“See you.” Grady waved and held the door for Vanessa. Once outside, they heard the lock snap with a click. “Want to walk down to the dock? The Bay looks pretty with the moon on the water.”
“Sure.”
They walked around the building to the boardwalk that led to the water.
“It’s really quiet down here,” he observed.
“Most of the boats have already been brought in and tied up,” she replied. “There’s not much activity this time of night. Once in a while, some kids-teenagers-gather over there to just hang out at the little park”-she pointed to some vague spot well beyond One Scoop or Two-“but that’s about it. And around the bend there is Captain Walt’s, but they probably don’t have much of a crowd tonight. Walt and Rexana were still on the dance floor with most of the rest of St. Dennis when we left the wedding.”
He finished his ice cream and tossed the cardboard dish into a trash receptacle on the pier.
“Here, take mine, too.” Vanessa handed over hers to be disposed of. “I’ve had enough to eat and drink to last the next twenty-four hours.”
Headlights flashed across the dock momentarily, then were gone.
“There goes Tina and Steffie.” Vanessa watched the taillights disappear at the end of the road. “Good thing Stef doesn’t have too far to drive from the Inn to her place. She probably shouldn’t be driving at all.”
“I think she’ll be okay,” Grady said. “Getting pissed off seemed to have cleared her head.”
He took her hand and they walked back to the car, through the ever-darkening parking lot. He unlocked her door and reached for the handle, but she turned to him before he could open it. She backed against the door, her arms around his neck, and drew him to her. Her lips parted as his mouth met hers, and she sighed softly. She’d been thinking of this moment all day. She leaned back slowly against the side of the car and brought him with her so that his body was against hers. He moved in closer, and she urged him closer still. His tongue parted her lips and teased hers, then traced the inside of her mouth slowly. Vanessa thought for a moment that her entire body had caught flame, the heat rushed through her so rapidly, blocking out everything but his mouth and body. She moved against him just the slightest bit and she heard the breath catch in his throat. His hands ran down her back to her waist to the back of her thighs and back again, the heat increasing at the touch of his fingers. His hands moved to her breasts, and she felt a shot to her core.
“Ah, you’re not wearing…” he whispered, his mouth on her neck, her throat, his fingers skimming her body.
“Nope.” She brought his mouth back to hers and kissed him deeply, her tongue tempting him, inciting him to take more. She felt his body respond and he pressed even closer, his hands kneading the soft mounds beneath the silken fabric. When she realized she’d implode if she didn’t feel his hands on her skin, she reached behind her to the buttons that fastened the halter top of her dress, and one by one, undid them. Slowly she peeled down the top, his mouth following every inch of skin as she exposed more and more. His lips sucked gently on her skin until they reached her breast, and she arched her back to offer more. Need and desire overtook her mind and her body, and she wanted nothing more than to have him right then and there. Every cell in her body hummed: she could have sworn she heard bells.
There. There they were again. Bells. Vanessa pulled back from him and tilted her head to listen.
Not bells. Sirens.
Grady tensed and turned toward the municipal building, where the police department appeared to be emptying, the cars flying out of the lot, lights flashing and sirens blaring, and up Kelly’s Point Road.
“I wonder if there’s been an accident,” Vanessa said.
She stared at the flashing lights, which had stopped at the top of the street where Kelly’s Point met Charles Street. It took a moment for her to realize that the patrol cars were not moving on. “Something’s going on up there.”
She watched for a moment.
“My shop is up there.” She continued to stare, an uneasy feeling flooding through her. The abrupt change from totally-turned-on-what-are-we-waiting-for to going stone cold made her knees shake. “I wonder-”
“Let’s go check it out. Here, let’s just fix this…” He pulled up the top of her dress and she redid the buttons, her eyes still on the lights. He took her hand. “We’ll walk up. If we drive, they probably won’t let us stop. Come on, Ness. We’ll see what’s what.”
She held on to his hand as they made their way past the police station and through the dark passage, moving more quickly with each step until they were running by the time they reached Charles Street. Vanessa’s heart all but stopped when she realized that Bling was the center of all the activity.
“Oh my God. My shop!” She rushed across the street and through the front door. “What’s going on?” she cried to the officers who were gathering near the rear of the building. “What’s happened?”
“You had a break-in.” Sue Dixon, one of the officers, walked back to meet her.
“A break-in?” Vanessa wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “Someone broke in to my shop?”
“Apparently.” Sue nodded. “Unless you or your help left the back door wide open and smashed the counters and tossed your merchandise all over the place.”
Vanessa followed Sue’s pointing finger to the jewelry case beneath the glass counter. “Oh, man…”
She went to the case and started to put her hand inside when Grady grabbed her by the wrist. “You probably shouldn’t touch anything until they’ve run prints.”
“Agent Shields, I’d appreciate you staying near the door,” Sue told him. “Nothing personal, but-”
“I understand about contamination.” He smiled. “But it’s not ‘agent.’”
“Oh. Sorry.” She turned back to Vanessa. “Gus just went out to get the kit out of his car. We’ll want to print you, Ness, to eliminate your prints.”
Vanessa frowned. “There have been dozens of people in and out of this shop for the past week. You’ll never be able to isolate the burglar’s fingerprints.”
“You’re probably right.” Carl Silver, another officer, came to the front of the shop from the office, holding a trash can in his gloved hand. “There are some used paper towels in here, and there’s a bottle of glass cleaner in the vanity in the powder room. Looks like the guy wiped everything down before he left.”
“We always clean the counters at the end of the day,” Vanessa told them. “I had someone new in for me tonight, but I did ask her to just give the glass a quick swipe before she left. I hate to come in to open in the morning and be met with smudgy counters. It’s one of my pet peeves.”
“Then maybe we’ll get lucky,” Sue ventured.
“Anyone smart enough to get past that lock would not be stupid enough to come in here without gloves,” Carl said. “Whoever it was did a masterful job.”
“I’ve seen a lot of smart people do stupid things since I started on this job,” Sue told him.
Vanessa glanced around her shop and almost cried to see the stacks of pretty sweaters tossed onto the floor in a heap, as if someone had simply swiped at the pile as he went past. Dresses that had been hanging on racks when she left the store the night before were now strewn across the carpet, and she could almost imagine a hand grabbing that last hanger to push the lot of them to the ground. Feeling sick to her stomach, she started toward the back of the shop.
“Do I have to stay near the door, too?” she asked.
Sue shook her head. “Your hair and fingerprints are already all over this place. Slip these on your feet, though.”
Vanessa took off her shoes and pulled on the plastic booties Sue handed her and walked into the office. Papers were strewn across her small desk and several garments that had been left on a stand, waiting for customers to pick them up, were on the floor. Thankfully, they were in their garment bags. It was all she could do to keep herself from righting the stand and picking up the dresses that lay there.