To Catch A Wife. Lee McKenzie

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СКАЧАТЬ her toes. She opened the file with Sig Sorrenson’s obituary. She read and reread the first paragraph three times, realized the futility of trying to edit without the ability to concentrate. She couldn’t do justice to this man’s long life while she was completely absorbed in her own, so she closed the document and logged into her email instead, scrolling up the list and deleting coupon offers for a spa treatment, an oil change and a two-for-one brunch special at a pancake house in Madison. She read a message from her boss reminding her about the town council meeting on Monday afternoon, and she checked her calendar to be sure she had entered the correct time. She had three new followers on Twitter and a reminder that two new comments had been posted on her latest blog entry. The sender of the most recent email nearly caused another panic attack.

      From: Norma Evans

      Why would Jack’s mother send her an email? Surely, he hadn’t told his parents about them yet. No, he wouldn’t. She was sure of it. They needed to get to know each other first.

      Subject: Missing garden gnomes, etc.

      “Okay, breathe. This is about the blog, not the baby.” She opened the email and started to read.

      Dear Emily,

      I thought you would be interested to know that along with all the other things that have gone missing around this lovely little town of ours, my garden trowel has disappeared. And before you ask, I can assure you I did not misplace it. I was using it yesterday afternoon in one of my flower beds, the one right outside the front door, because with this lovely weather we’re having, I’m getting ready to plant my marigolds. Some say it’s still too early for them, but those flowers are hardy and can hold their own against a late spring frost. When I went in to make dinner, I stuck the trowel in the ground and left it there on purpose because I was planning to finish the flower bed this afternoon.

      Well, you can imagine my surprise when I went out after lunch today and my trowel was gone! My first thought was Walt had put it away, but when I asked him about it, he said he never touched it. So this must be the work of the Garden Gnome Bandit, don’t you think? There’s really no other explanation. I called the police, but they don’t seem to be taking these thefts seriously. We need someone like my son, Jack, on the Riverton PD, don’t you agree?

      I hope your family is doing well. Tell your father hello from us, and remind your sister Annie I’ll see her at the Hospital Auxiliary’s bazaar and rummage sale in a few weeks. I’m looking forward to sampling some of that strudel of hers.

      Yours truly,

      Norma Evans

      Emily let out a long breath, realizing she’d been holding it while reading through to the end of the message and waiting for the penny to drop. Norma Evans was nothing if not long-winded, but she had given no indication she knew anything about her impending grandparenthood. The disappearance of her garden trowel coinciding with the appearance of those two pink lines was purely coincidence.

      Welcoming the distraction, even though it had come from Jack’s mother, she pushed away from her desk and stood to look at the Riverton street map she’d pinned to the bulletin board above the bookcase. She plucked a pushpin from the box on the top shelf and stuck it into the map to mark the location of the Evans’s family home.

      The missing items now totalled nine, and the location of the red plastic ball on the head of this pin fit the pattern that had been slowly emerging. Every item had been taken from a nine-square-block residential area a little to the north of the historic downtown area. The one outlier was Gabe’s Gas ’n’ Go on the highway, but that was only two blocks to the west. Next, she scanned her list of things that had been stolen.

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