Pinewood Corner Kitchen Chapter 1
Lunch was at least one interview trip away, but Gabriella’s stomach was growling as she listened to Madelyn and Graham talk about the cooking class they went to last night.
“They swapped in microgreens for the iceberg lettuce,” Madelyn said, fiddling with the head of her cane as she reminisced. “And I don’t remember the name of the dressing, but, oh my God, I never want to make anything else. Of course it was all fresh herbs in huge amounts, so my grocery bill is about to double, but it’s so worth it.”
“I have the recipe at home,” Graham said. “And I know Clarissa’ll have a bunch of excess herbs soon, which she’s going to get rid of by giving them to me. Last year I had to force myself to get really into fresh mint tea because otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to use up all the mint she sent me home with. I was scared to open the mail, I thought maybe a pile of parsley with no return address would be sitting there, waiting for me.”
Gabriella laughed, thinking about the sad little peanut butter sandwich and fruit salad she’d made herself for lunch today. It wasn’t her occasional – but still too frequent – trips through fast food drive-thru lanes, but it suddenly felt sadly inadequate as she listened to them talk about the upscale meal they had made at this class.
“I really liked the steak, but it wasn’t anything incredible,” Madelyn said. “But the potatoes? Unbelievable.”
“Nothing incredible,” Graham scoffed. “Best damn steak I’ve ever had and she’s here saying it’s nothing incredible.”
“Then I’m bringing you out for Brazilian barbeque on our next date. After that, you can tell me if you still think that’s the best damn steak you’ve ever had,” Madelyn teased.
Before they could continue to torment Gabriella with talk of food, James and Amelia were coming out of the captain’s office. Today was the official tradeoff day. They’d been sharing captain’s duties over the past month, ever since James said he wanted to take the position back. Gabriella knew Amelia would never say it, but she could see the relief as the end of her time as interim captain came closer. And now she was smiling as she sat down on the now-lone couch in the living room, the other one having finally collapsed a couple weeks earlier.
“Meeting in five,” James said. “Has anyone seen Bradley?”
“Shower, I think,” Madelyn said. “He was downstairs, right?”
Gabriella remembered now, the few seconds of being distracted from their stories about the cooking class by Bradley limping up the stairs, scowling at anyone who dared to look in his direction. The kneecap he’d dislocated last winter had come back out of place after he’d tackled James to save him from killing himself under the influence of a control compound. Everyone knew he was hurting, but God forbid anyone attempt to help.
Thankfully, he was scheduled for surgery in about a month. She knew that James was the one bringing him to the surgery and apparently sticking around to help him out after, and she could only imagine the argument before Bradley finally agreed to that. But he’d been even more irritable than usual lately, and while it could have been just life in general, the pain probably wasn’t helping.
Gabriella listened to see if she could hear the shower going, but couldn’t tell. And nobody was quite brave enough to go check.
James and Amelia exchanged a glance. “Which of us is in charge right now?” James asked.
“You,” Amelia said quickly. “Welcome back, Captain.”
“Fuck you,” James muttered, then went down the hallway.
He was doing a lot better, which was a relief. He still wore gloves all the time, but it was one of the only things that were outright concerning about his behavior lately. That, and the way he rarely seemed to eat. He was definitely still skittish, but that was fair. It had only been about three months since James had been attacked, mind-controlled for three days, and ordered to kill half the team. During the worst of it, Gabriella wasn’t sure if he would ever recover. And now, except for the gloves, the lack of normal eating habits, and that haunted look that still showed up sometimes, he was mostly himself again.
James apparently managed to track down Bradley and soon they were all crowded in the living room. “Alright,” James said, sitting in a folding chair near the front of the room. “So, as of today I’m officially taking back over as captain. Um, I know this has been a lot. Amelia said if I apologize again, she’ll kill me. So I won’t. But thank you, guys, for everything. Including trusting me to be in charge again. I hope I won’t let you down.”
How could he? Gabriella didn’t have a response to that, but he didn’t seem to be looking for one as he glanced at Amelia. She smiled at him, then exchanged a relieved smile with Madelyn.
“It’s looking like a pretty normal day,” James said, looking down at his notes. “Bradley, you and I are back on the Harrity case today. I was looking through some of the paperwork they sent over and honestly, it looks pretty standard. I think if we’re smart about it, we can finish it today.”
Bradley nodded, one hand moving briskly over his injured leg as he did so. Fang, their old calico branch cat, jumped up onto it and he flinched and swore under his breath. James looked over, but Bradley waved him off as he glared at the cat, who climbed off his knee and onto the desk behind him, purring as she settled in.
“Then there’s a weird one that Gabs is starting it today,” James said, catching her eye. “Actually, Graham, what was the name of the people who ran the class you and Madelyn went to last night?”
“Jan and Steve Chapman,” Graham replied. “Why?”
“Because apparently Jan and Steve Chapman requested assistance from the Foundation.”
