A Taste of Magic (A Sugarcomb Lake Cozy Mystery Book 1) (13 page)

Once again, Clarissa said nothing.  She was frozen.

“So,” Parker asked again, “what do you say?”

“No.”

He blinked, looking taken aback.  “No?”

“No thank you,” Clarissa corrected herself, remembering her manners.

Parker mulled that over for a moment.  “Okay well…can I ask why not?”

“I’d have to leave Sugarcomb Lake,” she pointed out.  “This is my home.”

“True, but the city isn’t that far away,” Parker reminded her.  “You could come back to visit.”

“It wouldn’t be the same,” Clarissa insisted.

She wasn’t some country bumpkin who didn’t know what else was out there.  She’d had a taste of big city life during college – and had returned to town after that.  That had been a deliberate move on her part.  But she didn’t understand Big City Newspaper Heir to understand her reasons for preferring small town life.

“Is that your only reason?” Parker pressed, apparently sensing that she was holding back.

“I also don’t think us working together would be a good idea,” she said honestly.

She didn’t elaborate for fear of putting her foot in her mouth.  On top of that, she was worried her voice would crack and give away her embarrassment if she spoke too much.  She felt like an idiot for misinterpreting Parker’s motives. 

Even more concerning, if she could be so wrong about Parker then who was to say she wasn’t mistaken about the suspects in Jed Black’s murder too?

Clarissa also didn’t bother stating that she would, under no circumstances, be willing to call Parker her boss.  There was no polite way of getting that point across.  So instead she focused on having some semblance of professionalism. 

She straightened up in her seat and stiffly said, “I’m flattered by your offer but have to respectfully decline.  Thank you.”

“So what, you’re going to stay here and landscape people’s yards?” Parker asked curiously.  “I hear that’s what you’ve been doing lately.  No judgment,” he added quickly.  “I’m just struggling to understand why someone with your kind of talent would turn down a great opportunity and choose to garden for a living.”

Clarissa considered telling Parker she was starting up an independent newspaper.  But she quickly decided against it.  What good would opening that can of worms do?  Instead, she offered a small smile as she considered her response.

“I have something lined up,” she said, opting for the vague yet truthful approach. 

“Ah, I see – my loss.  I have no doubt you’ll be successful,” Parker told her graciously. 

Now that he had recovered from the shock of being turned down, he was back to being his usual classy self.  Unfortunately, that made it really hard to dislike him.  And Clarissa really just wanted to go back to disliking the guy.  Channeling all her energy into hatred would at least help distract her from how mortified she felt.

“Here’s our cheesecake now,” Parker noted as the server approached carrying a silver tray.

“You know what?  Thanks for tonight but I think I’d better be heading home.” Clarissa said abruptly, pushing her chair back from the table.  She reached down and grabbed her purse from its spot on the floor beside her foot.  Then, because she felt like some sort of explanation was necessary, she added, “I hadn’t realized how late it was getting.”

“But…cheesecake,” the handsome newspaper heir reminded her, looking utterly baffled.

“I’m actually not very hungry.” 

That was, of course, completely uncharacteristic of a sweets lover like Clarissa.  But it was the truth.  Her stomach was in knots and her appetite was gone.  All she wanted to was to leave the restaurant and pretend she had never gone on a pseudo-date with Parker Tweed in the first place.

Clarissa tried desperately to banish all thoughts of Parker from her head.  She employed a number of tactics in an attempt to accomplish exactly that.  Some of them were more successful than others.

The first thing she did was sit down with a fork and singlehandedly devour an entire pie, because…pie.  To be fair, she didn’t
quite
eat the entire thing herself.  The cat sauntered into the kitchen and helped itself to part of it – probably for the best.

The second thing Clarissa did, in an effort to avoid eating the two other very tempting pies, was to work on her newspaper.  She put in long hours writing and rewriting columns, tweaking the template and agonizing over which fonts looked the best.  In fact, she spent two whole days working like a madwoman. 

She managed to complete her first issue in record time…but she wasn’t ready to release it yet.

Clarissa knew she needed to break a big story to establish her newspaper as a credible source of local information.  And right now, the only thing the residents of Sugarcomb Lake were interested in was Jed Black’s murder and the scandal surrounding it. 

Sure, she could have written about some of the gossip that was circulating.  It would have been easy to speculate about Jed’s relationship with Bonnie or rehash the details of his confrontation with Nora over town bylaws.  But Clarissa didn’t want to publish a tabloid.  She was a journalist, not a rumor mill.  She was devoted to truth, justice and knowledge.

That only meant one thing:  she needed to catch Jed’s real killer – and soon!

She was 99% sure Adam Burke was the bad guy.  But she still didn’t quite know
why
he had killed his business partner.  Had Adam been stealing money from the company to repay his gambling debts?  Maybe Jed had caught him and threatened to turn him into the police.  That would make sense, wouldn’t it?

“It’s all just speculation,” she sighed as she sat at the kitchen table feeling dejected.

“Meow,” Cat agreed, waddling over and affectionately head-butting her leg.

