“Susan lost her car keys,” I said.
“What does the key ring look like?” Mia asked.
“It’s a Troll doll with lime-green hair.” She stopped and looked at us. “I think I know where they are. Kathleen, do you have the key for the cash drawer?”
“Right here,” I said, pulling my own keys out of my pocket. I handed them over to her.
“Mike Justason was paying the boys’ overdue- and damaged-book fines when Eric dropped off my car,” she explained. She leaned over the counter, unlocked the cash drawer and after a moment triumphantly held up her keys.
“Yay!” I said.
Mia held up the tin with the coffee cake. “We should celebrate,” she said.
We all headed up to the staff room, where I started the coffee machine and Mia cut us each a slice of her coffee cake.
“This is really good,” Susan told her. “Seriously. If you ever want to work at the café, let me know.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Hey, no stealing my favorite employee who also happens to bring coffee cake to work on Saturday morning.”
“I brought you banana bread two weeks ago,” Susan said.
“Which is why you were my favorite employee two weeks ago,” I said with a grin.
Mia smiled. “I’m glad you both like it,” she said. “It was my grandfather’s favorite and I knew he’d hate it if I stopped making it. So I thought I’d make it for you guys.”
“We’re glad you did,” I said.
Susan keys were lying on the table.
“I like the Troll doll key ring,” I said.
“Eric thought maybe it would help me stop losing my keys so often,” Susan said. “He thought the hair might make them easier to notice.”
“How’s that working?” I asked.
“Not bad,” she said with a completely straight face. Then she laughed.
I glanced over at Mia. She looked a little sad. “Are you all right?” I said. “The coffee cake really is good. I’m sure your grandfather would be happy you made it for us.”
“I’m all right,” Mia said. “I was remembering that Grandpa misplaced his car keys the day before he died. I’d made this cake and then we’d gone shopping and we were going to the cottage where Uncle Victor was staying for lunch. So he had to use my keys.” She ducked her head. “Don’t tell my dad.”
Susan looked confused. “What?” she mouthed.
“Your grandfather let you drive his car,” I said.
Mia looked up and nodded. “Dad would have a cow. You know how he is. He’s always afraid someone is going to run me off the road. Grandpa gave me a set of keys to his car and said I could drive it as long as I was careful.”
Susan patted her arm. “I used to drive my grandmother’s car. It was this great big boat of a Buick. I sometimes wonder if my dad knew but just pretended that he didn’t. Anyway, your secret is safe with us.”
Mia reached over and combed the little Troll doll’s green hair with two fingers. “Grandpa wanted me to go for a walk with Uncle Victor and get to know him a little but I tried to get out of it. I should have said yes because it was important to him.”
“My great-uncle smells like licorice and has hair growing out of his ears,” Susan said flatly. “It’s the only hair on his head unless you count the hair that’s growing out of his nose. And all he wants to talk about is things he and his friends have had cut out of their bodies.”
Mia made a face. “Gross!”
“More than you can imagine,” Susan said. Her topknot bobbed as she nodded her head for emphasis and for a moment I was afraid the green pencil crayon was going to go flying across the room. “A lot of people don’t want to hang out with their great-uncles, kiddo. It’s okay.” She looked at her watch and stood up. “I’ll go open.” She scooped her keys off the table, stopped at her locker and put them inside on the shelf before heading for the stairs.
Mia got to her feet as well. She took her cup and plate to the sink and then went over to her own locker and put her backpack inside. She hung up her jacket and, when she did, her own keys fell to the floor.
I picked them up. There was a red crayon attached to the ring.
Mia saw me looking at it and said, “It’s not a real crayon. It’s actually a memory stick. I have another one that looks like a little Hershey bar.”
“That would make a great Christmas gift for my sister,” I said. “Where did you get it?”
“Grandpa got both of them for me from the bookstore, I think,” Mia said.
“Next time I’m down there I’ll go take a look,” I said. I got to my feet. It was time to get to work.
It turned out to be a busy morning. At least half of a grade-eleven English class came in looking for books on the reading list assigned by their teacher. Several of the quilters showed up to talk more about a possible quilt show in the new year.
I’d just helped a new mom find a copy of Love You Forever when I noticed Sandra Godfrey in the magazine section, one hand on her hip, studying the shelves. “Hi, Sandra, what can I help you find?” I asked.
“Oh, hi, Kathleen,” she said. “What happened to Scientific American? It was right there.” She gestured to a magazine shelf at waist level.
“One more shelf to the right,” I said. “We added a new magazine in the Ps and it bumped everything sideways.”
Sandra tipped her head in the direction of the quilters, who were just heading out the door. “So are you going to hold the winter show here?”
“I hope so,” I said. “I think we have enough space.” I eyed her. “Do you quilt?”
She nodded and held up the copy of Scientific American she’d just lifted from the shelf. “You might say I’m a Renaissance woman,” she said with a grin.
I smiled back at her. “I’m impressed.”
“Have you made any progress on figuring out what to do with the photos from the post office?” Sandra asked.
“Yes. I should have called you,” I said. I explained about Maggie’s idea for framing everything and putting the photos and some of the mail that was found on display.
“I would like to see that since I was the one who delivered most of that mail.” Her lips twitched. “You probably heard about the card Thorsten got.”
I nodded. “I think the entire town has heard by now.”
Sandra brushed a bit of lint, or maybe it was cat hair, off her red sweater. Did she have cats? I wondered.
“Ella King got a note from her grandmother and it had one of those chocolate coins wrapped in foil inside. The chocolate was still intact.” Sandra rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to think about how many preservatives were in that thing.”
“Maggie’s still rounding up more of the mail for the exhibit,” I said. “But that has to be the weirdest piece so far. I hope Ella still has the chocolate.”
“Well, I don’t think she ate it, if that’s what you mean,” Sandra said. She glanced down at the cover of the magazine in her hand.
I remembered what Mary had told me. “I heard that Leo Janes got something,” I said. “Do you have any idea what?”
“That was odd,” Sandra said, shaking her head.
The blood was rushing in my ears. “What makes you say that?” I asked.
“He got an envelope with a key inside.”
“A key. You mean like a door key?”
Sandra shook her head. “I don’t think it was a door key but I really didn’t get a good look at it. All I know is it was a silver-colored key.”
“Why on earth would someone have sent Leo Janes a key in the mail?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “He didn’t seem to know, either. And the funny thing is, it was the last piece of mail to be delivered.”
I frowned at her. “Why?”
“There was an old change-of-address card from twenty years ago and somehow the letter ended up being sent there. Then it was rerouted a couple of times before it ended up back here. I heard Mr. Janes was in town, so when the letter came back I delivered it to him.” She cleared her throat. “The day before he died.”