“What are we going to do?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But the shoe store is open right now. There’ll be other people there. Maybe we can just ask him a few questions and see what happens, and then give Ethan a call later.”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s a public place, so it’s not like he could do anything if we did accuse him of murder.”
I glanced at her and chuckled. “We aren’t going to accuse him of murder. We can’t do that.” I knew better than to do that sort of thing, and the reason I knew better was that I’d done it a couple of times. Ethan didn’t appreciate it, and I told him I wouldn’t do it again. But we had just asked Shayna some pointed questions and had almost come out and accused her of it minutes ago.
“We really need to get to the gym,” Christy panted.
I chuckled. “The gym? Why do you say that?”
She shrugged. “Because we’ve only walked three blocks and we’re out of breath.”
“Speak for yourself. I am breathing perfectly normally.”
“Oh, the lies we tell ourselves. You hate exercise as much as I do, but one of these days a killer might chase after us and we will appreciate having gone to the gym. If we don’t go to the gym, we will really, really regret it someday.”
I glanced at her. My sister was over-thinking things.
“Dump the backpack. It will make the load lighter.”
“I can’t dump the backpack. It’s part of my costume.”
The shoe store was nine blocks away from the candy store, and by the time we got there, I regretted not getting in my car and driving us over. What were we thinking?
We paused at the door to catch our breath. Christy laughed at me. “So, you’re breathing normally, are you?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “All right, maybe you have a point about the gym. But we don’t have to go to the gym. We can just get out and do some walking around Pumpkin Hollow. As soon as fall gets here. I like being outdoors anyway during the fall with all the leaves turning colors.”
She nodded. “Sounds like a plan then.”
I pushed open the door and inhaled the scent of leather. There were two other customers in the store and we went over to the boot display to wait until they left.
“Still no sale,” Christy said and picked up the rust-colored suede boots she had looked at the other day. “I need these boots.”
“I’d like to have a couple of new pairs of shoes and boots,” I said, picking up a black suede pair of boots. They went to mid-calf and folded over and were a little slouchy.
“You’ve got a wedding to pay for, you can’t afford new boots,” she said. “But I don’t have a wedding to pay for.”
I looked at her. She was making sense now, and I didn’t appreciate it. “I know, no new boots until the wedding is over and done with. But you have a bridesmaid dress to pay for and new shoes for the wedding, so it’s not like you can just splurge on new boots.”
She shrugged and put the boot back. “Fine. Be a killjoy.”
“Have you gotten many of your things packed up? And did you give notice at your apartment?”
She nodded. “I gave notice and I’ve got nine boxes packed. It always surprises me how many boxes it takes to pack my belongings. I swear that I don’t have much stuff, but then the truth is told once everything goes into boxes.”
“You can say that again. Are you going to get a storage shed to put it in until Ethan moves out of his little house?”
She looked at me, a black suede oxford in her hand. “No, I think I’m going to store everything in Mom and Dad’s garage. I don’t think they’ll mind.”
I chuckled. “You don’t think they’ll mind.”
When Joey had finished waiting on his customers, he smiled at us and came over. “Hello, ladies,” he said with a nod. “Are you having second thoughts about buying those boots?”
I turned and smiled at him. “We would love to buy new shoes and boots. Actually, I’d love to buy several pairs of each, but I’ve got a wedding to pay for and she’s got a bridesmaid dress to pay for. We’re still waiting on the sale.”
“When will these boots go on sale?” Christy asked, indicating the rust suede boots.
He shrugged. “We don’t know very far ahead of time when the sales are going to run. About a week before the sale starts, they’ll let us know. I haven’t heard anything about those. Would you like me to get a pair of them in your size from the back so you can try them on?”
Christy looked at me, grinning. “Why yes, why don’t you get them for me? I wear a size 6 1/2.”
He nodded and headed to the back room.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What are you doing?”
She shrugged. “I want to see if they feel good. If they don’t, there’s no use pining over them.”
She had a point. But I knew better than to try on any of the shoes. No way could I resist once I had them on my feet.
Joey was back in a minute with the boots. We went over to the chairs and sat down, and Christy removed her shoes.
He pulled the stuffing from the boots. “Here you go, try these on,” he said, handing her the box.
Christy slipped one of the boots on easily. “This feels wonderful.” Then she slipped on the other boot and stood up. “They feel really good. More comfortable than I had imagined.”
“We’ve had a lot of compliments on these
