Tabitha’s eyes went wide. “That’s so smart!” she gushed. “If only Mr. Bernier and Ms. Acosta had heard you say that. Maybe they’d still be alive.”

“That’s not the only thing I wanted to tell them,” Cody muttered.

I shared a quick glanced with Tabitha. “Oh?” I tried to infuse the single syllable with enough interest to get him to answer but not enough to scare him off. “They were both customers of yours?”

“Do you call someone who buys an expensive bike on an installment plan but doesn’t make the payments promptly a customer?”

“Oh, dear.” Tabitha gave Cody a grandmotherly look of sympathy. “Did both of them do that? That’s awful. And now who’s going to make those payments?”

“Exactly.” Cody sighed. “Makes me wonder why I ever dreamed up the idea of installment plans in the first place. I thought it would attract customers, and maybe it did, but the paperwork is a nightmare.”

“Maybe their spouses will just return the bikes,” I said.

He gave a listless shrug. “I’d never recover my costs. Bikes are kind of like cars; they depreciate as soon as you roll them out the door. I told Brown I really needed to get those payments on time, and he kept apologizing, saying he’d get right on it.”

“But he didn’t, did he?” I asked gently.

“No. And neither did Emily. I sent e-mail after e-mail and nothing ever changed.” A flicker of something came and went on Cody’s face.

There was a quiet moment; then he smiled and shook his head. “But you don’t need to hear about all that. You came in to look at bikes, and bikes are fun.” He gave Tabitha an appraising glance, taking in her white hair, perky dotted jacket, and fashionable-but-not-trendy jeans. “And I have one you might fall in love with. Let’s take a look.”

He came out from behind the counter and led us to a cluster of nearby bikes. “First question is where do you think you’ll be riding? Road, trails, or a mix of both?”

Tabitha entered into the conversation with enthusiasm. But as I watched her charm Cody into the possibility of price cuts and discounts on accessories, I thought about the expression that had come and gone so quickly.

Because, just for the briefest moment, I’d seen raw, naked fear.

*   *   *

Tabitha and I walked out of the bike shop, waving good-bye to Cody and promising to stop in again soon. When we were safely away, I said, “For a while there, I thought I was going to have to explain to Hal why there was a brand-new bike in his garage.”

“I like to think of it as our garage, thank you very much.” Tabitha said, tossing her nose into the air vigorously.