Chapter 6

Ten minutes later, I had my first legitimate customer of the day.

A harried man in his mid-forties dressed in a threadbare suit came into the shop, and after a few minutes of searching, he asked me, “Where do you keep your cows?”

“Excuse me?”

“Cows. Bovines. Those things that go moo. You know, cows.”

“I’m sorry, but we’re not a farm. You do realize that, don’t you?”

He grinned at me. “My daughter has an obsession with cows, all kinds, shapes, sizes, and forms. Surely in this impressive store of yours you have at least one cow.”

I thought about it for a few seconds, trying to come up with anything cow-related in our inventory. “How old is your daughter?”

“She’s going to be twelve tomorrow,” he said.

“Does she have pierced ears yet?”

He thought about it, and then he shook his head. “I have no idea. Her mother is in charge of that stuff, and I only get to see Emma every other weekend. Why do you ask?”

“I have a set of cow earrings, but they are for pierced ears,” I said as I showed him the earrings in question. They were quirky, and I was surprised that no one had grabbed them yet.

“Do you have anything else?” he asked.

“Hang on. We have a cast-iron cow, but he has wings. Would that do?”

“How big is it?” he asked. “I don’t have my truck with me today.”

“It’s nowhere near that big. In fact, it will fit in the palm of your hand,” I said.

“It sounds perfect. Let’s see it.”

I walked over to our section filled with odd little things that defied any of our regular categories and picked up the cow. “Here you go.”

“Wow. It’s heavy,” he said as he took it from me. “Are you sure that it’s not lead?”

“I’m positive. It’s two cast-iron pieces bolted together.”

“Why wings, do you suppose?” he asked as he studied it.

“I like to think of them as angel wings,” I said.

He got it immediately, something that pleased me immensely. “Holy cow.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll take it. Do you gift wrap?”

“Not normally, but for you, I’ll make an exception.”

“Perfect,” he said.

“I’ll be right back.” I went into the back and got a box for the cow, along with some bubble wrap and some generic birthday wrapping paper Cora had picked up on sale. Carrying it all back out front, I found the man waiting for me by the front desk.

“This is awkward,” he said when I rejoined him.

“Did you change your mind?”

“No, but I forgot to ask how much it was,” he said. That explained him shopping in my eclectic used store for his daughter’s birthday present. I’d hate to disappoint him, or his daughter, especially since the cow was going to be going to such a good home.

“This is your lucky day. It’s five dollars, and that includes the wrapping,” I said. The cow had come in a box filled with other trinkets, and I’d already made a healthy profit from the other things that had been included, so I could afford to give him a good price on it.

“Five dollars would be outstanding,” he said with a grin. He counted out five wrinkled ones and laid them on the counter. “She’s going to love it.”

“I’m glad,” I said. As I handed the wrapped present to him, I said, “Wish your daughter a happy birthday from me, would you?”

“I’d be happy to. Thanks again,” he said as he waved the box in the air on his way out of the shop. I could have probably gotten twice what I’d charged him for the cow, but one of the reasons I loved Memories and Dreams so much was that I could help make some people’s lives just a little better. I knew that I wasn’t curing diseases or saving lives, but I figured that adding a few extra smiles to the world every now and then was a pretty noble calling, too.

It was nearing my usual closing time, and I’d only had a few customers come in after my cow buyer, so I decided to close the shop early and do some snooping. I’d made up a solid list after speaking with Summer, so it wasn’t like I didn’t have anywhere to start looking. As a matter of fact, I had too many suspects on my list. It was time to get out and start narrowing it down, so I pulled in my sign and got ready to shut down for the day. With the front door locked, I kept expecting Midnight and Summer to show up, but evidently they’d both expended too much energy earlier to make a return visit so soon. I hoped that Midnight wasn’t burning out faster because of his mission to help Summer, but if he was, it was for a good cause. A lot of people think that cats are aloof and uncaring, but as far as I’m concerned, that just means that those folks haven’t met any good cats in their lives. For me, Midnight and Shadow were two of the most compassionate and caring companions a girl could ever ask for. I wondered how Shadow was really doing. He’d lost his best friend, in a manner of speaking, and though he’d shown a little reticence at first about Midnight’s ghostly presence, he’d quickly adapted and had even embraced the new form of his old pal. I worried about what it would do to him once Midnight was gone again, this time permanently, but since I couldn’t do anything about it, I decided to deal with that when it finally happened. I seemed to be spending a lot of time lately putting off tomorrow’s worries, but it probably wasn’t a bad policy to adopt.

