Chapter 23 — An Arms Dealer
“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Kate said as we entered. Her enthusiasm shifted to curiosity as Lana followed me in.
“Thank you for the concern, Kate. Kate, this is Lana, I met her at Rex’s and she’s new to town. Lana this is Kate, my business partner.” I was getting very good at saying that now. Kate was about five years younger than me, and that seemed like decades with the different world experiences we’d both had but she was basically family, and I was excited to introduce the pair. The girls smiled at one another, each saying hello.
“Well, I’m sorry I must be bad luck,” Kate said, shoulders slumping and her curly red hair spilling over her face. “The first night I’m your business partner we get robbed, and the police come to question me about you being a person of interest in an investigation.”
“Both things that have nothing to do with you or our new arrangement,” I said. “But I’m glad the police contacted you, what did they ask?”
“Yeah, they wanted to know what time you arrived yesterday, so I told them.”
“Perfect,” I said. “What else did they tell you?”
“They said you were a person of interest for something, and they needed to establish a time frame to rule you in or out as a suspect.”
“Not much then,” I took a deep breath, glad it had probably been Officer Lansing who had spoken with her. “I’d rather you know than for it to be a surprise and weight on your mind. Someone was murdered at the Sugar Loaf Inn yesterday shortly after I left.”
Kate’s eyes grew wide, and she covered her mouth with one hand.
“Your answers probably removed me from the suspect pool entirely,” I said. “But you deserve to know the whole story.”
Kate nodded, “I knew whatever it was, they had the wrong person.” She turned to Lana, “Cal would never do something like that, he’s harmless.”
“Thanks, Kate,” I said, unsure how to take the praise. “But I’m pretty sure Lana knows…”
Lana nodded, eyes serious. “I don’t think Cal hurt that woman, but we do need to make sure his name gets cleared so they can find whoever did.”
Kate had already brought out a broom and was clearly planning on getting started with cleaning despite my note.
“How about I take care of this? Let’s not worry about opening the shop for a few hours, if we even have anything left to sell before I get to the ware’s downstairs sorted and moved up. The police filed a report, we just need to reach out to insurance to get damages covered,” I said. “Would you mind making that call?”
“Sure,” Kate said, eagerly turning the physical mess over to me. She knew where all the business files and contact info were stored in the back closet. I kept them all on paper for obvious reasons, and she could use her phone in her car. She’d done enough weird things like that for me that this wasn’t an especially big deal.
“You’re a lifesaver,” I said as she gathered her belongings.
It was really the only way to get things moving with the insurance company. I could make a pay phone work for a longer call if I focused, but there was always the chance it would die after a few minutes of being on hold, or worse when I finally connected with someone who could help me. I didn’t like ruining public phones. Many times, the city didn’t even replace them.
“I’ll run home to use the computer since they will probably need pictures, or something uploaded. I’ll be back at… say one?”
“Did you take some pictures?”
“Are you kidding me, look at the shop. People are already asking about it online and I’m going to show them what happened.”
“Perfect,” I said, my worries rising that evidence like photos might reveal more than I wanted of the shop, or not match our story. “—And lunch is on me, go buy something fun.”
“I’ll update the store hours on our website and social media too. It was nice to meet you Lana, hopefully we can get to know each other a little more later?”
Lana smiled and agreed.
“Wait, you said people are asking about it online. How has the news gotten out, and do you already have social media, and the website up and running?”
“Oh Cal,” Kate said, shaking her head and looking at me, then a forlorn expression to Lana. “They don’t take long to set up. I would have done it ages ago but without my phone or laptop working in here, I never brought it up. Honestly, I didn’t know if you would want them the way you are with tech?”
“Shoot, you should have told me. We could have worked something out.”
“You already pay me very well,” Kate said with a laugh. “Most of my friends were already asking me why I was even going to school in the evenings. Now that I’m a partner, it makes sense to put school on hold. If you weren’t a caveman when it came to tech you would have already set it all up yourself.”
“And people actually look at the website or social media to see the store hours?”
“Cal,” Kate said, shaking her head with a bemused smile, “We have over a thousand followers in a single night. I told you a famous blogger shared about the store, people have been wanting to find out more.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Yeah, but that was days ago, right?”
“Yes, and she’s more than a blogger, she has her fingers in everything, you should really get online and check her out —Regardless of that, if haven’t seen a newspaper you wouldn’t know. The store made the front page, ‘Earths Bounty’ robbed! The blogger shared her story again tied to the robbery and said everyone should help out. She linked our new socials while I was asleep. We probably have a few hundred people who are going to try and come in today,” Kate’s eyes widened in horror. “Now that I think about it, we should probably open earlier—I can do the insurance claim tonight.”
“If it helps Cal, I pulled up your website last night to check on the store hours before I dropped by last night. I didn’t realize the website was that new. It does look good Kate. You have a good eye for details,” Lana said encouragingly before turning back to me. “But she’s right, everyone goes to the internet first.”
I let out a long sigh which made both the girl’s grin. Lana in knowledge of my dilemma. Kate with an expression that said I should at least try to join the 21st century.
“Kate, again you are a lifesaver,” I said. “But no amount of prodding is going to get me on the internet, no matter how persistent you can be. That being said, I literally couldn’t grow this store the way it looks like it will without you.”
