Officer Leo Russo had seen people in shock before; it came with the territory of police work. But he wasn’t quite sure that was how he’d describe the woman standing before him. Her green eyes had widened when he’d approached, and her handshake felt like she didn’t have a bone in her body. Limp spaghetti. Was she the type of person who was afraid of cops?
She’d given him a one-word answer, then clamped her lips shut. Pretty lips, if Leo was to notice that detail. In what he guessed was a nervous gesture, she adjusted her red-framed glasses. Normally, Leo wouldn’t have thought much about the color of a person’s glasses, but in this case, they matched her shirt. Exactly. She wore a dark red shirt with black stripes, topped by a black cardigan. Her red glasses also sported thin black stripes.
Huh. Interesting. Leo always noticed details—it was part of his job—but he’d never considered matching glasses to a shirt. He then wondered if Ms. Miner had other glasses she matched to other outfits, or if this was one of those extreme coincidences. Her brown hair had been pulled into a single braid, resting over her shoulder, and he guessed it would reach to the middle of her back if she wore it straight. She wore little makeup, which was kind of refreshing, because her natural beauty was stunning enough. Not that he was comparing her to anyone in particular, especially not his ex-girlfriend Janna Swenson—who’d broken up with him six months ago. She couldn’t go anywhere without spending an entire hour doing her makeup. No, he wasn’t going to compare Ms. Miner to Janna.
Because, although Ms. Miner was a pretty woman, Leo wasn’t dating. Or looking. Well, he couldn’t help but look at Ms. Miner because she was standing right in front of him. But, he’d get his job done and leave her to her job.
Speaking of his job . . . “Do you mind showing me where the theft took place?” Leo had only been inside the bookshop once, and that was at the grand opening about ten years ago. It had used to be a dry goods store until a chain grocery store opened up down the road.
Ms. Miner blinked. “Sure.” She turned and led the way to one of the rows of bookshelves.
The first thing he noticed were the security cameras. Good for Mr. Smithson. “You’ve got footage?”
Ms. Miner withdrew a cell phone from her pocket. “I’m sorry, but I missed the shot.”
He took the cell phone from her. “I meant the security cameras.” He pointed to one of them.
“Oh. Yeah. Right.” Ms. Miner took the phone back, then tucked away a bit of hair that had come loose from her braid. Nervous habit?
Then he noticed the slight tremor of her hands. Nerves or medication? He catalogued that detail in his mind, and before he could ask Ms. Miner where the camera footage could be obtained, another voice interrupted.
“Leo, it’s great to see you.”
He turned to see Dawson Harris’s mom coming out of one of the bookshelf aisles. Leo and Dawson had crossed paths many times, due to their professions, which meant Leo also knew the whole Harris family. Small towns, and all.
“Mrs. Harris,” he said. “Were you a witness?”
“Oh, no, not me.” She put a hand on Ms. Miner’s shoulder. “I came right as the guy got away. Scared poor Felicity half to death. In fact, now that you’re here, I’m going to get us all coffee.” She flashed a lipsticked smile. “Be right back.”
“I—um—” Ms. Miner said. “I don’t drink coffee.”
But Mrs. Harris had already bustled out of the store, intent on her errand.
“She’s sort of a fireball,” Leo said, looking back to Ms. Miner.
Ms. Miner exhaled, and a small smile dimpled her cheek. “I noticed.”
For some reason Leo was relieved to see her relax a little. “So, you don’t drink coffee? Ever?” Why he was asking her this instead of looking at security footage, he didn’t know.
“Caffeine makes me jumpy.” She lifted a shoulder and tilted her head. “About all I can handle is mass amounts of chocolate.”
Leo laughed. “Mass amounts, huh?”
Ms. Miner smiled then, really smiled. She’d either had braces as a kid or was one of the few people on earth gifted with perfectly straight teeth.
“I’m guessing you have an emergency stash of chocolate at home?” He was veering way off course here.
“Definitely.” She lifted her brows. “I even have a backup stash to my emergency stash, in case, you know, I blow through the emergency stash before the grocery store opens again.”
Leo cleared his throat. “Uh, ma’am, I think we’re dealing with an addiction here. As a member of the Pine Valley police force, I might have to take you in for questioning.”
She smirked. “Even for a small-town cop, I’d think you’d have bigger things to worry about. I’ll show you the security footage if you want to get some real work done today.”
“Funny.”
“Follow me.” Ms. Miner turned and walked toward the register.
Even though he shouldn’t be watching her, he was, and it gave him the opportunity to notice several things about her. First, her nervousness was gone. Second, she had a really nice walk. And third, she had a small rose tattoo on the back of her neck. Surely there was a story there. Leo couldn’t deny he was intrigued, but he hadn’t come here to be intrigued. He’d come here to track down a shoplifter.
Ms. Miner reached the desk and turned around before Leo had taken even one step in her direction.
“Coming?” she asked, taking her glasses off, then tapping the keyboard of the laptop.
“Yep,” he said. “Just checking out the layout of the shop.” He wasn’t fooling her, but she didn’t call him on it, which was a good thing.
He joined her at the desk, and at this close of a distance, he caught her scent. Something sweet—vanilla, maybe. He should know since his mother obsessively burned vanilla candles around the house.
When Ms. Miner pulled up the footage of a young man standing in an aisle, Leo froze. He knew the kid. Well, he wasn’t a kid any longer. Leo watched the theft unfold as his cousin Angelo shoved a book down his pants, then hurried out of the store. The camera also caught Ms. Miner’s pursuit.
