Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) (7 page)

Bemused when Ian grabbed his hand as readily as his mother
had, Elias ushered Hannah and Ian off the porch.

“A mile a day?” he said.

Her rich chuckle felt like a touch.  “Edna was sixty-seven
when her husband died.  She said by gum she wasn’t going to waste what was left
of her life, so she joined the Peace Corps and spent two years in West Africa. 
She is not your usual old lady.”

“What’s a piece…core?” Ian asked, tugging at her hand.

As he walked the two home, Elias listened to her attempt to
explain.  Once at her front door, he waited until she’d turned lights on and at
least glanced around inside.

Then he wished them goodnight and returned to his Land
Rover, taking a last look at the golden squares of windows and having the odd
wish he’d been able to stay, even if the kid never did stop talking and the
spotted puppy was as wound up as a furious ocean eddy.

And finally, he let his gaze rove from the deeper shadows
between houses to the parked vehicles with dark windows.  The unease he felt
was visceral, probably a product of his imagination.  Even so, he knew he’d
made a mistake tonight.  He’d waved a red cape at an already angry bull.

*****

The cramped conference room in the police station didn’t
offer a lot more space than Daniel’s office, but at least his desk didn’t form
a psychological barricade.  He saw with interest that Burton chose to sit next
to Hannah rather than across the table from her.  She’d told Daniel she was
bringing Elias because he could provide the perspective of a life-long resident
of Cape Trouble, but there was clearly another component to the artist’s
presence.  Daniel didn’t know whether to be pleased or not that he’d guessed
right.  He couldn’t forget what Abbot had said:
Elias Burton…not sure that’s
smart.  Hannah’s too nice a lady for him
.

A clever man could scare a woman into turning to him.

Something he had to keep in the back of his mind.

Taking his own seat directly across from the two, he said,
“It’s still possible we’re overreacting, you know.”

“After this guy slit Elias’s tires?” Hannah fired back at
him.

He bent his head in acknowledgement.  “Don’t get me wrong,
I’m more than happy to start looking into the backgrounds of anyone who has
occurred to you as a possibility.  I can do it quietly.”

“From what Hannah tells me, the list is going to be longer
than you think,” Elias said, sounding less than happy about it.

Daniel understood why Burton was going to hate hearing the
roll call of men who were as attracted to Hannah Moss as he was.

Pen in hand, notepad in front of him, he focused on Hannah. 
“Let’s have it.”

Her cheeks turned pink.  “Elias makes it sound like I’m some
femme fatale, which is ridiculous.  Considering I’ve been in town for over two
years, not very many men have asked me out.  And, like I told him, half the
time the invitations are jokes as much as anything.  They take a bite of my
fudge and say, ‘Marry me, please.’”

Daniel grinned at her.  “If not for Sophie, I might have
done the same.”

She laughed, visibly relaxing.  “
I’d
have married
Naomi, just for her cooking.”

She had a point.  Naomi Kendrick’s huckleberry cobbler, a
whole pan of it made just for him in thanks for his help, had almost been
enough to make his commitment to Sophie waver.

“Yeah, but your peppermint crunch truffles, not to mention
the gingerbread ones…”  Seeing her smile, he said gently, “Okay, where shall we
start?”

“Ron Campbell.”  Elias bit off the name.

Interested, Daniel wrote it down.  He’d made an enemy of the
city councilman last year, when he’d had to ask questions while investigating a
murder.  After that, Campbell had opposed extending another two-year contract
to Daniel, but had been overruled by the rest of the city council.

“He suggested we have dinner a while back, but he’s been
friendly even though I refused.  He’s exceptionally fond of caramel peanut
fudge,” Hannah offered.  Her forehead crinkled.  “I guess he’s hinted a few
more times since then.”

“He’s conservative, and thinks of his own interests first.” 
Elias again.  He did not like Campbell, a viewpoint the two of them shared.

“He grow up here?” Daniel asked, trying to remember what
he’d heard.

“Couple years ahead of me.  Student council, student body
president.  Don’t remember where he went to college, but I don’t think anyone
expected him to end up back here.  He wanted to be rich and successful.”

He was, by Cape Trouble standards, but Daniel knew what Elias
meant.

Into the small silence that followed, Hannah reluctantly
released another name.  “Arlo Castaneda.  Um, maybe six months ago?”

