KATE WASN’T the most predictable woman on Earth. Still, Matt felt pretty sure if her Jeep was in the lot, she couldn’t be too far away.
“Kate?” he called before he unlocked the brewery’s employee door.
No answer. Odd, he thought. She wasn’t in her Jeep, she wasn’t waiting at the door, and she hadn’t answered his call. He was hit with a shot of protective male concern. He walked from the kitchen down the short hall, being drawn to a sound he’d caught plenty before, but never at this hour. A beer tap was spitting, then blowing. He hustled to the taproom and stopped dead at the bar’s back side.
“What the-”
Kate sat propped on her elbows, feet splayed out in front of her.
She looked up at him. “It’s a little swampy back here.”
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Everything but my tailbone and dignity. I was just working my way back k my›* to my feet.”
“Let me help you.”
Matt scooped her up and held her tight to his body. He reached around her with his free arm and pushed each of the eight beer taps back into their closed positions. The act was a formality, since all the barrels were now drained. No wonder Kate had gone down. The keg system’s drains couldn’t handle the volume, and that floor was damn slick.
“You’re soaked,” he said.
“Half of me, at least.”
He grabbed a clean bar towel from the stack on the counter and began to mop her off. He was somewhere in the vicinity of her backside when she took the towel from him.
“I think I can handle it from here,” she said.
“Sorry,” he said, but not with a whole lot of repentance.
She smiled. “So I see. You might want to grab a towel for yourself now, too.”
“I’ve smelled like beer before,” he said, but wiped his hands just the same. After he tossed the towel back to the counter, he gestured at the floor. “Sorry about this.”
Kate gestured toward the vandalized mirror. “The note is what’s really freaked me out. Is this the first time the saboteur’s ever targeted you personally?”
Matt shrugged. “Yeah. This is sort of new.”
“Well, personally, I can’t wait to have a chat with the jerk who did this,” Kate said. “But right now, I’m wet and gross-smelling. I’d like to go home and change before we start my training.”
“No training today,” Matt said. “We’ll start fresh tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to lose a day over a bruised butt. How about if I go home and get cleaned up? I’ll come back at lunchtime and observe for the afternoon. It’s not going to do me or you any good to have me sit home.”
“True,” he said. “Are you okay to drive?”
“Yes. I’ll take some extra towels so I don’t soak my seat.”
Once he had Kate safely to her Jeep and on her way, Matt pulled out his cell phone and called in the law. Ten minutes later, just as he’d finished mopping the spilled beer, Lizzie arrived.
Lizzie surveyed the taproom. “Someone sure was busy.”
She set her clipboard down and pulled a digital camera from her uniform pocket. “I’m going to take a few pics.”
“No problem.”
“So, tell me what you know,” she said between shots.
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Matt looked at the messed-up room and felt his frustration surge.
“Kate and I were going to meet here at seven-thirty. She got here first, found the front door unlocked, and the mess inside. Beer was free-pouring in here. She went behind the bar to catch the taps and fell. The mats were still rolled from the floor mopping last night, and the back of the bar had standing beer.”
Lizzie pocketed the camera and picked up her clipboard. “The front door is usually locked, right?”
“Yes, unless someone screws up in a major way.”
“Who has keys?”
Matt righted a cafe table. “Jerry, Bart, Laila, and I. No one else that I’m aware of. I closed last night, and I know for sure I locked that door, which means someone else has a copy.”
“Or Jerry, Bart, or Laila were here just a little while ago,” she said as she jotted notes.
“Laila’s down with an ankle sprain from Friday night, so she’s out. You can check with Bart and Jerry, but neither of them had reason to be here. Though Jerry isn’t exactly up for employee of the month at the moment.”
“What’s up with Jerry?”
Matt picked up a chair. “I’ve been told that he’s been leaving work when I’m not around. It could mean something, or it could mean nothing at all.”
“Told by who?” Lizzie asked.
“Kate. She’ll be back here at lunchtime if you want to talk to her. She’s pretty sharp. I trust her observations.”
“Okay, but why didn’t someone else on staff tell you about Jerry before this?”
Matt shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but most everyone has been around for a long time. This place is family, and just like we did when we were kids, these guys tend to cover for one another. Which is why I don’t want to believe that Jerry would sabotage the bar. We’ve been friends for too long.”
“You don’t have any real enemies, Matt,” Lizzie said. “No matter who did this, it’s going to be bad news, once we find out.”
All the same, Matt wanted it done.
LUNCH RUSH had arrived, and Kate was settled in at the taproom bar. She was one in a long line of females, most of whom were watching Matt pour beer as though he were making gold from lead.
Really, what was the big deal with beer pouring? And how had the jungle drums gotten word out so quickly that Matt was behind the bar? Kate figured they must have a calling tree or something.
amp; kn=””›#x201C;Just water for me, Matt, and a veggie quesadilla. Do you think you could make that with whole wheat tortillas and goat cheese?” asked a dark-haired female three women down.
“How about organic carrot juice?” asked the girl next to her. “Do you have any of that, Matt?”
He answered each of their questions in the negative, but with a style Kate envied. The next time around the rebirth wheel (if the reincarnationists were right), she hoped for a dollop of that charm. If she’d had to tell those women no, they’d be howling for the manager. Or Matt. Because he was all they wanted, anyway.
Kate took a sip of her iced tea and paged through the microbrewery’s training manual. The chart of which glass to use with which beer was proving a little complex for her current attention span. She never would have thought that beer and a snifter could go together, but that weird combo was the least of her issues.
Kate’s tailbone had begun to ache, and her pride still stung. Before she’d showered and returned to work, she’d retrieved the crumpled white cocktail napkin and the short bit of thin, braided string she’d picked up from the floor and stuck into her pocket. Those two items were the only clues she had. Until she was sure they wouldn’t trigger some sort of
“Kate, right?” said a voice from behind her.
Kate looked over her shoulder.
“I’m Liz Culhane, but everyone calls me Lizzie,” the woman said. “I’m also Matt’s sister.”
Kate smiled. “Right. I saw you talking to Matt the night of the karaoke contest.”
“I was a little more casually dressed then.” Lizzie nodded to her police officer’s uniform. “Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all.”
