Suspicious Minds (Squeaky Clean Series, Book 2) (18 page)

I LEFT Ace Plumbing and made it to my afternoon criminal justice class just in time. I soaked in information about laws and justice and crime. Usually, nothing could tear me away from paying attention in class. I loved learning this stuff.

But not today. Today, I couldn't wait to get home. I had a to-do list a mile long. I had houses to clean, a funeral to plan, a murderer to accuse.

Of course, as soon as I walked into my apartment building, Sierra flew into the hallway. Her eyes were wide and sparkling with excitement.

"Guess what?" Sierra asked.

I gripped the front door handle, bracing myself for another animal cruelty horror story. "You've single-handedly managed to save all the whales in the world?"

"No, the news isn't quite that good." Her momentary frown disappeared. "I've been promoted to project manager! The director has been so impressed with my work that she's put me in charge of an entire team. An entire team" She positively beamed.

I released the door and felt strangely like I should give her a hug. I didn't. Instead, I patted her shoulder. "That's great, Sierra"

"I was hoping you might want to go out to eat tonight and celebrate"

Celebrating something sounded like a great distraction. "Name the place"

"There's this new seafood restaurant down on the beach I was hoping to try.'

Unusual, since Sierra didn't eat seafood, but what did I know? Maybe they had a special vegan menu. "I'll see if I can round up Riley or anyone else to go. Sound good?"

"Wonderful"

Right before we were supposed to leave, Chad showed up, no doubt to pester me about something. Before I could shoo him away, Riley invited him along to our celebration and promptly received a scowl from me. He'd shrugged innocently.

We piled in two cars to go to the restaurant. I ended up with Chad and Bill McCormick, the right-wing talk-show host in our building who'd just gotten back from his mini-tour. He went on and on about his ex-wife being pregnant with her second husband's child when she never wanted kids with poor Bill. I actually felt sorry for the guy. I really did. But all he ever did was complain. It was enough to make me pull my hair out.

Finally, we arrived at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Since tourist season was over, the strip was relatively quiet. We parked on the street in front of the restaurant.

"Is this weird to you that Sierra wanted to eat here?" Riley whispered as he pulled the glass door open and held it for me.

"Yeah, a little"

We were seated right away. Small talk ensued, broken up only by the waitress taking our orders.

Rather abruptly, Sierra placed her napkin on the table and stood. I feared she was going to give a long, drawn-out speech on what her new position would mean to all the animals on the planet. Instead, she announced, "I'm going to run to the restroom."

She disappeared between a maze of tables. I stared out the window at the ocean and the sunset smeared behind it. Gray waves swelled, then crashed and receded. The process repeated itself over and over. Some things would seem like a broken record doing so, but not the waves. Watching them felt therapeutic.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Chad said across from me.

"Yeah, it really is. It's mesmerizing."

"Maybe in the summer I could teach you to surf. There's nothing like being one with the waves"

So Chad planned on sticking around through the summer, huh? But I had no desire to surf. It brought back too many thoughts of Dad. Surfing had been his demise, his idol. I didn't answer and continued to stare out the wall of windows in front of me.

Poor Sharon, the owner of the Grounds, was listening to Bill talk about how huge his ex looked now that she was pregnant. I even think I heard him say that he hoped she didn't lose the weight after the baby was born. Love could turn pretty ugly, couldn't it?

"You're being quiet," Riley said beside me.

"Just thinking."

Chad rubbed the scruff around his mouth. "About what?"

"Life. Dying. Relationships"

"You know what I say?" Chad started. "Life's a Dance You Learn as You Go"

I smiled at the song reference. "Or as my favorite redhead said, `It's a Hard Knock Life."

Riley's gaze darted between the two of us as if he'd just entered a new world where people understood me. Gabby's world. I liked the sound of that.

Chad and I smiled at each other across the table.

In the distance, I saw the waitress appear with a tray of food balanced above her head. I could taste my grilled salmon now, and my mouth began to water. I loved a good seafood dish.

The waitress placed a salad at Sierra's empty seat. What was taking the girl so long? Should I go check on her? It seemed like such a motherly thing to do, checking on someone in the bathroom. The girl could take care of herself.

I'd give her five minutes before I got up.

I glanced behind me, just in time to see Sierra duck behind the crab aquarium. Most restaurants had lobsters in aquariums, but this one had decided to try something new. You could pick your own crabs to boil. Just lovely.

"Oh no," I muttered. Suddenly, everything made sense.

"Free the crabs!" I heard my friend shout on the other side of the restaurant.

The next thing I knew, the aquarium fell over. Water gushed all over the restaurant's new carpet. And little red crustaceans with gigantic claws surfed toward me. I screamed and jumped on my chair.

Riley muttered, "Sierra"

Bill laughed hysterically, probably glad for the fodder for his talk show tomorrow.

Chad said, "Dude," and watched with obvious fascination as the crabs drifted our way.

And a very angry, managerial-looking man ran from the kitchen area, screaming, "What have you done? What have you done, you ignorant little fool!"

"Run little crabs! Run! You can make it to the ocean, to freedom!" Sierra shouted, all the while urging the beasts toward me. Okay, actually toward the door behind me. Semantics.

"Do you know how much I paid for those per pound?" the manageriallooking man asked. "You're going to repay every dime and then some" He picked up a crab and promptly yelped and flung it across the room.

The crabs looked a little confused, like they didn't know where to go once the wave of aquarium water left them washed up on the plush carpet.

