Unexpected Reunion. Carolyn Greene

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      Chapter Three

      At the Bristows’ house that evening, Pop took Ruthie and Gray to the downstairs guest room to show them the progress he’d made clearing out excess odds and ends accumulated over the years. Ruthie used the short delay to try to decide the best way to break the news to him.

      Since sleeping upstairs was out of the question for a while, an adjustable twin bed had been pushed against the far wall for Sobo during her recovery from hip surgery. A recliner had been moved in here from the den, presumably where Pop would sleep, and Ruthie was touched by the devotion he held for his wife.

      Her dream was that someday she would have someone who would love her that much, even after fifty years together. She glanced over at Gray, who ran his hand over a glass-front display case.

      “You did a great job clearing out this room, Pop,” he said. “Sobo will be very happy.”

      Indeed he had. The clean design of the room reflected Naoko’s Japanese heritage and minimalism. Simple shades for the windows, a small wool rug beside the bed, a nightstand and a dresser adorned with painted branches of cherry blossoms.

      Pop smiled and puffed out his chest. The action made him seem more like a young boy than a white-haired man in his early eighties. “No ranzatsu in here,” he said. “That case will eventually go in the den, where we’ll display my army things and her doll. Memories of when we met. But for now they’ll stay in here.” He grew oddly quiet for a moment. Finally, he said, “She needs to see them.”

      Although Ruthie had been close to the Bristows for eleven years and had asked Sobo on various occasions about their romantic beginnings, she still didn’t know how the pair had met. The elderly woman had deflected her questions with a bow of her head and started talking about one of the household projects she always had going. Ruthie made a mental note to ask Pop about it at a more appropriate time.

      He laid a hand on Gray’s shoulder and squeezed. “Give me a hand to move it over here, where she’ll be able to see everything from the bed.”

      After the men maneuvered the furniture into position came the moment she and Gray had been dreading. Breaking the news to Pop.

      “About the doll,” Gray began. “It’s, uh, temporarily misplaced. It may be a while before we can get it back to you.”

      Ruthie had never known him to tap-dance around a subject the way he had just now.

      “A while? Your grandmother will need it here when she comes home from the hospital. In a few days, God willing.” A worried frown lined his brow. “And what do you mean by temporarily misplaced?”

      Ruthie looped her hand through the crook of Pop’s arm and they all walked to the kitchen. “I appreciate Gray for not laying blame at my feet,” she said, “but the truth is that the doll was mistakenly sold from my shop. It’s my fault for not setting your boxes aside until I finished taking inventory of them.” She hated to disappoint him and avoided looking at the wounded expression in Pop’s pale blue eyes while she filled him in on how the doll came to be sold.

      He patted her arm. “If anyone is to blame, it’s my own silly self for taking the wrong box to your store. How could you have known any different?”

      “I promise you, I will do everything in my power to get it back.”

      Gray reached into a drawer near the sink and withdrew a pad of paper and a pen, then set them in front of Ruthie. “We should create a strategy list. Make sure we cover all the bases.”

      Ruthie started by listing what they’d already done to try to find the doll’s purchaser. “One. Go through my customer list and start making calls to see if one of them might be our mystery lady. Two. Ask the neighboring business owners if they recognize the description Paisley gave of her.”

      Pop sat beside her at the table and touched a finger to the paper. “Did you pray?”

      She smiled at the gentle reminder. “Of course. It should have gone at the top of the list—that’s the first thing I did.”

      “Me, too.”

      He hugged her and cut a glance at Gray, who paced the floor like a military strategist planning a covert operation.

      “Let’s pull the security tapes from your store,” he said, pausing in midstride. “That should give us a picture of the customer who bought the doll.”

      Ruthie slumped in her chair. “That’s a great idea, but unfortunately, Abundance doesn’t have a security camera.” At the pained look on Gray’s face, she quickly added, “Yet,” but it was Pop who decided to belabor the point.

      “You should have a camera in the store. And an alarm system connected to a dispatcher.” He leaned toward her, concern underscoring his words. “I meant to tell you this earlier—there was a report on News at Noon today about a prowler on Strawberry Street. I want you and your friends to be protected in case someone should take a notion to break in.”

      “Strawberry Street is a good distance away, so I’m sure we won’t have to worry about that person bothering the shop.” The reports of someone lurking around homes and small stores had actually been closer to the house on Floyd Avenue that she still rented from the Bristows, but she wasn’t about to bring that up. “Even so, I’ll mention to Savannah and Paisley that we should beef up our security.”

      An idea occurred to her.

      “Maybe Restore My Sole or one of the other shops near Abundance has a surveillance video of the parking lot. We might be able to get an image of the customer or, better yet, the number from her license plate.”

      “If she drove,” Gray pointed out.

      He was right. Many of their customers came from nearby residential areas such as Ellwood Avenue, which ran parallel to Cary Street behind their shop and СКАЧАТЬ