by H L Bur
“Are you hurt?” I asked tentatively.
“I hate everything,” she said quietly.
“I know,” I reassured her, patting her on her slumped shoulder.
I reached down to give her a hand, but she couldn’t get up. Her right foot must have twisted when the impact flung her forward and was stuck between the foot brake and the mower. I looked around for Uncle Bernard and Aunt Liddy…for one, to make sure they were okay, and two, to see if Uncle Bernard could help me get Quinn unstuck. Uncle Bernard was helping Aunt Liddy to her feet and guided her over to sit on the back porch step. She looked a little shaken and her perfectly curled coif was now more like a haphazardly thrown together birds nest, but all in all she looked all right.
He walked over to us, holding one hand to his lower back. He nodded and waved off my concerned look, but I was afraid for his already injured back. He went to kneel down to ease himself into the hole, but I stopped him.
“I think she’s okay. If you have something to pry the foot pedal back with, I think I can get her foot unstuck.”
He nodded in understanding and hobbled away towards the pole barn. A few moments later, he came back and handed me a crowbar. I nestled the crowbar between the foot brake and the base of the mower and applied some leverage. The space I created was enough for Quinn to wiggle her foot out. She curled into a fetal position at the bottom of the hole and refused to move.
“Just leave me here,” she requested.
I laughed, despite myself.
“I blame you for this,” she moaned.
“Hey, you called the mower!” I said indignantly.
“Shut up.”
I reached down again to give her a hand and this time she accepted. I got her upright, but when she tried to stand, her previously stuck foot gave way. She half-jumped her way over to the edge of the hole and sat down. I knelt down to assess her right ankle. It was already swelling. She had a heck of a sprain.
“Well this went about as well as expected,” I offered.
“Yup.” She was about to say something else but hesitated, then settled on a second, more resigned “Yup.”
Uncle Bernard went to help Aunt Liddy into the house to lie down and then came back out with an ice pack, an ace wrap, and some Advil.
Quinn downed the Advil as I wrapped her ankle with the ace wrap. With the compression, she was able to put a little more weight on her foot and she limped her way up to the back porch to ice it.
“How are we going to get the mower back out of there?” I asked Uncle Bernard.
“If you could run to the pole barn for me, I’ve got a ramp in there. I think if we get it under that front wheel, we should be able to back it right out.”
“Got it. Be right back,” I called as I jogged toward the building.
The ramp was leaning against the sidewall of the pole barn on Uncle Bernard’s workbench. I lugged the ramp back over and helped Uncle Bernard set one end of the ramp behind the right front wheel and the other end on the edge of the hole. I hopped on the mower seat, tilted to one side from the awkward position, and started the engine. I put the mower in reverse and slowly eased my foot off the brake. Uncle Bernard helped to guide the mower, and up and out of the hole we came. At least one thing went right today.
I stopped it there and Uncle Bernard inspected the front of the mower for damage. Besides a small dent on the front of the body, it was seemingly unscathed. He gave me the ‘ok’ sign. I decided to test it out and finished mowing the back lawn. Quinn had almost been done when (we’ll refer to it as the incident) occurred, so it didn’t take me very long.
I parked the mower and walked toward the back deck where Uncle Bernard was keeping Quinn company.
“Looks good,” Uncle Bernard commented on the yard. He really was the nicest, most easygoing guy I knew. He was so much like my grandpa it made me love him even more.
“Okay and about this tree?” I asked hesitantly.
“You know, I think I’ll give Aiden a call and see if he could help me with the tree.”
“Oh, thank God,” Quinn and I said in unison.
“Is Aunt Liddy okay?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, she’ll be fine. She just needs a little rest,” he replied reassuringly.
“She’ll probably be pretty sore later on,” I warned.
Uncle Bernard nodded his head knowingly. “I’ll make sure she takes it easy.”
“You too, Uncle Bernard. I hope your back is okay.”
“Nothing a heating pad can’t handle, and maybe a cold beer.”
“I would say you’ve earned it,” I encouraged.
