Laugh or Death (Lexi Graves Mysteries Book 6) (16 page)

"You could be!"

"I'll think about it. It doesn't sound horrible, but back to date night... They wanted something from the safe. They've never done that before. Did Jord tell you how much they took?"

"No, he didn't. Ugh. What an awful husband. I'll call him." Lily dialed, then said, "Hi, honey! You know the robbery from Lexi's date night? How much did the thieves take from the safe? Uh
-huh. Uh-huh. Really?"

"What?" I asked
, but she waved me quiet.

"That so? Okay
. Uh-huh. Thanks, honey. I love you!" Lily blew kisses into the phone. I think my brother blew some back. I thought about blowing some too.

"And?" I prompted.

"The manager told Jord that he always kept the week's profits in the safe."

"How much is that?"

"Oh, shoot! I didn't ask. Thousands, I guess. He had extra money for suppliers and staff in there too. They cleaned out the safe and took two bottles of Glenfiddich whiskey from the office."

"The whiskey was in the safe?"

"No, it was in a locked drawer. Jord said they actually asked the manager for the whiskey."

"How much
was that worth?"

"Approximately thirty thousand dollars."

"Are you kidding me?" I squealed. "Fifteen thousand dollars for a bottle of whiskey?"

"I swear
, I am not kidding."

I thought about all the alcohol I would grab if I robbed a bar, but
concluded it wouldn't be practical to hold a gun to the bartender's head and insist he make me a cocktail. Taking a bottle would be safer and easier, but... it dawned on me. "They knew the whiskey was there!" I said. "They knew it was in the office and where it was kept. They would only know that if they had been in there before!"

"Oh my gosh, you're right!"

"So your bar and my date night robberies have something in common. The thieves had to have some insider knowledge of the businesses they were robbing. They knew where to look in the restaurant, and they knew your cash hadn't been banked yet. Maybe the MOs aren't so different after all."

"There you go
, saying MO again!"

"Do you run everyone who works for you through payroll?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course."

"I wonder if the restaurant does? They had money to pay the staff in cash."

"We should find out. We should see if we have any common employees," Lily yelled, bouncing in the driver's seat. "Is this our break? Say it is! Say it!"

"We'll know once we speak to the restaurant manager."

"Let's go... oh, shoot. He's on the move." Lily dropped lower into her seat and jabbed a forefinger over the dashboard. Kyle jogged along the path, passing through the chain link gate before climbing into his car. "Do we follow him? Or do we go to the restaurant?"

"We follow him. The restaurant will stay put."

"Let's go."

Lily took off, keeping a discreet distance between Kyle's car
and ours. "You know, I thought I'd be sitting outside his house all day."

"Lucky for us that he's moving." We waited for him to make his left turn, then followed.

"Lucky for you to get the day off."

"I might get a lot of days off if I don't find out what's going on," I said
. I was wondering exactly who would pay our case fees if Solomon was right and we found out Leo was dirty. If that were the case, I hoped Solomon received a decent retainer fee up front for the work we'd put in so far. I shook my head at my internal downer. Plus, I had to remember, it seemed that faux-Nancy had stolen an identity and played Leo. The poor guy was looking for a ghost. All we had to do was find faux-Nancy, expose her deceit, ruin Leo's life and hand him the bill. Whichever way I looked at it, things did not look good for Leo.

"You think Solomon will fire you over one case?"

"No, I doubt it."

"If he did, you could fire him as your boyfriend."

"Take the next right," I instructed, watching Kyle's tailgate disappear around the corner. "I don't think it works like that. Plus, I wouldn't have a job or a boyfriend."

"You could come work for me at the bar. Did I mention an employee quit recently and I have to interview for a new one?"

"How hard is that anyway?" I asked.

"Working in a bar or hiring staff?"

"Hiring staff."

"Pretty easy. People leave resumes all the time
, and sometimes, one of the staff recommends someone they know. I throw out the resumes that are terrible and keep the rest on file. Then I get them in one-by-one until I find the best fit. I usually start with a recommendation."

"Is that how you got Kyle?"

"No, he was from a resume drop. That's how I got most of them, since we're new, except for the cleaning staff. They're from an agency."

"Do you check their references?"

"Yeah, but..." Lily sighed. "A reference isn't hard to fake, and people leave stuff off their resumes all the time."

"If you could find Kyle's resume, that would be great."

"Sure, it's in my office. I'll take another look at it. Hey, he's pulling into the market. What do I do? "

"Follow him." The market's parking lot was only half full so we let Kyle park first
, continuing past before he got out of his car and saw us. We parked so that we had to twist around and look out the rear window to watch the doors.

"What now? Should we go inside?"

"I think he'll see... Lily!" Lily was out of the car before I had time to tell her not to. If Kyle saw her, he might have gotten suspicious. It wasn't a large market, and clearly, nowhere near Lily's neighborhood. I didn't feel like skulking around the aisles pretending to browse the washing powder and vegetables. "Ugh!" I groaned as I got out and followed her. I arrived in the store barely in time to witness Lily grabbing a basket, pulling up the hood of her jacket and starting inside.

"No hoods, ma'am," said the security guard.

"C'mon!" said Lily. "Bad hair day!"

"No. Hoods. Ma'am," he repeated slower, glaring down at her.

