This time Reyes and I glared at her in tandem, but Evie just raised her eyebrows, clearly unafraid of us. Evie returned to picking up stuffing and after checking the front and back doors again and taking pictures, Reyes left to file his report.
Evie took the bag of stuffing to the back room, then returned with cleaning supplies. Without a word to me, she got started scrubbing the marker off the counter. I understood that Evie was frustrated with us, but we literally had nothing to go on here. I still hadn’t ruled out this being some elaborate prank, although my instincts told me it was more.
“I left your coffee on that table,” I finally said, pointing in the direction where I left her drink. “I can check on you tomorrow.”
“I won’t be here. We’re closed on Mondays.”
“What will you do on your day off?” I asked curiously.
“Try to solve a mystery, I guess.” She frowned up at me, her forehead wrinkling.
“Call me if something else happens,” I reminded her, even though she’d ignored me every other time. “I know you’re frustrated that we haven’t figured this out yet, but you need to let the professionals investigate this.”
She shot me a salute and turned her attention back to the counter. With one last warning look, I marched out of the store and went home to enjoy the rest of my Sunday.
My phone rang around midnight that evening.
“Chief Wilson.”
“Chief, it’s Officer Johnston. I’m at the bookstore on patrol and I can see someone moving around in there. Dispatch said we were to call you right away if anything happened, day or night.”
“Wait for me,” I ordered. “I’ll be there in five.”
I threw on my shoes and grabbed my holster and service revolver, driving as fast as I could to Evie’s bookstore. I parked on the corner and closed the remaining distance on foot. I found Johnston across the street, watching the windows closely.
“Do you have the master key?”
Every business in town had to have their locks keyed so our master would work in an emergency. We crossed the quiet street together, and I pressed my face against the glass, noticing a movement between the shelves. It was too dark to get much of an impression beyond that.
“I’ll go in the back,” I told Johnston. “You stay here and catch them if they leave through the front. Call for backup if things go south.”
Not waiting for his response, I ran silently around the building, using the master key to open the back door. I crept past the storeroom and office and headed through the employee door that I knew led to the main store area. The door made a squeaking noise I hadn’t expected.
I heard a female voice yell, “Freeze!” then I felt something hit my chest, hard enough to knock me off my feet. I fell to the ground, dropping my gun, just as someone turned on the overhead light.
It was Evie. She held a rifle in her hand, pointed in my direction. I looked down and saw a large red splotch of paint right over my heart. My girl was a good shot. Thank God she was using a paintball gun and not the real thing.
“Evie! What the HELL are you doing?” I bellowed as I rubbed my chest. Wet paint covered my hand, irritating me even more. I wiped it off on my tee shirt since it was ruined anyway.
“Oh my God, Jake! What are you doing here? You scared me half to death. I thought you were the vandal.”
She dropped to her knees next to me, looking concerned, but held on tight to her paintball rifle.
“Did I hurt you?”
I pulled up my t-shirt and saw a nice bruise forming over my left pec.
“Nice shot,” I grumbled. “You’re damn lucky I didn’t shoot you back.”
Evie’s mouth opened but no words came out. If I hadn’t been so angry, I would have appreciated the way her eyes darkened as she checked out my chest and abs. I might have been in my fifties, but I worked hard to keep myself in shape.
I sat up and gripped her shoulders, not caring that I was smearing paint on her shirt. My mind was racing with what could have happened if it hadn’t been me in the store if Evie’s shot had missed. What if she’d gotten hurt by the intruder?
“What the hell were you doing in here with that? You could have been hurt or killed!”
She looked down at the paintball rifle in her hands, then back to me, going from worried to angry in five seconds. I wrestled it out of her hands and set it next to us on the ground next to the gun I’d dropped. Rookie mistake but I hadn’t been expecting to be shot.
“I’m doing what the police won’t do: figuring out who the hell is messing with my store!”