take off to?”
“He had some errand to run today.”
Lamonte shifts in the chair, then bends to straighten the roll of his jean cuff. He’s been growing out some baby dreads, and I reach out to tweak one. “I love these.”
He runs his hand over them. “They take forever.”
“I bet.” I sense he has something to say to me, but he’s beating around the bush. “So, what’s up?”
“I don’t want to get weird because you’re my friend, not just the boss, but…”
I set down the Sharpie to give him my full attention, my heart racing. Is he involved in the theft after all? Does he know we saw the woman? Is she a friend?
I work hard to keep the waver out of my voice. “What’s going on?”
His eyes turn down to the floor. “I’m gonna need more hours, or a raise or something, or I’ll have to find another place to work. I can’t hold things together where I’m at.”
My pulse slows to a normal pace. It’s a simple employee matter. “Maybe we can work something out. How long have you been here? Six months?”
“Five and change.”
I swivel in my chair. “Can you move up to full-time?”
“I always could. There was never room for more full-timers.”
“That’s because I didn’t know our budget or what I could do. I’ve been thinking about adding an assistant manager. We used to have one. Let me see if I can get in touch with Jace Pickle about it.”
“Really? You’d make me assistant manager?”
“You’ve been here as long as anyone except Elda, and she always says she doesn’t want any job other than the one she’s got.”
“So I’d get more hours and a raise?”
“As long as I can convince the owner.”
He practically bounces in the chair. “That’s great! Dang! Dang!”
“I’ll try to call him in the morning.” I pick up the Sharpie again.
He stands but then pauses at the door. “I noticed Jason’s been making the bread every morning. What are you gonna do when he’s gone?”
His words are like a rock settling in my gut. “I guess I’ll figure that out when it happens.”
“Don’t you let him break your heart.” He crosses his arms over the chest of his Austin City Limits T-shirt. “I won’t put up with that. Not with my girl.”
“It was always going to be a temporary thing,” I say. “I can handle it.”
“I’ve seen you two.”
I wave him away. “I’ll let you know what Jace Pickle says.”
Lamonte takes off, and I listen for the opening and closing of the back door. I’m alone in the deli, waiting for either Jason to come back or Connie and Charlotte to show up to clean. I mark a few more bills and pile them together, carefully placing them in the same locking bag I’ve used all this time.
I hold the heavy canvas bag in my hands. The zipper has a three-digit spinner you have to roll to the right combination to open it.
Whoever’s been stealing knows everything. Safe. Zipper combo. She obviously isn’t part of my current crew, but was she part of the old one?
As I take the money to the safe to possibly be stolen by this mystery woman, I run through all the people I knew when I first worked there. Do we have a list somewhere? We should have applications and other documents that would refresh my memory about who worked here when I first started.
I double check that the front door is locked and the Closed sign out. When I return to the kitchen, Jason comes in through the back door.
“I was beginning to think you’d gotten lost.”
“This was harder to find than I thought.”
“Let me have the receipt, and I’ll make sure you’re reimbursed.”
He waves me away. “We can worry about that later.” He drops the box on the mixing table. “I mainly want to get this thing installed.”
I glance at the clock. “Connie and Charlotte will be here any minute. Do you care if they see since it’s not them?”
He picks the box back up. “We don’t know who knows this woman. She could get tipped off, even accidentally if someone who works here doesn’t realize what they’re doing. We’ll open it up in your office. Then we can install it before we leave.”
By the time Connie and Charlotte are done with their tasks, Jason has laid out all the pieces of the alarm, along with the tools he’ll need. It’s a simple set up, a beam that breaks when the door opens.
When Jason has screwed it