Graham did his best to keep his expression professionally serene, but Gabriella wasn’t buying it and she knew Madelyn wasn’t either. The Chapmans’ website had been Graham’s latest obsession. Last night’s cooking class, which Madelyn had bought him for his birthday last month, had cost her a fortune. But she’d told Gabriella that it was worth it to see the look on his face when he opened the envelope and saw the tickets.
“The Chapmans are apparently the target of some psychic attacks,” James said. “And they’ve asked the Foundation to help them identify where they are coming from and make it stop. I don’t have any information beyond that, so today is going to be for information gathering. But Gabs and Graham, that’ll be you.”
She noticed how smoothly James had tacked Graham onto the case when he saw the way his face had lit up. That was the James she’d always known.
“Amelia gets to go monster hunting today,” James continued. “There’s been sightings of an enormous deer throughout the state, and it was last seen heading in our direction.”
“Great,” Graham said. “I think Suffolk had something going on with that the other day.”
“Yeah, we have no idea what its route is,” James said. “Anyway, I don’t expect you to find it. What we’re actually just hoping for is some sign of which direction it’s currently traveling in and why. I spent twenty minutes on the phone with Captain Fournier from Essex County earlier and-”
“Wait, Captain Who?” Bradley interrupted.
“Fournier.”
“Captain Fournier?” Bradley repeated as he pet Fang. “As in, Roxanne Fournier?”
“Yeah,” James said. “It appeared in her area, but crossed over into Middlesex around four AM and-”
“How long has she been captain over there?”
“Do you want me to ever finish this meeting or not?” James demanded. “I think it’s recent. Why?”
Right, Bradley had worked at Essex County before coming here to North Worcester County several years earlier. “Nothing,” Bradley said, looking irritated. “I just have to make a phone call after this.”
“We have Harrity.”
“You think I can’t pack and talk on the phone at the same time?”
James’s first day back full-time as captain and already he and Bradley were derailing a meeting with their bickering. “Fine, whatever,” James said. “Anyway, Amelia will be tracking that down while Madelyn takes comms for both her and us.”
Gabriella was going to have to look through her email for anything about the Chapmans, since Bradley hadn’t had time to make a powerpoint for this one, not that there was apparently much information to be had. Graham looked excited as they finished the meeting, concerns about the enormous deer that was not his problem that day apparently gone.
After the meeting, Gabriella stayed where she was, going into her email as James and Bradley started setting up for their case at the dining room table, which was covered in supplies like usual. As he packed, Bradley had his phone to his ear, waiting for a call to go through.
“Yeah, hi, Captain,” he said after a moment, the last word heavy with irritation.
James looked over from across the table, clearly concerned about whatever diplomatic crisis was about to erupt between the two branches. But then Bradley actually laughed. “No, fuck you,” he said, ignoring everyone else in the room as he checked a list in his notebook and began packing his bag. “I saw you less than a month ago and you didn’t say shit. What happened to Ethan?”
She couldn’t hear who she assumed had to be Captain Fournier on the other end of the line. “Right,” Bradley said. “And did you actually want the job or did they make you?”
James looked both curious and irritated as he packed his own bag. “Yeah, I figured you’d be doing all of that as soon as they put Ethan in charge,” Bradley said. “Most useless man alive.”
James caught Gabriella’s eye, then shrugged in agreement. Bradley was going to be pissed at them when he realized they were so obviously eavesdropping on his conversation, but whatever. She had actual work to do out here.
The packet was in her inbox, sent there mid-meeting by Bradley. She opened it to find just about as much as she’d expected. Jan and Steve Chapman, two successful local food bloggers, terrorized by psychic attacks. There were some links to their website and a few notes from their intake representative. Nothing more.
“Will you still be there next week?” Bradley asked, cradling the phone between his shoulder and ear as he carefully sheathed a lethal-looking blade and slid it into his bag. “We can reschedule.”
“Bradley, we need to get going,” James said, as though he wasn’t also still packing his own bag.
Bradley shot James’s half-full bag a pointed look, then ignored him. “Yeah, I’m actually off,” he said. “No, don’t fucking tell them, come on. If I hear a single ‘Happy Birthday’ from anyone there, I’m going to know it’s you.”
He scooped up his own bag. “Fine,” he said. “But if I can walk at the end of the night, then you fucking failed. Alright, Captain, go rescue Essex County from itself.”
He hung up and Gabriella tried to pretend she hadn’t heard him talking to the Essex County captain like an actual friend. “What?” Bradley demanded, realizing the room was quiet.
“Old friend?” Gabriella asked.
“I worked with her at my old branch.”
“Right. Asshole from Marblehead.”
“Will you please fuck off?” Bradley said. “Did you get the packet?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Don’t mess it up.”
“Bradley-” James started irritably, but Gabriella brushed Bradley off as she printed the packet and walked away.
