Murder Close to Home (2 page)

A surfer. It made sense with his tanned skin. I noticed a streak of white behind his ear and I hid a smile. He was dressed nicely, in black pants and a dark button-down shirt with the cuffs rolled at quarter-length. I liked that he knew how to dress for his interview, but he was sunscreened up and ready to go surfing after. It showed that he took his work seriously, but still wanted to have fun.

I glanced over the résumé he handed me. College degree, retail during college, surfing after, and deejaying in the past year. He was new at this.

“I’m playing at The Parrot Tree tonight at eight,” said Logan.

I set down the résumé. “This looks good. I’ll be there to see your work and give you a call. I know this is last minute, but if I hire you, are you available tomorrow night?”

“Taryn’s party is tomorrow, right? Yeah, I’m free. That would be cool.”

“Perfect. That’s all for me. Do you have any questions?”

Logan hesitated. “Look, I know Taryn Horn gave you the recommendation to hire me, so don’t feel like you have to just because she was the one who told you about me. I’d rather get the gig based on my skills than as a favor.”

“That’s why I’m coming to see you at The Parrot Tree,” I said cheerfully. “Don’t knock her recommendation, though. It got your foot in the door. I wouldn’t have known about you otherwise.”

Logan ran his fingers through his hair. “That’s why I took the interview. Let’s see if I can get the rest of me through the door!”

The music was thumping when Jade and I arrived at The Parrot Tree. The casual restaurant was the local hot spot for nightly entertainment. They had a large area in the middle where Corey’s dance crew performed. Tonight, Logan Kelley had taken it over with a table filled with his equipment. Restaurant patrons were on the floor, dancing the night away.

“It’s good,” I said to Jade as we sat at a booth. Logan was playing a popular song. His remix actually added to the song, which I liked. Too many remixes were more about beats than the song itself. I appreciated someone who worked with the already existing music to make it better.

Jade did a little dance. “He’s got my vote.”

“I may be judging early, but so far, Logan’s a keeper.” I scanned the menu.

Jade raised an eyebrow. “
A keeper
, keeper?”

I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean?” I asked, even though I knew exactly what she meant.

She laughed. “Maybe you were looking for a deejay and found something more. Time will tell.”

“Like with you and Corey?” I teased.

“Shh!” Jade glanced around the restaurant. “He could hear you.”

“I don’t see him,” I said. “Is he dancing tonight?”

“No, he’s working,” she said. Corey was a police officer. His day job and side gig were as different as you could get. They both involved a uniform, though.

“Then he wouldn’t be here,” I reasoned. “How was your date?”

Jade smiled in a shy way. “Great. We got lunch and walked on the beach and talked.”

“If that’s not the beginning of a fantastic love story, I don’t know what is,” I said, encouraging her.

“Right?” Jade’s exclamation warmed my heart. She normally wasn’t so direct with her emotions; she hid them under her tough-looking exterior. Underneath, she was as soft as cotton candy.

“How are you ladies doing tonight?” said a familiar voice. I looked up to see Allen Leon, a waiter whom I had helped out of a tough spot a little while ago.

All right, I wasn’t really the one who had helped him get out of police custody when he was taken in for questioning pertaining to a stabbing. I had found the stabber, though, and convinced Rodger Becker’s family to ease up on the money Allen owed them.

He had gotten involved in a tough situation in high school and accidently set a building on fire. It burned to the ground and Allen was caught on the security tape. He would have come forward to confess to the accidental arson, but Rodger got to him first. The prominent businessman had convinced Allen to pay him over a period of time instead of facing punishment for destroying the building.

Allen had been forced to put his dreams of being an actor on hold and had worked at The Parrot Tree and juggled knives for a living. Now, he was...

“Allen, why are you still here? I thought you’d be in Hollywood auditioning,” I said.

Allen sighed, absentmindedly scratching his dark hair. He had an undercut, where part of his head was shaved close and the other side was longer. “I’ve got to save enough for the trip there and then some to live on for a while until I can get a job. I don’t want to get there and have to come back because I ran out of cash right before I land a big audition. I at least want to be sure that I’m secure enough to last a month. At the very least, a couple of weeks. I should be able to find a serving job within that time. This is the chance that I’ve been waiting for. I can’t blow it now.”

I nodded. “That’s smart.”

We told him what we wanted to drink. I watched Allen walk away, remembering something. “You were a lot like that a couple of years ago,” I said to Jade.

“And it worked out,” she said with a grin. “I’d been saving since my first job in high school to start A Scoop of Sunshine.”

“I’m really happy for you,” I told her. “You put so much dedication and love into your business and it’s turned out well.”

Jade laughed. “Except for the hiccup where I was running out of customers.”

“Hiccups are fleeting,” I noted.

“So is success.” Jade grew somber. “I hope it keeps working. I don’t know what happened, but I’ve finally gotten some steady sales.”

“I think it’s your latest strategies. Hosting Taryn’s monthly bingo parties keeps Scoop on the radar of a lot of people.”

“As long as you don’t steal that away from me. Ruby’s Gem is the talk of the town.”

“Taryn’s
party
is the talk of the town,” I corrected. “And I would never take that away from you. That’s your thing.”

“Even though you came up with the idea?”

“For your business! It was meant for Scoop and at Scoop it will stay. I promise.” I meant it. I had come up with that idea solely for her to use.

