“I’m getting closer. My first goal is to sign up local businesses for regular advertising. You have the most amazing events here. Would you consider running a regular ad series?”
“That’s a wonderful idea, Hayden. Count me in. Just e-mail me the info and specs.” She handed me a business card that she pulled out of one of her many pockets. “Here’s my e-mail address.”
That was easy. I hoped that other local business owners would be just as eager to place ads.
I paid for my umbrella, boots, and a great pair of gloves and headed outside into the sunshine. I deposited my bags into the car and walked the short block to the Observer office.
The same three men from before were stationed outside my new office. It made me uneasy to see them there again. Why did they hang around in front of my window? Were they waiting for me to arrive or were they spying on my office?
What were their names, again? I pulled up the notes app on my phone and scrolled back. Ah, right. Lester, the mustached pharmacist, Vito from the hardware store, and Archibald, the accurately named bald owner of Time Travels On, the antique store next door to me.
That’s when I relaxed. Of course. The bench was in front of my place, which was right next door to his shop. It would make sense that it would be their gathering spot. I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I’d been holding. Nothing nefarious here, Hayden, calm down.
“Good afternoon!” I called out as I approached.
“Hey, hey! Hello there, Hayden,” said Vito. “How ya doing, girly?”
“Afternoon, ma’am,” said Archibald.
Oy. Between the ma’am and the girly, these guys made me wince, but I disguised it with a grin.
Lester winked and smiled, his gold tooth drawing my attention in a mildly disturbing way. He gave me that familiar salute.
“How are you all today?” I asked.
There were murmurs of good and fine.
“Been poking into people’s business, yet?” asked Lester, snickering. He had an odd sense of humor, and he obviously wasn’t tired of that joke.
“Don’t pick on the girl,” said Archibald.
“When’s that paper startin’ back up?” asked Vito. “We was just sayin’ it’ll be good to have a paper to run our coupons in. People ’round here like their coupons, you know?”
Well, that was just way too easy.
I spent the next fifteen minutes getting commitments from them to run ads in the paper.
Prying myself away from the local businessmen’s club took a bit of finesse, but I finally managed. They thought it was fantastic that I was going inside to work on the first edition of the paper. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I had other, more pressing, issues to address first.
Archibald, Lester, and Vito. What an eccentric trio.
I pulled up the photo I had taken of the ledger page of names. I again felt a weird jolt of emotion when I saw my mother’s name on the list. So very strange. I figured that I’d check the newspaper directory of past articles to see if any of the names popped up. That might clue me in to the dates that these pages were created and perhaps some bit of information that explained the ferry trips.
I started entering the names one by one and, so far, had no matches. Wait a minute. I looked at the last two columns on the page: Agent: K, V, A. Paid: L, M. I circled the V, the A, and the L. Archibald, Lester, and Vito? My gran always used to say, “There are no coincidences.” I never believed that, but you had to admit, this was suspicious.
I couldn’t tell Jaxson about the ledgers, but I could tell him I felt something was odd about those three men. Maybe a little nudge would get him to investigate, just in case. I texted him a quick note.
Hey Jax. Just something
to look into. Three local
businessmen hang out in
front of the Observer.
Something’s just a bit off.
Maybe check them out?
Of course. But what do you
mean off? Names, please.
Nothing specific. Just a feeling.
Lester the pharmacist, Vito from
the hardware store, and Archibald
owner of Time Travels On, the
antique store next door to me.
OK, sure. Will do a quick check.
If you have details let me know.
Now that I knew Jaxson would check out the three men, I could proceed with my list of names. I entered them one by one until my eyes were blurry. Finally! I found a match.
There was an article about a young woman named Claire-Marie Renavand—an approved name on the list. She was originally from France and moved here for a ballet opportunity. The article was only five years old, and Claire-Marie was twenty-seven in the article! Maybe I was zeroing in on the date range for the log. I scanned the rest of the article and lost a bit of hope. She moved here with her mother, also named Claire-Marie Renavand. There was a chance this narrowed down the date on the log to recent times though. Hers was a unique name, here in the States. As long as there wasn’t a grandmother or great-grandmother with the same name. If there was, then this told me nothing. Was the name on the log the daughter or the mother? I wish I knew. There was no reference to the ferry or boat travel in the article that would give me any insight, but I knew that five years ago she lived in Destiny Falls.
I snapped a photo of the article and looked up her name in the local directory. Bingo! She, or at least someone by that name, owned the ballet studio in town. I placed a call and got a voicemail. I left a message. My maps app did not appear to work in Destiny Falls, no surprise. However,
