With Baited Breath (12 page)

It’s just as well; you’ve had enough
, Tori thought. “So where are all these journals your daddy wrote in?”

Anissa frowned and looked around the room to the bookcase that housed the magazines. “There.”

“Do you think he wrote anything recently? Maybe he wrote about his encounter with Biggie Taylor.”

Anissa got up from her chair and weaved toward the bookshelf. Holding on to the shelf, she knelt down in front of it. Tori joined her as Anissa started pulling out the bound volumes and tossing them on the floor.

“Hey, stop—stop!” Tori said. She opened one at random. It was dated ten years before. “You might want to read these one day. But for now, let’s just look for the latest one.” She handed the book back to Anissa. Tori grabbed five or six and looked at the dates. None of them were recent. She shelved them and reached for another one. Anissa hadn’t put any back on the shelves, she was too busy reading.

Tori went through all the books and—wouldn’t you know it—it was the last one that had the most recent entries. Most of them appeared to be about fishing, the weather, and what book Mr. Jackson had finished and returned to the library. But most interesting was the fact that the last couple of entries had been ripped from the journal.

“Anissa, look at this.” She handed Anissa the book.

“Who could have done this?”

“Your daddy’s killer?”

“Or the police,” she accused.

“What do you mean?”

“They were here after he died. They left the place in a terrible mess, too. I’ll bet they took the pages. Why would they want to find my daddy’s killer? He was just some old black man—not worth their time.”

“Oh, don’t say that. But I do think it’s worth asking Detective Osborn about it. I mean, shouldn’t they at least have given you a receipt or something?”

“I will call that man first thing in the morning. I’d do it now, but I know for sure he wouldn’t answer after hours.”

“You’re probably right.”

Anissa looked to be on the verge of tears once more. She was angry with her father for abandoning her as a child, and she was angry with him for being killed, never to give her the close relationship she had so craved. Comparing their losses didn’t make Tori’s easier to bear, but it did put it into better perspective. She’d known without a doubt that she was loved unconditionally by her grandmother. And even if her grandfather’s mindset was still in the previous century, she had no doubt that he loved her, too.

“It’s getting late,” Tori said. “I’d better get going.”

Anissa looked at the clock on the mantle. “What are you talking about? It’s not even ten.”

“But when you’ve been up since first light, it seems like a very long day.”

Anissa shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. I haven’t gone to bed before midnight since I lost my job. Do you think there’s anybody in this redneck county that would hire a black woman to do odd jobs, let alone act as a general contractor?”

“You won’t know until you look for work.”

“I don’t have a computer out here. How would I find potential customers?”

“No cell phone?” Tori asked.

“It was the first thing I had to give up. Thank goodness my contract was over.”

“I’ve got my laptop, but no Wi-Fi. Kathy said they have it over at the bar. Why don’t you come down to our house tomorrow and we’ll go over to the bar to see if they’ll let us get online. If nothing else, you can keep me company while I deal with the yard sale customers.”

“It beats sitting here all alone. You’ve got a deal.”

“Maybe we can even go fishing for a while.”

“Now you’re talking,” Anissa said. “Apparently, I’ve got a boat tied up at your dock—unless my daddy owed your grandpa a slip fee. Then I might have to sell it.”

“You keep looking at worst-case scenarios. Give yourself a break,” Tori admonished, sounding an awful lot like Kathy.

“Leaping to conclusions is the only exercise I get,” Anissa admitted with a soggy laugh.

The two women got up from the floor and walked toward the bungalow’s back door.

“Thanks for coming over tonight, Tori. I know I wasn’t good company, but I promise to make it up to you next time.”

“Hey, what are friends for?”

“I sure could use a friend right now.”

Tory embraced her old-yet-new friend. “Me, too.” She pulled back. “Good night.”

