“Or come to my house,” Fiji offered. “There’s not a lot of room in the guest room since that’s where I store all my extra stuff, but there’s a bed and it’s made up.”

“It wouldn’t be so crowded if you had a storage shed,” Bobo said, as if that were the most important thing in the world. “That’ll be the next thing I work on, I promise. If I’m still around to work on anything.” He smiled to take the sting out of his words.

“A storage shed is not at the top of my list of worries right now.” Spots of color burned in Fiji’s cheeks. She looked at Manfred, silently asking him to think of something persuasive to say.

Manfred tried. “This Price Eggleston is trying to spy on you and scare you in all kinds of ways. Are you sure it’s the mythical arms of your grandfather he wants? Or is there something more personal in this?”

“I don’t know him,” Bobo said. “I only met him that one time when he came in the pawnshop. I can’t think what he’d have against me unless he got involved with Aubrey at some point, either while she was married or after her husband was shot. Maybe he honestly thinks I killed her.”

Mr. Snuggly opened his mouth, but Fiji looked down at him and the cat yawned instead of whatever he’d been about to do.

Manfred told Fiji, “It almost looked like he was going to say something.”

“That’s silly,” she said.

The cat winked at him.

31

It rained the next day, torrents and buckets. The fierce wind drove the drops against the front of Fiji’s place with more noise than she would have thought possible. She was so glad she hadn’t finished her outside Halloween decorations; that was scheduled for Saturday.

Only two customers came into her shop all morning, and she spent most of her time dusting and rearranging the merchandise. She managed to break two glass figures in the process, which effectively erased her profit from the two customers. She had to warn Mr. Snuggly to stay in his cushioned basket while she swept up the glass. To be doubly sure she’d gotten every tiny glass splinter, she vacuumed. Later that afternoon, she went back to the kitchen, leaving the hall door open so she could hear the shop bell, and started a pot of soup. It was a day that cried out for soup. She put on an Enya CD to work by.