“What did he want you to do for the money?”
“Rewrite the cookbook.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
I took a couple Oreos from Diesel. “It feels off. And I don’t like him. He’s creepy.”
“From what I read, no one likes him.”
“His butler likes him.”
“He has a butler?”
“Actually I don’t know what the guy is. His name is Rutherford, and he said he was Ammon’s devoted assistant. Devoted. Like he lived to suck Ammon’s toes.”
Carl ate the last Fig Newton and stared into the empty bag. He turned the bag upside down and shook it. No Fig Newtons fell out. He looked over at Diesel and shook the bag some more.
“You ate the whole bag,” Diesel said to Carl. “There aren’t any more.”
“Eeep,” Carl said, and he gave Diesel the finger.
I took another Oreo from Diesel’s bag. “I think I saw the treasure map. It was hanging over the fireplace in Ammon’s home office. The office is on the second floor, and it opens onto a wonderful balcony that looks out over the ocean.”
“Did you see the diary?”
“No. And there wasn’t an opportunity to insert it into the conversation.”
“Clara’s going to take us to talk to Gramps tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll still have his piece of the coin.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Diesel sauntered into the bakery a little before one o’clock. Clara had just finished scrubbing down her workstation, and I was bagging leftover muffins.
“Give me a minute to change my clothes, and I’ll be ready to go,” Clara said to Diesel.
Clara lives in the little apartment over the shop, so a wardrobe change was easy. Mine was even easier. I took off my apron and chef coat and stomped the flour off my sneakers.
“Are you going to be okay here alone?” I asked Glo.
“No problem,” she said. “I brought Broom to keep me company, and Clara will be back to help me close.”
I followed Diesel out of the shop and stood staring at the bright orange Dodge Charger parked in the lot.
“Yours?” I asked him.
“Yep.”
“What happened to the SUV?”
“I don’t know. The cars come and go.”
“That’s very strange.”
“No stranger than anything else in my life.”
Clara exited the building by her private entrance. She locked the door and walked over to us.
“Gramps is at the Salem Aquarium today,” she said. “He has a day care lady who takes him there once a week.”