The next morning, Zeke found the diner buzzing with folks expressing opinions of the meeting from the night before. It seemed the forum ended up being less of an exchange of ideas and more of an exchange of produce. The local moms were already organizing a bake sale to share what they had made with the wondrous food. Zeke watched Jake write the daily specials on the chalkboard, including "Miracle Banana Pudding." He wondered to himself what would happen if he left town for even a day. Would the craziness stop? He then tried to calculate the risk of such an idea but was brought back to reality when Cheryl arrived at the table.
She sat down next to Lucy, who was finishing breakfast. “Well, what did you hear, Lucy? What did the rocks sound like?” Cheryl asked.
“A melody, sort of. It didn’t really have a beat like most of our music.”
Zeke ate his eggs and listened as Cheryl’s questioning continued.
“Were there three voices? You know, for the three rocks.”
“I feel like there were many more. It was a beautiful chorus, for sure.” Lucy answered.
“Not my idea of rock music,” Cheryl joked. “But I’ll take your word for it.”
The diner phone rang on the wall, and Cheryl groaned. “Don’t leave.”
Zeke watched Lucy fiddle with her locket while he finished his coffee. He noticed she had developed a habit of playing with it since they discovered it was made with the Warren wood.
“Was last night the first time you’ve heard anything like that before?” he asked.
“Yes.” Lucy looked up from the locket. “I’ve been waiting a while to say this. I wasn’t special until you came here, Zeke.”
“I think you were. You just didn’t know it. I think your parents did, however. That’s why they gave you the locket.”
“If they had a connection to the Warren wood, I want to know what it was—hey, you just changed the subject!”
“Did I?” he asked.
“Yes, I was talking about you and me,” replied Lucy. “Then somehow you got me talking about my parents.”
Cheryl yelled from the front counter. “That was the Sheriff, Zeke. Henry had a break-in last night. Surprise, surprise. Stephanie said she’ll meet you at his store.”
Zeke and Lucy slid out of the booth.
“I need to be at the office,” said Lucy. “I look forward to hearing about it.” Lucy walked to the door just in time to get a look from Andrea Glenn, who was coming in with the latest issue of The Edenbury Chronicle.
As Zeke paid the bill, Andrea dropped the stack of papers on the counter. He could tell she had stayed up late after the meeting to get the front-page article written. Rocks Split the Town was the headline.
“Late night?” Zeke asked her.
“Mr. Hughes, I don’t appreciate you making a spectacle of me at the meeting last night in front of the whole town.”
Zeke looked at his framed newspaper picture on the wall next to her head. “Like that?”
Andrea turned and stormed out of the diner.
—
Henry met Zeke and Sheriff Stephanie at the front door. “They made a mess of the place, but nothing is missing. The wood was hidden where no one could find it. Come on. I’ll take you back.”
The smell of sawdust and fertilizer grew stronger with each step through the warehouse. Lumber and gardening supplies were thrown about while filing cabinets remained open with most of their contents on the floor. A lock on the back door leading to a loading dock was broken.
“No security cameras back here. I suspect they knew that,” Henry said.
“Do you want to file a report?” Stephanie asked, heading further back into the warehouse.
“Probably best,” Henry replied. “Feel free to look around.”
Zeke started helping put files back in cabinets. “The wood is clearly still of interest to someone. Either it’s a threat or something else entirely. Best to keep it wherever you have it, Henry.”
“Yes, that would be best,” said Henry.
“What can you tell me about the dispute back then?” Zeke asked. “I'd like to understand why someone is concerned about what's happening now.”
Zeke continued cleaning while Henry stopped to rest on a stool. “I was barely in my twenties at the time. Didn’t pay much attention to it. I was here most of the time, working in the family business. I remember that some people wanted to make a shrine out of the Warren grove and close off the field permanently. But that meant less grain and less feed for the livestock, so they cut it down. The ranch was a bigger part of the Edenbury economy back then. One thing that hasn’t changed is that everybody was in everybody else’s business.”
“Interesting.” Zeke paused to frame another question. “Do you remember anything about a drought that year?“
“As I recall, the drought came to an end around the time they cut the trees down.”
“Just curious, how often does it rain here? It’s been—”
Zeke and Henry were interrupted by someone at the front of the store. Out of breath, Lucy hurried into the back.
“I just found this at the bottom of a pile on Angus’s desk.” Lucy handed Henry an old ledger. The pages were yellowed with age, and the torn cover read, “Sheldon Home and Garden.”
“Well, how about that?” Henry opened the cover. “The missing sales records you were looking for, Zeke.”
“This is from the period when the Warren wood was sold?” asked Zeke.
“Sure is. Here’s an entry right here. Says 40 Board Feet - S.T. Lawrence.”
Lucy and Zeke leaned in to read the ledger.
“That was for your library, Zeke!” Lucy exclaimed.
“Great,” Zeke said sarcastically. “Whoever took this book will be able to connect the wood back to my house.”
Stephanie joined the group and looked over Henry’s shoulder. “What do we have here?” she asked.
“Stolen property. Well, returned stolen property,” Lucy replied. “It’s the missing records from the time the Warren wood was sold here at the store.”
“Interesting. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear the first part.” Stephanie put away the notebook she was writing in.
Henry ran his fingers down one of the pages. “The Wilkes name is in here too, Sheriff. Says your Grandpa bought two of my lockets. I remember that.”
“Two lockets?” Lucy asked as she turned to watch Stephanie’s reaction.
“Looks like Grandpa has got some explaining to do,” replied Stephanie. “What happened to the other locket?”
Zeke interrupted the girls. “Henry, is it okay with you if we make copies of the ledger and keep it back at our office for a while? Just until we can get to the bottom of how it turned up there.”
“Sure,” he replied and handed the book to Zeke. “Let me know if you have any questions about what you find in it.”
“Thanks very much.” Zeke put the ledger in his satchel. “Sheriff, we’ll make sure you get a copy as well.”
Stephanie stayed behind with Henry while Zeke and Lucy talked on the way back to the office.
“But why would Angus leave the ledger on his desk?” Lucy asked. “He had to know I would find it this week.”
“Maybe he didn’t know about it, and someone planted it there to frame him. Regardless, we can assume Corporate has a copy.”
“So what should we do with it?” Lucy asked.
“Put it back on his desk. If someone put it there to frame him, Angus will ask why it’s there. If he had a part in taking it, he’ll know we saw it. We’ll find out the truth on Monday when he returns.”
“Corporate has a head start on figuring out where the wood went and who purchased it.” Lucy paged through the ledger as they walked. “But we have something they don’t.”
“What’s that?” Zeke asked.
“You.”
“I’m flattered, but we need a distraction to slow them down. Then we can figure out why corporate wants to shut down whatever nature is trying to do here. I have an idea.”
“Do tell.” Lucy seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself as they made their way through the park.
“We need to run an advertisement in the paper.”
“Let me guess. We have some wood to sell.”
“Tempting, but no. Lost and found. There’s a locket missing.”
Read Chapter 15 - Dang it, Charlie!
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