But it didn’t have the snakeskin pattern of the parasol.
Chlorophyllum molybdite. The name had no sooner flashed through her mind than she flung it down onto the floor of the passenger side, fear crawling up her spine. She stared at it for a moment, disbelieving, then reached for her phone again.
As it rang, she got out of the car and backed away. The parking lot stretched all around her, flat and empty but for a scattered handful of cars. Over the rooftops of the shops, she could see the pier. The small cafe where she’d felt so peaceful just half an hour ago. She had the urge to run back, to find Landon, but before she could take a step, a horrible thought occurred to her.
Kait had assumed someone had left the mushrooms in her car, but what if someone had put them in her purse? And the only person who had been close enough to do so would have been—
“Thank you for calling LeClarks.”
“Gilles! Is Gray there?”
When her brother came on the line, Kaitlyn choked out what had happened.
“I’m calling the police,” he said immediately. “Don’t touch anything else. I’m on my way.”
Kait hung up but clutched the phone tightly. She had the desperate urge to call someone, but she didn’t know who. Her parents were gone. Marjorie would just worry. And Landon was the last person she should be reaching for.
A soft tap on her shoulder sent Kait a foot in the air. She screamed so loudly the sound bounced back at her from the rooftops of the shops. Her phone flew across the parking lot.
“Kait! It’s just me!”
Kaitlyn whirled around to see Ana frowning at her. Her golden butterscotch hair was loose over her shoulders instead of braided back like it was at the restaurant. She was dressed casually in cut off shorts and a t-shirt. She lowered her sunglasses and peered at Kait with a pair of critical blue-violet eyes. “You look terrible.”
Kait had never been so relieved to see someone in her life. Forgetting that she and Ana weren’t close, she threw her arms around the other girl’s slim shoulders.
Ana held very still, then reached up and patted Kait’s back carefully. When Kait didn’t pull back, she said, “So, this is what you’re like outside of work?”
Kait half laughed and shook her head in Ana’s neck. “No, not really.” Forcing herself to let go, she stepped back and gestured to her car. “I think someone is messing with me. I found mushrooms in my car.”
Ana’s eyebrows arched. “Why would someone do that?”
Kait gave her a brief sketch of what had happened fifteen years ago. Ana listened without expression, then said, “You didn’t put possible poisoning in the job description.”
“No,” Kait said wryly. “We don’t put it in the promotional materials either.”
Ana walked over to the passenger side of the Honda, opened the door, and squatted down to examine the mushrooms up close. “They look like normal white cap mushrooms,” she said. “Are you sure they’re poisonous?”
“I think they’re chlorophyllum molybdites,” Kait said, standing back a bit. “That’s what it was before. They usually won’t kill you, but the vomiting and diarrhea will make you want to die.”
“Lovely,” Ana said, rising to her feet and dusting her hands off. “And you think Landon’s family was behind it the first time?”
Kait nodded. “I used to think it was just really bad luck, but now that it’s happening again…”
“But Landon’s dad is dead now, right?”
“Right.”
“So you think it’s Landon,” Ana deduced. She tilted her head, considering it. “I can’t see it.”
Before bitter words could spill off Kait’s tongue, a police car pulled into the parking lot, Gray’s Honda right behind it.
Gray parked and was out of his car first. He looked startled to see Ana. He shot Kait a quick, censorious look.
“I already told her,” Kait said. “Sorry.”
“You’re perfectly safe at LeClarks,” Gray told Ana. “We have it under control.”
“Doesn’t sound like it,” Ana said, but she didn’t look particularly concerned. “Someone is really messing with you guys.” She smiled dazzlingly over his shoulder. “Hello, officer.”
Gray stepped to the side and a man who introduced himself as Officer Barrett joined their circle. While Kait told him what had happened, Gray asked Ana quietly, “Should I start looking for a new pastry chef?”
Ana shrugged a shoulder. “Only if you want inferior eclairs.”
“This isn’t scaring you off?”
Gray couldn’t see her eyes, but her mouth flattened as she said, “It takes a lot more than fungus to scare me, Gray.”
He stared at her, wondering what was going on behind those dark shades. Ana was a mystery to him. With guests, she turned on the charm and sparkle. She sold out the pastry case nearly every day because even people who could resist a sweet had a hard time resisting her. She was like Gilles in the way that she remembered every name and story. But unlike Gilles, who was the same off duty as he was on, Ana became an entirely different person when the last guest left. She packed away all that charisma like Gray packed up his knives at the end of a shift. The staff often drank together after work, but she’d declined every invitation. He had chalked it up to New York aloofness, but now he wondered.
“You just happened to run into Kait in this parking lot?” he asked.
Ana studied him, her face impassive. Then she nodded toward the end of the row of shops. “I live in the apartment above the coffee bar. I was on the balcony, and I noticed Kait in the parking lot. I thought she was having car trouble.”
Gray looked to where she had indicated and saw a small, square balcony jutting out from the back of the upper floor of the coffee bar. It fit only one chair and a small, round table. He sighed. “Sorry. With everything that’s going on, I’m getting paranoid.”
Ana’s lips curved slightly. “I understand.”
Gray started
