Feeding Frenzy (Watty Award Winner)

Hairs and Homework: Chapter Fourteen

Lynette held the scarf to her face and inhaled deeply.

"I'm sure he's okay," said Tonya.

"I appreciate you coming." Lynette sighed. "You don't even like me."

Tonya shrugged. "Roberto's important to you."

Lynette slipped the scarf into her pocket as she stood, studying the ground.

"It's gonna be okay." Tonya put a hand on Lynette's shoulder. "Let's go in."

Aunt Helene lived above the Herbal Healing Shop, in an old Victorian farm house she inherited. It was drafty in the winter, and attracted mice in the fall, until Aunt Helene redid it. As a child, Tonya remembered walking through the gutted building, asking her Aunt why she didn't just sell and buy a new one. 'Location,' her Aunt had said, but wouldn't explain.

Aunt Helene tolerated a filthy building site for months during renovations, despite her obsession for order. Mom claimed she should have been a scientist. After the reno, she kept all surfaces sterilized, as if the building were a lab.

Crossing the parking lot, Tonya noticed yellow crime scene tape, and a shattered window beside the front door. Pulling the tape aside, she stepped out of the cold morning air, expecting warmth.

"Hello? Aunt Helene?" It was as cold inside as outside, and she smelled smoke. The wind gusted in through the end of the room, which was punched through, leaving a large, charred hole. The walls were streaked with soot near the floor, but the ceiling remained pristine. The countertop, which ran parallel to the left hand wall, was untouched, but the glass case beneath it, and every jar and container inside, seemed to have exploded. This was no natural fire.

A female constable strode out from the workroom behind the counter. "You can't come in here." She had mousy hair and pale eyelashes, like a little girl. She gave Tonya a hard look.

"I'm looking for my Aunt."

The woman tilted her head slightly and squinted at Tonya, despite the light streaming in from outside. "You're Helene's niece? I didn't recognize you."

Without the extra pounds and big sweaters. "I remember you. Didn't you volunteer at the hospital?"

"I work with police services now. Constable Purrell." She shook Tonya's and Lynette's hands.

"I'm so sorry about your Aunt. She's in hospital."

"How did you know?"

"They sent her, after the fire."

"She was here?" Her parents had lied. She wasn't in Toronto.

"What happened?" Lynette asked.

The constable's face gained twenty years as she snapped into authority mode. "This is an active investigation. You both must leave the building."

"What about my boyfriend, Roberto la Bega?" Lynette asked. "This was where he was going, and now he's disappeared."

"Your boyfriend saved Helene's life."

"Is he okay? Where is he?" Lynette rocked agitatedly on her spindly boot heels.

Purrell pulled out her phone. "Let me check." The woman held up a hand, gesturing for them to stay where they were, then walked back into the workroom, speaking into her phone.

While she was talking, Tonya slipped upstairs. She hoped to find clues in her Aunt's apartment, something to explain why her parents lied that she was in hospital in Toronto.

At the top of the stairs, was the living room. Tonya ran her finger across the dustless china hutch. From here she could see into the kitchen, where the counters gleamed. Her Aunt had either been here to clean, or she had hired a cleaner as fussy as her.