Page 14 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“Don’t you find it the least bit odd that she’s depositing several thousand dollars more than she’s declaring, and yet she operates that place on a nickel and a prayer?” Fisher asked. “She does all the cooking, all the cleaning, she even waitresses. If she’s being paid off, why isn’t she using the money to pump up her business?”

“Maybe she’s hoarding it for an early retirement,” Brian suggested.

“No, there’s something not right here,” Fisher said. “I want one more week to figure out what’s going on. I want to trace every single deposit and see where they are coming from.”

“A week?” Brian ripped off his glasses and shoved a hand through his hair, making it stand up in exasperated tufts. “She could be on Grand Cayman sucking down a daiquiri and laughing at us in a week. Are you willing to risk that?”

“Yes, I am,” he said.

Brian studied him, looking as frustrated as a cat stalking a caged canary. “All right, we’ll play it your way. But if you blow it, I’m going to let Van Buren rip you a new...”

“I get the idea,” Fisher interrupted his partner, not wanting to think about what Van Buren would do to him if he was wrong. But he had a hunch. There was something more to this than Annie and her business. He had to figure out what and soon.

When Annie answered his knock, she was wearing a bright yellow sundress with matching sandals. She looked as capable of deceit as a daisy and Fisher wondered, not for the first time, if he was being a Class-A idiot. She was either as innocent as she looked or she was the most deceptive felon he’d ever encountered.

“Are you ready to go?” he asked, feeling surly.

“Sure, but don’t you want to change?” she asked, gesturing to his suit. “We’re meeting at the church to rehearse, but dinner is just a barbecue at the groom’s parents’ house.”

“Jeans okay?” he asked.

“Just fine,” she agreed.

“I’ll be back in two minutes,” he said and turned to enter his own apartment.

“I’ll time you,” she called after him.

Despite himself, Fisher felt a smile part his lips. The woman had sass.

Rushing into his apartment, he paused to scratch Harpy’s pinfeathers and tell her what a good girl she was. When Harpy’s eyes rolled back in ecstasy, he gave her a quick peck on her head and hurried to his closet. He flung his tie over the doorknob, kicked off his shoes and shrugged out of his suit. He pulled on a faded pair of Levi’s jeans and his favorite Henley and rushed out the door not wanting to make them late.

She was waiting outside on the deck, leaning against the rail and watching a hummingbird hover over a pot of purple petunias in the yard below.

“How did I do?” he asked.

She glanced at her watch. “Ten seconds to spare,” she said. Her gaze moved over him and she frowned. “Then again...”

“What? Am I too casual?”

“No, but you might want shoes.”

Fisher glanced down at his feet. A pair of black socks stared back up at him. He wiggled his toes to be certain they were his. Yep, they were. Shoes? How could he have forgotten his shoes? When he glanced up, she was laughing. She was trying not to but failing miserably. Her muffled snorts gave her away.

“Ten seconds,” he promised with a grin and raced back into the house.

He’d never forgotten his shoes before. It had to be her. He could see her wide lips parted with laughter, her voluminous red hair tied back at the nape of her neck. It had to be her. She affected him in ways he didn’t understand. She distracted him, made him smile, made him want to loosen her hair and bury his face in it.

Grabbing his shoes from the closet floor, Fisher knotted the laces and raced back outside. Brian’s exasperated face appeared in his mind’s eye.The little cappuccino pusher has gotten to you, hasn’t she?No! She wasn’t getting to him. He couldn’t let her affect his judgment. Not if he wanted to keep his career alive.

He was going tonight strictly to observe the people she interacted with. To see who she associated with and get a list of names to check out. She was a suspect. The chief suspect. And he’d best not forget it.

They arrived at the church just in time. The minister was talking the bride and groom through the ceremony and Annie joined the other bridesmaids to receive her instructions for tomorrow’s ceremony.

Fisher took a seat at the back of the church and watched as the wedding party was put through their paces. The girls practiced walking down the aisle while the men stood beside the groom. Fisher wondered if their job was to keep the groom from bolting if he had second thoughts or to help him escape. Having never been in a wedding, he had no idea.

He did know that he didn’t like the groomsman Annie was paired with. He was only a few inches taller than Annie, he had white blonde hair, an even tan and a silly cleft in his chin. He looked like Dudley Do-Right. He held her too close and too tight, and he kept whispering in her ear as they practiced walking down the aisle in the wake of the bride and groom. Judging by the wrinkle in Annie’s nose, the guy either smelled bad or she was less than thrilled with his attention. Fisher was betting on the latter.

As if she felt his gaze upon her, she glanced up and her deep blue gaze met his. Fisher winked at her and she tripped, stumbling over her feet and causing her escort to loosen his grip upon her. Fisher grinned. So she wasn’t immune to him, either. Good.

---