Dad gave Erin a hug. “You stop over anytime you like. It’ll be like the old days when you kids were always playing and running around together.”
“What are you two doing out and about?” I asked.
“I had my weekly checkup with the doctor, and we hadn’t been by for a while so we thought we’d stop in and see if you needed anything,” Mom said.
“Not a thing, except maybe some help ordering more snow globes.”
Dad nodded. “That we can do. When your mother feels stronger, we’ll be getting out to more auctions and estate sales. I’ve gone to a couple myself in the last few weeks and picked up some knickknacks; I got a mantel clock and an old covered crock that might have been a cookie jar. A few odds and ends. We’ll get them cleaned up, figure out the right price, and bring them in.”
“That’ll be good.”
Dad put his arm around Mom. “I guess everything is under control here, Beth. Why don’t we grab a cup of coffee and one of those blueberry scones you love so much?”
Mom put her hand on his chest. “I’d love that, what a nice pick-me-up.”
All four of us descended on Pinky, who was setting mugs of coffee in front of a pair of young women. She smiled at my parents. “Beth, Eddie, what a nice surprise. It’s been a while. Holy moly, I miss seeing the two of you next door in your shop. Not to say that I don’t enjoy Cami being there, of course. Find yourselves a seat at a table and Cami can take your order.”
“Well, I need to run so I’ll catch you all later,” Erin said and held up her to-go cup as she headed out the door.
My parents and I waved our good-byes, then they sat at their favorite table in the middle of the shop. “Okay, Mom, you want chai tea with your scone?”
“Please.”
“Dad?” He changed up his order from one time to the next. He had no “usual.”
“I’ll go with a cup of the daily special and a cherry vanilla chip scone.”
“Coming right up.” I fixed their order, made a chai tea for myself, then sat down with them. We chatted for a few minutes until Pinky joined us.
“You are really looking good, Beth.” Pinky rested her hands on Mom’s shoulders for a moment then sat down.
“Thanks. It’s been a challenge, but I’m tolerating the chemo fairly well.” She picked up her scone and took a bite. “Mmm, this is so good.”
“Did Cami tell you about the new snow globe that appeared on her shelf this morning, and then disappeared?” Pinky said.
I wasn’t ready to share the latest surprise with them, but my blabbermouth friend didn’t know that. Mom and Dad looked at me for the story. After I’d given the details, Mom reached over and held my hand. “I don’t like all the shenanigans that have been going on around here.”
“That’s a great word, ‘shenanigans.’ I like it,” Pinky said.
“Mom, I’m not sure what they are, or what’s really going on. Maybe someone is pulling pranks, but I have no clue why.”
“It seems more like they’re sending messages than pulling pranks, if you ask me. The first snow globe for sure. At least from the way Cami described the scene. It all fit, in a really scary way,” Pinky said.
“And the second snow globe scene had to have been just a weird coincidence,” I said.
“How is that?” Pinky said.
“When I took that break a little while ago, I walked down to Lakeside Park—”
“You went where?” Pinky’s hands dropped on the table.
“Don’t say it like that. You know very well I wasn’t going to stay away from there forever. I’ve probably been there thousands of times in my life.”
“I might stay away from there for good after everything that’s happened.” She crossed her arms on her chest.
“No, you won’t. You love the summer concerts there.”
“Oh, yeah.”
My parents had shifted their eyes back and forth from Pinky to me during the conversation.
“Why did you go back there?” Dad asked.
“I felt I had to. Someone had left another park scene, and after what happened the last time . . . I just had to, that’s all. And what I found out made me wonder if someone around here has ESP.”
“Extrasensory perception?” Mom echoed.
“You mean someone besides you?” Pinky said.
“I don’t think that’s what experts would call my ‘feelings.’”
“What did you find?” Dad got us back on track.
I looked at Pinky. “Tell my parents what was in the snow globe scene, the one from this morning.”
Pinky lifted her hands and pointed at the air as she described it. “Some trees, like it was a park. Three kids playing; one was kicking a ball. Oh, and a cop was walking nearby.”
“Okay, guess what I saw when I was in the park.”
“Nooo.” Pinky’s eyes widened and she shook her head.
“Three kids kicking a ball around, and a Brooks Landing police officer by the name of Jake walking through on foot patrol. Just like in the snow globe.”
Mom reached over and covered my hand with hers. Then Dad put both his hands on top of them.
“And you wouldn’t make that up in front of your parents,” Pinky said.
“Pinky, you know very well I wouldn’t make that up, period.”
Dad nodded. “We could always count on Cami to tell the truth, from the time she was a little girl.” He withdrew his hands and moved the right one to a couple of feet from the floor, as the indicator of how tall I must have been.
“And she’s not one to embellish the truth, either. Even with her sometimes overactive imagination,” Mom added, and her lips tugged to the side in a sly smile.
I lifted my hands. “What do you think it means? Another baffling scene captured in a snow globe that shows up in real life.”
