Anna took Vi’s thin, cold hand. “Would you like us to help you set a budget?”
Vi gave Chase a wary sideways look. “Maybe.”
“You’ve lost your car,” said Chase. “Do you still live in the expensive apartment?”
“For now. I’ll probably be evicted at the end of the month.”
Chase and Anna exchanged a look. Chase decided to let Anna handle this since she was about to explode with anger.
“We’ll think of something,” Anna said. “Let’s find a place you can afford, and maybe a secondhand car.”
“I have one. I got a used Hyundai in White Bear Lake. But I don’t know how I’ll make the payments on it either. My credit cards are maxed out and I can’t get any more. I don’t know why. I’ve sent in some more applications, but they won’t give me any more cards.”
The poor girl knew nothing about supporting herself, about budgeting, about living within her means. “We have to sit down and do a budget for you. The next time you have a payment coming up, let me or Charity know. Don’t just take the money from the drawer.”
“I was going to repay you.”
“How?” Chase demanded. Anna was right. They should fire Vi. Maybe Laci, too.
Vi shrugged and squeezed her eyes shut. “I had some money coming.” Her eyes flew open and there was white-hot anger in them. “I was promised that money.”
“What happened?” Chase asked.
Vi’s face turned ugly. “It, well, it fell through. And the job . . .”
“What are you talking about?” Chase put her face close to Vi’s. She wanted an explanation for her actions.
Anna gave Chase a look that said back off. “Do you want me to help get that stain out of the pretty blue blouse you wore yesterday?”
“No. I can do that much myself.”
Chase didn’t think Vi was going to let either of them help her with budgeting either.
“My break time’s up,” Vi said, slipping off the stool and hurrying to the salesroom.
Oh brother, thought Chase. What now?
TWENTY
“I wonder how she thought she was going to pay us back.” Anna said. The three women had gathered at Anna’s place after closing on Friday for a confab. She lived on Nokomis Avenue, an easy drive from the Bar None. Her modest white clapboard house had pastel blue shutters on the first-floor windows and two dormers poking from the roof on the smaller second story. Anna loved the location, a very short walk away from Minnehaha Creek, Lake Hiawatha Park, and the walking trail around the lake.
“I tried to get her to tell us, but after you warned me off—”
“Did I really?” Anna asked.
“You know you did. That look you gave me. I didn’t bring it up again before she said her break was over.” Chase stood at the tall double windows, watching a neighbor’s red pickup truck go past as dusk fell. “She rushed off to return to the sales floor.”
“Poor girl. I guess this is what’s been eating her up.”
“I’m not sure we can help her, Anna.”
“I’m not sure you shouldn’t prosecute her,” Julie said. She’d come from the kitchen and joined them for the discussion of what to do about Violet Peters. She sat beside her grandmother on the pale blue couch, sipping the light white wine she’d brought along after work. Anna’s preference for vibrant colors in her clothing didn’t carry over to her decorating tastes. She chose pale blues and mint greens for every room in her house.
The dessert bars from the shop that would expire the next day were stacked on a plate and the three women picked at them. Business was slowing down to the extent that there were enough leftovers for the homeless shelter and a few for them, too.
“You think so?” Chase paced the room, too agitated to sit, let alone drink the wine. “That wouldn’t help get the money back.”
“Now we know who took the money, Grandma.” Julie nudged Anna gently with her elbow.
“I could never press charges against poor Vi.” Anna bit her bottom lip and gazed at Chase with tears in her eyes. “I thought you had stolen the money, Charity. I don’t know how I could have even entertained the idea for a minute.”
Chase stopped pacing and saw the stark emotion on Anna’s face. Her own eyes teared up. “You know what’s crazy? I thought you might have taken it, too.”
Anna bolted up from the couch and the two women hugged, long and hard.
“We have to trust each other, Anna. We’re in this together,” Chase mumbled into Anna’s soft gray hair.
They separated after a final squeeze. “I know,” Anna said. “You are absolutely right.”
“I’m beginning,” Chase said, “to agree that we should look for new employees.”
Anna chuckled. “And just when you’ve convinced me we should keep them.”
“So when are you going to tell me the rest about you and Doris Naughtly? It might be ancient history, but it’s still affecting you, when you don’t want to be in the same room with her.”
Anna grabbed her wineglass and took a healthy swig before answering, “It’s Bill.”
“Bill? Your future fiancé?” Chase sat in Anna’s large, comfy, green striped chair and set her wineglass on the round marble-topped table at her elbow.
“Did you know we went out for a bit in high school? I didn’t tell you that part. Doris dated him after me. We were never very serious. Doris dated him for a time, and she treated him so badly, I felt sorry for him. After I left for college, he married his first wife.”
“On the rebound?” Chase said.
“Maybe. After Doris stole Bill away from me, she dumped him. He took it hard. Bill asked me out again, but I had fallen, hard, for Allan. I don’t think Bill was happy with his first wife at all. I’m not even sure he was happy with his second wife, Marvin’s mother. Her children were always such a trial for him.”
Anna shook her head, recollecting the old history. “Doris was just never a nice person. She was always attracting guys with her cleavage and her flirty ways, then dropping them flat. Now that Bill and I are dating seriously, I’ve heard more about Doris. She really did wrong by him. She’s even making another play for him. She shops for canaries every week and has never bought one. He sees through her by now, so it won’t do her any good. But it still upsets me, for his sake.”
Chase covered Anna’s worn hand with hers. “I’m sorry.”
“Marrying Allan and opening our sandwich shop was the best thing that could have happened. I feel bad for anyone who has never known what we had together.”
Anna took another sip of her wine after that long discourse. “That’s the whole story. She’s an evil woman and I’d rather she didn’t shop here. And I’d very much rather she didn’t stop in at Bill’s shop every day, not that he would give her the time of day.”
“Did Doris start making a play for Bill before or after her husband was murdered?”
“Before, but not long before. I think they separated soon after she started sashaying around Bill’s shop acting like she wanted to buy a pet, flirting just like in the old days.”
Chase wondered if wanting to renew an old flame, whom she had dumped, would be a motive for getting rid of her husband. She’d sure like to know what they were quarreling about when he threw tomato sauce on her.
As she drove home later, she realized they hadn’t made a decision about Vi. They couldn’t fire her right away, for the simple reason that they didn’t have anyone else to work the salesroom.
• • •
Chase was ready for bed very early after a strawberry-scented bubble bath that soothed her frazzled nerves somewhat and eased her aching back. She pulled her duvet up and climbed in with a Bookmobile Cat mystery by Laurie Cass. Even though Chase had never seen a bookmobile, she liked the concept, and loved Eddie the cat.
Before she’d read five pages, Mike Ramos called.