Chapter 1
I really should have been working. Instead, I was staring off into space when the little bell that signaled someone walking into The Redemption Detective Agency tinkled.
Not that I had a lot of work to do. Just some paperwork and a little filing, along with mustering up the courage to call Tank, a fellow PI who had offered to help us get our feet off the ground. The week before, I had been too scattered to do much work, between trying to solve an actual case and deciding if I was going to stay at the agency or get a real job.
At the last minute, I opted to stay. Which meant it was time to get serious about doing whatever I could to turn the agency into an actual business, rather than a hobby, for my aunt and her friends.
It also meant that I was now free to date Nick Stewart if I wanted. Which I wasn’t sure I did. Even worse, I wasn’t sure if HE wanted to date me.
Last Friday, he had taken me out to dinner, which seemed like a date. He even paid, which made it seem like one even more so. We went to Aunt May’s Diner, one of my favorite places to go for lunch. It’s super cute, decorated with 1950s decor, and their specialty was good comfort food. We talked and laughed, and I had fun. I thought he did, too.
But he hadn’t called me. Nor was there any talk of a second date.
And no, he didn’t try anything physical, either. Which, at the time, was a relief, as I still hadn’t made up my mind about him. But not making an attempt to kiss me combined with not calling or asking me for a second date surely meant …
Ugh.
Now, to be fair, he had insisted I take the weekend off from organizing his office. “You deserve a break after all the work you did this week.” When he said it, I thought maybe he was getting ready to ask me on a second date.
Except he didn’t.
He also mentioned having to work himself this weekend, so maybe that was the reason. But I thought he might at least call. He couldn’t be that busy.
Could he?
Or was he only interested in being friends?
Thankfully, the ringing of the bell at the door distracted me from
my depressing thoughts. I was driving myself crazy, which was silly, especially since I wasn’t even sure I wanted to date Nick. I had already been with one lawyer, and it ended badly. I didn’t need to risk that again. And really, I needed to focus on the agency. “Can I help you?”
The woman who had entered didn’t answer immediately as she peered around the room with a slightly puzzled look. “This is a … detective agency?”
“It is,” I said. I agreed it looked a little strange. The space was originally built for a restaurant—one destined to fail, specifically. Our desks were arranged where people would have been sitting at tables, and we’d added a cat tower for Sherlock, Aunt Tilde’s calico, and a dog pillow for Scout, my yellow lab mix. Speaking of which, Scout was also The Redemption Detective Agency’s official greeter, and as such, had already lumbered to his feet and was approaching the woman with his tail wagging. The counter across the back wall that was most likely used as a waitress station was where our coffee maker perched, and in the back where the kitchen used to be was eventually going to be a conference room with maybe a private office or two. I wasn’t sure there was enough room for even one office with a conference room, but Aunt Tilde and Mildred both wanted space back there, so we’d likely need to figure out how to make it happen. It was still a work in progress. Nick, along with handling any legal issues that came up at the agency, was also doing the remodeling, but the process was slow going. “Is there something I can help you with?”
The woman had been staring suspiciously at Scout, who had politely stopped a couple of feet from her and simply wagged his tail before she slowly turned toward me. She had to be in her late fifties, maybe early sixties. Her brown hair was cut short and streaked with gray, and she wore no makeup on her tired, sagging face. Her brown jacket looked old and a little threadbare, and she clutched her cheap purse tightly against herself. “Is Nora here?” Her voice was higher than I would have expected, and her lower lip quivered as she fought to hold it together.
I blinked. While I supposed Nora was technically part of The Redemption Detective Agency (she had her own desk, although she almost never used it, and would even occasionally receive mail here), in truth, she had her own business, which was a used bookstore located in the same strip mall as the agency. “No, I haven’t seen her today.”
The woman squeezed her purse even closer to her body. “Isn’t this the Redemption Detective Agency?” Her voice hitched on the last word, as if she were struggling not to cry.
Oh boy. What has Nora been telling people? And what was I going to do if she started crying? I did have a box of tissues on my desk, but that felt a bit lacking. “Well, yes, but …”
“So Nora should be here, right?”
“Um … did you try her at the Read It Again Bookstore?”
At that moment, Aunt Tilde and Mildred burst in from the kitchen. “Of course Nora works here,” Aunt Tilde jumped in, her voice soothing. I had no idea how she could have possibly heard our conversation over the heated discussion she was having with Mildred, but I was glad she was there.
The woman sucked in a deep breath. “Oh good. I don’t need a book. I need a detective.” She shot me a reproachful look, as if I should have known better.
“Well, you came to the right place,” Aunt Tilde said brightly. She wore a vivid purple jacket with pink and green flowers on it over a pink top, neither of which matched her bright-orange hair and glasses. Not that that would ever sway her. “What can we help you with?”
The woman hesitated. “I was hoping to talk to Nora.”
“Then we’ll probably have to walk over to Read It Again Book- store,” Mildred said. Mildred was Aunt Tilde’s exact opposite, with her pressed, navy-blue pantsuit, string of pearls, and freshly styled gray curls kept up with bi-weekly visits to the hairdresser.
The woman looked uncertain. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“I doubt it,” Aunt Tilde said cheerfully as she headed for the door. “Nora owns the place, so I’m guessing she’ll be fine if we bring a case to her. Emily, are you coming?”
I was about to sit back down again, so I opened my mouth to say no, I had things to do here … but was I actually going to do them if I stayed behind? Or would I just brood about Nick? “Sure,” I said.
Aunt Tilde gave me a knowing look, almost as if she knew exactly what was going through my head, before nodding at Scout. “You should bring him.”
“What? Why?”We were going to the other side of the strip mall, a distance of about forty feet. There was no reason to bring Scout.
“You never know what we’re going to encounter,” Aunt Tilde said. “Scout could be very helpful.”
I looked at Scout. While it was true he had helped with our cases more times than not, accompanying this woman to Read It Again Bookstore didn’t seem like something that could possibly require his talents. Then again, Nora always brought her hellion cat, Smoke, when she came to the agency. And it appeared that Scout wanted to come, as he was staring at me with big, hopeful brown eyes as he wagged his tail.
I sighed and picked up his leash. He could probably use a potty break anyway.
Want to keep reading? Grab the full book here.