I was happy about the news, but also frustrated. If the store was going to be packed, I couldn’t hide out in the basement all day devising ways to capture whatever was attacking people. Increasing the defenses on the shop was also out of the question—well, who am I kidding—beginning to do upgrades would take weeks but I needed to start sometime and dive into the theory and see what I could devise. But I didn’t want Kate to have to deal with running everything alone, especially if we were expecting a rush. Kate was a partner now, and I fully intended that to be an equal partnership for the business. If she was running the online side of things, I needed to make sure I covered the instore responsibilities. She already had to handle too many on the tech side and had probably put in hours last night despite saying it was no big deal.
“I wasn’t planning on working in the shop today but maybe I should,” I said, thinking out loud. “We’re equal partners.”
“You were going to be out of town anyway,” Kate said, gesturing at the store. “Get this cleaned up and I can watch things if you have stuff that you still need to do. If it continues to get busy or the website takes off, we will have to look into hiring more people.” Kate’s eyes gleamed with the challenge, and I could only imagine what she could do now that the ‘reigns’ of employee had been removed.
“Deal,” I said.
“Perfect. I’ll go out to my car and do what I can from my phone, then I’ll hurry back. We need to get the shop opened!” Kate bounced out the back door nearly at a sprint.
“She’s good,” Lana said. “What was she going to school for?”
“Business management.”
“I can see why.”
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s probably going to be better at it than me. If this all takes off, that may mean I need to change where Fren and I live in the near future to allow for expansion. To be clear, I’m not complaining, it’s just—I like this place.”
“You could always buy out the store next door and expand,” Lana said, helpfully.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” I said, rubbing my chin and I looked at the mess and tried to determine the best way to clean up. My store was the corner store on this side of the row of buildings down the street on the far north end of the market district. If I could expand more into this building itself, buying another section would give my shop all the space it needed. I’d have to knock out the wall between them and I wasn’t entirely sure how that would work since that was the wall with the staircases, but a contractor could figure that out and there was some space between the two flights. If I did, it would also place me further from any ‘electronics’ that I might break in the adjoining buildings. Next door was currently a thrift store, and I knew the owner hated the power ‘problems’ on this side of the block. His store was also growing enough he’d thought about moving more than once. It might be better to buy his shop out, rather than let someone else move in. Heaven forbid if a salon or dental office set up and my abilities kept messing up their equipment.
“That’s really not a bad idea,” I said consideringly. “If things take off, I could probably afford it.”
“Or I could buy it?” Lana said.
I looked at her questioningly to make sure I’d heard her right.
“What?” she said. “My grandma left me with quite a lot.”
“No, I can manage,” I said sharply feeling my jaw tighten. “I’m not looking for handouts.”
“It’s not like that,” she said. “I want to help, and I can clearly see that your presence is rough on the neighborhood. It would help us both.”
“You have no reason to buy a shop. Literally no reason.” I said standing tall and turning towards a shelf to fix a large crystal that had toppled but looked unharmed.
“You don’t know everything about me. I want a place to train in and something that can be my own. While I love my grandmother, her house is old and not my style. I also have a financial adviser who has basically been begging me to invest in things. Who knows, maybe I’ll set up a place in the attic and live on the street like you do? It might be fun running a shop.”
“So, not only would you open up a place, but you would live here too?” I said, regretting the heat I put into my words.
She looked at me questioningly, brow furrowed as if I was a puzzle that needed unwinding.
“Sorry,” I said, raising my hands, “I just, I don’t need help or handouts. The offer while generous just rubbed me wrong. I can manage on my own. That being said if you decided to move next door it would be great. If you want to open up a business that would be great too. I could help you learn the ropes.”
I didn’t know what to think, excitement and suspicion warred within me, everything was moving so fast. Lana clearly was getting much more invested than I felt comfortable with when she didn’t know so many things about me. But why was I worried? It was mostly that she might regret things later. That it would be dangerous living so close to me, but she could handle herself.
“We’re in no hurry now,” I said. “Consider your options. Like I said, you may not want anything to do with me in the future.”
“Whatever,” She said, then she rose on tip toes and kissed me on the cheek. “You’re so protective, it’s cute. But I’m a grown-ass woman. I can decide to invest in a business if I like. If you don’t want the space, I’m sure I could make a killing selling firearms or something. I mean, this is Idaho. Being an arms dealer has a fun ring to it...”
I chuckled. She probably could. The feel of her lips lingered on my cheek. Unsure what to do, I returned to surveying the shop. Lana was much more… sure of herself and what she wanted than anyone I’d known before.
“I’m not tied down to the idea of being a park ranger,” she said, genuinely thinking it over as she looked at the space and the far wall with the shop beyond. “Wait, do your powers impact firearms?”
“No,” I said. “Maybe on very complex firearms, but simple ballistics shouldn’t be impacted. They don’t have electronics, capacitors, batteries, or electricity to worry about.”
“Red dot sights?”
“What are those?”
She chuckled, “I’ll put that down on the probably list. Still, it might be fun.” She grinned, “My father would have loved something like that. If you don’t move on the space, I should do it simply to honor his memory.”
I put an arm around her shoulders, the most brazen I’d been. When we sparred, we’d been closer but that was also necessary in the gym. This was not. “I wish I could have met him.”
“I think he would like you, all things considered.” Lana gave no indication of wanting me to let go.
“Yeah? Even with… everything else?”
“Yes,” she said as we both imagined the future possibilities.