Dead by Midnight - Beverly Barton [44]
Chapter 9
Lorie walked Paul Babcock to the door. “I’m glad you found several new postcards to add to your collection. I’m expecting a shipment in sometime next week from the antique dealer in Memphis. I’ll call you when it arrives.”
“Sure do appreciate it, Lorie,” Paul said, his wide smile deepening the dimples in his round, rosy cheeks.
When she followed him out onto the sidewalk, Mike came up beside her and slid his hand beneath her elbow. Startled by his touch, her stomach turning flip-flops, she barely managed to wave good-bye to Paul as he headed for his car.
Once Paul was out of earshot, Mike said, “You shouldn’t be out here in the open like this. You’re an easy target. Come back inside.”
Before she had a chance to respond, a teenage boy carrying a large brown sack jaywalked across the street and came straight toward them. As he drew closer, she recognized him as one of Seth’s buddies from school, but she couldn’t recall his name.
“Y’all ordered lunch from the Ice Palace?” the kid asked.
“We did,” Mike told him. “Bring it on in and I’ll pay you.”
Once back inside Treasures, Lorie went behind the counter, reached down, and lifted her purse from the bottom shelf. She pulled out her wallet. “Lunch is my treat.” She looked at the delivery boy and asked, “How much?”
“Twenty-one fifty,” he told her as he set the sack on the counter.
Lorie pulled out a twenty, a five, and a couple of ones, making sure to add a decent tip, and handed the bills to him.
“Thanks. Hope y’all enjoy your lunch,” the boy said as Mike escorted him to the door.
“I’m sure we will,” Mike replied and then added, “In the future, don’t jaywalk. It’s illegal, you know, even in Dunmore.”
The kid’s face turned bright red. “Yes, sir, Sheriff Birkett. I won’t do it again.”
Mike closed and locked the door. Lorie came out from behind the counter and turned the OPEN sign in the window so that it read CLOSED.
“I think you scared him half to death,” Lorie said.
“I wouldn’t have said anything to him since most of the people in Dunmore jaywalk all the time, but because I’m the sheriff, I felt I had to at least act like I uphold that particular law.”
“I’m sure it’ll be a good while before he jaywalks again.”
Mike picked up the sack off the counter. “You’ve got a room in the back with a table and chairs, don’t you?”
“I do. Table, chairs, microwave, and refrigerator,” she said.
He followed her to the back of the shop and when she opened the door and flipped on the overhead light, he glanced around the small kitchenette. She and Cathy had painted the one-window room a bright, cheerful daffodil yellow and surrounded the old free-standing sink with a base draped in navy blue gingham. Navy gingham place mats at the yellow table for two added to the overall color scheme. The old unmatched wooden chairs had been painted white and Lorie had hand-painted yellow daffodils on the backs of each and added navy gingham cushions.
“Hannah would love this room,” Mike said. “Her bedroom is yellow. It’s her favorite color.”
“Yes, I know,” Lorie admitted as she placed the lunch sack on the wooden counter between the sink and the refrigerator. “As you know, I see your children at the Interfaith Youth Council meetings that Patsy Floyd oversees. And before you chew me out, I know that once you learned I’d been talking to them, you ordered me to stay away from them. I promise you that I don’t seek them out. But when Hannah and M.J. speak to me, I talk to them. Hannah told me all about how your mother helped her redo her room as a ninth birthday present.”
“I shouldn’t have reacted that way, telling you not to speak to my kids.” Mike opened the refrigerator and removed the jug of iced tea. “It’s not as if you’re a threat to my children. Warning you to stay away from them was a knee-jerk reaction.”
“Is that another apology?” she asked as she reached up and opened the single white cupboard over the counter and retrieved two tall glasses.