“Only you carry sardine crackers instead of a water bottle,” Maggie teased. “What’s up?”
“I need to go back to The Brick. Do you have plans tonight?” I picked up my hot chocolate and realized the mug was empty.
“Nothing I can’t change,” she said. “Does this mean you’ve decided to buy yourself some peacock feathers?”
“No, it does not,” I said firmly. I explained about Zach Redmond and his connection to Lewis Wallace. “I know he’s a friend, Mags, and I’m not saying he killed Wallace, it’s just an awfully big coincidence.”
“You’re right.” I heard her exhale on the other end of the phone. “You should talk to Zach, and I do want to come with you.”
“Thanks,” I said. It would be a lot easier having her with me. Not only did Maggie know Zach, but she was funny and kind and wherever she went she just drew people to her. Which probably explained Ethan’s attraction, now that I thought about it.
“What about Roma?” Maggie said. “The three of us haven’t been on a road trip in ages.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “I’ll call her and get back to you.”
I ended the call and made one to Roma.
“How do you feel about a road trip?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said almost before I finished asking the question.
“You don’t even know where we’re going.”
“I don’t care.” She sounded a little frazzled. “Just tell me what time and I’ll pick up you and Maggie.”
I pulled my legs up underneath me and shifted sideways on the chair. “What’s going on?”
“My living room has been invaded by ginormous hockey players who can somehow fly down the ice at lightning speed and swat a little piece of frozen rubber into a net but can’t walk across the floor without bumping into something.”
I stifled the impulse to laugh, remembering that Marcus had mentioned three of Eddie’s former teammates were in town. Roma and I settled on a time and I took her up on her offer to pick Maggie and me up in her SUV. Unlike my truck, it had heated seats. I sent Maggie a text letting her know Roma would be stopping for her and when. Then I got up to make another cup of hot chocolate.
I heard a noise behind me and turned to see Owen at the basement door. He cocked his head and seemed surprised to see me.
“I live here, too, remember?” I said.
He wandered over to his bowl, peered into it and then nudged it with a paw before looking at me again.
“It’s not supper time,” I said.
The microwave buzzed and I took my mug out. Owen crossed the floor and sat at my feet. He meowed loudly, then looked at the cupboard where I kept the stinky crackers.
“Two,” I said, holding up the corresponding number of fingers. “And I’m only giving you those because your brother already had two.”
I got out the two kitty treats and set them on the floor in front of me. He gave a small murp of thanks and then bent his head to sniff each cracker. He’d been that way since he was a kitten, always suspicious, it seemed, that his food might be off somehow.
“‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,’” I said.
A furry gray ear twitched, but that was the only reaction I got. It seemed Owen wasn’t a fan of Shakespeare.
After I finished my drink and gave Owen a scratch behind the ears and carried him upstairs because he was suddenly too tired to walk, I called Marcus. “I have to cancel our plans for tonight.”
“Is everything okay?” he asked.
“I’m going out to The Brick to talk to the bartender. He has a connection to Lewis Wallace. Don’t worry, Roma and Maggie are going with me.”
Marcus paused for a long moment. “Zach Redmond,” he said at last. “He was working the night we were all there.”
“Yes,” I said.
“I already talked to him. There’s nothing there, Kathleen.”
“I still want to talk to him myself.”
“Okay,” he said after another silence. “Just come up when you’re done. It doesn’t matter how late it is.”
Roma pulled into the driveway at five to nine. I climbed into the backseat of her SUV. Maggie turned and smiled at me.
“Thank you for coming with me, both of you,” I said.
“Anytime,” Roma said as she backed out onto the street. She was wearing a heavy off-white sweater with a quilted purple vest. Her dark hair was cut in a sleek bob.
“Do you remember the first time we did something like this?” Maggie asked.
“You mean the time you and Kathleen hijacked me,” Roma retorted, brown eyes fixed on the road. I could see a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. We’d had a version of this conversation before.
Maggie and I had been following someone—at least we were trying to—but her car wouldn’t start and it was before I had my truck. Maggie had dragged me over to Roma’s SUV and convinced her to give chase.
Maggie laughed. “You don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to questioning our adventures because the one with Faux Eddie brought you and the real Eddie together.”
Maggie had crafted a full-sized replica of Eddie for a display at the town’s Winterfest celebration. Getting the not-real Eddie from Maggie’s studio all the way downtown had started a rumor that Roma and the hockey player were “seeing” each other. Eventually it wasn’t a rumor anymore.
The smile Roma had been trying to stifle got loose. She was always that way when Eddie’s name was mentioned.
Roma managed to find a parking space squeezed in between two extended-cab pickups in the crowded parking lot. “I want fries,” she announced the moment we stepped inside The Brick. Once again it was crowded and loud.
We made our way over to the bar. Somehow there were two free stools and a guy with beautiful gray eyes and a sleeve of tattoos up his left arm slid off his seat next to the empty two and gave it to Maggie. She smiled at him and he almost fell over a chair as he walked away with his friends.
“How do you do that?” I said.
She looked at me genuinely confused. “Do what?”
“Turn men into goofy ten-year-olds,” Roma said.
“I don’t do that,” Maggie said.
“Yes, you do,” Roma retorted as she slid onto a vacant stool. “It’s your superpower.”
Zach came down the bar and it was his turn to smile when he caught sight of Maggie. “Hi, Maggie,” he said. “What can I get you?”
She pointed from herself to me to Roma. “White wine, white wine, ginger ale and a large fries.”
“No problem,” he said.
While Zach and Maggie made small talk I studied the bartender. As I’d noticed the first time I’d seen him, his deep blue eyes were his most striking feature.
The band started to play as Zach slid a glass of white wine in front of me. They weren’t as good as The Flaming Gerbils but they weren’t bad. The number of customers looking for a drink was already thinning out as people started listening to the music.
“You’re Kathleen, right?” he said. “You were here last Friday night. I never forget a face.” He snapped his fingers. “Your brother and his band sat in with Backroads last weekend. The Hamsters?”
“The Flaming Gerbils,” I said.
He grinned. “Now, how could I forget that?”
A waitress came from the kitchen then and handed him a basket of fries. He set it in front of me with a flourish since I was sandwiched between Maggie and Roma. Roma immediately grabbed a couple of the French fries, dipping them in the little metal bowl of spicy ketchup.
“I owe you an apology,” I said, taking a sip of my wine.
“Why? What did you do?” he asked. He was flirting with me, leaning in, smiling a lot.
“Not me,” I said. “But one of my friends was the guy who punched that guy who kicked the service dog.”
“Then you don’t owe me an apology, but I do owe your friend a beer on the house next time he’s in here. The guy was a jerk.”
“That sounds like you knew him,” Maggie said.