“I can text him for you,” Raina offered, pulling out her phone. She sent off the text as Amie thanked her profusely.
“Fried Oreo while you wait?” Raina offered, holding out the white paper bag. “My friends went on the Zipper, so I got these to keep me occupied until they’re done.”
“I’m good, thanks.” Amie had returned to keeping an eye out for Raina’s coworker. “I’m picking up hot chocolates for me and David.”
“What do you need Grayson for?” Raina asked, noticing Amie’s preoccupation. “You don’t have to tell me, of course.”
Amie hesitated. She didn’t want to go around accusing Madeline without stronger proof, especially so close to a handful of her employees.
“I’m still looking into Savannah’s death,” she said in a low voice. “And I had some questions for him about Madeline.”
“Because of the incident with Andrew?”
“That, plus a few other things. I think there’s a chance she was lying about Savannah selling the store to her.”
Raina’s eyebrows shot up. “Madeline said Savannah sold the store to her?”
Amie winced. She hadn’t meant to share that. But if it turned out Madeline had lied, she supposed it wouldn’t matter. “You didn’t know anything about it?”
Raina shook her head slowly, returning to her phone as it dinged. “Grayson says to meet him at the lake. He’s by the paddle boats.”
“Great.” Hopefully Grayson would stick around long enough for Amie to get the hot chocolates, find David, and head over there.
They reached the front of the line. Jess took Amie’s order.
“Do you know how Madeline’s doing?” Amie asked as the barista took her money.
“Not sure,” Jess said, grabbing two cups and writing on them. “But she said she was going to try to stop by this evening, so sounds like she’s okay.” They smiled, passing off the cups to another employee. “They’ll call out your name when it’s ready.”
“Thanks.” Amie made a mental note to keep an eye out for Madeline. What she would do once she saw her … that was still being workshopped.
“So what does Grayson have to do with this?” Raina asked, opening the paper bag as they moved off to the side. She fished out a fried Oreo and popped it into her mouth.
Amie tried to think of the most abridged way to explain things to Raina. “Basically,” she said, “I think whoever killed Savannah wanted her out of the store the morning before she died. If Madeline thought Savannah was getting cold feet about selling the store, she might have snuck into the back and forged the paperwork with Savannah’s name.” The more she said this theory out loud, the better it sounded. “So I want to ask Grayson if there’s any way someone could have snuck into the back room without him noticing.”
“Oh!” Raina dusted powdered sugar off her hands. “I can answer that for you. The store was pretty quiet that morning, so it would’ve been hard for someone to get back there without one of us noticing. But I guess if she somehow managed to sneak in the back door—”
“No, I’m talking about Monday morning,” Amie clarified.
“Yeah. Me too.”
Amie frowned. She’d been struggling with some memory issues, sure, but she was positive that every time she’d gone to the grocery store with David on Monday morning, Raina had been there. “You weren’t at the bookshop then. You said you had the morning off.”
“No, I didn’t,” Raina said, confused. “When did I tell you that?”
“When—” Amie stopped.When we talked at the grocery store on a different version of the same daywould have probably led to more follow-up questions than Amie was willing to deal with at that moment.
“I … must have gotten confused,” she said haltingly. “I thought Grayson was alone at the bookshop while Savannah was at the grocery store.”
Raina snorted. “Absolutely not. We never leave Grayson alone in the store. I’m working full time now that Andrew is out of commission.”
“Two hot chocolates for Amie!”
Amie vaguely acknowledged the announcement as she fell into her thoughts. Raina’s words had dragged a memory to the front of her mind. Grayson had told Amie that he’d never been left in the store alone. He said nothing unusual happened on Monday. Raina was telling the truth; she’d been at the bookshop that morning on the final day of the time loop.
So why did Amie see her at the grocery store all those other times?
“Sometimes, Amie, the most important person you need to consider isyou.”
