Maya asked, “What was that?”
Peeking out the lace-curtained window, Rachel groaned. Maya looked, too, and saw the broken egg shells on the porch and the wet smear of egg running down the windows.
“Damn it. They would pull this on the day I wear my new shoes,” Rachel said as she slipped out of her brand-new stiletto booties and cuffed up her blue jeans. “I’d better get the hose. As hot as it is today the egg will be cooked to whatever surface it’s on. We ought to check the Tundra, too.”
They went out the front door, looking around, but whoever it was hadn’t hung around for pleasantries.
“Cowards,” Rachel muttered as she gave the handle on the faucet a spin and pointed the hose at the wall by the front door and began rinsing egg from the front of the building. “We aren’t within the city limits. Discretion is so far out we’re practically on the county line. We don’t have flashing neon signs or a gigantic parking lot full of eighteen-wheelers. We don’t have an enormous sign with ‘adult videos’ on it, we don’t offer peep shows, and the police have never had to respond to a disturbance of any kind out here. Why these assholes feel they should harass us is beyond me.”
“This has happened before?”
“Several times. Once it happened on a Sunday, and I came in Monday morning to find Summer and Margot out here with scrub brushes and buckets because the egg had hardened and wouldn’t rinse off.”
“Do the men know?”
“Yeah, but we all attributed it to kids pulling pranks. We had a sign posted on the window letting folks know that even though it was prom season and we carry women’s formals, we still didn’t allow minors in the store. We had a few complaints from moms who liked the store and were willing to come in with their daughters to chaperone them, but Summer and Margot stood firm about that rule, for obvious reasons. Word would get out and it would get blown out of proportion. We figured it was just kids ‘protesting’ what they saw as an injustice, since the egging started about that time. Prom season is way over now.”
Cringing as she approached the vehicle, Maya was relieved to find more egg, but no other property damage. Rachel brought the hose over, and they quickly had the Tundra washed down.
Standing next to Rachel’s truck, Maya saw a large figure run from the backyard of the shop and jump over the fence into the wooded area beyond.
“Rachel! Someone was in the back!” Maya hollered as she ran to the back of the building.
“Don’t go back—Shit! Wait for me! I’m so not feeling up to this!” Rachel groused as they ran along the side of the venerable old house. Maya turned the corner and was assailed by the odor of smoke.
“Crap! Call 911, Maya!” Rachel barked as she grabbed the water hose on the back porch to douse the flames creeping along the wall and the old doormat. Someone had tried to set the shop on fire. Smoke filled the air as Rachel sprayed down the walls, praying the whole time for the fire not to spread.
Five minutes later the Tarkett County Volunteer Fire Department’s Fire and Rescue equipment filled the parking lot. Rachel and Maya backed off, allowing the firefighters to do their work. Thanks to finding it so soon, the fire hadn’t had a chance to get inside the walls or to do much more than a little cosmetic damage. They treated Rachel and Maya for smoke inhalation, though they’d both insisted it wasn’t necessary. The smoke had exacerbated Rachel’s ever-present nausea, and the EMTs, many of whom knew Eli, took their jobs seriously as they treated her.
Thirty minutes later, Eli, Rachel, Grace, Jack, Kendall, Maya, Summer, and Margot were all standing in the parking lot, talking with the fire chief and the sheriff.
Maya gave a description of the person she’d seen fleeing over the fence. All she’d been able to remember was that it had been a very tall man with dark hair and dressed in blue jeans and T-shirt.
Summer’s sister Margot asked, “So this has been more than just teenaged pranksters all this time?”
“Yes, ma’am. It may have started out a few weeks ago, like you said, with kids. But today’s incident with the egg-throwing sounds like a means to distract you so they could set the fire. If Ms. Daire hadn’t been as observant, by the time you’d gotten back inside it might have been too late for this old house,” the sheriff said, shaking his head sympathetically.
Nodding to Summer and Margot, the fire chief said, “Ladies, does anybody live upstairs?”
Summer replied, “At the moment, no. But there is a large apartment up there. I was considering moving into it, so someone is always here.”