Suspicion. Ginny Aiken

or no mat, Steph kept a close eye on everyone who wandered through the store. It took some work, but she refused to let down her guard. She would do whatever it took to protect the business for which she’d worked so hard. She wasn’t going to let some petty vandal or back-alley mugger damage her professional image. She would not let a criminal intimidate her.

      For the first time in the five years since she’d opened the store, Steph felt stressed. It usually didn’t matter how busy she was; what mattered was serving her customers. But with all the gawkers who’d streamed in that day, Steph just wanted the clock’s hands to move a little faster.

      And for the town of Loganton to find a new fixation.

      On Friday at a quarter to six, after another day of town curiosity, the bell on the door clanged yet again. When Steph glanced up from the prescription she’d been filling, her gaze snagged on Hal Benson’s warm brown eyes. He took his time walking through the store, strolling up and down the aisles, checking out the items on the shelves.

      “Need anything you can’t find?” she asked when he reached her counter.

      “Just getting acquainted with the areas I don’t frequent. And I wanted to see where you keep your blood pressure cuffs.”

      Steph capped the orange pill bottle and stuck the computerized label in place before looking back up. “You do realize the cuff’s only the last item damaged in a rash of six.”

      “Tell me about the damaged items. And what the damage looked like.”

      “We can start with the box of tissues. The glued flaps on one side of the box had been sliced open—neatly and with some sharp object. A knife, probably. It couldn’t have happened during shipping. It was no accident. On the other hand, the tissues themselves were crumpled and some even torn.”

      “What do you mean by crumpled?”

      “That was the strangest part. The flaps hung open outward, but the tissues were smashed inward.”

      “Pushed in.”

      “That’s right.”

      “What else?”

      Steph caught a glimpse of the clock on the pharmacy wall. “Tell you what, Sheriff—”

      “If you’re just Steph, then I’m just Hal.”

      She smiled, remembering his shyness the night before. “Okay, Hal. It’s almost six, and I need to close the store. If you’ll give me a few minutes so I can focus on the details, then I’ll tell you everything I remember.”

      “That’ll work.”

      As Steph picked up her ledger, she noticed the intent expression on the sheriff’s face. “Is something wrong?”

      “Wrong? No, nothing’s wrong. I was just thinking…since you still have work to do here, how about you finish up, and then, maybe…well, if you don’t have anything else going on, maybe we can stop at Granny Annie’s—for a cup of coffee, you know? You can tell me all about the other damaged items then.”

      Had he just asked her out on a strange kind of date? Or was the sheriff so shy he couldn’t even ask a woman to discuss evidence over a cup of coffee at Granny Annie’s Diner?

      “Sounds great,” she said. “And just the thought of a slice of one of Granny’s pies is enough to spur me through my routine.”

      His relief was almost palpable. “Terrific! You don’t mind if I wait here for you, do you? I don’t want you to have to go out into the alley alone. You never know if the mugger might come back.”

      Steph shuddered. She hadn’t thought about that. But now that Hal had mentioned the alley, she didn’t like the idea of going outside, in the dark, by herself. “I don’t mind. On the contrary, I appreciate your offer. I won’t be long. I just have to double-check the prescriptions I filled today to keep track of what goes out.”

      “You can’t be too careful about that kind of thing.”

      “That’s what I think.”

      She eased away from the counter, matched the day’s spreadsheet on her computer screen to the list in the ledger, counted the empty pill bottles in their bin, checked that number against yesterday’s count and smiled when the numbers added up. Most pharmacists wouldn’t go through so much trouble, but she always feared a distraction during her busy day might rouse her ADD and lead to a mistake.

      With one tug, the grate over the pharmacy-counter window clanged into place, and once she’d locked it, Steph ducked down to pick up the deposit pouch from under her desk. Moments later, it bulged with the cash, checks and credit slips she cleared from the register tray. Her evening routine had become so automatic to her that she sometimes had to stop herself and think through all the steps to make sure she’d done everything before she walked away.

      Sweater and purse in hand, she locked up. “I’m done.”

      And there he was, standing in the small hallway that led to the back door. Once again, it struck Steph how tall he was. Lean and lanky, Hal Benson had to stand at least six foot three inches tall. And he looked hewn from taut, ropy muscle, too. There was something very comforting about his size and quiet, serious demeanor. It didn’t hurt that Hal’s craggy features reminded her of the heroes in the classic Western movies she’d watched growing up.

      When he took her elbow to guide her out the door, Steph felt safe and protected. “Thanks.”

      “What for?”

      “For realizing I’d be scared well before it occurred to me.”

      As she opened the back door, he reached over her head to hold it open for her. “I suspect you would have been fine. Don’t forget. The mugger didn’t try to get inside last night. But since things seem quiet around the county tonight, and I do want to know what you remember about the other incidents of vandalism…” He shrugged.

      The sheriff waited until she’d started her car before he headed toward his cruiser. The drive to Granny Annie’s didn’t take long, for which Steph was thankful, since she didn’t want to analyze her feelings about their maybe date, maybe interrogation outing to Loganton’s gossip hub. By tomorrow morning, everyone in town would know she’d had coffee with the single and attractive county sheriff.

      Half would insist they were Loganton’s latest version of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, the other half that she was headed for jail.

      Steph pulled into the parking lot behind the diner. She threw on her sweater, since the weather had grown considerably chillier when the sun began to slide down to the horizon, and then hurried toward the diner’s door.

      Halfway there, a sound startled her. She stopped, listened, eyes flicking from corner to corner, to her car, the street out front, the back door of the diner. She saw no one anywhere near. Her stomach muscles tightened. Had those been footsteps she’d heard? Had Hal arrived?

      Even though she strained to hear, she only managed to pick up the hiss of the fall breeze through the trees on Main Street. And the galloping beat of her heart. For a moment, she felt discouraged. Nervousness had never been a problem, and Steph resented what the mugger had done to her. The thought of spending the rest of her life with an ear cocked to potential and possibly imagined danger held no appeal. She wanted her peaceful life back. That peace was one of the reasons she’d come home to Loganton after earning her pharmacy license.

      She took a step toward the diner, hesitated, unsure of what to do. Should she go in and get a booth, or should she wait for Hal? If she waited, aside from freezing, would she also make herself bait for the mugger? Had there been someone out here following her? Or had her mind started to play tricks on her?

      A car turned the corner. Relief flooded her when she caught sight of the county seal on the driver door: the sheriff’s cruiser. Steph exhaled as she ran up the diner’s front steps.

      Inside the fragrant eatery, she went straight for the last empty booth, smiling