Allen came back with our drinks and we ordered.

“The deejay is a nice change,” Allen said. “Not that the normal entertainment isn’t great every night. It’s good to switch it up every once in a while.”

I latched on to that. If someone other than Jade and I thought that Logan’s music was good, that had to be promising. “I’m looking into hiring him for my party planning business. Do you think that’s a good idea?”

Allen glanced at Logan, who had his headphones half on his head and was moving to the beat. “Yeah, I do.”

I relaxed. “Perfect. Taryn’s recommendation was a good one, then.”

“Taryn recommended him? Then, yeah, I’d do it. Her opinions are spot on.”

“That’s because she staged a huge protest when it looked like you were the stabber,” I teased. “I took the blame when she caught me on camera with one of your knives.”

For the record, all I’d been doing was giving it back to him. I’d held the knife for maybe a minute or two. It made me wonder how often Taryn followed people around. Was she a spy in disguise?

I brushed off that silly notion. That wouldn’t be a real idea. It couldn’t be. She’d make a great spy for Halloween, though, if it came to that.

Allen tapped his chin as he thought of something.
“Doesn’t he surf?”

“He said he’d been going through the professional surfing outlets for a couple of years and he’s coming off that. Super good, but not enough to make a living, or so he said.” I was impressed by anyone who could attempt to make a living doing something they loved. Regardless of whether or not it ultimately worked out, they gave it their all. Not everyone could say the same.

“Okay, I thought so. I don’t know him too well since he’s a couple of years older than me. I saw him around school growing up and he always seemed nice.”

“My mind’s made up,” I declared as Allen took our orders off to the kitchen. “I’ll hire him.”

Jade looked at me, amused. “I don’t think there was a chance of you
not
hiring him.”

I rolled my eyes and tossed a straw wrapper at her. She caught it and threw it back at me before I could see it coming.

Jade and I were taking a break from shop talk and had moved on to other topics. By the time our food arrived, we had discussed our favorite nail polish colors (blue for her, red for me), how hungry we were, and the importance of carrying tissues in the car for emergencies. Like wiping up melted ice cream and that kind of thing.

Sometimes it was good to kick back and think about the little things in life that made us happy. It kept us from exploding with worry that our business ventures would end up failing.

I was picking at a chip in the red nail polish on my fingernails when Taryn Horn came by our booth.

“He’s the one, isn’t he?” she asked with a knowing smile.

I shot her a wry grin. “I think he’s the deejay for me. I’m waiting until he’s done for the night until I tell him — I don’t want to interrupt or anything.”

“Good.” Taryn adjusted her floral shirt. In the process, she glanced at a booth across the restaurant, where Amelia Lamb was sitting with a couple of friends. I recognized them as nurses that I had briefly met in the hospital parking lot once.

“Are you going to say hi?” I nodded to Amelia’s booth. I imagined a cowboy showdown where they were standing a fair distance apart and saying hello was like shooting a gun. It was a dramatic daydream, but Taryn and Amelia’s relationship was full of unnecessary drama.

“No.” Taryn turned her head. “I don’t need to play that game.”

I blinked. Taryn’s lack of interest confused me. “I thought you enjoyed the game.”

“She’s gone too far,” said Taryn darkly. She tugged on her shirt again. I thought she might be ripping the seams; it was that hard of a tug.

Jade leaned forward. “What happened? Are you all right?”

“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this. I just have to get it off my chest and talk to someone about it. You see, Amelia still hasn’t paid her rent.”

Taryn owned the apartment complex Jade — and now I — lived in. She had taken a first-floor apartment for herself, so we saw her frequently at home as well as around town. Amelia also lived in the complex, which added to the tension between her and Taryn. There was no escaping it.

“This stays between us.” Taryn’s eyes spoke of a deadly sincerity. This was one story that she wouldn’t be spreading around Red Palm.

“Of course,” Jade and I said.

“She’s got a steady job as an accountant. There’s no reason she can’t pay her bills. Last month when her rent was due, she never came up with the money. I gave her a pass because I figured that everyone has trouble for one reason or another at some point in their lives. Plus, she’s a good tenant. No problems or damaged property. Next month would resolve everything.

“Next month became this month and the rent was due and nothing came in. I went over to talk to her an hour ago and Amelia said she’d send the money right away.” Taryn shrugged. “Hopefully she will and this will be over with.”

“I hope so,” I said with compassion.

“If she doesn’t, I can go with you to confront her again,” Jade offered. “Maybe she’ll listen to more than one person.”

“Yeah, maybe. You don’t work for me, though, so she’d know something was up. And then she’d accuse me of spreading gossip about her.” Taryn’s eyes twinkled. “I know I’m the source of all the stories that fly around Red Palm — but I spread the real ones. The true ones. Not the false ones. I’m not here to slander. Thanks for the offer, though. I do appreciate it.”

“You can use it anytime,” said Jade.

A woman about a decade younger than Taryn waved to her. She was wearing jeans and a handmade t-shirt that read,
Save the Trees!
Plenty of trees had been drawn on the shirt with fabric markers. “Taryn!” she called out.

“There’s Rita. I’ll talk to you girls later,” said Taryn, then she strolled over to her friend.

I picked over the last of my french fries. “Poor Taryn. I wouldn’t want to be in her position.”