Anissa walked out with her. The lights were on at the big house up the hill. Tori could see the silhouette of a woman—no doubt Lucinda Bloomfield—gazing out over her domain from a large window in the center of her home. Was she just as lonely as Tori felt at that moment? She got in her car, started the engine, and gave Anissa a wave before she drove down the long dark road toward the Cannon compound. Most of the houses were virtually invisible. Her headlights cut a swath through the darkness between the near-million-dollar homes that lined the road on either side.

What if someone wanted to buy the Cannon compound only to tear down the house, the shop, the boathouse, the docks, and the old Lotus Lodge to build yet another McMansion? The view was lovely. It might be worth it for someone to get rid of what Don Newton had hinted as ugly trade just to start fresh. That’s what someone ought to do with the house Kathy considered buying.

The wine in her stomach had turned as sour as vinegar and Tori felt sick at heart. It wasn’t just grief at the loss of her grandmother that tore at her soul. It was the real possibility that she would lose her connection to Lotus Bay. Despite all the setbacks in her life, the one constant was coming back to the Cannon compound and the unconditional love it represented.

Kathy was right. If her grandfather wanted to shed the responsibility, she would have to find a way to pay for and make the place her own.

Just how that feat was to be accomplished was a complete mystery to her.

CHAPTER 11

Salvaged cardboard from the collapsed cartons in the Lotus Lodge and paint left from refurbishing the bait shop and accompanying signs were the tools Tori had to work with late that night to make signs for the yard sale. Thankfully she was able to post the sale particulars to Craigslist via her smart phone. Now all she had to do was cross her fingers that someone (and preferably
many
someones) would see the listing and come to check out her grandmother’s treasures.

After a restless night, she was up before Herb, pricing some of the things she and Kathy had found in the spare bedroom. When had her grandmother started collecting porcelain dolls? Most of them weren’t worth much, but a few would need to go on eBay. There were china flowerpots, brown transferware, bone china teacups (although Kathy had had her eye on them, and Tori had decided to gift them to her for all her help), plus books, and knick-knacks, and … it was overwhelming.

Herb made an appearance, poured himself a cup of coffee, and made yet more scrambled eggs.

“Wouldn’t you like something else to eat for breakfast?” Tori asked.

“No time to hard boil them, but I might do that later for lunch.”

“Don’t you worry about cholesterol?”

“Nope.”

Tori desperately needed to make a run to the grocery store to buy some
real
food.

By the time they’d both eaten, Tori was ready to put out her signs in case any early birds wanted to check out their sale items.

She’d just come back from staking the signs on either side of the bridge and up the road to Worton when a familiar car pulled into the Cannon’s gravel parking lot. With hands firmly planted on hips, she waited for the car’s occupant to get out.

“Hi!” Kathy called. “I saw your yard sale sign at the other end of the bridge.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to help.”

“What about work tonight?” Tori asked.

Kathy waved a hand and pulled a face. “Not a problem anymore. I quit.”

“You what?” Tori called.

“Let’s talk about this later,” Kathy said. “Got any coffee?”

“Just the dregs.”

“I’ll make a fresh pot,” Kathy said, and headed for the house.

Tori followed. Sure enough, Kathy went straight for the pot, rinsed it out, and took the canister from the cupboard, obviously feeling quite at home.

“I think we should talk about your job situation now. Or should I say your
lack
of a job situation?”

“If you insist,” Kathy said, looking like she wanted to roll her eyes.

“I do. We can’t both be out of work.”

“Who says we’re out of work? We have
tons
of work to do … that is if you’re going to reopen the Lotus Lodge and I’m going to open my B and B. Isn’t it great? We’re going to live across the road from each other—maybe for the rest of our lives.”

“I don’t know where I’m going to be six months from now, let alone the rest of my life.”

“Well, I know where
I’m
going to be.”

Tori’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” Kathy said, turning back to check on the coffee’s progress.

“Didn’t buy that wreck of a house.”

“I didn’t. I put an offer on it. I won’t know if they accepted it until I hear back from Jerry, and hopefully that will be this morning. I had hoped to hear last night, but I suppose it was short notice.”

