twenty-eight

Charlie stood in the driveway when Frank and I returned. Without speaking, he handed us each a bandana and then instructed us to blindfold ourselves. Katrina waddled down the driveway and wiped her hands on a jelly-covered apron.

“Oh, go ahead,” she said. “You’ll love it.”

“Does this have anything to do with the case?” Frank grumbled. “I’m not into games.”

“It does,” Charlie said as he secured the knot at the back of my head and pulled the flap down in the front so I couldn’t sneak a peek.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “Are you taking us down to the water?”

“Hush,” Charlie said. “There’s a step ahead.”

“Floor boards? Are we in the barn?” I banged my foot on the ground. “We’re in the barn,” I whispered to Frank. I heard the barn doors scrape along the gravel driveway as Charlie pulled them shut.

“On three,” Charlie said as he snapped his fingers. “Remove your blindfolds.”

Katrina shrieked with glee when she saw my delighted face. The entire barn was strung and lit with thousands of Christmas tree lights. In the middle of the off-season holiday extravaganza was a café table with two mismatched chairs, a bottle of wine, cheese, and crackers.

“The table was my idea,” Katrina said. “Charlie paid full price for the wine, but I can’t tell Frank where we got the crackers and cheese.”

I laughed at Frank’s expense and spun around the room, enchanted by the festive spirit. “What’s the occasion?”

“A scavenger hunt.” Charlie pointed to boxes of yet unopened lights. “Copper is at an all-time high,” he said as he sliced at a green tangled cord with a pocket knife to reveal a thin line of copper. “Christmas lights contain miles of copper, and they’re tops on a scavenger’s list. Jimmy is putting a reminder on the flyers to check attics for old lights. This way the scavengers will be expecting to find lights.”

“Did you ransack Rockefeller Center?” Frank said, clearly in awe of Charlie’s own scavenging.

“Actually, I found a seasonal store still recovering from Hurricane Sandy. The owner had a basement full of damaged lights. The boxes had been soaked during the flood, but it turns out most of the lights are just fine. It’s kind of a shame, because the scavengers won’t even care if the lights are operational. They’ll just cut them down for the copper.”

“Very clever,” I complimented Charlie. “But I’m not sure how the wine and cheese fits in.”

Charlie shuffled awkwardly in place. “Technically, there’s no connection, but Katrina got all hormonal on me when I tested the lights and before I knew it, the barn was strung.”

“In the spirit of Freeganism,” Katrina said, “it seemed wasteful to toss the lights in a few days without one last hurrah. So we decided that since it’s almost the anniversary of Teddy’s death, it might be better to honor his passing by celebrating you two meeting each other instead.”

My hand rose to my chest as I recognized a crushingly bittersweet but tender moment. My earlier conversation with Charlie about Frank and Teddy must have had an impact, because it was obvious that he and Katrina wanted my relationship with Frank to work out.

“It was all Trina’s idea,” Charlie said as he and Katrina politely headed for the door. “Unplug the lights when you leave. I don’t trust a hundred-year-old barn with these lights.”

“Sure thing,” Frank said. “And thanks.”