BOOK FOUR: Fourth Suspect

Sometimes living in a small town sucked. Like when everyone heard you were a murder suspect before you.

Heat from Anessa's oven fogged up the bakery's window beside me, and I wiped my hand over the spot to clear it away. More afternoon light filtered in, lighting up the pink walls of Bakery by the Bay.

"How are the ribs?" Pearl asked from her table, one away from mine.

We both wanted the best spots for the gossip but couldn't share a table. I needed to spread out for my project and she was too willy nilly with her tea. I couldn't have her dribbling on my crime scrapbook. With my index finger, I nudged the tender spot under my right breast. Three weeks ago, I'd taken a good hit to them when the principal of the high school tried to hit a home run using my head as the ball.

"Almost healed," I said and finished cutting out Susan's most recent news article about Rafferty's upcoming sentencing. "The bruising looks worse than they feel."

He was no longer Principal Rafferty since the school board fired him after he confessed to the murder of Coach Torres. It also meant he didn't have a trial, which sucked. I mean good that he just went right to jail, but I'd never get my time on the witness stand. I'd make a kick-ass witness. Had the outfit picked out and everything.

Anessa eyed my messy window cleaning job as she walked a tray of cupcakes to the couple practically sitting on top of one another on her couch by the fake fireplace. The public groping weirded me out, so I did my best to ignore them.

"Is Broadrick going to freak when he returns?" Anessa asked, finding her way back behind the counter.

I glued the article to the middle of the page and then wrote the date on top with a thick red pen. To make sure no one missed the important stuff, I also underlined all the mentions of my name in the article. They were growing fewer with each one. Sadly.

Hopefully, someone else died soon. But like a criminal, not a good person.

I felt bad wishing for someone's death. Okay, fine. Hopefully, someone important cheated on their spouse, so I got to catch them, and it made the paper. Still not great, but no one died. We had to pick our poison in the PI life.

"No, he'll be fine," I said and capped the pen, but not before getting red ink on my fingers. Great. It was permanent, too. I'd have to scrub to get it off.

The government sent Broadrick on hopefully his final mission as a SEAL last month before I closed the big case. He'd been out of communication since then and hadn't heard what happened here. I'd been sending him a steady stream of text message updates, but so far he'd read none of them.

I only hoped he was somewhere safe and delusional, so he believed I'd stayed out of trouble while he was gone. Then, by the time he made it home and everything was fine, he'd have nothing to get upset about. If he even found out about everything that happened at all.

Pearl laughed at me as I frowned at my red fingertips. "You can't hide anything in this town."

"I'm not hiding," I said, meeting her eyes and wiping my fingers on my napkin. It didn't help.

I had considered hiding the attack from Broadrick but figured he'd find out, anyway. And then we'd have to go through the whole "don't be irresponsible" talk when none of it was my fault. Anderson should have messed up his hair and followed me outside. Really, it was his fault. I blamed him.

To get around that three-day argument, I hit the bull on the head. Or whatever.

I sent Broadrick a daily photo of the bruising and update on my healing to prove to him everything was fine. When he made it home, I'd be perfectly normal, and the only person he'd have to yell at was Anderson for being crappy backup.

That is, if he ever read my text messages.

Anessa opened the cookie display case to rearrange them, and I peeked at my phone for the millionth time that day.

Still unread.

I'd tried to count my number of unanswered earlier that morning and stopped at fifty.

Why wasn't he reading them? Why didn't he respond? I trusted-a little-the government to tell me if something happened. Broadrick said he'd left directions with his commanding officer to notify me. I hadn't totally paid attention to him because I didn't want to imagine a world where he wasn't in it. Now he'd been gone almost a month, and I missed him.

I worried.

A lot.

Even NB lost a little pep in his step without Broadrick here. I kept giving him extra treats, but they never lasted long enough. We missed our guy.

How come it took these super GI Joes so long to save the world?

I solved my murder case in less than two weeks. They really needed to get with the program.

"When is he getting home?" Anessa asked, closing the bakery case door with a thud. A ray of sun lit up the pink apron she wore. Pretty much everything in the bakery was pink except the tables and chairs. Somehow it worked.

My heart rang with the sound becoming louder as it clenched in worry when I didn't have an answer. Something in my chest grew heavy, like I had a big fat weight sitting on it. Dread surrounded me, and taking a breath became harder. I tapped the jade table top where I sat.

"I'm not sure," I said, somehow sounding casual and light. "But I'll hear once he's back in the states."

I hoped.

A fresh fear. One I'd successfully pushed back and ignored, lit up in my brain again. What if I never saw him again, not because something happened, but because he didn't want me to see him? What if Broadrick didn't come back to Pelican Bay? He was out there alone with no contact or reminders of what he had here. What if he met some amazingly beautiful and skinny chick on this tour and fell in love? He'd stay and have little super model babies with her.

I counted to ten to calm my worries and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I reached for my last cookie and took a bite. Broadrick had to come back to Pelican Bay. He might leave me, but he'd definitely never leave NB. Right? He loved the dog for sure. They had a special bond.

"He better hurry or he'll miss the Memorial Day Festival," Pearl said.

I highly doubted Broadrick even realized we had a Memorial Day Festival. And that it lasted an entire weekend. He had so much to learn about this town.

"There's always the Fourth of July Festival or Labor Day Weekend Games. The Fall Harvest Fest. Halloween and then the holidays."

Pearl smiled. "You forgot Winter Fest."

"Ah, yes." We always had something to celebrate and to keep us busy. Half of them were in costume, too. That added...something. I didn't know if it was a good something, but it was definitely something. "It's almost graduation season."

"Don't remind me," Anessa said, holding up the clipboard she used to track orders. It was full.

If he didn't hurry and get back soon, Broadrick would miss Vivi's high school graduation. He'd probably feel a little bad about that. But saving the world was more important than watching Vivi walk down the graduation aisle.

The woman laughed by the fireplace and then kissed the person whose lap she was practically sitting in. Eww. Really?

"Knock it off, you two," I yelled and closed the scrapbook. "What if Dad sees you?"

Vivi laughed and snuggled closer to Allen on the couch, putting her head against his neck. Our father was not on board with the two of them getting back together, hence the bakery meeting. Didn't they have a backseat to do that stuff? My word. They were sitting in front of the large storefront window. Everyone could see them. Why not just borrow Katy's megaphone and announce it to the entire town at once?

Just because I'd cleared Allen's name on the murder charge didn't mean my dad trusted him.

Pearl laughed again, almost choking on her tea. "Let them have fun. They're young."

"They're in public," I countered.

Anessa brought me another cookie, and while I should have turned it away, I needed the distraction. No one wanted to watch their sister make out with her boyfriend. In public!

A body ran into the closed bakery door, rattling the hinges. We all turned to watch as Katy jerked open the door with a flourish and set the pink bell above the door into a frenzy.

I bit off half my new cookie. She definitely had good gossip to share with an entrance like that.

"Vonnie!" Her eyes widened when she saw me, and she ran for my table.