by Amanda Tru
“I was hoping to drop off these muffins for him, kind of as a thank you,” Emma said, fumbling to explain herself and refusing to make eye contact. “I guess I can come back later.”
Officer Kirk eyed the basket of muffins. “Usually when we have treats like that, we put them in the break room.”
“Ok,” Emma said hesitantly. The muffins were for Leo not everyone, but she couldn’t really stand there and explain that to Officer Kirk. “Maybe I can just leave a few on Chief Jacobs’ desk so he’s sure to get some. Then you can show me the break room, and I’ll put the rest in there.”
“Sure,” Kirk said, keeping watch as Emma scuttled into the office and placed a napkin and three muffins in the center of the desk.
Her stress level rose even more with the realization that she didn’t even have a card or note to leave with the muffins. Leo wouldn’t know they were from her! Now all the work of bringing him muffins was completely wasted.
“I’ll be sure to tell the chief you came by, Miss Sheldon,” Kirk said helpfully. “I wouldn’t want you to wait for him. I don’t know how long he’ll be in that meeting.”
Still feeling defeated, Emma followed the officer to the break room and left the muffins there. Then she and Orion made a quick exit.
Emma returned home and spent the rest of the day working on ornament orders and waiting for her phone to ring. Though her muffin mission hadn’t gone as planned, she still hoped it enough to earn a phone call.
Emma stopped still, her gaze catching on a single ornament hanging amongst many others in the evergreen boughs crowding the shop’s window display. So sudden was her halt that Orion gave a grunt of protest at the leash’s sudden stop in momentum
Emma didn’t even notice, her entire focus on the one ornament through the window. Recognition was immediate. “That’s one of mine!”
But why was it here? It didn’t make any sense. Emma was delivering ornaments to a few shops she supplied in Brighton Falls, but this shop wasn’t one of them. She’d just happened to glance into the shop on her way back to the car and startled to see her ornament hanging where it should most assuredly not be.
Maybe she was wrong, her mind argued.
No. Every detail of the ornament was familiar, down to the shape of baby Jesus’s eyes. She knew it was hers, no hint of doubt in her mind.
Holding Orion’s leash in one hand as he patiently sat on the sidewalk beside her, Emma took out her new phone from her coat pocket and pushed the button to call the Crossroads Police Department.
“Chief Jacobs, please,” Emma said as soon as the line picked up.
“Hi, Emma!” the woman on the other end greeted. “I’ll transfer you right now.”
“Chief Jacobs,” Leo said when picking up the phone.
“Leo, it’s Emma. I’m in Brighton Falls and I think I have a lead on my stolen ornaments. I’m—”
“Emma, I don’t have time for this right now,” Leo cut off crisply. “I told you we would call if there was anything to report.”
“But my ornament—”
“Emma, this has to stop,” Leo’s voice was low and almost like a growl. “I tolerated it last week, and even tried to humor you. But now I have too much to do, and you can’t call me every day. On the list of things that need my attention, your ornaments aren’t even a line item at the bottom. I don’t like to be so blunt, but I guess I need to. Stop calling, Emma. I don’t have time—”
“To be my personal policeman,” Emma finished.
Leo was silent, the tension over the line almost physical in its weight.
“I understand,” Emma finally whispered. “Goodbye.”
Emma ended the call and looked at the screen, her hand shaking. Last Friday, he had told her he enjoyed her calls. Now he reverted to the mean chief who never wanted to speak to her again. Emma didn’t know what she’d done wrong, but whatever it was must be serious.
Catching Orion’s sympathetic gaze, she swallowed with difficulty, slid the phone into her pocket, and turned back to the store window. The ornament looked back at her, waiting to be rescued. Her ornament.
Knowing what she needed to do, Emma hurried into the shop with Orion at her side and went straight to the window display where she promptly removed the ornament. She would recognize the little baby Jesus ornament with her eyes closed. It was a simple ornament, one of her less expensive ones that sold extremely well. A small twig nest created the base to hold a baby figure whose head peeked out of his cloth-wrapped body. A thin but sturdy wire curved up from the base of the nest and ended with a small wooden star suspended above the baby’s head. It was a simple ornament to make with common craft supplies, and since it only required hot glue and a little paint to put the pieces together, Emma had just finished making dozens of this exact ornament design to replace her stolen ornaments in the orders she had to fill. The problem was that she had never supplied this particular shop with any of them.
She turned the ornament over. Sure enough, on the back of the little star that hovered over the baby figure, four letters were visible.
E-m-m-a
“May I help you?” a voice said from directly behind Emma.
“Where did you get this ornament?”
At Emma’s abrupt question, the proprietor blinked and took a slight step back. “We get our inventory from a variety of sources. Do you like it? I can’t guarantee we can obtain any more if you want any additional ones. Most of our ornaments and other décor are one-of-a-kind.”
“I want to know who supplied this to you?” Emma’s tone wasn’t upset or antagonistic, but she felt no desire to bother with attempting small talk.
The balding man pushed up his glasses on his nose and took the ornament from Emma, turning it over as if looking for its return address. “I’m pretty sure this is one I bought from Reese Daniels. I can give you her number to contact about ordering more, but most of the things she brings in are leftovers from parties she’s hosted or small items she’s picked up at various places to resell. I’m not sure she’ll know the original artist.”
