Barbecue and Bad News (31 page)

All she’d ever done was hurt everyone she’d ever loved.

Letting people down. It’s what she excelled at.

She climbed the stairs to the apartment, and Mike walked out on the landing. “Hey.” He looked awkward. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mike. It’s not your fault. I know you were just looking out for Scott.”

“Yeah. Brooke said I should have kept my mouth shut.”

How she wished she’d told him that before he told Scott, but then it would have all come out eventually. It was just a matter of time. It wasn’t Mike’s fault. “Mike, I love him. I really do.”

“Then how could you make fun of him like that? His job means so much to him.”

“I’m sorry.” Even the words didn’t sound like enough to her anymore. “I know that just saying I’m sorry doesn’t make it okay, but I’d written that before I got to know him. It was my job.” She lifted her clenched hands as she spoke. “I’m not proud of myself. I’d never stopped to consider the impact my responses had on the faceless people targeted with those sharp words. That’s the kind of stories GINN runs, though.” She lowered her eyes, not even able to look his way. “I’m sorry I ever wrote for them. It’s been a raw lesson for me.”

“Wrote?”

“I quit my job this morning.”

“Well, then maybe something good has come of it.”

“I guess. Also means I have to give up my apartment. Or sign a lease. It was a corporate apartment.”

“Maybe you could stay here,” he said. “I know Brooke and Jenn would like that.”

A raw and different kind of grief consumed her. “I’m sorry I hurt your friend. I’m sorry I put you in that position.”

“I believe you. I kind of wish I’d kept my mouth shut, to tell you the truth. Brooke and Jenn were so excited about the prospect of you maybe even moving here. Brooke said you’d fit right in.”

“He’ll never forgive me. You should have seen his face.”

“I thought I was helping.” His lips pulled into a thin line. “I can tell you this. He’s crazy about you. He’s hurting right now. Talk to him.”

“I tried. That’s where I just was. He can’t forgive me.”

“He can. Just give him time. Guys can be as hardheaded as you girls sometimes. If you really love him, don’t stop trying. He’ll come around.”

She didn’t think there was enough time in the world. “I’m going to go lay down.”

“Sorry.”

She closed the door behind her and stood there until she heard Mike walk down the stairs. Thank goodness she hadn’t given the key back to Connor. She plopped down on the couch and stared at the ceiling. She counted the old tin ceiling tiles until she fell asleep.

A loud rap woke her from a dead sleep. She sat up on the couch, and it came again. Three loud, heavy knocks on the door.

She ran to the door, praying it was Scott. Had he changed his mind?

When she swung the door open it was Brooke and Mike.

“I told her you were sleeping,” Mike said.

Brooke opened her arms and gave Savannah a hug. “It’s going to work out.”

“It’s not. He’ll never forgive me.”

“Don’t be a fool. It’s totally meant to be. I saw y’all on the dance floor this weekend. He is totally smitten with you.”

Savannah had thought so too, and the feeling was mutual.

Brooke pointed inside. “Can we come in for a second?”

“Yeah. Sure.” She stepped aside, and they came in and sat on the couch. “I don’t have anything to offer you.”

“That’s fine. It won’t take but a minute. I was down at the paper placing the ads for summer camp and Jack said that you had stopped by earlier this morning and said you might buy the paper.”

“I did. I can’t very well do that now.”

“Why not?” Brooke rolled her eyes. “Okay, so doofus here shouldn’t have opened his mouth so that nature could take its course, but it’ll work out. Besides, Daphne is about to bust a seam about the new tearoom. She’d be devastated if you didn’t stay. And Jenn and I”—she gave an inconspicuous nod toward Mike—“we’re dying to work on that little project with you.”

Savannah had been so consumed with her thoughts about Scott that she’d put the mural on the back burner, and that needed to be dealt with. She really was making a mess out of everything. “I wish it had worked out differently, but I think I’ve just burned that bridge. And it’s the only way in and out of this town.”

“Not the only way,” Brooke said.

“Well, we’ve got an idea,” Mike said. “Will you give me a chance to make this right?”

Savannah wasn’t sure she had the energy to even try.

