“Not the store, but the owner, Mr. Cho, was. Unfortunately, he died.”
Bean’s eyes widened. “Was he murdered?”
“Murdered! No, it was a heart attack or something. Why do you go straight to murder?”
Bean shrugged. “But if he’s dead, how are you going to apologize?”
“I’m going to apologize to his daughter. She runs the drugstore now.” Or she had, the last Lorna heard.
Bean frowned. “Does that count? Maybe you could apologize to his ghost.” He gasped. “What if he’s a ghost? Ja-nay’s grandmother is a ghost, and she haunts their house!”
“Yikes. I think I would move.”
“I’d make friends with a ghost. Is his daughter mad at you too?”
“Well, she was. I don’t think she likes me much.”
“Yeah,” Bean said, nodding, as if that was a given. He was a quick learner.
“But I’m still going to apologize. And get some pecan pie while we’re at it.”
“Okay,” Bean said. “I have to go to my room and get my compass.” But he paused on his way there and turned back. “What did you do?”
“Huh?”
“What is your apology for?”
“Oh. That.” Lorna bit her lip. She didn’t want Bean to be disappointed in her. “It’s sort of a long story. I’ll tell you on the way.”
“Okay!”
When Bean had his compass, his ranger backpack with necessary supplies, and his new addition—an explorer’s hat—they gave Aggie a chew stick and set off for the fifteen-minute ride across town. As she drove, Lorna filled him in on the night her sister took some things that didn’t belong to her and put them in Lorna’s purse. She didn’t get to the part where she was arrested, because Bean had a lot of questions about what she’d taken and why she didn’t give everything back. “My dad says if you do something wrong, you should try and make it right. And if you take something that doesn’t belong to you, you should give it back.”
“Your dad is...” Lorna didn’t finish her thought. She lost the thought altogether when she realized Cho’s Drugstore was not where it should have been.
She was confused—in the place where Mr. Cho’s had stood was a massive construction project. It looked like a high-rise was going up. “What?” she murmured and scrambled out of the car, staring over the hood at the spot where the drugstore had stood. She could feel the old familiar thrum of rage. Would she be denied her quest because she had waited too long to make amends? How could this have happened? How could she not have known this? How would she apologize now?
Bean got out the other side of the car and tilted his head toward the sky, his explorer hat sliding off and onto his back. He had a disposable camera and took a picture. “It’s really tall,” he said. “Where is the drugstore?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Lorna said through gritted teeth.
“But... what about the pie?”
“Exactly,” Lorna said. “What about the pie?” She glared at the construction.
“That lady is waving at us.” Lorna followed Bean’s pointed finger. There was indeed a woman in a hard hat waving at them. In one hand, she held a clipboard. The other was free to wave them away. She began to advance toward them, teetering on very high heels. Lorna was no sartorial expert, but she couldn’t imagine the thought process that would bring any woman to this construction site in high heels. Until the woman came closer, which was when Lorna understood. Well, she still didn’t know why the heels, but she knew who was wearing them. That was Candy Cho.
“Get out!” Candy shouted at them.
“Candy! It’s me, Lorna Lott!” Lorna said, coming around the front of her car.
“Get out! You’re trespassing! You’re not welcome here. Don’t you see the sign? No trespassing!”
“But she came to say she was sorry,” Bean said.
Candy drew up short and stared down at Bean. “Who the hell are you?”
“Hey,” Lorna said.