“Way too weird for words and I don’t want to think about it because it is honestly creeping me out.” Pinky glanced over at her customers. “I gotta go. Refill time.” She left our table and headed to the serving counter.
“There are such things as coincidences in the world,” Dad said.
“I think that things happen for a reason, more often than not. But in this case, maybe the snow globe scenes that came to life really are just coincidences like your father says,” Mom said.
I nodded. “I can accept that. What I have trouble with is why they appear out of nowhere and then disappear into thin air.”
“Cami, all you have to do is figure out who was in the shop earlier today and then came back some hours later. Or, like you mentioned, it could be that he—or she—was here sometime yesterday and set it on the shelf, forgot about it, then came back for it today,” Mom said.
“Beth, the new snow globe could have been left by one person and taken by another,” Dad said.
I’d thought of all three scenarios. I wondered about the lanky guy, and if he had come into either of the shops when I wasn’t there. Had he been scoping the shop out to see if I was there the time he looked in the window and then turned tail and disappeared when he saw me looking at him? There was no reason I could think of to explain why he’d be avoiding me specifically.
Mom and Dad finished their afternoon snacks and stood to leave. “What a lovely break we had here, even with hearing about the strange snow globe mysteries that have been dropped in your lap,” Mom said.
Dad wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “For the time being, I’d feel a lot better if you’d stay out of the park. Or at least don’t go there alone until they find out who killed Jerrell Powers and have him locked up.”
“Dad—”
Mom put her hand on my other shoulder. “Please, Cami.”
“All right. Since it means that much to you, if I go back to Lakeside before the killer is found, I will take someone with me. Maybe even a police officer.”
Mom and Dad smiled together when the last two words popped out. Then they headed for home. As I gathered the dishes, then carried them to the sink to wash a
nd sanitize them, I considered my next course of action.
Pinky emerged from the back room. “Well, Cami, I’m going to shove off, unless there’s something I forgot.”
I glanced around. “Not that I know of. One thing I’d like you to think about when you’re whipping up your baked delights: who was in your shop either yesterday or early this morning, before ten, and then came back this afternoon before the snow globe disappeared.”
She stuck out her lips. “Cami, that’s maybe too much to ask of my little brain.”
“It is not. You are a people person. Out of everyone I know you are the one I can always count on to help me with any people-related question I have.”
“You don’t have to butter me up. I’ll think about it and write down every name I can come up with.”
“Thank you. I mean, don’t you think it’s curious?”
“I just want this whole business to disappear like the snow globes did. I can’t stand how our lives have been turned upside down by someone who should never have come to Brooks Landing in the first place.”
“I’m with you on that one, Pinky. The problem is that someone took the law into their own hands to get rid of him.”
Pinky shrugged. “See you tomorrow. We have police who are investigating all of that, you know. Oh, did you tell Mark about the latest?”
“I haven’t seen him yet today.” I looked at the time. “If he doesn’t stop in before quitting time, I’ll give him a call.”
“Later, then.”
“All right.”
Mark Weston saved me a phone call when he stopped by a little after five. I heard the bell on Pinky’s door ding and was happy to see it was him.
“Are you lonely? You act like you’re glad I’m here,” he said.
“I am. Not lonely, but glad you’re here. There are a couple of things I need to tell you.” I went behind Pinky’s counter, poured him a cup of coffee, and set it in front of him.
Mark lowered himself slowly, duty belt and all, onto a stool. “Like what?”
“Okay. You know that guy I asked about the other night, the one I saw at Sherman’s Bar and Grill?”
“The one with the beard and Buddy Holly glasses that nobody else saw?” He raised his eyebrows and his forehead wrinkled.
I put my hands on the counter and leaned toward him. “That’s the one. And I’m sure someone else saw him since it was crowded in there. It’s just that the others in our group missed him.”
“Yeah, what about him?” He picked up his cup.
“It seems like I should know him, but can’t place him. I even went through our yearbooks, thinking it might be someone from our school days.” I straightened and poured myself a glass of water.
Mark took a drink of coffee. “I take it you didn’t find him there.”
“There are two men that could be possibilities. I’d appreciate if you’d check on them. See if they are still around. Some people change so much that if you don’t see them from time to time, it’s hard to recognize them.”
“Are you looking to date the guy, or what?”
I laughed. “No, I am not currently in that market. I get the feeling he may be keeping tabs on me, but I have no idea why.”
“You are the biggest celebrity in town right now.”
“You think that could be it?”
“Could be,” Mark said.
“Here’s the thing. I have seen someone a number of times who I’m convinced is the same guy as the one I saw at Sherman’s.”
“Buddy Holly?”
“Without the glasses. And maybe not the beard.”
“So he also wears contacts and may have shaved?” He frowned slightly.
“That’s entirely possible. I got a fairly good look at him the other day, but can’t swear that he had the beard. He may have trimmed it. It was his eyes I noticed most.”
“What about his eyes?”
“They’re round, dark brown, with what I’d call an intense look.”