“Mike has a good idea,” Brooke said. “And while he’s figuring that all out, you need to get yourself pulled together and we’ll spend some time down at Happy Balance. Jenn has something on that smoothie bar to fix any problem that ails you. I’m sure she has a broken heart remedy in her recipe box.”

How could people who barely knew her be so important in her life all of a sudden?

“You can do it, Savannah,” Brooke reassured her. “It’s going to be okay. You in?”

“Okay. Yeah, what harm can it do?” Savannah sucked in a deep breath. “Thanks, y’all.”

Mike headed for the door. “Well, I kind of think I owe you on this one. I’ve got some work to do.”

He left, and Brooke waited until she heard him start down the stairs. “While you were gone, Jenn and I think we’ve made some progress. Go get dressed. We need your help.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

S
avannah and Brooke racewalked all the way down the street to Happy Balance.

Jenn sprang out through the front door and ran to meet them at the corner, giving Savannah a hug. “You’ve got to stick around. We need you, girl!”

She hugged Jenn back. Savannah felt welcome here. Like Brooke and Jenn were true friends. “Brooke said you made some progress.”

“I think so. Come on!” Jenn led the way back to the studio. “Only I don’t know what we do with it next.” She turned the lock with a click and then led them up the back stairs to her apartment.

Brooke spoke as they climbed the stairs. “So, I can’t see whatever it is that y’all are seeing, but I am an awesome puzzle girl. So when Jenn was writing down all the letters and numbers she saw, I started trying to put them together.”

“Good idea.” Savannah felt better not focusing on her own problems.

“Then,” Brooke said, “I took a picture of the mural and printed it out poster size down at the office.”

Jenn opened the door and held it for them as Brooke kept talking.

“Oh, my gosh.” Savannah started toward the kitchen. The whole wall was covered in enlarged copies of the pictures they’d taken of the murals downstairs, and dotted with colorful sticky notes indicating every little detail they knew so far. “This is genius.”

“I know, right?” Jenn handed a marker to Savannah, and one to Brooke. “It’s like our own game of Clue.”

“Or an episode of
Castle
,” Savannah said.

“Isn’t that guy adorable?” Brooke said.

“Totally. I love Rick Castle’s boyish charm on that show,” Savannah said.

“And we were so happy when him and Beckett got together, pretty much like we wish you and Scott would.” Brooke snapped the cap off her marker. “And we’re going to fix that too.”

“Ugh. Let’s not talk about that right now. Okay, so what do we have?” Savannah focused on the wall.

Jenn ran down all the images.

“Little girl crying. Ringlets. Bracelet. Skinned knee. Can’t really tell how old she is.”

Savannah nodded and added, “And the headstone with all those gorgeous flowers. So many. Can you read it?”

“No,” Jenn said. “I don’t think it says anything, but there were a bunch of letters in the flowers. Brooke put some words together. Goto. Christ. Learns. Weak. Sinners. Avoid. Way. Rile. Only they don’t seem to mean anything.”

Savannah stared at the paper. “You can’t see the images in this photocopy. Can we go down to the locker room?”

“Sure,” Jenn said.

“Let’s take the picture with us.” Brooke peeled the tape back from the corners and carried the papers with them. “It’s all I’ve got. I don’t have superpowers like y’all.”

“Real funny.” Jenn led the way.

When they reached the locker room, Brooke hung the picture on the mirror.

Savannah stood in front of the mural, looking at the images. Then she looked back at the poster and then sat down on the floor, scanning the entire mural again. “Jenn?”

“What?”

“Look up there, where the creek trails off.” Savannah walked closer, pointing out the exact spot where she saw what looked like a door.

“How did I miss that before? It’s a door. Just beyond those flowers. See it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I see. There are numbers on the door. Four seven something?”

Jenn nodded. “I think it’s four seven zero five three.”

“Hold on a sec,” Brooke said. She took her marker and checked off the numbers four, seven, five, zero, and three on her notepad. “Yep, they’re all here.”

“An address?”

Savannah tilted her head. “I’m going to run home and get my computer. I’ve got an idea.”

“I’ve got a computer,” Jenn said.

“Yeah, but I need mine, and I have something else that I think will help. It won’t take me long. Hang tight.”

