Baker’s Law (5 page)

At least the owners of the store had an alarm. When it’d gone off, the alarm company
had alerted them, as well as the police department. One of his officers, Jeff Connors,
had finished on his call and had met him at the store, but the thieves had already
cut out.

“The owners are on the way. They were in Fort Worth at a show.” Jeff flipped through
a little notepad. “They closed up about two hours ago. It’s the first time they’ve
had a break-in since they’ve been open.”

Jax nodded. It was the same story he’d read in a month-old report from the dry cleaners
a couple of blocks over. Hole in the door and everything. There was a pattern emerging.
The only problem was, it didn’t jibe with Marissa’s break-in. Her shop, the suspect
had stayed on the premises. He’d all but made himself at home from the sound of it.
The cleaners and this store had been a “grab what you can and get out.” Granted, both
of those places had alarm systems in place and Marissa’s didn’t.

He made a mental note to talk to her about installing something as soon as she could.

After three hours helping Jeff write up the report, then going over what the owners
lost in the robbery, Jax was nearly as wiped out as he had been in the morning when
he left Marissa’s. Chief Kendal had warned him there would be a rough transition period
taking over an entire police department. He just hadn’t expected it to all hit in
the span of a few days on next to no sleep.

The next morning he was running on coffee and carbs as he went through a pile of paperwork.
Jeff had found him the file on a break-in at a clothing boutique that had happened
before he’d taken over. That made three robberies on the strip downtown. There was
no notation of there being a hole in the back door, so he was headed over to the boutique
after lunch.

He filed the newest report and headed through the station looking for his daytime
dispatcher, Chief Kendal’s granddaughter, Macey. She was Otto’s older brother’s kid.
It was a little disconcerting to think kids he’d grown up with had kids old enough
to vote or drink beer. Or work for him.

“Hey, Mace.”

Macey shifted one of the earpieces from her headset back. “Hey, Jax. I mean Chief.”
She gave him a quick little salute. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you know that cupcake place over on Flower Tree?”

“Marissa’s.” She nodded. “Sure.”

“What was there before that went in? I know it’s been there less than a year.”

She tapped her manicured nail to her lip. “Um. It was a burger place. No, last it
was a pizza place. For a couple of years. Before that it was a burger place. It lasted
almost as long, I guess.” She settled her headset back into place. “Man, now I’m hungry,”
she mumbled just as the phone lit up.

He made a mental note to look for reports for either business when he had a little
more time. As it was, he barely had time to grab a quick lunch from a fast-food chain
a block away from the station.

Jax drove out to the clothing boutique. The last time he’d been in town, nearly ten
years earlier, the “business district” was an odd assortment of storefronts mixed
with houses. Now it was all commerce with new storefronts mixed in with the businesses
that had been around since he was a kid. The small, three-by-four street section of
the town had been transformed into a mini shopping mecca. Flower Tree was on the far
edge of the shopping center. Two of the burglaries had been there. The cleaners was
two streets over and the boutique was on the opposite edge.

He parked his SUV cruiser three stores down from the clothing store. All the other
spaces were filled with minivans and station wagons. He was glad to see the downtown
area had picked up from when he was a kid. Back then the stores had been hard-pressed
to get any customers on weekdays. Weekends were the main haul.

When he stepped from the cruiser he glanced up and down the street. Houses lined the
backs of the business. A tree-lined alleyway separated the commerce district from
the residential area. It gave a false sense of separation of the two, and made for
easy access to cross through. He’d reread the report of the break-in of the clothing
store. The alarm had tripped just before four in the morning. The small safe had been
completely lifted from its spot under the manager’s desk. A few pieces of clothing
had been stolen—nothing high end—and all the costume jewelry on display had been taken.
Worse seemed to be the umpteen displays the thieves broke for no apparent reason than
to cause additional damage. The department had responded within six minutes and by
the time they got there, the store was empty. If there’d been a hole in the door it
hadn’t been reported.

