“Sometimes friends make the best lov—”
A thump from inside the window had me jumping back. My heart rate spiked like I’d been caught doing something wrong. And maybe I had. I flicked a glance at the window to see Crystal backing away sheepishly.
“My front desk girl seems to find you quite attractive. Maybe you should ask her out.” I sniffed and changed the subject, refusing to address why the thought of that gave me the start of an ulcer. “Besides, I came here to tell you about my exciting discovery.”
Titus continued to stare at me for a moment before blinking and backing up. He tilted away from me and grabbed his shirt off the top of an upside-down orange construction bucket. He pulled it on and I got a front-row seat to all those muscles flexing and moving. I stood up taller despite my heels sinking into the dirt and willed myself to keep it under control. Flirting with Titus? Bad idea. So, so very bad.
“Don’t you even want to know my exciting discovery?”
Titus let out a huff. “I’m sure you’ll tell me whether I want to know or not. I’m just multitasking.”
He gathered his tools and dumped them in his toolbox, kicking the empty water bottles into the pile of junk. I put my hands on my hips, not at all pleased with his lack of enthusiasm. But he was not wrong. I’d be telling him anyway simply because I couldn’t keep it to myself much longer.
I huffed dramatically and then got on with it. “So, you remember the woman who checked in? The one I think you-know-who is having an affair with? Well, I did some digging.” That got his attention. He stopped working and speared me with a look. “Don’t worry. Just internet searches, nothing dangerous. She checks in under the name M. Smith. Pretty vague, right? There could be a million M. Smiths in America right now. So, I looked at when she checked into Hell Hotel. And wouldn’t you know? All three times have been right before one of the mayor’s business projects got greenlit. The first was before Lucy opened her sperm bank. The second was the privately owned prison, and the third was before the Hardware Store came to town. So, the question is, what business is going to sprout up now that she’s here a fourth time?”
I rocked back on my heels, a bad idea given the dirt situation, and leveled Titus with a smug look of satisfaction. I was a goddamn Nancy Drew.
Titus studied me for a moment, mulling over my detective skills. “Could be coincidence, but you’re right. It is suspicious. Maybe you ought to involve your father at this point. Let the police get involved.”
I scrunched up my face, shocked he’d suggest such a thing. “Hell no, I’m gonna keep digging until I figure this thing out. My dad goes after burglaries and drunken brawls, not possible…well, whatever it is that the mayor’s doing. Would that be extortion? Favoritism? I’m not sure what’s illegal about it, but it seems fishy and I’m going to solve the mystery. Just you wait.”
I twirled around, energized by my righteous indignation. My left heel didn’t want to leave the dirt, so I had to give it a couple tugs, but once I got it out, I marched off with all the dignity of the Queen of England. Tell my dad? No way. This was my time to shine.
The cabinet behind the front desk held my next move in the form of the vinyl lettering I used every week to create the sign out front of the hotel. I had a new phrase in mind. One that was sure to attract some attention. Best way to shake loose the truth was to expose the untruthful. I sorted through the letters, ignoring Crystal as she quizzed me on Titus’s relationship status. I may joke about him asking her out, but there was no way in hell I’d encourage it. Not when the thought of them together made my stomach revolt.
“I’ll be back, Crystal. I have a sign to change out.” My smile held all the deviousness I was known for.
“Amelia, what are you up to now, darlin’?” Dad’s voice didn’t hold any surprise, only a worn-out curiosity I’d heard a lot in my lifetime.
I pressed the cell phone to my head to hear him over the couple talking animatedly with Crystal about a local hiking trail they just had to check out. Hikers. What a bunch of weirdos. Let’s hike to the top of a hill risking life and limb among the wilderness animals just to turn around and go back the same way! Dumb, I tell you.
“I’m up to nothing, Dad,” I answered innocently. I checked my watch. Took him three and a half hours to call me about my sign. Must be a busy day of handing out traffic tickets.
“Meet me at Coffee in fifteen.”
He hung up in typical gruff-dad style. He sounded scary, but he was a teddy bear underneath that badge. All five of us Waldo girls had him wrapped around our little fingers.
I made sure Crystal would be fine without me for an hour or so, changed into flats, and then headed over on foot to Coffee, waving to neighbors as they drove by.
“I love the sign, dearie!” Yedda called to me as she drove by in her aqua Lincoln from the seventies. I smiled and waved back, nearly falling off the sidewalk when her car backfired and scared the shit out of me.
“Oh, excuse me!” she trilled out the window, like her car passing gas was her fault.
By the time I made it to the coffee shop, I could tell my sign was having an impact. I mean, they always did. I didn’t post anything boring like prices or how many rooms were vacant. I always put something up to make people stop and think, or laugh,
