Her First Mistake by Carey Baldwin (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

“But you can transfer the footage onto tape for the police, can’t you?” Mia asked.

“That’s right. If you’ll step into my office, we can speak in private,” Keisha replied.

“That’s Lanelle’s office, not yours.” Heather seemed keen on making sure Keisha didn’t take any extra credit.

“Please follow me.” Keisha turned her back on her fellow staff member and led Mia through the kitchen and down a hallway.

Keisha unlocked the door to a small office.

Mia had gotten lucky. Keisha’s need to show off her authority had distracted her to the point she hadn’t asked herself if it was appropriate to be talking about the restaurant’s security system with someone other than the police.

Once inside the office, Keisha indicated a Spanish-style dining chair that had obviously been pulled from one of the restaurant’s tables, and Mia took a seat. Keisha balanced on the edge of a black desk that looked cheap, like it’d come from an office supply store. She rotated a computer toward Mia, revealing a screen divided into sections of live feed from both the interior and exterior of the Piano Man. “You were asking about CCTV?”

Mia nodded, hardly believing how easy this was turning out to be. “For the family. I was just wondering if there was video from a week ago Friday night, and if the police have asked for it.”

Keisha folded her arms across her chest. “Uh-huh.”

Something in Keisha’s tone was making Mia’s stomach churn. “So…”

“Unfortunately—” Keisha smiled… odd since she was reporting a misfortune “—the footage was deleted from the hard drive.”

“Oh no.” Mia pressed her hand to her gut. Until now, she’d been holding on to hope that the footage would somehow magically show nothing of her, and yet still provide clues for the police, possibly even reveal the culprit following Celeste out of the restaurant. Now that chance was gone—but at least Mia could rest easy about the keys.

Keisha was still smiling, still inappropriately. “Don’t you want to know how the footage got deleted?”

“Sure.” At this point it no longer mattered, but Keisha seemed to want to tell her.

“I received a complaint about one of my staff. Heather, to be precise.”

Mia nodded, numbly. She needed to stop at the pharmacy for an antacid, and she was definitely beginning to understand Heather’s resentment toward Keisha.

“So it fell to me, as assistant manager, to sort it out. I had to review the footage from Friday night—naturally this is before we’d heard a thing about Celeste Cooper going missing or I wouldn’t have gone near it. Anyway, I checked out the encounter between Heather and our unhappy customer, and it turns out it wasn’t Heather who’d seated her. It was Lola, and all she did was escort her to the table. It was the customer who knocked over a wineglass and ruined her own white dress, not Lola.”

“That must’ve been a disappointment,” Mia said dryly.

“Anyway, I noticed the hard drive was almost full, so I thought I’d delete the footage to free up space. Turns out that wasn’t necessary because when the hard drive runs out of room it just records over the oldest footage automatically. Too bad I didn’t know that. It was, as you say, disappointing not to be able to provide a recording for the police. But my manager understood completely. I was only trying to help, and it’s actually his fault for not training me properly.” Her lips curled. “But you know what isn’t a disappointment?”

“No.” Mia got to her feet.

“You showing up to inquire about the CCTV.”

Keisha had reviewed the footage from Friday night.

Mia should’ve seen this coming.

She dropped back down into her chair, a molten rock in her gut. To distract from the blistering pain in her belly, Mia dug her nails into her palms.

“I know what you did,” Keisha said in a stage whisper. “You stole her keys. I didn’t recognize you right away because you look different today. That night, you cowered like you were a nothing, a nobody compared to those women. When they turned their backs on you, I thought you were going to dissolve into a puddle on the floor. But then, you surprised me. You walked away with her keys, and I said to myself: You go, girl!”

No antacid in the world could quiet the fire in Mia’s stomach. Her throat filled up with bile.

“Don’t get upset. I like you better for showing some spunk.”

Where was Keisha headed with this? Mia pulled a small water bottle from her bag, took a sip. The acid drained from her throat. What was the worst thing that could happen?

Keisha would reveal her secret.

And her world, unlike Celeste’s, would go on turning.

She screwed the cap back on the water bottle and put it away. “Is that all?”

“Not exactly. I’m afraid my car’s in the shop. Needs a new transmission.”

Mia rose to leave. “I honestly don’t care.”

“That’s not very polite. You should be nicer to me. If you ask me, you need all the friends you can get.”

Mia crossed the room.

Keisha jumped up and got ahead of her, backing against the door, blocking Mia’s exit. “My new transmission costs one thousand dollars, and I’m afraid I don’t have the cash. The shop guy says my car’ll be ready in two days. I told him that isn’t enough time for me to come up with the money, and he said if I don’t, he won’t release my car.”

“Let me pass, please,” Mia said.

Keisha didn’t budge. “Here’s my thought: I’m betting my new friend, Mia, can help me out. If I give you forty-eight hours, you can come up with one thousand dollars. Can’t you, hon?”

Twenty-Seven

Mia’s head was aching as she headed from the Piano Man toward her car, parked down the street, just past the alleyway. Keisha had given her forty-eight hours to deliver one thousand dollars. But Mia had absolutely no intention of paying Keisha Sims a single dime, and that meant she had to figure a different