Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
“Mary,” Alek greeted. “Thank you for coming. I was afraid…” He trailed off.
Harlow glanced at him. He’d been worried Paul Rafferty would make vandalizing the restaurant a low priority in retaliation for allowing Shabina into his restaurant when she had a restraining order against his nephew, Bale. She didn’t blame him for that concern. Rafferty and Bale were both vindictive people. It seemed to Harlow that the two men were very much alike, even if they appeared to have had a falling-out. She knew how bad it could be when family turned on family.
Mary didn’t need Alek to finish the sentence to understand what he meant. Rafferty was her boss. She would know firsthand the way he was. He might be charming to his voters, but he certainly wasn’t with his officers. Harlow had heard the rumors many times.
“You didn’t touch anything, did you, Alek? We’re going to fingerprint and photograph for evidence.”
“No, I stayed back,” Alek said. “Harlow took quite a few photographs for me. I’ll need them for insurance purposes.”
“We’d like copies, Harlow,” Griffen stated. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Alek.” He nodded to Rainier and Sam. “Are you certain not a single camera picked up anything at all before the wires were cut?”
Harlow realized that Alek had been calm enough to report everything about the break-in to the sheriff’s office before he allowed himself to become overwhelmed. Harlow had always admired Alek, but she did even more so knowing he held it together under such distressing circumstances.
Griffen moved into the restaurant area, but Mary hung back. “Do you have any enemies, Alek?”
“I’ve lived here nearly all of my life, Mary,” Alek said. “As far as I know, I’ve always gotten along with everyone.”
Harlow could confirm the truth of that, at least during the years she’d lived in Knightly.
“I wish it were that simple, Alek, but sometimes you don’t realize there is resentment. Think. Someone who may have disputed a bill and was angry about having to pay?”
“I have a policy, which is mine alone and not even known to my servers, that if a customer is really unhappy for some reason, I don’t have them pay the bill. I want them to be satisfied. Now, if it happens more than once, that’s different. They only get that grace one time. If they make a scene a second time, I ask that they pay the bill. If they continue to protest, I give them the option of not paying and being refused future service, or paying and having the privilege of coming back. I think that’s a fair solution.”
“Has that happened? Have you had anyone who has insisted they shouldn’t have to pay on more than one occasion?” Mary persisted. “Or someone you’ve had barred from the premises? It doesn’t have to be recent. People can harbor grudges for years before they decide to act on them.”
Harlow immediately thought about Guadalupe. There hadn’t been threats in her mailbox since the luncheon with her friends and the realtor, but that didn’t mean anything. Guadalupe was a very busy woman. Maybe she just didn’t have time to add to the long list of letters.
Alek took his time before answering. “I think in the entire time the restaurant has been open, it only happened twice. Both incidents happened in the same summer, right after Stella came to me with her business proposal. We had changed the menu and added the additional room off the patio for eating and expanded the dance floor. That’s a long time ago, Mary.”
“Do you remember who they were?” she asked, undeterred.
“Both of them were old-timers. You know, the old families that go way back and thought they ran the town. They didn’t like the changes in the restaurant. At the time, I wondered if they had gotten together to try to force my compliance. Stuart Parker was alive at the time. He died about two years after the incident.”
Harlow barely remembered the man. He had been difficult, to say the least, even to his children and grandchildren. He would often sit in a chair in the park and yell at the kids for playing ball too close to him after he deliberately sat where they played. He enjoyed causing trouble. He liked scenes, especially when he had an audience. The bank was his favorite place to throw a temper tantrum. The moment he entered, the tellers did their best to go on a break. He thought nothing of berating them loudly and publicly. But his family was one of the founding families in Knightly, and he had a great deal of money, so he often got away with his antics.
“He’s deceased, so he isn’t, obviously, going to be the one who vandalized your restaurant,” Mary pointed out. “Who is the other one?”
“He’s deceased as well. Jacob Landry didn’t like the newer business plan. He had nothing to do with my business, but he tried to hold up the permits. He came in often and complained about the new menu.”