Death of a Coupon Clipper Page 2

  “Would you shut your piehole for once, Liddy, and let Hayley have our sympathy for at least five more minutes before we put the spotlight back on you?” Mona barked.

  “Mona, it’s all right,” Hayley said, not wanting her two buddies to go at it.

  “Well, excuse me, Mona, for wanting to share with my two best friends. Go ahead, Hayley, tell us about your terrible day and I will sit quietly and just listen so Mona doesn’t go off and hit me or something.”

  Too late.

  “I really don’t feel like talking about it, actually.” Hayley shrugged.

  “See, Mona? I was being a good friend. I was just trying to get Hayley’s mind off her troubles by sharing my problems.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that was it,” Mona said, rolling her eyes.

  Hayley’s brother, Randy, ambled over from behind the bar and slid a drink in front of her. “Hey, sis. Here’s your Jack and Coke. And just in the nick of time, from what I hear.”

  Hayley smiled and nodded; then she took a big gulp and sighed. “Much better.”

  “Club soda?” Randy said, pointing at Mona.

  “Yeah, whatever. I am so sick of not ever getting to partake in happy hour,” Mona said, scowling.

  “Wait, Mona, don’t tell me,” Hayley said, eyes popping out. “Are you . . . ?”

  Mona thought for a moment, and then a smile crept across her face. “No! I’m not! I’m not pregnant! I just realized that I’m knocked up so much of the time, it just seems natural for me to lay off the booze! But I’m not pregnant now! My husband’s back went out and he’s been sleeping on the floor so he hasn’t had the chance to climb on top of me in weeks. Randy, get me a Bud Light!”

  “Great. Mona can slam down a six-pack and get even more loud and obnoxious and combative than she already is,” Liddy moaned. “It’s a glorious day.”

  Hayley chuckled. Despite the fast and furious insults, she knew Liddy and Mona truly cared about each other. They just didn’t like to display their affection in public.

  Randy popped the top off a bottle of Bud Light and placed it on a coaster in front of Mona. “On the house, Mona. To celebrate the fact there’s not another baby on the way.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” Mona said, chugging down half the bottle.

  Hayley felt happy to be among the people closest to her. And for a moment, she was able to put the dreaded thoughts of her situation out of her mind. She turned to Randy. “How are you doing?”

  “I hate sleeping alone,” Randy said.

  Randy’s partner, Sergio Alvares, was in Brazil visiting his family. Randy was unable to make the trip with him because he had no one to cover the bar in his absence. His manager, Michelle, was on vacation in Jamaica with her new husband, Ned, and her stepdaughter, Carrie. Sergio had only been gone a week, but Randy already desperately missed him and was marking off the days on his calendar until his lover’s return.

  “How many days left?” Liddy asked, sliding her empty cocktail glass over to Randy for a refill.

  “Thirteen,” Randy sighed. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it.”

  The door to the bar swung open and a gust of bitterly cold wind blew a few napkins off the bar. Officer Donnie trudged inside, stomping his boots on the mat and slamming the door behind him.

  “From what I hear, I don’t know how Donnie’s going to make it without Sergio either,” Liddy said, cracking a smile.

  Officer Donnie was a young, inexperienced cop in his mid-twenties. He was employed by the local police force, where Sergio was chief. Donnie was a towering, thin beanpole, with very little self-confidence and a permanent frightened look on his face. He tentatively made his way to the bar and put his hands down on the hardwood counter.

  “I—I’ll have a Coors, if you g-got one, Randy,” Donnie stammered.

  “Sure, Donnie,” Randy said, sliding open the gray-topped cooler behind the bar and fetching a bottle.

  “I certainly hope you’re off duty, Officer Donnie,” Liddy teased.

  “I—I most certainly am, Ms. Crawford. I wouldn’t be drinking alcohol if I was on duty!” Donnie hollered in Randy’s direction, knowing he was his boss’s partner in life.