“What do you want?” Clarissa asked suspiciously.  “You can’t possibly be after more pie.”  In a moment of weakness – and in an effort to stop the cat from yowling – Clarissa had sampled the second pie.  It had been every bit as scrumptious as the first one, and the cat had obviously agreed.  There was now only half of that pie left.

“Meow,” was, of course, the only reply the cat gave.  Then another head-butt was administered.

“Oh,” Clarissa said when she realized what the cat wanted.  “That’s…unexpected.  I thought you were for sure trying to manipulate me.  But you just wanted your head scratched.   I can do that.”

Clarissa smiled as she scratched the cat’s head, paying special attention to that one particular spot behind its ear.  The cat seemed to approve.  It felt good to be wanted, needed, useful.  And there was something gratifying about hearing the cat she hated purr.

Okay, so she didn’t hate the cat anymore.  Maybe she never truly had.

But she wasn’t about to tell
it
that.  No way.  The cat already thought it was Ruler of the House and Master of the Universe.  Its ego didn’t need to get any bigger!

“Okay, so here’s what I’m going to do,” Clarissa said to the cat, because talking her plan through with a furry feline seemed like the most logical thing to do.  “I’m going to make an appointment at the investment firm.  I’m going to pretend I actually have money to, you know, invest.  And then, with any luck, I’m going to snoop through the office!”

The cat looked at her but said nothing.  It was a cat, so anything other than that would be weird.  Clarissa decided to take her little buddy’s silence as a positive sign.  She needed all the good vibes she could get!

She put on her nicest, poshest looking outfit and pulled her hair back in a fancy up-do.  There, now she at least looked like she had money.  She didn’t bother calling ahead to make an appointment.  Something told her that an unexpected drop-in might be more advantageous. 

Why give a suspected killer the heads up that she was coming in when she could catch him by surprise?  She
wanted
Adam Burke to be uncomfortable.  She wanted him to squirm, stutter and with any luck, slip up and say something he couldn’t take back.

Clarissa didn’t really know what, exactly, she was hoping to find at the investment firm.  All she knew was she needed to look into the surviving partner of Black & Burke Investors.  She had already had the opportunity to snoop around his home.  It was only reasonable that she should now stake out the other place where he spent his time:  his office.

She drove into Green City feeling cautiously optimistic that today would be the day everything came together.  However, her good mood was short lived.  When she noticed she was getting low on gas her thoughts immediately turned to Parker.

“No,” Clarissa told herself firmly.  “Stop obsessing over him, dummy.” 

She turned the radio up loud to drown out her thoughts.  She sang along at the top of her lungs, off key and out of tune.  And then she stopped and got gas before the arrow pointed to empty.

She also bought a large coffee.  But “large” really didn’t do it justice.  The cup was basically the size of a small planet.  It was so massive that Clarissa half-expected it to have its own gravitational pull.  Liana would have been proud. 

When Clarissa walked into Black & Burke Investors with her purse slung over her shoulder and her coffee in hand, she wasn’t expecting a repeat of last time.  When she and Parker had visited the office previously, it had been a chaotic scene.  She had assumed that was an anomaly, but today it was much the same thing.

Yelling could be heard from Adam Burke’s office.

Even with the door shut, Clarissa could hear a heated argument taking place.

“Will um...will Mr. Burke be available soon?” Clarissa asked, setting her purse and coffee down.

Liz the secretary shrugged nonchalantly.  “Not sure.  You can wait if you want.”

“Thank you, I will.” 

Today Liz wasn’t being bombarded with calls. 

No, she was playing games on her phone while she smacked loudly on chewing gum.  She wasn’t exactly the epitome of professional, but in her short skirt and tight sweater she was easy on the eyes.  Clarissa supposed she could understand why Jed – and now Adam – kept her around.  Men would be men. 

Clarissa sat down and watched the young woman in the too-short skirt out of the corner of her eye for a moment.  Then she cleared her throat until Liz glanced up.  When they made eye contact, it provided the perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation.

“I don’t know why anyone would give Adam such a hard time,” Clarissa remarked, nodding toward the office where the shouting was still going on.  “He seems like such a nice guy!”  After making that statement, she watched Liz carefully for a reaction.

“It’s just part of the job I guess,” the secretary shrugged, looking bored.

“Do people come in here and yell a lot?”

“I guess.  I don’t know.  People get weird about money, you know?  They’re all smiles when there’s a big return on their investments.  But the second things go south they play the blame game…even though they knew the risks going into it.  It’s dumb.”

Clarissa nodded.  “But Adam is such a nice guy,” she tried again, digging for more info.

Liz didn’t give much of a reaction.  She was back to playing the game on her phone.

“I heard he’s back on the market,” Clarissa grinned, lowering her voice and forcing herself to act a bit giggly and airheaded.  “Is that true?  Do you know if he’s seeing anyone?”

Liz glanced up.  “Not that I know of, but I don’t really pay attention.”

