Page 25 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

Why this made Annie grin, she had no idea. Picking up another broom, she set to work beside her friend, whistling a happy tune.

4

“Who do you think itwas?” Brian asked Fisher as they munched tacos from a vendor just outside Encanto Park.

“I have no idea,” Fisher answered. “Since he managed to lose me.”

“He had a car waiting,” Brian said. “Which means he’s not working alone.”

“It could be a question of who is he working for?”

“Have you managed to get a look at her books yet?” Brian asked.

“No, I’m not sure they’d tell me much,” Fisher said. “Annie doesn’t strike me as someone with a real head for business. Doing all she does at the shop can’t leave her much time to crunch numbers.”

“So find out who’s crunching for her. I got a line on a few of her larger deposits. They were cashier’s checks from a casino in Vegas.”

Fisher stopped in his tracks. “Get the dates of the deposits.”

“Why?”

“So I can verify Annie’s whereabouts at the time.”

“You’re not on this case to prove her innocence,” Brian said.

“I know,” Fisher snapped. “But we have the wedding tonight. I plan to canvas the entire guest list until I find some hard and useful facts about who has access to The Coffee Break’s accounts.”

“Just so long as you’re using your skill to find out about her business and not her personal life.”

Fisher wadded up his taco wrapper and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you get a peculiar gleam in your eye every time you say her name,” Brian said. “I know you know better than to fall for a suspect.”

The softly spoken censure made Fisher’s teeth clench. “I don’t think she’s a suspect.”

“What you think and what’s reality are two different things. Until we find some hard evidence that she’s not involved with the laundering, she’s a suspect. Don’t you forget it.”