With that, we said our goodbyes and I helped Quinn to the car. I needed to go home and change clothes, while Quinn needed to go wash the dirt off herself, and we both needed to hurry so we could go set up our booth for Autumn Fest. It was going to be a really long day.
Chapter Eight
Ξ
We pulled up to the Town Center feeling somewhat refreshed. Our original plan was to park behind the bookstore, grab the supplies for our booth, and then walk the few blocks to the park, but with Quinn’s ankle out of commission, we decided that I would drop her off first and then go get the inventory myself.
As I pulled up to the curb, she climbed out of the car and limped off through the rows of booths into the park. I had offered her an old pair of crutches that I had in the closet, but she stubbornly refused. I would expect no less. She definitely didn’t inherit Uncle Bernard’s laid back personality.
I drove north on Main Street and circled the block, parking in our lot behind the bookstore. It was another gorgeous day. The sun was shining bright with a vibrant blue sky peppered with big white puffy clouds, and the air smelled fresh with just a hint of crispness coming in off the lake. I wanted to pop into the bookstore to feed Henri and make sure everything was ready for Sam. We had shortened the hours of the bookstore today, since most of the town would be at the festival, so Sam had volunteered to cover the store while we ran the booth and would join us in the park later on.
I walked through the back door and breathed in the smell of old pages. Sometimes I just enjoyed being in the bookstore alone - just the books, Henri, and my thoughts. It gave me such a peaceful, serene feeling. This was probably my favorite place in the whole world. Even when Grandma and Grandpa owned the store, I loved coming here as a kid, picking out a book and finding a corner to read in or setting up a jigsaw puzzle to work. I owed so much to my grandparents. I certainly wouldn’t be who I was today if it weren’t for them…whether that’s a good thing or not is up for debate.
I refilled Henri’s food dish, made sure she had fresh water, and gave her a quick pat on the head. She mewed at me and followed me to the front of the store. I glanced at the clock and it read nine twenty-five. The festival didn’t officially start until ten, so I figured I could spare five minutes to give her some love and I would still have plenty of time to get to the booth to set up. I sat down on the window seat of the bay window and Henri jumped up after me, curled up in my lap, and started purring. As I sat there scratching her head, I thought back on the previous twenty-four hours. There was so much I had to do (okay wanted to do)…I wanted to figure out what had happened to Sofie, what Brent wanted with the old sawmill, who the Mystery Man was, and what Gigi was up to. No big deal, just four mysteries to solve. I sighed and Henri twitched her tail back and forth, clearly displeased by something I did or did not do. Out of nowhere she hissed at me and tried to bite my hand before jumping down from our perch and flopping onto the floor, rolling from side to side, mean mugging me the whole time. It figures - kick me when I’m down!
What I needed was a game plan. I’d always been the kind of person who worked better if I had my next steps mapped out. I quickly made a mental to-do list and decided I would ask around at the festival today to see if any of the locals knew who the Mystery Man was. Later on tonight I wanted to take a drive out to the old sawmill and check it out. I knew I was stuck for now as far as Sofie’s cas
e went, but I figured I would pester Chief Kowalski on Monday morning for more information. And finally, Gigi was the least of my worries, so I’d keep her on my back burner for now.
Henri had spotted a bird outside and was back up on the window seat attempting to bat at it through the pane of glass. I sighed as I got up from my perch, picking stray clumps of Henri’s long, soft black hair off me and walked over to the counter to gather our inventory for the booth. Quinn and Sam had packed several books into a cooler on wheels, so it would be easy to haul the books down to the festival.
I headed out the front door, locked it behind me and stopped in front of the window to play with Henri through the glass.
“Oh whosjuh good kitty? Whosjuh best kitty in the world,” I said in my best baby voice as I tapped repeatedly on the glass.
Someone walked by and I thought I heard a mumbled ‘weirdo’ come from his or her general area. I stood upright and glared at the offender as they walked away. I’ll show you weird, I thought. I considered retaliation briefly, but knew that now was not the best time to unleash my inner anger issues. I shook my head and collected myself, then headed down the sidewalk with wheeling cooler in tow. It took me less than five minutes to get to the Town Center.