Tori practically collapsed into a chair at the table. “How could you quit your job? You’ve only been there three months.”

“Let’s just say upper management and I had a teensy disagreement over my role at the hotel. The guy wasn’t very nice, and I thought to myself, ‘you know, I don’t have to take this kind of crap.’ In four months I’ll get my inheritance, and then I can make my dream a reality.”

“You don’t know how much you’re getting.”

“I have a pretty good idea.”

“How are you going to live in the meantime?”

Kathy’s gaze strayed to the back of the house and the nearly cleared out guest bedroom.

“Oh, Kath, you know I’d love to be roommates again, but this isn’t my house. I’m only a squatter here, myself.”

“Well, I’ve still got a month left on my lease in Batavia, anyway. But I will be looking to move here as soon as I can. I was up half of the night writing down plans for the house. I can’t wait to talk to Anissa later today to get her ideas. But I figured I could at least help you out with your sale this morning and we could make other plans. And maybe I’d start making some lists for the Lotus Lodge, too.”

“You and your lists,” Tori said, shaking her head.

“It beats sitting around and wondering why we’re not married.”

“You know perfectly well why we’re not married.”

“No one asked,” Kathy said.

Tori scowled. “We weren’t willing to just settle for anyone.”

“Did Billy ever ask you?”

“No, and right about now I’m really happy he didn’t. I always knew he wasn’t
the
one, and you knew that about Peter, too.”

“I sure did. I wanted my B and B and he knew I wasn’t going to wait until retirement time for it to happen. Why would anyone in their right mind want all the back-breaking work to running a B and B after they retire, when they should start to slow down and enjoy life?”

“How about this one: because they couldn’t afford to do it when they were young?” Tori suggested.

“Well, I can. Or I will be able to, once my inheritance comes in.”

“You’ve staked your whole future on that inheritance. What if—just what if—it isn’t as much as your brother got?”

“Then I will have to jump off the bay bridge and drown among the lotuses.” Tori wasn’t amused. “I will find a way to make it work.”

If anyone could do it, it was Kathy. “Besides,” she added. “What if instead of me getting married, my destiny is to give other women the wedding of their dreams at my B and B?”

“You could be right,” Tori conceded.

The coffeemaker started making gurgling noises, letting them know the brew cycle was over. “Now, what’s on tap for today?”

“Once we finish our coffee, help me get some of those boxes out from the guest room. I assume you’d like to stay the night?”

“I sure would, since I can no longer even afford to stay in one of those dinky rooms across the street, and it would be nice if the bed was cleared. What are you going to tell your Gramps?”

“That we have a guest. I won’t mention that it could be long-term. Let’s let him get used to the idea, first.”

“Great. Do you have any flour? I’m feeling the urge to bake something decadent for dessert tonight.”

“No. In fact, I still haven’t gone shopping.”

“Then I will. I haven’t got much on my credit card this month—yet—and I’m just so excited I could explode with happiness.”

“Yeah, well don’t explode anywhere around here. It’s taken days to tidy this place.”

They heard a car drive onto the gravel lot outside. “Hey, this could be your first customer. You’d better get outside. I’ll bring you your coffee,” Kathy said.

Tori got up and went outside to greet her first customer of the day. While she did so, another car pulled up. And then another.

It looked like it might be a lucrative day after all.

#

The sale was sensational. Not only had people seen the signs Tori had put up, but they’d seen her ad on Craigslist, too. They came in droves, and they bought items as fast as Tori could price them. She and Kathy took turns going back into the house to bring out more and more boxes of stuff, while Herb gave a sales pitch for the empty boat slips and tried to sell bait and tackle to anybody who’d listen.

Things didn’t slow down until almost noon, when Herb came back out to tell them he’d made yet another batch of his famous egg salad and had left sandwiches in the fridge wrapped in plastic for what he now called “my girls.”

“We’re softening him up,” Kathy whispered to Tori, who looked skeptical.

