10
“And then itwas just gone. It was there, and I turned around for a second and it was gone.” The sweet, frail elderly woman with her white hair in curlers beneath a floral scarf spread her fingers out and waved her hands like a magician doing a trick. “Poof!”
Asher was doing his best to pay attention to the report he was taking but he was having a difficult time concentrating. He couldn’t stop thinking about Ava Wells. More specifically his reaction to Ava Wells. His heart was still racing from the interaction and it had happened over four hours ago.
Clearing his throat, he asked, “And you said that it is a blue handbag?”
“That’s right, a blue handbag about this big.” The woman held her hand hovering about six inches above the counter before she turned her hands so that they made a box shape.
“And the last time you saw the purse, it was in the grocery cart,” he repeated what she’d just told him.
“That’s right. It was next to my blingy cup.” She reached out her hand as if she was going to grab it and her fingers grasped the air.
“Afternoon, Mrs. Dawes.” Eric stepped beside Asher at the front counter of the station. “How are you doing today?”
“Oh, Eric.” Mrs. Dawes’ face brightened when she saw the chief. She reached out and patted the chief’s hand and her bright blue eyes twinkled as she explained to Asher, “You know, I used to babysit this one. I changed his diapers and he had such a cute tushy.” Mrs. Dawes pinched her fingers together before pointing at the chief. “I betcha still do.”
The chief grinned, not seeming at all embarrassed about his cute tushy. “How’s Felix?”
“Oh, that rascal.” Mrs. Dawes wagged her finger. “He got up in the tree again, but I told him if he wasn’t a good boy the police were going to come get him and he came down.”
Eric grinned. “Good. What can we help you with today?”
“Well, now I was just telling this handsome young man that my purse was stolen. I was at the market and I set it in the buggy, I turned around for one second and when I looked back it was gone. Poof!”
“Did you check your house to see if maybe you left it there?” The chief suggested.
“Well, now, I know I brought it with me to the grocery store.”
“How about this, how about I have Officer Clemons run you home and you can check and see if it’s there. If not, he’ll swing you by the market and we can see if anyone’s turned it in.”
Asher watched the scene unfolding in front of him and couldn’t help but be amused by the small town-ness of it all. Hope Falls might not be as exciting as the precinct he worked for in the city, but it was charming as hell. Even his cold, black heart could see that.
“Oh well, if you’re sure it’s no trouble.”
“No trouble at all Mrs. Dawes,” Chief Maguire assured her.
Asher watched as Clemons escorted Mrs. Dawes out to his cruiser, she was talking the entire way.
“Don’t worry about filling that out.” The chief nodded toward the paper Asher had been using to fill out Mrs. Dawes complaint. “It’s not necessary. She comes in a few times a week.”
“Does her cat get stuck in the tree a lot?”
The chief’s brows dipped in the center. “Mrs. Dawes doesn’t have a cat.”
“Oh, I thought...when you asked about Felix.”
“Felix is her husband. He goes up in the treehouse he built for their sons when they were young. He says he gets stuck up there, but I think he just needs to get away from Mrs. Dawes sometimes.”
Asher couldn’t help but grin as he headed back to his office. This town was unlike anything he’d imagined, even without the unexpected reunion he’d had this morning.
Earlier today he’d gotten a call that there was a Great Dane and a Chihuahua walking straight down the middle of Main Street. When he asked Dorsey what the number was for animal control, he’d been told by his friend that those dogs were named Scooby-Doo and Scrappy and that the unlikely duo belonged to the chief’s sisters Nikki and Amy. Apparently, the duo escaped quite often and when they did, they would go down to Two Scoops and the owner would give them each an ice cream.
Small town life would definitely take some getting used to, but he had to admit, it was a hell of a lot more entertaining than he’d expected it to be.
Asher lowered into his high back leather desk chair and started going through the cases he’d been assigned. Besides the incident that happened the other night at JT’s he had a robbery of a warehouse, a stolen vehicle, and vandalism of a residential property.
They were not the sort of cases he was used to working, but they were much closer than a senior citizen’s missing purse, which he had a feeling was most likely not missing and Mrs. Dawes had just left it at home beside her blingy cup.