Mark pulled a small memo pad from his breast pocket and wrote something on it. “Okay. You said you’ve seen him a number of times.”
“Yes, and I only saw his face up close the one time, unfortunately. But then he was gone in a flash. I can tell you he’s tall and thin, with broad shoulders. Sometimes he’s riding by on a bike; sometimes he’s walking. Last night he rode by my house and he looked in as he went by.”
“Like he happened to look in as he rode by, or he made a point of looking in?” Mark glanced up from his memo pad.
“You know, it’s hard to say, but he was on the other side of the street and maybe me being by the window caught his attention. I don’t know.”
Mark frowned. “Keep your curtains closed after dark.”
First Clint, now Mark.
“I will. And you know the other night when that guy crashed in my alley and rode away?”
“Sure, Clint told me about it and I read the report. Why, you think it’s the same guy?”
“I think it’s very possible. Same long, lean body. But there again, it happened so fast, I barely caught a glimpse of him. Now that I’ve seen that guy a few times, I think it could be the same one.”
“And keep your doors locked.” Yes, Clinton Junior.
“I will.” And I had, ever since Clint had lectured the heck out of me to do just that. And with the lanky guy hanging around I had to agree with him on that point. “Mark, have you seen a man around our age, maybe a little older, riding around town on a bike?”
“I see a lot of ’em. Not so many now that it’s colder out, but still quite a few. What kind of bike does he have?”
I shrugged. “Not sure about that. I was always concentrating on the man himself.”
“All right. Well, if you see him again, call me right away and I will respond ASAP, if I can. And I’ll write up a ‘be on the lookout’ notice and post it for the other officers to see. Chances are he isn’t on the prowl, but you can never be too careful. We don’t need another Jerrell Powers on the loose. It would have been best if that guy had stayed away for good.”
After Mark left I wandered around, watching the clock and checking the Curio Finds shelves for strange snow globes that were not part of our inventory. Thankfully, there were no new surprises sitting on the shelves among the regulars, or anywhere else in either of our shops, that I could spot. And the latest snow globe park scene had not reappeared to further confuse me.
I did a mental recap of the conversations I’d had over the past days. One thing was crystal clear: there certainly was no love lost between just about everyone I knew and Jerrell Powers. The only one who seemed to care for the man was Pamela Hemley, and it sounded like her love had waned to the point that she was ready to tell him the party was over. Thinking about her reminded me I needed to mention what I’d observed happening at her house. But how? Someone had been at her house without her knowledge and had not only let May Gregors in, but had also sent something in a paper bag along with her when she left.
I finally worked up enough courage to call Pam and had just picked up the phone when the bell on the door dinged and Archie Newberry walked in. I put the phone back in its holder and went into Brew Ha-Ha to help him. “Good to see you, Archie.”
“Ah, Cami, you are here. I wasn’t sure if you were off today. I didn’t see you earlier when I stopped by.”
“I was out for a while. So how have you been, Archie? I’ve hardly seen you all week.”
“Fine, just fine. Busy tryin’ to keep up with all the fall cleanup in the parks. You know, gettin’ ready for winter, which’ll be here before you know it. If a guy had more hours in the day, it’d help.” He unzipped his canvas jacket.
“Archie, you already work long enough hours. And I have a feeling you don’t even keep good track. You donate a lot of time to our fair city, don’t you?”
Archie moved his head back and forth like he wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, it’s not like I need the money. I have everything I need.”
�
�You could take a trip, maybe to see some other parks around the state, or anywhere in the nation.”
“I don’t much care for travel. My years in the service took care of that. Why go to other parks when we have more than enough around here?”
“We have some fine ones here, thanks to you.”
Archie grinned. “Well, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.”
I was going to tell him about the latest park scene snow globe, but thought better of it. He was upset enough about what had happened to Jerrell Powers in his park and there was no reason to stir up more anxiety for him.
“Can I get you a cup of something?”
“No, no; thanks, though. I stopped by to talk to Pinky, but I can see she’s not here.”
“I can leave her a message for you.”
“No, no, that’s okay. It’s sort of private.”
What kind of a secret would Archie need to share with Pinky that he couldn’t tell me about? If anyone in Brooks Landing, or at least in our group, could keep a secret, it was me. Pinky? If you swore her to secrecy, she’d probably remember, but it wasn’t a guarantee. She was naturally gabby and sometimes forgot what bits of information were secrets she had sworn to keep.
Whatever it was my friends were talking about behind my back was wearing on me. What on earth could it possibly be if it wasn’t concerning Jerrell Powers? The whole intrigue with them had started the day after his death. Every single one of them acted a little guilty. And now Archie seemed like he might be in on it, too.
“I’ll tell her you were here, at least,” I said.
“No need to bother. I’ll stop by in the morning.” Like he always did. Archie looked at his watch. “I guess it’s about time for you to shove off, so I will, too.”
“Can I give you a lift home?” Archie walked to the city shop each morning, drove one of its trucks to perform his park duties, then walked home again at the end of the day.
Snow Way Out Page 15