Page 23

“Lilly wouldn’t kill a fly. That’s why she hired Jolene.

Jolene was probably the one who fired Robert.

Lilly tries to stay out of the business side of the writing.

That’s one reason she didn’t see his treachery soon enough.

But when Jolene started cleaning up her office and found the contracts, she realized they didn’t match the ones that the publishing house had sent her when she digitized all the records.

Jolene was even madder than Lilly. She came over for coffee to grill me about new agents I thought would be a better fit for Lilly. ”

Meg wasn’t sure her aunt knew what she was doing.

By expressing her faith that Lilly didn’t kill Meade, she moved the spotlight onto Jolene.

Meg needed to find out more about the assistant that Lilly thought she couldn’t live without.

And someone needed to check out the new agent.

Was she around the day Meade died? Would she kill off the competition?

As Meg gathered Watson from his favorite napping spot on the back deck, by the planter with blooming pansies and tall lemongrass in the middle, she decided she might have some time with both women during the launch event this evening.

Sometimes the Fates put you on the exact path where you need to be. Even if you have to go through a cheating fiancé to get there.

* * *

The store had been crazy since they’d opened.

Glory had been assigned to sell water to the waiting crowd starting at two.

She also handed out a list of local restaurants that would deliver.

Felicia had set up the system a few books signings ago, when she’d had two people pass out from heat exhaustion while they waited in line.

She’d wanted to give away the water, but when she’d added up the numbers, she’d realized it would take a chunk out of her profits for the event.

Profits she needed to keep the store open between book releases.

Dalton had made a second supply run to the grocery store for more water. He dropped off a PayDay on the table in front of Meg as she checked book boxes to make sure they were ready to move over to the auditorium. Meg held it up. “What’s this?”

“Don’t tell me it’s not your favorite anymore,” he said as he poured ice into the empty cooler he’d brought back from Glory’s station in front of city hall. “Glory always goes for Hershey’s with Almonds. And your mom—she’s partial to anything with coconut. So I get Almond Joy bars for her.”

“You buy candy bars when you’re sent for water?” Meg laughed. “No wonder Mom needs this event. You all are all about the extras.”

“It’s not extra. It’s necessary. Your mom gets hangry if she doesn’t have a treat midday. And you take after her.” He grabbed the cooler and opened the back door.

“I do not,” Meg called after him as he left to take the now full cooler to Glory. She went over and refilled her water bottle at the water filter machine her mom had bought a few years ago.

Meg’s mom came in the back room, a half-eaten candy bar in her hand, and looked around. “Who are you talking to?”

“Dalton, or I was.” Meg glanced at the back door, through which he’d left, probably without having heard her witty comeback. “He left with water. The boxes are ready. What’s next?”

“I’m heading over to work with Dalton and Junior on the setup. I need you to watch the front. We’ve been busy today with people having someone else hold their place in line as they come in to get something to read.” She took the last bite of her candy bar. “I love book people.”

Meg chuckled as she started moving her stuff to the front. “Do you want me to leave the back door open?”

“Please. I’ll be sending Dalton and Junior back with a cart to get the books.” She nodded to Watson, who was sleeping on his bed. “Do you need to take him out before I leave you here by yourself?”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll get everything moved to the front, and then I’ll take him out. He shouldn’t be long.”

“No worries. We only have the biggest event of this year happening in less than six hours.” Mom laughed and shooed Meg away when she stopped in her tracks. “I was kidding. Go get set up and then take your dog for a walk. You probably need some fresh air, too.”

Her mom was right about that. She needed to stretch.

She hadn’t sat this long since she left her job.

However, working at the bookstore gave her the opportunity to engage in a lot of different activities during the day.

Today was busier than normal. She hadn’t had time to work on Lilly’s assignment, at least not on paper.

She’d been thinking about how to kill Romain, now named George, all day.

Probably not something she should admit to her uncle or anyone in law enforcement.

Walking Watson, she ran into Jolene standing by her car, waiting in the ferry parking lot. She was looking at something on her phone. Meg walked over to her and called out a greeting. “Hi, Jolene. Waiting for someone for the event tonight?”

She looked up, frowning. But when she recognized Meg, she smiled.

“Lilly’s new agent. Sarah’s on the ferry, so I’m running her up to the house.

The chef has an early dinner ready for them.

Lilly doesn’t like waiting until after events to eat.

When we’re on the road, we’re always the first to arrive at some restaurant, hoping they’ll feed us before the nightly rush. ”

“Well, Mom’s busy getting the auditorium set up.

She had Natasha bake a cake with the book cover on it.

Actually three cakes. Mom’s hoping that will be enough if we cut small slices.

” Meg realized she was babbling. Jolene probably already knew about her mother’s plans for the event.

“Anyway, I’m taking Watson out for a few minutes. ”

“Remind me to get a picture of Lilly with the cakes. She’ll love that. We’re always looking for fun photo ops from the events.” She looked down at the phone when it buzzed. “That’s Sarah. She’s looking for me.”

Meg watched as Jolene turned and scanned the ferry parking lot. A slender blond woman in a skirted suit had her phone out and was at the entrance to the walk-on passengers parking lot. She saw Jolene and headed her way. She had brought a small suitcase.

“There she is. I guess she’s staying overnight.

They need to review all of Lilly’s old contracts and figure out what to do next with this mess Robert left,” Jolene muttered as the woman walked toward them.

“Hey, stay and meet her. Lilly’s probably been talking about you, so you might as well meet face-to-face. ”

“Okay.” Meg glanced at her watch. She’d been gone less than ten minutes. A few more wouldn’t hurt. And it was book business. That Mom would understand.

When Sarah reached the car, she hugged Jolene. “I’m so excited to be here for this release. And to help Lilly clean up this disaster. Of course Robert would make a mess of things. Hopefully, her contract with him ends at his death. He didn’t have any other agents in the company, so that’s helpful.”

When she leaned away from Jolene, her eyes lit up. “Oh, this must be the new member of the Aster team. You’re Maggie, right?”

“Meg,” she corrected as she was swept into a hug. When Sarah released her, Meg glanced down at Watson, who was looking at her with amusement. “And this is Watson, my dog.”

“Well, isn’t this a pleasure? You’re related to Melody, right? It’s old home week here. I can’t wait to see Melody and that handsome hunk that wooed her away from the publishing world.” Sarah glanced at her luggage. “Can I put this in the car?”

Jolene opened the trunk with her remote and reached for the bag. “Let me.”

Then Sarah got into the back seat of the car as her phone rang. “Oh, James, I’m so glad you called. However, I’m away from my desk right now, but maybe we could chat tomorrow, when I’m on my way back to civilization? Yes, I’m out in the wilds today.”

Meg met Jolene’s gaze as she closed the back door. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“If I’m not off running errands for the princess here.

Robert might have been a pain and a thief, but at least he pretended to be a human.

This one? I’m not sure.” Jolene went to the driver’s door and shook her head.

“Off to chauffeur the new agent to the house. I’ll see you later tonight, hopefully. ”