The morning passed in a tired blur with new and known customers. One of their regulars, Claire, visited with her bachelor neighbor to buy annuals for their side-by-side patios in the town’s condo complex. Molly was happy to advise and chat with the pair. Between customers, Molly and May held whispered conversations about the earring Molly found and how to respond.
“I didn’t get a great look at Shannon, as usual,” May told Molly as she inspected the earring. “I try not to make eye contact, you know. I just remember her scarf and thought it was so weird and unseasonably warm. In June, I wouldn’t wear something around my neck. And the whole thing about patting Hannah’s head was so rude. Hannah said so when we got in the car. I always try to make Shannon out to be less of a bad guy than I think she is to the kids. It’s not easy.”
“So you don’t know if she was wearing two earrings yesterday or just one?” Molly asked, trying to steer the conversation away from May’s constant negativity about their cousin. Sherlock wrapped his body and tail around Molly’s legs while she chatted with her sister. She absently ran her fingers along his fur.
“I don’t know. But what would she ever be doing on the trail? She’s just not a hiker, not into being outside or in nature.”
“Right. She’d never be hiking in those heels,” Molly replied. They giggled. Molly was always giggling with May, even in serious conversations. They both looked around, trying not to disturb customers in their garden planning and wanderings.
“She could have different shoes in her Lexus. It’s got an enormous trunk, I’m sure,” May offered in a lower whisper.
“I suppose so. I texted her right before the shop opened, and she hasn’t replied. I’m getting worried. Do you think I should tell the police? I don’t know it’s hers for sure or when it got lost on the trail. It wasn’t even near the broken bridge.”
“I do like your idea of asking Joe. He’s not assigned to the case right now, so he’s not directly involved. I think you can just ask his opinion and see what he says,” May told Molly. “You’d think I would have picked up on some of this detective stuff after being married to him for eight years, but I sure haven’t. He’ll have some advice to share, at least.”
“Okay. I’ll call him on the way to the Home and Garden Show.”
A few minutes later, Molly found herself helping another regular customer, Mr. Davidson. He had retired a few years ago from a factory job and now worked odd jobs around Hawthorn Heights and the surrounding communities as a handyman. He stopped by frequently, sometimes three times a week, to buy bird seed. Mr. Davidson was a strong older man who always declined Theo’s help. Today, he was in quite a mood.
“I’m a’ thinkin’ of changin’ things up at my bird feedin’ station,” he told Molly. “Been gettin’ too many mangy squirrels hangin’ on the feeder. It’s almos’ broken.”
“Well, do you want to get a feeder that is more secure, or do you want to welcome the squirrels and feed them some corn of their own?” Molly admired his dark hair. She thought he had less gray than she did, even though he was probably more than thirty years her senior.
“No, I don’t want those varmints in my yard at all! If I had my way, I’d a’ get rid of ’em altogether. Let ’em stay out in the woods, not our neighborhoods. We sure got a lot of ’em out in these forests ‘round town. I need a new feeder or a dif’rnt mountin’ pole. What do you have here?”
Molly showed him the baffles they sold that he could put on his pole so the squirrels couldn’t climb it, as well as some bird feeders that only allowed lightweight visitors to eat the food, excluding both squirrels and chipmunks. He stayed for some time, considering, and ended up buying both products.
After Mr. Davidson shuffled out the door with his purchases, Molly, May, and Theo observed a group of police officers talking in the parking lot the garden center shared with the trailhead, along with what looked like civilians. May identified those without uniforms as detectives, like Joe, who wore civilian clothing on the job. Molly thought that having extra minds working the case to find Trevor was a good thing. After a few minutes, the group walked up the trail toward the broken bridge.
Soon after the police arrived, so did Glenn, the owner of the hiking store next door, the Trail Guide. Despite the ample trail time he put in, Glenn was a heavyset man. He towered over Molly. She often wondered how many customers his shop brought in because he visited Patty’s Plant Place nearly every day to chat with whoever was working.
“You guys left early yesterday, huh?” Glenn said, as a greeting to May.
“I wasn’t here, but Molly and Theo could fill you in about the hiker that went missing.” May’s eyes darted to Theo to ask him to explain the situation. Picking up on May’s plea, he recounted the events of the evening before.
“I saw the cop cars, but we had a ton of stock to put out and lots of customers too,” Glenn said to the three of them. Molly remembered seeing the semi pull into their parking lot next door the afternoon before. “Wasn’t a good time to stop over. I don’t like that a hiker was in distress on our trail. Bad for tourism. This is a safe trail, a safe town. I came over later to hear about it, but the shop was closed up.”