“The original artist is me,” Emma said flatly. “I made it, and since I didn’t sell it to you, I’m curious how it came to be here.”
The man’s manner immediately turned brusque. He shot a scowl Orion’s direction and pointedly hung the ornament back on the tree. “I’m sure I don’t know. We do accept used items on occasion. That ornament didn’t come with a vehicle identification number, so I have no idea what makes you think it’s yours in the first place. You’re probably mistaken. Many ornaments can look very similar.”
Emma took the ornament back down from the tree, turned it around and pointed. “It may not have a VIN, but my name should work just as well, don’t you think? I’m Emma. I sign every ornament I make.”
The man bent close to look and then backed away as if trying to get it in focus. “Something is definitely scratched there, but I’d need a magnifying glass to make out any letters. It might just as easily be an accidental splatter of paint.”
“Except that I remember splattering the paint in the shape of four letters right there!” Emma insisted.
The man shrugged. “As I said, we do accept used items on occasion. Maybe someone bought your ornament and it wasn’t to their liking. They probably got rid of it, and it ended up here.”
Emma felt frustration creep up through her chest, making her throat strained and sore. “This is the first year I’ve made this particular ornament, so there hasn’t been time for someone to purchase and get rid of it. I had some boxes of ornaments stolen a few weeks ago. This ornament was in one in the boxes.”
The man inhaled heavily, his chest puffing out and his face turning red. “We do not purchase stolen goods. Now if you don’t have a purchase to make, I would thank you to take your dog and leave so I can run my business without listening to your accusations.”
“But I do have a purchase,” Emma insisted.
Startled, the man looked at her sharply and pushed up his glasses
on his nose once again “And what might that be?”
“I want to purchase this ornament, please. And I’d also like Reese Daniels’ number. If she knows who has more of these stolen ornaments, I definitely would like them back.”
Wordlessly, the man motioned her over to the cash register, and Emma purchased her own ornament.
“May I have a phone number for Reese Daniels, please?” Emma asked politely when he handed her the receipt and turned away.
“I’m under no obligation to give that information to you. My suppliers are entitled to confidentiality.”
“But you offered me that information!” Emma insisted.
“That was before you accused me of selling stolen goods. Now I have no intention of allowing you to harass my suppliers, and if you don’t leave this minute, I will call the police about you harassing me.”
“Oh, will you please call them?” Emma asked, her eyes brightening. “That would be so helpful. I tried to call before I even came in here, but Chief Jacobs wasn’t available. If you called and they came down, then they could investigate everything properly, and they could be the ones to follow up with Reese Daniels.”
The man’s neck turned red right above his collared shirt, but his face blanched from his chin all the way up to his shiny, balding head.
Without a word, he opened a little notebook, scribbled something on a paper, ripped it out, and handed it to Emma.
Accepting it, Emma saw the name Reese Daniels with both a phone number and an address right below it.
Emma opened her mouth to say thank you, but then she then decided that it would actually be more polite to say nothing at all.
Clasping both her newly purchased ornament and the scribbled phone number, Emma clutched Orion’s leash in her other hand and left the shop, hoping that this was the last time an ornament signed ‘Emma’ would ever hang in this shop.
Emma found apartment 205 and stood looking at the numbers on the door for a full minute before lifting her hand to knock on the blue door.
Immediately after leaving the shop where she’d purchased her own ornament, she’d called the number on the piece of paper for Reese Daniels. The phone rang multiple times only to be eventually picked up by voicemail. Not wanting to explain herself on a recording, Emma hung up. However, she’d come too far to give up. She’d stared at the address and was familiar enough with Brighton Falls to know its location on her way home.
Emma dreaded risking a face-to-face encounter possibly more than making a phone call, but she also hated the idea of needing to drive back to the city a second time to get her questions answered if she wasn’t able to locate Reese Daniels now.
The woman probably wasn’t even home, but if Emma made a quick stop, she would at least know that she had tried. She didn’t want to search out someone she didn’t know, but more than that she wanted to find out how her ornament had ended up in that shop.
Even with the driving need for information, Emma probably would not have made herself get out of the car at the apartment complex if not for Orion being at her side. His presence gave her enough confidence to believe that she could knock on that door.
And she did just that. Three firm knocks placed with a trembling fist and pounding heart, but done anyway.
Then she spotted the button for the doorbell and felt like an idiot.
What should she do? Should she ring the doorbell as she should have done the first time? A knock and a doorbell ringing seconds apart might seem too insistent, right?
Maybe if she counted to 10, then it would be okay to ring the doorbell.
Her finger hovered over the button and she counted. When she reached 10, she pressed.
The door opened.
“Hi!” a young blonde woman said with a friendly smile. “Can I help you? If you’re selling something, you probably need to check in at the apartment office. They are rather picky about solicitors.”
“No…” Emma stammered, startled that the door had opened, and even more startled that the woman had started the conversation and thrown her off the speech she’d prepared in the car. “I’m not selling anything. I was just hoping… I… um… I’m Emma Sheldon. Are you Reese Daniels?”
