Page 43 of Sheltered
Immediately alarmed, I asked, “Is everyone okay?”
“I believe so, but there’s been an incident,” she revealed.
As I turned my truck around, so I could head to The Early Bird, I pressed, “What kind of incident?”
“Tarryn, her sister, and the other two girls who work with them all arrive very early in the morning, so they can prepare the doughnuts for the day, obviously. At some point this morning, one of them went outside to grab something from her car, and that’s when she noticed all their cars had been vandalized. I don’t know much beyond that.”
Why would someone vandalize those cars? “That’s odd,” I mumbled, more so to myself than Avalon. “I’m already heading in that direction. Thanks for giving me a call.”
“No problem. Thanks for heading over there. I’ll reach out to Tarryn later, but give her my love, please,” Avalon requested.
“Sure. I’ll talk to you later,” I said.
Avalon and I said goodbye and disconnected our call.
A few minutes later, I drove down the street in front of The Early Bird. It seemed to be business as usual inside the shop, and I didn’t want to disturb what was happening there, so I drove around the back, where Tarryn and her crew would have parked their cars. Sure enough, there were two police officers there, along with Royce and Tarryn.
I pulled into the lot at the back of the coffee shop, parked, and made my way toward my boss and his wife. When I came to a stop in front of them, I asked, “What happened?”
Royce jerked his head in the opposite direction and said, “Tarryn, Presley, Bailey, and Sabrina all got here early this morning like they always do to prep everything before the morning rush, and when Sabrina walked out about twenty minutes ago to grab something she forgot in her car, she realized all the cars had been vandalized. All four tires on all four cars have been slashed and each of them has at least two windows broken. Tarryn’s car is the worst of it. Her car was also keyed.”
My eyes slid to the side. “Are you and the girls okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah, we’re all physically fine. This sucks, though.”
I dipped my chin. “I agree. I assume none of you saw anything.”
Tarryn shook her head. “No, unfortunately, we did not.”
Returning my attention to Royce, I asked, “Did you check the camera footage?”
“Yep. And while there is still no proof of exactly who these men are, I’m confident that the men who did this here this morning are the same men who’ve been terrorizing this town over the last few weeks.”
I shook my head and sighed.
“Baby?” Tarryn said.
Royce turned his attention to her. “Yeah?”
“I need to go inside and help out the girls now that we’ve all had an opportunity to speak with the police. There’s not much for me to do while the police are finishing up what they’ve got to do with these cars,” she informed him.
He offered her a nod. “Go ahead. I’m going to talk to Blaze for a few minutes. I’ll be inside shortly.”
“Okay.” After she gave him a kiss, she looked at me and said, “It was nice seeing you, Blaze. Thanks for stopping by.”
“It’s not a problem at all. Avalon called and told me to head here instead of the office this morning, so that’s why I’m here. By the way, she did want me to tell you that she sends her love and will call you later.”
A smile formed on her face. “That was sweet of her. Make sure you stop in before you leave. I’ll send some doughnuts to the office.”
“Will do.”
The next thing I knew, Tarryn had walked away and returned to her shop.
My mind was already whirling with a bunch of thoughts, and none of them were good, but I wanted to assess a bit more of the situation and get Royce’s take on it before I shared what was going through my head.
“She seems surprisingly calm,” I noted.
He shrugged and let out a laugh. I thought that was a good thing, considering the reality of the situation we were facing. “There’s not a lot that rattles my wife. But I think she was trying to keep it together for the rest of the girls.”