“You don’t?  But he’s so good looking!” Clarissa gushed, laying it on thick.  “Isn’t he?”

“I guess.  But dull.  Jed was old but more interesting.  He liked to go out to nice restaurants.”

“Adam doesn’t go out?”

“I think he mostly spends his time working,” Liz offered.  “Most mornings he’s the first one here and the last to leave.  I know some people say you should never leave the office before your boss does but honestly?  If I followed that advice I’d have like, no social life!”

Clarissa nodded sympathetically.  “So you and Adam have never…you know?” she asked innocently.  “It’s just that if you’re into him then I don’t want to overstep.  That would be breaking Girl Code or something, wouldn’t it?”

“He’s all yours,” Liz replied, still engrossed in the silly game she was playing.

“What’s the deal with Adam and his ex?” Clarissa asked curiously.  “Why did they split up?”

“She probably got tired of being married to a workaholic,” Liz guessed, her eyes still glued to her phone.  “I think the divorce was probably a long time coming.  Last I heard, she had moved to Venezuela or some other place in Europe.”

Clarissa didn’t have the heart to tell Liz that Venezuela wasn’t in Europe.

The office door opened.

Out walked a white haired gentleman with ruddy red cheeks. 

Behind him was Adam.

There was no more yelling.  Instead, the two men shook hands and parted on what appeared to be good terms.  It was rather amazing to witness considering the heated argument that had been going on mere moments earlier.  Now it was as though it had never even happened.

“Mr. Burke, Clarissa Spencer is here to see you,” Liz announced once the older man was gone.  She glanced over at Clarissa and lowered her voice.  “She doesn’t have an appointment,” she told her boss, sounding a bit like a little kid tattling on a peer.

“Ah, the world’s best gardener,” Adam smiled.  “To what do I owe this visit?”

“I was hoping to get some advice about, er, investments,” Clarissa fibbed.  “I know that it’s short notice, but I was wondering if you could squeeze me in.  I’d really appreciate it!  I only need a few minutes of your time.”

“Sure thing,” Adam agreed.  “I need to make a couple phone calls first though.  They’re urgent.”

“No problem, I can wait,” Clarissa assured him. 

“It shouldn’t be too long,” Adam promised before retreating to his office and shutting the door.

No sooner than Adam had disappeared, someone Clarissa recognized entered the firm.

“I need to talk to Adam,” Chase Preston said as he marched up to Liz’s desk.

“He’s on an important call,” Liz advised. 

“Well tell him to hang up.” 

Liz glanced down at the phone on her desk and then looked back up at Chase.  She hesitated.  Then she reluctantly asked, “Are you
sure
you want me to interrupt him?”

“Yes,” Chase said firmly.  “Tell him I’m here, please.  He’ll see me.”

Liz looked at the phone again.  Then she appeared to think better of calling.  She stood up, straightened her short skirt and then teetered down the hall toward Adam’s office in her sky high, ridiculously impractical stilettos. 

Chase, meanwhile, started pacing around the waiting area.  His jaw was clenched and he appeared to be lost in thought.  He didn’t seem to notice Clarissa at first.  When he did, he seemed momentarily startled.  Then he regained his composure. 

“Hi.”

“Hi,” she smiled.

He walked over and sat down.  He picked a magazine up from the rack next to his chair but didn’t bother to open it.  Instead, he looked over at Clarissa again.  “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name,” he admitted sheepishly.

“Clarissa,” she reminded him.  “Change your mind about working here?”

“What?  Oh, no.  Just getting some financial advice,” he replied.  “As it turns out, traveling through Europe is not cheap.  Who knew?”

“Huh, well there go my summer plans,” Clarissa joked. 

Liz returned from Adam’s office then.  She looked at Chase.  “Adam can see you now,” she informed him, much to Clarissa’s surprise.  Then she gave Clarissa an apologetic look.  “Adam apologizes for keeping you waiting.  He promises he won’t be much longer.”

“It’s perfectly fine,” Clarissa assured her.  “That’s what I get for showing up without an appointment.  Actually,” she said as Chase disappeared into Adam’s office, “I think I’m just going to run off and use the ladies’ room.”

She didn’t actually have to use the washroom.

Instead, she walked toward it very slowly, pausing outside Adam’s office door.  Liz, who was apparently completely obsessed with the dumb game on her phone, paid her no attention whatsoever.  It presented an excellent opportunity to eavesdrop.

The voices were still muffled through the closed door, but the intonations spoke volumes.  As Clarissa lingered in the hallway, she could tell the discussion was becoming tense.  Voices that were initially hushed grew louder and angrier.  

“You made a huge mistake!” Chase hollered.  “This all could have been avoided!”

“It wasn’t my call,” Adam protested.  “And keep your voice down, would you?”

“I don’t think you’re in any position to tell me what to do,” Chase shot back. 

But then, much to Clarissa’s disappointment, he began to speak in a quieter voice.  Both men did.  She pressed her ear against the door but was still unable to make out what was being said.  It was a real shame because it had sounded like the conversation was just getting interesting!