Running on Empty (5 page)

Another horn sounded and Mrs. B moved on with a dismissive flapping of her hand at
the wrist.

When AnnaLise re-entered Mama's, it was as if she hadn't left, except that the good-looking
stranger in the booth was gone.

'All I'm telling you,' Mama was saying to Daisy as AnnaLise took the bench across
from them, 'is that
AnnieLeez
shouldn't be ruling Bobby Bradenham out as a husband.'

'AnnieLeez'
almost got back up. Instead, she took a couple of deep, cleansing yoga breaths. After
all, she'd be there only two more days. A person could stand anything for forty-eight
hours, right?

'OK,' she said sternly, using her index finger to snake her cake plate back. 'Let's
put an end to this here and now. Bobby and I are friends. There's no chemistry beyond
that, never was, never will be.'

She could see Bobby, still in conversation with Ichiro Katou. The two seemed to be
filling out documents.

'But there was with Chuck Greystone.' Mama said, with a sideways glance at Daisy.

They giggled.

Two days
after
today. Which meant more like sixty, sixty-five hours, not forty-eight.

AnnaLise looked up at the clock on the wall. Its minute hand seemed to be crawling
backwards.

'Chuck and I are good friends, too.' AnnaLise felt like she was talking to middle-schoolers.
'In fact, I just saw him. Standing over the body.'

AnnaLise expected the bald remark to turn the conversation, but apparently her love
life — or their perception that she had none — was infinitely more fascinating to
them.

Mama was nodding. 'The Three Musketeers, that's what we called them. You remember,
Daisy?'

If it was intended as a memory test, AnnaLise's mother was about to earn a passing
grade. 'AnnaLise, Chuck and Sheree Pepper. Sheree had such a crush on that boy. It
reminded me of you, me and Tim. A triangle.'

Timothy Griggs had been AnnaLise's father. From what Daisy had told her, Daisy, Phyllis
and Tim had been the 'Three Musketeers' of their generation.

'Phyllis, you always had a crush on Tim, and you know it,' Daisy continued as the
front door chimed.

Mama's turn to blush, but she was saved from answering when a wiry woman with cropped,
nearly white-blonde hair swooped down on them.

'Move over, girlfriend.' Joy Tamarack plopped herself on the bench. AnnaLise didn't
bounce up like Daisy had when Mama sat down, probably because Joy, a physical trainer,
weighed about a hundred pounds. And all muscle. She practically crushed AnnaLise's
ribs with her hug.

'I'm so glad to see you,' AnnaLise said when she'd regained her breath. 'But isn't
this a little late in the year for the Frat Pack?'

Joy and a dozen of her old college sorority sisters took over Sheree's Sutherton Inn
annually for a weekend of, as Joy once put it, 'drinking, smoking and engaging in
aural — that's a-u-r-a-l — sex. Meaning we just listen to each other lie about it.'

'We pushed back the date, Annie-girl. Everyone's biological clocks went off, shall
we say, belatedly yet simultaneously last year, so some of us needed to schedule around
spouses and — ' she wrinkled her nose — 'babies.'

Joy's expression made it clear that her own personal biological clock could go hang
itself.

'No new relationship?' AnnaLise asked. God knows she was asked often enough. It was
only fair to reciprocate by torturing others.

'Hell, no. Once was enough. More than enough.'

Joy, mid-twenties at the time, had been wife number 3 of the legendary Dickens Hart.
Less than a year later, she'd caught Hart helping himself to, in Joy's words, 'a little
Tail.' As in one of the lodge's Fawns.

Joy might have been young, but even then she was a shrewd businesswoman and had come
out of the divorce in fine form. Since Hart had plenty of practice with prenups by
that time, AnnaLise had always wondered if the 'little Tail' was under-aged, providing
Joy with additional leverage during the property settlement phase.

'Sal moved Frat Pack Night to this weekend just for you, I presume?'

'Honey, we
are
the Frat Pack.' Joy stuck a cigarette in her mouth. 'You'll be there, right?' she
mumbled around the cancer-stick while digging for a lighter.

'Of course. I'm meeting Bobby for drinks at seven.'

'Great.' Joy unearthed a psychedelic pink-and-green lighter and turned to AnnaLise's
mother as she thumbed the wheel on it. 'Daisy-girl, I hear you―'

Splat.

'No smoking.' Mama set down AnnaLise's now empty milk glass and got up to tend the
cash register.

Joy surveyed the creamed lighter. 'Well, this is one collector's edition Bic that's
never going to flick again.'

'Probably for the best,' AnnaLise said. 'The seventies are dead, and you will be,
too, if you don't stop smoking.'

'Says the woman eating rum cake at ten a.m.'

'With a healthy glass of milk,' AnnaLise pointed out. 'At least, until rather recently.'

Joy sniffed, then wrinkled her nose again. 'Oh, my gawd. Is this whole milk? Warm
whole milk?'

'Warm, because I didn't drink it,' AnnaLise said defensively. 'Besides, I'm running
again. I can splurge occasionally.'

Though it sure as hell wouldn't be on a glass of milk. A slice of the German chocolate
cake that Mama had mentioned came to mind.

'I'm in training, too.' Joy pulled a thin paper napkin out of the dispenser on the
table and set her lighter on it. A dribble of milk leaked from where the flame should
be.

'But still smoking?'

'Even a journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.'

'And a paroxysm of coughing.' She gave Joy a shove so she could slip out of the booth.
'I'll see you tonight, but now I want to drop in on our tenant. You coming, Daisy?'

'Of course. You'll love what Tucker's done to the store,' Mother Griggs said as she
followed.