Leo’s mind spun with questions. What was Angelo doing back in Pine Valley? Where was he staying? And what was up with the shoplifting? It had been a couple of years since Leo had heard anything about his cousin—the last he knew was Angelo was working construction in LA. The kid had had run-ins with the law before, but Leo had thought Angelo had turned around. Unless Leo’s family had kept things from him—because he was a cop.
“What do you think?” Ms. Miner asked. “Is the footage good enough to ID the guy?”
Leo exhaled, thinking of all the ramifications this brought to his family, especially now that he was the reporting officer. A guilty conviction for shoplifting could result in jail time.
“Officer Russo?”
It took him a moment to respond, and when he did, he looked over at Ms. Miner—there was confusion and curiosity in her eyes. “The ID is no problem. I know the man.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow. Is he a known criminal or something?”
“Not in Pine Valley,” he said.
Ms. Miner was watching him more closely than he liked—it was his job to be observant.
“Let’s get your report filled out, and then I can file the charge with the police department.” Leo asked Ms. Miner for her personal information, then wrote down her full report of the incident. “One final question, and you should know that it’s standard. How is your eyesight?” He glanced at the glasses that were still on the desk.
“Oh,” Ms. Miner said, picking up the glasses and slipping them back on. “These aren’t prescription. I wear glasses to make me look older and for the customers to take my recommendations seriously.”
Leo scanned her face. She did look older with the glasses on, but it wasn’t like she was a teenager or anything. “Really?”
She shrugged. “Kind of zany, I guess.”
“And do you always match your eyeglasses to your outfit?”
She smiled, and Leo found himself smiling back. “You do, don’t you?”
“Is owning dozens of pairs of glasses going to count as another addiction?”
“Probably more of a quirk, so you should be safe, ma’am.”
“Good news,” she said. “And Felicity is better than ma’am.”
“Okay, Felicity,” Leo said, his smile pushing through again. “I’ll be in touch with you about any updates on the case. I can also talk to Mr. Smithson if you want.”
“That would be great,” Felicity said. “He won’t be too happy to hear about this. And I don’t know if this should be in your report or not, but the shoplifter, whoever he is, didn’t really seem the criminal type. I mean, he looked a little down on his luck, but I had a sense that he really likes books. Not sure why he’d want to steal one though. The library’s down the road.”
“Shoplifting isn’t always about someone not having money,” Leo said. “It’s more of a challenge, or a dare to themselves. But it can quickly turn into addictive behavior.”
“Right,” she said. “So my addictions pale in comparison?”
“Correct.” He fought back a smile, all the while knowing that he should leave the shop and track down his cousin instead of chatting with Felicity.
“Here we are,” a cheerful voice cut in as Mrs. Harris entered the store, carrying a drink container with three coffee cups.
Leo had almost forgotten about her. “Thank you,” he said, taking the coffee, and Mrs. Harris grinned.
“Did you solve the case without me?”
Leo noticed that Felicity didn’t take one of the coffee cups. “We’re close,” he said. “We’ve got decent camera footage, and this is a small town.”
“It is,” Mrs. Harris said. “Can I see the footage?”
“I’m afraid it’s evidence, so I can’t show it to the public quite yet,” Leo said.
“Oh, goodness,” Mrs. Harris said. “That’s right. This is all so exciting.” She turned to Felicity. “Are you feeling better? Your color is back.”
Felicity nodded, and Leo took the opportunity to excuse himself. He wouldn’t have minded spending more time talking to Felicity. Maybe asking her about the various colors of her other glasses, or finding out if she had some other quirky habits. But with Mrs. Harris in the mix, that was impossible.
Once outside, his head cleared, and he settled into the front seat of his patrol car to call in the report. Then, he called his mom.
“It’s about time you called your mother, Leonardo,” she said as her greeting. “I worry about you day and night, and your father tells me he’s tired of hearing about it. But what am I supposed to do? My son is a cop, and every time I turn on the TV, I see—”
“Ma,” Leo cut in. He knew as well as anyone that his Italian mother wouldn’t stop talking once she was on a roll. “I’m calling you now, okay? And I need some information to help in an investigation.”
“Oh, is this like one of those undercover investigations?” she gushed. “Do I have to swear an oath on the Bible?”
Leo shook his head even though his mother couldn’t see him. “Not exactly. This is off the record.” Well, maybe it was an official question. “Have you heard from Angelo lately?”
For once in Leo’s entire life, his mother went completely silent. That’s when he knew something was wrong. “Mom?”
He knew the call hadn’t disconnected because he could still hear the droning of the television in the background that his dad watched twenty-four-seven since his stroke.
“Here’s the thing, Leonardo,” his mother said in a hushed voice. “Your cousin fell onto some hard times, and, well, you know how his mother is. So I told him he could stay here.”
Leo blew out a breath. “How long has he been staying with you?”
“Only a few weeks,” his mother said. “He’s got some job interviews lined up. One at the gas station.”
“Mom—”
“Now listen here,” she said. “I know that you’re a cop and everything, but Angelo has turned his life around, for the most part. He’s clean, you know, and he needs someone to give him a chance.”
Leo tried to keep his tone even. “Where is he right now?”
“He comes and goes,” his mother said. “I don’t make him tell me every little thing. He’s a grown man, you know, and—”
“Look,” Leo said, cutting her off. “I need to speak with him as soon as possible. I’m coming over so that I’ll be there when he gets back.”
When he hung up with his mother, he told himself that it was better she didn’t know that he was about to turn Angelo’s life upside down.