They were just heading into the house when Anissa’s battered truck pulled into the lot. Kathy’s phone rang at the very same time. “It’s Jerry,” she called excitedly, and walked across the lot to stand by the Lotus Lodge to take the call in privacy, but still managed to give a wave to Anissa in passing.

Anissa approached the sale table. “How’s it going?”

“We’ve already made enough to buy a cheap light for the dock, and maybe even pay you to put it up,” Tori said and smiled.

“That’s great.”

“What brings you here so early on this lovely sunny day?”

“My daddy didn’t have cable. His VHS collection is kinda heavy on bad B movies, and there’s nothing much to read.”

“You mean you’re bored?”

“You got it.”

“Were you able to get hold of Detective Osborn?” Tori asked.

Anissa shook her head. “Someone took a message and said he’d get back to me on Monday. Yeah, right.”

Tori didn’t know how to reply to that.

“What’s Kathy doing here? I thought she wasn’t coming back until next week.”

Tori frowned. “She quit her job last night and made an offer on that wreck of a house.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward the road.

“But she promised me she’d wait at least twenty-four hours before making a decision,” Anissa said, sounding just a tad annoyed.

“She’s talking to the real estate agent now.” They turned to look. Instead of a smile, Kathy looked upset. Though she wasn’t shouting, she seemed to be making an emphatic point about something.

“She sure doesn’t look happy,” Anissa said.

No, she didn’t.

A man came up from the dock and stopped before the table, looking over the wares on offer and Tori turned her attention to him. He was interested in a new, still-in-the-box crockpot, but he didn’t like the ten-dollar price tag and wanted to haggle. Tori had looked the item up online and found it was worth at least thirty bucks, and she wasn’t about to budge on her ten-dollar price. He tried to distract her, he tried to cajole her, but she remained adamant and it was with reluctance that he parted with a ratty-looking ten-dollar bill from his equally ratty-looking wallet. By then Kathy had finished her call.

“I can’t believe it—I can’t believe it!” she nearly shouted.

“What’s wrong?” Tori asked.

“The owners won’t entertain my offer until after someone else looks at the house this afternoon.”

“Who in their right mind would want that wreck?” Tori asked, and Kathy shot daggers at her. “I mean, who else could possibly want it
right now
? It’s been sitting there empty for months.”

“Jerry said he got a call yesterday evening after he talked to me from someone else who wants to look at the property, and that they may want to make an offer, too.”

“That’s too bad,” Anissa said.

“Does this kind of thing happen a lot?” Kathy asked.

Anissa looked sheepish, but nodded anyway.

“Why … why?” Kathy demanded.

“It happens a lot when someone shows interest in an undervalued property. But it could just be a way to start a bidding war. Someone pretends to show interest, makes an offer, and then they push the truly interested buyer into making a higher offer.”

“How can you possibly think that place is undervalued?” Tori asked.

“The property
is
on the water,” Anissa said simply.

“A mere technicality. It’s a marsh out back,” Kathy countered.

“Yeah, but according to the town, it’s on water, and they can assign any value they want to the property, no matter what the actual condition of the house may be.”

“That’s so unfair!” Tori said.

“You might want to see what the value is on this place. Any improvements you make could cause your tax bill to spiral upward. Just painting the bait shop may have raised it ten grand.”

Tori’s mouth dropped in shock. “But, the paint cost us less than a hundred bucks.”

“It’s extremely difficult to argue with county tax assessors,” Anissa pointed out.

Kathy looked away, her eyes filling with tears. She’d staked her future, even quit her job, at the prospect of getting the house and now….

“They could be bluffing, right?” Tori offered.

“Absolutely,” Anissa said.

“And if they’re not?”

She shrugged. “It’s a risk you’ll have to take.”

The silence was terribly awkward.

“What time did the real estate agent say they were going to go look at the property?” Tori asked.

“He didn’t. Just sometime late this afternoon.”

Tori looked over at the boathouse. The upstairs loft was probably filled with junk, but from there they would have an eagle’s view of the house across the street. She told Kathy so.