“Yes, I am,” the woman answered, her expression turning mildly curious. “Oh, you have a dog! Can I pet him?”
“Sure,” Emma said, relieved she had found the right person.
“It is a him, right?” Reese said, stepping out the door. Emma saw a glimpse of a Christmas tree before Reese turned and pulled the door shut behind her. She then bent to scratch Orion’s ears. “What’s his name?”
“Orion,” Emma answered, studying Reese as she pet the dog.
Emma was really bad at estimating age, but she thought Reese was probably around her own age, maybe a little younger. She was shorter than Emma and cute. While Emma always felt tall and awkward, Reese reminded her of a graceful ballerina. Her blonde hair was held back in a sloppy ponytail and she wore workout clothes, but that didn’t hide her natural grace, which Emma couldn’t help but envy just a bit.
“You’re such a handsome gentleman, Orion!” Reese cooed affectionately
Orion, enjoying the attention, couldn’t stop his tail from wagging and rhythmically thumping the rail behind him.
Reese’s apartment was on the second floor of a large building that held about twelve small apartments. The building wasn’t fancy, and the blue paint looked a few years overdue to be freshened up. It didn’t seem to be a horrible place to live, though. With its proximity to the university, Emma suspected most of the tenants to be college students who didn’t possess a lot of money but also didn’t bring crime to the neighborhood.
With a deep breath, Emma spoke, trying to draw Reese’s attention back up to her. “I tried to call you earlier, but I didn’t get an answer, so I decided to try your address.”
Reese looked up at her with curious blue eyes.
Emma continued. “I got your name and address from a shop downtown called The Rusty Shingle.” Emma took the little Baby Jesus ornament out and extended it on her palm. “They said you supplied them with this ornament, and I was wondering where you got it.”
“Oh, yes,” Reese confirmed, glancing at the ornament. “I sold it to that shop along with a few other things. It’s a strange little shop. I have no idea why it’s called ‘The Rusty Shingle.’ How can a shingle be rusty?”
Reese stood with a final pat to Orion’s side. “But they are pretty good about buying things from me, and I think their business does well at that location.”
“Where did you buy the ornament to sell to them?” Emma repeated.
Reese’s brow wrinkled in obvious thought. “I think that’s one I got at the Haberdashery. I’m not certain because I buy things from different places I encounter with my job, but I think that’s where I got it. I thought it was cute, but it was the only one he had. I can tell you where to find him, but you may not have any luck getting more. His mom makes some things for him to sell, but I don’t think she made that one. That little ornament is better quality than what his mom typically makes.”
Emma blinked, confused as to where to start unraveling this information. “You bought it at the Haber—what?”
“Oh, I’m sorry!” Reese said with a little wince to her pretty face. “I should have explained. I work for an event planning company. I’m working on my degree and should finally graduate this spring, but to work my way through school, I help plan events, parties, and such. I’m always on the lookout for things for my job, and sometimes I run across good deals on items I think other stores, like The Rusty Shingle, would like. I resell them and earn a little more income that way. Sometimes I also sell leftover party items for my company, which is how I’ve developed a contact list of what to sell to whom. The Haberdashery is one of my more unique places to shop.”
“So, it’s a store?” Emma asked, still confused.
Reese shook her head. “It’s not really a shop, just a table an older veteran, named Moose, sets
up on a street corner to sell a variety of stuff he comes across. One day he set up a table on a street corner, and nobody stopped him, so he’s done it ever since. I think he’s been there for years and is almost a fixture by this point. Most of his wares are junk, but every once in a while, I find a gem, and I like to support him whenever I can. He calls his table the ‘Haberdashery.’”
Emma thought about explaining that the ornament was hers and had been stolen, but after her experience with the proprietor of The Rusty Shingle, Emma hesitated. Reese seemed so nice and friendly, and Emma dreaded seeing the same offended look that she’d seen earlier. She didn’t want her to think Emma was accusing her of anything. Emma just wanted to track down where she might find her other ornaments. Maybe it was better to let Reese believe that Emma simply wanted to purchase more of the same ornament.
“Where is the Haberdashery located? You said the owner’s name is Moose? Like the animal?”
“Yes, I think it’s an old army nickname. He’s on the corner of Broadway and Maplehurst, near downtown Brighton Falls. I’d hate for you to go all the way down there and be disappointed. Like I said, I doubt he has more baby Jesus ornaments like that.”
“Does he have regular business hours?” Emma asked, wondering if she could still make it back downtown and then to Crossroads before 5:00.
Reese laughed. “Hardly. Some days he isn’t set up at all. It’s not like you can call him to check his hours today either. If he sets up, I think he usually stays until about 5:30 or so to get the traffic of people getting off work. If you don’t mind being disappointed, I guess it’s worth a try. Maybe he’ll have more ornaments after all. I will warn you though, sometimes he’s a little strange. Fun to talk to, but he definitely has some issues.”
Emma nodded. “I’m familiar with issues.”
“Ok, then,” Reese said, stepping back into her doorway. “It was nice meeting you, and you, too, Orion. Good luck!”