"That's right, it's not raining," I said, pulling her hood down and smiling brightly as I tossed my hair. "Silly you!" I grabbed her arm and continued into the store before anyone else turned to look. "Why didn't you wait?" I hissed. "It would have been easier to wait outside."

"But what if he's getting supplies for the next robbery?"

"Like what? This is a market, not a weapons supply store. You think he's going to throw tomatoes at people?"

"Let's find him and
see," Lily said, making for the vegetables. We spent several minutes looking all over the store for him. "He's not here," she said, finally. "Where did he go?"

"If we
’d waited outside, we'd know!"

"Fine. You're right."

We rounded the corner and I did a faceplant into a hard chest. "Sorry, I... oh!" I trailed off, realizing I just walked into our target. That was unfortunate, and for a moment, I was lost for words. Finally, I scrambled a few together while he looked from me to Lily. "I didn't see you there!" I said. "So sorry!"

"Lily?" he said, looking past me. "What are you doing here?"

"Buying stuff," she said, reaching across to the nearest shelf and grabbing a box before dropping it into her basket.

Kyle frowned. "Condoms?"

Lily and I both looked into her basket. The box she picked was extra large. She looked up without blinking. "I may be married, but I still practice safe sex."

"Me too," I said, grabbing another box and throwing it into her basket in a show of sisterly solidarity. "But I'm not married. Maybe I should get another box
." I grabbed another one and threw it in.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked, leaning a little to the left and attempting to look into his basket.

"Grocery shopping," he said. "You don't live around here."

"We were on the way somewhere when we realized we both needed condoms," she
explained.

"Huh," he said. "I gotta go." He
spun around and walked down the aisle before turning out of sight.

"Condoms?" I said, pulling a face.

"Extra small?" said Lily, picking up the two boxes I grabbed. "Really?"

"No, not really! Lily, it's not for real!"

"Just playin' with ya! Did you see his basket? He had a roll of duct tape."

"Could be for anything."

"Like duct taping people before he shoots them. Let's follow..."

"No. He's already seen us and I don't think he bought our story of an urgent need for protection. We
have to leave."

Lily stuffed the boxes back on the shelf and
abandoned the basket. "Fine. Let's go."

Back in the car, I said, "You can't tail him for a few days. If he's up to something, he's on alert for you now."

"For me?"

"For anyone."

"Damn. I'm going to call Ruby and have her follow him. We can't leave him unmonitored." Lily dialed Ruby and they arranged for us to watch him very discreetly to see where he went from the market. Ruby would then watch him at home and take up the surveillance from there. It wasn't ideal, but would have to do for now. By the time Kyle exited the store and drove a few blocks, we were sure he was headed home.

"What now?" Lily asked as we sailed past Kyle
who was making a turn.

"Let's go to the restaurant."

The restaurant had been swept down and looked exactly as it did when Solomon and I first arrived. My untrained nose detected fresh paint so I figured they did a thorough job of tidying up after the robbery. The few diners enjoying brunch appeared entirely unperturbed by the recent events.

"Can we speak to the manager?" I asked the woman behind the bar.

"Do you have an appointment?" she replied.

"No, but it's in relation to the robbery," I told her. Lily's reflection nodded enthusiastically.

"Are you another one here about the reward?"

"What reward?" asked Lily.

"The manager put up a thousand dollars for any information leading to the conviction of the robbers."

"Have you had many calls?"
I asked.

"Too many
; and just so you know, all the information so far has been bull."

"I was here that night," I told her, reaching for my business card which I handed over. Like most lucky recipient
s of my card, she took her time examining it first and then me.

"This official business?" she asked next.

"It is. We have a few questions for the manager."

"I'll take him your card. Wait here," she said, waving over another staff member to
assume her position behind the bar. We didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, the woman reappeared with the manager. He shook our hands, saying, "I'm Robert King, manager of Royal's. I wasn't aware the Solomon Agency was investigating the crime. Who hired you?"

"I did," said Lily without missing a beat.

"And who are you?"

"Lily Shuler
-Graves. I own Lily's."

"Right." King nodded, obviously familiar with
her name as he gave Lily an appreciative look. I was pretty sure he wanted to get more familiar with her, but since the chances of that happening were subzero, I didn't bother making a comment. "You got robbed too?"

"That's right. I hired the Solomon Agency to
privately investigate the thefts."

"Good call. I'd like to say I hired the police
, but they aren't telling me anything. What can I do for you?"

"We'd like to take a look at your employee ro
ster."

"The current one?"

"Going back until you opened. Anyone on or off the books."

"I only carry employees on the books and I make sure everyone I hire is legal," King
replied. "I have a file on all hires and I don't see any reason why you can't see it too. You'll have to look through it here."

"We'd appreciate that."

"I'm going out on a limb here, but do you think this was an inside job?"

"We're
investigating all angles."

"Come into my office."

King's office was nice, but basic, with none of the restaurant’s opulence. The desk and chair were cheap, the security system good, and an iron grill covered the window that overlooked a tidy parking lot. I knew there was a safe somewhere, but I couldn't see it. I guessed it had to be obscured by something. Perhaps one of the framed prints, or the large ficus in one corner. He reached into one of the twin filing cabinets, and retrieved a thick file, which he handed to us before indicating we could sit on the guest chairs. I did so, opening the file to the first resume.

"If I'd known all this would happen, I would have made a list. Instead
, I stick every employee’s resume in here. It's not an ideal system," he explained.