“Yup. I think I’m entitled to a little wallowing.”
“Yeah.” She propped her feet on the coffee table and rested her head on her hands. “I came from the police station.”
Zoe lowered her glass. “Why were you at the police station?”
“The fire started in the cafe. It was arson.” She lowered her hand and picked at her nails.
She misheard. That was the only explanation. Who would set a fire in Elba’s restaurant?
“What? Who?Why?”
“I don’t know the why, but the who is George Baker.” Her eyes were full of tears when she glanced up.
“George Baker the owner? Smarmy, sweaty, bad suit George Baker?”
“The same one.”
“I don’t— But why?”
Elba shook her head. “I don’t know. They were issuing a warrant for his arrest when I left the station.”
“Why did they call you into the station?”
“They showed me the video of George breaking into the kitchen. Tim thought it was him, but he’d only met him once so he wasn’t a hundred percent positive. They called me in to identify him. I think they also wanted to see if I had anything to do with the fire.”
She shrugged and rolled her eyes, but Zoe could tell she was hurt by even the suspicion of having anything to do with it.
“Why the hell would they think you had anything to do with it?”
“They didn’t say, but they asked a lot of questions about when the security cameras were installed and why I put them where I did. I guess they were thinking who would be stupid enough to start a fire when they knew there were security cameras.”
Zoe’s head dropped back and she closed her eyes briefly before tilting her head back up. “George didn’t know we had the security systems installed—we didn’t tell him. He didn’t know there were cameras.”
“Yup.”
There was one silver lining. They knew who. Hopefully the police would be able to figure out why. Not that it mattered because their stores were a pile of burnt wood and ash.
Zoe looked at her half empty glass. Maybe it was too early for margaritas—she was downright maudlin.
Eh—she’d earned it. They’d earned it. She held her cup out to Elba and shook it, trying to tempt her best friend into joining her wallowing party.
Unfortunately, she shook her head. “April will be home from school soon and I need to drive home.”
“Nonsense. Tell her to catch an Uber here. We’ll be bad examples. Think of all the good it will do her when she goes off to college and people offer her alcohol. She’ll remember that time her mom and Aunt Zoe were smashed and she’ll be all, ‘no thanks.’ Really, when you think about it, we’d be doing her a favor.”
Elba laughed through her nose at Zoe’s convoluted reasoning. “I’m not going to be able to afford college.”
Her laughter turned to tears. “What are we going to do?”
Zoe set her cup down and wedged herself into the chair with Elba.
“I don’t know.” She pressed her temple to Elba’s. “We’ll figure it out.”