“I know it’s bad for business to close without warning, but none of us wanted to make Charlotte and Ryan stay,” Molly put in. “It was kind of a mental health call.”
“I’m not chiding you for closing. Just wanted to stop over and hear the story. That trail makes my business, and I want to make sure it’s seen in a good light.”
“Yeah, yeah. We hear you, man,” Theo agreed. “It’s important to all of us.”
Molly needed to leave for the Home and Garden Show but felt unsure about leaving the comfort of the shop to spend a few hours in a vast crowd of people with someone she only emailed regularly and had only met in person once. She said goodbye to Glenn and left the shop in the competent hands of May and Theo. Theo practically pushed her out the door.
Before leaving town, Molly stopped by the Scottish Ferret to get another jolt of caffeine in the form of a dark chocolate mocha. Then she called Joe as she drove and sipped her coffee.
“Hey, Joe, I know you’re at work. I just have a detective question that needs answering,” Molly told her brother-in-law when he answered. She had known Joe for more than a decade and often sought his advice on general life problems. His grandparents on both sides had immigrated to the United States from Japan, and so he spoke a little Japanese and knew some ancestral recipes. Joe’s Japanese dishes were among Scott’s favorites. Both Hannah and Noah had inherited Joe’s thick, extra-straight, beautifully inky black hair.
“Well, if it’s a detective question, you might as well ask me while I’m at the precinct. Does this have to do with the incident on the trail yesterday?” Joe guessed.
“You got me. It does.”
“I’m not assigned to the case, and I’m not at liberty to tell you anything that the department hasn’t released to the press yet,” Joe told her in a practiced, official tone that was rather unfamiliar.
“Oh, I’m not trying to get more info out of you. I just found something, and I’m not sure if I should tell the detective who has been assigned to the case. I don’t actually know who that is yet. The police officers we talked to yesterday said a detective might contact us today, but no one has yet.” Molly felt a bit on edge, almost nervous, and realized she’d used more words than she normally would. It was silly to be nervous with Joe, she told herself.
“Okay. I’m happy to advise,” Joe replied, his voice friendly but still professional.
Molly turned on her blinker and steered the van onto the on ramp to the highway. “I found an earring on the trail this morning. Scott and I were there early, before the sun came all the way up. It glinted in my headlamp. The thing is, Shannon was wearing an earring that looked just like it yesterday—after Trevor came in. Trevor is the boy who is missing, assuming he hasn’t been found yet, of course. I hope he has. Anyway, I haven’t heard from Shannon. I’m worried that she might be missing too since it might be her earring that I found on the trail.” Molly still felt like she was blabbering.
Joe made a thoughtful noise. “That is interesting. Was it anywhere near the broken bridge?” he asked.
“No, it wasn’t near the bridge at all. We went the other way.”
“So because it was not in the vicinity of the incident, you’re not sure if it’s evidence or not. I can see why you wouldn’t be sure what to do,” Joe said.
“And also not sure who to tell. I probably should stop by Shannon’s house or her work to make sure she’s okay. She hasn’t responded to my texts. I don’t want to get Shannon in trouble if she’s not missing. I’m not really sure the earring is hers. But I know she was wearing earrings just like it yesterday.”
“Things are always more complicated with Shannon, aren’t they?” Joe chuckled. “First, we have not found Trevor. Sorry I can’t set your mind at ease there. Like I said, Moll, I’m not on the case, but I heard some basics in our morning meeting. We can’t call her a missing person until someone has filed a report or placed a call like the runner did for Trevor. I don’t think it would hurt to collect the earring as evidence, which could help if we find out she is missing. But if she’s not, by no means do we need to tell her you found the earring if it ends up implicating her. It could have been anyone if you found it in a public location. And she was out in public yesterday wearing them, so any number of people could have seen her with the earrings.”
“Okay. I’ll try to call her again in a few hours. I hope she’s okay.” Molly thought for a moment. “So you think I should drop off the earring at the precinct? I could this afternoon, but hopefully I’ll hear from Shannon before that. And do you think I should file a missing person’s report?”
“I think you need to confirm that Shannon is missing first. And I think you might as well turn in the earring. Also, she may have been on the trail and may know something more that we don’t.”
“Oh, that’s true.” Molly brightened. “She could be a witness. She could have seen something, but didn’t really know what it was at the time. Shannon could know something about what happened to Trevor.” After a beat, she added in a lower tone: “Joe, she really couldn’t have hurt Trevor. She couldn’t push a hiker over a bridge.”
“We don’t know what happened there yesterday. We don’t know if he did get pushed over the bridge. We don’t even know where Trevor is yet. He’s a missing person right now.”