A bell tinkled above the door when Jax walked in. He removed his sunglasses while
his eyes adjusted. Several startled females froze. The store catered solely to women.
Dresses and blouses hung from the walls as displays. One corner had a variety of lingerie,
the other had a small group of dressing rooms. He couldn’t remember the last time
he’d been in a store like it.

A tall blonde came from behind the register and hurried toward him. She was dressed
in a form-fitting teal dress. Could she sit in it—and still breathe? Dressed in jeans
and a T-shirt with her store logo—covered in flour—Marissa was more beautiful than
this done-up woman and her scary high heels.

She stopped a few feet from him. A hesitant smile crossed her mouth. “Chief Carlisle.
How are you? Was there something I can help you with?” She glanced over her shoulder
and one of the patrons giggled.

“I was hoping to speak to the owner about the break-in the store had several months
back.”

The blonde’s smile fell away as her brow pulled down slightly. “I’m the owner. Joan
Barkley. Follow me. We’ll go to my office.” She motioned for him to follow. When they
went into the stock room, she told a young sales girl to go out and watch the store.

Her office consisted of a little cubby in the back corner of the stockroom. A small
desk sat with a computer atop it, as well as a couple of dainty, girlie chairs in
front. There was a door that he presumed led outside and another door that looked
like it might be a restroom. The rest of the stockroom was lined with shelves and
racks loaded down with merchandise.

Once they were alone, she offered him one of the small chairs. “No thanks.” He was
afraid it might break under his weight.

He ran her name through his head. It was so strange coming back to town. So many people
knew who he was thanks to the Oak Hollow Country Club or school. He’d been told all
the rumors skittering around when he’d been hired, his name on everyone’s lips. Some
speculated he was a bad cop who’d been ousted from his job in Austin and was coming
home with his tail tucked between his legs. Others said he was leaving behind a scorned
woman whose husband had threatened to kill him. If only his life had been half as
interesting.

Now he was running across people, wondering, when they knew immediately who he was,
if he’d forgotten some long-lost connection to them. Most he found knew
of
him, but didn’t actually
know
him. Joan Barkley didn’t ring any mental bells so he stated his business. “I was
hoping you could walk me through what happened after your break-in.”

Joan hugged her arms around herself. She replayed the story as it had been in the
report.

“How did they get in?”

Joan shrugged. “Don’t know. We were never quite sure. Nothing looked disturbed. They
ran out the back door, though. A scarf was hung up on it when the police got here.”

“This door?” Jax moved over to the large metal door.

“Yes.”

He squatted and examined the door. There wasn’t a hole in it like at the other locations.

“Well, yes, but no.”

He swiveled to look up at Joan. “Beg pardon?”

“We had to replace that door. A delivery truck backed into it a couple of months ago.
The kid was talking on his phone.” She waved her hand. “He took out the door and the
A/C unit. I lost a week of business. It was too hot without the A/C.”

Jax stood and nodded. The door could have had a similar hole at the time of the robbery.
They’d never know for sure. “Have you had any other trouble since then? Any other
robberies?”

“No. Why all the questions now? The officers who took my statements back in September
got all the information.”

Jax didn’t want to panic the business owners. Definitely an emerging pattern, though
he didn’t have enough info yet. So he said, “I’m just going over some of the unsolved
crimes.” That was true enough, even though there weren’t all that many crimes in Oak
Hollow that went unsolved. Nestled far north of Fort Worth, it wasn’t like they had
a lot of carryover crime from the “big city.”

The blonde morphed before his eyes. Gone was the worried store owner, in her place
was a smiling, flirty female. She shifted her stance, stuck out her hip. “That’s very
kind of you, Chief. To be so conscientious.”

He nodded slowly. “It’s my job.”

“Oh sure.” She lifted one thin eyebrow. “How have you adjusted to town? I’ve heard
you’ve been eating all alone every night. That’s no fun.” She took a few steps toward
Jax.