"You can't put a price tag on a life, you sick little puppy" Sierra stood on a chair and began preaching. "These crabs deserve to live, not to be sentenced to death in a hot tub and then eaten by sad carnivores who don't know the meaning of moderation" She ran toward the crabs, which sent them clucking our way. I screamed again and continued standing on the chair, imagining what it would feel like if one of those suckers got ahold of my toe.

I looked over just in time to see Chad opening the door that led to the beach. "This way, little guys" He waved his hand in a come-hither motion.

The crabs clucked toward him as if they understood.

"I'm calling the cops!" Manager Man shouted. "This is insanity! Do you realize what you've done?"

"Put me in jail! It's worth it to save a life. Your method of cooking these creatures is beyond cruel and unusual punishment. You boil them to death while they try desperately to escape the pot of death ..

She continued, but I tuned her out.

Please, tell me this was a nightmare. What would Parker say if one of his comrades in arms showed up to this scene and spotted me here? Wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake? I could hear him lecturing me now.

"Look what you've done! I had them shipped in from Maryland. Maryland, I tell you. Have you lost your mind?"

"Crabs have feelings too! How would you like to be boiled alive?"

Customers ran to the front door as if next Sierra might pull out a pipe bomb. I almost ran out the door myself.

"Everybody calm down."

I looked over as Riley took control of the situation. The logical lawyer in him emerged.

"Sierra, I advise you to have a seat and not say another word until the police get here," Riley said. Then he turned to Manager Man. `And sir, your yelling is doing nothing to calm down your patrons, so I suggest you keep your voice down so that you can try and resolve this situation in a mature manner.

"I'll show you mature" The manager came toward Riley swinging. My eyes widened as I realized the man was trying to punch Riley. Riley ducked, and when he came up, I could see the frustration on his face. Manager Man wasn't the most athletic-looking man, so I had no doubt Riley could take him. But Riley wasn't the type to take anybody in a fistfight-only in the courtroom.

I looked up at the door just as Parker, two uniformed cops, and a woman wearing a suit entered. Parker's gaze zeroed in on me as if he had some kind of trouble radar and could always manage to find me in the midst of it. I couldn't read his expression, but I'm pretty sure there was some embarrassment there.

His attention turned to Manager Man as he tried to take another swing at Riley, who again managed to duck the punch with graceful precision. In three steps, Parker was across the room and grabbing Manager Man's arm.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked, his voice authoritative and ... a little scary, if I were to be honest. It made me cringe.

"That woman turned over my crabs! She's insane!"

By now, the restaurant had cleared of everyone except for our table, the staff, and the cops. I looked down and saw a lone crab bobbing toward my chair. I glanced at Chad and nodded toward the gourmet meal at my feet. While everyone else's attention was distracted, Chad scooped the creature up in an oversized linen napkin and shooed him outside.

"Someone tell me what's going on here!"

Everyone quieted at Parker's instruction. My boyfriend's gaze fell on me. "Gabby, would you like to start?"

I cringed. "Not really."

"I'll tell you what happened;' Sierra started. She hopped down from her chair and pointed an accusing finger at the manager and his wait staff. "These people were keeping these crabs in captivity"

"Crabs? This is all about blue crabs?" Parker ran a hand over his face, and then he turned to Sierra. "You're behind this, right?"

"People applauded Martin Luther King Jr. when he stood up for the rights of the living."

Parker shook his head. "He stood up for people's rights, not crabs"

"And he was a hero."

He grabbed her arm, not hard though. "I'm going to have to take you in, Sierra"

"But I'm your girlfriend's best friend. You can't arrest me."

Parker's face turned red. I knew Riley saw it too, because he glanced over at me.

"Why don't you take her in, Parker, and I'll get statements from all these witnesses," the woman said.

He nodded at her and led Sierra outside. She was still talking incessantly about Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Brown, and Abraham Lincoln.

The woman approached our table, and I wondered if she was a trainee or something. I'd never seen her before. And where was Parker's new partner? I'd yet to meet him.

The suited woman looked at me before pulling out a pad and pen. "I'm Detective Charlie Henderson. Who'd like to start?"

MY JAW fell to the floor. This was Charlie? No wonder Parker looked so happy to have a new partner. She had legs a mile long, a flat stomach, and an anything-but-flat chest.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" Charlie asked. I realized the woman was looking directly at me. I nodded, in a daze. "Would you like to start?"

This was his partner? I couldn't believe it.

"Ma'am?"

I tried to focus on her face, her perfect, pretty little face. "Yes?"

"Would you like to start?"

Had Parker led me to believe Charlie was a he, or had I assumed the fact? "Not really."

"I'll start" I looked up and saw Riley approaching. He glanced at me as if he understood every single thought going through my mind. Impossible. Wasn't it? He filled Charlie in on everything that had transpired. I continued to stare.

The woman was a redhead also. But it wasn't curly and red like mine. Hers was sleek and perfectly styled and had a bronzed finish to it. She was tall and slender. Her complexion was flawless.

I'd bet she never embarrassed Parker.

Insecurities hit me faster than that aquarium had hit the ground. Flashbacks of Riley's fiancee showing up paraded through my mind. Was there something about me that just said, "Please, cheat on me"? Of course, Riley and I hadn't been officially dating, so it wasn't officially cheating. And I had no proof that Parker was cheating on me, only a crab pot full of insecurities that told me I wasn't good enough.

I'm a scientist. I'm supposed to be unemotional and base my theories on facts. Was I doomed to fail in my career of choice?