She pedaled out of the large parking area behind her store, past the trash bin where Gabe had once planted the other rats. Since the rodents had been released this time inside her store, she expected a visit from the health department. The oven could probably use cleaning, especially the rack Anna had used to trap the rats, but everything else was neat as apple pie. Anna always saw to that. She and her husband, when he was still alive, had run the sandwich shop where the Bar None now did business. After his death at the early age of sixty-eight, she had closed the business down and the property had stood vacant for several years. The experience had given Anna the sharp business sense she now possessed, and the knowledge of what the health department came looking for.
Chase steered her bike south, down Fifteenth Avenue, past the campus substation, then along University Avenue with the campus on her left, pedaling to Tenth Avenue and onto the bridge, where she could catch a glimpse of the Mississippi River.
A light breeze came from the west and the air promised a warmish day. It was still August, after all. Chase loved autumn and fall colors, and couldn’t wait to get her sweaters out of the under-bed box in her apartment. She spied a small sumac, beginning to flash its brilliant red leaves. Soon the others would follow, then the bigger trees, until Minneapolis was kissed by the jewel tones of turning leaves.
The sight of the Mighty Mississippi always calmed her. She stopped, straddling her bike for a few moments, watching the progress of the water that was near the beginning of its two-thousand-mile journey. When she was a child, she’d floated paper boats on its surface, then imagined their trip, picturing them making it all the way to New Orleans. Now that she was an adult, she knew a piece of paper would never make it that far. Still, she could imagine the voyage. She took a deep breath of the clear, crisp-tasting air over the cool water and pedaled to the shop, renewed and ready for another long day.
• • •
In her apartment, showered and dressed, Chase poured the diet cat food into Quincy’s bowl and called him.
“Come get your din dins, little guy. Yummy, yummy.”
Quincy, who had been lying on the floor five feet from his dish, turned his head toward her with all the speed of a snail and stared. He didn’t even glance at the cat food.
“Quincy, baby, you have to eat something.” Chase knelt and held a piece of kibble before him. If a cat could look disgusted, that was Quincy’s expression.
Chase sighed, plunked the morsel into the bowl, and headed downstairs to work.
Chase had asked both Vi and Laci to work on Wednesday. Her inclination last night had been to shut the shop down for at least a day, but she didn’t know why she felt that way. Respect for the dead? She hadn’t respected Gabe when he was alive, so why should she start now? At any rate, she’d ignored that inclination. This week was too profitable to close down for a day.
The two young women weren’t respecting anybody, but started in on each other almost as soon as the shop was open.
“No, Laci.”
Chase listened in from the kitchen where she was helping Anna get out the ingredients she’d need for today’s baking.
“Why can’t you remember where the big bills go? Are you defective or something?”
Anna rushed to the front. When she returned to the kitchen she was tugging Vi by the arm. “That’s enough. You can’t speak to her that way.”
Vi shook Anna’s hand off and drew herself up to her full height. She looked down on Anna, which only made Anna stand taller and stick her chin out.
“You’ll speak respectfully to Laci,” Anna said, “as long as you’re both working together in the shop. Do you understand me?”
Vi glanced away. “You’re right, I was rude.”
“I can always hire someone else.”
That was true, Chase thought, but she would hate to lose Vi. She had such a way with the customers. Maybe Anna was being a little too hard on her. Sometimes Anna made Chase feel like a junior partner. Yes, she was a lot younger, but she wanted to be treated as an equal. Chase was going to stand up to Anna and tell her they needed both of them, as soon as she summoned the gumption. She was not fond of conflict by a long shot. She’d had enough lately.
Now Vi looked worried. Her hand flew to her neck. “I need the job, Mrs. Larson. I really do.”
“Then don’t make me fire you. Now go sell some goodies. The front is full of college students and their parents. And lay off your coworker.”
“Laci doesn’t remember anything I tell her. I think she does it on purpose sometimes.”
Anna closed her eyes and took a breath. “It doesn’t matter that much where the bills go in the cash drawer. We’ll get it all straightened out at night. Don’t worry about it so much.”
Vi pursed her lips, glossy pink today and matching her silk blouse. Her blouses always bore either matching or contrasting cloth-covered buttons. Today the buttons were lilac. “I’ll try to be patient.”
The rest of the morning went smoothly. Chase had fun helping bake one of their best sellers, Lemon Bars. She hummed “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” from Oklahoma! as she zested the lemon peels and juiced the lemons. Such a fresh smell.
At lunchtime, Laci came to the kitchen to eat the lunch she’d brought in. She perched on a swivel-top stool at the island and munched her sandwich while Anna cleaned up her bowls and baking utensils in the huge sink. Chase finished dusting the cooled lemon bars with powdered sugar, took her yogurt from the refrigerator, and sat beside Laci.
“How are sales today?” Chase asked.
Laci fiddled with a loose bobby pin. She’d come to work with her long hair in a complicated but stylish updo. It looked nice on her. “We’re selling tons. We might run out of the Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars.”
“I have some in the oven,” said Anna.
They ate in silence for a bit while Anna clattered in the sink. Chase drew in the chocolaty smell of the baking goodies as she ate.
“Some people were asking if there were any rats in the kitchen,” said Laci, wadding up her plastic sandwich bag and shooting a basket in the big wastebasket at the end of the island.
Anna froze with a soapy hand in the air and Chase stopped eating midbite.
Anna turned from the sink slowly. “Who was asking that?”
How would anyone know about the rats? thought Chase. Anna had whisked them away to the pet store early in the morning.
“I don’t remember.” Laci bit into a crunchy apple.
“No,” said Chase. “We don’t have rats. You told them that, didn’t you?”
“Sure. There was just that one time, and Gabe put them there.”
“Put what where?” Vi pushed through the swinging doors.
“You remember when Gabe put those rats in the alley?” said Laci.
“So he’s the one who put the last ones here?” Vi asked.
“Chase says there aren’t any more.”
“It’s your turn in front,” said Vi to her coworker. Chase was glad they were being civil to each other. For now. “I’m ready for my lunch.”
When Laci had left, Chase turned to Vi, perched on a stool and unwrapping her sandwich with a self-assured air. “What’s this about rat rumors? Do you know who started that?”
Vi raised a smooth, perfectly groomed eyebrow.
How could the girl look so sophisticated? wondered Chase. She was almost ten years younger than Chase, but Vi made her feel awkward and young sometimes. Laci, who actually was younger and more awkward, probably felt ten times less capable around her. “What have you heard?” Chase said.
“Do you think Laci released the rats?” Vi said. “As a favor to Ted’s dad, to make Ted like her more?”