As I locked the front door from the sidewalk, I was startled to hear a familiar voice just behind me, as though someone had been waiting for me to come out of my shop.

To my surprise, it was Sheriff Kent.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, trying not to show him just how much that he’d alarmed me.

“Do you have a second?”

“Sure thing. Is this an official police visit?” I asked.

“Yes and no,” he said. “Could I buy you a drink?”

“Sheriff, are you asking me out on a date?” I asked. “I thought that you were a happily married man.” It was all that I could do not to grin as I said it.

“What? No, of course not. That’s not what I meant at all.”

“So, I’m not good enough for you? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Christy,” he said, and then the sheriff paused a second before he grinned. “You’re really funny. You know that, don’t you?”

“I like to think so,” I said.

“The drink I was going to buy you was some of Celeste’s sweet tea, but we can just chat out here on the sidewalk instead, if you’d rather.”

“Thanks, but I’ll take the tea,” I said.

We walked into the café, and the sheriff steered us to an empty corner where no one would be able to overhear us. After ordering and receiving two sweet teas, the sheriff said softly, “Your call got me thinking about what really might have happened at the Bentley farm.”

“Do you think that it was homicide, too?” I asked.

“I’m not willing to commit that much yet, but I do agree that a few odd coincidences had to happen before that heater killed Silas and Summer,” he said after taking a long sip of tea. “What made you think that it was more than just an accident?”

I wanted to tell him that Summer told me herself from beyond the grave, but I knew that was just going to get me locked up for a psychiatric evaluation. “I can’t really say. All I know is that things just didn’t add up,” I said.

“You’ve got good instincts,” he said. “I’m having a heater expert go over that thing again carefully, and if the safety cutoff switch has been tampered with, she’ll know it. I should have taken it to her in the first place, but she was busy, and I’m afraid my second choice might have missed something.”

“So, you’re going to treat the case as a double homicide now?” I asked.

“Whoa. Slow down, young lady. I’m not willing to say that until I’ve heard from my expert. Pardon me for saying so, but why do you have so much interest in this? When it was Cora and Midnight, I understood your personal involvement in the case, and I cut you some real slack, but as far as I know, you didn’t have a relationship with Silas or Summer.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. Summer came into my shop quite a bit, and we got to know each other since she came back to Noble Point.” It was true, too, though perhaps not as much as I was leading him to believe. Summer had come in a few times, and if I counted her ghostly visit earlier, that made three, and that was close enough to “quite a bit” to suit me.

“Sorry, I didn’t know,” the sheriff said. “Still, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave the detective work to me and my staff this time.”

“It can’t hurt me asking some questions around town though, can it?”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” the sheriff said as he pushed his half-full glass of tea away from him.

“But you’re not coming right out and ordering me to stop, are you?”

He seemed to think about that for a full minute before he spoke. “I can’t do that, not until I determine whether or not it was murder or just a terrible accident.”

“Well then, I’m probably going to keep asking a few questions around town anyway.”

“You won’t drop this as a favor to me?” he asked.

“Look at it another way, Sheriff. I might get someone to tell me something that they wouldn’t say directly to you. It can only help you, if you know what I mean.”

At least he smiled as he said, “That’s the nicest way anyone has ever told me to stuff it since I’ve been the sheriff around here.”

“I guess that’s something, then,” I said as I finished my tea. I was tempted to get a refill for the road, but my pledge to cut down had to start sometime. Maybe one glass at a time instead of three or four would be a good start. “Thanks for the drink,” I said as I stood up.

“You’re welcome. Watch your step, Christy,” he said softly.

“Is that a threat, Sheriff Kent?” I asked.

“No, you misunderstood me. I’m just saying that if it was murder, the killer isn’t going to be too happy about you poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“I’ll be careful,” I said.

“If you run into something that’s over your head, don’t be afraid to call me,” the sheriff said.

“That’s sweet of you,” I said.

“I’m doing it more for me than I am for you,” he said. “Marybeth is awfully fond of you, and if something happened to you, she’d be grief-stricken.”

“Got it,” I said as I made my way out of the café. His motives and incentive might not have matched mine, but it was still good knowing that the sheriff had my back. I knew that I could count on Lincoln if things got too tense as well, but I hoped that I wouldn’t have to call either one of them for help. I was perfectly able to field an investigation of my own without assistance from a man.

That didn’t mean that I’d shun their help if I got into trouble, though. After all, as long as the killer was caught, I’d be happy, and maybe Summer could Move On to the Other Side.

I just hoped that when she left, she didn’t take Midnight with her.

In the meantime, it was time to start digging.