  Donnie had been put in charge while Sergio was away. That wasn’t the original plan, though. Lieutenant Phil Jenkins, whom Sergio personally hand-picked to be acting chief while he was in Brazil, was hospitalized with gallstones two days before Sergio was scheduled to depart. There was talk of him postponing his trip, but Officer Donnie stepped forward and lobbied hard for the temporary position. Sergio was reluctant to put someone so young in charge, but Donnie argued that he could handle the responsibility and was ready to prove himself. Sergio finally agreed; and before the wheels on Sergio’s plane were up as it left the runway of the Bar Harbor Airport, Donnie’s nerves collapsed faster than the roof over Hayley’s garage.

  Donnie was overwhelmed by the duties of chief. Being in charge of keeping an entire town safe and secure, he broke out with a case of shingles almost immediately. There was a discussion of summoning Sergio back. However, since there hadn’t been a crime reported in Bar Harbor in several weeks, the city council decided just to let things be and crossed their fingers in hope that nothing bad would happen while Sergio was in South America.

  Unfortunately, for the entire town of Bar Harbor, that would eventually prove to be a dangerous mistake.

  Chapter 3

  Hayley tried to be a trouper and sleep at her house that first night, bundled up in her long underwear, with a couple of heavy sweaters, and buried underneath a giant white down comforter. She snuggled up close with Leroy and shivered throughout the night. By morning her red nose was stuffed up and a nasty cold was coming her way.

  Things just got worse once Billy Parsons arrived at the house shortly after seven. Billy was a local handyman in his early thirties, portly, with a scruffy face and an easy smile. There was a charm about Billy that a lot of the local single women found intoxicating. Now that Billy was going through a divorce and his copper wedding band had been removed from his pudgy ring finger, interest in Billy as a romantic prospect had recently spiked. Billy wasn’t Hayley’s type, but he was a hard worker, so he was the first person she thought to call when her furnace went on the fritz.

  Billy showed up on time and trudged down the stairs to the basement; Hayley and Leroy followed behind.

  Fearing the worst, Hayley had a knot in her stomach.

  Billy snapped open his tool kit and grabbed a flashlight and a wrench and went to work inspecting the busted furnace. Hayley stood close behind him, arms tightly folded, eyes closed as she prayed for a miracle.

  She had to bend down and pick up Leroy, who was sniffing around Billy’s butt crack, which inched up from his scuffed belt as he crouched down to take a look.

  Billy started to bang the side of the furnace and then stuck his head inside and looked around. When he pulled his face out, he had smudges of dirt all over his chubby cheeks.

  “What’s the verdict, Billy?” Hayley asked, taking a deep breath.

  Billy shook his head, with a grim look on his face. “Not good, Hayley. This thing’s beyond repair. Looks like you’re going to have to buy a new one.”

  “How much is that going to cost?” Hayley said, still holding her breath.

  “I’d say you’re looking at three grand.”

  Hayley’s heart sank.

  She couldn’t afford three hundred, let alone three grand. She had just spent the last two thousand in her checking account paying her property taxes—and not only that, she needed to buy both her kids new ski boots when they returned from their dad’s house.

  Billy put a comforting arm around Hayley and squeezed tightly. “Now don’t fret, Hayley. Ole Billy’s here to help you. I know a guy who can get me a used one. That would knock off about fifteen hundred.”

  It was still more than she had to spend. She didn’t even want to think about what fixing the roof was going to cost. She was afraid to ask, but sometimes sh
e was just a glutton for punishment.

  “Did you take a look at the roof before you came in?”

  “Yes, I did,” Billy said solemnly.

  “And?”

  “And I think it’s best we deal with one thing at a time. And heating your house in February should be our biggest concern right now.”

  “Billy, I have to know what I’m dealing with,” Hayley said, locking eyes with him.

  Billy looked away and down at his Eddie Bauer boots. “I won’t lie to you. It’s going to be expensive.”

  “How much?”

  “Another five, six grand.”

  Hayley’s knees felt weak. She had to grab the furnace to keep from falling. Luckily, it was dead, so there was no chance of burning her hand from the heat.

