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Agnes filled a plate with bacon and came around the counter with it, as Garth got up to go. “I’m gonna go pick up that ground cover for the bare spots around the gazebo,” he said.
“Let me give you money,” Agnes said, but Garth said, “Nah,” and went out the back door as she called after him, “You look really nice in that shirt,” and got a grin through the screen door in return. “Please don’t steal plants from people,” she yelled as he went down the path and he waved without turning around.
“I wouldn’t ask any questions about the landscaping,” Shane said when Garth was out of earshot.
Agnes nodded. “I’ll deal with that later. Listen, I know this has probably been screwing up your job, babysitting me and the wedding?—”
“No,” Shane said. “It’s part of my job. The wedding is my job.” He watched the warmth fade from her face and the wariness creep back in. “I didn’t know that when I came here. The Don set up a hit here, at the wedding. I’m here to take the hitman, named Casey Dean, out, to stop it.”
Agnes drew a deep breath. “At the wedding.”
The phone rang and she went to answer it. “Yes, Butch, you bastard,” she said, her eyes on Shane, “that was me who left you the message. I know who you are and I know the zoo where you work. If you don’t get Cerise and Hot Pink back there today, I am going to turn you in. I don’t care about your three children or your grandmother with the operation.” She listened for a minute and then she said, “No, two is not enough for a flock as you well know. You take them back today, Butch, or your ass is grass and I am a John Deere super-classic riding lawn mower with a V6 engine and a double cutting blade, do I make myself clear? Good.” She hung up and went back to the griddle and flipped the second batch of pancakes, perfect golden pancakes, while the coffeemaker brewed its second fresh-ground pot.
“Is it a coincidence that all of this is happening at once?” she said. “That Brenda is using the wedding to take the house back, and that your hitman is using the wedding for his hit, and that somebody was in the vault for the first time in twenty-five years just this week?”
Shane put his fork down. “I don’t know. I don’t like coincidences. But I don’t see how they connect, do you?”
She frowned, thinking hard, and he just looked at her for a minute. Agnes. On his side. In her kitchen full of life.
“Who does the Don want dead?” she asked.
“Don’t know.”
She smiled at him weakly. “I don’t suppose there’s a hope in hell that it’s Brenda?”
He smiled back. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
The phone rang again and she answered it. “Kristy. Hi. I wondered what happened to you yesterday. Yeah, probably a smart thing to do, leave when Brenda starts killing people. No, she swears it was an accident. Right, tonight. Rehearsal dinner’s at six, bachelor and bachelorette parties right after that. Pictures at the beginning only, please. Right. Mother and father of the groom, mother and grandmother of the bride. No father of the bride. Yep. See you then.” She hung up and looked at Shane. “So. Life goes on. Unless you’re Four Wheels.”
Carpenter came in from the hall. “Good morning, all. Pancakes?”
“Just in time,” Agnes said, and loaded a plate for him, adding enough bacon to feed a family of four.
Shane nodded to him. “Any ideas on who could have broken into the shelter and put that frying pan and the money wrappers there?”
Carpenter sat down and frowned at him over the plate Agnes put in front of him. “Good morning to you, too.” He picked up the warm maple syrup. “Have some respect for fine cooking.” He took the syrup and poured it over the cakes and breathed in the sweet maple perfume.
Agnes got him a mug of coffee, looking worried, and Shane felt like hell for having unloaded the hit and the Don on her, but she had to know. Keeping her in the dark wasn’t fair, either. Although lately the dark was the place they were both happiest, so maybe that wasn’t such a bad plan after all.
Carpenter cut into the pancakes and tasted them. “Marry me.”
Hey, Shane thought, and it must have shown on his face because Carpenter grinned.
Lisa Livia yawned in the doorway and said, “So this is what happens when I sleep late.”
“Damn fine pancakes,” Carpenter said, and kept eating as she came into the kitchen, patting his back as she sat down.
“You up for pancakes?” Agnes said, and Lisa Livia nodded and Shane watched Agnes serve up more food, round and warm and flushed, happy again, looking very pattable.
Too many people in this kitchen.
He was wondering what the chances were of luring her back upstairs, when his phone buzzed and he pulled it out. He glanced at the identifier, which indicated that it was a message from Wilson. He was surprised to see it was in plain text, not encrypted:
dock. five minutes. bring carpenter
He looked up at his partner, who was wolfing down breakfast. “We have to meet the boss.”
Carpenter nodded and spoke around pancake. “When and where?”