I walked under the archway where a large banner hung that announced RIVERTON’S 24th ANNUAL AUTUMN FEST. I quickly spotted Quinn under the little red and white striped awning and made my way over to our booth. We set up a couple book displays and our raffle box, and we were open for business. We were giving away four prizes throughout the festival, including one grand prize. The goodies up for grabs consisted of a gift certificate to the store and café, a gift basket with one of our favorite books, a candle, a bath bomb, and an eye mask, a gift certificate to Zin & Zen, and the grand prize winner was getting one of each as well as a month of free yoga classes.
Quinn was sitting on a cushioned chair with her right foot propped up on a little step stool, sipping on a homemade iced tea she had picked up from a vendor. She had gotten one for me, too, and she handed it to me. I happily took a long sip of the sweet heavenly goodness. Tracy’s Teas & Trinkets was one of our favorite local shops and the sweet amber liquid instantly lifted my mood. People attending the festival were already starting to trickle in and it looked like it was going to be a busy day. The booths on either side of us belonged to a local jewelry maker and a candle and soap maker. Lucky for us, we were close to the front row, which housed most of the food vendors, so we wouldn’t have far to go to taste all of the goodies.
“How’s your ankle feeling?” I asked Quinn.
“Eh, it’s fine.” She shrugged.
“Sam should be stopping by to grab one of our keys. She’s going to have the store open for us for a few hours, then come down and join us here for the afternoon.”
“Perfect. Hey, go get me a donut from the donut guy’s booth, would you?”
“Why do I have to get it?”
“Duh, my ankle is practically broken.”
“You literally just said it was fine.” I rolled my eyes as I walked away.
I came back a few minutes later with one glazed twist and one custard-filled Long John. Quinn’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as she reached for the glazed twist.
“Soooo good!” Quinn said through her mouthful.
“Mmhmm, the best!” I agreed.
We kept busy the rest of the morning. Autumn Fest was clearly a hit this year with tons of visitors pouring in. I noticed two young women walking amongst the booths and recognized them as the two from the bookstore the other day. I caught one of their eyes and smiled and waved. She recognized me right away and they made their way over to our booth.
“Hello again,” I greeted. “How are you ladies enjoying the festival so far?”
“It’s great!” the one with dark hair announced.
I noticed the other girl was shying away and didn’t seem to want to make eye contact.
“You know, I never caught your names.” I smiled warmly.
“Oh, my name is Rose and this is Dawn,” the one with jet-black hair replied. I couldn’t help but notice Dawn looked nervous.
“Where are you guys staying?” I asked, trying to make small talk.
“We are at the inn uptown.”
“The Reflections Inn?”
“Yeah, that one!” Rose replied, while I noticed Dawn subtly tugged on Rose’s shirt and eyed her warningly.
I was suddenly getting a weird feeling about these two.
Rose, seemingly having caught on to whatever it was that Dawn was trying to tell her turned away hurriedly. “Well, we better get going.”
“Oh, hey, don’t forget to enter our raffle!”
Rose paused and turned back to me. She looked at the raffle box for a second before reaching for a pen. “Cool,” she said as she jotted down her name and number on one of our small blue raffle tickets and dropped it in the box.
As the two walked away, Dawn leaned in and whispered something into Rose’s ear.
I watched them as they went further into the park toward the river.
“They were acting strange,” Quinn commented.
“No kidding,” I agreed. “That was weird.”
“Add it to the list of weird lately.”
No more than ten minutes later, I noticed another familiar face making its way through the crowd. Only, this familiar face made my heart drop into my stomach and made me feel like I couldn’t breathe.
“Hey, Cady. Quinn.” Fletcher Collins nodded at each of us in turn. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
Quinn gave kind of a half “Meh” in return and pretended she was busy doing something with our stacks of books, but I didn’t fail to miss her brief sideways glance and her arched eyebrows.
