happened to her after that?”
“She died in a car crash down in Mexico a few months later. Left Lucas with a baby boy he really didn’t want. Libby sure didn’t want anything to do with Bryce. Neither did Preston, who considered him a bastard child. So the boy ended up being raised in the house out on Big Sister by an elderly governess. He went to school here in town. Made friends here. Dorset was his home. He was a nice boy, too. Not a mean bone in his body. He was just unloved, I guess you’d say. Lucas died when Bryce was twelve or so. Libby was dead by then herself. Bryce was pretty much on his own after that. Lucas did leave him a small trust fund but it was Preston who controlled the purse strings. He still does. And Preston is a coldhearted SOB. First thing he did after he took over his father’s financial affairs was kick Bryce out of the only home he knew. Shipped him off to a military academy. The boy came home to Dorset every summer. But Preston, who had a wife and family of his own by now, didn’t want him with them on Big Sister. Bryce had to bunk with childhood friends. Until one day he took off and never came back. Boy’s been roaming the world ever since, working odd jobs, living hard. This is his home. He belongs here. I hope he can find himself some happiness with that nice blonde.” Rut drank down the last of his stout, smacking his lips contentedly. “Ready for another?”
“You talked me into it.” Mitch opened two more bottles and handed one to Rut, who seemed to be in no hurry to go back upstairs to his own party.
“Mitch, there’s … something I need to talk to you about,” he said, clearing his throat. “This is on the quiet. Don’t want anyone else to hear about it-except for one special person.”
“Would that one special person be our resident trooper?”
“Correct. But she isn’t hearing this through official channels. It’s strictly the man in her life passing along a little something he heard about, okay?”
“Okay, Rut. What is it?”
The old postmaster took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “We have us a grinch working the Historic District again. This happened once before when times were hard, back when Bush One was president.”
“I’m going to need you to translate that for me, Rut.”
“Somebody’s been stealing the mail from the curbside boxes on Hank Merrill’s route.”
“So the snow’s not to blame for why people like Bella Tillis haven’t been getting their mail?”
“That’s correct. It’s a grinch. And Paulette’s real upset about it. I’ve never seen her so upset.”
“Does she know you’re talking to me about it?”
“Well, sir, she does and she doesn’t. I told her I might have a quiet way of tiptoeing the matter in through the back door. The key word is ‘quiet.’”
Mitch looked at him curiously. “Forgive me for being dense, but why does this have to be such a deep, dark secret?”
“Because stealing the U.S. Mail is a serious federal crime, my young friend. Any sort of official inquiry would have to be conducted by the postal inspectors. That’d mean strangers who don’t understand our local customs swooping in from God knows where and making a mess of things. Not to mention leaving a black mark on Paulette’s record. That wouldn’t be fair to her. I mean, hell, it’s not as if the grinch is actually going after the U.S. Mail.”
“What
Rut lowered his voice to a whisper. “Hank’s Christmas tips.”
“Oh, I see…”
The tipping of mail carriers at Christmas time violated the rules of the U.S. Postal Service. Members of the public weren’t supposed to put money or gifts out for carriers. And carriers weren’t supposed to accept them. But it was a time-honored tradition in Dorset to leave a little something out for a popular carrier like Hank. An envelope with twenty dollars in it. A plate of home-baked Christmas cookies. Or a marble cake like the one Bella had told Hank she’d made him. Pretty much everyone in the Historic District left something out for Hank. The cash he donated to the Food Pantry. The cookies got passed around at the Post Office. And the higher-ups at the U.S. Postal Service were none the wiser.
“And Hank’s tips aren’t all that this grinch is after,” Rut confided. “Quite a few of Lem Champlain’s customers transact business with Lem by way of their mailboxes. I don’t have to tell you Lem’s been a busy man this month. I also don’t have to tell you that those mailboxes aren’t supposed to be used for anything except officially stamped and posted U.S. Mail.”
Mitch sipped his stout, nodding. “How much money is Lem out?”
“Tina told me he’s short nearly two grand that his customers swear they put out for him. Mitch, I’d sure hate to see Paulette get in any kind of trouble with the Postal Service over this. I’m the one who hired her, you know- thirty years ago this past November. I’m real fond of that young lady.” He shifted his weight around on the trunk uncomfortably. “More than fond. I’ve been madly in love with that gorgeous, leggy creature from the first moment I set eyes on her.”
“Are we talking about Paulette
“We are. All you see upstairs right now is a tired middle-aged lady. You should have seen her back in the day. My God, what a willowy thing of beauty she was.”
“Did you two ever?…”
“No, sir. I was a married man. Also old enough to be her father. She’s never once thought about me that way. But I used to dream about her and me together. Still do when I’m lying in bed all by myself at night. That’s what you do when you get to be my age. You lie in your bed at night thinking about the women who you wish you’d slept with but never did. It’s pretty much all you think about. Just you wait and see.” He let out a sigh of regret. “That ex-husband of hers, Clint, didn’t know what a treasure she was. Took off for Florida back when Casey was a young’un and left her to raise him on her own. She was single for a long, long time before she took up with Hank.”
“Hank seems like a decent guy.”
“People seem to think so,” Rut responded with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. “Tina’s been cleaning for me for a lot of years. She keeps Lem’s books, too. And she tells me things.”
“What kind of things, Rut?”
“Lem hasn’t been able to pay his men this month. It seems he’s been blowing a whole lot of money in Mystic.”
“What’s in Mystic?”
“Not what-
“Anyone we know?”
“He’s not local or I would have heard. But she’s got someone. I know that girl. She’s got a new spring in her step.”
Mitch sorted his way through the choice morsels of gossip that Rut had fed him, moving them around this way and that way. “Rut, are you suggesting that Lem Champlain is our grinch?”
Rut lowered his gaze. “Lem would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it. But he’s also a horse thief, same as his father was. Let’s say he wanted to hide a nice chunk of change from Tina and spend it on Debbie. He
“Is Lem that crafty?”
“Lem’s twice that crafty. And he’s crazy in love with Debbie. Or so Tina says.” Rut drank down the last of his beer, sighing. “A man in love is liable to do some mighty stupid things.”
Mitch studied the old man carefully. He kept sensing that there was more to this that Rut wasn’t telling him. Rut seemed unsettled. And he couldn’t quite look him in the eye. “Rut, what’s really going on here?”
The old postmaster stayed silent for a long moment, his eyes fastened on the concrete floor. “Mitch, that’s what I’d like your lady friend to find out.”
“Okay, wait, I’m missing something huge here.”
“Give me a few more minutes and I’ll be ready for you again, I promise.”
Des swatted at him playfully as they cuddled in his bed beneath the down comforter and Clemmie and Quirt,
