paid it back. It’s in good shape, and the second I saw it, I thought of David. He still needs transportation, doesn’t he?”

There was a loophole in that question, and I decided to exploit it if I could. “That’s the thing. I think Hannah already took care of it.”

Butch looked at the Triumph. “It can’t be as sweet as this, can it?”

“I sincerely doubt that,” I said. “Should we ask her and see what she says?”

“Maybe it wasn’t that great an idea after all,” Butch said, obviously crestfallen. “Hannah’s not exactly my biggest fan.”

“She’s just cautious sometimes,” I said as I gave Butch a peck on the cheek.

“Hey, what was that for?” he asked as he looked around the street for anyone watching us.

“It was a sweet thought, and I’m sure David would have appreciated it.”

“If he ever heard about the offer, you mean,” Butch said, adding a slight smile to take some of the sting out of his words. “Maybe we should just forget about the whole thing.”

“It was a wonderful gesture,” I assured him.

Butch shrugged. “I’ve got an idea. I could always park that boat I’ve been driving and shoot around town in this thing myself.”

“I bet it looks good on you,” I said.

He managed to squeeze his large frame into the front seat, but I didn’t know how he was going to steer it with the wheel shoved into his chest.

David joined me on the sidewalk as I watched Butch drive away. “Was that Butch Hardcastle?” he asked me.

“It was. What do you think of his car?”

David scratched his chin. “I know it probably sounds crazy, but I’ve never been a big fan of convertibles. How’s he going to get out of it?”

“I don’t know, but I hope he’s not in any hurry when he gets wherever he’s going. How’s your mother doing on your car search?”

David frowned. “My aunt Patty’s got a Volvo she was getting ready to trade in, so Mom’s paying her the value of it for me. There’s a car for picking up the ladies.”

“I don’t think Annie will mind when she gets back into town,” I said.

“If she comes back,” David said glumly. “I talked to her last night, and she’s having so much fun in Palo Alto, she’s thinking about starting a cleaning service there until school starts.”

“I’m sorry, David,” I said as I rubbed his shoulder.

“That’s all right. It was bound to happen sooner or later. She wasn’t going to be here that much longer anyway.”

“That’s the spirit. I’ve got a feeling there a few girls around town ready to step into Annie’s shoes.”

“I don’t know about that,” David said. “Carolyn, could you do me a favor?”

“Anything short of giving you a kidney,” I replied.

“It’s nothing that dire. I haven’t told Mom yet, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention it.”

“I didn’t realize she was that attached to Annie,” I said, the understatement of the year.

“It’s not that. If she thinks I need a new girlfriend, she’ll try to pick one out herself, and I’d kind of like to have a say in it, if you know what I mean.”

“I won’t say a word,” I said. “Are you about ready to take your lunch break?”

“Honestly, I’m not all that hungry. Would you mind going first today?”

“Let me grab my purse and I’m out of here,” I said as we both ducked back inside the shop.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to twist your arm,” David said.

“I try to be flexible when it comes to my employees,” I said. “I’ll be at Shelly’s if anybody needs me. Can I pick up something for you while I’m there?”

“No, Suzy’s coming back a little later, and we’re going to get a bite. It’s not a date or anything,” he protested before I could say anything. “It’s just lunch.”

“Have fun,” I said as I left the shop. David appeared to be coming to grips with Annie’s early departure quite nicely. Ah, the joys of a young heart that can quickly mend. I wished Rose would bounce back that fast, but I knew that was a false hope. She was mired in a pattern of dating men that weren’t right for her, and I wondered if she’d ever be able to break the cycle. I’d known people like her all my life, wasting their lives chasing dreams that would never materialize, many having several choices they were too blind to see themselves. Love could do strange things to people, and for the thousandth time, I was glad I’d found Bill.

I was still wondering about Rose when I heard a gruff voice behind me calling out my name.

It was Rick Cobb, and judging from the fire in his eyes, I didn’t think he was hurrying toward me to offer to take me to lunch.

Chapter 10