“Yes, it is a beautiful day out,” I responded forcefully to let Quinn know I was on to her game. Gosh, she was reminding me more and more of Gigi every day.
“How’s business?”
“It’s been great. We’ve had a lot of foot traffic so far today and everyone seems to be having a really good time.” I grinned as I gestured my hands to the booths around us, like one of Bob’s Beauties on the Price is Right showing off a prize.
Fletcher gestured to the corner of his mouth and I realized he was asking me for a kiss. I stood there dumbfounded for a split second and had just decided to lean in for that kiss when Quinn cut in.
“You have custard on your face,” she announced.
Sure enough, I wiped at the corner of my mouth to reveal a glob of custard left over from my donut while at the same time realizing that is what Fletcher was gesturing about. I was now the same color as the tomato at the farmer’s market booth in front of us and I willed myself to be anywhere else but there. Literally anywhere else! Please, Lord, vanquish me to some far off, isolated land. I’m begging you.
“What happened to you?” Fletcher directed his question toward Quinn, nodding toward her wrapped ankle.
I was beyond relieved to have the attention taken off of myself and considered it a semi-answered prayer.
Quinn thought for a second before replying, “Mowing accident. It’s her fault,” she added, tilting her head in my direction.
My mouth dropped open. “Oh whatever! It is not my fault.” I turned to Fletcher. “It’s not my fault,” I repeated.
“You should’ve stopped me.”
“I tried!” I shrieked indignantly. “Oh yeah, it’s my fault you weren’t watching where you were going and drove into a hole.”
Fletcher was trying to hold back a laugh.
Seeing his reaction to our ridiculousness made me let out a laugh and shake my head.
“Want to go for a walk with me?” he asked.
The butterflies took flight in my stomach and I felt lightheaded. Pathetic, I scolded myself.
“Um, well…I don’t know if this one can be left alone. She might have a ‘sitting in a booth’ accident if I’m not here to watch her,” I teased.
“Bring me back some lunch,
” Quinn said excitedly.
“Yeah, yeah.” I waved her off.
Fletcher and I ambled through the park, checking out occasional booths and making small talk. The individual booths were all covered with matching red and white awnings and had ropes of autumn leaf-shaped string lights wending their way up the canopy posts on all four sides. I waved cheerily at my friend Sandra, who was manning her booth. She owned the homemade candle and soap shop and she had several of her items on display. She gave me a big smile and I caught her out of my periphery giving me a thumbs up - apparently she was giving my walking partner her approval. I suppressed a laugh at her antics and took a deep breath in, savoring the lovely vanilla, pumpkin, and cinnamon scents that were emitting from her booth.
I stopped briefly to check out the display of scarves at one of the local boutique’s booth and then Fletcher and I continued down towards the river.
“So what really happened to Quinn?” he asked curiously.
“She got distracted when my Aunt Liddy fell over the balcony and she drove the lawnmower into a hole that we were supposed to be replanting a tree in,” I said matter-of-factly, as though this could have been an everyday occurrence.
“Oh,” Fletcher answered with a confused look on his face.
“You haven’t met my Aunt Liddy.”
“Ah,” he feigned understanding.
I suppressed a smile and asked, “So what are you doing at Autumn Fest? I’m sure you have more important matters to be attending to.” I didn’t want to outright ask him about the investigation, but it couldn’t hurt to hope he might slip something to me on accident.
“It’s my grandfather’s birthday today and he wanted to come to Autumn Fest. He hasn’t missed a year since it started. He’s over at the Senior Center booth signing up for a Euchre tournament.”
“Aww, that’s cute. Hey! My birthday is tomorrow. Your grandpa and I should celebrate,” I joked.
“Boy, would he love that. He would probably strut around like a proud peacock for weeks,” he teased back.
We turned to head down to the river, passing the large outdoor pavilion that was directly in the middle of the Town Center. It was used for outdoor concerts, plays, and most notably for the manger scene at Christmas time. As we strolled past the structure I stopped dead in my tracks.