“Ed Castaneda’s son,” Elias said slowly.  “He was four or
five years behind me in school.  Doesn’t he work with his dad?”

She nodded.  Ed Castaneda was a local truck farmer whose son
had persuaded him to go organic, growing their business enormously.  They now
supplied produce to restaurants up and down the coast.  Daniel didn’t really
know the son, but felt sure the father wasn’t the kind of guy to buy a latte at
Mist River Coffee or fancy fudges at Sweet Ideas.

“Arlo a customer?” he asked.

“Yes.  He likes walnut maple fudge and buys coconut truffles
for his mother.”

Elias stirred, but refrained from saying anything. 

“Ron Slawinski.”  At Daniel’s expression of disbelief,
Hannah smiled.  “He blushed bright red and stammered, but I’m pretty sure he
asked me out.”

“What is he, eighteen?” Elias said disagreeably.

“You know he’s older than that,” Hannah said, tone
reproving.

Poor Ron, a Cape Trouble police officer, was tall, gawky and
probably forever condemned to look half his real age.  “Twenty-four,” Daniel
said in amusement.

“We have something important in common,” Hannah pointed
out.  “Freckles.”

Elias shook his head.  “A genetic match made in heaven.”

“Now, now.  You’re the one who said young men like older
women.”

The reminder of Elias’s youthful passion for Sophie’s mother
had Daniel remembering the many reasons he ought to stay cautious where Burton
was concerned.

“I decided the gap was a little too much to overcome,”
Hannah added primly.

Elias said what Daniel was thinking.  “And think how long
before he could overcome the stammering.”

She made a face.  “I tried to be nice, but I think I crushed
his hopes.”

Good God, Daniel thought, as shy as his young officer was,
working up the courage to ask Hannah must have been a monumental achievement.

“I think it’s safe to say he’s not my secret admirer,” she
added.  “Afterward, he didn’t come into the store for weeks, but now he has his
eye on Alice.”  In the ensuing silence, Hannah bit her lip.  “Um, Rand
Bresler.  You know, the resort owner.  He’s the most recent to suggest we have
dinner together.”

Elias’s expression cooled.  “We’ve met.”

“I’ve gotten to know him,” Daniel said slowly.  “He rented
several houses in town to put up the construction workers.”  The foundation for
the upscale resort had been poured last fall, but obstacles had pushed back the
opening beyond the original plan for spring.  Daniel understood they were finally
getting close.  “Young guys get in trouble.  I had to drag a few home from bar
brawls and the like.”  Bresler had seemed pretty direct to him, but also like a
guy who was used to getting what he wanted.  Daniel underlined the name.

“Let’s see, there was a D.A. who I think lives in North
Fork.  Ryan something.  That was ages ago.  I was just opening the store.”  She
appeared to dredge for a couple more names, looking more and more
self-conscious.  She might not be looking at Elias, but Daniel was.  He had a
good idea what that stone face concealed.

 “Patrick Fletcher.”

Elias looked surprised, even perturbed.  “Fletch?  He and I
were friends in high school.”  He shrugged.  “Still are, I guess.  We’re both
part of a group that plays touch football, shoots baskets.  He actually lived
with Mom and me his senior year.  His dad was a drunk, finally took off.  His
mother hadn’t been in the picture for a long time.  With foster care his
alternative, Mom offered to take him in.”

“He’s pretty successful with that real estate business, from
what I hear,” Daniel commented.

“He sold me my house and helped me find space for my
business,” Hannah agreed.

“He was both buying and selling agent for my place, too,”
Elias said, a frown lingering.

“Jeff Lee has asked a couple times, too.”

Elias looked increasingly unhappy.  “I know him, too.  He
was a couple years behind me, but we overlapped on the football team.  Big guy,
played tackle and offensive line.”

She nodded.  “He’s a paramedic now.”

Lee was someone Daniel dealt with on the job.  “I heard he
has a fianceé finishing grad school at the U of O.”  Seeing Hannah’s outrage,
he hurried to say, “Might be just a girlfriend.”

“And he was hitting on
me
?”  Her eyes narrowed.  “If
he ever brings her into Sweet Ideas, I might just tell her what scum he is.”

“My info could have been old news,” Daniel suggested.