  “But I can throw some tarp over it for now and we can deal with it sometime this spring after the snow melts. Does that sound good to you?”

  Hayley nodded.

  “Like I said, the heater’s more important. And your car.”

  “My car?”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty much totaled, I’m sorry to say.” Of course it was.

  “But you’ve got insurance, right, Hayley?”

  “Yes,” Hayley said, rubbing her eyes and shaking her head, grateful for that.

  “Then you got nothing to worry about. You’ll have another one parked in your driveway in no time,” Billy said with his relaxed smile. “I’m partial to those Kia Sportage mini-SUVs myself.”

  If only she could afford one.

  But maybe with the insurance money . . .

  Billy was kind enough to give Hayley a lift to the Island Times office. When Hayley sat down at her desk, she immediately picked up the phone and called her car insurance agent, Gretchen Maxwell, a kind elderly local who had been handling her policy since Hayley first got her license at sixteen years old.

  Gretchen adored Hayley and always commented that Hayley’s laugh was infectious and put a smile on her face whenever she heard it at the bank or in the grocery store or even on the street when they were out walking their dogs. Gretchen swore Hayley’s distinct giggle echoed through town keeping Bar Harbor the happiest place on earth, a close second to Disney World, where Gretchen took her grandkids every Thanksgiving.

  So Hayley knew Gretchen would do her best to make the process of filing a claim as painless as possible. Hayley heard Gretchen type a few keys on her computer as she chatted away about her recent hip surgery and how she had to hire a dog walker to take her poodle out to do her business because her recovery was going too slowly.

  “Here we go,” Gretchen said. “I have your policy right here in front of me. Now let’s see. . . .”

  Gretchen suddenly fell silent.

  This wasn’t good.

  “Gretchen, are you still there?” Hayley asked.

  “Uh, yes, dear. Your policy was due for renewal on the fifteenth. That was a week ago.”

  “I know. I remember getting the bill in the mail and I sent the check for the first installment of my premium the day I got my paycheck, which was on Thursday.”

  “We never received it.”

  “Well, I know I sent it,” Hayley said confidently as she fished through her bag and retrieved her checkbook. She opened to the register and scanned down the list of checks she had written. The last one was a deposit for Gemma’s two-week cheerleading camp next summer. Before that, she wrote a check to Geddy’s restaurant when she had taken the kids out for pizza. Nothing to the insurance company. But she distinctly remembered writing the check and stuffing it in the envelope and mailing it. She must have just forgotten to record it in the register.

  Then it suddenly hit her.

  She didn’t have stamps that day and the post office was already closed, so she decided to do it first thing in the morning before work. But that was the day Dustin missed the bus for school because he couldn’t drag his lazy butt out of bed and she had to drive him herself. She was running late for work and forgot to swing by the post office.

  That could only mean one thing.

  Hayley fumbled around the contents of her bag. Her fingers touched some paper and she instinctively knew what it was. An envelope. With the check for the insurance company inside it. She forgot to mail it.

  “Gretchen, I am so, so sorry. I have it right here. I can run it by your office during my lunch hour.”

  “That will be fine, dear. Once I have it, I can reinstate your policy.”

  “Great, thank you. Now I need to file a claim for the damage to my car. Do you want to take down the information or have me fill out a form online?”

  More silence on the other end of the phone.

  Again. Not good.

  “Excuse me, dear, the accident happened yesterday?”

  “Yes. The roof collapsed on top of my Subaru. There was no other car involved. I’m covered for something like that, right?”

  “Of course, dear. The only problem is when your policy was a week past due, which would have been yesterday, it was canceled.”

  “I understand,” Hayley said. “But I have the check right here in my hand and you said you could reinstate it.”

  “Yes. And you will be covered as of today. Unfortunately, and this is why I am so ready to retire next year, the vultures at this company will almost certainly deny your claim because at the time of the accident, you were technically not covered.”

  This could not be happening.

