Page 128
29
JADE
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Grace Day: @Jackie Anne Dean caught you staring at him again. If you’re really into cowboys, you should go to the Rainwood Exhibition next week for the ranch up there. I hear those men are FINE.
Comments:
Dean Briggs: I’ll pretend I didn’t read that.
Dean Briggs: They are really hot, though.
Kerry Winsor: Hot men? Jackie, take me with you.
Jackie Anne: I suddenly have an interest in horses . . .
Marjorie Brown: I knew we had bears around here. Didn’t know we had cougars too.
“Jackie, this is a terrible idea.”
Jackie wrung her hands together, hair wild as she stared up at the second floor of Hugh’s antique shop.
In the window, a raccoon scratched the glass. Just like the girls and Jackie had said, it was in a pink tutu.
When I saw him this morning, I thought my sleeping medicine had caused hallucinations. Then I remembered Jackie’s plea in the Facebook group. She’d run over immediately, and now all we could do was figure out how to get this raccoon out of the most dangerous place in town.
“If Hugh finds him, he’ll shoot Ciabatta! I can’t let it happen.”
I let out a sigh and rubbed my face. The things I did for this town . . .
“You keep watch, I’ll go in.”
“I owe you one!” she said. “Thank you!”
“Yell if Hugh comes. And I mean yell. He might shoot me if he sees me in there.”
Jackie nodded and stood as a lookout in front of his shop. I got a bobby pin and kneeled.
“Come on, YouTube, don’t fail me now.”
I stuck the pin into the lock, hoping the video I watched ten years ago would do me good now. The second I did so, however, the door slid right open.
“It wasn’t locked or latched,” I muttered. “Goddammit, Hugh.”
“It seems like something he would do,” Jackie said. “Maybe we can get him a new lock later.”
“We can get him a lock, but we can’t get him any sense.” I shook my head and walked into Hugh’s Antique Shop.
As always, it was a mess. Random old dishes and pieces of furniture lined the walls. I didn’t know how he came across all this stuff, but I did know that every one of us had bought a few things from here. Sometimes, among the mess, there were good items.
The second floor of the shop wasn’t open to the public, and I’d never been up there. The stairs were in the back, and they were probably older than I was. They were blocked off by a sign that said “Keep Out.”
I was used to doing wild things, but I was concerned that Hugh had something dangerous up here. I had to take a shaky breath before ascending the stairs.
At the top was the messiest room by far. Half the things up here were coated in such a thick layer of dust that I couldn’t tell what anything was. It was far hotter too, and I had no doubts that there was no air conditioning.
Jackie so owed me one.