“We’ll be right here.”

Savannah laid her marker on the bench and jogged back to the apartment. She swept up her laptop, went to her car and dug out the CDs that she’d borrowed from Jack, and then ran back to Happy Balance.

Jenn and Brooke were sitting at the smoothie bar when she came back in.

Savannah could barely talk, she was so winded. “There was a little girl who went missing a few years back.”

Jenn ran to her side. “Do you think this message is something about that? Do you think Frank Gotorow did something to that little girl?”

“I don’t think so. His victims were always women. Never children.” She started her computer. “Brooke. The little girl’s name was Christina. Rework those letters.” She clicked a few keys and turned her attention to Jenn. “Can you see if you can find an online GIS for this town?”

“What the heck is a GIS?” Jenn asked.

Brooke chimed in. “Geographic information system. Basically it’s an online map of all the properties and owners in an area. We use them all the time down at the extension office.”

“Right,” Savannah said. “Can you see if there’s one for Adams Grove and track any address that starts with 47 or 53?”

Savannah started searching the CD for articles about the missing child. There were several. No doubt Jack and Bee had done everything in their power to get the word out. For a moment, she thought they should stop and call Scott, but he’d told her to stay out of this, and there was no sense in making things even worse between them . . . if that was even possible. If they found anything at all, she promised herself they’d bring him into the loop.

“Anything, Savannah?” Jenn was typing on her computer. “I’m not seeing anything here. We’ll have to go down to the courthouse.”

“Wait a second. The little girl, Christina, her birthdate is April seventh.”

“Four seven. It’s not an address.” Brooke clapped her hands. “This is about her.”

“Y’all. She was abducted on May third.” Savannah stopped typing. “It says here that she was abducted on May third, three years ago, from her uncle’s place of business. No one heard a sound. It was like she’d just disappeared.”

“How sad.” Brooke rewrote all the letters on individual pages of sticky paper and started rearranging them.

“It was Jack’s grandniece’s little girl. He was just telling me about it. They never found her.”

“She could be alive,” Jenn said.

“Or at least they could have closure.” Brooke kept moving the letters around.

Jenn pressed her hands to her heart. “Brooke. That’s awful.”

“I’m just trying to be realistic here.”

Jenn tsked. “Well, stop it.”

“We have to tell Scott,” Savannah said. “He told me to leave this alone. But even if he hates me, I have to tell him.”

The front door of the yoga studio opened, and Brooke scrambled to move the giant printout behind the counter.

“Sorry. I must’ve forgotten to lock it when I came in,” Savannah said.

Mike made his way through the space. “I figured y’all would be here.”

Brooke walked over and gave him a kiss. “Hey, honey. What’s up?”

“I need y’all to come with me,” he said.

“Now?” Savannah needed to talk to Scott.

“Yes, now. We’re going to Daphne’s new shop.” Mike started toward the door. “Come on.”

“Oh, Lordy. Daphne knows? I can’t face her.”

“It was use Daphne or call in a fake crime, and that’s against the law. Let’s just give it a try.” Mike put his hand on her shoulder. “Trust me. Scott’s mom is one of your biggest fans. Plus she’s the only person who is kick-ass enough to tell Scott to wake up and smell the coffee. Trust me. We’ve all done stupid stuff in love before. Daphne is going to get Scott down to her building. It’s step one.”

Brooke tucked the papers behind the smoothie bar. “This can wait. We need to talk to Scott.”

Mike nodded. “And if this plan works, that’s exactly what you’ll be doing.”

Savannah followed along, but she wasn’t sure this was a good idea.

“Should we tell Mike?” she whispered to Brooke.

“Just hang tight.”

When they reached the front door of the tearoom, Savannah closed her eyes and prayed she wouldn’t retch right here on the doorstep. “I can’t do this.”

They shuffled her inside under protest.

“Oh, Savannah. I heard what happened.” Daphne pulled her into her arms and rocked her. “Honey, we all do something we regret in our lifetime, especially when it comes to love.”

“I’m one big fat walking mess,” Savannah said. “I hurt everyone I love.”

