“It’s pronounced ‘fonn-ta-noh’.”
He looked between me and his phone, frowning slightly like he thought I was messing with him. He really had the cop look down: a mixture of stern and arrogant.
“I’m Chief Jake Wilson,” he said. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
He reached forward to shake my hand. It was the weirdest thing, but it felt like everything inside me stilled the minute our hands touched. Except for the skin on my hands, which felt warm and tingly everywhere it touched his. He looked up and met my eyes, looking almost as confused as I felt.
After just a touch too long, we both pulled away.
He cleared his throat. “I understand you’ve had a break-in?”
I showed him around, pointing out the things that were messed up. He checked the locks on both doors, confirming what I already knew: no one had tampered with them. As we moved through the store, he made notes in a little notepad that he pulled out of his pocket.
“Do you think you left a door unlocked?” he said.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Are you sure?” His tone was patronizing, and it raised my ire.
“Both doors were locked when I got here,” I said firmly, giving him a hard look.
“And they didn’t take the computers or the cash registers? That’s weird.”
“I don’t keep cash in them anyway, but I agree that it’s strange. But there’s also this.”
I led him into the restroom. “The water was running, but I turned that off. And this message was on the mirror.”
He frowned. “That looks personal. Do you know anyone who would want to harm your business?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t have enemies.”
We wandered back to the front of the store.
“Well, there’s not a lot to go on here,” he said. “But I’ll file a report.”
He turned as if to leave, and I looked at him incredulously.
“Not a lot to go on? Can’t you dust for fingerprints? Take pictures? Do anything?”
“I said I’d file a report,” he said mildly. “There’s no sign of a break-in. This looks like some kind of a prank to me.”
I threw up my hands. “I knew it was a waste of time to call you. I should know better than expect cops to actually do their damn jobs.”
I stalked away and started pushing on the shelf that had been knocked over, trying to get it upright again. It didn’t budge until Chief Wilson came over to help.
“I got it,” I snapped, but he ignored me. Which was probably good, because honestly, it was too heavy for me to move by myself.
I glanced out of the corner of my eye, noting how his biceps bulged with the effort. It was too bad he was a jerk and a cop because Chief Wilson was one fine specimen. Shaking my head, I started reshelving the books, ignoring him.
He stood there awkwardly before finally saying, “Give us a call if anything else happens.”
I turned to him and gave him my best glare. “If anything else happens, I’ll investigate it my own damn self instead of wasting time with you.”
I wondered if it was possible to buy fingerprinting kits online. I’d check into that, as well as security cameras. It wasn’t something I expected to need in a town where half the people didn’t even lock their doors at night.
“Now we don’t need you going all Nancy Drew on us,” he said sternly. “You leave the police work to the experts.”
“Yeah, I’m super impressed by you experts,” I practically spat at him. “Now get the hell out of my store!”