“No idea.” She glanced toward the kitchen, half stood, then dropped down. “He said needed a minute, and that’s what I’ll give him,” she said, looking at her watch. What was surely a precise sixty seconds later, she said loudly, “Your time is up. Are you coming out, or do I have to come in after you?”

“Not to worry, my dear.” Otto returned, sliding smoothly back into his chair. “I just needed to a little time to work through an ethical question.”

I squirmed. “Otto, please don’t tell me anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Compromised. Whatever.”

“Your concern is appreciated,” he said, “but I know where the line is, and I will not cross it.”

“As long as you’re sure.”

“Very.” He smiled. “Now. Thanks to your gentle push, late last year I gave a couple of library lectures to senior citizens on managing their finances. That was so popular I started showing up every couple of weeks to help any individual or small-business owner who wants some general financial coaching.”

Aunt Frances and I nodded. “Yes,” I said, “and the feedback has been extremely positive. Thanks so much for doing that.”

“You’re welcome.” He paused. “If I thought the city of Chilson would take my advice, I could help them, too, but I don’t see much chance of that happening. Anyway, with the library a public entity, it only follows that the fact of a certain small-business owner meeting with me multiple times can be considered public knowledge.”

“Um, I suppose so.”

“And,” Otto went on, “one might easily conclude a few things from these multiple meetings.”

He looked at me expectantly and my brain chunked into gear, because he was obviously expecting me to connect the dots.

“Cody Sisk,” I said. “He’s a small-business owner.”

“And?”

“The shop must be in financial trouble,” Aunt Frances said. “Because if he was doing well, he’d have the money to pay for an accountant.”

I tried to dredge the few things I knew about Paddles & Pedals up out of my memory. “Up until this summer, the store was in a different location,” I remembered out loud. “This new place is way bigger and a lot closer to downtown.”

“Bound to be more expensive,” my aunt said. “He expanded too fast, didn’t he?”

Otto reached for his wine. “Next time we use this recipe, I think we should pair it with a bottle of Late Harvest Riesling.”

Clearly, he’d said all he was going to say about Cody Sisk. But it was enough to start me thinking in a completely new direction.