LITMIR.BIZ

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victim. One of these days I was going to feel sorry for my aunt and do something really stupid, like listen.

      “I thought you’d be watching your shows.” My aunt worked the late shift, but you never knew when she would pop down from the second-floor apartment over the coffee shop.

      “I wanted to check in and see how the meeting went. Anything I need to know about?” Aunt Jackie poured herself a coffee as Sasha looked at me wide-eyed.

      “How did she know?” Sasha whispered.

      “She has the place bugged.” I laughed as Sasha’s eyes went even wider. “I’m kidding.”

      But there was a part of me that totally believed my aunt had a camera set up somewhere in the shop. I glanced upward toward the corners to see if I could see any flashing lights. When my gaze lowered, I realized my aunt was watching me.

      “Okay, fine, there is a problem.” I pushed the list of infractions toward her. “We’re supposed to get all these done and have the place reinspected before June thirtieth. Or we’ll be shut down.”

      “That’s the only option?” my aunt said as she studied the list.

      “Well . . .”

      Now she looked up at me, her eyes narrowing. “Jill, what else did he say?”

      “He insinuated that I could make it go away by calling him.”

      Aunt Jackie looked confused. “Why would calling him make these things go away? I’m not sure some of them are even possible to correct.”

      “I think he meant . . .” I glanced at Sasha, who was grinning.

      “He wants Jill to be his love muffin,” Sasha said, finishing my thought. “And can I say, EWWW!”

      “That’s what I said.” I held my hand up for a high five.

      My aunt watched us. When we were finished, she sipped her coffee. “This is a serious problem and I’d appreciate it if you treated it as such.”

      “I am.” I sat next to her. “First thing, I’m reaching out to Amy to see what recourse we have on this whole thing. I can’t believe the council gave him carte blanche to harass South Cove businesses. And then, if she doesn’t know, I’m going to talk to Bill Sullivan. He should know what regulations the council put in place. And, if none of that fixes it, I have a few attorney contacts from my past career who would be happy to take on an overbearing fire department. We might even be able to get a cash settlement for pain and suffering.”

      “Which will mean our tax rate will increase. No one gets anything for nothing.” My aunt shook her head. “Let me make a copy of this and I’ll call an electrician to see what’s really necessary and what’s just this guy’s opinion.”

      “Sounds like a plan.” I waited for my aunt to disappear into the back office before I picked up my phone. “Hey, Amy, want to hit Diamond Lille’s in about ten minutes?”

      I listened to her tell me how hungry she was when I knew she’d eaten three cookies at the business-to-business meeting and probably had a three-egg omelet for breakfast. I would kill for her metabolism.

      I’d already tucked my phone away when my aunt returned to the front. I took the copy she handed me and folded it into my tote. “Don’t worry, we’ll get this handled. No one’s going to bully us.”

      “Government entities can do what they want in the name of safety for all. I would have thought you would have picked up on that by now.” My aunt peered at Sasha. “Are you here by yourself this afternoon? Maybe I should come down and help.”

      “Toby’s coming in at noon. There’s no reason Sasha can’t handle the shop by herself for thirty minutes,” I said, stepping into the discussion before my aunt got Sasha to believe she wasn’t trusted.

      “Well, if you need me, I’m just watching television and working on an afghan. I like to get my Christmas gifts done early.”

      Sasha waited for Aunt Jackie to leave and didn’t speak until we heard the door close at the top of the stairs. “Does she realize it’s June?”

      “I guess early is early.” I grinned at my newest barista. “Be good or you’ll get a knitted hat for Christmas instead of a bonus.”

      “I think a hat would be sweet.” Sasha wiped the counter with a damp rag. “My granny is always making things like that for Olivia and me.”

      “You haven’t seen Aunt Jackie’s work yet.” I tucked a new advanced reader copy of a local mystery author into my tote and then headed out the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

      By the time I power walked to Diamond Lille’s, the place was already busy. Tuesdays seemed to be when the locals hit the diner, mostly to avoid the weekends full of tourists. Of course, a lot of locals worked weekends so eating out early in the week was more convenient. Amy had already snagged our favorite booth.

      “What did you want to gossip about? Did you see Darla blush when she mentioned Matt. I can’t believe she’s still so crazy about him.” Amy read over the menu as she talked, not looking at me at all.

      Carrie dropped off our drinks. Iced tea with lemon. We’ve been going to Lille’s for lunch for a while, so she knows what we want. We put in our orders and then I turned to Amy. “Tell me about Barry Gleason. What kind of regulation power did the council give him over the businesses?”

      “I’m not exactly sure. I can pull up the minutes and send them to you. I don’t really think they changed much last meeting. Maybe he’s just exercising the power he already had. Why, was he harsh with the store?” Amy sipped her tea, watching me.

      “Harsh is an understatement. He gave us so many citations that we’ll never get them cleared in a week and he’s threatening to shut us down over the holiday.”

      Amy’s eyes widened. “No way. I’m sure that’s not allowed.”

      “The problem is that he thinks it is. Get me the fire regulations so I have something to show him. I’m going to fight this guy tooth and nail.” I sipped my tea and then groaned when Carrie dropped off my fish-and-chips basket. The smell of french fries makes me happy. I’m not proud of this fact, but it’s the truth. I needed the salt, carbs, and fat today. Stress eating is my specialty. “I can’t wait until he gives Josh his list of violations. I’m sure he’ll go ballistic on him. Darla said that a lot of what he wrote me up for doesn’t even make sense.”

      “Maybe he’s got a brain tumor and doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Amy took a big bite of her cheeseburger and wiped grease off her chin.

      “Whatever it is, he needs to be reined in before someone thinks he’s serious and does all this crap.” I thought about Harrold, the older man who owned The Train Station. This kind of report on his shop could cause him to have a heart attack on the spot. “He’s dangerous and needs to be stopped. I need to talk to the mayor.”

      “Uh-oh, I know that look in your eye. You’re going to cause trouble.” Amy pointed a french fry at me. “Maybe you should calm down first.”

      “Did I tell you what he said to me? How I could figure out some way to fix the issues if I met up with him? I don’t think he was implying I could bribe him with money.” I lowered my voice and glanced around the room. “It makes my skin crawl just thinking about him touching me.”

      “Wait, he wanted you to pay him off with carnal acts?” Amy almost choked on the french fry she’d just ate. “Man, that guy is creepy. He told Mayor Baylor that I was hitting on him last week. Barry had started to corner me in the hallway outside my office. I told him that if he came one step closer, I was going to punch him.”

      “What is it with some men? Does he think he’s so attractive to women that we’ll do whatever he wants?”

      Amy took a sip of her tea. “I heard when his wife divorced him, she got alimony because she

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