She’d been about to say she was with the team fromDo Over, and now her head was spinning for an entirely different reason. She stepped closer, skin prickling uncomfortably as she took the hand Josie had offered.
“I let Lauren close for me last night, and it looks like she cleaned me out before she left.” Josie stared at her with dazed eyes, as if she still couldn’t believe it had happened. That made two of them. “She emptied the cash register and took a bunch of liquor and expensive wine from the cellar.”
“How do you know it was Lauren?” Eve asked. Her whole body shook as the roller coaster of the last few minutes ricocheted through her system.
“There are no signs of forced entry,” the officer said. “Everything points to an inside job.”
“And Lauren’s not answering her cell phone,” Josie added. “Plus, she’s cleared out of her apartment.”
“Holy shit,” Eve said, leaning against the bar.
“I trusted her,” Josie said miserably. “I shouldn’t have let her close. I just…I never thought…I never imagined…”
“Of course you didn’t,” Eve assured her, although the business part of her brain was already thinking how absurdly foolish it had been of Josie to let Lauren close for her last night. Adam was one thing. She’d known him for years. But Lauren had been a virtual stranger and, as it turned out, not a very honest one.
Eve stood quietly off to the side while Josie finished up with the police. Finally, she, Josie, and Adam were alone in the bar. She could see people outside the front door, peering in. It was past five. Dragonfly should be open. “Are you opening at all tonight?” she asked, pushing past the emotions still churning inside her to focus on the business at hand.
“I…I don’t know.” Josie looked around. “I don’t have any cash, and…” she drifted off, swallowing hard.
“I’m going to print a sign for the door,” Eve said, walking to Josie’s office, where she printed out a piece of paper that said the bar was temporarily closed due to unforeseen circumstances. She took it outside and taped it to the door, locking it on her way back in.
“You can’t afford to stay closed on a Friday night,” she told Josie. “What do you need to open?”
“Cash for the register,” Josie said. “And I’m short a bunch of liquor.”
“You can make do without the liquor for the night,” Eve said. “Adam, can you take her card and go to the bank? Josie, how much do you need?”
“A hundred in small bills to make change.”
Eve looked at Adam, who nodded.
“I’m on it.” He headed out the back.
And then she and Josie were alone. She pulled Josie in for a hug, holding on to her for a long moment as her throat constricted painfully. She couldn’t seem to get past the initial shock of finding the police here at Dragonfly, that awful moment when she thought something had happened to Josie. Her body still shook uncontrollably. Could Josie feel it?
Eve pulled back, looking into her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“No,” Josie whispered. “I mean, our date, and you look so pretty…” Her eyes welled with tears. “And now I’ll have to work.”
“Forget about our date,” Eve told her. “We’ll go out another night. I can hang out here with you tonight if you like.”
“It’s not the same.” Josie slumped in her seat.
Eve stroked her fingers through one of Josie’s newly pink curls. “Love your hair.”
“Thanks,” Josie said glumly. “I was in the mood to celebrate earlier.”
“You’ll still get the chance to celebrate. This is just a setback. Every business has them.”
“I’m down a bartender,” Josie said. “And a few thousand dollars in cash and inventory.”
“Your insurance will likely cover at least some of that,” Eve said.
“Right.” She blew out a breath. “I’ll give them a call in the morning.”
“After tonight, Lauren wasn’t scheduled to work again until Tuesday, right? We can probably find you someone new by then. We’ve still got that whole stack of applications from last month.”
“Can I even afford it now?” Josie asked.