“It’s okay.” He backed up and suddenly the small stockroom seemed to shrink by half
as she cornered him. In high school, he would have loved flirtation like this. He’d
have soaked it up. Hell, when he’d first come back to town, he might have been flattered,
and responsive to a degree, but his mind zipped to Marissa. He wasn’t the least bit
interested in Joan Barkley.

“Aw, now, that can’t be true.” She tilted her head and battered her eyelashes. “You
know, if you’re free Friday night, I’d be more than happy to have dinner with you,
help you get reacquainted with Oak Hollow.”

“That’s awful kind of you, ma’am.” He backed up another step and his back bumped a
stack of boxes next to the wall. The only way to get out of there was to push past
Joan. He wasn’t quite that desperate…yet. “But I have a pretty busy schedule with
my new job and all.”

“They obviously let you out to eat. No point in doing it all by your lonesome.”

He nodded. “Something to consider.” He took a step closer to her. “Tell you what.
Let me check what’s going on and I’ll get back to you.”

The shy smile he’d seen when he’d first walked into her store was nowhere near the
thousand-watt gleam he got in response to that noncommittal answer.

Joan stepped aside. “I look forward to hearing from you. Welcome home, Chief.”

Back out on the street, Jax only glanced back at the store once. The way the ladies
had giggled when he left, there would be new gossip going around town about him before
he could even get back to his vehicle. He shook his head. “Welcome home.”

For the rest of the week, Marissa went through her regular routine. No one had broken
in again as far as she could tell—she’d rigged up a theft detector every night like
flour on the floor and spoons precariously balanced on crates by the door. Everything
was as-is when she returned to work in the morning. It didn’t, however, make her worry
any less for Hill. She hadn’t seen him again. She’d even considered going up to the
high school to follow him and see where he went. Cherry had talked her out of it.

She hadn’t seen Jax, either. She’d expected him to come in and try the new cupcake
she’d been telling him about. Or even just to see her. They had hit it off, hadn’t
they? Or was he just being polite at the restaurant the other night? He was a busy
man. Had an entire town to protect. The last thing he needed to preoccupy himself
with was some girl he’d gone to school with years and years ago.

The end of the week—the last Friday of March—Lexi came back in with her friends. Marissa
hadn’t seen her since she’d asked about Hill. Lexi gave a sly wave behind one of the
other girl’s backs, then acted as if she’d never spoken to Marissa by completely ignoring
her.

Marissa sighed. There were days she longed for a family, wanted so badly to be a mom,
but she often worried she wasn’t cut out to parent. Her mother hadn’t been. And unfortunately,
unlike her siblings, she favored her runaway mother with her almost khaki eyes and
brown hair so much it was scary. She’d catch her father staring at her every now and
again with a wistful expression. Marissa had always wondered if that was why she was
the serious, responsible one in the family. She had a deep-seated need to make up
for the flighty woman who bore them all.

Both her brothers were married with kids, though. They made a family and made it work.
How hard could it be? At least that was what she asked herself until the kids from
the school would come by and she was glad she didn’t have to deal with the mess of
raging hormones. Every now and again she’d babysit for Duff. He and his wife didn’t
go out much, but when they did, they liked to leave their two-year-old, Meg, with
family. Usually it was with their dad. They’d never leave her with Marlie, who was
so absorbed in her new business she rarely had time for herself much less family.
More often than not, Marlie was so busy with new clients she was frazzled and half-crazy—not
a good combo to go with a precocious two-year-old.

Marissa shook herself and went back to going over the orders she had to get ready
for the weekend. She had three birthday parties and a baby shower all to get ready
by Sunday morning for pick up.

She’d just finished the paperwork and closed a folder when a shadow fell over her.
Lexi stood with her bright pink backpack looped over her shoulders and small soda
in her hand.

“Yes?”

“You didn’t turn Hill in.” Lexi tilted her head sideways. “Why?”

Marissa linked her fingers together and arched an eyebrow. “Turn him in for?”

“He told me you caught him here one night.” She shifted from one foot to the other.
“Then when you found out his name, you didn’t bust him. You could have gone up to
the school and told them, but you didn’t.”