Buzz Off - By Hannah Reed Page 0,24

me.

I decided to ignore him. I was all worn out emotionally and didn’t have the strength to take on Johnny Jay in the manner in which I had become accustomed. When I didn’t answer my door, he went over to Clay’s house. My phone rang multiple times, but I didn’t answer that, either, preferring to let the answering machine take over.

Nine

Not only are bullet points important in life, so are priority lists. My heart was heavy from the loss of Manny and the discovery of Faye’s body. All I wanted to do was stuff myself in my bedroom closet for the rest of eternity. But I still had a bee mission to complete. I didn’t want to lose them, too. Time was running out. Before long, someone was going to show up at Grace Chapman’s and take the beehives.

So when the sun began its descent over the horizon and the cops had finished in my backyard, and when the squad cars disappeared from my street, I cleared my mind of all whiny, self-pitying thoughts and called Grace.

“Grace, it’s Story Fischer.”

“My sister-in-law had a few rather unpleasant things to say about you,” she said, making this one of the poorest beginnings to a conversation in my history.

“I was upset,” I said. “And rightly so, I might add. She was rather unpleasant herself. But please, tell me about the bees. Where are they going?”

“Someone called and offered to take them off my hands. What else was I going to do with them?”

“What about giving them to me?” Was Grace really this dense?

“I never thought you’d be interested.”

Yeah, right!

“I love those bees. So did Manny. You can’t give them to just anybody. I’ll buy them from you.”

“Story, they killed Manny. How could you get up every morning and look out on a bunch of killer bees after what they did? Besides, I’m already getting paid for them. I tried to explain the risk, but this beekeeper didn’t seem worried.”

“I know they didn’t do anything to Manny. It had to have been—”

But Grace wasn’t going to listen. “I won’t discuss it with you anymore. I’ve made my decision and I’m sticking to it.”

“What about the equipment and some of the other things? Can you give me first dibs on the honey extractor and Manny’s journal?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. And, trust me, I’m not doing an inventory any time soon. I never set foot in the honey house when Manny was alive and I’m not changing that now. I’ll allow you to come out and get honey, though. To sell, I mean, and I’m counting on you to be honest with the proceeds.”

“Of course.” I was so relieved that I let the honesty shot fly by without comment. At least she would be open to working with me in some capacity. But she was one unbending woman.

“What’s the name of the bee association member who’s taking the bees?” I wanted to know.

“Gerald Smith,” she said. “He’s coming in an hour or so.”

“I’m so sorry about Manny,” I said, but Grace had already hung up.

I knew now what I had to do. My motive was crystal clear and there would be no turning back.

I was going to steal as many of Manny’s beehives as I could.

Black is a cool color. For starters, it’s slimming. You can wear it for any occasion—working out, sleeping, dressing up, and for blending in to the dark of night.

I pulled on black sweats and a black tee. Then added a black fleece after I opened the door and realized that the night air was a bit brisk. I had a black ball cap on my head with my hair tucked up inside.

I’d left my truck at The Wild Clover, which was standard operating procedure for me. Living two blocks away, I didn’t see the need to drive it back and forth constantly, and I used it more for work than for personal errands anyway. Once I was sure that there were no more cops on the street, I headed out, careful to stay in the shadows.

I worked on a plan as I snuck over. Beehives aren’t the lightest things to move, so I’d be physically handicapped working alone. And I couldn’t transport all of them in the short time I had. But I could take a few, disappear into the night, then work later on getting the rest of them in a less-covert manner.

My brilliant plan blew apart when the police chief honed in on me the second