The Gamble

“Got leads on who hired him?” Max went on.

“Leads? No. List of possible suspects a mile long? Yes,” Mick replied.

I flipped on the coffee and pulled down mugs as Mindy hit the counter and slid on a stool.

“Hey Mick,” she greeted, her eyes skimmed over Jeff and then dipped to the counter. “Hey Jeff.”

“Mindy, darlin’,” Mick greeted back.

“Hey Mindy,” Jeff said in a gentle voice, in fact, his whole face had grown gentle and my eyes went to Max.

Max was watching Jeff then his eyes came to mine. I bugged them out and then jerked my head at Jeff and Mindy. Max shook his head and grinned.

“Coffee will be ready in a jiffy,” I announced, leaning a hip against the counter.

“Kind of you Nina,” Jeff said and I smiled brightly at him.

“Sure you boys could use some sustenance,” I surmised. “Mindy makes some mean bacon and eggs. You want some?”

Mindy’s head snapped up and my eyes slid to Max who was looking at the floor but I could see he was pressing his lips together.

“Haven’t had breakfast,” Jeff replied too casually.

“Well, that’s just awful,” I noted, making this news sound dire, my eyes going to his hands. “No wife to fill your belly before a hard day of the God’s honest work of tackling crime?”

Max’s head came up and he made a strangled noise which I hoped was him choking back laughter because he thought I was cute.

“Nope,” Jeff answered through his grin.

“Good-looking guy like you? That’s a miracle. Isn’t that a miracle, Mindy?” I called and looked at her. Her eyes were huge and her face was aflame.

“Uh… yeah,” she muttered.

“Come here, sweetheart, let’s make these local heroes some breakfast,” I urged, she reluctantly slid off her seat and headed into the kitchen.

“You boys sit down, we’ll have breakfast for you in no time,” I said to Mick and Jeff as they shuffled out, Mindy shuffled in and Max came to me.

Max made a show of reaching into the cupboard for sugar, hiding me from Jeff, Mick and Mindy but when his hand came down with the bag of sugar, his mouth went to my ear.

“Bullshit’s so thick in here, Duchess, we might need gumboots,” he whispered.

I tried to look innocent when I tipped my head back and asked, “Sorry?”

“Sorry my ass,” he muttered on a grin, closed the cupboard and moved around me to stand with his h*ps leaned against the sink and his arms crossed on his chest.

“So!” I called cheerfully to Mick and Jeff who were both now at the stools. “With a town full of suspects and a hired killer, how do you go about nailing down the culprit?” Then before Mick could speak I turned and prompted, “Jeff?”

“Um…” Jeff mumbled and Mick answered.

“Sorry, Nina, we don’t usually discuss the specifics of an ongoing investigation.”

“Oh, right,” I murmured, foiled, as Mindy passed in front of me from getting the bacon and eggs from the fridge then I suggested, “If it was me, I’d check bank records. A hired killer probably costs a lot of money.”

“Good idea, Nina,” Jeff said considerately since I was certain they’d already thought of that.

“Oh!” I cried, turning from pulling the bread out of the cupboard. “I know! See if anyone sold anything of value. You know, like their car.”

Mick was smiling broadly. “You wanna job?”

Before I could answer, Max put in, “I think they got a handle on it, honey.”

I gave Max a look, put some bread in the toaster and went to the fridge to get the milk, wondering what other topic of conversation I could put us on to make Jeff sound interesting.

“Why does everyone dislike this Curtis Dodd so much anyway?” I muttered as I closed the fridge and missed Jeff and Mick exchanging glances.

“Land developer,” Mick said to my back as I started pouring out coffee.

“Yes?” I asked when he said no more.

“Folks like town the way it is, Nina,” Jeff told me as I handed Max a cup, black, and I turned to take Mick’s to him.

“What does that mean?” I asked Jeff then smiled and enquired, “And how do you take your coffee?”

“Black, sugar, one spoon’ll do,” he replied.

“You see the housing developments on your way in, ‘bout twenty miles out?” Mick asked as I went back to the coffee.

“Kind of, it was snowing. It doesn’t snow much in England so I was a bit anxious and concentrating,” I explained as I made Jeff and Mindy’s coffee.

“Those’re Dodd’s. Even twenty miles out, they changed the landscape and the economy,” Mick said. “Then he put in a coupla strip malls close to the developments, more change to the landscape and the economy.”

“Houses are big, people in them loaded. They got money to spend, sometimes that’s good, sometime’s it isn’t so good,” Jeff put in.

I touched Mindy’s back and set her coffee by the range where she was studiously frying bacon like taking her attention from it would mean it would combust, igniting us all in a fiery inferno then I turned and walked Jeff’s coffee to him.

“Money in the town would be good,” I noted. “Wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, for shop owners, some more jobs. The rest live like they live. When there’s not much to compare it to they like that life just fine. When a bunch of fancy cars and folks with fancy clothes and fancy attitudes sweep through town, they find reason not to like their life so much,” Jeff said.

I nodded and went back to the coffeepot.

Well that possibly explained Sarah the restaurant hostess’s face closing down on me when she saw my “fancy clothes”.

“People here like a small town, some good tourist trade, neighborly folk,” Mick explained as I made my own coffee. “Town’s bigger now, not everyone knows everyone else, not everyone’s so neighborly anymore.”

“And crime’s up,” Jeff added. “Petty stuff, nothin’ big, but more people means more people misbehavin’. Last ten years, we’ve had to add three more officers to the payroll to keep up with it.”

I turned and leaned against the counter with my coffee, taking a sip then I said, “I can see your point.”

“Well, seein’ it then knowin’ that those developments you drove through, those are only coupla ones Dodd put in. He builds in four counties, changed them all. Within a twenty mile perimeter ‘round our town, he’s put in twelve developments, four strip malls and he was plannin’ to put in even more.”