  “But I’ve been on time with my payments for years. This was a onetime mix-up. I swear I’ll never be late again.”

  “If it were up to me, I’d have you driving a brand-new Infiniti by the end of business hours tomorrow. But I’m not authorized to process this claim. I have to send it to corporate headquarters and they decide whether or not to cut you a check. Hayley, I’m telling you right now, this is the kind of loophole they always look for.”

  Hayley felt her eyes welling up with tears again. She couldn’t take much more of this. She quietly thanked Gretchen for her time and hung up the phone. She sat in stunned silence the rest of the morning, robotically answering the phone and jotting down information from local businesses calling to place ads in the paper. She couldn’t even begin to focus on her column, which was due by the end of the day.

  Around noon Randy walked through the door in a stylish navy blue winter coat he bought while visiting a college friend in Denver and a scarf Sergio’s mother had knitted for him last Christmas.

  “Hey, sis, I’ve come to treat you to lunch. Want to go to Jordan’s and split a large order of onion rings? I’m feeling naughty.”

  He instantly sensed something was wrong.

  “What happened now?” he asked.

  Hayley recounted the details of her conversation with Gretchen at the insurance company. And the devastating estimates from Billy Parsons to repair her roof and install a new furnace.

  Randy rushed over to Hayley as she stood up and hugged her tightly. “You know I’d lend you the money, but we’re cash poor right now because of the money pit we live in and our astronomical gas bill this winter. And Sergio cleaned out our savings to buy his plane ticket home to Brazil.”

  “I know, I know. This isn’t your problem. I’m the one who got myself into this financial mess. I’ve been budgeting, but I just didn’t include any unexpected problems. What am I going to do?”

  “You’re going to come stay in my drafty house until we figure out how to get you a new furnace. We’ll sit by the fire and wrap ourselves up in blankets and drink Irish coffee with whipped cream and we’ll bake cookies until we both grow a belt size. It’ll be like one big fun slumber party.”

  It sounded heavenly.

  And Hayley really needed a lifeline right now.

  Chapter 4

  Randy picked Hayley up at the office promptly at five o’clock in his blue Prius and they drove straight to the grocery store to stock up on cookie dough, chocolate chips, coffee, and, most important, a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream before swinging by Hayley’s
neighbor to pick up Leroy, whose simple playdate had morphed into doggie day care.

  When they finally arrived at Randy’s large oceanfront house, Hayley made a beeline for the kitchen to prepare their feast of freshly baked cookies and warm drinks, while Randy lugged in an armful of chopped wood from outside and stacked them in the fireplace.

  Leroy chose to curl up on the couch and fall into a deep sleep.

  By the time Hayley carried in two steaming mugs of Irish coffee, Randy was stoking the roaring fire with an iron poker. He had already tossed some pillows on the floor, and they both sat down and toasted to a hopefully short winter before taking their sips.

  “So, have you thought about what you’re going to do?” Randy asked delicately.

  Hayley shook her head. “The kids will be home soon. I’m going to have to figure something out quick.”

  “You can always go for the nuclear option,” Randy said, smiling.

  “No way! Absolutely not!”

  The nuclear option was calling their mother in Florida and asking her for a loan. Sheila had some cash socked away for a rainy day, but the ordeal of asking was as painful to Hayley as the time she underwent dental implants. There had to be another way.

  “You can at least try,” Randy said, reaching for the cordless phone on the coffee table. “I know she’s home. We chatted earlier.”

  “Randy, I’ve gone down this road before and she always makes me feel guilty for asking. I just don’t want to go through that again. I’m not that desperate.”

  “Yes, you are, sis.”

  He had a point.

  Hayley grabbed the phone out of Randy’s hand and started punching numbers. “I have a very strong feeling I’m going to regret this.”

  Hayley shook her head and sighed as it rang. In her gut she just knew this was a huge mistake. But what choice did she have?

  “Yes. Hello. Who is this?”

  “Mom, I know you checked the caller ID before you answered. It’s me. Your only daughter.”