It Came upon a Midnight Shear by Allie Pleiter

Author:Allie Pleiter [Pleiter, Allie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

I’ve been telling you to do this since you opened,” Gavin said Friday morning as he tightened the last screw on the highly unwelcome camera now installed in a corner of my shop.

I could have done without the “I told you so” in his voice. Being talked into doing this thing I swore I would never do wasn’t helping my grumpy demeanor. Or perhaps I should say “Grinch factor.” Irrational as it sounded, I did feel like someone had stolen my Christmas. Arlene had needlepointed an artful little sign that read, Smile, you’re on camera, but I confess it made me frown every time I looked at it.

Gavin came down off the ladder. “I know you’re upset. But this is the right thing to do. I’m glad Frank convinced you if I couldn’t.” There was just a hint of hurt in his voice, as if he felt I valued Frank’s advice over his. That wasn’t true, but Gavin seemed to be feeling jealous about a lot of things in my life lately.

As if to make my point, Gavin inclined his head out my window toward Vincenzo’s motor home and the vicuña still milling about their tiny pen. “When are they leaving?”

I could tell he wasn’t just talking about the animals. The vicuña had calmed down and actually appeared happy. I’d caught myself gazing out the window at them, peacefully trotting about and looking generally elegant and adorable.

Vincenzo, not so much. He was a man of action, and sitting around waiting for the man from the zoo, and police procedure didn’t suit him at all. He told me he’d managed almost a foot of his scarf, and I was due to give him another knitting lesson, but I’d been putting it off. Adelaide’s information had given me too many questions I wasn’t ready to ask our Gallant Herdsman. I needed to do more thinking and more research.

“Vincenzo said the guy from the zoo would be here this afternoon. He had to drive down from New England, and there was a bunch of paperwork to change the schedule of their trip across state lines and such.”

Gavin looked at the herd, then looked at me. “They’re worth it? All that fuss and expense?” To call his expression doubtful was an understatement.

“Come on in here,” I said, leading him back to my office. We had to go in there to test my computer access to the camera feed anyway, and I had an idea.

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