Panic Pond by Cole Baxter

Author:Cole Baxter [Baxter, Cole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Amber headed into the back room to grab some boxes for the liquor section but ran into Vince, who was coming in the delivery door. She widened her eyes and acted startled. "Oh! I didn't even know you were gone!"

Vince smirked and tossed his keys up in the air. "No biggie, just had to run an errand. Nothing to be concerned with."

"But what if those robbers had come back? You left the door unlocked and the alarm off, didn't you?"

"Trust me, you were perfectly fine. They aren't coming back. Why would they?"

Amber frowned. She wanted to arrest him right there, but she still didn't have any proof it was him. "I was talking to Bob earlier, and he said you were gone that night too. What if . . . what if they knew you were gone and that's why they came that night?"

Vince shook his head. "It was just a bunch of kids, don't know why you're getting so worked up. Yeah, I wasn't here. I was with my woman, Tara." His eyes roved over her, settling on her cleavage. "You know, we've got an open relationship . . . and you're pretty hot. You keep this little errand of mine to yourself and I might just let you stick around, maybe upgrade you to my woman . . ." He let the rest of the sentence hang as he leered at her for a moment before adding, "you'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Amber swallowed her disgust and smiled back at him. "Um, I just came back here to get these cases to restock . . . I'm not, um, looking to get with anyone right now, you know?"

He chuckled. "Whatever. Don't go blabbing to my Uncle Ray that I left, okay?"

Amber nodded. "Sure." But she was pretty sure that he was the thief, and he hadn't been with his woman, Tara . . . who, as Amber thought over everything, sounded familiar, or at least the name was familiar . . . where had she heard it before? she wondered.

As she stocked the liquor, it came to her. Tara had been her waitress at Fired Up when she'd been there with Leah. It wasn't a common name, so surely, she was the Tara that Vince was talking about, right? She'd have to get Mahoney to go interview her. She seriously doubted that Tara would give Vince an alibi, but she couldn't rule it out.

As she was bringing the empty boxes to the back, she noticed Vince again coming back from the front counter. He had a handful of twenties and was headed back into the office. She moved to an angle where she could watch him as she broke down the boxes. He was counting the money, but every now and then, he'd palm a twenty and stuff it in his jeans pocket, then continue on as if that were normal. She didn't think he knew she was watching him, as she was bent over using a box cutter and her hair was blocking her view, or at least that was how she wanted it to seem.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.