She made a grouchy sound that he’d heard from Sophie. 
Daniel didn’t let himself smile.

“I think that’s it,” she said.

“Okay.”  Daniel leaned forward.  “Have you ever gone out
with any of these guys, even so casually it didn’t feel like a date?  Say,
shared a table in a coffee shop because there wasn’t anyplace else to sit?”

“I really don’t think so.  For one thing, I don’t go to
coffee shops.  Or eat out much, and when I do Ian is with me.  When I’m not at
work, Ian is my priority.”

“I know you have lunch with Sophie.”

“With other friends, too,” she agreed, “but they’re all
female.  Not that I have anything against having a male friend, but it hasn’t
happened here in Cape Trouble.”

Daniel asked whether Hannah had had any other dealings with
men on her list.  Did any of them have kids at the same daycare Ian attended? 
Or were the father of one of his friends?  Worked on her house or her car?

She shook her head.  “Fletch was one of the first people I
met when I came to town.  Come to think of it, we probably did have coffee a
time or two, when we were out looking at property.  But that was two and a half
years ago.”

“All right.”

Elias stayed silent, watching her.  She frowned in concentration.

“My next door neighbor took a fall six months or so ago. 
Jeff Lee was one of the two EMTs that responded.  He was really kind to her.”

“Any personal interaction between you?”

She shook her head.  “I sat on the floor holding Edna’s hand
until they shifted her to a gurney, then got Ian and followed her to the
hospital.  Jeff was leaving as I arrived, so we exchanged a few words about her
condition, and that’s all.”

Prompted by more questions, Hannah said she’d chatted a few
times with Ron Campbell when she was in the hardware store, but she wouldn’t
describe it as flirting on either of their parts.  “I mean, telling me what
kind of washer I needed to fix a dripping kitchen faucet is his business.”

Daniel kept making notes.  Hannah didn’t remember ever
seeing the assistant district attorney – last name still unknown – outside of
Sweet Ideas, and not even there in a long while.  She occasionally crossed
paths with Arlo Castaneda at the seasonal farmer’s market, where his father
sold produce.

Daniel scraped the bottom of the barrel for possible
encounters she’d forgotten.  Had she ever had a flat tire and needed help?  He
found out who’d built the shelving units for the bookstore, where she’d
purchased the refrigerated case for the chocolates.

That’s when her eyes widened.  “Oh!  I didn’t tell you that
Rand Bresler wants me to…well, not work for him, but contract to sell truffles
to the resort.  You know, like on cruise ships when passengers find a chocolate
on their pillow every night.  We’ve sat down several times to talk about it.”

Silent for quite a while, Elias spoke up.  “It’s got, what,
seventy rooms?  Seventy truffles times seven days a week…”

“Is two thousand truffles a month in addition to what I sell
through the store.”

Even Daniel blinked at that.

“He might buy slightly fewer than that, because there’d be
empty rooms some nights, especially in the off season.  More likely, it would
be closer to double that amount.  Most rooms are occupied by a couple, not a
single person, thus two truffles.”  She sounded crisp, reminding Daniel that
she’d been remarkably successful at a singularly tough enterprise, launching a
small business.  “That’s why I’m still hesitating, despite his pressure. 
Obviously, I’d have to hire more help to ramp up production.  I’m not actually
sure I want to do that.  More production, more employees, means more problems. 
I’m a single mother, going non-stop as it is.”

“Then say no.”  Elias, sounding annoyed.

Not intimidated, she said, “But it would also mean
significantly increased income and therefore security, which is nothing to
sneeze at when you’re self-employed and have a young child.  Thus my dilemma.”

“What do you mean by ‘pressure’?” Daniel asked.  “Frequent
phone calls?  Invitations?”  He paused.  “Gifts?”

Hannah blinked.  “No.  Not gifts, and only a couple of phone
calls.  Just that he keeps wanting to sit down with me so he can pound away at
what a fabulous opportunity he’s offering.  I make the best truffles he’s ever
tasted.  His resort will be first class, which means Sweet Ideas would develop
a reputation beyond Cape Trouble.  This is my chance to go big.  Etcetera.”

Daniel circled Randall Bresler’s name, even though, on the
face of it, he was only making a business proposition.  Being pushy would be
usual for a man like that.