Mama just waved them past the cash register. Not that she needed to. Daisy had long
ago given up trying to pay for her food at Mama's and, for AnnaLise, it would be like
handing her mother a fiver for making coffee in the morning. The thought never even
occurred to her. Which was why learning how to dine in
other
people's restaurants when she went away to school had been such an adventure. Happily,
one that ended without jail time .

Joy trailed mother and daughter, making AnnaLise wonder why her friend had entered
in the first place. God forbid the woman should ever
eat
something.

'I haven't been to Torch for a show,' Joy said, 'but I've heard good things about
it.'

'I'm really glad.' AnnaLise stepped out of Mama's and held the door for Daisy and
Joy. 'The Stantons put a lot of money into retrofitting the old market into a nightclub.'

'Starting any new business is expensive,' Joy said. 'And banks are pretty stodgy now
about giving loans.'

Joy's tone made it sound like she was speaking from personal experience. The last
AnnaLise had heard, Joy — the smoker — was managing a fitness club somewhere in Indiana.

'So how's
your
business going?'

'Going?' Joy spread her hands wide. 'More like, going, going, gone.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Don't be.' Joy gave her a wink. 'I've got a can't-miss venture in the works.'

'Are you going to tell us about it?' Daisy had been lagging behind, letting the friends
talk, but apparently she wanted in on any news.

'Not yet.' An enigmatic smile from Joy. 'But your little hometown here
is
involved.'

AnnaLise's cellphone gave a two-tone ping, indicating a new text message. She glanced
at it and hit delete, but not before noting the time. 'It's not quite eleven thirty.
Will Tucker be at work already?'

'Of course,' Daisy said, leading the way down the block. 'Torch is open all day.'

'They're serving lunch, too?' To AnnaLise's knowledge, the Stantons had obtained a
liquor license and created a small kitchen in one corner in order to offer light hors
d'oeuvres during club hours. She didn't realize they'd put in a full, professional-grade
food service operation.

'I have a hunch Tucker believes in giving the people what they want.' Joy stopped
next to a little red convertible with a tan top and nodded down the block. 'Go take
a look, and I'll catch you later.'

'Sounds good. I think I'll run the lake path tomorrow or Monday. Want to come?'

'Sure, but make it tomorrow,' Joy said, climbing into her convertible. 'Monday's the
parade, as a born-and-bred Sutherton girl ought to recall.'

Of course, the Labor Day Parade. With the excitement of Frat Pack Night, AnnaLise
had forgotten the
other
holiday.

As Joy backed out of her parking space, AnnaLise and Daisy continued down Main Street
to Torch.

The entrance of the former Griggs Market was set at an angle facing the intersection
of Main and Second Street. Around the corner on Second was the residential entrance
to the townhouse-style apartment where Daisy lived. And, at one time, her husband
Tim and AnnaLise lived with her.

The commercial plate-glass doors of the market had been replaced with rich wooden
ones that gleamed in the morning light. They were flanked by newly installed sidelights,
each featuring an elongated flame on a matte-black background and the word 'Torch'.

Despite Daisy's assurances, the place looked closed. AnnaLise leaned down to peer
through the translucent white center of the sidelight flames. Detecting movement inside,
she raised her hand to rap on one of the doors when it abruptly swung open.

'Sorry, man,' a boy of about seventeen said. 'I mean, ma'am.'

AnnaLise, who had backed off just in time to save face, literally, was young enough
to prefer the nearly cross-gender term 'man' over 'ma'am'. 'Not your fault. I didn't
know the place was open.'

As AnnaLise spoke, she realized the boy held what looked like a miniature to-go cup,
just the right size to accommodate a double shot of espresso. And it smelled great.

Before she could ask him where he'd gotten his drink, the kid was halfway across the
street and heading for the beach. No matter, the scent of espresso from inside Torch
still hung in the air.

Daisy entered and threw out her arms. 'Isn't it wonderful?'

Following her, AnnaLise took in the revolutionary change.

The shelves and counters of the market were gone and the walls of the square room
were painted slate gray. In addition to round tables on the floor, a raised bar-level
had been installed in front of three walls, giving those seated there a place to set
their drinks while enjoying a clear sight-line to the half-circle stage on the fourth
wall.

Tucker Stanton was cross-legged on said stage, a scraggly attempt at growing a mustache
and goatee against his toffee-colored skin making the eighteen-year-old look even
younger. He was alternately slapping splayed fingers on a bongo drum and reciting
something that sounded like a cross between haiku and 'There Was a Young Man From
Nantucket'.

Mercifully, Tucker caught sight of them before he got to the punch line. 'AnnaLise!
Welcome!'

Hopping up, he weaved his way through the tables to give AnnaLise a hug. Tucker Ulysses
Stanton might be too young to drink the alcohol he served, but AnnaLise thought he
had a great chance of succeeding at pretty much anything he put his mind — and his
father's money — to. He was just that kind of kid.

But a bongo? And blue haiku?

'How do you like the place?' Tucker asked.

'It's great,' AnnaLise answered honestly. 'But I thought you were opening a nightclub.'

'It is a club―' Tucker started.

'But not just at night,' Daisy added, looking pleased with herself and Tucker. 'I
asked him why he'd spend all that money to be open only four hours a day.'

'And your mother was right,' Tucker said. 'I'd already decided to put in an espresso
bar for the after-work crowd, so opening a few hours in the morning for the caffeine-cravers
seemed natural.'

'A coffee shop.' AnnaLise was taking in the mostly full tables. 'How does―'

'Oh, don't worry,' Tucker said hurriedly, looking a little hurt. 'I checked with Mama
to make sure she was down with it. Besides, Torch isn't a coffee shop, it's a coffee
house
. The "cool, man" kind, like with Dobie Gillis.'