“That is not true.” She pulled a paper towel from a roll sitting on a table. “Here, dry those tears. We’re fixing this. That pigheaded son of mine can’t get out of his own way sometimes when it comes to affairs of the heart.”

“I already went and talked to him this morning, Daphne. He doesn’t want to forgive me.”

“Like heck he doesn’t. I know my boy, and I saw you two together. I knew the minute I met you that you were going to be a permanent fixture in Adams Grove. I’ll steer him in the right direction.”

“I don’t think he wants to be steered.”

Daphne laughed. “Not a man on God’s green earth does, dear; the trick is doing it so they have no idea.” She gave her a theatrical wink. “I’ve got lots of years of experience doing that. Stick with me.”

A sick feeling twisted in Savannah’s gut.

“We don’t have much time.” Daphne looked to Mike. “Okay, you know what to do.”

Mike nodded and left.

Brooke took Savannah by the hand. “Come on. You and I are going to wait back here until Daphne gives us the signal.”

Scott had just slugged back the last of a tall glass of iced tea and pushed his plate away when Mike walked into Jacob’s Diner.

“Hey, Mike,” Scott said.

“There you are. I’ve been trying to track you down.”

“What’s up?”

“I had no idea your mom was buying the old building up on Main Street.”

“She’s not.”

“That’s not what Brooke said. I was just walking down the street and your mom was up on a ladder in there. I went in to see what the heck she was up to, and she said she’s opening a tearoom.”

“She hasn’t mentioned a word about it to me. Which is fine, but why the heck was she up on a ladder?”

Mike lifted his shoulders. “My darn dad is the same way. Always getting into one thing or another. They think they’re still forty or something.”

Scott stood and pulled a fold of money from his front pocket. He peeled off the bills and tossed them on the table. “I guess I better get down there and see what’s going on.”

“Yeah. I figured you’d want to know.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate that.”

Mike followed him outside. “Hey, Scott. I’m really sorry about that stuff with Savannah. She’s a nice lady. I’m sure it’ll work out.”

Scott just shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, man.” The last thing he intended to do was have any more conversations about Savannah with anyone.

He marched down the block to the old building, and sure enough, there was his mother up in the display window with newspaper and some Windex.

Staring at her from outside the window, he gave her a what-the-heck-are-you-doing look.

She waved and smiled. “Hey, son!”

He went inside and she scurried down the ladder.

He rushed to her side and spotted her to the ground. “You’re gonna break your fool neck climbing that thing.”

“Oh, stop. I’m just fine.”

“Mom, you can’t do this stuff by yourself. What is this about you buying this place?”

“I know. I was going to tell you the other night at the dance, but then you and Savannah left in a hurry.” She nudged him with her elbow. “I love that girl.”

So do I
, he thought,
but that’s not going to happen
.

“I’m opening my tearoom. I’m finally going to do it. I’m calling it Timeless Tea.”

As pissed as he was that she’d gone and done something like this without even a mention to him, he was excited for her. She’d had that dream as many years as he could remember back. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to get those kazillion teapots out of the dining room either.

“That’s a perfect name.” He nodded. “I like it.”

“Savannah came up with it. She said she’s going to help me some.”

Just the mention of her name made him feel like he was being wrapped in a cocoon of anguish. “Mom, maybe you shouldn’t count on her help.”

“Why not? She’s amazing. I knew you two would hit it off.” Joy bubbled in her laugh and shone in her eyes. How could he tell her the truth?

He stood there, but his mouth wouldn’t move.

“What is it?” she asked. “I know you like her. I saw the way you looked at her the other night. Am I wrong?”

Scott shook his head. “Mom. Don’t push.”

“Are you saying you don’t like her?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Daphne dropped the bottle of cleaner, and it splashed across the floor when it hit the ground. She backed up against the ladder, knocking it over, too. “Oh, my goodness. I can’t believe I just knocked that over,” Daphne said, rushing forward to clean it up.

Scott picked up the ladder and righted it. “That’s exactly why you don’t need to be in here alone.”

“I’m not alone,” Daphne said. “Brooke is here somewhere. Brooke?”

“Look who I found,” Brooke said.

Scott turned around and saw Savannah standing next to Brooke.